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October 4, 1911 ] THE
might the Catholic editor find in such condition
either in Germany, England or the United
States?
I again question very seriously whether this
Catholic editor has read my pamphlet. Both in
my book, "Roman Catholicism Capitulating before
Protestantism," and on my lectures on
""Why I am a Protestant," I took into consideration
such views of some liberal theologians
. and said: "It is true that some theologians now
and then venture timidly to proclaim that good
iaitn may save them; but those who make the
assertion surround their statement with so many
conditions and are so reticent that it may well
be affirmed that according to Romanism only
from among themselves must come the chosen
of heaven."
Since the K^nights of Columbus are spreading
everywhere the calumnies of Archbishop Blenk,
which were publicly refuted long ago, about my
standing within the Roman Catholic Church, I
would appreciate your reproducing the following
extract from my last reply to the Morning
Star:
"In response to your repeated and calumnious
assertion that I have been expelled from the
FrancisP.fl.Tl nrdpr nnrl tVio nnrnon ;?*
vuv Anviiitui vatuunu uncsi"
hood, I will merely quote from the registered
letter which I mailed to you on July 18, 1910,
a copy of which is on file" in the records of the
Protestant Ministers Association of New Orleans.
"I have never met in my numerous polemics
with people less careful of justice, less attentive
to truth and more prone to wrong and evil speaking
than Archbishop Blenk and you have been.
At the same time, I never have found people as
foolish and inconsistent in presenting their
charges as you have been in attacking me.
"You say: He was expelled from the religious
order, etc. Have you forgotten that I offered
(and I still am ready to fulfill my offer) to present
at your request my documents, one of which,
mark well, bears the date of November 6, 1908,
and according to which 1 left the Franciscan
order by a papal privilege. Does an exceptional
papal privilege mean from you an expulsion!
Are you at all acquainted with canonical law!
Then you ought to be more cautious in repro
during the calumnies of Archbishop Blenk, if
not for Christianity and justice, then at least,
for the sake of the dignity which true gentlemanliness
demands of those who claim to possess it.
You say: He did not leave the Catholic Church.
The Church put him out! "Where and when ? If
it was in Spain, how could I have officiated as
a priest later in Mexico? If in Mexico, how
could I have officiated in America, and in the
very Archdiocese of New Orleans, under the
care and supervision of Mr. Blenk himself as late
as May, 1908?
"Again, both the expulsion from the Franciscan
order and the Catholic Church, were they
true, must be written somewhere- Why have you
and the Archbishop failed to present that document
before the public, in accordance with my
previous request and challenge? You must know
that the papal delegate, Mr. Falconio, is ready
to furnish any required evidence against me, and
as he has at hand in such efforts the help of
every bishop in the world, why can neither you
nor the Archbishop exhibit such a document?
Is not your failure, in this respect, absolute proof
to every unprejudiced thinker that your talk
about my being expelled is simply a calumnious
fabrication?"
It is easy enough to be pleasant,
"When life flows along like a song.
But the man worth while
Is the one who will smile.
"When everything goes dead wrong.
?Anon.
PRESBYTERIAN OP THE 8
"THAT DAY."
EDWIN A. WILSON.
Usually men of sense prepare for events to
come. The past is gone forever. The present
is full of living possibilities, each clamoring for
recognition, but the future we must wait for.
Men are full of plans in their brief day as it relates
to man. Few, comparatively, plan for time
and eternity with God in their plans. Has the
reader ever thought how few of our waking moments
are given over to meditation on the things
of God?
That day. How pregnant with that which
is serious and awful are those simple words of
God, "Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the
dust, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of
his majesty." "The lofty looks of man shall
he humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be
bowed down; and the Lord alone shall be exalted
in that day." Men may ignore God, they
may blaspheme his holy name, may plan without
him, but there is no plan of God in the
world that does not embrace men for weal or for
woe. The man of faith involuntarily becomes
the object of God's solicitude, and God has no
plan which does not include him, while the man
of no faith unconsciously but not less surely seals
all avenues which lead to God against himself in
time and eternity. The truth of this will that
day declare, "for the Lord alone will be exalted
in that day." "For the day of the
Lord of hosts shall be upon every one that is
proud and lofty, and upon every one that is
lifted up; and he shall he brought low." Man
may congratulate himself that he can think for
himself and hold himself free from the sweet influences
which would win him for God and live
and continue to live without God, but we read,
"And the loftiness of men shall be bowed down,
and the haughtiness of man shall be made low;
and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that
day, for in that day a man shall cast his
idols of silver and his idols of gold, which they
made each for himself to worship, to the moles
ana to tne oats; to go into the clefts of the rocks
and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for
fear of the Lord and for the glory of his
majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the
earth."
The Bible student needs no corroborative
proofs of the natural man's attitude toward God,
for on every hand is found the thankless, prayerless
ingrate, who, while the recipient of God's
bounty and favor hourly, refuses positively to
ground the weapons of his rebellion and fall in
with the overtures of a merciful and gracious
God whose attitude then will be toward men just
what man's relation is to him in this day of
grace. "Howl ye, for the day of the Lord is at
hand; it shall come as a destruction from the
Almighty. Behold the day of the Lord cometh,
cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay
the land desolate, and he shall destroy the sinners
thereof out of it." This is man's day.
This is man's lofty, high-stepping day, when he
congratulates himself on what he has done and
seeks in marble or metal to perpetuate the thing
of clay that he is, but, "Behold the day of
the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and
fierce anger, to lay the land desolate, and he
shall destroy the sinners out of it. For the
stars of heaven shall not give their light; the sun
shall be darkened and in his going forth, and
the moon shall not cause her light to shine, and
1 will punish the world for their evil, and the
wicked for their iniquity; and I will couse the
arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay
low the haughtiness of the terrible." The unbelieving
scientist will doubtless sit up nights
to account for the darkened sun and moon, but
will be engulfed in the horrible abyss of darkness,
the fitting sequel to his life of oblivion to
OUTB (939) 3
God. "Cease ye from man, with his breath in
his nostrils; for wherein is he to be accounted
for.''
Springfield, 111.
THE MORE HONORABLE.
If one will persist in indulging in skeptical
views of God and the liible, he should openly assert
his beliefs and opinions, and no longer at
tempt to conceal them, lie who professes to
be a Christian, and yet covertly cultivates beliefs
which are distinctly contrary to the principles of
the Christian religion, is neither honest nor honorable
It is not unjust to say that such a man
is hypocritical. It is unmanly in any one to
claim to be a friend to God, while at the same
time his heart is at enmity toward him. God regards
no one as being his friend who pursues a
course which is decidedly injurious to his holy
cause. Religious pretenders are a hundredfold
worse in character than are those who loudly
revile God's name and curse Christianity. In
wide contrast with such ones are those infidels
who boast of their hatred of the Christian religion.
The late Robert G. Ingersoll, often called
the arch-skeptic or infidel, was much more
honorable in his attitude towards Christianity
than are those men who, while professing to be
Christiana, are indulging in skeptical beliefs, and
are quietly propagating destructive heresies. Mr.
Ingersoll did not pretend to be pious. He did
not assert that he had any faith in Christ. Nor
did he profess to have a reverential regard for
the Bible. He openly and boldly announced his
unbelief. All who heard him speak knew his
real sentiments. All who read his writings
clearly understood his actual attitude toward
Christianity. Christian people abhorred his conduct,
and deplored his bad influence, but no one
charged him with hypocritical performances.
Some said his main object was to make money;
but I do not think that this was true. I believe
that hp. hnTIP8t.1v dwloroH Vila l-uo) mourn r?-?wl
?v vw uu avua tignoj gnu lie
had the courage to do it. So I say that he was
much more honorable in doing what he did then
is the man in our day who, while professing to
be on the Lord's side, is the secret enemy of
Christ and Christianity. And this is true of
every avowed infidel in the land. It is true of
every blasphemer of God. It is true of all who
openly oppose Christianity. "We know what to
expect from such ones. We know what to cull
them. No one is off his guard when talking to
men of his class. But how otherwise it is in regard
to the secret foe of the Lord's cause! Verily,
they deserve the contempt of all good people.
C. H. Wetherbe.
A VERY PRESENT HELP.
Ann gf fVl a man+ ? ' -
vx tuu iiiuot otriAiiig uiiaracicnsLics OX IU6
Psalms is the calm, abiding confidence they express
in God as the unfailing refuge of his people.
The same assured faith, it is true, is abundantly
manifested throughout the Scriptures,
but in no other portion of the Bible is it proclaimed
with such emphatic and such reiterated
assurance. Scarcely has the conviction been
uttered, in some of the Psalms, until the inspired
writer repeats it, and even again returns to it,
as if unwilling to relinquish a thought so full
of comfort and encouragement.
This very peculiarity of the Psalms is one that
endears this portion of God's word to the people.
Inexpressibly consoling to his suffering heart, ol?>!
reassuring to the despondent, strengthening to
the feeble and reviving to the faint, are those
declarations of divine protection and love which r*
come to us with two-fold power, not only as :>/ )
grateful acknowledgements of the personal experience
of holy men of old, but also as the
promises of a covenant keeping God.