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IMPRESSIONS OF WEST PITTSTON Written for Christianity Today By J. Gresham Machen

A meeting attended by fully five hundred persons was held in the High School Auditorium at West Pittston, Pennsylvania, on the evening of Monday, October 8th, to bid God-speed to the Rev. and Mrs. Henry W. Coray, who are sailing by the steamship “Empress of Japan” from Vancouver on October 20th to be missionaries in China under the Independent Board for Presbyterian Foreign Missions. Before the formation of the Independent Board, Mr. Coray applied repeatedly for appointment under the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A. (before the unfaithfulness of that Board had been so clearly demonstrated); but that Board did not appoint him. Being thus hindered in his long cherished ambition to go to the foreign field he became, on his graduation from Westminster Theological Seminary, pastor of the West Pittston Presbyterian Church, which is a church of 651 members. As pastor of that church he was signally blessed of God and greatly beloved by the congregation. Every ordinary human consideration would have led him to remain where he was. He was pastor of a large and important church extraordinarily large for a man just out of seminary he was a successful preacher; he was beloved by young and old; he was happy in his pastoral labors. Everything pointed to a distinguished and happy career for him in the ministry in this country. He might have argued plausibly that in applying repeatedly to the official Board of Foreign Missions of the church of which he was a member he had done his part and might now conscientiously accept the pathway of easier or at least less adventurous service. But he put all such considerations aside. He was convinced that God had called him to the foreign field, and he would allow nothing to stand in the way of that call. He applied under the Independent Board. He was perfectly willing to face any opposition that might come to him for so doing. God had called him to preach the gospel to the unsaved, and he preferred to obey God rather than man.

Evidently that was the way in which his congregation viewed his decision-no one who attended the farewell meeting could well doubt that. But very different was the way in which it was regarded by presbytery. What did the Presbytery of Lackawanna do when this man with his wife desired to sacrifice ease and emoluments and an assured career in order to preach the gospel to the unsaved? Did it bid him God-speed on his errand of love? That was what one might suppose that it would do. But as a matter of fact it did nothing of the kind. It refused to dissolve his pastoral relation, and then it voted to erase his name from the presbytery roll! It told him that he must not go! “Let those who have never heard of Jesus,” the presbytery seemed to say in effect, “let those who would never hear of Him unless this missionary is sent, remain in darkness; let them go down to eternal destruction. We care not. If you go, you may save souls, but you will be doing something derogatory to US. So you must not go. Let the prerogatives of the ecclesiastical machine be preserved at all costs, even at the cost of precious souls!” That was the real meaning of the act of Lackawanna Presbytery, no matter what the presbytery may have thought it meant. That was the meaning which was evidently detected in it by a great host of laymen in the presbyterial area. A wave of truly righteous indignation ran through the congregation in which Mr. Coray was so much beloved. Modernism and cold indifferentism, it seemed, were at last throwing off their mask. The dreadfulness of that act of presbytery impressed itself upon young and old.

It was in such a situation that the meeting was called. It was not suggested by representatives of the Independent Board, but was a spontaneous movement of laymen. There was little time for the announcement of the meeting; but the hearts of the people were stirred and responded quickly to the call. A great company was present from Mr. Coray’s congregation and from neighboring towns.

Mr. Bert Tennant of the Board of Trustees of the West Pittston Church was a prime mover in the arrangements and in the necessary announcements; Mr. Harold Davenport, of the Session, presided; Mr. Henry Morgan was in charge of the singing, which was led by the regular church choir. Rev. George C. Westberg, pastor of the Memorial Presbyterian Church of Wilkes-Barre, was on the platform and took part in the service.

After the meeting had been called to order by Elder Davenport and after an introductory address by the present correspondent, the Rev. Edwin H. Rian, a member of the Independent Board for Presbyterian Foreign Missions, spoke on the subject of the Christian message as contrasted with the “other gospel” proclaimed by Modernism. Mr. Coray then bade farewell, in his own name and in the name of Mrs. Coray (who, with him, is deeply beloved by the congregation). The newspapers, he said, had told of certain notables who would be on that ship, the “Empress of Japan,” on October 20th. But three young people would also be on it, he said alluding to his wife and himself and R. Heber McIlwaine, who is going under the Independent Board as a missionary to Japan. These young people would not be widely known, but there would be some who would follow them in their prayers. Indeed, he said, there would be really more than three in that company. “There will be four of us,” he said, as nearly as your correspondent can remember the substance of his words, “there will be four of us, because we know that Christ will not forget His promise to be with His disciples.”

The final address was delivered by the Rev. Carl McIntire, pastor of the Collingswood Presbyterian Church in the Presbytery of West Jersey. It was a stirring address indeed. He told of the way in which in January, 1933, he had listened to the arguments against the present policy of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A. He told of his repeated efforts to obtain an answer to those arguments from the secretaries of the Board; he told of the eagerness with which he had awaited some adequate public response of the Board to the specific charges that had been publicly made against it. He told of the failure of all such efforts and of the fruitlessness of all such waiting. Then he told of the present situation in the Church and of the fire that is within the souls of those who would preach the gospel without compromise. It is a momentous situation, he said; there is stirring among us the hope that a true revival may come out of it. Pray God that that revival may truly come! What is the true meaning of this West Pittston meeting; what is the true meaning of the even larger gathering at Orange, which is no doubt being reported elsewhere in this number of CHRISTIANITY TODAY and about which I could say as much as I have said regarding the West Pittston meeting; what is the meaning of the event which is the occasion for these meetings? The answer is very simple. The meaning of all this is that “the Word of God is not bound.”

It might have seemed as though that Word were indeed bound; it might have seemed as though it were bound by the deadly shackles of compromise with another gospel which is no gospel at all. It might have seemed as though, at least in the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A., the unfaithfulness of the Board of Foreign Missions and the deadly coldness and ruthlessness of the entire ecclesiastical machine had tied the gospel down in unbreakable fetters. There might have seemed to be no escape from this deadly bondage. But out of the midst of it prayers went up to Almighty God, and God has given the answer. He has given the answer in the departure of these three modest young people as true missionaries of the Cross. They are loyal in every fibre of their being to the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A., the two of them who are ministers are loyal in every fibre of their being to every part of their ordination pledge. Particularly are they loyal to that part of the pledge-neglected by so many ministers today-in which they promised “to be zealous and faithful in maintaining the truths of the gospel, and the purity and peace of the Church, whatever persecution or opposition” might arise unto them on that account. They are not only loyal, but they have shown by their actions that they are loyal. They have shown that they are loyal by their willingness to submit to the lawlessness now so rampant in the Church. They have made Christ their Captain, as the Constitution of our Church and the Word of God bid them do; they have gone forth to preach the gospel without any compromise with the unbelief of the world. As they go, the prayers of God’s people go with them. May God soon send that blessed day when-all preliminaries over, all vexatious delays behind their backs, they shall have the unspeakable privilege of making Christ known to those who have never heard His name, and when they shall have the joy of seeing the glory of salvation appearing in the faces of those who but for their going would have remained forever in the darkness of sin!