During an all-night sitting of the House of Commons towards the end of July approval was given to the opening of public houses in Scotland on the Sabbath day. It is expected that the decision will take effect next July. This lamentable decision, for which certain sections of the Press strongly campaigned, has received a warm welcome in the licensed trade. Members of Parliament who supported the proposal argued that it would lead to more civilised drinking habits, an argument which seems naive in the extreme.
So far as Scotland is concerned the increase in alcoholism in recent years and particularly the growth in teenage drinking ought to have been sufficient to deter Parliament from allowing any increased facilities for drinking. If the present situation warranted action, then surely it was action to decrease the number of hours for drinking that was called for. The effects of the new legislation, will be seen in increased alcoholism and an increase in all the evils which this brings in its train.
However, the most serious aspect of the matter is the legal sanction which the Government’s legislation gives to this form of Sabbath-breaking. While Parliament has a right to legislate to maintain the law of the Sabbath, it has no authority to sanction departures from the Divine law. By its action the Government has once again set at nought God’s holy law and is in the process of placing on the Statute Book of the land another law which is at variance with the law of God. The consequence of this for the nation will be very serious. God, who is a righteous and holy God, is not unaware of what is taking place and will surely require it of this guilty land of ours. It is sad to think that the day given by God for the spiritual good of men, and the day which marks the rising again from the dead of the Son of man, is to be given over more and more to the satisfying of the sensual lusts of man. If, as the Scriptures make clear, the blessings flowing from the right use of the Sabbath are incalculable,
what are we to say of the loss and damage resulting from its misuse? “Shall I not visit them for these things? saith the Lord: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?” Jer. 9:9.
What need there is for a day of the outpouring of the Spirit of God on the land in repentance and of the raising up of righteous rulers in the nation who will rule the land in the fear of God. May the Lord in His mercy grant it to us as a people.