EXERCISED and intelligent Christians in Britain today must indeed be deeply concerned regarding certain and particular facts affecting our beloved nation at the present time. We view with grief, as others do, the backsliding and sins of the people in general, and thereby dishonour done to God, which undoubtedly has brought much of our national troubles upon us in recent times. Yet, we cannot, and must not, ignore the fact that God has still left the ordinances of the Christian Church among us, and that He has a goodly remnant of godfearing men and women according to the election grace, still in our midst as a land. The Christian faith is openly professed, and even our Throne is based upon Christian and Protestant principles. This is unique among the nations of the world; and with all our national sins and imperfections, there still exists among us at home and abroad a witness on the side of God’s Word, and the Gospel of Christ, the Saviour of lost sinners, and on the part of many a real desire to cleave to moral standards, but in the midst of world-wide paganism, apostasy, and false religions, the Church of Christ and what it stands for, still remains among us, with full liberty to pursue her activities and witness.
Now, during recent months we have felt a definite and constant anxiety respecting the attitude and actions of persons and powers toward Britain, which have been of a hostile nature. We do not lay so much stress upon one or two conspicuous events which have occasioned critical controversy, but upon an underlying, international atmosphere of animus and hatred toward Britain, emanating certainly in words and deeds from many quarters. We sense an all-round desire to undermine and weaken Britain as a world Power and as a leading influential nation. Our feeling in this matter is difficult to define, but it is derived from a multiplicity of facts which, when considered together, seem as if pointing to a concerted plan, the author of which may well be Satan.
There are references in a book review appearing in this issue of the magazine, to Roman Catholicism (Antichrist), Communism, and materialism in America. Long before this book review came to our hand, we were anxiously concerned about the hostility to Britain by just these three evil powers, and we herewith homologate observations made by the review writer on this serious aspect of matters which affect Britain. The aforesaid evil powers, and the Vatican pre-eminent among them, are a present-day danger to our beloved nation. And some activities have come to such a head, that armed raids are being made as near home as Ulster, by Roman Catholic bandits, who are prepared to kill and destroy, in Protestant Ulster, to further the aims of Rome. And a number of responsible persons have publicly given it as their opinion, that there are business influences in America, which would be well satisfied if our economic resources in the Middle East were dried up and Britain weakened and made dependent on America. This would have deep implications. As for the rulers in Moscow, they are opposed to any religion, and are like the fool who says in his heart, that there is no God. Men of this type can perpetrate any wickedness, as revealed on the Continent of Europe recently. And so Britain must be an object of hatred on religious as well as political grounds. And Russia is a mighty and brutal Power, which undoubtedly has stirred up widespread opposition to Britain in the Middle East, and elsewhere.
But, having no intention of raising purely political questions, we would just repeat that Britain is at present surrounded by enemies, who hate the Bible, the Christian religion, morality, Protestantism, and the blessed privileges flowing from an open Bible and the pure Gospel of Christ.
And so those who fear God and love this our nation, are obliged at this present time, to give themselves much to fervent prayer, by the help of grace; pleading that the Lord would turn us again from our sins, and cause His face to shine upon us as a nation, and that He would be as “a wall of fire” round about Britain; to preserve her from the designs and activities of Antichrist, Communism and materialism. If the Lord will come for our deliverance and preservation, no weapon formed against the nation will prosper; and the Lord Himself will be glorified. In addition, the people of God must seek to follow David and pray: “And let the whole earth be filled with his glory: Amen and Amen” (Psalm lxxii.).