THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND ASSEMBLY.
The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland met, as appointed, on Tuesday, the 22nd day of May, in Edinburgh. Admiral-of-the-Fleet Viscount Cunningham’s place as Lord High Commissioner was taken by Mr. George Mathers, M.P., owing to the Admiral’s illness. Mr. Mathers read the Admiral’s opening address, which urged Christian people to work for the unity and concord of broken and divided Christianity. This may seem a desirable aim, but we have no hesitation in stating that divisions in the Church in Scotland have been occasioned by those who from time to time have departed from the Word of God. Unity must be based on a common acceptance of the Word of God and its infallible teaching. The Rev. Dr. W. White Anderson, of St. Cuthbert’s Church, Edinburgh, was nominated as Moderator of Assembly. He is not as well known to the general public as some of his immediate predecessors.
The King’s Letter.
This letter affirmed His Majesty’s interest in the Church of Scotland and his resolve to maintain her historic rights and liberties. The letter stated, “Never have we stood in greater need of the support which Christian doctrine alone can give or of the consciousness of personal obligation which is the mark . . . of the Christian character.” The Christian doctrine and character to which the King referred must be derived from and consistent with the unerring Word of God, ‘if to be profitable to the souls of men and God honouring. Much false doctrine is propagated to-day, giving rise to a harvest of nominal professors of Christianity without much regard to true Christian character.
Lapsed Members.
Rev. C. A. Smith, St. David’s, Edinburgh, pointed out that 23,000 people had lapsed from the membership of the Church during 1950. He considered this figure appalling and blamed principally a lack of pastoral supervision for this state of affairs. As the majority of adult persons intimately connected with the Church of Scotland are members in full communion, it seems that 23,000 such persons in 1950 have turned their back on the Church of Scotland to live an irreligious life or to join some other religious organisation, or to live as professing Christians without a Church connection. If these persons were truly converted and were having the pure Gospel of Christ preached to them, there would be no valid reason for such a number of members lapsing from the Church. There is something wrong somewhere.
Anxiety over Finance.
The General Finance Committee regarded the future with “acute anxiety.” Congregations were faced with local demands upon their finances and were not supporting the Schemes of the Church as required. Each member would need to contribute 10/- during 1951 to uphold the Schemes of the Church. It was said that one third of their members were giving nothing. This surely is evidence of lack of grace and attachment to what they profess to believe is a Christian Church.
Episcopal Responses.
By 108 votes to 106 the Assembly rejected a petition by Mr. Allan Barns-Graham of Lymekilns, and others, which alleged that the pamphlet, “Order for the Celebrations of the Lord’s Supper,” issued in 1940, wrongly encourages the use of Episcopal responses, contrary to the law of the Church as laid down in the Directory for the public worship of God. The petitioners stated that they were determined to oppose union with Episcopacy and all who desire the altar of Episcopacy in place of the Communion Table. These petitioners had a similar matter up at last Assembly, but are not meeting with success. And if we know anything of the steady, stealthy tendency towards Episcopacy in the Church of Scotland to-day, they will find increasing practices of an Anglican nature to oppose in the immediate future.
Revision of Metrical Psalms.
An Overture from the Presbytery of Glasgow asked that the matter of revision of the Metrical Psalms be referred to the Committee on Public Worship. This was agreed to by the Assembly. The Rev. Dr. W. J. Baxter said that there were whole tracts of the Psalms being neglected because they were no longer suitable for public worship. This, he seemed to assert on the ground of changes in literary taste. People, he said, were no longer content to sing, “na-a-shon” for “nation,” etc. It remains to be seen whether Dr. Baxter and his up-to-date literary companions can improve on the present wording of the Metrical Psalms, or whether there is some underlying motive for this procedure.
Field-Marshall Slim and Chaplains.
This eminent soldier addressed the Assembly, and we make two pointed quotations from his address:—”The chaplain must feel . . . not the arrogant idea that ‘God is on our side,’ that we had enlisted the Almighty . . . but that we fought in all humbleness on God’s side.” “Our problem is too often to teach a boy in 18 months what his parents have failed to teach him in 18 years.” These statements are significant and need no comment.
Iona Community.
The Assembly approved of an agreed scheme for integrating the Rev. Dr. George MacLeod’s Iona Community within the framework of the Church of Scotland. After all the further discussion on this matter, we are still at a loss to understand the real nature of this community and the need that any organised Christian Church has of this peculiar organisation within its borders. Dr. MacLeod has at last gained his point. What advantage the cause of Christ in Scotland will derive from re-building old historic Church buildings, is beyond our comprehension. This type of work is given a prominent place in the Community’s activities.
The Divorce Question.
This question came back to the Assembly from Presbyteries, and the matter of the re-marriage by the Church of divorced persons (guilty parties on a profession of penitence) was again held up by the fact that most of the Presbyteries had not considered the theological aspects. It was agreed that the Presbyteries further consider the doctrinal position. It appears from what has been stated that the Church of Scotland leaders are prepared to perform the marriage of guilty divorced persons on a profession of penitence, in approved cases. But what of the Word of God and its teaching; and the distress and suffering of the innocent party?
Dr. Garbett on Church Unity.
The Archbishop of York (Dr. Cyril Garbett), speaking of Church unity at the Assembly, described the report recently published about the relations between the Church of Scotland and the Church of England as “a hopeful sign of the way in which we are gradually coming together.” We may be wrong, but it is our present opinion, that all the real and fundamental sacrifices will have to be made by the professed Presbyterian Church of Scotland, if even a measure of unity is to be attained between these two national Churches. Episcopacy is working for the ascendency; and the Church of Scotland has already begun to embrace Anglican practices.
Ministers’ Salaries.
The minimum stipend of £450 was stated by Rev. Principal John Baillie to be inadequate as a living wage for ministers. But the Church was not able to pay the £500 to ministers which it hoped to do this year. He wondered whether a group of elders of the Church would take the initiative to launch some scheme. We have no hesitation in stating that the Church of Scotland has originated and encouraged throughout its many congregations, schemes of a worldly character which bear no relation to the work of the Gospel, and for which large sums of money are gathered from the people annually. Thus the Sustentation Fund suffers.
The Doctrine of the Just War.
The Assembly, after discussion upon the Report of a Special Commission, found no reason to depart from the received teaching that Christians might lawfully wage war upon just and necessary occasions. This of course is in accordance with the Confession of Faith, Chapter XXIII, Section II, and is based on New Testament Scriptures. The late Rev. Robert Shaw, D.D., in his exposition of the above Section II, states: “It may be generally stated, that aggressive wars, or such as are undertaken to gratify views of ambition or worldly aggrandisement, cannot be justified; but that defensive wars, or those which, as to the first occasion of them, are defensive, though in their progress they must often be offensive, are lawful.”
The Stone of Destiny.
The Report on Church and Nation referred to the much publicised Stone of Destiny, now returned to Westminster Abbey. The Assembly expected a big debate on this matter and so did Scottish Nationalists, inside and outside the Church of Scotland. But a motion by Rev. George Sutherland, Belhaven, Glasgow, “swept” the Stone from the Report and from the floor of the Assembly as far as any formal discussion or decision was concerned. Rev. R. P. Fairlie, Dumfries, in seconding, cast proper light upon the whole question, in a single sentence: “The Church of Scotland is concerned with bringing to the people the Bread of Life and not offering them a stone.” The motion carried.
Moderator’s Closing Address.
The subject Dr. White Anderson chose was “This Present World.” He said that the Church did not exist in isolation. She was in the world, though not of the world. There was tension between the Church and the world: they were set over against each other. These statements read well and are applicable to the true, spiritual and faithful followers of Christ. But Dr. Anderson is Moderator of a branch of the visible Church of Christ, which is permeated with worldly ministers, office-bearers and members, and full of worldly doctrines and practices. The present situation is a disgrace to Christianity. There is little or no tension between the Church of Scotland to-day and the world within her borders and the Churchless masses. The Church of Scotland, in the personal practice of most of its members in full communion, goes hand in hand with all the vain and worldly activities and practices of the day. Truly their people draw nigh to God with their lips, but their hearts are far from Him. There is much Christian profession, but little piety in the practice of Scotland’s National Church; and that is what the Moderator would have done well to tell the Assembly.
FREE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND ASSEMBLY.
The General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland met on 22nd May, 1951, in the Free Assembly Hall, Edinburgh. Rev. Murdoch MacRae, minister at Kinloch, Lewis, was appointed the new Moderator.
Moderator’s Address.
In his address to the Assembly, Mr. MacRae outlined the grave international situation, and referred to a revived paganism in the form of the rejection by large sections of the professing Christian Church of the fundamental doctrines of Christianity, “Wickedness, lawlessness and worldliness had not decreased,” he said; “and there was no real evidence of a return to God. The remedy was revealed in the Gospel.”
Pagan Youth.
Presenting the Report of the Welfare of Youth Committee, Rev. H. G. MacKay said that many day-school teachers were doing excellent work and in many cases were providing the only religious instruction that a large number of children received. Pagan youth was a problem of to-day. We entirely agree; but pagan parents and homes without the Bible are largely responsible. Parents will have to give an account to God for their part in creating this terrible state of matters among the young.
Public Questions.
The Report of the Committee on Public Questions called for a renewal of the demand for the recall of the British Envoy to the Vatican. Rev. E. MacRury, Dundee, in presenting this Report, said that the assaults made on the sanctity of the Lord’s Day were various. “It was a fact that many people did not know what was meant by a right observance of that Day,” he said. We wonder if Mr. MacRury finds in his own Church official reluctance to forbid office-bearers and members from travelling in street cars, trains and buses, run in systematic disregard of the Lord’s Day. Does Mr. MacRury approve of Free Church ministers attending Remembrance Day services at War Memorials on the Lord’s Day?
Delegates from other Churches.
Among delegates who addressed the Assembly was Dr. Carl McIntyre, President of the International Council of Christian Churches, a minister from America who, along with his organisation, is faithfully and vigorously opposed to the modernistic and dangerous World Council of Churches. It will be interesting to learn if Dr. McIntyre had anything to say to the Assembly by way of exposing the World Council of Churches. Professors MacKenzie and Renwick, at a later meeting, expressed views in relation to this modernistic Council which we know could not possibly be acceptable to Dr. McIntyre.
Discussion on World Council of Churches.
Considerable controversy arose in the Assembly when the Assembly’s attitude to the World Council of Churches was under discussion. The Committee on Assembly Arrangements proposed that the General Assembly confirm its policy of non-affiliation with the World Council of Churches and resolve to receive no delegates directly representative of the World Council of Churches unless in special circumstances. An amendment proposed that the Assembly receive no delegates representative of the World Council of Churches, nor delegates from Churches represented on that Council, except such delegates as are known to be out of sympathy with their Church’s attitude to that body. Rev. K. J. MacLeay, Beauly, described part of the Committee’s proposals as “locking the front door and windows but leaving a small scullery window open for intruders.” Rev. Prof. D. MacKenzie objected to the amendment and stated that he was going to say a shocking thing. “What,” he said, “if we had to go sometime and pay a visit to the Pope? Some good reformers have had to do it because of the circumstances in which they lived, and it might be that we might have to send someone to discuss matters even with the Pope.” Laughter arose in the Assembly at this observation. But Professor MacKenzie said he was not joking and proceeded to outline his argument against the amendment, an argument which we shall not trouble to repeat here. His argument was built upon “if” throughout, in order to prevent the door of the Free Church from being altogether closed against the World Council of Churches. Recently this World Council of Churches was described in the Churchman’s Magazine as “radically modernistic, anti-Biblical, anti-evangelical and un-Protestant, and it invited the Papal System to participate in its sessions.” Further, Dr. Shields, of Toronto, stated in The Gospel Witness, 2nd November, 1950, “The greater part of the leaders of the World Council of Churches do not believe the Bible, and they say so.” Rev. W. MacLeod, Dornoch, Assembly Clerk, said in support of Professor MacKenzie, that he was not so sure the Professor’s vision was so very far out. Professor Renwick, as we might expect, spoke in support of Professor MacKenzie’s point of view, and trotted out a former excuse for welcoming unsound delegates, that of courtesy. He said, “When a delegate came to the Assembly from another Church, all it meant was that he was paying a visit of courtesy.” The Rev. J. Morrison, Strath, spoke more like a man with spiritual discernment and a sense of the danger of giving any place to the devil as an angel of light. He said, “The Word of God expressly declared that there could not be any fellowship between light (Gospel) and darkness. There could be no fellowship between belief and unbelief, or between the authority of the Word of God and that of a body which sought to overthrow the Word of God and all it stood for.” Mr. Morrison, in our view, expressed the genuine and consistent Christian viewpoint. Yet when the original deliverance and Mr. MacLeay’s amendment were voted upon, Mr. MacLeay’s amendment was defeated by 27 votes to 23. Only four members of the Assembly recorded their dissent; which in Church legal procedure keeps the conscience clean and clear from any responsibility for the decision dissented against. And so Professors MacKenzie and Renwick and their majority of followers win the day in the Free Church Assembly for a point of view in relation to other organisations, including the infamous World Council of Churches, which contradicts and belies publicly, the constant and ostentatious profession by the Free Church and her Professors, of loyalty to Christ, the Word of God and Calvinism. How tired we are getting of lectures and speeches on adherence to and the revival of Calvinism! The fact of the matter is that the Free Church to-day is almost divided into two bands, viz., one with a modern trend and the other evangelical, as far as a witness on the side of God’s Word and the practice which is according to godliness, is concerned. In our opinion, there are ministers and laymen in the Free Church who, in most respects, would be equally at home in the Church of Scotland.
Psalm Singing.
Rev. M. Macphail submitted the Report of the Psalmody Committee. Congregational singing was suffering, he said, from the general lack of spiritual vitality, just as the preaching of the Gospel was hindered for the same reason. Mr. A. F. MacLennan, Edinburgh, declared that they should do all that was possible to make their rendering of their worship by praise attractive. “The lack of spiritual vitality” to-day is indeed at the root of widespread cold formality in the public worship of God with respect to praise, preaching and prayer. Although we do not disparage for a moment correct congregational singing from the musical point of view, yet the singing of the Psalms of David which is sweet to the ear of the spiritually minded and comely in God’s estimation, is not always that which satisfies the musical judgment of the natural man. We may aim at attractive, harmonious, singing in the house of God, which is pleasing to man and devoid of spirituality and the gracious spirit of praise before the Most High.
Need for Revival.
This was the subject of the closing address by Rev. Murdoch MacRae, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland. He said, the days foretold in Scripture are upon us, when men will not endure sound doctrine. The line of demarcation between the Church of God and the world should be deep and clearly visible. Scotland needs a genuine revival of true religion. In this day of spiritual declension, he said, surely there is only one remedy, the down-pouring of the Holy Spirit. We would add that spiritual declension has come in to large sections of the visible Church in Scotland to-day because not only do sinners refuse to hear sound doctrine, but ministers refrain from preaching sound doctrine. What some actually preach is sound doctrine; but the curse to-day is that these same men do not teach the whole range of fundamental sound doctrine. Pre-destination, the new birth and everlasting punishment, for example, are relegated to the background.