ST. CUTHBERT'S FONT.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1509, 3 August 1912, Page 9

ST. CUTHBERT'S FONT.

DISCUSSION IN ASSEMBLY. Tlicro was a largo attendance of ladies in the public galleries when tho report of tho Committee appointed to inquire into the matter of tho baptismal font in St. Cuthbert's Church, Edinburgh, was taken up in the Church of Scotland Assembly on Juno G. Tho deliverance proposed by tlio Committee for acceptance by tho Assembly s'.tttcd that tlio bronze group by which tho font was surmounted was not, and was not likely to become, an object of idolatrous adoration, and that it was unnecessary for tho Assembly to take any action with regard to this particular matter. With regard to the general question raised by the inquiry, the deliverance proposed that the Assembly, "whilst cordially approving the reverent and becoming adornment of the House of God, direct and enjoin that caution bo exercised in tho introduction to churches, even f ur decorative purposes, of sculptural representations of sacred persons, or other symbols which may bo deemed to bo specially associated with the creature-worsliip or other errors of the Church of Rome," Dr.M'Adam Muir indicated that ho had no objection to accept an amendment proposed by Mr. Ireland and delete tho phrase ending with "creature worship or otlier errors of tlio Church of Rome." After some discussion a test vote was taken between the various motions which had been put forward, and tlicro being a clear majority in favour of tho Committee's'■deliverance over tho otlier motions, the Committee's deliverance was accordingly declared the finding of tlio Assembly amid some cheering on tho part of tho victorious party. The Rev. Jacob Primmer was subsequently called to tho bar, and the decision arrived at by tlio Assembly intimated to him. • The objection had reference to a. carved representation on the font of the Madonna auTl Child. Tho Rev. A. W. Ferguson, 8.8., writing in tho "British Weekly," states:—"No one who listened to the debate on this vexed question can have ic,ny real fear about tho essential soundness of the Protestantism of our Church. If. for instance, with full knowledge of all tho facts (that this font was a. copy of a Madonna and Child —that i'n one of the panels of its baso there was a portrait medallion of her in whose memory the gift was to bo made, etc., etc.), if with full knowledge of all the facts, and before the gift was accepted, the General Assembly had been asked to vote Yes or No for the aeceplanco of the gift, it is an absolute, certainty that the result would have been practicnilv unanimously No. None of us want -Madonnas in our churches. But the thing has been done. Tho mistake had boon committed. And it was another story to demand the removal of the font.. My Protestantism is not to'be impugned beeansa to a 'No Popery' cry I refuse to harbour this and that suspicion in my mind; because, I refuse to commit a grave, discourtesy; becausa I rcfuso to tremble at the th'in end of the wedge, or to believe that there is no distinction between a blunder and a crime." ! The London "Tablet" (Roman Catholic) states:—"What will stand out as the most notable event, after tlio Church Union debates, in the meetings of (he General Aswmbly of tho Scottish Established Church in Edinburgh is its decision to allow tho Madonna and Child to remain surmounting tho font iii- St. Cuthbert's Church. This decision marks an immense, even a revolutionary, change in tho attitude of Picsbyterians towards statues and images in churches. Jlo.ro aro life-sized, bro.iuo figures of our Lady and tlio Divino Infant, making, along with tho font, a towering group of 10J- fret in height, set up in his kirk by a minister and his kirk session (i.e., a body of laymen assisting him in working the parish), and now sanctioned by the supreme Church Court in faco of an agitation against it—and all this in Calvinistic Scotland."