How is the book going?

No one has asked, but I thought that I’d tell you anyway. The book’s working title is, Heart, Mind and Conscience: the preaching of the Free Church 1843-1873.

So far, I’ve written about 15000 words. This means, that the introductory chapter (a potted history of the reformed church of Scotland from 1560 to 1843) has been roughed out. The second chapter looks at advice given to trainee ministers on sermon making during the 18th century, and the capacity of the common people to understand those sermons. The third chapter reviews the sermons of an unconverted minister of the 18th century, and provides a brief insight into the evangelical sermons of that period. The fourth chapter begins the review of Free Church preaching with the sermons of the Rev. Thomas Chalmers, who was, for the first 10 years of his ministry, an unconverted person. His pre- and post-conversion sermons are very different from each other. By the grace of God, Chalmers became the sort of minister that he once despised. Rough versions of all these chapters are now written.

Presently, I am working on the fifth chapter, which reviews the sermons of the Rev. Robert Gordon (1786-1753). He too, it seems, was ordained to the Christian ministry before he was converted. I’ve ‘heard’ that his believing wife was instrumental in bringing him to a right understanding of the gospel — I’m still looking for the reference (I know that I’ve seen it, somewhere). I have no Free Church sermons from him, only those first published in 1825, but his preaching was used by God to convert — during the 1820s and 30s — many ministry students who later became Free Church ministers. I suspect his ‘method’ of sermon making influenced the character of the later sermons by these men. After this chapter is finished, I intend doing chapters on the sermons of the Revs William Cunningham, Robert Candlish, John Duncan, Thomas Guthrie, and Robert Rainy. Let’s see how far I get.

Moses’ chair

Matthew 23:2-4 records some words of our Lord Jesus Christ about the scribes and Pharisees of his day. He said this:

The scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses’ chair. Therefore, do and observe whatsoever they tell you, but do not do according to their deeds for they say but do not do. They bind heavy and grievous burdens and place them on the shoulders of people, but they themselves are not willing to move these things with their finger.

In those days, when someone was going to teach, he sat down. The scribes and Pharisees were teachers of the Law of Moses. They sat (taught) in Moses’ chair. Our Lord Jesus tells us that these teachers, as they spoke the words of Moses, spoke correctly. But even while they accurately related the truths of the Law, they were not themselves followers of Moses. They did not feel the weight of what they taught. As teachers of the law, they did not think that the weight of the law would fall on them. This, I think, was one of the reasons why the religious leaders hated our Lord Jesus Christ. He exposed their lawlessness, their sinfulness. Jesus had been sent to save sinners; he came to die in the place of the lawless and to rise again for their justification, yet the religious leaders did not and would not regard themselves as needing repentance or faith in Christ. They were the righteous ones.

It is important to note that these accurate Bible teachers were nevertheless unbelievers. They said all the right words, even the words of Moses that pertained to the forgiveness of sins on the basis of an acceptable sacrifice. But they did not believe that the words applied to them.

I am reading at the moment many sermons by Presbyterian ministers from the 18th Century. These men were learned, very orthodox, but were essentially moral preachers. Many of them were not believers. In a printed sermon of 123 pages about the Spirit of the Gospel, no more than 10 lines had anything to say about the Gospel itself. The sermon was wholly about how ‘Christians’ ought to live. It said very little about the sinners’ guilt before God and what God had done to save the ungodly, and how one may obtain an interest in the salvation that Christ has won.

A sermon may be true in all that is said but it may yet fail to say what is most important. For a year and a half, the apostle Paul determined to know nothing among the Corinthian church but Christ and him crucified. This apostle then wrote two letters to that same church urging it to hold fast to the gospel that he had preached, least they had believed in vain. We all must be careful how we hear the Word, and to assess our own response to it.

The Rev. Lachlan Mackenzie (1754-1819)

In my last post, I wrote about the sermons of the Rev. George Hill (DD) and how he was an amiable man who preached calm, reassuring sermons. I suspect that George Hill was an unconverted, moderate minister. His sermons contained references to the gospel of Christ, but the Gospel was never preached nor were his hearers ever urged to make their calling and election sure.

I have now read two sermons by the Rev. Lachlan Mackenzie that were collected in a book entitled, Sermons Preached at Lochcarron (1849). Mr Mackenzie’s ministry was contemporary to that of the Rev. George Hill. The difference between the sermons of George Hill and those of Mr Mackenzie is great. I understand that Mr Mackenzie was an Evangelical minister in a largely moderate presbytery. He was well aware that there were many unconverted ministers in Scotland who preached moral sermons and minimised the necessity of the new birth. He once compared the number of ministers in Scotland in his day to the number of locusts that God had sent to Egypt during the plagues of Exodus. He was not sure which of the two groups was the more destructive.

Mr Mackenzie was in earnest. He understood from the Scripture that we humans became, by means of the fall into sin though Adam, enemies of God and subject to sin and death. He believed God’s testimony regarding His son, Jesus Christ. He urged people not to be content with all the outward appearance of Christianity in Scotland. He did not want them to be content that they were neither gross malefactors nor religious enthusiasts. He called his hearers to a right understanding of their sin, their danger of hell, and how these miseries might be escaped through faith in Jesus Christ. He called people to seek the new birth from God; to call out for mercy while it might be found. He showed his hearers that the Son of God had come to die for his people, and those for whom Jesus died and rose again are revealed as they are brought to faith in Christ by the work of the Holy Spirit.

In short, Mr Mackenzie did not preach calming sermons. He did not mention the gospel in passing. His aim was to preach the Gospel and apply it to the heart, mind and conscience of his hearers. This was his main aim in the two sermons that I have read so far. I do not expect this aim to change as I continue through his book of sermons.