Remembering VE day
Fifty years ago, on the 8th day of May, 1945, the Second World War, as far as hostilities in Europe were concerned, came to an end and ever since then that date is remembered as VE Day. Plans are at present afoot to keep the event in remembrance with all sorts of events being planned some of which will be far from meriting our approval. No doubt famous generals will be remembered and famous battles fought on land, sea and in the air will be recalled with the valiant exploits of some brave men receiving special mention. Deservedly so, but who, outside our own bounds, will remember or make mention of the name of the Rev John Peter MacQueen? Mr MacQueen was a patriot of the first order; he was also a humble, holy minister of Christ who wrestled with the Lord at the throne of grace. It was Divine help he was soliciting and he was doing so in the knowledge that “the horse is prepared against the day of battle: but safety is of the Lord.” It is on record that, at the height of the Battle of Britain, Lord Dowding, who was Commander-in-Chief of Fighter Command at the time, made the following statement: “While I yield to none in admiration of our unsurpassed brave young airmen, we owe more to the Lord’s unseen praying people than can ever be estimated.” “This truthful admission”, Mr MacQueen commented, “does not, in the least degree, detract from the unprecedented prowess of those concerning whom Sir Winston Churchill said: ‘Never in the field of human endeavour have so many owed so much to so few.’ When the hands of Moses were supported, Israel prevailed. The prayer of faith is infinitely more powerful than all the combined inventions of Satan and men.” Mr MacQueen lived in Battersea, in a flat which had a balcony. From that viewpoint he was able to observe what was happening over a wide area of the heart of London. At the insistence of certain friends, in whose judgment, he tells us, he had confidence, Mr MacQueen was prevailed upon to relate certain incidents which emphasised “the opportuneness and appropriateness of prayer in all circumstances”. This is part of what he wrote: “The next most outstandingly terrible incident was the burning of the immediate vicinity of St Paul’s Cathedral with German liquid fire-bombs, the obvious, and afterwards confessed, object being the ruin of The City (the area within earshot of Bow Bells), and especially the Cathedral itself, the pride of British, and especially English architecture. The fire was to light the way for the planned sweep of bombers carrying land-mines. At 12 o’clock midnight, that Sabbath night, the whole of London was almost as brilliantly lit as if it were the mid-day sun by the fires, while smoke of various colours, red, yellow, black and blue ascended skywards in billowing air waves — a real awe-inspiring spectacle. Knowing London was receiving its most terrible visitation of the war, and worse designed to follow, the present writer prayed as follows: ‘O gracious and most blessed One, there was a day in the history of my native land when Thy blessed servant, Alexander Peden, pursued by the ruthless dragoons of “the bloody Claverhouse,” prayed, “Lord cast Thy skirt around poor old Sandy,” and the dense rapidly-descending fog frustrated the evil designs of, and discomfited, the vile dragoons, so now do Thou cause such dense fog to descend upon the German aerodromes in Holland, Belgium and France as will prevent the German bombers from getting in and out, and also prevent fiendish joy this night in the heart of the devil, the Pope of Rome, Hitler, Mussolini, Goering, Goebbels and all Jesuitized Romanists. Preserve Thou St Paul’s Cathedral, as it was built for Protestant worship, but permit one bomb to get through the roof to destroy the Heaven-provoking, idolatrous Anglo-Catholic altar. All this was answered immediately to the letter, and while newspapers and booklets have recorded the fact that German bombers over London got orders to return at once, as dense fog had descended on the aerodromes, my part in it is narrated now for the first time. The land-mines never came and bombers force-landed and crashed. Unfortunately such is the incorrigible idolatry of the vile human heart, since then another costlier Heaven-provoking altar has been rebuilt by these modern sons of Belial the Anglo-Catholic Jesuits! These facts are related now under the omniscient eye of the Supreme Judge at Whose solemn Tribunal I shall soon have to render my account. The unbeliever and the atheist will say that, admittedly, these are strange coincidences, and very wonderful, but we reply that when so-called coincidences multiply in succession over a period of years they become miracles — Divine miracles, in answer to the poor prayers of a feeble believing sinner of Adam’s fallen race, but only by the grace of God.'”
The lack of Moral and Spiritual Leadership
If ever our nation was in need of moral and spiritual leadership it is at this present juncture in its history. The immoral and scandalous behaviour of men in high places is constantly making headlines in the public press. On their behaviour being exposed, far from acknowledging their guilt, they only do their utmost to excuse and extenuate their conduct. The list of ministers resigning from the Government on account of their adulterous behaviour being exposed is being constantly added to and we have even the thrice-married Deputy Governor of the Bank of England now being forced to resign his office. Men’s private lives, immoral or otherwise, are their own business, we are told by some people, and ought not to be taken into account as long as they fulfil their public duties in an acceptable and competent manner. We believe, on the contrary, that if a man cannot be faithful to his marriage vows, we cannot have confidence in him that he will be faithful to other vows that he may come under, whether it be the Privy Council oath, as in the case of cabinet ministers, or the Coronation Oath, as far as the Heir to the throne is concerned.
Edinburgh honours the Cardinal
Edinburgh, the city where John Knox’s dust lies and where the Reformation Church of Scotland had its base and where it flourished, has given an official welcome to Thomas Winning, the recently-appointed Roman cardinal. We are told that he attended, within the city chambers, a lunch held in his honour by the Lord Provost before proceeding to St Mary’s Cathedral, which was packed with 1000 people and where a celebratory mass was held. Later in the day, Lothian Regional Council’s Convener hosted a reception for him. How solemn and sad that this representative of “the man of sin and son of perdition” should be honoured and feted in this manner in Scotland’s capital city. What an affront to Knox’s memory and all the martyrs who died bearing witness against the satanic system of which Cardinal Winning is the chief representative in Scotland. One thousand people assembled to celebrate mass where mass was at one time fearlessly pronounced to be blasphemous idolatry and accordingly abolished from the land! Antichrist is setting up his ensigns in our midst and we have reason to be concerned. Knox, who feared one mass more “than if ten thousand armed enemies were landed”, did not underestimate the enemy’s power and neither should we. “Arise O God, plead thine own cause!”
Two telling Photographs
Every picture, it is commonly said, tells a story and the saying seemed to be particularly apt in connection with two particular photographs which appeared recently in the public press. One was taken in St Peter’s Basilica in Rome and showed a number of Roman Catholic bishops in flowing robes lying prostrate on their faces before the Pope seated on his pontifical chair. Were we looking at something which had occurred in the middle ages and had been re-enacted for some purpose or other? Perhaps the white-robed figure in the chair was that of Cesare Borgia? Or was it Gregory VII, the noted Hildebrand, who excommunicated the emperor, Henry IV of Germany, and then had the satisfaction of seeing him “barefooted, and in raiment of sackcloth, waiting three days and three nights at the castle gates of Canossa, amid the winter drifts, suing for forgiveness”? No, the caption tells us that the year is 1995, and that the figure seated on the dais to whom homage is being done in this extreme and degrading manner is none other than John-Paul II, the present incumbent of the papal chair. The message is clear: the present Pope, even if he is not publicly wearing the three-tiered tiara, is every bit as autocratic as his predecessors and any changes which have taken place in the Roman Catholic Church have been only cosmetic and very likely temporary, to remain in place until, as she hopes, her aims have been achieved. The other photograph portrays twelve young women lying prostrate on the ground with their arms outstretched but this time in front of a vehicle. The place is Madras, India, and we are informed that the young women are nuns in training. They are found in this posture in order to have “their hands run over during a martial arts training session designed to help them deal with possible attacks.” How civilized men could cause young women to pass through such an ordeal is beyond our understanding. Loraine Boettner points out that “Christ established no convents, no nunneries. In the true Christian church there are no high stone walls, no locked doors and barred windows such as so often have been a part of the Roman convent system. Instead, the convent system is of pagan origin. Practically every Buddhist temple in India has its virgins’ consecrated to the service of the god worshipped there, complete with holy water, holy ashes, charms, bones, bells, and pictures, all blessed by priests. The historical fact is that the Buddhist convent system antedated the Roman Catholic system of pious slavery of women by more than 500 years. What, then, must be our conclusion regarding the convent system? That it is abominably cruel, unnatural, and unscriptural, and that it should be abolished by law.”
Easter “Passion Play” Profanities
New depths in blasphemy and profanity seem to have been plumbed by those responsible for the production of a “passion play” purporting to re-enact the events connected with the death of the Saviour and which was acted out in London on so-called “Good Friday”. The Daily Telegraph tells us that even some members of the audience walked out in tears on account of the frequency of swear words and profanities, some of which the paper went the length of quoting in its report of the event. We are sure many of its readers were as shocked as we were to read that this should take place within the precincts of Westminster Abbey and that its staging and profane language should be defended by the superintendent minister of the Methodist Central Hall from which the procession to Westminster Abbey set off. We are told that the play was financed jointly by “the Methodist, Anglican and Roman Catholic Churches” and that it was watched by “thousands of spectators and tourists as well as invited guests who included senior police officers, the Salvation Army and other churches”. Among those present were Dr David Hope, who is soon to be installed as the Archbishop of York and Cardinal Basil Hume. The former is reported as having described the play as “very earthy”, while the latter simply said that he would have preferred “something more meditative”. In our view it was satanic from beginning to end. We condemn the observance of Easter as we condemn the observance of Christmas and for the same reason — they are both of Pagan, Popish origin. As the spiritual darkness deepens so we find their observance coming more and more to the fore.
Additional note: Even on the island of Skye an ecumenical “Easter Rally” was to be held in Kyleakin on April 15. The Church of Scotland minister organising the event expressed the hope that “denominational barriers will be forgotten at Easter.” The main speaker was to be the Rev Kenneth MacDonald, the minister of the Free Church at Rosskeen.
Mission News
Mission friends will be sorry to hear that there has been a severe drought in Matabeleland, and a complete failure of the crops. Among the Maize plants the people grow pumpkin, sweet potatoes and ground nuts. There will be none of these vegetables this year. Where there is even one member of the family working in town his wage will help a little, but where the family depends entirely on the crops the family is in sad straits.
The cattle require green grass in order to survive in health. Hay can be bought from local farmers and lucerne can be purchased in Bulawayo but only a few can afford to buy. Donkeys and goats can be a menace. The Donkeys pull up the grass roots of the previous season and the goats eat the bark of the trees.
The Hospital at Mbuma has been very busy but not with the usual influx of malarial patients. It is thought that the spraying of D.D.T. to kill off the plague germs may have killed off the malarial mosquitoes. That would be a relief.
It has been interesting to receive a letter from Louise Lieper telling of her initial experiences and reactions to life remote Mbuma. Sister Anne Zekveld was to have been Louise’s guide and mentor for the first few weeks in the wards, but Anne met with quite a serious accident on the Mission. She suffered a fractured knee and other lesser injuries and had to go to Bulawayo for treatment.
Louise says in her letter that it is a new kind of life being shut away from the outside world for weeks on end. It is often difficult to get world news on the Radio probably because of weather conditions, thunder and lightning on occasions. She has been surprised to see little African babies come to hospital with strings of beads round their tiny waists, and although the mothers smile and say they are only for ornamentation Louise is not so sure as she has heard something of the local superstitions.
On her first night of duty she met with one small crisis after another and she had to call one of the off-duty Sisters. This was a trial. However, in a few days’ time when she was able to sit on the verandah of her home in the cool of the evening, to listen to the night sounds of the forest around, and to gaze up into the extraordinary beauty of the southern sky ablaze with myriads of stars and a bright moon, she says there was so much evidence of the Creator’s hand that she felt at peace and reassured.
One of the Sisters had an unusual patient, a young woman who had been trained as a ‘inyanga’, a Witch-Doctor. She was given a Gospel tract which she promised to read. The Sisters response was, “If we could wrestle in prayer for such benighted souls.”
Mr Mziya, Administrator, and Levi Ngwenya, paid a recent visit to Binga and held services and Msenga and at Samende. There were sixty of a congregation at Msenga and about a hundred at Samende. The people had no crops whatsoever and the men were going out to the forest to look for fruit. Perhaps some readers will remember that the people at Binga are of the Tonga tribe who were moved from a valley by the Zambezi River some years ago as the Government had decided to dam up the river to form a huge lake. This lake is known as Lake Kariba and was created to operate a hydro-electric plant for supplying both sides of the gorge with electricity. The Tonga were very reluctant to move from the valley where they had an abundance of fish and arable land, to hilly, rough, stony ground where there was very little good soil and fish was no longer available except at a price.
News has come from Ingwenya of the good results received in the O Level examinations. The best pupil had nine A passes. In the non-academic stream in History and Bible the pupils did very well. These were Etta MacLennan’s classes and seeing she has retired it is not out of place to congratulate her, in particular.