IN this age there are many influences at work to hinder the progress of true religion and what hinders true religious progress is bound to have a detrimental effect on morals. There is a wide-spread crave for pleasure and amusement. Restraints of any kind are opposed. The circumspect and careful conduct of a past generation is considered old fashioned and out of date. Even in remote villages there is inordinate desire amongst the young for excitement and worldly pleasures that is bound to be harmful unless checked. Parental authority is not treated with respect and in many cases it, we are afraid, is not exercised at all. This may be inferred from the general complaint that families are not attending the means of grace as they used to do. It was stated lately in a Church of Scotland Presbytery that even communicants do not attend church on Communion Sabbath as they ought and that shows plainly that they have a name to live but are dead like the Church of Laodicea.
It cannot be said that respect for the Lord’s day is increasing. We cannot but regret the tendency to secularise it more and more. There is a great deal of pleasure-travelling engaged in on that day. The train, steamer, bus, motor car and cycle are all employed in carrying pleasure seekers from one place to another and deprive many of their Sabbath-day’s rest—a God-given right which no one should take from them. This is one of the worst features of Sabbath profanation. If people had regard for God’s claims and the rights of their fellow-sinners they would not be the means of causing unnecessary work in commercial undertakings—Railways, Steamers, Post Offices, Hotels and Traffic Companies. We would at this point refer to a recent editorial article in a leading Scottish paper on the “Scottish Sunday.” It is on lines which are nowadays commonplace—a piece of special and specious pleading for a “generous” interpretation of the “Scottish Sunday.” Below the suavity, urbanity and literary polish of the article, there is a basis of intense hostility to the really evangelical character of the Day. This would probably be denied, but unless we know the difference between evangelical charity as a fruit of the new birth, and mere carnal charity, then we shall never really love the Lord’s Day nor the Lord of the Day. We may have a watery, easy-going, vapoury, sentimental regard for “Sunday” but no more. And where this is, there is downright hatred, concealed or unconcealed, for that life and practice which the Bible calls godliness. “The Sabbath was made for man,” Christ said, in order that he might profit by it in soul, mind and body. We need time for thinking upon the realities of eternity, and God in His infinite compassion and goodness has given us His day to attend to the needs of our souls. We cannot live on bread alone. Material things will not satisfy us. It is God’s Word and Christ in the Word that can enable us to live unto God and obtain the satisfaction which our souls need. Only by having communion with the Father through Jesus as Mediator can we really live in the world, and the Lord’s Day encourages us to seek this communion. It should be a joy and a source of life to us. Many could testify that it has been the Day of days to them during their sojourn here and helped them to prepare for the “rest that remaineth for the people of God.”
The Resurrection is one of the fundamental doctrines of Grace and is at the very basis of our faith. There could be no Christianity without the Resurrection and this is what we commemorate every Lord’s Day. For that reason it ought to be specially observed by men for the promotion of their highest welfare. Anything that draws people away from public worship and that encourages worldliness, formality, sport, and commercialism should be discouraged and condemned.
The manner in which our Lord spent the Sabbath during His earthly ministry is held up for our example and we cannot err in following it. He engaged in public worship and did good to the bodies and souls of those who sought His help. Every moment of the day was rightly employed by Him and was honouring to His Father. It is quite evident to anyone who examines the present tendency in human conduct that indifference to religion is becoming widespread and this state of mind may be more dangerous to vital religion than active hostility. We need more than ever a return to family worship and Bible reading. A short time ago we were glad to observe the Marquis of Aberdeen urging the need for a return to family worship and the systematic reading of the Bible when he presided at the annual demonstration of the Bible Testimony Fellowship in the Albert Hall, London. “There is no human experience,” he said, “for which there is not an appropriate passage in the Bible but to get the full benefit from this fact, one must know it in detail. I thank God that my parents, before I had double figures to my age, made me read the Bible in public.”
The question of temperance is of general interest to the public and there is more sobriety on the whole than used to be but during the past year the vice of drunkenness has been on the increase, partly due to cheaper drink and the craze for what is called “a good time,” which really means a bad time for excessive drinkers. Satan promises much to his dupes but they find in the end that they have been sadly deceived. The slogan now is for cheaper whisky and improved public houses. If these demands are conceded drunkenness will certainly increase and the Committee trust that the Government will not grant the demands of the distillers. Far too much money is spent on drink with the result that children are not fed and clothed as they ought to be.
Another vice that is doing enormous harm at present is football pool betting. This evil has become so widespread that the football clubs themselves took action against it and we were glad to note that a Bill was being introduced in Parliament to suppress it, but now regret that this Bill has been defeated. We understand that on a modest estimate there is a turnover of £20,000,000 in a season in football pools which represents a betting public of 10,000,000 persons and it is said that the rapid growth of this vast business has created a special problem for the Post Office Authorities. Those who dealt in the business were finding it a money paradise. The bookmaker always gains by it by taking his profit and expenses before issuing a dividend. A Scottish Judge has said it would be more profitable to run a business of this kind than to own some of the gold mines in South Africa. The immense turnover enabled great prizes for a small stake to be dangled before the eyes of poor people who were bound to suffer when they got nothing. The chief centres of this form of gambling were Liverpool and Edinburgh which, it was declared, were responsible for one quarter of the letters passing through the Post Office. One firm is reputed to have dealt with 4,000,000 letters a week. This is a threat to the continued prosperity of the nation for its ramifications are all over the land even in Highland towns and villages. The principal victims appear to be young people and unemployed.
The Committee would here express their strong disapproval of all forms of betting and gambling and would heartily support Parliamentary legislation to suppress this appalling evil.
We would note here that strong exception was of late taken by the Scottish Retail Drapers’ Federation to bazaars or sales of work in connection with the raising of Church funds. They pointed out that the system was not consistent with sound Christian principles. The Presbytery of Glasgow duly passed a motion in which they stated that for the purpose of carrying on Christ’s work, “sales of work are not the ideal method of exercising Christian stewardship.”
Coming to Romanism we find that it boasts of its progress in England and Scotland. During the past fifty years the Roman Catholic population has increased considerably and nunneries are being built, or houses acquired for that purpose, in different localities. Certain sections of the Press appear to be very favourable to Popish propaganda and prominence is given to news items from Roman Catholic sources.
The Pope, who claims to be Christ’s vicegerent in the world, has virtually condoned Italy’s war of aggression in Abyssinia and thus contradicts his own claim to be the supreme guide in morals and religion. He has not condemned Italy’s action in breaking her solemn pledges nor warned her as to the unrighteousness of her conduct in waging war against an almost defenceless and unoffending people. This should make obvious to all thinking persons the absurdity of papal claims and the folly of looking to the Pope for guidance in spiritual matters.
We cannot but regret the tendency in Protestant churches to imitate Romish practices. At some of the funeral services for our late King, reference was made in prayer to the repose of his soul which meant that prayers were offered for the dead. Some who seemed to be Protestants endeavoured to justify this by saying in the public Press that certain of the Reformers prayed for the dead. The Anglo-Catholics in the Church of England favour this custom and, we are sorry to observe, some in the Church of Scotland appear to be following their example. As far as we are aware, the theologians quoted as favoring this gave no countenance to the practice after leaving the Church of Rome. Calvin says in one of his letters:—”And, besides, in prayer to God, we must not take an unbounded licence in our devotions but observe the rule which St. Paul gives us (Romans 10) which is that we must be founded on the Word of God; wherefore such commemoration of the dead as imparts a commending of them to His grace is contrary to the due form and manner of prayer.” The Confession of Faith speaks to the point on this matter in Chap. 21, Section 4:— “Prayer is to be made for things lawful and for all sorts of men living or that shall live hereafter; but not for the departed nor for those of whom it may be known that they have sinned the sin unto death.” All who die in the Lord enter Paradise and are made perfect. Therefore they do not need the prayers of those who are on earth. The Protestant position is well expressed in these consoling words:—”The souls of believers are at their death made perfect in holiness, and do immediately pass into glory, and their bodies being still united to Christ, do rest in their graves till the Resurrection.”
As a matter affecting the moral well-being of the people the Committee welcome the inquiry by a Government-appointed Commission into the marriage laws of Scotland and trust that the present laws will be so improved on as to prevent dubious or bogus marriages. Gretna Green unions have been a fruitful source of evil and also the “Ne Temere” law of the Roman Catholic Church. Their law is above the law of Scotland, they maintain, and according to their view-point marriages not approved of by their Church are not marriages at all.
The Committee cannot but take notice of a disquieting feature obvious in different places—the prevalence of pre-nuptial unchastity. There appears to be a loosening of the moral fibre in many young persons due to various causes, such as the modern novel, the pictures, drink and the lack of self-control. That many of the Cinema films are productive of much evil is beyond dispute and the sex element in them has the effect of leading the young to choose their own moral standards with disastrous consequences.
In Germany the State has mixed up the Christian religion with the Paganism of their ancestors, but in Britain multitudes are adopting pagan ideas and practices without any compulsion. Tolerant of all religions, they claim the right to live as they choose resenting any outside interference. This accounts largely for the annual increase in the number of divorce cases. Many modern writers are frankly Agnostic or Atheistic in their beliefs and their writings have a pernicious effect on the minds of the young.
Although Communism is not strong in our land we must refer to its spread through the ceaseless activity of its followers. It is the avowed enemy of religion and in various ways seeks to undermine the Christian religion. Half truths are told concerning prominent believers whose efforts for the advancement of the Kingdom of Christ were greatly blessed. For instance John Newton is spoken of as a man who sold slaves and wrote the hymn—”How sweet the name of Jesus sounds in a believer’s ear!” Communism, much the same as Nazism, makes a God of the State. They seek the glorification of the State at the expense of the individual.
The Committee note with regret an increase in the crimes of robbery and common theft especially amongst the young and this may be partly due to unemployment and lack of moral training in the home. The Devil will always find work for idle hands to do.
As so much was published of late, for regrettable reasons, on the subject of mixed dancing, we need not refer to it at present at length. We would take this opportunity of recommending to those able or desiring to secure a copy, a pamphlet issued last year on the subject of—”Adiaphora,” i.e., Things which are morally indifferent. The title of the pamphlet is—”The borderland of Right and Wrong”—an essay on the Adiaphora, by Prof. Theodore Graebner, D.D.—Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis, Mo. We do not agree with all in the above but there is much food for thought in it and the closing part, from page 38 onwards, is highly illuminating. Dr. McKeever of the Kansas University refers to the close-grip dance as the chief cause of the “sex-intoxication” of young Americans. The article maintains that the parlour dance is not an antidote against, but a feeder for, the public dance. “On account of its demoralising effect on character, Hitler abolished jazz; yet this same music is heard almost incessantly in many Christian homes.” The “Lutheran Annual” of 1927 says that the real pleasure of the dance consists in the excitement of sexual passion—”The very position of the dancer is indecent, no matter what their thoughts are.” “Who is responsible for the rottenness of the dance to-day? The mothers. The girls of to-day would not be thronging public dance-halls and ballrooms in questionable costumes with hardly more on their bodies than Salome wore, were they not permitted by their mothers. The dance-halls would have to go out of business if the mothers kept their daughters at home; for men will not dance alone. But mothers seem to be afraid that their daughters will find no husbands, or that they will be out-of-fashion. In order to avoid that calamity they sacrifice their daughters to the Moloch of the dance.” The modern dance is not an adiaphoron (i.e., a thing indifferent morally).
There is profound need for a revival in religion and prayer should unceasingly be offered for it. Forward movements and man-made revivals will accomplish nothing. It is the genuine outpouring of the Holy Spirit that will alone bring about a saving change in the individual, and, through the individual, in communities.
May the Lord grant such an outpouring in this dark day!