Standing on the pavement, we watched as twenty-two men, purportedly suspended from the ministry of the Free Church of Scotland, left the Assembly Hall. It was the largest mass suspension of ministers in Scotland since 1662: they had been forbidden to preach, and if they accepted the discipline, would have to sit in the pews and watch hostile preachers take over their pulpits. This they would not do. Together, we sang Psalm 46 and proceeded to the Magdalen Chapel for the reconstitution of the Free Church of Scotland. Why were we there? Was it just a battle over one man, or was this the proclamation of Christ’s Kingship?
It is taken for granted in most countries today, and especially in the USA, that church and state should be separate—the government and all its institutions must be secular. But the Word of God teaches differently, and therefore, so does the Free Church of Scotland. Christ is the “King of nations” (Jer. 10:7). Therefore the nation owes him obedience and loyalty. As Kuyper said, “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: ‘Mine!’”
Christ himself is King over what is taught in his church. His Word defines truth and determines the doctrine to be taught in his church. This does not sound controversial or radical, yet, incredibly, that truth became a battleground in the Free Church of Scotland.
The existence of the Free Church of Scotland is a testimony to the kingship of Christ. The Free Church is a part, and only a small part, of the glorious kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ in this world. The Free Church declares that Christ is King, seeks to submit to him as King, and trusts in his kingship for the eternity to come. Insofar as the members of the Free Church are consistent with that profession, they are his kingdom.
Dingwall is a royal burgh in the heart of the Scottish Highlands; in the mid-nineteenth century, it was the administrative centre of the county of Ross and Cromarty, and a busy market town with a settled population of around 2000 people. Like much of the Highlands, Dingwall was firmly Episcopalian during the seventeenth century. A mob thwarted an attempt to hold a Presbyterian service there in 1704, and an attempted settlement of a Presbyterian minister four years later was similarly prevented. Gradually, over the course of the eighteenth century, a peaceful and stable Presbyterian ministry was established.
A previous article in the journal described the preaching ministry of John Kennedy (1819–1884), minister of Dingwall Free Church of Scotland from 1844 until his death, and the leading preacher of the Highland section of the Free Church of Scotland during the second half of the nineteenth century. That account of Kennedy’s preaching ministry underlined the importance of the work of pulpit ministry, fulfilled in faithful Scriptural exposition, experimental application and earnest evangelistic appeal. The present article explores what one can learn of Kennedy’s preparation for the pulpit, and practice there, in fulfilling his significant and influential preaching ministry.
