The Shops’ Bill.—The Lord’s Day Observance Society maintains, in a circular addressed to members of the House of Commons, its oft-repeated objections to the Sabbath trading proposals which have now been embodied in the Home Secretary’s Bill. It opposes the virtual withdrawal of the religious objections to Sabbath trading and the crippling of the Act of Charles II. which, in its opinion, needs rather to be strengthened by increasing the penalties inflicted under it. The Bill, while an improvement on the present condition, would, if adopted in Scotland be a seriously retrograde movement, and even for England it gives too much scope to shops being open on the Lord’s Day.
Pictorial Representations of the Saviour.—We have already in these pages called attention to this subject. But if one were to judge from the fact that hundreds of homes by no means irreligious or ignorant adorn their walls by prints which in some cases are of purely Roman Catholic origin, it would appear that these remarks had very little effect. We appeal to all our readers who may have such prints on their walls to get rid of them. There are better ways of remembering the Nativity than by having a Roman Catholic print of the Virgin and Child on our walls, and spiritual minds ought to feel a revulsion at the artist’s imaginary attempt to portray the features of the Son of God. Not by such devices is piety nourished. We fully believe that it is only necessary to direct attention to this matter to have the remedy applied. The Salvation Army is a transgressor in this direction: on one occasion, at least, it had an immense placard announcing its Harvest Thanksgiving with a revolting representation of the Saviour hanging on the cross with the crown of thorns on his head.
The Church of Scotland.—Recently we have been very much struck by the highly laudatory remarks made by ministers whom we have a right to expect ought to know better about the real condition of matters in the Established Church. There is no use of hiding the fact that the Churches’ Act has given a very, very wide latitude to ministers of that Church, as the future may soon shew. But notwithstanding her glaring and patent defects, the Rev. Allan MacKenzie in a letter to the Scotsman allows himself to write as follows:—”It may generally be stated that while we admit some deviation from Reformation practices, by which we are not bound, and to which we do not submit in the Church of Scotland, we believe the main lines of her constitution to be the same as they were at the Reformation, and that, with all her defects, which are undeniable, she is nearer the ideal Church of the Reformers than any other Church at present in Scotland.”
The Fate of the Higher Criticism.—In a powerful article in the November Nineteenth Century, in which the Rev. A. H. Clark criticises Gibbon’s attitude to Christianity, he
throws a flood of light on his licentiousness, which certainly does not redound to scepticism. In a footnote Mr. Clark says:—”Mr. T. K. Cheyne, of Oxford, admits with startling candour that the ‘Higher Criticism’ is being ‘undermined’ by Assyrian studies (Bible Problems, page 139, Williams & Norgate, 1904). Mr. George Adam Smith, of Aberdeen, regards the higher critical positions as no longer ‘assured’ and as requiring revision at the hands of a more orthodox school (Quarterly Review, January, 1907). Mr. A. H. Sayce assures us that ‘the method of the higher critic . . . is unscientific. . . . The pronouncement of archaeology is unmistakable. . . . Archaeological facts . . . in no instance have supported the conclusions of the higher critic’ (Homiletic Review, March, 1903. Cp. his Monument Facts and Higher Critical Fancies, Religious Tract Society). A very distinguished writer in the Edinburgh Review, after a detailed examination of the results of Wellhausen’s ‘chaotic learning,’ sums up:—’The decay of this school, the methods of which have become somewhat out of date, is clearly marked in the recent utterances of Wellhausen and Renan,’ who ‘have brought into the controversy nothing that is very new either as to method or as to materials’ since ‘the second’ or ‘third centuries.’ ‘That we should now witness the disintegration of what was once the critical theory is no doubt a sign that some method more in accordance with real knowledge is about to arise.’ (Edinburgh Review, July, 1892.)”
John Knox Tracts.—The first of a new series of these Tracts by the late Rev. J. R. Anderson, has just been issued. It is entitled “The Hour of Temptation,” and the text is Revelation iii. 10: “Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.” The Tract is neatly got up, with a portrait of John Knox as frontispiece, and is handy for distribution. It may be had from D. Catt, 74 Strand, London, W.C., or J. Anderson, 196 St. Vincent Street, Glasgow. Price 1d. each; 9d. for 12; 5/- per 100.
“Re-Union of Christendom.“—The Open Letter of the Rev. D. Macfarlane, F.P. Manse, Dingwall, to the Rev. Principal Whyte of Edinburgh has been issued in leaflet form; price, $\frac{1}{2}$ d. each, 4d. for 12, 1/- for 50; but copies may be had from the Rev. D. Macfarlane or the Editor of Magazine for free circulation on receipt of postage at the rate of 1d. for 20 copies. The publisher is D. Catt, 74 Strand, London, W.C.