Not Roman Catholics but Roman Catholicism.—
By Editor
“We war with principle, not with men.” The article on another page, entitled “An Object Lesson to America,” is not aimed against Roman Catholics. The writer has not one feeling of enmity against any Roman Catholic in the world, from Pope Leo XIII. to the last Philippine islander who said his first paternoster. Roman Catholics, as others, are brother men, the purchase of the blood of Jesus Christ. They number in their ranks many devoted, earnest, consecrated souls, many respected, noble men and women,—all of whom are so, we believe, not because of Roman Catholicism, but in spite of it. They are better than their creed. Living up to all the light they possess, God accepts them. Many noble souls have come up amid surroundings that are not Roman Catholic, and they have been molded in their manners, their tolerant ideas, their love of liberty, by their environments, not by their creed. We are sure that every true lover of liberty among Roman Catholics will be willing to grant to others the same freedom to examine and discuss Roman Catholicism which he claims for himself and freely uses in discussing Protestantism. The truth harms no one. If Roman Catholicism is evil in its fruits, every one of its adherents ought to lay the ax at the root of the tree or flee its baneful shelter. The object of this paper is to save men, irrespective of race or creed, and to save them by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It will also, as God has commanded in His Word, ‘sound an alarm’ against the evils which are sweeping men away and blinding them to the Gospel. Among these evils, we believe—and we believe it because it is in the Word—is that of Roman Catholicism. Its adherents when intolerant are intolerant because of their religion, not because they are different from other men. Will they consider this?