By Rev. JAMES MACLEOD.
THE Archbishops of Canterbury and York have issued a statement on the Day of National Prayer, as follows:—”His Majesty the King has summoned the nation to observe ‘Sunday,’ July 6, as a Day of National Prayer to Almighty God. Every citizen should prepare himself for that day for serious thought. This nation made its great and glorious contribution towards the winning of the war; the sacrifices which we made for victory have sorely crippled us. We turned hopefully to plan for justice and peace in the world and for social prosperity at home; we find that only by long and severe exertions can we secure the necessities of our national life. The severity of the task demands that all thoughts of personal advantage and sectional interests should be subordinated to the common good, that all forms of distrust and dishonest dealing be laid aside that all should freely give the best that is in them, that we should be united by a common code of honour, ideals and fellowship. These things cannot be unless we all turn to God and find our unity and strength in obedience to Him. Accordingly, we call our fellow-citizens in the coming weeks to examine our national life and our own personal lives, frankly and sincerely, by the standards of the Ten Commandments and of Christ’s teaching. To repent of our irreligion which by denying God the honour due to Him, distorts our personal lives and our common life. To turn to God in prayer that He may teach us our duties to Him and to our neighbours and to the community. To seek the daily help of God in our lives and in our common obedience to Him, we may meet each day’s demands. With such preparation, the National Day of Prayer will be a deliberate and intelligent act of humble prayer to Almighty God, we can face all that is asked of us in united faith, confidence and hope.—Geoffrey Canturr. Cyril Ebor. May 6, 1947.”
The above statement expresses some very fine and appropriate sentiment if the two Archbishops were in earnest and meant exactly in heart and conscience what they really express in words! If we “examine our national life and our personal lives, frankly and sincerely, by the standards of the Ten Commandments and of Christ’s teaching,” the Bishops must begin to purge the Protestant Church of England of the accumulative Romish Ritualism that has putrified that Church to its very core. One of the Ten Commandments speaks thus:—”Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them; for I am the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.” If the Archbishops mean to do what they say, they are in duty and honour bound to reform the Church of England from top to bottom. They must depose, and excommunicate all the Anglo-Catholic clergy in their Church. That is the plain teaching of the Ten Commandments, and of their Author, the Lord Jesus Christ. The “teaching” of Christ is in the strictest accordance with the Ten Commandments. The “teaching” of Christ is, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” If Popery, masses, altars, confessions, burning of candles, praying to the dead, and for the dead, and many other forms of gymnasium is carried on in that Church known to the two Archbishops, contrary to the Word of God, and the Articles of their religion, why did they not apply the Ten Commandments to their Romish Clergy long ago?
When an individual or nation turns to the Lord it must apply itself to the Word of God and examine the conscience, heart, life and conduct in the light of God’s truth. It is futile to think that we can turn to the Most High and ignore his unerring Word in Law or Gospel. It must be to the Law and to the Testimony that we must appeal. Israel could not prosper against their enemies as long as the “goodly Babylonish garment, and the two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight, . . . I coveted them, and took them, and, behold, they are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent and the silver under it.” As long as this nation tolerates and countenances the idolatry and blasphemies of the Pope of Rome, national fasting and prayers will be gross mockery, deceit and hypocrisy. It is heart religion God requires and looks not for good words from the flattering lips of men! The Church of England is groaning, sighing, and pained to death with the burden of idolatry practised within her borders for a long, long time in violation of her solemn promises, engagements, and thousands of Jesuits working night and day within that Church to conform her to the “Mother of harlots, and the abomination of the whole earth. How many thousands of her clergy have blotted out the 2nd Commandment from the Word of God, and how then can the Archbishops expect the Most High to bless their efforts when they know and connive at the work of the Jesuits in their midst? We have the same terrible conditions prevailing in Scotland. It is not what it used to be, “Thus saith the Lord,” but what saith the Assembly, and how do men ever expect the Lord to hear them, when they deny and reject the Word of God: as if God was of a different mind from His Word! There is a difference between the Church of England and the Church of Scotland in this respect; the English Church is still bound by the 39 Articles, whereas the Church of Scotland is not bound by the Word of God as unerring, nor by the Confession of Faith as her Creed, and standard of doctrines, practice or belief. We have departed from the Word of God as a nation, and if we do not turn to it our “Days of National Prayer” are vain jangling, and like as we read in Zech.: “There is a voice of the howling of the shepherds; for their glory is spoiled; a voice of the roaring of young lions; for the pride of Jordan is spoiled.” Let any one with a modicum of common sense look at the conduct of the people on the Lord’s Day, and he or she must be convinced that we resemble the pagans of ancient Greece or Rome more than Christians!
Where is the discipline of the Word of God, when ministers of religion, office-bearers, church members, travel by steamer, train and bus on the Sabbath Day like any ordinary day of the week? They can be at “Holy Communion” in the morning, and on the golf course the rest of the day. It is the discipline of the Protestant Church that has broken down completely. It is mob law! It was reported in the press on the 5th of May that the Royal Family attended a “Homeward Bound” Concert on Sabbath afternoon on board the “Vanguard” on the quarter-deck. Will the Archbishops draw the attention of their Majesties to this breach of the Ten Commandments, as the Fourth saith, “Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy,” for the Lord, not for concerts, laughing and sports. We know very well that there is a most determined effort by the enemies of the truth of God to blot out the Lord’s Day from our nation and to turn the sacred Day to sport and pleasure. The secular press are almost all engaged in the same effort and fully justifying the methods used to change the quiet of the Sabbath Day to all kinds of sport. As reported in the press, the Parks Committee of Dundee Town Council decided to extend the hours of “Sunday” golf, and allow “Sunday” football at Fair-muir. A “Sunday” dance band contest was also approved. The Church of Scotland must be silent, can neither protest, nor refuse church privileges to her members who attend the golf course on Sabbath, the dance-hall, or the football match as the Courts of that Church are engaged in the most secular work, such as the “Open-door” on God’s Day.
In England the situation is not better if not worse. We are verily a “baptised pagan nation.” How long will it last? It is reported in the press that there are one thousand divorces pending before the Law Courts every week. This is a violation of the Ten Commandments in the most awful sense. How are the Archbishops to deal with this business? The Roman Catholic population in Britain are helping forward to desecrate the Lord’s Day by every means in their power, publicly own and boast of their success in helping the law-breakers of this nation. Now, the gates are being open to Italians, Poles, and Roman Catholics from the Continent to come to Britain to add to the ruin and help the pagan priests of the Pope to destroy the glorious work of the Reformers. God’s people are now in Babylon in their own nation! The Babylonians are the masters in Church and State. It seems to us that matters will not get better for a long time to come. Yea, that they will get worse, more godless, and hold in sin openly, and ripen for the most appalling judgments in the history of the world. We do not venture to suggest in what form these judgments will take place; that is hid from us, but that this mockery of God by the devil will be terminated in fearful judgments we need not doubt nor question it. The first sign that may be looked for, and indeed expected, is a turning to the Word of God, not to the howling of men when they may be afraid of some sudden judgment to fall upon them that will land them in the pit of destruction. When men turn to the Word of God, believe, search it, and see its blessed revelation to fallen man, his state, condition, ruin, guilt, misery and hell-deservedness; then; and not till then, will men begin to pray in reality.
When young godly King Josiah heard the law of God read and expounded to him in its glorious spirituality and requirements, he rent his garments in perfect horror of his own and his nation’s condition before the Lord God of Israel! It requires the same divine power to convince the Archbishops, Bishops, Pastors, Kings, Queens, Statesmen and commoners before men and women will pray in truth to the Lord Jesus Christ for mercy. What do ignorant men know about “Almighty God” apart from Jesus Christ? Nothing! Man is compared to the brute beast in his knowledge of God Almighty without the revelation of Jesus Christ in his soul through the Word of God applied savingly, graciously, and lovingly by the Holy Ghost. Prayer can only be presented to God through our Lord Jesus, our blessed High Priest, who stands before the throne of the eternal God as our Saviour. If a sinner dare attempt come in any other way he is doomed to die! May God, the Holy Spirit, open the eyes of men in this nation and other nations to understand this, and flee to Christ as the only refuge from the storms of eternal death.—J. M.