"RESTORATION OF THE OLD ORDER."
By Editor
THESE are days when the busy pen and the printing press make history of almost every transaction by persistently taking notes and printing them. Therefore, the making of history and the fulfilment of prophecy are made unusually conspicuous. In this way public sentiment is brought to view from every quarter, throwing a light on fulfilling prophecy that can not be mistaken. And the rays of this ever-increasing light beam forth from sources whence ordinarily they would not be expected to emanate. To illustrate: The seven-headed, ten-horned, composite beast of Revelation 13 is very generally conceded to represent the great Roman power. The prophecy notes the general tendency of the world to admire, and, consequently, to imitate it. Altho Rome has had its downfalls, even the Papacy being "smitten unto death" in 1798 (when the pope was made a prisoner, dying in exile a few years later), yet its "death-stroke was healed," and the prophecy shows it to be a world-wonder in the close of time. Protestantism, through whose influence Rome's great reverses were made possible, is now, in its apostate state, leading the world in the admiration and adoption of papal institutions. The return was made easier by the fact that Protestantism never fully completed its work. Even Luther and his colaborers never became fully divested of Roman doctrine. The complete eradication seemed too much for a single generation, and those who followed did not venture any farther than their predecessors had gone; and their attempted standstill made the eventual reaction sure. They organized state churches, reared edifices, adopted rituals, and espoused doctrines in imitation of Rome, and unto this day these have been and are yet becoming more and more like the original "mother." That which seems to mark an epoch in this retrogression is the furor for the celebration of church "days" (Gal. 4:8-11), the seed of which was brought over into Protestantism in Sunday observance. The fruit is seen in the growing attention that is given to Easter, to Good Friday, to Passion Week, to Lent, etc. As stated at the beginning, the record of events and of public sentiment by the press, throws a light on the progress of this return toward the papal fold that could not otherwise be observed, and would hardly be realized but for this agency. So, surprising as it may seem, we see such Protestant papers as the Christian Work advocating the observance of the entire church calendar. The following brief excerpt gives the gist of that journal's counsel in the matter of looking backward toward Rome:— In several localities we notice the churches have united in observance of Lent, and especially of Passion Week. It is a favorable sign, presaging, as it does, the final adoption by the Christian churches of the church year, and the passing of the incongruous "Week of Prayer," instituted at a time when the Christian Church, as a whole, is feasting. The restoration of the old order, carrying uniformity and consistency is far better, and is destined to possess the church as a whole, to the betterment of its order, to the attainment of a greater measure of uniformity, and the better emphasizing in a congruous way of the chief events in the life of our crucified and risen Lord. We have italicized some words by way of comment. It is indeed an "incongruity" to attempt a "week of prayer" while "the church as a whole is feasting." But does not the incongruity rather lie in the church's wholesale feasting during a season set apart by common consent for prayer? Is not this the view-point from which the real condition is seen? And is not the incongruity further shown in the season of feasting and other pleasures carried to excess just before the Lenten weeks of so-called fasting, to be renewed with fresh excesses of pleasure immediately after the apparently unwelcome formality of cessation? Then the "old order," of which "restoration" is advised, and which is said to be "far better," is simply the old order of Rome, for that is the source from which it all came. The "uniformity," too, which is so desirable on the part of those who are becoming so infatuated with these things, is simply uniformity with Rome. Of course if the apostate Protestant churches are to adopt the principles and forms of Rome, there is more "consistency" in their coming into line with the "old order," and dispensing with their "incongruous" week of prayer. After noting the position of the Christian Work on the points already noted, the reader will not be surprised to learn that in the same issue, same column, a movement for a Protestant mission among Catholic Italians in a suburb of New York City is deplored, with the distinct statement that those engaged in it might "find a better way of spending their time and money." The reason given is, that "these Italians are professedly Christians, and very many of them are leading exemplary lives." Therefore, they do not need Protestantism, is the logic of the argument; and certainly it is good logic, if the Protestantism, into which they would be inducted, were to lead them right back through Roman institutions into Rome again.