THE POPE'S JUBILEE

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Apr 6, 1888

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 14, No. 14.

THE POPE'S JUBILEE.

No event of greater interest than the Pope's Jubilee has occurred during the present century. It is of equal interest to the politician and to the student of prophecy. Only a few years ago it was confidently affirmed, by many writers, that, with the loss of the temporal power, the Papacy, as to its prestige and influence, was a thing of the past. A recent writer of some note said that the Pope was, among all nations, losing the regard which had been paid to him; that with the loss of his civil authority he was ceasing to be an object of interest to the Governments of earth. Again, it was declared, and that not long ago, that since the loss of his civil power he had been virtually a prisoner in the Vatican.

We think that they who speak thus have not been very close observers of the signs of the times, or close readers of the prophecies concerning the future of the Papacy. As far as his being a prisoner is concerned, no prince of Europe is more free to go and come as he pleases. No citizen of the kingdom of Italy could travel with greater freedom; and no potentate of Europe would be met everywhere with such acclamations in his travels, as would Leo XIII., if he should choose to travel. But he will not travel at present; he is too politic for that. He will wait until acclamations have more significance than they would have at present, cheerfully as they would now be given.

A number of students of prophecy have foreseen that the Pope must rise in influence and power, before the Papacy meets its final doom. Chapters 17 and 18 of the book of Revelation, both foreshadow what the world is just beginning to see. In chapter 17 the kingdoms give their power to the Papacy for a short time before the close. For the last half century the encyclicals of the Popes have contained lamentations that the church has been forsaken of the nations that were wont to uphold her; that heresy had grown bold even in the holy city of Rome, and the church was powerless to check it. But of late the publications of the Protestants, especially on the continent of Europe, have begun to take up the lamentations, as they see the influence of Catholicism so rapidly increasing everywhere, and the Pope receiving the congratulations of all the world.

It is not, however, that the Pope receives congratulations and numerous valuable gifts from the heads of the Governments of the earth, that chiefly creates alarm in the bosoms of genuine Protestants. It is the immense power that the Catholic Church is wielding in almost every nation. It would take more than the limits of a single article to do justice to this point.

The place assigned for the exposition of the jubilee gifts to the Pope, had to be several times enlarged; and when the time for the display arrived, some five hundred boxes remained to be opened, besides a large amount which was on the way, its arrival having been delayed. Almost every Government on the face of the whole earth was represented in the gifts, many of which were of great value. There seemed to be a strife among the nations to see which could do the greatest honor to a man who has no civil standing among them! Is there no significance in this?

Bohemia sent no presents, for the reason that she represented Protestants as well as Catholics. A strange reason, considering the action of those Governments which call themselves altogether Protestant. The queen of England sent costly vessels for the celebration of the mass; not very inappropriate, when it is considered that she is the head of a church which is so fast running into ritualism, which is another name for Catholicism. Prussia, the home of the Reformation, gave the miter which the Pope wore on the occasion of his jubilee. In Europe, the only exceptions of note were the united kingdoms