LAST year it was intimated to us that some of our readers, abroad especially, desire that a survey of the assemblies be given in the Magazine from year to year as was done in past years. So we shall endeavour to follow the former practice as far as space will permit.
CHURCH OF SCOTLAND ASSEMBLY.
This Assembly was opened on Tuesday, the 23rd day of May, and from reports available, a more than usual amount of public business was transacted. Viscount Cunningham, the well-known Admiral of the Royal Navy, was this year’s Lord High Commissioner. The new Moderator appointed was Rev. Hugh Watt, D.D., Professor of Church History, New College, Edinburgh.
The King’s Letter.—His Majesty the King, in his letter to the Assembly, referred to the responsibility lying upon, not only ministers and office-bearers, but upon individual members, to accept and fulfil the obligations of their membership to the strengthening of the Church. This is counsel from the Throne which calls for serious consideration by all who name the name of Christ, from the Royal Family downwards and throughout the country. “A name to live, yet, being dead” possessed by so many Church members is a blight on the visible Church of Christ to-day. His Majesty also alluded to “the simple and unchanging truths of the Christian faith.” It were well if those in the Assembly, cognisant of the existence and increasing inroads of Higher Criticism and of attacks upon the verities of the Bible in their theological halls, blushed with shame when they heard the King’s words.
The Lord High Commissioner’s address to the Assembly was that of a layman’s outlook upon the Church and the world. He declared that “from the Shetlands to the Tweed there is not a parish without its church . . . the pastors and teachers are everywhere, the means of grace are everywhere.” We refrain from comment at this point. He then asked “what is wrong with us . . . with our use of this vast instrument for righteousness that is placed in our hands that we should have to face the fact that Christianity is on the defensive before the forces of a godless materialism?” Lord Cunningham gave several answers to this question which, in our view, were unsatisfactory, except one, viz., “It may be that we have all been too long content with lip-service to the truths of Christianity, and that now . . . the wheat is being winnowed from the chaff.” True it is, that nominal Christianity on a nation-wide scale cannot withstand or turn back the powers of a godless materialism. Scotland, as elsewhere, bears the marks of spiritual judgments for backsliding and hypocrisy.
Church Extension was described in the General Assembly as “the most necessary and urgent task, and the greatest opportunity of evangelism with which the Church had been confronted in Scotland in many generations.” Rev. Horace Walker, secretary of the Home Board stated that there were thousands of children in new housing areas to-day who had never been inside a church, not because their parents were godless, but because there was no church in that neighbourhood to go to. This is indeed a problem to the Church of Scotland and other denominations also in densely populated and wide areas, where families are moving from the original areas of cities and towns where churches are situated. But what of the other places where thousands of families have the churches at their door, and yet neither the parents nor the children, in most cases, countenance the public worship of God? In such localities congregations are being united, churches and manses are becoming surplus and unnecessary property. “Why is the house of God forsaken?” was a question asked long ago. The answers to it to-day will cast light upon the irreligious mind and conduct of our generation. There were days in Scotland when men and women would walk many miles to hear the everlasting gospel.
Greetings From Episcopal Church.—Rev. Bishop John H. How, D.D., Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church, brought greetings to the Assembly from his denomination, and strange greetings they were. “I am afraid,” he said, “we must admit that actual corporate re-union between our two Scottish branches of the one great Church is not yet within the realm of practical politics. . . . Nevertheless, a new spirit controls our relationship. . . .” The Bishop continued to declare, “We cannot as yet join fully in common worship,” “We cannot as yet exchange pulpits.” “We cannot as yet edify one another by the preaching of the word in our several churches,” “We cannot as yet meet together to share in the sacred mysteries as celebrated at our respective altars.” These are the actual words of the Bishop and there was much more said to the same purpose, all with comments of a more positive and kindlier nature. What is apparently aimed at by both sides is to get the word “cannot” out of their ecclesiastical vocabulary. Added to all this, there was a report in the Press during June of a further conference between representatives of the Church of Scotland and the Church of England on the question of union. Where is the Church of Scotland of the Reformation? It is to be found in a more obscure form elsewhere in Scotland to-day. The Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland claims to be in the scriptural line of the Church of Scotland of the Reformation.
Highland Vacancies.—Rev. Dr. Stewart Thomson, convener of the Home Board, complained that they had to fill 30 vacant pulpits in the Gaelic area. He said that securing more candidates for the gaelic-speaking ministry was a problem. Bursaries were granted promising boys at school and young men at the universities. But far too few of these were finding their way to the divinity halls. We remark, that boys and young men would require that the Lord would grant them grace to fit them for the ministry of the gospel; and even after that a “call” to this solemn work, and after that again the provision of a divinity hall where sound theological teaching would be received.
Communion Broadcasts.—The Rev. Dr. Baird, convener of the Committee on Public Worship, emphasised that what was broadcast was not, and could not be, the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, but the words of praise and prayer and teaching which surrounded the sacrament. He pleaded that no obstacle be put in the way of these broadcasts. We would observe, that time will tell what such broadcasts are really aiming at. There is such a thing as the mass being sung in Roman Catholic churches and over the wireless without the sacrament being actually administered.
The Church and Divorced Persons.—The Assembly debated the question of the re-marriage of divorced persons at some length. The matter was carried over from 1949. Rev. Prof. Pitt Watson described it as a subject “barbed and bristling with controversy,” yet he was the principal speaker and advocate for the Assembly Committee’s Overture on the Re-marriage of Divorced Persons, which advocated the removal of the absolute bar to the re-marriage in church of certain divorced persons, and recommended that individual cases should be dealt with on their merits. The Overture sought the repeal of the Act of Assembly of 1566, which, among other things, forbids the re-marriage in church of persons divorced for adultery. From the report of the debate, during which intricate points were raised, we gather that the Assembly has in view, permitting ministers to solemnise in church the marriage of offending parties, divorced for adultery, to another party other than the original partner, and who comply with certain Church laws and a measure of prescribed Church discipline, other circumstances also allowing this procedure. The Confession of Faith, chapter xxiv, section v, states:—”… In the case of adultery after marriage, it is lawful for the innocent party to sue out a divorce, and after the divorce, to marry another, as if the offending party were dead.” But the Confession says nothing as to the offending party and re-marriage. By implication and scripture, the guilty party is left to the “discipline” of his or her own sin. “And whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery,” (Matt. v. 32). Prof. Pitt Watson admitted that the matter they were handling was serious and complicated and that it had perils. It seems he wished the Assembly to face perils, for he said, “… Perils are always to be found if anomalies are to be redressed.” But surely the Church has no authority to risk perils, except such as have an intimate relationship to adherence “to the law and to the testimony” of God’s Holy Word?
Foreign Missions.—Rev. Robert Ross reported on problems facing the Foreign Missions Committee. The situation in China had caused great anxiety. Communism was firmly established in Manchuria and it appeared to be following the Russian pattern of tight control over the whole life of the people. The only way by which the European missionary could now give service in India and Pakistan was through the native Church. The financial situation was as critical as ever, but if they got £16,000 extra, Mr. Ross thought that they might meet the budget. Rev. Dr. John MacKenzie pointed out that since 1939 the number of missionaries in the field had dropped by over 120. It seems that the Church of Scotland are meeting with great difficulties as to keeping their Foreign Missions organised for lack of men and money. Faithfulness to the Word of God and the doctrines of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ among the “heathen” at home, which is conspicuous by its absence, ought also to be a burden to those professedly concerned with the Foreign Field.
Other matters which the Assembly dealt with included: the threat of Communism, gambling and raffles in Church circles, ministers and part-time work outside their ministerial duties, of which there were many cases, inter-Church relations and a conference in June with representatives of the Church of England, which we already noted has now taken place.
All Scotland needs an outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and the Church of Scotland needs this, to the end that Modernism would be cast out; formalism thrown off and that there would be a wholehearted return to belief in and devotion to an inspired and infallible Bible and the divine Redeemer, the eternal Son of God.
FREE CHURCH ASSEMBLY.
The General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland also began its proceedings on Tuesday, the 23rd day of May, in the Assembly Hall, St. Columba Church, Edinburgh. Rev. G. N. M. Collins, B.D., the retiring Moderator, welcomed the Rev. W. J. Cameron, of Buccleuch-Greyfriars Free Church, Edinburgh, who was elected to the vacancy in the Junior Clerks’hip of the General Assembly.
New Moderator.—Rev. G. N. M. Collins moved that Rev. Alexander MacLeod, M.A., Partick Free Church, Glasgow, be elected the new Moderator of Assembly. This was unanimously approved. Mr. MacLeod is a native of Scourie, Sutherlandshire, and is now in his third pastoral charge in the Free Church. He has been religious instruction lecturer in Jordanhill Training College for Teachers.
Moderator’s Address.—The Moderator declared in his address to the Assembly that “We are living in dark and difficult times. A great spiritual darkness has invaded our land; the bulk of our population in town and country is drifting into paganism.” This statement describes a state of matters which is all too true. He also referred to “the spirit of deadness” within the Church (and we presume the Moderator meant his own Church) against which a battle was constantly waged by ministers and office-bearers. We believe those who fear God will have a battle all their days against the carnal mind in themselves and grace in them carries on that battle. A “spirit of deadness,” in our opinion, whether in the home, pew, pulpit, kirk session or Presbytery, arises from spiritual death and worldliness and the cure must descend from heaven, as the psalmist records, “O, do thou quicken us, and we upon Thy name will call.” The Moderator also alluded to the origins of the rise of Higher Critical Biblical Criticism which drew the world (and we would interpose the Church also) away from the old religious foundations of life. How dangerously true this has been, and would it not be well for the Free Church herself to refrain from giving any place whatsoever to such in these days, whose hands are stained with the guilt of Higher Criticism and Modernism in doctrine. As to the civil government of the nation and the responsibilities devolving upon Ministers of State, the Moderator rightly asserted that “Intelligence and industry divorced from the fear of God would only lead to ruin.”
Welfare Of Youth.—Rev. D. MacDonald, Urray, presented the Report of the Committee on the Welfare of Youth. The young people of all Churches were turning their backs upon God, he said. Many methods were tried in order to bring the young people back to a belief in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, but they believed some of the methods to be altogether unsuitable. Later in the discussion on this Report, Rev. A. R. Fraser, Dumbarton, said he considered their Church should support those youth organisations which held those high ideals for which the Church stood. We are not “drawing a bow at a venture,” surely, when we conclude that Mr. Fraser had in view the Boys’ Brigade organisation as the chief youth organisation for boys in Church circles. If our conclusion is correct, then we would point out that uniformed parades with pipe bands to and from churches on the Lord’s Day is a common practice of this organisation throughout the country. The youth organisations, to-day, may bid fair to inculcate religious beliefs and moral values into the minds of youth, but what of all the other vain activities generally associated with such organisations to-day, viz., badminton, concerts, dances, etc. Rev. D. MacDonald, Urray, put his finger upon the remedy for youth after a survey of the situation. He said, “The only hope was that they should be visited with a revival of religion.”
Religion and Morals.—Rev. Mr. MacKenzie, Oban, submitted the Report on Public Questions, which dealt with Sabbath desecration, the gambling evil, the deplorable lack of home-life, the menace of Communism, and the question of whether or not the Free Church should make use of the radio for broadcasting services.
Broadcasting of Services.—It was proposed that the Free Church should be represented on the Religious Advisory Council of the B.B.C. Mr. MacKenzie believed that old and sick people would welcome the broadcasting of a service by a Free Church Minister. We remark here that this, of course, involves Sabbath broadcasting. Rev. K. MacRae, Stornoway, moved an amendment, that the Assembly do not authorise the Public Questions Committee to be represented on the B.B.C. Religious Advisory Council. In speaking to his amendment, Mr. MacRae said that no one had found fault with individual Free Church ministers broadcasting sermons. Thus it seems to be that Mr. MacRae agrees with doing so on the Lord’s Day, with all the attendant activities and circumstances of a worldly character essential to and associated with Sabbath broadcasting. Such services are wedged in between the most vain and worldly items of the B.B.C. programme which do violence to the sanctity of God’s holy day. When services are broadcast from a church building, we wonder if the B.B.C. engineers prepare the “lines” on Saturday and dismantle their equipment on Monday! Do Free Church ministers require to submit the script of their sermons to the B.B.C. authorities before taking the air? We know there are legitimate answers to this question. Nevertheless, we ask why? Rev. K. MacRae further stated that the Assembly were in the dark as to what the aforesaid appointment would involve. Yes, in the dark, indeed! Would a Free Church member of this Religious Council be obliged to concern himself with the approval of Christmas and Easter services and the teaching of unsound doctrine over the air through the sermons of other than Free Church ministers? Could he object? Would he object? Rev. K. MacRae, as a leader in the Lord’s Day Observance Association of Scotland should think again regarding broadcasting of sermons on Sabbath—if he approves of same. The Secretary of that Association, Rev. A. D. MacLeod, broadcasts on Sabbath. This he would certainly not be permitted to do while in the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland. Finally, on this question, we note that Rev. K. MacRae’s amendment was defeated in the Assembly, and he and other members recorded their dissent.
Spiritual Awakening.—The Assembly received and approved an Overture from the Synod of Sutherland and Caithness, dealing with the need for a spiritual awakening throughout the land. Rev. Donald MacKay, Watten, Caithness, said it was their conviction that as things were spiritually, morally and nationally, there was only one thing which would help them and that was a spiritual revival. Mr. MacKay expressed the view of all who see this dark day in the light of God’s Word.
Visit of the Lord High Commissioner.—It was reported that an unusual note of pageantry was introduced to the Free Church Assembly when it was visited by Viscount Cunningham, the Lord High Commissioner, and his suite, from the Church of Scotland Assembly. Although this visit took place as formerly, there is no public report as to why the Moderator of the Church of Scotland did not repeat the “courtesy” visit of last year. Maybe Rev. Mr. MacQuarrie, Knockbain, the opponent of this visit last year, has obtained, at least, a temporary victory in the matter.
An Overture among World Council of Churches.—The Free Presbytery of Lewis submitted an Overture to the Assembly, the terms of which strongly attacked the World Council of Churches. It was asserted that Modernism through this Council sought to dominate the Christian world and to weld into one ecclesiastical body all the Churches in the world—Protestant, Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic. The Council was a dangerous threat to the cause of Christ upon earth and the overture asked the Assembly to ordain that no delegates be received in the Assembly representative of Churches affiliated with the World Council of Churches. Rev. Kenneth MacRae, in supporting the overture, exposed and condemned clearly the erroneous views and dangerous activities of the World Council of Churches, bringing forward evidence to substantiate his statements. Nevertheless, when Mr. MacRae moved that the General Assembly receive the Overture, thereafter Professor Renwick moved that the General Assembly pass from the Overture. Professor Renwick said that it was unwise to dwell, in the way Mr. MacRae had done, upon weaknesses in the World Council and the dangers of modernism, on the basis of bringing forward a motion that no delegate would ever be received in the Assembly, of any Church affiliated with the World Council. He, Professor Renwick, maintained that Rev. Mr. MacRae’s motion was totally contrary to the practice, spirit and tradition of the Free Church ever since 1843 and it was also contrary to the spirit of the Reformed Church. These statements of Professor Renwick’s are correctly given here as published at the time of the Assembly. Ultimately Professor Renwick’s amendment was withdrawn in favour of another amendment by Rev. William MacLeod, Principal Clerk, to receive the Overture and that the Assembly Arrangements Committee consider its terms and report to next Assembly. On a division, Mr. MacLeod’s amendment was carried by 46 votes against 22 for the original motion by Rev. Kenneth MacRae, who gave in his dissent. This is the second occasion on which Mr. MacRae had reason to dissent. If space would permit we could comment at length on the implications of all this. We have at anyrate no hesitation in stating that there is indeed division in the ranks of the Free Church upon fundamental issues. Professor Renwick and his supporters are indeed far removed themselves from the spirit of the Disruption fathers and the spirit of the Reformed Church, otherwise they would undoubtedly witness against an evil organisation such as the World Council of Churches.
Objection To An Organ.—A petition had been presented to the Free Presbytery of Glasgow by two elders, alleging the purchase by the Deacon’s Court of Dumbarton Free Church of an organ “for use only at a welcome home social,” and the continued use of the organ at week-day meetings connected with various organisations of the church and “at school services conducted by the minister in the church.” The petitioners craved the disposal of the organ to rectify “a violation of constitutional order.” The petition later went to the Southern Synod. It was remitted back to the Presbytery by the Synod, enjoining the Presbytery to visit Dumbarton congregation with a view to the restoration of harmony (the italics ours). The Assembly having this case before them by dissent and complaint, dismissed the dissent and complaint and affirmed the judgment of the Synod. Obviously the organ was obtained for musical harmony, but it has set a task before the Presbytery to restore ecclesiastical harmony. A footnote might well be that as a rule, hymns are never far away from an organ.
The practices of a Church will indicate to what extent its members believe in and adhere to the fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith.
Dame Mary Rutherford, Lady Hundalee.
DURING the life-and-death struggle of Presbytery against prelatic Episcopacy in seventeenth-century Scotland, women—and among them many titled ladies—showed “a fortitude as manifest as that of their fathers, husbands and sons. We have seen the matron and the maid going out behind the banners of the Son of God, and performing their part in the battle.” In the year 1642 there was a characteristic Covenanting document penned by Mr. Archibald Porteous, himself a “pertinent, knowing, serious youth.” It is the “edifying narration of the sad sweet exercise of soul, and blessed death, of Dame Mary Rutherford, Lady Hundalee.” The following extract regarding her is from The Men of the Covenant, by the late Rev. Dr. Alexander Smellie:—
“Here, indeed, the reader learns (the Covenanting document by Mr. Archibald Porteous above referred to) with what agonising earnestness men and women in this old seventeenth century sought for the assurance of the love of Christ, and how poor and pitiable they accounted their condition until they were certain of their Heavenly Bridegroom’s grace. It is an accent distinct from the religious dialects of to-day. It compels us to question whether we know the same sorrows of desertion, the same ardency of desire, the same triumphs of appropriation and communion.
“Lady Hundalee, with her cousin and waiting-woman, Mary McConnell, and her young chaplain, Archibald Porteous, had journeyed sometime in 1642, from Scotland up to London. But the pestilence was raging in the city; and soon the good waiting-woman was visited by a presentiment, ‘a post from the Celestial City with matters of great importance,’ to tell her that her Master called her to stand in His presence, in clothes of immortality, within a few days. She was enraptured at the thought. ‘Well is my soul,’ she cried, ‘I shall get Christ, my Love, now.’ But her mistress would not be outdone; she avowed that she also was hungering and thirsting to be caught up immediately into Paradise. And the chaplain broke in upon them with his separate aspiration: ‘Madam, I could never endure strife; but I am glad to see such a strife as this. May not I, as a third, challenge my part in the bargain? I hope ye dare not envy any that come to Christ.’ Thus those three stretched out their eager hands to welcome Death, because in Death they saw simply the herald and apparitor of Him Who governed their souls with His sceptre of gold.
“Before many hours had passed, Mary McConnell’s presage was fulfilled, and she had ‘peaceably entered the everlasting kingdom.’ But, when she had gone, a darkness as of seven midnights swept over Lady Hundalee. She was ‘mightily discouraged,’ veteran soldier of the divine King though she was. Her inbred corruptions started up to slay her faith, and the temptations of Satan gathered round. It was in vain that her spiritual counsellor, wise beyond his years, strove to impart the consolations of God. ‘Nothing shall hinder your Lord,’ he said; ‘though your sins were as hard as a rock, and as high as mountains in the way, yet neither the height of the one, nor the hardness of the other shall keep Him from you. For He would as fain be at you, as you at Him, and fairer too. Take courage! He that shall come will come, and will not tarry.’ They were strong anodynes; but they did not pluck the rooted sorrow from the memory and spirit. She had been but a hypocrite, the Lady mourned; and between Christ and herself what was there except ‘fremmitness’—distance and estrangement, and alienation? In a day or two, however, there appeared some little lifting of the gloom. At least she could talk to the chaplain about the grievous lapses and wanderings with which she was chargeable: her ‘deadness, dullness, coldness in prayer, distraction and forgetfulness in hearing, an unruly passion, and a number of such ills breaking out.’ ‘Away! away!’ she expostulated, when again he tried to comfort, ‘speak not to me of any grace that I have, for I am graceless; I feel not so much as a dram of grace.’ Yet, as the needle points to its pole ‘and knows not why,’ her soul constantly turned to Him Whom she reckoned better than all the world. One morning, after a short rest, she showed Porteous a tiny manuscript book in which she had written a catalogue of God’s providences and Christ’s special mercies. She protested that each of these was ‘a dittay,’ an indictment, against her thanklessness and disobedience. But the scattering of the night-clouds had begun, and the sun was preparing to rise.
“The pestilence had caught her ere now in its fatal grasp; but, with the return of inward peace, she could glory over the bodily fever and pain. Once, those who attended her marked that she sang in her sleep. ‘Madam,’ asked the chaplain, ‘what did ye dream when ye smiled?’ ‘Smile!’ she said, ‘how could I but smile, when I saw my Lord drawing by the bed curtain? But He went swiftly away.’ Then she bade her friend leave her for two hours. He came back at the appointed time, to discover that there was no trace of the long-continued combat—nothing but the ravishment of deliverance. She had her good confession to make. ‘Now I see that all is not lost that is in danger; and that God’s children will have as many troubles as twice over ten horses will bear; and yet they will bear them all, though they seem to be sunk under them. I see they who love Christ love Him not for nought, but shall get as good as they brought, yea, ten thousand times better. I see God never wholly casts off those whom He once takes by the hand, and who honestly indent with him; and, if He seems to cast them off, it’s only in their own apprehension, and for the trial of their grace, and only for a while; and, in the meanwhile, His hand is under their head to support them, though they perceive it not.’
“Step by step she went down to the swellings of Jordan, with a shining radiance on her face. ‘Give me Hell, if Thou wilt,’ she was heard pleading, ‘but Christ with it; for He and I shall never part again.’ What did she think of eternal life, the minister queried. ‘O, it’s the only life!’ she replied. ‘This is but a living death. But it’s a lively, everlasting, honourable, immortal, easy, happy and comfortable life.’ And how did she like death, he queried again. ‘Very well,’ she answered. ‘I think it will do me the best turn that can be. It is a passage to bring me to, and to plunge me in the ocean of love. If I could win out of this house, I would be content to go to see my own grave made.’ By and by she left off speaking, although the onlookers knew by the motion of her lips that she persevered in prayer. And, on the next day-break, when he saw her dissolution approaching, Mr. Porteous, as he had promised, sounded in her ears, ‘the love of Christ.’ And she, with hands uplifted and eyes fixed and smiling countenance, did step victoriously into Eternity. Because this history, first of desolation and then of delight, was repeated in numbers of Covenanting hearts, it is well worth our while to remember Lady Hundalee’s sore struggle and glorious ‘outgate.'”
It is very much to be feared that conscious experimental knowledge of the above-referred to spiritual “desolations and then delights” is sadly rare among professing Christians in our day, but that was also the type of godly men and women who were conspicuous in the early history of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland. They are to be found among us still, for which we have deep reason for gratitude to the Most High, for they are “the salt of the earth, and the light of the world,” but there is reason to fear that they are becoming fewer and fewer. To profess to live spiritually without these love visits from the blessed Saviour, and without conscious realised manifestations of His presence, favour, and fellowship, seems very strange, to say the last, to truly exercised Christians.
—J. P. McQ.