Great whales cruise the pathways of the deep with mouths agape. They do so to vacuum the food they need to survive. This instinct, instilled in them by the Creator, demonstrates how every creature – even the great whales – are dependent on his mercy for food convenient to their nature. The nature of man, being naturally prone to evil continually, leads us to suck in food, clothes, riches, the praise of men, for happiness and satisfaction. Some of it is necessary to sustain life. None of it satisfies. The gaping souls of the great mass of men still seeks after they know not what. So great is our appetite that we would suck in the entire world. Were it possible we would consume heaven itself in the pursuit of happiness and satisfaction.
Many think of evangelism as the great task of the church; it is not. Yes, without evangelism the church cannot function faithfully. Dead churches do not evangelize. Yet evangelism, though a great mission and task of the church, ranks below worship. Missions exist because worship does not. In heaven, evangelism does not exist; there, and on earth, the chief purpose of the church is worship. Worship ennobles our service; Scripture identifies church members as stones in God’s temple–the holy place devoted chiefly to worship (1 Cor. 3:16; Eph. 2:21; 1 Pet. 2:4-8).
The greatest thing in man is mind. But in a fallen world, the best mind degenerates and is subject to all the vicissitudes and decay inherent to our condition. In the twenty-first century, talk of the mind invariably turns to thought of the brain. And what will the physical brain of man be in heaven and in the new earth? This is one of many interesting questions that receives consideration from Rev. Hugh Martin, in one of his letters included in the compendium “Christ Victorious, Selected Writings of Hugh Martin,” recently published by the Banner of Truth Trust.
Who cares about the Free Church of Scotland? To the disinterested observer it is merely a small Presbyterian denomination in a wide, wide world. In 1843, a minority revolted against compromise in the national Church of Scotland over the issue of the interference of the State in church matters. The small band reconstituted as ‘The Church of Scotland, Free’. It received scorn and mockery as, “The Free Kirk, the wee kirk the kirk without the steeple.” At the time the Church of Scotland was, in a vital sense, Scotland. The Disruption was a national catharsis, exciting an interest almost unimaginable in our times of spiritual lethargy. When Thomas Chalmers – a Disruption leader – walked out of the State Church, “the throng at his last service was so great that the police were overpowered and the military had to be called in.”
