Mr. Moody.—We are pleased to see that Mr. Moody is not coming to the Glasgow Evangelistic Campaign. There will be enough evil done without his help.
Opening of Church.—The new Church at Stornoway was opened on Monday evening, the 5th June. The congregation present was very large. Rev. John R. Mackay, M.A., Gairloch, preached from Phil. ii. 9, “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him.” At the close of the Gaelic service, Mr. Mackay briefly explained in English, for the benefit of some present who did not understand Gaelic, how it was that, with so many churches already in Stornoway, there should be the necessity for erecting yet this other. In setting forth the reasons, he alluded to the doctrine of the divinity of Christ, and referred to the recent
lectures of Professor G. A. Smith, in America, and to Dr. Somerville’s Cunningham Lectures, to prove that while this fundamental doctrine of the Godhead of Jesus of Nazareth might be confessed in words it was questioned in fact. He also alluded to the historic testimony of the Church of Scotland respecting the inter-relation of Christ’s headship over His Church, and His headship over the nations for the benefit of His Church. After pointing out how unsatisfactory it was to entrust the keeping of a deposit so precious as the theology of the Westminster Confession of Faith to the vacillating opinions of the Supreme Courts of the Free Church thereanent, he proceeded to call upon Rev. George Mackay, pastor of the congregation, to address them. Mr. Mackay did so, and in the course of his remarks intimated that the collection that evening was the sum of £102 5s. $5\frac{1}{2}$ d. He said that the Lord had done great things for them, but they must take care that temporal prosperity would not injure them spiritually. They expected that in a short time the debt would be entirely wiped away. Above all, let them now pray that the Lord would give His presence, and then that house would be the birthplace of many souls. The Church is seated for 700, and is a plain but well-finished structure.
£154,000,000.—According to reliable statistics this is the amount of the drink bill of this nation for the year 1898. The exact figure is £154,480,934. The newspaper which comments on it does so under the heading “Facts and figures that will surprise the workers of the United Kingdom.” It is pointed out that of this immense sum, £100,000,000 is spent by the working classes. A plentiful crop of lost souls is no doubt reaped from this lavish sowing to the flesh. A consideration, however, more likely to affect the mind of the British workman, is the distinct advantage thus given in the industrial race to the artizans of more wise and sober nations. The United States liquor bill is less by 43 per cent. per head than that of the United Kingdom. It is well-known that the competition of the foreigner is becoming more strenuous every year. It is not by casting away the virtues of sobriety and diligence that our workers can expect to cope with it. We do not forget the flagrant excesses of the wealthy and leisured classes; but seeing that health and diligence are for the most part the only capital possessed by the workman, and that these cannot long survive the drink plague, we commend temperance to him as he needs it most. A drunken man or nation will not long be dangerous in the industrial contest, and the figures given to illustrate the feats of drinking performed by the people of these islands are very alarming and ominous.
A Month of Sunshine.—The sun of the natural heavens has now been shining in his strength for a whole month or more. All the animate and inanimate creation has been rejoicing in his beams. In this leafy month of June there is no scene more
refreshful to the eye than a prospect of wooded hillsides diversified with fields and dwellings, and the living sea in front glancing in the sunlight. The city dweller rushes to recreate and disport himself amid such scenes. When the earth is thus full of the goodness of the Lord, it is sad to see so much abandonment and irreligion. The glory, shortlived at best, of the summer day, should awaken pensive thought, speaking, as it does, of a lost Eden and a joy soon to vanish. The jollity and insensibility of the average tourist are not comely. This forgetfulness of God and abuse of His good gifts of sunshine, leisure, and fresh air, to purposes of mere self-indulgence, are noted in heaven, and it is likely He is swearing in His wrath that many of these sinners shall never see the Sun of Righteousness, nor drink of the rivers of His pleasures.
The Restoration of the Jesuits.—When the Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829 was passed, the liberties then granted were conditioned by certain prohibitions relating to the Jesuits. There were clauses inserted for the gradual suppression and final prohibition of Jesuits and other persons bound by religious or monastic vows. For aught that we can see, these prohibitions have been held as a dead letter for more than a generation past. However, there is a bill now being promoted in Parliament for the legal and formal removal of all these disabilities. The persons particularly named in this bill to “abolish disabilities still affecting Roman Catholics in the United Kingdom,” are the Jesuits. They are now to be allowed, by legal sanction, to reside and possess property in this nation. It is the duty of every reader of this Magazine to pray and vote and contend against any such un-patriotic and suicidal step on the part of our legislators as the formal legalization of this pestilent and notorious Order. The publisher will forward, on receipt of halfpenny stamp, a paper detailing the whole circumstances of this latest plot against our welfare and liberties.
“Belshazzar’s Feast.”—The following is Evelyn’s account of the last Sabbath evening spent by Charles the Second. The place was the Palace of Whitehall:—”I can never forget the inexpressible luxury and profaneness, gaming, and all dissoluteness, and, as it were, total forgetfulness of God (it being Sunday evening) which this day (25th January, 1685) I was witness to, the king sitting and toying with his concubines—Portsmouth, Cleveland, and Mazarine, &c.; a French boy singing love songs in that glorious gallery, whilst about twenty of the great courtiers and other dissolute persons were at basset round a large table, a bank of at least £2,000 before them, upon which two gentlemen who were with me made reflections with astonishment. Six days after—all was in the dust.”