By Rev. D. M. MACDONALD.
IN a progressive age such as ours, one might expect an improvement in religion and general conduct, especially amongst those who are possessed of Gospel privileges. Yet when the situation is impartially surveyed one cannot but come to the conclusion that the conduct of many is not what it should be. “By their fruits,” said Jesus, “Ye shall know them.” It is by his obedience or disobedience to the Moral Law that we can gauge a man’s condition religiously. Respect for the law will show itself in a man’s outward behaviour. With regard to the first table, how numerous they are who ignore it and consequently they pay scant respect to the second table.
God as our Creator claims our worship and service. The Sabbath is the day especially appointed for waiting upon Him and seeking His favour. The position with regard to the observance of the Sabbath has not become much worse during the past year in the north and west of Scotland. Railway excursions despite the protests made, are continued and one of the latest proposals is “Sunday Golf” for Nairn. It is to be hoped that this evil will be defeated and that the citizens of Nairn will rise up en masse against it, and prove themselves stout defenders of the Lord’s Day.
Last year the Government passed a law permitting the opening of cinemas on Sabbath for a year. It expires next October. When the National Government was returned one might have hoped that in view of the unprecedented depression of last autumn, they would avoid passing legislation contrary to the divine law of the Sabbath, yet that is the very thing that is now being attempted. This would be deplorable at any time, but especially in a time of national crisis.
In 1930 the majority of the cinemas opened in London and in 96 other areas on Sabbath. The envy of the theatre proprietors was aroused when they saw that no advantage accrued to them and they squashed the arrangement by appealing to the Court of Appeal. They decided finally and clearly that the arrangements which the London County Council had been making were ultra vires; that they had no effect and that the law of 1780 must stand. Those who spoke in favour of the new Bill ignored entirely the divine obligation of keeping the Sabbath as a day of rest, and stressed the necessity of providing entertainment for the multitudes who have no respect for the day. The cinema proprietors are not actuated by purely charitable motives in their desire to provide Sabbath entertainment. This is worth to them about £7,000,000 a year. Their wish is to commercialise the Sabbath for the purpose of getting big dividends.
Bad as things are in Scotland, in England they are much worse. It is computed that 2,000,000 persons there through the various Sabbath employments have lost their Sabbath rest. In the Sabbath drink trade through the public houses being open, 300,000 persons are employed. 250,000 shops are open, and in London about 40,000 every Sabbath. These figures are appalling and reveal to what a low pass we are coming as a nation. The fourth commandment is still binding and those who obey it find that obedience is advantageous to body and soul. Thousands of medical men have testified that one day’s rest in seven is a physical necessity. Even animals need the seventh
day rest. In Paris some time ago horses were worked seven days a week, but the practice has to be abandoned, as the animals fell out of condition and became unfit for work. If people had to work seven days continually their years would be shortened, and life would be unendurable and monotonous. Without the Sabbath rest, moral and spiritual life would decay. The history of Babylon and Nineveh, Greece, and Rome, shows this. The most virile races have been Sabbatarian, such as the Jews who have still maintained their nationality although scattered throughout the earth, and the Anglo-Saxon race in Britain, the Colonies and the United States. What better example could anyone follow than that set us by the Son of God Himself, who is not only the Redeemer of His people but their example in all things. He spent the Sabbath in acts of worship and mercy. He instructed the ignorant and those who were out of the way. The afflicted were healed by Him. Those who act thus will find the Lord’s Day well and profitably spent. If Sabbath desecration becomes legislatively authorised, Britain will lose one of her greatest assets for the physical, moral and spiritual welfare of her people.
The pleas advanced by the cinema owners for Sabbath opening such as, “providing healthy clean entertainment for the young people now on the streets,” “of finding a cheap comfortable alternative to the public house,” “of affording alleviation to dwellers in overcrowded slums,” “of raising substantial help for hospitals,” will not bear examination even although they are supported by some who pose as “Social Reformers.” It has been observed that there is no diminution of the numbers of young people on the streets in those places where Sabbath opening has been allowed. Public houses are just as full where Sabbath opening has been the rule. No opposition has so far been offered by the Licensed Victuallers’ Association opposing Sabbath cinemas for fear their Sabbath business should suffer. The Sabbath opening picture houses are not even a palliative, still less a cure for the condition of overcrowded slum-dwellers. Those who form queues on Sabbath evenings
to get into such places look by their dress as if they were able to meet the rent of something better than a slum.
There are Hospitals that refuse such help as Sabbath cinemas offer and they are no worse off. But, and this is significant, most of the cinema proprietors are against any contributions to charities as a condition of Sabbath opening. Apart altogether from the Sabbath aspect of its activities, the cinema has become one of the most potent influences in modern life. This is proved by the fact that there are 5,200 picture houses in Great Britain alone, and half the population, 26,500,000, go to “the pictures” every week. According to those who know some of the films presented much that was beautiful, informing, and morally instructive but scarcely without exception the programme contained certain elements that were unhealthy, subversive to morality and sometimes outrageous to decency. Here we have a most effective instrument for the instruction of the people exploited, debased, and prostituted to the gravest detriment of the community, and above all to the destruction of the innocence and simple happiness of child life.
It is the opinion of some that the cinema unless properly controlled may become one of the greatest menaces in the history of civilisation. It is regarded by observant persons as a school of crime. So long as young people are allowed to go to cinemas unrestricted and so long as the successful man and woman shown on the films is the crook and sharper and prostitute, so long may we expect an increase in our figures of juvenile crime. Steps should be taken to preserve our boys and girls. Some of the posters for films are more offensive than the pictures they advertise. Recently in London a poster exhibited a scene from the very part of a film which the censor had cut out. The normal cinema poster is a horrible production calculated to revive the worst passions. Last year, even in Inverness, a nasty poster was exhibited outside a picture house and when a certain lady lodged an objection with the Provost, he caused the offensive thing to be removed. If this were done in our towns and cities such vile posters would not be shown.
It is not a testimonial to the healthy state of the cinema morally that the number of films rejected during last year was far higher than ever before amounting to no less than 17.83 per cent., although the total amount of films received was the smallest since the Board of Censors was instituted. When many of those passed by the censors are so questionable, one may imagine how absolutely vile the rejected films must be. Here are some of the reasons for their rejection:—The materialised figure of our Saviour, blasphemy and comic treatment of religion, the institution of marriage treated with contempt, hospital scenes treated with vulgar levity, physical enormities, prolonged and gross brutality and bloodshed, scenes in and connected with houses of ill repute, lives of thoroughly immoral men and women, collusive divorce, gross and objectionable dialogue. It is satisfactory to note that this Bill has been withdrawn but we regret that a new Bill sponsored by the Government has been introduced and our prayer is that it may meet the fate of its predecessors.
A new and portentous development in the ecclesiastical history of our country is the advocacy of prayers for the dead by some of the leading ministers in the Church of Scotland. This had its origin among non-catholics in the War when many were concerned about the fate of the departed. Many people at that time with no religious convictions fell back on Spiritualism for comfort, others it would appear were encouraged to pray for the dead on the assumption that even if they were lost they would eventually be restored to God’s favour. Underlying this there is the idea that the souls of the wicked are progressing in the direction of goodness and by the evolutionary theory will attain perfection eventually. The minds of a number of people have been agitated by this new doctrine proclaimed by those who profess to be Protestant ministers. It is well known of course that this has been the practice of Roman Catholics for a long period if not always; but, there is no record, as asserted by a certain divine, in the New Testament of such practice being in use in the Synagogue in the time of Christ, and that He and the Apostles were quite familiar with them. This is really
Romish doctrine and leads to Rome. Prayers for the dead were expressly and severely denounced by the First Book of Discipline. The Scottish Confession of Faith ratified by Parliament in 1567 by implication condemned prayers for the dead and the Westminster Confession forbade the practice. This noble Confession we may point out was composed by over 100 of the ablest divines in Britain. They took over three years to complete it. All its statements are confirmed by Scripture and therefore it is thoroughly orthodox and biblical in its doctrines. The doctrines of the Confession are the doctrines of the Word of God. Sentiment cannot take the place of truth, so that the action of those who reject this work as being out of date is very unwise. Indeed they are discarding, in doing this, the Word of God itself.
It is right and proper that we should remember the saintly dead with gratitude for their testimony and service, their Christian qualities and their achievements which are an encouragement and inspiration to ourselves. But to pray for them or the Christless dead is neither commanded nor implied in the teaching of our Lord. Believers are perfectly safe and happy in glory. To pray for them would imply that they are in danger, liable to suffering and want. Not only so but to do this would be a reflection on the infinite goodness of God, on His precious promises and on the infinite merit and effectiveness of the finished work of Christ. We have no warrant from the Word of God for prayer on behalf of those who have died in sin and unbelief. It is even declared in Scripture that there is a point reached in sin in the world when prayer is of no avail for those who have reached this stage of guilt—”There is a sin unto death, I do not say that ye shall pray for it” (I. John v. 16). Christ in that beautiful pattern of prayer given to the disciples commonly called the Lord’s prayer, does not make any reference to petitions for the dead. He shows plainly that we are to pray to the Father, not to angels, saints, or the Virgin Mary. The wicked, it is said plainly in the New Testament, shall go into everlasting punishment—the righteous into life eternal. We know that the Judge of all
the earth will do right and this shall be acknowledged by all, even by those who have neglected earthly opportunities and have in consequence suffered eternal loss. To entertain the idea that there is a possibility of the progressive improvement of the souls of the unrighteous in the next world serves to weaken the Gospel warnings and invitations which impress on us the necessity of making use of our present opportunities and privileges lest in the end we perish.
Coming to the question of Temperance we find that the improvement in sobriety continues. There is still drunkenness but it is not so prevalent as it used to be. At the same time there is still far too much money spent on drink. The following statistics prove our contention. In 1931 the amount spent on alcoholic liquors in Great Britain for a population of 44,830,000 is estimated at about £259,400,000 as against about £277,500,000 in 1930, a decrease of approximately £18,000,000 or $6\frac{1}{2}$ per cent. The expenditure per head of the population is given as about £5 15s. 6d. against £6 4s. in 1930. The average adult expenditure on a population of 30,000,000 persons of 20 years and over, including total abstainers, was approximately £8 10s.
The figures for Scotland are £24,500,000 for a population of 4,843,000 or £5 1s. 2d., as contrasted with £234,900,000 for a population of 39,988,000 and £5 17s. 6d. per head for England and Wales. This vast expenditure in a year when Britain was on the verge of bankruptcy, and economic depression reached its lowest level, cannot be looked on in any other light than as a huge extravagance and unproductive spending. It has been well said that “the drink evil was a hindrance to economic recovery and industrial efficiency. It promoted social disorder and domestic misery being a formidable obstacle to those national efforts which made for child-welfare, better housing, and the health and happiness of the commonwealth.” Fortunately a great change has taken place within living memory in the habits of the people with regard to alcohol. Drunkenness is now regarded by decent people with disgust, and by improving the
Temperance Act a great step forward might be taken in getting rid of the evil associated with drink.
The Committee deplore the increase in gambling and betting. This evil is becoming a dreadful menace to the welfare of the country. On the plea of helping hospitals, thousands of people have been tempted to purchase lottery tickets in the hope of reaping a big sum in return. Many have subscribed to these schemes not to help the hospitals but to obtain a large prize and very few out of the thousands that make the venture will get anything. The necessity for clear teaching on this subject is very urgent because of the difference of opinion on it. Public ignorance about the ethics of gambling it is said, was almost incredible. A social worker in the city of Manchester when asked if the people there had any consciousness of its being wrong replied, “Little or none.” She had spoken to a woman on the wrongness of gambling and she was greatly surprised. “Gambling wrong,” she said, “how can that be? I make it a subject of special prayer that God would guide me to the right horse!” The Roman Catholic Church favours this vice as is clear from the conduct of one of their Cardinals who congratulated a woman because she had given £100 to the church and had been recouped for it by winning the same sum in a sweepstake a few days after. The success of the Irish Sweepstakes led some to promote the habit in England in order, it is said, to benefit the hospitals but in reality to enrich themselves by debauching the minds of the people with evil principles under the false plea of philanthropy. Gambling is against the welfare of the individual and the community because it encourages passions that cut at the root of social well-being. It was also godless because it set up the principle of chance in the place of the will and providence of God in the laws of human life. The Committee would impress on our people the evil nature of this vice, and would urge them to take no part in lotteries or sweepstakes for hospitals or otherwise.
While Romanism in other countries is declining rapidly, in Scotland, according to the official statistics of the Roman
Catholic Church, they have improved their position steadily. In 1931 their population has gone up 7,000 the total being given as over 607,000. This means that one seventh of the population is Roman Catholic, and if the same rate of progress continues, in the course of time, they may outnumber the Protestants. It is high time that immigration from the Irish Free State into Scotland should be checked. During the past year 32 new churches and chapels were founded bringing the total up to 487 and the number of priests working in the country increased from 662 to 695. The number of monasteries and friaries rose from 14 to 18, but convents for women decreased, fortunately, by 10, the number now being 60. This decrease is explained by the fact that one or two religious orders have withdrawn from Scotland in order to extend the sphere of their activities in the South of England. Marriages increased by 1,849, the figure being 4,552, as against 2,703 for the previous year.
It is satisfactory to note that in Spain and Mexico, Popery has been dethroned, and is entirely discredited. Full religious freedom has been granted to Protestants and the Spanish Evangelicals are taking advantage of the new Act by preaching the Gospel everywhere. The Word of God is being readily purchased in many places. Idolatrous processions are forbidden and Britain should follow the example of Spain by expelling the Jesuits and have all nunneries and monasteries open to public inspection. The signs of the times would seem to indicate that we are entering on that stage of world history when according to Scripture “there shall be famines, earthquakes, wars and distress among the nations.” In the present confusion there is colossal loss in business and depreciation of value of material possessions.
Family life suffers because God is not worshipped in the home and everything is subordinated to pleasure and amusement. The old discipline under which past generations were trained to be upright and God-fearing has almost disappeared, and we are becoming lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. What we need above all is the sound preaching of the Gospel and
the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. If He were poured forth as at Pentecost multitudes would be turned from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God. The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation and all who truly receive it shall be glorified with Jesus.
We would impress on our people to be earnest in pleading with the Lord to build up His Zion when so many breaches are being made on its walls by the removal of those who were faithful witnesses for Christ and to hasten the time when the nations shall learn righteousness and serve the Prince of Peace.