By Rev. D. M. MACDONALD, PORTREE.
IN presenting this annual report on religion and morals one would naturally wish to show that an improvement was taking place from year to year. This should really be the case if our people were making good use of their privileges and opportunities under Gospel ordinances. But we regret to say that although there is an improvement in some respects many appear to be growing more indifferent and careless about the things that matter and that pertain to the eternal welfare of the soul. The attitude of men to the Lord’s day may be looked upon as their attitude to the Lord of the Sabbath. If they have no reverence for that day they certainly will shew little regard for the claims of Him who instituted the Sabbath for the benefit of the human race. The spread of the Gospel in Britain was the means of bringing the Lord’s day into prominence and causing people to keep it as they should but when Gospel influences began to wane, respect for the Sabbath began to wane also. It is just because the Gospel has so little hold on this generation that the Day of rest is being so much abused everywhere by Sabbath travelling, so-called sacred concerts and in some places public amusements. It is to be regretted that the strong efforts made in the North last year to prevent Sabbath excursions did not succeed, but at the same time they helped to rouse public opinion to see the evil of such excursions and may have prevented some from taking part in them who might otherwise have done so. The railway and motor-‘bus companies are doing their utmost to secularise the Sabbath day by trying to create a demand for trips on that day, which did not exist. They, with their alien minds, were largely responsible in Scotland for helping on the disregard for the Sabbath which was becoming widespread and fostering the modern worship of nature which was largely pagan. Many city and town dwellers according to the testimony of observant persons never entered a church except on special occasions. On Sabbath they were off to some form of recreation or toured the country in a borrowed or hired motor-car. The right observance of the Lord’s day brings its own reward whereas the neglect of it is the sure fore-runner of sorrow. Church attendance among our own people continues on the whole satisfactory. There are some here and there, of course, who rarely go to church and we would impress on them the danger they are in through neglecting the means of grace and the harm they are doing their own souls by their carelessness. Morning services might be better attended especially in towns and cities. It would appear that, from statements in the Press, we are living in a sceptical age, and many of the middle classes particularly, as well as others, are growing absolutely pagan. The only use they had for the church was in the case of a funeral or wedding or when they wanted a baby baptized. They belonged to societies and clubs in which they held weekly or monthly gatherings and discussed all sorts of social and other questions. But they never acknowledged the source of all that was really good in their outlook and conduct. The people, it was confessed, had to be made Christian again, and the way to do it was not by ethical teaching but by the preaching of Law and Gospel. The open public-houses in England on the Lord’s day are bound to have a demoralising effect on many and are a hindrance to the right observance of the day and the advancement of the Gospel. In Scotland the Bible is not read as it used to be. This is clearly proved by the annual report of the National Bible Society of Scotland. It was discovered that many school children had no Bible of their own and in one of our Universities, at least when allusions were made to Biblical incidents, many of the students did not seem to grasp them. True religion can never flourish where the Bible is a neglected book. In this connection we may quote part of an interesting statement made recently by Principal Rait of Glasgow University. “I have been very much impressed,” he says, “by the great unfamiliarity with the Scriptures which is to be found among the people of Scotland. And this is easily apparent to men like myself who are accustomed to lecture to all kinds of audiences. When I came to Glasgow seventeen years ago I found that any ordinary allusion to the Bible was at once caught up by the audience. In recent years this is not so, and this applies especially to the younger generation. I myself have found this in the classes at the University. One of my colleagues told me he had once referred in one of his lectures to Ananias and Sapphira and his class looked puzzled. He asked the students what his allusion meant and eventually one student replied that it was the title of an opera! While that may be an extreme example there is no doubt that familiarity with the Bible is decreasing by leaps and bounds. Now that is to be regretted from every point of view. The Bible is the one Book which belongs in common to the great mass of civilised mankind throughout the greater part of the globe. It is the Book upon which the finest part of our civilisation has been based. It is the Book which contains among other things some of the very noblest of written words and the very noblest form of literature. Ignorance of the Bible, even from the cultural point of view merely, is to be deplored. In Scotland it is especially to be deplored as it means that the younger generation is cutting itself adrift from the history of their country, from the one supreme influence which has made Scotland what she is. To us who believe in a very real sense that the Bible is the Word of God and contains the very words of Him who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, the failure to read the Bible has another significance altogether. Another unsatisfactory feature of modern life is the abuse of Public Libraries. They have become a serious factor in moulding the ideas and tastes of the people and would always serve a useful purpose in every community where they exist if proper precautions were taken to exclude from them bad literature. Unfortunately according to those who are in a position to judge there has been a marked deterioration in the tone of much of our popular literature. It has become very vulgar and has pictured life in its grossest forms without any mixture of noble aims or more decent manners. The language used is in some instances even beyond the bounds of the law. It seems that this kind of demoralising stuff is being widely circulated through family circles by many of our Public Libraries. They are asked for by coarse minded people and are lent round from house to house at the public expense. If proper supervision were exercised in our Libraries such books would not be accepted even although there might be some demand for them. We would urge upon our people, who may come across such books in Libraries, to protest against them and so help to put an end to, as one has well said, “the profiteering in filth which has begun to show itself in our literature and threatens to libel our age by ranking it with the obscene period of the Restoration.” Another proof of the manner in which irreligion is spreading and manifesting itself is in the large number of irregular marriages taking place annually. This is particularly noticeable in Gretna which had an unfortunate romantic association connected with it. In this small town between Scotland and England there were about 2,000 people. In 1928 there were no fewer than 275 irregular marriages there. Last year there were 315 marriages. Many of the marriages took place at term time when young people had a £1 or £2 in their pockets and it was very probable that in a great number of cases the contracting parties had neither of them the essential qualifications. Many of these marriages were, through lack of the essential statutory requirements, through ignorance, or misrepresentation, invalid in law, and in point of fact were not marriages at all. In the opinion of the Committee legislative action should be taken to put an end to them. Disrespect for the marriage tie became common during the decadence of the Roman Empire and whenever true religion loses hold of the people divorce becomes frequent. In 1928 the number of decrees granted was 3,740. During the past year the number has been calculated as being over 4,000. It would appear that there is one divorce in this country for every 114 marriages and the rate is about four times higher than before the war. Yet it compares favourably with the United States where one marriage in every seven is dissolved. About one half of the marriages dissolved in this country are shown to be childless. Coming to the question of temperance there can be no doubt that a great improvement has taken place in the sobriety of the nation. At the same time there is still room for less drunkenness. A well known economist has been investigating the cost of the Drink Traffic to the nation and has come to the conclusion that it would be between 8 and 15 per cent better off all round without alcohol. Over 20 per cent. of preventable poverty is directly due to drink, it is said, and the total out-of-pocket expenses of the nation through sickness, crime, and accident, from drink, is from £25,000,000 to £50,000,000, not counting expenditure on charity and hospitals. As the money withdrawn from the Drink Traffic would be spent in other directions—on food, clothes, houses and so on—it is reasonable to suppose it would have a cumulative effect, and even a small cumulative effect of $2\frac{1}{2}$ per cent. would in less than one generation be a new national asset of one thousand million pounds. The total drink bill for the nation during the past year would probably be not far off £290,000,000. In Scotland the amount would be approximately £26,000,000, and that in the face of much unemployment and poverty. This would be over £5 per man, woman and child. If the money spent annually on drink and gambling were used to pay off the National Debt in a few years there would be no debt to pay. It looks as if the Most High, on account of our sins, were leaving us much to our own devices as a punishment with the result that there is a terrible waste of national resources, on profitless things. The gambling habit is still spreading seriously throughout the nation and pervades all classes of the community. Many newspapers help the craze by giving racing news and betting odds. We saw it stated that even in remote places in the Highlands the gambling spirit has taken possession of some. This vice leads to many crimes of dishonesty and many homes are ruined. Behind it there is the desire to get rich quickly and though some may succeed others are brought to poverty. Sweepstakes and lotteries encourage the habit and ought to be prohibited. Recent events in the financial world have brought to light Stock Exchange speculations that can only be described as gambling and many persons have lost their means through the reckless and unprincipled conduct of those financiers to whom their money was entrusted. The Committee deplore the spread of this evil and would impress upon the young especially to flee from every temptation that would induce them directly or indirectly to bet or gamble. During the past year Romanism became more strongly established in Scotland than it has been since the priceless Reformation brought about by our famous countryman John Knox and his distinguished and pious helpers. This has been caused by the decision of the House of Lords in the Bonnybridge case. By this decision against the Stirlingshire Education Authority the House of Lords has found that whenever the Roman Church builds a school in Scotland, if the Education Department is satisfied that the building is adequate and that there is no other school in the immediate neighbourhood, such school must be purchased by the local Education Authority—which after this will mean the County Council—and be maintained in all time coming by public funds as a Denominational school without any regard to the wishes of the ratepayers who find half the cost, or their elected representatives. This sounds incredible but it is the actual law of Scotland to-day. There is great uneasiness and resentment over the educational position secured by legislation and judicial decisions for the Roman Catholic Church. In addition the protracted and still continuing immigration of Irish people adhering to that faith is in itself a serious menace to our Protestantism and many of our employers of labour, legislators, educationalists, and journalists have become indifferent to the danger and are thus doing harm to the Protestant cause. Inquiry has brought to light that the Roman Catholics have nearly three times their due proportion of criminals in Scotland and as it is acknowledged that the majority of these are of Irish extraction it will be seen that there is good reason for alarm concerning the type of people coming to us from the Roman Catholic parts of Ireland. The United States protect themselves rigorously against all immigrants who have been convicted of crime and it is only fair that some such protection should be afforded to Scotland. From the criminal statistics given it would appear that Scotland is being used as a dumping-ground for Irish people who would not be allowed to enter the United States. The autocratic and boundless arrogance of the Papacy has recently been displayed in the British island of Malta—a naval depot in the Mediterranean. This little island has many historical associations, not the least being the dramatic landing of the Apostle Paul after being shipwrecked. This happened while on his way to Rome as a prisoner to appear before Caesar and his remarkable ability to cope with any situation is brought out clearly in the narrative of this event given in the 27th and 28th chapter of Acts. He assured the soldiers and sailors that all would be well and cured the chief man on the island of a fever. Unlike the ecclesiastical authorities who now rule there he would make the way of salvation very clear to the people of Malta. Owing to the government there refusing to be dictated to by the Vatican in political matters and repudiating the imperious claims of the Pope our home government, according to the Press, was compelled to withdraw their Envoy to the Vatican. He was restored but is under orders to leave for Chile and it is to be hoped that no further Envoy will be sent from this country, as our government should now realise the folly of maintaining an Envoy at the papal Court. We would conclude this report in the language of the Prophet Daniel, “O Lord, to us belong confusion of face—because we have sinned against Thee. To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses though we have rebelled against Him.” Notwithstanding our national and individual shortcomings He is still waiting to be gracious and may it be ours to humble ourselves before Him and to walk in His ways during our sojourn here, and may the day be hastened on when all nations shall serve Christ as King of Zion and when His glory shall fill the whole earth as the waters cover the deep.
If it were possible that heaven, yea, ten heavens, were laid in the balance with Christ, I would think the smell of His breath above them all. Sure I am that He is the far best half of heaven, yea, He is all heaven, and more than all heaven.
—Samuel Rutherford