5. Preacher of the Gospel
Roy Middleton
Becomes a probationer. John Love finished his divinity course in May 1778. The students’ association then concluded until the next term. Love’s diary of 13 May 1778 reads, “The Lord gave me something of His presence at the Society this night. It met in order to be dismissed. And, through the remaining part of the evening, He was graciously with me” (2:26-27).2 The year ended, however, on a solemn and sad note for James Baillie’s students. Love’s diary for the 21 April 1778 refers to a discourse he was preparing, to be delivered before the professor and the class: “I could make no progress in my discourse; but I heard of the Professor’s being taken ill, so that I will not be required to deliver it to-morrow” (2:26-27). Just a week later Baillie was dead – he was just 55.
Having finished his divinity course, John Love returned to Paisley till he would apply for a licence to preach the gospel. On returning home he had a long conversation with his minister, James Morrison, which in Love’s words, “edified, cheered and comforted”. He then writes in his diary, “I felt en-
8Cairns, Dictionary of Theological Terms, pp 232-3.
1This is a further section of an abridgement of a new introduction to John Love’s Memorials, which has now been republished, by Free Presbyterian Publications, and costs £35.50 for the two hardback volumes, running to around 1000 pages in total. The previous section, in November, described Love’s last years as a student. References to the Memorials are placed in the body of the text, with volume and page numbers in brackets.
2It is not possible to determine how long this voluntary society continued after John Love left Glasgow. It appears to have been still in existence four years later in 1782, when Love sent an address to the “Brethren”. The address is in Memorials, vol 1, pp 457-460.
couraged, in my prospect of the work of the ministry, to think of laying the matter before the Lord, that He would give clearness in my going forward to it, so that I might venture to allow myself to be named to the Presbytery, as an applicant for licence by the month of August next. Felt an inclination towards ministerial work more stirred up in me than before. . . . Felt inclined to visit Mrs S, and had two passages of Scripture in my view, as very suitable to her case. Had a comfortable and refreshing meeting and conference with her. That part of a minister’s work, which consists in supporting and comforting the saints when in dark exercises, appeared sweet and desirable to me” (2:258-9).
In the weeks that followed, John Love experienced a measure of spiritual perplexity which seems to have temporarily shaken his resolve to enter the ministry. After his spiritual anxieties were removed, his call to serve Christ as a minister was finally resolved. The chief means used by the Lord to clear his way was James Durham’s Commentary on Revelation, which he had been reading since early June 1778. The details are in his diary insert for 12 June 1778: “I was stirred up, this morning, to bless the Lord for preserving in the Church the tract of Mr Durham on the ‘Call to the Ministry’, whereby I have thus, as it were, him to advise with, when such faithful, tender, conscientious ministers are nearly all gone. This makes me hope that the Lord intends to bless it for clearing my way to the ministry. I had designed to read it this day, and this confirms my purpose” (2:325-6).3
After Durham’s tract had cleared his way, he applied to the Presbytery for licence. On 24 June 1778 he records that James Morrison wanted to see him: “He wishes me to hasten my trials, so that I may be licensed shortly after the meeting of Synod. O that I could get the matter put into the Lord’s hands! He proposed that I should take some old discourses, but this I declined. He then proposed that I should choose subjects for myself: this also I declined. I desire that all may come from the Lord Himself, in His own appointed way, without my having any hand in the matter. . . . My inclination to the work of the ministry is more solid, spiritual and believing, than ever. Though I see myself to be far, very far from what I should be, yet I hope in the Lord for endless supplies of grace” (2:354-5).
The last biographical note supplied by the editor comes after Love’s final diary insert printed in the Memorials; it is for Tuesday, 28 July 1778 and reads: “Mr Love was informed on this day that the Presbytery had appointed
3The tract of James Durham that he found so helpful occurs in his exposition of Revelation 1:20, “the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches” in Chapter 1, lecture 9 (on pp 66-77 of the Old Paths Publications reprint of James Durham, A Commentary on the Book of Revelation, 2000).
as the subjects of his trial discourses the second clause of John 15:4 (‘Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, no more can ye, except ye abide in Me’), and the question, ‘Are we justified by faith alone?’” (2:454).
The Presbytery’s choice of the doctrine of justification as the theological topic on which Love would have to deliver a trial discourse fitted in rather well with some of his recent studies. On the day after James Morrison asked to see him, and a month before the Presbytery set the subjects for his trials, he wrote a paper titled, “On the definition of justification”. Love then went to Renfrew, just five miles from Paisley, mainly to visit his grandfather but also to see Colin Campbell, the minister of the Established Church there. Campbell persuaded Love to go with him on a pastoral visit to see a Mr H. In conversation, Love must have explained his morning activity of writing a paper on justification. At this point Mr H pressed the young student to read what Thomas Goodwin had written on justifying faith, and particularly on the gospel offer.4
During the month of June 1778 Love was occupied in writing short papers on different aspects of the doctrine of salvation. There are three papers on the evidences of regeneration, another on justification, this time focusing on the imputed righteousness of Christ as the sole title to everlasting life, and one on the connection between regeneration and justification.5 All these papers were written a month before his Presbytery’s decision that he would deal with justification by faith alone.
Prior to his trials for licence John Love paid a visit to James Alice, an Antiburgher minister in Paisley. Alice warned Love to expect difficulties in the work of the ministry. It is an indication of the intellectual abilities of the Secession ministry that Alice advised Love to read Thomas Boston’s Latin treatise on the accentual marks in the Hebrew text. Alice offered to let him read his copy of the book, “when I might feel inclined and ready for it” (2:400). John Love’s trials to become a probationer in the Church of Scotland were successful and he was licensed by the Presbytery of Paisley on 24 December 1778, when he was just 21.
How John Love came to write the Memorials before the age of 21. Practically all the material that forms the two volumes of the Memorials was written before he was licensed by the Presbytery of Paisley. The reader is compelled to ask how a young man, converted for just three years, could write material revealing so firm a grasp of Reformed theology combined with such a depth of experimental religion. Before we seek to address that question, it
4The treatise referred to is in The Works of Thomas Goodwin, Edinburgh, 1864, vol 8.
5All these papers are preserved in Memorials, vol 2.
is useful to remember that others in the history of the Church have written similar material at a young age. The first edition of the Institutes of the Christian Religion was published when John Calvin was 27, and much of the material must have been written earlier. The vast body of writings of James Durham, to whom Love was indebted for clearing up his call to the ministry, was written by the age of the 36.
Looking specifically at the factors influencing John Love’s ability to write the material in the Memorials we would suggest the following:
(1) Though his parents were unconverted when he was a child, he was brought up in a home where family worship was held morning and evening. By the age of 12 he had read the Bible through six times. Hence, from his earliest days he was familiar with the text of Scripture. Added to this, he learned The Shorter Catechism of the Westminster Divines from his earliest years and would, by this means, have had in his memory a systematic grasp of theology.
(2) Academically John Love was a prodigy. Though not unique, it was rather unusual for a boy to go to university at the age of 10. From a very early age he had a love of mathematics and was competent in both Greek and Latin and could therefore read the New Testament in its original language.
(3) Following his recovery from a lapse into Socinianism, and his subsequent conversion, he had a consuming concern for Calvinistic orthodoxy.
(4) Private prayer and meditation on the Scriptures formed a significant part of his life after his conversion. From the glimpse we have of this in his diary it seems that five to six hours of each day were given to prayer, Bible reading and meditation. Many of the papers in the Memorials are the fruit of these times of meditation on the Scriptures. One of the earliest accounts of Love states, “A favourite practice, which he continued to the end of his life, was to write short daily meditations, in a regular series, upon connected passages of Scripture”.6
(5) His attendance at communion seasons and hearing outstanding ministers preach, along with fellowship with the godly in the west of Scotland, would have left an indelible impression on the young convert.
(6) However, by far the greatest influence was his vast reading in the last three years of his divinity course. He seems to have absorbed the best of the Reformed divines of the Reformation and post-Reformation era, along with the English Puritans and seventeenth and eighteenth-century Scottish experimental writers.
6Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen, vol 5, p 385. The Dictionary account adds, “These, as well as his sermons, were written in shorthand and were therefore unintelligible until the key to his alphabet was found… otherwise [they] would not have seen the light.”
Obituary1
Mr Ken van Kralingen
Ken van Kralingen was born in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, on 15 February 1935. He was the youngest of seven children raised in a God-fearing home and was taught the Scriptures from his youth. He was indeed brought up “in the nurture and admonition of the Lord”. He grew up at a time when Holland was ravaged by the effects of German occupation during World War II and he experienced much hardship throughout his childhood and learned early in his life about the reality of death. He was naturally of a serious disposition and experienced periods of intense conviction of sin throughout his young years. In the environment in which he was raised, the free offer of the gospel was seldom conveyed in the preaching of the Word. He was greatly solemnised as a result of a childhood accident in which he received a severe electric shock. During this time he came to the stark realisation that if he was to be taken away from this world it would be to a lost eternity.
Mr van Kralingen married Lydia in 1958 and together they decided to emigrate to New Zealand in the hope of building a better life. Just prior to their departure, a niece brought a package of Free Presbyterian Church magazines kindly given by her school headmaster, who had heard of their intention to move to New Zealand. In the Lord’s providence this provided the first point of contact with the Church that was soon to become their spiritual home.
In 1959 Mr van Kralingen joined the fledgling Auckland congregation of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland, which had recently commenced meetings for public worship. Rev William MacLean, minister of the Gisborne congregation, made regular visits to Auckland to provide supply. Mr van Kralingen was deeply impressed when he first heard Mr MacLean in prayer. He later expressed to Lydia his belief that the Holy Spirit was present at the prayer meeting that evening. From this point forward the van Kralingen family attended the services regularly.
Mr MacLean was much loved and appreciated by a generation of converts in Australia and New Zealand who had been blessed by his preaching. It was through the instrumentality of his preaching that Mr van Kralingen was brought to a saving knowledge of the way of salvation through the merits of the Saviour. He came to the realisation that he was an enemy of Christ by wicked works. Having searched for many years, he was now brought to the blessed understanding that in the free offer of the gospel there is an invitation
1Contributed by members of the family.
to poor, lost and needy sinners to come to Christ alone for salvation. And he was enabled by divine grace to close in with His Saviour.
When speaking to others in later years, he would often reiterate his love for the freeness of the gospel offer and the blessedness of hearing preaching where this was prominent. He returned from the Gisborne communion, from which he dated his conversion, brimming with the love of Christ and the joy of the Holy Ghost. He immediately wished to share these experiences with his wife, who had been unable to attend this communion season. To see her husband so transported with spiritual joy brought her to the sobering realisation of her own spiritual state and her need of a Saviour. This was instrumental in leading her to the Saviour a number of years later.
Mr van Kralingen was among the first to be ordained to the office of the eldership in the Auckland congregation, on 19 March 1963. The other men were the late Mr Edwin Christensen and the late Mr Donald Beaton. The text at their ordination service was: “Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life” (Rev 2:10). In 1968 the Auckland congregation was blessed with their first minister, Rev Donald Malcolm Macleod. He laboured in the congregation for a decade before the Lord called him to glory.
After this period, the congregation was vacant for 32 years. During this time, the elders of the congregation faithfully maintained services, punctuated by most welcome visits from church deputies as well as Revs E A Rayner and J A T van Dorp. Mr van Kralingen was thorough and prayerful in his preparation for reading sermons at public worship. He felt much of the gravity and responsibility of the office which he held and the responsibility entrusted to him by his Saviour to shepherd the flock. He was a faithful and stable influence, with much sanctified common sense. During the turbulent period of the APC split he remained steadfast in his adherence to the truths he held dearly. He was often heard saying, “There is no perfect Church on earth but show me, if you can, a Church that adheres more closely to the teachings of the Bible than the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland”.
Mr van Kralingen and his wife Lydia provided a hospitable home for a large number of Church deputies who visited the congregation during the decades prior to the arrival of Rev Jett Smith. It was cause for much thankfulness to him that the Lord had answered the many prayers which had been sent up for one of His servants to be sent to the Auckland congregation.
In the latter years of his life, Mr van Kralingen became the main carer of his disabled wife. He was devoted and selfless in his care for her. Three months before his death he was admitted to hospital with a life-threatening illness. He took this as a solemn warning that his days on this earth were numbered.
He took the morning service on the Sabbath before he passed to his eternal rest. The text of the sermon he read that morning was Luke 14:17: “And sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready”. We believe that he could say from personal experience: “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil 1:21). He died suddenly the next morning, Monday, 18 November 2013.
The Kirk Session tribute stated: “The Auckland Congregation feel a sense of great loss at the passing of Mr van Kralingen. He was a highly esteemed and much loved elder of the congregation for 47 years. His many years of service in the Church were characterised by a humble, yet faithful, devotion to his Master, and also the witness of the Church, which he had come to love. The congregation and Presbytery to which he belonged miss his wise counsel and are keenly aware of the loss of a godly man whose life, walk and conversation was salt and light among us. We would humbly implore the Head of the Church to raise up others to take his place in the Church here below.
“Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace” (Ps 37:37). ‘Help, Lord; for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men’ (Ps 12:1)”
Meditating on Christ’s Sufferings1
John Love
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I have these commands: “Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else” (Is 45:22). “This is His commandment, that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ” (1 Jn 3:23).
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I have these promises: “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up; that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life” (Jn 3:14,15). “If ye shall ask any thing in My name, I will do it” (Jn 14:14). “He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me; and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him” (Jn 14:21). “I will pour upon the house of David . . . the Spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon Me whom they have pierced” (Zec 12:10).
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These effects will flow from the right contemplation of Christ’s sufferings: “We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Cor 3:18). “God forbid, that I should glory, save in the
1Taken, with editing, from Love’s Memorials, vol 1. It is dated 19 October 1776.
cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world” (Gal 6:14).
The Day of Worship1
A Review Article by Matthew Vogan
This is not simply one more book on the principle of keeping the Sabbath. That doctrine is well summarised in The Shorter Catechism, Question 61. Neither does the book primarily focus on practical issues relating to the Fourth Commandment. The author maintains that widespread rejection of Sabbath-keeping is a symptom of other major problems. Wrong attitudes towards the law of God and the world prevail. These must be addressed to prepare the way for accepting the biblical concept of Sabbath-keeping. In short, the Puritan, biblical Sabbath will never be adopted until Puritan attitudes to the Christian life are understood and accepted as scriptural.
The book seeks to address “the primary underlying issues behind the widespread neglect of the Sabbath Day” (p 2). It responds to those who “have dismissed this viewpoint out of hand, as unwarranted from Scripture, legalistic, and inconsistent with the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ”. The book is about much more than the Sabbath itself. It addresses “significant issues such as the kind of obedience required by the gospel, the relation of the believer to an unbelieving world, the relationship between the law and the gospel, and the focus of our hope of eternal life” (p 4). The whole purpose of the book could be well summarised in the words of J C Ryle: “Vital religion never flourishes where the Sabbath is not well kept” (p 143).
The book begins by outlining the importance of Sabbath-keeping as emphasised in Scripture. As a creation ordinance it is as fundamental to society as marriage and work. The author emphasises how often the Sabbath is stressed in Scripture. In particular, it is often the litmus test of backsliding. It is “one of the greatest causes of the weakness of the Church and serves as a lightning rod that attracts the judgement of God to churches and nations” (p 8).
Yet “Reformed” Churches in the USA treat it as a peripheral issue. According to the author, there is a general acceptance amongst them that the Fourth Commandment remains binding. Yet they believe it is only breached by volunteering for secular employment on the Lord’s Day. It must be genuinely shocking to some to learn that in 1853 the General Assembly of the
1The Day of Worship: Reassessing the Christian Life in Light of the Sabbath, by Ryan M McGraw, published by Reformation Heritage Books, paperback, 208 pages. Available from the Free Presbyterian Bookroom at £10.99.
Presbyterian Church in the USA declared: “A Church without the Sabbath is apostate” (quoted p 12). The author engages with and effectively counters R C Sproul’s “anti-Puritan” interpretation of the concluding verses of Isaiah 58 and shows that recreation is prohibited on the day as contrary to its spirit and purpose. The practical implications of “not finding thine own pleasure” or “speaking thine own words” on God’s holy day are drawn out for life in contemporary society.
It is no surprise that this view of Sabbath-keeping seems like a spiritual endurance test to the average Christian today. “Striving to keep the Sabbath Day holy may reveal that we are out of shape spiritually. Worldliness, or earthly mindedness may be the underlying cause” (p 65). Sabbath-keeping exposes the extent to which worldliness has gained upon us. In this section the author also refutes the idea that Sabbath-keeping is unnecessary because of the slogan: “All of life is worship”.
The author explores the theme of godly living and separation from the world. He emphasizes that the Westminster position on Sabbath-keeping cannot survive in a worldly church. He uses an apt, pithy turn of phrase to underline this point: “Sabbath-keeping either causes the church to flee from worldliness, or worldliness causes the church to abandon the Sabbath” (p 89). “Observing the Sabbath as a day of worship to the Lord must either begin killing the worldliness dwelling in the hearts of God’s people, or it will uncover it to an extent they have never known before.” No wonder it is “so painful to many, because it places a firm finger on a besetting sin that mars the entirety of their Christian lives” (p 91). “Keeping the Sabbath as a day of worship will either help prevent hypocrisy in religion or it will help expose it” (p 90). This should cause us all much searching self-examination.
Chapter 6 deals with the Reformed application of law as central to this question. He shows that it is scriptural to see the Commandments as both positive and negative in purpose. People can sin in thought, word and deed.
“Some General Practical Observations” are introduced in the next chapter. The chapter is comparatively brief and hints at miscellaneous issues such as preparing the night before the Sabbath, what best facilitates worship, and the priority of corporate worship. The allegation of legalism is addressed and the term accurately defined. He shows that it is either justification by the works of the law, sanctification by the works of the law, or adding to or taking from the law of God. It “cannot refer to the careful and particular keeping of God’s law” (p 126). Antinomianism (refusing to be under the law) is in fact “a subspecies of legalism” (p 137). Both regard the law as only a covenant of works. The gospel requires joyful obedience and love to the law of God, in dependence upon the Spirit of grace. If “a man spent one-seventh of his
life in a foreign culture . . . he could not return to his own country without weaving something foreign into all he said and did” (p 145). A Sabbath in communion with God is a day spent in heaven; the influence of this queen of days upon our lives ought to be evident.
There are two appendices. The first is B B Warfield’s excellent defence of the perpetuity of the Sabbath, rooted in Paul’s epistles and the words of Christ. In particular, he draws vital truths from the way in which Paul applies the rest of the Ten Commandments. The second appendix is Mr McGraw’s review of Keeping the Sabbath Today? by Jay E Adams. We were not familiar with this book, but the attitude to the law of God and the Old Testament revealed by Adams is deeply shocking. It is solemn to learn that one of the reasons that Adams wrote the book was to enable anti-Sabbatarians to take their ordination vows with “greater confidence”.
The Day of Worship is a robust yet accessible resource that can yield benefit. The chapters are concise and contain much in little. In some cases they are self-contained in their treatment of a subject. There is a direct style of engagement with the reader. It is more unique and hard-hitting than the title would suggest on face value.
There are, however, one or two areas that are a great disappointment. One of these relates to Sabbath public transport. The author is clear that it is contrary to the Fourth Commandment to engage others to work on our behalf. This is expressly forbidden within the Commandment itself: neither “thy manservant nor thy maidservant” (Ex 20:10). The author does not, however, apply this with consistency. “Is it not strange,” he asks, “when Christians do not hesitate to hire pilots and flight attendants to break the Sabbath for them?” (p 103). Only pages later we read that “though patronising the labour of others on the Sabbath is wrong, men’s consciences differ whether or not it is lawful to use public transportation on the Sabbath, provided that it is the only means of attending corporate worship” (p 109). The author recognises that there “is only one legitimate answer to such questions, yet the answers are not always easy to determine, and brethren must exercise charity and patience toward one another in these cases”.
Clearly, however, engaging such means on the Sabbath is “wrong on the part of the payee, because, without reference, implied or expressed, to what the Fourth Commandment prohibits, on the one hand, or allows, on the other, he, as a contracting party, carries forward into the business of the Lord’s Day the same mercenary aims, the same working conditions, and the same contract terms which he lawfully and necessarily employs on the six days during which, God says, ‘Thou shalt do all thy work’; and wrong on the part of the payer, because, as the other contracting party, by availing himself of
the service, and by paying the stipulated fare, he voluntarily, and for the most part, cheerfully accommodates himself to these aims and conditions and accepts these terms. Nor can any amount or species of motive serve to make it right.”2
It is sad that the author’s charity and patience is less extensive to those who seek to be consistent on this matter. He refers the fact that Professor John Murray was unable to pursue licensing in the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland, since he wished to allow others to travel by public transport on the Sabbath. This was something that in conscience he could not himself do. The author then comments: “Sadly some will always lean toward an extra-biblical pharisaism” (p 23). This is a very strong, unsubstantiated charge indeed. The core of the matter is whether or not use of transport run for commercial gain on the Sabbath is a breach of the Fourth Commandment. It is worth noticing that notable ministers of the past such as J C Ryle, R Murray M’Cheyne, James Begg and John Kennedy were staunchly united against public transport on the Sabbath.
To shy away from the difficult applications of the Commandment will, in fact, undermine the consistency of our whole approach and encourage people to search for loopholes where they wish to find them. To leave this question open is foolish and dangerous. Would the author condone taking a Sabbath flight (run by a commercial airline) for the purposes of attending, or perhaps leading, corporate worship? If not, how can one condone the drivers, attendants, operators and owners of public transport run on the Sabbath who are employed by those who travel to corporate worship?
In a different context, the author quotes an apt remark by William Plumer: “He who is not prepared to stand in a minority of one, with a majority of millions against him, will not keep a good conscience respecting the Lord’s Day” (p 126). It may be of interest to learn that Samuel Miller led the 1836 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the US in condemning Sabbath public transport as tending to “disgrace the church of God” and making those who used it to be “partakers in other men’s sins”.3 In 1855 the Presbyterian Board of Publication published the title, Monitorial Letters to Church Members,4 which condemned Sabbath public transport as “a systematic violation of God’s holy day” (pp 51-55). Presbyterians also promoted strict laws in Pittsburgh in 1859 prohibiting Sabbath public transport.
To take refuge in the assertion that one would not travel by Sabbath
2“Statement in Reference to Churchgoing by Public Conveyances on the Sabbath”, Synod of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland, 1928.
3The Religious Monitor and Evangelical Repository, vol 13, 1836, p 91.
4Philadelphia, 1855.
public transport but could not condemn others for doing so is, as Rev Neil Cameron pointed out, a form of sophistry. “God’s Word says: ‘Thou shalt not suffer sin on thy neighbour’. The real meaning of such an argument is that the Synod should consent to allow their people to do that which they (these sophists) feel to be sin in their own conscience. If that be so, why do they say that they would not do it themselves? Such arguments are devoid of any real force in face of the terms of the Fourth Commandment, and integrity of conscience.”
We are pleased that the Bible version quoted throughout is the AV. McGraw is, however, critical at times of particular renderings adopted by that translation. One example is in Hebrews 4:11, where he believes unbelief should be disobedience (p 150). John Owen persuasively defends the AV translation of this word in his comments on Hebrews 3:18. A footnote on John 1:18 (p 152) suggests that the author does not have complete sympathy with the providentially-preserved Received Text underlying the AV. These are important points but this book can still prove profitable, if read with discernment. We hope that it will help to distinguish the precious (the glory of God through His appointed day of worship) from the vile (love of the world and hatred of God’s law). How desperately our generation needs what Thomas Watson calls “our spiritual harvest days”!