By Rev. JOHN COLQUHOUN.
Delivered to the Glendale Congregation, January, 1948.
“For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you” (I. Cor. xi. 19).
THE Apostle, in writing this epistle to the Corinthians, reproves them sharply for the abuses which had crept in among them, and directs them as to how to rectify these abuses. In doing so, he does not act as a lord over God’s heritage, but as one “called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God.” Consequently, he does not set himself before them as an example except as they find him following Him whose apostle he was. “Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.” In speaking of these abuses he shows that they are necessary in order that the precious might be separated from the vile and that those who
walk according to the rule of God’s Word might be made manifest. In drawing your attention to the words of our text I would seek, as enabled, to notice three things:—
- Those who are here addressed.
- The trials which they have.
- The end for which this was permitted.
- Those who are here addressed.
(1) Though addressing the Corinthians in the first place, the Apostle, in writing this epistle, is not confining himself exclusively to the Corinthian Church, but addresses the whole Church of God, as we see from the beginning of the epistle, for it is “Unto the Church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours” (I. Cor. i. 2). Thus we see that the words of our text are as applicable to the Church of God in our day as it was in the days of the Apostle, for it is but one Church, having the same Lord, the same Bible, and the same duties to perform.
The Church is different from other organised bodies to be found in the world in respect of the fact that it is instituted by Christ Himself. We do not purpose to take up time in order to show that it was Christ who instituted the Church under the Old Testament economy for it is He who, from the beginning, has been “upholding all things by the word of his power.” It is sufficient to say that He expressly states, in the days of His flesh, that it is He who is setting up His own Church. When Peter acknowledged Him as “Christ, the Son of the living God,” He said, with reference to the great truth contained in Peter’s Confession, respecting His being God manifested in the flesh, “Thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matt. xvi. 18). Thus we see that which He built on the truth contained in Peter’s confession is “the pillar and ground of the truth” for all time and eternity.
Being built by Christ Himself the Church is the object of His wonderful love, for He loved it and gave Himself for it. “Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us” (I. John iii. 16). In this we see the wonderful actings of divine love, for the eternal God did not entrust the salvation of His Church to the most exalted of those beings created by Him, for in His sight His Church was too precious to be entrusted to any creature, however glorious, who, on account of the high standard of obedience and satisfaction required, would in the end fail. Nothing could save the Church but that God Himself should stand in the place which belonged to her by law, and render satisfaction on her behalf. Therefore, we find what is written of Him of old being fulfilled, “The Lord God hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back, I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting” (Isaiah i. 5, 6). Here we have the “love of Christ, which passeth knowledge.”
Christ leaves His Church in the world in order to be a witness there. It must, first of all, be a witness there on the side of Christ, to bear witness to His holiness, justice, truth, love and mercy. “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be
witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in all Judæa, and in Samaria, and unto the utmost parts of the earth” (Acts i. 8). The Church witnesses to the glory of His person, that He is God and man in two distinct natures and one person forever; it testifies that He is the Prophet, Priest and King of His Church, and that He executes these offices both in the estate of His humiliation and that of His exaltation. Again, every living member of the Church of Christ, in this world, is a witness to the work of the Holy Spirit in them, in taking them from what they were to be what they were not by nature, and as each individual is a witness to this work, the true Church of God, collectively, is a witness to it, for they acknowledge that there is no power in the Church to change a single human being, but set forth that it is the prerogative of the Holy Spirit alone to do this great and absolutely essential work.
In the second place, the Church of Christ in this world is a witness against sin in every shape and form in which it may appear. It must be a witness within itself against everything which deviates, in doctrine, worship and practice, from the rule set forth in the Scriptures, so that in carrying out this witness it is bound to have a Creed and Constitution, setting forth what is to be believed, how to worship, and how to walk in the world, and that Creed and Constitution must be based absolutely on the Word of God. It must also be a witness against sin in the world about it. There can be no compromise between the Church and the world, for the Holy Spirit draws a clear line of demarcation between them. “And we know that we are of God and the whole world lieth in wickedness” (I. John v. 19). It must condemn unsparingly, and testify against, everything in the world that is contrary to the Scriptures, and in doing so it must neither fear frowns nor court favours. There must be no partiality whether that which offends is among those in high places or among those in a humble station of life.
It is required, therefore, of the Church of God that it should have one end in view, that is, the glory of God in the salvation of sinners. Many hold that the Church ought to take upon it the burden of ameliorating the lot of the masses, by getting for them better houses and better conditions of living, and thus improve the social conditions of the people, but, while we do not deny that the Church, when it is powerful in a land, may greatly help in these matters, yet we submit that they are purely within the province of the State and not of the Church. The Lord Himself set us an example in such matters when we read that “one of the company said unto him, Master, speak unto my brother, that he divide the inheritance with me. And He said unto him, Man, who made me a judge and a divider over you?” (Luke xii. 13, 14). Its single aim, therefore, should be the gathering of souls to Christ, and the destruction of the kingdom of the devil.
(2) It should devote itself to the preservation of God’s Word inviolate, for it is true of the New Testament Church as it was true of the Jewish Church previous to the coming of Christ, that “unto them were committed the oracles of God” (Rom. iii. 2). It is the duty of the Church to hand the Scriptures down to posterity without the addition of human writings or the spurious scriptures known as the Apocrapha. As the divines who composed the Shorter Catechism put it: “The Word of God, which is contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament is the only
rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy Him.” This Word must be proclaimed fearlessly, and in humble dependence on Divine help, looking to God to accompany it with the power of the Holy Spirit.
It is the duty of all within the bounds of the Church to submit to this rule in doctrine, worship, government and practice. Office-bearers are bound by vows which are of binding obligation equal to an oath that they will assert, maintain and defend the said doctrine, worship, government and discipline, or practice, and that they will do nothing directly, or indirectly, towards the subversion of the same. Members, though not formally taking vows upon them, do signify by becoming members in any particular denomination, that they are whole-heartedly in sympathy with the terms of communion of that denomination, and the same thing is true of adherents who regularly attend the public means of grace and who support it financially. This is necessary in order to preserve uniformity of belief, worship, government and practice, and it is in accordance with the Scriptures. “Nevertheless, whereunto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing;” (Philippians iii. 16).
The care of the ignorant and those who are out of the way is laid upon the Church. Its duty, through its office-bearers, is to “preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine” (II. Tim. iv. 2). It is true that it is the duty of parents in the home to instruct their children in the knowledge of God’s Word, but, as that duty is sadly neglected in many homes, it is the duty of the Church, not only to use its authority in order to bring about a better state of affairs, but where that authority is not obeyed, to use means to supply the want, so that the letter and fundamental doctrines of God’s Word are made known to all within the pale of the Church.
There is another class who must, by no means, be neglected, and that is, those who have a hope that they have already passed from death unto life. Some of these are very weak in the faith so that they are more in need of milk than of strong meat. The ministers ought to know these in their respective congregations, and should be careful to help them. Hard questions are to be answered, doubts and fears resolved, unbelief must be silenced and directions given as to how to maintain a closer walk with God. All this ought to take up the attention of the Church, and to have a large share of its care bestowed upon it. A Church which bestows care and attention on these two classes of people is in a healthy condition and will endeavour to extend its borders in obedience to the exhortation and in accordance with the promise, “Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thy habitations; spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes; for thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate places to be inhabited.”
II. I now come to notice something of the trials which they have. He says: “For there must also be heresies among you.”
(1) Christ says, “Think not that I came to send peace on the earth; I came not to send peace, but a sword” (Matt. x. 34). These words of our Saviour do not at all mean that His gospel is not a gospel of peace and love, free from all hatred and wrath and strife, but it has particular reference to the re-action of the carnal mind to the gospel. The gospel
is God-glorifying, Christ-exalting and man-abasing, and in each of these aspects of it, it awakens the enmity of the carnal mind, so that those who are carnally-minded must do all that is in their power to overthrow the gospel. Various ways are resorted to in order to effect that purpose. At times they openly and violently persecute, sometimes they flatter, and, more often, they seek to undermine it by guile. They begin by professing to find unscripturalness in the subordinate standards of the Church, or cast doubts on the authenticity or inspiration of the Bible, and profess to be so much afraid of making the Word of God what is not the Word of God at all, so that one would think that they were the most faithful men who ever appeared in the Church of Christ. Let one, however, watch them patiently and it will soon become apparent that they aim at doing away with some of the fundamental doctrines of God’s Word, for they will soon want to introduce into the Creed of the Church something that will not give such great prominence to certain doctrines, or, perhaps, eliminate them altogether. The history of the Church reveals a good deal of this creed revision, along with a great many other things, not based on the Word of God, which men endeavoured to foist upon the Church. This has been the chief cause of the many divisions to be found in the Church in our own land.
The blame for these divisions is too often laid at the wrong door. Majorities and minorities are blamed, according to the views of the party apportioning the blame, and, therefore, we see that the opinion of any party is not a safe guide in order to fix the blame. We must have something more solid to go by. It is plain that it is those who are bringing in what is contrary to the received standards who are to blame for these divisions, and no amount of sophistry will enable them to escape the responsibility for these divisions. In this country the subordinate standards of the Church have been fixed some hundreds of years ago. In the process of time one set of standards gave place to another until finally the Westminster Standards were adopted by the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1647 and ratified by the Scottish Parliament in 1649. All the subordinate standards that were in use in Scotland from the Reformation downwards were agreed in this, that they were all based on the Word of God, and the only difference between them was that the latter ones were fuller than the former ones. In connection with the Westminster Standards, Church and State in Scotland were agreed that they were based on the Word of God, and, therefore, that they were eminently suitable as a guide in which the doctrines of the Bible were systematised, clearly setting forth what man is to believe concerning God, and the duty which God requires of man. These were the standards received by the Church in Scotland, and any deviation from them became a fertile source of strife. Thus we see that whatever party departed from them, be they the majority or the minority, were drawing to their own door the blame for forming a new sect, while those who remained faithful to the standards, be they ever so small numerically, were free from that blame and remained the true Church.
(2) It is significant that the word translated “heresies” in our text is also translated elsewhere “sects,” making the affinity between them very clear. The word is also used in Titus iii. 10, and II. Peter ii. 1, to denote
departures from the truth. In taking a survey of the church history of our own land, we may see clearly this affinity between heresy and sect. The Church in Scotland, as has been stated already, adopted the Westminster Confession and Catechisms as its subordinate standards, and all its office-bearers were bound to assert, maintain and defend the doctrines set forth in these standards. We find men rising up in that Church who denied by word and practice the doctrine of Christ’s Headship over the Church, making the Church subservient to the civil magistrate in all things. Thus, within the Church, they formed a sect whose opinions were out of harmony with the standards and alien to the whole Constitution of the Church. As they were supporting Caesar, the strong arm of Caesar was stretched out on their behalf in order to secure for them the emoluments which, from the Reformation, were set apart for the maintenance of true religion. From this struggle the Church emerged, free from State control, holding the Establishment principle, but robbed of its patrimony, while those who espoused the cause of Caesar resolved itself into a sect, supported by the State.
It is a well-known axiom that history repeats itself, and this has been the case with the Church in Scotland after it was emancipated from State control. The beginning of the Voluntary controversy was only the thin end of the wedge which men, who failed to realise their responsibility, drove into the vitals of the Free Church. The same men who were clamouring that the Church should throw away the Establishment Principle wanted uninspired hymns and instrumental music, and then made the discovery that the Westminster Confession of Faith, which stood the test of friend and foe for over two hundred years, contained much which was inconsistent with the mind of God, so that men of such tender consciences as they were had “scruples and difficulties” about accepting it as the confession of their faith. As their number increased they were in a position to pass a Declaratory Act, explaining away the solid, Scriptural and time-honoured statements of the Confession, so that they could still sign the formula, remain office-bearers of the Church, and believe what suited themselves. Such defiling of Zion was not allowed to pass unchallenged. Men were raised up who said: “She shall not be defiled; ye shall not see your desire on Zion.” They raised the banner of God’s Word by adhering to the Westminster Confession of Faith, and thus preserved the continuity of the Free Church of Scotland when the great majority broke away from it and became a sect, at whose door the responsibility for this division lies. Those who adhered to the Constitution of the Free Church were few in number but their trust was in Jehovah’s almighty strength and He has not failed them. The majority afterwards broke into two sects, neither of which will impartial historians honour as doughty champions on the side of truth, for Union loomed largely in the eyes of the one and property in the eyes of the other. To the Free Presbyterian Church alone is reserved the honour of having risked everything for the Bible as its supreme standard and the Confession of Faith as its subordinate standard, and to-day it stands where the Church then stood, Calvinistic in doctrine, Presbyterian in Church government, holding the Establishment Principle, and an uncompromising witness against both Erastianism and Voluntaryism, and, therefore, a witness, however weak, on the side of Christ and against sin.
Being a witness for the prerogatives of King Jesus and the inspiration, inerrancy and infallibility of God’s Word, the Free Presbyterian Church has been, and is, the object of Satan’s malice. This has been poured out upon it in the form of ridicule, persecution, and efforts at eliminating its witness by enticing it into a union with other denominations. When all these failed, Satan tried another plan, that of getting men within the Church to say, and to put into the minds of their fellow-creatures, that in certain of the decisions of its Supreme Court a shadow has projected over its Constitution. They have utterly failed to prove this and, yet, nothing would do for them but to plunge headlong into the sin of schism, more to their own hurt than to that of the Free Presbyterian Church. In doing so they have, no doubt, at least mentally, enrolled themselves among the prophets who predicted its doom, but as long as that Church adheres faithfully to the Word of God, neither predictions nor actions on the part of those who take upon themselves to be its judges will put an end to it. It still holds on its way as the Church of the Reformation in Scotland, and we believe and pray that it will continue to do so till the Millennium.
The inconsistency of the party who maintain that a shadow has been projected over the Constitution of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland may be seen in their actions since they took up a separate position, and in a very special manner with reference to this congregation. I may draw your attention to their conduct in Waternish. The building there was put up mainly through the efforts of the late Mr. Archibald Stewart, a respected office-bearer in this congregation. As the people were poor and not able to build a meeting-house he spared no pains in gathering money throughout the Church, and contributed handsomely towards it out of his own means, so that it was free of debt within a year after it was opened for public worship. It was built for the Free Presbyterian Church, and although title-deeds were not obtained for it, there is not a single impartial individual residing in Waternish but would give his oath in any court of law, that he always recognised it as a building belonging to the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland. The party who have taken possession of the building some time ago, several of whom never contributed a single penny to the building of it, though having excluded the minister and those loyally adhering to the Church from its use, cannot show any claim to it. They have no legal title to it, and as they have thrown off the authority of the courts of the Free Presbyterian Church, they have no moral title to it. They are simply in possession of a building for which they can show neither legal nor moral right and they retain their hold, not by virtue of a decision of a court of law. The fact that the thing which they “took away” is a building which they are professing to use for the worship of God makes the matter worse. This, by no means, bears out in practice the purity which is claimed by them in profession.
Now let us see what measure of consistency is shown by the originator of all this trouble which has agitated the Free Presbyterian Church. It was he who charged the Free Presbyterian Synod with projecting a shadow over the Constitution of the Church, and thereby embarrassing his conscience, so that nothing would satisfy him but a declaration on the part of the Synod that it was prepared to allow Protests against decisions of the Supreme Court of the Church. It did not matter though it could
be shown that this was contrary to the accepted view of the Church all along, and contrary to the practice of the Church in Scotland in its best days. All this would require to be passed over in silence in order to relieve the embarrassed conscience of the Rev. Roderick Mackenzie. Let us now see how this ultra-tender conscience acts in other circumstances. As you all know he came on several occasions to Waternish and held services in the church building which was taken possession of in the manner stated. Although the party who remained loyal to the Church would have no place to worship in, not even under the broad canopy of heaven, his tender conscience, apparently, could be silent and pass over such a matter as beneath notice. Yea, it would allow him to actively support and perpetuate the schismatic conduct of those who claim to be his followers, and as far as we know, he has not even once counselled them to restore what they “took away.” If this is the work of a tender, Blood-purged, Scripture-enlightened conscience, we have to confess that we are strangers to vital godliness, and to the practice of it. On the one hand, the conscience is embarrassed because a certain view of a Protest is adopted in the Supreme Court of a Church, and on the other it will tolerate things which, to say the least of it, are anything but fair dealing between man and man.
It may be out of place here to refer, briefly to the efforts that were made among you in Glendale to bring about the same state of affairs as exists to-day in Waternish. When the pamphlet by Rev. R. Mackenzie was published, in which he tried to separate between the people of the Free Presbyterian Church and its Supreme Court, I, who have the honour of being your minister, was lying at death’s door and not expected to recover. It was thought an opportunity, not to be lost, to sow the seeds of division among you, and thus break you away from the Church. With this end in view, certain individuals saw to it that almost every family in the congregation got a copy of this pamphlet. Again, at a time when I was absent assisting at a Communion, efforts were made to begin separate services among you, but, to the praise of the Most High be it said, you showed that you were worthy of being called Free Presbyterians, for you gave no countenance to these efforts. Lastly, an effort was made by Rev. R. Mackenzie, himself, about two months ago, again when I was absent from my congregation, with precisely the same result. I think the idea behind this conduct is that I am the cause why you have not countenanced the movement originated and supported by Mr. Mackenzie. Those who entertain such a view are making a huge mistake. You have studied the matter for yourselves and you have put to a right use the intelligence which the Most High has given you, with the result that you have not allowed yourselves to be carried away with the chimera of men who were in their swaddling clothes when the honoured fathers of the Church were bearing the burden and the heat of the day, but who seemed to be obsessed with the idea, originated by other young men, and which proved the ruin of Rehoboam, that his little finger was to be thicker than his father’s loins.
Now that these efforts to break up this congregation have proved in vain, it would be well for you to reflect calmly on the state of affairs, and to ask yourselves if you have acted wisely in remaining, as you have done, in the Free Presbyterian Church. In adhering to this Church you
profess that you value a Scripturally-constituted Church, a regular ministry, the ordinances of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, and a Presbyterian Church government.
Those of them who were office-bearers are schismatics from a two-fold point of view; first, by breaking away from the government and discipline which they vowed to assert, maintain and defend, and, second, that they are doing all in their power to break up the unity and disturb the harmony which existed in other congregations. They have no regular ministry, for there is no pastoral tie between them and any minister. The absence of the pastoral tie and the fact that those in charge are deposed office-bearers make it impossible for them to have Presbyterian Church Courts, and so, whatever they may be, they are not a Presbyterian Church. This, in turn, makes it impossible for them to have sealing ordinances, for you all know that one of the functions of the Kirk-Session is to examine candidates for Baptism and for admission to the Lord’s Table for the first time. I know that there are some in that body who are quite prepared to be parties to dispensing these ordinances, but their willingness and desire to do so will never remove the disabilities under which they are lying.
After such a statement of their position we do not think that we can mention anything worth while which they can offer you. When they were with us they professed to derive great help from the ordinances which we have mentioned, but if that profession was genuine, it passes our comprehension how they can be satisfied now without them. One thing, we think, is clear to every one of you, and that is, that you have done your duty in remaining in the Church of your fathers and mothers, and it ought to cause you to raise your hearts with thankfulness to the Lord that He has directed you so that you were not led away by the sophistries of men. The Constitution of our Church is the same as it was in 1893, and that was the Constitution of the Free Church of the Disruption and of the Church of Scotland in pre-Disruption days. Whoever says anything to the contrary has to prove it, and you as a congregation have given ample proof already that it is proofs, and not mere assertions which have no foundation, that will weigh with you. Meantime, let us note that the responsibility for causing divisions rests with the party who endeavoured to break up the Free Presbyterian Church.
At this stage, it may not be out of place to point out some of the consequences of forming sects, however large they may be. We may notice three very serious ones. First, a grieving of the Holy Spirit from among us. Second, the breaking down of discipline, as these sects afford refuge to fugitives from discipline. Third, a crippling of the Church’s endeavour to spread the gospel at home and abroad. If the yearly revenue which the State in Scotland contributes towards the support of religion was put along with all the voluntary contributions made by rich and poor since the Disruption it would make an enormous sum, and much of it could go towards spreading the gospel in foreign lands. Instead of that, these sects must have their different churches, their regular ministry and their stated services, uselessly throwing away resources which could be employed for better purposes. We are reminded of the work in our own Mission in South Africa. It is a great work for a small Church with slender resources, but small in comparison with what might have been achieved were it not that the people of Scotland were so busy forming
sects, large and small. We have no hesitation in saying that part of the reason why the enemy endeavoured, recently, to destroy our Church, root and branch, was in order to stop the work by which God was glorified in the salvation of poor sinners in dark Africa.
III. In the third place, we notice the end for which this was permitted: “That they which are approved may be made manifest among you.”
(1) In the visible Church the wheat is mixed with the chaff and the Lord at times permits a sifting in order that they may be separated. Yea, He Himself is represented as doing that work: “Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire” (Matt. iii. 12). There are many influences at work in order to do this work, but they are all controlled by Him. In our text it is “heresies” that are permitted to creep in, in order to try or test the Church of God. A heresy, according to the dictionary, is “an opinion opposed to the established or usually received doctrine,” and, as a rule, when it comes into the Church it will find plenty to embrace it. Some do so out of enmity to the Church, and especially if they have become in any way liable to its discipline, while others do it through lack of discernment, and if you were to ask of them their reason for their conduct they could give none but what was put into their mouths by others. Where grace, however, is in exercise, it acts as a ballast to steady one when compassed with floods which threaten to sweep everything before them.
(2) When tested and tried by heresies, the Lord’s people, and even many who are still in a state of nature, will show something of the noble spirit of the Bereans for they will go to search the Scriptures. Those who embrace a heretical view and who are bent on being makers of sects are blind to everything, but this new opinion which they have embraced, and will use all the means in their power to proselytize, with the same effect as upon the proselytes of the scribes and Pharisees. “Ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him two-fold more the child of hell than yourselves.” When such work goes on those who are approved cleave closer to the impregnable rock of Holy Scripture, and thus they are approved, first of God, and second, of their own consciences. They have hearkened to His Word, their understanding is informed, and their conscience approves of their action in refusing to be moved by arguments which are manifestly based on fallacies.
(3) Through enduring these trials which come upon them as the result of heresies being brought in they become manifest. Many of these led a very retired life. Nothing would prevail with them to bring them out into the open, while some of them were secretly maligned as hypocrites by some who made a great noise about their own religion, but who in the day of trial were carried away with the flood. But now, in the day of trial, the hearts of these private individuals are seen to be in the right place, and men learn to look up to them as men of integrity, for they are found faithful in the station allotted to them in the Church, meekly and quietly enduring much contempt, and even persecution, because they have chosen to follow the Word of God rather than the opinions of men.
(4) They are made manifest in the way they are looked up to in the world, for “When a man’s ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him” (Prov. xvi. 7). In the parable of the nobleman
who gave his servants ten pounds (Luke xix.), we read that when he came back and called them to give an account, he said to one: “Well, thou good and faithful servant: because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities,” and to another he said: “Be thou also over five cities.” This teaches us that those who are faithful in whatever station they are placed are looked up to and their conduct carries weight with it, for they are living epistles known and read of all men.
If we are to walk worthy of our profession, let us not imagine that we will go through this world without enduring trials. According to our text those who are approved are to be made manifest by being tested by heresies, therefore, we must seek grace in order to be kept right as long as we are in this world. Often in one’s lifetime one sees others carried away, and some of these were looked up to for a while as faithful men, so that it is a seasonable advice to us: “Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall,” and let us humbly depend upon the grace of God to enable us to persevere unto the end, seeking to put all the glory on Him, as we find in the beautiful doxology of Jude: “Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever, Amen.”
Our duty is clear, and that is, to obey the injunction of the Lord Himself, “Hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.” We are certainly living in the perilous times of which we are warned in II. Timothy iii., but from those who are described there we are exhorted to turn away. In like manner we must hold aloof from all who would be the means of breaking up the Church of God, in order to give prominence to some pet obsession of their own, for in the recent troubles through which we have passed, I cannot give any other name to the cause of them but obsession, and that of one man. It is futile for him to say that the Synod has brought in something new, for it has been proved beyond the shadow of a doubt that the view of our Church all along was that no Protest was to be allowed against a decision of the Supreme Court, and that this was the view of the Church of Scotland in its best days. To hold and propagate the opposite view in the Church is to endeavour to undermine the stand which the Church made in 1893, and to make it appear that there is no difference between the Protest of the Rev. Donald MacFarlane against the action of the General Assembly in adopting the Declaratory Act, and the Dissent of some of the Constitutionalists who remained under it. In other words, there was a subtle attack made on the Free Presbyterian Church from within, which, if it had succeeded, would have left us no ground for remaining separate from the present Free Church, yea, would have proved the contention of the Free Church that we were schismatics from the beginning. Let none of you be carried away with such matters.
The weaker thy faith, which lies mixed with a world of strong corruptions, the more will Christ be affected with thy case, and pity that grace of His own which suffers under them; for to this end His heart was stored with compassion to be exercised on such occasions.—Charnock.