September 21, 1893
THE principles upon which the Government of the United States was founded, and the principles of Rome, are directly at opposites. And Rome knows it, and has known it all the time.
THE principles of the Government of the United States have now been completely subverted, and the principles of Rome fully adopted, by an apostate Protestantism, in the United States. And Rome knows it.
THE effect of the principles of the Government of the United States upon other nations has ever been to weaken Rome’s influence over them, and to draw them away from her. So certainly is this true, that although Rome long ago denounced religious toleration as one of the eighty heresies of the age, yet even Spain has “granted” “toleration.”
HERE is a statement that is worthy of consideration in this connection:—
We must briefly survey the influence of the American system upon foreign countries and churches.
Within the present generation the principle of religious liberty and equality, with a corresponding relaxation of the bond of union of Church and State, has made steady and irresistible progress among the leading nations of Europe, and has been embodied more or less clearly in written constitutions….
The successful working of the principle of religious freedom in the United States has stimulated this progress without any official interference. All advocates of the voluntary principle [in support of churches and religion] and of a separation of Church and State in Europe, point to the example of this country as their strongest practical argument.—Schaff, Church and State in the United States, p. 83.
ROME did not want the nations of Europe, or anywhere else, drawn away from her. Yet here was this very work “steadily and irresistibly” going on. This was not by any means a pleasing thing to her. Yet what could she do? The work was not being done by any official action of the United States Government, in diplomacy or otherwise, and, of course, she could not meet it by any such means. It was by the silent, steady and “irresistible” influence of the divine principle upon which the Government was founded, and which was spread before all the world in constitutional guaranties. Plainly, as long as this was suffered to go on she could do nothing; and still the longer it went on the more her influence over the nations was being weakened and her power with them was vanishing. And this to her was heartrending sorrow, and affliction unbearable.
YET what could she do? What should she do? Well, as it was the silent, steady, irresistible power of the divine principles of this Government that was sapping her life away, it is evident that the only thing that she could logically or possibly do to save herself was to subvert the principles of religious liberty, of the separation of Church and State, upon which this Government was founded, and thus turn back the Government of the United States into the way of her evil principles, and so regain her influence and power over the nations and thus once more draw all the nations in her train. For with this Government holding such a high place in the estimation of the nations, it is manifest that if the principles of the Government could be subverted and this Nation so turned into her evil course, then the influence of this Nation would be just as powerful to draw the nations back to Rome as it had formerly been to draw them away from her.
EVIDENTLY this was the logic of the situation. And as Rome is always logical in the application of her own premises, this is the scheme which she set on foot, and which she has been working ever since she awoke to the real situation. As a church, and for this purpose, she entered American politics, she secured political possession of all the great cities, so that now, by this means, she holds the balance of power even in a national election. She worked her agents also into the field of journalism, so that to-day, generally speaking, she absolutely controls the publications of the country, by which she is steadily warping public opinion in her favor, and if not that, then into fear of her power. She sends her secret agents into the Protestant religious schools and theological seminaries, and even into Protestant pulpits, by which means, she steadily and stealthily tones down the principles of the Protestantism and molds religious opinion upon the view that there are at least certain things upon which Protestants and Catholics “can unite to shape legislation for the public weal,” etc., etc. She sends her agents into the trades-unions, the labor-unions, etc., and takes control of these and molds them upon her principles; strikes, with their accompanying violence, are multiplied upon, in which she deftly insinuates herself as the “arbitrator,” whose justice alone can settle the differences and whose word alone can calm the troubled waters. Note the Pope’s encyclicals on the labor question.
ALL these have, for a long time, been her means of loosening the foundations of integrity to the principles of the Government of the United States. And all the while, too, she has beheld with secret but unbounded satisfaction, the work of professed Protestants in their endeavors to secure the recognition of religion in national legislation and national affairs. And when, February 29, 1892, she heard the unanimous decision of the Supreme Court of the United States that “This is a Christian Nation,” with Catholic documents quoted to prove it, she could contain herself no longer. She knew that her advantage was so certain, and her time was so fully come, that she need no longer work in secret, but could announce her purposes openly to the American people and to the world, which she did shortly in a letter from the Vatican to the New York Sun, and which was printed in that paper July 11, 1892, under the heading of “The Papacy and Nationality; Pope Leo and the United States.”
IN that letter are found the following startlingly significant sentences, in which she announces her programme and her purpose concerning the United States, and through this, all humanity:—
In his [Pope Leo’s] view, the United States has reached the period when it becomes necessary to [290] bring about the fusion of all the heterogeneous elements in one homogeneous and indissoluble Nation…. It is for this reason that the Pope wants the Catholics to prove themselves the most enlightened and most devoted workers for national unity and political assimilation…. America feels the need of this work of internal fusion…. What the Church has done in the past for others, she will do for the United States…. That is the reason the Holy See encourages the American clergy to guard jealously the solidarity, and to labor for the fusion of all the foreign and heterogeneous elements into one vast national family….
Finally, Leo XIII. desires to see strength in that unity. Like all intuitive souls, he hails in the united American States and in their young and flourishing Church, the source of new life for Europeans. He wants America to be powerful, in order that Europe may regain strength from borrowing a rejuvenated type. Europe is closely watching the United States…. Henceforth we [Europeans] will need authors who will place themselves on this ground: “What can we borrow and what ought we to borrow from the United States for our social, political, and ecclesiastical reorganization? The answer depends in a great measure upon the development of American destinies. If the United States succeed in solving the many problems that puzzle us, Europe will follow their example, and this outpouring of light will mark a date in the history not only of the United States, BUT OF ALL HUMANITY….
That is why the holy father, anxious for peace and strength, collaborates with passion in the work of consolidation and development in American affairs. According to him, the Church ought to be the chosen crucible for the moulding and absorption of races into one united family. And that, especially, is the reason why he labors at the codification of ecclesiastical affairs, in order that this distant member of Christianity may infuse new blood into the old organism.
NOW, until the year 1892, what could any nation have possibly borrowed from the United States for “ecclesiastical reorganization”? Nothing. Until that year the Constitution was avowedly against the United States Government even in any way having anything to do with any ecclesiastical matter. That year, however, February 29, the Supreme Judicial branch of the Government unanimously decided and declared that “This is a Christian Nation,” and that this is the meaning of THE CONSTITUTION. This was at one stroke to subvert the Constitution and the principles of the Government as established by those who made the Government and the Constitution. Then this was followed at once by the professed Protestant churches of the country in demanding national legislation declaring Sunday to be the Christian Sabbath, and requiring its observance, because this is a Christian Nation. The success of this committed the legislative branch of the Government to the subversion of the principles upon which the Government was founded. And when President Harrison approved and signed this legislation, this committed the Executive branch of the Government to the subversion of the principles of the Government as established. And thus in the year 1892, in the whole Government of the United States—in its legislative, judicial and executive branches—were the principles of the Government, as established by the makers of the Government, subverted, and the principles of Rome adopted instead. And then it was, and not till then, that Rome could propound for Europeans the important inquiry, “What can we borrow and what ought we to borrow from the United States for our … ecclesiastical reorganization?” And just then, it was too—July 11—that this important inquiry was openly propounded in the United States. Was this merely a coincidence?—nay, was it not rather an intentional and definite action, taken at that time, upon these proceedings of the Government and churches of the United States which so entirely accomplished her long desired purpose—the subversion of the principles of the United States Government as established by our fathers?
AGAIN we say that, with sorrow Rome has seen all the nations steadily drawn away from her by the bright example of the separation of Church and State and complete religious liberty in the United States Government, assured in the national Constitution, the supreme law, and the fundamental principles of the Nation. Seeing this, she knew that if she would recover her loss, and regain her influence over the nations, she must draw this Nation into her toils. If she could succeed in this, and get the divine principle of this Nation subverted and its influence reversed, she knew that the influence of this Nation would be as strong to draw the nations back to her as it had been to draw them away from her. And so it has been with the most greedy satisfaction that she has seen the professed Protestant churches in the United States, steadily playing into her hands by their amazing blindness in calling for the legal recognition of religion and the legal enforcement of religious observances. And when at last she saw “the Christian religion” legally recognized, and this Nation plainly declared to be “a Christian Nation” by the unanimous decision of the Supreme Court, and supported in argument by that court, by the citation of Catholic documents; and when she saw the professed Protestant churches joining hands with herself, and by threats requiring Congress to recognize and fix in the national legislation her own chief, sacred day, the very sign of her authority—when she saw all this, and knew that it gave her her longed-for opportunity and advantage, she instantly grasped it with all her might; at once publicly announced to the people of the United States and the world her scheme and her purpose for the United States and for the world; and followed this up immediately by sending over Archbishop Satolli and establishing him here as “permanent apostolic delegate”—the Pope’s personal representative,—to carry out by his immediate and active presence, the scheme and purpose of Leo XIII. as announced.
AND this is exactly what Satolli is here for. It has been so announced in print, more than once, since he came over. And there is not the least doubt that what the church has done for other nations in the past she will now do for the United States. She has been the continual curse and the final ruin of nations in the past. And she will do that now to the United States, and to the other nations, by the restoration of her power which she gains through the subversion of the divine principle of the Government of the United States. And the chief hand in it all will have been that of the apostate Protestants of the United States, who have sold this Nation into Rome’s ruinous hands.
Leo’s scheme so far as the United States is concerned has succeeded. And that scheme as it relates to Europe and “all humanity” will certainly succeed. All the nations will now be drawn back under the influence, and to the support, of the Papacy. This we know, not only from the history and the nature of things, but also from the sure Word of God. For it is written: “All that dwell on the earth shall worship him [the beast, the Papacy] whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb.” Revelation 13:8. And again it is written: “The same horn [power, the Papacy] made war with the saints and prevailed against them; until the Ancient of Days came and judgment was given to the saints of the Most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom.” Daniel 7:21, 22. For a long time Rome has not had power to persecute, to make war against, the people of the Lord. The Scripture plainly declares that she will have and will use such power against them until the day that they enter into the kingdom of the Lord. This in itself shows that power is regained by her. And as the only thing that she ever wants with power is to compel all to worship at her bidding, or to persecute to the death all who will not, these two texts together show that her power will yet be universal over all, and all will obey her, whose names are not in the book of life of the Lamb.
AGAIN it is written of her: “She saith in her heart, I sit a queen and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.” Revelation 18:7. There was a time when she could say this; there was a time when so far from being a widow every kingdom and nation of Europe was united to her and living in adulterous connection with her. She had as many husbands as there were kingdoms and nations. The Reformation came and separated some from her. Political vicissitudes of one kind and another separated one after another, all the rest from her, until 1870 when Victor Emanuel completely widowed her by taking Rome and her temporalities, and separating the last kingdom from her. Since that time she has been a widow and has seen sorrow. She has mourned most dismally, and has lost no opportunity to spread her plaint before all the world. She does not sit as a queen; she is a widow, she has no husband at all; and she is exceedingly sorry that she is not living in constant adultery with the kingdoms and nations of the earth.
BUT the time does come again when she “glorifies herself and lives deliciously,” and joyously exclaims, “I sit a queen and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.” And at that very time the kingdoms of the earth are committing fornication and living deliciously with her. Revelation 18:7, 9. This shows conclusively that her scheme of drawing back the nations to her will succeed. Once more she will have all the kingdoms and nations for her husbands and will truly as a queen and be no widow, and will exultantly congratulate herself upon it. And then what? It is written: “Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death and mourning and famine, and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.” Revelation 18:8. “That wicked, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and destroy with the brightness of his coming.” 2 Thessalonians 2:8. And this is the end of the course of events which have been begun by this action of the churches and Government of the United States in subverting the principles upon which the Government was founded and going back to the principles of the Papacy. Henceforth God hath a [291] controversy with the nations. God standeth up to judge, and the judgment is ruin because their works are evil and defiant. Jeremiah 25:15-38; Revelation 16 and 18.
IT may be that this will not be believed. We have nothing to do with that, however. It is the truth, and we know it. It is the truth whether men believe it or not. And whether they will believe it or not is for them to decide, each one for himself alone. For seven years straight ahead in these columns we told the people that this would be made “a Christian Nation,” and that Congress, at the dictate of the churches, would set up Sunday as the Sabbath. The people would not believe it. Now all this has been done and everybody knows it. And this which we have mapped out now will as certainly come as this other has come. For your soul’s sake believe it, and get ready, get ready, get ready, for it is near and hasteth greatly.
A. T. J.