We welcome today our good friend Rev. Larry Roff as guest author for This Day. Larry is a recently retired PCA pastor and an accomplished organist. For many years he played the organ at the worship services held during the PCA’s General Assemblies. Now, finding new avenues for ministry, he has begun writing a series of articles on various hymn writers. Today’s post is a timely one, offered on the occasion of the National Day of Prayer. And while John Newton, the subject of today’s post, was himself an ordained Anglican, it should be noted that he had previously applied for ordination by the Presbyterians!
If you would like to see more of Rev. Roff’s blog posts, please click here to contact him, if you would like to be added to his mailing list.

9.  ­Prayer and “Come, My Soul, Thy Suit Prepare”
by Rev. Larry Roff.

I am writing this today for the annual National day of Prayer.  And because of the COVID-19 pandemic, this year is certainly one in which prayer for our nation … and our world! … is very much needed.  Many Scripture passages come to mind on the subject of prayer, but none more inviting than Hebrews 4:16, Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.    

How wonderful that as we approach our God, we need not wear a mask or practice social distancing from Him.  Burdened as we are, He longs for us to come near to find relief.  That should be one of the main purposes in prayer, not to get what we want (God is not our Genie in a bottle that we need to rub to get our wishes granted!) but to draw near and find blessed intimacy with the one who loves us with infinite love.  As we do so, then what we find is mercy to strengthen us to trust Him in whatever He has ordained for us, even when painful.  We will discover, as a friend of mine recently wrote, If we view God as the great means to give us what we want, we’ll never have a secure hope: because He is not the means, He is the end. He is not the instrument to get us to another hope which is not Him, He IS the hope; He’s the object; He is the focus; He is the goal. Christ is our satisfaction.

The hymn that, in my mind, best conveys this is John Newton’s 1779 prayer-hymn: Come, My Soul, Thy Suit Prepare.  We will survey Newton’s life in another study when we come to his most famous hymn, Amazing Grace.   Here we just remember that this former slave ship captain was rescued by God’s powerful love and transformed into a marvelous trophy of grace.  While serving as pastor of the village church in Olney, England, his Tuesday night Bible study and prayer meeting attracted many.  The need for more songs led Newton and William Cowper to collaborate on a collection.  It included this hymn about prayer.

In our study here, we will take each stanza briefly, one at a time. We could put at least one Scripture reference with each phrase, though we won’t have space to look at every passage to which he alluded.  In this, Newton’s hymn writing, like Charles Wesley’s, was saturated with biblical references, if not quotations.  I am among those who believe this is the richest hymn about prayer that we can find. It belongs in every hymnal.  Charles Spurgeon, pastor of London’s Metropolitan Tabernacle, the greatest preacher of the nineteenth century, had his congregation sing this hymn to get their hearts focused before the “long prayer.”

This hymn is not a “model” prayer.  It does not include key elements that belong, if not in every prayer, at least in other prayers in the worship service or in our prayer closet.  These stanzas are all of petition, but presented in a way that conveys the majesty, sovereignty, goodness, and mercy of the Lord along with our absolute dependence on and trust in Him.  Let’s examine the text in hopes that our prayers will more closely reflect these themes.

Stanza 1: Come, my soul, thy suit prepare; Jesus loves to answer prayer.

   He Himself has bid thee pray, Therefore, will not say thee nay.

The opening words are one of the finest lines in all hymnody.  We come into God’s courtroom with our case well-prepared, having studied His Word to see what He has promised.  It is on that basis that we plead our case.  And we come to a Savior who loves to answer prayer.  Isn’t that a thrilling truth?  Our sins do not drive Him from us.  It is exactly the opposite (as one of the 17^th century Puritans wrote), as a parent rushes to the aid of a sick child, so the Lord rushes to our aid when our sins or the corruptions of the world have brought us misery.  He is not reluctant, but filled with joy when we ask.  While He will not always give us exactly what we ask for, He will not say “nay” in the sense (as Tim Keller has written) that He will always give us what we would have asked for if we knew what He knows about our true needs and the Father’s plans.

Stanza 2: Thou art coming to a King; Large petitions with thee bring,

    For His grace and power are such, None can ever ask too much.

We have barely begin to appreciate the character and resources of the one to whom we pray.  This is a King far greater than any earthly monarch.  And it is His Son who intercedes for us, the King of kings (Revelation 19:16).  Nothing is too great, or too small, for Him.  Since He is able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all that we could ask or think (Ephesians 3:20-21), we should bring large petitions both for ourselves and for His will to be accomplished in the world, for His kingdom to come.  As Paul wrote in Philippians 4:19, He is able to supply all our needs according to His riches in Christ Jesus.

Stanza 3: With my burden I begin; “Lord, remove this load of sin.

  Let Thy blood, for sinners spilt, Set my conscience free from guilt.

The “burden” is that of sin, as Bunyan described in The Pilgrim’s Progress, the load that weighs us down (Hebrews 12:1).  We begin here, because this is always our greatest need. Though Jesus has paid in full for our sins, we still struggle with this burden (Romans 7 and 1 John 1:8).  But there is now no condemnation for those who are “in” Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1).  And the knowledge that Jesus has spilled His blood to cover our guilt should set our conscience free, and give us the tool we need to resist Satan’s temptations to keep us in despair and embarrassment.   

Stanza 4: “Lord, I come to Thee for rest; Take possession of my breast.

There Thy blood-bought right maintain, And without a rival reign.

Jesus invites us to come to Him for rest in Matthew 11:28-30.  When we do, He does indeed take possession of our breast, which is a biblical way of referring to our heart.  We have been purchased by His blood, we are the apple of His eye, we are the bride He cherishes.  What a wonderful image Newton has given us.  We base our petition on the fact that we belong to Jesus (affection and compassion) and that He rules over us and stands for us against whatever rival would threaten or tempt us to transfer our loyalty.

Stanza 5: “While I am a pilgrim here, Let Thy love my spirit cheer;

 As my Guide, my Guard, my Friend, Lead me to my journey’s end.

As pilgrims (1 Peter 2:11), this world is not our home.  On this journey, we find great help in Jesus’ companionship to cheer us (John 16:13), and on the way for Him to be our Guide (leading us in the paths of righteousness), our Guard (assuring us that we share in the victory He has won for us), and our Friend (the one who calls us His friend!).  This hymn gives us words to cry out as sheep who need their shepherd to lead them (Psalm 23).

Stanza 6: “Show me what I have to do; Every hour my strength renew.

     Let me live a life of faith; Let me die Thy people’s death.”

In this final stanza, we look to the future and ask the Lord to show us His will  (what we should do), and to give us His strength to persevere (to renew our strength every day: 2 Corinthians 4:16), and to live by faith (1 Corinthians 5:7), trusting Him every day, as we promised in Proverbs 3:5-6.  And what a powerful image in that last phrase, that He would so sustain us that when death comes, we might be found dying in a way that shows how secure His people are as they (we) cross over into eternity (Numbers 23:10).

As we turn to the Lord on this annual National Day of Prayer, we can’t do better than singing this hymn as we enter into our time of prayer for our land.

P.S. Here is the generally omitted stanza, actually #5:

“As the image in the glass Answers the beholder’s face,
Thus unto my heart appear; Print Thine own resemblance there.”

An Historic Commencement Address
by Rev. David T. Myers

Talk about history being made!  The first ever commencement address delivered to the  student body of Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania took place on May 6, 1930.  The speaker was the pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Clarence Edward Macartney.  He was a member of the board of this new seminary, besides being known as a conservative in the issues confronting the Presbyterian Church U.S.A.


In his address, after looking at the approaching  state of the church from the standpoint of its adherence to the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, Dr. Macartney focused the attention of the students on the very existence of this new seminary.  Listen to his words:

“The founding of Westminster Seminary, therefore, has a peculiar and definite meaning at this critical day in the history of Christianity.

“In the first place, its establishment is a protest against the action of the church in dissolving the Board of Directors of Princeton Seminary, and practically ejecting them for loyalty to the truth.

“In the second place, the establishment of Westminster Seminary is a warning to the Presbyterian Church against the danger of being completely submerged in the tide of  neo-Christianity which threatens to engulf the whole Protestant church.  This seminary is a watchman on the wall, proclaiming with no uncertain trumpet that an enemy is in our midst.

“In the third place, the establishment of this seminary is a witness to the Bible as the Word of God, a notification to the world that we believe in the Bible, both as to its facts and its doctrines, and are confident that both facts and doctrines are capable of reasoned, thoughtful, and scholarly defense.

“In the  fourth place, this Seminary is founded as a witness to the saving power of the glorious gospel of the blessed God and of our Lord Jesus Christ.   This Seminary shall stand as a token of our earnest conviction that the gospel of Christ is the alone hope of a lost and fallen race.

“In the fifth place, Westminster Seminary is founded as a token of our faith in the rejuvenescence of evangelical Christianity, and that, as the tops of the mountains  were seen after the deluge, so after the deluge and invasion of unbelief in the Protestant church, when the angry waters shall have perished, those sacred heights of mountain tops of Sinai and Calvary shall again be revealed, and the Church shall again bow in gratitude, adoration, and love before the cross of the Eternal Christ.”

After such a reminder of the need for Westminster Seminary to exist, Dr. Macartney then reminded the students that they have been entrusted with the glorious gospel of the blessed God.  It was a sacred trust, he added.  He spoke about the temptation to forsake that trust, when standing alone, for example, but he encouraged them to resist that temptation and proclaim that blessed gospel.

Words to Live By: Whether we speak about a theological institution, a church, or a Christian, all of us have been entrusted with the gospel.  If we won’t defend it, who will?  If we won’t utter it, who will?  If we forsake it, how will it be carried out?   Put in  trust with the Gospel — a solemn and sacred treasure to share with the masses.

To read the full message by Dr. Macartney, click here.
Image source : Cover photograph from The Making of a Minister. Great Neck, NY: The Channel Press, 1961.

In the first half of the nineteenth century, the Presbyterian Board of Publication was created, with its first work being the publication of a number of tracts and treatises. As more and more tracts were published, they were eventually gathered together and issued as bound volumes, best known by their spine title, PRESBYTERIAN TRACTS. [The contents of these volumes have been indexed, here.] In volume 5 of these PRESBYTERIAN TRACTS, we find Tract no. 65, a sermon extract from one of George Whitefield’s sermons. While Whitefield was himself an Anglican, his work in the American colonies figured closely with some of the early ministry of Presbyterians in this country. We can even note that upon his death, he was buried in a crypt at the Old South Presbyterian Church, in Newburyport, Massachusetts. Regrettably, no further information is given in the book as to the source of this particular sermon portion:—
JEHOVAH OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS

“Thy beauty was perfect through my comeliness, which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord God.”—Ezekiel xvi. 14.

Give me leave to ask you one question: Can you say, The Lord our righteousness? Were you ever made to see and admire the all-sufficiency of Christ’s righteousness, and excited by the Spirit of God to hunger and thirst after it? Could you ever say, My soul is athirst for Christ, yea, even for the righteousness of Christ? O when shall I come to appear before the presence of my God in the righteousness of Christ! Nothing but Christ! nothing but Christ! Give me Christ, O God, and I am satisfied! my soul shall praise Thee for ever.

Was this ever the language of your hearts? and, after these inward conflicts, were you ever enabled to reach out the arm of faith, and embrace the blessed Jesus in your souls, so that you could say, “My beloved is mine, and I am His?” If so, fear not, whoever you are. Hail, all hail, you happy souls! The Lord, the Lord Christ, the everlasting God, is your righteousness. Christ has justified you, who is he that condemneth you? Christ has died for you, nay, rather, is risen again, and ever liveth to make intercession for you. Being now justified by His grace, you have peace with God, and shall, ere long, be with Jesus in glory. For there is no condemnation to those that are really in Christ Jesus. Whether Paul, or Apollos, or life, or death, all is yours, if you are Christ’s, for Christ is God’s. My brethren, my heart is enlarged towards you! O think of the love of Christ in dying for you! If the Lord be your righteousness, let the righteousness of your Lord be continually in your mouth. Talk of, O talk of, and recommend, the righteousness of Christ, when you lie down, and when you rise up, at your going out and coming in! Think of the greatness of the gift, as well as of the giver! Show to all the world, in whom you have believed! Let all by your fruits know that the Lord is your righteousness, and that you are waiting for your Lord from heaven! O study to be holy, even as He who has called you, and washed you in His blood was holy! O think of His dying love! Let that love constrain you to obedience; having much forgiven, love much. Be always asking, What shall I do to express my gratitude to the Lord, for giving me His righteousness? Let that self-abasing, God-exalting question, be always in your mouths, “Why me, Lord? why me?” why am I taken and others left? why is the Lord my righteousness? why is He become my salvation, who have so often deserved damnation at his hands?

But I must turn a little from congratulating you, to invite poor Christless sinners to come to Him, and accept of His righteousness, that they may have life. Alas, my heart almost bleeds! What a multitude of precious souls are new before me! how shortly must all be ushered into eternity! and yet, O cutting thought! were God now to require all your souls, how few could really say, The Lord our righteousness?

And think you, O sinners, that you will be able to stand in the day of judgment, if Christ be not your righteousness? No, that alone is the wedding-garment in which you must appear. O Christless sinners, I am distressed for you! the desires of my soul are enlarged. O that this may be an accepted time! That the Lord may be your righteousness! For whither would you flee, if death should find you naked? O think of death! O think of judgment! Yet a little while, and time shall be no more; and then what will become of you, if the Lord be not your righteousness? Think you that Christ will spare you? No, he that formed you, will have no mercy on you. If you be not of Christ, if Christ be not your righteousness, Christ Himself shall pronounce you damned. And can you bear to think of being damned by Christ? Can you bear to hear the Lord Jesus say to you, “Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.” Can you live, think you, in everlasting burnings? Is your flesh brass, and your bones iron? What if they be? hell-fire, that fire prepared for the devil and his angels, will heat them through and through. And can you bear to depart from Christ? O that heart-piercing thought! Ask those holy souls, who are at any time bewailing an absent God, who walk in darkness, and see no light, though but a few days or hours; ask them, what it is to lose a sight and presence of Christ? See how they seek Him sorrowing, and go mourning after Him all the day long! And, if it be so dreadful to lose the sensible presence of Christ for a day, what must it be to be banished from Him for all eternity?

But this must be, if Christ be not your righteousness. For God’s justice must be satisfied; and unless Christ’s righteousness is imputed and applied to you here, you must hereafter be satisfying divine justice in hell-torments eternally; nay, Christ Himself shall condemn you to that place of torment. And how cutting is that thought? Methinks I see poor, trembling, Christless wretches, standing before the bar of God, crying out, Lord, if we must be damned, let some angel, or some archangel, pronounce the sentence; but all in vain. Christ Himself shall pronounce the irrevocable sentence. Knowing therefore the terrors of the Lord, let me persuade you to close with Christ, and never rest until you can say, “the Lord our righteousness.” Who knows but the Lord may have mercy on, nay, abundantly pardon you? You need not fear the greatness or number of your sins. For are you sinners? so am I. Are you the chief of sinners? so am I. Are you backsliding sinners? so am I. And yet the Lord (for ever adored be His rich, free, and sovereign grace!) the Lord is my righteousness. Come, then, O young men, who (as I acted once myself) are playing the prodigal, and wandering away afar off from your heavenly Father’s house, come home, come home, and leave your swine’s trough. Feed no longer on the husks of sensual delights; for Christ’s sake arise, and come home! your heavenly Father now calls you. See, yonder the best robe, even the righteousness of His dear Son, awaits you. See it, view it again and again. Consider at how dear a rate it was purchased, even by the blood of God. Consider what great need you have of it. You are lost, undone, damned for ever, without it. come then, poor guilty prodigals, come home; indeed, I will not, like the elder brother in the gospel, be angry; no, I will rejoice with the angels in heaven. And O that God would now bow the heavens and come down! Descend, O Son of God, descend; and, as Thou hast shown in me such mercy, O let Thy blessed Spirit apply Thy righteousness to some young prodigals now before thee, and clothe their naked souls with Thy best robe!

And what shall I say to you of a middle age, you busy merchants, you cumbered Marthas, who, with all your gettings, have not yet gotten the Lord to be your righteousness! Alas! what profit will there be of all your labour under the sun, if you do not secure this pearl of invaluable price? I see, also, many hoary heads here, and perhaps the most of them cannot say, The Lord is my righteousness. O grey-headed sinners, I could weep over you! your grey hairs which ought to be your crown, and in which perhaps you glory, are now your shame. You know not that the Lord is your righteousness; O haste then, haste ye, aged sinners, and seek an interest in redeeming love! Alas, you have one foot already in the grave, your glass is just running out, your sun is just going down, and it will set and leave you in an eternal darkness, unless the Lord be your righteousness. Flee, then, O flee for your lives! Be not afraid. All things are possible with God. If you come, though it be at the eleventh hour, Christ Jesus will in no wise cast you out. Seek then for the Lord to be your righteousness, and beseech Him to let you know how it is that a man may be born again when he is old!

But I must not forget the lambs of the flock. To feed them, was one of my Lord’s last commands. I know He will be angry with me, if I do not tell them that the Lord may be their righteousness; and that of such is the kingdom of heaven. Come, then, ye little children, come to Christ, the Lord shall be your righteousness. Do not think that you are too young to be converted. Perhaps many of you may be nine or ten years old, and yet cannot say, The Lord is our righteousness; which many have said, though younger than you. Come, then, while you are young. Perhaps you may not live to be old. Do not stay for other people. If your fathers and mothers will not come to Christ, do you come without them. Let children lead them, and show them, how the Lord may be their righteousness. Our Lord Jesus loved little children. You are His lambs; He bids me feed you. I pray God make you willing betimes to take the Lord for your righteousness.

“The Church which alters its voice with the changing age, and speaks not to eternities, but to the times and does not know or care whether Christ lived and died and rose again from the dead or not, is a Church whose voice will be lost on the screaming hurricane of time.”
–Rev. Clarence Macartney


1933
Mrs. Buck Resigns; Board Accepts “With Deep Regret”
[excerpted from Christianity Today, 4.1 (May 1933): 34-36.

Pearl S. Buck, famous missionary novelist on May 1st resigned as a missionary of the Presbyterian Church.  Her resignation was accepted by the Board “with deep regret.”  Her resignation was followed by that of Mrs. Henry V.K. Gillmore, a member of the Board, who quit in protest of the acceptance of Mrs. Buck’s resignation.

The action of the Board was minuted as follows:

“A letter was presented from Mrs. J. Lossing Buck, of the Kiangan Mission, requesting to be released from responsible relationship to the Board.  The Board had hoped that this step might be avoided, but in view of all the considerations involved and with deep regret it voted to acquiesce in her request.  The Board expressed to Mrs. Buck its sincere appreciation of the service which she has rendered during the past sixteen years and its earnest prayer that her unusual abilities may continue to be richly used in behalf of the people in China.”

The following sentence, however, was used in publicity:

“After various friendly conversations and without appearing before the Board, Mrs. J. Lossing Buck has requested that she be permitted to retire from active connection with the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, and at its meeting on Monday the Board accepted her resignation with
regret.”

Following the meeting comment became widespread.  Mrs. Gillmore made a statement in which she said as quoted in the New York Sun:

“My resignation is merely an open and public declaration of my liberal principles.  It does not mean that I am at war with the Presbyterian Church, and I am happy to say there is a very large, liberal element in the Presbyterian Church today.  There is also a very conservative element.  Each side has a right to its opinions, but if there is to be progress and tolerance, those of us who hold so dearly to such ideals must make our stand public.  That is all.

“I certainly wish to correct the impression that the Board meeting was a stormy or unfriendly one.  There was nothing but the most friendly discussion, even when Mrs. Buck’s resignation came up for a vote.  Mrs. Buck had written a very tactful letter, giving largely as her reasons for resigning that her literary work was requiring most of her time.  Mrs. Buck has been financing her own work, and has not been accepting money from the Board for a number of years now, and her work has been highly praised.

“I felt that the Board, therefore, should have refused to accept her resignation, to show appreciation to Mrs. Buck for this generous contribution, and to indicate clearly and openly that the Presbyterian Church is a liberal and tolerant body, according its members freedom of opinion.  I made a brief speech to this effect, but other members expressed the opinion that it would be better to accept the resignation for various reasons. . .”

Mrs. Buck was quoted in news dispatches as saying that she harbored no
resentment.

“I feel just as I did before,” said Mrs. Buck.  “Of course I didn’t know I was such a nuisance to the Board before all this came up, and certainly I shouldn’t want to continue a nuisance.  One wouldn’t like to stay with any organization that one was a nuisance to, would one?

“You see, I never did do the evangelical sort of thing anyway.  I was a teacher, and I haven’t even been teaching for three years or so.

“So I expect to go back to China, and to continue my life just where I left off, only without the formal title of missionary.  By my life I mean my writing, which takes up a great deal of my time indeed, and my job of being a wife and a mother.

“I’m still devoted to China, and I imagine I always shall be.  China is my home, and I am happy there.  I’m sure all this will make no difference to me, or to my friends.

“Nor do I harbor any resentment at all about the tangle or its results.  You see I’m still a Christian.  I’m a Christian by conviction and shall continue one.  My status as a missionary or as a lay member has nothing to do with that.

“Am I still a Presbyterian?  Surely–oh well, I don’t think that’s very important.  I don’t go in for creeds and that sort of thing so very much.  I’m just a Christian.

The Board of Foreign Missions, had, of course, refrained from saying why it accepted Mrs. Buck’s resignation.  But Mrs. Buck herself seemed to have hit the nail on the head when she called herself a “nuisance” to the Board.  Indeed it was obvious that the Board never would have dismissed her on doctrinal grounds, only wished to be rid of an embarrassment.  This view was confirmed in a statement made in Youngstown, Ohio, by Dr. W.H. Hudnut, Pastor of First Presbyterian Church there, outstanding Modernist and member of the Board of Foreign Missions.

“I cannot blame her for resigning,” said Dr. Hudnut.  “That was the best way out of it.  It was the fair thing for her to do, not only for herself but also for the Church, if she was going to be a bone of contention.”

“She is a magnificent woman,” said Dr. Hudnut.  “. . . In her private life, she is an unusually fine woman and has a right to her own opinions on the mission.”

He declared that he believed Mrs. Buck never would have been tried by the Mission Board on a heresy charge if she had not resigned.

A bland denial that Mrs. Buck quit because of the doctrinal issue was, however, made in Atlantic City on May 4th, by Dr. C. Franklin Ward, secretary of the General Council of the General Assembly.  According to news dispatches he said:

“Mrs. Buck has withdrawn solely because her literary interests take so much of her time that she cannot serve along the lines laid down by the Foreign Missions Board.

“She has to come back to the United States on business connected with her writing, and the Board cannot treat one missionary differently, in the matter of granting leaves, from others.  Doctrinal discussion had nothing to do with her dropping out.

Observers were quick to point out that this was in amusing contradiction to Mrs. Buck’s own idea of why she resigned, although it was conceded that she had tactfully mentioned her literary work in her letter
.
PROBABLE RESULTS
What would be the result of Mrs. Buck’s resignation?  Would it slow up the movement for Board reform?  At first it seemed that it would.  Moderator Kerr, speaking from Tulsa, said that he believed the resignation would “end the whole controversy.”  When, however, the fact came out that the Board had only accepted the resignation “with deep regret” and when it was made clear that the Board had put no pressure on Mrs. Buck, opinion veered sharply the other way.  The case against Mrs. Buck was only a part of the case against the Board.  But the Board, trying to keep on good terms with everyone, evidently displeased both Modernists who thought it should have stood by Mrs. Buck and Evangelicals who saw in the action final proof that the Board had refused to stand up for the faith of the Church.  Speaking before the Elders’ Association of the Presbytery of Jersey City, the Rev. Clarence E. Macartney, D.D., Minister of the First Church of Pittsburgh, said:

“The Church which alters its voice with the changing age, and speaks not to eternities, but to the times and does not know or care whether Christ lived and died and rose again from the dead or not is a Church whose voice will be lost on the screaming hurricane of time.”

Dr. Macartney quoted Mrs. Buck’s article as follows:

“What Christ is materially I do not know, and what if He never lived, what of that?  Whether Christ had a body or not, whether He had a time to be born in His life and a time to die as other men have is of no matter now.  Perhaps it never was of any matter.”

Then he declared:

“Sad as is this denial of Christ’s living, there is something sadder, that is to have leaders of the missionary work of the Presbyterian Church tell us, as some who protested have been told, that this missionary served without any honorarium.

“The implication would seem to be that unbelief is not a serious thing as long as it does not cost the Church anything financially.”

The Board was excoriated for its action by Dr. Machen in a statement issued after the resignation had been made public.  It said, in part:

“In attempting to evade a perfectly plain issue by accepting ‘with regret’ the resignation of Mrs. Pearl S. Buck the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America has added still further to the contempt into which it has brought the Presbyterian Church in many ways . . .

“What every supporter of the Board has a right to know is whether the Board tolerates the radically anti-Christian views of Mrs. Buck or whether it is true to the Bible and to the Confession of Faith of the Church.  Mrs. Buck raised that issue with admirable clearness.  The Board has sought to evade it, as it has sought to evade the same issue when it is raised in many other ways.  But Bible-believing Christians are no longer going to be deceived.”

1936
Pearl Buck’s Picture of Her Parents
[excerpted from Christianity Today 7.4 (August 1936): 98.]

A recent letter from a Presbyterian U.S. missionary is quoted in Presbyterian of the South.

“Some of you have mentioned reading ‘The Exile’ by Pearl Buck in the Woman’s Home Companion.  A friend has been sending that magazine to us here, as no one in the station took it, and we have been reading it, too.  We have all been very much wrought up over the way she has pictured her mother and the way she has maligned the Christian character of both her father and mother.  Several of the missionaries are still living here in this station who were here when the Sydenstrickers lived here, and they and others in the Mission who remember her, testify as to her vital faith in her Saviour, her devotion to Him, her loyalty to His Word, and her zeal and love for the Chinese people.  It is our personal opinion that Pearl is attributing to her mother the conflict that must be going on in her own heart, and trying to excuse herself for some of the things she has done.  Her father did have some of the peculiarities she has pictured, but I think all would agree that he was one of the best and most faithful evangelists that have been on the field, and they both did a splendid work in giving the true Gospel to the Chinese people.  It is a travesty that she has given to the world, this picture of her own father and mother and of the work that they were enabled by the help of the Holy Spirit to accomplish. Some of her descriptions of conditions in this land are true, and if the book had been written in the right spirit could have been a wonderful testimony to the work being done by the true servants of the Lord.  Let us pray for her, that she may some day be truly made into a new creature in Christ Jesus.

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

The Westminster Shorter Catechism, Question 97


Q. 97. What is required to the worthy receiving of the Lord’s supper?

A. It is required of them that would worthily partake of the Lord’s supper, that they examine themselves of their knowledge to discern the Lord’s body, of their faith to feed upon him, of their repentance, love, and new obedience, lest coming unworthily, they eat and drink judgment to themselves.

EXPLICATION.

Worthily partake. –Receive the Lord’s supper, or eat the bread and drink the wine, with hearts properly prepared for it.

That they examine themselves. –That they make a strict inquiry into the state of their souls, and try their own characters by the word of God.

To discern the Lord’s body. –To understand fully what is meant by the bread and wine in this holy ordinance; that the one represents or signifies the body of Christ, which was broken, and the other his blood, which was shed for the salvation of his people.

To feed upon Christ by faith. –To receive Christ, to become intimately united to him, and to derive blessings from him by trusting in him.

Repentance. –New obedience. See Explic. Q. 87.

Coming unworthily, –Approaching to the Lord’s table without a fit or suitable temper of mind.

Eat and drink judgment to themselves. –Expose themselves to God’s displeasure, by eating and drinking thus unworthily, and thereby draw down a punishment upon themselves instead of a blessings.

ANALYSIS.

We are here taught three things respecting the manner of partaking the Lord’s supper:

[Text missing from this copy] is necessary to the worthy receiving of the Lord’s supper, and that it must extend to five points: –

(1.) Worthy receivers, before coming to the Lord’s table, must examine themselves of their knowledge. –1. Cor. xi. 28, 29. Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. He that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation (that is judgment) to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.

(2.) That they must also examine themselves of their faith. –2 Cor. xiii. 5. Examine yourselves whether ye be in the faith.

(3.) That they must likewise examine their repentance. –1 Cor. xi. 31. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.

(4.) That all worthy receivers, before coming to the Lord’s table, must also examine themselves of their love. –1 Cor. x. 17. For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread.

(5.) That they must also examine themselves of their new obedience. –1 Cor. v. 8. Let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

2. This answer teaches us, in the second place, why knowledge and faith are necessary to a worthy partaking of the Lord’s supper:–

(1.) It shows us that knowledge is necessary to discern the Lord’s body. –1 Cor. xi. 29. He that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation (or judgment) to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.

(2.) That faith is also necessary to feed upon Christ. –John vi. 57. He that eateth me, even he shall live by me.

3. We are here also taught in the third place, the danger of an unworthy partaking of this holy sacrament, that those who do so, shall eat and drink judgment, or punishment, to themselves. –See 1 Cor. xi. 29. as quoted above.