Open Letter to the Congregation: The Fellowship of the Saints

Dear Congregation,

Recently I have been doing some reading on the Canadian Expeditionary Force during WWI. I was struck by the fact that even in North America during the war there was espionage and the very real threat of attack. Because of this, cruise ships traveling to and from Britain did so in convoy with battleships. The logic was simple—lone ships are an easy target. That logic was understood in the seventeenth century as well, and the Puritan writer George Swinnock applied it to the Christian life when he said, “Satan watches for those vessels that sail without a convoy.”

As Christians, the Bible warns us to be “sober” and “vigilant” because of the continual threat of the one who has evil intent against us. But the safety of the Christian is bound up in another important New Testament word—koinonia, translated by the English word “fellowship.” This was one of the key features associated with the strength and growth of the early church. Luke tells us that the saints continued in “the apostle’s doctrine and fellowship…and the Lord added to the Church…” (Acts 2:42-47).

It is important to distinguish between fellowship and unity; fellowship is more specific. There may be unity—i.e., the absence of division—without the enjoyment of real and vital fellowship. We are thankful to God for unity in our congregation, but we must not be satisfied to leave it there. We must work at encouraging one another, building one another up, and strengthening the body of Christ. It is here, not in unity alone, that the well being of the congregation consists. The word koinonia is used in the New Testament to press home the need for mutual interaction as a means of grace. Like other prescribed means of grace, fellowship flows directly from Christ and finds its fulfillment in the development of His kingdom and the glory of His name.

Fellowship is first of all, with “the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.” In his first epistle, John uses the word fellowship four times in the first chapter (1 John 1:3, 6, 7). There it is used exclusively in the context of salvation. In other words, to have fellowship with God is to have eternal life, to be saved. It is from this that all fellowship flows and apart from this there can be no true fellowship with those around us.

Daily Devotionals: (June 19th): Prayer for a Pilgrim Church

Reading: “confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.”—Hebrews 11:13

O adorable Saviour, You who were once Yourself a pilgrim— the lonely, weary, homeless, afflicted One who had often no arm to lean upon and no voice to cheer You, an outcast wanderer and sojourner in Your own creation—I rejoice to think that You have trodden all this wilderness-world before me, that You know its dreariest paths. I take comfort in the assurance that there is at the right hand of the Majesty on high a fellow-Sufferer who has drunk of every “brook in the way,” shed every tear of earthly sorrow, heaved every sigh of earthly suffering, and who, being Himself the “tried and tempted One,” is able and willing to support every pilgrim who is tried and tempted too.

I beseech You this day to look down in great kindness on all my beloved friends. Seal to them a saving interest in Your great salvation. Wash them all in Your blood, sanctify them all by Your Spirit. May not one be missing on “the day when You make up Your jewels.”

Pity a fallen world. Your church is slumbering, the enemy is all vigilant, souls are perishing. Arise, Lord, and plead Your own cause. Promote greater unity and love and concord among Your own people. Let us be nearer Jesus, and then we shall be nearer one another. Give us all more of the single eye to Your glory. Make us more self-sacrificing, more heavenly-minded, more Saviour-like. And all I ask is for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Adapted from the Rev. John McDuff, D.D., The Morning Watches, 1852.

John Ross Macduff was born at Bonhard, near Perth, on May 23, 1818. After studying at the University of Edinburgh, he became parish minister of Kettins, Forfarshire,  in 1842. In 1849 he moved to St. Madoes, Perthshire, and in 1855 to Sandyford, Glasgow. He received the degree of D.D. from the University of Glasgow in 1862, and from the University of New York about the same time. He retired from pastoral work in 1871, moved to Chislehurst, Kent where he died in 1887.

Daily Devotionals: (June 18th): A Prayer for a Pilgrim Spirit

Reading: “And confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.”—Hebrews 11:13

O God, again, in the multitude of Your mercies, You are permitting me to approach the footstool of Your throne. I am another day nearer death. Oh, may I be a day nearer You!

With a new morning’s dawn may I hear the pilgrim summons, “Arise, for this is not your rest.” Before I mingle with the world, give me to feel I am not of it, but born from above, and for above; and cherishing more of a pilgrim spirit, may my prayer and watchword be, “I desire a better country.”

Lord, I bless You for the rich provision You have made for the wilderness journey, for all Your mercies, temporal, providential, and spiritual. Forbid that the many gifts of Your love should draw me away from Yourself, the bountiful giver, or obliterate the solemn impression: “I am a stranger with You and a sojourner.” May I “use the world without abusing it.” By the varied discipline of Your providence may I be led to feel that all my well-springs are in You. May the world’s fascinations be becoming more powerless: sin more hated, holiness more loved, heaven more realized, God more “the exceeding joy” of my soul.

When the wilderness is dreary and the way dark, may He hallow adversity. When friends are removed, may I feel that I have One left more faithful than the best of all earthly friends; and when death comes and the pilgrim warfare ceases, leaning confidingly on that same arm, may I enter the pilgrim’s rest.

Adapted from the Rev. John McDuff, D.D., The Morning Watches, 1852.

John Ross Macduff was born at Bonhard, near Perth, on May 23, 1818. After studying at the University of Edinburgh, he became parish minister of Kettins, Forfarshire,  in 1842. In 1849 he moved to St. Madoes, Perthshire, and in 1855 to Sandyford, Glasgow. He received the degree of D.D. from the University of Glasgow in 1862, and from the University of New York about the same time. He retired from pastoral work in 1871, moved to Chislehurst, Kent where he died in 1887.

Daily Devotionals: (June 17th): A Prayer for Restoration

Reading: “Restore to me the joy of thy salvation.”—Psalm 51:12

O Lord, I come again this morning with a sense of estrangement. Leave me not in this state of distance and alienation. “O Lord, I beseech You, deliver my soul.” Snap these chains of earthliness that are still binding me to the dust, that, on the wings of faith, I may soar upwards and find rest and quietude where alone it can be found—in Your renewed love and favor. May past backslidings drive me more to Your grace. Nothing in myself, may I find and feel that my all in all is in You. Reveal to me my own emptiness and the overflowing fullness of Jesus. May I every day see more of His matchless excellencies, His incomparable loveliness, the sweets of His service, that I may never feel tempted to wander from His fold and carefully avoid all that would risk the forfeiture of that favor in which indeed is “life.”

Lord, let me know this day something of this happiness. Let me not be content with the name to live. Let religion be with me a real thing. Let it be everything—life-influencing, sin-subduing, self-renouncing. Let me diffuse all around me the happy glow of a spirit that feels at peace with God.

And now, Lord, what do I wait for? “My hope” for myself, my friends, and all for whom I ought to pray, “is in You.”

Nothing in my hand I bring,

Simply to the cross I cling;

Naked, come to Thee for dress;

Helpless, look to Thee for grace;

Foul, I to the fountain fly;

Wash me, Saviour, or I die.

All this I ask in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Adapted from the Rev. John McDuff, D.D., The Morning Watches, 1852.

John Ross Macduff was born at Bonhard, near Perth, on May 23, 1818. After studying at the University of Edinburgh, he became parish minister of Kettins, Forfarshire,  in 1842. In 1849 he moved to St. Madoes, Perthshire, and in 1855 to Sandyford, Glasgow. He received the degree of D.D. from the University of Glasgow in 1862, and from the University of New York about the same time. He retired from pastoral work in 1871, moved to Chislehurst, Kent where he died in 1887.

Daily Devotionals: (June 16th): Prayer for Forgiveness

Reading: “Wash me throughly from mine iniquity.”—Psalm 51:2

O God, another morning has dawned upon me. “Better Sun of righteousness,” with the brightness of Your rising may all the shadows of guilt and sin be dispersed. I come, weak and weary, guilty and heavy-laden, to You, beseeching You to bend Your pitying eye upon me, to deal not with me as I have deserved nor reward me according to my iniquity. Blessed Jesus, look upon me. In You may I be pitied, pardoned, and forgiven!

I have erred and strayed from Your way as a lost sheep. I have wandered from the home of my God. I have been seeking my happiness in what is shadowy and unreal. The world and its delusive hopes have been preferred to You. My heart, which ought ever to be a little altar and sanctuary of praise, has burned with false incense. Your love and glory have not maintained their paramount place in my affections. I have righteously forfeited “the joys of Your salvation.” My only marvel is, that, as a wandering star, You have not left me to drift onwards to the blackness of darkness forever. O leave me not to perish! I mourn my wanderings. In leaving You, I feel I have left my best friend. I have caused an aching void in this heart, which the world, with all its joys and riches and pleasures, can never fill.

I cannot have one hour of happiness, if mingled with the thought that I am estranged from You, my God. Blissful hours of Your favor I once enjoyed, come sorrowfully to my remembrance; and, though the cup of earthly happiness be full to the brim, I have still to breathe the prayer, “Oh, that it were with me as in months past, when the candle of the Lord did shine!”

Adapted from the Rev. John McDuff, D.D., The Morning Watches, 1852.

John Ross Macduff was born at Bonhard, near Perth, on May 23, 1818. After studying at the University of Edinburgh, he became parish minister of Kettins, Forfarshire,  in 1842. In 1849 he moved to St. Madoes, Perthshire, and in 1855 to Sandyford, Glasgow. He received the degree of D.D. from the University of Glasgow in 1862, and from the University of New York about the same time. He retired from pastoral work in 1871, moved to Chislehurst, Kent where he died in 1887.

Daily Devotionals: (June 15th): Prayer for Care from a Loving Father

Reading: “And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.”—2 Corinthians 6:18 

Jesus, blessed elder brother “in whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,” may I be enabled to imitate Your example of holy resignation to Your Father’s will. May the cup of bitterest earthly sorrow be taken into my hands with Your own breathing of devout submission: “This cup which You give me to drink, shall I not drink it? Even so, Father, for so it seems good in Your sight.” It is my comfort, blessed Lord, to know that while the best of earthly parents may err, You, the unerring God, never can. In Your most mysterious dealings there is wisdom. In Your roughest voice there is mercy.

Adorable Redeemer, all these filial blessings and adoption-privileges I owe to You. It is Your precious blood-shedding which has “set me among the children”; it is that which still keeps me there. Anew this day would I go to Your cross; anew would I supplicate that the Holy Spirit, the divine Comforter, would be sent forth into my heart, enabling me to cry, “Abba, Father.” May the thought of this blessed trust in You, support me amid life’s fitful changes and transient friendships, and may I be enabled to dwell with holy delight on that glorious time, when, no longer an exiled pilgrim in a strange land, I shall be received at the gates of glory with a Father’s welcome.

I commend myself and all near and dear to me, this day, to Your fatherly care and keeping. And all I ask is for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Adapted from the Rev. John McDuff, D.D., The Morning Watches, 1852.

John Ross Macduff was born at Bonhard, near Perth, on May 23, 1818. After studying at the University of Edinburgh, he became parish minister of Kettins, Forfarshire,  in 1842. In 1849 he moved to St. Madoes, Perthshire, and in 1855 to Sandyford, Glasgow. He received the degree of D.D. from the University of Glasgow in 1862, and from the University of New York about the same time. He retired from pastoral work in 1871, moved to Chislehurst, Kent where he died in 1887.

Daily Devotionals: (June 14th): The Prayer for Nearness to My Father in Heaven

Reading: “Abba, Father.”—Romans 8:15

Most blessed God, I rejoice that I can look up to You, the mightiest of all beings, and call You by that name which may well dispel all misgivings and hush all disquietudes: “My Father who is in heaven.”

Father, I have sinned against heaven and in Your sight. The kindest of earthly parents could not so long have borne with ingratitude and waywardness like mine. Long before now You might righteously have driven me an exile and a castaway from Your presence. But the voice of parental mercy is not silenced. The hand of parental patience and love is “stretched out still.” In the midst of deserved wrath, this is Your own gracious declaration: “I will be a Father to you!”

I mourn my grievous departures, my repeated declensions. Oh Lord, let me not live in this state of estrangement, forfeiting all the joys of a Father’s tenderness, the sunshine of a Father’s smile. May I be enabled to enjoy more and more, every day, holy filial nearness to the mercy-seat, there unburdening into Your ear all my needs and trials, my sorrows and perplexities, my backslidings and sins. Give me grace to bow with childlike submission to a Father’s will, to bear without a murmur a Father’s rod, to hear in every dealing—joyous or sorrowful—a Father’s voice, and when death comes, to have every fear dispelled by listening to a Father’s summons: “Today you shall be with me in paradise.” I ask in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Adapted from the Rev. John McDuff, D.D., The Morning Watches, 1852.

John Ross Macduff was born at Bonhard, near Perth, on May 23, 1818. After studying at the University of Edinburgh, he became parish minister of Kettins, Forfarshire,  in 1842. In 1849 he moved to St. Madoes, Perthshire, and in 1855 to Sandyford, Glasgow. He received the degree of D.D. from the University of Glasgow in 1862, and from the University of New York about the same time. He retired from pastoral work in 1871, moved to Chislehurst, Kent where he died in 1887.

Daily Devotionals: (June 13th): Prayer for Singleness of Eye

Reading: “For the Lord GOD will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed.” Isaiah 50:7

O Lord, with singleness of mind on You, give me greater singleness of aim!—more self-emptying and self-abasing—that He may be all in all! Lord, I am conscious often of mingled motives, that would not stand the test of Your pure eye and Your holy Word! How often do I forfeit the joys of assurance by admitting rival claimants to the throne of my affections! How often are the surpassing interests and glories of eternity dimmed and obscured by the engrossing things of time and of sense! How mixed with imperfection and earthliness and self-seeking are my best attempts to serve You!

Give me more of this unity and simplicity of purpose. Give me to make Christ more the one thing needful. Let all other love be subordinated to Yours. Be my chief joy. May I glow with holy zeal to promote Your cause and testify of Your grace. Remembering all that You have done for me, may I be animated to make a more entire consecration and surrender of all I am and have to Your glory.

Let me feel that whatever my rank or station or circumstances are, I have some mission to perform for You. May I “occupy it until my Lord comes.” Let me not squander fleeting moments or forego fleeting opportunities. “The night is coming, when none of us can work.” Enable me now, bowing at Your mercy-seat, to replenish anew my empty vessel with the oil of Your grace, that the lamp of faith may be kept burning brightly all the day. All that I ask is for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Adapted from the Rev. John McDuff, D.D., The Morning Watches, 1852.

John Ross Macduff was born at Bonhard, near Perth, on May 23, 1818. After studying at the University of Edinburgh, he became parish minister of Kettins, Forfarshire,  in 1842. In 1849 he moved to St. Madoes, Perthshire, and in 1855 to Sandyford, Glasgow. He received the degree of D.D. from the University of Glasgow in 1862, and from the University of New York about the same time. He retired from pastoral work in 1871, moved to Chislehurst, Kent where he died in 1887.

Daily Devotionals: (June 12th): Prayer for Singleness of Mind

Reading: “For thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river.” —Isaiah 66:12

My Father in heaven, teach me, in childlike faith and confidence, to draw near this morning to Your throne of grace with singleness of mind. Give me the blessed influences of Your Holy Spirit, that I may wait on You undisturbed by worldly distractions and enter on the duties of another day with my mind “stayed upon Jehovah.”

Blessed Jesus!—You who so freely gave Yourself a ransom for many—cleanse me! I have no peace but in Your pardoning, reconciling love. May Your blood and righteousness be to me “a glorious dress,” arrayed in which I may now and forever stand fearless and undismayed.

I bless You, O God, if I have in any degree felt the preciousness of the Saviour and His adaptation to all the needs and weaknesses of my sinful, and sorrowful, and tempted nature. I thank You that You have already hidden me in the clefts of the smitten Rock. My prayer is, that You will keep me there, that I may lean upon Jesus more than ever, and seek my happiness more exclusively in His service. May I every morning be drawn more closely by the cords of His love and be led to fight more faithfully under His banner.

Stayed upon Jehovah,

Hearts are fully blest

Finding, as He promised,

Perfect peace and rest.

Adapted from the Rev. John McDuff, D.D., The Morning Watches, 1852.

John Ross Macduff was born at Bonhard, near Perth, on May 23, 1818. After studying at the University of Edinburgh, he became parish minister of Kettins, Forfarshire,  in 1842. In 1849 he moved to St. Madoes, Perthshire, and in 1855 to Sandyford, Glasgow. He received the degree of D.D. from the University of Glasgow in 1862, and from the University of New York about the same time. He retired from pastoral work in 1871, moved to Chislehurst, Kent where he died in 1887.

Daily Devotionals: (June 11th): A Prayer for Consistency in My Walk

Reading: “Walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing” —Colossians 1:10

Lord, I come this morning to ask anew for mercy to pardon and grace to help me. Especially give me the grace of a holy consistency, doing all for Your glory, having boldness to speak for You in the world. May my walk and conversation be the living evidence and expression of the sincerity and reality of the inner life.

For this end may I live more on Jesus. May my life be ”hid with Christ in God.” May I grow more and more out of myself and into my living Head. Self-humbled and self-emptied, may I be ever resorting to the all-fullness of an all-sufficient Saviour. May this be my habitual feeling: “Without Him I can do nothing.” May this be my constant prayer: “Help me, Saviour.”

May I be enabled this day, in His strength, to do something for God. However lowly my lot, however humble my abilities, may I feel, Lord, that You have work for me in Your vineyard. Let me not bury my talent in the earth; may I “occupy it until You come” that “You may receive Your own with interest.”

Have mercy on Your whole church. Pour out on all its members and office-bearers the spirit of meekness and zeal, of power and love, and of a sound mind. May “Holiness to the Lord” be written on its portals! Hasten the blessed period when the love of Jesus, being enthroned in every heart and every church, “we all shall be one.” And all I ask is for the Redeemer’s sake. Amen.

Adapted from the Rev. John McDuff, D.D., The Morning Watches, 1852.

John Ross Macduff was born at Bonhard, near Perth, on May 23, 1818. After studying at the University of Edinburgh, he became parish minister of Kettins, Forfarshire,  in 1842. In 1849 he moved to St. Madoes, Perthshire, and in 1855 to Sandyford, Glasgow. He received the degree of D.D. from the University of Glasgow in 1862, and from the University of New York about the same time. He retired from pastoral work in 1871, moved to Chislehurst, Kent where he died in 1887.

Daily Devotionals: (June 10th): Thanksgiving for a Longsuffering Saviour

Reading: “With lovingkindness have I drawn thee.”—Jeremiah 31:3 

O Lord, You are the heart-searching and the thought-trying God. To You all hearts are open; from You no secrets are hidden. Cleanse the thoughts of my heart this day, by the inspiration of Your Holy Spirit. I would seek to begin its hours with You. May all its business and employments be perfumed with the fragrance of “the morning sacrifice.”

O You who are the great origin and end of all things, be to me the Alpha and the Omega of my daily being. May I feel existence to be a blank without You. May I feel that I can only be truly happy when a sense of Your favor and friendship and love is sweetly intermingled with life’s duties thus lessening every burden, hallowing every trial, diminishing every cross!

I come to You once more, an unworthy sinner, to cast myself at my Saviour’s feet. What am I, that You should have borne with me so long! The ax “laid at the root of the trees” might long ago have cut me down; but I, a guilty cumberer, am still spared. The retrospect of existence, while a retrospect of patience and forbearance on Your part, is one of mournful rebellion and ingratitude on mine. I have had a “name to live,” but how much spiritual death in my best frames! I have had a form of godliness; how little have I lived out and acted out its power! More careful have I been to appear to be a Christian than really to be a Christian. How much unevenness in my walk, how much proclaimed and professed by the lip has been undone and denied in the life! Lord, how gracious You have been to me. You have caused me to feel my proneness to wander and graciously brought me back.

Adapted from the Rev. John McDuff, D.D., The Morning Watches, 1852.

John Ross Macduff was born at Bonhard, near Perth, on May 23, 1818. After studying at the University of Edinburgh, he became parish minister of Kettins, Forfarshire,  in 1842. In 1849 he moved to St. Madoes, Perthshire, and in 1855 to Sandyford, Glasgow. He received the degree of D.D. from the University of Glasgow in 1862, and from the University of New York about the same time. He retired from pastoral work in 1871, moved to Chislehurst, Kent where he died in 1887.