Communions.
October—First Sabbath, North Tolsta; second, Ness and Gairloch; fourth, Greenock, Lochinver; fifth, Wick. November—First Sabbath, Oban and Dingwall (note change of date); second, Glasgow and Halkirk; third, Edinburgh and Dornoch. South African Mission—The following are the dates of Communions:—Last Sabbath of March, June, September and December.
Note.—Notice of any additions to, or alterations of, the above dates of the Communions should be sent to the Editor.
Collection for October.
The Collection for this month is for the Home Mission Fund (Missionaries and Catechists) and is to be taken up by book from house to house by the instructions of the Synod.
Opening of place of worship at Borve, South Harris.
On the 14th July, a large congregation gathered from all districts of Harris, for the opening service in the place of worship recently erected in the Borve district, by subscriptions raised locally and throughout the Church. Rev. M. Gillies, Stornoway, presided and preached an appropriate sermon on Hosea, xii. 3, 4. We have cause for thankfulness to the Most High that this new crofting settlement has a building where He may be worshipped and glorified who is worthy of adoration and glory and dominion, world without end. We hope the preaching here will be for His glory, and the everlasting happiness of immortal souls. I take this opportunity of thanking all who were moved to contribute throughout the Church, and also the kind friends of the cause of Christ overseas.—D. J. Macaskill.
Protest.
The Sabbath Observance Committee of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland, having had their attention drawn to a recent Press report regarding the holding of Naval Sports at Invergordon on the Lord’s Day, hereby enter their emphatic protest against this new encroachment on the sanctity of the Sabbath in the Highlands.
The Committee hold strongly that the Fourth Commandment lays a binding moral obligation on all men, and especially on those in authority, to keep holy the Sabbath Day as a day set apart for the purposes of divine worship, and that the devoting of any part of it to sport or other such secular purposes involves individuals and nations in guilt before God. They further hold that the sin of Sabbath desecration is peculiarly offensive to the Most High, and more than ordinarily provocative of His righteous indignation.
Viewing with alarm the extent to which Sabbath desecration is indulged in and tolerated in this, our beloved land, at the present time, and being gravely apprehensive of the consequences should things go on as they are doing, the Committee feel constrained to urge upon our Rulers the desirability of taking action with a view to placing the maintenance of the Sabbath institution on a more satisfactory basis in the nation’s economy than it presently occupies.
The Committee would, therefore, respectfully appeal to the Admiralty to issue such instructions as would safeguard the interests of Sabbath observance in the Navy, and as would obviate the repetition of such an incident as that protested against.