It was the conjunction of these
two factors - the searching nature of Christ's dealings with us
and the high standard of Christian character
required of us by God - that produced in Dr Duncan a self-knowledge rarely
surpassed in Christian biography
by John M. Brentnall
(A lecture delivered by John M Brentnall at a Banner of Truth Ministers'
Conference, in Leicester)
Introduction
At the opening of his Institutes, Calvin remarks that true and substantial
wisdom consists in the knowledge of God and of ourselves. This is true.
Not
only are the two inter-active, they are also proportional. The more we
know
God, the more we know ourselves. Conversely, the less we know God, the
less
we know ourselves. When on Dr John Duncan's death his friend William
Knight
wrote: "With him has perished a breathing library of wisdom",
he
unwittingly acknowledged that John Duncan knew more of God and of himself
than he was aware of. It is the second of these topics, Dr Duncan's
self-knowledge as a minister of the Gospel, that we wilt consider this
evening. And in the manner of certain stereotyped preachers we will deal
with only three points. and then seek to draw out some lessons from them
for ourselves.
1. John Duncan's knowledge of his lack of self-discipline.
Dr Duncan knew how undisciplined he was, even to the point of regarding
his
lack of discipline as a sin, with the result that he suffered the keenest
self-reproach. Let us take three areas of indiscipline:
I. Study.
(a) Though Dr Duncan acknowledged with the strength of the deepest
conviction that God is a God of order, yet he found himself
constitutionally unable to order or pre-arrange his own study of languages.
"I get so absorbed in linguistic studies," he confessed, "that
I forget my
duty to God and to my fellow-men." Again, he says, "My great
temptation is
to the inordinate study of language." And again, "I am deficient
in order;
it is sinful; we must remember that God is a God of order." In connection
with his inordinate love of books he confesses, "These are my 'world.'
What
social dissipation is to another man, study is to me - worldliness." It
was
probably in connection with this undisciplined devotion to languages
that
on one recorded occasion the Lord deserted him, constraining the complaint,
"
It is not a clean desertion. It is very dirty... I know the cause: a
life
of self-pleasing instead of to the glory of God - backsliding. And now,
when there is the desire to return, there comes the difficulty. Oh, I
have
need of the hospital. 'Heal my soul, for I have sinned against Thee.'
(Psa
41.4).
(b) This lack of self-discipline was evidenced by Dr Duncan's habitual
failure to be where he was expected to be and to do what needed to be
done.
Many a story I heard while living in Aberdeen of Dr Duncan's
absentmindedness resulting from his devotion to study. On one occasion,
he
was walking inland up Deeside to fulfil an engagement, and stopped to
take
a pinch of snuff. Of course, he had a book in his hand. Turning round
so
that the wind was at his back, he took his pinch and carried on walking,
only to find himself back in Aberdeen! Such stories are legion, and Dr
Duncan did nothing to discourage their circulation. Indeed, he once
remarked that he had begun to believe them himself!
The most startling and almost incredible instance of this thoughtlessness,
however, is connected with his second marriage. As the wedding hour drew
near, his niece sent him to his room to dress. But the act of undressing
was in his mind associated with going to bed, and going to bed was
associated with taking a book to read. When the cab arrived, there was
no
sign of the bridegroom in his wedding suit. His niece went to inquire
what
had happened, and found him in bed sound asleep with a Hebrew book in
his
hand!
II. Teaching.
(a) A further area of Dr Duncan's awareness of his lack of discipline
was
that of teaching and preaching, especially the former. His theological
lectures often evoked complaints from his students that they lacked method.
This may be the reason why he was unsuccessful in applying for the Chair
of
Oriental Languages at Glasgow University. As he was exegeting a passage
from the Psalms, for example, he would stumble across a Hebrew word that
would excite his linguistic curiosity, and would proceed to pursue its
ramifications down By-path lane in Aramaic, Assyrian, Sanskrit, etc,
with
the inevitable result that the students completely lost track of him!
The
same was true of some of his sermons, especially at Milton Chapel, Glasgow.
His lengthy cogitations in the pulpit were way beyond the grasp of most
of
his hearers, particularly when he plumbed the depths of the Spirit's
dealings with men's hearts. Inevitably there was a thinning down of the
congregation.
(b) Another factor in this connection was Dr Duncan's inability to write
out his lectures, sermons and Assembly speeches. He had a constitutional
aversion to writing, and on one occasion confessed that the attempt to
write made him physically sick. Evidently he did not need Lord Bacon's
dictum: "Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and
writing an
exact man." His remarkable ability to think his way through a subject
made
the finished spoken product as precisely chiseled as a diamond.
III. Prayer.
One other aspect of Dr Duncan's lack of discipline was the inordinate
length of his prayers, both at family worship and before his class
lectures. On one occasion his opening prayer occupied the entire hour
allotted to the lecture! But his explanation, which was not pleaded as
a
mitigation or an excuse, was this: "I fear I have been very long
today; but
when one thinks he has got in, it is very difficult to get out again!"
Incidentally, Dr Duncan took note of indiscipline in the public prayers
of
others. "We have far too many preaching prayers," he complained. "Many
good
ministers preach to God!"
[One example of his absent-mindedness cannot be omitted. Dr Moody Stuart
observed: "He could be slyly absent when he did not care to be present."
While he was in Scotland he often had to be roused from his bed to begin
the day's tasks; but at Pest in Hungary he was always first up and ready
to
take the early train. "Why is this?" inquired one of the party. "People
at
home think you're not able to look after yourself" he replied. "I'm
lazy,
and they think I'm stupid, but at home I know I'll be looked after."]
Lessons for Ourselves:
Before moving to our second designated area of Dr Duncan's self-knowledge,
let us draw two simple lessons for ourselves in the work of the ministry:
i] Some of us may need to confess the same lack of discipline as Dr Duncan
had, whether in our studies, teaching, preaching, social lack of
punctuality or prayer. We are so easily carried away by our impulsive
natures or some short-lived enthusiasm. How many unfulfilled projects
and
good intentions lie scattered around our manses or our minds! How
idolatrous we are about books and study, to the neglect of pastoral visits!
or vice versa.
ii] We need to exercise strict self-discipline in all these areas. Let
us
seek grace to regulate our habits around the needs of our people and
the
Church of our Lord Jesus Christ at large. Let us not dissipate our
energies, but redeem the time.2. John Duncan's Knowledge of his pre-occupation
with spiritual frames and
feelings.
This aspect of Dr Duncan's life was not so much the fruit of morbid
introspection but of an extreme sensitivity to two factors that are always
present:
(I) The searching way in which the Lord Jesus Christ deals with His people
through their spiritual experience. This awareness was crystallized by
Dr
Duncan in the saying: "Christ casts out none that come to Him, but
He
searches all that come.
(II) The unattainably high standards of Christian character set forth
in
the Word of God. For Dr Duncan holiness meant HOLINESS - inward and outward
separation from the least stain of sin coupled with the utmost dedication
to God. He dreaded equally a shallow believism, a triumphalist activism
and
a mere intellectualism.
It was the conjunction of these two factors - the searching nature of
Christ's dealings with us and the high standard of Christian character
required of us by God - that produced in Dr Duncan a self-knowledge rarely
surpassed in Christian biography.
This self-knowledge expressed itself in four significant ways:
A. In the keenest sense of sin and duty.
Dr David Brown, his most intimate friend, remarked: 'I never knew a more
tender conscience on every point of duty, a more quick sensibility to
whatever he thought morally or religiously wrong, and a deeper sense
of
compunction and distress at any deviation from duty, whether patent to
the
eye of man or not." A fine example of this appears in his saying
one
morning:
"
What a wicked thought I had in going to bed last night: 'If I were sure
I
were a Christian I would not pray tonight."' Another example is
provided by
his rebuke of a student before the whole Hebrew class for handing in
a
poorly-worked exercise. When the student explained that he had been
sitting
up all night with a dying friend, Dr Duncan publicly apologized to
him
before the class. He regarded this as not only courteous but also as
morally binding on him.
B. In his entertaining frequent doubts about his own salvation.
For these he offered the following explanation: "I am naturally
of a
sceptical turn of mind, and since I have been delivered from doubt
about
God and the great truths of redemption, my scepticism has taken the
form of
doubt about my own salvation." His perplexity appears in the subtle
admission: "I have not come to the conviction that He will not save
me; I
believe that He is able, and I have not concluded that He is unwilling." He
speaks the language of many when he said again: "I have never had
any
doubts about the truths of Christianity, about the sufficiency of Christ's
atonement. My doubts have been about my interest in Him, whether I
were
truly united to Him." More specifically: "My fearfulness is
not at all from
the law; it is from the gospel. The gospel, and that just when I could
seek
to embrace it, detects sin, detects unbelief, detects the carnal mind
-
that I am not willing to be saved in God's way." Perhaps the most
poignant
expression of his anguish on this account was voiced only a few weeks
before his death. To a friend seeking to comfort him with the promise,
'When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee.' (Isa 43.2),
he
replied rather sharply: "What makes you so confident about me? You
cannot
search the heart like God. Is my Christianity so very apparent?" Yet
even
in such depths a gleam of gospel light gave him hope:
"
If I am dying," he said once, "I don't know where I'm going;
but since it
is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ
Jesus came
into the world to save sinners, even the chief I may be saved. I
am not
able to examine myself; my friends will have it that it is real -
I must
just go on the present offer of Christ; if I have not done it before,
I may
receive Him now." Indeed, knowingly or not, Dr Duncan later betrayed
the
presence of grace in his heart when he said: "Well, if I were sure
of
heaven, there is nothing I would like better than to depart and be
with
Christ." Clearly, what Dr Duncan lacked was not grace but assurance.
Now Dr Duncan fully acknowledged that all such doubting was sin. "In
him
who desires union to the Lord first above all things," he confessed, "doubt
of the forgiveness is agonizing to himself and dishonouring to Christ."
Hence, one of his most frequent requests to friends: "Pray for me;
pray for
pardon; pray for purity."
C. In the greatest concern to get a saving sight and an assured grip
of the
Saviour.
Of Dr Duncan's sincere and ardent love for Christ even he himself
was
sometimes conscious. "Christ is a wonderful Being," he once
said. "We could
never do without Christ." And again: "Can you conceive anything
more
beautiful than the character of Jesus Christ?" And again: "It
is death to
be separated from Christ for a moment." And again: "There is
an unknown
attractiveness in Jesus Christ." Perhaps the sweetest example of
this is
found in his remark to the Hebrew class following the opening prayer: "Dear
young gentlemen, I have just got a glimpse of Jesus."
So, although Dr Duncan called himself a Mr. Fearing, admitted to
babbling
about assurance he did not possess, and was very skilful in relieving
the
doubts of others, he was always conscious of the possibility of himself
being saved. Though he knew that seeking would not save him (as he
told a
beggar woman on the streets of Edinburgh), yet he knew that in God's
mercy
seeking would result in finding, and that finding would save him.
And so we
find him almost contentedly saying: "There are times when.. I cannot
read
my Bible and I cannot pray. But I go out into my garden to consider
the
lilies how they grow," and advising others: "Consider Jesus
Christ, and if
you can't consider Christ, consider the lilies of the field, how
they grow.
D. In the most intense desires for God.
Commenting on Asaph's longing for God at the close of Psalm 73 he
spoke
from experience of "an intense desire, of such intensity of desire
as has a
tendency to debilitate the powers." Perhaps his remarks on the Answer
to
the First Question of the Shorter Catechism best exemplify this: "1
pass
over the first part mainly with an intellectual approbation of its
moral
rectitude as a requirement -''Man's chief end is to glorify God'
[What
honesty!] - while every fibre of my soul winds itself round the latter
part
- 'to enjoy Him forever' - with unutterable, sickening, fainting
desire."
He proceeds: "But I pray the Lord my God to circumcise my heart
to love the
Lord my God; to love Him for His own essential, revealed excellencies
with
devoted love; that the Beloved (0 my soul, O Spirit of the Lord,
is He or
is He not my Beloved?) may be mine, and I His, and I His, AND I HIS!"
Lessons for Ourselves:
i] Let us beware of the tyranny of prolonged self-scrutiny. We are
all
vulnerable and frail. We are all imperfectly sanctified. And if we
are
sensitive, introverted by temperament, deeply serious in the things
of God,
or belong to a church whose emphasis is mainly experiential and which
fails
to keep a healthy balance between doctrine, experience and practice,
we
must beware of just how able are frames and feelings to lead us about
wherever they please. In this Slough of Despond many have lost sight
of the
Saviour altogether. Some even struggle all their days to extricate
themselves from the morass of feelings, impulses and ideas into which
they
have fallen. Did not M'Cheyne say, following Rutherford: "For every
look at
self, take ten looks at Christ."?
ii] Let us seek grace to avoid the opposite danger; namely, of making
a
saviour out of our spiritual experiences. It is dreadfully possible
for
people to glory in their imagined spirituality, and to confound their
own
spiritual motions and hunches with the leading of the Spirit of God,
to the
great dishonour of Christ and distress of others. This is nothing
but wild
fanaticism. Dear friends, beware of making a saviour of your doubts,
fears,
concerns, faith, love, tears, sincerity, assurance, service, anything!
The
heart is deceitful above all things, and Satan is ever near to entangle
us
in ourselves. CHRIST ALONE IS THE RESTING-PLACE OF YOUR SOUL. All
our
self-knowledge, if given by the Holy Spirit, will lead us to Him.
And if we
discern the least spark of grace in ourselves, let us humbly thank
Him who
gave it and who alone can increase it. And if we are shown the carnal
mind
within, working in enmity towards God, let us seek pardon and cleansing
for
it in the precious blood of Christ. He, and not our experience, is
our
Saviour.
3. John Duncan's knowledge of the vast importance of language in
expressing
his thoughts on the great themes of the Reformed Faith.
Let us hear his own testimony on the subject: "The morel study language,
the more I am convinced of this, that particular shades of thought
are
wedded to particular words. If you disuse the words, you lose the
thought."
Again: "I would advise everyone to be careful to use no more words
than are
necessary to express thought." So meticulous was Dr Duncan in applying
this
principle to the study of Holy Scripture that he closed his students
in to
the strictest exegesis of their set texts, sternly insisting: "We
are not
at liberty to leave apostolic exegesis for our own ideas." Accordingly,
he
himself was fastidious in his choice of words. As Dr David Brown
confirms:
"
The words often dropped very slowly from his lips, but they were always
apt words, worth waiting for." Dr Moody Stuart speaks to the same
effect:
"
He had a fastidious sense of the music of words."
This being so, we find Dr Duncan's language marked by three leading
features:
1] A certain classical beauty of form.
[In considering this feature, we remember that Dr Duncan spoke the
purest
classical Latin fluently.] R.J.Sandeman, one of his students, observed
this
aspect of his teacher's language: "He strove to give his thoughts
a certain
chaste beauty of form: some of his characteristic sayings, through
being
often repeated, became almost perfect in point of form." For compactness,
theological comprehensiveness, equilibrium and musical rhythm, the
following samples are gems:
(I) "All God's Law is 'Thou shalt love', and all His Gospel is 'God
so
loved."'
(II) "Beware of him who, if not in matter, yet in manner, preaches
himself."
(III) "The creature's first duty is to be what God made him. His
next duty
is to do what God ordains."
(IV) [On prelates in the House of Lords] "As lords they are not
spiritual,
and as spiritual they are not lords."
(V) "Our Lord was always without sin in Him, but He had a great
load of sin
on Him."
2. A Predilection for Aphorisms.
On this point William Knight remarked: "His thoughts naturally took
an
aphoristic form. . . . Brevity and sententious fulness always characterized
them." Adds John Donaldson, one of his students: "His sayings,
aided by
their epigrammatic terseness and point, stuck fast in the memory,
in their
measure, like texts of Scripture."
Here are a few examples:
(1) "Never admit an Arminian into your pulpit."
(2) "Hyper-Calvinism is all house and no door; Arminianism is all
door and
no house."
(3) "The best preaching is: Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and
keep the
ten commandments."
(4) "The Gospel is a prepared feast for unprepared guests."
(5) "I am first a Christian, next a Catholic, next a Calvinist,
next a
PaedoBaptist, last a Presbyterian. I cannot reverse this order."
3. A Penchant for Startling Questions.
The examples cited reveal a rare angle of vision and the most acute
spiritual perception:
(1) "Can you be happy just by thinking that God is happy?"
(2) "What will worldlings think when their god is all in a blaze?"
(3) "Who can tell the hatefulness of not loving God?"
(4) "What will the judgment-seat be to the graceless minister?"
Such striving for perfect form of expression was deliberate with
Dr Duncan,
and was therefore a conscious aspect of his self-knowledge as a minister.
Lessons for Ourselves:
1. Let us never be careless or shoddy in our speech. As ambassadors
of
Christ, we should consciously seek out the most apt words for our
thoughts
(Prov 25.11) and cultivate good diction, pronunciation, articulation
and
voice-projection. How can we expect the Lord to bless our attempts
to
communicate His truth if our reading and preaching of Holy Scripture
is
slovenly or marked by offensive peculiarities?
2. Let us seek out the best ways of presenting God's truth to others.
We
are not to be pale imitators, like Robert Leighton's ape and Dr
Lloyd-Jones's chimpanzees. That would be both dishonest and foolish.
But
let us strive after Dr Shedd's three ideals of plainness, force and
beauty.
These features characterized so much of Dr Duncan's speech, and they
should
characterize ours. After all, consider the Saviour's own reading
and
preaching.
Conclusion.
In conclusion, let us recapitulate the three leading lessons we may
learn
from Dr Duncan's intense self-scrutiny:
1. Let us seek grace to be thoroughly self-disciplined, in our studying,
preaching, teaching, social habits and prayers. In view of the pressures
on
our time, our natural inclination to please ourselves and the fact
that one
fruit of the Spirit is self-control, this need is imperative.
2. Let us resist the tyranny of frames and feelings by taking them,
whether
sinful or gracious, to Christ.
As Dr Duncan himself put it: "When self-examination terminates.
. .1 must
just leave my case in His hands who can make it good if it is bad,
and if
it is good clear it up to me."
3. Let us study the best way to communicate the unsearchable riches
of
Christ.
Brethren, we have received the highest calling on earth, we are
responsible
for precious souls, and we must give an account of our ministry.
May we
pray for each other, that God will not be dishonoured by our
carelessness,
but that He would make us able ministers of the New Testament,
to His
glory, others' benefit and our comfort.
Peace and Truth 2003:1: the magazine of the Sovereign Grace Union www.sgu.org.uk
