Church Trading.—At a conference of the Scottish Retail Drapery Trade held at Turnberry last month the following motion against Church bazaars and sales of work was passed by a majority of twenty-six to eighteen votes: “That it is an expensive and burdensome method of raising such money. That it tends
to discourage Christian liberality by establishing a principle of not giving without the inducement of something tangible in exchange. That a practice by which the Churches become virtually traders in unfair competition with others and to the detriment of legitimate trading is not a system which is consistent with sound Christian principles.” The resolution asked the Churches to bring a recommendation in these terms before their respective Assemblies. The Drapery Trade have done well but worldliness of this type is too strongly entrenched in the Scottish Churches to be removed by a request from them.
Glasgow Spring Holiday.—The Glasgow magistrates have decided to recommend that in future the Glasgow Spring Holiday be observed on the first Monday of April. This decision arises out of representations made to them on behalf of the Church of Scotland and also the Distributive Trades’ Federation. The suggestion made by the ecclesiastical authorities was that the Spring Holiday should be held on the first Monday in April so as not to clash with the Easter church services, and where that date clashed with the Easter services it should be held on the second or some other Monday in April. The recommendation of the magistrates is to come before the Corporation. Our interest in this matter arises from the concern manifested by the Church of Scotland about the Easter services. It is an ominous sign of the times that the Church of Scotland is countenancing the keeping of Christmas and Easter; but after all this is only one of the many departures of the Church of Scotland from the attainments of the Second Reformation.
Sabbath Desecration at Culloden.—More than once we have called attention in these Notes to the wanton desecration of the Lord’s Day at the Culloden “Wishing Well” and as what takes place there has, according to information received, been called in question by one or two of our readers as incredible we call the following account from the “Northern Chronicle” (Inverness); “The annual pilgrimage to the Wishing Well at Culloden, on the first day of May took place on ‘Sunday.’ Despite the cold, sunless weather there was a very large gathering
of pilgrims from all parts. The usual ‘mystic rites’ were observed. Members of the staff at Culloden House mounted guard over the well throughout the day and in the evening recovered the deposit of coins which had been dropped in. Members of the county constabulary were also on duty. The coins have been handed over to the Bank of Scotland, High Street, Inverness, and amount in value to over £30. This will be divided equally between the Royal Northern Infirmary and the Highland Orphanage. The sum sets up a new record for the well.” Things have come to a fine pass when members of the staff of Culloden House and of the county constabulary have to do Sabbath duty because of the deluded dupes that betake themselves to the “Wishing Well.”
Death of the Cinema Bill.—Notwithstanding the mighty effort made by the Devil’s Brigade in Parliament with his reserve forces in so many of the editorial offices in England and Scotland this notorious Bill expired in the Committee stage neither lamented nor deeply regretted. Major Stanley, Under Secretary for Home Affairs, has been doing his best to get the Bill through the Commons but neither his efforts nor those of others were able to keep the Bill alive. The whole campaign to commercialize the Sabbath has been frustrated in the most remarkable way time and again. The advocates of the opening of cinemas on the Lord’s Day have left no stone unturned and when one thinks of the large following they have in the country their failure must be traced to divine intervention. From words uttered by the Under Secretary it would appear that a new Bill is likely to be introduced.
Nero Fiddling while Rome is burning.—As intimated in the preceding note the death of the Cinema Bill was announced to the House of Commons Standing Committee at the middle of last month. The promoters of this Sabbath breaking legislation have been baffled time and again in their legislative attempts but nothing daunted they are confident of victory. The Government have now made the ominous decision to sponsor this Bill and in the words of Major Oliver Stanley, Under Secretary to
the Home Office, who has such unholy work on hand, “this will enable Parliament to give its united attentions to the economic and financial matters without the perpetual threat of bitter controversies of this nature which are going to cut across the ties which otherwise bind us together.” If we had statesmen worthy of the name they would never have permitted the time of Parliament to be frittered away with such God-dishonouring legislation. If the cinema be what the authors of the Devil’s Camera declare it to be in their tremendous indictment then the less we have to do with it the better, not only on the Sabbath, but also on week-days.
The Larger Union.—The Church of Scotland Committee on Work on the Continent and Relations with other Churches in the report submitted to the General Assembly recommend that twelve members be appointed to enter into unrestricted conference with a like number of representatives of the Church of England and the Episcopal Church in Scotland on the basis of the Lambeth Appeal. Dr. White, who took such a prominent part in engineering the last Union which has neither proved a blessing to Scotland nor to the Churches which united, in a newspaper interview says that union is not intended by this move. But unless we are greatly mistaken this is the real Forward Movement of the Church of Scotland. Further comment is reserved until the matter is discussed at the General Assembly.