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The Papacy

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park, Washington, D. C. · Sep 13, 1915

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 92, No. 45.

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The Papacy

Who can measure it, or analyze it, or comprehend it? The weapons of reason appear to fall impotent before its haughty dogmatism. Genius cannot reconcile its inconsistencies. Serenely it sits, unmoved amid all the aggressions of human thought and all the triumphs of modern science. It is both lofty and degraded; simple, yet worldly-wise; humble, yet scornful and proud; washing beggars’ feet, yet imposing commands on the potentates of earth; benignant, yet severe on all who rebel; here clothed in rags, and there revelling in palaces; supported by charities, yet feasting the princes of the earth; assuming the title of “servant of the servants of God,” yet arrogating the highest seat among worldly dignitaries. Was there ever such a contradiction,—“glory in debasement, and debasement in glory,”—type of the misery and greatness of man? Was there ever such a mystery, so occult are its arts, so subtle its policy, so plausible its pretensions, so certain its shafts?—“Beacon Lights of History,” by John Lord, LL. D., Vol. V, page 99.