One Year on
According to our records, the Free St. George's blog began on Tuesday 15th November 2005. One year later, while other blogs have fallen by the wayside, we are still going. Why?
Because we believe that we are providing a service no-one else is, and a service that is appreciated. No other reason. If it was not for our readers we should have ceased publication months ago. So this post is dedicated to those of you who read Free St. George's. May the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob bless you abundantly with His covenant mercies.
The title of this blog is 'Free St. George's'. It comes from the name of Alexander Whyte's Church in Edinburgh. This little drawing of it comes from a volume called 'The Tradition of St. George's West' (Edinburgh, St. George's Young People's Society, 1931).
We at Free St. George's speak a great deal about the history of the church. One historian and one theologian with an interest in history, we no doubt suggest many questions. But on this our first anniversary I want to take us to what we believe to be THE question. Over to Alexander Whyte ('With Mercy and With judgment, London, Hodder and Stoughton, no date):
"What think ye of Christ? That is the question of all questions. No other question so important and so pressing as that question has ever been put to the mind, and to the heart, and to the conscience of man. There is no other question that so taxes and so tests the whole soul of every man as just this question - what he thinks of Christ. This question is 'quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing assunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents' of every human heart. What, then, think ye of Christ?" (P. 108)
It would be good to be able to reproduce the whole sermon here, but that will not do in the time we have. So we move at once to P. 111:
"Now, in this congregation as in every congregation, there must be various ranks and classes of people who divide themselves out before God just according to how they think of Christ. For, 'as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." Our Lord once said of Himself that His coming among men had brought not peace, but a sword. And not a sword only, but a broad and deep dividing-line also: Many dividing lines indeed, many clefts indeed, and chasms even: many all-but-impassable gulfs, already open between man and man among us, according as we think of Christ. One sad, and not small class among us, is composed of those men and women who simply never think of Christ at all. They are exactly like John Bunyan [before his conversion]: they never think, in church or market, whether there is a Christ or no.
"But happily, there is another class of men among us who are the exact opposite of that. They are but a small class, it is to be feared, in any congregation, and yet, who can tell? - they may be more in number than any one would believe. Few or many, - this noble class is composed of those men and women among us who are continually thinking of Christ. 'To me to live is Christ,' says Paul. 'What things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ,' he says again... Now, they cannot be a great crowd in any congregation or community who say such things as these concerning Christ. But there are such men and women among us: 'one of a city and two of a family,' as the prophet says. Yes, - we will believe it: there are truly Christian men and women among us, and more than you would believe, who say to Christ with all their heart every morning, - 'When I awake I am still with Thee!'
Dark and cheerless is the morn
Unaccompanied by Thee.
Joyless is the day's return
Till Thy mercy's beams I see."
[interior of Free St. George's Church, Edinburgh]
Housekeeping note: The churches links had become a great forest without any order to them. After some work, they are now in some semblance of an order.
Because we believe that we are providing a service no-one else is, and a service that is appreciated. No other reason. If it was not for our readers we should have ceased publication months ago. So this post is dedicated to those of you who read Free St. George's. May the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob bless you abundantly with His covenant mercies.
The title of this blog is 'Free St. George's'. It comes from the name of Alexander Whyte's Church in Edinburgh. This little drawing of it comes from a volume called 'The Tradition of St. George's West' (Edinburgh, St. George's Young People's Society, 1931).
We at Free St. George's speak a great deal about the history of the church. One historian and one theologian with an interest in history, we no doubt suggest many questions. But on this our first anniversary I want to take us to what we believe to be THE question. Over to Alexander Whyte ('With Mercy and With judgment, London, Hodder and Stoughton, no date):
"What think ye of Christ? That is the question of all questions. No other question so important and so pressing as that question has ever been put to the mind, and to the heart, and to the conscience of man. There is no other question that so taxes and so tests the whole soul of every man as just this question - what he thinks of Christ. This question is 'quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing assunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents' of every human heart. What, then, think ye of Christ?" (P. 108)
It would be good to be able to reproduce the whole sermon here, but that will not do in the time we have. So we move at once to P. 111:
"Now, in this congregation as in every congregation, there must be various ranks and classes of people who divide themselves out before God just according to how they think of Christ. For, 'as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." Our Lord once said of Himself that His coming among men had brought not peace, but a sword. And not a sword only, but a broad and deep dividing-line also: Many dividing lines indeed, many clefts indeed, and chasms even: many all-but-impassable gulfs, already open between man and man among us, according as we think of Christ. One sad, and not small class among us, is composed of those men and women who simply never think of Christ at all. They are exactly like John Bunyan [before his conversion]: they never think, in church or market, whether there is a Christ or no.
"But happily, there is another class of men among us who are the exact opposite of that. They are but a small class, it is to be feared, in any congregation, and yet, who can tell? - they may be more in number than any one would believe. Few or many, - this noble class is composed of those men and women among us who are continually thinking of Christ. 'To me to live is Christ,' says Paul. 'What things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ,' he says again... Now, they cannot be a great crowd in any congregation or community who say such things as these concerning Christ. But there are such men and women among us: 'one of a city and two of a family,' as the prophet says. Yes, - we will believe it: there are truly Christian men and women among us, and more than you would believe, who say to Christ with all their heart every morning, - 'When I awake I am still with Thee!'
Dark and cheerless is the morn
Unaccompanied by Thee.
Joyless is the day's return
Till Thy mercy's beams I see."
[interior of Free St. George's Church, Edinburgh]
Housekeeping note: The churches links had become a great forest without any order to them. After some work, they are now in some semblance of an order.
posted by Highland Host at 9:07 am
2 Comments:
Congrats! Thanks for the time and effort you have put into making this a carefully researched, historically informed, theologically sound, and sensibly applied blog
JWT
Please fix the sidebar. I don't have the access, and this time I don't know what's wrong, either. I suggest there's a phantom something you've entered.
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