Opening of Cinemas Sabbath Bill.
The Bill introduced by the Home Secretary to allow cinemas to open on the Lord’s Day under the licence of local authorities is at the time of writing receiving a mixed reception. It does not go far enough to meet the wishes of the vanguard of the devil’s army whose cause is persistently advocated by those incomers from the south—”The Daily Mail” and “The Daily Express.” These two journals never lose an opportunity of holding up to ridicule the Sabbatarianism which made Scotland the but of the libertine’s empty jest and the target of the jibes of the irreligious. The press of Scotland generally had too strong leanings towards the devil’s cause without being outdone by an alien press. The Home Secretary’s Bill does not apply to Scotland or Northern Ireland. Stage plays are excluded but cinemas, musical entertainments, exhibitions of animals or inanimate objects may be permitted if the local authority allows them. It is possible that by the time this note is in print the Bill will have faced the opposition it is to meet in Parliament. What the issue will be remains to be seen.
Two Excellent Pamphlets.
We have received two pamphlets written by Dr. Hay Fleming—”Were Cardinal Beaton and Archbishop Hamilton not Libertines?” and “Jesuit Morality.” Dr. Hay Fleming produces an array of the most damaging kind from Scottish records as to the licentious lives led by Beaton and Hamilton. In the other pamphlet he exposes Jesuit Morality in his usual masterly way. Both pamphlets may be had from the Scottish Reformation Society, 17 George IV. Bridge, Edinburgh.
Petition to the Church of Scotland Assembly for Women Preachers.
The “British Weekly” of 9th April had the following note:—“A petition is to be presented to the Church of Scotland General Assembly, advocating the claims of women to be eligible for the ministry as well as the eldership and diaconate. It is signed by the late Lady Frances Balfour, the Marchioness of Aberdeen and Lady Balfour of Burleigh, together with 350 women members in full communion, representing congregations in Edinburgh. It is pointed out that the Church is poorer by reason of women being debarred from the ministry and other offices; that in the mission field women are placed at a disadvantage through their inability for ordination, and that the position now held by women in every sphere calls for reconsideration of their place in the Church of Scotland.”
The “Empress of Britain.”
Not since the ill-fated “Titanic” was built do we remember such unrestrained boasting of man’s power and skill in floating a leviathan of the deep. No doubt the gentlemen of the press having run short of sensational matter found the great liner a fit subject for their imaginative minds and facile pens. This is what one might expect from that quarter. But what are we to say about those who arranged the sail down the Clyde on the Sabbath and the return of the giant ship on the Sabbath. No plea of necessity can be advanced except that it be that it suited those who had to do with the arrangements. Thousands broke the Lord’s Day to witness a work of man and flagrantly shut their eyes to the work accomplished by the Son of Man. Poor Scotland! who would have thought thirty years ago that the banks of the Clyde would be lined by thousands of pleasure seekers to witness a vessel being towed down the river. Special trains, pleasure steamers, ‘buses, etc., were requisitioned to carry the idlers to places of vantage where the vessel could be seen.
The Most Tragic Woman in Europe.
Such is the cross heading in one of the Scottish dailies dealing with the ex-Queen of Spain. Princess Ema, as she was known before her marriage, renounced her faith to receive a crown and to-day she leaves the land of her adoption in tears. It was an honour that was not worth the price paid for it. What effect the Revolution in Spain will have upon the religious situation in that country is, at the time of writing, not known but one may be sure it will be of a far-reaching nature. Senor Alcala Zamora, President of the Spanish Provisional Republican Government, in a statement made to an American press agency, gives the assurance that the Republic will guarantee the freedom of the press and of worship. What he really means by freedom of worship will be made clearer as events develop. To all appearance the prestige of the Church of Rome will be seriously affected by the fall of the monarchy.
Easter in Scotland.
Presbyterianism in Scotland is year by year drawing closer to Church of England customs. Christmas and Easter services are now observed by an increasing number of Presbyterian Churches. One wonders what our Covenanting forefathers of the Second Reformation would say if they entered many of the churches in Scotland to-day. We are quite evidently being carried along in a religious and ecclesiastical drift that is taking us year by year farther and farther from the old moorings.
The Census.
Why is it that the Registrar General has fixed on Sabbath for the taking of the census? If it is answered that he is following the custom of previous censuses that is not a sufficient answer to our question. In India, we believe, the census was taken on a Thursday and why not on a week-day in Britain? It would appear that the Government officials of this country never miss opportunities of this kind to do on the Lord’s Day what could be quite easily done on a week-day.