In May each year the Synod, the supreme Court of our Church, meets either in Glasgow or Inverness to deal with matters affecting the life of the Church. Many items of business appear on the Synod agenda and members of Synod, consisting of the ministers and representative elders, are expected to take a lively interest in the business dealt with. Part of the business consists of annual reports given in from the Mission and Overseas Stations, along with reports by Conveners of Committees on different aspects of the Church’s work. Apart from a review of the work of the Church in this way, the Synod at times is called on to review cases sent up from Presbyteries and also deal with other difficult matters, matters which if not handled wisely may cause much dissension.
In view of this, what need there is of prayer that the blessing of God’s Presence and guidance would be given to those who meet in Synod so that God might in all things be glorified. Only the Lord is able to give the wisdom needed to deal with some of the issues that have to be resolved at such a time. He alone is able so to guide the Synod in its deliberations so that what is done may be to His glory and for the advancement of His Cause in our midst as a Church, and that nothing may be done that would in any way hinder that Cause.
The witness of our Church — set up, as it is, for the defence and proclamation of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, was never more needed than it is in our day. The enemies of Christ’s Cause would delight to see that witness destroyed and this too is the desire of the arch-enemy of souls. Satan can never rest content so long as the witness of the Free Presbyterian Church is maintained and he will do whatever is in his power to destroy it. It is not Satan’s will, however, that is to triumph. It is not in his hand but in the Lord’s hand whether or not our witness as a Church stands or falls, and He has promised to maintain His own witness even in the darkest day. It is our duty, then, not to look to men, but to look to the Lord to maintain it.
While this is so, it is equally clear that the Lord has laid it upon His servants and people to be faithful to that which He has committed to their charge. They are under obligation to the Lord who has redeemed them from death to be faithful to Him even unto death. It is not enough for them to be faithful in word only but also in deed. Many spoke well and yet faltered when the time of testing came. We are in a time of testing in our day from influences and forces that would wrest from us our precious heritage. We have need of being kept in such a time for we cannot keep ourselves. May the Lord be pleased in His mercy to give strength and grace to His servants and people to stand in the evil day.
We do not know when it may please the Lord to build up His Zion again. The darkness which has enveloped the land morally and spiritually may be the precursor of a glorious dawn when the light of millennial glory will break forth to irradiate the whole land, its people and its institutions with light. If it should be so, what a contrast there will be between that time and our present debased state and condition. Glorious will Zion be then, the joy of the whole earth.
Meanwhile let us pray for those days and pray even now that the Lord would bless His Church — “Send now prosperity.” The Lord has given His promise in His own Word of a time when He is to favour Zion and He is faithful that promised.
“Thou shalt arise, and mercy have upon Thy Zion yet;
The time to favour her is come, the time that Thou has set.”