Pope Pleads for a United Christendom
AT the general convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church, held in Cincinnati, Ohio, in October, 1910, a commission was appointed "to arrange for a world conference on faith and order." They planned to have had this world conference in 1914, but the war that broke out that year prevented it. However, the commission has been very active, and many meetings of church dignitaries have been held in various places, and an active correspondence has been kept up by Robert H. Gardner, the secretary, with leading churchmen throughout the world. In this correspondence, the pope of Rome has been approached, and through Cardinal Gasparri, has delivered to the commission one of the most significant letters of recent times. Under the auspices of this world conference of faith and order, a meeting was in session at Garden City, New York, January 4; and Cardinal Gasparri's letter, conveying the sentiments of the pope, was read and most enthusiastically applauded. Among the striking things in the cardinal's letter, the following may be selected: "Your project of an international convention of all who believe in Jesus Christ as God and Saviour, to accomplish the speedy fulfillment of the final prayer of the Lord that all may be one, I have, in obedience to your request, submitted to the most blessed father. "I need not here describe the affection with which I saw the august pontiff kindled for you. . . . "The august pontiff therefore was pleased with your project of examining in a sincere spirit and without prejudice the essential form of the church, 'or the inner essence of the church'; and he earnestly hopes that under the spell of its native beauty, you may settle all disputes, and work with prosperous issue to the end that the mystical body of Christ be no longer suffered to be rent and torn, but that by harmony and coöperation of men's minds, and likewise by the concord of their wills, unity of faith and communion may at last prevail throughout the world of men. "Thanking you, then, that you have thought well to request the aid and support of the Roman pontiff in expediting your worthy project, his holiness expresses his earnest desire that the end may answer your expectation. . . . "The august pontiff therefore kindly permits that copies of my letters, which though a faithful, are yet but a faint portrait of the pontifical love, shall be sent to all to whose welfare and peace you believe they will contribute. "It is a pleasure to repeat the encouragement that the aid and earnest prayers of the Roman pontiff will never be lacking to any one who, having freed himself from prejudiced opinion, with a true and sincere will strives with all his strength that the unity of faith and fellowship instituted by Christ and built upon Peter may be restored, and that all who enrolled in the name of Christian may betake themselves to the bosom of the one most loving church, and may be joined and associated as members with Christ the head." The report says, "The letter telling of the pontiff's interest in church unity created a tremendous stir." It is also stated that "the ministers applauded vociferously." Careful Bible students have taught, for years, that the prophecies most clearly indicate that just before the second coming of Christ, Rome, for a very short time, will reign supreme in this world. Furthermore, the same prophecies just as clearly indicate that Protestantism will cease to protest against Rome, and will unite with her in forming a world-wide religious despotism and tyranny. The man who cannot see that this thing is coming with a mighty progress, must be either exceedingly indifferent or else totally blind. It was an organization of churchmen, claiming to represent the true church of God, that crucified the Christ, and that put to death all His apostles save one. It was the organized church, claiming to represent Christ, that also, all through the Middle Ages, misrepresented Him by torturing and killing the millions of martyrs. In all of those tragic times, the individual who was carefully following the Bible saw what it all meant, and knew where to take his stand. And likewise in this time in the world's history, when the greatest human tragedies of the ages will be enacted, men who understand their Bibles, and who are personally acquainted with their God, will have no difficulty in knowing what position to take. The history of all the past shows unmistakably that a church as such is a very dangerous thing to follow. God has given us an infallible guide in His word as impressed upon the individual soul by His divine Spirit; and in this time, Catholic, and Protestant, and those of every other persuasion, need to know their Bibles for themselves, and thus avoid being swept down by the mighty avalanche of delusion that is forming in the world to fulfill the last great prophecy of events that immediately precede the second coming of Christ.