We must “make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace” (Eph. 4:3) with all who trust and obey the Lord and His Word at the same time as we must “have no fellowship” (5:11) with the work of those who reject Him and His Word. That is what both our Lord and His Apostles taught us. His followers are to show their unity in Him, united by His Word (John 17:11, 17, 21 ff.) When His followers would make that fellowship too narrow. He said, “whoever is not against us is for us” (Mark 9:40). When others would confuse His work with the devil’s, He said, “He who is not with me is against me” (Matt. 12:30). Paul, who urged the (Corinthian and Ephesian) believers to seek unity, also led them to separate from the synagogues that in Corinth and Ephesus rejected the Lord’s gospel (Acts 18:7; 19:9).
To find and pursue such a course is at times in the churches’ history neither simple nor easy. and we need to pray constantly for the Lord’s guidance in our efforts to do so.
The Autumn 1985 Evangelical Library Bulletin (from England, which we receive in an exchange) contained an extensive biographical sketch of the, to us rather unfamiliar but famous Scotch Presbyterian, Ralph Erskine, who lived from 1685 to 1752. The writer, Kenneth L. Paterson, described him as “a genial and affectionate man who sought harmonious relationships” beyond as well as within the denominational lines. He was reluctantly led or driven in 1737 (followed by his session) to join his older brother Ebenezer and a few other leaders in their secession (4 years earlier) from the tyrannical state church. “Up to this point,” the writer observes, “our story has been one of joy in seeing a humble and careful concern for the glory of God even when this involved” the Secession “. . . a thrilling story too . . . of a warm evangelistic Calvinism . . . glorifying the full grace of God as many were added to the church. But it is at this point that some shadows begin to fall across the sunlit scene.” A warm friendship which he had long enjoyed with the famous evangelist, Whitefield, who was still an Episcopalian, began to cool somewhat under pressures for and against the secession. “Crossing the line from Biblical Separation to schism,” the writer continues, “led to other sad consequences for the Seceders. Having justifiably separated for the sake of the gospel they had now divided from brothers on the lesser issue of church government. Other secondary issues were now to divide the Seceders themselves in the ensuing “Burgher” controversy about the “Burgess Oath.”
“The sad division had family repercussions. Ebenezer’s favorite daughter, ‘Ailie’ was married to James Scott, who was an Antiburgher. When her husband returned from the Synod which excommunicated the Erskines, she met him at the Manse door with ‘Well?’ but he was uncomfortably silent. She followed him into his study. ‘Well?’ she asked again. After a long pause he replied, ‘We have excommunicated them.’ ‘You have excommunicated my father and my uncle! You are my husband, but nevermore shall you be my minister!’ Nor was he for she went every Sunday to the Burgher congregation at Jedburgh.” Ralph saw a comparable rift between his own sons, three of whom were Secession ministers, over this issue.
Preaching at the opening of the first Burgher Synod, Ralph, examining the reasons for God’s judgment, placed among them “Untenderness toward those we left . . . when we made secession from them, without dealing more kindly with them, praying more for them, and bearing with them, especially such as were friends to the same Reformation cause, though not enlightened in the same manner of witnessing for it.” The writer states that, “Such a spirit characterized Ralph for the rest of his fruitful ministry” until his last sermon to his people on the text, “all her paths are peace.”
The writer’s conclusion also is noteworthy: “What lessons his story carries for our day. No one who studies the history with care can fairly say that the Erskines were wrong in their Secession to which they were forced by a church in which the prevailing party hindered the gospel. But surely, we can see too the danger of justifiable separation hardening into overscrupulous and unnecessary schism. May the Lord give wi se minds and warm hearts to face the church situation of our day.”
P.D.J.