International Control of Jerusalem.
When recently the Jews obtained their objective in Palestine by obtaining control of that country, the question of the control of Jerusalem and what are called the “Holy Places” there came into prominence. The United Nations Organisation, under pressure from many diverse religious quarters, proposed International control of these so-called “Holy Places,” in the Old Quarters of Jerusalem. A guarantee of free access to them for members of the three religions, Christians, Jews, and Moslems, is demanded. It is a supremely wonderful fact that the Lord Jesus Christ did enter Jerusalem, was crucified outside the gates of Jerusalem, and was laid in a tomb in the region thereof.
That was nearly two thousand years ago. Much has taken place since then in the Jerusalem area. There is no certainty connected with the identification of the tomb and other places plotted and fixed by men as having had intimate associations with the Lord Jesus. Even though it could be established, for example, that the actual tomb where Jesus was laid, was extant and open for inspection, this would not provide us with a holy place in the sense that superstitious men interpret the matter. The fact is, that these places, declared to be associated with Christ, are cluttered about with churches, chapels, altars, ceremonies, varied forms of idolatry, supervised by a hundred and one different religious sects, and monks, nuns and Orders of the Orthodox Churches of Russia and Greece and the Coptic Church, etc.
To the genuine Christian and Protestant, the conditions which obtain are obnoxious and disgusting. Although we do not deny, but the Christian traveller in Palestine must be influenced in his mind by the Gospel narratives which recall that throughout this land the Lord of Glory trod and outside Jerusalem, died.
On June 1st in the House of Lords, great indignation was aroused when Lord Amwell, former Labour M.P. for West Islington, during a debate on the future of Jerusalem, cast doubt on the validity of the reputed “holy” places. He said, “The realistic fact is that there are no guaranteed Holy Places, either in Jerusalem or in any part of Palestine.” He told the House, “There are three places where Christ is supposed to be buried,” and much more to the same effect which we have no space to quote here. Whatever Lord Amwell’s religious principles are (if any) he gave a much needed blow to the idolatry, superstition and hypocrisy of many.
Lord Strabolgi and Lord Cecil, both Anglo-Catholics, were indignant. The Earl of Perth, a Romanist, said they could never accept an intolerable solution in which places holy to Christians were placed under the jurisdiction of Jews and Arabs. On account of the way things are proceeding politically and internationally for the Israeli Government, the Earl of Perth and other Romanists have little hope of taking from the Jews the supreme control of Jerusalem, at present, at any rate. What is needed is that men would love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity and support the doctrines of the Gospel in the House of Lords and in U.N.O.
R.C. Pilgrimage to Iona.
We have referred to Iona in our notes on the Church of Scotland Assembly, in connection with Dr. George MacLeod’s Iona Community. The press on 8th June, intimated that on the Lord’s Day, 12th June, there would be a special trip to the Isle of Iona, an annual Roman Catholic pilgrimage, revived by the Knights of Saint Columba after an interval of nine years. People and priests taking part were to number 400. High Mass was to be celebrated in the open in a field near the Abbey, which belongs to the Church of Scotland, and which Dr. George MacLeod has made the centre of his Community. The R.C. Bishop of Argyll was to lead the above pilgrimage, which all appears like a challenge to Dr. MacLeod for the rights of the Abbey and its past associations—a first class place to foster superstition by the Roman Catholics and those in the Church of Scotland with Anglican leanings.