A Happy New Year.—By the time this issue is in the hands of most of our readers, the old year will have passed away. The passing of the years awakens or ought to awaken solemn thoughts in the minds of those who have passed into the seer and yellow leaf. The days for some cannot be many. The young look forward to the future with the hope and enthusiasm of youth, but they, too, like their elders, should pray for One to guide them and keep them through Life’s stormy journey. Both in Church and State things are anything but cheering. The nations are busily arming to the teeth. We are living on the edge of a volcano which may burst at any moment. These are not the words of a gloomy pessimist but the words of soberness and truth. Our statesmen who are at the heart of things have warned us of what may happen if war breaks out. Would that our nation and other nations would look to the God of the whole earth. Our country has been plunged into consternation at the crisis which has arisen between the King and his Ministers. In the Church Satan is busy and our own is not free of his activities. We wish we could write in a more cheerful strain, but it will do us no good to face the future on mere make-believes. We tender our sympathy to all our readers who feel the vacant places that will no more be filled in their family circles, and pray that the Lord may comfort them in their sorrow. We wish all our readers, young and old, a happy New Year and a happy Eternity.
The National Crisis.—The crisis which the country recently passed through and which ended in the abdication of King Edward VIII. was one of the most extraordinary recorded in the annals of British history. The tremendous possibilities for evil which might have issued from a situation which had as its background an open disregard of the high claims of God’s authority sobered the sanest of the British people at home and abroad. We have cause to render thanks to the Most High that He did not leave our statesmen and our nation to the devices of their own hearts for once again He has delivered us out of a situation which was fraught with danger to the throne and the unity of the Empire. The press of the country silent so long, though it knew what was going on behind the scenes, all at once broke out in its usual blatant way with a chorus of praise for King Edward. It lauded him for his fine qualities as a man and a sovereign; it stressed his popularity with the masses and paid laudatory tributes to him as an ambassador of the Empire but it was ominously silent, with a few exceptions, about the condition of things in the background from which issued those forces which struck at the British throne and staggered the nation. Now and again God does make a terrible example of those who flaunt His holy laws. Is it not written?—”But God is the Judge: He putteth down one, and setteth up another. For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup, and the wine is red; it is full of mixture; and he poureth out of the same; but the dregs thereof, all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out, and drink them” (Ps. lxxv. 7). Kings have no special licence to flaunt God’s laws and while worldly men may praise them for their loyalty to their fellows there are higher loyalties than these, which imperatively demand obedience at the hands of all men—kings as well as others. God has given a solemn warning both to our late King and to the British people that He will not always overlook defiance of His holy laws. Much more might be said on this sad business, but as we go to press earlier this month, we must content ourselves with the brief comments made.
Coronation of George VI.—As our readers are aware the Duke of York has been called to the throne under the title of George VI. In view of the unspeakably sad circumstances which have brought about his exaltation to the high and responsible position so suddenly there is a loud call that prayer be made for him at a throne of grace. The tremendous responsibilities that rest on his shoulders as King and Emperor are fitted to unman one of his naturally timid and retiring disposition but if he put his trust in the Lord he will be carried honourably through. Kings may come and go, kingdoms rise and fall, but there is one King who is to reign through ages all and one throne that is to be forever and ever and in this hour of crisis it would be well for us to have our eyes directed to Him. God’s redeemed have received as a gift a kingdom which cannot be moved and they are called upon to have grace whereby they may serve Him acceptably with reverence and godly fear for their God is a consuming fire (Hebs. xii. 28, 29).
Mr. Brider’s Mission to the Forces.—Mr. Brider has sent us his annual report, from which we are pleased to see that he is getting some help from Scotland. He is still carrying on his useful work, though very enfeebled in health through paralysis. Bundles of magazines and books are sent regularly to the Navy, Army, and Air Forces. As we have stated before, Mr. Brider is entirely dependent on means for his livelihood by gifts from kind friends. He takes nothing from the Funds sent for carrying on the work of the Mission. We are sure that some of our readers will be interested in this work, and that they will remember the Mission. Mr. Brider’s address is 21 Firfield Street, Totterdown, Bristol.
“Modern Evangelism.”—This is the title of a book recently issued by Rev. W. C. Macdonald, Edinburgh. We have not seen the book but we reproduce a few paragraphs quoted in a review which appeared in one of the Glasgow evening papers. Referring to the teaching he received in Trinity (formerly U.F.) College he says about his professors: “They told me the truth as they conceived it. They put into my hands a critical apparatus for the study of the Old and New Testaments. Yet they left me with a great uncertainty. I left Trinity College much more pagan than Christian. My teachers would have done me a much bigger service if they had told me that the true attitude to the Bible is not the attitude of the critic but the attitude of wonder and reverence. I have discovered that since. I have my own way of looking at the Bible.” No Free Presbyterian criticism made against the former U.F. Church was so strong as this. We take it that Mr. Macdonald who joined the Church of Scotland at the Union in 1929 knows what he is speaking about.