COMING INTO “CLOSER FELLOWSHIP.”
By Editor
THE following clipping from the Advance may be set down as a sign of the times:— The Baptist Church of Long Island City deserves praise for a highly Christian act. The new St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church was entirely destroyed by fire last week. Immediately the Baptist Church offered the use of its edifice to its afflicted neighbor, and the offer was accepted in the same spirit with which it was made. Sunday morning four masses were celebrated in the Baptist Church between 6 and 9:30, the worshipers filling the house to the vestibule. A temporary wooden altar was placed in front of the baptistry upon which were the cross and the lighted candles. Father McGuire in his address made grateful mention of the Christian spirit of toleration and liberality by which his people were furnished with a place of worship. While the Catholics were dispersing, the Baptists and Methodists were entering for a union service, and never before, perhaps, have three of the great creeds of Christendom come into closer fellowship. This sight will be witnessed every Sunday morning of the summer, and who will deny that it is the sign of a better day? When Baptist Churches can be devoted to the papal service, and the Methodists enter the “fellowship,” and a Congregational paper bestows its “praise” upon the scene and hails it as “the sign of a better day,” what is left for such a waning Protestantism to protest about anyway? This occurrence adds force to the words of the Catholic News, published in last week’s issue: “There is only one creed, and that is our creed. If the Protestants accept that, they are not Protestants. There is only one chance of unity, and that is the total annexation. Our Protestant friends will do well to learn that fact.”