By the late REV. LACHLAN MACKENZIE, Lochcarron.
JEREMIAH ix. 9: “Shall I not visit them for these things, saith the Lord. Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?”
YOU all know, my friends, the occasion of this meeting. This is a day of humiliation, fasting and prayer. We all profess to come here to deprecate the wrath of God and implore His mercy to our souls. And if we are in earnest we can tell you from the Word of God that there is very great cause. The Scriptures were writ for the instruction of the Church in all ages, and the sins which have brought judgments upon the Jews and upon guilty Jerusalem will bring similar vengeance upon all guilty nations to the end of the world. There is a natural connection between sin and misery, for the one will always produce the other. In speaking upon these words, I shall—
- Point out to you some of the crying sins that draw down the vengeance of God upon nations, families, and individuals.
- I shall prove to you by several arguments that God absolutely will punish, and must punish, such crying abominations.
Lastly—Make some practical improvement.
I. I am to point out to you some of the crying sins that bring down the vengeance of God upon nations, families and individuals. It is the Word that points out to us the nature and the danger of sin. Among other portions of Scripture that speak of
great sins we may consult the 5th, 7th and 9th of Jeremiah, and 20th and 22nd of Ezekiel. In the black list the prophets mention the following:—(1) Uncleanness, (2) False swearing, (3) Sabbath-breaking, (4) Covetousness. In pointing out the branches of these shocking sins I shall show you their awful danger and horrible nature.
(1) The prophets mention the awful sin of uncleanness in several of its branches. The nature of this sin, whether fornication or adultery, may point out its horrid danger and its great hurt both in a spiritual and temporal view. In a spiritual view it brings death and damnation to the soul, for the house of the strumpet is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death. “A whore is a deep ditch; he that is abhorred of the Lord shall fall therein.” The man that committeth lewdness destroyeth his own soul and prepareth himself for the lake of fire and brimstone. This sin hardens the heart, blinds the mind, and stupifies the conscience. And what makes it particularly awful is that few of those who go on in a course of uncleanness ever returned to God. When the practice of sin becomes a second nature it is not only grace but a miracle of grace that converts them. It perfectly makes a fool of the sinner, for he laughs at the threatenings of God, and in return for this God will laugh at his distress in death and at the terrible judgment, because he did not take warning from the Word. And he likewise endangers the souls of others, for his bad example may ruin them for ever. He may likewise destroy the souls of those who knew his bad practices and conceal his crimes, for by doing so the Psalmist informs us that they participate in his wickedness. Let us pursue this thought a little further. His unlawful brood may be hid from the world, and a poor man, unknown to him, may come under the vows of baptism for the bastard of another, and what is still more awful, the adulterer may be the cause of the brother marrying his own sister. Can we, then, suppose that the God Who sees all this will pass it without punishment? The sin of uncleanness makes the heart a sink of filthy thought and this nauseous quagmire will drown all serious impression and thoughts of eternity from his view; and as this sin is hurtful to the soul, it also hurts his temporal interest. This sin is an enemy to the health; he defiles his body as well as his soul. It often brings on disease and premature old age. As it hurts his character, it will effectually hurt his family. It is well known that men of virtue will naturally avoid such connections as they avoid the pestilence, for what can be expected from the nest of the raven but a bird like the parent. And even should the children be virtuous, how difficult to make the world believe that this can be the case. Scripture positively assures us that the seed of the wicked will not be removed. Adulterers often give their strumpets the very portions which they ought to give their children of lawful wedlock. And if a person points out the bastard brother or sister to the lawful child, this must greatly vex him, unless his soul is darkened with the crimes of his father.
And to conclude this awful, shocking picture, this sin is often accompanied with murder! How often do mothers take poisonous draughts to hide their shame? But if you wish to get a complete sight of the picture come in to the dying chamber of the unclean person and look at him one-half hour before he goes to hell.
(2) Another of the awful sins mentioned is false swearing. A false oath is such a horrid profanation of God’s holy name that Himself says He will not hold them guiltless. He is not like the false heathen gods of whom their stupid votaries bear witness that they laugh at the perjuries of lovers. God will punish sin, and though perjury is small in the sight of wicked men, it will appear great at the judgment seat. Many of you know how much the King’s revenue is hurt by the false oath of the wicked. And we may complain how much the revenue of the King of Glory suffers by the perjury of wicked parents who solemnly swear to consecrate their children to God, and afterwards bring them up to the devil. But the oath they took is in God’s book of remembrance, and shall be read before men and angels. And we are informed from Scripture that the curse of God will enter into the house of the thief and into the house of the false swearer, and destroy the house with the stores and timber thereof. Let thieves and sinful parents consider this in time.
(3) Another sin that brings the vengeance of God is Sabbath-breaking. The prophet Ezekiel informs us that the profanation of the Sabbath was one of the sins for which God poured out His judgments and His fury upon the Israelites in the wilderness, and yet they had not the Spiritual advantage which we enjoy. God is a jealous God, and He takes note of the breach of the Sabbath. Some people despise the Sabbath so much that they never come to the house of God. It is their day for visiting, for riding, and for idle discourse. God gives them up to awful insensibility and infidel principles as a punishment for their breach of the Sabbath. The Sabbath is a sign or love token between God and His people. Now when a woman despises the jewels and love tokens which her husband gave her and bestows them upon another man, she is surely an adulteress. Men of loose principles are afraid of virtuous women, but no libertine is afraid of women that breaks the Sabbath, nor has he cause. It was that same God that said, “Thou shalt not commit adultery” that said also, “Remember the Sabbath.” God will hold both guilty.
(4) Covetousness is the great sin that brings down the wrath and curse of God upon guilty nations. It is the fruitful source of many other sins. A certain commentator observes that in one chapter there are twenty-four sins mentioned, but that to covetousness alone might be ascribed the destruction of the City of Jerusalem. It is often the cause of Sabbath-breaking, of oppression, extortion, fraud, perjury, theft, borrowing money without intention to pay it, and every other unlawful means that people take to become rich. They have
no idea how far this sin will carry them. Any kind of animal does not thrive that eats its own species. We reckon them very unnatural that eat men. A certain gentleman fed a sow with swines’ flesh and a dog with dog’s flesh, but the poor animals paid dearly for the experiment. There is surely no man here that would eat man’s flesh. But hear what the Scripture says:—”They eat up my people as they eat bread.” When a man eats up the substance, the field or the money of another and lives at his neighbour’s expense he surely eats his flesh. And the man that does so acts as unnatural a part as the dog that eats the dog’s flesh and the sow that eats the swines’ flesh. The man that brings the curse of God to his house by getting rich in a hurry takes the most effectual method to hurt the temporal interests of his children. He may feed his children with what ought to support and feed the flesh of his poor neighbours. But, it may be asked, what is this man in the sight of God, for he surely devours his brother’s flesh? And we can tell him with certainty that the tears and groans and prayers and complaints of the people whom he oppressed, defrauded, or injured will meet him somewhere. And without restitution he cannot expect admission into the Kingdom of Heaven. And if there are any in this congregation that has been guilty of these awful sins, let him repent, turn to God, and give his own to all that he has injured. He may swallow riches, but his children shall throw them up, and are in danger of begging their bread.
II. I shall prove to you by several arguments that God absolutely will punish, and must punish, such crying abominations. That God will punish and must punish sinners is clear from the following reasons:—
(1) Such sinners rebel against His authority, and though His long suffering and great patience may suffer them for a while, and His providence seems to wink at their crimes. He will show them at last that He was not an indifferent spectator of their conduct. By continuing in sin they defy His power, and God is bound in honour to take vengeance. The long delay will prove that He had no pleasure in the death of sinners, and the punishment will prove that He is the determined enemy of sin.
(2) Sinners, and especially unclean sinners, are enemies to His holiness, and are so foul that they must be excluded from His presence and kingdom. Lepers were formerly excluded from the society of the people of God. They were loathsome to others, and the disease was very afflictive and painful to the lepers themselves. Much more loathsome to God is the unclean sinner. He cannot be admitted into the Kingdom of God, nor can God have communion with him while he continues in sin. And himself must be miserable. The gratification of his passions fixes stings in his conscience. He has
an awful foreboding of what is to come. He stifles convictions because he thinks they torment him before the time, and as his unbelieving heart and guilty conscience tell him that God will not have mercy upon him, he takes his fill of pleasure, and this will make him a vessel of wrath to receive his fill of punishment. He is a slave to his strumpet, he is a slave to her friends, and he is afraid of any man whom he suspects his conduct is known. He is a slave to his very slave. And if his slave should tell him, “Do this, else I will tell all that I know,” he obeys through fear. And does not the purity of God lay him under the necessity of punishing such a man? It does. Scripture says (Psalm 25th) that God hath no pleasure in wickedness, that evil shall not dwell with Him, that the foolish shall not stand in His sight, and that He hateth all the workers of iniquity. In the nature of things the unclean sinner is a burden to himself; he is a burden on the earth, it groaneth under him, and no place is fit for him but that hell to which he is fast approaching.
(3) Divine justice must punish sinners. God is a just God, and He is an enemy to every act of injustice. The worldly man cannot gratify all the desires of his covetous heart without committing several gross acts of villainy; and himself must be conscious though the world is a stranger to what he has done, that God saw him. He may gather a heap, but let us see what price he paid. Will he not say that the poor strumpet that has got money to buy fine clothes has but poor pennyworth when she ruined her soul? And very poor is the pennyworth of the worldling. He sold his conscience and he sold his religion. He knows what he has done. Conscience, however her mouth may be shut, will tell him this. Whatever pleasures he may have in his self or plans, he knows very well that he has lost the pleasures of religion by them. After he has made this fine bargain he may prosper or triumph for a moment, but Scripture says (Job xx) that he shall perish for ever like his own dung, and that the justice of God is determined to punish himself and his family. Justice armed with power will prove an awful adversary to the unjust and unprincipled sinner.
(4) The truth of God must punish false sinners. God hath sworn that sinners continuing in sin will not see the Kingdom. Sinners will find to their cost that God is not such as themselves. They think nothing of a false oath; but God cannot break His oath or deny Himself. It is said that there are people in London who will swear anything you desire them. We need not go to London for such wretches; they are much nearer us. Let any person pass through a large village upon the Lord’s Day, and there he will see the most awful proof of perjury. Did not such parents swear by God that they would train up their children in His fear, and can they without blasphemy think that God will break His own word and oath though they broke theirs? False swearers will go to perdition if God is a God of truth. And He is determined to keep His word. Now,
if God is determined to punish—if all the Divine attributes are engaged to punish guilty nations and guilty individuals—have we not all cause to be humbled in the dust and turn to God from all our sins that iniquity may not be our ruin? When the lion roars all the beasts in the forest tremble, and if the threatenings of God do not affect people, their ruin is near and their destruction without remedy.
Lastly, sin, in the nature of things, must bring misery on nations and individuals. The very light of nature could teach this much to blind heathens. They believed a future state of rewards and punishments. Now, if people believe an existence after death it naturally follows that unbridled and impetuous passions will make a hell in every sinner’s breast. He cannot gratify his lusts in the other world. There is not as much as a drop of cold water to quench his thirst. And when companions in sin meet, as they cannot gratify their passions, their souls are filled with the rage of devils. If all the mad people and fools in Great Britain were gathered to one very large house and let loose upon one another, what an awful company would they make! Much more awful, however, is the place of torment. The fence of human laws and the fear of the gallows will keep the wicked in some kind of order in this life. But in the world of black spirits all restraint is taken off, and they are abandoned to their own thoughts and to their fury and tumultuous passions. Like the heathen fanatics, they are seeking happiness in a rage of despair because they cannot find it. They refused the food and medicine of their souls. Instead of this they took poison. The poison has now begun to operate, which will torment them for ever. You all profess, when you appear to swear before a judge, that you are to answer to God at His judgment seat. And if you come before Him in your sins, how awful will your meeting be. It is your present work to commit sin and to forget sin. It will be your work then to remember sin and to suffer the weight of its punishment. Sin at this time sits lightly upon your conscience; it will then be heavier than mountains of lead. A trifle will keep you now from the means of grace, but an eternity hereafter will not give you one opportunity. You may now laugh at the people of God, but you will then be glad to get a single drop of the oil in their lamps. You see nothing now but their faults and failings, and you will see nothing then but your own misery. A sight of the strumpet will then terrify the unclean person, and the thought of his pelf will be intolerable to the covetous. What would Sabbath-breakers and unnatural parents give for one Sabbath, one sermon, one prayer, or one Psalm? Alas! the joyful sound is heard no more. God will then show sinful nations and sinful individuals how fearful a thing it is to fall under the weight of Divine vengeance. Sinner, is this sermon lost upon you with all the rest?
III. Lastly—I shall now lay two practical observations before you in the way of improvement.
(1) Though the sins of Great Britain are great and highly aggravated, if we turn, like Nineveh, our tranquillity may be lengthened and the prayers of the people of God may avert the judgments.
(2) Whether temporal judgments will seize the wicked or not, Divine vengeance will overtake them sooner or later.
(1) Though the sins of Great Britain are great and highly aggravated, if we turn, like Nineveh, our tranquillity may be lengthened and the prayers of the people of God may avert the judgments which we deserve as a nation. Great sins require great humiliation. Even wicked Ahab averted the judgments in his own day by a half repentance. And we may judge from this what would have happened if he had been truly penitent. Bloody Nebuchadnezzar, that great sinner, is advised to break off his sins by righteousness and his iniquities by showing mercy to the poor. If a nation were humbled for their sins we can predict the event, for God is gracious. But if they do not we cannot tell how long the prayers of the people of God can prevent their fall, for Ezekiel and Jeremiah could not prevent the captivity.
(2) Whether temporal judgments will seize the wicked or not, Divine vengeance will overtake them sooner or later. One wicked man may die on his bed, and, like the rich man in the Gospel, may open his eyes in hell; another bad man may perish by war or pestilence. But whatever be their fate in a temporal view, we are sure that punishment waits them hereafter. The prayers of God’s people may put by the judgments of which we were once afraid, but God has many ways of punishing though the sword should not come near our doors. God gave the antedeluvians 120 years to repent, and did thus strive with them by His Spirit. But were not the wicked who perished during that period as surely miserable in the world to come as those who were swept off the face of the earth by the flood? If God delays the temporal judgments of the families of bad men they are not the less sure for all that. The judgment came upon Saul’s family in his son’s day, and the family of Jehu were delayed to the fourth generation. Let us not, then, deceive ourselves, but let us turn to God by true repentance. And if we do so, whatever He may do with us in a temporal view, if the soul is saved we are happy. If we forsake our sins God will abundantly pardon; but though He pardoned David, He punished him in this life.
May God bless His Word for Christ’s sake. AMEN.
In prayer it is better to have a heart without words, than words without a heart.—Bunyan.
Episcopacy and Presbyterianism.
By REV. JOHN COLQUHOUN, Glendale,
XIX. The Joint Report.
After various Conferences between representatives of the Presbyterian Church and those of the Episcopal Communion a Report was issued which (1) Re-affirmed the considerable doctrinal agreement between the Church of England and the Church of Scotland as expressed in the Report of 1934; (2) made a number of recommendations concerning admission to Holy Communion in certain circumstances, the exchange of preachers, and other practical matters; (3) expressed the hope for the continuance of Conversations between the two Churches with a view to a long-term consideration of those changes in the Churches which would be requisite for the goal of the reintegration of the whole Church of Christ. It is the long-term task that our enlarged Conference has tried to serve. “Relations Between Anglican and Presbyterian Churches.” p. 9. One can see from this that a universal Church is visualised which will embrace the Protestant, Orthodox, and Roman Catholic Churches. With this in view all reference to past history must be excluded, and those who have framed the Report express their belief that separated Churches “should renounce the method of selecting and measuring the faults and errors in the past history of the Churches now conferring as might be judged to be responsible for our present divisions . . . It is acknowledged that mistakes have been made on both sides, and that over the generations attitudes tending to bitterness and strife have been not infrequent, but the time has come when the voice of recrimination should be silent.” Ibid. p. 15. Taking into consideration that this language refers to the long-term policy which aims at one united Church for the whole world one has the right to ask how such a Union, as is proposed, can be effected without looking to the past, studying the origin of those things which cause a difference, and casting out what has no authority in the Word of God. The alternative to this can best be illustrated by a festering sore which has not been properly cleansed, but which is covered by a new skin, causing the poison to go through the whole body until mortification reigns supreme.
In order to effect such a world-wide Union not only must the voice of mutual recrimination be silent but the salient features of the various Churches must be toned down so that they will not be offensive to one another. This toning down, it may be pointed out, has been in vogue for a considerable time so that the Church of Rome has ceased to be referred to as mystical Babylon, and the Pope as antichrist or the man of sin, or the Episcopal Church as “a corrupt limb of anti-Christ,” as our Covenanting fathers often denominated it. The once-glorious Church of the Reformation in Scotland must go back to the fold of the Church of Rome, and the descendants of the martyrs of the Second Reformation must come to the same
goal, after tasting of the great blessings of Apostolic Succession under the wings of that “black prelacy” which shed the blood of thousands who died for “Christ’s Crown and Covenant.”
In an endeavour to bring about this unity much sophistry is used by the union-mongers, especially in their insistence that an outward union is essential. Neither the Word of God nor the experience of the Christian Church support this view. It is boldly affirmed on page 12 of the Report that “in their visible separatedness the Churches cannot but obscure and disfigure the face and form of the body of Christ.” The inference from this is that outward unity is absolutely necessary in order to show in its fullness the “face and form of the body of Christ.” In order to show the fallacy of this we have only to look at the Church of Rome at the time, before the Reformation, when it held practically undisputed sway on what went under the name of Christendom. The published lives of its Popes, published by its own historians, are too horrible to read; its priests, with few exceptions, were lecherous, and treacherous scoundrels, its sacraments were multiplied to seven, its teaching the very reverse of what we have in the Scriptures, and its poor dupes, harassed with many nameless fears, and strangers to the love of God in Christ, went, in their thousands every hour, for want of the Bread of Life, into the blackness of a lost eternity. Yet, according to the logic of the Union-mongers, this was a time unrivalled in the history of the Church, because of its outward unity, for showing forth the “face and form of the body of Christ.” All who have even a modicum of knowledge of the history of religion in the world can testify that it was by separation from this corrupt system that the face of Christ could be seen in the visible Church, and that with every separation that had as its aim the casting off of excrescences of the flesh which had crept into the Church, the face of Christ began to be discerned anew with a consequent revival of religion.
In the quintessence of their charity the union-mongers are going to leave the Church of Scotland its Presbyteries, but they are going to confer on each Presbytery the great boon of having a Bishop. Such a Bishop might be chosen by a Presbytery from its own membership but he would need to be Episcopally ordained, thus making his previous ordination by the Presbytery null and void. This would be acknowledged by the Anglicans and is said to be what is needed by the Presbyterians, for his consecration would put him within the myth of Apostolic Succession. He would be the President of the Presbytery and would act as its principal minister in every ordination and in the consecration of other Bishops. He is to have lordship over the other ministers of the Presbytery and be the Presbytery’s spokesman to the community. This, of course, is not a new thing. During the time when Episcopacy was in the ascendency in Scotland, and helped forward by the Sovereign, there were Bishops in each
Presbytery and they acted as “Constant Moderators.” Their appointment was first brought about by King James VI., and after the overture, craving the introduction of “Constant Moderators” was adopted, according to King-Hewison, “The Church realised that it was dealing with a trickster and the report soon ran that the minute of the Convention had been cooked, when it transpired that all the bishops had been appointed ‘Constant Moderators’ of those thirteen Presbyteries, which surrounded their cathedral seats. The meaning of the popular saying—’the little had passed through the window to open the door to the great thieves outside’—was apparent. A slight manipulation made the thirteen bishops into Constant Moderators of Synods, which were in reality dioceses. Refusal to accept the Moderators was made penal. At first some Presbyteries and Synods did refuse. The King could now convene assemblies and elect presidents paid out of the bishops teinds. His next step was to make the Church itself sanction the Episcopal order, rather than appear to be a creator of bishops.” The Covenanter, I p. 185. That these bishops were the creatures of the King and were always ready to do his bidding is proved by the language of Archbishop Spottiswood to the King when he confess that “at your Majesty’s nod we either must stand or fall.” In this we see, as in a mirror, what the future bishops of the Church of Scotland will be if the projected Union will take place.
As we noticed already, the Bishop in Presbytery would require to be Episcopally ordained in order to be in the line of Apostolic Succession, which infers that the Church of Scotland at present is not in that line at all. Dr. Bannerman, in reasoning from the broad principles that (1) “It is not true, as is assumed in the doctrine of Apostolic Succession, that the Church has received any deposit of grace from Christ, which it is empowered to communicate from one age to another, and from one succession to another of its ministers;” and (2) “It is not true, as is assumed in the doctrine of Apostolic Succession, that the gift of the ministry has been conferred exclusively on the office-bearers of the Christian Church, or that the Church is dependent entirely on a particular order of men for the existence and continuance of the ministry,” says, “The general principles now laid down appear to be borne out by Scripture, and they overturn from its foundations the extravagant and intolerant doctrine by which the advocates of apostolic succession would unchurch every religious society except the Popish or the Episcopal Church, would restrict the Divine blessing to a ministry in their so-called ‘apostolic succession,’ and would declare that ministers without prelatic ordination have no right to preach the gospel or administer the sacraments of Christ. It is needless to take the trouble of testing the hardihood of such a doctrine by the standard of history, or to appeal to the records of the past to show that, on such a principle, no Church on earth can be secure that it possesses a rightly constituted and commissioned
ministry at the present day . . . But without reference to the argument that might easily be brought from history to confound the pretensions of the advocates of apostolic succession, the Scripture principles of a general kind now laid down are sufficient to evince their fallacy.” The Church of Christ, Vol. i. p. 448.
For all the benefit that prelacy will ever confer on Scotland we may adopt the words of the Rev. W. M. Hetherington, LL.D., of St. Andrews, after enumerating some considerations which reflected adversely on Episcopacy, says, “It is scarcely necessary to add to these mighty elements, the further consideration, although it had its influence, that the men who were the keenest sticklers for empty forms and ceremonies,—who did not hesitate to violate their own oaths, and strive to compel others to the perpetration of the same crime, throwing a whole nation into suffering and confusion for the attainment of what they themselves admitted to be not a matter of conscience, but merely a convenient and seemly order,—that these men were generally notorious for vice, profligacy, Sabbath-breaking, and every species of immorality. Had even the cause been good, the perfidious and tyrannical manner of its introduction, and the characters of the men by whom it was introduced, would have ruined it in the estimation of every man who had an eye to discern and an heart to feel. Some of the defenders of prelacy have said, that Scotland never saw it in its true aspect,—that if we had, we would have received it, and made it cordially our own. Certainly prelacy never appeared in Scotland but as a tyrannical and persecuting system; therefore we have little cause to love it. But we can see it in England, with all its blushing honours and unblushing abuses thick upon it,—with its clergy secularised, and its people uninstructed; and what we see of it there has no tendency to recommend it to our favourable regard, or to make us languish for its reintroduction to Scotland.” History of the Church of Scotland, 6 ed. p. 80.
A Modern Jonah.
The sperm whale is “met with . . . in all tropical and sub-tropical seas” and “in summer occasionally visiting the Shetlands and even Iceland.” It “attains a very large size and may measure from 50 to 70 or 80 ft. in length.” The sperm whale model in South Kensington Museum is 69 ft. long with a mouth “20 ft. in length, also 15 ft. in height and 9 ft. in width.” “It swims about with its lower jaw hanging down—and its huge gullet gaping like some submarine cavern.” The sperm whale subsists for the most part on the octopus, “the bodies of which, far larger than the body of a man, have been found whole in its stomach.”
The manager of a whaling station in the extreme north of Britain stated that the largest thing they had found in a whale was the
“skeleton of a shark 16 ft. long.” When confronted with the difficulty about the orsophagus he smiled and explained that “the throat of a sperm whale can take lumps of food 8 ft. in diameter.” Until about 1800 the sperm whale was not uncommon in the Mediterranean though now rare.
Could a man live in a whale? Yes! but in circumstances of very great discomfort. There would be air to breathe—of a sort. This is necessary to enable the fish to float. The heat would be very oppressive, 104-6° Fahrenheit in the opinion of one expert; a provision maintained by his “blanket” of blubber “often many ft. in thickness” which is needed “to enable him to resist the cold of ocean.” . . . This temperature, though high fever heat to a human being, is not fatal to human life.
The gastric juice . . . cannot digest living matter, otherwise it would digest the walls of its own stomach.
HOW LONG then could one live? “Until he starved,” was James Bartley’s estimate based, as we shall see presently, on his practical experience.
* * *
A case similar to Jonah’s. Such is that of James Bartley, as recently as 1891, recorded by Sir Francis Fox, in his book SIXTY-THREE YEARS OF ENGINEERING p. 300. But before giving details let it be clearly understood that the whole story was carefully investigated, not only by Sir Francis Fox, but by two French Scientists, one of whom was the late M. de Parville, the scientific editor of the JOURNAL DES DESBATS of Paris, ‘one of the most careful and painstaking scientists in Europe,’ who concluded his investigations by stating his belief that the account given by the Captain and crew of the English whaler is worthy of belief. “There are many cases where whales in the fury of their dying agony have swallowed human beings; but this is the first MODERN case in which the victim has come forth safe and sound.” After this modern illustration he says, “I end by believing that Jonah really did come out from the whale alive, as the Bible records.”
Outlines of the story can best be given by means of quotations from Sir Francis Fox’s account, which are quoted by his kind permission.
“In February 1891, the whaling ship ‘Star of the East’ was in the vicinity of the Falkland Islands and the lookout sighted a large sperm whale three miles away. Two boats were launched and in a short time one of the harpooners was enabled to spear the fish. The second boat attacked the whale but was upset by a lash of its tail and the men thrown into the sea, one man being drowned, and another, James Bartley, having disappeared could not be found. The whale was killed and IN A FEW HOURS was lying by the ship’s side and the crew were busy with axes and spades removing
the blubber. THEY WORKED ALL DAY, AND PART OF THE NIGHT. Next morning they attached some tackle to the stomach which was hoisted on the deck. The sailors were startled by something in it which gave spasmodic signs of life, and inside they found the missing sailor doubled up and unconscious. He was laid on the deck, and treated to a bath of sea water which soon revived him . . . He remained two weeks a raving lunatic . . . At the end of the third week he had entirely recovered from the shock and resumed his duties.”
Now let him comment on the possibility of LIVING in such surroundings.
“Bartley affirms that he would probably have lived inside his house of flesh until he starved, for he lost his senses through fright and not from lack of air. He remembers the sensation of being thrown out of the boat into the sea. . . . He was then encompassed by a great darkness and he felt he was slipping along a smooth passage of some sort that seemed to move and carry him forward. The sensation lasted but a short time and then he realized he had more room. He felt about him and his hands came in contact with a yielding slimy substance that seemed to shrink from his touch. It finally dawned upon him that he had been swallowed by a whale . . . HE COULD EASILY BREATHE; but the heat was terrible. It was not of a scorching, stifling nature, but it seemed to open the pores of his skin and draw out his vitality . . . His skin where it was exposed to the action of the gastric juice . . . face, neck and hands were bleached to a deadly whiteness and took on the appearance of parchment . . . (and) never recovered its natural appearance . . . (though) otherwise his health did not seem affected by his terrible experience.” (SIXTY-THREE YEARS OF ENGINEERING, Sir Francis Fox. pp. 298-300.)
James Bartley’s detention “in durance vile” was—similarly to Jonah’s—for one complete day coming, between two nights and two parts of days, What are the words? “A few hours passed after the whale was secured.” But part of the preceding day and part of the night had already been spent in killing and securing it. After this, with dawn of the second day the work began. “All that day and part of the night,” [the second night] “they worked with their axes and spades” at the main body of the labour. Then this second night being over, “next morning they took the further action which led to the man’s release.” Abbreviated account of “The Sign of the Prophet Jonah and its Modern Confirmations” by Ambrose J. Wilson in “The Princeton Theological Review.” vol. XXV. pp. 630-642.
Do not measure the efficacy of prayer by its length, but by its spirit and fervour; the proud Pharisee made a long prayer, the penitent publican a short one—Dr. Guthrie.
The late Mr. R. R. Sinclair, Elder, London.
Since Mr. William Grant (now Rev. William Grant, Halkirk), with the late worthy Mr. Donald Sutherland, began, in 1907, to hold stated services in London, on behalf of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland, the name of Mr. R. R. Sinclair has been so intimately associated with the cause there, that it is now difficult for those interested in it to think of it without him. Many of the warmly attached and ardent original number are now in Eternity, and in glory, while there still survive, both at home and overseas, those who recall with warm-hearted gratitude those happy days of edifying fellowship in London. Such will be sorry to hear that Mr. Sinclair passed away suddenly, after a lingering illness, at his home, 37 Albert Palace Mansions, London, S.W.11, on Thursday night, the 13th November, 1958.
Since the death of his worthy cousin, Mr. Donald Sutherland, above referred to, in 1917, Mr. Sinclair acted as precensor, or leader of congregational praise, and treasurer, for which offices he was well qualified, as far as natural gifts were concerned, for he had a strong, trained, melodious and resonant voice, while his natural aptitude for figures almost amounted to genius, with the result that the congregational books could not have fared better in the hands of a trained competent accountant. It is to be feared that the free unpaid services of our precensors and congregational treasurers, while a labour of love to them, are too apt to be taken for granted as a matter of course, a case of the worth of the water being realized only when the well is dry. Mr. Sinclair assiduously and faithfully continued this labour of love till within a year, or two, of the end, when the infirmities of age compelled him to retire. He was thus for forty-one years precensor and treasurer of the congregation.
Mr. Sinclair was born in Wick, Caithness, a little over seventy-six years ago, the second oldest of a family of eleven. He had the great privilege of being brought up by an eminently godly and uncompromisingly faithful mother, one of the greatest privileges, next to being in the kingdom of grace oneself, that this world affords. As Rev. C. H. Spurgeon puts it:—”It requires one to do violence to the deepest instincts of human nature to go to Hell, over a godly mother’s example, prayers, and precepts.” Only the Great Day will reveal the fruit of Mrs. Sinclair’s faithful fearless public witness-bearing, from her earliest years to a fruitful and pleasant old age, such activities consisting of long and costly telegrams to town and county-councillors, provosts of towns and cities, members of Parliament, and Prime Ministers, congratulating and encouraging them when opposing, successfully or otherwise, Sabbath desecration and public immorality, while equally fearless in condemning the opposite conduct of heads of local and national Governments. She herself was the daughter of the worthy, saintly, outspoken, and fearless Captain Robert Ross, after whom, the subject of this sketch, and many other relatives,
were, and are, named. Nevertheless godly parents, with all their commendable prayers, precepts, and example, cannot transmit saving supernatural grace to their offspring, however splendidly otherwise they may have performed their honourable parental duties. It is the alone exclusive prerogative of the Holy Ghost to make the Word of God, which He has Himself inspired, the effectual means of convincing of sin, of producing saving faith in the individual soul, with its inevitable evangelical repentance, new obedience, and ultimate perfection in holiness. He (the Holy Ghost) alone “shall convince the world of sin”; “He alone shall glorify Christ” in the individual soul, for He takes of the things of Christ, and manifests them to the sinner.
The subject of our sketch was no exception to this rule. Despite deep natural respect for his godly relatives, as he often told us, he had not in his early life even a sentimental natural attachment to religion, so that he often looked back with amazement at the fact that he remained attached to the London Congregation for years, before he experienced a radical change, which he attributed solely to the sovereign mysterious purpose of God, while all his natural inclinations were towards a worldly life. In the prime of life, he was so intensely urged to plunge into a gay worldly life that he spent a whole night pleading with the Most High to prevent it, and before he rose from his knees he got the assurance, from the applied Word, that the temptation was broken, and that it would never trouble him again, which proved true, though the writer has forgotten the particular passage.
He became a member in full communion in 1935, when the present writer was in Grafton, Australia, and in 1937, he was elected an elder, an office which he diligently performed to the end, notwithstanding strong temptations to resign, as regarding himself utterly unfit for its solemn responsibilities. He came to London at the early age of nineteen, and was employed in the London Telephone service, rising gradually, till, during the Second World War, he was appointed to the elevated and responsible position of liaison-officer between the War Office and the London Telephonic System. Despite the confidential, responsible, and exacting requirements of this position, he never missed, as also in the First World War, a single service on Sabbath or week-day. His work thus brought him into direct contact with the horrors resulting from the aerial bombardment of London, details of which are too gruesome for mention here, but when he felt at the end of his resources in these circumstances, he sent up ejaculatory prayers for strength in time of need, and he was not disappointed. Sometime after the cessation of hostilities he underwent a serious major internal operation, concerning which his doctors, on meeting him afterwards, used to say “You are one of those people who ought not to be living, according to our diagnosis.” He was upheld, however, by the application to him, in the furnace of affliction, of the
words:—” All thine iniquities Who doth, most graciously forgive; Who thy diseases all and pains, doth heal and thee relieve,” down to the end of verse 5. (Psalm ciii, 3-5., metrical version).
It was years after that he had his first major stroke, which incapacitated him for weeks, if not months. That one was followed, at intervals of months, by three more major strokes, with many minor ones, but, humanly speaking, it showed his extraordinarily strong physique, when he survived them all. When he had his fourth major stroke he had to be admitted to hospital, from which no doctor or nurse ever expected him to come out alive. He survived, however, wonderfully regained the strength of his limbs, and his speech was restored almost to normal, so that during the last few months of his life, he had complete freedom from pain, which amazed himself and others. He attended the services every Sabbath evening till the Sabbath before he passed away, being taken back and fore, in his car, by his friend, Mr. John Campbell, our present treasurer. He was conversing with his wife and a friend, sitting on the sofa, when he gently put his head back, and passed away without any apparent struggle. “After he had served his own generation, by the will of God, he fell on sleep.” (Acts, xiii, 36.)
In the last few months of his life Mr. Sinclair showed unmistakable signs of one ripening for a better world, subdued and humble, delighting only in spiritual conversation, as if bidding farewell to the things of time and sense. He expressed amazement at any Gospel-hearer who could have any hope of heaven, based on anything he could do himself. With a deep and increasing sense of inward corruption he had no hope at all apart from the infinite efficacy of the atoning blood of the cross, and the infinite merit of the surety, spotless, everlasting righteousness of Christ, as supernaturally applied to the soul by the Holy Spirit, through the Word. After having passed through fire and water of bodily suffering and weakness, the remaining months of his life were calm, painless, and pleasant. On his last Sabbath in the Hall, his stately, dignified, and handsome figure, with its gentlemanly bearing and aristocratic mien, seemed as erect as ever, wonderfully alert and active. Thus ended the fruitful and useful career of Mr. R. R. Sinclair.
“Then are they glad, because at rest,
And quiet now they be:
So to the haven He them brings,
Which they desired to see.” (Psalm cvii, 30., metrical version).
We take this opportunity of expressing to Mrs. Sinclair, their only son, Morven, his only surviving brother and sister, and all other relatives and friends, our sincere sympathy with them all. Mrs. Sinclair, assiduously, faithfully, tenderly, and competently, attended to all Mr. Sinclair’s temporal needs throughout, and to the end, and for this she will never have cause for regret. May this solemn voice be blessed to her, and Morven, for we must all die, and after death,
the Judgment; therefore “Set thine house in order: for thou shalt die, and not live.” (Isaiah, xxxviii, 1.)
Mr. Sinclair’s remains were laid to rest in Moreden Cemetery, where also rest the dust of Miss Bain; her sister, Mrs. MacLean; and her niece, Mrs. Donald Sutherland. The funeral was well attended by most of the people of the congregation, notwithstanding the difficulty of getting off for the day, while Rev. R. R. Sinclair came all the way from Wick to attend, and participated in the worship, and Mr. Donald Beaton MacLeod, student, came from Dornoch, also participating in the worship, while Mr. Docter came all the way from Holland, thus paying their last tribute of respect to their departed highly-esteemed friend.—John P. MacQueen.
The late Mrs. Marion MacCaskill, Carbostbeg, Bracadale, Skye.
Mrs. MacCaskill was born at Carbost, Minginish, Skye, in January, 1868. Her maiden name was Marion MacCaskill. She was the only daughter in a family of eight.
After some time at service she married Mr. Malcolm MacCaskill, a brother of Mr. John A. MacCaskill, our worthy missionary in Bracadale in the earlier days of the Free Presbyterian Church. From the obituary notice of Mr. John A. MacCaskill which appears in Volume XXI (February, 1917) of the Free Presbyterian Magazine we see that “when the Free Presbyterian Church took up a position of separate existence, to maintain inviolate, and in its entirety, the distinctive position of the Disruption Church, he heartily cast in his lot with it. In consequence of this step, he made his sacrifices, and willingly suffered persecution.” We remember the subject of this present obituary making some touching references to her brother-in-law, and we have no doubt but that the example of godliness set before her by him, and his like-minded wife, had a salutary effect upon her.
We are unable to say when she was savingly changed, but when we first came to know her, in 1942, we found her to be a serious-minded woman, who was full of the knowledge of the Scripture and very attentive on the public means of grace. She was also of a tender heart towards the Lord’s people, considering it a great privilege to have them in her home.
At that time she was a widow, residing with her son, Donald, and her widowed daughter. She had come through affliction in the loss of her husband, and a son and daughter. Patient under these visitations, she showed by her life and conversation that a gracious change had been wrought in her soul by the Holy Ghost, and that God’s Word was made precious to her. She could say with the Psalmist “It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn Thy statutes.” (Psalm 119:71).
The portion of truth through which she obtained Gospel deliverance was John, Chapter 6, verse 37—”All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me; and him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.” This portion, we believe, has been blessed to many, among them being the late Dr. Kennedy of Dingwall. She liked to hear this portion quoted in the sermon or in prayer. We here give the substance of part of Matthew Henry’s remarks on this text which was blessed to our friend.
“Here we have the doctrine of election described, followed by a pure Gospel duty—to come to Christ—and a pure Gospel promise in which there are two negatives in the Greek—I will not at all cast out. We have reason to fear that He should cast us out. Because of our vileness, our unworthiness, we may justly expect He should shut His doors against us. But He here assures us He will not do this. He will not disdain us though we are weak. He will not reject us though we are sinful. He will give them all that for which they come to Him. As He will not refuse them at their first coming, so He will not afterwards, upon every displeasure, cast them out.”
She was received as a member in full communion on the 2nd day of April, 1949. She had been greatly exercised previously with the words in Matthew, Chapter 10, verses 32, 33—”Whosoever therefore shall confess Me before men, him will I confess also before My Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny Me before men, him will I also deny before My Father which is in heaven.” Although she suffered from loss of memory during her last few years, yet she retained her hold of the Word of God, and would rejoice when one took hold of the Bible to begin worship. Shortly before she passed away she was heard quietly repeating Psalm 89, verse 1, “God’s mercies I will ever sing.” The end came peacefully at the ripe age of 90 years, in April, 1958.
Prayer was her constant exercise. She could say that the Scriptures were her counsellors. The Sabbath was her delight, and its profanation caused her great grief. Now she enjoys an eternal Sabbath where the inhabitants shall never say “I am sick.”
She felt herself a great sinner, and placed all her hope of being saved in God’s mercy, through the precious blood of Jesus Christ, the Great Deliverer.
To her son, daughter, grand-daughters, and all relatives we tender our sincerest sympathy. Our Bracadale Congregation and our Church have, by her death, lost a faithful pleader for the prosperity of Zion. “The righteous shall be glad in the Lord, and shall trust in Him; and all the upright in heart shall glory.” Psalm 64:10.—M. MacS.