Proceedings of the Sabbath Observance Committee
“Then I contended with the nobles of Judah, and said unto them, What evil thing is this that ye do, and profane the sabbath day? Did not your fathers thus and did not our God bring all this evil upon us, and upon our city? Yet ye bring more wrath upon Israel by profaning the sabbath’ (Nehemiah 13. 17, 18).
What would Nehemiah think of our observance of the Lord’s Day in the 1970s? For all the promises annexed to its proper observance, and for all the threats of divine judgment upon its profanation, our nation has progressively desecrated the Lord’s Day until it has almost been obliterated from the British scene. Rev. Andrew Thomson, the prefacer of Essays on The Sabbath (1886), warns that ‘much else is certain to pass away when our Sabbaths are lost. Only let us begin to give up our opportunities of public religious instruction and worship, and gradually, but surely, we shall part with religion itself. And when once the fountain of religion is dried up, how precarious and superficial is the morality that exists without it. And when our moral life is blighted, where are our national strength, our solidity, our order, our liberty, our elements of greatness and power? It will require no visible judgments from heaven to ensure such a nation’s decline and fall. The secret of its ruin is within it. And already has the finger of God inscribed on it: “Ichabod, the glory is departed’.’ Living almost a century after these words were written, we are the sad witnesses of their foresight.
In its effort to witness for the Lord’s Day, the above Committee has made numerous protests over the past year. The violation of the Fourth Commandment, however, is so extensive, and the unwillingness of men to submit to the authority of God and His law so downright, that there is little to encourage us, except the knowledge that we are in the line of duty.
The Edinburgh Festival of Arts got off to a start with a huge cavalcade of carnival floats through the streets of the city. Watched by more than 100,000, it was staged on 20th August — a Sabbath. A protest was sent to the District Council, the Lothian Highways Committee, and The Edinburgh Evening News who organised it. The Chairman of the Recreation Committee thanked us for our letter but added: ‘I am afraid I do not altogether agree with the view which you have put forward as we consider that this cavalcade is a harmless form of entertainment which is enjoyed by grown-ups and children. I will never be convinced that a form of happiness on a Sunday is some kind of sin’, etc.
Both Edinburgh and Glasgow District Councils were written about the Firework Displays held on the Lord’s Day in November, respectively at Meadowbank, and at Glasgow Green. Both protests were acknowledged. The Edinburgh letter informs us that our ‘representations have been noted’, and that the Director of Administration intends to ‘bring the matter to the attention of the appropriate committee in a report’.
A number of Scottish theatres and places of entertainment which open on the Lord’s Day have been written. The manager of the Theatre Royal, Glasgow, responded courteously, but concluded: ‘Whilst we sincerely respect the views which you hold and which you state in your letter, I have been asked by my directors to advise you that they do not think it appropriate to keep the theatre closed on the Sabbath so long as there is strong public demand for it to be open’. Apart from another reply, from the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, there was no response to our appeal to close these places on the Lord’s Day.
As was done last year to a lesser extent, our protestation again focused on winter sports, around which a huge trade has developed in Scotland. The National Ski Council, with which we were in touch last year, staged at least seventeen events on the Lord’s Day in its 1978/79 programme. Most ski schools run courses at weekends. These entail the provision of equipment, accommodation, and entertainment specially laid on for sports people. Several letters have been written to various bodies against these activities. A lengthy reply was received from the Secretary of the Scottish National Ski Council in defence of its policy and activities.
Another area of serious Sabbath profanation is the car trade. Anyone who turns to the back pages of his local Saturday newspaper may see the huge number of showrooms open on the Lord’s Day for the viewing and sale of cars. We have written many letters to Scottish firms who are guilty of thus promoting their commercial interests on the Lord’s Day.
Last year, during pre-‘Christmas’ days, some large stores were open seven days a week for the month of December. For instance, Arnotts of the House of Fraser did this. Managers of these shops in our principal cities were written. Apart from Arnotts of Aberdeen, who forwarded our letter to their head office there was no reply to our protests. We also wrote the head office of Tesco Stores, about their Paisley supermarket which opens on the Lord’s Day on a regular basis. In reply, they informed us that they ‘gave the matter very careful consideration, and decided that although there were some who would object to Sunday trading the majority in the community would appreciate the opportunity of shopping when they were free to do so’. They assure us that it is not their intention ‘to open any other stores on Sunday’.
There are several other items that may be mentioned, but the above is a sample of our protests. The reader cannot fail to notice that the Scriptural arguments for the conservation of the Lord’s Day are never met. We conclude with a reference to two items of interest. A protest has been sent to the National Consumer Council who are presently moving for the removal of all restrictions on Sabbath trading in England. A bill is at present before the House of Lords to effect this. We have also written the Prime Minister, expressing our concern for the moral decline of the nation, and deploring in particular the widespread violation of the Fourth Commandment. We remind him of his obligation, in his supreme magisterial office, to support and defend the religion of Jesus Christ, and appeal to him to consider and to implement such measures as would tend to lead our nation back to God and His law. We await his reply.
We would remind readers of the words of Isaiah 56, 2: ‘Blessed is the man . . . that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil’, and we would crave the prayers of those who love the Lord and His Day, that our nation would once again ‘call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable’ (Isaiah 58, 13).
I. R. TALLACH,
Clerk of The Sabbath Observance Committee.
Notes and Comments
The General Election
Once again the nation is called on to elect a new Parliament. How important will the outcome be in view of the present unstable state of the country. The result will doubtless affect the well-being of the country for many years to come.
As none of the parties adopt a specifically Christian approach to the issues affecting the life of the nation, voters will have to decide which, among the parties and candidates, will be most likely to resolve the difficulties now facing the nation, and which will be most likely to uphold moral principles.
It would be most desirable that men and women of high religious and moral principles would be elected to Parliament so that the nation might be governed by a body of men and women having the fear of God in their hearts. However, such candidates are few and far between. In some instances voters may find themselves in a dilemma in that none of the candidates who present themselves for election in their constituency may appear worthy of support. Where this is the case, it is sad that such are put forward for election. The danger to the nation in electing humanists and Roman Catholics to Parliament cannot be over-stressed.
It is our fervent hope and prayer that the new Parliament may be favoured with a greater percentage of Christian M.P.’s and a smaller percentage of Roman Catholics and humanists than the Parliament which was dissolved in April. We would remind our readers of our duty to pray “for kings, and for all in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.”
Assassinations by I.R.A.
The assassination of the British Ambassador to Holland, and the more recent murder of Mr Airy Neave, M.P., Shadow Spokesman for Northern Ireland are further steps in the I.R.A. attack on Britain and its institutions. These wicked acts of evil men bring to the fore once again the sinister shadow of the Irish dimension in British politics. The plain fact of the matter is that the partition of Ireland, though effected only to protect the civil and religious rights of the Protestants of Ulster has never been accepted by the Roman Catholics of Eire. It is clear that they will never rest until the whole of Ireland is subject to their rule.
While we acknowledge that Roman Catholic politicians and Churchmen, north and south of the border, are ready to condemn such outrages as these recent murders, yet it cannot be overlooked that it is the Roman Catholic Church which has fostered hatred to Britain in the hearts of the Roman Catholic Irish. The terrorism in Northern Ireland might long ago have been brought to an end were there not a sympathetic response to it in the hearts of many of the Irish. It will not be known till the Great Day of Judgment how much of the blood shed in Northern Ireland lies at the door of the Roman Catholic Church.
The duty of preserving the liberties of the Protestants of Northern Ireland has cost, and is costing our nation dearly in the life-blood of the soldiers killed there. Yet what other alternative is there apart from yielding up the Protestants of Ulster as a sacrifice to the most iniquitous system the world has ever seen — that is, to the power of the Church of Rome. May these troubles and calamities stir us up to more earnest pleading for the conversion of the Roman Catholics of Eire and Ulster. Only in this way will a settled peace descend on that troubled land, and true amity prevail in the hearts of all the people of that land.
Schism
The Editor of the Bulwark in an article on the Scottish Churches in the March/April issue of the Magazine stresses the similarity of the positions of the Free Church, the Free Presbyterian Church and the Reformed Presbyterian Church. He thinks an ‘impartial’ observer must be struck with the scandal of three churches so close in doctrine and practice standing apart from one another. He maintains that the New Testament would call this schism and asks — Who will be the first to acknowledge it?
The charge of schism has often been levelled at the Free Presbyterian Church and has been answered once and again. The fact that he introduces an ‘impartial’ observer in order to make the charge, and also his own interpretation of New Testament teaching on schism, gives no added weight to the charge. The Free Presbyterian Church has stated unequivocally the Scriptural grounds on which she is ready to unite with other Churches claiming to adhere to Reformation principles and practice. She has no intention of abandoning her distinctive position by entering a vague evangelical union of the smaller Presbyterian Churches. It is vain for the Editor of the Bulwark to think otherwise.
Merely beating the ecumenical drum will not do. If there is to be a union of Churches in Scotland on a Scriptural basis, then what is required is a genuine return to Scriptural apostolic and reformed belief and practice. Then there will be little difficulty joining Churches together for they will be of one heart and one mind.