By REV. JAMES MACLEOD, Greenock.
“And a time to speak” (Ecc. iii. 7).
WE are at the outset of another year of the history of our race in this world. Millions have passed into eternity from January, 1955, and more millions have entered into this world than passed out of it during the past year 1955. The increase of the population of the world far exceeds the numbers that die per annum, which means that the population of the earth is on the increase at the rate of twenty to twenty-five millions per annum over death. As Moses said, “An increase of sinful men.” How the population of the earth will increase during the gospel millennium period will be enormous, and far beyond our present conception to appreciate how the world will be inhabited in all parts thereof. “The heavens, even the heavens are the LORD’S but the earth hath He given to the children of men” (Ps. cxv. 16). Men of great learning of what is called “Scientific Knowledge” are much perturbed that there will be no food for all that are now in the world; and speak, loud and long that there may be not merely scarcity but famine in many places! That has been, is, and will be the cry of ignorant “Scientists” as long as they remain ignorant of God, His power, love, and mercy. He is merciful to man and to beast. There is now plenty of food in the world for its estimated population of two thousand, four hundred millions, but wicked greed and maladministration of Governments may cause scarcity and famine in many places. The very essence of the gospel is to love “thy neighbour as thyself.” He that fed the thousands with the five barley loaves and the two small fishes can increase the produce of the earth from what it is now. And we doubt not it will be so! In respect to man in worldly affairs, his most vicious enemy is man.
It is easy for all students of their Bibles to understand and see it (if in the distant future) that the present order must pass away. The present Governments of the world are godless, whether pagan, christian (in name), or naked heathen. They must pass away. In the history of nations we see how wicked governments passed away. Cromwell swept away a wicked English Parliament in quick time. How quickly God may change the present-day Governments of the
earth is only known to Him. But that they must disappear: of that we are certain, how, when, and in what way is not our place to say. We can see from past events what happened to evil Governments, and to wicked men, and even in our own time and within the knowledge and memory of the most of us how some wicked Governments were destroyed and disappeared. They looked very threatening, formidable, and mighty, and they disappeared—to mention a few of them, the old Russian Government of the Czars; of the German Emperors; the French Emperors; Italian Kings; the Emperors of China; and many others that we need not mention who are recorded in history.
They passed away. There were good Governments. One may be mentioned for our general purpose, the Government of Queen Victoria. We cannot say that it was godly, but on the whole her reign was the best that one can think of, with the exception of the First Prince of Orange. His reign did not last long, but it was most useful for the Protestant cause in Europe, and for the whole world to this day. On the whole, the Governments of Europe were not good. It was not the grace of God and the love of Christ that reigned or governed their motives and actions. The more recent Governments of the Dictators of Germany and Italy were overthrown, although for a short time they appeared as if they were to last for a long time and overwhelm all opposition, and bury the other Governments of the world in the dust. The most wicked and ruinous Government ever known is that of the Vatican. It has stood for a long time, but it must be destroyed. It professes to be religious, but that is a mere blind. No court in the world is more political than the Vatican. No court in the world can match it in political craftiness and sheer wickedness.
The present order (or, rather, confusion) of the religious world must be organised on Scriptural lines like the first Churches planted by the Apostles as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles—the Galatian, the Church in Ephesus, and the Colossians, etc. It will be the “Catholic Church” in the true sense and regulated by the Word of God and by the power of the Holy Spirit. The one and only acknowledged Head of the Church will be the Lord Jesus Christ. All political popes and bishops, and archbishops and archdeacons, must also disappear as foreign to the spirit and letter of the Church of God. “And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord of hosts, that I will cut off the names of the idols out of the land and they shall no more be remembered: and also I will cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to pass out of the land” (Zech. xiii. 2). So we see that “My Lord Bishop” shall pass out of the land. Are not all the true ministers of Christ “bishops”? Yes, but not political “Lord Bishops.” The Pope of the Vatican is called “His holiness.” The political Bishops of England are also called “Fathers in God,” virtually equivalent to the designation of the Roman Pope, “His Holiness.” The Popes of the Greek Church in Moscow, Istanbul, Jerusalem, etc.—all shall be abolished by the power of the Gospel and by the divine
light of the Spirit. We have plenty of clear Scriptural evidence of how it will take place: as in the past so it shall be in the future. The greatest Reformation that ever took place in the history of our race was after the resurrection of our Lord. When He sent out the apostles to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom to pagans and religious hypocrites, thousands were changed, regenerated, made new creatures in Christ Jesus.
Read the letters of Paul to the Galatians, Romans, Ephesians, etc., and in them you can see what changes took place in a short time? The idols of pagan Rome, Babylon, Egypt, Greece, and as far north as Britain fell down before the mighty power of the Gospel. This is the same Gospel and divine power, light, and conviction that will come when the Jews are converted; and the fulness of the Gentile world is brought in. It was Christ that went forth as the Captain of the Lord of hosts with His servants that give them such great success—as He said, “Without me ye can do nothing.” It is equally true that He went forth with the Reformers of the 16th century to gather in His elect people in great numbers, and He will yet go forth in His power and glory to gather in “the other sheep” into the fold. In our day there are many Christians who preach and believe that Christ is to come in Person to reign during the Millennial period: there are other Christians who reject with the utmost scorn both the Personal reign opinion or the glorious Millennium period. Two extremes! We reject both opinions to be unwarranted and extremely narrow and selfish. The wonderful preparation that is going on for the last fifty years is truly phenomenal. That the Bible should be printed in over one thousand languages of the world is a clear intimation of the fulfilment of the promise of the Father to His Son as recorded in the second Psalm; Psalm 72; the whole of Zechariah; and in many other parts of the blessed Word of God. Another extremely encouraging sign is the demand for the Bible in many nations that never had the Word in their own language.
It is His Word and Spirit that will convert sinners and change man to a state of grace and reconciliation with God. All the teams and music of Arminians never will convert a sinner. God can, not man! From 1914 to 1955 our own national declension from the Word of God and moral standards is just appalling; and the last two summers is a crowning disgrace in Sabbath desecration and carnal pleasure which must, and always did, end in disaster! The national craze for pleasure is a sure sign of the coming storm. Millions attend the football games on Saturday, and many more millions watch the game on the T.V.—discuss the pros and cons; on the Lord’s Day they are at their work in tens of thousands, who take the Saturday off or, rather, won’t work on Saturday, must be employed on the Lord’s Day so that the loss of a Saturday is made up by making the Sabbath Day (by double wages) two days. The employers of labour are against it not because
they love the Sabbath Day, but they know that these unprincipled men do not intend to work although they are out in the name of working.
No doubt the wireless, and now T.V., on the Sabbath is possibly the most diabolical enemy to the cause of the Lord in this nation that was ever invented and permitted to be used on the Lord’s Day. It is largely an instrument of the devil on God’s Day to blot out from the minds of sinners the very thought of a hereafter. There is a sop of religion to blind the simple and deceive them for eternity. No man of God and true servant of Jesus Christ will ever make the wireless a vehicle to convey religious instruction to his fellow man on the Lord’s Day under present circumstances. The carnal excuse is, “What of those in hospitals, in private homes that cannot attend the Church?” The Bible needs no wireless to read, and the throne of grace needs no T.V. to pray to the God of all grace for mercy! The devil is a past-master to find excuses for his bairns to provoke God and grieve His Holy Spirit from the souls of men. What valuable use has been made of the wireless in other respects needs no comment from us. We are just now discussing what abuse is being made of it on the Lord’s Day! The cinema claims the attention of millions young and old every night, afternoon too, and on the Lord’s Day in many places.
Another mad “kill-time” sport is badminton. The attraction is, of course, not the mere sport but the meeting of “friends” for other ends, such as dancing to the small hours of the morning. A minister told us that in his part of the country crowds would leave in buses for long distances to “play badminton” and return home at four in the morning after their night “playing badminton.” The results are sometimes obvious and painful to many a poor father and mother! It is written in the Word of God: “Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners” (I Cor. xv. 53). We are not opposed to healthy physical exercise of the body—far from it: we believe it is good for mind and body and for health—but let our young folk be most careful who they associate with, and that the necessary physical exercise of the body will not become a snare, a trap, and a gin that may ruin them in mind, body, and reputation! What kind of homes do parents keep who know not when their children arrive home from the dance, cinema, badminton hall? No worship, no family prayer, no law, no order—the law of the jungle prevails in such homes! How sad! Special advantage taken on Saturday night—”To-morrow is Sunday; we can lie as long as we like!” This is one of the main causes of the small percentage that appear in Church on Sabbath morning. Confusion in the homes, neither law nor order kept; for the fear of the Lord is not there.
We think it is time to speak against what is called “Christmas” for the religious pagans of this nation, and other nations, make great noise when “Christmas” comes round; shops put on their best dress, churches call for devotees to attend “midnight” mass and music; and others are prepared and drilled as to what part they are to take in
playing the roll of the “wise men of the east”; and in some cases (some came under our observation some years ago), a young woman with a baby may be placed in a prominent part of the Church to represent the “Virgin Mother and the Child” in the stable of Bethlehem. This is what they call “Christmas.” As they are blind as the pagans, they must have some kind of light, and a tree is prepared to give them light on “Christmas,” and they call it a “Christmas Tree.” Many candles are used to illuminate the tree. Some say, “Oh, it is for children; what harm is in it—poor little things.” What the Word of God says is “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it” (Prov. xxii. 6). You train him in the way of paganism (in the way of Christmas) and when he is old he may not depart from it. Have nothing to do with “Christmas,” but warn your children and explain to them the wickedness of it, and if you do that you will be in the path of duty according to the Word of God. Our Reformers knew the awful tendency of our fallen nature to depart from the path of truth when they abolished the abomination from our land: they recognised it to be a part of the witchery of the Pope of Rome. “A drought is upon her waters (Babylon), and they shall be dried up: for it is the land of graven images, and they are mad upon their idols” (Jer. 1. 38). That the Mass is one of the most abominable idols that the devil ever put into the minds of sinful men no right-minded Protestant will doubt for a moment. Therefore, no “Mass,” no “Christmas.” “Christmas and the Mass” are one idol!
Our Reformer, Knox, was able by the Word of God and sound doctrine to banish the abominable Romish Mass from Scotland till that poor, ignorant woman, Queen Mary, came from France. She in her ignorant blindness would have Mass said in her chapel. That was the first encounter our Reformer had with this young spiritually blind Queen. Knox saw clearly that the reintroducing of the Mass would mean great loss to Scotland and much bloodshed. What Scotland will yet suffer for ever permitting the priests of Rome to pour into Scotland with their Masses and their abominable religion, the thought of it is simply terrifying. The Reformation must be fought over again; the priests of Rome silenced; the mass strictly prohibited and banished out of our land for ever! Yes, through much fiery and terrible trials will the sons of Scotland (when awakened by the Spirit of God) turn the priests of Rome out for ever! They must be turned out. Hypocrites, murdering souls and enemies to all righteousness! “The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how they are esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter?” (Lam. iv. 2). Oh, that the Lord would pour His Holy Spirit on her learned sons to quicken them, to stand on the side of the Lord as their fathers stood in the 16th, 17th, and early part of the 18th centuries! Let us pray most earnestly for our brethren that appear to be under a cloud of spiritual death and darkness.
May God call them to life and turn them as a mighty army against the enemies of the cross of Christ—the Papists. The Mass and the priest would soon then disappear. The Holy Spirit can do it, none else. No wonder the Lord would frown upon us for our unfaithfulness to His truth, to His Word and testimony. Just think of the state of the cause from the extreme South of Scotland to the Western Isles? We are divided, scattered from each other like as many foreigners, and the enemy taking full advantage of our divisions and parties. If the Spirit of God were to turn our fellow countrymen to His Word in faith, love, and holy obedience, then the sons of Scotland would be like one man in defence of the cause of Christ from one end of our land to the other end. Will this ever be realised? Yes, when the Holy Spirit shall turn the people to the Bible. It was the Word of God that united the Reformers and the people. It is the Word of God that will yet unite the people in mind and action. There must be a return to the Bible and carping criticism of learned but graceless men absolutely ignored and rejected. The Lord’s Day honoured, respected, and all works which are lawful on other days laid aside. The running of railway trains, buses, pleasure steamers, aeroplanes and all that is not essential and necessary for the preservation of life, brought to a standstill on Saturday, and the working people allowed time to prepare for the Sabbath and the public worship of God.
The “public house,” places of amusement banished, for we read, “In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses, HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD: and the pots in the Lord’s house shall be like the bowls before the altar, Yea, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness unto the Lord of hosts: and all they that sacrifice shall come and take of them, and seethe therein: and in that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the LORD of hosts” (Zech. xiv. 20, 21). After the Church returned from Babylon and down to the time Judah was destroyed, and the few that escaped dispersed throughout the world, was the above prophecy ever fulfilled in the literal or spiritual sense? The answer is NO! And was that prophecy in the 20th chapter of Revelation, second verse, fulfilled in the history of the Church of God since the resurrection of our Lord? The answer is NO! But it will be fulfilled. The “jots and tittles” of the Word of God “shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled.” “He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth” (Ps. lxxii. 8. “For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea” (Heb. ii. 14). Avoid the carnal minded Arminians that preach that Christ is to reign in person for one thousand years on the earth. His one and only coming in Person is in II Thess. i. 7-10.
“And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth” (Matt. xxviii. 18). What can be plainer than that? All power! How then can men wriggle and
twist the Word of God to suit their own fanciful interpretation and groundless speculation. Not one of the Reformers propounded and taught the idea that the Lord of glory was to come to reign in Person upon this earth. Paul, Peter, Jude, and John in the book of Revelation make very clear references that Christ is to come again at the last day to judge the world in righteousness by “that man (Christ) whom He (the Father) hath ordained” (Acts xvii. 31). See Jude xiv. 15? Christ has all power over all events and things in this world. The dreamers would rob Him of His glory and blessed work in the world now! He will continue to work to the end of time as in the days of faithful Abel, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Apostles and Reformers! This is a mere creature idea of the Lord of glory. The dreamers think that the Lord Jesus must some way show Himself in a bodily and physical form otherwise they cannot believe that He is God Almighty, omnipotent (unlimited in power and authority), omnipresent (present everywhere at once), omniscient (having infinite and universal knowledge) of all things visible or invisible, and infinite power to rule and govern all, in all places, and all things small or great. His power is so great that He can reach the tried soul of a poor believer when tempted by the devil, corruption, and a stony heart that causes him to cry out in his pangs, “O wretched man that I am!” He is God with us.
Pay no attention to the pre-Millennial-Arminian theory of a Personal reign of the Almighty Saviour of lost sinners. He is in the hearts of His people by His Word and Spirit, reigning in them, for them, and will be with them while they are in the world. What we pray for, long for, and believe is that it will be experienced and duly fulfilled when millions and millions will be called, regenerated, and made new creatures in Christ Jesus, in a more universal measure than ever before, for “all the Father gave Him must be saved”; and no man can number them! “Do we believe that Christ shall come again? Most certainly we do. In Person? Yes, in Person at the last day. Will the work of redemption be then fully accomplished? Yes, finished for ever! See I Cor. xv. 51, 52: “What I say unto you, I say unto all, watch.” What progress have you made towards heaven during the past year, 1955? Or have you gone deeper and deeper into the mire of sin, guilt, and debt to the Law, Gospel, and your precious privileges?
My beloved friend, you may not see the end of 1956. Where are you going? It is heaven or hell eternally! Young people, the world may claim all your precious hours, but what of your end? Do you think of the day of your death? Your passing out of the body to appear before your Maker? It will not be a dream but a great reality. Make use of your Bible and pray earnestly that the Holy Spirit would bless it to your soul. Get this, as it were, printed on your mind, and daily thoughts, heaven, or a lost eternity for me! It is Christ for you or the loss of your soul. Let the Lord’s people be more diligently
praying for others, and when you cannot pray for yourself, pray for your friends, neighbours, and enemies. The prayers of some are centred in one little circle about their own fireside. Pray for China, poor Russia, poor Britain, and miserable France, and let us not forget the Jews. David, Isaiah, and many others of the godly of old Testament times prayed for us, and surely we should not forget the seed of Abraham and David? May the Holy Spirit come down as showers on the mown grass on His people in our own nation, and wherever they are to the ends of the earth?