UNION OF PROTESTANTISM AND CATHOLICISM BECOMING MORE APPARENT.
By Elder H. J. Farman
THE statements of National Reformers that a union of Protestantism and Catholicism would be effected by the Sunday-law movement is becoming more apparent every day. From the political and religious press we see a growing tendency to tone down the differences that have existed in years past between these two great religious bodies. However, there are a few exceptions. But most of our large daily papers are catering very strongly towards Catholicism, and the words of prophecy are being fast fulfilled which state that the people of this country shall “make an image to the beast [the Papacy], which had the wound by a sword, and did live.” The annual meeting of the International Christian Endeavor Society was held in Montreal, P. Q., last July, and reported in the Providence (R. I.) Daily Journal. This meeting, according to the report, was the largest ever held but one, there being over sixteen thousand delegates present. This was a very enthusiastic meeting, and very fully reported in the above-named paper, from which I quote:— Montreal’s welcome to her American guests has been anything but scanty. In his address on Thursday the mayor of the city said: “While I am a Roman Catholic myself, and while Montreal is a Roman Catholic city, that is, the greater portion of her citizens profess that faith, none will extend a heartier welcome than we will.” But how was this welcome received? Says the editor: “A speech of this kind addressed to the representatives of a great Protestant society, could not fail to be greeted with enthusiasm by the Convention.” And all this is from Protestants, so called. Is not this a fulfillment of what is stated in “Great Controversy,” pages 571, 576, edition 1891? As the Protestant churches have been seeking the favor of the world, false charity has blinded their eyes. . . . Instead of standing in defense of the faith once delivered to the saints, they are now, as it were, apologizing to Rome for their uncharitable opinion of her, begging pardon for their bigotry. Romanism is now regarded by Protestants with far greater favor than in former years. . . . The opinion is gaining ground that, after all, we do not differ so widely on vital points as has been supposed, that a little concession on our part will bring us into a better understanding with Rome. And this is just what the editor of the Journal says the Christian Endeavor Society is doing:— It is in this direction that the Christian Endeavor Society has done its greatest work, certainly one of its greatest works. It has accustomed its members to look outside of its own narrow church lines and see good in other denominations, and without doubt it has contributed its full share to the ultimate Christian union, of which so much has been said in the last few years; and so when the Roman Catholic executive of the city of Montreal appealed to them on Thursday, as colaborers, it is no wonder they cheered him, as one report puts it, “into astonishment.” “Cheered him into astonishment”! This is just what the Lord has said Protestants would do. Protestants have tampered with and patronized popery; they have made compromises and concessions which papists themselves are surprised to see, and fail to understand. Says the editor, It is in the line of “Christian union” that the Endeavorers have done their “greatest work,” that is, in bringing together Protestantism and Catholicism, so that the Roman Catholic mayor could recognize them as “colaborers.” “Colaborers” in what? Says the mayor, “It is not a battle of creeds nowadays, but a battle between belief and unbelief.” At this statement the crowd expressed its approval by breaking into vehement applause. “A battle not of creeds, but of belief and unbelief.” Is not this just what the Northwestern Christian Advocate, of Chicago, Ill., in December, 1867, said would come? We warn them further [evidently speaking of those who keep the Sabbath, Saturday] that in the contest for the sabbath [Sunday], it may so fall out that Roman Catholicism . . . and Protestantism will be found side by side, for neither of them will consent to be marshaled by German atheists. By “German atheists” is meant all who do not believe in Sunday legislation. But what has Sunday legislation to do with the mayor’s statement that it “is not a battle of creeds nowadays, but a battle between belief and unbelief”? We shall see a little later. To these words of the mayor “the great crowd expressed its approval by breaking into vehement applause. Then everybody sang, ‘God Save the Queen,’ and ‘My Country,’ ‘Tis of Thee,’ and then there was another great outburst, which almost stunned the sparrows flying beneath the lofty roof.” Surely all can see that here is a grand union of these two great bodies, both in sentiment and spirit. Says the editor: “A meeting of this sort, whatever its primary purpose, cannot fail to broaden the sympathies of all those who participate in it, and imbue them with a sense of interdenominational and international community of interests.” Thus the Journal sees which way the current is tending.165Among one of the first and most enthusiastic resolutions passed by the Endeavorers was a protest against the opening of the World's Columbian Exposition on Sunday. This act, they claim, was a violation of “the will of the people expressed through their representatives in Congress,” and, moreover, a violation of the consciences of all the (good) people in the world. They declare that the Exposition “is national and not local, and should therefore represent the sentiments of the whole people.” When the resolutions and protests against Sunday desecration were read, says the editor, “Enthusiastic Endeavorers got up in their chairs and hurrahed, . . . while the ladies waved their handkerchiefs.” By this is seen how Protestants are uniting with Roman Catholics in “resisting political atheism.” “Political atheism” is Sunday desecration, and, as the mayor said, in “a battle not of creeds, but of belief and unbelief.” There is another feature in this union of Protestantism with Catholicism which we wish to notice, namely, that Protestants are making “compromises and concessions which the papists themselves are surprised to see and fail to understand.” This the Young People's Christian Endeavor Society did last summer in Montreal. Rev. Dr. Douglass, of that city, was to speak upon “Social Purity,” and, as the Journal says, he “has a habit of coming out strongly on any subject he takes up, and is a determined opponent to the Roman Catholic Church. The committee running the convention, however, had the doctor submit his manuscript to censors. The result was a mighty cutting down of the address, and the official copy contained nothing to hurt the feelings of Roman Catholic citizens.” Thus we see that the sentiment of union has become so strong that a minister has not the privilege of speaking out his own convictions of Catholicism in a Protestant meeting if it will in any way “hurt the feelings of Roman Catholic citizens.” In this we cannot fail to see fulfilled just what the “Great Controversy” said years ago would come: “When Protestantism shall stretch her hand across the gulf to grasp the hand of the Roman power, . . . then we may know that the time has come for the marvelous working of Satan, and that the end is near.” Reader, do you not see in this a sign of the end, and an evidence of the soon coming of Christ? Do not the words of Christ apply here, “What I say unto you I say unto all, Watch”?