COMING CONFLICT | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 10, 1878

COMING CONFLICT.

The following is from the Boston Journal, Nov. 3, 1877:—

“A well-known London correspondent has had an interview with Mgr. Capel, ‘the most successful Roman Catholic in England,’ and one of the most prominent characters in Disraeli’s ‘Lothair.’ This high Catholic authority declares that two forces are now dividing England between them—Catholicism and infidelity, or free-thinking; in other words, pure belief and the absence of all belief. He adds the startling announcement that ‘Protestantism as a power is dead,’ though he qualifies it by saying that he has regard mainly to the Anglican Church, for he concedes that ‘Methodism is a power still.’ He foresees a great struggle in Europe between free-thinking and Catholicism, a struggle which will involve vast consequences for empires as well as for religions. ‘In that contest,’ said he, ‘I expect to see America play a great part.’ In America, he thought the Catholics had the field before them. The conversion of England he, contrary to the opinion of some of his friends, expected to be slow, but it was perfectly sure. The fact that he is a representative man of a most powerful organization makes his views worth hearing.”