The Capture of Jerusalem by the British.
—During the past month the British troops, under General Sir Edmund Allenby, succeeded in capturing Jerusalem without much bloodshed or destruction. The news has naturally excited a thrill of intense interest throughout the world, and has given great satisfaction to the people of our country, and to the Allies in general. All who are sincerely interested in the cause of Christ must rejoice that the Turk has been dispossessed of a city around which cluster so many sacred and supernatural associations from the earliest centuries of the world’s history, a city where God had His temple during the Old Dispensation, and where the Son of God “made flesh” preached the Gospel, performed “many wonders and signs,” and finished the great work of a purchased redemption, although at the same time a city where the greatest wickedness was displayed in connection with the rejection and crucifixion of God’s Son. We rejoice in the hope that the Lord may yet use the British people to bring the Gospel with power to Palestine, and if the Jews are to be restored to their own land, we trust the Gospel will reach them effectually there. Apart from this, the return of the Jews to Palestine will produce no beneficial result for the kingdom of God. Beloved for their believing fathers’ sake, may God graciously cause them to return to Himself in receiving His eternal Son, whom they have so long rejected, as their personal Redeemer and Saviour! There will then be the fulfilment of the Apostle Paul’s inspired intimation in again to “the olive tree” of the Romans, their grafting in again to “the olive tree” of the Church, being “life from the dead” to the Gentiles.
Protestant Societies and Dr. Sarolea’s Attack upon Luther.
—We are pleased to observe that the Scottish Women’s Protestant Union, and the Acting Committee of the Scottish Reformation Society have sent strong protests to the Senatus of the Edinburgh University against Dr. Sarolea’s attack upon Luther and the Reformation as a gross abuse of his position as Lecturer on the French language in the University. The latter Society declared that the views of the Lecturer were fitted “by misrepresentation to do public injury to the cause of Protestantism, and to commend to his youthful hearers the claims of the Church of Rome, to which he belongs.”
The Luther Commemoration.
—The Western Committee of the Scottish Reformation Society passed a Resolution on this subject on 4th November, in the course of which they express their surprise that “in some sections of our Presbyterian Church in Scotland there have been hesitation, reluctance, and even a certain kind of opposition, to this commemoration,” and they proceed to assert that “they who have opposed this Luther Commemoration will have themselves to blame if the imputation is made that, under cover of a protest against the deification of the State in Germany, there lies a changed attitude to the whole Reformation movement on the spiritual side, and to the anti-Christian system of the Papacy against which that movement struck such a deadly blow.” The Western Committee need have no doubt about “the changed attitude” on the part of many leading nominal Protestants to Popery; their general views of doctrine and worship supply convincing evidence of the truth of this.
The Halifax Disaster.
—The awful disaster which laid a third of the city of Halifax, Nova Scotia, in ruins would have, in ordinary times, appalled the civilized world, and even in these days of terrible happenings he must have had a hard heart who could read unmoved the account of the explosion which spread ruin and death over such a wide area. According to one of the latest accounts there are 1,200 deaths, 8,000 injured, and 25,000 homeless. To add to the distress a snowstorm raged on Sabbath and Monday, which, at times, assumed the form of a blizzard. Help came pouring in from all directions to the stricken city as the magnitude of the calamity moved the hearts of men to show compassion to the victims who had escaped death but who were injured and homeless. The cause of the explosion is reported to have been a collision in a storm of a Norwegian ship with one carrying a cargo of high explosives. Perhaps we have been too callous as a nation, when our own country and other countries have been turned into huge arsenals for the manufacture of explosives to destroy human life. No doubt the necessity of the case demands it, but the light-hearted indifference that characterises not only the munition workers, but the country as a whole, when tons upon tons of material are being manufactured for the one purpose of destroying life and mangling the body and limbs of human beings, is sadly symptomatic of the times. Such is war. And well may we turn our eyes from these scenes of carnage unto Him who is the Prince of Peace, whose battles are not fought with confused noise and garments rolled in blood.
The King’s Call to Prayer.
—Our King has made a Proclamation requesting that the first Sabbath of January be set apart as a special day of prayer for success to our arms in the present struggle. So far, so good. But one wonders why a Sabbath should be specially devoted to this. Is not every Lord’s Day specially devoted to God, and is there not prayer continually offered from public assemblies on this day on behalf of our country? Surely it would be more becoming to devote one of our own days to this purpose, and, in praying to God for success, that we should confess our own sins and the sins of our nation. Then again, one misses from these Royal Proclamations any recognition of the Lord Jesus Christ. If this is done intentionally to avoid wounding the susceptibilities of the King’s non-Christian subjects, it is a deliberate slight to Christ, and the preferring of the creature to God over all, who is blessed for ever. If it is an overlook, then it proclaims with undisguised plainness how little Christ is thought of in Great Britain. Yet He has been set on His holy Hill of Sion, and unto Him all power in heaven and earth has been given. And if the Father so honours Him, shall we be held guiltless for so ignoring Him in the hour of our sore need, as if He were non-existent?