Pastor W. J. Seaton

“When Nations are to perish in their sins,
‘Tis in the Church the leprosy begins:
The pastor, whose office is, with zeal sincere,
To watch the foundation and preserve it clear,
Carelessly nods and sleeps upon the brink,
While others poison what `the flock’ must drink”

William Cowper (1731-1800)

Dear friends,

Our primary concern is not for the nation as such – and this is not to disregard our responsibilities in the place where the Lord has placed us, but simply to put first things first – but our primary concern is for the witness and the testimony of our Almighty God through His church which He has ordained to place within the nation.

The state of our nation today is simply another reflection upon the church of Christ generally within the land with regards to her own standing and her own behaviour. “When nations are to perish in their sins”, as William Cowper puts it, “’tis in the church the leprosy begins.” And our Lord Jesus Christ Himself made the relationship abundantly clear when He said, “Ye are the salt of the earth, but if the salt has lost its savour, wherewithal shall it be salted?” Corruption naturally begins first and foremost at those points where the salt on the carcase has itself lost its purifying qualities. So, we may follow that through: the spiritual in the worship of God gives way to the carnal and carnality absolutely holds sway to a terrifying degree in the country today: the church becomes a faithless church to her Saviour who has bought her and brought her into that spiritual marriage relationship which was ordained from before the laying of the world’s foundations, and with every passing day and year we see the temporal marriage bond in the nation becoming less and less revered and all related abuses increasing with that state of affairs.

The law of the Lord ceases to be a feature of the church’s gospel, so that, in the land as a whole “the law is slacked and judgment doth never go forth.” And where God ceases to be considered as Sovereign within His church and must give way to the abilities of human nature – even in the very things of salvation itself – then small wonder if the land follows suit and places human nature and reason and will-power on the throne of the universe. What more noble thing has the church to present to men and women than the gospel of God’s free redeeming grace to sinners? And yet how eagerly the church of Christ, which seems, to have moved on from its spiritual maturity to its spiritual dotage and so passed into a second childhood, grasps at the most infantile nonsense in order to “promote” that glorious work recorded in the gospel.

What more pitiable sight than to see the church of the dear Son of God, which has the glorious title of “the pillar and ground of truth,” turn itself into a clown in an effort to cater for that which is uppermost in the fallen nature of man anyway – a natural dislike for the ungarnished truth of God as it is in Christ Jesus His Son. How we could wish that the church of the Lord might “come of age” in this year of grace: “But when I became a man, I put away childish things.” Who knows, but if the church began to behave in spiritual maturity the world might be influenced to do likewise in its own particular way. But, we are persuaded, that as long as the church can find nothing better to do than amuse herself with her nursery toys there is little chance of that happening and the reverse will continue to be the case.

Nevertheless, the Lord knows the end of this year even from its beginning, and, perhaps, the time to favour His Zion may soon appear and He may burn His Holy word into our hearts, “In malice be children, but in understanding be men.” “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ; for ye are complete in Him.”

May we learn to rest in that blessed completion of the coming days.

Sincerely,

W. J. Seaton

From The Wicket Gate Magazine, published in the UK, used with permission.