We turn to Psalm 87 which bears the title “A Psalm for the sons of Korah.” The notation tells us that it was explicitly written for public worship in the Temple. We are not told when it was written, and some scholars have attributed it to David. Others locate it in the days of Hezekiah, and others argue it was written after the return from captivity. So the date is uncertain, but what is clear is that it speaks to all these historical eras as well as to the Church today. Indeed, it takes us beyond all these to our eternal hope. The theme of Psalm 87 and our address is Zion, the City of God and specifically the glorious things God has said of her.
In Brown of Wamphray’s ministrations, we have not obtruded on our famishing souls that oily sentimentalism, or that iced intellectualism, which so abound in this epicurean age of the church—but we have the true bread, just as it has been gathered, wholesome and nutritious. Oh, that amidst the multitude of our popular and evangelical preachers and writers, we had but a phalanx of godly and spiritual men like him—men of heart, men of business, who would, in right earnest, negotiate between the Prince of Life and dying men, and not merely transact between a dead doctrine and a blind intellect; men who will not ever be substituting the vague idea of “religion” for the living person of the Son of God, or “moral influence” for the personal operation of the Holy Ghost!
At the induction of Dr. Thomas Smith as successor to the late Rev. Dr. Duff in the chair of Evangelistic Theology, in the New College, Edinburgh, Dr. Begg, who addressed the newly appointed professor, made the following very admirable remarks on the true source of ministerial usefulness and success.
I am now far from you in bodily presence; but I can with truth say, that my heart is nearer to you than before, as my eye turns joyfully, from the awful contemplation of sin and ungodliness around me, in this poor town, to those favoured spots of my dear native land, on which the Holy Ghost has lately been pouring out his quickening grace. I lately sent you, in print, a letter on the all-important subject of “THE KNOWLEDGE OF SIN;” and as I have many duties pressing on me here, I must fulfill my promise of writing to you in a very hurried way, hoping that you will read the letter I have alluded to, as if sent to you in writing, and addressed to you alone. I shall, then, say a word to the following classes among you.
When a country is invaded by some foreign foe, when the armies of the aggressor have overspread the land, when a blighted surface marks the progress of their ravages, when the chains of unoffending victims display the relentless cruelty of their revenge, when the active movements of hostile squadrons are discerned, and the voice of the trumpet that hitherto has sounded the certain note of battle and defeat is heard from the watchtowers of the fortress, that forms the last and lingering hope of a once flourishing, but now greatly diminished power; when it is dreaded that within are many faithless men, whose treacherous machinations are concealed under the mask of friendship, and who only await the critical moment of disaster or despair, to strengthen the hands of those who have laid bare many an altar, and left many a city smoking in its ruins—shall he be hailed as a patriot citizen, who whispers in softest accents that danger is far distant; who circulates and foments the ruinous suggestion to relax those efforts that might yet render resistance successful, and, turning the tide of conquest, lay prostrate the insulting foe; who encourages the thousands around him to banish idle cares and silence unfounded alarms, and speedily betake themselves to gay and luxurious delights, and loll in the lap of voluptuous ease, and run the round of lawless revelry? No. He is pronounced a traitor to his country’s cause; to him is awarded a traitor’s doom; and over his remains are raised the insignia of a traitor’s grave.
The circumstances which led to this statement were briefly as follows. For some time past the writer’s mind was much drawn towards foreign missionary work. The knowledge of this circumstance led the Committee of the General Assembly on Missions to inquire into his willingness to enter upon their missionary service in India. This communication from the representative body of the Church, as a Presbyter he laid before his brethren for counsel: and after full procedure, in the course of which his Congregation presented a Memorial expressive of their interests and feelings, and the Presbytery delivered their mind both on the Call and the Memorial, he was led to the decision recorded in the following document. In a day when, on the one hand a carnal fanaticism would counterfeit, and on the other an earthly intellectualism would supplant, the self-evidencing and personal operations of the Holy Spirit, Christian men, however timid, ought not to shrink from avowing their grounds of spiritual judgment.
The most immediate, and to this audience, the most impressive suggestion conveyed in this half sentence is, that a preacher of the Divine Law and Christian Gospel may be a castaway. Nay, when we remember who was the “I myself ” that wrote these lines, we perceive that even an Apostle, an inspired preacher, was not, on that account, beyond the peril. We have the still more positive confirmation of fact; for an older Apostle than Paul, one of the original twelve, called and endowed with power by Christ himself, fell by transgression from “this ministry and apostleship,” perished by suicide in the field he had purchased with the reward of iniquity, and went from Aceldama to what was, in a more fearful sense, “his own place,” a castaway.
It is almost overwhelming for a minister to consider the likeness of the people to the priest, to see his own image reflected on them for good or for evil, himself multiplied a hundredfold. No doubt the absence of this likeness is often very observable. You may see a member, an elder, a deacon, a precentor or doorkeeper in a church, sittting for twenty years under a ministry of a very marked character, without a single feature transferred from the pulpit to the pew; and over many of his hearers, the most faithful pastor must often complain, “I have laboured in vain, and spent my strength for nought.” But on the other hand, the minister is very commonly reflected in many of his people, and his cast of thought is frequently exaggerated in its reappearance among them.
I fear the time is approaching when those gates shall be wide opened through which unprepared souls must pass into the horrors of the second death. Our utmost endeavours to improve the present interval of tranquillity are loudly called for; but we can do nothing without power from on high.
We do not usually pause to think what we might learn from Judas Iscariot. He is rightly regarded by Christians as the cruel traitor who sold his Master, Jesus Christ, for thirty pieces of silver. He is rightly judged to have been a hypocrite and a deceiver. But even so, we would be wise to pause and reflect on the rather surprising fact that Judas’ life and conduct have valuable lessons to teach us today, 2,000 years after he committed suicide.
