Prophecy Being Fulfilled
By Wm. Penniman
“And all the world wondered after the beast.” Rev. 13:3. “Keep your eyes on Rome.” We have used these two quotations as they are so closely connected, and it is necessary to look out for a power which all the world admires, or “wonders after.” We have been much interested in watching the fulfilment of this prophecy which relates to the world-wide admiration of the papacy, and more especially in the case of Leo XIII. Both before and since his death there has been much catering among Protestants to Rome. For years in the Protestant churches there has been a trend Romeward. This trend is constantly increasing all over the world; for the prophecy says “all the world,” and the United States is not behind any other nation in its homage and admiration for the papacy. The literal meaning of the Greek which is translated “wondered” is “to admire.” A correspondent of the Christian Evangelist of July 30 says: “Passing along the street (Kensington, Ind.) on my way to the Sunday evening service, my attention was attracted by a brilliantly lighted window in which was a large picture of the great Roman pontiff, Leo XIII, and underneath it the words, ‘The eyes of the whole world are turned toward Rome.’” What a plain fulfilment of the prophecy is this, and who can not see it? Not a part of the world, but the whole world is wondering. Some years ago President Harrison, although a good man, honored the papacy, or “scarlet-colored beast,” by sitting at the right hand of Cardinal Gibbons at the dedication of the great Catholic university at Washington, D. C. What means the recent visit of Emperor William (before Leo’s death) to the Vatican? What motive prompted King Edward VII, if not admiration of the beast? What means the friendly correspondence and interchange of gifts between President Roosevelt and the late pope? Nearly all of the leading papers of the world, both religious and secular, are loud in their praise of the great pontiff, yet several eminent bishops of the M. E. Church have recently passed away, and but little mention is made of them. Since the beginning of the papacy there have been 258 popes in all, according to Bauer’s list of popes, and no doubt Leo XIII has been one of the wisest, if not the wisest and the best, of those who have ever sat upon the papal throne; and he is called a good man by many able Protestant writers. As it is to the point, we will quote briefly from an able editorial in The Word and Way of August 6, under the heading, “Was Leo XIII Good?” “When the Roman Catholic Church had the power to enforce its claim, it would have been at the peril of one’s liberty and life to raise such a question. There is an abundance of bloody history to attest the truth of this. It is impossible to cleanse the history of popedom from the smell of dungeons, guillotines, and martyrs’ fires. . . . People worship power, even though they may at heart execrate the person or institution in whom the power is vested. This is why the press of the world is serving up fulsome praise, ad nauseam, to the alleged high qualities of the dead pope. . . . It is a notorious fact that the secular and political press of our country is largely under Romish influence. . . . Protestants are not found wanting who, to show how gloriously liberal they are, are exploiting the ability and rare goodness of the deceased pope. Shut up to the daily press of the country we would get the idea that Leo XIII is, par excellence, the world’s greatest saint.” We would like to quote more from the editorial, but will not, for fear of making this article too lengthy, but as to the idea of the pope’s goodness, will only ask, How can one be good who assumes to be vicar of Christ and to be infallible? Mr. Urbain Gohier, a clever Frenchman, gives the Americans the admonition, “Keep your eyes on Rome.” But he does not mean it in the sense of admiration, but to look out for its rising power. Why should Protestants of America and of the world look out for Rome? One great reason is that Protestantism is divided into hundreds of sects, and Rome is a unit. The Christian Evangelist of July 30 says: “The power of Catholicism is plain to discerning minds in every part of America. The public press shapes its policy and tempers its utterances to suit its Catholic constituency. The outcome of the Philippine issue is that the pope (now Sarto) has the official nomination of one hundred prelacies within American territory. In the recent coal strike, when the operators asked that a clergyman be included in the arbitration committee, the president of the United States chose a Catholic bishop. Why this favor to Rome?—Because Rome, though a minority, is a minority that is homogeneous, organized, and disciplined. They form a solid block in the midst of a heap of crumbling Protestant fragments.” Mr. Urbain Gohier, in The Independent of May 14, in an article on “The Religious Situation in America,” says: “The Catholic question in the United States is one of extreme interest. Within a few years it will be the Catholic peril. When one expresses this opinion to an American Protestant, he laughs loudly, shrugs his shoulders, and poo-poohs with hearty contempt. He answers that the Catholics of this country are animated by a genuinely republican spirit, that they have no religious fanaticism, that they are a petty minority, with neither the purpose nor the power to trouble American society. Very well. The following statements will be judged idle by the American public, but they will interest the French public, which has been instructed by experience. The Roman Church, which in the United States numbered 44,500 communicants in 1790, to-day numbers 12,000,000 or more. The total population of the country is twenty times more numerous than at that epoch; the Catholic population three hundred times more numerous! To this we must add 6,500,000 Catholics in the Philippines, and 1,000,000 in Porto Rico. When there shall be an army of fifteen or twenty millions of Catholics firmly united by a tyrannical faith, trained under the regime of the confessional, blindly committed to the will of their priests, and directed by the brains of a few high Jesuits, we shall see how much of a showing there will be for American liberty.” Mr. Gohier’s words are truthful, forcible, and prophetic, and in a few years the people will see the “Catholic peril” more clearly than they do now, when there will be 200,000,000 Catholics in the world, and many of them “high Jesuits” arrayed against Protestants. We do not believe in opposing Catholics, but their doctrines. There are many good Christian people among them; and if Protestants (all of them, many have, praise the Lord) had the missionary zeal of the Jesuits, the whole world would ere this time have been evangelized. As may be seen in recent demonstrations, Protestantism has reached across the gulf and shaken hands with Romanism. By an act of Congress, Feb. 29, 1892, this nation was declared to be a Christian nation, and the Catholic religion the established religion. Therefore, is not the “image to the beast” virtually made? When this image has the beast power, religious liberty in our land, if not in the world, is gone forever. . . . Let us pray and work for the everlasting liberty and freedom from sin we shall enjoy in the everlasting kingdom.