(Held at St Jude’s, Glasgow on 8th November 1929 and delivered in Gaelic).
Question (Given out by Mr Jas. Nicolson, Clydebank).
“And said unto the woman, Now we believe not because of thy saying; for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world”. John 4:42.
Rev. N. Cameron
The woman of Samaria when she went to draw water from the well, was what is known in Scripture as a ‘sinner in the city’, but she was one on whom the love of God rested from all eternity. The world may kick against election, but not one of the elect shall go to eternal damnation. Instead of cavilling with the Scriptures, men should search there to see if they are called themselves.
This woman would not even give Him a drink of water, and when Christ began to teach her, she was sharp enough with her tongue, until at last her sins were brought home upon her when Christ said, “Go, call thy husband, and come hither”. “I have no husband”, she answered. “Jesus said unto her, Thou has well said, I have no husband; for thou hast had five husbands, and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly”. Her sin was brought home upon her, but Christ did not leave her there. He went on to teach her, and then she said, “I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ; when He is come, He will teach us all things”. “Jesus said unto her, I that speak unto thee am He”. Although men should be telling her that Christ was the Messias, what was that to her until Christ told her Himself? There is no Saviour in the world but Christ, but unless that is brought home on the conscience, nothing else will do. “I that speak unto thee am He”, and like many since her day, she forgot what she came to the well for, and went away and left her water-pots there.
She told the men of the city, to come and see a man that told her all things that ever she did, and if this Person met you He told you all things that ever you did. Everything that ever you did or thought is naked before His All-seeing eye. “He told me all things that ever I did. Is not this the Christ?”, and this made the men of the city arise and go to see Him for themselves. They believed her in a historic way, but when they heard Christ for themselves, they could say, “Now we believe not because of thy saying, for we have heard Him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world”. If you got Christ, you would be saying, No one ever got what I got.
The men of Samaria heard the Word of God that day, and were made alive by it, for it is the Word alone that can awaken a sinner, and make him realise his awful state in view of eternity. He now realises that there is a Hell, and he also realises how things are with himself, and the wrath of God frightens him. Before he could sleep like a stone, but now he feels that the wrath of God is upon him, and he has no rest. It is told of big John McCrae, who was known for his great physical strength, that when he was under conviction of sin, that a small stone on the road-side, would knock him on his back. I do not say that to take away the hope of the Lord’s people, for everyone has not the same degree of conviction, for if God convinced you in such a manner that you fled to Christ for refuge, and have no other Saviour but Christ, and were enabled to embrace Him as He is offered in the Gospel, ask for no more Law work.
God is angry with the wicked every day, and this people felt this, and they also felt the need they had of Christ, and that there was no salvation in any other, or any other name under heaven, given among men whereby they could be saved, but the name Jesus. They saw in Him everything they needed for time and eternity. They cannot do without Him. It is true of them as it was of the Apostles of old, when they were asked, “Will ye also go away”, they would have to answer “Lord to whom shall we go, thou has the words of eternal life”.
Capt. McLeod, Edinburgh
Those who know Christ, know Him in three ways. I think they came so near Him, that they knew the words of His mouth, and the breath of His mouth, and the kiss of His mouth, and when they got this kiss, it put sin out of the door. “He told me all things that ever I did”, and indeed if anyone told you all things that ever you did, you would know who He was. When He came to tell this people, that they were lost sinners, they were dead in trespasses and sins, and all their concern was how they were to get on in this world, but no word of their poor soul. They may sometimes have had convictions, which would be sending them to their knees, but they had no understanding of the Three Persons in the adorable Trinity. They knew no Mediator. When they heard a sermon, they would be saying, it is this man or that man it refers to, but not myself, but a day came upon them, when they had to say, I am the man. No one could convince them that day, but that there was a Hell. They realised that it was to Hell they were going, unless God in His mercy would forgive them. Forgiveness is a wonderful thing, and a thing that will make such as receive it, sing throughout eternity.
This people tried now to build up for eternity, and to earn forgiveness by their own works, but the Spirit breathed on these works and blew them away. They could not stand before God. “By the works of the Law, no flesh shall be justified in His sight”. Their cry now was, O that He would only come and speak a word of forgiveness to me! They would sometimes get passages of Scripture, but they could not take them to themselves, because no power came with them. But a day came when they received the Word with power, and were enabled to embrace Christ in the Gospel. They became now like the Prodigal son, when he came home and received the kiss of forgiveness and reconciliation from his father. If one were to ask him that day. Are you sure it was your father? he would say, O yes, he kissed me. I am sure it was he. When he was returning, he would be satisfied to be only a servant in his father’s house, and to get something to eat, but these thoughts went away. The kiss of forgiveness changed everything. He could say as the Church of old, “His mouth is most sweet”. Was it not sweet to you too, poor child of God? O yes. It was sweet to your conscience when He spoke peace to your soul. Some have more experience of that than others. Look at the difference between the experience of Lydia and that of the Philippian Jailor: but their hearts were opened, and they could not get enough of Him. Lydia was saying, “If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and abide there”. They not only want Him, but they want His people also. As Ruth said, “Thy people shall be my people”.
But how are they now? Are they not mourning, O how I have sinned Him away! How I have quenched the Spirit away from myself! How guilty I am! O what an evil heart I have! What terrible thoughts come in there, and even the least of them is sin. Although we have the Gospel, how we quench the Spirit! O that the Spirit would come to me again! O that I saw Him working in my family! He is more precious than the whole world, and without Him everything is empty.
John Campbell, Glasgow
It will not do for this people to hear from other men that He is a Saviour, unless they get to know Him as their own personal Saviour, and are enabled to embrace Him as He is freely offered in the Gospel. None but Christ can meet their needs. To know Him is life eternal. It is the Holy Spirit that awakens them from the spiritual death in which they lay, and makes them see and realise that they are lost for eternity. It becomes a personal matter with them now. O to have Christ as their own, for without Him they are undone. But a day came on them when they heard Him for themselves, and were made able to believe and to close in with Him as their own. In Him they have all that they need for time and for an endless eternity. He is the One that finished the work that the Father gave Him to do.
The Saviour which the world have today is one who can go with them to all the vanities, but that is not the Saviour of the Lord’s people, for they need Christ Himself to create in them a clean heart and to renew a right spirit within them, and to wash them from their sins in His own blood; the fountain that was opened for sin and for uncleanness. This is the Fountain where all the saints shall be washed, and their song throughout eternity will be “Unto Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood . . .” This people mourn over how little this Great Saviour is thought of in the world, and how He is despised.
John MacAulay, Applecross
We heard a great deal tonight already about conviction of sin, and that is a thing that cannot be expressed. It is God’s work and it is unspeakable. They were undone in themselves, but they got a ray of hope in Christ, for it was there the mercy of God was shining out. “O that men to the Lord would give praise for his goodness then”. When they were enabled to receive and embrace Christ as He is offered in the Gospel, they could truly say, “I love the Lord because my voice and prayers he did hear”. “My Beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand, yes, He is altogether lovely”. Angels would not do for them, they must have Christ Himself, He who bore the curse of the Law for them, and no wonder they would rejoice in Him”.
James Campbell, Inverness
When this people found out that they had an immortal soul, they were as ignorant as the woman to whom Christ was here speaking. They were so dark concerning the things that belonged to their peace, and were made to realise that although they got the whole world for themselves, it would not help them. Yet they saw in the Scriptures, how He dealt with others who were ignorant and blind like themselves, how He opened their eyes, and enlightened their minds in the knowledge of Christ Jesus, and it put a desire in their hearts to have Him for themselves, for if they got Him, they would be right for eternity. Others got a saving interest in Christ, and it is their greatest desire to have this too. They see in Him all they need. None other in the world will make up what they lost but Christ Himself, and they learn step by step more of Him and His ability to bring peace to their souls.
Malcolm McLeod, Raasay
It is a solemn thing for me to bring out marks on those who have this precious faith. When the Holy Spirit convinces them of their sins, it is to the Law they immediately go to see if they can work a righteousness of their own; but they are made to learn that “By the works of the Law, no flesh shall be justified in His sight”. When the Holy Spirit reveals Christ to them in the Gospel, He is precious to them. He is all they desire, and can say with the Psalmist, “Whom have I in the heavens high, but thee O Lord alone, and in the earth whom I desire besides thee there is none”. Before nothing troubled them, but now all things are troubles to them, for “Without Me, ye can do nothing”, and unless He would do for them, they would be lost for eternity. Again, they left all things and followed Christ. Not that they could do it themselves, but it is their desire. They turned their backs on those who were their former companions in sin, but the majority of those who profess to know Christ in our day, still have their old companions, and can still enjoy their company. If this people were addicted to drink before, they gave it up now. They were no more to be found among their vain companions; no more at the vain song. They are finished with these things. This faith finds no fault with the works of God, but others will be cavilling at the Word. What they have is, The Law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just and good, but I am carnal. They have also this mark, they want to call others to Christ, and that because they have tasted that the Lord is gracious, and unless this poor woman had tasted that in her sins being forgiven her, her feet would not have taken her into the city, but He did forgive her, and hence she called on all to come to Him.
Alexander McDiarmid, Vatten
It is clear that saving faith does not come by hearing mere man, but God brings each one personally whom He purposes to save, to hear His Word for himself. It is not by learning they attain to this. Once they receive this faith, none can ever take it from them again. They may have many fears — Do they really belong to Christ? Did the right work begin in them? and these fears will be so great at times that they will be coming to the conclusion that they have no faith at all, but yet it is there. There is none of them but believe the truth of the Scriptures, and that not because of outside witnesses, but the witness is in themselves. They believe that men are sinners, and that they are sinners themselves — they have no doubt about that. They will not deny that there is such a place as Hell, for they saw clearly that that was where they were going unless God would deliver them. Some profess to know these things but live as if there were no such things at all. This people believe that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ of God, the Saviour, and as Christ said to Peter, “Flesh and blood have not revealed this unto thee, but my Father”, so it is with them.
Alexander McKay, Staffin
There was a day when this people would go to argue — What sin was in this and that thing? They would not deny but that there was sin in theft, murder and adultery, but they would go on singing and dancing, and would argue, what fault was in this. But a day came when they changed their minds about these things. They knew to some extent, the answers in the Shorter Catechism — That the fall brought man into an estate of sin and misery, and they also knew that “God did enter into a Covenant of Grace to deliver them out of the estate of sin and misery, and to bring them into an estate of salvation by a Redeemer”, but they had no real knowledge of these things, and took no delight in them. Another day came on them though, in which they took delight in these things. They began to realise that there was a Law, and that they were breaking this Law, and that the wages of sin was death. They had no doubt but that they were now under sentence of death. They justified God in this. They realised that Justice demanded that they should be punished. They began to understand a little of God in Christ, and the work that He finished and His suitability as their Mediator. They desired above all things to be in Christ. “He came to his own, and his own received Him not, but to such as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God”. They desire to be freed from the world and its ways. They would walk seven to fourteen miles before to a Concert, but now they would walk twenty miles to hear about Christ.
Duncan McAskill, Glendale
This people felt the sentence of death in themselves, and realised that it was with God they had to deal. They did all they could trying to work out a righteousness of their own, and spent all that they had, as the woman who had the issue of blood, and were nothing better. But when they were enabled to embrace Christ, they would commit a thousand souls to Him if they had them. They saw so much in Him. “We behold his glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth”. They got a wonderful revelation of Him. He was precious to them — He was their all. All the wrath of God and the curse of the Law fell upon Him, and it is on account of this that they love Him. They also love His Word, and His means and His people.
They mourn on account of the large numbers on the broad way to destruction, graceless ministers leading the poor people astray — the blind leading the blind until they will at last fall into the pit. The Devil never got more support than he gets from graceless ministers.
Alexander McKenzie, Dingwall
There is comfort in this chapter for the people who have tasted that the Lord is gracious; for it shows here that He is gracious no matter how evil the sins, and how numerous, a person may be guilty of. Such as have tasted that the Lord is gracious, were convinced of their sins. I have to confess that Sabbath breaking, which I was guilty of in the days of my youth, frightens me more today than anything else.
Another day came on these people (and I should question myself if that day came on me) when they received peace through the blood, and they could never put in words or tell any creature what that meant — peace with God, through the Lord Jesus Christ. They have this mark, they will be praising the Lord that it was in the Free Presbyterian Church they were born. If I ever praised the Lord, I will praise Him today that it is in St. Jude’s I am, and that on account of the awfulness that goes on all around us. Glasgow was a different Glasgow when I knew it sixty years ago, but O how is it today! Then Sabbath was a peaceful day, nothing to be seen, but an odd horse and trap bringing some farmer in from the country to the Church.
This people have many troubles in the world, but no matter what these are, they will not part with Christ. I thought at one time when I would enter the Church, that the Preacher would say to me, “Go out, I cannot get on with such a creature as you here”, but “Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound”. They will also be tried in this world, and if you are a child of God, you will be tried, but as the Apostle Paul said, “I am persuaded that neither death, not life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord”.
Kenneth Matheson, Dingwall
Two days came upon this people. It was Christ who made the change. Christ had to go through Samaria, and Christ will have to come to all that will be saved.
They had all a terrible disease that was bringing them to Hell, and this Great Physician made them realise that. They learned that God was true and every man a liar, and they thought that He was going to cast them off for ever to Hell as they deserved, but it was from His very mouth from whom they expected their condemnation for ever, that they got the kiss of reconciliation. How sweet that kiss of reconciliation was to them! It was all of free grace. They were taken into the kingdom of grace, and shall never be put out of it. They tried many ways of their own before this, but Christ took them out of them, as He did this woman. She was getting drinks out of the Wells of Repentance on her way into Samaria, and so did they. They have this mark, they want the Word of God to rule in themselves, in their families, and in the Church to which they belong.
Capt. McIntyre
It is a marvellous way in which God meets with sinners and deals with them in the world. That was the case here, and it was the case with the man who was possessed with devils in the country of the Gaderenes, and it is the case with each individual. The Lord was here waiting on the woman of Samaria, and He met this man who was possessed of devils, and He brought them both to His feet. The Samaritans listened to what this woman had to say, but in our day, men will not move from their beds to hear the Word of God, as if they had no souls at all.
When they heard of Him, and of His character, they went to hear Him for themselves, and what they had to say was, “Now we believe, not because of thy saying; for we have heard Him ourselves, and knew that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world”. We have the Word of God still, and we are all sinners, whether we believe it or not, for we will find that out either in mercy or in judgment, and Christ the Saviour of the world is set forth before us in the Gospel, but we will not believe. It is the Holy Spirit alone that can teach us, and no other teaching will do.
We have quenched the Holy Spirit, and men in the greater part of Scotland are taking Ministers’ places in the Church, and they have no knowledge, but a natural knowledge, and we are told that the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. I knew a man and he took years at sea as an Engineer, and he thought he would be more suitable as a Farmer than an Engineer, so he took a farm, but he was so ignorant of the things a farmer should know, and he did not even know his own sheep when he would see them. That is the case with graceless ministers, they do not know the flock. As I said to a man once, I took 40 years at sea, and I suppose now you would not take me as a Shepherd? No, pity the sheep. Well, that is the way with graceless ministers, they are in the wrong place.
James McKay, Edinburgh
She was a poor ignorant creature this woman, but what a change came over her. She became a useful woman, and it is a pity that we have not got many of her kind. Such as are taught of the Holy Spirit have no hope in anything they can do themselves, and would put their Amen to it that they have destroyed themselves. They will be feeling themselves very unlike what they profess. God says of them that they are His Witnesses: “Ye are my witnesses” but although they will be finding themselves so unlike what they profess, they like to see others witnessing on the side of Christ. They will be seeking to thank the Lord that there are a few left in the world yet — a few here tonight to whom they feel attached. They will be seeking to praise the Lord for the Witness of 1893, and although they feel themselves so unlike what they should be, and so weak, their desire and constant cry is “Entreat me not to leave thee, not to turn from following thee”.
Alexander Murray, Dornoch
We believe that it is a mark on those whom the Lord has called by power of His Word in truth, that they are no longer bound by the ties which held them in days gone by, and that they are therefore seeking by the power of this Word that has been spoken to them, that they would be brought nearer to the Lord Jesus Christ, and that they would be faithful witnesses of the great work He has done for them. It was a great price He paid for them, for they were bought with His own precious blood, and that is the only place they can find suitable for themselves as sinners, when brought face to face with the Law of God, manifesting the high and holy righteousness that is His, and that is the righteousness He requires. They have this hope that He will carry through the work He has begun in them, but there are times when they will be finding difficulty in putting their hand on this. In the day of their espousal, they felt a warmth and love in their soul to Christ, but Oh what barrenness they feel there now. There is nothing but death and barrenness of soul, and they feel more like those who are free among the dead. The Word of God is precious to them, and when they hear it, it is as a fire kindled in their soul, and as it is the nature of fire to burn up the dross and purify the gold, so it is with this fire, for it will burn up all the dross of sinful nature and carnality, and it will be purifying their nature more like their Lord Jesus Christ, until at last their song will be, “Unto Him that loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood . . .” and they will not be looking to any righteousness of their own, but the righteousness of the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world.
Rev. N. McIntyre, Edinburgh
We heard at the beginning how this woman left her vessels at the well, and went to tell of this wonderful Person that told her all things that ever she did. When she went back to the city, surely the people in the city were seeing some difference in her, for on account of the creature she was, I do not think they would pay much attention to her, but it seems that the way in which she spoke, and her manner, showed there was a difference. The person who hears God’s Word in a saving way undergoes a change, and that change is to be seen. The godliness that does not change a man from the outside is a thing that no one can pay attention to or take note of. In our young days the professing people had a powerful influence upon the common people.
Joseph’s brethren when they returned said, the man spoke roughly to us, and who would have thought that this was the man that was to help them, and that is how the Spirit deals with the poor sinner. It will be difficult for them to realise that day that it is a good work that is begun in them, as it was for Joseph’s brethren to realise that it was none other than Joseph. But when he said to them, I am Joseph, the world could not convince them that it was not he; and that is how it is with the Lord’s people when Christ reveals Himself to them in His Word. They know that it is He; although many a day since they fear it was not He who spoke to them in His Word at all, sealing forgiveness on their consciences.
The question was asked Archibald Cook once, “Which do you fear most, that which has gone past of your life, or that which is to come?” And he said that it was that which went past of his life. And he was asked why was that? “Well, I mean this — If what took place in what is past of my life, was right, I fear not what will come after”. If the beginning was right, all will be right. They are sure that if the beginning was right, the end will be right. If we do not hear the voice that the woman of Samaria heard, sealing peace on our conscience, we shall hear it at last saying, “Depart from me ye cursed”.