Herne Bay Court, a Christian Holiday and Conference Centre in Kent, bas decided that next summer its heated outdoor swimming-pool will be open on Sundays. Nothing surprising in that. Most holiday centres do the same; and many Christians have long since declared themselves emancipated from the Fourth Commandment.

What’s new is the marvellous argument used by the manage me nt to justify their decision.

First, they became gradually aware of an “easing of attitude and freedom of worship” and decided to look into the question of opening the pool on the Lord’s Day.

Secondly, the Directors set out to discover the will of God in the matter. They “earnestly trusted” in His leading.

Thirdly, they “allowed” God to lead through His people. A questionnaire was given out to all those attending the Centre throughout the summer. An overwhelming majority voted in favour of Sunday opening: “We now simply accept that God’s will has been done, and that our loving Lord has given His assent to our question.”

As readers will recall, there is undoubted precedent for this procedure. Some time ago, when the church was stranded in the Sinai Desert, it decided, after due democratic process, to make a Golden Calf. There then followed “the holiday of their lives.”

We have no wish (or right) to make merry with the matter or to embarrass the Directors of Herne Bay Court. They are victims of the vacuous piosity which so often passes for evangelical theology. How easy it seems to be for Christians today to be confident that they are “in God’s will” and how dubious are the means by which they discover it. Behind all the cliches, the Directors of Herne Bay Court have simply applied the oldest commercial principle in the world: Give the customer what he wants. Whether it’s anaemic veal, Sunday entertainment or a Golden Calf.

From the MONTHLY RECORD of the Free Church of Scotland. Editor, Donald Macleod.