Week-end Dancing.
In factories where girls are employed on a large scale it has been found that the accident rate has considerably increased of late years. From observations made it appears that by far the highest percentage of accidents occur on Mondays. By those who have studied the matter this is attributed to the fact that the girls are over-tired on Monday after spending the week-end at parties and dances. There will, no doubt, be honourable exceptions in every factory, but we take it that these girls may be taken as a fair sample of factory workers in the large cities throughout the country. We are not so much concerned with the accidents, although that is a matter serious enough. What we are concerned with is the revealing information concerning the conduct of these girls on the Sabbath Day. Rightly used, the Lord’s Day is a day of rest, of refreshment, and of recuperation to body, mind and spirit, and many can sincerely thank the Lord that they find it so. To these the weekly day of rest is something eagerly looked forward to when, within the bounds of necessity and mercy, earthly labours may be laid aside and the opportunity taken advantage of for the restful enjoyment of things spiritual and heavenly, and when it is past it provides food for pleasant and profitable reflection. How terribly sad is the conduct of these young people who, instead of sanctifying the Day of Rest, weary themselves in the vanities and pleasures of gross Sabbath desecration. How sad it is to think of these young women on the way to judgment and eternity turning the blessing of the Sabbath Day into a curse against themselves, and how ominous is the thought that these careless young people will to a large extent provide the parents of a future generation. How the consideration of these things ought to stir up the spirit of prayer among the Lord’s people, especially when we know that this conduct is but one symptom among very many others of a morally and spiritually degenerate age.
Television Blasphemy.
One wonders where will the blasphemous presumption of the ungodly cease. Are there any bounds of sacredness or recognised propriety they will not leap over? We are told that an eight weeks’ play, “Jesus of Nazareth,” is to be shown on the television screen on successive Sabbath evenings specially prepared for children. The play will depict the life of Jesus from boyhood; his death and resurrection to coincide with Easter Sunday. There is no lack of ministerial backing for the play—the Rev. R. C. Walter and the Rev. R. MacKay, both on the religious broadcasting staff of the B.B.C., having been consulted. The chief character chosen to act the part of Jesus is a Scot, the son of a Baptist minister. This sort of thing may be served up to the public in the name of religion, but our name for it is undiluted blasphemy. The dictionary meaning of the latter word is given as “contempt of God,” and when we consider that Jesus is the Mystery of Godliness, God manifest in the flesh, what greater contempt could be offered to God than that He should be impersonated on the stage and screen by a sinful worm of the dust? May the Lord in infinite mercy save our children from the pernicious effects of such a travesty of religion.
Psalms or Hymns.
In the January issue of the Friendly Companion, a Strict Baptist publication, there is an article which complains rather bitterly of “attacks” by the Free Presbyterian Magazine and the Young People’s Magazine. The question at issue is the use of uninspired hymns in the worship of God. This subject has been repeatedly and convincingly dealt with at various times in our Magazines, and we have no intention of dealing with it here. We feel, however, that we cannot allow the article in question to pass altogether without comment. It would appear that our Strict Baptist friends think that these articles are deliberately and exclusively aimed at them. We can assure them that that is not true. The vast majority of bodies professing to worship God in Britain to-day admit to use of uninspired hymns—the Church of Scotland, the Church of England, Baptists, and Brethren of all kinds, and Billy Graham and his associates. Of these the Strict Baptists are, after all, but a very very small minority. Are we going to remain silent because of the objections of this minority? As a Church we are persuaded that hymn singing should have no place in the public worship of God because there is no Scriptural warrant for it, and it is an exceedingly dangerous practice. We intend that our people should be well informed and frequently reminded of this. If in the course of our carrying out what we conceive to be our solemn duty some of our arrows fall into the Strict Baptist camp and wound the consciences of some good people there, can we be held responsible for that?
Mr. J. C. Philpot was doubtless a great and good man and held in high esteem by those of his own persuasion. Nevertheless the name and authority of Mr. Philpot cannot make right a practice which is wrong in itself. Indeed, history provides many examples of the grave danger of using the name of a great and good man to cover up a fault. On the propriety or otherwise of the entirely gratuitous advice with which the article concludes we make no comment.