“SABBATH BREAKER”

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 174, 20 April 1937, Page 3

“SABBATH BREAKER”

Job Started at 1111.10 on Sundays Malcolm Campbell, the 30-year-old steward of the Western Isles passenger steamer, Loch Ness, who appeared before the Kirk session of the Applecross Free Presbyterian Church, lost th© last chance of rejoining his ship. He was threatened with expulsion from the church if he did not give up his job, which entailed his working on Sundays. IVlien on her way to Stornoway the Loch Ness called at Applecross, a tiny hamlet on the Atlantic seaboard of Ross-shire, Mr. Campbell stayed at home. The ship sailed away without him and in this way the penitent, who has hitherto steadfastly declined to divulge his intentions, indicated to his fellow villagers that he had sacrificed his job fop his religious beliefs. At a prayer meeting held in the little church where the previous clay he faced his judges, among them his 80-year-old father, his reconciliation with the Church whose stern ordinances he was accused of having broken, was completed. No reference was made to the affair, the church being satisfied that Mr. Campbell has ' made full amends for his alleged lapse. The terms of the offence were “that in contravention to the laws of the church by working on the Loch Ness when she left Stornoway every Sunday at 11 p.m., he broke the Sabbath Day.” Mr. Campbell, bereft of the job which he has held for several years, is humbly reconciling himself to a return to the hard life of a highland crofter. The case aroused widespread criticism against the church, as on the occasion when, two years ago. the Provost of Dornoch, Mr. John Murray, was suspended because he allowed dancing at a Christinas party, at his house.