As alluded to above the matter of Sabbath desecration as a cause of divine displeasure befitting war as judgement was held to rigidly within the Free Church. Indeed, of all the Scottish Presbyterian Churches pronouncing on God’s controversy with Great Britain, we see the Free Church and Free Presbyterian Church shared in an unequivocal stance on the nation’s pre-war ‘Sabbath desecration’ as a cause of divine wrath resulting in war and a reason for the prolongation of war whilst, according to these churches’ pronouncements,
the sanctity of the Sabbath continued to be flouted within the nation even during the conflict. Thus, for example, Rev. John Macdonald, Moderator of the 1915 Free Church General Assembly, revealed an absolute conviction in his assertion that “the desecration of the Lord’s Day was a decided cause of the Lord’s wrath.”74 He argued from Scripture that as Sabbath observance was a sign of covenant faithfulness in Israel and, as such, characterised Israel’s “greatness,” so no nation could be blessed if God’s commands were disobeyed.
Scotland, he argued, is particularly identified as having once known “glory” through Sabbath observance but that noticeable change had occurred to lessen such a national attribute.
Macdonald mentioned such examples of desecrators as railway companies, Government ministers holding political rallies on the Sabbath, and Sunday newspapers.
This correlation of perceived Sabbath desecration and divine judgement was consistently observed throughout the various channels of denominational comment throughout the War, whether through the denomination’s Monthly Record or through the courts of the Church.
Archibald Macneilage, for example, in an editorial referring to the Prime Minister, David Lloyd George’s addressing his constituents on the Sabbath, berated him for his “Sabbath-breaking” on the basis that such transgression “is a sin of the age and a prime cause of the Divine (sic) judgements now abroad.”75 Furthermore, the Free Church Presbytery of Lewis cited the involvement of civilian work on the Sabbath as part of the war effort to be a violation of God’s laws “as calculated to hinder rather than help our progress, prosperity and prospects as a nation.”76 Such criticism of activities within the Home Front during the War
74 The Monthly Record of the Free Church of Scotland,, June 1915, p.80.
75 ibid., April 1915, p.47.
76 Minutes of The Free Presbytery of Lewis, 3rd April 1917.
was also expressed in the Free Church Presbytery of Inverness in its correlation of Sabbath desecration with national evils to be repented of.77
The issue of the continuation of the War as a result of Sabbath desecration, as indicated in the findings of the two Presbyteries above, was maintained in further comment from individual Free Church clergy. Thus, for example, in an article in the February 1917 edition of The Monthly Record, Rev. D Macdougall argued that Sabbath work in British shipyards was prolonging the War. He contended thus: “are there not evidences which warrant us to come to the conclusion that the Lord of the Sabbath is over-ruling the efforts of our enemies in taking toll of us for our breaches of His law?” Macdougall based his hypothesis on the argument that “we would have as many ships at the end of the year if we gave God’s law its place in all our efforts.”78
Likewise, we find the convener of the Committee on Religion and Morals, Rev John Macleod of Urray Free Church, Muir of Ord, during the presentation of the Committee’s Report to the 1917 General Assembly, describing as “an unfortunate thing” two “foremost ministers of religion in Edinburgh” (the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Moderator of the Church of Scotland) “giving approval of Sunday concerts to relieve the tedium of life for the colonial soldiers.” Macleod condemned the attitude of the above churchmen for their approval of Sunday work on allotments as “a grievous and terrible mistake.” 79 During the debate which followed, such a forthright stance on the war effort and the Sabbath was echoed by Rev.
James Henry of Burghead who did not believe that munitions work on Sunday “is either a
77 Minutes of The Free Presbytery of Inverness, 30th January 1917.
78 The Monthly Record of the Free Church of Scotland, February 1917, p.26.
79 Cited in The Stornoway Gazette, 1st June 1917.
work of necessity or mercy or a good way of winning the War.” Furthermore, he argued that he did not believe that “tilling the ground on the Lord's Day to be a good way of obtaining an abundant harvest.”80
The Free Church was not alone in its ascribing Sabbath desecration as a factor in divine judgment through war and, concomitantly, its deleterious effect on the war effort. The Church’s claim that Sabbath desecration in Great Britain was a direct factor in divine wrath in the cause of the War and the prolongation of the War was also expressed within the Free Presbyterian Church. Thus, in the November 1914 edition of the Free Presbyterian Magazine, the editor wrote that
Sabbath profanation has become a crying sin - a sin calling for judgment upon a godless, presumptuous people. The Lord cannot allow this to go unpunished, and there may be more disasters on sea and land if our authorities will not show more reverence to God's holy day of rest…81
The same claim of divine censure on Britain through Sabbath desecration was evident in the course of the War. Thus, for example, in a lengthy address on the Fourth Commandment, Rev. D Macfarlane, Dingwall, commented that
It would be expected that when God's judgments are abroad in the earth, the inhabitants of the world would learn righteousness; but instead of that we as a nation are getting more hardened and more wicked. It is not by sinning against God that we can expect victory over our enemies, for so long as we continue in that evil course, it is not only the Gentiles and their allies that fight against us, but God Himself is fighting against us, and will continue to do so till we are brought to repentance and reformation.82
Such a direct attribution of God’s judgement through war because of “Sabbath desecration”
was absent from the main Scottish Presbyterian Churches. While both the United Free
80 ibid., 1st June 1917.
81 The Free Presbyterian Magazine, November 1914, p.248.
82 ibid., June 1917, p.49.
Church and Church of Scotland expressed strong condemnation of breaches of the Lord’s Day as evidenced in such aspects as the printing of newspapers on Sunday, they offered no direct correlation between such practices and God’s judgement against Great Britain. The nearest we find in the Church of Scotland to any ascription of Sabbath desecration as invoking God’s judgement in war is a comment from the Convenor of the Committee on the Lord’s Day, Sir M Stewart, at the General Assembly of May 1915 when, in linking the “war abroad against tyranny” with the “war at home against Sunday desecration” he declared that “national disregard of Sunday was a national peril.”83 However, two years later, the same Convenor admitted to the War making “inroads on strict Sabbath observance” as
“inevitable” while regretting “that the tendency of permissible relaxation was to lessen reverence for the Day of rest.”84 Similarly, at the United Free Church Assembly of that year, the Report of the Committee anent Church Life and Work upheld the sanctity of the Sabbath but no reference was made to divine judgement against the breaking of the Sabbath.
When summarising the issue of the Sabbath and the War there appears a denominational divide between the Free Church and Free Presbyterian Church, on the one hand, and the Church of Scotland and United Free Church on the other hand concerning the direct connection between Sabbath desecration and divine judgement in war. While the latter two Churches limited their pronouncements to making pleas to their respective church members to refrain from any practice that would detract from the sanctity of the Sabbath, the former denominations were dogmatic in their assertion that the abuse of the Sabbath by the British people was a factor in God’s judgement on the nation through war.
83 The Layman’s Book of the General Assembly of 1915, Edinburgh, J Gardner Hitt, 1915 p.65.
84 Ibid., 1917 p.62.