Catholic Ceremonies in Protestant Churches — What the Significance
By A. R. BELL
FOR more than half a century, we have said to the world that nominal Protestantism would yet unite with Catholicism to form a great, world-wide persecuting power. We have also said, for all this time, that the United States would take the lead in this colossal ecclesiastical movement. Our conviction in this matter has been brought about by the study of the book of Revelation, especially chapters 12, 13, 14, 17, and 18. The evidence is plain enough to show what is coming. The facts presented by Elder Bell might be multiplied at length; but of course the majority will not give heed, and at the same time they will fulfil the prophecy, though all the while scoffing at it. The question is one of God’s word and the facts; and no matter whether Catholic or Protestant, every individual should weigh the testimony. Neither our clamorous teaching, nor our vaunted “broad-mindedness” and “liberality,” nor our prejudices, will be the deciding factor in the Judgment. We must all meet what God’s word says, rather than what is the teaching of the church. EDITOR.
THE decline and fall of Protestantism seems of late to be the theme of Roman Catholic journalism, and keeping step with this is their boast of the progress and the onward march of Roman Catholicism.
"THE LAND OF OPPORTUNITY"
To that system, America is the land of opportunity. The word has gone forth to make America Catholic; and in spite of all the fearful things they say of the Reformation and the Reformers, and of Protestantism in general, in spite of the intense spirit of hatred breathed in all their utterances concerning Protestantism, and the professed and published detestation in which they hold all members of the Protestant faith, it would seem as though professed Protestantism were doing what she could to help make the aim of Rome successful.
"DISINTEGRATING BEFORE HER EYES"
Roman Catholicism says “Protestantism is disintegrating before her eyes,” and that “multitudes of its greatest representatives are hurrying to the temples which their forefathers had abandoned.”
They are telling us that “from one end of Christendom to the other, all monuments and memorials of these demoniacs [the Reformers] must be blotted out,” and that “the world at large will soon fall into line . . . and expurgate their history, making confession of its sin, and begging forgiveness.”
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY WILL BE ENDED
The boast has been made that when Roman Catholics shall be in the majority in this country, which they say will “certainly be the case by and by,” then “religious liberty will have come to an end in the republic of the United States.”
CARDINAL O'CONNELL, WHO WELCOMED THE CONVENTION TO "CATHOLIC BOSTON"
And yet in the face of all this hatred and antagonism, professed Protestants seem to have forgotten that “eternal vigilance is the price of liberty,” and that “Rome never changes”; and with a zeal not according to knowledge, they are found playing court as to a mother from whom, by their own wrongdoing, they had been estranged.
SOME WEATHER-VANES
Note a few straws that show which way the wind is blowing. In an English weekly newspaper we are told:
“Protestantism is being steadily sapped. Ministers of the Church of England deny that they are Protestant ministers. Many of them openly flout the Reformation, and tell us, without mincing words, that the martyrs were traitors, and that they deserved their fate.”
We come over to this side of the Atlantic, to the “land of opportunity” in the eyes of Romanism, and we hear a Philadelphia minister telling us, speaking of Protestantism:
“We are all approaching . . . the Roman Catholic. The world is more cultured; and as people become more refined, the need of an appeal to the senses increases, and ceremonials, vestments, high-class music, pageants, lend dignity and impressiveness. This observance of feasts and fasts, of saint days and martyrs’ days, in my opinion is not harmful. It increases the veneration of worshipers for the church.”
Note that as we become more cultured and refined, the appeal must be to the senses, and not to the heart, and that veneration for the church is the object sought. This is the very essence of Romanism.
PROTESTANTISM A THING OF THE PAST
Another Philadelphia minister tells us that “the spirit of Protestantism is fast dying out in the United States, and will soon be a thing of the past.”
We hear another, in Camden, New Jersey, in a sermon on “The Altar Fires,” say:
“There are writers . . . who tell us that the Roman Catholic Church is a threat to the future welfare of our nation. Will you hear me when I say that the putting out of the fires that burn at this moment on Roman Catholic altars would be the greatest disaster that could overtake our country or our civilization?”
CARDINAL GIBBONS, WHO BLESSED A CROSS FOR A PROTESTANT MINISTER
ASKED THE CARDINAL TO BLESS IT
We read of a Protestant minister of Washington, D. C., sending a cross to Cardinal Gibbons, to be blessed by him, before presenting it to a member of his Sunday-school, and telling her:
“This will have an added sacredness and value to you as a faithful child of the church, because it has a cardinal’s blessing.”
CATHOLIC MASS IN BAPTIST CHURCH
We read of a Roman Catholic mass being held in a Baptist church in Elmhurst, New York, and the minister saying:
“We’re getting along splendidly. There’s plenty of room here for both congregations. You see I’ve always preached brotherly love, and I believe in it.”
We are told of a minister in New York City who, preaching in a large tent, said he felt it would “be but a short time before the Roman Catholic Church and all the Protestant churches would unite in one grand church.”
A PROTESTANT CONFESSIONAL
And now we read, in the Literary Digest, of a movement for a “Protestant confessional.” Of this movement, a writer in the Western Christian Advocate says:
“Now the class-meeting has gone, and the revival fails to reach the multitudes of men. How will the church readjust herself to the new conditions? — Not with a confessional established under ecclesiastical control, but with some form that will give men opportunity to confess their sins. A Protestant confessional would be a pastoral clinic which drew men to it because of their need, and which wins and holds their confidence because of the service rendered. Let us encourage and facilitate confession. It is good for the soul.”
And through it all, Rome laughs to herself and bides her time.
ROMEWARD TREMENDOUSLY
Coupled with all this fearful apostasy and drawing of Protestantism Romeward is the tremendous increase of Roman Catholic population, and the attitude of men in public civil life toward the papal hierarchy. We remember that for the four years of the last Republican president’s stay in the White House, he, with many of his cabinet and high officials of the government, attended mass each Thanksgiving day in St. Patrick’s Church, Washington, D. C. We remember Cardinal O’Connell’s being introduced as “the first citizen” of Massachusetts, at a banquet given in Boston, and of high4officials of that commonwealth who “bowed the knee and kissed his hand.”
Water-front at Buenos Aires, and the canal through which vessels are towed to the open water. Brother Hall was longer in passing through here than from New York to London.
And we have in mind the action of the present occupant of the executive mansion in Washington, D. C., who, in the face of over ten thousand letters and telegrams of protest, attended mass with Secretary Bryan and many of the officials of the legislative and judicial departments of the government.
OBSEQUIOUSLY BOWING
All these are signs of the times. We see Protestantism turning Romeward. We see our leaders in public life obsequiously bowing before that religio-political system. We see Roman Catholic governors and mayors increasing everywhere. We see Massachusetts, the cradle of religious liberty, in the hands of a Roman Catholic majority. We hear Cardinal O’Connell, at a recent Catholic congress held in Boston, saying to the delegates, “Catholic Boston welcomes you.” We hear the loud boast, “I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow,” as given to us in the prophecy of Rev. 18:7; and we realize, as we look the situation over, that the day is fast approaching when “all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him [the papal beast], whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” Rev. 13:8.
Thank God that while all these indications of a dying Protestantism, and of Rome's approaching greatness and power, are signs of our time, and are the testimony of history to the voice of prophecy, they are besides the sure evidence of Rome's soon-coming final and complete overthrow and destruction under the wrath of God. Rev. 18:5-10.
A SAVING MESSAGE
To save men from that destruction, a destruction that involves “all that dwell upon the earth,” God is sending to the world the threefold message of Rev. 14:6-12. This message prepares those who accept it, for the coming of the Lord. See verses 14-16. The result of heeding the message is given us in verse 12: “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.”
These will worship neither the beast—Romanism—nor his image—apostate Protestantism. Getting complete victory over all apostasy and every wrong, walking in obedience to every divine requirement, they “have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.” Rev. 22:14.
Dear reader, may you read the signs of the times aright! May you know the time of our visitation, and by all these things be led to seek that safety which only a life surrendered fully to God may know, and worship only Him.
