Popish Intolerance of the Light.—The Roman Archbishop of Montreal has interdicted a secular weekly paper, called Le Pays, for its campaign in favour of educational reform. All Papists are forbidden to read the newspaper. The Protestant Observer states that “since Home Rule was granted to Quebec, Rome has obtained her wish, and she is sole mistress of education in the Province,” with the result that “illiteracy flourishes.” Rome’s intense desire all down the centuries has been to keep the people in sottish ignorance, and she has not changed in the enlightened twentieth century. Misguided are they who think so.
Lord Haldane on the Conduct of Life.—Viscount Haldane recently delivered an address to the students of the University of Edinburgh. His subject was “the Conduct of Life.” He advised the students not to make material success the chief end of their exertions, and he set before them a fairly good standard of moral duty. But apart from these features, his address came miserably short of what one would expect from a professedly Christian statesman. He put Christianity on practically the same platform as other eastern religions. His philosophy is that all religions are essentially the same, and that one person benefits by one form of religion, another by another. Even the editor of the British Weekly is disappointed with Lord Haldane’s address. Robertson Nicoll says, “We wish Lord Haldane had been able to speak to his hearers about the power of prayer.” The fitting comment seems to be that it is difficult for a man to speak about the thing he is entirely ignorant of. If one may form an opinion of Lord Haldane’s religion from this address, and he clearly appears to have spoken what was in his heart, he knows no more of the spirit of prayer or of vital Christianity than the unenlightened Hindu. Altogether the address was only fitted to strengthen the lack of appreciation of definite Christianity which too much obtains among young and old in the present day. Lord Haldane’s scheme of deliverance is salvation by works. The grace of God which bringeth salvation by Jesus Christ is not in it. The Right Hon. A. J. Balfour, who presided at the meeting, highly commended the address, and thus appears to have the same point of view as Lord Haldane in matters of religion.
The Bishop of London and Romish Doctrine.—At the recent English Church Congress, the Bishop of London showed his tendency Romewards in a very marked manner. He preached a sermon at Southampton in which he advocated the practice of the “Invocation of Saints.” He said that “to condemn the invocation of saints” was “to put an unjustifiable barrier in the way of re-union with the Church of Rome.” It appears to us very daring affrontery for a Bishop of the professedly Protestant Church of England thus to speak. The Articles of that body, though they are not everything that is to be desired, declare that the invocation of saints is “a fond thing vainly invented, and grounded upon no warranty of Scripture, but rather repugnant to the Word of God.” Truly things have come to a lamentable pass when such Romanising utterances can be tolerated in Protestant England.
The “Ne Temere” Decree in Liverpool.—A Popish dignitary in Liverpool has recently done his best to enforce the Ne Temere decree upon a young man who had left the Church of Rome and intended to get married to a Protestant girl. Mr. Bartlett, a vicar of the English Church, who performed the marriage of the parties, has stood forth in their defence. A considerable sensation has been caused in the Liverpool press, and several letters have appeared that passed between the Popish dignitary, Sheppard, and Mr. Bartlett. Sheppard tried to frighten the young couple with the ideas that their marriage would be sinful, and that their children, if any, would be illegitimate, but his efforts proved fruitless. He only gave a new proof of Rome’s arrogant assumptions and tyrannical methods.