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January 15, 1013] T H E P
Las been wise enough to icurn from any
other teacher than sad and costly Experience.
Will we be like our predecessors? If in
prosperity we forget God, we can count upon
such visitations of his Providence as will afford
both opportunity and occasion in ttir up our
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minus uy way or rememorancu. tio.l will neither
be mocked nor slighted, nor will he continue to
pour out his favors upon a thankless and unresponsive
church. Have we not gone far enough
to turn and with confession and humiliation seek
pardon for the past and grace and strength for
the future?
Said Aeschinus to Socrates,
The Remedy. "Others give thee gold, silver,
jewels, but I give thee myself."
That we must say to Christ. Even if we were
giving our money far more generously than we
are, money is no substitute for myself. Not only
myself, but the best of myself, my affections, my
services, my devotion, and all else I can render,
Ood wants it nil nnw flnrl *>nr? rlr? Viits urni-lr urif'V.
out us, but we cannot afford to have him do it.
We need to co-operate with God for our own
sakes. I/ivy says that when the ambassadors of
Collatia came to surrender to the Romans it was
asked, "Do you deliver up yourselves, the people
of Collatia, your city, your fields, your water,
your bounds, your temples, your utensils, all
things that are yours, both Divine and human,
into mine and the people of Rome's power?" *
They replied, "We deliver up all." Then said i
Egerius, "So I receive you." It is this form of
complete surrender that is in order now.
Throiicrll SOVflral RPKRinn? nf PVvmrroca mfnacrt
efforts have been made to have passed a bill
inteuded to protect "dry" States and districts
from shipments of liquor from the outside, to
be disposed of in violation of State laws. A
United States court some time ago decided in
favor of the liquor interests, as is usually the :
case, when a test was made of State laws forbidding
the importation of liquors. It is '
thought that the bill now before Congress is
proof against court interference and if enacted
into law will ham-string the liquor power in ^
prohibition States. Much depends on whether '
the interests of public virtue or the traffickers ;
in the bodies and souls of men through the liquor
trade, have the greater influence in Con- 1
gress and the Senate. Meanwhile let the people
continue fervent in prayer that they may
have righteous laws and that the great national
scourge be removed.
ROMANISM AS A SYSTEM. 1
(Continued from page 3.)
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this time the full confidence of the Protestant a
Church until his death about a year ago. f
i shall point out in passing the shrewd way a
in which Roman Catholics pretend to dismiss p
any charge. When Protestants speak against a
Romanism, then Catholics impeach their statements
by saying oh! Protestants do not know p
well the church they criticize but when an ex- e
Catholic points out the errors of the Roman g
Catholic system they say, Oh ! He is prejudiced 1
and cannot give an unbiased opinion. r
Reading further in the same review, we f
find:
"We are certain that Mr. Speer has mis- t
taken his vocation. He ought to pose as an t
"ex-priest" in some of the small, illiterate t
towr^ of the Southland; he would then be certain
of an audience prepared by tradition and t
lack of mental culture fully to appreciate his t
mouthings. Only among the absolutely ignor- a
ant will bis presentation of Catholic doctriife f
pass unquestioned, his so-called facts be swal- s
lowed whole, and his protestations of sincerity t
RESBYTERIAN OF THE SO
be accepted at lace value. We beg to remember
the commandment, "Thou shall not bear
false witness!"
Let my readers now see what the review has
to say about the book:
"If any Catholic has ever wondered why
Protestant missions are universally so unsuccessful,
in spite of the many millions squandered
by unthinking and prejudiced multitudes
at home, let him read this book. It is
hardly worthy of a review in any serious
monthly, unless perhaps to call attention of
fair-minded Protestants in the United States
to tiic mental and moral calibre of those whom
they pay to make converts abroad. The book
is unscholarly, inaccurate, prejudiced, dishonest
and hypocritical."
What disappoints any one who is deeply concerned
for the religious future of America is
the manner in which the actual American public
press deals with such statements. Those
statements will be accepted by Catholics, Jews
and neutral people almost as Gospel truth.
They will pass unchallenged by the Protestant
press; yea more than that, not a few of the
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teuuiug irroiesiant pastors and publishers will
take notice of and begin to question either the
veracity or at least the wisdom of Mr. Robert
E. SSpeer in publishing such a book.
it is painful and distressing but a very plain
fact that many leading Protestant men are
more apt and ready to believe in the honesty
and truthfulness of Catholic writers when they
magnify their church than they are to give
full credit to any statement, no matter how well
founded if that statement is against Romanism.
And let my readers bear in mind that 1
iiave never in the past advocated bigotry or
rough language and hope always in the future
to treat kindly the Roman Catholic people.
But 1 cannot understand how American
Protestants can endure silently and without
shame the present conditions.
Catholics to-day may not only attack but
even slander Protestant people and doctrines,
ind no important paper even deprecates their
l)illui\/P lonmio?A ???" ^ A A *
v luu^uagu uui >vc x ruitmtmis in u
L'rotestant country can not preach Protestant
doctrines without being accused of being bigots
ind called narrow-minded.
Catholics can organize a religious order Mike
;he Paulist Fathers, which stands chiefly for
he conversion of Protestants and such aterapts
have never been denounced, as far as 1
enow, as a bigoted proselytism, but no Protesunt
can go to preach among Catholics with>ut
being accused of bigotry and base prosely
ism.
Catholics have organized a society like the 1
vnights of Columbus which counts already
tbout 300,000 citizens who are bound to de- 1
end the Roman Catholic Church even in social
uid in political spheres, and no important pa>er
denounces such organizations as unfair (
tnd un-American. 1
Catholics are taking the Bible out of our 1
rnblic schools and then discrediting this great- J
sst of American institutions by calling it un- 1
jodly and pernicious. Finally they are estab
ishing their Parochial schools (wherein the
nost bigoted Romanism is taught since foreign I
riars and foreign nuns are largely the teaehsrs)
and no important paper has warned the i
mtion of the tremendous and sinister influence i
hat must thereby be exerted in the near fu- :
ure on American ideals and cultivation. <
Catholics dare to say to a Protestant party, ?
>y no means can you marry a Catholic, unless i
he marriage is performed by a Catholic priest i
md an oath is made that all children springing
rom the union shall be Catholic, and there
hall be no interference with the religion of
he Catholic party; but no important paper
UTil (35) ii
thereiore accuses lUeui ol narrowness and aec-_
Larianiam.
Catholics can say irow the coniessionaJ box,
from the pulpit, tnrough their books, and even
through bulla oi the ropes that the children,
oi i'rotestant marriage are not legitimate chii
dreii. They can say tliat wxien a frotestantminister
perforins ine marriage ceremony, lie
merely authorizes concubinage. They can insult
frotestant daughters una wives since tney
do not consider them canonicaiiy and legally
married at all, and no one linds such conduct
uniair and un-American, iiut we frotestant*
cannot speak of the syllabus without being
accused of attacking the l&oman (Jathoiie people
and church.
111 conclusion let. Ult> ?!?! I lint III.. ..I
Mr. liobert F. ISpeer is just the opposite oi
what tlie "Catholic World" eiiarges. it is
scholarly, accurate, unprejudiced, liouest una
irauk and 1 siiall add that Air. ttpeer lias uol
spoken oi a third oi the scandals 1 know could
be spoken of.
1 was ior twenty-sue years a Franciscan inar
aud served ior some years Fr. fcieruhn .Linares,
the Commissary Ueneral oi the Franciscan Order
in the capacity oi Fro-JSecretary and in that
responsible position 1 became acquainted with
scores oi leading missionaries and with many
shameiul scandals. I ahull
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instances which 1 think will lead my readers at
mice to realize with what soberness Mr. fcipeer
lias treated his subject.
i. When i was bU years old i oiiered niyseli
as a volunteer lor preaching tne Uospei
to the Indians ol douth America una us soon
as my conlcssor, rr. relipe lieilvar, the most
promment preacher m Valencia, learned tuat
tact he said to me, "Oh, my son, how candid
and deluded you are; withdraw your application,
you do not know that missionaries go
there rather to improve the race man to oreacii
the GospeL" {
2. tr. Jsebustiun i-ont, a prominent professor
ui V alencia when 1 ieit ?>pain aud wno has
been for more than thirty years a missionary
in bouth America, where he tilled the most
responsible positions, told me more than once
that everywhere in south America in the country
churches, the plain and common people
place more confidence in the priests who acknowledge
publicly a woman as his companion
and recognizes as his sons her offspring, than
in the priest who claims to be a celebate. He
gave me the reasons but' no reader will tail
to grasp them without speaking more frankly.
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?. xiic hxuhl xvuverena nr. uimeno, who was
appointed several times Pontifical Visitor to
South America, told me that he avoided carefully
either eating or drinking in many of the .
convents there, for fear of being poisoned. 1
remember he pointed to at least two instances
where the visitor was poisoned because he
condemned the debauchery of the priests. In
some places it is such that the visitor is comrMilln/1
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i,\i jjuuiau me ureaaers ot the law to
life imprisonment and they resent the correction
with all their might.
4. 1 keep at hand some Latin Decrees of unquestioned
genuineness and {authority issued
by the Sacred Congregation upon a request of
Leo XIII in which it is plainly stated that there
are many priests in South America whose im
moral lives are a constant scandal to the faithful.
I am ready and willing to translate those
decrees word for word if the "Catholic World" *
or any other Catholic authority wishes to question
my statement, while I abstain from doing
so because the language is too vivid for a
Protestant religious paper to publish.
The attitude of a true believer: Thankfulness
for all the past, hopefulness for all the future.