Progress of the Church of Rome in Scotland.
In the year 1837 there were in Scotland 74 priests, and 70 Roman Catholic churches. In the present year (1921) there is the startling total of 601 priests, and 428 churches, with a hierarchy of 6 archbishops and bishops. The progress made by the Papacy is further demonstrated by the following particulars (taken from The Catholic Encyclopedia) referring to the period from 1878 to 1911:—
| | 1878 | 1911 |
|————————-|———|———
| Congregational Schools, | 157 | 213 |
| Monasteries, | 13 | 26 |
| Convents, | 21 | 58 |
| Population, | 380,000 | 520,000 |
Of the Roman Catholic population, over 90 per cent. are of Irish origin, and it is to Irish immigration therefore that the great increase in the numerical strength of Romanism is attributable. But as Irish Roman Catholics are more devoted to the interests of the Papacy, and more ready to yield a blind obedience to its behests than any other people, they are the best fitted to carry out the Romish propaganda.—Bulwark.
The Home of Lost Causes.
The Rev. J. R. Fleming, writing in the Scotsman (13th July) of a visit paid to Princeton Theological Seminary, makes reference to that world-famous theological school as still accounted the stronghold in America of Westminster orthodoxy. Its professors, he says, are bound by a solemn oath to teach nothing either “directly or impliedly” that would contradict the Confession or Catechisms, and the heirs to the Alexander and Hodge tradition stand inflexibly by the absolute inerrancy of Scripture and the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch. One would have thought that the existence of such a school of sacred learning would have gladdened the heart of a Scottish Presbyterian. But Mr. Fleming is afraid that this well-equipped seminary will become the “home of lost causes” unless it yield to the liberating (sic) tendencies of the times. Are the absolute inerrancy of the Scripture and the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch lost causes? And has it come to this that a Scottish Presbyterian minister can speak of the great Reformed doctrines of the Confession as lost causes? We know and feel that many of the theological schools of Scotland have drifted far from their moorings, but we refuse to look upon the truths for which Princeton still contends as lost causes.
Sabbath Fishing.
At a recent meeting of the Executive of the Scottish Herring and Drift Net Fishermen’s Association, the question of fishing on the Lord’s Day was raised in connection with the proposed scheme for the control of the supplies at the English fishing. The proposed scheme has a clause allowing English fishing boats to go to sea on Sabbath, though not on Saturday, night. As is known to many of our readers, Scottish fishermen honourably observed the Day of Rest. Mr. Brown, Fraserburgh, advised the meeting to accept the scheme notwithstanding this clause. We are pleased to know that a number of representatives from northern ports strongly opposed the objectionable clause, but on a vote being taken the scheme was adopted. A Peterhead skipper said that in that case he and others from his port would go to sea on the Sabbath when engaged at the English fishing. On the motion of Mr. D. Buchan, Peterhead, it was agreed to press for an additional clause being inserted allowing Scottish, as well as English, boats to fish on Sabbath. We trust that our Scottish fishermen will sternly set their face not only against the boats going to sea on Saturday, but also on Sabbath, night.
A Well Administered Rebuke.
The Glasgow Herald, in a leaderette, administered a sharp rebuke to the radical theologians who recently met at Cambridge, and to whose opinions reference is made in our opening article. “One rather fancies,” says the writer, “that the ordinary man, professing Christian or the reverse, will read the report of the Modern Churchmen’s Congress with very mixed feelings, for if its findings were to command universal assent it would be very difficult to draw any distinction, not merely between believers and unbelievers, but between believers and unbelievers. It was, as the chairman remarked, an evaporative session, but to most people it will seem as if what had evaporated was simply all that made a Church Christian, including the doctrine of the divinity of Christ, surely the pivotal doctrine of any Church calling itself Christian. . . . To remain inside the Church to reform it is comprehensible, but, when reformation goes the length of radical abolition of all that the Church has stood for, it is difficult to see how they can reconcile their signed adhesion to orthodoxy with this open championship of Unitarianism. Surely the loyal course, if the doctrines to which they subscribed are found to be untrue, is not to abolish the doctrines, but to leave the Church which is, and cannot but be, founded upon them. Mr. Anson was on far sounder ground when he urged the adoption of a moral as well as a theological line of demarcation. That is a defensible position, but to remain on the one side of the theological boundary, while declaring that the truth lies on the other, is scarcely compatible with either moral or intellectual honesty. The obvious course for Dr. Baker and his colleagues is to come out, to create a fresh schism and a new heresy. Both, from the Church’s point of view, are deplorable; but from the ordinary man’s standpoint there are things worse than either heresy or schism, and one, at least, is the failure of honest men to pay the price of being honest.”
The late Mr. Allan Maclauchlan, Kames.
It is with deep regret that we have to record the death of another of our worthy and highly-respected office-bearers, Mr. Allan Maclauchlan. A fuller notice will appear in a later issue. Meantime, we extend our heartfelt sympathy to the widow and family.