There appeared in the press recently details of a new Scottish plan organised by the Roman Catholic Order of the Society of Jesus, or as they are commonly called—the Jesuits. Plans for the extension of the work of the Jesuits in Scotland provide for the opening in September, 1961, of a House of Studies at Wardhall House, Juniper Green, Edinburgh. It is also intended to establish Scotland as a distinct province of the Jesuits in connection with their nefarious activities in Protestant Britain. Rev. James Christie of the Society of Jesus stated that there had been a distinct Scottish unit within his Society from 1560, and onwards for 200 years when it was merged with the English province. The modern movements of this Society can bring nothing but real danger to the liberties and privileges enjoyed by Protestants in our beloved land, if we will not awake and be on our guard against this enemy within our gates. May God arise and scatter these enemies of the Gospel of Christ and of truth and righteousness.
Therefore in order to give our readers who may not be conversant with the history of the Jesuits, some idea of their character and activities, we intend herewith to give some extracts and information from the book—The Jesuits; a Complete History of their open and secret proceedings from the foundation of the Order to the present time. Told to the German people, by Theodor Griesinger. Translated by A. J. Scott—1892.
The Founder of this Society was Ignatius Loyola, the youngest son in a Spanish aristocratic family. He was born in 1491. In youth he was at King Ferdinand’s Court, and afterwards became an army officer. After being severely wounded in battle he became lame for life and otherwise also his former handsome appearance which was greatly admired, was lost. This affected his mind, adversely. At this time he read a book which recounted supposed adventures which “saints” had to go through before they became truly holy. His eccentric nature was greatly impressed, and he determined to do the same. He became devoted to the Virgin Mary, and later went about in rags and filth and at times publicly flogged himself with an iron chain. On one occasion, because of fasting he was unconscious for
eight days. About this time in his life he was supposed to have seen apparitions, probably the effect of delirium. Then he was advised by priests to give up this (what we call) unnatural mode of living, and to devote himself to the service of the heathen. To this he agreed, and added to this the waging of war on the heretical world from his point of view and now sought to gather an army of knights whose supreme head should be Jesus Christ, in order to overcome “heretics,” such as Protestant Reformers and those who adhered to them. Six other men associated themselves with him at this time and they all took a special oath which included the resolve to fight for the Pope and the extension of the Romish faith among “unbelievers,” as Protestants and others were called.
Rules of the Order drawn up in September, 1540, included vows of chastity, poverty, obedience to superiors, and unlimited submission to the Pope. The General or Chief of the Jesuits was elected for life and was endowed with absolute authority, and each member of the Society of Jesus, on his admission gave up his own will and became an instrument merely for the use of the Order.
When the Jesuits became a distinct Order in Europe, one of the original regulations then made was for such members as were appointed “Confessors”: it runs as follows—”The chief aim of all our efforts ought to be to procure the confidence and favour of princes and men in places of distinction, to the end that no one might dare to offer opposition to us, but, on the contrary, that all should be subject to us.” Truly we can discern this Regulation in operation today in Protestant Britain, when members of our Royal Family are repeatedly influenced and engaged to visit the Pope, in complete disregard of faithful and legal protestations on the part of Protestant Churches and Organisations.
The Jesuits also gave guidance on such matters as the following: “The favourites of princes, high and low, female as well as male, must be put under obligation through presents, flattery, . . . so that they may intercede for us with their masters, and give us correct information as to the characters and inclinations of the latter. On the other hand, all servants who have shown themselves to be in any way adverse to the Order, should by all manner of means be removed from the surrounding of the monarchs and their councillors, or be gained over to our side by great promises.”
Another line of things is to be seen in connection with the Jesuits, at the beginning of the 17th Century, about the year 1633. A great controversy and conflict began between them and Dominican monks over the practices of the Jesuits in China. The Jesuits permitted the Chinese “converts” to Romanism to continue to worship Confucius, and the Christianity they taught these heathen was just the old Chinese paganism in another form. The monks went to China in 1633, and were astounded to observe that the Jesuits had allowed these practices. The monks were opposed by the Jesuits. Here are the sons of the Pope in open conflict contrary to what we are told of Roman Catholic
unity. Well, the monks reported to the Pope himself in Rome. But the controversy raged up to 1691; and only then Pope Innocent XII, decided that the Jesuits were entirely wrong. At this time the Jesuits violated one of their vows, because they issued a statement in which they described the Pope’s conduct as heretical, godless and unwise. The Pope was helpless to deal with the Jesuits. From this episode we see this Order arrogating to itself power and boldness by which they even disregarded the authority of the Pope himself. What a deep cleavage between Roman Catholics we have exposed to view in these facts. What a hollow mockery Roman Catholic unity has been and still is.
Later in 1761, the Jesuits made a first class blunder in placing before the Parliament of Paris a copy of the Constitutions of the Jesuit Order. There was a background to this which we need not refer to in this brief survey. Then following upon an examination of the Constitutions, the Parliament of Paris declared this document “as through and through offensive, and such as it was impossible to tolerate in any well ordered State.” It is related that the Jesuits immediately made haste to gather and destroy all the copies they could. People at this same time were also horrified by the books of doctrine respecting Christian morals and moral theology which the Jesuits had hitherto claimed as their own. Grissinger observes in this connection: “There-in were to be read truly horrible things—calculated indeed to make one’s hair ‘stand on end.’ For one could not but see, at the first glance, that here was no question of ‘Christian Morals,’ but of a more than heathenish prudential doctrine, which even allowed, according to time and circumstances, the commission of the worst sins.” The Parliament of Paris further ordered a number of prominent Jesuitical writings to be investigated, and as a result ordered them to be torn up and burnt, on account of their being “entirely subversive of Christian morality.”
A few years after the above happenings, King Charles of Spain waged war on the Jesuits in his own Country; and a resolution was come to, on the 28th February, 1767, to banish, then and for ever, the Society of Jesus, as being generally injurious and highly treasonable, out of all the possessions of the Spanish monarchy. This was carried out and 6000 Jesuits were exiled from Spain at that time and none of them dared to return again to Spain as long as Charles III and his son, Charles IV., governed. No doubt, but they are back to Spain today and holding the people in bondage. And now they are building up their evil organisation in Scotland and bold enough to publicly intimate this through the press.
Later in our own land, the well-known Gunpowder Plot, discovered on the night between 4th and 5th November, 1605, by which it was intended to blow up The Palace of Westminster and those who were to assemble there on the 5th November, was all planned by the Jesuits. Guy Fawkes and others were discovered and executed. But
the Government made known the names of four Jesuit priests who were involved, and called upon the public to deliver them into the hands of the authorities, wherever they might be found.
As we cannot extend this article much more, a final fact of great significance must be recorded. Pope Clement XIV, on 21st of July, 1773, issued a Brief that decreed the abolition of the Jesuit Order. The Order became a scourge and a menace even within the Pope’s own realm; and we give the following short extract from the Brief, quite a lengthy document, viz., “From these weighty motives, on mature consideration, we, in the plenitude of apostolic power, abolish the said Society, suppress it, and dissolve it, and do away with and abolish all and everyone of their offices . . .” Now this is the Society which is endeavouring to lift its black head once more in Scotland, the land of the First and Second Reformation and of Covenanting history.
The blind leaders of the blind who are to be found in all parts of Scotland and the professing Protestant Churches therein have need of a great awakening by the power of the Holy Spirit; that their eyes might be opened to know the Truth as it is in Jesus, so that they might come to instruct and warn the people, in the mercy of God, to turn to the pure gospel of the grace of God in Christ Jesus, and to shun and resist every indication of the slightest trend towards High Anglicanism and Romanism in this land of Scotland, as they would shun and resist the resurgence of the activities of the diabolical seed of Loyola.
Notes Of A Sermon
(preached by the late Rev. Jas. Fraser, M.A., at Hilton, Fearn, on 5th August, 1947).
Text:—”And he spake a parable to them to this end that men ought always to pray and not to faint.” Luke chap. 18, v. 1.
I would like to meditate this evening more particularly on the latter part of the verse—”men ought not to faint.” “Men ought always to pray.” The word “always” suggests that prayer is, above all, an attitude of soul, that it is not so much a matter of uttering petitions with the lips or even with the heart, but that it is an attitude of soul with relation to the Most High, for however spiritually minded a believer may be it is impossible for him or her to be always in the act of prayer. As the believer has to carry on the business of life and to concentrate on the work which comes to his hand from day to day it is impossible for him or her to be always in the act of prayer, to be praying with the lips or even silently with the heart. Such are the limitations of our human nature, and such is the nature of every day life as we know it in this world that such is impossible, but through the grace of God it is possible that we should have such an attitude
of soul as will be regarded by God as prayer. You heard of the man who went to the godly weaver of Edderton asking what was the meaning of the exhortation—”pray without ceasing,” and he found him delving in his garden, and he said to the godly man—”You are well exercised today.” “If you would say that praying and delving, and delving and praying is a profitable exercise, then I am,” and so he had his answer to his question before he had asked it.
Prayer is an attitude of soul, but without saying much more on that, there are three essential elements in true prayer as an attitude of soul in relation to the Most High. The first is a sense of need and of guilt, and without that it is impossible to pray unto God. A sense of need and a sense of guilt will be felt more at times than at others but must always be there, and it is true of God’s children that there is always a sense of deep and real need and always a sense of guilt—loathsome, defiling guilt and condemning guilt. The second element I would mention is a sense of the fullness that is in Christ Jesus. Now, prayer is not true prayer without that. However indistinct, however vague the sense may be, yet we must know that God in Christ has an infinite fullness which is able to meet our case, and there must always be that before our minds together with this sense of need, the sense of the fullness that is in Christ Jesus, and the conviction that there is in Christ that which can fully satisfy our deepest and most awful needs. The third element in true prayer which I would mention is the desire that these two which we have already mentioned should meet—that the need and the guilt of the sinner should meet with the fullness of the merit which is in the Saviour, and that the need and the guilt of the sinner should be completely met and completely swallowed up in the infinite fullness of the merit and in the boundless efficacy which flows out from God to man through the Lord Jesus Christ as the eternal God man.
Now, there is a very special privilege in prayer—a privilege which we cannot value sufficiently. The Lord Jesus said to His disciples “Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, He will give it.” Now, He set no bounds or limits to that. Again He said to His disciples, and so to all who trust in His name to the end of time—”All things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.” There is no limit there. There is limitless access, so that on the one hand we have the poor sinner on earth with nothing but guilt which will bring him lower than the grave—not even a rag of righteousness to cover him; and on the other hand all the fullness of the Lord Jesus Christ behind the promise—”And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.” Behind it is the full wealth of the eternal Saviour—all the wealth of the merit which is stored up in Him, not for Himself but for poor sinners. What a privilege it is then even to be the least in the Father’s House! What a privilege it is to be able to bring to Christ all the perplexities and trials and troubles of this life itself. Many a poor child of God
would have been crushed, sunk down in despair, and perhaps unhinged mentally, if this privilege were not vouchsafed to him in the gospel—the privilege of carrying the most intimate troubles and worries and anxieties which he could not unbosom to his dearest friend on earth, to God in Christ, and pouring them out before Him with the assurance that it will not be as water spilt on the ground which can never be gathered up again, but that each groan and sigh is recorded in God’s Book and each tear kept in God’s Bottle. He alone can befriend us in our hour of need, and not only is it possible to bring the worries of this life but also the committing of our souls to Him in view of death for we must all die. We may be living in this world as if this were our eternal home, but it is appointed unto all men once to die, and a soul with any sense of eternal things must stand in awe of that King of terrors. Can you look death in the face, and not quake unless your moral sensibility is completely blunted? And then there is the prospect of eternity beyond death, and who can think with complacency of the Great White Throne, and of Him upon the Throne before whose face the heaven and earth shall pass away? Only those who are enabled to roll the burden of their eternal destiny on the Lamb who shall sit on that Throne as judge of the quick and dead. That is a privilege of the child of God. It is a privilege which the world has not got and it is a privilege which they deny themselves. What an awful loss for you and me if we neglect prayer, if we do not strive diligently to enter in at the straight gate, and if we do not make it our chief concern in life to be in Christ—to be found in Him, not having our own righteousness. What an awful loss even in this world! When we are crushed down with grief in this world to whom can we carry our grief if we are at war with God, and God at war with us? When we have been looking upon our friends in this world and depending upon them entirely, and then they fail us, to whom can we turn? We have to face the swellings of Jordan and eternity and go down into the river of death, and what an awful prospect that will be if we cannot take our fears with regard to the swellings of Jordan to Him who has conquered death! What a lonely passage we shall have across that river, which is so deep and so wide! What a lonely journey for those who have not the privilege of pouring out their hearts to the Most High in prayer. What an awful eternity to be lost, to be cut off from God, and let us beware, each one of us, that we are not going through this world in our own strength, determined to carry on through this world and live in our own strength without any knowledge of the Most High God. If so, we must also go through death and eternity in our own strength.
But to pass on, we are told that men ought always to pray. Now, we recognise that men ought always to pray, and there is probably none of us here but recognises that there is a certain duty, a certain obligation with regard to prayer. There is probably none of us who
would go to bed at night without bending his or her knee in some form of prayer to the Most High. We ought to pray, and God’s people would have a sense of guilt if in the course of any one day they had failed to send forth their petitions, and express their desires and to crave God’s help, but we do not recognise so readily that we ought not to faint. Even God’s children are not so disposed to feel that as to feel and accept the command that men ought always to pray. Oh no, when God seems not to answer our prayers, when we pray and pray week after week, and year after year, and God does not seem to be answering, how ready we are to faint, and how ready we are to excuse ourselves for fainting! How ready we are to blame God and pity ourselves, and to be sorry for ourselves when God does not grant us what we ask. “Men ought not to faint.” The same obligation rests upon us, and to the same degree, “to pray and not to faint.” It is as wrong for us to faint in prayer as it is for us to neglect prayer altogether. When we look at the Great Head of the Church, how ashamed we should be that we do so faint in prayer. When we look upon Him who came into this world to seek and to save that which was lost, and who underwent the wrath of God, and the cursed death of the cross, who went through the awful agonies of Gethsemane, when His sweat was as great drops of blood, and when He cried—”Father, if it be thy will, let this cup pass from me,” when He was left alone in the hands of cruel, rough and brutal men, when all His disciples forsook Him and fled. When He had to face the howling mob which were like lions roaring around His soul, and the Jews cried—”Away with Him, crucify Him,” what cause there was there for fainting! When He was crucified on Calvary and the vials of His Father’s wrath were poured upon His loving and holy soul, and when the enmity of His murderers surged forth, oh what cause there was for fainting! What reason for fainting, and yet He did not faint. We read that He set His face as a flint and that He gave His back to the smiters, and His cheeks to them that plucked off the hair, and that He hid not His face from shame and spitting. He was doing all this for the glory of the Triune God, and for sinners who did not appreciate it in the least, but many of them joined heartily in His condemnation and His crucifixion, yet He did not faint, but He set His heart upon glorifying God and on the eternal salvation of His people. “He received gifts for men, for such as did rebel.” When He was sounding the very depths of His Father’s wrath He was purchasing gifts for men in order that God the Lord might dwell among them. One of these great gifts which He purchased was that God the Lord might dwell among them in prayer,—for God dwells among rebels—through prayer rebels can experience the presence of God in Christ at the throne of grace. He did not faint, and why should we faint in applying for what He has already purchased by His own blood? It is little enough that we have to do. What suffering, sorrow and anguish fell upon Him and all the honour and glory
rebounds to Him. All we have to do is to ask in His name what He has already purchased. Truly, we ought not to faint when we look upon Him who is the Great Head of the Church, but none the less, the fact remains that we do faint.
Now, let me run over one or two causes why we do faint in prayer, because although we ought not to faint, yet we do faint. The first cause I would mention is the carnal mind. Prayer implies a perception of spiritual things. In order to pray, we must have a vision of the spiritual world in which the great landmarks are sin and salvation. Prayer implies a perception of those things. Whenever the believer seeks to pray the carnal mind rises up in opposition. There is within the believer that principle which is warring with the spirit of Christ—the carnal mind, and the effect of the carnal mind is to blur the vision of God’s people so that they cannot see the Saviour. When the carnal mind brings its strength to bear upon your soul, eternal and spiritual things become indistinct, and, further, it has the effect of breaking you away from spiritual things altogether, and of wrapping up your soul in that which is carnal and material. The carnal mind is enmity against God, and this is one of the great causes of fainting in prayer, that when the believer seeks access to God in prayer the carnal mind within himself or herself seems to drown any spiritual life there may be. Like a giant it comes along and takes up a position opposite to grace in the soul and seeks to strangle the life out of it, and immediately the believer says, like David,—“But yet mine enemies lively are and strong are they beside.” Looking upon his soul in the presence of His Maker, the child of God sees the enemies of God to be very, very numerous and how few in the town of Mansoul seem to be following the Prince. The believer faints away on that account.
Then in addition to the carnal mind, there is an ally. The carnal mind has an ally in the world. It ensures supplies to the carnal mind. The spiritual mind within the believer may seem to be thriving at times and then existing and no more, but the carnal mind is always lively and vigorous because it is always well fed. There is always abundance of provision for the carnal mind in order that it may be strong and ready for the battle, and ready to crush the child of grace altogether. You know that yourself if you have any concern for your soul. When you go out to the Church on Sabbath, how many are the things you see and meet to influence and draw you away from Christ and prayer. Perhaps you might not meet one in the course of a whole day whose influence is to draw you to Christ, but on the other hand how many there are whose influence and words and conversation have the effect of distracting you from spiritual things—feeding the carnal mind within you—and of dealing a blow to the spiritual life of the soul, but “men ought always to pray, and not to faint.”
Then there is also the devil himself. The devil comes along and draws you away to the things of the world. How difficult it is
to cultivate a spiritual frame, but how easily a look, smile or a nod from sin will bring on a worldly spirit which will remain with you for hours, days and perhaps months. The devil says, “You might as well give up the struggle and come out and show yourself in your true colours. You do not belong to Christ whom you profess to follow, but to the world—be a man and be honest.” That is the devil, and the poor believer or poor seeker after Christ to whom he comes with such suggestions as these is ready to faint altogether. But he is a liar, and was a liar from the beginning, and the carnal mind will be the carnal mind right to the end, even in the case of God’s children, right until they give their last sigh and draw their last breath. In fact, the carnal mind will just remain the carnal mind. You can take it to Mount Sinai and let it hear the terrors of the law—take it to the threatenings of the law and it remains the carnal mind still. You may extend to it the invitations of the gospel but it remains still the carnal mind. You may bring it to the foot of Calvary—right to the foot of the cross of shame where God in human nature died on behalf of poor sinners to redeem them from a lost eternity, and the carnal mind remains hard and unaffected by it. It will never change. Its nature will always be the same because of its workings within. Now, that is on the side of the sinner himself, but there are also causes of fainting from God’s side. One cause is that God does not seem to hear prayer at all. You remember the woman of Canaan who came beseeching Christ to come and heal her daughter who was sore vexed with a devil. She cried—”Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me,” and the Lord Himself appeared not to listen to her—”He answered her not a word,” but there was an echo to her cry in His heart and from His lips at length came these words—”O woman, great is thy faith, be it unto thee even as thou wilt.” What an answer! Could that answer have been given if Christ had answered her when she first came to him?” Oh no, it was in order to strengthen her faith that He seemed not to hear. God may not appear to answer our prayer—little did that woman expect that she would hear Jesus say to her—”Woman, great is thy faith.” A second cause of fainting is that God delays His answer to prayer. Look at Joseph praying in prison for over two years, and still it seemed quite hopeless—God was delaying His answer until the wheels of His providence should so revolve in Egypt that an answer would be given him far greater and richer than ever Joseph asked for. Joseph wanted deliverance from prison, but God wished that not only he should be released from prison but that he should be the greatest in Egypt, and that in that position of glory and honour he should glorify the Lord who delivered Him in a way that he could not have done if the Lord had taken him out of prison when first he asked. We ask little things of God, and when we do not get an answer at once we despond and say—”Surely, God should grant that to me,” but with regard to His own children God does not deal in little things at all, and if He is delaying an
answer, it may well be that it is in order to give a blessing of such a nature that you never dreamt of, and, truly, His resources are boundless and deeper than the ocean.
Then, there is also another cause of fainting—God does not answer in the way that we expect. You may be praying for holiness, for purity of heart and to be made righteous, but instead of a sense of that you have an increased sense of sin—getting worse and worse instead of getting better and better. He shows you the filth and awfulness of sin. That is often His answer to such a prayer.
Now, let me point out some encouragements we have why we should not faint. First, there is the account in this chapter of the character of God as contrasted with the unjust judge—he had no interest in this poor widow, but yet, simply because she continued beseeching him, the judge decided it would be to his own advantage to give her what she wanted and get rid of her, and Christ says—“Shall not God avenge His own elect who cry unto Him night and day. I tell you He will avenge them speedily.” Now, this unjust judge had no love or sympathy for this poor woman, yet he granted her request. Over against that, we have the eternal God, eternally faithful and eternally loving towards His own flock. He has pledged Himself in His Word to hear the prayer of the poor and needy. “The prayer of the destitute he surely will regard, their prayer will he not despise, by him it shall be heard.” Again He has said in His own Word—“I have never said to the seed of Jacob, seek ye me in vain.” There is a definite assurance with regard to these promises—every one of them are yea and amen in Christ Jesus. They are guaranteed in Him and by Him, and if one of these promises failed Christ Himself would lose all His glory. His glory is bound up in the fulfilment of these promises. We have not to deal with an unjust judge, or with an unscrupulous character, but One who has pledged His eternal faithfulness to the fulfilment of His promise—“Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law until all be fulfilled.” His Word is full of assurances that those who seek shall find—“Ye shall seek me and find me when he shall search for me with all your heart. Oh, all ye that do seek the Lord your heart shall ever live.”
Then, there is also the Saviour’s name, which is another ground for encouragement or reason why we should not faint—that God has put into the hands of sinners the name of His own Son, and He says to them—Plead for what you require in that name, come to the market of free grace using that name as the currency of Heaven and you will not be refused—“His name shall be called Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins.” It is a name that fills the very Heaven of heavens with its fragrance, and a name which even to the Church on earth is as ointment poured forth. How much more glorious was that name in Heaven when He went up with shouts—“Thou hast, oh Lord, most glorious ascended up on high”—“ye
gates lift up your hearts and ye doors that last for aye.” That was the attitude of the Father towards the Son as the God-man returned to the mansions of eternal glory after He had wrought out eternal salvation for His people. That was the attitude of the Father, and that was an indication of how precious the name of Christ is to the Father. God takes that name which is just filled with the merit of the blood of God. He puts that name into the hand of the sinner.—Take that name to Him, and you have God’s assurance that what you ask for in that name will not be denied you.
Then, there is also the intercession of Christ which is ground for encouragement. He was once of no reputation—”But as for me a worm I am and as no man am prized.” But now God has exalted Him and given Him a name that is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.” That King of Glory pleads at this very hour on behalf of poor sinners like yourself and myself. What condescension and love! the King of Glory praying for the believer on earth! He is pleading the merits of His own blood. He has entered Heaven itself with His own blood, and God the Father is looking upon that blood when the intercession of the Son goes forth to Him. It is towards the blood the Father looks in relation to His people so that when sin-sick sinners come to Jesus Christ pleading the merits of the blood of Jesus Christ it is through the blood of Jesus Christ God the Father is looking upon them.
There is not one in the history of the Church from Genesis to Revelation who can say God did not answer prayer. From the blood of Abel onward we have an abundant testimony to the fact. A further encouragement is the testimony of the Church of God that God does hear and answer prayer.
Also, within your own heart there is a conviction that God has answered, and does answer prayer. That is why God’s people cannot give up praying, and if you are seeking the Lord, or would like to have Christ, you cannot give up praying because the Spirit testifies within you that God does hear prayer. God does hear prayer, and so, friends, let us avail ourselves of the great privilege of taking ourselves, our friends, all our concerns spiritual and temporal to the Lord Himself who can hear and give us an answer in peace. Prayer is a hand that reaches out to the eternal—”My hands to thee I stretch, my soul thirsts as dry land for thee.”
Oh friend, to miss grasping Christ will mean hell, but to grasp even the hem of His garment will mean heaven.
Let us pray.
He is no fool who parts with that which he cannot keep, when he is sure to be recompenced with that which he cannot lose.—Phillip Henry, Life and Times p. 99.