The Pope’s Love of England.—The Pope when conferring on the Archbishop of Westminster the dignity of Cardinal, said: “I embrace England and all the faithful and all the bishops and clergy.” Dr. Hinsley writing home after receiving his Cardinal’s hat says of the Pope: “He does really love our country and declared how he longed to do something great for the people he as learned to understand and esteem.” It is not a good day for England that she should be loved by the Pope. Her prosperity began when she was cut away from the Papal See and it is to be hoped that was for ever.
1638 and 1938.—Almost three hundred years ago the famous Glasgow General Assembly met—to be strictly correct ‘on 21st November, 1638—in the Cathedral. By one stroke this Assembly laid in ruins the whole fabric of Scottish Episcopacy which the infatuated Stewart King (Charles) with the obstinacy of his race had endeavoured to build up. In the fall of Episcopacy the hated Articles of Perth (1618) also met their doom. Among these Articles was one authorising “festival days” such as Christmas, Easter, Epiphany, etc. The National Covenant signed in 1638 condemns the observance of such days as “the monuments and dregs of bygone idolatry” and ascribes to them “contempt of true religion, and fostering great error among the people.” It ordains that the users of them shall be punished “for the second fault as idolaters.” On 10th December, 1638, the Glasgow Assembly made short work of these “festival days” and until recently they had no place or recognition among Presbyterians. During this year the tercentenary of the famous Assembly is to be commemorated and in all likelihood some of these commemorative meetings will be held in the Cathedral connected with which the minister (Rev. A. Neville Davidson) will probably take part, yet, in a letter sent to the press at the beginning of last month (January) Mr. Davidson expresses his sincere thanks “to all those who so generously brought gifts to the Christmas tree in the Cathedral.” One can only surmise what the grey fathers of Presbyterianism would say if, after abolishing festival days, on 10th December, 1638, they found a Christmas tree set up on the 25th December. The times have certainly changed and Presbyterians with them unfortunately not to a more virile Presbyterianism but to a mongrel type which is aping Episcopacy and is neither the one nor the other.
The Vatican and the Sino-Japanese Struggle.—The Pope is a poor helpless man when Abyssinia is being over-run but his functionaries are always busy when they see any advantage to be gained by the Roman Church. The struggle in the Far East gives fresh evidence of this as the following extract from an article by a Japanese journalist shows:—”Of first importance is the support given to Japan’s action in China by one of the greatest and most powerful religious institutions in the world, the Roman Catholic Church. On October 14 the Vatican sent out confidential instructions to all Catholic missions in the Far East urging them to give full co-operation to Japanese military activities because these activities aim at checking the spread of Communism among the Chinese people.” This extract is taken from Japan in Pictures (December, 1937), a propagandist publication in defence of Japan’s aggressive campaign in China. The Vatican, as usual, is busy and has its own ends in view.”