NOTWITHSTANDING the present chaotic state of world politics it is not very difficult to discern two distinct and opposing forces—Communism and Romanism, each striving for the mastery; and it would be well for us to turn aside from the existing confusion of tongues for the purpose of finding out the attitude of these two giant opponents to that religious liberty so dear to the Christian, and the principle laid down by President Roosevelt—”Freedom of Religion.”
For this purpose we will keep far away from the “propaganda” of both sides, and take into account only that evidence which is beyond dispute.
First, we will consider Communism as represented by Russia of to-day. The old Czarist autocracy was made up of two distinct forces, organised religion and the civil authority, both dependent and inter-dependent upon
one another for a continuation of that system of government. Therefore, to end one was to end both, and this was done. The Orthodox Church was dis-established, its enormous wealth confiscated, and Communism assumed control as the only government. Russia became, officially, a land of no religion.
But the reader will be astonished to hear that this new government, by a decree of January 23rd, 1918, immediately granted religious freedom to all its citizens. Nobody in Soviet Russia was expected to furnish information as to his religious beliefs on taking up employment or on joining any public organization or society. No distinction was drawn between believers and unbelievers. Further, paper was supplied from Government stores for the printing of religious literature. Yet three days prior to this decree, Patriarch Tikhon issued a message to the whole of the Orthodox Church (January 19th, 1918) threatening with excommunication all baptised persons who had any link with the Revolution:—
“By the authority which is given us from God we forbid you to approach the sacraments of Christ; we anathematize you, if you still bear Christian names. . . . We also conjure you all faithful children of the Orthodox Church not to enter into any kind of association with these monsters of the human race; put away that wicked person.”
This attitude of the Orthodox Church resulted in open warfare till 1921, when the government was forced to take those measures of suppression which brought about that opprobrium “Soviet Godless Russia.” In the Church Sober (or Synod) of 1923 (will the reader kindly note that the Orthodox Church was never barred from its religious functions), Tikhon was deposed and Father Sergius was elected as head of the new “Living Church.” The two sections existed apart, and under the guidance and instructions of Father Sergius, all clergy took an oath of loyalty to the Soviet State in 1927. At a Press conference in 1929 Father Sergius said (here are his exact words):—“There never has been, nor is there, any persecution of religion in the U.S.S.R. In virtue of the decree separating the Church from the State, all are free to observe whatever faith they will, and no religion is persecuted by the State.”
Article 124 of the Stalin Constitution promulgated in 1936, reads:—“In order to ensure to citizens freedom of conscience the Church in the U.S.S.R. is separate from the State, and the schools from the Church. Freedom of religious worship and freedom of anti-religious propaganda is recognised for all citizens.”
In the schools and colleges the aggressive Atheism of the past is slowly but surely being superseded by Agnosticism. Religion is studied “as it applies to a knowledge of scientific materialism from a neutral view-point. Our final assumption is that we know nothing definite, we tell our students this is our attitude to these problems. In our teaching we do not assert that there is no God: we merely say that for us this is an open question.” (Statement by the Dean of the Faculty of Political Science of the University of Kharkov.)
In 1946, the President of the Southern Baptist Convention of Canada visited Russia, and reporting in the Western Recorder states:—
- There are to-day approximately 3,000 Baptist churches in the U.S.S.R.
- It is conservatively estimated that there are 2,500 ordained Baptist ministers in the U.S.S.R. at this time.
“We do not undertake” (they (the Baptists) explained) “to say what our Government intends, but we do most gratefully report that we are now enjoying a measure of freedom unknown by the Baptists in all the years of our witness in Russia.”
The Berlin special correspondent of The Daily Telegraph reports (18/10/46) as follows:—“Reports that religious instruction has been banned in schools in the Russian zone of Germany were denied here last night by German church leaders and education officials. . . . Every child whose parents so desire is given religious instruction. Ninety per cent. of training given is by Protestant ministers, and the remainder by Roman Catholic priests.”
In short, the present position of religion in this ideal Communistic State is ably summed up by Avro Manhattan (Religion in Russia) thus:—“Should he (the Russian citizen) wish to worship the moon, he would have the ampliest liberty in so doing. The mere fact, however, that a second citizen, and probably the Government itself, is allowed to point out that the moon is a mere lump of matter spinning round a planet named the Earth, and not a Being to whom prayers should be addressed, should not be taken as a proof that the moon-worshipper is being persecuted by those who do not share his belief, or that the Government is not allowing him the freedom necessary for honouring the Earth’s satellite as much as he pleases. Provided the moon-worshipper, while praying, does not obstruct the traffic and does not interfere with the daily life of his fellow-citizens, he will be free to put all his faith in the moon, to draw all the consolation he can derive from it, and even build a church, as long as he obeys the law.”
*The first of three articles by A. T. Tasker, a Christian authority on the subject.—
Sub-Editor.
The late Mrs. Mary MacLeod, Inverasdale, Gairloch.
MRS. MacLeod was born at Braes, Inverasdale, where she ended her days in February, 1947, at the good old age of 88 years. We are not in a position to state how she came to know the Saviour, but it seems she led an exemplary life even in her youth. We have heard one who worked with her, when she was young, say, that “Mary,” as she called her, was then given to secret prayer and Bible reading and that her frivolous fellow-servants would not deter her from her duty to her God. A good testimony to her sense of the claims of God! We were not able to discover, accurately, whether or not she was a member in full communion when the separation took place in 1893. If not, she must have become a member shortly after, for she was a member for a long time. She was one who followed the Lamb, having seen the “good” of God’s “chosen.”
Her husband, Murdo MacLeod, a weaver by trade, was reckoned to be a good man. From what we were told of him, he, like Mr. Fearing in the Pilgrim’s Progress, was all his days pressed down with fear, while all who knew him saw the image of Christ in him. He never made a public profession, but he had such a place as a god-fearing man, that he was frequently asked to pray in public. He died many years ago.
Mrs. MacLeod was, in her latter years, subject to seasons of depression, and owing to her reserved nature she would not give much of her mind to any. She is now in the place, we believe, where there is no Satan to harass, where there is not “another law” to war against the “law of
her mind,” and where “they shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters; and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.”—A.B.
The late Mrs. Bella MacKenzie, Strath, Gairloch.
Two things are required to take believers to heaven; a title to it, and preparation for it. Their only title to heaven is the blood and righteousness of the God-man. But besides the title there must be meetness also, for the heavenly Jerusalem, according to the words of the Apostle: “Giving thanks unto the Father, which has made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.” If we are to sit down among the blessed ones who are called to heaven, we must not only be “arrayed in fine linen, clean and white, for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints,” but we must also have: “The kingdom of God, which is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost” set up in our hearts. Our sweet persuasion is that the subject of this short sketch was closed with the above righteousness, which alone can give a title, and possessed the “kingdom” which is “righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.”
We are not in a position to say how Mrs. MacKenzie was led to the Saviour, but it was when she was young. She made a public profession, we heard her say, in Hope Street Free Church, Glasgow, about the year 1881, when she was 18 years of age. She had, evidently, gone south to service with daughters of the Rev. Duncan Matheson, a Disruption worthy, and the first Free Church minister of Gairloch. For the long period of sixty-six years, she adorned her profession. She could not have run such a long race, untarnished, without looking unto Jesus. The believer can only run on as he views Jesus by the eye of faith at the right hand of the Father opening His blessed arms to receive him into his bosom at the end of the race.
Our subject was born in Strath, where she died, but she lived for a period at Laide. Her married life, which was short, was spent at Laide. There were two godly young men at Laide, Murdo and John Mackenzie, brothers. They were a hope and encouragement to the Free Presbyterian cause there at the separation in 1893. They were among the founders of our Mission Station there, and they presided at the meetings held there in those early days. But alas! they were not destined to live long. Murdo was Mrs. MacKenzie’s husband. He was working on his croft one day in the spring-time with a horse and cart, and the horse took a fright, and the cart went over his body and he was so badly injured that he died two days after. Thus Mrs. MacKenzie was left a widow, with three of a family, two sons and one daughter. The daughter, while still an infant, died three weeks after her father. The elder son was killed in World War I, and his brother, who was always a semi-invalid, died some years after. This shows that Mrs. MacKenzie had her own share of the troubles of this world. The Lord’s dealings with His people in this wilderness are to prove them, to know what is in their heart. When the Lord implants life in the soul, there will be things from time to time to prove the reality of this work. Mrs. MacKenzie lost nothing in the fire of affliction but
the dross. Her faith never lost a particle, but shined the more, and her love, patience, submission and humility all remained unhurt in the flame.
Shortly after her husband’s death, she came back to live in her old home at Strath, and there she resided till the end of her pilgrimage.
Mrs. MacKenzie was a reader. Books and religious periodicals were her companions, but not to the neglect of her Bible. She was very fond of Spurgeon’s writings. Though Gaelic was her mother-tongue, she was as much at home in the English language. She thirsted for knowledge, and above all, the knowledge of her being in the Saviour; for this knowledge she pressed forward, as an active runner presses towards the goal, that when the Lord would come, she might be found in the “Man” who is “a refuge from the storm,” and “a shadow of a great rock in a weary land,” the only Saviour from the wrath to come which will one day burst upon the world.
Our friend enjoyed fairly good health until a little over a year before her end came. Her trouble was the heart, and it demanded her to keep her bed for most of the time. Her end came on 1st November, 1947, at the age of 84 years. Our sympathies go out to her only sister, Mrs. MacMillan, San Francisco, who feels the loss of a devoted sister keenly, and her sister-in-law, Mrs. MacKenzie, Strath, who was responsible for her comforts in her last illness.
“Help Lord, because the godly man
doth daily fade away;
And from among the sons of men
the faithful do decay.” (Ps. xii. 1.)—A.B.
The late Miss Catherine Campbell, Teacher, Strath, Gairloch.
MISS Campbell was the elder daughter of the late John Campbell, a respected elder in the congregation of Gairloch. She was born at Upper Diabaig, within the bounds of the Shieldaig congregation, about the year 1901. Her mother died when she was about a year old, and her father shortly after removed to Gairloch, where he remained for the rest of his life. Catherine and her younger sister, Lexy, were tenderly nursed by their paternal aunt, who attended to their spiritual needs as well as she did to their temporal needs.
Miss Campbell was reared in a Gospel atmosphere, and it appears she came under its influence when young. The Lord had opened her heart. A blessed opening! when He who has the key of David put in his hand by the hole of the door and opened her heart to receive His own Word. In process of time she trained to be a school teacher and taught in Ardheslaig, and for the most part at Melvaig. It was when at Ardheslaig, in the congregation of Shieldaig, she came forward to the Lord’s Table for the first time, twenty-five years ago. She was a tempest-tossed soul for most; her sun and stars beclouded, compass lost, chart useless and breakers ahead. Doubts and fears caused this. But she had her bright days, and she could relate them in her lowest, but she missed the joy of her salvation and craved after its restoration. Miss Campbell was physically weak, due to the condition of her nervous system, and often mentally depressed, and
the arch-enemy took full advantage of this. About two years or more before she died, she resigned from her post as teacher owing to the distressed state of her mind. It was hopeless to speak a word of comfort to her. In discussing with her about the concerns of her soul, one could learn a lot; she was deeply taught and knew much about the claims of God’s law, and of the deceitfulness of the human heart and what was required to satisfy “the soul that longing is.” Like Zion, she was “not comforted,” that is not comforted by, nor capable of comfort from, any other than God. This is a very decisive mark of a work of grace in the soul. When a person is so distressed in his feelings, so cast down in his mind, and so troubled in his conscience, that none but God can comfort him, we seem to be at once on the footsteps of the Spirit. We do not find hypocrites on this ground. False professors can easily take comfort, they can steal what God does not give, and appropriate what God does not apply. But the believer’s special mark is that he is “not comforted,” that his wounds are too deep for human means. God has reserved His comforts in His own hands. From His lips alone can consolation be spoken to a soul in distress. On two occasions, being alone in the home, she voluntarily consented to medical advice and went to a Mental Institution. After being there for three months on the first occasion she greatly improved and it might have been to her benefit if she had remained there longer, but the communion was drawing near and she wanted home. But after a time she began to go down again. After some time she decided to go back to the Institution. This time she was not able to take sufficient nourishment, she had evidently lost her appetite anyway, and she was confined to bed the short time she was there. She gradually got weaker till she passed away on 1st November, 1947. And so after a stormy journey in this wilderness she entered into that rest that remaineth to the people of God, to join in, with her father, aunt and sister, once members of a happy home here below, to sing the song of the redeemed. It is good that the darkest moments, the dreariest hours, the most painful exercises, the most fiery temptations will not separate Christ from the soul: “Being confident in this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.”—A.B.