The Year that is past.—By the time that this issue is in the hands of many of our readers the year 1938 with all its joys and sorrows will have passed away. Internationally, nationally and ecclesiastically it cannot be said generally speaking to have been a bright one. The European nations were scared by the terrible threat of war and though this has passed the international situation is anything but settled. The mad race in heaping up armaments fills many minds with forebodings should these be required. What 1939 has in store for the nations, the churches, and our individual selves is alone known to the Most High. To those of our readers who at this season are reminded of the vacant places in their homes we tender our heartfelt sympathies. We wish all our readers a happy New Year with the Lord’s rich blessing.
Football Pools.—In an article which appeared in the Daily Telegraph and Morning Post (30th November, 1938) the evil influence of the football pools on industry is indicated. It appears that from £40,000,000 to £50,000,000 of working-class money is spent in connection with this popular form of gambling. The writer of the above mentioned article is dealing with the matter from the purely financial side and for the purpose he has in view does not touch upon the moral aspect which is decidedly the more serious. These pools are competing with legitimate industrial enterprises and unfortunately football pool promoters are legally permitted to use every means of enticement to persuade the working man to gamble his half-crown in the hope of amassing wealth. The writer of the forementioned article says:—”And where will it all end? The football season is marked by the most amazing spate of pool advertisements. New, and, I suppose, highly paid, tipsters are pouring out their thousands of words a day encouraging more and more people to put more and more of their hard-earned cash into competitions which offer a poor chance of return. It is impossible to estimate the proportions which this system may achieve if something is not done to stop it.” The most serious aspect of this gambling craze is the moral and from the religious standpoint it is a problem facing organised Christianity in this country. It is one of many indications of the religious and moral downgrade movement of the present age.
Papal Delegate in Britain.—As the December issue of the Magazine was passing through the press public intimation was made that the Vatican was to be represented in London by an Apostolic Delegate in the person of the Archbishop of Cius. The R.C. Universe says that this is not a diplomatic appointment. The delegate deals exclusively with religious affairs; he watches over and reports to the Vatican the condition of the papal Church and considers and may give decisions on cases submitted to him from diocesan courts. But the Universe, while stressing the ecclesiastical nature of the appointment, says this does not exclude communication with the Government and Public Bodies. In this respect he differs from a Papal Nuncio but, if we may be permitted the use of the figure, he is the camel’s head preceding the entrance of the body into the tent. Canada, India, Australia and South Africa have already Delegates. The last diplomatic representative that Britain had was in the short and inglorious reign of James II. who fled on the landing of William at Torbay. The Vatican is using the art of peaceful penetration and while the papal diplomatists refrain from the blustering methods of the Dictators their policy is none the less effective for their ends. It is regrettable, if the press reports are true, that our Prime Minister intends to pay the Pope a courtesy call when visiting Italy this month. The days were when such happenings as the above would raise a storm in this country. If this visit takes place, Mr. Chamberlain, according to a press statement, will be the first Prime Minister who has paid a private visit to the Pope.
Shorter Sermons.—Dr. Cox, joint-principal clerk of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in a recent address to Aberdeen Elders’ Union is reported to have said, among other things, that sermons should be cut down to 15 minutes or thereby. This is a polite or perhaps not very polite way of showing the sermon to the door. In the case of some sermons 15 minutes is too long especially those which have distilled doctrinal poison. The pulpit is losing the power and place it once had in Presbyterian Scotland and one need not wonder at such an utterance. Dr. Cox also spoke about a dozen parishes in the Synod of Aberdeen where the minister is not doing his duty or is making a “mess” of his job. Dr. Cox’s remedy is the re-institution of the Superintendents, a suggestion with which we most emphatically disagree.
Another Form of Sabbath Desecration Suggested.—A pleasure loving age is not content with six days in the week for its pleasure, it must commandeer the seventh also. The foolishness and restlessness, which, unfortunately, is not confined to the young, must have some outgate on the Lord’s Day and hence golf, tennis, etc., are now indulged in on the Holy Day. Mountaineering, no doubt, was indulged in to a great extent on the Sabbath, but it was left to a young lawyer of Inverness, Mr. J. D. Sturrock, to sanctify this open breach of the Lord’s Day. As reported by the newspaperman, Mr. Sturrock is credited with saying that to spend a Sabbath on the hills is as good as listening to a sermon because on the hills there is a sense of contact with the Great Unknown. These sentiments, whether Mr. Sturrock’s or the reporter’s, indicate a strong mixture of Deism and Agnosticism. It is not to get into contact with “the Great Unknown” that the mountaineer scales the giddy heights on the Lord’s Day.
A Much-Needed Resolution.—At a meeting of the Dorset Council a resolution was passed by a vote of 30 to 20 that, in view of the renewed emphasis on the need for moral and spiritual re-armament, the Council asked Parliament “to consider the increasing indifference to the day of worship and rest and to have more regard to the real significance of this day.” One of the members, Captain Hambro, M.P., told the Council he had been brought up in the Presbyterian way but he could not bring up his children in that way. He voted against the resolution. Unfortunately there are too many brought up in Presbyterian Scotland of the same mind, but this does not affect the divine authority that made the Sabbath law binding. There is a touch of irony in the fact that the Council commissioned Captain Hambro to communicate the resolution to the Prime Minister. One could have wished that the Council had gone a step further and stressed the divine authority for the keeping of the Sabbath. When will any of our Scottish Councils move in this matter?