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The Powers That Be

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Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jul 8, 1913

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 40, No. 26.

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“The Powers That Be”

By New York Observer

Romans 13: 1

THE pope of Rome finds himself confronted with the command of God to submit himself to the powers that be. This divine precept is binding on him, as on any other man. The divine precept was given with special reference to the civil authorities, and to prescribe the duties of the church toward the secular powers. It was, moreover, given to the Romans, “to all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints;” and the command is in these words: “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God.” This ought to be the pope’s rule of practise, and if he could bring himself into the spirit of submission to the command of God, whose servant he claims to be, it would be greatly for his comfort.
Now he kicks against the pricks. He and his predecessor, rebelling against the law of God, and refusing to submit themselves unto the powers that be, have made things very disagreeable for themselves. The palace of the Vatican is one of the largest and most elegant in the world, adorned with priceless treasures of art, with libraries and museums, and every luxury that genius can devise for the entertainment of a man who claims to be the vicar of Him who had not where to lay His hand. Yet this gorgeous and widely-extended palace is called a prison-house by its master, who is supposed by some of his people to be lying in a dungeon on a bed of straw! The pope is as free to go and come as any man in Ireland or Italy, and his pretense of being restrained is set up merely to exhibit his refusal to acknowledge the right of the powers that be. Probably no greater farce was ever enacted outside of the pages of Cervantes, whose Sancho imagined himself the governor of Barataria.—New York Observer.