Great Protest Meeting in London.
The Albert Hall, London, was packed on Tuesday night by men and women of the Protestant faith, who assembled to appeal against the proposed Royal visit to the Pope. The souvenir programme contained an extract from the Bill of Rights, 1689, declaring that any person holding communion with the See or Church of Rome was to be excluded from exercising any royal power. Lord Gisborough announced he had sent the following telegram to the King:—”May it please your Majesty, ten thousand of your dutiful subjects, in public meeting assembled in the Royal Albert Hall, London, send loyal greetings, and humbly pray that it may be possible for you to forego your projected visit to the Pope in view of the fact that such visit will be a source of much sorrow to millions of your devoted and loyal Protestant subjects. Lord Gisborough said the Roman Catholics regarded the visit as an acknowledgment of the superiority and supremacy of the Pope. Prebendary A. W. Gough moved a resolution appealing to the Prime Minister to advise the King to abandon the proposed visit. The motion was carried, as also was a resolution, moved by Sir Robert Kennedy, calling upon the Government to withdraw the British Envoy to the Vatican.
Bad Reasoning.
Sir Murdoch Macdonald, M.P. for Inverness-shire, in reply to protests addressed to him in connection with the Envoy to the Vatican and their Majesties’ proposed visit to the Pope, in a letter to the press says that while in the former case he cannot see what good it is to have such a functionary at Rome, yet he does not think it right to interfere with the King in such a matter, as his Majesty has millions of Roman Catholic subjects. Perhaps it might not be out of place to remind Sir Murdoch that during the tremendous trial through which this country passed that millions of his Majesty’s Roman Catholic subjects in Ireland, Quebec, and Australia, refused help to keep Britain from being shattered to pieces, and her King from being an exile like the Kaiser. Besides, the King’s Protestant subjects far outnumber his Roman Catholic subjects, and as a matter of courtesy should their wishes not be consulted? We find the same bad reasoning in many of the speeches delivered in quite a number of the United Free Church Presbyteries, though we are pleased to say that some of these Presbyteries protested strongly against the proposed visit to the Pope.
Cost of the Envoy to the Vatican.
In answer to a question in the House of Commons, Mr R. McNeil replied as follows:—”The total cost of the British Mission at the Vatican up to December 31, 1922, was £32,355 19s 9d. The question of continuing the Mission was decided on its merits by the late Cabinet, who concluded that the beneficial results with which it has been attended made its continuance desirable.”
Rothesay and Sabbath Cars.
We are pleased to see that the Town Council of this popular Clyde resort has decided against running street cars on the Lord’s Day. Every year this question has been brought up, but as yet Rothesay Town Council has stood out against those who wish to bring in this form of Sabbath-breaking.
Letter to Queen Mary.
The following letter has been sent to the Queen by Lady Anderson, President of the Women’s Protestant Union:—”May it please your Majesty, the Women’s Protestant Union, representing some 7000 women of the Empire, of which I am President, humbly beg to approach your Majesty, first to assure your Majesty and His Majesty the King, of our heartfelt loyalty and devotion to your Majesties’ persons, and to the Throne of this great Empire. May I, on behalf of our Union, express to your Majesty the deep sorrow felt at the announcement in the papers that your Majesty and His Majesty our gracious King, will, when in Rome, visit the Pope? Most earnestly and humbly may I, speaking for 7000 of your loyal subjects, utter our profound hope that this announcement is unauthorised. Praying that God’s richest blessing may ever rest on your Majesty.”
The Church of Rome and the Marriage Laws.
Mr Stutfield, who has done such excellent work in exposing the interference of the Church of Rome in matters affecting European nations, has once again done useful service in a recent issue of the “National Review,” in calling attention to the growing antagonism between the Roman Catholic law of marriage and the civil law. In New Zealand, Australia, and Canada the Romish marriage law is causing a good deal of heart-burning. Mr Stutfield quotes a number of instances showing the high-handed way in which the priests of the Roman Catholic Church deal with the civil law.
Movement for a New Confession of Faith.
The United Free Presbytery of Dundee, one of the largest in the United Free Church, has taken up the question of having a new Confession of Faith. Nothing in the line of departure from the faith astonishes us now in coming from the United Free Church. The attitude for long permitted by her theological professors to the Word of God is known to the world, and that the teaching of the Confession should now have to come under criticism is what was to be expected as a logical process. But whether modern destructive theologians are the most suitable for constructing a Confession of Faith to take the place of a document which Dr Warfield has described as the “consummate flower of the Reformed Symbols,” is a matter on which one may be permitted without hesitation in bringing in a very adverse verdict against these speculators, whose theology is built on the sands of modern opinion.
A New Catechism Wanted.
The Glasgow United Free Presbytery have sent up an overture to the General Assembly, asking for a revision of the Shorter Catechism on the following grounds:—(1) In some parts it is no longer in touch with modern thought; (2) It contains temporary elements which are due to the age in which it was born; (3) It gives offence to the larger teaching about God and man which the progress of modern thought has brought to them all; (4) Its language is archaic; (5) It contains certain things which teachers do not feel they could teach their scholars. Mr Spurgeon, when twitted by the men of light and leading of his day as being “behind the times,” remarked that he always liked to be behind the times, to see where the times were going. But if one were to try and keep in touch with that will o’ the wisp of present day theology—modern thought, he would have his work cut out for him, and we recognise as one of its excellences, instead of its defects, that the Shorter Catechism is out of touch with modern thought.
A German Roman Catholic Empire.
A Special Correspondent of the “Glasgow Herald” recently sent to his paper an arresting article on “A German Catholic Empire.” The writer is convinced that Germany will yet return to Monarchy. The Hohenzollerns have lost caste, but the correspondent sees in the Wittelsbach dynasty uniting Roman Catholic Austria and Roman Catholic Bavaria the dream of the Vatican in attaining ascendancy in the German Empire of the future. It is admitted, says the writer, that “the atmosphere is more friendly to a Catholic revival than at any time since Luther hurled his defiance at the Pope.” The dream of the Vatican is to see a Roman Catholic dynasty set up at Berlin, and what that may yet cost Europe is known to Him in whose hands are the destinies of nations as well as individuals.
The Devil’s Bait.
At the beginning of last month the United Free Presbytery of Linlithgow and Falkirk discussed the question of Sabbath games in connection with Sir Robert Calder’s offer to give a public park to the town on condition that games would be permitted in it on the Lord’s Day after one o’clock. The Presbytery unanimously protested against the proposal. This is the first attempt of the kind made in Scotland, and the devil, the better to carry through his plan, baited it with the offer of a public park. The days were, and not so very long ago, when such a gift would not dare to have been offered, or if offered, would have been flung back in the face of the donor with scorn by those who loved God’s law more than the pleasures of this world. It was intimated at a meeting of Bo’ness Town Council that Sir Robert Calder was coming to Bo’ness in June to address the citizens on the subject of his gift and its condition. We hope Bo’ness will refuse the gift on the terms offered.