MacBrayne’s Sabbath Sailings
Opposition to the Cal/Mac Sabbath service to Tarbert proposal continues. Every effort is being made to bring the Company to a better mind. An elderly woman in Stornoway who worked in the 1920s for Mr David MacBrayne, owner of the MacBrayne Company, has written to the Press stating that if Mr David MacBrayne were alive today she felt sure there would be no talk of a Sabbath ferry service. Even Life and Work, the magazine of the Church of Scotland, has added its weight to the campaign asking: “Why are Cal/Mac so anxious to offer ‘Sunday’ sailings to the people of the Western Isles, most of whom certainly do not want them?” Cal/Mac is advised by Life and Work to drop the Harris plan and learn to respect local feelings. The attitude of companies engaged in public transport has often been that of opposition to the sanctity of the Sabbath. The battle against trains running on the Sabbath was fought and lost in the first half of last century, and this form of Sabbath desecration has continued ever since. It is to be hoped that the present battle will be fought and won and be the prelude to other victories over the Sabbath desecrators in the future. A European Community proposal, referred to in a later Note and Comment, may help to expedite this.
Moral Crisis in Church of Scotland
Prof. Thomas Torrence of the Church of Scotland has spoken out strongly about attitudes to Christian moral standards which have appeared in his own Church. He states that there has been an abject failure by the Church to uphold Christian moral standards, so contributing to the breakdown of family structures and allowing a sliding conformity of the Church to the world. Professor Torrence’s view is that the Church of Scotland needs to be re-evangelised. Professor Torrence has in this way highlighted one cause of the moral deterioration of the nation. The doctrines, however, which will bring about a change in the land are not these which are now preached in the Church of Scotland but those abandoned by her many generations ago. A return to Biblically based preaching of law and Gospel would be a token for good and may it not be long delayed. It is such preaching that the Lord will bless.
Crime in Scotland
Lord James Douglas-Hamilton, Scottish Home Affairs Minister, stated recently that a very high proportion of crime was committed by young people. Half the crimes recorded were committed by young men under 21. Also one third of all those convicted of criminal offences were aged under 17. This is an appalling indictment of the rising generation.
How clear it is from these figures that engagement in crime begins at a very early age and the seeds of these criminal activities must be sown even earlier. The nation is reaping to an alarming degree what it has sown by its abandonment of Christian teaching so that every man and even every child, is a law unto himself. Measures to try to combat this state of affairs will no doubt be taken, but there is no permanent solution apart from a revival of true religion and a return to Christian moral teaching as a consequence.
Late Abortions
The House of Lords approved the Commons Amendment cutting the time limit for abortions from 28 to 24 weeks in the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill but allowed late abortion when a baby is found to be severely handicapped. The latter provision was strongly opposed by the Anglican Bishops present along with other pro-life peers but they failed to get a majority. This means that we now have a law allowing abortion up to the time of birth not, as formerly, in cases of danger to the life of the mother, but for handicap and for serious injury to the physical or mental health of the mother — a term that can be used to justify social abortions.
European Community Sabbath Proposal
It is not often that we associate the Common Market with anything helpful to the cause of Christ. Indeed, Common Market law has been invoked repeatedly by some major stores in an effort, not always successful, to prevent them being convicted of illegal trading on Sabbaths in England and Wales.
Such has been the slide in national standards of Sabbath observance in this country that the work of the Church’s Sabbath Observance Committee has over the years largely been taken up by efforts merely to restrain the increase in Sabbath desecration. However, the Committee has recently had something more positive to respond to. The German government had brought before the European Community a proposal which, if implemented, could very significantly reduce the amount of Sabbath work being done in this country. This is a proposal for the Sabbath to be designated as a weekly rest day, and it would close down all business except continuous activity such as blast furnaces and newspapers. It appears that nine out of the twelve EC countries already shut down most industrial and commercial activity on Sabbaths. The exceptions are Denmark, Portugal and sadly, Britain. But even should all these countries oppose the proposal — a decision was to be made on November 26 — they would not have sufficient voting power to prevent it becoming law.
However many exceptions there may in practice be to the prohibition on Sabbath activity, it would create a situation very much better than that which exists at present. This proposal will not create a Sabbath-keeping Britain, any more than it will create a Sabbath-keeping Europe; a spiritual revival is needed for that. It will only leave more people free to pursue their private Sabbath-breaking for the whole day. Yet anything that will reduce Sabbath-breaking by commercial enterprises must be warmly welcomed, not least because it will reduce the difficulties for those employees who have a conscience about keeping the Sabbath. It is a sad fact that over the years it has become more and more difficult to obtain employment where one is not expected to work on Sabbaths.
The Sabbath Observance Committee has sent a letter to the Home Secretary to encourage the Government to support the proposal. The text of the letter is reproduced below:
I refer to the recent German proposal that there be a weekly rest day throughout the European Community. I understand that you and your Department are responsible for the UK Government’s response.
I am writing to tell you of our enthusiasm for the proposal. Our concern for Sabbath observance is based principally on the fact that God has commanded, “Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy,” and that therefore nothing should be done on that day except what is genuinely necessary or a work of mercy. We believe too that to rest from ordinary work on one day in seven fulfills a basic human need. We appreciate that the Government has a concern for the freedom of the individual, but in this connection we would point out that fundamentally we have no more right to break the Sabbath than to kill a fellow human being; both are prohibited in the Ten Commandments.
We would be very sad if our country were to be among the few countries who would oppose this excellent proposal, especially with our rich Christian heritage, which in the past has led to a willingness to listen on a national level to what God has told us in the Bible. Neither God’s law nor man’s needs have changed, and we would accordingly ask you to give your wholehearted support to what is a wonderful opportunity to shift our society in a more Biblical direction. It is, of course, all the easier to do so when it will not put us at a disadvantage against any of our European competitors.
K.D.M.