ROME AND THE SECOND COMMANDMENT.
By Editor
SAYS our esteemed contemporary, the Cottage Pulpit, in quoting the second commandment of the Decalogue (Ex. 20: 4-6):— "As this second commandment has been left out of her copy of the Scriptures by the Roman Catholic Church (the tenth being split into two to supply the deficiency), and it is so directly connected with our subject, the Mark of the Beast, we add it to the matter of our standing head." The one point we wish to notice here is what is said about the omission of the second commandment in the Roman Catholic Scriptures. Evidently the Cottage Pulpit means the Douay Bible, the one authorized by Rome. But the Douay Bible, printed by John E. Potter & Co., of Philadelphia, approved at the time by the archbishop and all the bishops of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States, reads as follows:— "Thou shalt not make to thyself a graven thing, nor the likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, nor of those things that are in the waters under the earth. Thou shalt not adore them, nor serve them; I am the Lord thy God, mighty, jealous, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, and showing mercy unto thousands to them that love me, and keep my commandments." Ex. 20: 4-6. If by "her copy of the Scriptures" our contemporary means the catechisms used by the Roman Church, we reply that the catechism may omit verses 4-6 for sake of brevity, believing that verses 3-6 are one commandment, and that the principle is covered by verse 3, or what we denominate the first commandment. But all catechisms do not omit what we call the second commandment. Before us lies a little work with the following title: "A Catechism of Christian Doctrine, No. II, Approved by the Cardinal Archbishop and Bishops of England and Wales, and Directed to be Used in All Their Dioceses." Published by Burns & Oates, London. On page 27 is the following question and answer:— "What is the first commandment?" "The first commandment is, 'I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt and out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt not have strange gods before me. Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven thing, nor the likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or in earth beneath, nor of those things that are in the waters under the earth. Thou shalt not adore them nor serve them.'" The only mark against Rome in her treatment of God's law is her perversion of the fourth commandment. She claims it as a mark of her authority in the things of God, and, sad to say, many Protestants admit the claim practically. The prophetic word of God stamps it as the mark of the man of sin.