Communions.—December—1st Sabbath, London. January—Last Sabbath, Inverness. February—1st Sabbath, Dingwall; 3rd Sabbath, Stornoway; 4th Sabbath, Bayhead, North Uist. March—1st Sabbath, Ullapool; 2nd Sabbath, Portree and Ness; 3rd Sabbath, Finsbay and Lochinver (every alternate year in March); 4th Sabbath, Kinlochbervie and North Tolsta.
London Congregation—December Communion.—Hitherto the London congregation of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland held only one Communion annually, but it has now been decided to hold a Communion twice a year.
Communion Services:—Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland, Eccleston Hall, Eccleston Street, Buckingham Palace Road, London, S.W.1.
In connection with the dispensation of the Lord’s Supper on Sabbath, 5th December, 1948, the following services have been arranged (D.V.), to be conducted by the Rev. William MacLean, M.A., Ness, and the Rev. Donald MacLean, C.A. Thursday, 2nd December, 7 p.m.; Friday, 3rd December, 3.30 p.m. (Gaelic); 7 p.m. (Fellowship Meeting); Saturday, 4th December, 3.30 p.m. and 7 p.m.; Sabbath, 5th December, 11 a.m.; 3.45 p.m. (Gaelic), and 7 p.m.; Monday, 6th December, 3.30 p.m. (Gaelic), and 7 p.m.
Services are held every Sabbath at 11 a.m., 3.45 p.m. (Gaelic) and 7 p.m. Weekly Prayer-Meeting, Wednesday, 7 p.m.
Protest Against Royal Review of Troops on Sabbath.—May it please Your Majesty,—We, the Sabbath Observance Committee of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland, desire most respectfully to acquaint Your Majesty with the feelings of sincere and heart-felt grief with which we learned of the reported review of some 8,000 troops of the Territorial Army in Hyde Park which Your Majesty proposes to carry out on Sabbath, 31st October, 1948, and are moved, by profound concern for the dishonour to the Lord’s Day Your Majesty’s action involves, to protest humbly but strenuously against this desecration of the Lord’s Holy Day. The painful impression this report is likely to make upon Your Majesty’s most loyal and God-fearing subjects, and especially the encouragement which such conduct on the part of the leading member of our Royal House is bound, we fear, to give to the growing anti-Christian forces throughout the land which aim at the complete destruction of the Sabbath, are our justification for thus making known to Your Majesty our emphatic disapproval.
The Lord’s Day is a Christian institution which in origin and purpose was divinely ordained for the Lord’s worship and service alone. The scriptural and faithful observance of the Sabbath by our people in the past has undoubtedly been owned by the Lord under whose blessing our nation has attained a position of exalted moral and temporal power among the nations of the world, and likewise been favoured with long years of internal peace and prosperity. The day that our land becomes materialistic in spirit and outlook, when the Sabbath ceases to be the Lord’s Holy Day and becomes such a day as is employed in the training exercises of our service men and women, as we fear is envisaged in the new defence schemes shortly to be put into operation, or a day for the review of troops, against which we feel bound to protest in the present instance, then we are convinced national decay will set in. The Lord will not suffer the nation to pass unpunished which dishonours His Holy Day.
It is our painful duty to remind Your Majesty that the divine commandment, “Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy,” requires implicit obedience. We humbly yet strongly beseech Your Majesty to rearrange the date of the proposed review of troops in Hyde Park in favour of the complete preservation of the hallowed character of God’s Holy Day. “But now the Lord saith, Them that honour me, I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.”
On behalf of the Sabbath Observance Committee of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland. D. R. MACDONALD, Convener, Sabbath Observance Committee of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland. 20th October, 1948.
Northern Presbytery Protest re Civic Reception to Cardinal Griffin, at Edinburgh.—To the Lord Provost and Magistrates, the City of Edinburgh.
We, the members of the Northern Presbytery of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland, are amazed to learn that the Lord Provost and City Magistrates of the City of Edinburgh are to give a Civic Reception to Cardinal Griffin, of the Roman Catholic Church, on Saturday, the 23rd October, 1948; and we herewith record and present to the Lord Provost and Magistrates our most solemn and strong protest against their contemplated action which we, and many true Protestants throughout Scotland and in the City of Edinburgh, seriously deplore.
There is no reason whatsoever, on religious, legal or social grounds, why this Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church should be thus officially recognized and received by the Magistrates of the capital of Scotland, so intimately associated with the history and activities of John Knox and his work of Reformation, and where the Covenants were drawn up and signed by our godly, Presbyterian and Protestant forefathers.
Cardinal Griffin represents a Church which asserts that the Protestants of Edinburgh, as elsewhere, are heretics. This Church, in addition, places the blasphemy of the Mass in the very forefront of their religion and worship. Scotland abjured Popery over three hundred years ago by the official Acts of the Kirk of Scotland.
We, the members of the above said Presbytery, call upon the Lord Provost and Magistrates of the City of Edinburgh to cancel this Civic reception for the reasons stated above.
On behalf of the Members of the Presbytery. D. A. MACFARLANE,
Moderator. ROBERT R. SINCLAIR, Clerk. Free Presbyterian Manse, Wick,
Caithness. 15th October, 1948.
Western Presbytery Protest re Cardinal Griffin.—On the occasion of the Civic Reception given to Cardinal Griffin in Edinburgh, the following protest has been sent by the Western Presbytery to the Lord Provost:—We, the Western Presbytery of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland, being loyal and faithful subjects of the British Commonwealth and members of the Presbyterian and Protestant Church in Scotland, having more than an ordinary interest in the city of Edinburgh as the capital of the kingdom of Scotland and as having figured in such a conspicuous manner in the history of the attainments of the First and Second Reformations in Scotland, do view with profound sorrow that, according to The Universe of 1st October, 1948, a Civic Reception is to be given on 23rd October, 1948, to Cardinal Griffin. We consider that the City which so often heard John Knox thunder the condemnation of Heaven, from the Word of God, against the Papacy, has fallen on evil days indeed when its civic heads have so far forgotten their obligations to the Lord Jesus Christ, and their position as rulers in a professedly Protestant city as to show such deference to the representative of one who has proved himself time and again to be the enemy of religious liberty, and of the Protestant Constitution of this realm. Against such conduct we register our solemn and emphatic protest, and pray that such God-dishonouring arrangements may be cancelled.—JOHN COLQUHOUN, Clerk, Western Presbytery.
Protest from Southern Presbytery.—To the Lord Provost and Magistrates, City of Edinburgh.
Gentlemen,—From the Universe of 1st October, 1948, we learn that Cardinal Griffin intends to visit Edinburgh on Friday, the 22nd October, and that he is expected to carry out an extensive programme of public engagements which has been arranged for him. From the same source, we are informed that in the evening of the following day the Lord Provost of Edinburgh with the City Magistrates will give a civic reception to this Cardinal of the Church of Rome.
If the above report is correct, then we, the Southern Presbytery of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland, take this opportunity of entering our strong Protest against this flagrant betrayal of our country’s dearly bought Protestant heritage. Moreover, the Presbytery greatly deprecates the abuse of public funds which such entertainment must involve.
We are convinced that by such public recognition of papal Rome, the Magistrates, and through them the citizens of Edinburgh, leave themselves open to the fearful charge of being partakers of her sins, and thereby incurring the righteous anger of God.
We are persuaded that there are still many pious and loyal Protestants in Edinburgh and throughout Scotland; it is surely a first duty of the Council of a Protestant city such as Edinburgh to respect these citizens and to safeguard their religious principles and feelings. To honour a Roman Catholic Cardinal by according him a civic reception is, in our judgment, an insult to these Protestant citizens and a violation of the religious principles and feelings so dear to them.
For these and other reasons, we respectfully express the hope that even at this late date, the Town Council of Edinburgh will reconsider any arrangements they may have made with regard to this matter, and will finally decide not to countenance in any way this visit of Cardinal Griffin to the city.
In the name, and by the authority of the Southern Presbytery of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland, JAS. A. TALLACH, Clerk. Kames, 13th October, 1948.
Tribute of Western Presbytery to Rev. D. M. Macdonald.—The Western Presbytery of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland, convened at Kyle of Lochalsh on the 21st day of September, 1948, note with sincere regret the resignation of the Reverend Donald Malcolm Macdonald, Portree, from the Clergship of the Court and his demission of his pastoral charge, the former of these events having taken effect from the last meeting of Presbytery, and the latter to take effect on the 30th day of September, 1948. Mr. Macdonald was licensed and ordained for the Canadian field in 1914, and after serving the Church at various stations in Canada, he was inducted to the pastoral charge of Bayhead, North Uist.
Twenty-nine years ago he was inducted to the charge of Portree, and for the past twenty-five years he acted as Clerk of the Western Presbytery. The Court would take this opportunity of expressing their unfeigned appreciation of his usefulness as a minister of the Gospel, and his efficiency and courtesy as a Clerk of Presbytery. His genial manner and his freedom from the spirit of strife helped considerably to guide the Presbytery out of many a difficult situation. Thus the loss of his services is all the more regrettable.
While deploring the affliction which caused Mr. Macdonald to withdraw from pastoral work and resign the Clergship of the Presbytery when still possessing a good measure of strength of body and mind, and sympathising with him in that affliction, we would seek for him and for ourselves, his brethren in the Presbytery, the grace of submission to the adorable will of Him who does all things well. We would also rejoice that he is still able to continue preaching the glorious message of the Cross as opportunity presents itself, and we all join in wishing him much of the presence of the Lord in his semi-retirement.
Signed on behalf of the Western Presbytery of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland.—JOHN COLQUHOUN, Clerk.
New Meeting-House at Northton, Harris.—On Thursday, 23rd September, 1948, the new meeting-house at Northton, South Harris, was opened. The Rev. D. R. Macdonald, Interim Moderator of the congregation, and the Rev. William MacLean, M.A., Ness, officiated. The meeting-house—a substantial stone building, seated for about 250, was packed to its utmost capacity. Overflow services, both morning and evening, had to be held in the school. The Northton people are to be congratulated in providing themselves with so suitable a place of worship—commodious, bright, well ventilated and beautifully finished. Their labour of love is an evidence of their faithful adherence to the testimony and tradition of the Reformed Church in Scotland, which the late Rev. Donald Macfarlane conserved in its entirety by his Protest, and of their determination to hand on that testimony unimpaired to generations yet unborn. The Northton people take this opportunity of thanking all friends who kindly assisted them in their endeavour.—D. R. MACDONALD, Interim Moderator.
End of Financial Year.—Treasurers of Congregations are reminded that the financial year now ends on 31st December; and that financial statements are to be drawn up accordingly and submitted to respective Presbyteries, after being audited and signed by congregational auditors.
Increased Price of Magazines.—We would again remind readers of the increased price of both Magazines, beginning on the 1st January, 1949, as follows:—Free Presbyterian Magazine, 6/-; and Young People’s Magazine, 4/-, per annum.
Dr. MacDonald, African Mission, Home on Leave.—We are pleased to report that Dr. MacDonald and family arrived safely in this country. They had a favourable passage from Capetown to Britain. There is eleven years since they were home. Their four boys look very well indeed, and both Dr. and Mrs. MacDonald are in excellent health, for which we feel thankful to the Lord for His mercy that endureth for ever. Many of our congregation will be, we know, pleased to have the services of Dr. MacDonald among them, after he rests for a time at his old home in Applecross, Ross-shire. They left the Missionaries and Teaching Staff of the Mission in good health. All busy teaching, or preaching, and building for the thousands of native children claiming their constant attention. When it can be arranged, Dr. MacDonald will be only too pleased to give all information about the Mission work at Ingwenya and Shangani to our people. We may take this opportunity to remind our kind and loyal people that our financial burdens are getting more and more difficult, as prices are mounting up—clothing, railway fares, steamer fares. We know that the Lord will provide. Let faith, prayer and well-doing go hand in hand.—J. MACLEOD, Convener, Foreign Missions Committee.
Christ seeks our love. Here is the admiration of mercy, that our Saviour, who hath been rejected by a company of sinful creatures, should seek their love. For shame, refuse Him not; but let Him have lover ere He go. Had the Lord received us, when we had come to Him, and humbled our hearts before Him; had He heard, when we had spent our days, and all our strength in begging and craving, it had been an infinite mercy; but when the Lord Jesus Christ shall come and wait on us and seek our love, oh this is the wonders of mercies; think of this, oh ye saints.—Isaac Ambrose, 1658.