Notes on Dr. Billy Graham.
In the June issue of The Irish Evangelical the Editor, Rev. W. J. Grier, B.A., makes the following comments on matters pertaining to Dr. Graham and his team while they were in Glasgow recently. He writes: “We have heard from a friend, who stayed in the same hotel with Dr. Graham and members of his party, of the scant respect paid to the Lord’s Day by members of the party, who bought and read the Sunday newspapers.” As to this line of conduct, we read in a report by the press that Dr. Graham and his wife arrived early on a Monday morning by train from London to attend the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland on the Tuesday morning in Edinburgh. They undoubtedly left London on the Sabbath night. The law of the Sabbath is one of the foundation stones of Biblical and living Christianity. We do not consider that further comment is necessary to come to conclusions on these points. Then, on June 21st, the press gave a detailed report of an interview with Dr. Graham in Frankfurt, Germany, on the previous day. Among other things, he said, when questioned about his relations with the Roman Catholic Church, “I have never made an anti-Catholic statement.” And that itself is an astounding statement for Dr. Graham to make, as a man and a preacher who says he is a Protestant. He said at this interview, “I am a Protestant.” What kind of a Protestant can Dr. Billy Graham be when he could assert that he never made an anti-Catholic statement? In the land of the great Reformer, Martin Luther of Germany, Dr. Graham revealed the poverty and pointless nature of his claim to be a Protestant. He further observed that although the Roman Catholics could not give him official support, “They have never been opposed to me,” he said. Now where does he stand with the Protestant Witness and martyrs for the faith of the Bible and the Gospel of Christ? Readers must judge for themselves. We fail to follow Dr. Graham’s ideas. And so what a mercy and privilege to have not only the Bible but our Westminster Confession of Faith and the ecclesiastical history of our beloved nation, wherein we read of multitudes suffering and dying for their witness against heresies, Pope and Mass. Let us follow wholly in the footsteps of our pious and eminent forefathers and fathers, “whose faith follow.”
The French Motor Race Catastrophe.
As reported, 79 people were killed and many seriously injured at Le Mans in France in June, when a crash between racing motor cars occurred. Those killed and injured were among the thousands of spectators. Although this terrible carnage took place, the organisers of the race refused to stop the race, in which other racing cars were engaged. Mr. Charles Faroux, the race director, defended the decision to continue the race. This is what he said, “Even when a disaster of
such frightful proportions occurs the rough law of the sport dictates that the race shall go on.” What a brutal, inhuman and immoral expression of opinion! “The rough law of the sport” must supercede every sensitive human feeling and moral obligations to recognise the solemnity of death and human suffering. Surely when men can view death and suffering in this light, in times of peace and in connection with sport, what kind of attitude can such men have toward the slaughter and sufferings of their fellow men in times of war. No wonder godless, irreligious and callous men were capable of witnessing and condoning concentration camp atrocities during the last war. A number of newspapers in several nations protested against the decision to continue this race under such terrible circumstances. A Brussels paper said that it was inconceivable that the race had not been stopped. And a Copenhagen paper referred to “a world which gives almost everything for amusement.” How true this last comment is! The vast majority of people to-day, in Western Europe and America, are indeed “lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God,” in an open and public manner. Indeed, sport and worldly pleasure are worshipped to-day. In continuing this race, with dead and injured lying at the side of the race track, men have revealed once more what fallen human nature is capable of. Truly, the heart of man is desperately wicked. And a sad feature of this horrible business was that in support of the decision to continue the race, there was quoted the fact that Britain had set the example at the Farnborough air show three years ago, when a disintegrating jet fighter killed 30 spectators. The show went on.
Ban on Sabbath Football Withdrawn.
The Football Association of England had a law which stated: “A player who takes part in Sunday football in the United Kingdom shall not be recognised by this Association.” In June last, at the annual meeting of this Association, it is said that the meeting took only 30 seconds to eliminate this law. There was no opposition against this action. Yet it is reported that this Football Association will neither organise nor promote football on the Lord’s Day. But they have nevertheless given encouragement by their action to many young men to lend themselves to this sport on God’s holy day. As the London paper The Star declared, “No one wants to turn Sunday into another Saturday with matches, but this indefensible prohibition had to go.” What words of hypocrisy, devoid even of common sense! To encourage football players to play on the Lord’s Day by any means at all is surely to contribute to the turning of God’s Day into a day of the week, like Saturday. It seems we must have our pleasure, as a generation, in face of all the divine claims. There is a “but” here also, but God will deal with transgressors in His own time. Men may be saying, “Where is the promise of His coming?” but God will come
at last in the Person of His Son Jesus Christ to judge the world in righteousness. “Sunday” sport will be a bitter thing that day to many from this generation.
Gala Week in Thurso.
In the Caithness town of Thurso there was what is called a “Gala Week Programme” carried out during the month of July. The week began on Saturday, 16th July, with games, amusements, piping and country dancing. Then there was a carnival dance in the Town Hall this Saturday night, beginning at 8.30 p.m. Then the programme, as published, intimated that there was to be a combined service in St. Peter’s Church at 3 p.m. next day, the Lord’s Day; and as part of the Gala Week. Then the Week, including sports, whist drives, and several dances, etc., was brought to a conclusion by a “Sacred” Concert on Sabbath, the 24th July. The Thurso Town Improvements Committee, the organisers of the Week, have certainly not improved the standard of true religion in the light of the holy gospel of Christ, when they succeeded in including among dancing, piping and card playing, the item of a professed Christian religious service as part of Gala Week. The world and its Vanity Fair have truly entangled the professed Christian Church where there is no living witness or Scriptural practice on the side of the fear of God, but where there is but lip service to the Holy Redeemer. The “Tell Scotland” Movement in Scotland has not done much in Thurso (as elsewhere) to separate the world from the Church or the Church from the world. The Pharisees were prominent members and leaders in the visible Church of God in Christ’s day, but He, the meek and lowly hearted Jesus, called these professors of religion hypocrites and pronounced a “Woe” against them. This “Woe” still has application to religious hypocrites.