THE NEW YORK Observer of Jan. 12 contains an article by a minister, in which he gives “the story of a sermon, and what came of it.” It seems that sometime before the death of President Garfield, this minister had made the act of the assassin the subject of a sermon, and in this sermon had taken the position that Guiteau was not insane, but that the motive that actuated him was a political one, and was in spirit and purpose identical with that of the Nihilists. Quotations were given to show the lawless character of Nihilism,—a character with which the readers of the REVIEW are well acquainted,—and then the minister proceeded to show that the same spirit is at work in our own country. “Nihilism,” he says, “has many branches from the same root. To change the figure, the host of Satan has many divisions, operating upon separate features of our institutions, but by the natural affinity of evil they may all yet unite in a common attack upon Christian civilization.” This sermon was sent to a Catholic who had long been one of the minister’s valued friends, a man of far more than ordinary ability and culture, and who was the delight of many circles of Catholics and Protestants united. It never occurred to the author that there was anything in the sermon that could offend a Catholic. What was his surprise, then, on receiving a reply in which, while agreeing with the darkest picture presented respecting the state of society, he ascribed it all to the influence of Protestant principles, emphasizing the danger of “private interpretation of the Sacred Word,” and asserting that the remedy is “to return to authority.” He closed with the remarkable proposition: “To protest is negation, and negation is Nihilism, when carried to its ultimate point.” Commenting on this, the author of the sermon says:— This reveals the hidden dangers by which we are all surrounded. We are associating on terms of friendly intercourse with those whose whole being, body, soul, and spirit, is in the most abject unquestioning slavery to another’s will. It is Nihilism with a vengeance. It annihilates every possible obligation that can be laid on a human soul, except obedience to the will of a single man; and that may be, not the pope alone, but any other man who as a priest can persuade others that he speaks by authority of the church. Law, public and private morality, reason, conscience, social ties, bonds of affection, must give way, one and all, to one who speaks by authority of the church—a priest. The most dangerous spirit of the Papacy, which many supposed was dead, breathes its old fierceness again, and claims which were thought to be obsolete, are set forth with all the old arrogance. The charges that Protestantism is responsible for all the crimes and infidelity of our times, are made with an insolence and persistency that proves a settled purpose, and how many may ere long awake from a false security to find that those in whom they have confided as friends, have been taught by authority to regard them as belonging to a company of heretics who are polluting and destroying the world, pushing society on into the horrors of Nihilism. The writer of my letter has reached that point. The next step, a very short one, leads to approval of the dungeon and the stake. A great danger, little thought of I fear, lies in the fact that the Catholic papers and magazines abound in such teachings, and in the most ferocious attacks upon Protestants and ridicule of their principles and practices; and while scorn and hatred are thus kindled and cherished among Catholics, these and other evil influences find their way into Protestant communities also, and are scarcely met with rebuke or denial there. Our secular papers are mostly silent from political motives, and the New York Observer stands almost alone among our religious journals in giving the proper warning. Persistent, audacious assertion, met by no corresponding denial to match it, no suitable setting forth of truth to oppose the falsehood, is doing its pernicious work.