The Way, the Truth, and the Life

Sermon by REV. JAMES MACLEOD, Greenock.

“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”—JOHN xiv. 6.

The people of God in all ages have need of the comforts of the Holy Spirit, light, and faith in living exercise, promises to support, and to strengthen their souls in the faith of the Gospel. When the Holy Spirit opened their eyes, eternity and solemn realities entered into their minds which were not there before, and the things of time were made not only small, like a fading leaf, but things contrary to their best interest. They found out that they had a never dying soul diseased with sin, guilt, ignorance, brutishness, fearful and powerful lusts, vile thoughts, the devil—and all in battle array to destroy them for ever. They could see no way how they could escape from this new situation. They could find no way of escape. Every avenue closed. God against them, condemnation in their conscience, and the sun, moon, air, water, birds, the tiny little flower on the side of the hill, the cattle on a thousand hills—all against them. They had to understand, believe, and know that Adam lost the way in the garden. Cain’s sacrifice, and all false religions from that day to this had to be eliminated, viz., the pope, and his friend the Arminian, false Judaism, Modernism, and its religious “Charter” the Declaratory Act. It was also necessary to cut the cord that tied the soul to the covenant of works. As long as the soul was tied to this broken covenant, the thunders of the law, death, wrath, darkness, and a condemning conscience stood like unsurmountable mountains between the soul and peace. “How can we know the way?” Like Pilate when he asked, “What is truth?” Those “christians” that jump from the Covenant of Works to a covenant of grace without being “born again” are like the bigamist—or like the woman described in Rom. vii. 3. There are millions of so-called “christians” in our own day, who deny the fall of Adam, or any connection or relationship therewith, and professionally maintain that they are true believers and “christians,” but deny original sin, the fall, spiritual depravity, corruption, or sin at all, or as the B.B.C. man says, “We are all thy children,” which is a lie, but, of course, it suits the bigamist’s idea of Regeneration and the “New Birth!” What is God’s law, Christ, Gospel, the Bible, regeneration, and the Holy Spirit to the present-day good “christians”? The Holy Spirit says:—”Know we not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the Kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God” (I. Cor. v. 9-11).

From the words in John xiv. 6, let us draw your attention to a few things from the answer our Lord gave to Thomas, and,

First: I am the way, the truth, and the life.

Second: That Christ is the way to the Father.

First: We, who believe, and accept the Book of Genesis as well as the Book of Revelation, have no difficulty in understanding the truth concerning what is written about Adam, his creation, fall, and what God said to him before and after the fall. None! We accept it as God’s Word. We have the divine testimony of the Lord Jesus to all that is written, as well as the testimony of all the Prophets and Apostles. We look for no higher testimony, and we know no more is necessary for the Church of God to the end of time. The “errors” men of great “learning” find in the Bible is like the cracklings of thorns under a pot. As Christ said to others, “ye are of your father, the devil,” and the devil and his “scholars” are always liars. The same seed in them—lies! But those quickened by the Holy Spirit experienced the truth of God in their own soul, in law, and gospel. They found out that the way to God was closed on them in the womb, as blessed David experienced and as told in Psalm 51. The soul lost in the womb. The original righteousness lost through the fall of Adam. Here was man lost! Oh, lost! Christ came to seek, and save the lost. We must go back to Eden and listen to what God said to the serpent—the devil. God said that there would come of the seed of the woman that would bruise his head—that is the power of Satan over sinners. Here was hope! We have the first glimpse of this in the skins prepared by the Lord to cover Adam, and Eve. Again, we see the sacrifice of Abel, which were evident tokens of what was to come, and actually came in the fulness of time, or according to the time appointed in the foreknowledge of God. It was faith in the coming Messiah they all had before the days of Abraham, as well as in the days of Moses, and the prophets. We see that clearly stated in the epistle to the Hebrews. It is the same faith all the Lord’s people are made partakers of whether in the days of Noah, Abraham, or Paul. The Holy Spirit unites them to Jesus Christ in the offer, and promise of God. He was set up from everlasting to be their Saviour. It was therefore necessary that He should take bone of their bone, assume their nature, and be born in this world, live, die, and rise from the grave on the third day according to the Word of God. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin, and born of her yet without sin. Here we see the way opened for us, but more on this point when we come to deal with our nakedness when we were born, and after coming into this world. Man is one mass of sin and corruption.

Christ came to seek and save the lost. The sword of divine justice debarred Adam, and all his children from the favour of God. Man could not approach God in his own person. Indeed, there was an infinite distance through man’s sin, and God. A gulf that no man could span, and that no man will ever span in his own person. The distance is eternal. Those who think otherwise are blinded by the devil. God in the Second Person could reach fallen man, but man could not reach God! Paul calls it “the mystery of godliness: God manifested in the flesh.” There is also incomparable condescension involved in this “mystery” of the gospel. That Christ was God with us! But we must understand, and believe that none less than God could reconcile lost man to the infinite God of eternity. Those who deny the eternal Deity of the Lord Jesus, must finally perish, that is to say, if they continue to the end rejecting, and denying the eternal Godhead of Jesus Christ. Our sin is against God in the absolute sense: and God can only deal with fallen man out of Christ in the absolute sense of His eternal justice—”For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. iii.). The moment Adam was driven out of the garden of Eden, he could never again approach that garden. He was, and all his seed were outside for ever. The original covenant, and contract, or the terms of the covenant were broken, and no mere son of Adam can mend, or span the abyss here or hereafter. Christ says, “I am the way.” He is the second Adam, the Lord from heaven. This was the “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Rev. xii.). He is the seed of the woman” that was to come. “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder: and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of peace” (Isa. ix. 6).

We were the children of wrath in the womb, because we were fallen in Adam and naked, destitute of that original righteousness, and by the Holy Spirit declared “polluted in thine own blood.” Self-murderers! We were legally guilty coming into the world, “yea, thou heardest not; yea, thou knewest not; yea, from that time that thine ear was not opened: for I knew that thou wouldest deal very treacherously, and wast called a transgressor from the womb” (Isa. xlviii). We do not quarrel with the Word of God, and by His love, mercy, and saving grace let us like the Prodigal acknowledge that we have sinned, and perverted that which was good, and that sin profited us not! The ever blessed Lord Jesus took our place, assumed a true body, and a reasonable soul, united it to His own divine, eternal Person. What infinite love that is here unfolded to a lost, and hell deserving sinner! The sinner might say, “my first parent Adam closed the door on me for ever, but the Lord Jesus came to open the door for me into fulness, light, and holiness. Micah says, “Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He retaineth not His anger for ever, because He delighteth in mercy” (vii. 18).

It was therefore necessary that the Saviour should be born. “Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost” (Matt. i. 20). And behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shall call his name JESUS” (Luke i. 31). The Covenant of grace is an eternal covenant, and Christ as the surety of the Covenant for the Elect of God to fulfil the terms of the covenant which meant that He would have to die for them. He came to redeem from death. They were dead, lost, and under the curse, and the wrath of God. He accepted to be both Surety, and Substitute for them. As their Substitute He had to endure the wrath, and curse under which they were through the fall of Adam. As God He could not suffer physical, mental, or spiritual pain, humiliation, and the death of the cross! As the God-man He could, and did suffer the death of the cross, and all the attendant humiliation, shame, pain, and the awful desertion we read of in Psalm 22, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” In Matthew we read, “And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? That is to say, My God, my God why hast thou forsaken me?” See Mark, Luke, and John. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, cursed is every one that hangeth on the tree” (Gal. iii. 13). As our Substitute He suffered, and as our Surety He was willing to suffer, and infinitely able to meet the demands of holy, eternal, and inflexible justice. From the moment of His conception in the womb of the Virgin mother, “The LORD is well pleased for His righteousness sake, He will magnify the law, and make it honourable” (Isa. xlii. 21).

His pure, and holy nature was in strict accordance with the holy moral law of God. “Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats” (Exod. xii. 5). “If his offering be a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male without blemish: he shall offer it of his own voluntary will at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the Lord” (Lev. i. 3). The Lamb of God was without blemish before the Lord—at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. Blessed Lamb—the Lamb of God, our most precious Lord Jesus!

His sacrifice was without blemish—‘neither was any deceit in His mouth’ (Isa. 53). “For He has made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (II. Cor. v. 21). He offered Himself unto God for His people. He was without blemish—the law of God had nothing against Him. The sacrifice was pure, the altar was holy, the High Priest was appointed—“I have glorified thee on the earth.” ‘I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do.’ All was ready! The High Priest had to appear in the presence of God for us. “Surely He has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed” (Isa. 53). “When Thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin,”—The cup which my Father has given me, shall I not drink it?” What was in the cup that the Father gave Him to drink? “For He made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin.” Herein was the death of His people, the eternal wrath and the curse that was their due in law and justice—“shall I not drink it?” He took the cup, and immediately the sword of justice took hold of the Surety—“Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the LORD of hosts: smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered: and I will turn my hand upon the little ones” (Zech. xiii).

“For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us . . . but now once in the end of the world has He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself” (Heb. ix. 24-26). He appeared in the presence of God for us—“Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood He entered once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us” (Heb. ix. 12). The way was now opened into the immediate presence of God through the High Priest—He appeared in the presence of God for us. The solemn question with the people of God under the old dispensation, and Jewish economy was (on the day of atonement) would their High Priest come forth alive, and what intimation would he convey to the assembled congregation; and to the people of Israel for that year? One thing they would be certain of when they heard, or saw that their High Priest came forth alive that God accepted their sacrifice! That was a cause of great rejoicing to the whole Church of God. When the body of our Lord Jesus lay in the grave, hope seemed to have died with the lifeless body of Jesus! Peter relates this solemn experience of the believers at this time, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (I. Peter, i. 3). “Hath begotten us again into a lively hope.” The Lord is risen indeed, they said, one to another, when they saw the empty grave. When He rose from the dead, they were assured that God accepted His sacrifice for them—His resurrection was their authority that His blood was accepted in heaven—”for us.” “I am the way.” “I am the door.” The first Adam closed the door: the second Adam, the Lord from heaven opened the door. He glorified God in our nature: He satisfied justice: He honoured the law of God in our nature: He bruised the head (power) of the devil: as our High Priest He entered into heaven for us: on the third day He assumed the human body He left behind: and later ascended to His Father, and our Father, to His God, and our God. “Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations” (I. Peter i. 6).

We come now to the part, “the truth, and the life.” (b) Christ is the fountain of eternal truth, the reality, substance, and the Sun of righteousness in the firmament of God’s revelation to fallen, and ruined man. The shadows and beggarly elements that were used in the Church during the first manifestation of grace from Abel to Noah: from Abraham to Moses; and from Moses to John the Baptist typified the Saviour and the gospel day which is the last manifestation of grace till Christ come again, “In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ” (II. Thess. i. 8). He is the “truth” of all that is revealed in the Bible from Genesis to the book of Revelation. “Truth” is put for the Gospel, as Paul speaks to the Gal. iii. 1. But Christ is “truth” in the absolute sense of revelation. The Prophets, Apostles, the servants of the Lord were true men, but not in the sense that the Lord of glory is, as the eternal fountain that filled them with His Spirit, power and light. Prophets and Apostles were verily the conduits through whom the word of truth flowed to the Church of God in all ages. He is the God of truth and the revealer of truth to man. We came into this world under the dominion and power of lies, deception and entirely destitute of truth. The truth is not in us. “The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies” (Ps. lviii. 3). The seed of Satan is in us, yes, and hypocrisy, lusts and hatred to God in every human heart, The Lord of glory reveals truth to man about himself, about God, and by His Spirit convinceth him of his errors, and indeed, makes it perfectly clear to him that he is destitute of truth, which is a painful revelation to him or her the day the Lord opens his eyes to the fact! (c) “And the life.” “For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ” (John i. 17). When the sinner is quickened by the Holy Spirit, he is brought to life through Jesus Christ by the Spirit. It is a complete change from a state of death to a state of life.

“And you hath He quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins” (Eph. ii. 1). This is the work of the Holy Spirit in the soul. This means union with the Lord Jesus. “I am the true vine ye are the branches,” and of course without union to the parent tree, the branch could have no life in itself. The sinner by state and nature is destitute of divine life. This new life is infused into the soul by the Holy Spirit. It is called “a new creation” because it is a new life. Christ is this new life in the soul, “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever” (I. Peter i. 23). This union to the Lord Jesus is by faith. It is not a mere assent to the gospel, but a personal soul contact with the Lord in the Word of God. It is a spiritual union, a union that unites the soul to the Lord. We have a clear illustration of this divine union in Ephesians, v. 23-27. The soul becomes one with Christ in the Word, and like the branch that draws all its life and nourishment from the parent tree so the soul draws its life from Christ. “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death” (Rom. viii. 2). “For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory” (Col. iii. 3-4). It is a life of faith (saving faith)—”and the life which I now live in the flesh and I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me” (Gal. ii. 21). Faith is the hand that receives, and unites to the Saviour, but it is the Holy Spirit that operates the hand to receive, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works lest any man should boast” (Eph. ii. 8-9). The Holy Spirit left no loop-hole for the poor ignorant Arminian to escape eternal death by his own corrupt “free-will” efforts!

The life of the believer is all of grace, free grace, sovereign grace, and grace forever through Jesus Christ our Lord! “For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, no principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. viii. 38-39). “That as sin reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom. v. 21). Their righteousness, life and hope for eternity is centred by faith in Jesus Christ. “Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast and which entereth into that within the veil; whither the forerunner is for us entered even Jesus, made an High Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec” (Heb. vi. 19-20). The Spouse of Christ should shew in her life and conversation that she was married to Christ as her Head, Lord and Master. “Think not that I am come to destroy the law and the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil” (Matt. v. 17). The school of Arminians deny that there were either a covenant of works, or a covenant of grace! They of course had no alternative according to their religious philosophy of man’s ability, will power and natural religious inclinations, but in the first place deny the fall, and, in the second place, deny any covenant of grace! What is their present position and theology? That Christ was a mere man that was born like other men, lived and died as we all do! That the resurrection is a mere myth, a fable which no scientific learned Theologian can “ever swallow,” accept or believe.

From this crop we may see, and discern the fruit of the seed sown by the Arminians of the 17th to the 20th century in the Protestant world of to-day. It is a Christless religion, a Bibleless religion, a prayerless religion, and a lawless religion! “Think not that I came to destroy the law, or the prophets,” saith our most precious Saviour. The believer in Christ and united to Him by saving faith finds in his soul, conscience and understanding that the Moral law of God in Christ Jesus is his rule of life and conversation as long as he or she is in the wilderness of time. The wicked Libertines who preach and say, “we are not under the law, but under grace, therefore we need not have any regard to the moral law, Sabbath days, or to any of the other commandments—we are not legalists, we are believers!” “Then there arose certain of the synagogue which is called the synagogue of the LIBERTINES and Cyrenians and Alexandrians and of them of Cilicia and of Asia, disputing with Stephen” (Acts vi. 9).

When the Libertines could not “resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake,” the Libertines suborned men to say what the men of God never said, which is always the subterfuge of hypocrites. We affirm that the religion of many in Britain is a lawless religion. The true believer must have regard to the moral precepts of God, observe His laws, “For if ye love me keep my commandments,” is a divine injunction by the Lord Jesus. The Arminian has no regard to the Lord’s day, if a farmer he can go to his field to plough, sow and harrow; if a railwayman he works on the Lord’s Day as on any other day of the week. He may be an Elder or Deacon in the Church, but he can argue with himself, “I am not a legalist, I am a believer and under grace.” What a lie and curse this is! It is a religion that suits any type or class of religious hypocrites, a Romanist Protestant or even the Communist! It is easy conversion as man can convert himself, believe himself and can do what suits himself. “But I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils” (I. Cor. x. 20).

(To be continued.)

Episcopacy and Presbyterianism.

By REV. JOHN COLQUHOUN, Glendale.

XII.—The Dark Night of Moderatism.

We have already referred to King William’s determination to allow those who were the upholders of prelacy to have a place in the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, and Principal Carstares’ advice to the Church to yield to the king’s desire. This afterwards proved a great evil in the Church of Scotland, and contributed much to the spiritual deadness which prevailed during the period which has been aptly described as “the dark age of Moderatism.” That King William, who continued to the end to be a member of the Presbyterian Church of Holland, should thus favour prelacy to the extent of expecting that Episcopalians and Presbyterians would harmoniously sit side by side in the one church in Scotland is a mystery which has puzzled historians down through the ages. Various reasons have been given, but we believe that none went nearer the mark than Dr. Hetherington in summing up the character and views of King William. “A complete union between Scotland and England he regarded as of essential importance, to enable him to meet the compact might of the French monarchy; and though personally favourable to the Presbyterian form, yet seeing the improbability that he could persuade England to accept of it, he was desirous to induce Scotland to consent to a modified Episcopacy. He did not regard any form of church government as of divine authority; and therefore thought it practicable to induce both kingdoms to abate somewhat of their distinctive peculiarities, and to meet and unite in some intermediate arrangement. For that reason he abstained from a full recognition of Presbytery in Scotland at first, waiting to try the effect of returning peace to produce unanimity; and when he did consent to the establishment of the Presbyterian Church in Scotland, he did so in terms which have been thought to admit of a somewhat lax interpretation declaring it to be ‘agreeable to the word of God,’ instead of ‘grounded upon the infallible truth of God’s Word,’ which was the form of expression used by Knox, at the first establishment of the Presbyterian Church. The same course of policy led him to desire in Scotland itself a union of the prelatic clergy of the two preceding reigns and the restored Presbyterians; though how he could expect any degree of cordiality to subsist between humbled and fangless persecutors, and their rescued, yet wounded and still bleeding victims, it is not easy to imagine. By prosecuting this specious yet baneful policy, dictated no doubt by that great deceiver of the world’s sages and statesmen, expediency, William both alienated and so far paralysed his Presbyterian friends, to whom chiefly he owed the British crown, left power in the hands of enemies and traitors, and excited those feelings of discontent in the minds of the one party, and turbulent anticipations of change and counter-revolution in the other, by which his whole reign was rendered a scene of distraction and turmoil.” History of the Church of Scotland, p. 178.

This endeavour on the part of the King to unite two bodies whose ecclesiastical positions were incompatible with one another was followed by disastrous results. The Episcopalians, taking their example from the Vicar of Bray, conformed to Presbyterianism because a Presbyterian was on the Throne, but, though they changed their profession, they were still Episcopalians at heart, and plotted against the Church. The Presbyterians had known twenty-eight years of persecution for principles which were made dear to them because purchased at a great price. The doctrines which they professed, and the system of church government which they held, they found in God’s infallible Word, the Word which they prized as the legacy bequeathed to them through the death of Christ. These doctrines and this system of church government were further made sacred to them through the shedding of the blood of their martyred forefathers, and, therefore, they could not easily cast them aside. They could not but have doubts about the sincerity of the profession of those Episcopalians who sat side by side with them in the Courts of the Church, and whose only reason for conforming was in order to remain in the priesthood for “a piece of bread.” These doubts were soon confirmed by the bringing to light of the plotting and scheming which was constantly going on by these conforming Episcopalians. In the political realm there was the Popish party who sought to restore the Stuarts, in the person of the Old Pretender, to the British Throne, and these were supported by the Episcopalian faction in the Church, while the true-blue Presbyterians supported the reigning house through which they had their valuable privileges. After the defeat of the Old Pretender by Sir George Byng in the Firth of Forth, Queen Anne, who had succeeded William III., in her letter to the General Assembly, acknowledged the support of the Presbyterian ministers. The Queen, shortly afterwards, began to veer round so that it became very evident that she would rather have a Popish Pretender as her successor than the Protestant Princess Sophia of Hanover and her heirs. With this change in the Queen’s attitude to a Protestant Succession there appeared a corresponding change in her attitude to the Episcopal and Presbyterian parties in the Church. To the former much favour was shown, while the latter was treated with contempt. The climax, however, was reached when, in 1712, the Patronage Act was passed.

This Act, which was a violation of the Revolution Settlement and the Treaty of Union, was passed during the reign of a Sovereign, who at heart was hostile to Presbyterianism and had departed from the ways of her predecessor. Her Prime Minister and Chief Adviser in these matters was that infidel and unprincipled statesman, Lord Bolingbroke. The passing of the Patronage Act was brought about through those in power being incensed against the Church of Scotland for her zeal in promoting the Protestant Succession to the Throne, and in this they were assisted by the Scottish Jacobites, many of whom were in the bosom of that Church as ministers, and who were sheltering under an insincere profession of Presbyterianism. This Act provided that all Acts against Patronage be repealed, “and that in all time coming, the right of all and every patron or patrons to the presentation of ministers to churches and benefices, and the disposing of the vacant stipends for pious uses within the parish, be restored, settled, and confirmed to them.” The Commission of Assembly instantly sent three Commissioners to London to remonstrate against the passing of this Act, but all remonstrance was in vain, and on 22nd May, 1712, the Act received the royal assent and thus became law. The result of this was that, through time, in an increasing number of cases, the will of the people in an election of ministers was ignored, and patrons thrust upon congregations ministers who, in every sense of the term, were unacceptable to the people, and pleasing only to their patrons, for the simple reason that the ministers were like their patrons “of the earth earthily.” It was the period which followed the passing of the Patronage Act, which produced, among the ministry, such characters as the Rev. Alexander Webster, D.D., minister of the Tolbooth Kirk, Edinburgh, nicknamed Dr. Bonum Magnum, owing to his fondness for claret and the fact that he could sit drinking long after his companions were under the table, and the Rev. Alexander Carlyle, of Inveresk, known as Jupiter Carlyle, whose association with, and defence of, the writer of the Tragedy of Douglas is enough to leave posterity in no doubt as to his unsuitableness for the office of the ministry. These instances were men of talents and accomplishments, who were everything but what a gospel minister should be, but between them and the dull mediocrity and vulgarity found at the other end of the ministerial scale were a motley and numerous crowd who were fit for anything but the cure of souls. For the Church it was a night spiritually, the darkness of which was relieved occasionally by a star here and there, at a distance from each other, in the shape of evangelical ministers whose names are even yet household words as faithful heralds of the Cross. The Holy Spirit had been grieved so that very little of His work had been seen for many years in our native land, either in the conversion of sinners or in the sending forth of ambassadors with the message of reconciliation. One may, perhaps, find the cause of this in the Church’s neglect to insist that a place should be given in the Revolution Settlement to the attainments of the Second Reformation. At the time when King James II. fled, Christ’s witnesses in the land had been tired of persecution so that the least respite was welcome, and thus they accepted the Revolution Settlement, with all its defects, though conscious that it came far short of what was needed. They believed that more could not be got, and they submitted to an Erastianism which at the First and Second Reformations would not, for a moment, be tolerated, with the result that there remained within the Church a leaven which brought death and decay upon the Church for over a hundred years.

The forcing of unacceptable ministers upon congregations helped on this state of affairs, and those who had been quickened in their souls had to make choice of one of two alternatives, that is, to sit under a lifeless ministry to the starving of their souls, or take up a position of separation from the Church. This state of affairs brought about the Secession of 1733. The General Assembly of 1733 rebuked and admonished the Rev. Ebenezer Erskine for preaching before the Synod of Perth and Stirling against an Act of the Assembly of 1732 which supported the prevalent courses of defection in the Church, and the proceedings of Church Courts in the settlement of ministers over reclaiming and dissenting congregations. Having protested against this decision of the Assembly he was suspended by the November Commission of Assembly along with three other ministers who supported him. Of course, these four brethren ignored the unjust sentence of the Commission and set up the Secession Church, which proved a Cave of Adullam for many a starving and hungry soul in Scotland. The Lord acknowledged the faithfulness of His servants, and to this day souls hungering after the Bread of Life have a rich, soul-sustaining fare provided for them in the published sermons of Ebenezer and Ralph Erskine. Our purpose, however, is not to follow the history of the Secession Church, and, therefore, we must not digress beyond saying that they were thrust out of the Church of Scotland against their will by the predominant party in the Church, who were the ecclesiastical descendants of the Episcopalians whose remaining in the Church was tolerated by the Revolution Settlement.

These nominal Presbyterians in the Church of Scotland showed at a later date that they were against the spread of the Gospel among the heathen. In the Assembly of 1796 occurred the famous debate on Foreign Missions. The speech of the day on the Moderate side was that of the Rev. Mr. Hamilton of Gladsmuir, and it expressed very fully the sentiments of his party on this subject. The following quotation may be given as a sample of it:—”To spread abroad the knowledge of the Gospel among barbarous and heathen nations seems to me highly preposterous, in as far as it anticipates, nay, as it even reverses, the order of nature. Men must be polished and refined in their manners before they can be properly enlightened in religious truths. Philosophy and learning must in the nature of things take the precedence. Indeed, it should seem hardly less absurd to make revelation precede civilisation in the order of time, than to pretend to unfold to a child the Principia of Newton, ere he is made at all acquainted with the letters in the alphabet. These ideas seem to me alike founded in error, and, therefore, I must consider them both as equally romantic and visionary.” At the conclusion of Mr. Hamilton’s speech, Dr. John Erskine of Edinburgh arose and uttered one terse sentence, “Moderator, rax (reach) me that Bible.” The Bible was handed to him, as requested, and, after reading the narrative of Paul’s reception, after shipwreck, on the island of Melita, where the barbarous people showed them no little kindness, and marvelled when he shook the venomous viper from his hand unarmed. “Think you,” said Dr Erskine, “that when Paul wrought his miracles at Melita, and was supposed to be a god, he did not also preach Christ to the barbarians, and explain whose name it was through which such power was given unto men?” This striking appeal availed nothing with the Moderates, and the Assembly, by a considerable majority, voted against Foreign Missions. Looking at this matter, one is forced to the conclusion that it was a midnight darkness that was, at this time, passing over the Church of Scotland. However, in nature, the darkest time of the night is just before dawn, and so it appears to have been in the case of the Church at this time.