To our Readers at Home and Abroad.—By the time this issue is in the hands of many of our readers they will either be on the threshold of a new year or have entered it. We had fondly hoped a year ago that peace would have been restored ere we entered on 1945. This was not to be and the reason is best known to the Ruler of men and nations. The dreadful carnage is still proceeding and God has not yet said to the Sword “it is enough.” Scarcely a home throughout the land has escaped sorrow and gnawing anxiety for their dear ones snatched from them in the days of early manhood. We extend our heartfelt sympathy to all who are being reminded by the passing year of the vacant places in their homes and also to all who are in constant anxiety. May the Lord Himself comfort the bereaved and be a present help to all who feel the need of His care and keeping for themselves and those that they love more than ever they did before. We think especially at such a time of those young men and women called up in their country’s service. May the Lord bless them and bring them back in safety if that is His divine will.
The National Union of Protestants.—We have received the first Annual Report of this newly-formed Protestant Society which professes to have as its objective “to secure the restoration of the Protestant Reformed Religion and the cessation of all illegal Roman Catholic doctrine and practices in all churches of the National Church [Church of England] culminating in Revival and a new Reformation. The Report says, among other things, “Our prayer from the first has been, ‘If thy presence go not with us carry us not up hence’ (Exod. xxxiii. 15).” Mr. Hetter gives an account of the origin of the Society and its objectives. There is much need of a virile Protestant Society which will proclaim the great
doctrines of the Reformation. The Secretary’s address is 55 Gloucester Road, Kensington, S.W.7., from whom literature and other information may be obtained.
No Religious Liberty in Spain. The World’s Evangelical Alliance, has addressed a letter to all M.P.s. After recalling that religious liberty is included in the second of the “Four Freedoms” laid down by President Roosevelt, the letter says that at present “religious liberty does not exist in Spain,” although in 1937 General Franco promised, through the Spanish Ambassador in London, that in the event of a Nationalist victory in the Spanish war he would grant full religious liberty. “The promise,” adds the letter, “has not been fulfilled, and the religious conditions are such that nearly all Spanish Protestant places of worship are closed. A number of pastors and evangelists have been executed, also a far larger number of Church members; and no Protestant religious meetings, public or private, are allowed in the greater part of Spain.
Bible Society’s Stock Confiscated.—“Except for the Roman Catholic version, with notes,” the above letter continues, “the Bible is not allowed to be printed or circulated; in fact, a large number have been destroyed. The stock of the British and Foreign Bible Society in Madrid, amounting to 110,000 copies of Bibles, Testaments, etc., has been confiscated. Foreign missionaries have been obliged to leave the country, while about two-thirds of the Spanish pastors, evangelists, and colporteurs have been exiled, imprisoned, or executed as indicated above, while a number have died in prison.
“Children of Protestant parents are compelled to learn the Roman Catholic catechism and to worship images of the Virgin Mary; in many places attendance at Mass is compulsory in order to procure employment. Just recently a young Protestant has been sent to a concentration camp, with hard labour and low diet, for refusal to attend mass.”
The letter concludes:—“Spain will be in the future dependent upon the good-will of the Allied Nations, and while we realise that direct intervention in the case of a neutral State may not be possible, it should not be difficult to make it clear to General Franco and others that such good-will cannot be counted on unless she abandons those practices which are completely contrary to the principles for which the Allies are fighting, and which are part of the Four Freedoms already quoted.”