THE following is a comment passed by the Christian Evangelical, a Canadian monthly published in Toronto. It is interesting as an outside view in regard to certain ecclesiastical happenings in this country:—”At a meeting in Edinburgh in May the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland passed a resolution severing all official connection with the Y.M.C.A. The resolution affected only the Scottish organisation. The resolution stated ‘That the General Assembly, owing to the unsatisfactory attitude of the Y.M.C.A. towards modernist doctrines and worldly amusements, should terminate all official connection with that body.’ There was considerable dissent amongst the members to the stand taken by the Assembly. That the Y.M.C.A. has departed far from the principles and practices laid down for it by Sir George Williams is apparent to anyone who has the slightest connection with it. Many of the secretaries are the first to admit it, but if they are troubled at the stand of the ‘Y’ on religious questions they generally feel powerless to stem the drift or to arrest the dry rot. The ‘Y’ has largely become a social and athletic organisation on this continent. Originally intended as a means of leading young men to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ that object has been almost completely forgotten, or has been submerged in its other activities.
The Y.M.C.A. is not alone in this respect. Many other Christian organisations and not a few churches started out well on the best of evangelical lines, but later they thought they could serve both God and Mammon. Their indictment is written in the Book of Revelation, ‘Because thou sayest, I am rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked’ (Rev. 3: 17).”