The New U.S. Ambassador.
The outstanding post in the diplomatic service of the United States is that of Ambassador to Great Britain. Statesmen and diplomats of high rank and great ability have always been selected for that station. Our relations with the other great Protestant and English-speaking nations are of first importance in our whole international outlook. It is therefore peculiarly unfortunate that President Roosevelt has selected for that post Joseph Patrick Kennedy, an Irish Roman Catholic. It is notorious that Ireland is the chief avenue of Vatican plots against the peace and security of the British Government. No one who has carefully observed and understands papal intrigue doubts that the See of Rome is directly back of De Valera’s sleepless efforts to embarrass London and if possible sow discord in the British Commonwealth. Now when Britain, France and the United States face the Fascist quadruple alliance of Pius XI., Germany, Italy and Japan, it is exceptionally important that the Democratic powers risk none but true patriots in their diplomatic relations with one another. His wife was Rosa Fitzgerald of Boston. The given names of their children are rather distinctly Roman Catholic. It is sometimes easier for priests to play upon the confidence of a devout Roman Catholic woman than that of her husband. Of course the daily and magazine press dare not mention this delicate subject. The Vatican could hardly have made a selection fraught with more seeming impropriety. This is not time to place an agent and legal subject of the Pontiff at London as Ambassador of the United States.—Quoted in Monthly Record of the Protestant Evangelical Mission.
Dr. Niemoeller.
When writing our last note on the trial of this German pastor we anticipated the issue of the trial sooner than it actually came. But after much secrecy Dr. Niemoeller was sentenced to seven months imprisonment and was also fined. As he had already spent the term of his sentence in prison, the seven months’ sentence was cancelled. But this is not the end of the case for he has been sent to a concentration camp, as it is reported, and is under the charge of the secret police. If the Nazis were wise they should keep their eyes fixed on the great lessons of history and lay to heart that men with living consciences have in days gone by broken the most ruthless tyranny. The ruling powers have embarked on a dangerous course and though they may crush opposition for a season God’s appointed time will come when Tyranny shall be thrown from its throne of power. It is reported that Niemoeller stated frankly before the Berlin court that he did not intend to change his attitude towards the pagan movement nor to desist in using the full privilege of the pulpit. This probably accounts for his detention in the concentration camp.
An Edinburgh Minister on the Church of Scotland.
After reading the Appeal made by the Moderator-Designate of the Church of Scotland on behalf of the liquidation of the Foreign Mission debt of £67,000, the Rev. S. J. M. Compton of St. John’s Church, Edinburgh, asked, had the Church of Scotland, as now constituted, any right to be surprised at what was evidently a ghastly situation? “The Church of Scotland,” he said, “had departed from its ancient creeds, was paying far too much attention to adjusting its beliefs to the passing mood of the moment. We were always making new Statements of Faith.” Regarding the Foreign Mission situation, he asked, were they committed to-day to great works of a humanitarian kind or were they going out in the spirit in which the first missionaries went out—the spirit which realised men were perishing and needed salvation? “From what I can gather,” Mr. Compton said, “the preparation of missionaries to-day is not conducive to that.” Men were being sent out to preach love and kindness, but not to deal with the desperate need of the human soul or to take a gospel with a primary reference to that ugly thing called human sin. Both at home and abroad we were suffering from that social gospel. “Why should I be asked to sacrifice myself,” Mr. Compton went on, “for the propagation of a gospel of which I am not sure?” We have no idea what Mr. Compton’s ecclesiastical position is but in the above utterances he has certainly laid his finger on some of the plague spots of the Church of Scotland and its leading men would do well to ponder over them seriously and coming from a Church of Scotland minister his criticism is significant.
Were Luther, Calvin and Knox Anti-Sabbatarians?
What a strange question to ask will be the remark of many of our readers but when we inform them that these great Reformers have fallen into the hands of the Philistines they may then see the meaning of our cross-heading. In an article which appeared in one of the Glasgow evening papers Mr. William Power, a well-known journalist, writing on “The Scots Sabbath,” has the following sentence:—”Luther was actively anti-Sabbatarian, Knox himself was far from strict. His first meeting with Calvin was on a Sunday, on the bowling-green at Geneva, and these grim personages are said to have had a game, in which, one is certain, the Haddington man won.” It would be advisable that journalists, as well as others, in writing on such a subject would acquaint themselves with the facts of the case before putting in print what, to say the least of it, is not strictly accurate. A study of Gillilan’s The Sabbath and Principal Fairbairn’s “Views of the Reformers regarding the Sabbath” in his Typology of Scripture (Appendix A) instead of relying on statements made by such writers as Hengstenberg, Hessey, Cox and Dr. Norman MacLeod, might have the effect on him of qualifying what he says about Luther and withdrawing what he says about Calvin and Knox. We readily admit that Luther on this subject as on others allowed himself under the impulse of his powerful dynamic nature to make statements at times that were not in accordance with Scripture. But to say that he was “actively anti-Sabbatarian” in the sense in which that term is usually understood is not borne out by a careful study of his writings.
A Hoary Legend about Calvin and Knox.
One would have thought that the hoary legend about Calvin and Knox playing a game of bowls on the Sabbath would, by this time, have died a natural death through senile decay. But judging by the frequency with which it is resurrected by the Anti-Sabbatarian resurrectionists it must be considered of vital importance to their cause. Dr. Hay Fleming many years ago thoroughly exposed the lack of historical evidence for the legend in his Critical Reviews Relating to Scotland (p. 191). Law Mathieson, whose antipathy to Sabbatarianism was not a qualification for one dealing with the religious history of Scotland, had no historical ground for the statement he made about Knox and Calvin. Here is an instance of the unscrupulous way in which men professing to be historians deal with such matters. “Both Dean Stanley and Mr. Mathieson,” says Dr. Hay Fleming, “have been outstripped by a learned Scotsman, who, in a recent article, introduced the statement that Knox occasionally took part in a round of golf on Sabbath afternoon. On being asked for his authority, the writer frankly acknowledged that he had none; but declined to delete the statement, because as he thought, it helped to brighten the article which was too technical to be generally interesting!” The “learned Scotsman,” referred to, passed as an authority on Scottish history! What a scare some of these traducers of his name would get were John Knox to appear. Queen Mary would not be the only one he would “gar greet.” At present Scottish history is too much in the hands of the Cavalier School and Scotland needs a M’Crie, or a Hay Fleming to teach them not to be so dependent on their imagination for their facts and to propose some cure for their religious astigmatism.
Sabbath Broadcasting.
The B.B. Corporation has announced in the press that it intends broadcasting a programme of a light character every Sabbath between 10.45 a.m. and 12.30 p.m. From the press announcements we should have thought that its present programme on the Lord’s Day was sufficiently light to please all worldly-minded persons. This new move is symptomatic of the age. At one time the world endeavoured to press its demands on the plea of necessity and mercy. But it has become bolder with each concession and cinemas, games, etc., now are asked for on the Sabbath without an excuse and without a blush.
The Jews in Palestine.
Dr. W. M. Christie writing in the British Weekly deplores the commercialisation of the Sea of Galilee on whose waters the Son of Man walked and whose waves He stilled; His feet trod its shores and the cities on its coasts heard his wonderful words and witnessed his marvellous works. “Now it is practically a mill dam, with levels changed at the will of, and to suit the convenience of the Electric Corporation,” he says. We lay no stress on the sacredness of places but we confess to a strong leaning to the sentiment of the saintly M’Cheyne expressed in his beautiful poem on the Sea of Galilee:
How pleasant to me thy deep blue wave, O Sea of Galilee!
For the glorious One who came to save hath often stood by
thee.
Fair are the lakes in the land I love, where pine and heather
grow;
But thou has loveliness far above what Nature can bestow.
It appears from what Dr. Christie says that the Jews would not only have the Arabs cleared out of Palestine but the Christians also. Dr. Christie, as is well known, is not an enemy of the Jews but candour demands him to write as he does. The Jewish problem in Palestine is baffling and requires more than the wisdom of men to deal with it. From the reports of discussions in Parliament and the large sums required for the maintenance of order our Administrators in Palestine have their hands more than full.
A Crime Committed Against the Young in the Name of God.
Our readers, I am sure, would never surmise what this crime was. Well, it is simply this: Braintree in Essex has turned down “Sunday” Cinemas and the Dean of Bocking has evidently lost his temper and his commonsense as the following reported words indicate: “A crime,” he says, “has been committed against the young in the name of God. A haven of refuge from the hot blood and inexperience of their years has been taken away, and the moral mischief which has been the outcome of having nowhere to go on ‘Sunday’ remains unchecked, when with the grace of art and beauty they might have found new inspirations, courage, and self restraint. God help us at the Day of Judgment.” Well might the Dean pray that prayer for himself. We have rarely ever read words from a professed minister of Christ that give such an encouragement to Satan’s campaign against the Lord’s Day. The Dean’s words are not only foolish but charged with Satanic mischief. Free Presbyterians are sometimes charged with using strong language. We need never hesitate to denounce as strongly as we can disloyalty to Christ’s cause by His professed servants, it does not matter to which denomination they belong. The Dean charged the Sabbatarians with intolerance but he should attend to the big beam that is in his own eye before he tries to get rid of the motes that are in his neighbours’ eyes. There is no intolerance so fierce as the intolerance of the so-called liberal minded.
Nativity Plays.
Sometime ago some stir was caused through the reported performance of a nativity play in one of the public schools in the West Highlands. In the March issue of Life and Work (the Record of the Church of Scotland) a photograph is given of children who took part in a Nativity Play at Lerwick. It is accompanied by the following note: “The above illustration shows a tableau from Margaret Cropper’s Nativity Play, Three Roses, as performed in St. Columba’s Church, Lerwick. The costumes of the principal characters were from those which the Church Offices lend out for such performances” (the italics are ours). The Shetland Presbytery, under whose jurisdiction this congregation is, we are told, is “by no means out of date in the forms of its church activities.” What with community drama and nativity plays (encouraged by ministers) what is the end of it all to be? We are fast drifting back to a state of things which our forefathers cleared out of the professing Church and out of Scotland.