The Centenary of Dr. Chalmers’ coming to Glasgow.
—Dr. Chalmers’ coming to Glasgow marked an epoch in a well-intentioned and wonderfully successful attempt to deal with the problem of the poor. Dr. Chalmers was an orator of the first rank, and was a mighty force in the Disruption movement, but, taken generally, if we except the extraordinary astronomical discourses, his printed sermons do not give one an adequate idea of his marvellous pulpit oratory.
Lord Rosebery and the Glasgow Motto.—This distinguished nobleman delivered a very eloquent address on Dr. Thomas Chalmers at a meeting recently held in the St. Andrew’s Hall, Glasgow, with a view to celebrate the Centenary of Chalmers’ coming to this city. While we are unable to endorse all the sentiments expressed in the address, we cannot but admire its general tone of thought and expression, combined with sympathetic allusions to evangelical faith and life. He spoke of Chalmers as possessing “the glory of a living soul,” and as warming with his earnest gospel the cold commercial city of the west. There was another point Lord Rosebery took up which gave us special satisfaction—namely, the changes of a degenerate kind which the
motto of the city has undergone. Though his Lordship’s reflections are not too severely expressed, yet they are altogether in the direction of deploring the changes referred to as showing that “the mighty” has dreadfully fallen among us from a spiritual to a purely worldly level. We conclude with the quotation—”Ah! gentlemen, when we think of Dr. Chalmers’ work in Glasgow, we are irresistibly reminded of the origin of your motto. That was an ancient inscription: ‘Lord, let Glasgow flourish by the preaching of Thy Word and praising Thy Name.’ The next edition was, ‘Lord, let Glasgow flourish by the preaching of the Word,’ and the last and only authorised heraldic form is, ‘Let Glasgow flourish’—a sensible and wholly secular aspiration. But may we not say that when Chalmers reigned in Glasgow, his motto at any rate was the earlier form I have quoted, and that his ambition and ideal for Glasgow were wholly spiritual and exalted?”
The Pope in Trouble.—The Pope, though he has been extremely careful to avoid giving offence to the Teuton Allies, is getting into rather troublous waters through his printed prayers for peace. We have very little confidence in the prayers of the Man of Sin, in fact, none at all, and we are by no means chagrined to discover that these prayers are likely to do more mischief than good. The French clerics, at least a number of them, resent the terms in which the Pope asks them to pray for peace, and the Vatican organs are busy explaining that the peace the Pope prays for is a peace in which right and justice will triumph. The Pope, even with ex cathedra infallibility, may discover that there is an ancient infallible decree which announces that no man can serve two masters, and the present Papal policy of trying to please our enemies and the Allies is doomed to sure disaster; and, as Protestants, we will rejoice in the failure of Vatican worldly policy when it comes.
The Apostacy.—The Protestant Observer for March and April has devoted space to extracts from religious and daily press—Roman Catholic, Ritualist, and Protestant—showing the signs that point in the direction of apostacy. No one can read the April issue without feeling profoundly that the disease is deep-seated and making surely towards a fatal issue. The editor of the Protestant Observer deserves the thanks of all interested in Christ’s kingdom for bringing together, within a narrow compass, such convincing evidence of the terrible condition of things in the so-called religious world.
The Pope’s Ignorance of Scripture.—An American religious journal has been making fun of the Pope’s ignorance of Scripture. Pope Benedict has prepared a prayer to be recited in Roman Catholic churches in the United States on 21st March, in which the sentence occurs, “and, as once before, to the cry of the Apostle Peter: ‘Save us, Lord, we perish.'” The cry came, not from the Apostle Peter, but from the disciples (Matt. viii. 25, 26).