THE PRESENT STATE OF PROTESTANTISM.
By H. F. PHELPS
It was once said that Archbishop Ireland made the following statement concerning Protestantism:— America is at heart a Christian country. As a religious system, Protestantism is in hopeless dissolution, utterly valueless as a doctrinal or a moral power, and no longer to be considered as a foe that we must count. The Catholic Church is the sole living and enduring Christianity. Our work is to make America Catholic. Our cry shall be, “God wills it.” We know that the church is the sole owner of the truths and graces of salvation. It might be claimed that this, coming from the source that it does, was a conclusion reached through prejudice in favor of Catholicism, and against Protestantism. It may be well to put some remarks by the side of this, made by the Rev. Dr. Henry R. Percival, an Episcopal clergyman of the diocese of Pennsylvania. We quote from the Literary Digest of Nov. 4, 1899. The subject of his paper is “The Future of the Christian Religion.” He is inclined to think that the tendency in the church of England toward ceremonialism is “a spirit which, unless I am entirely misinformed, is sweeping over the whole Western world, America included.” In this, he is no doubt correct. In the consideration of the subject, he lays down three propositions, the second of which is “that the distinctive doctrines of every Protestant reformer are being more and more universally rejected.” As to this decline of Protestantism, he says:— Here I need not ask the reader to take my word for anything; for his own experience will bear out the truth of my statements. Where are those who believe, as Luther taught it, that doctrine of imputed righteousness which is called “justification by faith alone”? The doctrine is extinct. So far as the popular churches are concerned, there is no doubt that this doctrine is almost, if not altogether, lost sight of. But, thank God, a “remnant” may yet be found who believe it, and teach it, and live it. And in them may be found the “salt of the earth” and “the light of the world.” It is no exaggeration to say that Protestantism is rapidly disintegrating, and is losing its hold as a teaching power. . . . It is not too much to say, then, that Protestantism as a system of positive religious belief is dying out, and that its professors are for the most part able to continue in its ministry only through some device of casuistry, which in any other manner would be considered by themselves, as it is in their case by almost every one except themselves, dishonest and dishonorable. It is manifest that this state of things can not go on, and that the final result of “progress” in this direction, so far as faith is concerned, must be unbelief, and, so far as organization is concerned, decay and dissolution. As to his third point,—the existence of a strong movement back to “Catholicism,” but not to Roman Catholicism,—he says that any one who remembers the common method of conducting service fifty years ago can not fail to be aware of a mighty change. He continues:— This wave, however, of which I am speaking is not a mere wave of ceremonialism; it is likewise a great wave of doctrine, bringing back, or at least calling attention to, the doctrines and practices of the church which had been lost sight of or rejected at the Protestant Reformation. Dr. Harnack has written well and most truly upon this point in his recent little book, which has been translated into English. His conclusion is that orthodox and believing Protestantism is becoming Catholicized; that the un-Protestant idea of the church as an institution with power to control the conscience and teach the intellect, is daily gaining ground; and that this inclination, if continued, will end in the overthrow of Protestantism altogether, which of course Harnack looks upon as a great misfortune. I have a firm belief that this is God’s good way of leading the nations back to Catholicism—not the Catholicism of medieval and modern popery, but to the Catholicism of primitive prelacy. But such can be nothing less than the very image to the papacy itself. The foregoing is but a true statement of the waning condition of Protestantism among so-called Protestants. And all we have to do is to read the word “image” into the last statement to make it correct, as showing the alluring manner in which men will be led on to its worship. Truly, men need the wisdom of God, which he has promised to all that ask, in order to be saved from the many delusions of these last days. May God save his people.