The revolt of modern youth against what they call the establishment is almost daily brought to our notice. This article does not take to do with the faults and defects, real or imaginary, of any particular establishment which they seek to overthrow, but with an establishment which cannot be overthrown. Earth and hell may combine against it, but it shall prevail and prosper until it is universally accepted. Zion’s King is the head of this establishment, and “He shall not fail nor be discouraged till He have set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for His law.” (Isa. 42, 4). The pattern of this establishment is not of man, but was designed and determined in the counsels of the Godhead before the foundation of the world. It rests on two pillars surpassing in glory Jachin and Boaz the pillars of Solomon’s temple. These pillars of Ophir’s gold are the Headship of Christ over the Church and the Headship of Christ over the Nations.
As King in Zion the form of Church government established by Him and stamped with His seal and authority is Presbyterian. At the Westminster Assembly after a lengthened debate and solemn scriptural enquiry, Presbytery was acknowledged as the only form of Church government authorised by the Word of God. The Papal, Prelatic and Independent forms shall yet crumble and vanish.
The doctrines of this establishment are the doctrines of the everlasting gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ—the pure Calvinism of the Westminster Confession of Faith, and the Confession of Faith in its entirety including Section VI of Chapter XXV which states that “the Pope of Rome is that anti-Christ, that man of sin and son of perdition that exalteth himself in the Church against Christ and all that is called God” and that the Church of Rome is that mystical Babylon which is doomed to destruction. Arminianism so popular and widespread in our day will yet hide its face for shame, for Satan not only as a roaring lion, but as an angel of light shall be bound for a thousand years.
The Sacraments of the New Testament Church, Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, will be dispensed according to the divine institution. Both in general are seals of the covenant of grace, but do not specifically seal the same measure of privilege. The qualification for Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are not therefore identical, and many may be admitted to the former, who are not prepared for the latter. The innovations of the Anabaptists refuted and condemned by Luther, Calvin, Knox and all the Reformers, which since the Reformation have disturbed and divided the Church of God, will disappear, and the Scripturalness of infant baptism and of sprinkling in baptism will be observed as in the apostolic and primitive Church and as practised by the Reformers, martyrs and the Covenanters in Scotland who suffered and died in defence of the establishment.
The Psalms alone will be the manual of praise in the sanctuary. Hymns, paraphrases and organs—”the insignia of Baal” as Luther called the organs in public worship, will be cast out. Choirs, solos, etc., which make “a fair show to the flesh” shall be no more in the house of the Lord of hosts.
Antinomianism which ‘Rabbi’ Duncan described as “The only heresy”—the sinner’s quarrel with the authority of God, shall return to the pit from whence it came, and the Moral Law summarily comprehended in the Ten Commandments will be the accepted divine rule of life and conduct, with the holy Sabbath recognised, honoured and hallowed as an integral part of the Decalogue.
Voluntaryism with all its fair pretensions to freedom and spirituality never had and never shall have part or lot in this Establishment. It is of the earth earthy. Voluntaryism denies the moral nature and obligation of civil rulers and governments to uphold, defend and advance the Cause of Christ in the world. In the words of Dr Begg “it confounds ‘the state’ with ‘the world,’ forgetting that the civil magistrate is a ‘minister of God’ unto the people for good. It sets aside the true theory of free and spiritual government. Upon pretence of great spirituality it will have nothing to do with the state.” Dr Thomas McCrie in his “Statement” described by Professor Smeaton as “the most complete vindication ever given to the world of the position occupied by the Reformed Church of Scotland on the whole subject of national religion and the magistrates’ legitimate power in promoting it” shows that Voluntaryism is essentially sectarian and that churches and bodies which have renounced the Establishment Principle have fallen from the Reformed and Scriptural position taken by the churches at the Reformation. That sacred unity with which they upheld the Supremacy of Christ as King of Nations, with the consequent duty
of nations as such and civil rulers in their official capacity to honour and serve Him by recognising His Truth and promoting His Cause, Voluntaryism has shamefully violated. It has cast to the ground that royal diadem of glory or beauty, and under the banner of a spurious sanctity it has confounded ‘the state’ with ‘the world’ and has allured its devotees into the jungle of sectarianism. However divergent the sects may be in doctrine and practice, from the ultra-orthodox to the false and the fantastic, they all with one accord pay homage to the great Diana of Voluntaryism. “It is questionable” wrote Dr Begg in his condemnation of Voluntaryism “whether Popery itself more directly robs Christ of His glory—the glory of having all power in heaven and on earth.” It is sad indeed, to see churches and organisations professing to uphold the Calvinistic doctrines of the Reformation succumbing to the deadly spell of Voluntaryism. Let us turn a deaf ear to the siren voices of Voluntaries however Calvinistic they may claim to be, and not be drawn by them into the wilderness of the sects. Let us keep to the King’s highway trode by Martyrs and Reformers and in the name of our God display our banners that Christ is the Prince of the kings of the earth, and that the nation and the kingdom that will not serve Him and His Cause shall perish, yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted. “The Establishment Principle” said eminent Dr Kennedy of Dingwall “is not only worth living for, but a Principle worth dying for,” and the worthy Dr Charles T. Brown of Edinburgh said “Voluntary churchmen out of the Establishment talk of the independence of the Church. Our forefathers within one bled and died for it.”
Amillennialism and Premillennialism are theories which from their nature can have no place in the Establishment. The former was propounded by Kliefoth, a German theologian in 1874, and more fully developed by the Dutch theologians Drs Abraham Kuiper, Herman Bavinck and others, which interprets the promises and prophecies concerning the prosperity of Christ’s Cause and kingdom in this world, as having their fulfilment not in this world but in heaven. The Millenium of the Amillenialists is not on earth but in heaven. Herman Witsius and the older Dutch divines never held such a view. It is not the view given in the notes in the Dutch State Bible. None of the Scottish divines nor the Puritans held such a view. Jonathan Edwards, the renowned American theologian, in his treatise on the Millenium in the “History of Redemption,” maintains the generally accepted view of the Church that the establishment of Christ’s kingdom in and throughout the world will be through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. “Amillennialists” writes Dr Loraine Boettner “are inclined to take a pessimis-
tic view of the future of the Church, holding either that conditions will continue until the end much as they are now, or that they will grow progressively worse.” (The Millennium—p. 118). Writings in defence of this theory are laboured and lugubrious, dead and dry, without the faintest trace of the gracious unction of the Holy Spirit.
Premillennialism or Chiliasm is the view that Christ is to return to rule in Person in this world, resurrect the righteous dead according to its interpretation of the first resurrection mentioned in Revelation 20, and set up His seat of government in Jerusalem. A theory, however plausible, which would subject the glorified Redeemer to what is tantamount to a second humiliation, can only have for its foundation an exegesis of Scripture which is both faulty and literal. Christ shall reign gloriously in His Jerusalem not by His personal advent to this earth but through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in rich measure. His second personal advent will be at the last day when He will judge the world in righteousness, justice to give each one a recompense. That the “first resurrection” cannot be understood in a literal sense as the Premillennialists hold, is evident from what the Lord Jesus Christ says on four different occasions that He would raise up those who believe in Him at the last day. (John VI: 39, 40, 44, 56). “Clearly” as Dr Boettner observes “there can be no other day after the last day.” (The Millennium p. 169).
Dr Wylie in his book “The Great Exodus” gives the following graphic description of the spiritual and symbolic resurrection of Revelation XX—”The souls of them that were slain for the witness of Jesus shall rise all over Europe. Huss and Jerome shall come from their stake; Hamilton and Wishart, Cranmer and Ridley shall revive from their ashes, and Luther, Calvin and Knox shall stand up from their graves. The Martyrs shall arise from the plains of France, from the snows of the Alps, from the lagunes of Venice, from the fens of Holland, and from the moors of Scotland, not in their bones and dust, but in their spirit and power. They will rise in their memories, that these may be vindicated, and the cruel sentences, which assigned them to the fire, may be reversed. They will rise in their principles, that these may be justified as righteous and holy. They will rise in their cause, that it may be acquitted from the condemnation passed on it by man; and, in the triumph of the systems and churches founded on the principles for which they died, they will enjoy a lasting and glorious reign with Christ their Head. On that day God will roll away the cloud of obloquy that rested above their graves; their stakes will be converted into thrones; their names will emerge from the black cloud in which
they sat; and, through all the ages of the future, they will be honoured as the world’s greatest benefactors who handed down the truth by their sufferings and blood. (The Great Exodus—p. 79).
“O blessed hands” says Samuel Rutherford, “that shall put the crown on Christ’s head in Scotland; and all the world shall fall before Him, and (as God liveth) every arm lifted up to take the crown off His royal head or that refuseth to hold it upon His head, shall be broken off from the shoulder blade.”
The Scottish Establishment was acknowledged by all the Reformed Churches as “the fairest flower of the Reformation.” To that view we hold, and are not beholden to Princeton, to the Westminster Seminary, to Amillennialists, Anabaptists or Antinomians, for the least improvement on it. This “fairest flower” of the Lord’s planting shall flourish. His establishment in Word, Sacraments, Worship, Government and Discipline is the divine pattern to which the kingdoms of the world shall yet give willing allegiance. “The seal of the Lord of hosts shall perform this,” for when He shall appear in His glory for the upbuilding of His Zion, kingdoms shall be assembled to serve the highest Lord.
“O all ye kingdoms of the earth,
Sing praises to this King;
For he is Lord that ruleth all,
Unto Him praises sing.”
(Ps. 68, 32)
W.M.
Prayer Meeting Address
by Rev. A. Cattanach, M.A.
Text: “And He must needs go through Samaria” John 4, v. 4
(Taken down by a hearer)
We are well acquainted, we believe, with the record of the Truth as it is presented to us in this chapter, concerning the dealings of the Lord Jesus Christ on earth with one particular person—the Woman of Samaria—one whose name is not known to us, save as the Woman of Samaria, and yet we are acquainted with her in such a way that those of us who have the hope in their souls that they have tasted that the Lord is gracious, are able in some little measure, we believe, to go along with her in the way of Him who ‘giveth none account of any of His matters’, but whose footsteps are as to the steps of majesty of our God and of our mighty King within His sanctuary:” in His dealings with her in a spiritual manner, in leading
her away from the well of Jacob to the well of salvation and drawing her out in a spirit of confession and a spirit of enquiry—the spirit that will bring her at last, through divine teaching, to confess at the end of the day: “Come see a man that told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?” (v. 29). It should be a question with us, friends, this evening if we are able to follow, in some measure, what is unfolded for us here of the way in which Jesus dealt with her and of which He deals still, in different ways and with different beginnings, but along the same lines, by His Spirit, through His word, in leading a sinner out of darkness into His own marvellous light.
And if we ask ourselves now, in the light of these few preliminary remarks, what bearing the words before our minds has upon us, we are, we believe, led to see that this did not happen without premeditation, as it were, on the part of Jesus. It happened indeed on her part without premeditation. We think it is clear that she left home that day with her water-pot for the well of Sychar, as she often did, with no thought of her soul, for eternity, but ere that day was over she returned, without her water-pot, and her soul saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation—on her side unpremeditated but not so with Jesus. For if we are to accept the testimony of the Truth and set to our seal that God is true and believe the record that He has given of His Son, we are then to accept that He knew the end from the beginning: we are then to accept that He knew full well that that day when He left en route for Galilee, that “He must needs go through Samaria.” It is not that He had only one way to go; there is no suggestion in the Word that He must needs go through Samaria, that is, that He had no alternative route—far from it. If He were to be as others, in the light of the words “The Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans,” He would have done as so many of His fellow Jews (speaking after the manner of men) were wont to do—by-pass Samaria, go some other way, a longer way, a less direct way, but for them a way to be preferred, and perhaps in the days of His flesh, in the days in which Jesus lived, a safer way. So that when we read that “He must needs go through Samaria” we are not to understand that He had no other way to go. He might have gone the longer way but He chose to go through Samaria. Why do you think that He went through Samaria? Well, we think that He went through Samaria for this very purpose, to meet with the woman at the well, to meet with her whom He had loved with an everlasting love as the Son of God from all eternity. The fore-ordination of God is here we believe unfolded for us in a marvellous way, wherein the woman herself was entirely unconscious of that fore-ordination, that election
unto grace, entirely unacquainted with all that side of the matter as it stood between God the Father and God the Son, as it stood in the everlasting covenant and yet, she must needs be there as He must needs be there also. We believe, dear friend, that day was fixed in the counsels of eternity, that day by the well of Sychar, that very hour, that very moment when Jesus at the sixth hour, or round about, sat weary with His journey, only to be refreshed in such a way that at the end of the day He could say, when they came with the meat for which they had been sent “My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me, to finish His work” (v. 34). He had done His work that day. He had finished that work as far as she was concerned. In the light of what was yet to come, in the light of the efficacy of the work which He was to perfect and finish for evermore on Calvary. He had plucked her as a brand out of the burning that day before the time when He Himself should suffer and die, when He Himself should go through fire and water, as we might say, through Gethsemane, through Calvary, the Captain of Salvation bringing many sons to glory, leading them to a wealthy place—”He must needs go through Samaria;” then, that very day, that very hour He must needs appear at the well of Sychar to meet with the woman of Samaria.
What encouragement there is here for us on our way to eternity, to view the dealings of the Lord with His own people, to view them in the light of the eternal counsel. If we are to examine ourselves this night as to our hope for eternity, if we have such an hope in our hearts, is there no time in our lives to which we may return which is in some small measure comparable to that time, when she met Jesus by the well, in which we have the hope that we met with Him too. Now there may be many steps in the way, there may be longer or shorter hours or days—it matters not. We are not concerned just now with the length of time. We are not concerned, as it were, with the dealings of the Lord in that way, we are merely leaving with you, in passing, the principle involved in His dealings and the time factor in the light of eternity, that there “must needs be” a time when the Lord shall meet with His own; when He shall meet with them according to His own predeterminate counsel from all eternity. He shall lead them and He shall bring them to that place and to that spot where they shall be brought out of darkness into His own marvellous light. Beginning with a time of awakening and leading on through various steps and ways to a time at which they are truly united by faith to Christ, all is unfolded in this one word “He must needs go through Samaria” to meet with that poor sinner on the way to a lost eternity. It was indeed essential for Him, (a necessity lay upon Him,
yea a Divine necessity) to pass that way on that occasion. Would it not be good for us then, to have the hope tonight that He passed our way and that there was a divine necessity laid upon Him to meet with us and to set us on the way that would lead to life everlasting; to begin also to probe the depth of iniquity in our hearts, open to us the fountain within, shine into the darkest recesses of our hearts, lead us from one thing to another until at last we can say also “Come see a man that told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?” Then we may look back and we may indeed raise up our Ebenezer and we may indeed say that He must needs pass that way and that not only He, but we too must needs have gone that way in order that we might meet with Him, in order that we might pass from death to life. In other words, when it is ordained from all eternity that a sinner should pass from death to life, the very means that are to be used are ordained and he unaware and unconscious of them is brought in the fullness of the time by the grace of God to His own everlasting sovereignty to meet with Him and to hear His voice, to come face to face with the truth, face to face with the holiness of God, face to face with his divine justice, whatsoever way we may like to express it, still the teaching is there, face to face as she was with Jesus in the days of His flesh until He leads them to know for themselves that this is the Messiah, and this is the Christ of God, this is the way of salvation, that “there is none other name given under heaven among men whereby sinners can be saved.” Ah! what a blessed necessity was laid upon Jesus then and a blessed necessity still, in his dealings with poor sinners. How often, in the history of the Church we read of such a case, when one is led to a certain place unknowing, unconscious, unaware of what has led him there, only to find that the word has spoken with power in his heart. Do you think for a moment, friend, that when a sinner turns in, as some have done, through the open door of a church, hearing the singing of the everlasting praises of the God of eternity and that sinner is arrested, and that sinner hears the Word for the first time with power, do you think that that was not in the everlasting counsels and that there was not a ‘must needs be’ for that sinner to be where he was on that specific occasion and at that very place. He ‘must needs’ be there. It is not that the sinner knew, but Another, who knew the end from the beginning that knew and that was the beginning—or it might be the end—of a period in which he was under concern. You may have read of Dr MacDonald of Ferintosh when he was in Glasgow on one occasion on a communion Sabbath evening. A poor sinner, a woman also, passing by on her way to the Clyde to do away with herself, to throw herself into the waters, hearing
the singing, turned aside to enter in at the door just as Dr MacDonald rose to give out his text, and the text was “Do thyself no harm” Acts 16 v. 28. That sinner did not turn aside by chance, that poor soul was singing the praises of the Lamb before she came out of that church—she had passed from death to life. She was plucked as a brand out of the burning. He must needs go through Samaria. It may not be always like this—so clear, so arresting. It may be imperceptible, but it is there all the same leading gently by the waters—it matters not. Any sinner coming to know Christ will come to know a little of this—the divine dealings in providence and in grace, unfolded in the everlasting covenant step by step. He will yet sing the praises of redeeming love and this will be part of the praises—the way in which he was led, the way in which he was brought to hear the glad tidings of great joy. Are there not some present tonight and they can look back to a time, to a place, to a sermon, where this took place with them, that their soul did drink out of the well of salvation, that they were enabled to touch the hem of His garment and they were made whole. Well, friend, why were you there that night or that day? Why were you where you were? You were seeking the Lord perhaps—Ah yes—some were not seeking as they ought. This is a case in point where those who are led imperceptibly even although they were seeking they were going out and coming in, finding it not, but still persevering till God’s time came to give them liberty, like Joseph in the prison. Well, this is a lesson that we ought to learn in order to be diligent in the use of the means that He has prescribed lest that by despising those means we should in any way endanger our soul, endanger our eternal safety. We ought to be looking upon these means in the light of such a word as this: Who knows, who knows if I shall go tonight but I’ll hear the voice of His loving kindness. This applies to the child of God likewise not only at the beginning but all through life. After having received the liberty of the gospel are there not times of darkness, seasons of doubt, where there is a ‘must needs be’ again for him and he must needs be at the ‘throne of grace’, must needs be diligent in searching the Word, must needs be coming out to the means and all he has in view is ‘Oh that the Lord would speak to me. Oh that I might get a word from Himself. Oh that I knew where I might find Him.’ Then comes the hour when he does. Oh what joy there is then—he can then go forward again in the fullness of the joy that he once had, when the ‘Lord ‘put a new song in his mouth and his feet on the rock’ at first, and he shall sing again as he did in the days of old. Was not this the promise that the Lord gave His ancient people concerning the valley of Achor for a door of hope: ‘I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope: and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.’ She shall sing there as she sang
in the days of her youth? She shall sing there as she sang at the Red Sea. You, friend, that have tasted that the Lord is gracious and have fallen under a cloud, compassed with many trials and tribulations, are you not able to sing again when the Lord comes, as He came to this poor sinner, and gives you to drink from the well of salvation in Himself, gives you a taste of the honey from the comb, opens to you the riches of His own divine grace and helps you to go on your way singing again, as in the days of old “Come hear I’ll tell what He did for my soul” Ps. 66 v. 16. We trust that there are those who are not unaware of these things, for these are precious things. These are the things that are really to endure—when Jesus meets with a sinner. They marvelled He talked with the woman. Has Jesus ever talked with us? Has He ever spoken to us through His Word? Has He ever given us a ‘word in season?’ There must needs be times like this that ‘He must needs go through Samaria’ en route to Galilee.
Ah well it was true was it not, with all reverence, that there was more to it than this. That all that was accomplished then and all that is accomplished in the cases to which we have referred leads us to His own suffering, leads us to His own accomplished work, leads us to Calvary, leads us there to that place where He poured out His soul unto death and where He used the same expression in His own blessed words, to the two on the way to Emmaus as He had done to the disciples before ‘Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory.’ The Son of Man must suffer many things. There is a ‘must needs be’ in the divine will for the Lord of Glory, the Captain of Salvation, a ‘must needs go through Samaria.’ That is only one little drop, as it were, out of the ocean, in comparison with what is to come, and in virtue of which He is able to say, to that poor woman, in spirit if not in actuality, ‘Thy sins are forgiven.’ He must needs pass through the deep waters of Calvary where the floods did go over His soul when He cried ‘My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?’ He must needs go, friend, through there. What for? In order that He might bring eternal salvation to your poor soul and mine, He must needs pass that way en route to everlasting glory, on the way to Zion above. He came from the Father, He could say and He returned to the Father, but He must go through Gethsemane and Calvary before He went to the Father in order that He might come now in the fullness of time in your own case by “His Word and Spirit” in the effectual call of the gospel, to your very heart and to your very door, and arrest you and pluck you as a ‘brand out of the burning.’ He must needs go there before He could lead you to glory. That is a thing that ought to make us realise how much we
owe, how much we owe to Him who passed that way before, who took our place, who took our punishment, on whom was laid the iniquity of His people—by His stripes we are healed.
May it be to the healing of our souls tonight, then, that we are some small measure led into the truth that ‘He must needs go through Samaria.’ It is our earnest desire that you would be diligent in the means that are appointed in the hope, in the prayer, in the desire, that whatever comes He might come and speak to you and He might say to your soul ‘I am thy salvation.’ The principle which is involved in the phrase ‘He must needs go through Samaria’ is one which is of wider application in regard to the many sons whom He is to bring to glory. Ah friend, you will need to go albeit in measure as the Captain of Salvation went, through much tribulation into the Kingdom. You need not be surprised if you have to go through fire and water to be brought to a wealthy place. Israel went through a howling wilderness. You are left in this world of sorrow and you will pass this way, but the Lord of Glory is there to meet you. There are wells of Baca, there are wells of salvation in the valley of Baca, there are wells of Sychar “as it were in Samaria,” where you may meet with Jesus, where you may hear the sweet word which she heard and where your soul may ‘taste and see that God is good.’
And so we shall leave it with you just now. ‘He must needs go through Samaria.’ You must go through what the Lord has appointed for you in His own predeterminate counsel. But the end He has in view is this ‘Sanctify them through Thy Truth, Thy Word is truth;’ “Father, I will that they also whom Thou hast given me be with me where I am.”
And you that are not His own, oh may you take to heart that there is a day coming, a day of reckoning, a day of account as to the way in which you have dealt with the Lord in His Word, in His means, in the call of the gospel. Are you despising the Lord tonight? Are you despising Him who suffered so much on Calvary? Are you trampling under foot again the Son of God? Then beware lest there come a day when He will meet with you as a “lion roaring for his prey” of a “bear bereaved of her whelps.” Oh, friend, is it not written that ‘the Lord shall then tear in pieces the wicked?’ He shall then declare to them in other words as Jesus said ‘Depart from me ye cursed.’ You must meet with Him: ‘O Israel, prepare to meet this God.’ Would it not be better to meet at the well of Samaria? Would it not be good to meet at the well of salvation?; would it not be better to meet with Him in Christ than to meet with Him at death without Christ? Would it not be better for you to be up and doing while the day of mercy lasts ‘seeking the Lord
while He is to be found,’ ‘calling upon Him while He is near?’ Oh, friend, how do you know when you go into the house of God but that the Lord may speak a word and that should be the spirit in which we come and that should be the spirit which characterises us. Who knows but the Lord will come and leave a blessing behind, and may that be the spirit in which we are moved this evening. ‘He must needs go through Samaria’ just to meet with her. He may go out of His way, friend, to meet with you and meet with you in a most unlikely way and in a most unlikely place. It is all to the praise and the glory of His grace that He can say at last ‘Is not this a brand plucked out of the burning? Behold I and the children whom Thou hast given me.’
May the Lord bless His Word.