Wick’s Star Footballers.
—Everyone who saw the Caithness ministers as footballers were pleased with their performance. Seven of their eleven came from Wick, but the “stars” of the side were from Thurso—W. Johnston, Dunnet, who had a “hat-trick,” and M. M. Mackay, the well-known Thurso and Aberdeen ‘Varsity player. The latter, indeed, was “ower young” for his opponents and led the opposition (service officers) a merry dance.
There were many amusing incidents in the game—and many aching joints next day. Wick in late years has had several ministers who took the football field in competitive games and had undoubted influence on the behaviour of players and spectators. May we hope that in normal times Wick ministers will attend matches in numbers proportionate to the adherents who went to see them perform. By the way, the ministers won 4-1.—The People’s Journal, 6/7/39.
Is it any wonder there is a war on, and that is continues unabated, when professed ministers of Christ spend their precious time, at such a grave hour in our national history, playing football with serving officers. I have always held that godless Christless ministers are Britain’s greatest curse in our generation.
Deliverance by the Church of Scotland Presbytery of Cupar.
—In The Scotsman for 17th July there is reported the following Deliverance by the Church of Scotland Presbytery of Cupar:—”The Presbytery, fully assured that the present conflict of nations is the result of the spread of a Godless, anti-Christian, and pagan spirit, deplores the spiritual apathy in our own Church and nation, manifestly evidenced by the decay of public and private worship—by decreasing support for Christian and missionary service—as well as by many unlawful and un-Christian encroachments upon the sanctity of the Lord’s Day, and solemnly declares its conviction that the said spiritual apathy constitutes a supreme danger to our present national cause, and to the future moral and religious welfare of our people. The Presbytery acknowledges with deep repentance the failure of the Church in this generation to realise adequately its high spiritual calling to be the nation’s teacher, guide, example, and inspiration in the way of Godliness and righteousness. It further declares that the Church must seek a spiritual revival in every court, congregation, and member that it may successfully combat the widespread religious ignorance and apathy, and that it may make its own important and distinctive contribution to the national cause in this critical time.” A similar Deliverance was approved by the Presbytery of Ayr. In both there is an admission that the Church’s catering to the world has miserably failed, and that what is needed is a return to the very things which were lightly esteemed for many years now. Not until the return of the Holy Spirit, whom we have grieved away by our sins, will the Church realise “its high spiritual calling to be the nation’s teacher, guide, example, and inspiration in the way of Godliness and righteousness,” but the foregoing is a step in the right direction. May it be the harbinger of better days.
The King Fires a Bren Gun on Sabbath.
—In the Daily Record for the 3rd June, 1940, it is reported that the King visited an arms factory near London the previous Sabbath, and that he talked with scores of the men who are working a seven-day week as part of the speeded-up war effort. The report went on to say that it was the first time the King had visited a factory on a “Sunday,” and that he became so interested in a Bren gun that he asked if he might fire one. The request being granted, the King squatted down on canvas on one of the ranges and fired two magazines of 30 rounds each at a target 200 yards off. Now, while Free Presbyterians are second to none in their loyalty to the Protestant King and Throne of this Realm, we regard this uncalled for and unnecessary encroachment on the sanctity of the Lord’s Day on the part of His Majesty as altogether inexcusable. In view of the infectiousness of the influence of example, especially in the case of those of exalted rank, for good or for evil, it is deeply to be regretted that our beloved King, especially at such a critical time in our history, should have been guilty of such heaven-provoking Sabbath desecration. No one would question the patriotic loyalty of Archbishop Cranmer to the King and Throne of his day, yet he, in the course of a public discourse, severely rebuked King Henry VIII. for his shameless sins, while Melville, in Scotland, equally loyal and patriotic though he was, considered it his duty, as a servant of Christ, to rebuke King James VI. It would not have been true loyalty, but a guilty silence or flattery, had they acted otherwise. John the Baptist, even though his faithfulness cost him his life, manifested that the imperial regal purple could not suffice to shield a guilty ‘king from righteous rebuke. In this connection he set an example for all time. “Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful” (Proverbs xxvii. 6).
Pacifism Run Riot.
—The tragic obliteration of the territorial integrity and political independence of Norway, Denmark, and Holland, constitutes as severe a condemnation of the egregious folly of unilateral disarmament, and of a Christ-less pacifism, as it would be possible to conceive. These three countries, having escaped belligerency in the last war, concentrated on the advancement of material social welfare and high standards of educational attainments, at the same time blissfully and fatuously negligent of the armed defence of their respective nations, while neighbouring nations were arming to the teeth, and glorying in the empty pomp and parade of militarism. It is similar, if more tragic in its consequences, to the attitude of a nation that advocates and practices Free Trade, while all the other nations around it protect themselves by high tariff walls. However beneficent in their practical effects such theories might prove if universally adopted, when adopted and practiced unilaterally, they prove only detrimental and even disastrous. This only proves how applicable to the whole human family is the figure the Apostle Paul applies relative to the human body, as illustrating Christian unity, “If one member suffers all the other members suffer with it.” It is, however, not much use for the sheep to pass resolutions in favour of vegetarianism, while the wolf is of a different opinion, as modern tragic events between nations only too clearly manifest. World-wide universal Christianity is the only panacea.
In this connection, it has always amazed us how a certain professedly orthodox Scottish Presbyterian Church always supported the carnal League of Nations. Not only was its Director-General a Romanist, but the God of Peace was never honoured or consulted by it. It is equally amazing to see the same Church, through its magazine Editor, advocating a Federated Europe as a lasting panacea for international strife. When shall it dawn even on the professedly orthodox that only the universal reign of the Gospel of the grace of God shall eliminate war and bloodshed between nations?
What Caused the War.
—It is reported in the Daily Record for 3rd June, 1940, that at the Diamond Jubilee celebrations of the Salvation Army in Aberdeen, Commissioner David Lamb made the following pronouncement regarding the cause of the war:—”I resent the suggestion that my sins, or your sins, or the sins of the nation, cause the war, except as far as the nation’s unpreparedness may have been a contributory factor.” Speaking as “a world citizen” and giving his personal view, he continued: “I want to register my dissent from much of what was being proclaimed from pulpits in the United Kingdom and broadcast over the radio in regard to the war, its origin, its conduct, and its consequences. It was the invasion and rape of Poland, and nothing else, which caused the war.” In our opinion, a more blatant display of spiritual blindness and ignorance regarding the moral and spiritual cause of the present prevailing judgment of war, than that of this “blind leader of the blind,” it would be difficult to conceive. How much more intelligent have the anticipatory warnings, by certain Free Presbyterian ministers, writing in the newspapers press, proved to be, current tragic events only too sadly manifest. For instance, some Free Presbyterian ministers, writing some years, others some months, before the present war broke out, warned the public that the increasing Sabbath desecration, tolerance of Romanism, Scoto-Catholicism, Anglo-Catholicism, Modernism, gambling and betting, and the prevailing religious apathy, were provoking God, in righteous judgment, to bring the roar of Hitler’s and Mussolini’s bombing aeroplanes nearer our shores. We are simply amazed at the lavish praise bestowed on the Salvation Army in editorial comments in certain professedly orthodox Presbyterian Church magazines. Whatever may be said of this religious organisation’s social activities, its Antinomian Arminianism has certainly been no gain to the religious life of our generation.