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Drawing Together

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · May 20, 1915

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 92, No. 25.

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Drawing Together

By C. M. S.

WE have long held that in the fulfillment of prophecy concerning the last days, there would be a drawing together on the part of Romanists and Protestants to a certain degree or upon certain things, which would make possible the issuance of a decree of persecution against those who keep the commandments of God. A movement is on foot at the present time designed to bring about a union of those forces. More than one influential journal has opened its columns to the advocacy of such a drawing together. It is proposed that a conference be called of influential ecclesiastics and laymen of both Catholic and Protestant persuasion, to consider the differences between the two systems, to get acquainted with each other's point of view, and thus bring about a more kindly and harmonious feeling between the two great divisions of Christianity.
Among the more influential journals can be seen devoting considerable space to the discussion of the proposed conference are the Watchman-Examiner and the Christian Work. From contributions in the department of the last-named journal devoted to that topic we take the following:—
I wish the conference might be called if for no other reason than to show open-mindedness. It is sometimes worth while to make an experiment for the sake of showing that it is not worth making. [From a Protestant.]
Your recent editorial on the subject of a conference of twenty leading Protestant ministers and laymen and twenty leaders of those of Catholic belief is certainly timely and should receive due consideration from both Catholic and Protestant. Such a gathering, if conducted in a spirit worthy of those who believe in the teachings of the Christ who suffered for all mankind, cannot but bring forth results far greater than we at the present time can comprehend. For myself, as a Roman Catholic, the idea is certainly worth the effort. But such a gathering should assemble without rancor or bitterness, but aim to investigate and learn the true state of affairs as they exist in both Catholic and Protestant minds. Thus an honest statement without inherited prejudices and suspicions would be forthcoming, which would have a tendency to remove from the minds of many the spirit of antagonism which exists today.
Hoping you may be able to bring to a successful conclusion such a conference, . . . [From a Catholic.]
You deserve the thanks of the general public for your very plain and sensible statement of the delicate situation, and for calling attention to the importance of a better understanding between the Catholics and the Protestants in this country. Your suggestion of a conference of ecclesiastics and laymen representing both parties is a most sensible one, and one which it will be difficult for either party to reject without thereby admitting that it really does not care to possess a knowledge of the aims and purposes of the other. [From a Protestant.]
When Catholics and Protestants unite vigorously upon any program of action, we may be assured that they will have little regard for either the civil or the religious rights of less influential bodies that decline, for conscientious reasons, to unite with them. We know that they will unite upon the question of the Sunday sabbath and upon its enforcement on all the people. In that combination lies the key to the making of the image to the beast and the enforcement of its mark. We have known that some such move would have to develop in order to meet the specifications of the prophecy—and here it is.
It is not a beautiful theory we have believed in all these years, not a finespun fancy, not a creature of a disordered imagination, but the very truth of God itself. It is indeed a privilege to be living in a time when God has set his hand to his closing work to finish it; and we can see his hand in the midst of the wheels of this earth's confusion, directing and controlling and shaping toward the climax of the controversy. But it is not a day for carelessness, for resting contentedly upon our oars, for folding our hands in quietness and idleness. These times demand the greatest sacrifices and the greatest activity. “Let us not be weary in well doing: for in due time we shall reap, if we faint not.” While the forces of the adversary are drawing together, let us also draw together and press forward with united front.
C. M. S.