The visible Church in Scotland was favoured with glorious days in times past. The Lord was pleased to pour out of His Holy Spirit upon our beloved land at various times in our history. By it the Lord turned what was a wilderness into a fruitful field, so making His people to rejoice and be glad. This was true at the Reformation, as well as at those times when, in a special manner, the Holy Spirit visited our land with refreshing showers. At such times it could be said of the Church in Scotland, “Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners?” How different is her condition today! How far she has fallen from the time of her pristine glory so that it can be said now, “How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.” Her silver is become dross, and her wine mixed with water. Well might our eye affect our heart so that we would say with Jeremiah in Lamentations, “Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people. Mine eye trickleth down and ceaseth not, without any intermission, till the Lord look down, and behold from heaven.” Good it would be for us in our day if we were rightly affected at the sight of the desolations of Zion. Let us, then, consider the present state of the Churches in Scotland.
We may start with that Church, which should rather be termed a system, but which claims for herself that out of her there is no salvation. It will be obvious that we mean the apostate Church of Rome over which the Pope of Rome reigns. Our Confession states that some Churches “have so degenerated as to become no Churches of Christ but synagogues of Satan.” Of the Church of Rome this is true. The same Confession, far from conceding to the Pope of Rome the headship over the Church of God which he claims, characterises him as “that antichrist, that man of sin, and son of perdition, that exalteth himself in the Church against Christ, and all that is called God.” The Church of Rome is spoken of in Scripture as “Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and abominations of the earth.” By Luther she was designated “the masterpiece of the devil”. She has subverted the true doctrines of God’s Word, speaking lies in hypocrisy, deluding the souls of men for eternity. In her skirts is found the blood of the martyrs through her tyrannical oppression of the true Church of God. Although in our day she puts on a smiling face and poses as a defender of morality, yet she remains, underneath it all, the same vicious and relentless adversary of the true children of God and subverter of the truth. We are not to show enmity but only pity for those ensnared in this evil system, but towards the system itself we are to show nothing but hatred, and plead for its overthrow. Though we may pray for Roman Catholics as individuals, yet we are not to pray for the Pope. Being guilty of the sin against the Holy Ghost there is no forgiveness for him. The message of the Lord in Revelation remains the same: “Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins.” It is this evil system that is wooing the people of Scotland in our day and would, once again, enslave the nation in her delusions, if she could. To this end she is ever active, and how many succumb to her allurement, only to find out at last that they have been deceived for eternity.
Another Church in the land is the Episcopal Church of Scotland. With few exceptions, her Churches are not far removed from the Church of Rome. Like the High Church of England she embraces many of the false tenets of Rome, while not acknowledging the Pope of Rome. In her skirts lies the blood of the Covenanters whom she cruelly martyred, actions which she has never repented of (so far as is known to us). The ritualistic worship of that Church accords little with the pure worship of the Church of Christ, which may well explain her enmity to the saints of God. The Queen Mother was nurtured in this Church. May the Lord graciously open her eyes in her old age — and the eyes of the Queen as well — to see the glory and beauty of Immanuel which has been so hidden by the forms and ritual of the Episcopal Churches of Scotland and England. In the Episcopal Church of Scotland are found many of the nobility in the land, confirming the Word of God that “not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called.”
Next we come to the national Church, the Church of Scotland. Her history is a chequered one, though she had a bright beginning. We are thinking particularly of her rise at the time of the Reformation, rather than of the early history of the Celtic Church. Scotland benefited at the Reformation in that the setting up of Protestantism came later than in other European nations. As a consequence, she threw out the whole paraphernalia of Romanism, and was set up reformed in doctrine, worship and practice. The Reformed Church of Scotland was favoured oftentimes with godly ministers and elders, and with a people who loved the truth, and who were prepared to suffer for it. The struggles through which the Church of Scotland had to pass are well known to all who have studied her history. In her midst there arose from time to time those who attempted to bring her into Romanist and episcopal bondage again. What sad consequences followed the rise of these enemies within her borders! What desolations moderatism made within her gates two centuries ago! So, too, at a later time, what ravages did higher criticism make when it took hold in her colleges and pulpits! This paved the way for the modernistic unbelief under which she has sunk in more recent times. What is her condition now? Who would recognise her today as in any way related to the Reformation Church of Scotland? The Reformation doctrines have been subverted within her borders. Her pulpits are largely filled with unconverted ministers, while her office-bearers are to a large extent of a like ilk. Her worship has been desecrated with unscriptural practices and her discipline has almost vanished altogether. Women are now given a place in her eldership and ministry, contrary to the Word of God, while perverts are accommodated within her bounds. Ministers and office-bearers within her borders are permitted to reject fundamental doctrines of the faith with impunity. Meanwhile a group of professed evangelical ministers remain within her bounds, notwithstanding her defections from the faith once delivered to the saints.
The next Church we may consider is the Free Church of Scotland. The Disruption Free Church, though so noble in its beginning, was destined, through the ravages of higher criticism and other causes, to be split into three denominations. One of these was our own Church which came into a separate existence in 1893, while the other two were the Free Church and the United Free Church, both of which came into existence in 1900. The Free Church consisted of ministers and men who had belonged to the Constitutional Party in the Disruption Free Church but who failed to come out at the time of the passing of the Declaratory Act. It was the union with the United Presbyterian Church which forced them out. Their attempt to justify remaining in the Declaratory Act Free Church ensured that any rapprochement with their former brethren in the Free Presbyterian Church was rendered impossible, though at different times, they were to attempt it. Her failure to secure her pulpits adequately from the inroads of higher criticism, as seen in the case of Dr Alexander, and from a diluted Calvinism, occasioned by the reception of men into her fold who were not completely in harmony with her standards, and also her failure to conform her practices wholly to Scriptural standards, meant a dilution of her witness as a professed daughter of the Reformed Church of Scotland. The weaknesses betrayed in her early history as a separate denomination were to follow her down through the twentieth century until she now presents in certain areas of the land, and in certain aspects of her Church life, a witness far further removed from Scriptural standards than what prevailed even at her faulty beginning. It is this that makes such of the godly as yet remain within her bounds weep over her low spiritual state and long for a return to Scriptural standards of doctrine, worship and discipline.
The next denomination we will refer to is one very recently set up. It designates itself an association of Presbyterian Churches — whatever that means. The APC came into existence ostensibly to conserve the testimony of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland, which, in its view, had grievously departed in certain respects from the testimony of 1893. Some, no doubt, in their innocence were taken in with this claim and followed the leaders of the Secession of 1989 into the wilderness. The leaders of that association appear to be willing to be friends with anyone and everyone who call themselves evangelicals but to be joined to none. This is a new concept of brotherly love and of ecumenism. It was poignantly expressed in their motto at the time of their departure from the Free Presbyterian Church — “love them and leave them.” We think it would be hard today for an APC to convince himself or herself, far less anyone else, that they belong to the Free Presbyterian Church in 1893 and that they are set for the upholding of that testimony. For many of them, we fear, that is the last thing they would wish to be associated with. We have no doubt, also, that there are those among them who would desire to preserve the witness which they possessed in the Free Presbyterian Church, yet are finding things moving so fast away from any approximation to that witness, that they are left wondering how they ever allowed themselves to be deluded into leaving the body of which they had been so long a part. May such take stock and recognise that the APC is an irrelevance in the Church life of Scotland, and let them return to the Church from which they went out.
Finally, having reviewed several of the Churches in Scotland at the present time, it becomes us to take stock of ourselves. If we find reason to be critical of other denominations and that, as we think justifiably, we must judge ourselves by no less a standard or we are guilty of hypocrisy. We have to acknowledge to the glory of God His preserving care over us as a Church during the century that has now passed away. We have His Word, His worship, the discipline and government of His Church still in our midst, and for that we have reason to be thankful. Yet we cannot rest there, but we must examine ourselves closely to see if things are in a prosperous or decaying state. It is vain to deceive ourselves and say things are well if they are not well. The Lord knows our true state and standing before Him, and we cannot deceive the God of heaven. He has given us criteria by which we may come to some clear understanding of our present condition. The addresses given to the Seven Churches of Asia, we think, will be found applicable to the Churches in our day also. The Church in Laodicea was saying: “I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing.” This is left on record as a warning lest we should fall into such a snare. Her true condition was very different. Of another Church it was said: “Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.” How easy it is for Churches to grow cold. The Church at Ephesus was in danger of having her candlestick removed out of its place if she did not repent. To the Churches in Pergamos and Thyatira the Lord had to say: “I have a few things against thee.” Is there not cause to acknowledge that our backslidings are many. If not, why is it that the Lord is hiding His face from us in a marked degree! Where is the power that once accompanied the Word preached? Is not the Spirit of the Lord grieved away when this is so? Why is it that the godly have to return from the house of God sad at heart because they find oftentimes that there is nothing for them there? Does this not give occasion for searching of heart? The believers in Ephesus were exhorted to forbear “one another in love; endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Is this unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace kept among us? The Saviour said: “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.” Is this command of the Saviour obeyed among us? How good it would be if the Lord could say of us as he said of the Church in Smyrna: “I know thy works, and tribulations, and poverty, (but thou art rich)!” How dangerous our position would be if the Lord had to say of us as he had to say of Sardis: “Thou hast a name that thou livest and art dead.” To her He said: “Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God.” What an unspeakable blessing it would be for us as a Church if we were indeed embraced in that promise: “Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.” In such perilous times as these in which our lot is cast what need we have of such a promise! But does it belong to us? What messages the Lord had by His Spirit for the Churches! “To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.” Such is one of the messages. To Smyrna it was said: “Fear none of these things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.” If such days came upon us as a Church, or as individuals, would we indeed be faithful unto death?
By the standards of God’s holy Word let us examine ourselves and our standing as a Church. In a backsliding day the Lord had to say to Israel: “In thy skirts is found the blood of the souls of the poor innocents: I have not found it by secret search, but upon all these.” Are our backslidings so patent that the Lord does not need to find them by secret search? “The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond: it is graven upon the table of their heart, and upon the horns of your altar,” the Lord had to say at another time. These things being so, what need we have of being searched. And seeing that our own hearts are so deceitful, what need that the Lord would search us, and make known to us the many ways in which we come short of His glory and so grieve His Holy Spirit away. It is only then that we can expect the Lord to return in the power of His Spirit to His house again to do a work that would be to His glory in the awakening of the dead and the reviving of the living. How applicable is that call by Joel the prophet to the Churches of our land: “Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly: gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, and those that suck the breasts: let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet. Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God?” May the Churches of the land give heed to the Lord’s call and act upon it.
Regenerating grace creates a new world in the soul; all things are new. The renewed man acts from new principles, by new rules, with new ends, and in new company.
— Matthew Henry.