A Holy War Called For

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Aug 25, 1909

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 36, No. 33.

A Holy War Called For

The greatest Catholic paper in America is the Western Watchman, of St. Louis, and in its issue of July 29, in speaking of the militant attitude of the French Church, it declares:

“It takes a lot of provocation and a long time to work up the church in our day to the fighting point; but her fingers are just as well skilled for war as they ever were; and the world needs a sight of the Catholic Church in battle array. It will do it good, and then the Lord of Hosts will come forth from His concealment behind the clouds, and show a startled world that His arm is not shortened. We need a holy war in Christendom. France is the home of Christian chivalry. She has poured out blood and treasure in the past like water to smite the infidel and rescue the sanctuaries of the church from their profaning grasp.

“The infidel is now entrenched in France herself. He rules on the Seine with more haughty sway than he ever did on Asiatic slope or Mediterranean wave. Let the soldiers of the Cross have at him. Don’t parley with him; smite him, hurl him from his political entrenchments, and let his resting-place be at the bottom of the great river that in ages gone by saw so many Christian soldiers set out to give battle to the enemies of God and Holy Church. We have said many times already, and we repeat it here: the next revolution in France will end with the massacre of the infidels.”

But in the light of the word of God and His “more sure word of prophecy,” it may be said that the Lord of Hosts will not make bare His arm by such means as proposed by the Watchman. That is simply a repetition of the Dark Ages.