The Church and the World.
Things have come to a very low pass in Scotland when things such as are mentioned in the following advertisement from the “Glasgow Herald” are permitted:—”Come to the Fair on Saturday, 19th June. Country Fair, in the Grounds of Capelrig, Newton-Mearns, in aid of Giffnock Parish Church Building Fund. Opened at 3 o’clock by Sir John M. Macleod, Bart. Gipsy Caravan, Selling Booths, Tennis, Palais De Danse, Pony Rides, Games, Side Shows, etc.”
Lord’s Day Observance Society.
This Society has issued its Year Book, and from the Report (95th Annual) it is evident the Society has taken a new lease of life through the energy of its new secretary, Mr H. H. Martin. The Report says:—”Our founders laid their foundations on the impregnable Rock of Holy Scripture. They based their labours on the unassailable teaching of God’s Word that the one day rest in seven, the holy Sabbath, was the beneficent gift of our Heavenly Father; and was made for man for the purpose of promoting God’s glory and man’s eternal welfare. They recognised that the inestimable blessing of the Day of Rest, to which our fellow-men are entitled, was insecure—and would soon be filched from them—unless based upon the divine charter. We, their successors, affirm the same conviction. We unhesitatingly believe that every word in the Book has fallen from the Everlasting Lips, and that the commands to men and women to keep holy the Sabbath Day were not only intended for God’s ancient people, Israel, but that they are a vital, living message for all generations. There are, indeed, many reasons why the Sabbath should be safeguarded—hygienic, medical, economic, social, and national—but we of the Lord’s Day Observance Society are persuaded that the reason which transcends them all is because the Day is His, ‘the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.'”
Enemies in the Camp.
The Report above referred to calls attention to “the encouragement which is frequently given to Sabbath-breaking by certain of the Clergy, and sometimes, we regret to say, by highly-placed dignitaries of our National Church [Church of England]. Almost without exception we have found that, whenever the enemies of the Lord’s Day have been able to secure sanction for games on Sabbath, Sabbath cinemas, or Sabbath concerts, it has been largely due to the attitude of a local vicar siding with the Sabbath-breakers. One well-known vicar—the Rev. Basil Bourchier, M.A., of St Jude’s Hampstead Garden Suburb—it was reported in the “Daily Mail,” actually won the prize of £5 at his Church Lawn Tennis Tournament on Sabbath afternoon, 26th July 1925.”
A Serious Situation.
We cull the following figures from the recently-issued Year Book of the Lord’s Day Observance Society:—There are 250,000 shops open in England every Lord’s Day; 40,000 in London alone. There are 82,728 public-houses and drinking clubs open every Sabbath; twice as many as there are places of worship. 350,000 barmen, barmaids, attendants, and other employees are thereby deprived of their Sabbath rest. Thirteen newspapers are published every Lord’s Day, having a circulation of 13,100,000. Fifty thousand persons are employed in their sale. Half-a-million people crowd the cinemas in London every Sabbath evening. Nine hundred thousand Londoners attend the “Sunday League” Concerts in a single year, while cabarets, jazz dances, boxing tournaments are also promoted by amusement caterers on the Lord’s Day. Two million people through the various Sabbath employments follow their ordinary occupation every Sabbath—one out of seven of the adult population.
Roman Catholic Relief Bill.
Considerable uneasiness is felt, says the “Christian,” in Protestant circles owing to the prospect of the early passage to the Statute Book of the Roman Catholic Relief Bill. In many respects this measure will materially alter the distinctively Protestant character of the British Constitution, and will confer upon Roman Catholics a number of rights and privileges likely to destroy the safeguards wisely devised by the Reformers. Unfortunately, those who would oppose the bill in Parliament find their hands tied by the fact that Roman Catholics have been permitted, for many years past, to indulge in public practices of an illegal character. The Relief Bill, in part, seeks to regularise such habitually permitted irregularities. Further, however (as the Church Association points out in a resolution sent to the Prime Minister), the bill aims—(1) to repeal the Reformation Statute (3 and 4 Edward VI., cap. 10), which concerns not Roman Catholics, but the preservation of Protestant worship in the Church of England; and (2) to deprive “this Protestant kingdom” of those Constitutional safeguards—against the political machinations of the Jesuits and other “religious” communities—which have hitherto prevented the outbreak in this country of the contests (so familiar on the Continent, even in Roman Catholic States) between the Civil Power and the Church of Rome. We are pleased to learn from the London correspondent of the “Inverness Courier” that the bill is likely to be shelved owing to the opposition offered to the Government’s Electricity Bill. The North of Ireland Government have made a special appeal that its operation should not apply to Ulster. Similar efforts to have Scotland excluded have failed. It is to be hoped that our readers will at once write to their M.P.s and ask them to vote against the Bill in case that it should come up for the Third Reading.
The Malines Conferences.
The recent death of Abbé Portal, says the London correspondent of the “Glasgow Herald,” who was really the stimulating force that inspired Cardinal Mercier, has induced many Churchmen to express the hope that no further conferences shall be held at Malines. With the death of these two great personal forces for reunion it is stated that the reason for the conferences has largely disappeared, because there is no one to take their place. Another reason is also given. Churchmen believe that, according to the correspondence published by Lord Halifax, the leaders of the Church were not satisfied with the results that were likely to accrue from further conversations. Lord Halifax, on the English side, has for many years taken the most active interest in the question of Anglican and Roman union. His long friendship with Abbe Portal was largely responsible for the Malines conferences, but it is now doubted whether he, at his advanced age, will be ready to continue the conferences with entirely new leaders on the Roman side.
The Eucharistic Congress at Chicago.
The Church of Rome believes in spectacular show; it appeals to the senses, and to multitudes of misguided men and women it does not appeal in vain. The Eucharistic Congress, a kind of travelling religious help to the devil and a glaring dishonour to Christ’s perfect sacrifice, met this year at Chicago, a city notorious for its defiance of the laws of God and of man. Among its citizens are included a vast number of the followers of the Pope, and though at the time of writing we have not yet read the reports of the American papers, we may rest assured that the Roman dignitaries would be highly pleased with the reception given to them. A reception was to be given in the Coliseum, which is capable of holding 12,000 people. And preparatory to the reception, one newspaper reported that most of the visiting cardinals spent the day resting in preparation for it. It was evidently to be a somewhat arduous undertaking for these so-called princes of the Church. One regrets to read that Mr Davis, the Secretary of Labour, brought official greetings from President Coolidge. Rome is determined to cast her spell over the Protestant nations.
A Reader’s Help.
A reader of the Magazine has written us as follows:—”My reason for referring at all to the number of Magazines I am forwarding every month to places at home and abroad was to show you what could be done by way of widening the circulation of the Magazine if all Free Presbyterians would subscribe to it themselves and recommend it to others. Such is the lamentable indifference that prevails that many Free Presbyterians fail to subscribe to the Magazine. When one refers to anything that may have appeared in the columns of their own Church Magazine, they express total ignorance of such incidents, and then admit that they do not get the Magazine at all at any time. I cannot understand how any one can have an intelligent interest in one’s Church who is not a regular subscriber to one’s Church Magazine. . . . Many adherents of our Church could also send copies to friends away from home in this country or abroad. Such sound, evangelical literature is sadly rare in our day.” While we feel gratified with the increasing circulation of the Magazine, there can be no doubt, if the suggestion of our correspondent was carried out, there would be a decided increase in the circulation. Organised effort in congregations would soon send up the circulation of the Magazine by hundreds, and would thus enable the Magazine Committee to increase its size and reduce its price.