“Is ROME losing her hold on the nations?” This is a question which is asked by the Rome correspondent of the Western Watchman, in its issue of December 5. After referring to a phrase which had been used by the archbishop of St. Louis, “Making America Catholic,” the correspondent goes on to say that “We will not confine ourselves to such a small part of the pope’s dominions as Southern Italy. Let us take the whole world, and examine cold, steel facts to see to what side the world is leaning. Is it declining from the side of the ‘old man of the Vatican?’” Then, after quoting from the London Telegraph, of August 21, 1899, regarding the tremendous power of the pope in the world, the correspondent says, “But we do not need the platitudes of a Protestant newspaper to convince ourselves that the Catholic Church, and with it the Papacy, is gaining yearly in strength.” He then tells us that “the masses in Italy are Catholic to the core,” so also in Spain. “Conversions in England average 3,000 a year.” Roman Catholicism is increasing in Germany, while the Protestant denominations are decreasing. France is returning; Poland, Ireland, and Belgium are loyal. Under the Russian flag, the church is making steady progress. In one week, 200,000 Orthodox Catholics embraced the papal banner, on the proclamation of the ukase giving liberty of conscience. The Catholic Church has 1,350,000 subjects in China, and the annual increase reaches 74,000, and this the correspondent contrasts with the Protestant membership, with its 5,000 European and American missionaries, and 12,000 native assistants, which amounts, all told, to 280,000; “and so, he declares, I might go on giving instances of the growing sway of the vicar of Christ, in every other country where self-sacrificing missionaries are laboring.” The same thought is echoed in the sermon in the same paper, by the editor, Dr. D. S. Phelan: “Is it not something to be proud of, that we belong to a dynasty that has survived all the political wrecks of the last two thousand years? Is it not something, that we belong to a great institution that to-day is acknowledged supreme, above everything that this world respects in the spiritual and moral order? Is it not something, that we belong to a church that has survived all the vicissitudes of time, and to-day is universally praised and respected?” But it is well for our readers to remember that numbers, enforced unity, the applause and praise of the world, do not count with God. Truth is more than tradition; godliness is more than earthly glory; and living connection with Christ is better than any membership in any organization, however old or holy it may be. It is predicted in Holy Writ, that mystic, modern Babylon shall make all the nations drunken.