Christian Union by J. H. W.

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Jul 8, 1875

Christian Union.

By J. H. W.

THIS term is a hobby with many at the present time. It is the pass-word to the very inner temple of self-styled orthodoxy. Men will talk of "a sweet union of loving hearts," when there is not a principle of true union with them. We think this is well calculated to fulfill prophecy, by securing union of action on certain popular points where there is no union in principle. Mr. Hammond, in his "union revival meetings," takes pains to let it be understood that he can work with "all who believe in Jesus;" with Catholics as well as Protestants. This was repeatedly said in Stockton. Now consistent Protestants cannot unite with Catholics. If they can, why are they Protestants? And was not the work of Luther worse than useless? And this is what you will find wherever this cry of "union" is raised: the spirit of true reform is lacking; there is a sacrifice of truth for an empty name.

A recent letter from Italy contains the following remarks on Catholicism:—

"The thought is constantly recurring that ages of degradation under Papal and priestly rule have destroyed the capacity of men and women for apprehending the first elements of Christian teaching as set forth in the New Testament. Mr. Spurgeon has freely said that he has lost all faith in the possibility of a Romish priest in Italy being truly converted to Christ, without an actual miracle; and that, because the system under which the priests have been trained has burned out of their nature every moral element upon which truth can operate. This, on his part, is no mere hyperbole, or 'flourish of rhetoric,' but a deep conviction. In this connection we cannot forget the old proverb, 'Like priest, like people.' The priestly system of espionage is, even now, as far-reaching and effective as ever; and yet, it has been aptly said that 'we could easily raise up Baptist churches all over Italy, and draw hundreds to them, to be baptized, at a dollar a head.' Missionaries from heathen lands, passing through Italy to America, and stopping here and there for the sake of chances to see things for themselves, have frankly said that they would prefer heathendom, any part of it, as a field of work; although, indeed, so broad a statement might be qualified as it was here, a few days since, by Mr. Ashmore, of China, who said that wherever a community of Chinese had yielded to the sway of the Romish priesthood, they exhibited a field of labor as hopeless as any in Italy."

China is well known to be a hard field for missionary labor, but to make the Chinese as hard to convert as the Catholic Italians, they must be brought under Catholic influence! This is the judgment of a missionary who had beheld both fields.

Catholicism never changes its policy. It may change its action for the sake of policy, but it is the same now that it was in the days of Luther. When Protestants bow down to the name of "union" so as to unite with Catholics, or try to, it is because they have lost every true element of the Reformation.

But they cannot unite with Catholics for the reason that Catholics will not unite with them. And this shows that the Catholics are more consistent than they. Catholics know very well that there is an "irrepressible conflict" between the two; and an impassible gulf, which must remain as long as Catholics are Catholics and Protestants are Protestants. When names are preferred to things; when shadows are counted more real than substances; and when principles are sunk out of sight for mere feeling and momentary triumphs, then there is union, but it is on the same basis of that which was effected between Pilate and Herod.

Jesus came "to bear witness of the truth," and to unite hearts in the truth, but to separate between mere professors and them who love and obey the truth. If we have the truth it is our duty to maintain it. This cry of "charity" and of "loss of influence," is a mere delusion, raised to frighten timid ones whose hearts are not established in the faith. Charity "rejoices not in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth." We have no right to any influence which we cannot use to the glory of God and to the advancement of his cause. Let us "hold fast the form of sound words," for the truth is not ours to compromise or to trifle with. It is a matter of life and death; a matter to be tested by the Judgment of God. In all ages they who have adhered to the truth without swerving have lost their influence with the worldly and time-serving, but they have glorified God and received his approval. Let us take them for our example, rather than yield to a popular clamor for compromises which cannot profit.

J. H. W.