SOME years ago, while in Edinburgh for the Prayer Movement, my host, one of the leading bankers there, said to me, “Let me show you the greatest treasure I possess.” To my astonishment he brought out a dingy little book, tattered and worn, its very edges having been caught by the fire. “See,” said he, “this is the price of my freedom. This Bible belonged to a little ancestor of mine, who went to the stake here in Edinburgh rather than give up that which was to her dearer than life, the Word of God. That book was hidden in her mantle, but as the flames rose higher they began to sear its edges, so she threw it out to another ancestor of mine in order to save it. Her death, amongst others, has been the price of my freedom.” That fire-kissed book brought afresh a vision of the noble army of martyrs whose lives had been given to procure England’s Magna Charta of religious freedom. Centuries have passed, and to-day the battle is having to be refought, the ultimate objective of which is the common right to the open Word of God.
Why has it to be fought? Because, like Sardis of old, the Church in this country has been slumbering, and has forgotten the Lord’s warning in Rev. iii. 2-3: “Be watchful . . . If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.” The history of Sardis and its Church forms a striking parallel in certain points to the spiritual history of England and its Church since the Reformation. Sardis was a city of Asia Minor, built upon a great rock, three sides of which rose up from the desert in perpendicular cliffs. These were unguarded, they were considered impregnable. From the other side you could see the great carriage road sloping down from the city, and running right over the desert. Impossible for an enemy to get through this! It was too well guarded and watched. One night while the inhabitants were fast asleep, a stealthy enemy came and examined those unguarded cliffs inch by inch. At last a crack in the rock was found. Only a crack: impossible to climb up that! Only a little unguarded fissure—and one night a muffled sound might have been heard, for stems were being hewn out one by one up that crack. The top was reached, the rock was scaled, and the city captured. After a few years it regained its freedom. Over 100 years elapsed. The lesson had been forgotten, the rock was still unguarded, and again the enemy came as a thief in the night, scaled the cliff, and took the city: this time never to recover its power. The prophecy of Rev. iii. 3 had been fulfilled, both city and church have been swept away. “If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.” Its safety lay in its watchfulness. Its splendid rock position was not enough. It could only hold that position by vigilant watching. The word Sardis is a Lydian word, which strangely enough means “Reformation, or renovation.” Our religious liberty has been built on the rock of those Reformation laws so dearly bought which have safeguarded the open Word of God. While the nation has been slumbering for the last 100 years or so a thief in the night has been subtly working, hewing out steps up the unguarded crack, one after another. He is almost at the top! Those Reformation laws have been almost swept away! Shall we continue to sleep and let him take the citadel without awakening the nation to its need? What are the steps which he has been hewing out?
The first step was hewn out in 1792, when the law forbidding Roman Catholics to vote was repealed.
In 1829 the law was repealed forbidding Roman Catholics to sit in Parliament. In 1846 the law was repealed forbidding entrance of Roman Catholic Bulls into the kingdom.
In 1850 Pope Pius ordered a bull for the establishment in England of a hierarchy of Bishops, deriving their titles from their own sees. He thus audaciously claimed the right to divide up England into R.C. Dioceses and gave corresponding territorial titles to their Bishops. The conquest of England was thus in 1850 the avowed policy of the R.C. Church, and the country ecclesiastically divided up for it.
Now, in anticipation of its realisation, England has been dedicated to the Madonna, and christened “Our Lady’s Dowry,” and a Jesuit Association of lay members, male and female, exists for the express purpose of making over the gift. It is called “the Sodality of the Children of Mary.” All its guilds are working in concert for this common end.
In 1851 the Roman Catholic Defence Association was inaugurated in the Rotunda, Dublin, which distinctly avowed the fixed aim and object of its Church was to destroy the Protestant Succession. The goal hoped ultimately to be reached is the Throne—the bringing in of a Roman Catholic Sovereign.
In 1868, under Disraeli’s tottering Government, the form of oath for Privy Councillors, Cabinet Ministers and others when assuming office under the Crown, was altered, the words, “being Protestant,” being left out.
By these changes, Roman Catholic servants of the Crown are no longer required when taking office to abjure the Pope, to acknowledge the Royal Supremacy, or even to swear allegiance to the Sovereign, being Protestant.
In 1910 the Protestant Royal Declaration against Transubstantiation and Mariolatry was altered, so as to omit any reference to Romish idolatry.
In 1926 the Roman Catholic Relief Bill was passed in Parliament, when other Reformation laws were repealed, including the forbidden “Procession of the Host,” and the registration of the Monks and Nuns. Until then all Monks and Nuns had to be registered, so that they could be turned out in case of war, either civil, or ecclesiastical, but now they can be poured in in their thousands from other countries, and we have no check over them. Many of the great houses of the country are being bought up by them, but we can neither inspect their monasteries nor convents, nor put any check on their Secret Societies.
The thief in the night has long been working to capture the Church of England, as the Prayer Book Revision Bill of 1927 revealed, and also the “Malines Conversations” exposure afterwards. Have you ever thought that if the Prayer Book Revision had passed and the Church of England had been linked with Rome, the day might not be far off when it might be possible to alter the laws which safeguard the Nonconformist freedom of worship? Is it not significant that the “Act of Uniformity” of 1662, by which 2,000 Presbyterian ministers were turned out of their benefices, should for the first time be put in as one of the Prefaces to the Prayer Book Revision?
We have been looking at the perils of the position. The Old Testament is full of records of extraordinary victories on the eve of absolute defeat. What was the secret of those miraculous deliverances? Prayer, in every instance, nothing but prayer! When they cried unto the Lord, then He delivered. Have we not seen something of that in our own annals recently when the enemy came in like a flood in Parliament concerning the Prayer Book Revision, and the Angel of the Lord lifted up His standard and swept over that Assembly, bringing victory out of seeming defeat, almost at the last hour?
Satan has again organised his hosts for a massed attack. Is not the Lord, the Holy Ghost, surely waiting to organise His children again for a great prayer attack and victory on their knees?
Why should we not dare to believe for a full and thorough purging of God’s Church again in England, and a mighty revival? Would not this bring salvation to the ends of the earth? Has not our Lord said, “I give unto you power . . . over all the power of the enemy,” so can we not expect and believe for a great victory, for “According to your faith be it unto you”? “But,” says someone, “is not apostasy prophesied for the last days?” “Yes,” but world-wide revival is also foretold, for “In the last days, saith God, I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh.” That and other prophecies remain yet to be fulfilled in the Great Revival which is yet to come. According to II. Thess. ii. 7, the children of God are to have the power to restrain the “mystery of iniquity,” therefore let us have faith for the “pulling down of strong holds.” “Whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do.”
The battle is going to cost. In order to win, workers and munitions are needed. The martyrs of old gave their all. Many have given their all for the Mission Field; some gave their all to bring about the Prayer Movement to end the War. Shall we lay our lives, our all afresh at the Master’s feet to-day to carry on this Prayer Battle to Victory, that England the great strategic centre for spreading the Gospel to the ends of the earth shall be swept afresh by the Holy Ghost in revival power, and her Reformation laws re-established? As we ask this let us not be surprised if God begins to deal with us individually, by giving deeper conviction of sin, a desire for holiness, and a fuller revelation of His love and power to our souls?
Shall we not seek to meet together more often for prayer in order to bind the strong enemy and carry out the plan, as the Lord reveals it on the Mount?
The enemy is almost at the top of the cliff, but the miracle-working God is waiting for His children to prove Him. “According to your faith be it unto you.” Let us give ourselves unto prayer for this purpose.—’Protestant Woman.’