West Port Experiment

Just recently audio-recorded two articles by Free Church of Scotland Principal Donald Maclean (1869-1943). I have found several of the men of that generation not only profoundly rich theologically and spiritually, but that their English prose is also quite compelling. We are generally below the mark these days, I fear.

The following quote is a sample, from Maclean’s “An Evangelical Ministry.” Here, he answers the question as to the effect of Anglo-American Christianity’s emphasis on the social application of Christian around the turn of the 20th century: “The answer is sadly easy. The flood-tide to the Churches has, alas, not set in. The prejudices and hostility of sinful man have not been softened by the undoubted social amelioration effected. The heedless multitude still pass by. But even more serious is the reaction which the social application of Christianity has had upon the faith itself. Revealed truth itself cannot be affected by human reactions, for the Word of the Lord endures for ever. Nevertheless, the attempts to apply Christianity socially have profoundly affected the meaning which the Christian faith has for the average man and ordinary churchgoer. The emphasis on the social has largely stifled the spiritual nature of the faith. It has obscured the revealed fact that the Christian message was primarily to and for individuals. That the Son of God became man, and that man must be born again, are sufficiently strong reminders to us of the divine estimate of the immortal soul of man. The great doctrines of grace which the Bible so unmistakably connects with the redemption of the human personality, have been so rarely emphasised during more than a generation that, not only have these doctrines become unknown, but the spiritual faculties of hearers have been so weakened by disuse that spiritual discernment has faded away. The Church of to-day is consequently faced with the difficult but necessary task, arising from her former neglect, of re-educating her people in the fundamental elements of the faith which give it the character and distinction of being the Christian faith of revelation. For the business of the Church in its God-given mission is to the individual and through the individual to society. Moreover, the Christian revelation holds out no hope for society except in so far as the men and women who form it are Christian, which for the secular State is a futile and unattainable ideal. It is therefore all the more essential that the truth should be understood that a Christian society can only be fashioned out of and by Christian men and women.”

Special thanks to the Rev. John Keddie for assistance with photo above. More historic audio resources from the heritage of the Free Church of Scotland available here. All Thomas Chalmers titles are separate, here. And visit our entire audio library here.

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