The question often suggests itself to the members of the Reformed Presbyterian Churches, Why should they maintain a separate religious denomination? Why should they, as in the United States, Canada, Ireland, and Scotland, stand apart from the great Presbyterian Assemblies and Churches by whom they are overshadowed? Others might ask, Why should such ecclesiastical dwarfs maintain an independent existence in presence of these huge ecclesiastical giants? Is the plea that our Church is the oldest of the Reformed Churches holding the Presbyterian system and the mother of the Presbyterian Churches of the world sufficient to justify for an hour her denominational existence? Is she guilty of rending the ecclesiastical robe without a cause? Certainly she is if she cannot produce claims of superiority to other denominations, and prove before the bar of Christendom that her mission embraces the application of principles of permanent importance which is ignored or overlooked by other denominations. She must demonstrate that she stands thus on a higher Scriptural platform than any Church in the world. Otherwise, let her be buried out of sight among the ecclesiastical fossils of the ages, or let her face be crimsoned with burning shame at the gross schism she has perpetrated - its grossness deepened by the fewness of her numbers all down her history.
There are, however, weighty reasons for the existence and maintenance of the Reformed Presbyterian Churches. The character of the present times accentuated these reasons, and renders it more imperative than ever that they loyally defend a system which has come through many a furnace, and which shall, we doubt not, be held universally in the coming millennial age. Every office-bearer and member of the Church may well boast of Reformed Presbyterianism. He has never been subjected by it to any dishonour, and never shall. The precious truths it embraces have been a crown to reformers and martyrs and all who have heartily professed them, and if the Reformed Presbyterian Church throughout the world will worthily maintain them, she shall be "a crown of glory in the hand of the LORD, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God."
Permit me, then, to specify some claims on behalf of the great cause for which we are allied in close fraternal bonds:-
Reformed Presbyterianism presents the BROADEST CREED in Christendom.
The Present age has witnessed an egregious misapplication of such terms as "breadth," "liberality," and "progress." Those who decline to admit into their profession or into the creed of a church doctrinal articles of even cardinal importance that are not universally acceptable are said to be free from narrowness and bigotry; they are the men of broad views, charitable sentiments, liberal thought. The Delilah of these fascinating and flattering designations has shorn off the locks of many a Samson. Is not that Christian the broadest who accepts and professes the largest number of the truths of revelation? Is he not the most catholic in spirit who is most desirous of preserving from dismemberment the whole body of Divine truth? Was not Luther broad in saying, "Better heaven and earth be blended together in confusion than that one dust of God's truth should perish"? And is not that Church the broadest that enshrines in her creed and standards the largest number of revealed truths, to the largest extent? Does not the Church come more fully than others into sympathy with the function of the Spirit Who is to lead and guide into "all truth"?
Reformed Presbyterians have a more valid title to these terms than any other denomination. Are others broad? So are we. Are others liberal? So are we. Are others freethinkers? So are we. Are others in advance? So are we. Is there any article in Reformed Presbyterianism that inflicts a paralysis on the mind, retards freedom of thought, or keeps the Church in the rear of the age? Then, let that article and all such articles be instantly abandoned, and let us be ashamed of our ancestry for thus burdening the Church throughout her history with dogmas of human invention, and dishonouring her Lord who demands that His Church inherit full and everlasting freedom. But if the articles of the Reformed Presbyterian creed be all Scriptural (and we are satisfied they are), then they are all and everyone fitted to promote catholicity and freedom and give the Church a standing in advance of the age. For what is free thinking? liberal thought? breadth of mind? Why; the mind of God is the first mind - the uncreated mind. God Himself is the freest thinker in the universe. Yet God's thinking is limited, for He cannot think of error and sin with sympathy. His mind as His character is unchangeably hostile to all error and sin. And the mind of man is the creature of God and secures its freedom in submission to its Creator. Did Kepler surrender any liberty of thought when he rejoiced in "thinking, O Lord, Thy thoughts after Thee"? In the Book of God we have the thoughts of God on all He would have us believe and all he would have us do, and those Christians and Churches who accept, profess, and illustrate most fully these thoughts of God must be the freest of all, must be in mind and character most truly like the Lord Himself in mind and character. In so far as they are in error, their minds are in rebellion against the Infinite Mind; and in so far as they are in sin their lives are opposed to the perfect life of the Son of Man - a life which was perfected in submission to the perfect law of the Eternal. Thinking the very thoughts of God rids mind of its fetters and lifts it into the liberty of God. Obedience to the laws of God emancipates character from bondage and endows it with the liberty of the Son of God.
The terms of communion in the Reformed Presbyterian Church are certainly more comprehensive than those in force in any other denomination. It is necessary that all who become members acknowledge the inspiration and infallibility of the Old and New Testaments; the agreeableness of the Confession of Faith and Catechisms (Larger and Shorter) with the Word of God; the divine right of Presbyterianism; the perpetual obligation of the National Covenant and Solemn League and Covenant; practical dissent from all national constitutions that ignore the Lord Jesus Christ as King of nations, and the duty of adorning the doctrine of God our Saviour by a life of godliness. No Church in the world has a larger creed for membership. Indeed the opinion of many Church members is that the retention by any Church of such an extensive creed dooms her to unpopularity. They would say that she is tying millstones round her neck. But what if the millstones were, when examined by the most thorough tests, to turn out diamonds and precious stones, sparkling and brilliant from the palace with gates of pearl. "Methinks they are strewing roses round my feet," said the martyr of the faggots that were being heaped round him. Were not those cords silvery and golden that bound the two heroines of Wigtown to the stakes within the tide of the Solway? And these terms to which Reformed Presbyterians are pledged may, indeed, be considered by some as fastening them within the tide of unpopularity, but they are all silvery and golden, and the Church that loyally observes them is putting honour on Him on whose Head are the many crowns. The whole positions of those terms were reached by the Church and nation in an age which witnessed a striking emancipation from error and superstition, and in which civil and religious liberty obtained a signal triumph in the world.
The popular cry now is for a brief creed, and the avowed object of this cry is that larger numbers may be led into the membership of the Church. The more comprehensive and intensive the creed, the fewer must the members of the Church be; the fewer and less explicit the articles of the creed the more numerous will be the members. A creed with many articles is said to be a stumbling-block in the way of those without, to burden the Church and diminish her influence. It is true, doubtless, that a large creed is the occasion of much unpopularity meanwhile, but the adoption of the policy implied in the objection would abolish all creeds, however brief and narrow. Is it not remarkable that when strenuous efforts are being made in every other science to retain in their fullest extent well-ascertained theories and broaden human knowledge in all departments, there should be such a singular anxiety to recede from doctrines and systems formulated, after unprecedented struggles, in the science of theology, in ecclesiastical polity, and in national religion? Would scientists who contended that there should be departures from some of the ascertained and defined facts and theories of astronomy, for instance, be belauded as apostles of breadth, and liberality, and advance? If many truths in the creed of a Church prevent numbers acceding to her fellowship, the evil is to be found, not in the truth of the creed, but in the lack of intelligence and courage in those who remain without. To remove any truth from the creed of a Church is to strip her of part of the armour with which she is to gird herself for the duty required of her by her great Commander-in-Chief. It is to limit and narrow the area on which she stands, and so to bind her arms - her powers and influence. "The faith which was once for all delivered unto the saints" is one body; it is a perfect unity; and the Church that attempts to mutilate that perfect body incurs a dread responsibility. Her offense against the Lord is aggravated when this deed is perpetrated under the profession of breadth and enlargement. When these policies of ecclesiastical procedure have the peacock feathers of liberality and charity, with which they have been adorned, plucked off, they stand revealed as vultures which, with unrestrained appetite, would devour the whole body of revealed truth, and reduce the Christian and the Church to a condition of lamentable leanness - the mere skeletons of Christians and Churches.
A number of ecclesiastics have been shipwrecked, but have succeeded in getting on a rock amid the waters which affords them a place of safety and ample room for exercise. But soon they begin to cut away part of the rock and let the blocks fall into the ocean. As block after block is let slip away never to be recovered, these diligent men congratulate one another with ever increasing exhilaration on their liberality, and catholicity, and breadth. The work goes on and on, till at length the whole rock disappears and the workers also in the surging flood. The men who, in their infatuated policy of breadth, persisted in hewing away their rocky foundation, are now struggling for life in the broad waters! Amid the storms of the past ages the Church of Christ secured a place of safety on the great doctrines and principles of revelation. The policy of hewing these away commenced long ago and is being persistently carried on. With that policy no intelligent Christian should have any sympathy. Let the foundations be extended rather, if possible; let the area on which the Church stands be enlarged instead of narrowed; let her, if possible, include within her creed more of truth and duty. Every faithful Church will aim at the possession of the whole Canaan of revelation. The more numerous the truths the Church accepts and confesses, the more numerous are the gems on her brow. And does not God intend that there should be in the Church on earth a full illustration of the whole truth as it is in Jesus - an apocalypse by the Church to the angels and principalities in heaven of the manifold wisdom of God?
It is well that members of the Reformed Presbyterian Church hold with intelligence and tenacity the whole creed they profess; it is better if that creed hold them. To grasp the truths of that profession is good, to be grasped by them is better still. Those truths grasped the reformers and martyrs and made them men full of faith and of the Holy Ghost- men of whom the world was not worthy. And if the broad doctrines of Reformed Presbyterianism would grasp the whole membership of the Church also in their living and loving embrace, our Church would fill up the outlines of that apocalyptic picture - "And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars." Then would multitudes say: "We will go with you: for we have heard that God is with you."
Reformed Presbyterianism presents the BEST BASIS for Ecclesiastical Union.
The existence of so many denominations, now on the eve of the twentieth century of the Christian era, ought to cause deep grief to every lover of Christ. This is not the time in the world's history to separate nations or disintegrate Churches: it is a time to unify them under the one great Head and Lord. Reformed Presbyterians who are opposed to ecclesiastical unions and reunions do thereby belie their profession and libel their history and principles. The reformers and martyrs longed for an ecclesiastical union, comprehensive not only of the Churches in England, Ireland, and Scotland, but in the Continent as well. And all who would wear their mantles and cherish their spirit must yearn for the time when all ecclesiastical divisions shall be healed, and all the Churches "be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment," and go forth under one banner to the help of the Lord against the mighty.
The leaders of other larger denominations are often loud in the professions of anxiety for union, and readily invite the Reformed Presbyterian Church to enter upon union negotiations. In doing so, however, these leaders often frankly declare that our Church should yield up her special testimony and terminate her existence by uniting with them. They assure us that the points of difference are very few and of so little importance, and that many advantages would be gained by so small a Church joining Churches of so much larger dimensions! If, then, the differences be so infinitesimal why should not the larger Churches unite with the smaller, and especially too, as the smaller Church considers these differences of special importance? Why should the larger corporations propose to swallow up the smaller? Should not the larger, out of that large spirit of charity and union that actuates them, join the smaller, and so afford to the Churches and the world a magnificent illustration of courtesy and love toward the weak? Why, too, should not the daughters, in their overflowing affection, return to their ecclesiastical mother? And especially as the mother holds a more extensive portion of the land of divine truth than the daughters. What if the large Assembly in the city of Belfast should come here and unite with the Reformed Presbyterian Synod in the town of Ballymoney? Would they not find themselves at the ecclesiastical root (Route)? Would it be any humiliation for all the Presbyterian Churches in the world to accept the whole creed of Reformed Presbyterians? The hearty acceptance of it by the Presbyterian bodies of Ireland would work such an ecclesiastical and political change in this land as would issue in a blessed reformation, and effect a sudden and happy deliverance from impending perils. But the ecclesiastical leaders, who have been calling for union, now shrug their shoulders and begin to confess that the difference between the views of their Churches and the principles and position of the Reformed Presbyterians is considerable. And now they appear somewhat ridiculous, as a few moments ago they were ready to receive into their bosom a body of Christians whose principles and special creed they now declare to be impracticable and unreasonable, and, perhaps, even fanatical!
The clamour is raised for the basis of a few fundamental articles in order to a comprehensive union. But by what authority shall certain doctrines be declared fundamental or otherwise? And, should the basis have one single term, say, the recognition of the inspiration and infallibility of the Holy Scriptures, many of the most learned Christian men of the day - professors of theology, ministers, and others - must be excluded. Better a thousand times our various denominations as they exist than one large Church based on a few articles of the Christian faith. Such a Church would comprehend members of the most opposite convictions on the cardinal points of revelation; discipline for erroneous opinions would be impossible; and real unity a pretence and a sham. Such a Church would soon become a synagogue of Satan.
Should not an ecclesiastical union of the "scattered fragments" be sought for on the basis of the attainments of the Church of Christ in the past? The individual Christian is not at liberty to recede from any position he has reached through his spiritual warfare. He must not renounce any truth he has came to know savingly, nor any promise he has found precious, nor any grace he possesses. Whereto he has already attained, let him walk by the same rule, let him mind the same thing. So also in the Church. In her past life and struggles, she has discovered the priceless value of many of the truths of the Word of God, and she has reached lofty positions in the appropriation of great Scriptural principles and their application to public institutions. At the Reformation she built up an ecclesiastical temple of vast magnitude, with marble blocks taken from the quarry of revelation, polished after the similitude of a palace. The famous Westminster Assembly fashioned a doctrinal consensus which was a marvellous product of that age and which will be of vast importance for all ages, though much of the popular sentiment now would seem to brand the members of that Assembly as enemies of God and foes of the liberty of men. At the Reformation the Church and the British nation united in the surrender of themselves through covenants to the King of kings. And in those days the Covenanters declined to take oaths of allegiance to and identify themselves with sovereigns and civil administrations that refused to acknowledge the Redeemer of the Church as Governor among the nations and Prince of the kings of the earth. And now in the presence of movements, in the ecclesiastical and political worlds, which require to be confronted by the same doctrines and principles, any union which would set aside such attainments would be a suicidal policy and prove utterly powerless in the coming conflicts. Not by unfurling the banner of her King may the Church hope to stand with honour, but by spreading out its every fold before the breeze of heaven.
The position of the Church on earth is like that on an army in the country of an enemy. The invading host, having a righteous cause for hostilities, has secured a strong city and citadel as a base of supplies. It has succeeded in pushing its way forward into the territory of the foe, erecting a fortress at every stage; for the course of the invading army is forward. Any call to relinquish any position reached or fortress raised would be regarded as a confession of weakness and a forerunner of defeat. Holding the advanced posts fearlessly would be the best method to preserve the citadel and base of supplies. Under the Captain of Salvation the Church has advanced into the country of the enemy. She has a commission from her Lord to capture for Him the whole world - all its people and institutions. She has pushed forward and planted the standard of her King on many of the bulwarks of the foe. She has raised fortresses even under the shot and shell of the opposing armies. She must not draw back her battalions in front. The main army must not demand that the handful away in front be recalled - occupying, as it does, ground on which the whole army once bivouacked. Nor must the main army shell the little band that stands to its guns so well. The path to universal conquest is not the path of retreat, but of advance. The few in front with the banner for "Christ's Crown and Covenant" must not be brought back. No; but the main army must be brought up to the standard, and all united must sweep forward till that standard be planted on the battlement of the Church Millennial. "Hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown."
Reformed Presbyterianism presents the BEST SYSTEM of Principles to secure Imperial Greatness.
Wherein does true greatness consist? True greatness in the individual is to be measured by the extent to which he serves Christ the Lord; true greatness in the Empire by the extent to which the Empire serves Christ the Lord - the blessed and only Potentate. The individual and nation that despise Him shall be lightly esteemed. On the individual who goes backward after professing the name of Christ, and on the nation which, once reformed and covenanted, throws off the service of the King of nations and persists in the apostasy, ruin must inevitably fall. To the extent to which the service of Christ is spurned, in such a nation the political and social machinery is disorganised. Imperial prosperity and stability can only be secured by the nation binding itself in love and loyalty to Him who sits on the Throne of thrones.
Every Church that would claim the character of faithfulness to the King must profess and proclaim doctrines and principles affecting the rulers and kingdoms of the world. The Word of God abounds with such doctrines and principles. By the King of the universe the kings of the earth reign and princes decree justice. The everlasting Father has exalted His Son as Mediator to the Throne of the world. He has appointed Him Head over all things to His body the Church. Sovereigns and nations are required to recognise the King of kings. They are commanded to "kiss" the Son; to accept His law as their guide in their whole public conduct; to put honour on the Church He Himself founded, and otherwise promote His gracious purposes in the salvation of men. Any Church that omits from her standards and teaching the Biblical system applicable to nations and governments resembles a university which declines to have a chair on some most important branch of education. The omission would be fatal to her claims should she profess to be, in any measure of fullness, an exponent of theology - that queen of sciences. The veriest schoolboy would discover that she laboured under a serious defect, and would decline to grant her a place among the highest seminaries of the kingdom. No; the Church, as the representative of Christ, must accept her whole stewardship from her Lord - must have specific messages to all persons and institutions, and must, in His name, command all the agencies and powers of the world to yield Him all obedience and honour. Without His blessing the builders of imperial temples build in vain.
No Church in the world has devoted so much attention to this branch of Christian education as the Reformed Presbyterian. Her whole distinctive history has brought this "chair" into special prominence. That history has been a sustained illustration and enforcement of the Universal Supremacy of the Lord Jesus Christ. Reformed Presbyterianism has ever pressed upon sovereigns and subjects the duty of acknowledging Christ as their King and Lord - recognising the Divine decree of His investiture with unlimited power on His coronation by the Father. It has required that constitutions be framed and administrations conducted according to His will. It has declined to identify itself, through political elections or otherwise, with such constitutions and administrations as set aside the will of God. It has called for such reforms in Church and State as one of the very highest and grandest conditions that can be realised in honour of Christ the King of the Church and King of nations. It has ever adhered with tenacity to the great doctrines embodied in the Scottish Reformations, maintaining that the positions then reached brought glory to the Church and honour to the nation, and being confident that a universal return to these positions would secure ecclesiastical and imperial greatness and renown. The theory of the present Established Churches cannot secure this greatness, for their Erastianism erects the throne of Caesar within the Kingdom of Christ, crushes the inherent independence of the Church, and strangles the liberty of the Christian by the tyranny of the statesman. Neither can this greatness be secured by the theory of religious equality held by many of the dissenting Churches, for religious equality shuts out from the political world that Christianity which alone can sanctify the union of subjects and sovereigns, confer dignity on the constitutions of nations, and stud with diamonds the crowns of kings. Erastianism prevents imperial greatness by making sovereigns and nations the foes of Christ and humanity in their denial of an entrance into Parliaments and public institutions of Christ and Christianity. Reformed Presbyterianism secures imperial greatness by branding both of these theories as rebels and traitors to the King of kings, and by demanding that both Church and State preserve their respective independence under Him whose they are, and yet ally themselves in the closest union consistent with their mutual independence for the most loving co-operation in promoting the kingdom of Christ and the prosperity of the commonwealth. The universal supremacy of Jesus brings salvation to His people and joy to the world. The man that resists that Supremacy, says Rutherford, "shall have his arms broken at the shoulder blade."
A knowledge of theology and its right application are, therefore, necessary in order to imperial greatness. A sound policy can never be produced, especially in these lands of the Reformation, except on the foundation of a sound theology. Without Christianity in statesmanship, premiers and legislators are "ploughing the sands." Why base their policies on the shifting will of man, when they may base them on the unchanging will of God? The Reformers were statesmen because they were theologians. They lifted their country into glory because they lifted it near to the throne of God. In their days, indeed, the people were a nation of theologians. Were those not theologians who, as members of Parliament and ordinary citizens, approved of the Westminster standards and framed and subscribed the national covenants? How much underlies their explanation of the preparation of the Shorter Catechism - that it was designated for those of "weaker capacity"? Do not the covenants and the circumstances of their subscription make it clear that the people of all classes were readers of the Scriptures, understood the doctrines of the Reformation, and repudiated Popery and Prelacy? And can anyone estimate the contribution of those covenants to the cause of constitutional freedom? It was in the living power of the doctrines of the Bible that the Christian statesmen and citizens of those times flung off the despotism that strangled the liberties of men in pre-Reformation times. That era was the birth-period of free thought, free churches, and free constitutions. The British people were Hephzibah and the United Kingdom Beulah.
All Reformed Presbyterians should, therefore, be politicians. If they are actuated by the teaching of the Scriptures on matters of national concern they must be patriots and politicians. They ought to be Christian patriots; any other kind of patriotism is not worthy of the honourable name. And they ought to be politicians keen to discern the necessity for leavening politics with Christianity, and to resent every dishonour done to the Lord of the nation. They should be politicians of the very highest order, declining to descend to any plane of Ono to barter for popular favour the crown rights of Christ, but standing apart and aloft as political aristocrats in unflinching loyalty to the Prince of the kings of the earth. They must not subscribe any oath of allegiance their country may propose, or identify themselves with any party or political system which rejects the King of Nations and ignores His law. If loyalty is to be claimed only for those who are in sympathy with even the principal parts of the constitution and the legislation, then there are no loyal subjects in the Empire. In that case disloyalty stains all who are clamouring for the abolition of the House of Lords, all who demand the disestablishment of the churches of England, Wales, and Scotland, and all who cry for the dismemberment of the Empire by Home Rule for Ireland; and the Liberals are, therefore, in these respects, the most disloyal party in the Empire. When statesmen retire from the Cabinet and legislators from membership in Parliament, popular opinion does not deny that they are politicians or brand them as disloyal. There may be times when the best patriots and politicians find it necessary to stand aloof from electoral contests, and to refuse to identify themselves through their Parliamentary representative or otherwise with a political system based on principles subversive of the rights of the King Divine; and Reformed Presbyterians are satisfied that such political dissent is imperatively demanded in these times. There was a period when the people of the United Kingdom were justified not only in refusing to take oaths of allegiance, but also in rising against the Sovereign and expelling him from the throne and the kingdom. The only politicians are not those who enter the polling booths every seven years, and commit their political influence and power to Liberal or Conservative legislators, who must, ere they cast a vote, take an oath which commits them to the ecclesiastical headship of the Sovereign. The attitude of separation and protest is sometimes the attitude demanded by Him Who will not suffer any dishonour in the realm of citizenship. If at some Parliamentary election a hundred thousand voters decline to go to the poll, and issue a manifesto setting forth as their reasons for abstention that the constitution and administration are in many respects contrary to the Word of God, might not the result be an awakening of millions to such inquiry and thought as would issue in a blessed reform? Does not the character of the times urgently demand some such valiant stroke of Christian statesmanship on behalf of Him Who sits in majesty on the throne of the worlds?
Do Reformed Presbyterians then desire a covenanted sovereign? Certainly they do. Why, now there is a covenanted sovereign. Ere the Sovereign of Britain can wear the crown, an oath or covenant must be taken of the most solemn character. The Sovereign of these kingdoms does by deliberate vow assume on coronation an ecclesiastical headship by which an Erastian power is vested in the crown over the Established Churches. The Sovereign is pledged by oath to continue to be an Episcopalian and to maintain the prelacy of the Church of England. The Sovereign is committed by oath to rule the various kingdoms and dependencies of the empire according to the "laws and customs of the same" - a part of the coronation oath which commits the Sovereign to Papal and Mohammedan forms and practices. Now, Reformed Presbyterians deplore that such a covenant is in force over the Sovereign of these once covenanted lands. They would demolish at one blow all the unscriptural provisions of the coronation oath, and frame a coronation oath for the Sovereign like that taken by the King in the period of the covenanted Reformation. It would be joy to them if the present Sovereign would relinquish the ecclesiastical headship, declare the independence of the Church under Christ her King, and repudiate all connection with the anti-Christian hierarchy of the prelacy. It would be joy to them if the Sovereign would entreat the Houses of Legislature to re-enact all those laws which prohibited the admission of Roman Catholics and Atheists to places of trust and power. It would be joy to them if the Sovereign expressed a determination to restore the old covenanted uniformity in Church and State reached by the statesmen and churchmen of Reformation times - a Covenanted Imperialism more imperial than presently enjoyed. It would be a joy to them if the Sovereign would become a political dissenter, and decline to maintain any law by which the law of the King of kings would be violated. In their anxieties for such reforms, they claim to be the best friends of the Sovereign and the most loyal subjects in the Empire, and it would be an inexpressible increase of their joy if the whole nations would support the Sovereign in the adoption of these measures. Then would the Sovereign and the subjects of the British Empire achieve a reformation the brightest in history. They would make their crown more resplendent, and secure prosperity and honour in uniting with the everlasting Father in crowning the Saviour of men. "The LORD said unto my Lord, sit Thou at My right hand."
In the presence, then, of these special claims, should not Reformed Presbyterians awake to the duties expected of them. They have a special mission to the other Churches of the kingdom and to the Empire at large. If the standards and distinctive principles of Reformed Presbyterianism are broader than those of any other communion, if they be better fitted than others as a basis for ecclesiastical union, and if they furnish the best means of imperial greatness, Reformed Presbyterians would act unworthily if they did not put forth every effort to have those standards and principles accepted universally. The time of a merely apologetic attitude is past, the time for an aggressive policy is fully come. By the good will of her King, the Church is charged with a mission on which depend issues ecclesiastical and national of momentous importance. That mission she must discharge right loyally. Woe to her if she reserve the treasures over which she is presently steward. Let the members of the Church be like the men of Judah who clave to their king; let them be like the men of Issachar who understood their duty among the people of Israel; let them be men of enterprise - prayerful, zealous, liberal. "Woe to them that are at ease in Zion." "Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong."
Elisha, the prophet of the Lord, is at Shunem. He is stricken down with a fatal disease. A hundred winters have furrowed his cheeks and a hundred summers have whitened his hairs, but the fire of patriotism still burns with an unquenchable flame. The king of Israel, though a follower of Jeroboam, visits him, sheds tears over him and lauds him - "O my father, my father, the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof." And truly Elisha was the cavalry and artillery of Israel. But Jehoash must be called from tears and compliments to activity and conflict. The Syrians are warring against the Israel of God and defying the God of Israel. The aged prophet raises himself from his bed, orders the opening of the windows towards Aphek, bids the king take arrows, places his hands on the kings hands. As the arrow speeds from the bow, he cries out in ecstasy, "The arrow of the LORD'S deliverance, and the arrow of deliverance from Syria; for thou shalt smite the Syrians in Aphek till thou have consumed them." To point the arrows toward Aphek, the field of previous victories for Israel, was fit to inspire Jehoash and rouse the people of Israel to an overwhelming enthusiasm. It was as if, in presence of an army of invasion, the soldiers of the British lines were called on to point their guns to Waterloo; or as if, in the presence of a hostile fleet, those who man our ships of war were commanded to fire their cannon towards Trafalgar. In the great battle for Christ and His claims the Church has had her Apheks, Waterloos, and Trafalgars, and by the memories of these she ought to be nerved for coming conflicts. The command may be addressed to her - Shoot arrows toward Greyfriars, Edinburgh, where the Scottish nation renewed the National Covenant, casting off the despotism of Popery and of the Court of Rome. Shoot arrows toward St. Giles', where by faith a heroine struck the first blow in that battle which defeated the attempt of Prelacy to restore the Papacy in the kingdom. Shoot arrows toward Drumclog, where, in defense of the right of a people to worship God, our ancestors, come to a conventicle, scattered the dragoons of the royal tyrant. Shoot arrows toward St. Margaret's, Westminster, where, by the preparation of the Westminster Standards and the signing of the Solemn League and Covenant, whole armies of errors and corruptions were routed and truth and liberty crowned victorious. All arrows shot in sympathy with these great achievements of the past are arrows of the Lord's deliverance.
Victory universal shall yet crown the Church of Christ. Reformed Presbyterians are not pessimists. Whatever reverses or successes the holy war of the present hour may unfold in the near future, they are confident about the issue.
"We're beaten back in many a strife,
But still new strength we borrow;
And where the vanguard camps today
The rear shall rest tomorrow."
We are not children of the night, we are children of the morning. Even in the jungles of Africa, "that open sore of the world," Livingstone died with his face toward the sun-rising. At the Red Sea the tourist is pointed to a bay where the chariot wheel of the Egyptian host drove heavily and where the whole army were overwhelmed in the waters - the Bar Kholsoum. The time is coming when all errors and iniquities shall have their Bar Kholsoum, their seas of destruction, and when the Church of Christ, like emancipated Israel, shall sing songs of triumph and salvation.
"It's coming up the steep of time,
And this old world is growing brighter;
We may not see the dawn sublime,
But high hopes make the heart throb lighter.
We may be sleeping in the ground
When it awakes the people's wonder;
But we have felt it gathering round,
And heard its voice of living thunder."