THE following is the Report of this Committee, delivered by the Rev. A. Macrae, Portree, Convener, and adopted by the Synod at its last meeting:—
The Committee on Religion and Morals present their Report under circumstances that are unparalleled in our national history. For well-nigh four years the country has been engaged in the most devastating war ever waged. The toll exacted in human life has, from the outset, been appalling. It entered upon its most terrible phase within the last ten weeks, when the enemy offensive began on the western front. Since then the sufferings entailed must have passed beyond the utmost stretch of our conceptions. The results of modern scientific attainments are utilised in the preparation of the most deadly instruments of destruction that human ingenuity can devise. The sorrows that have, as a consequence, fallen upon families throughout the length and breadth of the land can have no precedent whatever.
It is difficult to say to what extent, within the bounds of our Church’s activities, domestic sorrows have affected personal and family religion. A few there may be who are so imbued with patriotic sentiments as to find consolation in the thought that the loss sustained has been for the defence of king and country. To relieve their feelings of grief, they simply drink out of the fountain of pure sentiment, and they are not profitably exercised in the matter of personal religion. Others, less patriotic in their disposition, profoundly bewail their personal loss. They refuse to be comforted: but they are disposed to rebel at the providence that deprived them of the desire of their eye. Their grief abides; they are disconsolate; but to what extent the painful trial affects them as regards personal religion, the Lord only knows. Although the initial outbursts of their grief may have seemed to be of such a character as to suspect a state of mind in rebellion against God for so laying His hand upon them, it is hard to say how, on calm reflection, the solemn visitation may have eventually been instrumental in leading their minds to useful and profitable exercises. But there are others, not less patriotic or less susceptible to overwhelming sorrow for their irreparable loss, who desire, by grace, humbly to bow to the will of Him who does all things well. They go to the Lord with their heavy burdens of grief, and, casting them upon Him, they are not entirely left destitute of the comfort their souls need.
With respect to the state of religion among the people generally, the Committee regret that they have nothing very encouraging to report. Notwithstanding all the sorrows and horrors that abound, the general indifference to eternal realities is very pronounced. The root-cause of the Lord’s judgments is not recognised nor acknowledged. The idea of individual and national sins constituting the primary cause of the world’s present miseries
is ruled out of the realm of thought as not worthy of serious consideration. The real cause is traced to the lust for universal power that dominates the heart of the Kaiser; but there is no recognition of the fact that the sins of a wicked and perverse generation have wrung the prevailing judgments out of the Lord’s hand. The righteous claims of a sovereign God to universal obedience is flagrantly overlooked, with the result that there is no evidence of genuine repentance before God for our transgressions against Him. The necessity of individual and national repentance is a note that is too notoriously absent from the call to prayer that occasionally emanates from official quarters. The nation, as a nation, has not yet laid itself prostrate at the footstool of the Most High in an attitude of real humiliation and repentance for sin. No week-day has yet been set apart by Royal Proclamation for these ends, notwithstanding that, year after year, the fierce anger of the Lord is poured forth upon us; and even now we are passing through a crisis that brings us dangerously within view of a termination to our national existence. President Wilson has set an excellent example before this nation by appointing the 30th May as a day of humiliation, fasting, and prayer throughout America for the Lord’s controversy with the nations. In presence of these unprecedented calamities, the prevailing conditions among us seem to be well portrayed in the words of the Lord spoken through the prophet Isaiah, “Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more; the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores.”
Amidst the general disregard of a recognition of the righteous claims of the Supreme Moral Governor, it cannot be denied that there are some, among civilians and soldiers alike, who are exceptions to the general rule. Visibly careless and indifferent before, they now give evidence of being sincerely conscientious in the all-important matter of the salvation of their souls. They read and pray for themselves; they seek an interest in the prayers of the Lord’s people; and whatever the ultimate fruit may be, they are not leading the thoughtless life that they led before. But there are few such cases that can be registered. The overwhelming mass of the people evince, from the general tenor of their life and practice, that positive tokens of the Lord’s goodness or the severity of His judgments will not, of themselves, change the heart. The natural bent of the unrenewed heart leads some to take part in the vain song of the concert-room and others in the dance of the ballroom. The craze for amusements does not seem to have appreciably abated. It finds exercise in the remote village and quiet country place, under pretext of collecting for such laudable objects as Red Cross purposes. Highland games have been set on foot at various military camps in the country. They have been taken part in even behind the lines of the
battlefield, as a fitting exercise for soldiers to have after marvellously escaping from the jaws of death. The streets of our large cities are thronged with pleasure-seekers—with those who rush in quest of the false amusement that the scenes of the theatre and picture palace afford to corrupt fallen human nature. Many of our public parks are, even yet, too often the scene of football and other matches—practices that at any time are incompatible with the responsibilities resting upon those who have grown up to manhood, still less at a time when divine judgments are sweeping over the land to an extent never before experienced.
The Committee have reason to believe that, in the matter of family religion, family worship is observed in the large majority of families connected with our Church. But when the state of family religion generally throughout the country is brought under review, there is ground to fear that family worship is sadly neglected. In some cases it may be observed once a day; in other cases, once a week, with the return of the weekly day of rest; and in lamentably too many cases—nominal professors included—never at all. These facts point out a process of degeneration that augurs ill for the prosperity of vital religion. There are parents who conscientiously instil the simple facts of the Christian religion into the minds of their children from their earliest years; others relegate the important duty of parental instruction to the day school and Sabbath school; and in too many cases children grow up in greater ignorance of the Scriptures than ought to obtain in a Christian land. The good old practice of catechising has been allowed to drop too much into desuetude. The prevailing conditions loudly call for its revival, and ministers and missionaries alike have an important duty to discharge in this direction.
No recommendations in favour of Sabbath labour, for accelerating agricultural operations, have this year emanated from Lambeth Palace or from the pen of the Moderator of the Church of Scotland. Sabbath labour in munition factories has, to some extent, been restricted, although not so much from a consideration of the obligation to rest on Divine authority as from the end of securing an increased output of munitions. If regard to the Divine command to desist from Sabbath labour were conscientiously shown by those in authority, much of the nation’s losses in war material might have been avoided, as in the observance of the Lord’s commandments there is great reward. War conditions, as a rule, involve works of necessity; but many practices are placed under the category of necessity that do not really constitute works of that kind, such as, Sabbath army reviews, Sabbath musketry practice, and many other forms of Sabbath desecrations that are in vogue. It is but too obvious that the effects of the War on Sabbath observance have been disastrous, both in the higher and humbler spheres of life.
Liberties are taken with its sacred claims, in private and in public, at which before people generally stood in awe. The abuse of its sanctity is too marked a feature of many a home. Many have no compunction of conscience in writing private and business letters on the Sabbath. They drop handfuls of them into the letter pillar-box on that sacred day. Newspapers are printed, sold in the streets, and read on the day that ought to be wholly devoted to the private and public exercises of God’s worship. Its sacred hours are prostituted for the unworthy purposes of sensuous pleasure and sordid gain. Football playing is a frequent practice at some military camps and naval bases on the Sabbath. What is called “the Sunday sacred concert” is instituted with the sanction of municipal authorities, and an empty, silly counterfeit is substituted for the reality demanded in bygone days. Covetousness, which is the characteristic of too many in this degenerate age, drives its iron wedge into the heart of the Lord’s Day, and those engaged in the unholy traffic of secularising the Sabbath from pure lust for gold can be counted by the thousand. The system of double pay for Sabbath work ought to be abolished. It proves a deadly trap for many. The practices of Sabbath cattle and sheep driving, Sabbath walking and visiting, Sabbath travelling and non-churchgoing, call for strong reprobation.
The restrictive measures adopted by the authorities in the sale of spirits and in the hours of sale have resulted in temperance reform to a considerable degree. Cases of drunkenness there still are, but it is a rare occurrence to meet with one, in the country districts, rendered incapable through the influence of drink. In the cities, the number of police cases arising from drink has considerably dropped. The National drink bill is, however, still very high. For the last year it has been in excess of two hundred million pounds. But it is earnestly to be hoped that the reform brought about, in this respect, may be maintained after the War. The Committee recognise, with feelings of gratitude, the high moral tone that generally pervades all classes of the people throughout the Church. It is, however, undeniable that a withering curse rests upon the nation in consequence of what is known as the “social evil.” This monstrous evil exists chiefly in the large cities, and it is accentuated by the existing military conditions. It clamantly calls for the adoption of remedial measures; but only the faithful preaching of the Gospel, and genuine repentance wrought in the heart by the Spirit of all grace, can prove an effective remedy.
Romanising tendencies in professedly Protestant Churches make marked headway. These tendencies are, in no small degree, stimulated by the teaching of those who proclaim salvation on the unscriptural ground of human merit. There is a class of ministers so utterly paganish in their views as to teach that the everlasting salvation of soldiers and sailors is secured on the ground of self-sacrifice—of sacrificing their lives for their country.
Others, equally inconsistent in their profession of Protestantism, unblushingly recommend the practice of praying for the dead. From an utter disregard to the plain teaching of Holy Scripture, they deliberately proclaim their belief in the exercise of God’s prerogative of mercy to those who are in hell. In their ignorance of “the things of the Spirit of God” and of the desperate wickedness of the human heart, they flippantly write that, only what “the heart of man settles,” with respect to his eternal destiny, is of value to them. The institution of “memorial services” for the dead is a distinct departure from sound Protestantism, and the practice clearly leads Romewards.
Ritualism has its active propagandists in both the Scottish and English churches. War shrines, of which it has been truly said that in them a remembrance of the dead is made to blend with adoration of the crucifix, are increasingly erected and dedicated, particularly in England. Jesuitry never relaxes its baneful activities, either within or without the Church of Rome. The crafty hand of Rome has been deep in the plot that resulted in the world-wide sufferings of the present time. Her agents are insidiously intriguing for the restoration of the temporal power and the overthrow of British Protestantism. Cardinal Bourne’s message to the nation in his Lenten pastoral surpassed in effrontery, and in absolute disregard of historical facts, anything that has yet appeared from a Romish source in the British press. Rome’s devotees are unceasingly active, in the hope that—as they say—the Church may yet come to its own in this land. In the political sphere the truckling to Rome is apparent. For long Home Rule for Ireland was one of Rome’s most cherished expectations. Its realisation seems now well within her grasp, notwithstanding the avowed disloyalty of Nationalists and Sinn Feiners to Great Britain in her hour of trial. Contrary to the letter and spirit of the British Constitution, the King was recently represented at a Requiem Mass at Westminster Cathedral for the late John Redmond, at which high State officials also were present in person. Britain is still officially represented at the Vatican, and she persistently refuses, in face of repeated protestations, to recall her envoy. As long as he remains unrecalled, British interests are in jeopardy.
These and other matters that might be noted are causes of the Lord’s displeasure. They call for confession, repentance, and humiliation.
THINK, my soul, O the tremendous grinding and melting of the Son of God in the likeness of sinful flesh, to prepare the glazen sea of His righteousness, mingled with the fiery, the purifying influence of His Spirit and love! to prepare the glass, the glazen sea of the Gospel of our salvation; and of a pure Church, actuated by the fire of holy zeal; and to prepare a bottle for God to put my tears in!—John Brown.