By REV. JAMES MACLEOD, Greenock, on 2nd January, 1950.
“I have given them thy Word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world” (John xii, 14).
WE are gathered together to-day (the second day of this New Year 1950). It is a great cause of thankfulness to the Lord that we are spared to see the beginning of another year. When we look back at the last year, we must admit that we were unprofitable servants, and if God should mark our sins, and transgressions against us, this is not the place we would be in at this present moment! What cause of deep thankfulness to God that we are not in hell. We complain, some times with sound and valid cause and reasons; but our complaints are mere trifles when you think of a lost world! Now friends, let us reflect, prayerfully, and most seriously, about our future—for we have a future, an eternal future. You hear some saying, “Spending eternity”; eternity is eternity. We must make use of the means that God has set at our disposal. It is your duty to attend on the means of grace as rational human beings. We may have ten thousand different excuses for not attending the public worship of God, but that is our place (Rom. x, 17). The lamentable pity in our day is that people will not bother to come to the church. What is wrong? Is it the fault of the people, or of the preachers? We ministers are ready to blame the people, but the people have as much right to blame the ministers. The fact of the matter is that ministers and people are not free of blame: and the ministers should take the larger share of the blame, for it was with them that the first signs of declensions began from the truth of God in this land. In Germany, soon after the death of Luther, some “Protestant pastors” engaged in the service of the Cardinal of Lorraine, to destroy the Reformed religion, and were actually in the pay of the Cardinal! In Britain, the canker worm began to shew itself in the colleges among the most brilliant young scholars of the nation. The same calamity took place in Germany, Holland, France, and in the United States of America. It was in the schools. It was not among the common people that the great declensions and schisms began in the Christian Church, but among the learned, nobility and churchmen, which degenerated into what is known as Romanism, and to-day Protestantism has degenerated into what is popularly called “Modernism,” or militant atheism. You must bear in mind that many of the so-called scholars in the Protestant kingdoms are atheists. They, of course, blankly refuse to admit that, but notwithstanding their strong objections, they are confirmed atheists. They do not believe that the Bible is a divine revelation from God, and given us under the direct inspiration of the Holy Spirit. They do not. They do not believe that Jesus Christ was anything but a mere man, as the Communists believe; and in fact, if the truth is told, few Protestant ministers believe in the doctrines of the Virgin Birth of our Lord. We have ample proof for this statement. We could quote dozens of statements made in recent times by men who are very prominent in the religious world, who do not believe in the supernatural birth of Christ. What are such men but infidels, and atheists? Can we wonder that the people do not attend the church, and wander in their minds when they occasionally do attend, as they have no confidence in the preachers, what they say, as they know not what the next move may be. The natural and reasonable confidence of the people has been so ruined by the conduct of professors and ministers that the poor people are in a fog, not knowing what to do, whether to go to church or remain at home on the Lord’s day! I was recently refreshing my mind on the case of Prof. William Robertson Smith in the Free Church Assembly. What a bedlam! It was that case that broke up the Free Church into fragments. The confidence of the people was shattered by the conduct of the ministers. Smith was a brilliant scholar. He went to Germany to finish off his education, and while there was thoroughly doped by German Rationalists. His “higher and destructive criticism” of the Word of God brought into that Church theories about the Revelation of God to man, which finally ruined the Church. “Clever young men” in the service of the Church are a menace to the people of God instead of being useful to the Church, and only a hindrance, and pain to the godly. We are only a small branch of the Protestant Church, and how often we have been stung by “clever young men” for the last fifty years! It was the “brilliant scholars” that ruined the Church in Germany, England, and Scotland. Voltaire and Charles Darwin were only two of the many that attacked the Church of God. It is said the Church should raise up men, educate them and train them thoroughly to meet the challenge of the atheist, infidel, and the Modernist. The Church cannot do that, for the simple reason you cannot meet the Liar, as he is armed with lies to repel truth. If he could be convinced by truth, that would be quite easy, but the Liar shall not be convinced by the force of truth, till God touch his vile conscience with a dart from the divine quiver from His holy law, and that will silence him forever. The believer can repel the devil with the Word of God, but not so the blind bairn of Satan! The Protestant churches of Europe, America, and England were waiting to see what decision the Free Church should come to in the case mentioned above. The godly must have been painfully disappointed when Assembly after Assembly shewed such large minorities, and on one occasion, a majority in defence of Robertson Smith’s theories! The dams were broken, the floods poured over the land; the Declaratory Act of 1892 was the result, and the flood is still rising; godlessness, immorality, idolatry, and a deadly formalism, which is rank poison to the souls of men. The Bible is judged as an ordinary, or common book of literature. “The book of Genesis is out of joint,” so the critics say, as its history does not square with the conclusions of science. The Declaratory Act was really an “Enabling Act,” that is to say, an Act to relieve ministers, elders, and members to believe what they liked, and what would suit them at the time. If it would suit the member to attend the dance hall better than the Communion Table, well, he or she had liberty to do so. It ceased to be “what saith the Lord,” but what saith the present time. The binding authority of the Bible over life, walk, conversation, Kirk-Session, pulpit, college, Assemblies, was a thing of the past. “We must live according to the times.” Well, if you do, at the end of the road is hell. The just lives by faith and not according to the times.
The Roman Catholic Church has her Canon Law, the Mohammedan his Koran, but the Protestant Church is forced to the witchery of the “World Council of Churches”! What madness! This is the last resort-Council of despair. Who are the people behind the “World Council of Churches”? The “Modernists,” who do not believe the Bible, nor accept the doctrines of the Holy Spirit concerning the fall of mankind in Adam, nor in the Person of Christ, etc. What are they aiming at? This Council aims at stemming Communism. Is this another case of the kettle calling the pot black? It seems so. The miserable Communists are doing the work of the devil in the name of a fellow (dead long ago), Karl Marx. This famous “Council” is doing the work of the devil in the name of the gospel, and the Christ that they boldly deny. Hypocrites pretend that they are “doing God service,” whereas they are serving the devil. When men do the work of the devil in the name of God, that is the greatest sin, and that is what they are doing.
There is another “Council” called the “United Nations Organisation.” It is a bric-a-brac of a thing, like the old “League of Nations,” which was one of the most useless Leagues that was ever invented by supposedly wise men. “But who is their father?” Who authorised this League? It was born in despair, and it will die in extreme darkness! “U.N.O.” and the “World Council of Churches” are twin brothers. The good “brothers” are to put the world right, and keep it on an even keel in order to avoid wars and international commotions in the world! This is another attempt at building a “modern” Babel to escape the storms, tempests, and introduce peace, harmony and good-will among men without any reference to God, gospel, or divine principles—for a hereafter is not in the calculations of the “modern builders”! “He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision” (Ps. ii, 4). The Pope has a “holy year” for the faithful to collect as much money as he can from the dollar countries, as his pomp and pride must be supported with silver and gold. The world is reeling like a drunken man between Communism, Popery, U.N.O., Modernism, and the “World Council of Churches.” The people are bewildered and have lost heart in all nations, not knowing whom to believe, follow, or own as leaders! It is a dreadful state of affairs.
The picture is dreadfully black! Yet, according to “the election of grace,” God has a remnant in this nation, and in other nations, who love His blessed name. They were given the Word of God, and they prize that Word above everything else in this world. It is the very Word of God to their souls. They were given the whole Bible, from Genesis to Revelation. It is the Bible that the Holy Spirit gives to the child of God. “I have given them thy Word.” Had they not His Word before the coming of the Lord into this world? Yes, as many have it to-day in the letter, but it is another thing to get that Word from the Lord. The Pharisees had the Word as written by Moses, prophets, and in the Psalms. Did they understand it? They did not. The Lord gives it to the understanding heart and life. The men on their way to Emmaus knew the Scriptures well enough as far as the letter of the Word was concerned; the law, and the prophets were taught in their homes and synagogues, but they were blind to the spiritual understanding of the Word of God till He opened their understanding. That is true of men. They may have Bibles, and plenty of head knowledge of the Word, but more is required. Some very wicked men know the letter very well. They can quote the Word of God to their own destruction. Does that mean that they know the Word of God? No, it must be given, and given by the Author of life and the Saviour of the lost. Paul had the Scriptures of the Old Testament. Luther, Calvin, Knox, etc., had both the Old and New Testament Scriptures. Were they understanding the Word of God before that moment came, “I have given them thy Word”? When the Lord gives His Word to poor sinners, He puts it into the heart, understanding, and conscience. He compares it to seed falling into good ground. When it falls there, by the blessed Spirit quickening, watering, and blessing it every moment it brings forth fruit. There are many, many million Bibles in over one thousand languages in this age, but is it not as clear as daylight that notwithstanding, till that same Word is given by the Spirit of God to the souls of men, that millions will go to hell with Bible in hand, words of Scriptures in their mouths, and their souls bound up in the grave clothes of spiritual death? It was quite easy for such men to give up the Word of God, as happened in Scotland sixty years ago, in Germany, and in England. It happened to the Jews when they set their carnal traditions before the written Word of God.
When the Holy Spirit gives the Word, the hatred of men is immediately roused in opposition to them who believe it to the glory of God, and are grounded and settled in the truth of God as it is in Jesus. The seed of truth is hated by the world, and would have its confessors destroyed if they had the power to do so. When our fathers stood in defence of God’s Word in this land: first, at the Reformation, the powers of the world, as it was represented by the Roman Catholic Church, took immediate steps to destroy, murder, and burn the men and women who believed the Word of God. When Andrew Melville stood against the arbitrary measures of that arch-hypocrite, King James the Sixth, he was first imprisoned, then banished his native land. Melville was the first man in his nation, the finest scholar, the ablest divine, and King and Government had not a better friend within the realm. Melville had the Word of God, and because of that he was hated by the world, as he was not of the world, and could not sacrifice the truth of God for king or country! “I have given them thy Word.” When our fathers stood against the mitre bishops of England in the Assembly of 1638, it was in defence of the crown rights of Jesus Christ. When they were forced to withdraw and separate from the corruptions of the Erastian principles and practices of the Established Church in 1843, it was in defence of the crown rights of the Lord Jesus Christ to reign, rule, and govern His Church by His Word and Spirit. To say, as some said, that the fathers of 1843 did not hold “Establishment principles” when they separated from a corrupt Establishment, was false. It was said by men who were traducing the memory of the godly ministers who had to part with so much in order to conserve and maintain what they vowed to defend at their ordination. Jesuitically-minded men can twist not only the words of men, but the very Word of God. In 1893, it was in defence of the Word of God that the fathers of the Free Presbyterian Church stood. In the Robertson Smith case mentioned above, the wreckers made it quite clear that not only had they departed from “Establishment principles,” but were prepared to depart from the Word of God in hundreds long before 1892. In the Robertson Smith case, on one occasion they had seven of a majority, which implied of course that hundreds of ministers and elders were quite prepared to accept Professor Smith’s destructive criticism of the inspired, unerring Word of God! This was the “Declaratory Act” in the making from 1876 to 1892. Who was able to stand up, confute, challenge, and repel German rationalism? There was at least one man in May, 1893, willing and able to stand in public defence of God’s Word in the Assembly of the Free Church—that was the Rev. Donald MacFarlane, minister of Raasay. He tabled a protest in defence of the Word of God, constitution and ordination vows, and by his protest, renounced and repudiated that Assembly for all time coming. He there and then by his protest separated from the corrupt Free Church. It was not for a name, money, or property. He had no money or property. The house he was in at the time (which the then Free Church wrongly claimed as their property), the Declaratory Act party evicted him out of it. The pious Rev. Donald Macdonald, Shieldaig, Lochcarron, Ross-shire, was also evicted. “I have given them thy Word, and the world has hated them.”
Now, my dear young friends, you are in a Church as pure, and Scriptural as this nation has ever known. It is for you to maintain this Church pure and to stand in defence of the Word of God, Establishment principles, Reformation attainments, and the Confession of Faith; for if you depart from its high, and Scriptural attainments you will suffer loss. Let not husbands, or wives, or any other person (under no consideration whatsoever) cause you to separate from the Church of your fathers. You must be “born again” although Free Presbyterians, for the purest Church on earth will not save your soul if not united to Jesus Christ. The world will hate you, and try to take you away from your Church. It is the work of the devil to separate poor sinners from the Word of God. Are you not eye-witnesses of the awful condition of the people of Scotland to-day? That is what our fathers knew would happen to the people of this land the day that they would sacrifice the truth of God to the lies of atheists and infidels. The churches of this land are very corrupt. The life and practice of the people unfolds year by year that the Word of God is not their rule of life.
You have been told that the Synod of your Church changed the Constitution, departed from it, and introduced practices into the Courts alien to the usual procedure in Presbyterian Synods and Assemblies. The Pharisees charged our Lord, saying, “Behold, a man gluttonous, and a wine-bibber.” Was that a proof that He was either “gluttonous, or a wine-bibber”? It is as false as it is vicious to say that our Synod changed, altered, or departed from the Constitution, or Confession of Faith of the Reformed Church of Scotland in the least degree. When men tried to prove that assertion, and began to say that we had changed and altered the Constitution, and put their own interpretation on the Confession of Faith and Church procedure, they found themselves in an inextricable bog. Every man or woman who separated from the Free Presbyterian Church for the last fifty years gathered any amount of plausible excuses to cover their own retreat and palliate their gnawing consciences.
We are not, and never were against union and communion with God’s people in this nation or elsewhere. What our fathers were opposed to was union with religious bodies that were not adhering to the Word of God in practice as well as in profession and Church government. We may have the finest and the most Scriptural Constitution in the world, but if our practice is contrary to our legislative enactments, what is the value of our Constitution? It is sheer mockery! We are not against union, but we cannot sacrifice the Word of God for the sake of union. The discipline of the Word of God is as essential to the good order and government of the Church as “the sinews are to the human body”—so said Calvin. The gospel of the grace of God in the Free Presbyterian Church is a bondage to those who claim liberty and freedom, in order to walk according to the course of this world. “Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans, and of the Stoicks, encountered him. And some said, What will this babbler say? other some, He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods: because he preached to them Jesus and the resurrection” (Acts xvii). Again, we read in Acts vi, “Then there arose certain of the synagogue, which is called the synagogue of the Libertines . . . disputing with Stephen.” The devil brought the Libertines to the front in the days of Calvin, and of course they demanded church privileges and freedom to pollute the Church of God with the sins of the flesh, as you may find in Gal. v, 19, 20, 21. There is more need of the Testimony of the Free Presbyterian Church to-day in this poor benighted land than even in 1893! “I have given them thy Word, and the world has hated them, because they are not of this world, even as I am not of this world.”