The Gospel in Ezekiel - now out in paperback and hardback

A huge thanks to Michael Pate at GLH Publishing for publishing 'The Gospel in Ezekiel' by Dr Thomas Guthrie.  You can order it from here.

Publication of Dr Guthrie's 'The Gospel in Ezekiel'

Delighted to hear today that GLH Publishing have produced The Gospel in Ezekiel as an e-book.  This is an incredible exposition of Ezekiel 36 and well worthy of study.  Many thanks to Michael Pate and his team for all his hard work - what a great contribution to the work of God's kingdom!


Download the book here.

Are we taking error seriously?

Scripture and history tell us that the destruction of men's best interests is brought about by the reception of error. When churches embrace a lie rather than God truth there is an inevitable spiritual and moral decline. R L Dabney wrote towards the end of the 19^th century: 'While German scholarship has been busy with its labours it has suffered almost a whole nation to lapse into a semi-heathenish condition'.

In the same era, C H Spurgeon concluded: 'Modern criticism, like modern theology, is like the sirocco that blasts and burns, it is without dew or suction, it proves itself to be unblest of God and unblessing to men'.

What can be said of the situation today?

WHERE WE ARE TODAY

1  No place for truth. There was a day when men believed there was such a thing as objective truth and believed that the truth could be stated in propositions, using human language and comprehensible to human minds. A sea-change has taken place in Western intellectual life. It is now argued that we can no longer speak of objective truth. Truth and falsehood has been replaced by what is 'true for me' or 'true for you'. This has infiltrated the church, as has shown in David Wells' book No Place For Truth, a work which charts the demise of evangelical theology in the United States. He said: 'The emptiness of  evangelical faith without theology echoes the emptiness of modern life'.

 2 No fear of error  How can we profess to love God without loving His truth?  Truth is the revelation of his nature, character and works. Horatius Bonar warned in his day: 'The spirit of the age which makes light of error, as if it were not sin. Even some who call themselves Christians, have lost their dread of error, and are hurrying on from opinion to opinion, exulting in their freedom from old fetters and trammels, reckoning themselves  peculiarly honest and unprejudiced . Alas for truth in such a case!  How can it be reached? Alas for the love of truth!How can it exist where there is no fear of error?

 3 No exercise of discipline  Ministers and elders  can  hold the most outrageous views  and no action is taken against them. Trials for heresy seem to have  become a thing of the past.  We are living in a day when such matters have  ceased to concern the evangelical church. Professor  Thomas C Oden  has said: 'The very thought about asking about heresy has itself become the new heresy. The archheresiarch is the one who hints that some distinction might be needed between truth and falsehood, between right and wrong'. 

WHAT WE MUST DO

1 We  must be intolerant of a false gospel

Paul was intolerant of a false gospel. He said about those who were perverting the gospel in the churches of Galatia:  'But although we, or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you let him be accursed'. (Gal 1.7-8).  Commenting on this, J Gresham Machen said: 'Surely Paul ought to have made common cause with teachers who were so nearly in agreement with him; surely he ought to have applied to them the great principle of Christian unity. As a matter of fact, however, Paul did nothing of the kind; and only because he (and others) did nothing of the kind does the Christian church exist today'.  It is interesting to see how Paul made a distinction in the case of the church at Philippi, where some were preaching Christ from wrong motives: 'Notwithstanding every way, whether in pretence or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea,  and will rejoice'.  (Phil 1.18) 

Professor John Murray said: 'We too readily become the victims of a charity (love) that denies the exclusiveness of the Gospel, the charity that assumes that decent respectable friendly people are not heirs of damnation. If we are governed by that charity it is because we have not been captivated by the love of Christ . And if we are inclined to lend some sympathy to that charity it is because our love to Christ has been waxing cold  and has not been fanned by Christ's love to us'.

2 We must separate from false teachers

An indication of the way the heretics were viewed in the past is illustrated in a story about the apostle John. The early church father, Polycarp, a disciple of the apostle, tells of an incident where John abruptly left the public baths at Ephesus when he heard that a false teacher named Cerinthus had entered. John reportedly said, 'Let us flee, lest the baths fall in with Cerinthus; the enemy of the truth is within'. Why did the gentle Apostle of Love react so vehemently against Cerinthus? Because Cerinthus denied the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ.'

A distinction has to be drawn between acceptance of, and fellowship with, genuine Christians who may be mistaken and misled in their beliefs and the acceptance of the same in the appointed leaders of churches. This applies to the Arminianism which prevails in so many churches today. In the The Forgotten Spurgeon Iain Murray writes: 'Arminianism obscures the glory which belongs solely to the free grace of God and is therefore an error sufficiently serious for there to be no room for compromising. We may have fellowship with those who are under the influence of those errors but in the standards and teaching of the church there can be no wavering on the issue.'

There is a solemn word from Francis Schaeffer: 'Let us never forget that we who stand in the historic stream of Christianity really believe that false doctrine, at those critical points where false doctrine is heresy, is not a small thing. If we do not make clear by word and practice our position for truth as truth and against false doctrine, we are building a wall between the next generation and the gospel. And twenty years from now, men will point their finger back at us and say of us , this is the result of the flow of history. ' 

3 We must recover the Church as the pillar and foundation of the truth.

We need to  recover the doctrine of the Church. Reformed theology has always emphasized the centrality of the visible Church with its ministry, sacraments and government. This concept has been seriously undermined in recent years. We have a freelance type of Christianity which pays scant attention to church order and government. Church membership is not taken seriously. With all the concentrated effort to recover Reformed theology in the last fifty years it has not worked through to the reformation of the church.. The church confesses the truth that God has given to her  through the inspired Word of God. It is in this core of confession that the church's identity is preserved across the ages. Without this knowledge, it is bereft of what defines the church as the people of God. Without the church on the New Testament pattern you cannot have the guarding of the truth from generation to generation.

In the great battle for orthodoxy in the early 20^th century in America , J Gresham Machen appeared as the champion defender of the faith. He had to counter liberalism. He made it abundantly clear that what lay behind the problem was  doctrinal indifferentism in the church. It is as, Carl Trueman says, 'that attitude which regards the individual's or the church's experience of Christ as essentially separable from, more important than, or even opposed to, a clear understanding of His Person and work.' Dr Trueman in speaking of the stance taken by Machen emphasizes the importance of the doctrine penetrating from the pulpit to the pew: 'The history of the church is peppered with examples of churches which enjoyed powerful faithful preaching for many years and yet which all but collapsed into doctrinal apathy and even heresy on the retirement or the death of their minister.'  When will we learn from history?

Rev John J Murray

 

What is Ragged Theology?

Ragged Theology is delighted to launch Thomas Guthrie.org a new website dedicated to the life and theology of Dr Thomas Guthrie.  The website will grow and evolve over the next few months but hopefully it will help to raise Guthrie's profile.  I have written an article for the website on what I believe to be 'Ragged Theology'.  Hopefully it will act as a helpful summary of the purpose of this blog, the 'Mission of Mercy' booklet and now the new website.  I'm always up for feedback so please get in touch with comments and suggestions on any aspect of the work.

What is Ragged Theology?  I came up with the phrase when I set up my blog in 2012 to describe the theology which Dr Thomas Guthrie believed and practised.  It is a theology that is making a comeback in Scotland today, one that emphasis truth and love, doctrinal fidelity as well as practical Christianity and a theology that loves the church while at the same time loving the world in which God has placed us.  There is always a tension in Christianity between truth and love.  Love without truth is sentimentality, truth without love is legalism.  What made Guthrie such a great leader and preacher was how he embraced such a love for truth and at the same time a love for sinners.  It was his particular love for the poor and marginalised that made him so remarkable.  I think 'Ragged Theology' is best summed up in my favourite Guthrie quote;

We want a religion that, not dressed for Sundays and walking on stilts, descends into common and everyday life; is friendly, not selfish; courteous, not boorish; generous, not miserly; sanctified, not sour; that loves justice more than gain; and fears God more than man; to quote another's words - "a religion that keeps husbands from being spiteful, or wives fretful; that keeps mothers patient, and children pleasant; that bears heavily not only on the 'exceeding sinfulness of sin,' but on the exceeding rascality of lying and stealing; that banishes small measures from counters, sand from sugar, and water from milk-cans - the faith, in short, whose root is in Christ, and whose fruit is works .

Thomas Guthrie, Faith and Works, Man and the Gospel.

I was born 100 years after Guthrie died.  I was born into a very different Scotland.  It is one where the church has very little influence, indeed we can say with a certain degree of confidence the church is seen largely as an irrelevance.  Why is that?  Well I believe it is because we have abandoned the truth and abandoned our responsibility toward the poor and the oppressed.  Large sections of the church are preaching a content-less gospel where there is no sin, no saviour, no judgement, no hell and society has quite rightly concluded the church has no point, and who could blame them?  Much of the church that has retained the truth has entered into a bunker mentality.  It is fractured, defensive, suspicious and, on the whole, talking to itself.  In particular, the church has ceased to have any concern for the marginalised which has always been a hallmark of the church at its best.  So what made Guthrie's 'Ragged Theology' so different?

1.  Vision - Guthrie had incredible vision.  He literally, by God's grace, changed Scotland.  His vision was not shaped by the challenges of 19th Century Scotland but rather shaped by the greatness of the God he served.  He believed that the Christian gospel could save anyone and transform any community.  While others saw homeless and ragged children as burdens or a nuisance, Guthrie saw in these street children the potential for moral and spiritual change.  As he says; bedded in their dark and dismal abodes, precious stones lie there, which only wait to be dug out and polished, to shine, first on the earth, and hereafter and forever in a Redeemer’s crown (Seed-Time and Harvest of Ragged Schools, Thomas Guthrie).  By the time of his death Guthrie had, along with many other social reformers, changed childhood.  Rather than being seen as commodities, towards the end of the 19th Century, children were seen as those in need of protection and nurture.  Partly as a result of lobbying from social reformers like Guthrie legislation was passed protecting children from working long hours in often dangerous situations.

On issues such as the Manse Fund, Guthrie showed incredible vision.  The odds against the new Free Church in 1843 were huge but the new movement had a big vision  for 700 manses.  Turning to Guthrie the 'big beggar man', and after a tour of 13 Synods and 58 Presbyteries in less than a year, the target of £100, 000 was smashed.  Thanks to Guthrie, 100's of Free Church ministers were able move into manses and continue their ministries.

The DNA of men like Thomas Guthrie and Thomas Chalmers is that they had a big vision.  It wasn't a congregational vision or even a Free Church vision but a national vision.  Through church extension, the Manse Fund, education and his incredible work with Ragged Schools, Guthrie gave us a great example of the need for a coherent Christian vision for Scotland.

2. Truth - Like so many Christians who get involved in social action, Guthrie never lost his moorings when he become a social reformer.  It is clear from his writings that he adhered to the bible as the word of God and remained confessionally Reformed throughout his ministry.  He believed in the supremacy and centrality of preaching as the main method that God uses to save sinners.  There is no evidence that he ever watered down his preaching or softened his stance on any major Christian doctrine as he became the figurehead for social reform in 19th Century Scotland.  Here he is in full flow on the dangers of 'soft peddling' the truth;  Yet, shall I conceal God's verity, and ruin men's souls to spare their feelings?  Shall I sacrifice truth at the shrine of a false politeness?  To hide what Jesus revealed were not to be more tender, but only less faithful than He.  If the taste of these days were so degenerate as to frown down the honest preacher who should pronounce that awful word "Hell," and leave him to vacant pews, it were better, far better, that he should be as "one crying in the wilderness," and getting no response but the echo of empty walls, than that he should fail in proclaiming the "whole counsel of God.  (The Gospel in Ezekiel).  Guthrie preached the whole counsel of God with love and tenderness but never compromised on doctrine.

3. Love - As a minister of the Gospel, Guthrie embodied love.  We are told in James that Pure religion and undefiled before God, even the Father, is this, to visit the fatherless, and widows in their adversity, and to keep himself unspotted from the world James 1 v 27.  The fruit of true Christianity is always love for the poor and the oppressed.  Many people regard practical love for the poor as a deviation from the gospel.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Guthrie's work with ragged children enhanced his message and gave his Christianity a reality and authenticity that made the gospel attractive to sinners.   It was once said of Thomas Guthrie by 2 men drinking in a bar in Glasgow he’s different from all the other preachers altogether.  He practises more than he preaches.  Guthrie's love for sinners wasn't a show for Sundays.  His love was on display throughout the week as he visited some of the worst closes and stairs in the Cowgate, Edinburgh.  He was regularly broken by the sights that he saw.  Love was the great motivation of his ministry.

4. Hope - It was this combination of truth and love that gave Guthrie such hope for the communities he worked in and for the individuals he sought to reach.  The gospel, when preached in all its fullness and freeness, should fill every sinner with a sense of hope that Christ died to reconcile them to a holy God.  The church has gone though many periods when this message has been lost or when she has lost confidence in the power of this gospel to reach the darkest and most hopeless parts of our communities.  Guthrie (among others) gave the Free Church the belief that the gospel, accompanied by education for the poor and the practical outworking of love through the local church could redeem the darkest and most hopeless communities. 

There is a famous story about Dr Guthrie and Thomas Chalmers standing on George IV Bridge looking down on to the Cowgate.  Guthrie tells us; Hopeful of success, he [Chalmers] surveyed the scene beneath us, and his eye, which often wore a dreamy stare, kindled at the prospect of seeing that wilderness become an Eden, these foul haunts of darkness, drunkenness and disease, changed into "dwellings of the righteous where is heard the voice of melody."  Contemplating the scene for a little in silence, all at once, with his broad Luther-like face glowing with enthusiasm, he waved his arm to exclaim, "A beautiful field, sir; a very fine field of operation (Out of Harness, Thomas Guthrie).

Thomas Guthrie brought hope to thousands through his preaching, his pastoral care and his practical Christianity.  Nobody was beyond redemption for Guthrie.  He preached a gospel that was free for the worst sinner and believed that nobody was a hopeless case;

It is a dreadful thing to close the door against any man's or woman's reformation.   Religion calls us to hold it open to the worst, even as God holds it open to us who can - knowing more ill of ourselves than we can know of others - and ought to say with Paul, "This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.

Thomas Guthrie, Out of Harness

Ragged Theology Publications - A Mission of Mercy

I'm delighted that 'A Mission of Mercy - the Life and Legacy of Dr Guthrie' is now out.  It is the combination of a series of articles in the Free Church Record in 2013 as well as some additional material particularly around Guthrie's leadership in the temperance movement.  The booklet has copies of two beautiful paintings of Guthrie by James Edgar and Sir George Harvey.  The first is entitled a 'Mission of Mercy' and the second is of Guthrie fly fishing with his children on Lochlee which was a favourite holiday destination for the Guthrie family.  There is a small cost of £2 per booklet to recover costs and orders can be sent to raggedtheology@gmail.com


Alternatively you can download the book via kindle http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mission-Mercy-Legacy-Thomas-Guthrie-ebook/dp/B00MJU1DB4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1407741775&sr=8-1&keywords=a+mission+of+mercy+Guthrie

A Willing Saviour

'His son indeed does not go up and down heaven weeping, wringing his hands, and, to the amazement of silent angels, crying, Would God I had died for man!  A more amazing spectacle is here.  He turns his back on heaven;  he leaves the bosom and happy fellowship of his Father, he bares his own innocent love never to be fathomed, he dies that accursed tree, "the just for the unjust, that we might be saved!"


The Gospel in Ezekiel, Dr Thomas Guthrie

Guthrie and the Gospel in Ezekiel

Despite it's rich gleanings, the book of Ezekiel is often an unread book by many Christians.  A bit like the book of Revelation or the book of Daniel, the book of Ezekiel is allegorical and apocalyptic so needs to be interpreted with great care.  Many of us perhaps feel it is impenetrable for anyone who is not a preacher or theologian. 

Given his status as one of the best and most accessible preachers in Scotland it is little wonder that Thomas Guthrie's 'Gospel in Ezekiel', first published in 1855, went on to be a best seller.  The book opened the darkness of Ezekiel to a new audience hungry for the warm and winsome style in which Guthrie communicated truth through preaching or writing. 

Normally you can pick up a second hand copy of the Gospel in Ezekiel on ABE Books here but I am delighted to hear that my friends at GLH Publishing are working on an e-book version so keep an eye out for it here.  I am so grateful to Michael Pate from GLH for all the work he has done to convert Guthrie's books into e-books so a new generation can read Guthrie for themselves.  You can download other Guthrie books here and here.

The Late Starter

Despite his legacy as a popular writer, it wasn't until 25 years into his ministry that Thomas Guthrie approached writing with a degree of intentionality.  Prior to the publication of the Gospel in Ezekiel in 1855, Guthrie had written two major booklets both on the Original Ragged School.  His first publication was entitled 'A Plea for Ragged Schools' which first came out in 1847 with subsequent versions in 1849 and 1860.  The three booklets were all eventually published in one book with extensive appendices.  Guthrie's 'pleas' proved to be a huge success and Guthrie describes them 'as a spark amongst combustibles.'  They were the means in  God's hand to launch the ragged schools from a small provincial enterprise into an organised and structured movement. Clearly Guthrie had a gift not just as an orator but also as a writer.

When the Gospel in Ezekiel came out, Guthrie has been a parish minister in Arbirlot for 7 years and had been in Edinburgh for eighteen years.  When he came to Edinburgh in 1837, he had started out as assistant to John Sym in Old Greyfriars before planting the new St John's Church and was now at the height of his career as senior minister at Free St John's.  Due to Guthrie's fragile health, Rev William Hanna (son in law of Thomas Chalmers) had been appointed as an assistant to Guthrie in 1850.   There was clearly a congenial and warm relationship between the two preachers because Guthrie dedicated the Gospel in Ezekiel to Hanna;

To you, my dear Sir, I dedicate these Discourses - the substance of which was preached to our Congregation - not so much as an expression of my high admiration of the genius and talents which you have consecrated the cause of our common Lord, as a mark of the warm affection which I cherish for you, and of the kind, cordial, and most happy intercourse, which we have enjoyed since our union as colleagues and pastors of the same flock (Edinburgh, December 1855).

The Pattern and Contents of the Book

The Gospel in Ezekiel is a series of twenty two chapters all based on Ezekiel 36 v 16 - 37.  While some of Guthrie's writing appears to the modern reader as rather flowery, the sermons can only be described as majestic.   Guthrie seeks to follow the gospel narrative working his way from; the messenger, the defiler, man sinning, man suffering, God's positive justice, God's motive in salvation, man an object of divine mercy, God glorified in redemption, the wisdom and holiness of God illustrated in salvation, the benefits flowing from redemption, man justified, man justified through the righteousness of Jesus Christ, man converted, the heart of stone, the new heart, the renovator, the new life, the blessedness of the saints, the security of the believer, and the nature, necessity and power of prayer.

Despite becoming a prolific writer until his death in 1873, Guthrie was probably best know for his volume on Ezekiel. In their Memoir of their father David and Charles Guthrie make mention that by 1875 the Gospel in Ezekiel had sold over 40,000 copies.  This is a remarkable figure given the subject and length of the book.  But as always it was the content and the author that it made it such a best seller.  Here is a taster of some of the content from the title entitled The Messenger.  Guthrie is proving that God has entrusted gospel treasures to earthen vessels and drives home the point that he is not just referring to ministers;

I am anxious that you should understand that the honours which I have spoken of are not reserved for pulpits.  The youth who, finding rest and refreshment in Christian labours, teaches a Sabbath class; the mother with her children grouped around her, sweet solemnity sitting on her face, and an open Bible resting on her knee; the friend who deals faithfully with another's soul; any man who kindly takes a poor sinner by the hand, and offering to guide, and urging him to go to the Saviour, says "Come with us and we will do you good;" "arise, for we have seen the land, and behold it is very good;" "these are ministers of the Gospel, and not less than its ordained pastors are fellow-labourers with God.

Its Effects

There was plenty of evidence that the Lord used the Gospel in Ezekiel to great spiritual good.  An officer in the army wrote from a distant outpost in 1864; 'about eighteen months ago a friend directed me to where I would find your 'Gospel in Ezekiel.'  I may say, any hope of eternal happiness (and I trust my hope is well founded) is derived under God from it.  Although I have never had the pleasure of seeing or hearing you, I can scarcely restrain a strong feeling of looking upon you in the light of a father in the gospel.' 

There were other stories, particularly of the effect of his sermons in India.  A Dr Lowe mentions how while he was a missionary in India he usually gave the local catechists and evangelists an hour each Thursday to help them prepare a sermon for the coming Sunday.  One week he didn't have the time to prepare and gave them the headings and vivid illustrations of a Guthrie sermon.  The sermon was preached to around 60 congregations the following Sunday and caused a great stir.  The local preachers asked for Dr Lowe to read the sermons to them weekly and they were adapted for their local congregations.  So the 'Gospel in Ezekiel,' 'The Way to Life' and 'Speaking to the Heart' were used regularly across the Neyoor district in India.  Apparently when told, Guthrie raised his hands and said to Dr Lowe 'My dear sir, I thank God for such tidings.  I rejoice to know in some measure I have helped to tell the sons and daughters of India the story of the cross.'

Guthrie's writings went on to have a huge impact in America, and his books were translated into French and Dutch.  His sons quote a remark in their Memoirs of their father that D.L. moody once said that 'I owe more to the writings of your father than to those of any other man.'

Conclusion

In many ways Guthrie was an accidental writer.  He was almost forced into writing when he wrote his first 'Plea for Ragged School.'  It is hard to believe but Guthrie came back from the printer in 1847 believing that he had made a fool of himself.  However, he went on to become one of the most popular Christian writers of his day and extended the reach of his pulpit to a worldwide audience.  In the Gospel in Ezekiel he showed that the gospel of Jesus Christ is as richly portrayed in the Old Testament as it is in the New, albeit in types and shadows.  Ezekiel was looking way beyond the Babylonian captivity of Israel to a greater and more permanent kingdom.  He is also pointing to better and fuller redemption.  As David Murray has recently shown so well in latest book, when we study the bible in the light of the incarnation of Christ we can indeed see 'Jesus on Every Page.'



A father worth imitating

 

Me, no 1 son and my dad: looking sprightly at 80

Parenting and fatherhood is without doubt the biggest challenge I have ever faced.  I blogged about it last year on Fathers Day which you can read here.  Kirsteen and I have been leading a parenting course at church over the last few weeks which has been great but there is also a lot of wincing as I think back to some of the things I've said and done as a dad.  Thankfully kids have short memories and are very forgiving when their dad messes up.  It has been useful to discuss the foundation of the family but I have particularly found the discussions around the 5 love languages really helpful: affirming words, affectionate touch, 1:1 time, thoughtful presents and kind actions.  All common sense but when I think of my daily routine I am ashamed how little I practice it sometimes.  There is a good website called The 5 Love Languages which you can view here.   I haven't read Gary Chapman and Ross Campbell's book yet but certainly intend to.  The experience of meeting with other parents to discuss these issues on the Parenting Course, and some of the challenges we face has been a huge help to Kirsteen and I and chance to re-evaluate our parenting.

 

Given the challenges we all face as Christian fathers I'm always on the look out for helpful articles like the one on Desiring God Ministries blog called 'A father worth intimating' which you can read here. It is about James Paton the father of John G Paton who went out to the New Hebrides to minister to cannibals.  It talks of James Paton's faithfulness in little things.  As the article says we can all become spiritually fatigued as fathers.  We need to be inspired by examples such as James Paton.  The article finishes by saying 'The noble task of fatherhood is fraught with temptations. And one of the greatest temptations is that our good efforts go without avail. With shortsighted vision, we fathers can be tempted to give up.'  If you want to read the inspirational life of John G Paton, John Piper has written a book called 'John G Paton - You Will Be Eaten By Cannibals!'

The temptation to give up or become mediocre in our parenting is something that can face us all.  James Paton reminds us that very often God is achieving much more that we think as we struggle through our lives.  I was really encouraged recently by a sermon I heard by Joel Beeke on Caleb.  You can listen to it here. 

 

Caleb gave the minority report along with Joshua in Numbers 13 and the people wanted to stone him.  Rather than crumbling under pressure Caleb remained firm and we read that he entered into the Promised Land with his children (Numbers 14 v 24).  He endured the scorn of others but remained faithful to the Lord.  Not only was the Lord faithful to him but also to his family.  This is a great encouragement to us that our God is a God of covenant and is faithful to us and to our children. 

 

 

Fatherhood is a huge calling.  Thankfully we are not asked to do it without some great examples and a Heavenly Father who is the ultimate example of patience, longsuffering and love.  While I may not always be a great father at least I can point my boys a perfect heavenly father who will never let them down.  Surely he is a father worth imitating.

The Leicester Conference - some reflections after 52 years

As a young student in the early 1990's I enjoyed attending the Leicester Youth Conference organised by the Banner of Truth Trust.  I was an Office Junior (tea boy) at the Banner in 1989 and 1990 so managed to get involved in the conference bookstall.  Fresh out of Oban I couldn't believe the size of the conference.  While I believe I was already a Christian by the mid 1980's the Leicester Conference was a huge help to me spiritually.

In particular, the 1991 conference was a real spiritual milestone for me with Rev Ted Donnally speaking on Nehemiah and Rev Alun McNabb on the 'Epidemic of Spurious Conversions.'  For the first time, it hit me powerfully that despite a Christian upbringing and profession, it was possible to deceive ourselves that we are Christians when in fact we are still not saved.  Perhaps the best recent example of this I read was in Leviticus 10 where Aaron's sons, Nadab and Abihu, were consumed for offering 'strange fire' before the Lord.  As Dr Michael Barrett says in a recent article 'Nadab and Abihu stand as warning to all who think that pedigree or religion are viable alternatives to God's exclusive way' The Banner of Sovereign Grace and Truth, March 2014.

Most of the Banner talks can be ordered from here.

 

This year, for the first time in nearly 20 years, I am heading back to Leicester with my oldest son James.  I have been asked to help out with the bookshop like I used to all those years ago.  James is looking forward to hearing Euan Murray who he has met on several occasions.

What is perhaps most amazing is that my dad started attending the Leicester Minister Conference in 1962.  Three generations at Leicester is quite an achievement!  I was chatting to my dad recently about that first conference.    W J Grier opened the Conference with ‘Preaching and the Present Age’ and closed it with ‘The Preacher and Prayer.’ Iain Murray dealt with ‘Preaching in England in the Past’.  Professor Murray gave three addresses on ‘Preaching and 1) Scripture 2) Sanctification 3) Judgment’. The Rev Kenneth Macrae gave two addresses ‘Teaching Essential to Evangelical Preaching’ and ‘The Danger of Compromise in Preaching.’

Back in Stornoway after the 1962 Conference the Rev Kenneth Macrae addressing his people on ‘The Present Prospects of the Reformed Faith’, reported that he had seen in England ‘a little cloud like a man’s hand’ (I Kings 18.44). Reflecting on the Conference he wrote to a friend:

‘The earnestness and spiritual unity of those young fellows who gathered at Leicester was for me a real tonic and encouraged me greatly. So far, the movement towards the Reformed Faith may be weak and largely unorganised, but that there is such a movement cannot be questioned, and in it, by God’s grace, there are tremendous possibilities. Worm Jacob may yet thresh the mountains. May the Lord grant it so!’

 

 

My father wrote an article for the Free Church (Continuing) Witness several years ago giving a potted history of the Banner and the conference now in its fifty second year.  For those of us used to Banner books and take for granted the accessibility of reformed books, it is a fascinating insight into the last 50 years;

 

"The story begins in England with the Rev Iain Murray and the issuing of a magazine called The Banner of Truth in Oxford in 1955. This lead on to the formation in 1957 of a Trust which through its reprinting of Reformed classics was to play a major part in the re-discovery of the Reformed Faith in England. Mr Murray was by then the assistant to Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones at Westminster Chapel, London where these doctrines had been preached with increasing power since 1939.

Meanwhile in the USA an exile Scot, Professor John Murray, was teaching the Reformed Faith in all its fullness at Westminster Theological Seminary. He was conscious of the need for a recovery of the doctrines of grace on both sides of the Atlantic. At that time he was scarcely known in the UK but invitations to speak at meetings in England coincided with the re-awakening of Calvinistic truth. The first announcement of the work which the Banner of Truth Trust planned to do expressed indebtedness to three men - Dr Lloyd-Jones, Rev W J Grier and Professor John Murray. Through his identification with the Banner work Professor Murray developed a much closer connection with the situation in England and gave further momentum to the recovery of Reformed truth.

Among Professor Murray’s chief concerns was for the restoration of true preaching. One who shared this view was the Rev J Marcellus Kik, a trustee of Westminster Seminary. This subject was discussed with Mr Kik when he was present in London in 1961. As a result he carried back to Professor Murray in Philadelphia a proposal that a conference should be held for ministers the following year in the UK, concentrating specifically on the need for a renewal of preaching.

Other men were consulted about this and among them was the Rev W J Grier in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Mr Grier had made a courageous stand against Modernism in the Presbyterian Church in Ulster and subsequently founded the Irish Evangelical Church (now the Evangelical Presbyterian Church). He had set up the Evangelical Bookshop, which even before the advent of the Banner was supplying to readers in the UK good Reformed books imported from the USA. His Church had strong links with the Free Church of Scotland, sharing in the training of students and missionary work.

The fourth strand in the development was the interest of the Rev Kenneth Macrae, minister of the Free Church of Scotland in Stornoway in the Outer Hebridies, the largest Presbyterian congregation in the UK. He was conscious of the drift that was taking place in Scotland and even within his own denomination. He longed and prayed for a recovery of truth and godliness and believed that ‘the tide will turn’. The advent of the Banner of Truth magazine in 1955 was an encouragement to him and he personally ordered quantities of between 150 and 200 copies. It was with the prospect of helping this work that he accepted the invitation to speak at the 1962 Conference. Although then in his 79th year he made the long journey from the Isle of Lewis to undertake what was his first and last preaching engagements in England. As well as speaking at Leicester he took the Communion services in the Free Church of Scotland congregation in London and preached for Iain Murray at Grove Chapel.

It was in this way that the Lord in his goodness brought men from different countries and Reformed traditions together to apply themselves to the restoration of preaching. A location was found through the good offices of the Rev Sidney Lawrence at College Hall on the campus of Leicester University.  Dr Lloyd- Jones was not present in 1962 but spoke in the Conferences of 1964 and 1965.

Among the 40 men who attended about 30 were ministers in pastoral charges. The majority were from England but there were 12 from Scotland and 3 from Northern Ireland. Wales was not represented. Most of the Scots were from the Free Church of Scotland and men, like Mr Macrae, who rejoiced to see this new movement - Rev Alasdair Johnston, Dumbarton, Rev James Morrison, North Uist,  Rev Donald Mackay, Watten, Mr Donald Macinnes, Inverness (who later became a probationer in the Free Church but died shortly after) and four Edinburgh men who had recently embraced the doctrines of grace. There were two ministers belonging to the Church of Scotland. I was privileged to be Secretary of the Conference and duly relieved men of the princely sum of £3, which was the cost of attending. If your travel expenses amounted to more than £1 you could claim help!"

Thanks to dad for his reflections!  I will post a full account of my return to Leicester over the next few weeks.  I might even get some reflections from no. 1 son on his first Leicester Youth Conference.

 

 

 

 

God's Institution of the Family

Ragged Theology is delighted to publish Dr Guthrie's Moderatorial Address from 1862 on Amazon.  Many thanks (again) to Michael Pate from GLH Publishing. 

There are few subjects more important today than 'God's Institution of the Family'. 

Click on the link to the address here.

Guthrie's First Sermon - Jonah 1 v 6 (13th Feb 1825)

This sermon has been kindly typed out from me by Christine Maciver and appears as written in the first appendix of Thomas Guthrie's Autobiography and Memoirs (1874).  Although he mentions three points in his sermon outline he only records the first and third point!

 

Marked by Mr Guthrie “My first Sermon as a Preacher.  Preached at Dun, 13 February 1825.”

 

Jonah 1:6 – What meanest thou, O sleeper?  arise, call upon thy God.

 

            In the Old Testament writings, we apprehend, there are frequently hid, under the mere detail of natural events, many of those grand and important doctrines which are peculiar to the Christian religion; and we believe also that it was on this account that many of them are detailed at such length; while to appearance they seem only to affect the worldly prospects of one individual, or the Jewish nation at large. 

 

            In the sojourn of the Hebrews, for instance, in the wilderness of Arabia, we see in that mere fact a most apt illustration of a Christian’s life; and in their at last gaining the promised land, after many a wandering, we see a figurative representation of that rest which remaineth for the people of God.   In the raising of the brazen serpent amidst the expiring Israelites, and in the command to look upon it and they should be delivered from the calamity which God had sent upon them for their sins, we surely see something more than a mere historical event which only affected them.  In the elevation of that serpent we see the elevation of Christ on the cross; and in the command given to the Israelites we see a command given to a diseased world to look unto him, and they shall be saved.  Deprive these events of that application, and you rob them of the very point which renders them so interesting to us; for what would it be for us to know that Abraham raised his hand against the life of his only son, unless we saw in Isaac, bound, a trembling victim, to the altar, our Saviour nailed to the cross of Calvary, and exclaiming in the hiding of his Father’s countenance, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"

 

            In like manner, it appears to us that from the most interesting points in the history of Jonah, we may draw many a fact materially affecting us as spiritual beings. and discover in it no faint representation of the deplorable condition in which we are found by the Gospel.  Did Jonah disobey the command of God?  So have we, not only in Adam our federal head, but also in the daily sins with which we stand chargeable.  Did Jonah flee from the presence of the Lord?  So have we, in forsaking him, the fountain of living waters, and hewing out for ourselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.  Was Jonah, in consequence, exposed to imminent danger?  So are we in danger of the wrath that is to come, and is never to end.  Was he wakened to a sense of his danger in a ship, where he little dreamed of the extremity of his peril?  So the Gospel raises its warning voice, and proclaims to each living one of us, “What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God.”

 

            We proceed to show then:

1.            That all men are by nature in a state of danger.

2.            The necessity that springs from this, that they should arise and call upon their God.

3.            What they should call for from God.

 

1. That all men are by nature in a state of danger

Were we to judge of the truth or falsehood of this statement by observations upon the conduct (not upon the professions) of mankind, we would be very apt to believe it to be false.  Men, indeed, in their approaches to God, either in private or in public prayer, confess that their souls are in danger of the coming wrath; but, as if the whole was a piece of solemn mockery, this acknowledgment is made with far more indifference than a man would show upon the loss of the merest trifle in his worldly concerns.

 

      How many sleepless nights and how many anxious days, how many hours of sorrow, and how many seasons of unwearied exertions will that man pass who has discovered that he is in danger of falling back in worldly matters; and with what earnest expectation will he watch for, and with what joy will he hail every favourable turn in the tide of business, until he has regained a sure and steady footing!  But if the soul of man is really in danger, do we meet it with any such marks of intense feeling of alarm on that account?  No.  Or do we witness in the body of mankind any such anxious earnestness to be delivered from the impending danger?  No.  If such danger does exist, strange to tell, there is nothing in the world occupies men less.  They are more afraid of losing a pound or a penny than their souls!  One man is occupied in business, and so completely do its cares take possession of his heart, that not a corner is left for the concerns of his soul.  From day to day, with undivided attention, he plys his busy task; ‘tis his first thought in the morning, ‘tis his last thought at night; it will hardly admit time for a hurried prayer, if prayer is said at all; and even while apparently engaged in the solemn duties of the Sabbath, his heart is in pursuit of many a worldly scheme – as if one day in the week was too much time to spend on the eternal interests of his soul.

 

      Now, though we do not affirm – far be it from us to affirm any such thing – that all men have equally lost sight of the welfare of their souls in their keen pursuit after earthly enjoyment, let that enjoyment be what it may, - still, we can appeal to every mind, without fear of contradiction, if the great body of mankind do not appear to live just as if their welfare through eternity was a matter too sure to be questioned; and just as if, therefore, their well-being in time was the only remaining object of their care.  But notwithstanding that our conduct in general gives very little proof of our apprehension of danger, we find most unquestionable authority that the curse of a broken law has gone forth against us, and that the punishment of a broken law awaits the closing of the day of God’s forbearance.

 

      He who stands charged by his conscience with the guilt of one single sin, stands exposed to the curse of an offended law.  He who hath offended in one point, is guilty of all.  Do not then entertain the delusion which is too apt to gain an easy admission into our hearts, “Have I been such a sinner as to expose me to danger?” but recollect that it rather is, “Have I been a sinner at all?”  So averse are we to believe that there is nothing before us but a fearful looking for of judgment, so humbling is it to the human pride, so contrary to all our notions of human dignity and human worth, and so pregnant with every feeling that is calculated to disturb the false peace of our slumbers – that, rather than submit to endure all the horrors of a sense of danger, and all the degradation of such a humbling doctrine, we will institute some favourable comparison between ourselves and others – forget our own sins and increase the guilt of theirs, magnify their defiance and lessen our own; and then, in the full belief that, though danger greatly hangs over them, it cannot surely have the same threatening aspect to us, thank God, like the Pharisee of old, that we are not as the publicans and sinners. 

 

      But we appeal to yourselves if it would not be a most strange and a most unwarrantable ground of confidence in a robber to believe, because he was not a murderer, that therefore he had nothing to fear; to waste his days in idle amusement, instead of applying through every channel for the exercise of mercy; and to make his cell a scene of thoughtless and of wanton riot, instead of solemn and serious reflection, just because he was not chargeable with the guilt of a fellow criminal by staining his hands with human blood.  If, then, such a mode of reasoning would be false and absolutely ruinous in the case of a criminal who has trampled upon  human laws, how much more certainly fatal will it be in the case of us who have despised the counsel and defied the power of God?

 

      Until the words of the sentence are passed by an earthly judge, absurd as it may be to entertain it, still a feeble gleam of hope may be seen in the darkness of a criminal’s prospects.  It is possible that the evidence against him, though apparently decisive, may still fail in some important particular; it is possible that some means of escape may be tried with success before the day of his doom arrives; and it is still further possible that though both of these grounds of confidence prove false, still the compassion or the weakness of his judge may plead or act so strangely in his favour that he may gain a full and honourable acquittal.  But to us, as offending criminals against a Divine law, there are no such favourable possibilities.  It is not possible that the proof against us can be deficient, for if one sin – instead of ten thousand which we must all acknowledge – be brought home to your conviction, then the curse falls upon us, as those who have not continued in “all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.” 

 

      Neither is it possible that any door of escape can be opened to us, though we were to wander in search of it through boundless space; for where can we go from God’s Spirit, or whither flee from his presence?  Does death require, think you, the slow hand of disease to effect his purpose?  Does he require slowly and gradually to undermine the foundations of our life, or may not he rather get possession of it by an unexpected assault?  Might not the inhabitants before the flood have purposed the same thing when the waters overwhelmed them in universal destruction?  Might not the dwellers in Sodom and Gomorrah have made an equally fine resolution when the heavens rained fire and brimstone on their devoted heads?  Might not Korah and his ungodly company have been engaged in forming some such purpose when the earth clave asunder, and closed over them forever?  Might not every sinner have satisfied the demands of his conscience by a similar purpose, who has, still, been hurried from the scenes of business or of pleasure, without time even for a prayer for mercy, into the solemn presence of an unbending Judge?  But even though accident were not to sweep us to another world, ill-prepared to give in our account, still any resolutions of death-bed reformation cannot do away with the necessity that lies on us to awake at present, and call upon our God.

 

      If we believe that the last hours we spend on earth are the best fitted to prepare for heaven, surely gross darkness has come upon us.  That soldier, we apprehend, would have very little prospect of success, who deferred to buckle on his armour till the blows were falling upon him.  That sailor, we apprehend, would have very little prospect of escape who, though the storm was seen from afar, still refused to seek some place of refuge until it came roaring and raging on in all the horrors of its destruction.  And certainly we do apprehend that he who defers his escape from the dangers of the coming wrath until the hand of death shall be laid upon him, stakes his immortal spirit upon a less probable circumstance than any but a madman would stake the merest trifle of his worldly goods.  Death is a scene, not of preparation, but of conflict – a solemn and a fearful conflict in the hour and with the powers of darkness.  And oh! if the Christian who has long struggled with his spiritual adversaries, who has long wielded the sword of the spirit, who has long known how to use the shield of faith – if this well-tried and veteran soldier be hardly able to withstand in that evil day, how can success attend upon him who has newly enlisted under the Christian banner, and been all his lifetime a slave of sin?

 

      We do appeal to yourselves if that is a fit time to escape from the wrath to come, when the poor, expiring sinner is hardly able to lift his head under the load of his sickness, or when he is tossing in agony, or when he is buried in a lethargy so profound that no answer is given to the questions of affection and friendship, or when, in the ravings of a wandering mind, his loud and unearthly laugh startles the silence of the chamber of death?  If, then, you feel any interest for the welfare of your soul through eternity; if you feel any desire to meet God, not clothed in the terrors of an offended lawgiver, but welcoming you with the love of a reconciled Father; if you feel any anxiety to escape the worm that dieth not, and the fire that is never quenched, and to possess the glory that fadeth not, and the inheritance that is never corrupted, repose no longer in your fatal slumbers – awake and call upon your God with all the earnestness of those who know not but this very night their souls may be required of them.

 

 

3. What should be sought or called for from God

 

      The nature of the danger under which we lie decidedly shows that the main object we have to seek must be to escape from eternal wrath; and he who has reflected at all upon the character of God, or the means by which we have brought ourselves into this dangerous condition, ought to know that there is no way of escape but by the pardon of our sins.

 

      The only difficulty, then, we apprehend, is concerning the means by which this pardon is to be obtained; or the only question is, are we to arise and call upon God for the pardon of our sins, solely and exclusively upon the merits of Christ’s righteousness, or also upon some fancied virtue in our own obedience?  Now, far be it from us to take upon ourselves to judge of any man’s obedience, that being a matter which rests between him and his God; but still, upon the authority of Scripture, we are warranted to assert that a man’s own obedience or his own righteousness is nothing better than filthy rags, that by it he cannot be justified before God, and that, therefore, he who trusts to it leans upon a broken reed.  Were the robe of Christ’s righteousness too narrow to cover us, then we might be excused for putting on filthy rags; were His merits too inconsiderable to justify us before God, then we might not be so much to blame for adding our own works, poor, and wretched, and unprofitable as they have been; and were His rod and His staff not able to support us, even in the valley of the shadow of death, it would be something like a pleasing delusion to believe that we would be the better of a broken reed.  But, persuaded as we are that the righteousness of Christ is the only robe of salvation which will ensure our acceptance with God, persuaded as we are that His merits are so vast that no demerit can be too great which they will not atone for, and persuaded as we are that His rod and His staff are able to console a more disconsolate sinner than ever yet man has been, we hold that he who goes about to seek any other means of escape than this sows the wind and shall reap the whirlwind.

 

      We are indeed sensible that there is something very pleasing in the idea that, as it was by our own deeds that we fell, so by them we shall also rise; that there is something very flattering to our own vanity in the notion that we have obtained an occasion for boasting; and that, therefore, in calling upon you to seek salvation from the hand of another, we have to contend with the natural pride of a depraved heart.  But why give heed to the very suggestions which first brought ruin upon our race?  Why stand upon such idle fancies when the salvation of your immortal spirit is at stake?

 

      If your eyes are then opened to the storm of divine wrath which, like a black lowering cloud, is about to pour its thunders on your devoted head; if you feel yourself naked, defenceless, and unprepared to brave its fury – seek, we beseech you, the righteousness of Jesus Christ as a covert from the storm and a shelter from the tempest.  If you feel yourself to be a traveller in a barren and cheerless desert, where no cloud of mercy interposes to shade you from the sun of God’s anger, where your vigour is dried up, and your strength is withered away before it, where your hopes begin to decay and your spirit is sunken within you – seek, we beseech you, the righteousness of Christ as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.  If you feel yourself tossed on the billows of despair, and, looking around for some signal of hope, your eye meets nothing but a troubled heaven and a raging sea, and your ear hears nothing but thunder’s echoes and the rushing of mighty waters that threaten your destruction, and now you begin to think that the next wave will send your feeble bark to the bottom – then seek, we beseech you, the righteousness of Christ as an anchor of hope within the vail.

 

      There is no aspect, in fact, in which your danger can be viewed in which the righteousness of Christ does not appear fit for your deliverance.  Are you under the bondage of sin?  The price of your redemption was paid on Calvary.  Is there a handwriting against you?  It was nailed with your sins to a Saviour’s cross.  From the crown of the head to the soles of the feet are you wounds and bruises and putrefying sores?  There is a balm in Gilead and a Physician there.  Are you defiled with sin and loathsome in your iniquity?  There is a fountain opened in Israel for sin and for all uncleanness.

 

      Seek, then, the righteousness of Christ as it consists of that perfect obedience by which He made honourable a dishonoured law, and of that full suffering by which He satisfied the unsatisfied demands of Divine justice; seek it (as ruined) by that faith which is the gift of God; seek it as the groundwork of every blessing which will perfect you in holiness, and prepare you for heaven.  For, if you have sought this best of all blessings with success, you are not only delivered from a fearful looking for of judgment, but you are warranted to make incessant application at the throne of God for grace to help you in every time of need; not only are you delivered from the danger of eternal death, but you are authorised to call upon God for means of escaping from those wiles of the devil in which he would hold you for a season in spiritual death.

 

      We know, indeed, that upon the imputation of Christ’s righteousness our spiritual enemies are driven from the citadel of our heart; but still we know that, like an enemy unwilling to give up the conquests they had won, they look about and watch every opportunity to make an inroad upon the Christian’s peace.  Assailed as he is thus on the one hand by Satan and his emissaries, and on the other by the still lingering depravity of a once deeply depraved heart, if left to himself his life would be one continued scene of conflict and defeat; and hence, therefore, if we would not dishonour the Christian cause, and bring disgrace upon the Christian name – if we would not crucify our Lord afresh, and again expose him to an open shame – if we would give no occasion for an unholy shout of triumph from the dark and deadly host that is encamped against us – and if we would stand triumphant against that terrible array, defying all the power and hatred of hell – we must do all this by seeking and obtaining aid of the Holy Spirit.

 

      Though we may feel, by the power of a full assurance of faith, that the glories of the new Jerusalem cannot fail of being ours, still the path that leads to them is one of no common difficulty and no common danger.  The man of the world may pass the time of his sojourn here without once feeling an internal struggle, without once smarting under the sting of an accusing conscience, and without once being awakened from his dream of pleasure till he awake to find that he had dreamed of peace and now no peace is to be found: but you who have chosen the Christian course have chosen a life of no ruinous and inglorious ease; your path is beset with the wiles of the devil, your feet are surrounded by his snares, and you are continually exposed to his open assaults.  Slumber not, therefore, for this is an enemy’s country; repose not, therefore, for this is not the place of your rest; watch for your souls, watch for the cause, and for the honour of your God; and, as you mingle in the spiritual conflict, cry mightily unto the Lord, that the power of His Spirit would rest upon you, that His grace would be made sufficient for you, and His strength be perfected in your weakness.

 

 

 

 

The Parochial Economy - the opening of St John's Parish Church (Nov 1840)

In 1840 Guthrie planted a new church in Victoria Street called ‘St John’s’.  Like Thomas Chalmers, Guthrie followed the ‘Parochial’ or ‘Territorial’ system of church planting.  Interestingly Guthrie’s new church was within 5 minutes walk of Greyfriars and yet Guthrie believed that the most effective method of outreach was for the church to be on the very doorstep of the community it were seeking to reach.   The Parochial System is defined by his sons in their Memoir of their father as; the church at the door of the poor, the church free to all, a properly equipped school in every parish and elders, deacons and district visitors used to make regular contact with parishioners.  As with others involved in the Disruption, Guthrie had no reservations in petitioning the government to support or ‘endow’ this work (the Establishment Principle).  As Guthrie said on one occasion; “Divide me the large towns into small manageable parishes, provide me with a free church, add to it an endowed school, and with a staff of zealous and active and Christian elders, I don’t despair, with God’s blessing of restoring the waste places, making the wilderness rejoice and the desert glad; but that you can’t get without an endowment” Thomas Guthrie and Sons, Autobiography and Memoirs (London 1896, p 320).  

 

 

The following is the address given by Guthrie on 19th November 1840 at the opening of St John's;

 

"One grand purpose for which this church has been erected, is to try the parochial economy in a large city; and so far as I know, it stands this day alone as a parish church within the burghs of Scotland; and amid all the glory and loveliness of this romantic city, it is not, in my opinion, the meanest jewel in her crown, that here she boasts a church where the gospel will flow as free to the parishioners as the water of their parish well. 

 

The founders of our church contemplated a very different state of things from what now exists in many parishes, from what is to be found, for example, in a parish within a stone cast almost of this house; and where, as if in mockery of the able and worthy men on whose back this mountain lies, two ministers have, as parish ministers, the charge of fifty thousand people.  In our ancestors wisdom was justified of her children; and they considered a charge of a thousand people ample enough for any man to manage.  Nor did they leave the minister alone to manage it.  No more than the captain of a ship of war is the only officer on her deck, was the minister to be the only man in his parish clothed with ecclesiastical authority; he was to be aided, supported, and surrounded by a staff of officers, a band of efficient elders and deacons; and as our ancestors thought that a minister had charge enough who had in his parish a thousand people, they thought an elder had charge enough who had in his district some ten or twenty families.  They never dreamt of such a state of things as we have in our days in Scotland now. 

 

I can point to districts with the population of a parish, and parishes with the population of a county.  Nor in the good and olden time did the elder fill a merely honorary or secular office; he did something else, and something better than stand by the plate, and vote in Presbytery or General Assembly.  He visited the sick, his post was often at the bed of death, he counselled the erring, he went forth to the wilderness and brought the wanderer back to the fold, and was at once a father and a friend, a counsellor and a comfort to the families of his charge; he was known to all of them, and all of them were known to him; his name was a household word, and he could tell the name of every man, woman, and child within his bounds; and, frequently discharging offices, both of temporal and spiritual kindness, he thus acquired within his small and manageable locality, a moral influence that was omnipotent for good.

 

Our present undertaking is intended to remedy these evils.  We wish from its ruins to rebuild the ancient economy, and to restore what is not to be found nowadays in any burgh in all broad Scotland, a manageable parish, split up into districts, each containing ten or twenty families, with a free gospel in its parish church, with a school where the children of the poorest may receive at least a Bible education, and with its minister, its elders, and its deacons, each in the active discharge of the duties of his own department.  Such is the machinery that, before many weeks are gone, we trust to see in beautiful and blessed operation in the parish of St John’s.  And what good, it may be asked, do we expect to follow?  No good at all, unless God give the blessing. 

 

Besides the machinery we must have the moving power; but if He smile upon our labours we enter the field confident of victory.  What this system has done in former days it can do again – and we have no fear though the eyes of enemies should look on, for we are trying no novel, never-before-tried experiment – our fathers tried it, and they triumphed in the trial – and with the same seed, the same sun, and the same soil, should not the same cultivation produce a harvest as abundant? . . . .

 

One great advantage of a parochial church with its full complement of machinery, will be found to lie in its drawing together the different classes of society, and narrowing, if not annihilating, the gulf which now yawns wide and deep and dangerously between them.  This total separation of the higher from the lower, of the more decent from the less decent, of the wealthier from the poorer classes of society, has originated much of the irreligion, the crime, and misery that deform the face of our city.  It is very easy to blame the poor, but we must say that they have been grievously sinned against, at the least as much sinned against as sinning.  On all sides beset, surrounded, besieged by temptation, they have been left to themselves, and have had too much cause to say, “No man cared for my soul.”  Visited by none whose good opinion they had to gain, and, having gained, to keep, they have never felt one of the strongest human motives to the virtues and decencies of life. 

 

Let a man of Christian character and kindness visit their too long neglected homes; let him prove himself their friend and counsellor; let him show that he has their own best welfare and that of their children at his heart; that he rejoices in their well-doing, and is grieved with their sins; and, with all the certainty of a law of nature, there will spring up in their breasts a desire to gain and to keep the regard of this kind and Christian friend. 

 

It were difficult to tell how many families in this city might have been saved from ruin by the timely counsels, and help, and kindness of such a visitor, especially in those periods of temporary distress to which the working classes are exposed, - for example, such a season as visited Edinburgh two winters ago (1837-38) when for some six or eight weeks there was no work for many, and of course no wages. 

 

The hand of Providence visits a family with sickness, or by some accident the head of the house is thrown out of employment, and, whatever be the cause, the family are brought to the very verge of want; the children cry for bread, and their mothers have none to give them.  What is to be done?  A man won’t sit down and see his children pine away with hunger before his eyes.  Their credit with the shopkeeper is exhausted; they are either ashamed to ask assistance of their neighbours, or their neighbours are unable to afford it.  They have too much principle as yet to steal, and too much pride to beg: in these circumstances of great distress, the eye that looks round for help falls on the sign and shop of the pawnbroker, its open door invites them in, and when they have once crossed the fatal threshold, in nine cases out of ten, their ruin is sealed.  As the readiest means of meeting a present and pressing evil, one article of furniture after another is carried to the pawn; and though I have known them bear much before parting with their Bible and Sabbath attire, the fatal Saturday night at length arrives when the key of the pawnbroker is turned upon these; and now, the house of God is deserted, the seat that once knew them knows them no more, and from step to step, dragging their children along with them, down they sink into the lowest misery, till the once well-spent Sabbath is passed by the children in play upon the streets, and passed by the degraded parents in drunkenness and dissipation.  “They drink to forget their poverty and remember their misery no more.” 

 

I believe, I know this to be the sad history of many families in this city; and all this evil might have been averted had they known one into whose arms, instead of a pawnbroker’s, they could have cast themselves, in whose sympathising ear they could have told their tale of suffering, and to whose kind, and wise, and Christian efforts to relieve them, they could have trusted in the hour of trial.  In the elders and deacons with whom we propose to stock this parish, such guides and guardians will be found, and we have no doubt at all that their labours will demonstrate that the parochial economy fairly, freely, and vigorously wrought, offers the best remedy to those evils which assessments, and police, and prisons, and gibbets, may in some measure restrain, but never can eradicate."