Parliamentary Candidates were asked to support Sabbath Concerts.
Scotland’s 149 Parliamentary candidates were sent a questionnaire by Mr. Cliff Stanton, president of Glasgow Jazz Club, a club for the promotion of a certain kind of music played by bands at dances and concerts. Mr. Stanton said: “We want to know what stand candidates will take over important jazz matters.” For instance, candidates were asked to support Sabbath evening concerts for all organisations, that they might be permitted by law, and there were other requests. Mr. Stanton is further reported as having said, “If we find, on analysing the replies, that we have the overwhelming support of one party, then that party will get our vote.” It was stated that this procedure might affect the votes of one million jazz musicians and supporters in Britain. What a deplorable revelation all this is, of the attitude of mind of so many in Britain, over against the recent serious business of a General Election, to return to Parliament such as would wisely govern and guide the vital affairs of this realm! It seems that jazz music, and that on the Lord’s holy Day, is more important than the stability of our economy, the social welfare of our people, the education of our children and international peace, etc., to the trifling and carnal jazz enthusiasts of this country. As for God and His Day being disregarded, does this not lead in the case of many who are lovers of pleasure to a miserable lack of the sense of responsibility as citizens in ordered society? We trust the aforesaid questionnaire was thrown into the fire by all responsible persons who were Parliamentary candidates.
The Royal Family and the Sabbath.
During the first week of June it was announced that the children of Her Majesty the Queen, Prince Charles and Princess Anne, were to have their first flight on Sabbath, the 5th of June. They were to fly to London from Balmoral in a plane of the Queen’s Flight. Her Majesty was to leave a few minutes earlier by plane for London. It appears that the Royal Family are determined to make unnecessary travelling on the Lord’s Day an established practice. Whereas the Lord’s Day ought to be taken up with the public and private exercises of God’s worship primarily, and a resting on this holy day from activities which may be lawful on other days. But in regard to the said arrangements for the Royal children to have their very first flight in the air on a Sabbath, the hand of God intervened and it was made public that this deplorable plan had to be cancelled, owing to Princess Anne having contracted an ear infection. How clear to some that this was the warning and correcting hand of God! “Hear ye the rod and who hath appointed” is an appropriate portion of the Word of God in this case. May the Royal Family hear this somewhat gentle rod and the warning voice of the Lord of the Sabbath. At the time of writing we have not heard of any future plans for the Royal children to travel South on a Sabbath. May wiser counsel prevail with those who have the duty of making such arrangements.
Prime Minister Broadcasts on Sabbath.
Much publicity was given prior to Sabbath, the 5th of June, that the Prime Minister, Sir Anthony Eden, was to broadcast on that Sabbath evening. We have heard that he did so, and that his subject was the Railway Strike. We also heard that one Trade Union leader involved said of the speech that the Prime Minister had said nothing they did not know already. Another Union leader interested in the Strike declared that he did not agree with the statement of the Prime Minister, that in relation to this Strike this was a quarrel between two Trade Unions. Apart from being deeply displeased at the action of the new Prime Minister in taking a Sabbath evening to speak to the nation on such matters, we see from the observations of Trade Union leaders that he achieved just nothing. That is what his speech merited. And all Sabbath desecration will achieve nothing but hurt and harm to those guilty of the same.
Peron in Danger of Vatican Action.
It has been reported in recent issues of the Magazine the steps that President Peron has been taking to curb political interference in matters of State in Argentina by the priests of the Roman Catholic Church—and he himself a professed Roman Catholic, who was decorated by the Pope in 1947. Now the press declares that a Vatican authority has said, “If Peron has not already fallen into excommunication, he is certainly a very short step from it.” We believe that the Pope and his Cardinals are angry enough with President Peron to administer in his case the extreme discipline of their organisation, viz., what they understand by “excommunication.” But the statement on this question by a Vatican authority which we have quoted is characteristically subtle. It does not assert that he has been excommunicated, and it does not forecast that he certainly will be. The Pope will try to frighten Peron with the terrors of Romish dogma, but the Papacy is too cunning to do such a thing, in such a case, in too great a hurry. We shall see, if well, what will be the outcome of this struggle.
The Bible in the School.
In the issue of March, 1955, of The Scottish Educational Journal, the official organ of the Educational Institute of Scotland, there appeared a leading article under the heading, “The Bible in the School.” We take the liberty of reproducing here the first four paragraphs of this article, which will make interesting reading for all who have a concern for religious instruction in our schools, and which will also show how Sir David Eccles, the present Minister for Education, commends the Bible for schools.
The selected part of the article is as follows:—”In a recent speech the Minister of Education for England and Wales, Sir David Eccles, stressed the need for an ample supply of Bibles in every school. He was in a position to do so, for the English Education Act of 1944 made religious instruction compulsory and brought it within the ambit of Her Majesty’s Inspectors of Schools. He was shocked to learn from a recent report on Religious Education in Schools that the Bible was in short supply. Junior school children needed single Gospels or shorter Bibles in clear type, and there should be enough copies for every child in a class to have one. Later on the complete Bible was needed. In secondary schools he would like to see all children whose parents did not give them a Bible supplied with one to treat as their own at school. When the time came for them to leave school they might ‘well consider letting them take it with them into the big world.’
“The views expressed by Sir David Eccles must commend themselves to all who wish to make religious education a vital part of our educational system, however much they may regret the obvious inference that the Bible in many homes no longer commands the veneration and study it once had. The Bible is the basis of the religious and moral training given in our schools. If teachers are to do their work efficiently they must, in the words of the Minister, be given ‘the tools of their trade.’
“The picture presented by the Minister of Education and the Report on Religious Education in Schools, which gave him his data, apply only to England and Wales. Would his speech have been equally relevant if made to an audience of Scottish teachers? The question is well worth considering. “Scotland has an ancient educational tradition. In building it up throughout the centuries before State schools were established by the 1872 Act the Church played a notable part, and Bible teaching was a main subject in the curriculum. Dr. Guthrie, the famous divine and social reformer, tells in his diary how young children, as soon as they had learned their letters, were at once passed into the Book of Proverbs. ‘This book,’ he says, ‘is without a rival for beginners, containing quite a repertory of monosyllables and pure Saxon English undefiled.’ Take this passage, for example, where, with one exception, every word is formed of a single syllable, and belongs to the Saxon tongue: ‘Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.’ What a contrast to some of the silly trash of modern schools books for beginners.” “Whatever we may think of Dr. Guthrie’s opinion, it is evident that in those earlier days the Bible occupied a prominent place in the education of the young. There must have been few homes without a Bible, and family reading supplemented the instruction given in the schools.”
Bibles for Pupils Leaving School in Yorkshire.
“The British and Foreign Bible Society has just despatched three loads of Bibles to the Education Committee of the West Riding of Yorkshire. The books number 32,000 copies and weigh 25 tons and travelled by road from the warehouse in Harlow to Wakefield, where they were delivered last week. “The Bible ordered by the Education Committee is the illustrated Authorised Version published to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Bible Society in 1954; it contains over 500 factual illustrations inserted in the text. The books are bound in blue, green and maroon and the Civic Arms are embossed on the spine.” The above news item is from The English Churchman of 6th May, 1955, and reveals a truly encouraging trend in the realm of education in our schools, and that the Word of God has been given a prominent place by such as the West Riding Education Committee. The Bible is the “good seed of the Kingdom” and God can and will bless His Word according to His gracious will when and to whom He pleases.