A Growing Craze.
The vain and empty fashion of “crowning” a young girl selected from among others, in connection with some foolish competition, gala, town or country celebrations, etc., is rapidly spreading and increasing in all parts of Scotland, north and south. Carnival week was held in Dornoch from 11th to 16th July, during which a boy and a girl were crowned Carnival King and Queen. The village of Lybster, Caithness, had its first “Harbour Queen” crowned on Friday, 22nd July. On Saturday, the 23rd July, Thurso’s first “Personality Queen” was crowned. A “Gala Queen” was crowned at Elgin on Monday, the 25th July. And on Saturday, 30th July, a Wick “Herring Queen” was crowned. This list is just a current one embracing merely these northern ports for the month of July. We may note some points in connection with this new craze. Much money is expended on the preparations for such functions, during these difficult times, although collections are taken from the public. Great crowds gathered from all quarters by bus and cars to witness these ceremonies. There were 4,000 at Elgin and many more at Wick; but the Churches are well nigh empty on the Lord’s Day. Prominent personalities were engaged to perform
varied functions, the Duchess of Richmond and Gordon at Elgin and Sir Archibald and Lady Sinclair at the Caithness ceremonies, and thus a superficial dignity was given to “make believe” procedure. At Elgin, the crowning ceremony was performed under incessant rain, the wettest night of the year, and at Wick rain fell heavily during the actual ceremony. But the rain did not keep the crowds away, although little would keep the most of those even with church connections from attending divine worship on God’s Holy Day. Dances in the evening ended the day of festivities in certain places, such as Wick. And now a new, a serious development has taken place in connection with these modern and unusual ceremonies. Ministers of the Church of Scotland are taking an active part. At Elgin, “Rev. Alexander MacDonald, High Church, blessed the Queen,” according to the Aberdeen Press and Journal of 26th July. In what terms or to what purpose this professed minister blessed a “Gala Queen” we know not; but we are of the opinion that such work is of the world, the flesh and the devil. At Wick this irreverent line of things went somewhat further. The next day, 31st July, the Lord’s Day, a special Herring Queen United Youth service was held in Wick Old Parish Church, at 3.30 p.m., conducted by the Minister, Rev. P. F. C. Black. The “Herring Queen” and her “Court” attended in their festive attire. Additional details are unnecessary. Rev. P. F. C. Black also took part on the Saturday at the crowning ceremony. These facts emphasise increasingly what has been written and said many times, that in many places the professed Christian Church in Scotland is linking up with the world to pervert the Gospel of Christ and to bring the people of this land back to where we were before the times of Reformation. The poor people, instead of being warned and guided by the Truth, are being assisted thus by the Church to delight in vanity and to lose all taste for the pure and simple worship of God. Truly, “Darkness shall cover the earth and gross darkness the people.” (Isa. lx. 2). May the Lord arise and shine upon us through the truth of the gospel, in a day of His power, and command deliverance for us.
Bishop Prays for Dead Dogs.
Our heading to this note does not make pleasant reading, but it is a statement of fact. The London Evening Standard reports that the Bishop of Chelmsford, Dr. H. Wilson, while dedicating the animals’ cemetery at Woodford Bridge, Essex, on 30th July, said: “May God bless these our friends buried here. We pray that we may meet with them in the life everlasting.” These words are a shocking evidence of an earthly mind, of most daring irreverence in relation to God and of a carnal and brutish conception of heaven. Affection for dumb animals here runs riot, disregarding the teaching and revelation of God’s Word regarding man, the irrational creatures, redemption, and those who shall enter into the life everlasting in heaven. We may be pardoned for suspecting that other strange and unscriptural sentiments are at times given utterance to by the Bishop of Chelmsford when the above is part of his creed.
Rome Digging In.
When Senator Wilton, of the Northern Ireland Parliament addressed the May meeting of the Protestant Truth Society, London, in the Caxton Hall, Westminster, on the 17th May, 1949, he stated: “If there is a house for sale at all in a Protestant district, in comes the Roman Catholic Church and
buys it. They are buying our farms up all over the province. Almost any farm that goes to public auction—unless you have got someone who is prepared to be big enough to sell it at a certain price to keep it from the hands of the Roman Catholics—a Roman Catholic body will outbid you every time.” This Jesuit method of silent, peaceful penetration is by no means confined to Ulster, nor to the South of England, where a Romanist Polish colonel recently purchased an estate, ousted all the tenants, and replaced them by Romanist Poles, but the same subtle device is employed everywhere, the Highlands of Scotland being by no means excepted. The method usually pursued by the new Romanist landowner is to allow the lease of farms to expire, and then refuse to renew the lease even in cases where the particular farm has been in the same family for several generations, under the plausible pretext that he himself is anxious to experiment with farming. After two or three years he declares his experiment a failure, or unsuitable, and so he leases the farms again, not, however, to the former Protestant tenant-farmer, but to Romanist strangers to the locality. The only remedy in this case is for British tenant-farmers to press for Parliamentary legislation to secure fixity of tenure, as in the case of crofters, or small landholders. It is discreditable that at this time of day—the enlightened twentieth century of professedly Christianized civilization—Protestant tenancy of their ancestral homes in Britain should be at the mercy, whim and caprice of an unscrupulous, cunning, scheming Romanist landowner.—J. P. MacQueen.