Blue Banner Faith and Life
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BLUE BANNER FAITH AND LIFE J. G. VOS, Editor and Manager Copyright © 2016 The Board of Education and Publication of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America (Crown & Covenant Publications) 7408 Penn Avenue • Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15208 All rights are reserved by the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America and its Board of Education & Publication (Crown & Covenant Publications). Except for personal use of one digital copy by the user, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the prior written permission of the publisher. This project is made possible by the History Committee of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America (rparchives.org). BLUE BANNER FAITH AND LIFE VOLUME 9 JANUARY-MARCH, 1954 NUMBER 1 “A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land; the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?” Jeremiah 5:30,31 A Quarterly Publication Devoted to Expounding, Defending and Applying the System of Doctrine set forth in the Word of God and Summarized in the Standards of the Reformed Presbyterian (Covenanter) Church. Subscription $1.50 per year postpaid anywhere J. G. Vos, Editor and Manager Route 1 Clay Center, Kansas, U.S.A. Editorial Committee: M. W. Dougherty, R, W. Caskey, Ross Latimer Published by The Board of Publication of the Synod of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America Agent for Britain and Ireland: The Rev. Adam Loughridge, B. A., Glenmanus Manse, Portrush, County Antrim, Northern Ireland Printed in the United States of America The Holy Field The Christian9s Death By Henry Hart Milman By Augustus M. Toplady Beneath our feet and o’er our head Deathless principle, arise; Is equal warning given; Soar thou native of the skies. Beneath us lie the countless dead, Pearl of price by Jesus bought, Above us is the Heaven! To His glorious likeness wrought, Go to shine before His throne; Their names are graven on the stone, Deck His mediatorial crown; Their bones are in the clay; Go, His triumphs to adorn; And ere another day is done, Made for God, to God return. Ourselves may be as they. Death rides on every passing breeze, Lo, He beckons from on high! He lurks in every flower; Fearless to His presence fly: Each season has its own disease, Thine the merit of His blood; Its peril every hour. Thine the righteousness of God. Our eyes have seen the rosy light Angels, joyful to attend, Of youth’s soft cheek decay. Hov’ring, round thy pillow bend; And fate descend in sudden night Wait to catch the signal given, On manhood’s middle day. And escort thee quick to heaven. Our eyes have seen the steps of age Halt feebly towards the tomb; Is thy earthly house distrest? And yet shall earth our hearts engage, Willing to retain her guest? And dreams of days to come? ’Tis not thou, but she, must die: Fly, celestial tenant, fly. Turn, mortal, turn! thy danger know; Burst thy shackles, drop thy clay, Where’er thy foot can tread Sweetly breathe thyself away: The earth rings hollow from below, Singing, to thy crown remove; And warns thee of her dead! Swift of wing, and fired with love. Turn, Christian, turn! thy soul apply To truths divinely given; Shudder not to pass the stream: The bones that underneath thee lie Venture all thy cares on Him; Shall live for Hell or Heaven! Him, whose dying love and pow’r Stilled its tossing, hushed its roar. Safe is the expanded wave; Gentle as a summer’s eve: He Is Risen Not one object of His care By John Mason Neale Ever suffered shipwreck there. See the haven full in view? Light’s glittering morn bedecks the sky; Love divine shall bear thee through. Heaven thunders forth its victor-cry; Trust to that propitious gale: The glad earth shouts her triumph high, Weigh thy anchor, spread thy sail. And groaning hell makes wild reply; While He, the King, the mighty King, Saints in glory perfect made, Despoiling death of all its sting, Wait thy passage through the shade: And, trampling down the powers of night, Ardent for thy coming o’er, Brings forth His ransom’d saints to light. See, they throng the blissful shore. Mount, their transports to improve: His tomb of late the threefold guard Join the longing choir above: Of watch and stone and seal had barred; Swiftly to their wish be giv’n: But now, in pomp and triumph high, Kindle higher joy in heav’n. He comes from death to victory. The pains of hell are loosed at last; Such the prospects that arise The days of mourning now are past; To the dying Christian’s eyes! An angel robed in light hath said, Such the glorious vista Faith “The Lord is risen from the dead.” Opens through the shades of death. BLUE BANNER FAITH AND LIFE VOLUME 9 JANUARY-MARCH, 1954 NUMBER 1 Sketches of the Covenanters By J. C. McFeeters Chapter IX Darkness Brooding Over the Land—A.D. 1600 The Seventeenth century dawned upon Scot Providence. Parliament was then evidently carry land amidst ominous clouds. Storms were gath ing out the will of the king, for the subversion ering that swept the land for more than eighty of the Presbyterian Church, the Reformed relig years — storms of “fire, and blood, and vapors of ion, the liberty of conscience, and the rights of the smoke.” The intervals of sunshine were few. The people. Parliament met for this purpose in Edin flock of God, the beautiful flock, suffered grievous burgh. The morning was gloomy. With the ad ly by reason of wolves that entered into the fold vancing hours the clouds grew denser and darker; in sheep’s clothing. the whole sky became covered with blackness; a storm of divine wrath seemed to bend the very “No bishop, no king,” cried King James. He heavens with its weight. Just at the moment evidently meant, “No Prelacy, no despotism.” He when the Marquis of Hamilton, performing the made the Prelatic form of Church government, of final act of ratification in the name of the king, which he was the recognized head, the bulwark of touched the official paper with the scepter, a his assumed supremacy over the Church and his streak of lightning blazed through the gloom, and tyranny over conscience, and took every occasion another, and a third, blinding the guilty men in to assert his power. the presence of their awful deed. Three peals of The General Assembly had appointed the date thunder followed in quick succession, making and place for a meeting in 1604. The king arbi every heart tremble. A momentary pang of con trarily postponed the meeting one year, and at science must have been felt, while the KING of the expiration of the year postponed it again. But heaven spoke in thunder that made their ears there were high-principled men who resisted the tingle, and in flames that dazzled their eyes. This domineering monarch. Nineteen faithful ministers dismal day, July 25, 1621, is remembered in Scot had met with a number of elders, just as fearless land as “Black Saturday.”, Oh, how black with and faithful as the ministers, and constituted the storm clouds, with man’s guilt, with heaven’s re Assembly against the king’s specific orders. Their bukes, and with apprehensions of sorrow and suf defiance of the king’s authority was at the risk of fering! their lives. This was their last free Assembly for These were the days of Melville, Welch, and thirty years. These men were haled before the Boyd, who with other men, mighty in the Lord, judges, and, being found guilty of disobeying the withstood the king to his face, and the govern king, were sentenced. During the next twelve ment with its threats and penalties. When the years, the king dominated the Assembly, after Church was in jeopardy, the Lord Jesus Christ which he dissolved it, permitting no more meet had His chosen servants, able and willing to de ings while he lived. The Prelatic party hence fend the faith. Like the prophets of old, they forth held the power and ruled the Church with lifted up their voices in the high places, wrestled a high hand. with principalities and powers, uttered their testi The form of worship was changed; human de mony as with the voice of thunder, and cheerfully vices, in place of God’s appointments, flooded the sealed their testimony with their blood. Church. Departure from the old ways was especial ly marked by a measure known as the “Five Ar Among the champions of that day, Robert ticles of Perth.” These were sanctioned by the Bruce, an eminent minister of the Gospel, took king, and rigorously enforced in his effort to sub his place in the thickest of the fight. He was a due all who resisted or protested. Henceforth large man, dignified and commanding in appear Presbyterians had to conform to the new mode of ance; the countenance, physique, intellect, and worship, or feel the weight of the law in confis spirit denoting true kingliness and strength. He cation, imprisonment, banishment, or death. may have been a descendant of his famous name sake, Robert Bruce, one of Scotland’s great kings; These Articles of Perth were sanctioned by his heart was just as heroic and patriotic. This the Parliament.