THERE is much activity and propaganda in these days to induce the people of Scotland to press for and demand self-government for Scotland with a Parliament in Edinburgh. Politically, Scottish Nationalists are expending great energy and evidencing extraordinary devotion in relation to their cause. They have obtained well nigh two million signatures to the document called the Scottish Covenant, which exhibits their claims and requirements for Scotland; but many of these signatures mean little or nothing by way of real support for this cause. And some irresponsible enthusiasts removed the Stone of Destiny from Westminster Abbey with the avowed intention of having it permanently placed in Scotland; where, centuries ago, it was used in the ceremony of crowning Scottish kings at Scone. The Stone having been again returned to Westminster, there has been great sentimental lamentation after it on the part of a few, who seem to be more perturbed over the loss of this Stone to Scotland than the loss of the pure Gospel and the Sabbath Day to our beloved land. Of course, this movement does not profess to deal with the spiritual, moral and religious needs of our beloved land, which needs are paramount and ought to have priority of consideration from all right-thinking persons. But what strength and devotion men in Scotland can expend for a cause, which is unrelated, in a specific way, to the claims of Christ’s cause and glory in our land. God is not first and Christ’s Kingdom is not the pre-eminent issue. But we need first and foremost that which is infinitely more glorious and desirable than the general principles of Scottish Nationalism.
We need the manifest government of the King of glory, the Lord Jesus Christ, the “Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace” (Isa. ix, 6), of whom it is said, “And the government shall be upon his shoulder” (Isa. ix. 6). His gracious, almighty and all-wise government is needed urgently to bring spiritual order and prosperity out of the confusion and dearth brought upon us by backsliding, unfaithfulness, erroneous doctrine, and irreligion in the Church, and by ungodliness and materialism in the world. We have grieved the King of glory by our sins; so may the people of Scotland be made penitent by the Holy Spirit that they may plead for His return to reign, in us, among us and over us as a people, by His divine power and in His providence.
The self-righteous people of Scotland have need of being taught once more, that there is a Covenant of grace, ordered in all things, and sure, relative to the declared glory of God, as the God of salvation and respecting lost sinners and their salvation. The Covenant of works and the Scottish National Covenant will leave sinners in Scotland under the curse of a broken law, the divine law. In many a Scottish pulpit to-day, and on many a platform, these miserable remedies for our ills are proclaimed; and the people love to have it so. But we need that the Most High would bring us back to the doctrinal teaching of the Apostles, viz., “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first-born among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified” (Rom. viii, 29, 30).
Further, there is need that sinners would be converted and raised up to be humble, devoted and zealous witnesses for Christ, His Crown rights and Kingdom, in our land. This only can be accomplished by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, who as the Spirit of grace, truth and power, raised up pious Reformers, Covenanters and martyrs in days past, who indeed made Scotland what it once was in the estimation of the rest of the world as a Christian land. Carnal and political zeal and propaganda will leave our spiritual and moral decay completely unaffected.
Scotland needs “The stone which the builders refused” (Ps. exviii, 22). This stone is the Lord Jesus Christ, in His person, death, resurrection and mediatorial functions at the right hand of God. Builders in Church and State are guilty of dishonouring and disregarding “the foundation laid in Zion,” Christ the foundation stone of salvation, order and happiness. God’s people do pray that this stone will be once more known and valued among us, in being brought back, so to speak, to Scotland by means of the Gospel of God with the power of the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. And it will be a prosperous day for Scotland when many needy sinners will be enabled by a living faith to build upon Christ; when those in places of civil authority will be concerned to base all their laws and judgments upon His revealed mind; and when all the possible joys of family life will, in multitudes of homes from John o’ Groats to the Borders, be derived from a God-given, saving interest in Christ, the chief corner stone, “chosen of God and precious” (I Peter ii, 4).
The people in Scotland need a heart and external separation from sin, the pleasures of sin, practical atheism, doctrine contrary to the Bible, an empty profession of Christianity, Sabbath desecration, inordinate worldliness, etc.—and separation unto the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and all that it embodies. Separation from England will not separate the people of Scotland from generation and national sins. May the Lord heal the backslidings of Scotland. “I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him” (Hos. xiv, 4), is a precious promise, the fulfilment of which Scotland needs to-day on a national scale.