Preached in St. Jude’s Church, Glasgow, 19th May, 1953,
by the REV. WM. MACLEAN, M.A., Ness.
THE Church—the true spouse of Christ—is here addressing the daughters of Jerusalem. Throughout the Song she manifests her solicitude in their spiritual welfare. In verse 2 she tells them to go forth to behold King Solomon. It is a mark on the true Church of Christ that she would have sinners espoused to Christ. “The spirit and the bride say, Come, and let him that heareth say, Come, and let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely.”
The Church is here directing the attention of the daughters of Jerusalem to Solomon’s bed, and what the Holy Spirit is here saying through the Church to the daughters of Jerusalem, He is saying it to every one that hath ears to hear. It is evident that a greater than Solomon is here. We may notice
(i) Some respects in which Solomon is a type of Christ;
(ii) Solomon’s bed to which our attention is here especially directed;
(iii) That there is this true of Solomon’s bed, that three-score men are about it, of the valiant of Israel, in order to guard it against the fear or danger of the night.
(i) Solomon was in several respects a type of Christ.
We find Christ in upbraiding the Jews because of their rejection of Him, solemnly declaring, “The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation, and condemn them: for she came from the utmost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here” (Luke xi. 31).
Solomon was noted for his wisdom. “He spake three thousand proverbs: and his songs were a thousand and five.” But never man spoke like the New Testament Solomon, the Lord Jesus Christ. Solomon had nought wherein to glory. What he had of wisdom that he received. In Christ all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hid. The preaching of Christ crucified is said to be the power and wisdom of God. And as there came of all people to hear the wisdom of Solomon, from all the kings of the earth, so the preaching of Christ crucified, the power and the wisdom of God draws sinners in all ages and lands to Christ. “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me.”
We find Christ in the Sermon on the Mount saying, “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.” Great and magnificent as was the glory of Solomon, it was but for a time and a glory that passed away. But “the glory of the mighty Lord continue shall for ever: the Lord Jehovah shall rejoice in all His works together.” The glory of Solomon’s reign and of Solomon’s temple was typical, we believe, of the latter-day glory, when the Lord shall appear in His glory—in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power, to raise up the Tabernacle of David that is fallen, when He will raise up its ruins and build it as in the days of old. The New Testament Solomon is to have dominion from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth. The Church therefore in every age pleads for the fulfilment of this promise to her King and Head in the words of David, “The whole earth let His glory fill, Amen, so let it be.” Psalm 72 brings before us the kingdom and reign of Him who is greater than Solomon. The subjects of His kingdom are an afflicted and poor people and who put their trust in the name of the Lord. In all their afflictions their King was afflicted. The Holy Spirit therefore testifies concerning Him for the comfort of His tried and afflicted heritage. “He shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him that hath no helper. He shall spare the poor and needy, and shall save the souls of the needy. He shall redeem their soul from deceit and violence: and precious shall their blood be in His sight” (Psalm lxxii. 12-14).
Solomon means “peaceable.” The New Testament Solomon is the Prince of Peace—the One who made peace by the blood of His Cross and who on the ground of the atonement which He made invites labouring and heavy-laden sinners unto Him. “Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.” “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”
(ii) Solomon had a bed or couch where he rested.
Christ the New Testament Solomon has a bed in which He rests. When He finished the work of redemption given Him by the Father He entered into His rest. He rests as the God-man in the glory which He had with the Father before the world was. This was the joy that was set before Him. He has rest now from the shame and the sorrow and the grief and the agony which He had in working out redemption for His people. He rests in the love of the Father. He rests in the will of the Father. To do the will of the Father was His meat and His drink while in this world. And at the right hand He is now executing as Mediator, as He ever was and shall be, the will of the Father—God’s eternal decrees, in providence and in grace. When He saw highly-favoured Capernaum ripening for hell, and the wise and the prudent rejecting His claims the prospect gave Him grief but in the will of the Father He found rest. “I thank Thee, O Father,” He said, “Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father; for so it seemed good in Thy sight.”
It is evident that the bed here referred to is in this world. No enemy can disturb the rest which He has in heaven. There is no danger there, for in heaven there is no night. We may notice the bed or places of rest which Christ has in this world. “Thus saith the Lord, the heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool: where is the house that ye build unto Me? and where is the place of My rest?” He Himself gives the answer where the place of His rest is. “To this man will I look,” He says, “even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit and trembleth at My word.” There is no resting place for the Lord of Glory in the unregenerate heart. In the praises and graces of the new creation in the souls of His people He rests. “Thou art holy Thou that dost inhabit Israel’s praise.” He rests in His Cause in the world. “For God of Zion hath made choice; there He desires to dwell. This is My rest, here still I’ll stay; for I do like it well.” Moses was told to do all things in accordance with the pattern shown him in the Mount. God would not dwell between the cherubim above the mercy-seat in the Holy of Holies, unless that was done. It was when the worship of the Temple was corrupted and there was a departure in the Old Testament Church from the pattern shown them as to doctrine and mode of worship that Ezekiel saw the glory of the God Israel depart from the Temple. He left the place of His rest in the way of judgment and chastisement. By Solomon’s bed we are to understand especially the Cause of Christ in the world.
(iii) Solomon’s bed was defended by three-score of the valiant of Israel.
(Sixty valiant men very probably formed Solomon’s personal bodyguard.)
The defending and the upholding of the Cause of Christ was the work to which the valiant in Israel in every age and generation were called to. Moses, Joshua, David, Solomon, the prophets, the apostles, the martyrs, are all the Lord’s servants set for the defence of the Gospel were of the valiant of Israel. What a valiant watchman the apostle Paul was! At the close of his life he could say, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but unto all them also that love His appearing.”
They are said to be of the valiant of Israel. It is written, “They are not all Israel which be of Israel,” but the valiant of Israel are Israelites indeed in whom there is no guile, Israelites who have the circumcision that is of the heart and in the spirit and not in the letter. They are the circumcision who worship God in the spirit, who rejoice in Christ Jesus and who have no confidence in the flesh. “They all hold swords.” As their being of Israel indicates their call by grace, their holding swords we may take to indicate their call to the ministry. It was Solomon who chose the men who would be his bodyguard, and who provided them with swords. It is the Lord who calls men by His grace and who calls men to be watchmen on the walls of His Zion. “No man taketh this honour unto himself, but he that is called of God as was Aaron.” We may say that the sword which the Lord gives to His sent ambassadors is the grace to preach the Word. “Unto me,” said the apostle, “who am less than the least of all saints is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.”
They are said to be “expert in war.” They have been trained and disciplined to know experimentally the hardships of the spiritual warfare in which they are engaged—the trials, and conflicts and temptations and desertions, the sorrows and the griefs which in a peculiar way are the portion of the sons of Levi. “And He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; and He shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.” These hardships which they are called upon to endure as good soldiers of Jesus Christ are divinely directed to make them sit loose to the things of this world, and in some measure to enable them to determine to know nothing but Christ and Him crucified. The words, “Every man hath his sword upon his thigh” would seem to indicate this—that their main concern is to be found faithful to the Cause entrusted to them. “Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.”
They are thus armed and trained to guard and defend Solomon’s bed because of fear in the night—against the counsels, designs and onslaughts of the powers of darkness. “We wrestle not,” said the apostle, “against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” Time would fail to enumerate the attacks from the days of the apostles to the present day which have been, and are being made against Solomon’s bed. The heresies which through the centuries disturbed the peace of the Church were of the night. The world-wide totalitarian systems of Romanism and Communism are of the night. In our own land enemy Number One is the Roman Anti-Christ, that man of sin and son of perdition that exalteth himself in the Church against Christ and all that is called God, whom the Lord hath promised to consume with the spirit of His mouth and to destroy with the brightness of His coming. The Papacy is the great Harlot of the Revelation “Drunken with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.” “Therefore,” we read, “shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire; for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her” (Rev. xviii. 8). The region of diverse “isms” which plague the land—Arminianism, Voluntaryism, Modernism, Spiritualism, Russellism, etc., etc., issue from the pit, and have as their ultimate aim the overthrow of Solomon’s bed, and the deluding of precious souls for eternity. The Declaratory Act legalising the evils of Voluntaryism, Arminianism, Modernism, and an un-Scriptural mode of worship was of the night. By an overwhelming majority it was passed in the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland in 1892. At the Assembly in 1893 all efforts to have the Act rescinded were overwhelmingly crushed. It was then that the Rev. Donald MacFarlane made his famous protest, by which he separated himself from the Declaratory Act Church and conserved the creed and constitution of the Free Church in the year 1843. “Discipline (in the Free Church) was completely a thing of the past, especially in her General Assemblies. Libel after libel was brought to the Assembly against several of her professors, but all in vain. The great mental powers of Dr. Rainy were used to shield these professors from the discipline which the circumstances required; but nothing could be done to purge heresy out of colleges and pulpits. This was the Church from which the Rev. Donald MacFarlane separated in 1893, in order to get behind all the innovations brought into her till he would reach the old foundations of 1843. This is what was done by the Free Presbyterian Church.”*
We may now notice some of the efforts made for the overthrow of Solomon’s bed in our midst as a branch of the visible Church.
(1) However well-intentioned the efforts which were made to consummate a union between our Church and the present Free Church, and however godly some of those were who sponsored these efforts, we believe that such efforts were not of the Lord. “We believe,” said the late Rev. Donald MacFarlane in a sermon which he preached on Sabbath, 17th March, 1918, on ‘Forsaking all for the sake of Christ and His Gospel’ and which was published in pamphlet form, “that Satan is at the root of the movement for Union. Some may say—If so, how could some of the greatest ministers in our Church be doing the work of the evil one? In answer to this, I mention what a man of God said, He said that when Satan goes out for a ride he takes the best horse he can get. Aaron was a great man of God, but he took a prominent part in making the golden calf. Satan took him as his horse to ride upon when he made the people begin idolatry.” These efforts failed in their purpose. The following are further extracts from Mr. MacFarlane’s sermon: “When errors were coming to a height in the Free Church, Dr. Aird of Crirch, said that the cause of the Disruption in 1843 was small as compared with the cause we have now to separate from the so-called Free Church. It was only one doctrine that was denied in 1843, but now all the fundamental doctrines of the Bible were either ignored or denied; but when the trial came, Dr. Aird remained in the Church which he so strongly condemned.” Further on Mr. MacFarlane says, “All the Unions that have taken place in our day have been for the worse, and should be a warning to us.”
* History of the Free Presbyterian Church (p. 109).
(a) About the year 1928 efforts were made to grant privileges contrary to the view of the Church to persons who travelled by trains, buses or cars run in systematic disregard of the Lord’s Day. In his Lecture on the Sabbath, the late Rev. Neil Cameron, Glasgow, writes, “The thin edge of the wedge is being driven into the Free Presbyterian Church so as to split it on this question. It is well-known that a thin wedge will not split a log; but a thick one may do it. Every man and women who add to the wedge their support are doing what they can to split the Church. I appeal to all concerned to consider seriously as in the presence of God whether they desire to open the flood-gates of Sabbath desecration into our Church. All who are determined to have the laxity claimed can easily find Churches in Scotland or elsewhere in which they may have it to their heart’s content.” He also states, “We consider also that such men as use their cars for hire on week-days, but who do not go out for hire on the Lord’s Day, may if they like, charge for the oil consumed and tear and wear of the car on the journey, but we cannot agree to their charging any other fare for passengers on God’s holy day.” “Should any Kirk Session,” he adds, “allow their people to travel by such God dishonouring means to Church or otherwise on the Lord’s Day, and extend to them the privileges of the Church, the Presbytery is bound to restrain it within their gates, that is, within their bounds. They have full powers to bring such a Session to an account, and to deal with recalcitrants in accordance with the law of the Church, even to the length of deposition. Every individual who may feel aggrieved by the decisions of Kirk Session or Presbytery can appeal to the Synod for final decision. This is as it should be, in order to deal justly, in accordance with God’s Word and the law of the Church in every case.”
(3) In recent years certain in the Church began to question the ecclesiastical significance of a protest as held by the Church. However complex the issues of the controversy out of which the question of protest arose, those questioning the Church’s view denied that the Rev. D. MacFarlane by his protest effected his separation from the Free Church. Mr. MacFarlane himself held that he separated by his protest. He made that clear to the late Archibald Crawford that after he protested he was done with the Free Church. The Rev. Neil McIntyre in his defence of the Church’s view of protest states that he was present in the Assembly when Mr. MacFarlane protested.
“When Mr. MacFarlane left the Assembly Mr. MacIntyre invited him to go to Glasgow with him, and this Mr. MacFarlane did. When they arrived in Glasgow there were waiting for them there Messrs. Neil Cameron, Alex. MacRae, D. Beaton and others. Mr. MacFarlane informed them that he had tabled his protest and thereby had separated from the Declaratory Act and partly for all time.” Mr. MacIntyre then accompanied Mr. MacFarlane to Tighnabruaich. They were met by Mr. Archibald Crawford. When Mr. Crawford heard of Mr. MacFarlane’s stand, he uncovered his head and in an audible voice thanked the Most High for the stand His servant had made in defence of His Truth and prayed that Mr. MacFarlane might be strengthened by His grace for the solemn duties then confronting him.”*1.
The Rev. Neil Cameron in his lecture on New Year’s Day, 1926, says, “So, at that Assembly, immediately after the result of the vote was declared, the Rev. Donald MacFarlane rose and read his protest, which he left on the table of the Assembly. Thus a separation was constitutionally made.”*2 Separation by protest according to Mr. Cameron is constitutional separation. That was the view held by the Church for 50 years prior to the controversy and which she still holds. Those who maintain that Mr. MacFarlane did not separate himself by his protest do not belong to the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland, neither can they be in communion with her until they have submitted to her jurisdiction and authority which they have renounced. “The Synod of November, 1942, at Glasgow, devoted much time in public to the matter of protest, and to views held by the Church thereon since 1893. Rev. D. Beaton, Oban, read a paper on the subject in which he stated: ‘It is the purpose of what is now to be presented to you, to show that it was the firmly held view among us that Mr. MacFarlane’s protest of 1893 did effectively separate him from the Declaratory Act Free Church.’ This paper is to be found in the Free Presbyterian Magazine, February, 1943. Other members of Synod also spoke in corroboration of the Rev. D. Beaton’s paper, and at the conclusion of the proceedings not one member of Synod, minister or elder, made a dissentient speech or counter-motion to any part of the proceedings anent the subject of protest.* A tribute surely to the recognised eminence of Mr. Beaton as one of the leading authorities in Church History in Scotland to-day. The Church’s view of protest was and is, that a protest may be used as a legal instrument in its own time and place, and effects separation de facto, de forma and de jure.
*1 Free Presbyterian Magazine (Vol. xlvi. p. 113).
*2 Memoir (p. 175).
* Synod Statement (page 1).
(4) The Free Presbyterian Church has met with her full share of bitter opposition and ridicule because of her stand against Freemasonry and dancing. Both are “of the night,” and all countenancing these works of darkness are debarred from Church privileges until they have severed their connection absolutely with the same.
The question of old was put. “Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?” The watchman said, “The morning cometh and also the night: if ye will enquire, enquire ye; return, come” (Isaiah xx. 11, 12). It is now night with the Cause of Christ in the world. But the morning cometh. The Lord will arise in His appointed time to have mercy on His Zion, and to plead the Cause which is His own. The daughter of Zion is now left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city. But she shall yet hear the joyful sound when the spirit is poured from on high, “Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon Thee.” May it be ours in an age characterised by lawlessness and rebellion against constituted authority to keep in the strength of grace the Word of His patience as to doctrine, discipline and purity of worship, and when on every hand efforts are being put forth to remove the ancient landmarks, to give the more earnest heed to the exhortation which says, “Hold fast that which thou hast that no man take thy crown.”—(Some extracts have been added to the sermon as originally delivered. W. M.)