The Bible Confirmed in Palestine.
Although the believer in God’s Word does not require external proof of its infallibility, yet it is encouraging and deeply interesting to every Christian to read of modern discoveries which give added proof of the truth of the scriptures. A fresh case in point is, that about fifteen miles north of Eilath in Israel, there are mines dating back to King Solomon’s days which are now starting to yield copper again after a lapse of 3,000 years. A short distance from an ancient smelting site where age-old copper slags were found, a new £4 million copper refinery is now going into operation. And to quote further from The Scotsman, “Those who seek present-day confirmation of Biblical quotations point to Wadi Timna to show how accurate was the description of the Holy Land as a country, ‘A land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass'” (Deuteronomy, chapter viii, verse 9). We may add a point of interest by recording that the translators of our Authorised Version of the Bible in relation to the words, “Thy shoes shall be iron and brass” (Deuteronomy chapter xxxiii, verse 25), give an alternative reading in the margin, viz., “Under thy shoes shall be brass.” And so the Jews in Israel today are finding copper under their shoes, according to the Bible.
Churchman Sees the Effect of Sabbath Work.
Rev. Thomas Low, of St. Kenneth’s Church of Scotland, Govan, Glasgow (the district we refer to in our opening article), and convener of his Presbytery’s Industry Committee, referred at recent Presbytery to “the problem of Sunday working.” We note that he refers not to “the sin of Sunday working,” but to the “problem”; and no wonder there is a problem when transgression of God’s holy law is not referred to and spoken of as sin. Well, Mr. Low said, that this working on God’s holy day was
“resulting in Church congregations becoming, in the main, a population of ageing men and ageless women.” Further, he said, “we get the men too late in life after industry has no use for them in Sunday employment. We get them when they retire. . . .” All this talk is completely divorced from any apparent concern for the glory of God and His Law, and merely applicable to concern about the manpower and population of the Church. There is no thought as to whether men are “born again” or not, when they do retire from work and active sinning on the Sabbath. What a day we have fallen upon! And to revert again to our opening article, are not the above facts further proof of paganism in Govan as well as in Islay? A religion without regard to the Sabbath, and the need of repentance over sin; and which accepts all men, Sabbath breakers included, as the children of God automatically, is not the Christian religion.
Elders Defend Church Play About a Pig.
It is really sad that we have to write comments for the information of our people as to the low state of Church life in our land as in the following matter. The press referred last month to the fact that two elders of Knox’s United Free Church, Montrose, resigned as a protest against a decision by the Session that the Church dramatic club must submit plays to them for censorship. The play which began the trouble was called “A Pig in a Poke.” Apart from one unseemly reference in the play which was cut out, the play included the opening of a bottle of wine to celebrate a certain event, and so on. And so the elders, enthusiastic supporters of the Dramatic Club, saw fit to protest and resign, when this play was censored, and Session supervision required. What a commentary on supposed Christian elders in a congregation with the name of Knox! One thing strikes us, among other matters, that we always thought the United Free Church were strong temperance advocates, and advocates of unfermented wine even at the Lord’s Supper. Yet dramatic plays, including the opening of a bottle of wine, are considered a normal part of congregational activities by the resigning elders. Anyway, what have dramatic plays got to do with the Church of Christ? The fact is, that the Church to a large extent is in ruins religiously.
Malta and Great Britain.
We read with concern that the Premier of Roman Catholic Malta was intending to visit London some time in March to see Mr. Alan Lennox-Boyd, the Colonial Secretary, on the vexed and dangerous suggestion of the integration of Malta with the United Kingdom. We are relieved for the present that this project is faced with some difficulties. One of them is that it may be prevented by
British insistence on provisions for religious freedom in terms that could be interpreted in Malta as threatening the privileged position of the Roman Catholic Church. It is said that the Maltese are united against any encroachment upon this Roman Catholic position. And so we hope that the dangerous idea of integration with Maltese sitting as Members of Parliament in London will never come to fruition. We were glad to read the following account of a Report given in at the February Commission of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland: —
“A deliverance composed by the Church and Nation Committee urging the enforcement and preservation of such freedom was adopted by the commission, which is now empowered by new regulations to do this.” The adoption of the deliverance was moved by Dr. A. Nevile Davidson, convener of the committee.
“The authority of the Roman Catholic Church on Malta was very great,” continued Dr. Davidson, “and Canon Law was unquestionably accepted as binding by most citizens. It was true that religious freedom was written in as a principle of the present constitution.”
He read a section which referred to the right of “free conscience” and the enjoyment of free exercise of respective modes of worship.
“Yet such freedom has frequently been denied in practice,” Dr. Davidson declared.
Ministers of Churches other than the Roman Catholics were not permitted to appear in public in their robes, nor were they allowed to conduct religious services in places other than their own churches.
Marriages of Protestants and Roman Catholics celebrated in English or Presbyterian churches on the island were not regarded as valid.
“We are asking that the principle of religious freedom and toleration, so dear to us in Scotland, should be written into any new constitution of Malta, and that there should be some guarantee that this freedom can be maintained and enforced.”