The War.—As all our readers are painfully aware, Great Britain is again involved in war. The policy which Herr Hitler has been pursuing for some time back could have no other result. German aggression under his leadership has become intolerable and had reached its climax in the invasion of Poland. On account of its pledged word to Poland and in defence of our own civil and religious liberties, which would soon be attacked, our government had no alternative but to declare war on Germany. At the same time, while we hold that it was just on our part to have entered this war, let us not forget that by it God is manifesting that He has a controversy with us as a nation. Our sins have been great, and in the face of repeated warnings we have pursued our own sinful ways as if there was no God to render an account to. “Shall I not visit for these things? saith the Lord: and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?” If Hitlerism is overthrown in Germany, the Lord’s people there, of whom we believe there are many, and who are today down-trodden, will be set free to worship God according to His Word. The whole Church of God has been praying for them and if this war is to be the means by which they are to be liberated, it is not the first time that God’s people could say, “By terrible things in righteousness wilt thou answer us, O God of our salvation.”
A Word to our Readers.—In view of the terrible calamity that has overtaken us as a nation in being involved in another war it would be well to realise that the Lord Jesus reigneth. The declaration of war has re-opened many wounds caused by the last war, and many who were sorely wounded at heart then are finding themselves facing the prospects of receiving fresh wounds. We would say to such that there is only one source of comfort, and that is Christ, and if they neglect to go to Him it will be vain for them to seek comfort from their fellow-creatures. To our praying people we would make this request; that they would be continually remembering in prayer, our nation, and that they would specially remember our young men who are called upon to face the enemy.
To our Young Men in His Majesty’s Forces.—Young men, you are engaged, or on the way to be engaged, in a terrible struggle. You are missed from your usual place in the house of God. Some of you, when you had the opportunity, were not as regular there as one would wish, and it pierces the hearts of some who had an interest in your spiritual welfare to remember that it was so, and to realise now that your place is empty for a reason, alas! too well known. Those who had an interest in your spiritual welfare still follow you with their prayers, and would plead with you once again, perhaps with some of you for the last time, to “Seek the Lord while He may be found, call ye upon Him while He is near,” and to remember that, “The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon Him, to all that call upon Him in truth.”
Britain’s Humiliation.—Perhaps never in the history of our nation did Great Britain get such a humiliating slap in the face as in her recent negotiations with that heaven-defying nation—Russia. One was amazed to hear good men whose Christianity one would not dare to doubt assuming the attitude of the opportunist and saying: “Well, what can we do? we must do something to meet the aggressive policy of Hitler.” The Lord’s answer to Great Britain was emphatic and sharp: it said plainly: “You will have to do without her.” In this Magazine we do not take to do with the intricacies of diplomacy except where they impinge on well recognized religious principles. Some years ago a movement to have some intercourse with Russia was characterised as an attempt to shake hands with assassins dripping with blood. But the abhorrence of having anything to do with Russia passed away, but God had not forgotten the blasphemous and heaven-defying speeches of many of her leaders. He has spoken very loudly to our country and it is to be hoped she has learned a lesson. We feel ill at ease about many of the alliances into which Britain is entering or has entered. The Bible delivers no uncertain message on these matters. Whatever good may come out of Russia’s bare-faced conduct we should not forget that Britain has received one of the greatest humiliations ever she experienced in the field of diplomacy at the hands of a nation which openly defied the Ruler of the Nations and with whom Britain wished to be on friendly terms. Sink or swim, however, we are to do without Russia’s help. Since the foregoing was written Russia has given another shock to Britain by invading Poland.
A Learned Savant’s Riotous Imagination.—The President of the Zoological Section of the British Association (Prof. James Ritchie) in his presidential address to the above section gave what he termed a 1,200,000,000 year vista of the steady climb of life through long evolutionary processes. When it is borne in mind that there is not a million days (to say nothing of years) since the birth of Christ it will be seen what a tremendous strain the learned professor is placing on his own lively imagination. But it is when he proceeds to say that during this long evolutionary period man has been moving towards a “higher intellectual, spiritual, and moral standard, and the biological view would be that in the immediate future—geologically speaking—that movement would continue and that for human beings this future lies in the development and perfection of social life and in the spreading of the social idea to include peoples and nations as well as individuals, with all the correlated advances that these imply,” that he lays the reins on the neck of his riotous and erratic imagination. Was the learned professor blind to the madness that has armed the civilized nations to the teeth when he wrote the above? It is such utterances as these that gave an opening to the wit when he hit off the British Association as the British Ass. Fortunately there are learned men in this famous gathering who do not rely on their imagination for their facts. How much nearer to the truth is the Bible account of man’s creation, his fall, and his present low spiritual condition in his fallen state.
The Word “Day” in Genesis I.—It has often been asserted that the “day” in Genesis I. is a long period of time. From the words in the inspired record—”And God called the light day, and the darkness He called night; and the evening and the morning were the first day” it is evident that each day was composed of a period of light and a period of darkness. If these days were long periods of time what would become of animal and vegetable life during these periods. Again, if those days were long periods of time did God rest for an equal period of time corresponding to one day when he finished Creation? If so, what explanation can be given by those who hold this view of the words in the Fourth Commandment: “Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work . . . for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day.” Is the day mentioned in connection with man’s labour a long period of time? Do not the words of the Commandment clearly indicate that God’s “day” of rest is similar to the “day” when man is to labour and do all his work?
Conversion of Professor Sayce.—In his younger days, says the Rev. D. S. Hart-Davies, M.A., D.D., in the Protestant Woman for September, Professor Sayce was regarded as one of the leaders of the Higher Critical Group in the University of Oxford. It was generally believed that he would succeed Dr. Pusey as Regius Professor of Hebrew. Much pressure was brought to bear upon Gladstone, but he refused to appoint Sayce on the ground that (in the year 1882) he was recognised as one of the leaders of the Higher Critical movement in the University. Instead Professor Driver was appointed. Sayce then left Oxford, and went out to the East to dig. He was converted by the results of his excavations, and abandoned his critical views. In 1890 he could write, “I myself have now come to be regarded as a representative of the so-called orthodox party and a defender of Holy Writ. Just as the archaeological discoveries in the Mediterranean have given the death-blow to the critical theories about Homer, so similar discoveries are killing the various critical theories about the Old Testament and its contents. Subjective fantasies must give way before the solid facts of science. The archaeological discoveries of the last thirty-five years in the near East have been dead against the conclusions of the self-appointed critic and on the side of ancient tradition.”
Fuhrer and Pope.—The Spectator (4th August) gives prominence to an article on the foreign policy of the present Pope, the writer being Richard Birley. According to his statements, the Pope has not fulfilled the hopes of those who expected that he would side with the democracies in the European trouble. Since the Pope was crowned Prague had fallen, the Italians seized Albania, and Franco, who had been congratulated by the Pope on his “Catholic victory,” had signed the Anti-Comintern Pact—and the Vatican had remained silent. Pius XII. is busying himself at present in the diplomatic field over the Danzig affair and democratic circles in France view this interference with grave mistrust. The article in the Spectator states that there is nothing fundamentally pro-democratic and Anti-Nazi in the bitter struggle between Hitler and the Vatican, and Douglas Reed is quoted (“Insanity Fair”) as being nearer the truth when he says “the Church is not against Hitler from conviction, only on grounds of interest.” This is Rome’s way for ever. The prestige and dominance of “The Church” are her chief concern. To further her aims she is “often deliberately opportunist,” the Spectator article says. Far stronger language than that might be used. It is the opinion of the writer in the Spectator that the friction which existed between the Hitler regime and the last Pope has noticeably decreased since the present Pope was appointed; that the Austrian Romanists require careful handling; that “the more Hitler becomes conscious of the Hapsburg heritage the more inevitably will he seek some sort of collaboration with the Papacy;” and that “everything points to a Berlin-Vatican rapprochement because such a rapprochement is in the best interests of both parties.” However that may be, it would be well that the British statesmen now in power should be on their guard against the diplomatic workings of Papal agents, all whose aims are directed to the strengthening of the stakes and the lengthening of the cords of a Church which regards British Protestantism and Protestantism everywhere as the great enemy that must be destroyed.—The Bulwark.