The Quatercentenary of the Diet of Spires.
Four hundred years ago on the 19th April, 1529, the famous Diet of Spires met. The electoral princes of Germany, with the exception of the Prince of Brandenburg, were present. They had embroidered on their banners the letters V.D.M.I. Æ (Verbum Domini manet in æternum, the Word of the Lord endureth for ever). The adherents of the Reformation made their famous Protest in the Town Hall of Spires before the Emperor Charles of Spain. The document had as the first signature the name of “John the Constant,” as he was called, Elector of Saxony, and brother and successor of Luther’s protector, Frederick the Wise. The document containing the protest is famous as giving rise to the name “Protestant.” “We protest before God,” it began, “that we . . . neither consent nor adhere . . . to the proposed decree, in anything that is contrary to God, to His Holy Word, or to our right conscience.”
Rome Still Burning Bibles.
The April number of the Trinitarian Bible Society Quarterly Record gives the following extract from an Italian paper:—”At Pisa the few Protestants there are in great fear because to-day (17th October), in front of all the Catholic churches, there is an alarming notice which threatens with severe excommunication anyone who reads Protestant books: ‘Beware of Protestant Gospels and Bibles. He who reads the versions published by them (also that of M. Martini whom they deprive by their notes) commits grave sin. Remember that it is prohibited under penalty of mortal sin, to enter into Protestant churches, to listen to their preaching, and to assist at their functions. . . . And an announcement orders that those who have Protestant books should bring them to the Archbishop at once, ‘because imitating the Apostle Paul at Ephesus, we desire one day to have a grand conflagration in a public place.'””
Cardinal Bourne at the Vatican.
The Rome correspondent of the “Morning Post” sends the following to his paper: “Cardinal Bourne, Archbishop of Westminster, was received in audience by the Pope this morning. The Cardinal furnished his Holiness with a report on the ecclesiastical and religious situation in Great Britain, and explained what an excellent impression had been produced throughout the kingdom, on Catholics and Protestants alike, by the treaty of conciliation between the Vatican and the State.”
The Congregational Union of Scotland.
At their recent meeting the Congregationalists acknowledged the right of women to enter the ministry by the admission of Miss Vera M. M. Findlay, ‘minister’ of Partick Congregational Church. The Congregationalists of Scotland, like the Presbyterians, have travelled far since the days of the Haldanes, and unfortunately it is in the wrong direction. The proposal to receive Miss Findlay into the Union met with very little opposition.
The Roman Catholic Emancipation Act.
This is the centenary of the Emancipation Act passed in 1829. Naturally Roman Catholics throughout the country are holding enthusiastic demonstrations. At Glasgow it was stated by one of the speakers that in 1805 there was only one priest for 1000 people. To-day there were 336 priests and 500,000 people in the city. In Scotland there were now 600 priests.
Irreverence.
In reading religious papers and theological magazines we are often shocked at the irreverent way the Lord Jesus and His teaching are referred to. The holy reverence which ought to characterise all His followers when they speak of Him or His teaching is sadly lacking in the writings of many ministers. In the April number of the “Expository Times,” that arsenal of higher critical teaching, we find in an editorial note the astounding statement: “Jesus and Paul were Modernists.” The writer ought to have known that he was playing with momentous issues. Had he dealt as recklessly with the current coin of the realm as he did with the current terms of theological speech he would probably have found that the law takes a serious view of the art of the counterfeiter. In looking over a recent issue of that strange kind of a Church paper—the “Scots Observer”—we came across a sentence to this effect: “Christ defends Himself by telling three little stories, picture stories for children, about a lost sheep, a lost coin, and a lost son. Christ was adroit and clever as well as good and kind, unconventional in His mode of self-defence, uncanny in sensing an opportunity for a good story, and withal a master of holy fiction. Which is the world’s best short story? Some of us would answer that it is the story of the lost boy, the climax of the trio under discussion. The trio are fine samples from Christ’s repertory. They all pay tribute to the deftness of His imaginative skill.” The words are from an article by Dr A. F. Scott Pearson, West Kilbride, in an article entitled “The Enquiring Spirit: Tales of the Lost.” We make bold to say that such a way of speaking about the Redeemer and three of His most wonderful parables betrays a lamentable absence of the reverent spirit that one would like to associate with the ministers of the Gospel.