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1871, in which are embodied the engagements
of the National Covenant of Scotland,
and of the Solemn League and Covenant, so
far as applicable in this land." This aim is
seen again in the Fifth Term of Communion
where there is an "approbation of the faithful
contendings of the martyrs, and of the
present Reformed Covenanted Churches in
Britain and Ireland, as containing a noble
example for us and our posterity to follow
in contending for all divine truth, and in
testifying against all contrary evils which
may exist in the corrupt constitutions of
either church or state. But the latest proof
of the steadfast adherence of the Covenanter
Church in this country to the attainments of
the Covenanted Reformation was furnished
in the faithful exercise of discipline in 1891
on those ministers who pursued a divisive
course that came to a head in the East End
Meeting and Platform, and ended in their
suspension.
Thus it is manifest that through her whole
history in this country, the Covenanter
Church has striven, in calm and storm, in
prosperity and adversity, in her youth and
in her more mature life, amid praise and
blame, in the bright day and the dark day,
to be steadfast in the maintenance, application,
and defense of Reformation Principles
for which the fathers in Scotland had faithfully
contended even unto death.
The impression that is forced upon one
who carefully surveys and studies the history
of the Covenaater Church from the
time of the First National Covenant in Scotland,
nearly' 350 years ago, is that she has
ever been a Witnessing Church. That is, as
a child of Providence, born in a persecuting,
testing time, when the enemies of the truth
were in power in both church and state, she
was called by Divine grace to clearly perceive,
prize, embrace, exemplify, maintain,
and defend Christ-honoring truth that was
savagely and murderously assaulted. In this
heroic service and conflict she acted the part
of a true faithful witness for Christ in all
its essential characteristics. She told the
truth, the whole truth. He.- testimony was
public, explicit, and consistt:int. This same
high position of Witness for Christ has been
the mark the Covenanter Church in this
country has ever kept prominent in'her ideal
purpose and purest aim.
THE CHRISTIAN NATION. Vol. 61.
Reform. In all these departments of Christian
activity the Covenanter Church can show
a record that will not suffer by comparison
with that of any other denomination.
But it is not on this excellent record that
she bases her claim to be the Witnessing
Church. This rests on her relation to the
great department of truth that centers in the
fact of Christ's Universal Kingship. The
Covenanter Church has been providentially
taught this truth. In her early struggles with
the enemies of this truth she was made to
see its prime irnportance, its true position in
the system of divine truth, its part in overthrowing
the kingdom of Satan, and its part
in bringing about a right and befieficeiit adjustment
in human society, civil and ecclesiastic,
and its part in glorifying Christ in
the world.
When the Covenanter Church was organized
in this country, there were special conditions
in the nation that called her to the
witness stand to give the testimony in behalf
of the royal claims of Christ that she
was fitted, in providence, to give as was no
other church. When our national constitution
was framed, if the nation had been true
to its past history, it would have been distinctively
and unequivocally Christian. Following
the Colonial Charters, compacts, laws,
and early acknowledgments, there was every
reason to expect that the Constitution of
the Nation would make proper and explicit
mention of God as the source of national
authority, of Christ as the ruler of nations,
and of the Bible as the supreme standard of
law. But to the great disappointment of the
Covenanters of the country the Nation turned
from its promising past and framed and
adopted a strictly atheistic non-Christian constitution.
As a faithful witness, the Covenanter
Church testified against this most flagrant
sin, in petitions, memorials, resolutions
of her church courts, and published sermons
and public discussions of her ministers. She
refused to incorporate with the new government,
or take any active part part in civil
affairs that required, as in voting and holding
office, the taking of the oath to support the
atheistic, Christless constitution of government.
And, as the government of the United
States has persisted in its position of disloyalty
to Christ, and rebellion against His
rightful authority, the Covenanter Church
continues to utter her testimony against the
nation's sin by full, public, explicit, consistent
proclamation of the nation's duty to
Christ, and its flagrant and persistent sin in
refusing to discharge this duty. The maintenance
of this position in this country has
not so far been visited with bloody persecution
as in the Fatherland when thousands
In claiming this high distinction for herself
the Covenanter Church does not mean
to say that other evangelical churches are in
no sense or degree witnesses for Christ. On
the contrary, she freely concedes that they
hold much truth. They all, in general, acknowledge
the Scriptures of the Old and New
Testaments to be the Word of God and the
only rule" of faith and conduct. They are were cruelly murdered. But it has not been
actively and extensively engaged in missionary
and evangelistic work. They zealously involves self-denial and sacrifice, her posi­
an easy and pleasant work. Her testimony
co-operate in moral reform movements, such tion of political dissent is unpopular, and
3S Temperance, g^bbath and Governmental win^ no applaw§e, her corisistenf practice
evokes the reproach and denunciation of
those who are rebuked by it, and when weakened
by the defection and desertion of those
who were Covenanters only in name, to some,
it seems a question as to who had the easier
task—the victim of the persecutor's sword
and bullet and gibbet, or the present day
witness bearer with his prolonged and painful
struggles.
As corollary to what we have written w^
note:
First—The Covenanter Church cannot be
charged with schism. She has a right to her
distinct denominational position. She is a
witness for great and important Christ-honoring
truth, that is neglected by other ecclesiastical
bodies.
Second—There is a vast responsibility rising
out of this pre-eminent position.
Third—Entangling alliances are to be
avoided if the Church would hold her position
in unimpaired loyalty and efficiency.
THIRTY YEARS' PROGRESS.
By Rev. AV. J. Coleman, D. D.
The Covenanter Church may be said to have
had a separate existence ever since the Protestant
Reformation in Scotland, over three hundred and
fifty years ago, and while thirty years is a long
time in the life of a man, it is by no means so
long in the life of the Church, nor does it hrinj
such marked changes. Yet ours is a hurrying age
and the events tnat have occurred, the things
that have come to pass in the last thirty years
are neither few nor small in their influence on
the Church and its destiny.
It would be easy in reviewing some of these
events to write a lament, but surely it is better
to study the good that the Head of the Church
has wrought by means of these very difBcuIties,
than to sigh for men that are gone, or to
try to measure the evil that has been done by
mistaken policies. The editor should have
chosen some man to write this article, whose
imagination was so enraptured with the sine.-
on the upper side of the cloud that he would
never see the darkness below,, or feel the tears
that it lets fall on the earth, yet we all knov/
that God comes in clouds and darkness and that
the tears that fall, cause the earth to bring forth
and bud.
1. Let us note our progress firstin that we are
a chastened Church. The Lord addresses his
first beatitude to the poor in spirit; that is the
place to begin. If we thought that we were rich
and increased with goods and had need of nothing,
the Lord would put us away, being chastened
we may have hope. Our great men, whom
we had thirty years ago,, are gone, and we have
none ready to take their place. We have lost
a large per cent of our number, being two thousand
less than we were then, yet the past year
shows a net gain ot 300, which is encouraging.
Our institutions of learning are not flourishingas
we could wish. Some of our weak congregations
are about giving up, and nearly all have to
struggle to hold their own. We know all this and
feel it and our pride and sslf-suflBciency are departing.
Could a better thing happen to us When
we are weak, then are we strong and as our da*
so shall our strength be.
2. As a result of the experiences of thir'.v
years we are a clearer-sighted Church. We have
learned many things in that time and, as a result,
some questions which have troubled us are
settle^, or in the course of seniemeni, ^r^ m.