England’s Rejection of Secularist Education.
—One of the most encouraging signs of the times which has been shown during the controversy that rages round the English Education Question is the determination of the nation to have the Bible taught in the schools. During the Committee stage of the English Education Bill, an amendment was moved by Mr. Maddison, in favour of secular education only in the schools, which was rejected by a majority of almost eight to one. We readily concur with the English Churchman’s remarks on this victory:—”This emphatic repudiation of the principle of godless education is an incident fraught with satisfaction to all who hold that the strength and purity of our national life and character depend on the early inculcation of revealed religion under Divine sanctions. We feel profoundly thankful that the present legislature has been providentially led to take up so resolute and impregnable position.”
Crime in Scotland.
—The report of the Prison Commissioners (Scotland) for 1905 records the number of commitments to prison as 57,256, the number of males showing an excess of about 1000 over the figures of last year, and the number of women showing a gratifying decrease of 3000 on the average of the last five years. The imprisonments for drunkenness and breach of the peace show a similar decrease, and the Commissioners judge by their records that “excess in drinking appears to be diminishing.” Offences against morals and property (breach of peace, drunkenness, theft, using obscene language, vagrancy, prostitution, housebreaking, and robbery), account for almost seven-eighths of the total commitments.—Scottish Review.
Proposed Memorial to Boston.
—It will be exactly 200 years ago, in the May of next year, since Thomas Boston began his eventful and fruitful ministry at Ettrick. For 25 years he preached to the people of Ettrick the glad tidings of the gospel, and the Church is indebted to him for his Crook in the Lot, and the still more widely known work the Fourfold State, and the no less remarkable Memoirs. It has been proposed to erect a Memorial Hall, and an appeal has been made for funds. The promoters inform us that it is the intention, among other things, of building a Parish Hall “for special religious services, lectures, concerts and other entertainments.” These gentlemen must have peculiar ideas of the fitness of things if they imagine that the memory of the author of the Fourfold State is to be kept fresh by such devices.
The Last of the Pre-Disruption Ministers.
—Dr. Thomas Smith, the last of the Pre-Disruption ministers, passed away on the 26th of May at the ripe age of eighty-nine. He was ordained as a Missionary of the Church of Scotland in India, in 1839, and, when the famous Disruption took place, he cast in his lot with the Free Church. Dr. Smith had strong evangelical sympathies, and was a conservative in theology. He, however, was lacking in strength of character, which vitiated, to a large extent, his usefulness to the Constitutionalists Party in the Free Church. At the Union he followed the majority. His literary output was considerable. He acted as editor of the Calcutta Review, and the Christian Observer had many articles from his pen. He did good work as a translator, including Vinet’s Studies on Pascal. As a biographer, Life of Dr. Duff, and Life of Dr. Begg, stand to his credit.
The Spanish Marriage and the Divine Voice.
—The marriage ceremony of Alphonso, King of Spain, and Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg was duly performed, according to Roman Catholic rites, in the Church of San Jeronimo, at Madrid, on Thursday, the 31st day of May. The streets were crowded with spectators in a state of great hilarity when the Royal procession left the Church on its return journey to the Palace. It appears it had not proceeded far when a startling event turned the scene of joy and delight into one of terror and sadness. A bomb was thrown from one of the upper storeys of a house and lighted not far from the Royal carriage. The Royal pair had a marvellous escape, but not less than a hundred persons, a number of whom were killed, suffered severe injuries. The young King and Queen were under the necessity of leaving their carriage, the Queen’s dress and shoes, it is recorded, being deeply stained with blood. The act of the Anarchist in this tragedy cannot be viewed with anything but horror and disapprobation, but it would evince great blindness if we were to fail to recognise the over-ruling hand of God in the matter. As for the poor King of Spain, he is what he has been, an unenlightened Papist from his childhood, and no special guilt attaches to him in connection with this alliance, but his bride—we say it with sorrow and shame—has been guilty of a vile act of apostacy from the faith of the gospel, and we are not surprised that blood and carnage should have defaced and blighted the glory of her marriage day. “The tower of Siloam” is not applicable in the present case, for the sin is great and conspicuous. The degradation of Princess Ena in her new alliance was further exhibited in her attendance, along with the King, at a grand bull fight on the following Saturday—a horrid relic of barbarism—which shows how much the Roman Church has done for the Spanish people.