BY REV. D. M. MACDONALD, PORTREE.
(Continued from p 53.)
Where there is no vision, it is written, the people perish. Many in our land are turning away from the Word of God, and embracing delusive phantoms in the shape of spiritism and superstition. Dr Robertson, the superintendent of Morningside Asylum, Edinburgh, in a lecture delivered recently, warned people against the serious consequences of spiritism, declaring that it was responsible in some measure for causing insanity. It is to be hoped that his warning will have some effect. The ultimate outcome of Dr Robertson’s remarks was the allegation by a writer in the press that Calvinism was largely responsible for insanity in Scotland. This was based on a quotation from Buckle, the historian, who says that Calvinistic preaching in our country during the preceding century turned many people into lunatics. Now Dr McCrie has proved Buckle to be an inaccurate historian, and his statement as quoted above is probably without any real foundation. Calvinism is the most logical system in the world, because it is really the essence of Biblical doctrine. It has produced the most intellectual and progressive nations on the face of the earth, while its followers have been the pioneers in establishing human liberty and freedom from secular and spiritual tyrants and oppressors. Some of the finest and most successful missionaries were Calvinists, such as Dr Duff and Dr John G. Paton. Degrading exhibitions of superstition have taken place in the village of Carfin, Lanarkshire, where multitudes have gathered to adore statues of the Virgin declared to have healing virtue. A number of sufferers from various diseases have maintained that they were healed by these statues, but the supposed cures, for we cannot describe them otherwise, might easily be accounted for on psychological grounds. The gross idolatry displayed is revolting to reason and common-sense alike. The Committee view with misgiving the rapid advance of Popery throughout Britain. In last year’s report statistics were submitted showing the great increase in the Roman Catholic population of Scotland, largely due to the influx of the Irish race into the industrial centres of Glasgow and the adjoining areas. This year the Roman Catholic population is probably greater than ever, because of the usual immigration of Irishmen, and proportionately it is increasing owing, in part, to the departure of Scottish people to the Colonies. The most skilful of our workmen are rapidly leaving the country, and unskilled, illiterate Irishmen, alien in race and creed, are taking their place. Even now they have considerable political power, and it is exercised in a manner that will benefit their Church, which is largely a political organisation. Rome has not abated one jot of its claims to be the supreme ruler of the world. Every opportunity is seized to entrench its position in Britain, for the Pope knows that if Britain is captured the world will be at his feet. At one time it was by means of the scaffold and the stake that the Papacy sought to establish its claims, but now it is by peaceful penetration through the steady increase of the Irish population in Scotland that it is insidiously advancing, and means eventually to capture our land. It is not an exaggeration to say that between one-fourth and one-fifth of the entire population of Glasgow is Irish, and investigation has brought out that in two years the increase in the number of Roman Catholic children in that city was 1037, and the decrease in the number of Protestant children was 1812, showing an increase in the number of Irish children in comparison with Scottish children of almost 3000. In Dundee the increase in Roman Catholic children for two years was 176, while the Protestant decrease in the same period was 873. Coming to the schools in Edinburgh, the increase in Roman Catholic children in two years was 175; the Protestant decrease in that period was 1348. If this increase goes on, in the course of time the great centres of industry, the sources of our wealth and power, will have passed into Irish Roman Catholic hands. Through the medium of the Education Act, large capital sums were passing into the hands of the Church of Rome. This Act provided that where this Church did not want to sell a school, it got rent for it. In Glasgow alone, by a provisional arrangement, it got £20,000 a year by way of rent for its schools. All this money from Scottish and English taxpayers was going to subsidise the efforts of the Roman Catholic Church in its propaganda. The late King Edward’s revival of communion with Rome in 1903 has had evil results for Great Britain. Since then concession after concession has been wrung by the Papacy from our nation. The Coronation Oath has been altered; an Envoy has been sent to the Vatican; Ireland, with the exception of Ulster, is now practically a Papal province; and to crown all, King George has made a serious breach on the Bill of Rights and Act of Settlement by his unconstitutional and illegal visit to the Pope last year. A public protest was made in London, but no heed was paid to it by the Government. The Lloyd George Government did not long survive the passing of the Irish Free State Act, nor did Mr Bonar Law continue long in the Premiership after arranging the King’s visit to the Vatican. Mr Baldwin succeeded Mr Bonar Law, and his party being involved in the matter, was hurled ignominiously from power last winter. It would appear that any British Government who deliberately connives at Popery is signing its own death warrant. The action of the King in holding communion with Rome has encouraged Roman Catholics to look forward to the time when, they hope, the Bill of Rights and Act of Settlement shall be totally repealed. It has pained multitudes of his loyal Protestant subjects, and weakened their allegiance to his throne. One immediate result of this Vatican visit was the celebration of Mass in July last by the Bishops and clergy of the Church of England, of which King George is the head, in the Cathedral of St Paul’s, and marching through London in idolatrous procession with Papal vestments and incense, led on by the Bishop of London. Popery is becoming fashionable in Court circles, and it is quite a common affair for professing Protestants holding high office in the service of the State to attend masses for the dead. The menace is serious, and the public conscience should be aroused to the danger of the Papacy obtaining sway in Britain; otherwise we may prove to be like Samson, shorn of his locks; we may rouse ourselves when too late. In concluding this report, the Committee have to state, with sorrow, that there is evidence on every hand that we are living in a materialistic and pleasure-loving age, in which by means of cinemas, theatres, drinking-dens, night clubs, and indecent dances, young and old are corrupted and egged on in the broad way that leads to destruction. Multitudes have no higher motive than to eat, drink, and be merry, recklessly mis-spending their talents and opportunities in the service of the world, the flesh, and the devil, with dreadful consequences to themselves at last unless they repent. The rampant evils of the age are a loud call to each and all to be diligent at the throne of grace, pleading for the spirit of repentance, and that the Lord would fulfil His promise speedily—”For then will I turn to the people a pure language that they may all call upon the name of the Lord, to serve him with one consent.”