Facing Grief, by John Flavel, published by the Banner of Truth Trust in their Puritan Paperbacks series, 136 pages, £5.00, obtainable from the Free Presbyterian Bookroom.
In a sinful world, there must be death. And where there is death, there must be grief. In 1672 Flavel’s second wife, Elizabeth, died. Two years later he published this little work, originally entitled, A Token for Mourners. It is based on the advice he had given to a woman who had lost her only child. His thoughts are founded on the words: “And when the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her, and said unto her, Weep not” (Luke 7:13) – the woman in question being the widow in the village of Nain whose son was being carried out for burial.
In the face of death, Flavel points out, grief is appropriate, but it should not
be “immoderate” and therefore sinful, as when “it causes us to . . . despise all our other mercies and enjoyments as small things in comparison with what we have lost”.
There is a chapter of counsel to unconverted mourners, in the hope, Flavel tells them, that “the Lord would . . . take off your heart for ever from the vain world, which you now see has nothing in it; and cause you to choose Christ, the only abiding good, for your portion”. But the emphasis is on comforting “godly mourners”. Flavel directs them to submit to the Lord as the One who has ordered their sad providence. He reminds them that “the hope of the resurrection should powerfully restrain all excesses of sorrow”.
Excessive sorrow may arise from bereaved people thinking about how much they prayed for the one who has died. In reply, Flavel makes the point that “there are four ways of God’s answering prayers: by giving the thing prayed for presently; or by suspending the answer for a time and giving it afterwards; or by withholding from you that mercy which you ask and giving you a much better mercy in the room of it; or, lastly, by giving you patience to bear the loss or want of it”.
Finally, we may notice one of Flavel’s “rules to restrain excessive sorrow”: “If you would not be overwhelmed with trouble for the loss of dear relations, turn to God under your trouble and pour out your sorrows by prayer into His bosom”. And he adds: “This will ease and allay your troubles. Blessed be God for the ordinance of prayer!”
Here is the fruit of godly wisdom and personal experience. The book is solidly scriptural. It is “lightly edited”; this does not seem to have gone further than modernising the older verb forms, but it does interfere with the Scripture quotations which otherwise are, thankfully, retained as in the Authorised Version.
Protestant View
The Pope and Rome’s Scandal
The present Pope has made several references to the shocking sexual abuse of children by priests of Rome in many countries. In 2005 (while he was a cardinal) he spoke of the “filth there is in the church”, and more recently he stated, the BBC reports, that there needs to be profound purification and penance within the church because he sees, “in a truly terrifying way”, that the greatest threat to the church comes from “sin within the church”. His feeling of terror is due in some measure, no doubt, to his being implicated in a systematic cover-up of the scandal.
It appears that, in the past, Joseph Ratzinger has hindered attempts by some Roman Catholic bishops to deal with the perpetrators of child abuse. When he was Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the department of the Vatican which he headed for 24 years until 2005 and which deals with erring priests, he allegedly allowed certain predatory priests to evade criminal prosecution.
In 1985 he wrote to the Dioceses of Oakland in California, reports The Times, asking it to put “the good of the universal church” above other considerations in dealing with a priest, Stephen Kiesle, who had been molesting children. In the case of Lawrence Murphy, another abusing priest in the United States, Ratzinger’s department took control in 1997 of efforts to bring him to justice, ordering that a church trial could only go ahead in conditions of strictest secrecy and then quashing the trial a year later.
Time magazine reported that, in a 2001 letter written in strict confidence to bishops worldwide, Ratzinger insisted that “cases of this kind are subject to the pontifical secret”. This was interpreted to mean that they were to be investigated in utmost secrecy, that publicity was to be avoided at all costs, and that abusing priests should not be handed over to the secular authorities.
In 2005 he sent to all dioceses an updated version of the notorious Vatican document, Crimen Sollicitationis, which gave explicit instructions about keeping such abuse cases secret. Indeed the document itself was so secret that it had to be kept under lock and key by the bishops who received it. He reinforced this systematic concealment by pronouncing that the Vatican was to have what he termed exclusive competence – that is, it was to deal directly with child-abuse allegations.
The Vatican, through its Cardinal Sodano, has dismissed claims of abuse by priests as “petty gossip” and accused the media of trying to besmirch the Pope and destroy the church. The Pope’s defenders have also claimed that he has been pro-active in dealing with abuse, and that he has called for “absolute transparency” in processing such cases. His record over many years in handling the problem seems to show far otherwise.
Yet this is the man who has been invited to make a state visit to our country and who is to be accorded the honour due to a head of state. Even if there was no paedophile scandal, his visit as head of the Vatican State would be a base insult to the Protestant constitution of the realm. But his visit will be doubly disgraceful as he comes with sullied hands. Our national honouring of the papacy, “that Wicked” of Scripture (2 Th 2:8), will most certainly be gravely dishonouring to the Divine Head of the Church. It cannot be otherwise when “they that work wickedness are set up” (Mal 3.15), and we thus “praise the wicked” (Prov 28:4). NMR
Notes and Comments
Euthanasia in the Scottish Parliament
The End of Life Assistance (Scotland) Bill is currently making its way through the Scottish Parliament. The proposal is that those who are terminally ill (within six months of death), or are permanently physically incapacitated and unable to live alone, and who “find life intolerable” should be able to make application to a doctor for euthanasia or “assisted dying”. Provided that two witnesses had signed their forms, that a psychiatrist was satisfied with their mental state, and that they had put in two applications separated by a fortnight but within a month of each other, then they and the doctor would be free to draw up a written agreement about how they should be killed. After a further two days, they could then be killed, either by themselves, or by the doctor, or by a third party, provided it was in accordance with the agreement. Various safeguards are supposed to ensure that only those who wanted to die would be killed in this way.
The proposal is manifestly wrong and unscriptural, and too horrible for words. There is nothing in the Bill to prevent an organisation like Dignitas setting up a clinic in Edinburgh, with witnesses, psychiatrist and doctor provided, and killing most people foolish enough to pay. The “six-months rule” and the “permanent physical incapacity” would, in the hands of doctors, procurators fiscal, and judges who favoured euthanasia, be sufficiently flexible to cover most cases; and, in any case, it would be nobody’s business to investigate whether the terms of the Bill had been scrupulously observed. Satan was “a murderer from the beginning” (Jn 8:44) and this is his latest scheme for getting our fellow-countrymen to shed one another’s blood and precipitate each other’s souls to hell. DWBS
Christianity and the Law
Gary McFarlane, a “relationship counsellor”, was sacked by his employer, the charity Relate, for refusing to give “sex therapy lessons” to a “gay” couple because this conflicted with his Christian principles. His request for right to appeal against an employment tribunal ruling upholding Relate’s action was rejected by Lord Justice Laws of the Court of Appeal. In the course of his ruling the judge made statements which strike at the fundamental Christian constitution of the United Kingdom, contrary to his avowed position that sovereignty belongs to the constitution rather than to Parliament and that the courts are to protect the constitution against abuses by Government.
Lord Justice Laws declared that “in the eye of everyone save the believer, religious faith is necessarily subjective, being incommunicable by any kind
of proof or evidence. It may, of course, be true; but the ascertainment of such a truth lies beyond the means by which laws are made in a reasonable society. Therefore it lies only in the heart of the believer, who is alone bound by it. No one else is or can be so bound, unless by his own free choice he accepts its claims. The promulgation of law for the protection of a position held purely on religious grounds cannot therefore be justified. It is irrational, as preferring the subjective over the objective. But it is also divisive, capricious and arbitrary.” He claimed that, in a society in which all do not share the same religious beliefs, “the precepts of any one religion – or belief system – cannot, by force of their religious origins, sound any louder in the general law than the precepts of any other. If they did, those out in the cold would be less than citizens, and our constitution would be on the way to a theocracy, which is of necessity autocratic.”
There are several fallacies in these statements, which can only be mentioned. It is wrong to assert in this unqualified way that “religious faith is necessarily subjective”; that it is “incommunicable by any kind of proof or evidence”; that ascertaining it “lies beyond the means by which laws are made in a reasonable society”; that it lies “only in the heart of the believer”, with the consequences alleged by the judge; that “the promulgation of law for the protection of a position held purely on religious grounds cannot therefore be justified”; and that no special place should be given in law to the Christian religion. Lord Justice Laws ignores the fact that the faith which he dismisses in such terms has its objective basis in the Holy Bible, the religion of which has been endorsed and established as the religion of the United Kingdom, and therefore of its law-making and law-enforcing authorities in their official capacities.
It is alarming that a senior judge should assert that the promulgation of law to protect a position held purely on the basis of the religion of the Bible, recognised as it is by the state, is irrational, divisive, capricious and arbitrary. What deserves the opprobrium conveyed by these terms is the ruling of the judge. It, together with similar rulings, has the effect of making those who practise Christian principles on a biblical basis almost the only persons who can be discriminated against in the workplace, even to the extent of being compelled to jettison their convictions or be deprived of their livelihood, though they are conscientiously practising what they legitimately regard as the moral imperatives of the Christian religion.
Bishop Nazir-Ali spoke well when he said that this ruling “has driven a coach and horses through the ancient association of the Christian faith with the constitutional and legal basis of British society. Everything from the Coronation Oath onward suggests that there is an inextricable link between
the Judaeo-Christian tradition of the Bible and the institutions, the values and the virtues of British society. If this judgement is allowed to stand, the aggressive secularists will have had their way.” The president of the National Secular Society, hailing the judgement as “a defeat for fundamentalism”, asserted that “the right to follow a religious belief is a qualified right and it must not be used to legitimise discrimination against gay people, who are legally entitled to protection against bigotry and persecution”. Judgements such as these are turning reality on its head and learned judges and bigoted opponents of Christianity seem unable to see that, by such judgements, discrimination and persecution are increasingly directed against those who believe and practise the teachings of the Christian faith.
Britain is broken indeed when the dictates of divine revelation and enlightened conscience can be dismissed as Lord Justice Laws dismisses them and regarded as unworthy of being held as even equal with the feelings of “gays” and the practitioners of non-Christian religions. The twenty-first century has seen a flood of legislation which has denied the morality of the Bible and has done so in terms which make it increasingly difficult for convinced Christians to function in a variety of work situations. The outlook is bleak for liberty to practise the law of God when human lawmakers and law enforcers combine “against the Lord and His anointed, saying, Let us break Their bands asunder and cast away Their cords from us” (Ps 2:2,3). HMC
A New Government
The general election in the United Kingdom has produced the result most generally expected: a House of Commons in which no party has a majority. The outcome is a coalition government made up of the Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties. Comment has been passed in recent issues of this Magazine on the views of the leaders of these parties. And the unscriptural moral attitudes of the previous Labour government were clearly reflected in some of the legislation which they passed during their 13 years in office.
We should acknowledge that it is God’s providence which has placed us in this potentially-unstable situation. As a nation, we have sinned; we have rejected God’s laws; we seek to live without Him. We clearly do not deserve the blessing of strong, stable government, which is so necessary in the present dire economic situation. Yet we should remember the inspired exhortation of the Apostle Paul: “I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men”, and, in particular, “for kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty” (1 Tim 2:1,2). The Lord is able to change the hearts of our rulers and of the nation at large.
FREE PRESBYTERIAN PLACES OF WORSHIP
Scotland
Aberdeen: 2 Alford Place, AB10 1YD, Sabbath 11 am, 6 pm; Tuesday, 7.15 pm. Rev D W B Somerset BSc DPhil, 18 Carlton Place, Aberdeen, AB15 4BQ; tel: 01224 645250.
Bracadale: Struan: Sabbath 12 noon; Wednesday 7 pm (fortnightly). Contact Rev J B Jardine; tel: 01859 502253.
Breasclete: no services meantime.
Dingwall: Church, Hill Street: Sabbath 11 am, 6.30 pm; Wednesday 7.30 pm. Beauly (Balblair): Sabbath 6.30 pm, Thursday 7.30 pm. Rev Neil M Ross BA, Dingwall, 10 Achany Rd, IV15 9JB; tel/fax: 01349 864351, e-mail: nmross2001@yahoo.co.uk.
Dornoch: Sabbath 11.30 am. Bonar: Sabbath 6 pm. Wednesday 7.30 pm (alternately in Dornoch and Bonar). Laig: Church and Manse; Rogart: Church; no F P services. Contact Rev G G Hutton; tel: 01463 712872.
Dundee: Manse. No F P Church services.
Edinburgh: 63 Gilmore Place, Sabbath 11 am, 6.30 pm; Thursday 7.30 pm. Rev Hugh M Cartwright MA, Napier House, 8 Colinton Road, Edinburgh, EH10 5DS; tel: 0131 447 1920.
Farr, by Daviot: Sabbath 12 noon and 6 pm. Prayer meetings: Thursday 7.30 pm in Farr, Stratherrick or Tomatin as intimated. Contact Rev G G Hutton; tel: 01463 712872.
Fort William: Monzie Square, Sabbath 11 am, 6.30 pm as intimated. Manse: 15 Perth Place, PH33 6UL; tel: 01397 708553. Contact Mr D A McKinnon. Tel: 01397 702597.
Gairloch (Ross-shire): Sabbath 11 am, 6.30 pm. Prayer meeting in Strath, Thursday 7.30 pm. Rev A E W MacDonald MA, F P Manse, Gairloch, Ross-shire, IV21 2BS; tel: 01445 712247.
Glasgow: St Jude’s Church, 137 Woodlands Road, G3 6LE. Sabbath 11 am and 6.30 pm; Wednesday 7.30 pm. Rev Roderick MacLeod BA, 4 Laurel Park Close, Glasgow, G13 1RD; tel 0141 954 3759.
Greenock: 40 East Hamilton Street, Sabbath 2.30 pm.
Halkirk: Sabbath 11.30 am, 5 pm; Thursday 7 pm. Manse tel: 01847 831758. Wick: Church; Thurso: Church; Strathy: Church; no F P Church services.
Harris (North): Tarbert: Sabbath 12 noon, 6 pm; Thursday 7 pm. Stockinish: Tuesday 7 pm. Rev J B Jardine BD, F P Manse, Tarbert, Isle of Harris, HS3 3DF; tel: 01859 502253, e-mail: northharris.fpc@btopenworld.com.
Harris (South): Leverburgh: Sabbath 12 noon, 6 pm. Sheilebost: Sabbath 12 noon (except first Sabbath of month). Prayer meetings in Leverburgh, Northton, Sheilebost, Strond and Geocrab as intimated. Rev K D Macleod BSc, F P Manse, Leverburgh, HS5 3UA; tel: 01859 520271.
Inverness: Chapel Street, Sabbath 11 am, 6.30 pm; Wednesday 7.30 pm. Rev G G Hutton BA, 11 Auldcastle Road, IV2 3PZ; tel: 01463 712872.
Kinlochbervie: Sabbath 11.30 am; Tuesday 7.30 pm. Manse tel: 01971 521268. Scourie: Sabbath 6 pm.
Kyle of Lochalsh: Sabbath 6 pm. Manse tel: 01599 534933. Contact Rev D A Ross; tel: 01445 731340.
Laide (Ross-shire): Sabbath 12 noon, 6 pm; Wednesday 7 pm. Rev D A Ross. F P Manse, Laide, IV22 2NB; tel: 01445 731340.
Lochcarron: Sabbath 11 am, 6 pm; Wednesday 7 pm. Manse.
Lochinver: Sabbath 12 noon. Manse tel: 01571 844484.
Ness: Sabbath 12 noon, 6 pm; Wednesday 7 pm. Rev A W MacColl MA PhD, F P Manse, Swainbost, HS2 0TA; tel: 01851 810228.
North Tolsta: Sabbath 12 noon, 6 pm; Thursday 7 pm; 1st Monday of month 7 pm. Rev D Campbell MA, F P Manse, North Tolsta, HS2 0NH; tel: 01851 890286.
North Uist: Bayhead: Sabbath 12 noon, 6 pm; Wednesday 7.30 pm (fortnightly). Sollas: Wednesday 7.30 pm (fortnightly). Rev D Macdonald BA, F P Manse, Bayhead, North Uist, HS6 5DS; tel: 01876 510233.
Oban: Church and Manse. No F P services at present.
Perth: Pomarium, off Leonard Street. Sabbath 11 am, 6 pm; Wednesday 7.30 pm. Manse tel: 01738 442992. Contact Mr J N MacKinnon; tel: 01786 451386.
Portree: Sabbath 12 noon, 6.30 pm; Wednesday 7 pm. Contact Rev W A Weale; tel:01470 562243.
Raasay: Sabbath 12 noon, 6 pm; Saturday 7 pm. Contact Rev W A Weale; tel:01470 562243.
Shieldaig: Sabbath 11 am; Applecross: Sabbath 6pm. Tuesday 7 pm (alternately in Shieldaig and Applecross). Shieldaig manse tel: 01520 755259, Applecross manse tel: 01520 744207. Contact Rev D A Ross; tel: 01445 731340.
Staffin: Sabbath 12 noon, 5 pm; Wednesday 7 pm. Rev W A Weale, F P Manse, Staffin, IV51 9JX; tel: 01470 562243.
Stornoway: Matheson Road, Sabbath 11 am, 6.30 pm; Thursday 7.30 pm. Achmore: Sabbath 12 noon; Tuesday 7 pm. Rev J R Tallach MB ChB, 2 Fleming Place, Stornoway, HS1 2NH; tel: 01851 702501.
Tain: Church and Manse. Fearn: Church. No F P services. See Dornoch and Bonar.
Uig (Lewis) Miavaig: Sabbath 12 noon Gaelic, 6 pm English; Wednesday 7 pm. Manse tel: 01851 672251.
Ullapool: Sabbath 11 am, 6 pm; Wednesday 7.30 pm. Manse: Quay Street, IV26 2UE. Tel: 01854 612449.
Vatten: Sabbath 6 pm; Wednesday 7 pm (fortnightly). Glendale, Waternish: As intimated. Contact Rev J B Jardine; tel: 01859 502253.
England
Barnoldswick: Kelbrook Road, Sabbath 11 am, 6 pm; Friday 7.30 pm; Wednesday 8 pm, alternately in Haslingden and Gatley. South Manchester: Sabbath 6.00 pm, in Trinity Church, Massie Street, Cheadle (entry at rear of building). Contact Mr R Middleton, 4 Rhodes Close, Haslingden, Crewe, Cheshire, CW1 5ZF. Tel: 01270 255024. Manse tel: 01282 851782.
Broadstairs: Sabbath 11 am, 5 pm at Portland Centre, Hopeville Ave, St Peter’s; Tuesday 7 pm at Friends’ Meeting House, St Peters Park Rd. Contact Dr T Martin; tel: 01843 866369.
London: Zoar Chapel, Varden St, E1. Sabbath 11 am, 6.30 pm; Wednesday 7 pm. Rev J MacLeod MA, 6 Church Ave, Sidcup, Kent, DA14 6BU. Tel: 0208 309 1623.
Northern Ireland
Larne: Station Road. Sabbath 11.30 am, 6.30 pm; Wednesday 8 pm. Manse, 23 Upper Cairncastle Road, Larne BT40 2EF. Tel: 02828 274865. Contact: 02828 273294.
Canada
Chesley, Ontario: Church and Manse, 40 Fourth Street SW. Sabbath 10.30 am, 7 pm; Wednesday 8 pm. Contact: Mr David Kuiper, Tel: 519 363 0367. Manse tel: 519 363 2502.
Toronto, Ontario: Church and Manse. No F P Church services at present.
Vancouver, British Columbia: Contact: Mr John MacLeod, 202-815 4th Avenue, New Westminster, V3M 1S8. Tel: 604-516-8648.
USA
Santa Fe, Texas: Church and Manse, 4031 Jackson St 77517. Sabbath 10.30 am, 6.30 pm; Wednesday 7.30 pm. Rev L T Smith. Tel: 409 925 1315; e-mail: lyletsmith@gmail.com.
Australia
Grafton, NSW: 172 Fitzroy Street. Sabbath 11 am, 6.30 pm; Wednesday 7.30 pm. Rev E A Rayner BA, 23 Nairn Terrace, Junction Hill 2460 (mail to: PO Box 1171 Grafton, 2460). Tel: 02 6644 6044.
Sydney, NSW: Corner of Oxford and Regent Streets, Riverstone. Sabbath 10.30 am, 6.30 pm; Tuesday 7.30 pm. Rev G B Macdonald BSc, 60 Hamilton St, Riverstone, NSW 2765. Tel: 02 9627 3408; e-mail: sydneyfpchurch@aapt.net.au.
New Zealand
Auckland: 45 Church Street, Otahuhu. Sabbath 11 am, 6 pm; Wednesday 7.30 pm. Contact: Mr C van Kralingen, 3 Earls Court, Manurewa. Tel: 09 266 7618.
Gisborne: 463a Childers Road. Sabbath 11 am, 6 pm; Wednesday and Saturday 7.30 pm. Rev J A T van Dorp, 14 Thomson Street, Gisborne. Tel: 06 868 5809.
Tauranga: Girl Guide Hall, 17th Avenue, Sabbath 11 am, 7 pm; Thursday 7 pm. Contact: Mr Dick Vermeulen. Tel: 075443677.
Wellington: 4 Rewa Terrace, Tawa. Sabbath 11 am, 4 pm; 3rd Wednesday of the month (not secondary school holidays) 7.30 pm. Contact: Mr Hank Optland, P O Box 150, Carterton, 5743. Tel: 02 7432 5625
Israel
Jerusalem / Tel Aviv: Rev J L Goldby, P O Box 10578, Jerusalem 91105. Tel: 00972 2 6738181. Sabbath: 11 am in Jerusalem YMCA, 7 pm in Tel Aviv; for further details contact Mr Goldby.
Singapore
Singapore: Sabbath: 9.30am and 5.30pm; Wednesday: 7.45pm. Room: “Tanglin III” (Level 2), 60 Stevens Road, Singapore 257854. Contact: Mr Bernard Yong, 4 Chuan Place, Singapore 554822. Tel: (65) 6383 4466, fax: 6383 4477, e-mail: byong1@singnet.com.sg.
Ukraine
Odessa: F P Mission Station. 3 Pestelya Street, 65031. Contact Mr I Zadorozhniy, P O Box 100, Odessa-91, 65091; e-mail: antipa@eurocom.od.ua; or Mr D Levitskiy; tel:00 38 048 785 19 24.; e-mail: dlevitskiy@gmail.com.
Zimbabwe
Bulawayo: Lobengula Township, PO Magwegwe, Bulawayo. Rev S Khumalo, F P Manse, Stand No 56004, Mazwi Road, Lobengula, PO Magwegwe, Bulawayo. Tel: 00263 9407131.
Ingwenya: Church and Secondary School. Rev A B MacLean. Postal Address: Ingwenya Mission, Private Bag T5445, Bulawayo. John Tallach School tel: 00263 85343.
Mbuma: Church and Hospital: Postal Address: Mbuma Mission Hospital, Private Bag T5406, Bulawayo. Hospital tel: 00263 898291.
New Canaan: Church: Rev Z Mazvabo. Postal Address: Private Bag 615, Zvishavane. Tel 00263 512196.
Zenka: Church. Rev M Mloyi. Postal Address: Private Bag T5398, Bulawayo. Cell phone: 0026311 765032.
Kenya
Sengera: Rev K M Watkins, PO Box 3403, Kisii; e-mail: watkinskenya@access350.co.ke. Tel: 00254 733 731002.