May 9, 1895
THE AMERICAN SENTINEL sincerely loves all Roman Catholics, from the pope on his throne to the peddler under his pack.
WE trust that our love for them is so great that if called upon to do so we would be willing to die that we might do them good.
THE reason for making these statements at this time is to correct a wrong impression which may have been made upon the minds of Roman Catholics, and for which wrong impression we may be partially to blame.
WE have said much and will say more about the papacy, its history, its doctrines, and its aims, both as regards America and the world; and this is written that Roman Catholics may know the motives from which we speak and the object at which we aim.
THE AMERICAN SENTINEL is moved to speak against the character and aims of the papacy, with the hope of saving Roman Catholics themselves from their own false system, and to save others from being deceived into believing that the system constitutes the true Church of Christ. This we shall endeavor to do in the spirit of Christian love, and wherein we shall fail in doing this we shall misrepresent and dishonor the cause we seek to serve.
WE cannot hope to have the friendship of all those who are in bondage to the errors of Rome, because were we to tell the truth even with the tongue, and amid the sympathetic tears of the world’s Redeemer, it would not save us, as it did not save him, from the charge of being an enemy. Paul, when contending for the gospel of faith against the bondage of works,—the same gospel for which we stand, and the same bondage against which we speak,—was led to cry out in the travel of his souls, “Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?”
TWO dangers lie in the path of him who would faithfully tell the truth. First, there is the danger of being unnecessarily severe, as Martin Luther was at times: and on the other hand, through an over desire to please, the danger of compromising the truth as did Philip Melancthon at the Diet of Augsburg. Luther, in his advocacy of truth, was sometimes harsh, but invincible, while Malancthon was usually mild but sometimes vacilating. We shall take neither for our model, but instead, the perfect Reformer, the “Lion of the tribe of Judah,” “the Prince of Peace.”
WITH Jesus as our model we will speak the truth in love, but we will speak the truth. It is false charity that is silencing the Protestant Churches to Roman Catholic errors and aggressions. True Christian love will lead its possessor to die for the good of one in error, but will never consent to a compromise with error. It led the Apostle Peter to say to the Jews, in one breath: “Ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you; and killed the Prince of life;” and in the next, “Brethren, I wot that through ignorance ye did it.” It inspired the martyr Stephen to say to the Jews, “Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which showed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers?” And then when his hearers were stoning out his faithful life, this same infinite love led him to pray “with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.”
THE SENTINEL has no desire and no occasion to question the sincerity of Roman Catholics in their beliefs, or their desire to attain to supreme power in America and the world for the good of America and the world. We do not even question the sincerity of the popes, princes, and prelates who violated safe conducts and tortured and burned “heretics” for the good of their souls and the good of society. On the contrary, we believe they were sincere; for the inhuman cruelties they practiced can only be explained on the ground that their perpetrators were actuated by a mistaken sense of duty to God that led them to stifle the promptings of even natural affection; and that this view is correct is proven by the words of Christ who said, “The time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.”
BUT to admit that Roman Catholics are sincere in their erroneous doctrines and conscientious in their cruelties to dissenters, does not mitigate the errors nor lessen the crimes of Catholicism, nor yet the duty to faithfully oppose them. However, it does admonish us to eliminate from our utterances all human hate and harshness, all unsanctified elements of the natural heart, all ridicule,—everything but what is absolutely necessary to vindicate the truth, and to speak even this in love.
WE are aware that Roman Catholics in the United States profess to be satisfied with the American principle of separation of Church and State. But should we admit this, the fact still remains that the papacy in the United States is an integral part of the papacy as a whole, and were Roman Catholics to become liberalized by American institutions, the controlling spirit of the church, which never changes, would eventually rebuke and destroy such liberality. A striking instance of this is before us. For years Cardinal Gibbons has publish in “Faith of Our Fathers” (1893, p. 283), an indorsement of the American idea of separation of Church and State, and a plain disavowal of any desire for State patronage; but now comes Pope Leo’s encyclical to America and condemns the American principle and the cardinal’s indorsement of it. We print the two in parallel columns:—
I do not wish to see the day when the church will invoke or receive any government aid to build our churches, or to pay the salary of our clergy; for the government may then begin to dictate to us what doctrines we ought to preach. And in proportion as
State patronage
would increase, the sympathy and aid of the faithful would diminish.
It would be very erroneous to draw the conclusion that … it would be universally lawful or expedient for the church and State to be, as in America, separate and divorced…. She [the church] would bring forth more abundant fruit if, in addition to liberty, she enjoyed the favor of the laws and the
patronage
of the
public authority
.
It is for reasons like the foregoing that we cannot cease to regard the papacy as the great [146] enemy of religious liberty. At the same time we doubt not that there are those connected with the system who are in favor of religious freedom. Indeed, we are persuaded that there are those in the Roman Catholic Church who are sincere, self-sacrificing Christians, not because of their system, but notwithstanding it. However, it would be unfaithfulness to them and treason to the cause of Christ should we silence our warnings for fear of giving offense.
HAVING said this we now promise Roman Catholics and Romanizing Protestants, that, the Lord being our helper, we will more earnestly and more faithfully than ever oppose with the truth the soul-destroying errors of the papacy, and unveil its plottings for the supremacy of America, and through America, the supremacy of the world. We shall point to the satanic cruelties of which the church has never repented, and call Roman Catholics away from the professed vicars of Christ who instigated or approved these cruelties, to Christ himself who rebuked this spirit in his apostles, and who said, “The Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them;” and we call upon all would battle for truth and religious liberty to united with us in maintaining, in this age of compromise and concession, the true principles of Protestantism for the good of the honest and truth-loving in both Catholicism and compromising Protestantism. [146]