The present year is inexorably drawing to a close. Time does not stand still. Each day, each week, each month, as well as each year, draws to a close. We are hurrying on to eternity. Soon, too, it must be said of each one of us that our life in this world is drawing to a close. Beyond time there is the eternal world into which each soul is to be ushered, a world of which we can have very little conception while here in time. What we do know is that it must be for each one either an eternity of everlasting bliss or an eternity of everlasting woe.
So far as this present year is concerned it has now almost run its course. How much has taken place in the history of individuals and nations since the year began. What expectations a new year brings, yet when the year has ended it is clearly seen how few of these expectations were realised. Since the beginning of the year what troubles and devastation have overtaken certain parts of the world through war, earthquakes, hurricanes and famine. How many have perished and gone to their account owing to these events. Besides such catastrophes, economic troubles have plagued nations in Europe and elsewhere. Though we have been spared many of these calamities that affected other parts of the world, yet we can hardly have been unaffected by the suffering of our fellow-men.
While the year is drawing to a close, all that has happened in it has gone before to judgment. There is One who weighs the actions of men. There is One who perceives all that takes place and it is written in His book. A day of reckoning is to come. Men may think that all is forgotten because it is now over but it is not so. Of “every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of the judgment”. In the light of these solemn matters, what need there is to lay to heart that death, judgment and eternity are before us.
During the year that is drawing to a close how many privileges we have enjoyed who have the Word of God preached to us. What warnings we have heard from that Word lest we should go on in the ways of sin. What invitations we have heard through the gospel calling on us to forsake the foolish and live. Have we laid these to heart? Have we fled for refuge to the hope set before us in the gospel, or are we determined still to go on in the ways of sin? How gracious is the Lord in His dealings with us when He is still making His word sound in our ears! How many in our day hear no warnings or invitations! To many people another gospel is preached which is no gospel. Others have forsaken the house of God and are living as heathen without the knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus. How privileged we are if it is otherwise with us. Yet who has made us to differ? And if we do not make proper use of our privileges — if Christ continues to be to us as a root out of a dry ground, then our latter end will be worse than those who have never heard the gospel of Jesus Christ. What has been our attitude to the Lord Jesus Christ and to the gospel of His grace during the period of this year which has already passed away? And what is to be our attitude to Christ, and to the salvation which is to be found in Him, during the short period left until the year actually draws to a close. A few short weeks or days and the year will be gone. Has so much of the year gone and we have not found Christ in it? Should this not make us all the more anxious to find Christ for our soul in the short period that remains? We do not know if we shall see another year, therefore how anxious we should be to seek and find Christ for our never-dying souls. He is to be found of those that seek Him. He has never said to any of “the seed of Jacob, Seek ye Me in vain”. The shortness of time until the end of the year ought to make us all the more earnest in our longings and desires to find the Saviour before it is too late. To the thief on the cross it might have been said: “It is too late to call for mercy. It is too late to seek for pardon. Your life has been spent in sin. What hope have you of deliverance now in the last closing hours of your life?” Yet his cry went forth: “Lord, remember me”. Remember me, vile sinner though I have been, “remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom”. In the last expiring moments of his life he called on the Saviour and did not cry in vain. On his ears fell those gracious words spoken by the dying Lamb of God: “Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.”
The year is drawing to a close. Much of the year has passed. Yet how much can take place during the last expiring days and hours of this year that will have eternal consequences. Some will not see the end of the year. Their life will close before the year ends. Others before the year ends will doubtless find life for their souls and deliverance from eternal death. Of some, whose life will close before the year ends, it can be said that they shall be brought into the palace of the king; of others, that the day of mercy has passed and that they will go down into the blackness of darkness for ever. How would it be with us if our life was to end before the year draws to a close? Would it find us in the kingdom of Christ, or in the kingdom of darkness? May we take warning while the day of mercy lasts and flee from the wrath to come and find a hiding place under the shelter of the blood of Immanuel.
Sermon
by the Rev. C. J. Brown
II.
(Continued from page 330)
“I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what He will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved” (Hab. 2: 1).
5.
But this runs into a fifth great line of ministerial guilt. The four preceding, it will have been observed, belong rather to the habit, the frame and temper of the soul. From this state of soul, however, there springs a fifth iniquity, that might be branched out without end. I refer to great and criminal perfunctoriness in every department of our work. I believe that the more the matter is considered, it will be the more evident how a man may be diligent, comparatively, painstaking and conscientious in the ministry, and yet may discharge it, if its proper nature be regarded, in a very slight and perfunctory manner after all. Look at Paul’s command to Timothy, “preach the word; be instant in season, out of season,” connecting it with the distinction already so often drawn, between the heart of a Minister bent on the winning of souls, as the end of his work, and his seeking, substantially, the discharge of his duty, the satisfying of his conscience, by some due measure of laboriousness in his work. A man in this last state of mind will not be even able to understand that word, “instant in season, out of season”. It evidently supposes a Minister bent on saving souls, any how, if it be at all possible. Such a man will take all sorts of times, and ways, and places, not forbidden by scripture, or by sound spiritual good sense, to attain his object. If, for example, he cannot get hearers to come to him, he will go to them, though it be to the streets and highways. Why not? If he can reach them “in season”, well. But if not, yet “out of season” he must come at them. “I became all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.” “They watch for your souls,” says Paul, “as they that must give account.” They watch for them. Look how it is with a man of this world, set on mercantile gains. He watches his opportunity. He is not content with going through a routine. Bent on realising profits, he observes the prices. He watches their rise and fall, and eagerly steps in at what he deems the most favourable time. It is otherwise, alas! with us. We have exonerated our conscience — we have done our duty. Have we? In reality we have done nothing like it, since we have lost unnumbered opportunities, just from not lying on the watch — not being bent intently on the great gain, the gaining of imperishable souls. Ah! “the children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light”.
This perfunctoriness appears, to take an example or two, in the preaching of the word. In our preparations it comes out, in our not seeking, laboriously and prayerfully, for those things which might be the most fitted under God, to save and edify souls, but rather being satisfied with things which will give ourselves less trouble, or may be pleasing, simply, and satisfying to the better part of our hearers. And then in the preaching itself it appears, in the absence, to a fearful extent, of that winning tenderness and affection, that simplicity, that chastened and loving zeal, for which noise and vehement gesticulation are but miserable substitutes. The same perfunctoriness appears in our dealing with young communicants, where we are too much satisfied with being just able conscientiously to admit or reject them, without longing after their souls, looking up to the Lord for them, seizing the golden opportunity, the most precious we can ever possess, of getting into close and earnest and personal dealing with them. In our discipline it appears, in that we are generally content, I fear, when we have given some due compliance with the letter of the Church’s laws, in place of sincerely “travailing with offenders,” (to use the language of our ancient statutes), to bring them, if the Lord will, to a repentance not to be repented of. In family visitation there is a miserable perfunctoriness. If we have got through the work of the day, comfortably and pleasantly, we are content, though we have neither wrestled before hand, nor much looked up, in the course of the work, for the Lord’s special presence and blessing in it. In the public prayers the same spirit comes out, in our not “stirring up ourselves to take hold of God” — not throwing our whole souls into “fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.” As to the government of the Church, our Presbyteries, and other ecclesiastical courts, we have but to look, I think, at the present Assembly, to see how miserably we have, in a great measure, thrown these away, deeming their work very much over, just where the chief spiritual efficacy of it might have begun. Altogether, who can read the following words of Paul, without seeing, in the contrast of them, and seeing in everything, a great and lamentable perfunctoriness, “therefore watch, and remember that, by the space of three years, I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears.”
6.
I mark only one other line of our guilt, in the briefest manner, viz., our very imperfectly living, holding forth, in our lives, the ministry we have received of the Lord Jesus. I speak not, of course, of any outward immoralities — the Lord be praised we are kept from these. I speak of nothing that could indicate that we had entered the priest’s office for a bit of bread. But what I point out is that high standard of living, which the apostle marks in the words, “giving none offence in anything, that the ministry be not blamed” — the elevated ministerial character marked in the following divine words of Bunyan, in his Pilgrim. Among other pictures which the Interpreter shewed Christian, furnishing him with certain great cardinal lessons for his journey, one is thus spoken of: “So he had him into a private room, and bid his man open a door, the which when he had done, Christian saw the picture of a very grave person hang up against the wall, and this was the fashion of it: — It had eyes lifted up to heaven, the best of books in his hand, the law of truth was written upon its lips, the world was behind his back, it stood as if it pleaded with men, and a crown of gold did hang over his head.” Ah, “the picture of a very grave person!” Austerity and gloom, assuredly, are not good. But alas! for the levity, the poor unsavoury talk, the frivolity, the foibles, as they are called, of us men set, for a few short years, ambassadors of Heaven, to stand between the living and the dead, till the plague be stayed! Are we such, indeed? Are we going to heaven, and longing to take our people thither along with us? I remember that once a meal was eaten on the banks of the Sea of Galilee, where Ministers were present — where was present the chief Shepherd himself. But O the conversation at that meal! “so, when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter &c., &c. (see John 21: 15-22). “It had eyes lifted up to heaven, the best of books in his hand, the law of truth was written upon its lips, the world was behind his back, it stood as if it pleaded with men, and a crown of gold did hang over his head!” — How very faint a conception can we form of the infinite guilt and injury involved in all these heads of iniquity together! “Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I could weep day and night!” “Mine iniquities have taken hold on me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of my head.” “Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done evil in thy sight, that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.” “Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation; and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.”
II. The space to which I must limit myself precludes so entirely any adequate notice, separately, of the sins of the Eldership and of the People, that I must content myself with a single remark in regard to the former, the Eldership. I believe that the most faithful among our beloved brethren holding that office are the most disposed, whether they look to the matter or to the spirit of their duties — such duties as the visiting of the sick, the holding of meetings for prayer in their several districts, looking after the spiritual state of the young, and specially young communicants, in the congregation, generally looking after the fruits of the Minister’s labours, and setting the example of a heavenly and devoted life before the flock — the most disposed to cry out, in reference to all of these, “My leanness! my leanness!” — the most disposed to bring out and acknowledge their many sins and shortcomings before the Lord and each other, and to welcome, with their whole hearts, whatever suggestions might be most fitted, under God, to lead to a more spiritual, and every way effective discharge of their important office.
III. With respect to the sins of the People, I shall pass by (though I trust and believe that this Church, in its future labours, will be very far from passing by) the case of the unhappy multitudes among us, who “for-sake the assembling of themselves together,” neglect all ordinances together, despise God’s Sabbaths, and bring on themselves, and on the land, that chiefest guilt of the contempt of the gospel — of the offered Son of God. Let us seek to confess their guilt this day, who, alas! do not know, and cannot acknowledge it themselves. Among those, however, who attend the sanctuary of God, to how painful an extent are the following words of the prophet applicable (Exekial, 33: 30-32), “Also thou son of man, the children of thy people still are talking of thee by the walls, and in the doors of the houses, and speak one to another, every one to his brother, saying, Come, I pray you, and hear what is the word that cometh forth from the Lord. And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them: for with their mouth they shew much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness. And, lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument: for they hear thy words, but they do them not.” Too evident it is, that vast numbers attend the House of God from little more than mere curiosity — to hear a man speak, not to meet with the Lord — to hear the Word, without any honest purpose of doing it, and who go away approving, it may be admiring the sermon and the preacher, yet answering exactly to James’s account of the “man beholding his natural face in a glass,” their heart going after their covetousness, and their souls, alas! sunk only to a lower level of spiritual death than before. Let us endeavour to confess their guilt, also, before the Lord this day.
As for those of whom better things may be hoped, and things accompanying salvation, let me put it to you solemnly, dear Christian friends, whether there is not among you a very great failing to “keep the foot,” to take heed to the frame and temper of your souls, in “going to the house of God” — a miserable falling short of that language and spirit in reference to all divine ordinances, “My soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee; to see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary.” “I will go about the city, in the streets and in the broad ways, I will seek Him whom my soul loveth.” “One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple.” Be assured that the want of a definite aim, and of the right aim, in going to the sanctuary, even to meet with the blessed God lies near the foundation of all misimprovement of its services together. As we go, too much, to preach our sermon, and too little yearning over your souls, so you come too much to hear us, and too little to meet with God, in the prayers, in the praises, and in the preaching together. And then, only call to mind the following names which are given to private members of the Church in scripture — “the saints,” “a royal priesthood,” “witnesses for God,” “living epistles of Christ,” “lights in the world, holding forth the Word of life”. Alas! alas! there needs no comment on these titles. Come and join with us in our confessions of sin this day. Mingle your tears and prayers with ours, beloved brethren. Assuredly, we do not more weaken your hands by our shortcomings, than you do our hands, by yours. A praying people, is an old and true saying, makes a preaching minister. I would fain read here the close of a sermon on the ministry, by the excellent Traill of London — a sermon well worthy of being reprinted separately, as all his sermons are of being much read. “And lastly,” says he, “for people: it is not unfit that you should hear of Ministers’ work, and duty, and difficulties. You see that it is all of your concernment.” “All things are for your sakes,” as the apostle saith in another case. Then only I entreat you. I. Pity us. We are not angels, but men of like passions with yourselves. Be fuller of charity than of censure. We have all that you have to do about the saving of our own souls; and a great work besides about the saving of yours. We have all your difficulties as Christians; and some that you are not acquainted with, that are only Ministers’ temptations and trials. 2. Help us in our work. If you can do anything, help us in the work of winning souls. What can we do, say you? O! a great deal. Be but won to Christ, and we are made. Make haste to heaven, that you and we may meet joyfully before the throne of God and the Lamb. 3. Pray for us. How often and how earnestly doth Paul beg the prayers of the Churches! And if he did so, much more should we beg them, and you grant them; for our necessities and weaknesses are greater than his. “I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ’s sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me.” (Romans 15: 30).
And now I have done, I have been probed, a little way down, some of our wounds. Many have not been approached, as, for instance, the too easy admitting of persons to the sealing ordinances of the church. And many aggravations of our sins I have not touched — such as the attainments, the vows and sufferings of our forefathers. I believe, however, that if the wounds which have been approached were only in the course of thorough probing and healing, all others would follow, by the Lord’s good hand upon us, in due time. As for the devotions of this day, everything we need may, I think, be summed up in these two passages of scripture: (Zechariah 12: 10), “I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications; and they shall look upon me, whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his first born.” (Isaiah 6: 1-8), “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the Seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of Hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory. . . Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Then flew one of the Seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar. And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. Also I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I, send me.”
May the Lord give us understanding in all things; and to His name be glory in the Church by Christ Jesus, world without end. Amen.
Letter
by Rev. Hugh Martin, D.D.
Montrose, 8th June, 1880
My Dear Friend, — I was glad to see your handwriting again, and to know that you found cause of thanksgiving and praise, as well as of mourning and sorrow in the recent dispensation with which you have been visited. Believe me, or rather believe the Word of the Lord, “Yet God is good to Israel.”
I am sending you by this post a small treatise I have written and published, “The Prophetic Office of Christ,” the proof sheets of which you saw last winter. I myself see no merit in the little work except perhaps its catholicity. All the leading doctrines of Christianity may be gathered from it, yet not one word indicating to what branch of the visible Church the writer belongs. That is something, and something attained without being thought of or aimed at by me when writing. But the treatise itself is simply a shell from the shores of the ocean of divine truth. The glory of Christ’s prophetic office — the combination of Word and Spirit — which is truly and fully just Christ Himself as the ever-living and ever-infallible Teacher in His Church, is far too little regarded in present-day thinking and teaching. Ah! it is when the Church hears Christ’s own voice in and through the written Word, that she will have a testimony for Him to give such as shall convince an unbelieving world — a testimony the voice of which is “Whom having not seen, we love, in whom, though now we see Him not, yet believing, we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.”
I am not to write at length today, for I am troubled with rheumatic pains which flit down even to my fingers. And yet you were carving out more work for me. Well, if spared and able, I should like next to bring out something on Christ’s kingly office; if only the thoughts were God-given. A running commentary on the kingly Psalms would be the line I should like to adopt. For example, the 2nd, the 8th, the 24th, the 45th, and the 89th. Then the 90th, and those that follow with their repeated anthem, “The Lord doth reign.” Next would come, “Grace reigns,” a glorious theme, and lastly, “They shall reign, they who receive grace and the gift of righteousness, they shall reign in life by one, by Christ Jesus.”
Do you know I sometimes think I hear the words said, “Ye ought to be strong, and to remember the infirmities of the weak?” Who are to help “the weak” if such do not who have been long fed and watered in the pastures of divine truth? Is it right to be expecting to be always nursed and dandled, taking up, as it were, the time of the Great Physician with simply one’s own case, when the professing Church and a world lying in wickedness need Him so sorely? Who are to help “the weak” if they do not who have again and again received help at the Lord’s gracious hands? His word to His followers was, “Freely ye have received, freely give.” Are we prepared to turn round and say, “Lord, we did not receive very freely, we did not receive very much, we will wait until we receive more fully and more largely before we endeavour to give out.” Truly, if that is our way of it, we need not wonder although we are left to be useless and unsavoury; “That which was kept of the manna until the morning bred worms, and stank.” Therefore, while we ought to wait on the Lord for the opportunities and the encouragements to engage in His service, we ought to be ourselves in our hearts and lives that very workmanship which would glorify Him, and which might be a means of blessing to others. We ought to be His witnesses, witnesses to the power of His grace and truth; and we ought to be His remembrancers giving Him no rest till He arise and build up Zion, and make her a praise in the earth.
What did you think of last Assembly? It appears to be forgotten that some of the views now called “new” were known and debated in the Church centuries ago, so that our young critics seem to me like so many relics of the middle ages!
But I am not to begin another sheet, so conclude at present.
— Yours, &C.,
Hugh Martin.
God’s Love to His People
By Rev. John Brown, Haddington
So exceeding abundant is the love of God towards his people, that it never ceases; never changes; no, not sin itself can interrupt his love, nor change their happy state of fellowship with him, or hinder the communication of such influence from him as are altogether necessary for the preservation of their new nature. He indeed hates their sin; but he loves their person as well as ever, and in love to it, corrects them for their sin. When they outrageously sin, he withdraws from them his comfortable intimacy, and diminishes his gracious influences; but their fellowship of interest in him is still the same; God is still their God and guide even unto death; Jesus still their Husband and Saviour; the Holy Ghost still their inhabitant; and they are still justified heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ.1 Such measures of gracious influence as are necessary so the existence of their spiritual life are still communicated from Christ to their soul: for the saints’ act of sin cannot render their new nature an independent deity that can support itself: — nay, if sin could break the bond of union between Christ and his people, or totally stop their fellowship with him in his love, how could he have any fellowship of interest, or communion of influence with them here, while sin dwelleth in them? — Indeed, were an Arminian present, he would cry out, What abominable doctrine! what damnable heresy is this! But let us hear what Jesus, what JEHOVAH saith. Having loved his own he loved them unto the end: — with everlasting kindness, will I gather them. I have sworn that I would not be wroth with thee — my kindness shall not depart from thee, nor the covenant of my peace be removed. — I will betroth thee unto me for ever. I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not depart from them to do them good, and I will put my fear in their heart, that they shall not depart from me. I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee: they are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation. I give to my sheep, eternal life, and none shall pluck them out of my hand, none is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand. I the Lord do keep it; I will water it every moment; lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day. The water that I shall give him, shall be in him a well of water springing up to everlasting life. The Comforter abides with the saints for ever, and shall be in them. The good part shall not be taken away: the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. Neither death nor life — nor any other creature, is able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.2
1 Psal. 48: 14. Rom. 8: 17. 2John 13: 1. Is. 54: 8, 9, 10. Hos. 2: 19. Jer. 32: 39,40. Heb. 13: 5. 1 Peter 1: 5. John 10: 28, 29. Is. 27: 3. John 4: 14, and 14: 16, 17. Luke 10: 42. Rom 11: 29 and 8: 38,39. See Confession of Faith, chap. 17.
Visit to Canada
by Rev. John MacLeod
Mr Robert Ross and I left Glasgow on an Air Canada flight at 11.30 am on Tuesday, 23rd June, 1992, and after a pleasant flight arrived in Toronto about seven hours later. At the airport we soon spotted the familiar figure of Mr Gerrit Schuit and after being warmly welcomed by him we set off for Oakville where we called on Mrs Scambler. After being hospitably entertained in her apartment we headed north for Chesley and duly arrived at Mr Schuit’s house in the late evening. Mrs Scambler came with us.
The following Saturday I conducted the marriage service of Gilbert Zekveld and Dorene Schuit. This was in the Chesley church which, on the occasion, was very nearly filled to capacity. Both Gilbert and Dorene are communicant members of the Church. Dorene comes from Mississippi and is the daughter of Mr Jacob Schuit who, in turn, is a brother of our Chesley elder. Gilbert’s sister, Anne, is a staff nurse at our Mbuma Hospital in Zimbabwe. They are setting up home in Chesley.
On Sabbath I preached morning and evening in Chesley. As some of the wedding guests stayed over for the weekend the congregation numbered around eighty-five. In accordance with the arrangements made by the Kirk Session intimation was made of an election of elders and of the holding of a congregational meeting for the purpose of opening the envelopes containing the ballot papers and the counting of them in the presence of the congregation. It was also intimated that the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper would be dispensed on the following Sabbath.
The usual services were held from the following Thursday onwards until the thanksgiving service on the Monday. These were well attended. We were sorry that Mr John A. MacLeod, Vancouver (with whom we were in contact by telephone) was not able to attend and also Mr and Mrs Hardy who, we heard, might well have come had they been told in time. Two new members were admitted and their names added to the Communion Roll. They were the fore-mentioned Jacob Schuit from Mississippi and his daughter now domiciled in Chesley. Jacob is a frequent visitor to Chesley having many relatives living in the area. If we had labourers we could, I believe, form a congregation in Mississippi!
The congregational meeting for the purpose of counting the number of votes which were cast for each of the men eligible for election was duly held and it was found that only one man — David Kuiper — had received sufficient votes. He indicated his willingness to accept office and the ordination was duly carried out on Wednesday, 15th July.
On my last Sabbath in Chesley the infant children of Mr Henry Winkels and Mr John Winkels were baptised after the morning service. There were nigh on ninety souls present in the church when the Sacrament was administered.
It was my intention to hold a service in our Toronto church and it was accordingly arranged with the Rev Quincy Caldwell that the building would be available on Friday, 10th July, at 8 pm. Some families from the Dundas area, forty miles or so away, intended to come and it was hoped that others in the Toronto area might also attend. One of the Toronto APC’s elders, however, phoned on the Monday before that date to say that Mr Caldwell had overstepped his authority and that the Church would not be available for any such service. The proposal was thus abandoned. We believe that we were kept out of the building, not by Mr Caldwell (who could not have been more helpful or courteous) but by his office-bearers. Contrary to established Presbyterian practice they denied their minister the right to exercise his own liberty and discretion in this particular matter. One wonders if, consistent with the practice of the Aberdeen APC’s, access would have been denied had the request come from a religious organisation other than the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland.
Throughout our sojourn we stayed at the home of Mr and Mrs Schuit. We are much indebted to them and to all others in the congregation who showed us so much kindness. It is our prayer that a faithful minister will soon be settled in Chesley. Our people remain, notwithstanding difficulties, unwavering as far as attachment to the Free Presbyterian Church’s testimony is concerned. They are in an isolated situation and it is highly desirable, in the meantime, that deputies from the home Church visit them at frequent intervals if only to administer the Sacraments. We appeal to all who love Sion to pray for the peace and prosperity of our Canadian congregations.
Mr Ross and I have, above all, to acknowledge the Lord’s kindness in taking us to Canada, preserving us in health while there, and then bringing us safely back when our mission was accomplished.