FIFTY years ago it was a rare thing in the Highlands to see someone going about his worldly business on the Lord’s day while other people, for the most part, made their way to church. Now it is comparatively rare to see people going to church on a Sabbath, especially on Sabbath evening, while others on the whole desecrate the Sabbath. Last year, Highland Games were held on a Sabbath in Beauly — the first time this had happened in the Highlands. Although there were several protests to the organisers, the Games were held on a Sabbath again this year. The roadside placards which advertised the Games said, “Remember Sunday. June 25th. Beauly Games”, as if in defiance of the Commandment of God of which the organisers were made well aware: “Remember the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy…”
As it is in the Highlands, so it is in the nation — we are defiantly saying, by our conduct at least, “Who is the Lord, that we should obey Him?” It is tragic that our leaders, in the national churches and in Parliament, lead us in our downward course. Church leaders abhor the idea of giving a lead from the Word of God. Rather, as someone observed, they are “follow on leaders” who are led by public opinion. Hence, while it is shocking, it is not altogether surprising that some bishops state (in the Report on Cohabitation by the Church of England Board for Social Responsibility) that it is “unhelpful” to describe cohabiting couples as “living in sin” and that we are to avoid judgemental attitudes to fornication. Little wonder that the claim by the Chairman of the Board, the Bishop of Liverpool, that he is an evangelical, has moved one correspondent to the English Churchman to ask, “What kind of a conversion has a man experienced that enables him to produce a report which teaches the exact opposite of God’s Revealed Word?”
When we look in the direction of our political leaders we see that they enact laws which encourage sodomy, open the floodgates to Sabbath desecration, promote nationwide gambling, and “legalise” the horrendous slaying of unborn infants in the womb. Since the Abortion Act came into force in 1967, almost four million abortions, or about 400 for every day of the year, have been carried out.
There is no question but that ours is a decadent and brutal age. As a nation, we have turned our back on God and lost our bearings. We have cast off our moorings and are drifting on a sunless sea. Yet, we persist in saying to God, “Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways.” Would not the God of heaven be just in saying with regard to us, “Let them alone. Let them go their own way”? Eventual destruction would be the fearful result if He did so. How much then we should be pleading that the Lord would not leave us to ourselves but that He would return in the power of His Spirit to awaken us to be ashamed of our sins and to return to Him.
Is it possible that there can be such a national change of heart? Some, who are concerned about our declined morality and the signs of the Divine displeasure against us, fear that there can be no betterment but rather increasing acceleration in our downward course. As they survey the land full of the dry bones of spiritual death and moral desolation, and as they recollect that God said about Israel in her low moral and spiritual state, “These bones are the whole house of Israel,” they cannot but say, “These bones are the whole nation of Britain. Our bones are dried and our hope is lost.”
Is it possible that these bones can live? There is hope! The God who looks upon the sons of men and sees them in their sin and misery is the God who says, “My word shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” It seems impossible, when we have become a largely unchurched nation, that the Word of God will ever reach the ears of the people, let alone have any effect on them. However, we believe that the day will come — and it may not be as far away as some think — when the command of God, “O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord,” will impinge on the consciences of the people.
The Israelites, who had rebelled against God and therefore became captives in Babylon, were brought by God to a new stage in their history. Under godly leaders such as Ezra and Nehemiah, their hearts were opened to the Word of God, and they covenanted to obey their God. Their returning to God was, of course, the result of the working of the Holy Spirit. Before this, God had promised, through Ezekiel, that He would put His Spirit within them, and Ezekiel therefore prayed, in words which God gave him to pray, “Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain that they may live.”
Therefore the Church is to persevere in preserving and proclaiming the Word of God, all the while praying for, and depending upon, the Holy Spirit of whom it is written, “Not by might nor by power but by my Spirit saith the Lord.” In the Lord’s time, and by His power, these dry bones shall surely live.
The Editor