“What Mean Ye by These Stones?”¹

A Sermon by John Kennedy

Joshua 4:6. What mean ye by these stones?

The memorial stones arrested attention and provoked enquiry. Those who raised them exposed themselves to questioning about what they meant by them. They should therefore be prepared to answer the question, “What mean ye by these stones?” They are accordingly instructed what reply to give to the question.

By this building, within whose walls we now meet for the first time, you provoke the same enquiry. You may be asked, What mean ye by these stones? You should be prepared to tell. It is my duty now to attempt to tell you what your answer should be. When asked, What mean ye by these stones? you should be able honestly and intelligently to reply: We have erected this house for the service of God in connection with the Free Church of Scotland² as a place where we need, desire and expect the presence and blessing of the Lord.

Let us consider for a little the implications of this reply. In doing so, we must enquire: (1.) What is meant by a building erected for the service of God? (2.) Why must all your labour be in vain if you do not enjoy the presence and blessing of the Lord here?

1. What is meant by a building erected for the service of God? In erecting a house for the service of God you must not forget that the sacredness is not in the stones, nor in the space which they enclose, but in the service which takes place in the house. That service is sacred – not that it shall be holy because it is yours, whatever your spirit and exercise may be. It is sacred as

¹Taken from a booklet entitled, The Old Paths, published some time after Kennedy’s death. This is the first of two sermons in the booklet; it was preached at the opening, on 8 February 1866, of a new Free Church in Killearnan, north of Inverness. His father, also John Kennedy, was the parish minister there and John Kennedy, junior, was brought up there. The sermon printed here, with editing, is said to be “transcribed from his manuscript”. The following biographical sketch is taken from The Old Paths:

“Rev John Kennedy was a son of Rev John Kennedy of Killearnan, Ross-shire, and was born on 15 August 1819. He became minister of the Free Church at Dingwall in February 1844, and laboured there till the end of his life. Dr Kennedy was one of the foremost preachers of his generation in Scotland. After his death, his friend, Mr Spurgeon, wrote: ‘His death was a loss to the Highlands greater than could have befallen it by the death of any other hundred men’. Dr Kennedy passed away at Bridge of Allan on 28 April 1884.”

²By the time of Kennedy’s death, the Free Church of 1843 had departed significantly from its original testimony. The Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland was founded in 1893 to preserve that testimony (Ed).

the service of God. It is sacred because it is claimed by the Holy One, and because it is ruled over by His holy law.

In the service to be engaged in, there must be worship addressed to God, and work done for God with a view to the spiritual and eternal welfare of souls. The rule of all this service is given by God; the strength for all this service must come from God, and the purpose of it all should be the glory of God.

God must be worshipped here by prayer and praise, by the reading and preaching of the Word, and by the administration of the two sacraments of the New Testament. God must be served, and all should be done graciously, in order to be done acceptably and with reverence and godly fear.

In what proportions prayer and praise should be combined in the service of God, in His house, is a question to which different answers have been given. Some would make the worship, through prayer and praise, the preponderating element. The reading and the preaching of the Word would have a subordinate place to these. The tendency of present religious sentiment is in that direction. In our Presbyterian Churches, it is said, too subordinate a place is assigned to the service of prayer and praise. Some in these Churches are too ready to make concessions to those who bring these charges against them.

Whence arises this zeal for prayer and praise in the service? If from love to God and from a spiritually devotional feeling, it would not be reprehended, apart from its extremeness. But you will generally find that those who are very anxious for the worship, through prayer and praise, to be the great thing, are just those who would confine all their worship within the walls of a church, and who utterly lack a habitual devotional feeling. We think that this zeal arises from a self-righteous spirit. Those who depend on what they do like to make what they offer to God the main thing. Their worship is their ground of hope. It is by it they expect to win the favour of God. They do not like to be dealt with as sinners through the preaching of the Word. They are more anxious to give than to get, to worship than to be taught.

This extreme zeal for the devotional in the service of God indicates a most offensive affectation, utterly unbecoming the house of God. His house is a “Bethesda” – “a house of mercy”. The great design of gospel service is that God might be glorified in saving men through Jesus Christ. When the Queen enters a hospital, she does not expect to find all there ready to show her reverence with all the courtesy of manner which greets her elsewhere. True, she expects no rudeness, but she is more bent on doing good than on getting compliments. She does expect thanks, but she expects it to flow from the sense of her kindness. She wishes them well rather than to be courtiers. It would offend her if the poor patients, covering their wasted bodies and their

wounded limbs with gay attire, should meet her with pompous courtesy as she came to visit them. This affected homage would be a provoking offence instead of an acceptable courtesy. A broken utterance of thanks from the invalids for a recovery due to her kindness would be more acceptable to her than the most polished speeches and the most courtly homage.

It is thus with the Lord’s expectations from His house of mercy on earth. He wills that men be saved so that they may worship, not to worship so that they may be saved. We think therefore that the place we have been accustomed to assign in our Presbyterian churches to prayer and praise in God’s service in public is according to His purpose, and to the character of Him who is the Church’s Head and King.

And we know it is according to the mind of God as revealed in His Word. If you look at the recorded public services of the Apostles, do you not see that preaching was always the main thing? If you look over the Epistles, did the inspired directions not bear mainly on the doctrine and discipline of the churches? We therefore see no reason for disturbing the proportions according to which we have been accustomed to divide the public service of the Lord.

1. There must be prayer in the service engaged in here. The house of God must be a house of prayer. On Him as creatures and sinners we are entirely dependent. On His throne of grace He waits to give mercy and grace to help in time of need. To Himself on that throne He invites us. We need His acceptance, for in His favour alone is life. We need grace to help us to serve Him, as well as grace to save our souls from sin. We need His presence and blessing, for without these we can have no profit from all our services or privileges. As guilty, helpless sinners we must therefore approach His throne of grace. The spirit of prayer alone can guide us. “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit” is what God requires.

Let us not imagine that there can be a devotional spirit in the house of God without habitual prayerfulness. Alas, friends, how many forget this! I cannot wonder that there are many advocates for forms of prayer. Men who are habitual strangers to prayer, find themselves like fish out of water when they engage in it in public. They find it convenient to have it all before them in a book, if they must pray.

1. There must be praise. The matter of praise is furnished to us in the psalms, hymns and spiritual songs of the sweet Psalmist of Israel. Psalms are in praise of God. He changes not. Therefore the matter of praise need not change. In Old Testament times, God furnished the matter of praise. He made no addition to it under the New Testament; none was required. The desire for an addition arises from a spirit that is blind to the mind of God in His Word, a spirit that refuses deference to the will and appointment of God.

The exercise of it must accord with the matter. It must be thanksgiving and adoration. To enter into this exercise, one must imbibe the spirit of the psalms. I must be taught by the Spirit, as the Psalmist was, to know myself as a sinner, to have a heart broken for, and from, sin; to exercise faith in Christ; to behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ; to trust and love and adore Him. I must have the Psalmist’s experiences in relation to sin, Satan and the world; I must have his acquaintance with divine succour and divine comfort. Thus alone can I truly praise.

And as to the outward mode of it, let it be done decently and in order, like all else. Let the mode be always subordinate to the spirit, but in this as in all else let us serve the Lord with our best.

1. This is a place where the Word is to be read and preached. In this portion of the service, we must consider the place and duty of him who preaches and of them who hear.

(1.) The preaching should be in faith – not only in the truth as the truth of God, but in the authority of God. The preacher should desire not only to be assured that what he preaches is the truth of God, but that he preaches according to the appointment of God.

(2.) The preaching should be from the heart – a heart into which it has entered, and in which it has wrought effectively, giving an experience of its sweetness and of its power. It is not the experience of the heart that is to be preached, but it is the gospel as known and experienced.

(3.) The preaching should be according to the mind of God in His Word, and therefore under the guidance of the Spirit of the Lord. If so, Christ crucified will be the centre of all our preaching, and in each text the mind of God sought in relation to Him.

(4.) The preaching should be with zeal, love and prayerfulness – zeal for the honour of Christ, love to precious souls, and simple dependence on the power of God. Prayer for the breath of the Spirit must mingle with prophesying unto the dry bones.

And let me remind you of the directions given to hearers of the Word in our Shorter Catechism: “That the Word may become effectual to salvation, we must attend thereunto with diligence, preparation and prayer, receive it with faith and love, lay it up in our hearts, and practise it in our lives”.

1. This is a place where the sacraments are to be dispensed. Of these there are but two – Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. It is in the place of the public assembly of the church that both should be dispensed. There is reason for the latter being in public not found for the former. It is a supper, a communion of the members of Christ’s body. Not so the other. But it is right that, where possible, the other should be dispensed in presence of the assembled church,

that the new member may be received with the love and prayers of all. The sacraments are to be dispensed under the authority of, and according to, the Word of God. They are to be dispensed and received by faith; they are to be dispensed with reverence and godly fear.

2. Why is your labour in vain if God’s presence and blessing are not here?

The last part of your reply is that you have erected this house as a place where you need, desire and expect the presence and blessing of the Lord.

1. The presence, the gracious presence, of the Lord is needed. It is one thing to profess this, but it is another thing altogether to feel it. There is need of life and wisdom, which few have, in order to realise and be affected by the necessity of the Lord’s gracious presence. They who truly feel this realise eternity and realise things in their bearing on it; they have felt their own sinful condition and their need as sinners of the salvation of the Lord; and they know that only the almighty operation of the Holy Ghost can prepare them for that place into which nothing shall enter that defiles. All means and instruments, all profession and knowledge and service, without the presence and gracious operation of the Holy Spirit, are manifestly in vain.

2. The presence and blessing of God should be desired, as well as felt to be indispensable. Where there is life, there will be this thirst. Oppressed by a sense of sin, and excited by a view of the greatness of the promised blessing, the living seek the presence of the Lord in His house. The wells are to them without water till He comes. Like the pilgrims on the journey to Jerusalem, they dig wells in the valley of Baca, but their labour only increases their faintness unless rain comes down from heaven to fill the wells.

3. The presence and blessing of God should be expected. Where the Lord has recorded His name, and where He has a remnant of such as fear Him, He has promised to dwell and to bless. This promise should be received and held and pled in faith. This expectation of hope should arise from this exercise of faith; and at least there should be a preparedness to feel disappointed and desolate when the Hope of Israel is as a stranger. Alas, how little there is of this poverty of spirit, this thirst and this expectation in coming to the house of God! No wonder that the Lord’s arm is in His bosom!

Application. I have now briefly indicated what your reply should be when you are asked, Why you have erected this building? It is your responsibility to ascertain whether you can truly thus reply or not. The Lord knows the motives which actuated you. If your motives were such as we have indicated, there will be no grudging of labour and expense towards this erection, and you will seek to enter the services of God’s house within these walls in humble dependence, in prayerful earnestness and in cordial gratitude.

Let me entreat you to beware of acting in opposition to the high, holy and

gracious design of God in your exercises within these walls in future. His house is a house of mercy. His means are means of grace. His gospel is the word of salvation. Beware of forgetting this, lest in your pride, unbelief and carnal ease you continue to refuse His grace and to aggravate your own guilt. Beware too of gathering, even within the walls of a church, fuel for a fire that shall never be quenched, and in the midst of which your place of misery shall be for ever.

And remember that God is a jealous God. With jealous eye He watches all worship and all worshippers. He will not give His glory to another. Beware lest He observe you dishonouring Him by carnal views of His character, by an unbelieving ignoring of His majesty, by a rebellious adoption of your own will instead of His, by a selfish aiming at your own ease and honour instead of His glory, by an easy contempt of His grace, by a proud rejection of His great salvation, and by a fresh piercing of His well-beloved.

Friends, it ought not to be an easy thing to enter on a course of service in this house of prayer. In its bearing on the name of God, and on the spiritual condition of your own souls, and in its eternal issues, it is – it must be – of tremendous importance. For you will spend your time here, either dishonouring God, increasing your hardness and enmity for sorer punishment, or in doing His will, enjoying His presence and preparing for His eternal glory.