by Rev. Donald M. Campbell, Shieldaig
Jeremiah like other prophets had to speak on God’s behalf. None who had to do so found it easy. Who is sufficient for these things? Only a person who is holy can be a fit ambassador for the Lord of hosts. Though he had been reconciled to God, this prophet would have been sensible, from experience, of his own inadequacy for this task and would have felt many needs — foremost being his need of cleansing and forgiveness.
He is addressing a people who at this time in history, under the Old Testament dispensation, were God’s visible church on earth. The work of preaching is greatly helped where there is a reception given it. His audience had no heart for the word of God (vv 10, 17). They had had the word of God for many years, but “the word preached did not profit them”.
The words of our text are an earnest admonition in homely language, figurative language. Israel had come to a cross-roads, a critical time in their history, and they were called upon to stop and ponder, “stand ye in the ways and see”, etc. There are four things that I would like to speak of from these words and I would like to make use of these in a way befitting the occasion of our meeting in these serious times.
“Stand ye in the ways and see”.
First, What they had been delivered from, i.e. the bondage of Egypt — a spiritual and literal bondage. They were delivered from much worldliness and earthiness, much darkness and ignorance, much impurity and immorality. They were, moreover, brought out of a state in which true religion was, by Pharaoh, forbidden and proscribed, where there was no freedom to worship God according to His will. They could, after the deliverance say
“He to a place where liberty
And room was hath me brought
Because He took delight in me
He my deliverance wrought”.
This historic event typified the salvation of His people by the church’s glorious Head, the Eternal Son of God in our nature, and the alone Mediator.
But now let us consider what the people of our land were delivered from. They were freed from Popery. The Roman Catholic church is spoken of in the New Testament Scriptures. So clearly is it set forth it seems hardly possible to mistake it. It is described by Paul in I Timothy 4: 1-3 and II Thessalonians verses 3 to 12. It is characterised as “the mystery of iniquity” and is ascribed to the direct working of Satan. There is an individual at the head of this system, “the man of Sin, the Son of Perdition” — “that Wicked” whom the Lord shall reveal. To whom on this earth can such a description be applied except the Pope of Rome? The people of our land were also delivered from much worldliness, ignorance and immorality and a situation in which the practice of Christianity was forbidden and freedom to worship God was proscribed by Rome.
“Stand ye in the ways and see”.
Secondly, what Israel had attained to. In the days of the Patriarchs true religion had been reduced to gross idolatry, by the subtlety of Satan, the enemy of the glorious Redeemer, the enemy of souls. If we look at Romans chapter one, we will find a picture of how low man was brought then. The Lord following upon Israel’s deliverance gave statutes and ordinances for their better preservation from Satan’s wonder-working strategy by men and devils. Moses was raised up to record by divine inspiration all that we have in the Pentateuch. What a solid foundation the church then had, e.g. Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 and Genesis 3. In these writings of Moses there is enshrined the moral law, the transcript of the mind of God. The ceremonial law revealed to them once more God’s provision for sinners, a salvation altogether free, without money and without price; a method of justification by a Redeemer that required only their hearty and willing agreement, ensuring their being in the world a holy nation, a peculiar people. The Mosaic Scriptures made the nation independent of mere human opinion, human traditions and hearsay. “He wrote of Me”, Jesus says of Moses.
Now again, we ought to ponder, that at the Reformation also the Lord did great things for us which brought joy to our land.
(1) We were put in possession of the New Testament as well as the Old and God raised up men endued with power from on high, who directed their fellow-countrymen to the newly available Scriptures as an infallible rule for what was to be believed and practised. The preaching of the Gospel was revived. Men could now proclaim it with freedom from molestation and torture or imprisonment or banishment. The church was purged from hundreds of superstitious, pagan practices, such as the worship of dead men as Dr. Cunningham interprets “doctrines of devils”. New Testament worship was restored in its maturity, simplicity and spirituality.
(2) We were given reforming statesmen and reforming legislatures. John Knox early recognised that the keystone of the Papacy was its claim to absolute power, but it was not till much later that Papal Supremacy was finally abolished in Britain. On the forefront of the Bill of Rights was written “It hath been found by experience inconsistent with the welfare and safety of this kingdom to be governed by a Popish prince”. Our blood-bought civil and religious liberties were secured by law, establishing a Protestant Monarchy, a Protestant legislature and a Protestant kingdom.
Never in history, anywhere, did the Church of Rome get such a reversal as she got by the instrumentality of Britain. John Willison of Dundee writing in 1745* said “the preservation of true religion throughout the world depends very much on the safety of Britain . . . Blessed be God
*the year of the Jacobite rebellion.
that hath so eminently honoured Britain at many times past to stop her career (i.e. Rome’s).
“Stand ye in the ways and see“.
Thirdly — how the mighty nation was wasted and how their weapons of war had perished. They had, notwithstanding the measures taken to preserve them from it, become idolators again. Jeremiah was not only aware of, but afraid of the relapse into that idolatry from which Israel had been delivered. He felt the breach of the purity of the divine law “thou shalt have no other gods before me” and “thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image” and one could go on to the 10th commandment. He felt, as Lot did, vexed in his righteous soul regarding the filth and degradation following upon the revival of idolatrous religion among his people. The decline in national morality, their weakness in matters of principle, their loss of national independence — all these things are revealed in the scriptures and could only be attributed to the people’s idolatry. Other godly prophets, besides Jeremiah were staring captivity in the face, so to speak, long before Babylon took them over.
Now, I dare say, that we should ponder that we are on the verge of a take-over unless there is on the part of our country a speedy repentance. The Holy Spirit has been grieved. This perilous situation has been brought about partly by —
(1) avowed Romanists. Cardinal Manning, 9 years after the restoration of the Roman Catholic hierarchy in England, in 1859 addressing his priests at Westminster said “It is yours to subjugate and subdue the will of an imperial race. England is the head of Protestantism” — you would think he had read John Willison’s “Fair and Impartial Testimony” — “weakened in England, it is paralysed everywhere, it is conquered throughout the world”.
(2) By men like Newman, who infiltrated our National and Free churches, at first in the guise of Protestants. This apostasy, the departure from the faith that the Scriptures tell us about, is to be brought to success, according to the words of the apostle Paul, by treachery, deceit, fraud and falsehood. We are to expect in the conduct of those who promote Popery, every kind and degree of iniquity. Our present situation has been brought about —
(3) by careless Evangelicals. The Methodist Times of December 1914, dealing with the British and American revival of the mid-18th century states that “Wesley linked it (i.e. the revival) to Laud, for Laud was one of the founders of the Arminian movement”. “Ritualism is the natural product of Arminian doctrine” said Dr. Kennedy. When he was in Italy for his health’s sake, he was in Rome and visited a church there. He wrote to a ministerial colleague describing “the ridiculous service. A great concert in which there was nothing serious“. What pained him most was, he said that “there before me was the ripe fruit of what is, in the innovation movement, now being sown in our own church at home”. Long before he went to Italy he stated that “the members of a dissenting church can only be held by their consciences or by their carnal tastes. We are fast losing our hold of the one, and only in the Church of Rome can the second be pampered to the full”. Arminianism propagated in a Protestant land is the most suitable method conceivable for the undermining of Biblical Christianity — the best conceivable foundation for the re-erection of Popery in such a land.
Now, fourthly, The admonition “Ask for the old paths, where is the good way and walk therein”. Israel had come to the cross-roads so to speak, but it does not appear that, to them, the ways were clearly sign-posted. What would you do if, on a journey, you came to a junction in unknown country which was not sign-posted? If you were wise, ask for directions. This was what Jeremiah advised a back-slidden people “Ask for the old paths where is the good way”. This is what the true church has in all ages been enabled to do, “Tell me”, she says, “O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to lie down at noon, for why should I be as one that turneth aside . . .” “If thou knowest not”, replies her glorious Head “go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock and feed thy kids beside the shepherd’s tents” (Song).
The old paths are revealed in God’s Word, those Biblical paths in which the faithful in all ages have walked; the apostolic Christians, the Reformers and the godly in our land since their day. And these are the same paths in which God would have men walk today for in effect as we have seen they are paths of liberty and greatness in every sense. Often was Israel reminded that:
“The whole paths of the Lord
are truth and mercy sure,
To such as keep his covenant
and testimonies pure”.
I have come to a point in the sermon where one might more fully define our Reformed heritage, the old paths or “the good way”. We consider this to be more than just “the five points of Calvinism”. But however interesting that might be, I do not wish to do it because there are some matters involved in walking in the old paths and the good way that I would like to mention. They are not new but reminding one another may be to edification. This is a ministerial duty — “if thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things”.
(1) One of these matters is the duty of being “set for the defence of the gospel”. You cannot defend or fight the good fight of faith unless you know what or where the enemy is attacking. I can only, for lack of time, try to give one or two examples of what I mean. There is this to consider: Textual criticism. The Church of Rome must destroy the evidence against her. The apostasy cannot triumph unless the witness of God’s word is destroyed. She has always been embarrassed by it. It would not suit her purpose as in the past to make bonfires of Bibles in George Square, Glasgow or anywhere else. Her alternative is to distort the evidence, the testimony. This, today, will better serve her ends. The Roman Catholic Church’s interests have been well served by a multiplicity of modern translations of the Bible. She has published her own Revised Standard Version which contains errors regarding the deity and Eternal Sonship of the Lord Jesus Christ, as well as errors regarding His miraculous birth. The text has in many places been altered and notes added, they say, to make it suitable for Roman Catholic readers. Both it and the Jerusalem Bible further Mariolatry. These versions have been favourably reviewed in Evangelical magazines and those readers who consider themselves Evangelical may consider that it is good and proper for them also to make use of them.
The Free Church may go to great lengths to justify the use of the New English Bible or other versions in the congregations of that denomination; the regular diets of antiquated material on Textual Criticism in the Monthly Record of the Free Church will no doubt please some hoary heads in the Established Church as well as Romanists, but that activity does not please those who love the Lord in her midst, or the godly anywhere for that matter. It is significant we think that one of those who promoted the text that underlies some of the more unreliable versions — Westcott, was interested in Romanism. One might pose a question at this stage. Did the Constitutionalists before the turn of this century support a Radical School of Textual Criticism which had its roots in German Rationalism? The accommodation of radical views should not surprise us in a church that could after 1900 accommodate Professor Alexander. Our Church has never altered her views on this subject and we must continue to preserve and defend the gospel as well as contend against everything that would pave the way for Romanism.
(2) Further, the Union movement has weakened the church. Where have “advances in Textual Criticism” and “progress in Modern Scholarship” taken our churches? Where has the teaching of the Universal Fatherhood of God and a Universal Atonement taken them? It is claimed that the Church of Scotland Joint Committee on Christian Marriage has created a new spirit of trust between the Church of Scotland and the Roman Catholic Church and also that the Inter-Church Relations Committee consider it unthinkable that the development of ecumenical parishes should be restricted. Does not this sound like popery? For these “ecumenical parishes” we believe one could substitute “Roman Catholic parishes”. This is where the propaganda for Christian unity over the past ten decades has brought us. The Church of Scotland at present has a Roman Catholic representative as observer in her General Assembly and a Roman Catholic Professor teaching her students for the ministry. Rome has thus secured her post-Reformation bid to be recognised as another branch of the Christian church in a Protestant land; this is something the Reformers could not believe possible. Rome today is not satisfied with union such as would please the ecumenicals — she demands supremacy. It would be well for us as a church to consider anew these dangers in order that we would not be affected by the prevailing ecumenical spirit of the age. All this indicates that our duty is to preserve the pure Word of God and the only way. “the good way” for us as a church is complete separation. Some may accuse us because of this duty of separation of not seeking the good of the Cause of Christ. The distinctive views in our church’s Confession can only be maintained by way of preserving the Protest raised by our godly fathers in 1893 on this matter. I am reminded of a conversation which I had comparatively recently with the late Rev. D.A. MacFarlane. I was speaking to him about Protest and he said in his own inimitable way, “remember in connection with this word PRO means FOR”. A Protest is not merely against, it is undoubtedly a witness, not only a witness against error in doctrine or practice but a witness FOR. It is evident that the Rev. D. MacFarlane, when he made his Protest in the Free Church Assembly in 1893, “raised a testimony for the truth”. This is the witness that our generation needs. “Ask for the old paths, where is the good way and walk therein”.
You may say that we have been speaking only about what WE should do as if what WE do would be of itself any avail for the good of our generation, but if we are enabled to keep to the Word of God we are persuaded then that “the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds”. We have in opposition to us a mighty system of satanic power. “We wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers . . .” and therefore we ought to call upon God that he would enable us to preserve the old paths and in a dark day to discern where is the good way and walk therein so that we might enjoy His blessing and possess His favour. There is life in His favour.