A New Evangelical Movement in Austria.—When one hears so much of political disturbances in Austria, says the Quarterly Record of the National Bible Society of Scotland, one is surprised that attention has not also been drawn to very significant movements of large masses of the people towards Protestantism. Since February last more than fifteen thousand people have entered the Protestant Church. In Vienna alone about ten thousand have taken this step. A great many of these were formerly Roman Catholic, but the majority were without religious denomination. Many of them are very poor and out of work, yet such is their desire for spiritual teaching that they visit regularly divine services and Bible Classes which the Protestant Church has organised for them. The Protestant Churches are filled to overflowing, and the few pastors have so much to do that it will be necessary to employ new assistants to impart religious instruction. Naturally this constitutes a great financial perplexity to the Church authorities who are very badly off. The State authorities are very unfriendly towards this movement, and put every obstacle in the way of preventing persons from leaving the Roman Catholic Church.
Railwaymen and the Sabbath.—In a statement made by Mr. Squance (Loco Engineers and Firemen) before the Railway Staff National Tribunal last month reference was made to one of the railwaymen’s grievances arising from the vast increase of excursions, etc., on the Sabbath. In the old days, said Mr. Squance, ‘Sunday’ duty was practically non-existent. Now at some London depots it had increased 900 per cent. and the already overworked staff had often to give up holidays to serve the public. It is interesting to learn that the railwaymen are awakening to the tyranny of the pleasure-loving public and if they do not take steps to check this inroad on their liberties as working men they may find that the boon of a day of rest given to them by God’s law will be fleeced from them beyond recall. Mr. Squance suggests a remedy which in our estimation
will not help matters but a return to God’s law both by the railway companies and the men’s unions would break the tyranny that is welding shackles for so many of the working classes.
Searching for Unity.—Many from many lands gathered in Edinburgh at the beginning of last month for the opening session of the World Conference in Faith and Order which had been called to “discover and assert the underlying unity” which binds the various branches of the Christian Church. The meetings are under the presidency of the Archbishop of York who opened the proceedings by a sermon in St. Giles Cathedral. There were 600 delegates representing 50 countries. It is a strange mixture—Church of England, Church of Scotland, Congregational, Baptist, Greek Orthodox Church, Russian Orthodox Church, etc. The German Evangelical Church, were forbidden by Nazi authorities to send delegates. Dr. Dugald Macfarlane, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland and Bishop Reid of the Scottish Episcopal Church, Rev. T. S. Taylor, President of the Congregational Union, and Rev. James Hair, Baptist Union, welcomed the delegates.
Notable Advance.—Such is the view expressed by one of the delegates at the Faith and Order Conference when Professor Manson, Edinburgh, submitted the report on “The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
“We lay before you,” said Professor Manson, “a report which is unanimous, which contains no qualifying footnotes, no deductions, no reserves.” The representatives of different Communions had agreed not to stand on their differences, but to stand together to help each other to a better understanding of that which was vital to the Faith and the religious life of each one of them. The conception of future reunion had been the guiding light before them, and they rejoiced that in some of the deepest things of their faith they saw a way to reconciliation.
The Conference is still in session while we write, and what its final report will be, when all the reports of the committees have
been submitted, is unknown, but it may be permissible to say that of all the strange vagaries of the craze for union, this Conference is one of the strangest. The Archbishop of York is concerned at the absence of representatives of the Church of Rome. That scheming Church knows where she stands, which can scarcely be said about some Protestant denominations.
The Presbyterian Church of America.—At its Third General Assembly the new Church found itself confronted with a divisive spirit. At the meeting of the General Assembly a split was the culmination of the struggle between the two groups over the questions of Premillennialism and Total Abstinence. Feeling in these controversies seems to be running high and some unpleasant words such as “aliens” have been hurled at the heads of certain members of the Westminster Theological Seminary. The Premillennialists have now left the new Church. While our theological sympathies go out to this Church rather than to the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. yet we are far from satisfied with their relation to the Confession of Faith. Reference has already been made to some of these points (Magazine, xli. 435, 436). The Presbyterian Guardian (the organ of the new Church) announces that Mr. John Murray has been ordained and that he has been appointed a Professor in Westminster Theological Seminary.
Anti-Protestant Innovations in Worship.—A correspondence on this subject has been going on for some time in the Glasgow Herald. It is evident that there is considerable dissatisfaction, as voiced by many correspondents, with new forms of worship being introduced into many of the congregations in the Church of Scotland. As indicated by the correspondence, the cause of the dissatisfaction is that the changes are in the direction of Anglicanism. The outlook of the writers is not that of a severely Puritanic kind, so that their protest is all the more significant. After all, this tendency is not
to be wondered at when one remembers the persistent efforts made by men in high places of the Church to bring about closer relations with the Church of England.
Palestine.—The outlook in Palestine at present is anything but cheering. The suggestion of the Royal Commission to have the land divided—one section for the Jews and the other for the Arabs is not being received either by the Jews or Arabs. The portion allotted to the Jews by the Royal Commission is the coast line from the Ladder of Tyre down to the middle of the Philistine Plain, near Gaza, with practically the whole of Central Galilee (Upper Galilee being part of Syria). The Arabs are to be allowed to occupy the plain and the hill country south of the Megiddo—Jezrel-Bethshean line. The Zionists and the Arab leaders are up in arms against this scheme, and if we are to accept Dr. W. M. Christie’s verdict, the scheme, if carried out, is sure to cause trouble. His article in the British Weekly (12th August), gives anything but an encouraging forecast for missionary work among the Jews in Palestine if the scheme is carried out.
Church of Rome in Abyssinia.—Some of the dignitaries of the Church of Rome have recently been making it plain, what was clear before, that Abyssinia is to be reserved as a mission field for the activities of Romish missionaries to the exclusion of Protestants. It is sad enough to see Abyssinia the prey of Mussolini. It is sadder still that it should become the prey of the Church of Rome; for, corrupt though the Coptic Church is, Romanism is corrupter and more dangerous still.
The War between the Oxford Group and the “British Weekly.”—There is a fierce war being waged at the time of our writing between the broad-minded Oxford Group and the no-less broad-minded British Weekly. If such fierce warfare were carried on by the Free Presbyterians the hands of those who love us not would be held up with horror as a disgrace to our common Christianity. It appears that “Watchman” of the British Weekly took upon himself to
criticise some of the doings of the Oxford Group, and if he did he unsuspectingly put his hand into a wasp’s nest. The Oxford Groupers, as one learns from this controversy, are not exponents of that gentleness in which they pride themselves. No one will be sorry for the British Weekly, it gave too much countenance to this dangerous movement.