A Mother’s Blessing and a Mother’s Curse.—On the night of Lady Coltness’ death she gathered her children around her bed and thus affectionately addressed them:—“I lay upon you and charge you before God, and as you would meet with me again with comfort, be diligent in reading the Scriptures and in prayer; look not on these things and what I say now as instructions and reproofs given at another time; the words that I have spoken are
the words of a dying mother; I pray the Lord you may never forget them, which if you observe and do, God’s blessing be upon you and my blessing I leave you; but if you do them not, but in the least allow yourselves in that which is displeasing to God and turn away from Him, the curse of the everlasting God shall fall upon your heads, and the curse of your dying mother shall rest upon you; but if you shall obey and follow the Lord, the blessings of the everlasting God, the blessings of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and the blessings of your dying mother be upon your heads.”—Wodrow Select Biographies.
Preparation for the last, the great Account.—Remember how swiftly God’s post time flieth away; and that your forenoon is already spent, your afternoon will come, and then your evening, and at last night, when ye cannot see to work. Let your heart be set upon finishing your journey, and summing and laying your accounts with your Lord. Oh, how blessed shall ye be to have a joyful welcome of your Lord at night! How blessed are they who, in time, take sure course with their souls! Bless His great name for what you possess in goods and children, ease and worldly contentment, that He hath given you; and seek to be like Christ in humility and lowliness of mind. And be not great and entire with the world. Make it not your god nor your lover that ye trust unto, for it will deceive you.—Rutherford’s Letters.
The Church off the Rails.—The Scottish Review, a quasi-religious weekly, had some time ago an article with the above heading in which some plain truths about sales of work, bazaars, amusements, as the accompaniments of modern church life are pointedly stated. Referring to questionable methods of raising money for church purposes, the writer says: “A good and canny housewife buys a hen at a bazaar for half-a-crown, and comes home with the comfortable religious feeling that she has given half-a-crown to the Church. She has only paid half-a-crown for her next day’s dinner, and helped to take the living out of the mouth of the man who sells hens. The whole of this religious trading must be given up, not because it is wrong to trade, but because it is wrong for the Church to trade. The Church must undertake seriously the training of the people in direct giving.”
The Scottish Churches’ Commissioners.—The Commissioners have decided that in the three disputed cases that have already been brought before them, Kingussie Church be given to the Free Church, while Aberfeldy and Grantown Churches be given back to the United Free Church. The Free Church were put in possession of the latter churches after the famous decision in August, 1904. This finding of the Commissioners has naturally caused a good deal of surprise. In all likelihood the Commissioners acted impartially, but the difference between the Churches (Scotland) Act and the House of Lords’ decision is glaringly apparent.
Prayer Meetings in the House of Commons.—The Daily Mail says: The latest innovation, typical of the change that has come over the House of Commons, is a prayer meeting, held every Tuesday afternoon at five o’clock. Mr. T. R. Ferens, M.P., recently told a large audience at Wesley’s Chapel about this prayer meeting:—”They have a record book in the vestry—I mean the Committee room—and the meeting is entirely undenominational. Sir John Kennaway often leads it, and Episcopalians, Methodists, and Presbyterians join in it.” Canon Hensley Henson, the chaplain of the House, has blessed this undertaking, but, after all, the Canon’s blessing is not a very rich spiritual heritage. During the Puritan ascendancy it was quite a common thing for the members of the Long Parliament to call upon God in prayer in their capacity as legislators.
More about Prayer Meetings in Parliament.—A Scotch M.P. says:—”An interesting Parliamentary institution is the members’ prayer meeting, in a room in the House every Tuesday at five o’clock. This meeting originated as far back as 1833, and was continued for about ten years. A long break then occurred, but for many years now this gathering has taken place regularly. All M.P.’s are welcome, and occasionally a member of the House of Lords also comes. There is no regular chairman, each meeting appointing its own. Whoever is in the chair reads a passage of Scripture and engages in prayer; thereafter two others pray. The meeting lasts about twenty minutes, and those present sign their names in a book, which is an extremely interesting volume. Praying people might well remember Tuesdays at five o’clock, and join their petitions in asking for Divine blessing upon the proceedings of Parliament.”
Is Dr. Rainy Penitent?—A circular has been issued, entitled, “A Plea for Unity among Christians,” signed by the leading representatives of Scottish and English Presbyterianism, Congregationalism, Methodism and Episcopacy. Special prayer is to be offered up on the third Sabbath of June. This prayer is to be uncontroversial, whatever that may mean, and acknowledgment is to be made, “that we all deserve chastisement and need penitence for the various ways in which we have contributed to produce or promote division.” Dr. Rainy signs this visionary document: will he, we wonder, make the above acknowledgment, and will that acknowledgment imply that the division at the Reformation was a mistake? Dr. Bourne, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, was also asked to sign this document, but politely refused. These utopian schemes that charity—falsely so-called—conceives, ignore the great doctrine that lies at the basis of Scriptural unity, and, as a rule, end in disaster.
Opressing the Poor.—The Sweated Industries’ Exhibition, held in London during last month, reveals a state of matters to
the British public, that well might move a heart of stone. The chairman, in his speech, said, “very few of the home workers here represented made as much as 2d. per hour; the usual rate was from $\frac{3}{4}$ d. to $1\frac{1}{2}$ d., with deductions for materials. For that, a woman must work from twelve to sixteen hours a day, and work in the constant fear of further reductions in wages and of interruption—it might be cessation—of her work altogether. It was to bring these heartrending facts home to the mind and conscience of the British public that this exhibition had been designed.” The testimony of the Scripture against oppression is solemn and weighty, and the system of sweating is a curse to our boasted civilization.
The Assistant-Commissioners’ Courts of Inquiry.—During last month three Assistant-Commissioners held Courts of inquiry in connection with the allocation of Church property in disputed cases. These Courts were held in private, and all disputed claimants to property and witnesses were examined on oath. Those who had the misfortune to be present in one capacity or another must have felt after the long sederunt a sickening feeling. The intense worldliness of the whole proceedings, the indifferent and at times irreverent manner in which the oath was administered and taken, and the glaring contradictions of those on oath, was fitted to fill any one interested in the welfare of religion in the Highlands with the deepest concern.