Deputy to Canada.
We learn that the Rev. Walter Scott has been appointed the Church’s Deputy to Canada for this year. Arrangements are not yet completed, but it is probable that Mr. Scott will (D.v.) leave at an early date.
The Coal Strike.
One of the most serious disturbances in the labour world which this country has ever had to face has confronted us for weeks. Our statesmen have done what they could to bring about a settlement, but they have failed. At the time of writing, a Bill has been introduced into Parliament with the purpose of fixing a minimum wage. As to the political aspect of the situation, it is not our intention to say anything, except that such a solution to the difficulty is recognised as having far-reaching consequences. But such a crisis in our country’s history calls for the most serious consideration from all her people. As a nation, we have acted as though God had no place in controlling our destiny. We set about building magnificent warships, and in our proud security we named them Dreadnoughts, Invincibles, and Indomitables. Our statesmen, like the statesmen in the days of Isaiah, were busy making alliances with foreign nations, and with their eye upon Germany, they thought little about God. But the Ruler of the nations has made us realise that the power that may crush us is nearer at hand than we anticipate. The present crisis is a loud cry to the people of Britain to return to God with contrition of heart. Shall there be evil in the city and the Lord hath not done it?
Death of Mr. Walter Walsh.
In the death of Mr. Walter Walsh, editor of the Protestant Observer, the Protestant cause has lost one of its ablest supporters. Mr. Walsh’s Secret History of the Oxford Movement came on the English people as a thundercrash. That Ritualism had made great progress was generally felt, but when Mr. Walsh marshalled the facts and figures and exposed the methods of the Romanisers in the Church of England, the book came as a painful revelation to every one interested in the Protestantism of the Church of England. The book had a very large sale and did much to enlighten the people as to the real state of matters. Mr. Walsh wrote a number of other books and acted as editor of the Protestant Observer, which, we understand, is still to be carried on. He was also the writer of the column, “Protestant Notes,” in the English Churchman, from which we have quoted often in these pages. It is men of solid worth, such as Mr. Walsh, which the Protestant cause requires, and for the sake of the sister nation and for the sake of the wider field it ought to be our prayer that the Lord would raise up men who fear His name while the standard-bearers are falling.
The Curse of South America.
South America is cursed (says the Rev. Charles Inwood, F.R.G.S.) with a baptised paganism which has hung like a millstone round its neck for four centuries. Romanism, with its hatred and open hostility to the circulation of the Scriptures; with Mariolatry of the most debased character; with its traffic in indulgences and its exorbitant charges for baptisms and confessions, for the marriage of the living and the burial of the dead; with the gross and general immorality of its priesthood; has reached a depth of ignorance, superstition, and filth which can find no parallel in any other Continent.
The War Office and Rifle Practice on Sabbath.
This country, through the War Office, has been guilty of legalising a patent breach of God’s commandment, in allowing the Territorials permission to practice rifle shooting on the Lord’s Day. Apart altogether from the heinous nature of the offence, it is particularly to be regretted that such permission should be granted, when a descendant of the godly Haldanes is responsible for the affairs of that office. Our country, through its responsible officials, seems determined to leave God out of account in their diplomatic arrangements, and to add insult to godlessness, they now proceed, in a public way, to set aside His laws. If God’s curse rest on the Territorial Army as His manifested displeasure against glaring breach of His law, all the skill that may be attained by practising on the Lord’s Day, will be of little avail in the day of battle. Every young man, who has his country’s well-being at heart, should give the Territorial Army a wide berth, after this daring scheme of the War Office.
A German Heretic.
In the Weekly Scotsman of 23rd March, an account is given of a division in the German Evangelical Church, the central figure of which is a certain Pastor Karl Jatho. Full particulars are not supplied of the erroneous ideas of this man, but they are described as Pantheistic. This would lead us to conclude that they resemble somewhat the views of R. J. Campbell of London. It appears that the Judicial College of the Evangelical Prussian State Church has deprived Jatho of his parish, and forbidden him henceforth to hold the position of pastor, as his tenets are fitted to undermine the doctrines and spiritual conceptions of Christianity. The Judicial College has done well, we believe, but it is doubtful if this is the opinion of the writer in the Weekly Scotsman, for his article consists largely in a glorification of Jatho as a man “mild, unambitious,” displaying “an apostolic fervour,” and so forth. This kind of adulation may be swallowed by the unwary but not by the wise. And, as if to add insult to injury to right-thinking people, the article is headed with the title, in large letters, “Germany’s New Luther,” slightly qualified by a sub-title in smaller letters, “But Different from the Original.” Different, indeed, we must remark, for if the “original” were alive to-day Jatho would receive scant courtesy at his hand. Really, the press of Scotland and England is, in religious matters, becoming one of the most powerful agents for evil in the kingdom, and we would warn our readers against its deceitful and ruinous influence. It appears that this Jatho affair has aroused considerable discussion in Germany. A great many clergymen in the same Church are said to be in sympathy with Jatho, but they “are content to say by implication what he says explicitly.” This is the sort of thing which is too common in the larger Churches in our own country in relation to unsound views. Some opposition from the right side also shows itself:—“At the Charlottenburg Luise Church, Pastor Kratz, during his sermon, severely condemned the judgment of the Judicial College (against Jatho). The officer in command of three companies of infantry who were present at the service, thereupon gave a sign to his men to rise from their seats, and all left the Church.”