DANGER FROM THE ENCROACHMENTS OF ROMANISM.
MANY who are well acquainted with the true character of Romanism are indifferent to it, because not aware of the rapid growth of the Catholic Church in the United States. They tell us, and truly, that Rome loses great numbers of adherents here through the influence of our free schools, free institutions, and the strong pervasive spirit of independence which is so hostile to priestly authority. But let us not congratulate ourselves too soon. The losses of Romanism in the United States are not, to any extent, the gains of Protestantism. When a man born in the Catholic Church, loses confidence in the only faith of which he has any knowledge, he does not examine Protestantism, but sinks into skepticism. Romanism is chiefly responsible for German and French infidelity. For when a mind to which thought and free inquiry have been forbidden as a crime, attains its intellectual majority, the largeness of liberty is not enough; it reacts into license and excess. Skepticism and infidelity are the legitimate children of unreasoning and superstitious credulity, and the grandchildren of Rome. Apostate Catholics are swelling our most dangerous classes. Unaccustomed to think for themselves, and having thrown off authority, they become the easy victims of socialists or nihilists, or any other wild and dangerous propagandists. But, notwithstanding the great losses thus sustained by Romanism in the United States, it is growing with great rapidity. In 1800 the Catholic population was 100,000. In 1884, according to official statistics, it was 6,628,176. At the beginning of the century there was one Catholic to every 53 of the whole population; in 1850, one to 14.3; in 1870, one to 8.3; in 1880, one to 7.7. Thus it appears that, wonderful as the growth of our population has been since 1800, the growth of the Catholic Church has been much more rapid. Dr. Dorchester, in his valuable and inspiring work, "Problem of Religious Progress," easily shows that the actual gains of Protestantism in the United States, during the century, have been much larger than those of Catholicism, and seems disposed, in consequence, to dismiss all anxiety as to the issue of the race between them. But it is the relative rather than the actual gains which are prophetic. From 1800 to 1880 the population increased ninefold; the membership of all evangelical churches, twenty-seven-fold, and the Catholic population, sixty-three-fold. Not much importance, however, should be attached to this comparison, as the Catholic population was insignificant in 1800, and a small addition sufficed to increase it severalfold.122 But in 1850 the Catholic Church was nearly one-half as large as all evangelical Protestant churches. Let us, then, look at their relative progress since that time. From 1850 to 1880 the population increased 116 per cent., the communicants of evangelical churches, 185 per cent., and the Catholic population, 294 per cent. From 1850 to 1880 the number of evangelical churches increased 125 per cent.; during the same period Catholic Churches increased 447 per cent. From 1870 to 1880 the churches of all evangelical denominations increased 49 per cent., while Catholic Churches multiplied 74 per cent. From 1870 to 1880 the ministers of evangelical churches increased in number 46 per cent.; Catholic priests, 61 per cent. From 1850 to 1870, ministers increased 86 per cent.; priests, 204 per cent. From 1850 to 1880, ministers increased 173 per cent., and priests, 391 per cent. In 1850 the Catholic population was equal to 45 per cent. of the evangelical church-membership; in 1870 it was equal to 68 per cent.; and in 1880 it equaled 63 per cent., a slight relative loss. During the ten years Romanism gained largely on Protestantism in the number of churches and ministers, but lost slightly in the number of communicants—a loss due to the falling off of immigration during the last half of the period. Examination shows that the growth of the Catholic Church corresponds closely with that of the foreign population, but is somewhat more rapid. Since 1880 there has been a marked increase in the Catholic population. The average annual growth of the latter from 1870 to 1880 was 176,733, while from 1883 to 1884 it was 231,322. It has been shown that during the remainder of the century or longer, the rate of immigration will undoubtedly increase. The ratio of growth of the Catholic Church will, therefore, increase, and it will continue to make a rapid gain on the Protestant denominations. But this is not all. Rome, with characteristic foresight, is concentrating her strength in the Western Territories. As the West is to dominate the nation, she intends to dominate the West. In the United States a little less than one-eighth of the population is Catholic; in the Territories taken together, more than one-third. In the whole country there are not quite two-thirds as many Catholics as there are members of evangelical churches. Not including Arizona and New Mexico, which have a large native Catholic population, the six remaining Territories had in 1880 four times as many Romanists as there were members in all Protestant denominations collectively; and including Arizona and New Mexico, Rome had eighteen times as many as all Protestant bodies. We are told that the native Catholics of Arizona and New Mexico are not as energetic as the Protestants who are pushing into those Territories. True, but they are energetic enough to be counted. The most wretched members of society count as much at the polls as the best, and too often much more. It is poor consolation which is drawn from the ignorance of any portion of our population. Those degraded peoples are clay in the hands of the Jesuits. When the Jesuits were driven out of Berlin, they declared that they would plant themselves in the Western Territories of America. And they are there to-day with empires in their brains. Expelled for their intrigues even from Catholic countries, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Mexico, Brazil, and other States, they are free to colonize in the great West, and are there gathering and plotting to Romanize and control our Western empire. Rev. J. H. Warren, D. D., writes from California, in which State there are four times as many Romanists as Protestant church members: "The Roman Catholic power is fast becoming an overwhelming evil. Their schools are everywhere, and number probably 2,000 in the State. Their new college of St. Ignatius is, we are told, the largest, finest, best equipped of its kind in the United States. They blow no trumpets, are sparing with statistics, but are at work night and day to break down the institutions of the country, beginning with the public schools. As surely as we live, so surely will the conflict come, and it will be a hard one." Lafayette, himself a Romanist, was not wholly blind when he said: "If the liberties of the American people are ever destroyed, they will fall by the hands of the Romish clergy."—Rev. Josiah Strong, D. D., in Our Country.