ALWAYS ON THE PART OF PROTESTANTS.
The Christian Work, an independent Presbyterian newspaper, expresses a very general sentiment in the following from an article entitled “The Pope’s Quarto-Centennial,” in the issue of that paper of March 22, 1902:— But, interesting as the occasion is to Catholics and Protestants, it is less the naked historic fact that concerns us than what that fact stands for, as exhibited in the changes witnessed in that time, in this country especially, in the relations existing between two of the three great branches of Christendom—the Catholic and Protestant. And we may say that, while the fundamental differences between Catholic and Protestant are no less fundamental than ever, there is yet to be seen a “rapprochement” between the two great branches which was not observable under Pope Leo’s predecessor; that is to say, on the part of the Protestants themselves. Not only has much of the old-time bitterness entertained by them toward Catholics vanished; but Catholics and Protestants are now often seen co-operating in the work of promoting various benevolent enterprises, such as temperance work, relief of the poor, and other departments of benevolent activity; while such men as Cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop Ireland, and others have infused the American spirit in their church, as they are often seen on the same platform with Protestant ministers. And here it is pertinent to note that the Presbyterian Church, as it will formally declare a little later, no longer assumes to identify the Roman Catholic Church with the “Scarlet Woman” of the Apocalypse. The change has always been with Protestantism. Rome is always the same. Her policy may change, and prosper; her principles and purposes never change. But Protestantism is rapidly rejecting, abjuring, or ignoring every fundamental principle of Protestantism, principles which made the great Protestant body all it really is, and which changed the face of the world. Is it for the best?