“PROTESTANT” PERSECUTION.
Where the spirit of persecution exists there is sure to be a manifestation of it in some way at some time. The following incident is related by the Union Conference Record (Sydney, N. S. W.) of October 1: A man from a country district in New South Wales came into the tract society office a few days ago, and asked for a copy of the pamphlet, “Origin of Sunday Observance.” This led to some conversation on the subject, and it was found that he had been keeping the Sabbath for about fourteen years. He received an old copy of the Bible Echo from which he became interested in the Sabbath question. Then he saw a copy of the “Origin of Sunday Observance” somewhere, and decided to obey the Sabbath of the Fourth Commandment. He was a Roman Catholic at the time and his relatives Protestants. They had not opposed him up to this time, but as soon as he had commenced to keep the Sabbath, they began to persecute him; and have done so ever since. Up to the time he called in at the office, he had never seen a Seventh-day Adventist. This man's professedly-Protestant relatives could endure his being a Roman Catholic, with all the error that such a religion implies, but when it came to his strict adherence to the Word of God in the matter of Sabbath observance, the heretofore latent spirit of persecution awoke to action. While this man was a professed Catholic, he was at heart more of a Protestant than his professedly-Protestant relatives; for he was open to conviction by the plain “Thus saith the Lord,” which is the foundation of Protestantism. What can be said of the so-called Protestantism that finds occasion for persecuting any class of people, and finds especial occasion to persecute one who persistently clings to the fundamental principle of Protestant doctrine—adherence to the plain Word of God?