ON an occasion like this there are many suitable subjects we might speak on did time permit. There is one which I would like particularly to stress; that is the subject of “Unity,” unity especially in relation to your newly appointed Pastor. As most of you will know, this congregation has been subjected to a good deal of trouble of one kind and another for a considerable time. Such troubles always occasion a certain amount of division and disharmony. These conditions were almost inevitable as long as you remained without a settled Pastor. Now in the good providence of the Most High, Mr. Matheson has been settled over you in the gospel. In so far as the past was of a disturbing nature let it now be past and done with. You have here a precious opportunity under your newly inducted minister of burying the disturbing elements of the past and going forward in unity of heart and mind, knit together in the bonds of the gospel.
Such unity as I plead for has a basis, a very definite basis—(1) in the Word of God. Let the Word, in its Divine authority and power, be a bond of unity throughout the congregation. In all matters pertaining to faith, practice, government and discipline the Court of Final Appeal must be: “What saith the Lord.” Let this spirit of unity be demonstrated on all occasions by an unhesitating subjection, humble and obedient, to the supreme authority of the infallible Word of the Living God. (2) Let this spirit of unity be further strengthened by a due regard to the supreme Headship of the Lord Jesus Christ. When there are many heads there will be divisions and contentions, as there were in the Church of Corinth; but, you, I trust, have not so learned Christ. There are many members in a body, but one head, and the head brings all the other members together, unifying them into one complete body, and the hand cannot say to the foot, I have no need of thee—there is a beautiful and harmonious interdependence one upon another, and each upon all, only under one head. Thus it must be with the Church under Christ. May something of His gracious spirit flow out and into every man, woman and child having a place in this congregation. Let whole-hearted loyalty and allegiance to His Person and His Glory bring the congregation into one body. What a blessing would this be! Many members, but one body; many branches, but one vine. (3) One final word. Let this unity be in the bonds of the Holy Spirit. There are diversities of gifts, but it is one and the same Spirit. O, that by the outpouring of the Spirit, and the effectual working of His great power all coming to worship here may be united in the gospel bonds of God’s salvation. The effect of such unity will doubtless manifest itself in a whole-hearted and thoroughly sympathetic community of prayer for the blessing of God upon your Pastor, upon the word preached, and upon all those assembling here from Sabbath to Sabbath. “Till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.”
I close with repeating the hope already expressed by Mr. MacIntyre: that the gospel preached here may be abundantly blessed, and that many may have reason to thank God for it.