THE TEMPORAL POWER OF THE PAPACY.
By Editor
THE restoration of the temporal power of the pope was advocated by Roman Catholic Bishop William Stang, of Fall River, Mass., at a Roman Catholic mass meeting in Carnegie Hall, New York, on the evening of May 28. The mass meeting was in connection with the tenth annual meeting of the Federation of German Catholic Societies. The bishop declared with reference to the temporal power and the pope: "It was stolen from him, and a thief is a thief whether he wears rags or a crown." He didn't state who the pope stole his temporal power from, and that a thief is a thief whether he wears rags or a tiara. He urged in this connection "liberal contribution to Peter's pence," as "it will do much to aid the pope." On the same occasion Archbishop Farley, of New York, said: This century has opened up wonders. The world outside of the church has cut loose and has drifted out on a stormy sea. It has trampled under foot the Holy Scriptures, cast God out of the schools, torn asunder the bond of matrimony, and even authority has now been assaulted. Socialism is rampant. And the men who have caused this cataclysm are now looking around for a haven of safety. They see only the pontiff in Rome. You must by your lives, private and public, show the way. The first two sentences of the above, and the first clause of the third, are emphatically true. The second sentence states the result of tramping under foot the Holy Scriptures, especially by Protestantism. The world is in doubt. It has no religion; but more and more it is turning to the Vatican and the Roman Catholic religion as the one consistent thing, the only assurance. Socialism is the present foe of Romanism; but Socialism rejecting the Bible, will come in its search for rest to the Roman Catholic hoped-for refuge. Protestantism ought to have stood for the hope of the nations, but she has rejected the Bible. The great world, drunken with the wine of Babylon, will yet rush to Rome, but they will find that her haven of safety is the abysm of death. The only hope, the only haven of safety, is Christ Jesus and His Gospel as revealed in the great threefold message of Revelation 14.