News and Errata by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Apr 9, 1894

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 20, No. 23.

News and Errata

By Editor

THE news from Europe is that the depleted treasuries of some of the powers, together with the Russian French and Russian German alliances, promise peace for a time so far as the powers are concerned, but that "the single black spot on the horizon," Socialism in its various forms, "menaces all the sovereigns and governments of Europe." It is said to be making "alarming progress."

THE Paulist Fathers, a Roman Catholic society, are sending out their preachers to all parts of the country to "convert" America, and from the reports some of them are able and eloquent. One of them delivered the first regular sermon ever delivered by a Catholic priest in Harvard University, Appleton Chapel, April 1. The report says: "The occasion was a memorable one, being the first really cordial recognition Harvard has ever given a Catholic priest." And this is characteristic of the leaning toward Rome.

Errata.—In the SIGNS of March 5, No. 18, there are two errors to which we wish to call attention: (1) On page 279, third column, first line of first paragraph, coarse type, the word after "Rev. George Guirey" should be "Baptist" instead of "Presbyterian." (2) On page 281, second column, third line, the word "not" should be inserted between the words "they" and "oppose," making it read, "and as they did not oppose this, it plainly follows," etc. These are both corrected in the later editions.

It Is Now Too Late.—We have received Document No. 20 of the National League for Protection of American Institutions. It is a petition to the fifty-third Congress concerning the Indians. "The League petitions against the violation of the American principle of the separation of Church and State, which is involved in making any sectarian appropriations for Indian education." The document then goes on to state that the official bodies of the Congregational, Methodist Episcopal, Presbyterian, and the Protestant Episcopal Churches have determined to withdraw their applications for funds from the United States Treasury, because of the principle which they now see is involved in this dangerous practice, and they propose henceforth to support their own schools without government aid. The League claims that the time has now "come when the national government should cease entirely from making such appropriations, and petitions that the government adopt a definite, permanent, and uniform principle, on the basis of the American free common-school system for education among the Indians." Then follow quotations from various church and religious bodies against sectarian appropriations.

Now all this is good, but it would have been much better if it had been manifest long ago. All of these various religious bodies were just as anxious to obtain funds from the United States treasury to carry on their schools, in the beginning of the matter, as they now seem to be to protest, and, judging from their action then, we have no reason to believe that they would now stand where they do if the Roman Catholic Church had not so clearly beaten them in this race for public money.

The fact of the case is the Roman Catholic Church obtained in 1886 more than all the other churches combined, and continued to increase its lead up to the present year. When the Protestant Churches found they could not, by any efforts of their own, make a change in this matter, they all saw at once that a wrong principle was involved!! They ought to have seen that a wrong principle was involved in the very first step. It was just as wrong when they took the first dollar as it is now, and true Christianity and true Protestantism ought to have seen it then.

The time has not only now come when the government should cease from making appropriations for sectarian schools, but it has always been. It never should have been begun. But the matter now is gone too far to recall. The treasury door has been opened, and the head of the camel has entered; and the American League and all Protestants will find themselves powerless in their endeavor to compel it to withdraw, or to close the treasury doors against its voracity. Roman Catholicism has demonstrated during the last eight years that she has a greater power in Congress than all the other religious bodies combined, and we see no reason to believe that it will ever be otherwise. We regret beyond words to express that it is so, when it might have been the opposite. The reason for it all is that Protestants have departed from Protestant principles, and the principles of liberty in the American Republic exist largely in name and association rather than in vital motive power. Let the Protestant churches return to Protestant principles and to Protestant means and methods, and no longer try to meet Roman Catholicism by the arts of which Rome alone is mistress.