A Great Word

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jun 24, 1913

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 40, No. 25.

WHERE did Dr. Manning get the idea that “protestant” is a “cumbersome and ugly” word? It was so designated by the rector of Trinity in his sermon Sunday on the proposal to change the time-honored name of the Protestant Episcopal Church to “Catholic and Apostolic Church.”

There are more musical words than “protestant;” there are words better adapted to the metrical demands of poetry. But is there, historically considered, a nobler word in English speech? Jesus was a protestant. Socrates, Luther, Savonarola, Lincoln, were protestants. All the great reformers of the world have been protestants.

A church that can justly call itself protestant has good cause to be proud of the name. “Protestant” is a word that typifies the highest ideals of human progress, and one not lightly to be abandoned. It is yet a word which has long enjoyed a disfavor among members of the church, which has now culminated in the present organized movement for its abandonment.

Episcopalians should think twice before they give up this inspiring and distinctive title, useful and descriptive as it is to-day of a progressive church “protesting” against wrong and corruption which in new guise require to be combated.—Three-a-Week World.