The Lord Jesus Christ after declaring to His disciples, “My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me, and to finish His work,” thereafter spoke to them of the harvest season in the spiritual and gospel sense, and among other things He said, “I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours” (see John iv: 34-38). Moses, David, the prophets and many others had laboured right down throughout the history of the Old Testament Church, in the service of God within the realm of the Church and in connection with His Word and ordinances and through good and evil report among men. It would seem that Christ desired that His disciples would call to mind the labourers and their labours of times and years past, and that they would not be ignorant of the fact that they, in their day, were but continuing the work of the Lord in connection with His kingdom and cause of truth in the world carried on in former years and times by men now away to their eternal rest in heaven.
There are times in the Church’s history again and again when the Lord’s people have reason to reflect upon the character and work of ministers of Christ (and others also) who have now been removed by death from their labours here in the gospel especially, whereby they sought the honour of Christ their Lord and Master, the salvation of sinners and the edification and sanctification of believers. And in our own branch of Christ’s Church the Most High has seen fit during recent years and times to remove from our midst by death a goodly number of ministers who laboured in the Word and doctrine until shortly before they passed from time to eternity. These solemn and sad events are worthy of our consideration with special reference to the character and work of those who laboured for the Lord and have now entered into their rest in the heavenly kingdom.
They were men who gave abundant evidence that they were born of God, the Holy Spirit, and who were convinced of the reality and burden of their sins and that by the deeds of the law no flesh shall be justified in the sight of God; and who were favoured in the sovereign grace of heaven with a living faith to behold and believe in the Lamb of God for their redemption from sin. Christ Jesus was their Redeemer and their Lord. By grace they were saved and this they owned and professed.
Their entry upon the labours of the ministry of the gospel of Christ followed upon a special divine call to devote themselves entirely to this blessed and onerous work which brings with it burdens, anxieties and responsibilities of such a nature as are only known to true ministers of Christ Jesus. Some men may think that the office and duties of the Ministry are easily undertaken and discharged. They are ignorant of what is involved as before God and in relation to men. It was manifest in the case of those men to whom we here refer that they were “called of God as was Aaron.”
When the Divine Head of the Church calls a man to serve Him and labour for His honour in the gospel and other duties in His Church, He assuredly bestows upon such a man the graces and special gifts essential for the work to which he is to devote his whole life, especially the preaching of the gospel of salvation and the expounding of the doctrines of the Word and the pastoral care of precious souls. Those other men who laboured in our Church and whom we presently have in mind were fitted thus for the work they had to do in their day by the Lord; and this was evident to the children of God who knew them.
They were men who could not live or labour without reliance upon the grace and strength of their Saviour, who says to His people, “Without me ye can do nothing.” And so they were given to much and habitual secret prayer. For any man to live without this is to have a dry and a dead ministry. Our brother ministers whom we knew so well and are no longer with us, wrestled at the throne of grace for themselves in their weakness and under their burdens, and for sinners and saints under their care. They concerned themselves with those in spiritual or providential trouble being themselves conversant with the afflictions of this life.
They were men who took knowledge of the times in which they were and were deeply disturbed by the signs of the times, pointing to much forsaking of God, His holy inspired Word and His holy commandments. The backslidings of the generality of the people in our own beloved land were a great grief to them even as such deplorable conduct was to the prophet Jeremiah in his day long ago. In their ministry they exposed the sins of the nation and generation and pointed out the need there was of repentance by the Holy Spirit from on High.
The Lord Jesus required of them that they should earnestly contend for the faith once delivered to the saints in face of a forsaking of that faith, and attacks upon that faith by enemies of the Truth in our land. This we know they endeavoured to engage in as guided and supported by the Spirit of Truth in their several stations and circumstances, and as members of the Courts of the Church. They were men who in their day were set for the defence of the gospel; as the original fathers of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland were in their day.
The most of our brethren in the ministry who have recently been taken from us were not aged men. In this, as in other aspects of their removal, the Most High is speaking very solemnly to us as a Church. It seems also in our humble and considered opinion that the Lord’s purpose all along regarding the Free Presbyterian Church has been that in His divine wisdom He intends to limit the number of ministers of the gospel in our midst at any one time. We shall not amplify this personal view in these pages. The Lord’s thoughts and ways are above our thoughts and ways.
We trust that by the help of God some of us are continuing to labour for the blessed Cause of the heavenly Master as our late brethren did. And others, younger in years, are now entering into their labours. It will be well for each one to seriously examine himself in the light of the Scriptures and the doctrine and teaching of Christ as to putting one’s hand to the plough. Are we bearing the marks and fruits of saving and sanctifying grace? Are we truly called to labour in the ministry for the Redeemer? Are we favoured with gifts from the Lord for His service and His work? Are we given much to prayer for divine help? Are we where the Lord Jesus Christ will have us to be, that is, undertaking the office of the ministry of the gospel until laid aside or removed from the Church here by death?
And let all who fear God and love the Lord Jesus among us, seek grace and more grace to be followers of them who through faith and patience are now inheriting the promises.