The Life of John Knox by Thomas McCrie, D.D., 290pp. Price £1.80.
The Apostolic Church by Prof. Thomas Witherow. 91pp. Price 60p.
Gospel Gleanings for Young People. 128pp. Price 90p.
The Mother’s Catechism by Rev. John Willison, Dundee. Price 20p.
Our Church’s Publications Committee have recently reprinted the above books and issued them in paperback form. The first two are suitable for older readers while the second two are intended especially for children.
The Life of John Knox is a standard work by the noted Scottish Church historian, Thomas McCrie. The book is really a history of the Reformation in Scotland while it traces particularly the conspicuous part which Knox played in it. For all who would desire a greater acquaintance with the most important period in Scotland’s religious history, here is a book to meet their need. This reprint contains a foreword by John M. Simpson, M.A., of the Department of Scottish History at Edinburgh University, in which Mr. Simpson indicates the work done in this field since Thomas McCrie’s day.
The Apostolic Church is an enquiry to establish the Scriptural form of Church Government written by a Professor of Church History at Londonderry in the last century. Professor Witherow first searches out the principles relating to Church government which were operative in the Apostolic Church. He traces out six such principles:
- 1 That office-bearers were chosen by the people;
- 2 That the office of bishop and elder was identical;
- 3 That there was a plurality of elders in each church;
- 4 That ordination was an act of a presbytery — that is, of a plurality of elders;
- 5 That there was the privilege of appeal to the Assembly of elders; and the power of government was exercised by them in their associate capacity;
- 6 That the only Head of the Church was the Lord Jesus Christ.
Witherow then goes on to examine which of the three forms of Church Government — Prelacy, Independency or Presbytery — contains these principles. His final conclusion is that Prelacy contains none of these six principles, Independency contains three, but Presbytery contains all six, and that therefore the Presbyterian is, in point of Government, the only Apostolic Church. At the same time he states that he is “very far from maintaining that any Church on earth is in everything an exact model of the pattern presented in the primitive age,” holding as he does that the Apostolic Church of the Scriptures is altogether unique — one that in all its parts is never to be realised in this world again.
It is interesting to notice that Witherow is careful to clear the office of the eldership of one common misrepresentation. “It is not uncommon,” he says, “to hear people speak of the advantages that accrue to the Presbyterian system from the admittance of the lay element into the Church courts. This must be a misunderstanding altogether. None but elders — teaching and ruling elders — are competent to sit in any Presbyterian Church Court, from the session of a congregation up to the General Assembly, and, as we have already seen, all elders are equal in point of official standing, for though their departments of duty are in some respects different, yet the office is one and the same. No elder of any kind is a layman, but an ecclesiastical office-bearer, ordained with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery,* and appointed to the oversight of the flock and to the discharge of spiritual duties. Nor does an elder sit in our Church courts to represent the laity. He represents the laity in no sense different from that in which the minister represents them; both are chosen by the people, and both fill the one office in the Church, the only difference between them being one of education, of labour, and of reward.”
Gospel Gleanings for Young People contains many interesting anecdotes and also brief sketches of Christian lives. This paperback in large black type makes suitable reading for children.
The Mother’s Catechism is intended to be a preparatory help for the young to their easier understanding the Shorter Catechism. In brief and simple question and answer form, children are instructed in the basic doctrines of God’s Word. Terms which children will meet with in the Shorter Catechism and which might create difficulty are here explained.
- This is not practised among us as a church so far as ruling elders are concerned.
Besides doctrinal questions the Catechism also contains a section of historical questions out of the Bible as well.
We are glad to warmly recommend these four well known books to our readers.
D.B.M.