FULL OF SIGNIFICANCE by H. F. Phelps

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Aug 5, 1897

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 23, No. 30.

FULL OF SIGNIFICANCE.

By H. F. Phelps

At Cleveland, Ohio, May 13, Archbishop Ireland was the guest of the Chamber of Commerce. The newspapers report that he gave a patriotic address, the subject being “The Foundation of True Citizenship.” There are a few statements to which it is well to call attention, for they are full of significance; and no discount should be given to the words.

He declares that “the greatness of America is her democracy.” Also that “the peril of America is in her democracy.” Yet he professes to have the “fullest faith in the democracy of America.” He therefore asks and answers the question:—

Whence will come to democracy the potency of immortality? With reverence I pronounce the word “conscience.” Conscience-ruling Americans will be a law-abiding people; for righteousness commands obedience to law and proclaims that the law of the nation is the law of the supreme Governor of men and of nations—Almighty God. Americans will respect the rights of their fellow-citizens; conscience bids them know that no one lives for himself alone, and that society, with its rights and institutions, is of divine mold.

Thus would Mr. Ireland endeavor to put the stamp of divinity upon the institutions of American society, and make the laws of the nation the laws of the Almighty. In this he would exalt the nation above God, and throw the responsibility of the nation’s laws upon the Deity. This is Catholic theory. This is Catholic doctrine, the doctrine of the fourth century and onward, over again. In connection with the above the following is significant:—

A nation without a conscience [that is, we may suppose, and logically too, a nation that will not acquiesce in this Catholic theory] is a nation without a soul. The sooner the earth is rid of it the better it is for humanity; nothing good or great can come of it.

What is in this but the spirit of utter extinction of that nation and that people that will not imbibe this theory? But it may well be asked: How is it possible for the people of this or any other nation to “respect the rights of their fellow-citizens,” when the conscience of the nation shall be brought to reflect this Catholic theory of the supremacy of the nation’s laws as the laws of “Almighty God,” and when they shall be made to believe that these laws as the laws of God are to be implicitly obeyed, and that it is their duty to see that they are obeyed? It requires no great stretch of the imagination to see the result, the logic of which is that the nation, or any class of people in the nation, that will not bring their conscience into harmony with this Catholic theory are “without a soul,” and “the sooner the earth is rid of it [or them] the better it is for humanity.”

Nor is this all. He speaks concerning the dread possibilities of the future and says:—

There are moments in the life of the country when the thoughtful patriot stands still, awestricken, before the thought of what might come if Americans betrayed their citizenship, of what might come to America herself, . . . of what might come to liberty in the whole world, since liberty for other nations reads her triumph or her duty in the triumph or death of liberty in America. Take away conscience, let voters, like the populace of old Rome, scramble for food and pleasure, democracy will have given up the ghost, and either an “imperator” will trample upon American liberties, or anarchy will light over the land its lurid fires!

This is the shadowing of the possibilities that are before us, prompted, no doubt, by what is now upon us, and what others have said of the nation, for he quotes Lord Macaulay as saying: “The peril from which democracy can not escape, will befall it in a season of hard times, when the masses of the people will make use of their political power to despoil the rich and disrupt society.” To this Mr. Ireland responds as follows:—

Americans, fear not. Macaulay did not know the people of America. America is safe. Conscience is on guard.

But how is it possible for conscience to save democracy, save the liberties of the people, and save America in order to preserve liberty to the world and for the world? The question is asked and the answer given:—

What will foster conscience in the citizens of America? I answer, religion—the sense of a Supreme Legislator, ruling the whole universe, from the tiniest flower to the mightiest sun, ruling man and aggregations of men, rewarding and punishing. Patriotism is never so potent as when it is identified with religion.

But how is it possible for a sense of a Supreme Legislator to have this molding influence when the nation makes its own laws and then accounts them to be the laws of the Almighty God, he does not tell us. But again, he says:—

Fortunately for America, deep in the hearts of Americans lies the instinct of religion; Americans will never believe that an infinite intelligence does not rule the universe; that the soul of man is not spiritual or immortal; they will never permit that the Sabbath day be taken from the service of conscience to be put to the service of matter, or that its churches cease their heavenly music.

But when a nation exalts its own laws as the laws of God, and sets itself about the work of enforcing obedience to these laws, it does thereby exalt itself above God, and then there is no supreme ruler higher than the nation itself. And when this point is reached, men worship the nation in place of worshiping God. Such a course is nothing less than idolatry.

Now put this and that together and see what we have. “Conscience-ruling Americans will be a law-abiding people.” And the safety of America is in the fact that “conscience is on guard.” And this conscience of the nation is sure to be of the right kind, because it is to be fostered by religion, the chief corner-stone of which is the Catholic Sunday. And as “the law of the nation is the law of Almighty God,” it follows, and logically too, that the Sunday laws of the nation are the laws of God, and must be obeyed as such. All of which declare most plainly that the work being performed by professed Protestants in the enforcement of Sunday laws, is in exact accord with this Catholic theory. And this work now being done by so-called Protestants is a work such as the Catholic Church would do if it was in power; and little by little they are coming out in its behalf. And it will not be long before it will be mother and daughters perfectly united in the work of ridding the earth of all who will not bring their conscience into harmony with this papal theory. H. F. PHELPS.