DANGEROUS IMITATION by G.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Apr 3, 1901

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 27, No. 14.

DANGEROUS IMITATION.

By G.

Our Roman Catholic contemporary, the Catholic News, tells of a Methodist Church in Arcola, Ill., where an “Angelus” bell is rung every morning at 11 o’clock “as a signal for each member to cease his or her worldly labors and engage in prayer.” We rather think the Ave Maria, or “Angelus,” will have to be stricken out of that bit of news. Methodists may rightly—as why not?—ring a bell, stop work, and offer a prayer. But the “Hail Mary,” which Pope Urban instituted in his “Angelus” 800 years ago, is something which neither Methodists nor other Protestants have any use for. If, however, Roman Catholicism has any good thing which has escaped Protestantism heretofore, it will doubtless use it in due time, after submitting it to an evangelizing process.—Christian Work.

Prayer that is instigated by the ringing of a bell might as well add the “Hail Mary,” for it is of the same character. Prayer that is actuated solely by some stated reminder that it is time to pray because of a publicly-recognized routine, is but an empty formality—pagan, papal, Mohammedan formality. If anything good has escaped Protestantism—and no doubt Protestants have much to learn—it will not be found in Roman Catholicism, but in the Word of God. The old Protestant slogan was, “The Bible, and the Bible alone;” and the mere suggestion on the part of Protestants that Romanism is a possible source of some good which Protestants lack, is ominous. It is this disposition to look backward instead of forward, downward instead of upward, to the flesh instead of to the Spirit, for inspiration, that is leading Protestants to compromise with tradition and to imitate the formalities of Rome. These little imitations are extremely dangerous, for the reason that they indicate a conscious weakening, and a disposition to seek strength thru forms instead of thru faith in the Word of God. These imitations are also dangerous because it is possible, in the matter of erroneous principles, for an image to develop into all the power of the original. This is plainly taught in Revelation 13, and the signs of the times as plainly show that professed Protestantism, both in this country and in the Old World, is now passing thru this process. The Easter observances, which are becoming more and more conspicuous in Protestant churches, are an apt illustration of the tendency to mimic Roman ceremonial display. It would be well for Protestants to beware of “the little foxes that spoil the vines.” G.