Holy Year.
The Pope has issued a bull declaring that next year is to be a Holy Year. This does not mean a call to the faithful to live more holy lives, but it is Rome’s method of replenishing the papal exchequer. According to a writer in the “Morning Post,” “Holy Year comes only four times a century, and opens on Christmas Eve, when the Pope breaks down the Jubilee door of St Peter’s, through which his Holiness passes from the Vatican only on that occasion. The door will be broken down with a golden trowel and hammer, for the cost of which subscriptions are already being solicited.” The last sentence throws light on Rome’s methods of collecting money from the faithful.
A Movement in the Wrong Direction.
It would appear that the United Presbyterian Church of America, the largest, we believe, of the Presbyterian Churches which used the metrical Psalms exclusively as a manual of praise, are gradually moving from the old moorings. The cry for creed revision has been heard, and an effort is in progress for the improving of certain Confessional statements. At the formation of the United Presbyterian Church their position in reference to the Psalms in divine worship was definite enough, as the following declaration shows:—”We declare that it is the will of God that the songs contained in the Book of Psalms be sung in His worship, both public and private, to the end of the world; and in singing God’s praise these songs should be employed to the exclusion of the devotional compositions of uninspired men.” Now the Assembly has submitted to the Presbyteries certain propositions, in which the “Psalms are to be given the place of pre-eminence, while also other songs or hymns, true to the spirit and teaching of Scripture, may be employed.” At the time of writing this note we have not learned the Assembly’s decision, but we feel confident that there are many in the United Presbyterian Church who will oppose this new movement. Decidedly the ablest statement in defence of the exclusive use of the Psalms in divine worship which we have read is the “Psalms in Worship,” a volume of nearly 600 pages, made up of papers delivered by professors and ministers of this Church at a convention, and published in 1907. The volume was reviewed in the Magazine at the time of publication.