Cylchgronau Cymru

Chwiliwch trwy dros 450 o deitlau a 1.2 miliwn o dudalennau

VOLUME XV THE NUMBER II WELSH OUTLOOK Where there is no vision the people perish NOTES OF THE MONTH IN one of the greatest of the mediaeval romances the climax of human fortitude and endurance is exemplified in the case of the old Christian King, who, after a long life of strife and struggle, thought at last he had won and secured peace and rest. But when the news reaches him that all he had striven for was again in peril, he once more puts on his armour, un- sheathes his old sword, and merely exclaims, "Oh! God! what a weary life I lead." There is no more signal witness to the complete reason- ableness of human optimism as to the future than the appearance in times of stress and danger of the old white-haired warriors on the campaign- ing fields. All this and more occurred to us when we read even the sketchiest report of Principal Owen Prys' fine address to the East Glamorgan Presbytery at Barry recently, on the subject of the Enabling Bill which the denomination pro- poses to introduce into Parliament. Principal Prys emphasised the dangerous duality in the present position of his Church, as, indeed, in the case of most other Churches. On the one hand the Church is, as Principal Prys said, "a spiritual body concerned with spiritual matters, the wor- ship of God, and the preaching of Christ." Ob- viously to do its work effectively in this respect it must be able to react to the great intellectual, social and moral movements of its age. Without loosening its hold on the fundamentals of its faith, it must, at the least, be able to speak of them and to express them in an intelligible voca- bulary. But, on the other hand, it is unfortu- nately "a corporation holding property, and in that capacity subject to the law of the land," and when, as in the case of the Welsh Presby- terian Church, a literal Confession of Faith is incorporated in a Constitutional Deed which re- FEBRUARY 1928 ceived the confirmation of Parliament a century ago, and which in terms prohibits a discussion of even the desirability of a restatement of the Con- fession, the position of the Church becomes in- tolerable. If the Ministers of the Church are for- ever to be bound by the strict legalist interpreta- tion of old deeds at the will and whims of Chancery lawyers, then, as a witty Dean once said, they will have to adapt their teaching and preaching to the congregation under the ground in the churchyard. If, on the other hand, they are to be the moulders of character, the redeemers of their own little corners of life, the vanguard of the small force which will, we trust, always resist the onslaughts of materialism and cynic- ism, they must possess the heritage of being honest in thought, frank in discussion, and sin- cere in expression. In other words, the ghastly influence of mortmain must be removed. The croakers may say that the age is an irreligious one, but if they mended their manners a little, they might see things in a different light. Prin- cipal Prys, in a most moderate and philosophic statement, did two salutary things. By an indis- putable historical review, he made it for ever- more impossible for the reactionaries to use the great name of John Elias as the apostle of credal fossilization, and he also showed that a man who for the greater part of a life-time has been in most intimate contact with the religious mind of the youth of Wales in its formative period, be- lieves in freedom and is not afraid when "old and grey and full of years" to say so. IT is reassuring to find that the terms of the Covenant of the League of Nations are now receiving much more detailed attention in some important quarters in Wales than has ever be-