"The poor ye have always with you." There are
too many Christians who have regarded this statement of Jesus as a
commandment.
The Rev. Charles Kingsley said "Religion is the
opium of the people", and his remark was attributed to Lenin. With
the spread of drug-taking a still greater menace appears. Opium may become
the religion of the people. It is impossible for a state logically to ban
cannabis and derive revenue from alcohol and nicotine.
When the two Scottish churches united in 1929 they
asked the English Government not to hold the General Election in May at
the same time as the Reunion Celebrations. The English replied that, if
the date of the election were postponed it would interfere with the
arrangements for the Derby.
In Canterbury Cathedral I read a memorial tablet to
Archbishop Davidson giving in great detail all his achievements of his
career. The only thing lacking was the recognition of the fact that it was
Scotland that produced him. Speak no evil of the dead!
The proof that Scotland is recovering some sense of
morality is that it is producing no more Archbishops of Canterbury.
Sir Alexander Sprot once told me that as he was passing
Lloyd George’s office he saw Sir William Sutherland (the P.M.’s
Private Secretary) dashing out and heard him shouting to a group of Tory
M.P.’s, "Any of you know a b... that wants to be made a
bishop?" The Church of England professes to believe that its bishops
are chosen by the Holy Ghost (with whom the P.M. is obviously in complete
communion).
Galton, the distinguished mathematician, drew up a
table representing the life span of Presidents, Queens, Kings etc., for
whom public prayers were offered and found that it was less than the
expectation of life of their average citizens for whom no one prayed
publicly.
He found, however, that the difference was not so great
as to justify the conclusion that public prayers did them any harm!
Lord Davidson (formerly Archbishop of Canterbury) once
stated "We Scots have been so busy governing England that we have had
no time to govern Scotland." On the same mental and moral level a man
might say; "True that I neglect my wife and children but look at the
attention I pay to my neighbour’s. wife."
In France the beggars wait for the charitable-minded
outside the churches — in Scotland outside the pubs.