&ermon - The Trades House Digital Library

' . Helping ' •

Our Neighbours

. '

~ &ermon BY

The Reverend A , NEVILE DAVIDSON, D.D.

(c) Trades House of Glasgow 2019

Helping Our Neighbours

~ ~trmon

Preached in Glasgow Cathedral

on Sunday, 22nd October, 1944,

at the Annual Visit of the

Deacon-Convener and Members

of The Trades House of Glasgow

BY

The Reverend A. NEVILE DAVIDSON, 0.0. ,

Minister at Glatgow Cathedral

Published by request of the Deacon-Convener,

the Collector, the Late Convener, and the

Late Collector.

1944.


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'The following Gentlemen were invited to the Service;-

THE TRADES HOUSE OF GLASGOW DANIEL DUNCAN, Esquire, Deacon-Convener.

DOUGLAS MACNAUGHTON, Esquire, M.C., Collector.

THOMAS HART, Esquire , Late Convener.

WALTER MACFARLANE, Esquire, D.S.O., T.D., Late Collector.

HAMMERMEN.

A. MURRAY STEPHEN, Deacon. Sir HAROLD E. YARROW, Bt.,

C.B.E., Late Deacon. R. GRAHAM NAPIER. JAMES GILCHRIST. J. W. W. DRYSDALE. D. C. STRWART BLACKLOCK.

TAILORS.

JOHN WATT, jun., Deacon. FRANK A. B. PRESTON,

Late Deacon. ARTHUR CRUICKSHANK. J. FORBRS LAING. ALEXANDER C. CHALMERS. R. MACGREGOR WHITELAW.

CORDINERS.

J. MARTIN BAXTRR, Deacon. WILLIAM C. LAING, Late Dllacon. The Rt. Hon. LORD SALTOUN ,

M.C., D.L. DAVID STENHOUSE. JAMES S. MACNEILL . JAMES HENDRY.

MALTMEN.

A. C. J. M. ANDRRSON, Visitor. Sir JOHN M'DoNALD,

Late Visitor. J. WILSON HUNTER. W. B. M'INTYRR, M.C. JOHN H. SCOTT. JAMES 1. MURRAY.

WEAVERS.

R. MURRAY MACGREGOR, Deacon"

ALLAN S. DIXON, Late Deacon. THOMAS R. PATTERSON. R. B. THOMSON. ARTHUR STEPHEN. ALEXANDER TURNBULL, M.B.E. GEORGE S. SIMPSON, C.B.E.,

D .S .O., T.D., D.L. VVILLIAM C. FAULDS .

BAKERS.

J. PERCIVAL AGNEW, Deacon. KENNRTH vV. STEVENSON,

Late Deacon. JOHN SMITH. JAMES BARR. GRORGE L. PEACOCK. WILLIAM BEATTIE.

SKINNERS.

WILLIAM L. MASON, Deacon. J. W. MACFARLANE, M.C.,

Late Deacon. JOI-IN LEGGAT. .lAMES FISHER. JAMES R . M'LAY.

WRIGHTS.

ALEXANDER M. SMEATON, Deacon.

VVILLIAM DICK, Late Deacon. NORMAN A. MILLAR. GEORGR M. M'LAREN. ANDREW NICOL. W. SLOAN SMITH .

COOPERS.

JAMES WALLACE, Deacon. Sir WILLIAM E. WHVTE, O .B.E.,

Late Deacon. ANDREw S. BIGGART. DAvID BEGG.

FLESHERS.

WILLIAM W. SMITH, Deacon. J. ERIC FERGUSON,

Late Deacon. THOMAS C. BRECHIN. GRORGE R . W ATSON . J AMES M. MILNE.

MASONS.

GEORGE S. PATON, Deacon. JOHN F . MUIR, Late Deacon. JOHN THAW. WILLIAM R . WILSON. J. TAYLOR THOMSON.

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GARDENERS.

ROBERT J. SCOTT, Deaco n. ALEXANDER CRAIG,

Late Deacon. CHARLES H. CHALMERS . ANDREW MICKEL. GEORGE K. GOALEN.

BARBERS.

CHARLES BATCHELOR, Deacon_ THOMAS G. MACFARLANE,

Late Deacon. A . CRAIG AULD. WILLIAM B. ALsToN.

DYERS.

JAMES MURRAY, Deacon. J . CASSELS PINKERTON, M.C.

Late Deacon. E. SCOTT M ' FARLANE . GEORGE M. G. STEVEN. EDWARD G. WVLIE . ROBERT M. SMITH.

ROBERT D. ALLISON, Clerk . ALEXANDER DAVIDSON, Officer.

DEACONS' ASSOCIATION.

Deacon JOHN M . WATSON, President. Deacon RALPH A. WHITSON, Treasurer.

GRAND ANTIQUITY SOCIETY.

DOUGLAS M. MARTIN, Preses. KENNETH MUIR-SIMPSON, Treasurer.

THE TRADES HOUSE OF GLASGOW LODGE, No. 1241.

J. RAMS AV DAVIDSON, Right Worshipful Master.

PAST DEACON-CONVENERS.

Ex-Conven er JOHN DALLAS, D.L.

Ex-Convener JAMES GILCHRIST, D.L.

Ex-Convener FRANCIS BEATTIE, D .L., M.P.

Ex-Convener ROBERT ROBERTsoN, LL.D., D.L.

Ex-Convener CHARLES GLEN .

Ex-Convener JAMES LEGGAT.


to THE DEACON-CONVENER, THE COLLECTOR,

THE LATE CONVENER, THE LATE COLLECTOR,

AND MEMBERS OF THE TRADES HOUSE OF GLASGOW,

AND TO

THE FOURTEEN INCORPORATIONS

IN GRATEFUL ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF THEIR

GRACIOUS REQUEST FOR ITS PUBLICATION

THIS SERMON IS DEDICATED.

~ct'iptut'e &e6601t6

THE DEACON-CONVENER READ THE

SCRIPTURE LESSON S AS FOLLOWS :-

OLD TESTAMENT LESSON.

DEUTERONOMY, CHAPTER XXIV, VERSES 14-22.

NEW TESTAMENT LESSON.

ST. MATTHEW, CHAPTER XXV, VERSES 31-46.

f ·

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Helping Our Neighbours

.. B lessed is he that considereth the poor."

Psalm xli, Verse 1.

WE welcome once again to the Cathedral to-day, the Deacon-Convener, Collector, and Members of The Trades House of

Glasgow. We welcome you, brethren, for your own sakes. We welcome you for the sake of the great and long traditions of public service which you represent. We welcome you as signifying by your presence at Divine Worship this morning, that all good craftsmanship, all unselfish citizenship, finds its highest inspiration in the Christian Faith. You believe still, as your forebears believed, that if our city is indeed to flourish, in all its many and varied departments of endeavour and activity, then we must listen for and reverence and obey the Word of Almighty God.

I have been re-reading with renewed interest the story of the Trades House-a story which is bound up with the whole life of our city. In former times, your Incorporations were concerned chiefly with securing a high standard of craftsmanship, trade and commerce, and worthy conditions of work for those engaged therein. In more recent times you have been concerned chiefly with works of charity. And the Trades House is known as one of the great sources of


benevolence in the life of Glasgow, offering financial support to many a valuable enterprise and bringing comfort and cheer into many a home where otherwise there would be little brightness. Last year its charitable expenditure was almost ten thousand pounds, of which more than four thousand pounds was paid to city institutions and to individuals who had no connection with the Crafts.

Such generosity is a very real and true application of the Christian religion. Christ, our Master, cared deeply for the sufferings of the poor. In the soul-searching parable which we heard read this morning, He makes brotherly love and unselfish service towards the needy, the final determinant of a man's destiny. And care for the poor has from the beginning been regarded by Christians as an elementary and obvious expression of their Faith. The relief' of destitution is not peculiar to Christianity, but it is characteristic of Christianity. The giving of alms to those in need has been constantly commended in the teaching and preaching of the Church. All through the Middle Ages it was to the Church that the poor looked naturally for help and compassion. It is a significant fact that in many countries still to-day, such as India, China, Japan, where the tenets of Buddhism hold sway, poverty is not felt as a pressing problem, crying out for speedy alleviation and solution, but is simply accepted as natural and inevitable. While in the countries of the Western Hemisphere it has at least been continually combated by Christians, and at last in our own time a determined war is being waged against this great social evil. The best minds are convinced that since poverty cramps human powers, cripples personality, and darkens human happiness, it is to be tolerated no longer, and that it can and must be brought to an end. I think it can be justifiably claimed that this new attitude is very largely due to the steady influence and impact of Christian teaching.

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For this reason, all Chrishans must thankfully rejoice at the issue of the recent Government White Paper on what has come to be called " Social Security." We may criticise it in detail, but it does at least herald a memorable victory in the long campaign against poverty and destitution . In a sense, the proposed programme is simply a vast and comprehensive application of the Christian precept of charity. For, if its recommendations eventually pass into law, we can all feel that we are having some share in helping our more needy neighbours. To those who feel critical of the extra sacrifice it will demand, I would respectfully suggest that this is at least another angle from which we can attempt to see it and accept it. If we as British Christian citizens agree to accept it in this spirit, then what at first looks like a compulsory levy will become a voluntary contribution.

But there then inevitably arises the questionand it is a question which many are asking" What place will be left, under such new social service schemes, for Christian charity and voluntary aid? Are such beneficent efforts, for example, as those practised by the Trades House, to become obsolete and unnecessary?" It would be profoundly regrettable were this in fact to happen; we must not allow it to happen. Love of one's neighbour will surely always desire to find ways of bringing help and comfort to others, apart from any schemes of Government insurance and institutions provided and run by the State, or by municipal authorities. If everything for the welfare of everyone were to be supplied by social schemes of almost flawless mechanical efficiency, so that none of us henceforth need ever be troubled by the thought of the sickness, or suffering, or need of our fellow men-then something very precious would surely have been lost, and there would be a real danger lest the clear springs of Christian charity, no longer called upon, would run dry. We must not permit sympathy for


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suffering to be thus rigorously canalised in Acts of Parliament and civic enactments, however excellent. And I for one believe that still, within the new and better order of society of to-morrow, a place must be found for voluntary hospitals, for charitable institutions, for generous private endeavours of all sorts, such as have for generations evoked the support of tender-hearted men and women, and which are a spontaneous expression of that brotherly love and sympathy which is so central in the teaching of Christ our Lord.

Perhaps what I have been saying may arouse in certain minds a sense of irritation. "Why cannot you preachers preach religious doctrines and leave social ethics alone? " it may be asked. It is an old controversy which has become very much a contemporary one. It raises the timehonoured question of the relationship between faith and works. In answer I would refer you to the short Epistle of St. James. Luther, of course, disliked this Epistle-disliked it so heartily that he wished it could be removed from the canon of Holy Scriptures altogether. But in spite of Luther's suspicion, it is a little book full of sound Christian teaching. It stands for what is sometimes called "Practical Christianity." And I think on the question of the relationship between Christian belief and everyday life, St. James has said the final word-" What doth it profit, though a man say he hath faith and have not works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily food and one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body, what doth it profit? Even so, faith, if it hath not works, is dead being by itself. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith and I have works. Shew me thy faith without thy works and I will shew thee my faith by my works."

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We are realising the truth of that indissoluble connection again in our time. The Church has not always realised it. "Shew me thy faith without works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works." That is the true standard. A Christian is a man whose everyday life is shaped by Christian standards. The world wants not to hear Christianity proclaimed only in a Creed, or sung about in hymns, but manifested in daily conduct. And his demand for practical Christianity is a legitimate demand: Christianity that takes an interest in men 's bodies as well as their souls, that feeds the hungry and clothes the naked, and binds up the wounds of the suffering, and gives help to the destitute, and offers friendship to the friendless. It is that practical Christianity for which the Trades House has always stood, and the great tradition remains among you still. Long may it continue to bless our city!

We have been thinking much, in recent months, and I have been talking this morning, about social security, interpreting it largely in terms of work and money. We dare not forget that more important still is the need for spiritual security. The reason so many men and women in all classes feel restless and rootless to-day is because they have no real faith to live by and to live for. We men are so constituted that the deepest needs of our nature can never be adequately satisfied by mere economic plenty. If we are to discover any real meaning in life and any worthy purposes to which to dedicate our gifts, then we must be brought to a knowledge of God as the only Source of all life and truth and goodness. Our best efforts to help our neighbours will fall short unless we see them, not only as creatures of earth and time, needing bread, but as immortal souls, with an eternal destiny. Our best planning for a new and be~te~ order of society will lack all stability unless It IS based on the recognition of Divine laws and spiritual values. So often we lay more stress upon the secondary things instead of upon


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the primary things. And more than ever to-day, when so many Utopian schemes for showing love to our neighbours are in the air, we need to remember the first and great commandment, " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and all thy mind, and all thy strength, and all thy soul."

At the conclusion of the Service, the Members present assembled in the Sacristy. The Minister of the Cathedral in extending a welcome to the Members present, said :-

MR. DEACON-CONVENER, MR. COLLECTOR, AND MEMBERS OF THE TRADES HOUSE,

It is both a privilege and a pleasure to welcome you once again to the Cathedral Church of Glasgow for your Annual Service. The ties which link together this ancient Church and the Crafts and Industries of our city, now stretch across many centuries. And I trust that the links so firmly forged long ago will grow not weaker but stronger in the passage of the years.

The Deacon-Convener, in acknowledging the welcome, said :-

DR. NEVILE DAVIDSON,

On behalf of the Trades House and the Fourteen Incorporated Trades of Glasgow, I thank you most sincerely for the inspiration and encouragement which you have given us to-day. We are deeply grateful for this opportunity of worshipping together in Glasgow Cathedral, the very fountainhead of the Craft Guilds which make up the Trades House. It is more than four centuries since the earliest Charter was given to one of our Craftsthe Skinners, in 1516-but the close association between the Crafts and the Cathedral goes back even further.

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By the Letter of Guildry of 1605, by which the Trades House (as distinct from the Crafts) came into being, we were directed to apply our funds to the welfare of our craftsmen decayed in fortune, and to any other good and godly work which might tend to the advancement of the common weal of the Burgh. The labours and foresight of a long line of worthy craftsmen and the generous gifts received from Glasgow citizens have enabled our ancient House to carry out its beneficent work throughout the intervening centuries.

The present century has been distinguished by legislation designed to lighten the hardships of those on whom misfortune has fallen. We are on the eve of further great developments in the social services, but we must not forget that all these services in the beginning derived their origin and inspiration from the voluntary efforts of institutions such as ours and from far-seeing and charitably disposed individuals in the past. We are proud to recall that our House has assisted in the establishment of all the principal charitable and philanthropic institutions in Glasgow. We believe that in the years that lie before us more of the needs of the community and its individual members will be met by the State, but we are -confident that in the complexity of the modern civilised world there will always remain a field in which the well-directed efforts of institutions such as the Trades House will usefully contribute to the weal of the community. In this field it is the earnest desire of our House and Crafts to continue our labours and, as in the past, to adapt our efforts to the changing needs of the times in which we live.

To-day we humbly and gratefully acknowledge the blessings which God has seen fit to bestow on our Guildry, and we pray that with His help we ~ay never be found unworthy of the trust reposed m us.


· \ (c) Trades House of Glasgow 2019

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