By REV. A. BEATON, Gairloch.
Our readers will remember that the 1954 Synod of the Original Secession Church appointed a “special committee” to “explore the situation, obtain information, and pass it on for the guidance of Presbyteries, Sessions, and congregations” with a view to union with the present Church of Scotland. A report on the work of this committee was given at their last Synod (1955).
To quote from the Original Secession Magazine will give a clearer view of how matters stand to our readers: “The Clerk then read returns which have been received from congregations, Kirk Sessions and Presbyteries, which showed a total of 792 members of the Church voting in favour of negotiating with the Church of Scotland with a view to accession; 196 members were against the proposal. Nine Kirk Sessions were in favour, three against, and one session equally divided. The Northern Presbytery showed a majority of one in favour, and the Southern Presbytery were unanimously in favour of the proposal.
“An afternoon sederunt was held to discuss this important matter. After a preliminary statement the Rev. R. L. Findlater, Synod Clerk, made the following motion:—’That this Synod, in view of the acceptance of the special committee’s report on overtures by an overwhelming
majority of the members of the Church, Kirk Sessions and Presbyteries, now proceed to take steps to accede to the Church of Scotland and appoint a committee to negotiate with an appropriate committee of the Church of Scotland.’ This was seconded by Mr. R. A. Bissland, Paisley, and after a full and friendly discussion the motion was approved.
“The Synod then proceeded to appoint a committee to negotiate with the Inter-Church Relations Committee of the Church of Scotland, when the following were appointed:—The Revs. R. L. Findlater, John Dickson, David Walker, J. R. Moffett, William MacKane, Robert Cullen and J. H. Beggs (ministers), with Messrs. Forrest, S. Anderson, R. A. Bissland, Robert T. Brodie, David C. Hagan, Archibald Wood, J. Allan Morton, and Thomas Matthew (office-bearers). Mr. Thomas Matthew, who was appointed in his absence, later declined to act. The Rev. R. L. Findlater, Synod Clerk, was appointed convener of the committee, and the Rev. J. P. Moffett was asked, and agreed, to act as clerk to the committee.
“The Clerk was instructed to inform the Secretary of the Inter-Church Relations Committee of the Church of Scotland of the decision of Synod, and of the negotiating committee which had been appointed.”
Our readers can see that notwithstanding the solemn vows these ministers and office-bearers are under to hold by the whole doctrine of the Confession of Faith and the Word of God that they are showing their willingness to have themselves and their Church swallowed by the erroneous Church of Scotland. What treachery! It is to be hoped that there are still a few in the O.S. Church who will, at this late hour, not let themselves be led, or misled, by these blinded ministers and office-bearers. No doubt many have no mind of their own and they will do what the minister or elder will do. Like a man in Portree, at the time of the Union of 1900 between the Free Church and the U.P. Church, someone asked him, “What Church do you belong to now?” “I don’t know,” he answered, “till the minister comes home from the Assembly.” The man, evidently, had no mind of his own and whatever the minister did at the Free Church Assembly he was going to do. The Church of Scotland of to-day should be shunned like the plague; its teaching is a plague in Scotland and causing many to lose their soul.
“The Church of Scotland,” says an American writer, “is extremely modernistic, worldly, and has a strong leaning toward what we may call the ‘right wing’ religion; that is, it has an eye cocked towards Romanism.” It seems Church union and ecumenicity are the chief end of man nowadays. The Church of England is busily passing Canons, by overwhelming majorities, to Romanise that Church, while at the same time negotiating for union with the Inter-Church Relations Committee of the Church of Scotland. The present Free Church of Scotland also reveals leanings toward the Church of Scotland as is evident
by inter-change of pulpits and other ways. The people of the Free Presbyterian Church should appreciate more and more the stand made in 1893 for the truth of God, and that God enabled us to keep aloof from backsliding Churches since. The late Rev. J. R. Mackay (afterward Professor in the Free Church College), when in the Free Presbyterian Church, wrote a biographical sketch of the late Angus Gray, Lairg, in the year 1903.
Angus Gray was an outstanding Christian who died at the age of 94. We give this quotation from the above-mentioned sketch by Mr. Mackay: “One would not act the part of an impartial historian if one were not to say that the proposals for union between the anti-unionist Free Church section and the Free Presbyterians filled him (i.e. Angus Gray) with the deepest anxiety. To others as well as to the writer of this notice he sent solemn warning more than a year before the end that he was fully persuaded that what the Spirit was saying to our Church in the matter was contained in ‘Jeremiah xv. 19: “Let them return unto thee; but return not thou unto them.” That is our duty still till better days come.