Baptists in Scotland (part 5)

An Heritage to Follow Yet

The actual form of worship followed by the early Baptists of Scotland was a direct consequence of the things most surely believed among them with regards to the gospel. It was only towards the middle of the 19th century that Arminianism – that “gospel” that revolves around the free will and ability of man in the things of salvation – began to appear at all among the Scottish Baptists.

With the appearance of this other view of the gospel, as opposed to the doctrines of God's free and sovereign grace in redemption, there also began to emerge, at a later date, another view of the actual purpose of the gathering together of the Lord's churches, and hence, the form that those gatherings began to take. In a word, the typical kind of Baptist worship that became current from the latter part of the 19th century onwards, was as much the consequence of the typical kind of baptist doctrine that had begun earlier to emerge, as the older form of worship was a reflection of the older Baptist belief regarding the grace of God in the gospel. The gospel that ascribes all the glory to God, is the same gospel that will believe that God is to be glorified in the midst of His saints. So, the priority of things is set out in The Articles of Faith of the Glasgow Particular Baptists, earlier referred to; “Those who are of one faith, and have the same view of the ordinances, are bound to meet together for God's glory, their own edification, and, if God bless his own appointments, for the conversion of sinners.” We might study that order well. First, God's glory; second, the edification of the believers; third, the conversion of sinners – and this, only “if God bless his own appointments,” as the article says. In other words, the original Baptists of Scotland, were of Paul's mind, that, “A man is not crowned, unless he strive lawfully.” There are “rules of procedure” for the runner at the games, that's what Paul is referring to; and there are God's “appointed ways” that His church is to know and follow, and nowhere more so than when she meets to be the place “wherein His honour dwells.”

Before moving on, let it be said, of course, that the foregoing remarks are in relation to the Church of Christ in her God-ward position, and involved in the united worship of His name. Our predecessors had a complete and total commitment to the souls of the unconverted, as we shall presently see, and this commitment took them forth with the Word of God in their hearts and mouths to clearly proclaim the gospel of God's free grace to sinners. But, first, there must be no neglecting, or minimising of the fact that they were called to be built into a spiritual house, an holy temple in the Lord, a royal priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices to God, acceptable by Jesus Christ. If any one thing, then, distinguishes the original baptists of Scotland from the present day, it is the question of the church's worship. The differences are not to be accounted for by the mere lapse of time, for the departure has not merely been from the older “order” of things, but from the very principles of God's word itself in relation to this question – the principles which the early baptists grasped and expressed in their form of worship. And, of course, the root of the matter lies in the complete and total abandonment of those great truths of sovereign salvation which were once synonymous with the name of Baptist in Scotland.

What then of the “spirit of evangelism and mission,” as it might be called? If the early baptists jealously guarded the purpose of the church's worship, does this mean they had no outlook towards a world dead in trespasses and sins? Indeed, no; and, in fact, the very opposite. We may remember that when the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel at Home came into being under the Haldane brothers etc., it was “unanimously condemned” by the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1799. Such marks of “enthusiasm” were not to be welcomed within the borders of Scotia. Four years before that date, in 1795, Archibald McLean delivered one of his more fervent addresses “To the People of God in Scotland,” in which he endeavoured to set before them the great obligations of that heart-felt knowledge of being a “debtor to mercy alone” that forms the great motivating principle for McLean in such an appeal, to take the truth to those “still sitting in darkness, and in the shadow of death.” “In comparing our situation with theirs,” he declared, “we cannot but adore the sovereign dispensations of God and his distinguishing grace towards us, who were originally in the same state, and deserve no better than they.” And then, he moves from having the “knowledge” of God's truth in our heads to the performance of God's truth through our works; “If it be our duty to pray that his kingdom may come; that his saving health may be known among all nations, and for this end he would send forth labourers into his harvest, it must undoubtedly be our duty to act suitably to such prayers, in so far as we have it in our power.”

The labours of the Haldanes, of course, in the direction of gospel work was virtually unceasing and unstinting as far as sacrifice of time and resources was concerned. Their preaching throughout Scotland bore much fruit, and in 1816, Robert turned his eyes towards the “dark continent” that Europe had become, spiritually speaking. All had not been “sunshine”, of course, for the two Haldanes – nor for any of the men of that day who were endeavouring to call the church back to the truths of God. By the time 1816 dawned, the Haldanes' biographer is able to refer back to “Twenty chequered years of failure and success”. But, as he tells us, these “had not damped the youthful ardour with which the two brothers had devoted their lives to the spread of the gospel.” And so, there came that notable work of Robert on the Continent in general, and in the city of Geneva in particular. We refer to the biography: “Their zeal was not the offspring of wild enthusiasm, and its energy was not dependent on human contingencies. After a brief period of comparative repose, the termination of the great revolutionary war opened up to Robert Haldane a new field of enterprise, which he was not slow to occupy. In the summer of 1816, he hastened through the press his work on the Evidences of Christianity, and announced his intention of making a missionary tour of the continent of Europe. The results of the mission stretch into eternity, and will for ever connect the name of Robert Haldane with the revival of the gospel in France and Switzerland. The distinguished historian of the Reformation, (Merle d'Aubigne), himself a trophy of this work of grace, has said that a narrative of its origin and progress would form 'one of the most beautiful episodes in the history of the Church.'”

To this testimonial of Haldane's work many could be added; Frederic Monod, “The name of Robert Haldane stands inseparably connected with the dawn of the revival of the gospel on the continent of Europe. The work he began in 1817, has been advancing ever since, and the extent of it will not be known until the day of the revelation of all things. His memory is embalmed in our hearts, and is hallowed amongst us. May it please the Lord to send many such labourers into his harvest.” And looking back to Haldane from the 1852 meeting of the Evangelical Society held in Geneva, the president commented, “The Church of Christ knows nothing of political limits, of terrestrial kingdoms or republics. Geneva remembers with gratitude that it was France that sent her Farel, Calvin, and Theodore Beza; nor is she ashamed to trace the origin of the present revival to a pious Scotsman, Robert Haldane.”

It is not only of course, the praise of Robert Haldane that ought to be among the people of God. As Frederic Monod says, the extent of Haldane's work will not be fully known “until the day of the revelation of all things.” This is true of Haldane, who is well known in the church's history, but we are persuaded that it is also true of others whose names have not been so much brought before the people of God. Commenting on James Haldane's work on the Epistle to the Galatians, Mr Spurgeon ventures the explanation for it never being very popular to the fact that “the author in the third chapter discusses the question of baptism.” He then makes a truly Spurgeonic tongue-in-cheek remark: - “This is a fault of which we may say as the Papist said of venial sin: 'It deserved to be forgiven!'” But, you'll get the point. Being outwith the mainstream of a country's church history has a tendency to oblivion on the part of the “non-conformist.” However, we can still pull aside the veil and rejoice in those whose work is known unto the Lord in full.

Peter Grant is a name greatly associated with the Gaelic songs of praise. Wherever and whenever times of refreshing have come from the hand of the Lord among Gaelic speaking people, the spiritual songs of Peter Grant – Pdruig Grannd - have greatly featured in those times. Whereas, many of the Lord's people of the Highlands may be familiar with those majestic hymns, they may not be acquainted with the fact that he was the same Peter Grant of our articles, pastor of the Baptist church at Grantown-on-Spey. Peter Grant himself tells us something of what the Highlands of his young day were like; “At marriages and christening,” he says, “drinking and dancing, shooting and swearing was usual. At funerals, drunkenness and fights were so fashionable, shall we say? That one would cast up to the other, 'There was no fight at your father's funeral.'” This remark was meant to convey the fact that there hadn't been much whisky on hand for the “mourners”.

It was this general state of things towards the end of the 18th century that filled Peter Grant with a desire to see the gospel go forth among his native Gaels. In one of his hymns, he pours out an appeal to those who have already received light in the gospel. In a way, it epitomises the spirit of the early Baptist pioneers.

One of those who had “pity” and had come to the highlands, was Christopher Anderson, the Baptist pastor from Edinburgh. Anderson stood closely connected with Robert Haldane in the work of Bible translation and was the founder of the Edinburgh Bible Society. The conditions that he found in the Highlands during his tours to those parts are in absolute accord with what Peter Grant has already mentioned. “Dark as midnight,” is his assessment of the spiritual state: “As to the people's knowledge of God, our Saviour, and the means of instruction, Oh! Destitute and dark as midnight.” The reason for this spiritual blackness isn't hard to find, and it should be a startling revelation to discover that there had been no New Testament in Gaelic until the year 1767 – only twenty years before Peter Grant was born – and that the Old Testament wasn't available until 1802. The following sobering statement says it all; the Red Indians of New England had the complete Bible in their own language by the labours of John Eliot, more that a hundred years before the Scottish Gael had even the New Testament.” Only eternity itself will reveal the debt of the Highlands to the labours of such men as Christopher Anderson, founder of the Gaelic School Society, as well as of the Edinburgh Bible Society.

Such were the Baptists in Scotland in the original and early days. With regard to the things that they believed and practised, of course, they didn't “originate” anything; they simply rediscovered to themselves the great truths of the gospel and the principles of their expressions, towards God and towards man. Not only did they receive the truth to their own hearts, they desired to carry it to the hearts of others, and to “act suitably” in this duty, as Archibald McLean put it. And not only, of course, did they “evangelise”, but they were first persuaded that it was the evangel indeed – the gospel indeed – that they were evangelising with. Neither of these sides of the whole are to be neglected without peril: to simply hold the truth of God within the four walls of the church's meeting place is a virtual denial of holding that truth at all in its fulness; but to go forth to spread a religious message which is not “the whole counsel of God” is only to produce succeeding generations that will take us further and further away from the fulness of the gospel.

May the Lord grant us enquiring minds in our day and a desire to ask, “What saith the Scriptures?” “What do you think of baptism?” said Carmichael to McLean. And there is yet much to ask in our day.

NOTE: - The following sources have been used in connection with the five articles on the Baptists in Scotland.