The Record - July/August 19 by Free Church of Scotland

THE

RECORD

MONTHLY MAGAZINE OF THE FREE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND JULY/AUGUST 2019 • £2.00

Editor • Rev. David A Robertson The Editor, The Record, St Peter’s Free Church, 4 St Peter Street, Dundee, DD1 4JJ 07825 748752 drobertson@freechurch.org News Editor • Dayspring MacLeod dayspring.macleod@icloud.com 07974 261567 Missions News • Mrs Sarah Johnson Free Church Offices, 15 North Bank Street, Edinburgh, EH1 2LS sarah@freechurch.org WFM Editor • Sarah Cumming 31 Doune Park, Dalgety Bay, KY11 9LX sarah.cumming@hotmail.co.uk Gaelic Editor • Janet MacPhail 24 North Bragar, Isle of Lewis, HS2 9DA 01851 710354 Seminary News • Rev. Thomas Davis St. Columba's Free Church, Johnston Terrace Edinburgh, EH1 2PW thomas@stcolumbas.freechurch.org Prayer Diary • Mrs Mairi Macdonald ian.macdonald57@btinternet.com Design & Layout • Fin Macrae @DUFI Art www.dufi-art.com

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Cover: Photo by Blue Sky Photography (www.blueskyphotography.co.uk)

The Record • ISSN 2042-2970

WELCOME TO THE JULY/AUGUST RECORD

CONTENTS

his summer edition is dominated by the assembly .

Although it’s as long as all Moderators’ addresses, I would highly recommend you take to time to read Donny G’s excellent address from this year. It will profit you in many ways — as will James Fraser’s speech given in his role as Chairman of the Board of Trustees. As well as the Assembly we have space for our studies in Ecclesiastes, book reviews, Dayspring and Catriona’s regular columns, John Milton on tolerance, the Gaelic page, poetry from John Donne and Mission Matters. As this is my last edition as editor perhaps you will forgive me a little personal comment. I count it a privilege and honour to have been editor of this magazine—for the second time. I would like to express my appreciation to all the team involved, because like all good churches, this is a team effort. In particular I am grateful for the inspiring work of Fin Macrae, our designer; Dayspring MacLeod, the assistant editor; Janet MacPhail (Gaelic), Thomas Davis (ETS), David Meredith (Missions) and Catriona Murray (columnist). It’s good to know that they will continue to work with and assist the new editor, who I understand will be appointed by the time you will read this. I am writing this in Sydney, at the beginning of a new ministry for me. It’s a different situation and a different title, but the same work: seeking to communicate the Good News of Jesus Christ. That is also true of the new editor; we and our circumstances change, but Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. In the Church we are all workers together in the same struggle. Let us make sure that we uphold one another regularly before the throne of grace. May the Lord pour out his Spirit upon us, and grant renewal and revival to the Church in Scotland — and to the ends of the earth. • Yours in Christ David

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REFLECTIONS ON THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY BY THE MODERATOR Donald G. Macdonald

ASSEMBLY 2019 - A SUMMARY REPORT OF THE FREE CHURCH GENERAL ASSEMBLY Board of Ministry, Mission Board Report, Edinburgh Theological Seminary Report,, Psalmody & Praise Comitee, Ecumenical Relations, Lord High Commissioner

REPORT FROM THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES Prof. James M. Fraser

VOICES OF THANKSGIVING: CELEBRATING 40 YEARS OF DUMISANI! Miriam Montgomery

PRAYER DIARY

MODERATORS ADDRESS TO THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY Donald G Macdonald

BEHIND THE SCENES — MORE PHOTOS FROM THE ASSEMBLY...

ECCLESIASTES: REMEMBER THE GOOD OLD DAYS?

BOOK REVIEWS

MUSIC REVIEWS

THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS...AND SMALL PEOPLE Dayspring Macleod

CENSORING THE INTERNET — A PLEA FROM JOHN MILTON

MISSION MATTERS David Meredith

GAELIC Janet MacPhail

POETRY PAGE John Donne

POST TENEBRAS LUX Catriona Murray

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REFLECTIONS ON THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY BY THE MODERATOR REV. DONALD G. MACDONALD

s i travelled to edinburgh from skye for the general assembly week, my

single goal was survival and anything beyond that would be a bonus. I confess I was extremely nervous, but I was very conscious of so much support and prayers from my own family and congregation, and beyond. Thank you. As it turned out I really enjoyed the week and am very grateful to God for the privilege of being part of it. We are not without our challenges and problems in the Free Church, but I was struck by the harmony and unity, and the friendship and fellowship, that existed as we met together. The discussions and debates were lively but conducted lovingly. There was seriousness and there was humour. There was a real sense of having a great work to do and the desire to do it. It was so encouraging to see a passion for church planting, a strong emphasis on developing established congregations, and add to that a dedicated time to discuss global mission. The Mission Board have a huge remit, but they fulfil it well. I also was remembering the days when we used to wait to see how big the deficit was going to be, or how big the hole in the pension fund was. We perhaps neglect to acknowledge what an amazing job the Board of Trustees have done over the years to get the church finances in order, and the vision they have for the gospel. There was so much that I found exciting, not just the work of the Mission Board and the Board of Trustees. Great things are going on in ETS, the Board of Ministry report was excellent, the discussion on praise and worship was animated, even the presentation on reviewing the Practice (the book that gives guidance over matters of procedure and discipline) had its moments! However, there were a few things in particular that for me stood out. First was the need for workers. There is a lot that needs to be done, and a lot that we can do; but we need people, the right people, to do it. We were reminded several times of the need to pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers. Second was the very practical guidance that came from the Communications report regarding biblical principles which should govern how we communicate with each other, the public and the media. I also appreciated it as something that could really help on a personal level to be more God-honouring when communicating with others, and especially in the use of social media. Check out the report, it is good. Third was the decision to have the Board of Trustees, in conjunction with the Mission Board, examine how we can better support and finance churches in areas of social deprivation. It was clear in the Assembly that there is a real heart for the church plants in places like Govan, Charleston and Merkinch. The Board of Trustees is going to review how we can better support them and report back to the next Assembly. But the main highlight of the week for me was the hour of prayer, praise and Bible readings on the Wednesday morning. The prayers were so heartfelt, the praise was heart-lifting (led by Lachie, who sings the way I think I can sing in my head, but then open my mouth!), and the Bible readings were about Jesus. I think what made the week special was that it was gathering of people who wanted everything to be about Jesus. I did enjoy the week, but having said that, I was still glad when it was over! â&#x20AC;˘

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Photo by Blue Sky Photography

I think what made the week special was that it was gathering of people who wanted everything to be about Jesus.

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ASSEMBLY 2019

A SUMMARY REPORT OF THE FREE CHURCH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

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BOARD OF MINISTRY

and times of trouble and distress. ‘The Board thanks Rev. Alex J. MacDonald and the members the Panel of Pastoral Care which he convenes, for all their work on behalf of the Church. Mr MacDonald will be invited to address the General Assembly. We encourage individuals and church courts to contact him for his help and advice.’ •

The Board of Ministry report to the General Assembly struck a cautionary note on the state of the Church in Scotland and raised concerns about the low numbers entering the ministry, particularly within the Free Church of Scotland. ‘37% of Scots claim to have no religion. Fewer than 9% attend any kind of church and it seems likely that less than 1% of our nation regularly hears faithful biblical teaching. Yet the numbers undertaking training for gospel ministry are relatively small. ‘Since the last General Assembly, the Board of Ministry has recognised only two new candidates for the ministry, although we have some applications in process from other enquirers.’

MISSION BOARD REPORT This year’s Mission Board Report to the General Assembly highlighted some of the considerable work which has been carried out across the denomination over the past year through Church Planting, Church Development, Church Equipping and Global Mission. Mission Board Chairman Rev. Bob Akroyd began the 2019 report with a reminder of the Church’s mission as well as some of the challenges currently being faced. ‘We want to see established congregations strengthened, new churches planted, Christians of all ages built up in their faith and equipped to serve while partnering with the global church to fulfil the Lord Jesus’ Great Commission. Thankfully we do not need to determine what our mission is.

Rev. Angus MacRae, Minister, Dingwall & Strathpeffer, Retiring Moderator & Chairman to the Board of Ministry

Mission Board Chairman Rev. Dr. Bob Akroyd

Although overall attendance in the Free Church has steadily been on the rise in recent years, many congregations are without a resident minister. ‘The Church has about twice as many vacancies as qualified personnel available to accept a call. It seems unlikely that God is failing to call a new generation of gospel workers for his Kingdom work in Scotland, so we as a Church should be deeply concerned as to why so few candidates are coming forward for service in the Free Church. Other denominations face similar challenges, so it may be beneficial to have an honest discussion in our Kirk Sessions and in the General Assembly about the causes and remedies for this problem.’ For those currently in ministry, the Board said they were keen to ‘encourage a supportive culture of mentoring and mutual accountability among the ministers and members of our presbyteries.’ The report reiterated the commitment of the Board and the Pastoral Support Worker Rev. Alex J. MacDonald to the wellbeing of all ministers and their families. ‘The support of our ministry families should be a priority for us as we learn how to care for each other in good times

‘However, we do need to consider how best to marshal and deploy our existing human and financial resources into a harvest field that is already ripe for harvest. One pressing need may outstrip all others; namely, that we need more workers to go into the harvest field. The need is perennial, but our present level of personnel cannot meet the needs of existing congregations nor resource potential church plants. So please take this report, read it and pray about all that it contains that God might be pleased to use our small denomination in the outworking of the great commission.’ Church Planting Currently, there are eight church plants around the country under the oversight of the Board: Govan G51, Stirling, Cornerstone, Esk Valley, Charleston, Christ Church Glasgow, Haddington Community Church and Merkinch. These plants are showing positive signs of growth and momentum within the communities they serve. The Board was pleased to receive an application from the Glasgow and Argyll Presbytery in relation to the Stirling church plant, led by Rev. Iain MacAskill, >>

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<< becoming a fully sanctioned charge. It was the recommendation of the Board to the General Assembly that their request is granted.

of twelve ministers who receive training and support in specific areas relevant to church development. The Board was ‘delighted by the number of congregations involved in the track and hope that it is proving to be helpful to ministers, leaders and congregations. Applications will be open in June 2019 for the new term of the Church Development Track. The Board encourage congregations and Presbyteries to think about who would benefit from being involved in this track for 2019/2020.’ The report also reiterated a desire by the Board to see ‘local congregations and church members actively involved in evangelism’. To assist with this, two new initiatives have been set up: Generation19 and Gossiping the Gospel. The Generation19 initiative will run from the 1st to 10th September 2019. Congregations are encouraged to instigate locally driven evangelistic events. The Board will provide ideas and visuals to help local congregations in their thinking and planning. The proposed ‘Gossiping the Gospel’ course will feature a series of four video programmes with relevant teaching and is primarily designed for church midweek or small groups. It will take the form of teaching and interviews, with an opportunity for discussion in groups. It is hoped that this will prove to be a fruitful course for congregations to make use of. The Board anticipates the content will be available from Autumn 2019. Church Equipping The Board reiterated its commitment to encourage and facilitate the continual training and equipping of the Church to serve and share the Gospel in whichever context God had placed them. Over the past year, many of the regular events and conferences from Free Church Youth Camps to Leadership Bootcamp were successfully delivered.

Rev. Neil MacMillan, Minister, Cornerstone, Edinburgh Convener of Church Planting (Generation)

In October 2018 Rev. Neil MacMillan, Rev. Dr Robert J Akroyd, Rev. David Meredith, and Mr Nathan Olson attended the UK Partnership in Boca Raton. To date, church plants in the Free Church have received $296,000 through the UK Partnership. The report made mention of several highlights which resulted from the trip: • Spanish River Church in Boca Raton, FL, has asked Charleston to apply for funding • Lookout Mountain Presbyterian Church hope to give further funding to Christ Church, Glasgow • Resurrection Church in Knoxville, TN, gave $2,000 to Cornerstone • Cedar Springs Presbyterian Church, also in Knoxville, TN, pledged $9,000 to Cornerstone • First Presbyterian Church Starkville gave $5,000 to Haddington, with a potential of further support to Charleston and Haddington Community Church • Redeemer Presbyterian Church New York City is looking to send a mission team to Scotland in 2019 • Rev. Neil MacMillan met with several other large churches to speak about partnership and support The Board were grateful for the ‘Gospel generosity being shown to Church Planting in Scotland’. Church Development In 2017 the General Assembly approved the Mission Board’s strategy document, ‘Going, Making, Growing’, which included a ‘commitment to providing a tool-kit and a range of resources to support revitalisation and development of existing congregations’. Since then the Board has launched the Development Track, a support network for ministers who are in the process of developing existing congregations. The group comprises

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Rev. David Macleod, Minister, North Harris, Member of Mission Board & Convener of Church Equipping (Generation)

Commenting on training, Mission Director Rev. David Meredith said, ‘Health and leadership are basic to mission. We have helped a number of congregations to look at culture change with a view to being more mission-minded, and we are happy to report that there has been a degree of success. ‘We have found, however, that there is a reluctance with most of our people to be personal witnesses. Even

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at the basic level of sharing their story, there seems to be a paralysis brought about by a combination of fear and a sense of lack of skills. ‘We have put together a short training course entitled “Gossiping the Gospel”. The course is limited because, so far, it has been delivered by me and we have limited time to do this. We have decided to make this course available in video form, which will enable it to be taught in local congregations over a four-week timeframe.’ Global Mission As part of their current Global Mission strategy, the Board agreed to financially support a wide range of projects including work in Nepal, Europe, Africa, Central Asia, Israel and India, totalling over £200,000. Over the past year, the Board has also discussed and reviewed its current policies, strategies and direction on Global Mission. From this, the Board recognised changes in giving methods and a change in how local congregations actively engage with mission. In order to address these issues the Board agreed to ‘have discussions with each Presbytery on Global Mission finance, strategies and funding; carry out an audit of mission within the Free Church [and] to facilitate a discussion on Global Mission at the 2019 General Assembly’. The General Assembly acknowledged and thanked the Mission Board for their continued work as well as the ‘members and adherents of the Church who by their prayerful interest, financial contributions and ongoing interest help in the sharing of the Gospel throughout the land and overseas’.

The Seminary continues to offer a wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses validated by the University of Glasgow. In 2018, the University of Glasgow renewed its Partnership Agreement with ETS as an institution for a further six years. Over the past year, Dr Alistair Wilson and Professor John Angus MacLeod have continued to develop the Centre For Mission. The centre ‘is intended to provide opportunities for mission-orientated education and training for the people of the Free Church of Scotland and for the wider Christian community in Scotland and beyond’. The centre itself has been used extensively during the past twelve months playing host to training events for elders, deacons and Sunday School teachers as well as being used by Generation for Church Planting and Church Development events. Quinquennial Review In 2018 General Assembly appointed the Quinquennial Review Committee to ascertain the ‘fitness of the education and training provided by ETS’. The thorough review carried out by the Committee made three key recommendations to the way in which the Seminary is governed: 1. The powers of the Senate required to be made more explicit with a remit which did indeed reflect the similarity of the Senate to Senates of UK universities; 2. The powers of the [ETS] Board required to be increased to enable it to hold the Senate and Principal accountable for the planning and strategy of ETS and for the delivery of the more explicit remit of the Senate; and 3. The powers implicit in the operation of both Principal and Vice-Principal required to be reflected in an enhanced role of the Principal. Commenting on their recommendations, the Committee ‘felt that the time was now ripe to suggest some improvements in governance which would enable governance to catch up with the rapid history of change and which would bring a more detailed and explicit underpinning than the current legislation supported.’ •

EDINBURGH THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY REPORT In their opening remarks the Edinburgh Theological Seminary (ETS) Board said they were ‘pleased to report that the Seminary continues to contribute to the preparation of suitably gifted persons for the work of the settled pastorate as well as providing theological education for individuals pursuing other ministry roles such as church workers, church planters, missionaries and religious education teachers.’

PSALMODY & PRAISE COMMITTEE This past year the Psalmody and Praise Committee focussed their efforts to promote the ‘Sing Psalms’ resource within the Free Church of Scotland and to other denominations. The Committee also produced and made available digital resources to congregations through their website and social media pages. In 2018 the General Assembly tasked the Psalmody and Praise Committee to review and update the recommended list of hymns. As an initial step, the Committee conducted a survey of congregations to establish what materials were being used. After reviewing the results the Committee concluded, ‘The Committee believes that with the increasing breadth of material in use, and the general move away from being confined to one hymnbook, it >>

Rev. Iver Martin, Principal, ETS and Rev. Dr Malcolm M. Maclean, Minister, Greyfriars & Member of the Board of Trustees

The Board offered their sincere gratitude to the tireless and ongoing efforts of all teaching and administration staff at ETS.

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<< is an impossible task to produce anything like a comprehensive list of recommended hymns, and would remind ministers, and others responsible for choosing sung material, of the responsibility placed upon them by Act 1, Class 2, November 2010, to choose material that is consistent with Scripture and the doctrine of the Confession of Faith.’ In October last year, the Committee held a Praise Workshop in Bon Accord, Aberdeen. The workshop mainly focussed on matters relating to precenting, as requested by the congregation, as well as providing an opportunity for praise and fellowship. The report made it clear that the Committee was keen to offer their services to congregations, particularly if there were any issues they were struggling with. ‘The congregation...had been finding it challenging to get new precentors involved in leading the psalms during Sunday services. It may be that this is an issue faced by other congregations, and the Committee would encourage congregations that find themselves in this situation to avail themselves of the service that the Psalmody and Praise Committee provides.’ •

in inter-church activity, then they must be prepared to increase the financial resources available for this.’ The report also indicated a shift in approach by younger church leaders who are not ‘motivated by formal ecclesiastical contacts’. Instead, they are primarily developing relationships through organisations such as 20schemes, Acts 29 and Redeemer City to City. ‘The main lesson to be applied is that we are less willing to attend “talk shops” than we were in the past. The desire is to be co-workers in intentional gospel enterprise. This is no bad thing. In mitigation, a relationship must begin with talking and we have been introduced to a significant number of believers who work in a tough, majority world situation through ICRC [International Conference of Reformed Churches] and WRF [World Reformed Fellowship].’ •

His Grace Richard Walter John Montagu Douglas Scott, The Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry, KBE, DL, FSA, FRSE, who was appointed as Her Majesty’s Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland, was invited to address the Assembly on Thursday, 23 May, by Moderator Rev. Donald G. MacDonald. In his opening statement, His Grace made mention of the gifts he received from last year’s General Assembly and commented on how much he enjoyed them, saying of one book on the Apostle Paul, ‘It was almost transformational.’ In his address, he thanked the Assembly on behalf of HM The Queen for their continued work and commitment. His Grace was ‘extremely happy’ to assure Her Majesty of the Free Church of Scotland’s ‘loyalty and affection’. The Moderator then presented His Grace with several gifts from the 2019 Assembly and asked His Grace to pass on the Church’s prayer support. The Lord High Commissioner first addressed the General Assembly in 1925. The position has a reduced role within proceedings, largely maintaining a symbolic connection between the secular and sacred through the adherence to the Establishment Principle by the Free Church. •

ECUMENICAL RELATIONS COMMITTEE The Ecumenical Relations Committee continued to pursue active relationships with churches and organisations within the UK over the past year. Outlining the Committee’s purpose, Convener Rev. David Meredith said, ‘The purpose of the Ecumenical Relations Committee is not to effect full unity through a single world church. Such catholicity is impossible in a fallen world. Our purpose is to relate to other churches.’

Rev. David Meredith, Convener of the Ecumenical Relations Committee

The Convener acknowledged there were limitations to the Committee due to the lack of financial resources and encouraged the Church to consider investing in the work if they consider it a priority. ‘The Committee operates on a very limited budget which prevents both development and expansion of ecumenical relations. If the denomination has aspirations to be more involved

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Bethany Mackenzie, St Columba’s, presents a bouquet to Mrs Elizabeth Scott, Duchess of Buccleuch

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Photo by Blue Sky Photography and Evan MacDonald

LORD HIGH COMMISSIONER

REPORT FROM THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES BY PROFESSOR JAMES M. FRASER

oderator, fathers and brethren,

Remittance System The Board has for some time considered whether the church’s remittance system could be improved to raise more income and also with a view to making the system more accessible, transparent and easier to understand. The Board has been concerned with two challenges under the existing system — the first is that congregations treat the Mission Levy as a target rather than a requirement. This means therefore that other parts of the remittances are sometimes achieved at the expense of mission levy. This does not mean that the church has lost interest in mission; rather, that the central direction of mission with central money is not as strong as it used to be. We still need some central expenditure on mission and we would like to see this particular part of the remittance being treated seriously. Restricted Income The second is the question of restricted income. Some churches use the tool of restricted income sparingly; for others it is an essential tool for local church strategy. This results in remittances across the church that vary widely as a percentage of turnover. If Church A raises more restricted money than Church B because its members pay for additional workers, building projects or the like, then obviously its central remittances may very well look lower as a proportion of its total turnover than those of Church B which raises no restricted income. This in turn leads some churches to think that others are getting off too lightly. In particular, smaller churches, which remit a very large proportion of their total income, look sceptically at the accounts of larger churches which remit a much smaller proportion of their income. This in turn has put pressure on the Board to do something. The Board is, however, reluctant to interfere with this process because the addition of restricted income is an undoubted good and it enables many churches to undertake capital and recurrent spend that would not otherwise be possible. The Board has undertaken an examination of the finances of congregations and has found that in most cases, good reasons exist for the restricted incomes. The Board will continue to maintain a watching brief on the issue and will pursue congregations where the restriction of income is in danger of being misused, i.e. where the restricted purpose is unspecific, vague and general. The Board takes the view that heavy-handed policies to address the ‘restricted’ income issue would not work and would have the effect of depressing the collection of monies that otherwise would remain in the pockets of the givers. >>

I want to begin my report on a note of gratitude. Firstly let me thank you for your inspiring address. Some of us were imbued with the Enlightenment heresy that knowledge is more protected from the Fall than Imagination. You delivered us from this heresy today. I hope that when we go back to our Boards and give imagination more rein than we have done in the past, we do not let our actions be “sicklied o’er by the pale cast of thought”. Money follows Vision. Vision is first. Secondly, it is a very great honour and privilege to present the work of the Board for another year. It is also a great privilege to work with colleagues to improve the support that the church can give to its ministers and members as they carry out the work of the Great Commission from week to week. I hope that our actions are guided by that shared passion, and if not, doubtless, you will hold us to account by this very criterion. Thirdly, it is good to look back on the Lord’s kindness to us in continuing to provide the resources that we need. At the outset of this report we acknowledge his provision with thanks. FINANCE A major part of our work is focussed on resources, their distribution and their impact. We are grateful that remittances increased in 2018 by £120,000 (3%). Our underlying surplus for the year, when you strip off property gains and legacies, amounts to some £130,000. We are grateful that Boards seek to manage their budgets well and to live within their income. This is hard because we all have a vision that stretches well beyond our means. The level of increasing remittances has enabled the Board to maintain the stipend rise, our employers’ pension contribution at 10% and to meet unanticipated contingencies without damaging our underlying financial strength. I am aware that the SORP makes the Church’s accounts very difficult to read and I hope that the brief document circulated for this session helps you to understand the basics of our income and expenditure. When we think about central income and expenditure we must not make the mistake of thinking that we are looking at the full measure of the church’s faithentrepreneurialism. To look at the church’s performance and ask if we are stepping out in faith you have to look at what is happening at congregational level, and if you go around the Church, be prepared to be amazed and encouraged at the variety and excitement of what goes on from week to week in our congregational life.

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<< General Transparency The Board is committed to publishing in the forthcoming year a short booklet for distribution to all contributors in paper and/or digital form. This booklet will try to make the income and expenditure of central funds clearer to givers. The Board believes in this as a general policy and also takes the view that we are obligated to give better information to our givers and not simply to restrict dialogue on giving to the offices and the Deacons Courts/Finance Committees. Investment Performance The Board’s report sets out our disappointment with the performance of the Church’s investment portfolio in 2018 both in terms of capital growth and income yield. The Board commissioned an independent review of the performance of our Fund Managers and at our recent investment committee we received the report from or reviewers. We also met our fund managers after the Review and had an informed and challenging discussion around the 2018 performance and some of the investment decisions taken which had led to the disappointing year. The Investment Committee will recommend an appropriate course of action to the June Board with a view to taking corrective action. Without diminishing in any way the expression of disappointment or the pressure which we feel under over this performance, I should place it in a wider perspective and indeed in thinking about options for remediation, the Board itself in June will consider this perspective. We must remind ourselves that we are in the business of long-term growth and this means we must not overreact to annual blips. Over the past nine years the General Fund has grown in value by some 12% and over the past three years, despite the 2018 performance, growth has been 4%. We should also remember that in the same period since 2010, we also derived dividend income of just under £1.2m. Capital Funding-buildings Briefly let me say that the Board is not at present lending major capital monies but will review this as and when funding allows. The Board is continuing to make the process of borrowing from other sources easier for congregations and a more common source of such funding. The Board is

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encouraged by the successful relationship which is being developed with the Stewardship Fund. As more funding is secured from external sources, the Board’s contribution will be smaller than hitherto. The Board’s capital can never match the church’s ambitions; it is therefore logical to move it to a role where the Board is a catalyst within a multi-partner funding model. Budgets The Board is still committed to the system which the Assembly legislated following the financial crisis of some years ago, and is happy to note that its balanced budget policy has served the church well and indeed the Lord has blessed us with annual increases in income. The Board is however conscious that there are pressing needs coming from many quarters — the Mission Board, the Board of Trustees itself in terms of risk management, communications and public policy, education, training and ETS — all of which require some very careful thought. The Board will review these pressures in early autumn against any sum which it deems can be created to address the pressures, rank them in order of priority, and hopefully build in some new things to budgets. Please understand that it is good for the Board to be put under pressure on money. It demonstrates vision and imagination and we are there to respond to vision with resources wherever we can. Catriona Cazaly Before I leave the subject of Finance, the Board was sorry to lose the services of Catriona Cazaly, who has just retired. Catriona gave outstanding service as our Finance Officer and will be greatly missed both by her colleagues in the office, the Board, ETS and by local treasurers up and down the land. Had she not deftly avoided the Assembly by careful planning, we would have brought her here today to hear the appreciative applause of the commissioners. We are delighted that she is being replaced by Miss Jayne Coleman CA. Jayne takes up her post on 3rd June; she has significant commercial financial experience and we are confident that she will strive to make the transition as smooth as possible. We would covet your prayers for Jayne as she levers herself into the detail of Catriona’s job.

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Photo by Blue Sky Photography

Professor James M. Fraser, Chairman to the Board of Trustees, addresses the Assembly

COMPLIANCE & RISK The Board has spent a considerable time on compliance and risk. There are three major risks to draw to your attention. The first is the difficulty in securing the level of ministerial manpower which our appetite for activity demands. We have a commendable vision for church planting and we have an ongoing annual deficit which averages around 12 ministers, in some years rising as high as 20. To achieve the task of church planting and revitalisation we need to increase the supply of ministers; we need to stir up people to exercise their gifts and seriously consider whether they have a call to ministry. This is a matter for ministers and Kirk Sessions and members. We have to make our training flexible so that a one-size-fits-all philosophy does not stop people who cannot go through a single model. We have to find ways of recruiting ministers who are already trained and from other denominations and other countries. The management of this risk has to be led by the Mission Board and the Board of Ministry. If we fail to address this risk then we will fail to achieve our vision. The Board sought to encourage this activity by setting up the growth fund. The fund has now been terminated as the anticipated growth has not yet occurred. We need to secure the growth because it looks as if the money will follow. The second is the risk posed by inadequate compliance with external legislation. We live in a complex society where compliance is becoming more and more onerous. As Christians we are very supportive of many of the objects of compliance but realise that setting up the mechanisms to ensure complete compliance across the church is onerous and costly. We have focussed on GDPR and Safeguarding; we need to focus also on health and safety and excellence in governance. The third arises from our processes, procedures and tangle of legislation. We have identified as one of the areas of greatest exposure the complexity, obscurity and inadequacies of our procedures and their mismatch with the expectations of our judicial culture. This is particularly fraught in the areas of employment and discipline. We need robust procedures, accessible, transparent, just and as simple as they can be and we need to ensure that they are used and followed. To meet this last risk, we have launched a major project with the support of the Assembly Clerk to review the Free Church’s Practice and Procedure — the Blue Book — as it was affectionately or unaffectionately called. We have to raise our game in Church governance and this is a key focus of this project. The Blue Book does not record our procedures adequately; it is inaccessible. Some of the procedures are themselves unfit for purpose. We expose ourselves to considerable risk both in terms of finance and reputation if we do nothing about it. You will be treated to a presentation of the Practice Review and some detail on one area of the review later today. Suffice to say that this is a major project and its successful delivery will both lessen risk and ensure that

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elders and others are not having to spend an inordinate time following poor processes and trying to discover what they are. The Board recognises that strengthening the Assembly Clerk’s Office is an essential component of this process and commends the appointment of two assistant clerks. We are very happy with the balance of gifts brought by the nominees, Rev. Nigel Anderson and Rev. Stephen Allison. We are indeed grateful to Stephen Allison for having read his way through the whole corpus of Free Church legislation, indexing it and making it accessible to all of us. COMMUNICATIONS The Board’s Communications Sub-Committee is included in this report. Rev. Thomas Davis kindly agreed to chair this body and with some difficulty we have succeeded in gathering together its membership. Thomas will speak to this section of the report. I do however wish to draw attention to the Editorship of the Church’s Record. It is governed by Act 8, 2015 which sets out the qualifications for this post and states that the editor ‘shall be a communicant member of the Free Church of Scotland and a person of some maturity in Christian life’. Please publicise this post and ensure that people understand that it is not confined to ministers. We are seeking a group of applicants from which someone can be secured by competitive selection. We have not yet succeeded in attracting a group but will undertake a further round of publicity and please pray that a good candidate would come forward. Before I leave this subject, I would like to speak on behalf of the Board of Trustees, and I hope I echo a wider voice of our church, when I draw attention to my dear brother, Rev. David Robertson. As you probably all know David is expected to take up a new ministry in Australia. His departure will lead to an enormous gap not just in the life of the Free Church of Scotland but in the Christian voice in the UK. David has been a tower of strength and energy for the Free Church and for the Christian life of the nation. He has edited The Record and is still doing so — and with great distinction. He has been a spokesman for the faith and indeed a go-to media personality. He presided over the resurrection of St Peter’s Church in Dundee; we have seen a phoenix rise from the ashes — a Christian force in that great city. In creating Solas he has left a great legacy in evangelism, training and apologetics. David’s utter passion for the gospel, the Christian worldview and the Way of the Kingdom in the public sphere has cost him dearly. It is tough for individuals and families being in this place. I hope that whatever else he goes away with, he will go away knowing that he is loved and prayed for, and will be greatly missed. CONCLUSION Moderator, Fathers and Brethren, I hope I have said enough to kindle an interest in what the Board is doing; arouse your passion about what it is not doing and should be; and I look forward to questions and discussion. •

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Voices of Thanksgiving: Celebrating 40 Years of Dumisani! BY MIRIAM MONTGOMERY H ow much we have to be thankful for !

That was the abiding message to take home from the Voices of Thanksgiving Dumisani celebration evening that took place in St Columba’s, Edinburgh, on Friday, 7th June. It was an evening filled with the message of what the Lord has done over the last forty years in the Eastern Cape of South Africa, through Dumisani Theological Institute and Bible School —a nd what a work he has done! The evening was blessed with the presence of three former Principals of Dumisani, and between them (ably supported by David Meredith and Bob Akroyd) they led us through some of the history of Dumisani and its plans and hopes for the future. Rev. Dr Alistair I. Wilson introduced the evening and its main speaker, Dr Jack Whytock. Dr Whytock then took the floor to offer a fascinating and uplifting insight into the last four decades of Dumisani. Dumisani Bible School, as Dr Whytock explained, originated out of the ‘Bible School’ movement in the mid-19th century. This movement sought, at a time when secondary education was not guaranteed, to offer all Christians the chance of an education in the Bible and in evangelism and mission. In the midst of the so-called ‘layman’s revival’, ordinary Christians were showing a desire for Bible knowledge and the ability to evangelise, and so the Bible schools sought to provide this vocational training, as a complement to the formal training offered by theological colleges and universities. Alongside this, and most exciting for us at Free Church Books, this movement also sought to provide cheap, mass-produced Christian literature for all, selling everything possible for Christian growth. In the 1970s, the effects of this were felt in the Transkei area of South Africa, where the need had developed for a new Bible school, thanks to local church growth and a desire for better theological teaching. In February 1979, therefore, the ‘Dimbaza Reformed Bible School’ was established by a partnership of local denominations, and its work of Bible teaching and short courses for local people was immediately encouraging. It was a ministry that was dynamic, committed and full of literature. There was a reading room, and a literature ministry — the local population were hungry for knowledge of God and his Word. In 1987, the school moved to King William’s Town,

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and became ‘Dumisani Bible School’; ‘dumisani’ is the Xhosa word for ‘praise’. In the years that followed, the printing and literature work increased, and was accompanied by the introduction of higher educational degrees to run alongside the full range of Bible School classes. In this way, ‘Dumisani Theological Institute & Bible School’, as it became known, has touched the lives of thousands of people. It surely isn’t an overstatement to say that its graduates have done a remarkable gospel work in South Africa, and continue to do so today. 2019, as its fortieth anniversary year, is also the start of a new chapter of reorganisation, renewal and streamlining. Dumisani now has an indigenous Principal for the first time in its history, Wilbert Chipenyu, and is welcoming in new teaching staff and students. It is truly ecumenical, but still biblically reformed. Moreover, whilst they are not printing so much literature themselves, they are now in partnership with The Gospel Coalition’s Theological Famine Relief — an exciting project which specifically aims to spread theological literature ever farther, and provide resources for pastoral training. And although Dumisani may not be printing so much anymore, they have still produced a wonderful celebratory book for this forty-year anniversary: Voices of Thanksgiving. Beautifully designed and carefully curated, this book brings together the stories of over 25 contributors, each of whom raises their individual voice in thanksgiving for what God has done for them through Dumisani. The aim of this book is to show that the story of Dumisani is many stories, just as in God’s Kingdom many tribes come together and become one people under him. If we can celebrate anything, let us celebrate that. On this high note, the evening finished in prayer from Rev. Billy Graham, and in fellowship together over South African baked goods. There is so much to be thankful for in the story of Dumisani, and its future is as full of gospel promise as its past has been in gospel fruit. Do keep them in your prayers. • Over 300 copies of ‘Voices of Thanksgiving’ have been distributed in Jack & Nancy Whytock’s recent tour of Scotland, but more are still available. If you would like to receive a copy of this uplifting book, please contact Free Church Books on books@ freechurch.org.

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PRAYER DIARY JULY/A UG 2019

‘Who can hide in secret places so that I cannot see them?’ declares the LORD. ‘Do not I fill heaven and earth?’ declares the LORD. Jeremiah 23:24 Mon 15th 21 students graduated from Cornerstone College in Holland on Saturday. Pray for them as they move on to various mission organisations and ministries. Tues 16th Pray for God to use the parents’ workshops being held in San Andrés to help parents fulfil their responsibilities well. This is not easy since life in Lima is very hectic with the majority of parents working extremely long hours, which leaves little time for family. Wed 17th Many churches are running holiday clubs over the summer. Give thanks for all those who give time to this ministry and pray for all the children who hear the gospel in a fun environment. Thurs 18th Pray that South Sudan’s leaders will continue to seek a way forward that avoids bloodshed. It is home to 77 people groups, seven of which are unreached. Fri 19th Angus and Kirsty McKellar, North Harris Free Church, are preparing to start teaching positions at the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology Medical School in the DPRK for a period of 3 years. They will leave in late August and be there for 2 semesters each year, returning home between each one. Sat 20th Pray for all the campers heading to Renfrew and the MacDonalds and Murchisons as they head up that camp. Pray to for all those heading home from camp today. Sun 21st This morning remember the congregation of Assynt & Eddrachillis in your prayers. Pray that they and the Rev. Ian Allan, their interim moderator, will continue to witness in that widespread community. Mon 22nd Although our parliaments are in recess at the moment, continue to pray for all our MPs in their responsibilities in their constituencies.. Tues 23rd Adam asks us to praise God for large numbers of Central Asian refugees and asylum-seekers in Germany who are coming to trust in Jesus. Some German churches are very active in welcoming and discipling them Wed 24th Give thanks for Catriona MacDonald’s involvement in a church course which trains folks in sharing their faith with Muslims. Pray God would use this course to raise up folks

to pray and witness with love, urgency and the power of the Spirit. Thurs 25th Give thanks for those who have felt God’s call to the Free Church ministry and pray that the Lord may be pleased to call more. Fri 26th Pray for Jayne Coleman as she settles into the post of Finance Manager in the church offices. Sat 27th Three more camps begin today. Pray for safety in travel for all the campers and leaders heading to Harris, Kincraig and Renfrew and those leaving the Junior Renfrew camp. Sun 28th Pray for the vacant congregation of Kiltearn and Rev. Angus MacRae as their interim moderator. Pray that their worship services today would uplift their spirits. Mon 29th Pray that doors will remain open in Israel for outreach and ministry. The growing openness within Israeli society creates an excellent opportunity to present the full message of the Word of God. Tues 30th Please pray for the new intake of 1st-year students at WEC International College in Holland. For many, this is their first step in their calling to serve God overseas. Pray they will settle in quickly and adjust well to living in a multicultural community. Wed 31st Pray for Rev. Alex MacDonald as he serves in giving pastoral support to ministers, that this would meet needs. Thurs 1st Pray for God to protect and develop the ministry of San Andrés, moving into the second century under the motto ‘The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom’. Fri 2nd Pray for the World on our Doorstep (WoOD), a partnership working around Govanhill Free Church which is situated in the UK’s most ethnically and linguistically diverse square mile outside of London. Sat 3rd There are many of our young folk on the roads today travelling home from camp. Pray that they will all have enjoyed their time of fun and grown in their knowledge of the Lord. Sun 4th Give thanks for the growing numbers worshipping in Brora. Pray for Rev. Roddy Macrae as interim moderator and for Rev. Ricky MacDonald, who gives regular supply there.

Mon 5th Pray for all those you know who are mourning. May they be aware of our heavenly Father being a comfort to them through the pain and heartache of loss. Tues 6th Give thanks for all those who work in care homes and who care for people in their own homes. Wed 7th Pray for the Queen and the extended royal family. Give thanks for Her Majesty’s faithful service to the country Thurs 8th Pray that the Continuous Professional Development programme for our ministers would be helpful and an encouragement to them. Fri 9th Pray for the five-year-old church plant in Collique, Peru. The WfM project will raise funds to help this young church transform its shantytown on the outskirts of Lima with the power of the gospel. Sat 10th The final camp of the summer begins today. Pray for the group of young adults going to B.A.S.E. Camp under the leadership of Calum ‘Honda’ and Christina MacMillan. Sun 11th Pray for the congregation of Bonar Bridge & Lairg as they go to worship today. Remember Rev. Alasdair MacAulay, their interim moderator, as he works to support and encourage them. Mon 12th Pray for all our emergency service workers as they often find themselves in difficult and sometimes dangerous situations. Tues 13th Another three camps begin today. Pray for Susan MacLean, Stewart Johnson, Deuan Jones and Paula White and their teams as they lead their teams in Kincraig, Dunbar and Renfrew. A team from Scotland and England will visit Burundi under the auspices of Mission International. The team is made up of nurses who will engage with refugee returnees to help with hygiene training and delivery, and Bible teachers who will teach in three different locations over three weeks to train rural pastors in church ministry. Wed 14th Give thanks for the book ‘Voices of Thanksgiving’, showing that the story of Dumisani is many stories, just as in God’s Kingdom many tribes come together and become one people under him. If we can celebrate anything, let us celebrate that.

Prayer requests to: ian.macdonald57@btinternet.com. Please take time to send requests for your congregation or ministry to be included in forthcoming Records. These prayer notes are prepared 5 weeks in advance of publication.

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FREE CHURCH GENERAL ASSEMBLY MAY 2019 MODERATORâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S ADDRESS: REV. DONALD G. MACDONALD

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Come with me and you’ll be In a world of pure imagination Take a look and you’ll see Into your imagination We’ll begin with a spin Traveling in the world of (God’s) creation What we’ll see will defy Explanation Pure Imagination© Taradam Music, Inc

All this began in the mind, the imagination of God. And as his imagination is expressed in this extraordinary universe, so his glory is revealed. The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. Psalm 19:1-4, NIV

ook through the telescope and you will see a show that is a remarkable expression of the

imagination of god, and it is spectacular. He is the Director that has written every part, he is the Artist who painted the whole canvas, he is the Architect who drew up the grand design, he is Engineer who pieced it all together. Look through the telescope into our observable universe and you will see at least 200 billion galaxies, each with hundreds of billions of stars, a universe that is ever expanding but held together with forces and counter forces, so finely tuned in order to allow something quite special to exist, each part obeying laws that have been established with mathematical precision. And in the vastness of it all there is one galaxy, brilliantly constructed with 140 billion stars, the nearest of which, the sun, is orbited by spinning planets all placed so precisely that one becomes particularly interesting: the blue planet, earth. A planet of vast oceans and land masses, all teaming with a thing called life, the diversity of which is mind-boggling. For… God made hummingbirds as small as bees and whales as big as buses, chameleons that can change to any colour, sloths that grow moss on their backs, parrots that can talk and swifts that sleep while they are flying, moths that look like leaves and insects that look like sticks, skunks that smell disgusting (except to other skunks), squirrels that fly, bees that dance, worms that eat mud and goats that eat anything, dolphins that smile, crocodiles that grin and hyenas that laugh, butterflyfish and parrotfish and lionfish and batfish and catfish and dogfish and hogfish, hairy caterpillars and bald eagles, beavers that build dams and moles that dig tunnels, kangaroos that carry their babies in pouches and pelicans with beaks like shopping bags, sharks with teeth like razors, beetles with antlers, gorillas as strong as ten men, jumping fleas and jumping spiders, toads that blow themselves up like balloons, electric eels and beetles that glow in the dark, bears that sleep all winter long, termites that make tall houses tough as concrete, salmon that can swim up waterfalls, lizards like dragons, elephants with noses like hoses and squids that squirt ink. He made animals that sing and squawk and pout and hiss and hoot and howl and honk and chirp and peck and pounce and flap and fly and slide and slither and squirm and creep and crawl and prowl and growl and gallop and glide and dive and swoop and jump and hang and warble and squeak and roar… and he made the duck-billed platypus too! Nick Butterworth, Wonderful Earth

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‘For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made’ Romans 1:20, NIV But he is the God not just of the big picture but also of the tiniest pixels. Come away from the telescope and look down the microscope and you will see universes in miniature that are equally spectacular. Here too are worlds where he is the Director, the Artist, the Architect, the Engineer. See an atom with its own nucleus, made up of a specific number of protons and neutrons, with electrons whizzing around them. They provide the tiny building blocks of everything. These minute worlds are also governed by rules and laws, which they obey with mathematical precision. There begin endless atomic possibilities. Bonds are made between the rather negative anions and the ever-positive cations, because opposites attract. Others decide just to share electrons because they are especially close. Molecules and compounds form with unique characteristics, and then there is the greatest mystery of all, living cells, thoroughly researched and yet their very existence still defies explanation, and their beginning defies replication. There will always be mystery in the world of God’s creation. This fantastic expression of his pure imagination will always be fascinating to explore IMAGINATION OF GOD IN MAN God imagined man. And he imagined woman. He imagined us. We are specks of dust and yet we would act as mirrors and containers of his imagination more than anything else in the grand expanse of his universe. We would be uniquely handcrafted by him to stand out in his created order. Into us he would breathe living souls. To us he would give a different level of intelligence and self-consciousness, but more than that, ‘astoundingly, in the course of his creation of man and woman, he imagined himself’ (Veith & Ristuccia, Imagination Redeemed: Glorifying God with a Neglected Part of Your Mind). For God said, ‘Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the

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longer a world of pure imagination, but rather a world where ‘every inclination and thought (imaginations) of the human heart was evil all the time’ (Genesis 6:5 NIV). What was given as a gift for God’s glory, to dream and plan for him, now schemed and plotted against him. Greater resistance would be encountered in the desert, from the one who was more than the imagebearer, for he was the radiance of God’s glory, the exact representation of his being (Hebrews 1). He too would have the devil appeal to his imagination; ‘Imagine this stone as bread, imagine the angels being sent to save you, imagine the glory of the kingdoms being given to you,’ but his imagination remained resolutely harmonised with the Father’s in heaven. He would remain obedient, even to the point of death, ever imagining the joy set before him. He would model for us what it meant to have our imaginations subject to the mind of God. In addition, he would open our eyes to see the significance of the imagination as a formidable factory for sin.

sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.’ So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. Genesis 126-27, NIV Upon us he would stamp his likeness so that, like him, we would live in community; it would not be good for man to be alone. Like him, Father, Son and Spirit, we would have the ability to intelligently communicate with each other, ever developing languages and technology that would enable us to do so effectively. Like him we would have this desire to create, we too would want to be directors and artists and architects and engineers. We would be unable to imagine an existence where there was no community, no creativity, no communication; we would have to compose and paint and write and talk and make and build and research and discover and explore, and why? Because when the imaging of God was stamped upon us, the imagination of God was placed within us. ‘It’s startling at first to realize that we’re the only creatures who have been given the gift of an imagination. With it, God has given us the capacity to image the imperceptible; that is, to visualize things that aren’t present.’ (Richard Doster, God’s Purpose for Man’s Imagination) All too often we dismiss our imagination as a childish thing that creates a world of make-believe and fairy tales. Or we see imagination as the reserve of the arty types whose heads are in the clouds. It is not so. Our imagination is God-given, and our imagination is Godlike. It is threaded into the very fabric of our beings. It is not divorced from reason and intelligence. God-given imagination removes dullness and not only allows us to see and create beauty and magnificence, it gives us the capacity to picture the not-yet, to make that picture a purpose, and to realise that purpose through a plan. It is the driving force behind everything. And ultimately its intended function was always to reveal the glory of God.

You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Matthew 5:27, NIV In the picture-house of our minds a secret life can be lived. In the factory of our hearts our imaginations can act as conveyor belts of sinful desires, producing things contrary to the mind and heart of God, none of which expresses his imaging, none of which brings him glory. IMAGINATION OF GOD IN REDEMPTION The same God who imagined creation also imagined redemption. A redemption that would result in a ‘palingenesis’, a recreation of all things, ushering in a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwells righteousness. All that was forfeited in Eden would be restored. Redemption was pictured in the mind of God even before the creation of the world and, as with creation, that picture was his wise purpose for which he had the perfect plan. Redemption, however, would come at a price,

IMAGINATION AND THE FALL However, into the garden the devil came with evil intent and immediately he went for the jugular. ‘Eve, can you imagine how good it will taste? Can you imagine the effect it will have? Can you imagine being equal to God?’ When she saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she imagined, ‘not Death but Life Augmented, op’nd Eyes, new Hopes, new Joyes, Taste so Divine, that what of sweet before Hath toucht (her) sense, flat seems to this and harsh.’ (John Milton, Paradise Lost) And so, she took some and ate it. Paradise was lost. Everything changed. It was no

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For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. 1Peter 1:18-20, NIV) For God chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and

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God imagined man. And he imagined woman. He imagined us. We are specks of dust and yet we would act as mirrors and containers of his imagination.

nor an in-depth theological study on the nature of imagination. I haven’t discussed the relationship between imagination and reason, or imagination and memory, or imagination and knowledge. I have not examined inclusive and exclusive imagination. I will not be discussing the thoughts and writings of Aristotle, or Descartes, or Sartre…and not just because I imagine it would bore you to tears, but also because ‘I am a bear of very little brain and long words bother me’ (A. A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh). You see, even if I wanted to, the truth is I Kant, with a capital K! And yet, despite being a ‘bear of little brain’, I dare to disagree with Albert Einstein, who said, ‘The imagination is more important than knowledge,’ for I recognise that knowledge and imagination are not competitors but perfect partners. Just as imagination is not more important than knowledge, neither is knowledge more important than imagination. Yet we tend to exalt one, often at the expense of the other. The philosopher David Hume observed, ‘Men are mightily governed by the imagination.’ I want to make an appeal for us to be more ‘mightily governed’ by our imagination when it comes to our Christian living, our pastoral care, our preaching and teaching, and our mission.

will—to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us. Ephesians 1:4-7, NIV There is, and there will be, a redemption because there is, and there always will be, a Redeemer: Jesus, God’s own son. The created order has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth, waiting to be liberated from its bondage to decay, eagerly waiting for the children of God to be revealed. All too often we, the children of God, speak of Jesus saving our souls, forgetting that he came to redeem us completely—mind, body and soul. This involves the process of putting off the old self with its practices and putting on a new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of the creator. It involves spiritual worship, but also the offering of our bodies as living sacrifices, and it involves being transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:1-2). Our fallen imaginations may entertain sin, and may lead us to idolatry, but under the new management of Christ, fed by the Word and led by the Spirit, our imaginations redeemed are again tools to be used in the service of God for his glory. By now you will have realised that it is not my intention to give an academic philosophical paper,

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IMAGINATION IN CHRISTIAN LIVING Rankin Wilbourne, who gets a thumbs-up from Tim Keller in his book Union with Christ, claims,‘Imagination >>

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<< is necessary if we are to know and enjoy God.... We must use our imaginations if we want to fully inhabit and experience the Christian life.’ How we imagine ourselves before God greatly affects our relationship with him. How we imagine God is hugely significant in how we approach him. Do we visualise a God with a clenched fist or a God with open arms? To enable us to understand the relationship that we should enjoy with him, the supreme picture he gives us is that of him as our Father, we as his children. ‘See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are’ (1 John 4:1)! It is in that picture we find our true identity; in that picture we see his wondrous love. But that is not the only picture he gives. He is the shepherd, we are his sheep; he is the husband, we are his wife; he is the vine, we are the branches; we are his body, he is our head; we are the building, he is the cornerstone; he is the Master, we are his servants. Each of these images is needed to help us grasp who and what we are before him. As his children we can trust him, as his sheep we receive his protection and care, as his wife we enjoy his love and self-sacrifice, as branches we must be in constant communion with the Christ-vine, as his body we are ever united to him and each other, as his building we find our strength in him the Cornerstone, as his servants we learn from him and live a life of obedience to him. Picture after picture is given to encourage us to ‘fully inhabit and experience the Christian life’.

And picture after picture is given to encourage us as we go to serve him. We are to imagine ourselves as farmers planting seed, as soldiers wearing armour, as athletes straining to win, as fishermen casting a net, as slaves set free. No one picture fully captures the richness of what we are and have in Christ, so several are given. They hang like outfits in the wardrobe of God’s Word, and depending on the occasion we can choose the most appropriate thing to wear. Today, just in case, I chose the full armour of God. IMAGINATION IN PASTORAL CARE Into a broken world came the Son of God clothed in humanity. The Word was made flesh and set up tent among us. He shared in our humanity. He had to be made like us in every way in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God. Because he himself was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted (Hebrews 2:14-18). We have a great high priest who is able to feel sympathy for our weaknesses because he has been tested in every way just as we are, so that we can confidently approach him to find mercy and grace in our times of need (Hebrews 4:14-16). The incarnate Christ became one of us, he knows us, he understands us, he is full of compassion towards us. Jesus wept. In our broken world, we, broken people, encounter broken lives and broken hearts. We are called to

No one picture fully captures the richness of what we are and have in Christ, so several are given. They hang like outfits in the wardrobe of God’s Word, and depending on the occasion we can choose the most appropriate thing to wear.

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minister the love of Christ in increasingly complicated situations for which we often feel unprepared and illequipped. There are occasions when we find ourselves ministering to others in circumstances that reflect our own experiences. At such times we give thanks to God for the ability to appreciate and understand what they are going through so that we ‘can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves received from God’ (2 Corinthians 1:4, NIV). But whether the situations are familiar or not, for us, incarnation into the lives and experiences of others is achieved through imagination. We have to imagine what it must be like for them, what it must feel like for them, and we are to imagine ourselves in the same situation. It is only as we do so that we can rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. It is imagination that gives birth to empathy and compassion as we incarnate ourselves into someone else’s shoes. It is only then that we can say, ‘Who is weak and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn?’ (2 Corinthians 11:29, NIV) It is our failure to imagine that is often the cause of inadvertent pastoral insensitivity. Whereas we have to teach and apply what the Bible says about issues such as marriage and divorce, about sexuality and gender, about family and children, about suffering and death, sometimes we need to stop and imagine what it must be like to hear the things we are saying, and the way we are saying them, as if we, or those close to us, were going through a break-up, or struggling with sexuality, or unable to have family, or grieving the loss of someone we love. I am not suggesting that understanding the complexities of many of these issues can be done simply by imagining, but it does help in guarding against being pastorally insensitive and lacking empathy. We can never change what we teach, but if we imagine what it is like for others, we may have to reconsider the timing and tone of our teaching. Christ also gives us another important picture to imagine in order to transform our pastoral practice. There are times that you go into a Care Home to take worship and hardly anyone is awake, times when you are having nonsensical conversations with someone suffering from advanced dementia, times when you are sitting at the side of a bed reading and praying with someone, that you suspect may not even know you are there, and there is temptation to ask the question, what is the point? Jesus asks us to imagine the Day of days when he, the King, returns, and says, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ Matthew 25:34-40, NIV Pastoral care is transformed when we recognise the image of God in those we care for, when we appreciate their inherent worth and beauty, when we incarnate ourselves into their situations, but also when we imagine ourselves ministering for Christ, and to Christ. IMAGINATION IN PREACHING AND TEACHING The God who is there is not silent. He speaks through his world and he speaks through his Word, and just as his world expresses his imagination and reveals his glory, so does his Word in all its technicolour brilliance. As the Spirit carried men of old to pen the Scriptures, he employed a variety of characters and styles; kings, butlers, shepherds, fishermen, doctors; historical narrative, prophecy, wisdom, song, poetry, gospel, epistle and the fascinating apocalyptic revelations. The Bible is a storybook, a songbook, a picture book, a history book, but never a boring book. Authors and artists have sought to engage our imaginations to convey further the stories and the teaching of the Bible. John Milton takes us to Eden to see the tragedy of the Fall. John Bunyan in The Pilgrim’s Progress invited us to walk with Christian on the way to the Celestial City. While we walked, we recognised places and experiences along the way. We knew Doubting Castle, we had been in the Slough of Despond, we had felt the burden fall of our backs at the sight of the cross, and with Christian we sang, ‘Blessed cross, blessed sepulchre, blessed rather be the man that was there put to shame for me!’ With thankfulness and relief, we yielded to Francis Thomson’s Hound of Heaven, for we too had fled him down the nights and down the days, we had fled him down the arches of the years, we fled him down the labyrinth ways of our own minds, and in the midst of tears we hid from him. We have crawled through the wardrobe into Narnia. We have met Aslan. We have listened to the conversations between Screwtape and Wormwood, and in doing so become less ignorant of the devil’s devices. But, you may say, ‘we are not poets and novelists, we are preachers of the Word’ — and so we are. Preachers of a Word that is peppered with pictures in order to capture our attention by engaging our imagination. It is our task to ‘rightly divide the Word of truth’, to study thoroughly, and exegete accurately, and preach faithfully the biblical texts. However, as the late Warren Weirsbe wrote, ‘In our noble attempt to be biblical preachers, we have so emphasised the analytical that we have forgotten the poetic. We see the trees waving their branches but we hold the branches still, examine them scientifically, leaf >>

<< and twig, and all the while fail to hear the trees clapping their hands at the glory of God’ (W. W. Weirsbe, Preaching and Teaching with Imagination). Jesus was a preacher, and what a preacher! He would minister because as he looked at the people, he saw them harassed and helpless and imagined them as sheep without a shepherd. To them he would preach the truth knowing that the truth would set them free. In order to communicate that truth effectively Christ preached imaginatively. Often, he preached as if ears were eyes and in doing so, he projected powerful points for his hearers to see. He would take the familiar scenes of everyday life and use them to illustrate and communicate the gospel message. When he sat on the mountainside and taught his disciples, he began with a brilliantly constructed rhythmic piece that taught them what it meant to be blessed. He used the simple examples of household items, salt and lamps, to remind them of their function in the world. He brings them into the temple and to the familiar scenes of making an offering at the altar, of the pompous giving of alms by the Pharisees, and the elaborate prayers they made. He takes them in their mind’s eye out to the field and says, ‘Look at the birds flying in the sky and see how God looks after them. See the flowers of the field, how they grow, and God provides for them. Are you not more precious than birds, are you not more important than flowers?’ He uses pictures that are shocking — ‘if your right hand offend you, cut it off!’ And pictures that are humorous — ‘you see the speck of dust in his eye but not the massive plank in your own', 'if your son asks for a fish, do you slip him a snake?’ He finishes with a story — ‘There were two men each going to build a house. One was wise and one was foolish, one built on a rock and the other on sand, and the rain came down and the floods went up and the house on the sand went crash! And the rain came down and the floods came up and the house on the rock stood firm.’ The point? Build your life on the Lord Jesus Christ and the blessings from heaven will come down (Matthew 5-7). Listening to his teaching is often like watching film shorts. Have you seen the one about the good Samaritan, or the prodigal son, or the great feast, or the lost sheep, or the rich fool, or the fig tree, or the unforgiving servant, or the pearl of great price, or the sower, or the tenants, or the talents? For once seen, never forgotten. He would demonstrate and illustrate with familiar scenes, people’s life experiences and new stories. He would use current affairs (the Tower of Siloam) and visual aids (he took a child and stood him among them). He would use horror and humour, but all in order to engage his hearers so that they would listen, and remember, and respond to, the message of the Kingdom. Paul was a preacher — he would go into Athens, a place full of intellectuals and thinkers, but as he stood up to preach in the Areopagus he would not give a dry scholarly exegesis of a passage of Scripture but would tell his audience about his personal experience of the city. He would use a well-known landmark as his starting point; an object of worship, very familiar

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to his hearers, something that they saw every day. He would remind them of words that they read every time they walked by it: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. He would directly and indirectly make reference to old stories and scripture texts, and he would quote contemporary poets. But always with the intention of leading his hearers to imagine the possibility of knowing God through the man appointed to judge the world, the Christ who had been raised from the dead (Acts 17). As we prepare and deliver our sermons it should be our aim to be faithful to the Word, but that should not be our only aim. We are not just to relate, but we are to communicate the Gospel. The question we should ask ourselves is not, ‘Did I tell them?’ but ‘Did I tell them in a way that they could engage with, in a way that the message could be understood, in a way that they could see, in a way that they will remember?’ Walter Brueggemann, an Old Testament scholar, said, ‘The key pathology of our time, which seduces us all, is the reduction of the imagination, so that we are too numbed, satiated, and co-opted to do serious imaginative work’ (W Brueggemann, Interpretation and Obedience). If that is true with respect to our preaching and teaching, we are without excuse. We have endless resources at our fingertips. We have Scripture with which to illustrate Scripture, but we also have life experiences to observe and to share, we have history and current affairs, we have politicians and celebrities, we have literature and art, we have poetry and song, we have film and TV, we have Google! All providing materials to illustrate and demonstrate scripture truths. We can use everything from Banksy to Stormzy to illustrate the pain of Love in the Bin, or the wonder of being Blinded by His Grace. Some of you may have read Spurgeon’s Lectures to my Students. In one of his lectures he is scathing about the standard of preaching in his day. He says, No (anaesthetic) can ever equal some discourses in sleep-giving properties; no human being, unless gifted with infinite patience, could long endure listening to them, and nature does well to give the victim deliverance through sleep. I heard one say the other day that a certain preacher had no more gifts for the ministry than an oyster, and in my own judgment that was a slander to the oyster, for that worthy bivalve shows great discretion in his openings and knows when to close. If some men were sentenced to hear their own sermons it would be a righteous judgment upon them, and they would soon cry out with Cain, ‘My punishment is far greater than I can bear.’ We have been blessed to come from a tradition of some remarkable preachers whose discourses could never be accused of possessing sleep-giving properties. Their preaching and teaching could transport you to much better places than the Land of Nod. I have walked with Douglas MacMillan in the cool of the day and was startled by the voice that shouted with such arresting power, ‘Adam! Adam! Where art thou, Adam?’ I sat under a tree with Professor Collins and Nathanael contemplating the meaning of Jacob’s ladder, until Jesus came along, and Nathanael had to go. I got on board with

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We do what we can but often without a real sense of expectation or conviction or ambition because at times it seems to us like an impossible mission.

Davie Paterson and Captain Will sailing into a storm on Shipman Soul, and I heard the cry, ‘Turn back, turn back.’ I hid in the shadows of Gethsemane with Donald Macleod with our eyes fixed on Jesus, witnessing that jaw-dropping moment when an angel came to strengthen our Lord. I stood beside Alex MacDonald outside Pilate’s Palace and we cried together as the guilty Barabbas was set free and the innocent Christ was condemned in his place. I watched in wonder with Alasdair I. Macleod as Jesus was lifted heavenward, his arms outstretched in benediction. And myself, D.N. Macleod and Paul visited the third heaven on several occasions, whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, but I do know that each time on my return, I was convinced that God’s grace was sufficient for me and that his strength was made perfect in my weakness. These men, ever faithful to the Word, used words to engage the imagination so that we not only heard the Gospel story, but saw it, we felt it, we smelt it, we touched it, we lived within it, and our lives were changed by it. We must not lose that ability to communicate the glorious gospel of salvation in a way that is clear and engaging. We correctly emphasise the need for rigorous theological training and continuous theological study. We correctly stress the need to exegete accurately the Scripture texts so that we can present to our congregations the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. We correctly seek to instruct the minds of our listeners as we give the reason, the logic, for the hope within us. However, to quote John Piper from his book God is Not Boring:

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The supremacy of God in the life of the mind is not honoured when God and his amazing world are observed truly, analysed duly, and communicated boringly. Imagination is the key to killing boredom. We must imagine ways to say truth for what it really is. And it is not boring. God’s world–all of it–rings with wonders. The imagination calls up new words, new images, new analogies, new metaphors, new illustrations, new connections to say old, glorious truth. Imagination is the faculty of the mind that God has given us to make the communication of his beauty beautiful. Given the limitless libraries of resources, given the endless albums of pictures, given the volumes of dictionaries available to us, given the wonder of the glory revealed in the World and in the Word, how dare we preach the good news of the Gospel in monotone, and present the wonder of the Saviour in monochrome? We must make ‘the communication of his beauty beautiful’. IMAGINATION IN MISSION ‘You are my witnesses,’ he said. ‘Go into all the earth and make disciples of all nations,’ he said. It was not so much a suggestion; it was an instruction. Yet this instruction we receive as if we were Ethan Hunt, so that whatever Christ actually said, what we hear is, ‘this is your mission if you choose to accept it’. And we do accept it, sort of. We do what we can but often without a real sense of expectation or conviction or ambition because at times it seems to us like an >>

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<< impossible mission. To address such a spirit the Bible stimulates our imagination with astounding pictures. God takes the prophet Ezekiel into a valley of bones and challenges him with a simple question. ‘Son of man, can these bones live?’ What do you imagine can happen in this situation? What possibility can you see in your mind’s eye? Can this place be transformed? Ezekiel has the sense to recognise that his imagination is limited, so he answers, ‘Lord, you alone know.’ And God gives him a command to speak to the bones, which at any time would seem like madness. He is to say to the bones, ‘Dry bones, hear the Word of the Lord,’ something he will only do if he pictures what God pictures, something he will only do if he has glimpsed, and shares in, the imagination of God. And so he speaks, and so he prays, and amazing things happen. The bones come together, bone to bone. Tendons and flesh appear, and skin covers them, and breath comes into them and they stand on their feet, a vast army. Imagine! (Ezekiel 37) Scotland is a secular country and increasingly so. Church attendance is falling, the national denominations are largely in a mess, the politics of our day has rejected Christian principles, the Christian voice is ridiculed as being outdated for the 21st century. Yet to bring the gospel to our nation is our mission — if we choose to accept it. Some years ago, we imagined planting one church each year for ten years. We had sufficient imagination to see the picture but not sufficient to make it our purpose or to draw up a plan. That was then, this is now. Some have seen the possibilities and imagined new churches being planted throughout Scotland. The picture became their purpose and for that purpose they made a plan. And now we have Cornerstone, Esk Valley, Haddington, Charleston, Govan, Stirling, Christ Church, Merkinch, and more to come. We have watched a steady decline in many of our established congregations, urban and rural. Some have seen the possibilities and have imagined revitalisation, and for them it has become a purpose and for that purpose they have tracked a plan. As we look across Scotland perhaps we can hear the challenge, ‘Sons of men, can these bones live?’ What do you imagine can happen in this situation? What possibilities can you see in your mind’s eye? Can this place be transformed? If we have but glimpsed what God pictures to us in Scripture, we will speak and we will pray, and breath will enter in, and Scotland will come to life and we will know that God is the Lord. The mission, if we choose to accept it, is not just to Scotland but to all nations. We are thankful that we can now find all nations in Scotland, and we have opportunities on our doorstep. However, we still have that call to go to the ends of the earth with the gospel of Jesus Christ. How we do so is challenging and changing. Increasingly we will need to use our imagination as how best to resource and fulfil the great commission. But fulfil it we must. And to assure us that such efforts are not wasted God gives us a snapshot of what he sees, a snapshot of what will be.

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After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: ‘Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.’ Rev 7:9-10, NIV Can you see it? A great multitude. Every nation, every tribe, every people and every language; and they are all before the throne! Imagine. And can you see what they see? Look who is at the centre of the throne. There is the Creator, there is the Redeemer, there is the Lamb, there is the Lord our Shepherd, there is the King of Kings. To him praises are sung: ‘Worthy is the Lamb who was slain To receive power and wealth and Wisdom and strength And honour and glory and praise’ (Rev 5:12, NIV) Before him, the angels fall down on their faces and worship. Before him, the elders cast their crowns and say, ‘You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honour and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.’ Rev 4:11, NIV Can you see it? ‘God has exalted him to the highest place and given him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father’ Philippians 2:9-11, NIV This is the picture of God, this is the purpose of God, this is the plan of God. And we are part of that plan. That’s why we live for Christ, that’s why we pastor, that’s why we preach, that is why we church plant, that is why we revitalise, that is why we go to the ends of the earth. Every knee bowing! Every tongue confessing that Jesus Christ is Lord! Can you see it? Can you hear it? Imagine! You may say that I am a dreamer, but fathers and brethren, ladies and gentlemen, as I look around today, I thank God I can see that I am not the only one. It is therefore with that picture, with that purpose and with that plan that we now meet together in General Assembly.•

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All Photography by Blue Sky Photography

Every knee bowing! Every tongue confessing that Jesus Christ is Lord! Can you see it? Can you hear it? Imagine! You may say that I am a dreamer, but fathers and brethren, ladies and gentlemen, as I look around today, I thank God I can see that I am not the only one.

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BEHIND THE SCENES â&#x20AC;&#x201D; MORE PHOTOS FROM THE ASSEMBLY... Pictures courtesy of Evan Macdonald and Blue Sky Photography (www.blueskyphotography.co.uk_ Rev. Angus MacRae, Dingwall & Strathpeffer, Retiring Moderator with Rev. Donald G. Macdonald, Portree & Bracadale and new Moderator

Rev. Neil L. Macdonald, Lochbroom & Coigach leading the Assembly in praise

Rev. Paul Clarke, St Andrews, consults with the Assembly Clerk Rev. Malcolm Macleod, Shawbost

Mission Co-ordinator Sarah Johnson and Rev. David Meredith, Convener of Ecumenial Relations

Sam Mackenzie, Dowanvale and Rev. Duncan Peters, Asian Outreach

Ms Elaine Duncan, Scottish Bible Society

Point of view from the Assembly Clerks desk

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Three Wise Men - Rev. Neil MacMillan, Cornerstone, (Edinburgh), Rev. David Meredith, Ecumenical Relations and Rev. Bob Ackroyd, Mission Board

Lord High Commissioner Richard Walter John Montagu Douglas Scott, The Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry, with Rev Neil Gardner (Chaplain)

Rev. Colin L. Macleod, Gairloch, Kinlchewe and Torridon, shares a laugh with Rev. Iver Martin, Principal, ETS

Al MacInnes, Dornoch takes centre stage with Rev. Paul Clarke, St. Andrews and Rev. Andrew Macleod, Tain & Fearn

Prof. James Fraser praying for Rev. David A. Robertson, St. Peters, Dundee ,retiring editor of The Record as he leaves for Australia

John A. Gillies, Rev. Duncan Murchison, Rev. Donald G. Macdonald, Dr Charles L. Crichton â&#x20AC;&#x201C; The Dream Team from Portree

Rev. Nigel Anderson, Livingston consulting "The Blue Book"!

Visiting delegates deep in conversation.

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no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many’ (Hebrews 12:15, NIV). A bitter person is never a happy person.

fter his thoughts on the relative merits of attending a party or a funeral ,

Solomon now moves on to consider how we reflect upon our times (ch.7:7-14). In a series of warnings he tells us to beware of bribery, pride, anger and nostalgia. He tells us that oppression or extortion makes a person foolish and that the temptation of bribery can bring the whole inner life of a man to ruin. He offers us some basic wisdom that I find helpful in getting me through life.

DON’T PINE FOR THE PAST You cannot face the difficulties of one age by pining for another. The good old days are often a combination of a bad memory and a vivid imagination! The Victorian essayist Hilaire Belloc wrote, ‘While you are dreaming of the future or regretting the past, the present, which is all you have, slips from you and is gone.’ T.V. Moore paraphrases this beautifully: ‘Be careful not to let your heart get angry, for you ought to keep in mind that it’s the fool who lets his temper rule his life. And just forget about the “Good Old Days” — as if they were as great as that. The wise man will prefer to look ahead and try to make the most of what’s before him, not to mourn the ghost of times that never were.’

PATIENCE IS BETTER THAN PRIDE Patience is essential in coping with life. We cannot know the outcome of anything until it is completed and so we need patience. We do not know the end from the beginning. ANGER IS DESTRUCTIVE There is a place for anger. But for most of us, most of the time, anger ‘resides in the lap of fools’. It exasperates us. ‘A foolish son brings grief to his father and bitterness to the one who bore him’ (Proverbs 17:25, NIV). In Ecclesiastes anger leads to exasperation at the confusion of life, bereavement and unjust persecution. And it results in bitterness. ‘See to it that no-one misses the grace of God and that

WISDOM IS A BETTER INSURANCE THAN MONEY Wisdom from God is the best inheritance. ‘To be in the shadow of wisdom is like being in the shadow of silver, and knowledge is an advantage.’ There is a sense in which wealth is a protection — but wisdom is even better.

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GOSPEL

FOR TODAY’S

SOCIETY ECCLESIASTES 7:7-14

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In what way is wisdom a shelter? It helps us to make sense of life and to cope. The crookedness of the world is not just fate — it is subject to God. ‘For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope’ (Romans 8:20, NIV). Good times and bad times both have their uses. Good times cause us to be happy, bad to think and reflect upon the realities of life that will hopefully lead us to faith in God. ‘He replied, “You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” In all this, Job did not sin in what he said’ (Job 2:10, NIV). God gives us blessings to make us happy and sorrows to keep us humble. There is a divine balance in life which means that we do not topple over. Moore again — ‘God gives us all our lot in life. He brings us good at times; at other times he stings us with adversity. But here’s the point: We shouldn’t let ourselves get out of joint when trouble comes. Or when we find it hard to make sense out of things. Just trust the Lord, my son. He always does what’s good and right; He’s with us always, whether day or night.’ I suspect that the disciples would have named Easter Friday as Dark

Friday. It was anything but good. It was the darkest of days. Perhaps they thought about the ‘good old days’ when they had witnessed miracles and were taught by Christ; when the crowds had cheered him, and them, as they entered Jerusalem. And now he was dead. Gone. Murdered. They needed wisdom, understanding and above all patience. ‘Wait on the Lord is the cry of the Christian.’ Easter Sunday follows Dark Friday. Joy comes in the morning. Like Solomon we need to ‘consider what God has done’.•

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BOOK REVIEWS This summer, we bring you a range of books to whet your tastebuds, from a companion to the biblical book of Jonah to a taster from our summer mission special. All of these books, unless otherwise stated, are available from our online shop at thefree.church/shop. PROPHETIC FROM THE CENTER DON CARSON (2019) Christians have a bad habit of diverting their early passion for the gospel into a subsequent passion for peripheral issues. In this 50-page booklet Carson challenges us to be passionate most of all for King Jesus and his saving work for the world. Our world needs to hear how it can flee from the coming judgement of God, and only prophetic gospel preaching and evangelism can achieve that. We miss the mark when we assume the gospel and give our energy to secondary concerns. Carson structures his plea around Eight Summarising Words, Five Clarifying Sentences and One Evocative Summary. He has strong emphases on the life of Jesus as historic fact and on how Jesus’ work is aimed at saving us from the just wrath of God directed at our sins. Our proclamation must stress these ‘loudly and repeatedly, in a generation that feels slightly embarrassed when it has to deal with the cognitive and the propositional’. It must also make clear that response to the gospel is indicated by the fruit of transformed character. All in all a robust, relevant and challenging booklet, which pulls no punches theologically or in its linguistic register. It will have an impact on anyone who wants to get to the heart of what the gospel is saying to the present age. • Roddie Rankin, Plockton & Kyle Free Church

JONAH: REBELLION, REPENTANCE & REVIVAL WILLIAM WADE (2018) This book is a helpful companion when reading the book of Jonah. The purpose of the book is not to add academic information, but to make the book of Jonah applicable and to present his challenge as a challenge to our lives. It reads like a series of short sermons, as William Wade takes a verse or a few verses at a time and draws out implications, relays anecdotes, and brings it all back to a main point: God is merciful to everyone, from runaway prophets to sinful cities. At times his conclusions may seem quite different to our own, but there are many helpful points in this book. I enjoyed the anecdotes and the way Wade makes everything as applicable as possible. I would recommend this book to anyone wanting a small, easy read devotional as they read through Jonah. • Jessica Foster, Buccleuch Free Church, Edinburgh (Available from DayOne)

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AN OPEN DOOR MAUD KELLS & JEAN GIBSON (2019) Maud Kells, much like her close friend and mentor Helen Roseveare, is one of those Christians who inspires, awes and shames other believers in equal measure. Maud has lived her entire life in committed and self-sacrificial service in the name of Jesus Christ, and yet she would be the last person to claim that she has done anything unusual or beyond the call of gospel duty. Her life story, however, tells a different story. From her churchgoing but ambivalent childhood, through her nursing training and incredible decades of mission work in Congo, right up to the infamous gunshot injury and OBE shortly before her retirement, Maud (and her imperceptible co-author Jean Gibson) leads the reader through the highs and lows of her walk with God. It is a tale which is incredibly readable, and yet remarkably detailed, and full to the brim of God’s leading hand and powerful Spirit. It is a book that one could read again and again, and gain new spiritual insights each time, but I was particularly struck by two things. The first is Maud’s heartfelt commitment and trust in our Lord to provide, sustain, protect and, often, save. She faced greater dangers than most, but she never lost hope, and her primary thought in those times was always to ensure that she was right with her Saviour. This is an example we would all do well to follow. The second feature of Maud’s story that moved me was her reliance, and gratitude, on multitudes of other faithful friends and strangers to assist and support her. She names a huge number of them, and the reader can tell that they truly touched her heart. Our gospel journey is one that we do not walk alone, and Maud’s story proves this many times over. I would highly recommend this book to all, whether they have a particular heart for international mission or not. • Miriam Montgomery, Free Church Books Maud Kells & Jean Gibson, the authors of An Open Door, will be visiting Scotland on 5th October 2019 to speak at the Scottish Women’s Bible Convention at Charlotte Chapel, Edinburgh. More information can be found at https://scottishwomensbibleconvention.com/.

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RENEWAL JOHN JAMES (2018) Most British congregations are longestablished churches. But few are vigorous, few make a significant gospel impact on the communities of which they are a part, and even fewer train their members to simply and spontaneously share the Good News. Some are positively sick. Others are resistant to change, failing to grasp that change is of the very essence of the Spirit’s work of sanctification, whether in individuals or in congregations. So it is regrettable that little is available to help to get existing, perhaps rundown, congregations renewed, reinvigorated and revitalised for mission. All this makes John James’s Renewal: Church Revitalisation Along the Way of the Cross all the more valuable. The book is short (130 pages). It is possibly too short to be really useful — it is certainly not a handbook — but it is helpful and it is worth reading. Each chapter is short too. Occasionally provocative, sometimes humorous, John James seeks always to be biblical and pastoral. One fault of many books about the Church and its mission is that they forget that any discussion about the Church is ipso facto a discussion about people. This book doesn’t share that fault, but is warm, pastoral, sympathetic and considerate. It is well worth buying, reflecting on and using as a springboard to help towards further thought and action. • John S. Ross Kilmallie & Ardnamurchan Free Church

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MUSIC REVIEWS The Free Church has a surprising depth of musical talent within it. This month we highlight two albums from people with Free Church connections. MAUREEN MACLEOD — MY SHELTER Maureen Macleod is the daughter of Rev. Alasdair I and Cathy Macleod. She attends Esk Valley Free Church, and has an extraordinary talent which she has put to good use in releasing an online album My Shelter. She writes: These songs tell my story of faith in a God I can depend on whether life is going well or seems like a struggle. I wrote and recorded these songs at home over the last couple of years and I am happy to finally be able to share them! One reviewer comments: Maureen Macleod has a voice that seamlessly goes from octave to octave, at times ethereal and wistful and in others of her tracks full of timbre and depth. That this album was home-recorded and sounds full of quality is kept solid by her interwoven harmonies. Regardless of your religious predisposition, the pure notes and quality of Maureen Macleod’s voice give it a memorable and slightly haunting feel. It is a stunning album…Maureen Macleod is Scotland’s Enya! • Available to buy on Amazon Music and iTunes SIMON KENNEDY BAND — ALL OR NOTHING Simon Kennedy, from Dundee, is the Free Church Communications Officer — but he also has another career as a blues guitarist. His latest album is entitled All or Nothing. Firmly rooted in the blues, the band also draws on jazz, funk, rock and gospel influences to share personal songs of love, life and loss. Their first album was voted by the Independent Blues Broadcasters Association as their Album of the Month. With the success of their debut album, the Simon Kennedy Band have been sought out to play and headline major festivals like The Orkney Blues Festival, The Danny Boy Jazz and Blues Festival (N. Ireland), Perth’s Southern Fried Festival and Glasgow’s Merchant City Festival. They also had the pleasure of playing Scotland’s biggest blues club in Edinburgh, in support of Big Joe Louis. The band also co-headlined a sold-out gig in The Spiegeltent during The Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival. Both the Kennedy Band’s albums are excellent. Who would have thought that a Christian-themed blues album from Dundee would become a bestseller?! Simon’s guitar playing is outstanding. For all those who like the blues, and love the gospel — this is a wonderful album. • Available to buy from www.simonkennedyband.com or on Amazon Music

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t was father ’ s day .

I’d sent my husband out to the summer house straight after church to enjoy some child-free reading time. It had been a particularly trying morning with the two-yearold, the four-year-old was demanding attention I didn’t have, and I had an old friend and a work conundrum on my mind. As I chopped the carrots for dinner, the baby started to cry. Please Lord, I prayed instinctively, keep him calm. Just give me a minute to chop these carrots before I attend to him, so I don’t actually lose the plot. I immediately remembered sarcastic articles I’d read where Christians had been characterised as ‘God botherers’ who thought the Almighty was on

With each new baby I’ve been struck anew by my complete dependence on God, just as my baby is completely dependent on me. But even more than this I’m struck by the comfort my baby takes in me, and I in him. The first thing he does in the morning is beam up at me. After being fed, that grin is how he says thank you. He gurgles and smiles to get my attention, just to see me smile back at him. And when he’s upset, his comfort is so immediate and absolute the second I pick him up that it makes me long to be comforted the same way myself. If I take so much delight in my child, how must the Lord see us? If I would do anything for my baby, how much more is the Lord willing to bless us? Come and ask

THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS… AND SMALL PEOPLE DAYSPRING MACLEOD explores lessons she’s learned about the Father from her baby son call to provide them with parking spaces on a busy Saturday. These comments had made me uneasy in the past because I had often prayed for a parking space when running late or feeling unwell! Maybe this is the same thing, I thought. Maybe it’s stupid asking God to hush a baby for two minutes. He has better things to do. Then I remembered my mom and how she came five thousand miles when the baby was born precisely to do those little things. The kind of things we do for people we care about. Help them look for a parking space on a rainy day. Hold the baby when it’s crying and the mum is looking stressed. So I changed my prayer. ‘Lord, hold my baby.’ The call to ‘pray continually’ sounds like an impossible task until you think of prayer as a conversation, an ebb and flow, a walking alongside someone. This means seeing God in the everyday, giving thanks for the everyday, and asking for help with the everyday. The more I think about it, the more ridiculous it seems that, just because God made the vast and grandiose cosmos, we should think he is uninterested in small details. What are galaxies but a network of (to our eyes) infinite fine-tuned details? If he presides over the birth of a planet orbiting a star that we can’t even see, for his own joy and glory, why should we think he scorns the small things in the lives of his own beloved children?

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him with joy and confidence for his presence and his comfort and see how he runs to answer. Psalm 131 used to be somewhat of a mystery to me. O Lord, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvellous for me. But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me. O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forevermore. I see it now in the way that my older children come to me for reassurance or just because they enjoy my company. The baby cries for me wanting milk, but when my two- and four-year-old are upset, they come to me without agenda, without demands, without one eye on what they can get: just wanting me. Wanting to feel safe, to know love, to be held. What a blessing it is when we can come to God the same way. These are some of the ways that Murdo, aged three months, has made me seek the Father — both in need and in gratitude. Oh, and of course he stopped crying. Because the Lord even cares about a hectic Sunday.•

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Τοὐλεύθερον δ’ ἐκεɩ̂ νο· εἴ τις θέλει πόλει Χρηστόν τι βούλευμ’ εἰς μέσον ϕέρειν ἔχων. Καὶ ταν̂θ’ ὁ χρῄζων λαμπρός ἐσθ’, ὁ μὴ θέλων Σιγᾳ̑. τί τούτων ἔστ’ ἰσαίτερον πόλει;

Euripid. Hicetid.

This is true Liberty when free born men Having to advise the public may speak free, Which he who can, and will, deserves high praise, Who neither can nor will, may hold his peace; What can be juster in a State than this? Euripid. Hicetid.

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CENSORING THE INTERNET — A PLEA FROM JOHN MILTON D

a passionate plea called Areopagitica — A speech for the liberty of unlicensed printing, to the Parliament of England. It is a stunning work that has a lot to teach us. Remember, those who refuse to learn from their past will repeat it! Milton argued that suppressing books was like murdering someone. He stated that it was good for Christians to read the works of those who disagreed with them and that mature people should be able to discern what is good and bad, without the government doing it for us. In addition he pointed out that those who would be the licensers were not infallible, nor were they uncorrupt. If we are going to regulate printing (or the internet?) then we are going to have to have government regulation for everything else — from music to clothing. Besides which, we cannot expel sin and evil by censorship and regulation. The State has the right to govern us, but not to be our critics. Do we really think the people are so stupid that we have to be treated like children? The danger with State (or Corporate) censorship is that inevitably we end up excluding much that is good, as well as the bad. Milton also warns that the attempt to control thought, by either State or Church, leads to a ‘forced and outward union of cold and neutral, and inwardly divided minds’. Again, in comments that are so pertinent to our day — he warns that government regulation will inevitably lead to the bigger companies having a monopoly. When God is shaking a kingdom, then of course there will be bad and false teaching, but God will send out teachers of his truth to deal with error. We must not suppress error with the power of the State but defeat it by the truth of Christ. Milton — reflecting the teachings of Christ — surely has a word for our day. The governments should treat us like grown-ups able to think and reason for ourselves. We don’t need them to censor on our behalf — because inevitably they will end up censoring us. Freedom of speech, freedom of thought and freedom of religion are far too precious to be handed over to a government committee or a Californian Mega Corporation. I’ll leave the last word with Milton:

id you know that president stated,

‘Most of what you read on the internet is false’? I’m afraid if you cannot spot the obvious flaw in that statement then you are not worthy of reading this column! However, England’s greatest poet, the 17th-century Puritan John Milton, did have something to say about the internet. Let me explain. Both the EU and the UK governments have recently suggested further strong regulation to seek to control the worldwide web. The EU, despite significant popular protest, has passed radical proposals to severely limit the internet (https://bit.ly/2JdewRB/) This will affect everything from blogs and podcasts to larger sites. YouTube suggested it would mean them taking down 90 million of their videos. It will create a dual internet — a restrictive one for the EU (along with North Korea and China) and a more open one for the rest of the world. Some argue that the EU are going with the big firms and the corporate lobbyists and limiting both freedom of speech and the free market. The UK government have produced their own Online Harms paper (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/ technology-47826946) which effectively proposes an end to self-regulation and instead suggests a government regulator. Some see this as a necessary corrective; others describe it as an historic attack on free speech and freedom of the press. The trouble is, what do you do with material that is not illegal but may be considered harmful? After all, I think liberal theology, TV reality shows and boy bands are harmful. Should they be banned? On the other hand, I am constantly told that my espousal of biblical morality is harmful and should be banned. Where are we heading? This is where John Milton comes in. In the 1640s the UK was split by a civil war — the nation was divided and tempers were running high (plus ça change…!). A relatively new technology, the printing press, was having an enormous impact. And so the politicians in parliament decided they should do something about it and put forward a ‘licensing order’ in June 1643 to regulate the press. Milton responded in 1644 with

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lincoln

‘Where there is much desire to learn, there of necessity will be much arguing, much writing, many opinions; for opinion in good men is but knowledge in the making. ‘Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties.’

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MISSION MATTERS A monthly take on some of the mission work the Free Church is involved in by our Mission Director, DAVID MEREDITH.

‘The Spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind’ (Luke 4:18). Here’s the rub: the chapter reveals that he went through the entire countryside, everyone praised him and his first disciples were small business owners. Equally true is the fact that he saw his role model as Elijah, who bypassed the Jewish widow to minister to a Gentile widow in Sidon. Jesus ministered at Capernaum after his rejection at Nazareth, and the people wanted to keep him, there but he reveals that he cannot be contained, he ‘must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent’ (Luke 4:44).

f a general assembly is to have some value then there must be at least one area of fruitful conflict.

Last year, like the Hebraic Jews who complained about the neglect of their widows, the revitalisers complained that they were being neglected at the expense of the church planters. The Mission Board listened and put a training track in place for those interested in church developers. This year it was the turn of our planters who minister in areas of social and economic poverty. Some may say it was less of a debate and more of a trading of slogans. I could not possibly comment. There then followed a torrid exchange of views on social media. Has any issue ever been clarified following a Facebook exchange?

Let’s not get into a class war. We celebrate each other’s ministries and locations. Doctors, actuaries and bankers have souls. Spiritual death is patently egalitarian and the meth addict is no more dead than the fund manager. Perhaps I should begin with some positivity which I trust does not sound like words of self-justification. The Free Church of Scotland is a denomination which reflects a degree of social diversity. We have congregations located in affluent areas where the car park is full of marvellous specimens of German automotive excellence reflecting well-heeled congregants. Other churches are located in marginal crofting communities and neglected small towns. Our ministry and leadership are derived from the professions and the trades. We pray that God will make us even more diverse. I often speak of the need to be ‘larger, darker and poorer’. This means that we want to see more people added to the kingdom through our mission and that these people will be drawn from the varying ethnicities which make up the tartan of modern Scottish society. We also want to see people drawn into our fellowship who are at the economic margins of our society. Some questions, however. Did Jesus have a bias towards the poor? This is a phrase which was popularised by the late David Sheppard in his eponymous book. There is no doubt that Jesus saw his own ministry as having a priority to the marginalised and the outcast:

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Let’s take another passage. Look at the missional strategy of Paul as you find it in Acts 16. We have the first European converts. The first was an affluent businesswoman, the second was a damaged and vulnerable victim of human trafficking, and the third was a working-class prison officer. No bias there, but simply reaching out to all classes and types. My point and desire. Let’s not get into a class war. We celebrate each other’s ministries and locations. Doctors, actuaries and bankers have souls. Spiritual death is patently egalitarian and the meth addict is no more dead than the fund manager. However, the statistics reveal that the most neglected areas of Scotland in terms of gospel outreach are also the most neglected in terms of evangelistic effort. Here is your homework. Have a look at the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) or google the ten most deprived areas in Scotland according to the SIMD. Funnily or sadly enough, you will find Shettleston and Drumchapel in there. Been there, done that! Is that really all we can say?•

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Gleidheadh do chridhe mo bhriathran (Let your heart hold fast my words)

LE JANET NICPHÀIL ha an cruthaidhear air comasan sònrachte a thoirt dhuinn mar dhaoine.

Tha inntinnean againn a lìonas sinn le nithean nach fiù, air neo le nithean anns am bheil brìgh. Chaidh a ràdh rinn madainn na Sàbaid ann an searmon, gu robh e glè chudromach gum biodh sinn a’ cleachdadh ar n-inntinnean a-bhos air an talamh. Mur biodh, chitheadh daoine eile na cothroman ’s chleachdadh iadsan an inntinn aca fhèin. Tha e air iarraidh oirnn’ mar shluagh Dhè, a bhith a’ smaoineachadh ann an dòigh a tha eadar-dhealaicht’ ri smaoineachadh an t-saoghail. Thuirt an teachdaire gu robh Crìosdaidhean a rinn obair mhòr dhan Chruthaidhear anns na linntean a dh’ fhalbh, air beachd-smuaineachadh agus meòrachadh a dhèanamh, mus do ghabh iad an obair mhòr a rinn iad os làimh. Chunnaic feadhainn am feum a bh’ann gum biodh Facal Dhè aig sluagh nan cànan fhèin, ’s dh’ionnsaich iad cànan eadar-dhealaicht’, ’s rinn iad an obair fheumail-sa dhan Chruthaidhear. Is e dìleab mhòr a th’ann a bhith a’fàgail Facal Dhè aig sluagh, ann an cànan a thuigeas iad. Cha dèan duine obair mar seo ann an cabhaig. Nach deach seo a dhèanamh dhuinn fhìn cuideachd? Tha am Bìoball againn ann an Gàidhlig agus ann am Beurla. Leughaidh sinn ann an ùrnaigh Chriosd na facail chudromach-sa. ‘Is i seo a’bheatha mhaireannach eòlas a bhith aca ortsa, an t-Aon Dia fìor’. Chì sinn an sin cho cudromach sa tha an inntinn. Is e saoghal a tha seo a tha ag iarraidh ar n-aire fad na h-ùine, agus mar sin tha e a’ goid ar meòrachaidh. Tha an saoghal-sa ag iarraidh gur ann leis fhèin a bhiodh gach smuain, agus gu cinnteach, tha seo cho meallta ’s nach aithnich sinn e. Tha e air iarraidh oirnn’ anns an litir gu na Philipianaich a bhith a’ smaoineachadh air nithean fìor, nithean urramach, nithean ceart agus ionmholta. Tha seo air àithne dhuinn, agus nach eil spàirn ann a bhith a’ dèanamh seo aig gach àm?

Dh’iarr an teachdair‘ oirnn’ a bhith a’ cur oidhirp nar smaoineachadh. Saoilidh sinn gu robh dòigh-beatha a’ ghinealaich a dh’ fhalbh a’ ciallachadh gu robh mòran meòrachaidh aca ga dhèanamh nuair a bha iad a-muigh ag obair. Tha sinne beò ann an linn làn ghoireasan,’s nuair a bu chòir barrachd ùine a bhith againn, cha robh linn ann, saoilidh sinn, cho cabhagach. Chan e talamh socair a th’ann am beatha idir. Tha e mar raon-cogaidh. Mar shluagh a’ Chruthaidheir, bhiodh e math a bhith a’ smaoineachadh cho àlainn, uasal, sàr-mhaith agus ionmholta sa tha Criosd. Nach tig Salm no dhà gur n-inntinn? ‘Is maisich’ Thu na clann nan daoin’; gràs dhòrtadh ann ad bheul’. Is e an Cruthachadh am Bìoball a th’aig an t-saoghal, agus is sinne, sluagh Dhè, am Bìoball a th’aca cuideachd. Abair uallach mòr! Tha an Cruthachadh a’ moladh Dhè. Leughaidh sinn na facail, ‘Glòir Dhè làn-fhoillsichidh na nèamh’. Tha gach sìthean agus gach lus a’ sealltainn obair A làimh’. Tha cothroman mòra againn san linn-sa. Faodaidh sinn a bhith ag èisteachd ri iomadh searmon a neartaicheas sinn, agur teicneòlas ar là a’ dèanamh seo comasach. Chrìochnaich an teachdaire an searmon le facail bho Iain Owen, nuair a thuirt e gur e a bhith a’ faicinn Glòir Chriosd an cothrom a bu mhotha a bh’aig Crìosdaidh sam bith, agus cò an Crìosdaidh nach aontaicheadh ris an seo?• (B’e an t-Urramach J. Barnard a bha a’ searmonachadh ’s tha sinn a’ toirt taing dha.) Fhuair sinn inntinnean is tàlant gu bhith làn de nithean sàr mhaith. Se an tàmailt mhòr gun cleachd sinn ùine ’s ar n-aire cho làn de nithean an t-saoghail. Is e gun togadh Tus’ ar n-inntinn gu bhith làn de d’ Fhacal soillseach. Stiùiridh sin ar ceum gu cinnteach ma nì sinn feum dheth a là ’s a dh’ oidhche.

Aon là togaidh Tus’ an àird’ sinn ’s cha bhi cuimhn’ air talamh sàraicht’. Chì sinn glòir an Tì a shaor sinn ’s nach taingeil an sluagh a fhuair gràs, sin gu saor bhuat?

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POETRY PAGE A VALEDICTION: FORBIDDING MOURNING BY JOHN DONNE As virtuous men pass mildly away, And whisper to their souls to go, Whilst some of their sad friends do say The breath goes now, and some say, No: So let us melt, and make no noise, No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move; ‘Twere profanation of our joys To tell the laity our love. Moving of th’ earth brings harms and fears, Men reckon what it did, and meant; But trepidation of the spheres, Though greater far, is innocent. Dull sublunary lovers’ love (Whose soul is sense) cannot admit Absence, because it doth remove Those things which elemented it. But we by a love so much refined, That our selves know not what it is, Inter-assured of the mind, Care less, eyes, lips, and hands to miss. Our two souls therefore, which are one, Though I must go, endure not yet A breach, but an expansion, Like gold to airy thinness beat. If they be two, they are two so As stiff twin compasses are two; Thy soul, the fixed foot, makes no show To move, but doth, if the other do.

Photo by Zue Meng on Unsplash

And though it in the center sit, Yet when the other far doth roam, It leans and hearkens after it, And grows erect, as that comes home. Such wilt thou be to me, who must, Like th’ other foot, obliquely run; Thy firmness makes my circle just, And makes me end where I begun.

(This poem by John Donne was written to his wife in 1611 when he was about to be parted from her for a time, when he visited the Continent)

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THE LIGHT of THE WORLD

2019 London Conference

Alistair Begg, Sinclair Ferguson, Albert Mohler, Burk Parsons, and Michael Reeves

BY CATRIONA MURRAY

POST TENEBRAS LUX

me, stating confidently, ‘You’re Catriona Murray, aren’t you.’ It was not really a question; she knew who I was, and the blade in her hand was very definitely intended for me. Or, more specifically, for the venison I had preordered. One of my dining companions grinned wryly, and said, ‘Your reputation precedes you.’ It’s one of the side-effects of living in a relatively wee place. We know people’s faces, and their names, even if we don’t know them. To some people this seems claustrophobic, and they have a burning need to escape to anonymity. Inevitably, in any narrative about the island which alludes to this oppressiveness, the black-suited bogeymen of the Free Church take the blame. This is a baton frequently picked up by writers. Our own Iain Crichton Smith obviously believed that the island brand of Calvinist theology had imprisoned minds and captured the human spirit of his parents’ generation, and many of his own contemporaries. Others — like Derick Thomson and Donald Macaulay — were of a similar mindset. One of my favourite explorations of these themes, however, is by a relatively unknown female writer: Nancy Brysson Morrison. In 1933, she published a novel called The Gowk Storm. It is the story of three sisters, and the illfated love affairs of the older two, narrated by the youngest of all. Though they are the daughters of a Highland manse, it doesn’t take any great literary genius to see he

girl

approached

steak knife in hand,

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that the author was drawing upon her own interest in the story of Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë for her inspiration. Morrison successfully creates an oppressive atmosphere through her beautiful use of language and by the simple fact that the action takes place on a very small set, mainly in the manse and its immediate environs. One sister — Julia — falls in love with the local dominie. The affair cannot end well because of two heinous flaws in the character of the man. His eyes are of different colours, broadly hinting that he has the gift of second sight. However, when it emerges that he is a Roman Catholic, the reader realises that not only must his dalliance with the daughter of the manse cease forthwith, but his position as educator of the local children is no longer tenable either. It conveys so well the sense that we all have, when misfortune comes, that this is everything. Troubles prevent us seeing the sun. I remember the last few months of my husband’s life, lived out on a very small canvas — often just the two of us at home, with darkness closing in. If it were translated into a novel, that episode of my life would seem huge, grim and relentlessly awful. There was no escape from it; cancer pervaded our experience as it pervaded my husband’s body. But the book title places its brooding atmosphere in context. It refers to a weather phenomenon: an unseasonable fall of snow in late April or early May. It was believed, apparently, to usher in transient bad luck —

a brief spell of uncharacteristic trouble which, in the words of the manse servant, Nannie, ‘willna bide’. Julia, momentarily devastated by the loss of her lover, is very soon engaged to be married to another man, and her pain is past. We are such creatures of the here and now that, as we go through the valley of the shadow, our eyes tend to fixate on the darkness. Hard times that we experience in this world are actually just like the gowk storm, however. Who suffered as much as Paul? Yet, he spoke of this ‘light, momentary affliction’. You cannot dismiss suffering, of course, and it is really only possible to know the full meaning of the Apostle’s words from inside the resurrection. Without the redemption from sin that we find in Christ, trouble in this world is merely a foretaste of all the suffering that awaits in the next. Our affliction can only be seen as what it is, therefore — light and momentary — if we take hold of the promise of glory that Christ has bought for us. In this world, we WILL have trouble, of all kinds, but if we know that Christ has overcome the world, what harm can that do us? If you are placing your hope in him and the power of the resurrection, then life here and now is your gowk storm: it may seem oppressive and at times unbearably painful, but that weeping tarries only for the night, and when the storm breaks, peace and joy will scatter the shadows forever.•

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