Not Men, but Principles.
By Editor
"We war with principles, not with men," some reformer has aptly said. Better still: We war with principles in order to save men. There are times when this paper, in the exposition of prophecy, refers necessarily to Roman Catholicism, the Papacy, to Mohammedanism, and Spiritism. We believe that these great systems are referred to in the prophetic Word as apostate systems. At the same time, we believe there are devoted Christian men and women in the Roman Catholic Church; but we believe they are so, not because of that system, but in spite of it. They see, and their faith reaches beyond the form, beyond the man-worship, beyond the ecclesiastical cordon of police, and takes hold of the Lord Jesus Christ. What the system itself will do, the decadent nations of the Old World witness. In Protestant countries that system has been mightily affected by contact with aggressive Protestantism for the better, apparently, and it is in Protestant countries where converts are made. But the countries where the Papacy has had full sway for centuries, like Spain, Italy, and the South American states, tell a different story. Such was the experience of the Marquise des Monstiers Mesinville, formerly Miss M. G. Caldwell, who founded the Divinity College in the Roman Catholic University, at Washington, D. C., some years ago. She has entirely repudiated Roman Catholicism. She said, in a letter dated Oct. 30, 1894, published in the San Francisco Examiner of Nov. 16, 1904: "Yes, it is true that I have left the Roman Catholic Church. Since I have been living in Europe my eyes have opened to what that church really is, and to its anything but sanctity. But the trouble goes much further back than this. Being naturally religious, my imagination was early caught by the idea of doing something to lift the church from the lowly position which it occupied in America, so I thought of a university, or higher school, where its clergy could be educated, and, if possible, refined. Of course, in this I was greatly influenced by Bishop Spalding, of Peoria, who represented it to me as one of the greatest works of the day. When I was 21, I turned over to them one-third of my fortune for that purpose. But for years I have been trying to rid myself of the subtle, yet overwhelming influence, of a church which pretends, not only to the privilege of being "the only true church," but of being alone able to open the gates of heaven to a sorrowful, sinful world. At last my honest Protestant blood has asserted itself, and I now forever repudiate and cast off "the yoke of Rome." Would that Protestantism was what it ought to be; there would be many who would turn to its fold.