Hugh Martin, great 19th century Free Church of Scotland preacher and churchman, is well-known for his masterful preaching as exhibited in his The Shadow of Calvary. But he clearly had a polemic side in his advocacy of a strict adherence to the Confession of Faith as constitution of the Church, together with its commitment to the due obedience of nations to King Jesus. This speech of his in 1871 was printed in the Watchword is a worthy contribution to ongoing discussions of confessional subscription among Presbyterians. I have recorded it here, and the PDF is available below. See more audio titles from the old Free Church and Church of Scotland legacies.
I am grateful to Rev. Rob McCurley for introducing me to this speech in a lecture of his, as well as to Rev. John Keddie for so helpfully treating it and the larger Constitutionalist cause in his Preserving a Reformed Heritage: The Free Church of Scotland in the 20th Century.
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“The extreme seriousness of the conflict going forward in the Free Church of Scotland arises from this, that the question now raise is that of the preservation or destruction of our Constitution.
“We brush aside at the outset the assertion (and the question grounded on it), that the Church of Scotland changed her Confession in the middle of the 17th century, — and why not do the same again? An utterance like this, in the present discussion, is characterized by such thoughtlessness, if not indeed such moral levity, as to deprive it of all right to serious answer. The Church of Scotland, in adopting the Westminster Confession, declared it to be ‘in no respect contrary to the doctrine of this Church.’ And in amending the formula in 1846, she did so with the avowed purpose not of changing but of expressing, re-affirming, and conserving the principles of the Church. And how men can allege a parallel between that and a proposal to make ‘allowance’ for the principles of another Church, exactly wherein they contradict our own, ought to surpass all powers of honourable imagination. It is not by moral trifling of this description that we are to be turned aside from our argument. . . .”
Read the rest here:
West Port Experiment 