A Move in the Right Direction.
At the conference of the International Federation of Meat Traders, held at Bath in September, a resolution from the London Retail Meat Traders’ Association calling upon the Government to promote or support a Parliamentary Bill with the object of making the closing of butchers’ shops and stalls compulsory on Sabbath. The mover of the resolution said that the Sabbath was being frittered away, and that an increasing number of butchers’ shops were being opened on the Sabbath. The excuse that the meat would not keep was without foundation as the modern methods of refrigeration prevented that. Over 2000 firms in London had been circularised, and were in favour of the resolution. The resolution was unanimously carried.
Are the Railway Sabbath Excursions a Financial Success?
One of the reasons given for running Sabbath excursion trains by high officials in the railway world has been barefacedly stated to be that they must get dividends. Another reason that is sometimes mentioned alongside this is that the whole thing is done in the interests of the public. We know the history of railway management too well to be duped by the speciousness of such an excuse as the latter. The inflow of gold to the railway coffers is evidently an almost unrealisable attainment, and were this an outcome of adverse circumstances facing powerful corporations struggling in a righteous way to make headway one could not help feeling with those who are responsible for the management. But when these officials set themselves to ignore God’s law, no one that has a spark of respect for God’s commandments will feel the least sorrow in learning that there has been a considerable decrease in passenger receipts, and that for June, though more passengers were carried, there was a considerable reduction. The figures for all companies are £328,863 less than in June 1928.
Soviet’s Blow at the Sabbath.
The Soviet has issued a decree that the productive week must continue for the seven days. The decree is to come into operation on first October. The workers are to get one day in seven, but the Sabbath is to be abolished by law. One is reminded, in this connection, of Samuel Rutherford’s words when he said—let them make their laws saying that the tides shall no more flow, and let them proclaim that to the ocean. France, in her atheistic mood, tried the same foolish policy at the time of the Revolution, but the Sabbath law triumphed in spite of them. There must be something specially significant in the position of the Sabbath law when the forces of lawlessness throughout the world are singling it out as their special objective.
The Supreme Sacrifice.
During this month, as in former years, the services in connection with our fallen soldiers will probably be held throughout the land, and ministerial speakers will wax eloquent on what they term the “supreme sacrifice,” and some will daringly and blasphemously speak of that sacrifice as if it were similar to our Lord’s. All honour to the men that fought for us and died. Let us not forget what we owe them, but may the day never dawn when our respect for them will lead us to dishonour Christ and the work that was done on Calvary’s Cross. We are in danger of setting up a cult for the dead, and if men will not join with others in these services they are branded as unpatriotic, hard-hearted souls who have no spark of feeling or gratitude to the men who never returned. This is a gross misrepresentation. In connection with the heading of our note, we take the liberty of calling attention to an excellent sermon in this issue by the Rev. D. A. Macfarlane, Oban, in the course of which he shows the vast difference there is between the death of Christ and that of the soldier.
Cape Heresy Trial.
The trial of Professor Du Plessis, of the Dutch Reformed Church, has ended in his acquittal. The trial evoked considerable interest, and if the English papers gave an accurate idea of Prof. Du Plessis’ theological position he is very decidedly of the modernist school. There is a talk of an appeal to the Synod. We believe that the Dutch Reformed Church, as a whole, is not so far gone as it will allow one of its teachers to take up the modernist attitude to the Bible. It shows, however, that the long-extended battle line of the faith is being attacked at all parts, and when scholarship is in league with unbelief the worse for such scholarship.
Princeton Seminary.
The new Board of Directors recently issued a statement in which they assert that they have a mandate from the Assembly “to continue unchanged the historic policy of the Seminary, and to do nothing whatever to alter the distinctive traditional position which the Seminary has maintained throughout its entire history.” “The Presbyterian,” however, is of an entirely different opinion. It says that in the composition of the new Board—giving every man the benefit of the doubt—there is not more than one-fourth of its members who are real conservatives, and that being so, it is difficult to see how the new Board will keep Princeton true to its historic doctrinal position. “The Presbyterian” further says: “Even if the new Board should continue Princeton Seminary as a conservative institution, broadly speaking, it will be such a conservative institution as the liberals deem desirable, not such a conservative institution as the conservatives would have it to be.” Those who have set up the new Westminster Theological Seminary are of the same opinion.