ANOTHER SHRINE AT WHICH TO WORSHIP
By C. A. Watkins
The past week has been one of great excitement in Menominee, Mich. Sunday morning a number of Polish Catholics were engaged in great revelry at the home of one Czarnetski, on Wells Street, when suddenly one of the company, a little more devout than the rest, began to feel some remorse of conscience for such conduct on the Sabbath (?), and looking toward a picture of the sacred heart hanging near by on the wall, discovered what since has been the object of curiosity and wonder for thousands who have visited the place to see it. The heart of Christ was bleeding,—yes, from the hands, and feet, and heart of that picture there was dripping slowly a thin red substance resembling blood. It continued several minutes, then ceased, and the last drops dried on the spot, where they have since been examined by thousands. Many remarks and criticisms have been offered by the visitors, but the Catholics bow in reverence before it, and with weeping and wailing, confess their sins, and make vows of consecration. To witness the scene is sufficient to move one's heart with pity. Oh, that the truth of the everlasting gospel might reach these yearning souls! How unprepared they are to resist the greater deceptions that are yet to come. The true cause of this mystery has not yet been discovered; but should it be believed to be of supernatural origin, it is but a foreshadowing of what we may expect from him who works with all deceivableness of unrighteousness. 2 Thess. 2:10. He “deceiveth them that dwell on the earth.” Here a power is brought to view that is to deceive the world. Does God deceive His people?—No, no! There is one deceiver, and as is shown by the last verses of the same chapter, it is he who demands the death of God's servants. That power is easily identified, and it is written: “He doeth great wonders” to deceive them that dwell upon the earth. These deceptions are manifold:— First: Catholicism is the prevailing religion in this city, and this marvelous demonstration has already caused many to believe that God is on the papal side, and that, after all, to them are granted divine favors that others do not have. All manner of suggestions can come from the author of the mystery to the mind that is uninformed in the truth as revealed in the word of the Lord, concerning this power. Second: The wonder happened on Sunday, and as the Sabbath truths have been presented here of late, and men's minds have been seeking excuses for continuing in the transgression of the Sabbath commandment, that they may obey the voice of the papacy in observing Sunday, this comes to them as timely evidence. If God, as they believe it to be of God, should be so grieved at the carousals of these people on Sunday as to bring blood from the picture of His Son, as a manifestation of that grief, that day must indeed be sacred. O foolish Menominees, who hath bewitched you? Still again: The worship of images and sacred pictures is revived in untold measure. Thousands of dollars have already been offered for this bleeding heart, but as yet the family deem it too sacred to let it pass from their home, and hundreds are flocking there to bow before it and worship. We are living in times of wonders, not wonders from the God heaven,—His wonderful love was long ago demonstrated,—but the marvelous workings of iniquity. “Whose coming is after [at the time of] the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they receive not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.” 2 Thess. 2:9, 10.