The Restoration of the Papacy.
By J.
THAT our own country will play an important part in the restoration of the Papacy to that place where it can make war upon the saints, we are fully satisfied. And that causes are now at work which will bring it about, we regard as certain. Not that the Papacy as such will gain power here, for that we do not believe. But that the organization that does secure the power will exert it in favor of the institutions of the Papacy, and by the help of the Papacy. In the words of the prophecy, he "causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed." Rev. 13:12. In this country the spirit of anarchy is rife as well as in Europe. The conflict between labor and capital is growing more and more bitter. The so-called labor element is so unsteady, and so violent in its methods, that capitalists are becoming afraid to invest in large enterprises, and capital by the millions lies unused in bank vaults. In connection with these things there is a large train of evils which all see and which many dread, but which we cannot here take time to trace. Now in the midst of all these troubles, and upon them in great measure as its capital, there is rapidly rising into prominence a party which traces all these evils directly to the "secular character of the Constitution of our country," and proposes to rectify all these difficulties by a religious amendment to that instrument. This party argues that God is not once named in the Constitution; that neither Christ nor his religion is recognized there; that the Bible receives no legal sanction as the law of the Nation; that under this order of things the tests of the Christian religion are not applied in this country; that, consequently, the land is filling up with multitudes of foreigners who bring the baser elements of European society with them; that all the troubles that afflict the land—the strikes, the floods, the cyclones, &c., &c.,—are but the judgments of God upon the Nation for its terrible shortcoming in the matter of the deplorably secular Constitution; and that the only remedy, the only possible escape, is to so amend the National Constitution that in it God will be declared487to be the Sovereign, Christ the King, and the Bible the law, of the Nation, and so "place all Christian laws, institutions and usages of our Government upon an undeniable legal basis in the fundamental law of the land." This is not a Catholic movement. It is essentially Protestant; it originated with Protestants, and is carried on by Protestants, though willing to enlist the Catholics wherever practicable. And though directly contrary to Protestant principles, it is favored by almost all denominations of Protestants. It will be seen at a glance that such a scheme, if successful, would be nothing short of a union of Church and State. For when Christian laws, Christian institutions, and Christian usages, become a part of the fundamental law of the land, the State becomes the great conservator of the Christian religion. Religious tests must be applied, obedience to religious precepts must be enforced, and in all disputes the State becomes the expounder of Christianity; the State by its judicial authority decides what is, and what is not, a Christian law, a Christian institution, or a Christian usage. But the main question is not whether such a movement, if successful, would be a union of Church and State; this is conceded by all, except those who advocate it, and it is not to be expected that they would concede it; but the question is, Will it be successful? We verily believe that it will. The great majority of the nation do not yet so believe. Thousands do not believe that it will succeed; other thousands do not believe that, even were it successful, there would ever any such evil follow, that any such menace to liberty would attend it, as has always attended such an illicit connection. And in this very unbelief lies one of the most probable elements of its success. With the history before them, of all such unions, it is difficult for men in this enlightened age to realize that there could be any danger of a repetition of such things. But all such doubts rest upon an overweening confidence in human nature. Human nature is the same in all ages. Religious bigotry and priestly ambition are ever the same whether found in the sixteenth century or in the nineteenth. Clothe with the civil power Protestant religionists who are ambitious to obtain it, and their oppressiveness will be as cruel as would be that of Catholics in like circumstances. What then are the evidences of the success of the religious amendment movement?—First, and the greatest of all is, of course, the prophecy. There stands the scripture, Rev. 13:11-17, which describes the rise and work of a power in the earth; and every specification of the scripture is fully met by our own nation, and not one of the specifications is met by any other nation. That scripture speaks of this power "saying to them that dwell on the earth that they should make an image to the beast which had the wound by a sword and did live." The beast is the representative of that union of Church and State which formed the Papacy. An image to the beast, therefore, could not be formed otherwise than by a union of Church and State, and with such union formed by Protestants. For if formed by Catholics it would be but a part of the beast itself and not a likeness. But when such a union is formed by Protestants, as it is in defiance of Protestant principles, it is simply a formation of an image, a likeness, to the Papacy. It is true that while the prophecy is an evidence to us who believe in this application of it, it can be an evidence to others only by our giving to them evidence of the justness of the application. But when the prophecy so plainly points out that such a thing shall be; and we see working before us in this nation the very thing which the prophecy shows; then with confidence we point to this as proof that our application of the prophecy is correct. Aside from this however, there are many evidences which point strongly towards the success of the movement. We repeat, Almost all the Protestant churches favor it. The Prohibition Party in most of the States favors it. The Woman's Christian Temperance Union favors it. True the women cannot vote; but they can influence a multitude of votes. But it is not absolutely certain that the women will not yet have the right to vote—the party which is working for the religious amendment, favors woman suffrage also;—and if they do obtain the right, they will vote for the religious amendment. The movement will have the almost undivided support of the workingmen throughout the nation. And besides all these the Catholics favor it. Yea, the men who lead in the movement are willing, and even glad, to receive the support of the Catholic Church. Now take the churches, the Prohibition Party, the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, the workingmen, the Catholics, and all the politicians who will go as they see the tide going, and bring all these together at the polls and the movement would carry. The probability that it would is increased by another element that enters largely into the subject. That is, the argument that is swung in on every possible occasion by the advocates of this amendment, to the effect that to oppose this movement is to support atheism, and that, in fact, all such opposition is atheism. There are thousands of people who might not really favor the amendment, yet rather than to be set down and treated as atheists, they would hesitate to oppose it. There is one thing that yet remains to be mentioned,—the one thing that underlies this whole subject; the one thing upon which all these parties, churches, and people, heartily unite; the one thing that is the key of the whole movement; the one thing which in itself carries the evidence of the success of the proposition to form a religious amendment to the Constitution,—that is, the Sunday and its protection, the "American sabbath," and its preservation. This has already been the leading question in States, and it is fast becoming the leading question in the Nation. Almost all the pulpits of the land denounce the "desecration" of Sunday and demand laws for its protection; the Woman's Christian Temperance Union works earnestly for Sunday and for laws to enforce its observance; the Prohibitionists resolve that man needs the Sunday sabbath; the workingman in all occupations must have his Sunday rest, and to make it sure he must have half of Saturday besides; the Catholic Plenary Council earnestly appeals to all Catholics without distinction to use their influence and power as citizens to assist in the movement for a better observance of Sunday; politicians in political conventions will move, and give, rousingly, "three cheers for the triumph of this great principle" of the religious Sunday enforced by law; the Spiritualists join in the cry; and the National Reform Party gathers them all into one grand movement to amend the National Constitution so that Sunday, the one grand distinguishing institution of the Papacy, may be declared by law to be the Christian sabbath, and so that all people shall be compelled to observe it as such. Now we say, Let this question be agitated but a few years more, and let it be brought to a vote with the Sunday as the test, as it surely will be, and its success is certain. And just as surely as its success is certain, the union of Church and State is sure and persecution inevitable. Thus will be formed the image to the beast—the likeness to the Papacy—and he "causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast [the Papacy], whose deadly wound was healed." So shall apostate Protestantism exalt the Papacy in this country and compel all, under civil pains and penalties, to do her honor. When this question is viewed in the light of these events of fact which are recurrent before the eyes of all people, the imminence of the terrible ordeal that is involved in it is startling. The discussion of the question of persecution, we are compelled to defer to another article. J.