By the REV. DONALD MACLEAN, Portree.
THE Strathpeffer Convention of 1953 reached a new record in point of numbers and was considered by its supporters to be the most successful ever held. The purpose of this religious Convention is “the deepening of the spiritual life by prayer, by Bible study and united Christian witness.” It is evident that, in the main, the Conference has in view those who are already converted and who are in possession of spiritual life, which appears to need deepening. We must say that we do not like the expression “deepening of spiritual life” as it seems to imply in some way that there is some defect in the life imparted by the Holy Ghost in regeneration, which needs to be deepened by Conventions such as these. Once a sinner has been born again, the life imparted to him can never die. We readily agree that the Lord’s people grow in grace and in the knowledge of their Lord and Saviour but this is not a deepening of the life, but renewed exercises of that life which they came to possess when the Holy Spirit regenerated them. For these exercises they are completely dependent on the same Spirit, who leads them into all truth.
Another danger in conventions such as these arises from the assumption of the speakers, in addressing their audience, to treat their hearers as those who are already in the faith and to ignore the discriminating nature of Divine Truth in separating the precious from the vile. This lack of discrimination is all the more serious when people are gathered from all quarters to a Convention such as this. Unless a sinner is effectually called by the Holy Ghost and united to Christ by faith in that call, he is a complete stranger to the privileges of the child of God and has no saving interest in those promises which are yea and amen in Christ Jesus. Therefore, to address an audience gathered together in this way and to fail to make this distinction clear is to do violence to the Word of God and to be unfaithful to souls. We have not had an opportunity of reading any of the addresses given, as we understand that they are not published, but an article did appear in the Free Church Monthly Record from the pen, we expect, of its editor who was one of the speakers at the Convention. The subject is on Christian Worship, the address being given at one of the morning meetings. Here we meet with that lack of discrimination, for the speaker evidently assumes that all his hearers are worshippers and makes no effort to bring before them that there can be no true worship apart from the new birth and the presence and power of the Holy Ghost. In fact the Holy Ghost is not mentioned at all—a rather strange omission when dealing with such a subject.
While we lack the materials to form a complete conclusion as to the doctrine taught at this Convention we can conclude what kind of “life” needed deepening from the unscriptural practices which abounded. As we would expect, hymns and instrumental music formed a large part of the diets. We are told that “the musical requirements of the Convention were never so fully met as on this occasion. Rev. John Macbeath, of Inverness, showed himself a competent and spirited conductor,” etc. It is to be hoped that this reverend gentleman will have his eyes opened to learn that “bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having the promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come.” We commend to him the study of true godliness and it will save him from such exhibitions as a musical conductor. We have already mentioned that Professor Finlayson of the Free Church was a speaker at this Convention. We are also told that the evening meetings were under the “able chairmanship of the Rev. D. Leitch,” who is Free Church minister of Dingwall. These two men are not youths who have recently appeared from the portals of the Free Church College and might be carried away by untutored zeal to mingle with such an affair. On the contrary, they are men whom the Free Church delight to honour. One is the Professor of Theology, the other is the Moderator-elect for 1954. We do not know if there were other Free Church ministers at the Convention, but we do know from reports in the press that at a Youth Rally broadcast on a Sabbath night, the “hymns were announced by a Free Church minister, and every one, including ministers of the Free Church joined to sing them to the accompaniment of organ music.” A letter was written to the paper congratulating the Free Church on this departure. The writer signed himself as “Exile”—a singularly appropriate name, for only one with a Babylonish spirit would hasten to congratulate men on what is, in our opinion, a breach of their ordination vows. It is only too evident that these Free Church ministers were thoroughly at home amidst these unscriptural practices.
Perhaps the most extraordinary thing at this Convention was a commemoration of the Lord’s Supper which took place on the Thursday. We are told that the service was conducted by a minister of the Church of Scotland while the elements were distributed by an elder of the Church of Scotland, an elder of the Free Church, a deacon of the Baptist Church, and a leader of the Plymouth Brethren. This disappearance of “all barriers of sect and denomination” is doubtless meant to be an evidence of the deepening of spiritual life and, when we come to examine the principles professed by these people during the rest of the year, we are met with confusion leading us to conclude that they are not really serious in their profession. For instance, the Free Church elder belongs to a Church which has its existence as a separate body because it is in a state of protest against the present Church of Scotland, while the Baptist, acting on his principles, would ordinarily exclude the officiating minister and the two elders from the Lord’s Supper because they were not “immersed believers.” The Plymouth Brother, while agreeing with his Baptist friend, would take a step further as he does not admit the need of a ministry in the sense that we do. All these principles are now thrown overboard for the sake of a mere outward unity, for the following week these people would all be back at their various denominations contending earnestly for the very points they set aside at this Convention. The Free Church elder will return to his Church with its form of worship, etc., and may, for all we know, belong to the noisy minority in that body who are for ever speaking about that ecclesiastical mirage called the “Free Church Testimony.” The Baptist and Plymouth Brother likewise will be setting forth the distinctive tenets they abandoned at Strathpeffer as part of their testimony! It seems a pity that men, by their conduct, should pillory themselves in the public gaze as lacking in religious principle and consistency, but to act in the foregoing manner is to go contrary to the elementary promptings of common sense. Rev. W. Craig, Fortrose, addressing his Presbytery in the Church of Scotland, referred to the Convention in the following terms: “It had been blessed with a wave of spiritual power, the borders of which no man could calculate. The power of God had been manifestly present.” Referring to the commemoration of the Lord’s Supper already referred to, he gives us one of the fruits of this power. “No one knew or cared who was distributing the elements because the motto was ‘All one in Christ Jesus.'” We would solemnly remind this minister that there is One who does know and who does care who take to do with His ordinances. In connection with this very ordinance He has issued the most solemn warning through His holy Word, “Wherefore whosoever shall eat of this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body” (I Cor. ii. 27-29).
We would further suggest that one should reserve their utterances about the power of God until they had some real experience of its blessed influence. Should that day ever come in the experience of some they will realise and appreciate the authority of Divine Truth and in our opinion that will lead them out of the Church of Scotland and cause them to turn their back upon the sentimentalism of Strathpeffer.
These strange happenings are symptomatic of the worthlessness of the modern religion. This applies not only to that section commonly called “Modernistic” but also in large measure to that usually termed “Evangelistic.” Let our readers ever remember that the word “Evangelistic” is used to cover both Calvinistic and Arminian teaching. Because a man is described as an “evangelical” that does not mean for a moment that he is necessarily a Calvinist preaching the glorious gospel of the blessed God. On the contrary, a perusal of religious literature makes it abundantly plain that the majority of “evangelicals” are Arminian in their teaching. This is not the place to discourse on the deceitful errors of Arminianism. It will suffice to say at present that the Arminian teaches that Christ died for all men in the same sense and that His death does not actually save anybody in particular but makes the salvation of all men possible. He teaches, not that man is completely dead in sin and unable to do anything to save himself or to prepare himself for salvation, but rather that man has power to co-operate with common grace and that which alone distinguishes the believer from others is his own use of grace. It is obvious that the faith inculcated by such teaching is a faith that rests in the power of man to exercise upon a Saviour who, he believes, died for all men. It is essentially a man-made religion and like all the works of men will be of no avail at the last, however loud-sounding the profession at the present time.
We take the opportunity also of warning our people against the attending of services held by travelling evangelists where unscriptural practices are given a place. Added to the usual hymns and instrumental music, there is a practice which we disapprove, only too common at such meetings. We refer to the custom of asking new “converts” to give their testimony. These people, mostly young, moved by a zeal without knowledge give a public account of their “conversion” which, on some occasions, causes quite an impression. After a lapse of time it only too often happens that these very people go back to the world to the disgrace of religion and the delight of those who blaspheme. This is a serious evil and should not be countenanced.
Our times are rendered specially dangerous because they are times of apostacy and declension. The darkness, like that of Egypt, can be felt, and as the Lord is taking away His witnesses one by one, the darkness gets more intense, and those who do not feel it thus are sadly in need of an awakening. Never at any time was it more necessary for those who desire to follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth to take the Word of God as a light to their feet and a lamp to their path with regard to doctrine, worship and practice. Never was it more necessary to keep clear the line of demarcation between the Church and the World, and between that religion which is a fruit of Christ’s death and the operation of the Holy Ghost, and that which is the product of man’s devising. We earnestly commend to our people the close study of the Word of God and a constant application to the Throne of Mercy for grace to keep them in this cloudy and dark day. “O Lord my God, consider well, and answer to me make; mine eyes enlighten, lest the sleep of death me overtake” (Ps. xiii. 3).