A Notable Scottish Historical Document. — The “Scottish Historical Review” for July publishes what it terms a “document of unique historical value.” The document in question is the “National Petition to the Scottish Privy Council, October 18th, 1637.” The “National Petition” was, to use Baillie’s words, “Scotland’s Magna Charta.” It bore the signatures of five hundred noblemen, country gentlemen, burgesses and ministers. The opposition to the “Service Book” was growing and the men who signed the Petition were determined that the Laudian policy should be brought to a speedy end. This was the forerunner of the great national movement that culminated in the signing of the Covenant in 1638 in Greyfriars. The first signatory is “J. Sutherland.” This is the probable explanation of the oft repeated erroneous statement that the Earl of Sutherland was the first to sign the Covenant in 1638. There is no historical evidence for this and the mistake handed down as a fact of history may be due to confusing the signing of the National Petition with the signing of the Covenant. The names of some of the ministers who became famous in the Second Reformation are found here and alas! also some who went back and joined the persecutors, among them being the notorious Archbishop Sharp. Among the laymen appear the names of Montrose and Thomas Dalyell (Dalziel), father of the persecutor. We give the document in modernised spelling on another page.
Man’s Descent: A New View.—As we read the views propounded by scientific men as to man’s origin we cannot help coming to the conclusion that instead of vainly seeking for the “missing link” among primeval deposits, that it should be sought for in the brains of these learned men themselves. “There is something wrong somewhere,” as Principal Rainy said when confronted with the sad effects of his own ecclesiastical leadership, when intelligent men give vent to such puerilities and wild conjectures that pass in the name of science. Recently, Prof. Wood Jones, Melbourne University, who had refused the Chair of Anatomy in London University in order to continue his scientific researches in Australia, declared that the methods applied hitherto in the determination of man’s pedigree were such as would not be applied to any other animal. Man, according to Prof. Jones, with the ape sprang from the primitive tarsoid, and it was absurd to be searching for the “missing link” since man’s evolution occurred so early and by far antedated the remains dis-
covered in comparatively modern earth layers. Such is the kind of views presented in the sober name of science. There must be something decidedly wrong with the thinking apparatus of these learned men.
Return to the “Book of Sports.”—The Dean of Exeter, in a special article in the “Morning Post” (25th July), advocates recreation on the Lord’s Day. It seems that the Christian Church, in observing this day as sacred to God, has been under the guidance of what the Dean terms a “false conscience.” To put matters right he advocates a return to the ideal set forth in the infamous “Book of Sports,” which gave permission “at the end of divine service for lawful recreation, such as dancing, either for men or women, archery for men, leaping, vaulting, the setting up of Maypoles, and other sports hitherto used, so as the same be had in due and convenient time, without impediment or neglect of divine service.” “Men may worship and play on the same day without any inconsistency” is the Dean’s cure for present-day neglect of Sabbath observance. For our own part, we detest this disloyalty. If men are the enemies of God’s law, better that they should cross over to the camp of the enemy than remain in the Church and do the devil’s work.
Dr Moffatt’s Translation of the Old Testament.—The “Princeton Theological Review” for April has an article by Prof. Allis, of Princeton Theological Seminary, in which he gives a most thorough examination of the greatly belauded translation of the Old Testament by Dr Moffatt. Dr Moffatt has not only given a new translation which, with the ostensible purpose of popularising its diction in many places, has only succeeded all to well in vulgarising it, but what is more serious, he has taken great liberties with the text, and displaced sentences in keeping with the teaching of present day higher critical views. This is the most thorough criticism we have yet seen of this work, and a very damaging one it is. The concluding part of Professor Allis’ article is given on another page.
Corpus Christi Procession in Badenoch: A Correction.—A correspondent has written us pointing out that we have fallen into a mistake in confusing the Crathie in Badenoch with the better known Crathie in Aberdeenshire. The former is a small crofting township in Inverness-shire. Our sentence implying that the Church of Rome was openly breaking the law of the land and showing aggressiveness in the vicinity of the Royal Palace of Balmoral does not therefore hold true as far as this particular incident was concerned, and we ex-
press regret for the mistake. Having made this acknowledgment, we wish to say that, while we are indebted to anyone who points out any mistakes we make in these pages, it would give us much more satisfaction if when they write a criticism such as we received from the above correspondent, they would have the courage to give their names and addresses, so that we might have the opportunity of giving information where necessary and correcting manifest misunderstanding of what we wrote as in this particular case. We take this opportunity of directing the attention of correspondents to the “Notice to Correspondents” on page ii, of Cover of the Magazine. The Irish method of shooting a man from behind a hedge never appealed to us as manly or heroic, and still less when done with loud professions of loyalty to the King. If our anonymous correspondent will oblige us with his name and address, he may, as the legal notices have it, hear something to his advantage.