Dr. Campbell Morgan’s Latest
Under “War Notes” the “British. Weekly” (February 27th 1919) gives prominence to the following: ―
Dr. Campbell Morgan’s Great Sermon
Dr. Campbell Morgan preached a really great sermon on Sunday at a memorial service for eighty men connected with Highbury Quadrant Church and Missions who fell in the service of their country. He asked his audience to look on those who died, in the light of the declaration that “These all died in faith,” for so to see is to witness the transfiguration of the sackcloth, the transmutation of the base and ignoble, the transformation of the tragedy.
He went on: “Our boys and men went forth believing in the triumph of righteousness—the setting up in this world of a better order, the order that harmonizes with the will of God, and God’s faithfulness to His covenant. They went out, not knowing whither they went, nor caring. They followed the gleam, marched to the light. That was their faith―the victory of righteousness―the setting up in the world of a better order, and their quiet, glad, merry certainty that God cannot be defeated.”
“What matters it that, instead of singing Onward, Christian Soldiers! they happened to sing, ‘It’s a long, long way to Tipperary’? They were saluting the flag! They were saluting the promises of God! They were handing in their allegiance to a Divine purpose!”
It is deplorable that such a professed student of the Holy Scriptures as Dr. Campbell Morgan should so woefully misread the Word of God as to confound the Saints of Old (Heb. 11) with the battle heroes of the twentieth century, and liken the singing of a popular song to “Saluting the promises of God.”― A. H. C.
I hope for the sake of the thousands who have listened to his preaching that Dr. Campbell Morgan will tell us this is not true. The “British Weekly” calls it a really great sermon. If it was preached I should call it one of the greatest insults to our Lord that has ever come from a preacher’s lips. Not a word of Christ and His atoning work―how can anything that man can do at his very best―men like Nicodemus or Saul of Tarsus―lead to a “triumph of righteousness”? How can fallen man set up a “better order” in the world, or do anything that “harmonizes with the will of God”? The “victory of righteousness” was only won by the Lord Jesus Christ, and we are righteous alone in Him. “For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” (Rom. 10:1010For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. (Romans 10:10).) “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.” (Rom. 10:44For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. (Romans 10:4).) There is none righteous, no, not one.” (Rom. 3:1010As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: (Romans 3:10).) The Apostle Paul sums up in Phil. 3:44Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more: (Philippians 3:4) to 7 verses the “triumphs of human righteousness,” as believed in and trusted in for years by the self-righteous Pharisee, Saul of Tarsus. Then as he surveys these cast off theories from the standpoint of a sinner saved by sovereign grace, who had put on by faith the righteousness of Christ, he says, “I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord; for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.”
Thank God we do not follow a “gleam,” “but press towards the mark for the prize of our high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” Thank God we are marching to “the light, the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ.” Our faith rests not on “gleams,” or human efforts to right the world, but on the sure foundations of the death and resurrection, and the atoning work of God’s beloved Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. He is the center around which all God’s great purposes of grace and glory revolve. If I wish to salute the promises of God, which are all bound up in Christ, it cannot be by singing worldly songs, but by singing the song of the Redeemed, begun on earth, but to be sung through all eternity. “Unto Him that loveth us, and has washed us from our sins in His own blood, and path made us kings and priests unto God and His Father; to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever.”