Newspaper Page Text
Banks County Gazette.
J"*
VOL 2.—NO. 25.
CATHOLICISM
Exposed By One Who Has the
Right.
A Compilation in Part.
BY THOMAS HAYDEN.
I Catholicism the true faith and
have the Popes of Rome, and are they
now infallible in all matters of faith
and morals ?
The last Ecumenical Council of the
Roman Catholic Church, which met
at Rome a few years ago, declared
that “the Popo was infallible in all
principles of faith and morals.” Car
dinal Manning, the ranking ecclesias
tic of the British nation, recently
wrote: “The church itself, by its
marvelous propagation, its eminent
sanctity, its inexhaustible fruitful
ness in all good things, its catholic
unity and invincible stability, is a
vast and perpetual motive of credi
bility, and an irrefragable witness of
its own legation.” Some of the reas
ons that he gives as supporting this
proposition are “That the Catholic
Church interpenetrates all the nations
of the civilized world; it is the same
in every place; that it is obedient to
one head; that as many as seven hun
dred bishops have knelt before the
Pope; that pilgrims from all nations
have brought gifts to Rome; that men
see the head of the church year by
year speaking to the nations of the
world, treating with empires, king
doms and republics; that there is no
other man on earth that can so bear
himself;” and that “neither from Can
terbury nor from Constantinople can
such a voice go forth to which rulers
and people listen.” It is claimed that
the “Catholic Church has enlightened
and purified the world,” that it has
given us peace and purity of domes
tic life; that it has destroyed idolatry;
that it has produced the civilization
of Christendom; that the Popes were
the greatest statesmen and rulers;”
that “celibacy is better than marri
age,” and “that the reformations of
the last 300 years have been destruc
tive and calamitous.”
It is contended that the marvelous
growth or propagation of the church
is evidence of its divine origin. It is
known that very large bodies of men
have frequently been wrong. Prog
ress consists in finding new truths
and getting rid of old errors.
There is no nation in which a ma
jority leads the way. Asa general
thing the few have been the nearest
right. There have been centuries when
the light seemed to emanate from
a handful of men, while the rest of
the world was groveling in darkness.
If the marvelous propagation of the
Catholic Church proves its divine
origin, what shall we say of the mar
velous propagation of Mohatnmedon
ism ? It is clear that Mohammedan
ism arose out of the wreck of Catholi
cism; Catholicism was expelled from
its most glorious seats, from Pales
tine, from Asia Minor and from
Egypt. To-day the followers of Mo
hammed out number the Roman
Catholics.
The Mohammedan now proves the
divine mission of his Apostle by ap
pealing to the marvelous propagation
of the faith. If the argument is good
for the Catholic it is equally good for
the Moslem. Let us see if not better.
According to Cardinal Manning the
Catholic Church triumphed only over
the religions established by wicked
and ignorant men. But Mohammed
triumphed over the true religion.
This ignorant driver of camels; this
poor, unknown, unlettered boy, drove
the armies of the true cross before
him as the winter’s storm drives
withered leaves. At his name priests,
bishops and cardinals fled with white
faces, Popes trembled, and the Cbr s
tian armies, fighting for the true faith,
were conquered on hundreds of fields.
If the success of a church proves its
divinity, and after that another
church arises and defeats the first,
what does that prove? Suppose the
second church lives and flourishes
in spite of the first, what does that
prove ?
In this country, within the memory
of the writer, has arisen anew relig
ion. It started in an intelligent com
munity, amidst modern civilization.
This new faith—founded on the gros
sest absurdities, in spite of all opposi
tion, began to grow and kept grow
ing. It was subjected to persecution,
yet its strength increased. It was
driven from state to state until it left
civilization and landed cn the shores
of the Great Salt Lake. It continued
to grow. Its founder, as he declared,
had frequent conversations with God,
and received directions from that
source. Hundreds of miracles were
performed, multitudes upon the de
sert were miraculously fed, the sick
were cured, the dead were raised, and
the Mormon Church continued to
grow until flow tr.ere are several hun
dred thousand believers in the new
faith.
Do you think that men enough
could join this church to prove the
truth of its creed? Joe Smith said
that he found certain golden plates
that had been buried for many gener
ations, and upon these plates, in some
unknown language, had been engrav
ed this new revelation, and by the
use of miraculous mirrors, this lan
guage was translated. The plates
were soon stolen or lost, but three
men certified that they had beheld
them. So Joe Smith and the testi
mony of three men constituted the
only evidence of the miraculous
plates If there should bo Mormon
bishops in all the countries of the
world eighteen hundred years from
now, do you think a cardinal of that
faith could prove the truth of the
golden plates simply by the fact that
the faith had spread and the seven
hundred bishops had knelt before the
head of that church ?
It seems to mo that a religion that
is authenticated by miracle is much
easier to establish among an ignorant
people than any other, and the more
ignorant the people the easier such a
religion could be established. The
reason of this is plain. All ignorant
tribes—all savage men—believe in the
miraculous. In other words, that
religion having most in common with
the savage, having most that was
satisfactory to his mind, or his lack
of mind, would stand the best chance
of success.
No doubt at ono time, or during
one phase of man’s development,
almost every thing was miraculous.
Then the domain of the miraculous
grew less and less as his mind devel
oped. The rising and setting of the
sun ceased to bo miraculous, but
eclipses still remained among the
miraculous until they were discovered
to be periodical, like the rising and
setting of the sun. It, no doubt, took
many observations through many gen
erations to arrive at this conclusion.
Asa rule, an individual is egotistic
in the proportion that he is ignorant.
The same is true of nations and races.
To me the success of Mormonism is
no evidence of its truth, because it
has succeeded only with the supersti
tious. It has been recruited from
communities brutalized by other forms
of superstition. To me, the success
of Mohammed does not tend to show
that he was right, for the reason that
he triumphed over the ignorant, over
the superstitions. The same is true
of the Roman Catholic Church. It
did not. it has not, it cannot triumph
over the intellectual world. To count
its many millions does not prove the
truth of its ci eed. Questions of fact
cannot be settled simply by numbers.
There was a time when the rota
tion of the earth was not believed by
the majority. Is the success of the
Roman Catholic Church a marvel?
If this church is of divine origin; if it
has been under the especial care, pro
tection and guidance of an Infinite
Being, is not its failure far more won
derful than its success?
For many centuries it has preached
and persecuted and the salvation of
the world is yet remote. Are Catho
lics better than protestants? Are they
more honest, more just, more chari
table ? Are Catholic nations better
than Protestants? Do the Catholic
nations move in the van of progress?
In their jurisdiction are life, liberty
and property safer than any where
lIOMER, BANKS COUNTY, GEORGIA. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 28,1891.
I else? Are Spain and Portugal the
first nations of the world ?
The cardinal asserts that the Cath
olic Church is divine, “by its eminent
sanctity and its inexhaustible fruit
fulntss in all good things.” I willing
ly admitt that there are millions of
good Catholics, that is of good men
and women who aro Roman Catholics.
Many thousands heroes have died in
defence of the faith, and millions of
Catholics have killed and been killed
for the sake of their religion. Mar
tyrdom does not prove the truth ot
religion. The man who dies in
flames, does not prove the truth of
what ue believes, but his sincerity.
Let us ascertain whether it has been
“inexhaustibly fruitful in all good
things,” and eminent for its sanctity."
Nothing is better than goodness. All
things that tend to increase or pre
serve the happiness of the human
race are good. All things that tend
to the destruction of man’s well be
ing, and tend to his unhappiness are
bad. The Catholic Church teaches
that intellectual liberty is dangerous,
that it should not be allowed. I*
taught, and still teaches that a cer
tain belief is necessary to salvation.
It lias always know that investigation,
that inquiry might lead to doubt, tha
doubt leads to heresy, and that heresy
leads to hell.
The Catholic Cunrch has something
more important than the well being of
man hero. It is necessary to believe
the Catholic creed in order to ob
tain salvation I quote from the
creed: “Whosoever will be saved,
before all things it is necessary that
he hold to the Catholic faith.” It i*
not necessary, before all things, that
he be good, honest, merciful, charita
ble and just. Creed is more impor
tant than Conduct. The good man is
kind, merciful charitable, forgiving,
and just. A Church must be judged,
by the same standard.
Has the Roman Catholic Church
been merciful ? Has it been “fruitful
in all good things,” of justice, charity,
and forgiveness? Can a good man,
believing a good doctrine persecute
for opinion’s sake? If the church
imprisons a man for the expression of
an honest opinion, is it not certain,
either that the doctrine of the church
is wrong, or that the church is bad?
If the history of the world proves
anything, it proves that the Catholic
Church was, for many centuries the
most merciless institution that ever
existed among men. I cannot believe
that honest people were imprisoned,
tortured and burned at the stake by
a church that was “inexhaustibly
fruitful in all good things.”
Remember the atrocities of the
inquisition, the rewards offered by
the Roman Church for the capture
and murder of honest men. Remem
uer the Dominican order, the mem
bers of which, upheld by the Pope,
pursued the heretics like Sleuth
hounds, through many centuries.
The Catholic Church, “inexhausti
ble in fruitfulnes in all good things,”
not only imprisoned and branded and
burned the living, but violated the
dead. It robbed graves to cenvict
corpses of heresy, that it might take
from widows their portions and from
orphans their patrimony. VVe re
member the thousands in the dark
ness of dungeons, the millions who
perished by the sword, the vast mul
titudes destroyed by flames, those who
were flayed alive, those who were
blinded, those whose tongues were
cut out, those into whose ears was
poured molten lead, those whose eyes
were deprived of their lids, those who
were tortured and tormented in every
way by which pain could be inflicted
and human nature overcome.
The Catholic Church w-as, during
all the years of its power, the enemy
of every science. It preferred magic
to medicine, relics to remedies, priests
to physicians. It opposed every dis
covery calculated to improve the con
dition of mankind. It is impossible
to forget the persecutions of the Albi
genses, the Waldenses, the Hussites,
the Hugenots, and of every sect that
had the courage to think just a little
for itself. Think, of a woman, the
mother of a family, taken from her
children and burned on account of
her view xs to the three natures of
Christ.
Now about the “invincible stabili
ty” of the Catholic Church. It was
not inviucible in Luther’s time. It
was not invincible in the low coun
tries, in Scotland nor England. It
does not triumph in Paris nor Berlin;
neither does it triumph iu the United
States. It has not within its fold the
philosophers, the statesmen, and the
thinkers, who are the leaders of the
human race. It is claimed that
Catholicism “int rpenetrates all the
nations of the civilized world and that
in some it holds the whole nation in
its unity.”
I suppose the Catholic Church is
more powerful in Spain than in any
other nation. The history of this
country demonstrates the result of
an acknowledgment by a people that
a certain religion is too sacred to be
examined. Spain used the sword of
the church. In the name of religion
it tried to conquer the infidel world.
It drove out the Moors, simply be
cause they were infidels. It leaped
on the low countries for the destruc
tion of Protestantism, and established
the inquisition within its borders. It
imprisoned the honest, it burned the
noble, and succeeded after many
year.-, of devotion to the true faith, in
destroying the industry, the intelli
gence, the usefulness, the genius, the
nobility and the wealth of a nation.
In this period of degradation, the
Catholic Church held “the whole na
tion in its unity ”
Every nation on earth has progress
ed in the arts and sciences, and in all
that tends to enrich and ennoble a
nation in the precise proportion that
she has lost faith in the Roman Cath
olic Church. A few years ago the
cholera visited Madrid and other
cities. Physicians were mobbed. Pro
cessions of saints curried the host
through the streets for the purpose
of staying the plague. The streets
were not cleaned; the sewers were
filled. Filth and Romanism, old part
ners, reigned supremo. The church
stood in the light and shed its shad
ow on the ignorant and the prostrate.
One scientist in control of Madrid
could have prevented the plague. In
such cases cleanliness is true Godli
ness. Science is superior to super
stition; drainage better than proces
sions of devout Catholics; therapeutics
bettor than theology-. In such eases
goodness is not enough. Intelligence
is necessary. Faith is not sufficient
and creeds are helpless.
It is admitted that the faith, wor
ship, ceremonial, discipline and gov
ernment of the Catholic Church is
substantially the same wherever it
exists. This establishes the unity
but not the divinity of the institution.
The church that does not allow inves
tigation, that teaches that all doubts
are wicked, attains unity by tyranny.
Wherever a man has had feedom,
differences have appeared, heresies
have taken root, and the divisions
have become permanent, new sects
have been horn and the Catholic
Church has been weakened. The
boa tof unity is the confession of
tyranny.
The fact that the Catholic Church
is obedient to the Pope only shows
its thorough organization, and not its
divinity. How is it that a few en
slave the many? How is it that the
nobility- live on the labor of the peas-
ants ? The answer is in one word,
Organization. The organized few
triumph over the unorganized many.
The few hold the sword and the purse.
The unorganized are overcome in de
tail, terrorized, brutalized, robbed,
conquered.
[to be continued.]
Ponder This.
How much more of your product
will the dollar of to-day buy than the
dollar of twenty years ago? How
much more of your debts, your taxes
your officers’, salaries your interest,
your mortgages or your doctor and
lawyers fees will it pay? That is the
way to look at the financial question.
Look at the relation of what you have
to sell, as producers, sustains to wliat
ytm have to pay for the items which
enter into your daily and yearly ex
pense account. Have salaries de
creased? Has interest been reduced?
Are taxes lower? Have mortgages
been curtailed? How does the price
of land, of wheat and coin, of cotton,
of everything you raise, compare with
the value of the purchasing agent,
money? Interest, taxes, mortgages,
salaries and professional fees are as
high as ever, while wheat, corn cot
ton and all agricultural staples are
from 100 to 200 per cent lower.
How can you hope for prosperity
while this condition prevails? Are
you so blind that you can’t see that
the holders of mortgages, the draw
ers of salaries and the receivers of
taxes are the ones most benefited by
the enhanced value of money and the
reduced prices of everything it buys.
The drawer of a $5,000 salary can
buy three times as much of your
wheat as ho could when his salary
was established, and hence, it follows
that it will take three times as much
of your wheat to pay your proportion
of his salary. Is this equalization?
It strikes us that we farmers are the
most patient, long suffering set of
souls on the face of the earth to sub
mit to this state of affairs a minute.
Just think that the dollar you get
for your products buys throe times
as much of them as it ever did, but
when you come to pay your obliga
tions of the abovo named cliaractes
it does not go any further than it ever
did. Think over this question and
you must at once conclude that the
money question is the ono that over
shadows all others, and is the prob
lem thet must be solved and that
speedily. To simplify the matter,
you can state it thus as a matter of
cause and effect: Because interest,
taxes, etc., have not decreased in the
same proportion as the value of agri
cultural products is the reason of the
prosperity of one class and the pov
erty of the other.—Farmer’s Advo
cate, Charleston, W. Va.
All Things.
To the average man there is a
something very faith-trying, indeed
almost exaspering, in the sublime
assertions of the Bible. There are
no “ifs” in them. No hint is given
of a possibility that the commands
may prove too much for human abil
ity, or the promises rerain beyond the
reach of human attainment. “Be ye
holy.” “Keep my commandments."
“If ye shall ask anything in my name,
I will do it.” There is no “Be holy
as you can," “Keep my command
ments as well as you are able,” “I
will do it if I think best.” Etery
thing is present and absolute, not
future or conditional.
So with that wonderful argument,
or rather question—for an argument
implies a premise, and who can lay
down a premise that shall include
God?—with which Paul commences
that passage closing the eighth chap
ter of Romans: “He that spared not
his own Son, but delivered him up
for us all, how shall he not with him
also freely give us all things?” Then
follows the enumeration of the “all
things.” Not merely is the justifica
tion assured, but the very tempta
tions, the tribulations, the peril, the
sword are conquered and put within
our grasp; and these once overcome,
there is no limit to lhe power of the
soul, to compass death, life, angels,
principalities, powers, or any other
creature, and make them subserve its
advance in growth into the image of
God. It is magnificent, and as we
read, the very words seem to lift our
souls into a purer air, and we can
appreciate the feelings of the disci
ples on the Mount of Transfiguration;
but pretty soon some very mundane
and material thing dissipates our vis
ion, and we are apt to feel conquered
rather than conquerors.
Now what is the matter? Two
things must he recognized as settled.
The Bible statements are accurate;
they mean just what they say. We
must he content to take ono thing at
a time. “All things” are made up of
“single things.” We cannot pick ap
ples by the bushel; we pick them one
SINGLE CORY THREE CENTS.
by one. The secret o' Napolean’s
success was that he contrived to have
a majority at one point, then having
secured that, he carried the majority
(o tho next point, and so on until the
great armies often far outnumbering
his own were conquered. What we
need is to do the same thing in the,
Christian warfare. As we go to our
daily duty, whether at the office, in
the school, or at home, we need to
start out with the assurance that not
single temptation, duty, or experi
ence will meet us but that we may
lay hold upon it and utilize it for
aur own usefuluess, our own advance
in Christian life. But we must take
each one as it conies. Then whenf
the day is over, we shall find that the
“single things” have become the “all
things,” and that all are ours.—
Independent.
Heath the (lure of Loneliness.
“Except a corn of wheat fall into
the ground and die, it abideth alone.”
It would seem as if the very heart of
God yearned for society. In perfect
blessedness he had been all-sufficient
for himself, but there was within him
a love which could find no expres
sion or satisfaction apart from beings
on which it could rest. Love is al
most inconceivable unless there bo
objects on which to expend and for
which to sacrifice itself. Did not
this underlie that divine resolve,
“Let us make man” ?
There are many lonely people about
the world who complain of desolate
and solitary lives They account for
their condition by supposing it due
to tho failure of relatives through
death or intervening distance; hut,
indeed, it is rather attributable to tha
fact that they have never fallen into
the ground to die, that they have
always consulted their own ease and
wollheing, and have never learned
that the cure of loneliness comes
through the sowing of oneself in a
grave of daily self-sacrifice. The
corn of wheat must fall into the
ground and die, and it will abide no
longer alone.—Selected
Tho Morning Star thus summarizes
and pleads: “Here, then, is the saloon
sanctioned by law, surrounded by a
personally interested following,
mounting up into the millions, ami
backed by almost unlimited capital.
It means to stay. It is organized
for that purpose. Its object, open
and avowed, is to silence or destroy
all opposition. Its success means
poor business, for it livps at the ex
pense of all legitimate business; poor
citizens, for is takes and gives noth
ing of value in return; poor husbands
and fathers, for it consumes, in its
victims, the last elements of manli
ness; mean and degraded homes, for
nothing good, beautiful, or pure, can
live where it flourishes. Christian
citizens, what are you going to do
about it? In a short time the town
and ward primaries will meet, and
the saloon will be there. Will you?
The saloon will take special pains to
get its votes into the ballot-box, and
not one of them will be cast for a
candidate known to he either opposed
or indifferent to its interests! Will
your vote be there just as certainly
against the saloon? If you love your
fehow-men, il you love your country,
if you love your home and children,
if you love God and seek first his
kingdom and righteousness, yon will
work, pray, and vote against the
saloon.”
Kroiiotny In Tttxiifi.
A couple ol Detroit men on the
Belle Isle Park ferryboat were descant
ing upon political economy.
“We’ve got too much taxes,” suid
one.
“Certainly we have,” assented tho
other; "and now they're tulkiug about
having an income tax.”
“Is that so I"
“Yes, it is."
“Well, that ought to be a good
thing, it seems to me. There’s so con
founded much outgo tax fhut if they
could work an income tax in some way
it would be a good tiling for the tax
payers."
The boat bumped up against the
dock at this point and the two econo
mists walked ashore.—Detroit Free
Prnss