THE SCHOOL & FAMILY CATECHIST
by Rev. William Smith (1834)

Q. 93. Which are the sacraments of the New Testament?

A. The sacraments of the New Testament are, baptism and the Lord’s supper.

ANALYSIS.

In this answer, we are told that the sacraments of the New Testament are two in number :

1.  We are first informed that baptism is one of these sacraments. –Mark xvi. 16. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.

2. That the Lord’s supper is also a sacrament. –1 Cor . xi. 23, 24. For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread –This do in remembrance of me.

A Full Defense of his Opinions

In February 1549, after an imprisonment of 19 months, Knox obtained his release from the French galleys. Since he probably obtained his freedom due to the intercession of King Edward VI or the English government (they had been negotiating for the release of English and Scottish protestant prisoners in exchange for French prisoners), he came to London, and was favorably received by Archbishop Cranmer and the lords of council. He remained in England for five years, during which time he was first appointed preacher to Berwick, then to Newcastle.

At Berwick, where he labored for two years, he preached with his characteristic fervor and zeal, exposing the errors of Romanism with unsparing severity. Although Protestantism was the official position of the Church of England since the reign of Henry VIII, there were many loyal Roman Catholics (papists), even in the high ranks of the clergy. The bishop of John Knox’s diocese, Dr. Cuthbert Tunstall, was an avid Catholic. Knox was accused of asserting that the sacrifice of the Mass is idolatrous, and was cited to appear before the bishop to give an account of his preaching. On April 4, 1550, Knox entered into a full defense of his opinions, and with the utmost boldness proceeded to argue that the mass is a superstitious and idolatrous substitute for the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. (vol. 3 of History 54,-56). The bishop did not venture to pronounce any ecclesiastical censure.

The fame of the preacher was only extended by this feeble attempt to restrain his boldness. From a manuscript discovered in the 1870’s titled, “The practice of the Lord’s Supper used in Berwick by John Knox, 1550,” we now know that the very beginning of Puritan practice in the Church of England in the administration of the Lord’s Supper is to be found in the practice followed by Knox at Berwick, inasmuch as he substituted common bread for the bread wafers, and gave the first example of substituting sitting instead of kneeling in the receiving of communion.

“It was during this time [1553] that John Knox developed a theology of resistance to tyranny. He began smuggling pamphlets into England. The most significant of these was the Admonition to England. With this move, he had stepped into new territory, going further than any Reformer had previously gone.”–Francis Schaeffer, from A Christian Manifesto

Words to Live By:
We Presbyterians owe much to John Knox and we would profit greatly from taking up a fresh study of his life and writings. 2014 was the 500th anniversary of his birth, and so we had many posts last year on facets of his ministry. In his time, he stood resolutely for the Scriptures and was greatly blessed of God to bring about real change in his nation. Even now God has placed among us those who can and are speaking with bold testimony to the eternal truths of the Gospel. We need not name them. We cannot name them all. But we can all remember to pray for those whom the Lord will use for His glory in these trying times. May the Lord give us strong voices to faithfully declare His Word.

Psalm 20
The Lord hear thee in the day of trouble;
the name of the God of Jacob defend thee;
Send thee help from the sanctuary,
and strengthen thee out of Zion;
Remember all thy offerings,
and accept thy burnt sacrifice; Selah.
Grant thee according to thine own heart,
and fulfil all thy counsel.
We will rejoice in thy salvation,
and in the name of our God we will set up our banners:
the Lord fulfil all thy petitions.
Now know I that the Lord saveth his anointed;
he will hear him from his holy heaven
with the saving strength of his right hand.
Some trust in chariots, and some in horses:
but we will remember the name of the Lord our God.
They are brought down and fallen:
but we are risen, and stand upright.
Save, Lord:
let the king hear us when we call.

The penultimate paragraph in this brief essay provides an interesting contrasting argument when compared with the previously posted editorial by Dr. Samuel G. Craig.  Where Craig argued that the PCUSA was within its rights to prohibit membership in parachurch organizations, here Dr. Robinson correctly notes that earlier PCUSA examples contradict such a ruling.  On another subject, it might also be useful to compare Robinson’s essay with D.S. Kennedy’s comments in respect to the first of the Preliminary Principles.

Liberty of Conscience
By the Rev. Prof. William Childs Robinson, Th.D.
[Christianity Today 5.11 (April 1935): 261. – Note: This was the original magazine by this name, 1930-1949, not the one that continues today.]

God alone is Lord of the conscience, and hath left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men which are in anything contrary to His word, or beside it, in matters of faith and worship.”

This teaching from the Confession has always been dear to Presbyterian hearts. It is rooted in Jesus’ statement, “But in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men,” Matt. 15:9. It echoes Calvin’s conviction that “it is necessary to destroy everything which diminishes the honor of God and to that end every rule except His Word.” It reiterates the famous sermon of Alexander Henderson to the memorable Scottish Assembly of 1638: “It is not obedience to follow the humours of men that go out of this line.”

The true interpretation of the words of the Confession may be seen by the petition which the Westminster Divines addressed to Parliament requesting the adoption of their book of discipline. This petition asserts that they do not ask for “an arbitrary or unlimited power: for how can that power be called arbitrary which is not according to the will of man, but the will of Christ; or how can it be supposed to be unlimited which is circumscribed and regulated by the exactest law?”

Dr. John Witherspoon experienced the rigors of arbitrary church government under the “moderates” of Scotland. Therefore, when he came to organize the American General Assembly, he wrote as its preliminary principles: “That all church power, whether exercised by the body in general, or in the way of representation by delegated authority, is only ministerial and declarative; that is to say, that the Holy Scriptures are the only rule of faith and manners; that no church judicatory ought to pretend to make laws, to bind the conscience in virtue of their own authority; and that all their decisions should be founded upon the revealed will of God.” Further that the Church is to exercise censure by “observing in all cases the rules contained in the Word of God.” In entire accord with these principles which still form part of the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A., our Southern Presbyterian Church has expressly defined an ecclesiastical offence as “anything in the principles or practice of a church member professing faith in Christ, which is contrary to the Word of God.”

The sense of each of these authorities is that Presbyterians regard that only as “an offence,” which is contrary to the teaching of God in His Word. And yet we have the anomalous situation in the Northern Presbyterian Church of Dr. Machen and other members of the Independent Board for Presbyterian Foreign Missions being tried for violating the commandments of men. There is room for difference of opinion as to the wisdom or advisability of organizing this Board. Into that question the writer has no desire to go. But as the cited authorities show, those who have organized this Board have not been guilty of committing a Presbyterian offence. It has not been shown that they have acted contrary to the Word of God.

Just a little over a hundred years ago while the General Assembly was supporting the interdenominational American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, at least two independent boards were organized by Presbyterians. The Presbyterians of South Carolina and Georgia organized the Southern Board of Foreign Missions; while those of Virginia and Pennsylvania organized the Western Foreign Missionary Society. Not only were these Presbyterians never disciplined; but the last named was eventually taken over by the General Assembly and is now the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America. Dr. Thornwell opposed the whole board system as without Scriptural warrant. Would he have been disciplined had he done what then Southern Church has since done, namely, organized an executive committee instead of a board?

Regardless of what one may think of the Independent Board, he can but regard the effort to discipline these men as an invasion of liberty of conscience.

[Robinson, William Childs, “Liberty of Conscience,” Christianity Today 5.11 (April 1935): 261.]

While Strong in  Convictions, He was Mild in their Utterance
by Rev. David T. Myers

What does one do when your congregation takes one side of a national political issue, and you, the pastor of the congregation, takes the other?  Such was the question of the Rev. John Henderson Symmes in 1862 in Cumberland, Maryland.

Symmes was born in Vermont in 1801.  He received  his preparatory education in the schools of his region before studying theology in the Philadelphia Seminary in Pennsylvania.  This was unusual in that he had not yet gone to college.  Nevertheless, he was licensed in 1827 by the Presbytery of Philadelphia.  Then he went to an undergraduate school and graduated from Dartmouth College in 1830.  Filling various empty pulpits in New England and Pennsylvania, he finally was ordained in 1831 as a home missionary in the Reformed Presbyterian Church.  He was the pastor of several churches in Pennsylvania and New York before he became the pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Cumberland, Maryland in 1845.  That was where his troubles would begin.

Maryland was a border state in the civil war which divided the nation of America in 1861. Some twenty-thousand Marylanders fought for the Confederacy, with tens of thousands more fighting for the Union.  Often from the same county of Maryland, brothers  fought against brothers, and fathers fought against sons.  So it wasn’t at all unusual for this Presbyterian pastor, even though he had been their spiritual shepherd for seven years, to be at odds with the families of wealth and influence on this matter of the War Between the States. They were Confederate in their allegiances.  He was a strong Union man. So on April 2, 1862, he resigned from the pulpit of the First Presbyterian Church in Cumberland, Maryland.

To further prove his loyalty to the North, he became the chaplain of the Second Regiment of the  Maryland Volunteer Infantry, serving as spiritual guide to the soldiers of that Civil War unit.  This military outfit would serve their nation until the end of the conflict, fighting in fifteen battles and countless skirmishes.  Two hundred and twenty-six men became casualties of their three-year term of service.  Chaplain Symmes was with them til the end of the civil war.

In 1867, he continued on his civilian pastorate at a Presbyterian church in Pennsylvania.  He departed this life in 1874.

In Glasgow’s history of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in America, Rev. Symmes is described as possessing a kind and genial disposition.  He was a most eloquent preacher, and drew for the instruction of his listeners many truths for their edification.   But the best description is that which forms the title of this historical study, namely, “while strong in his convictions, he was mild in the utterance of them.”

Words to Live By:  Strong convictions!  But mild in his utterance of them!  May we have many more, even you reader, who will have this said of you by others.  Consider Paul’s words in 2 Timothy 2:24 – 26 “And the Lord’s servants must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness.  God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by  him to do his will.” (ESV)

THE PRESBYTERIAN EVANGELISTIC FELLOWSHIP
by Clifford Hodges Brewton


The Presbyterian Evangelistic Fellowship (PEF) was begun on April 1, 1958, when the Reverend William E. Hill, minister of the large Hopewell, Virginia, Presbyterian Church, resigned his twenty-ninth year pastorate to answer God’s call to full-time evangelism.

The new organization at once was recognized as unique. At the time of its formation, it was the only organization of its kind that existed primarily to serve the local church.

It was not to be an evangelistic association, centered as most are, in the personality and ministry of one evangelist, but rather a team of evangelists—specialists who assist churches in the work for God and the gospel. PEF was brought into existence to serve the local church in training and doing Biblical evangelism anywhere, at any time, in accordance with the needs of any group or organization.

In 1964 PEF was incorporated, and a year later, a second evangelist was added to the staff. By 1969, there were ten evangelists and PEF had a total budget of $183,930. As time went by, staff members were added t the growing team of specialists, and in 1970, one of PEF’s best years thus far and with an increased budget of $281,993, foreign evangelism was begun with the formation of the Executive Committee on Overseas Evangelism (ECOE), which during its existence channeled over $1 million into world missions.

Through ECOE and PEF, evangelistic crusades have been conducted in nineteen countries, including France, Brazil, Greece, Columbia, England, Guadeloupe, India, Ireland, Southern Ireland, Puerto Rico, Spain, Switzerland, Trinidad, Zaire and Uganda.

In India, a home for the elderly has been established, which is now run by a Methodist evangelist, and in addition to the churches started in the United States, a strong Baptist Church has been established by a PEF evangelist in Dublin, Ireland.

There is an international, interdenominational flavor about PEF. The goal is not to try to produce Presbyterians, but as Presbyterians, those who work with PEF minister and work on behalf of people in the name of Christ for the glory of God.

Perhaps the most outstanding achievement of the decade of the seventies was the role played by PEF in the establishment of a new Presbyterian denomination. After many years of sincere efforts to call a major Presbyterian denomination, the Presbyterian Church in the United States, to faithful allegiance to the Bible, many churches and ministers decided to form a new body.

Words to Live By:
It was just a year or so ago that the Presbyterian Evangelistic Fellowship was renamed and became the Reformed Evangelistic Fellowship, with the name change intended to indicate that the organization is Reformed in its theology, but not tied to any specific denomination. The Rev. Rick Light has served as director of the organization since 1999. Parachurch organizations have proliferated in the 20th century, and it is undeniable that many, many of them have done a good work in the Lord’s kingdom. Alongside the work of the Church, we have an embarrassment of ministries to pray for, so much so that you can likely find a work specific to the burden of your heart. The main thing is to pray–pray for the Church and pray for the works that share your own heart’s concern, and support them as well, first the Church and as funds allow, these