Earlier text: England's Advent in the Eastern QuestionThe Weekly Sabbath Instituted at Creation, and Not at Sinai
By Editor
WHILE the argument itself is familiar to all, many will read with interest the opening portion of the first article in our first paper, the Present Truth (July, 1849). THE article was written by James White. The whole of that first paper — aside from a few notes and a publisher's announcement — was devoted to the Sabbath and the law, showing the perpetual obligation of the ten commandments, and the distinction between the moral law and the ceremonial law. We can give but the opening portion of the article:— The Weekly Sabbath Instituted at Creation, and Not at Sinai
“And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.” Gen. 2:2, 3. Here God instituted the weekly rest, or Sabbath. It was the seventh day. He blessed and sanctified that day of the week, and no other; therefore the seventh day, and no other day of the week, is holy, sanctified time. God has given the reason why he blessed and sanctified the seventh day. “Because that in it he had rested from all his work which God had created and made.” He rested, and set the example for man. He blessed and set apart the seventh day for man to rest from his labor, and follow the example of his Creator. The Lord of the Sabbath said, “The Sabbath was made for man.” Mark 2:27. Not for the Jew only, but for man, in its broadest sense, meaning all mankind. The word man in this text means the same as it does in the following texts: “Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.” Job 14:1. “Man lieth down and riseth not: till the heavens be no more.” Verse 12. No one will say that man here means Jews, or Christians; but the whole human race. The Sabbath was made for man, for the whole race of man. Adam, Noah, and Abraham were men; therefore the Sabbath was made for them, as well as for Moses and the Jews. We are men, and the Sabbath is made for us. God has given the following reason, in the decalogue, why man should keep his holy Sabbath: “For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.” Ex. 20:11. Here our minds are directed back more than twenty-five hundred years, to the creation and holy rest in Eden, for the origin of the Sabbath. This plain fact every candid mind must see. God did not bless and hallow the Sabbath day at Sinai,—no, no. This he had done in Eden twenty-five hundred years before. “And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it.” Gen. 2:3. The Sabbath was marked and guarded with miracles by Jehovah, and kept by Israel in the wilderness of Sin, thirty days before they came to Sinai. “And it came to pass, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man. . . . To-morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord: bake that which ye will bake to-day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning.” “And Moses said, Eat that to-day, for to-day is a Sabbath unto the Lord: to-day ye shall not find it in the field. Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the Sabbath, in it there shall be none. “And it came to pass, that there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none. And the Lord said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws? See, for that the Lord hath given you the Sabbath. . . . So the people rested on the seventh day.” See Ex. 16:22-30. The children of Israel departed from Egypt on the fifteenth day of the first month, and came to the wilderness of Sin on the fifteenth day of the second month. Here God gives them bread from heaven, and reminds them of the Sabbath. From the wilderness of Sin they journeyed to Rephidim, and from Rephidim they came to the desert of Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the third month. Mark this: God gives them manna, reminds them of his Sabbath, and guards it with miracles thirty days before they saw Mount Sinai, and thirty-two days before God spake from the smoking mount the ten commandments. We frequently hear the assertion that the Sabbath is not mentioned in the Bible till after the law was given from Mount Sinai; therefore the seventh-day Sabbath is the Sabbath of the old Jews, and is abolished. Not long since, a second advent preacher made this false statement to me. Another person repeated this statement to me not two weeks since. Now, I hope all who are laboring under this mistaken view will look again. Please read the history of the journey of Israel from Egypt to Mount Sinai, found in Exodus. THUS this first article in our first paper went on, showing that the foundations of the Sabbath were laid at creation, the Sabbath being God's own appointed memorial for all mankind. And this same Sabbath truth is winning obedient hearts to-day in regions altogether unknown when that article was written. Witchcraft and False Theocracies
By C. M. S.
No story of the evil results of the union of religion and the state in colonial days could be considered in any sense complete that omitted mention of the witchcraft developments in the colonies. It is easily demonstrated that had there been no New England theocracy, there would have been no execution of witches in Connecticut and Massachusetts. The earliest histories of the earliest nations are either sprinkled with the blood of witches or teem with the record of the incomprehensible or incredible marvels which the historiographers attributed to them. But wherever the blood of witches has been shed, we find this true—that church and state, religion and the government, have been under one ruler, whether as in the case of the true theocracy of Israel, or the false theocracies of heathendom and of Christendom. Demonology is a science practically as old as the race; and demonolatry has been charged against men and women from times most ancient. That there has been foundation for the charges must be admitted in many cases; for demon-worship has been perpetuated in many lands for ages, and is still prevalent in some countries even in our day. In the book of Leviticus we read:— “They shall no more offer their sacrifices unto devils, after whom they have gone a whoring. This shall be a statute forever unto them throughout their generation.” Lev. 17:7.
Wherever Israel touched heathendom, there was danger of the people adopting heathen modes of worship. The worship of idols and of demons was an established custom among the ancient heathen nations of the East, and in many instances the Israelites were induced to forsake the worship of Jehovah, and sacrifice to the idols and the demons whom their neighbors worshiped. Therefore the prohibition of Jehovah. But notwithstanding that prohibition, the apostasy continued among the “chosen people.” The record says of them:— “They moved him to jealousy with strange gods; with abominations provoked they him to anger. They sacrificed unto demons.” Deut. 32:16, 17.
To such an extent did this apostasy go in the time of Jeroboam, that the priests of the Lord were cast off by that king, and fled for protection and support to Rehoboam, while Jeroboam deliberately established a system of demonolatry, appointing “priests for the high places, and for the devils, and for the calves which he had made.” 2 Chron. 11:15.12 Because, therefore, of the ever-present danger that the chosen people of the Lord might be turned away from the worship of the true God to the service of demons, the code of that true theocracy contained a most stringent law in reference to witchcraft. No one could have a “familiar spirit,” on pain of death. Necromancy (seeking counsel of the dead, or soliciting aid of the devil) was a forbidden practise. “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live,” read the ancient law of Israel. Ex. 22:18. And because of the practise of witchcraft among the early nations of Canaan, Jehovah permitted them to be driven out. That is made plain in these words:— “When thou art come into the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord: and because of these abominations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee.” Deut. 18:9-12.
Israel was a theocracy—a nation governed by God himself, through those appointed by himself to represent him and speak for him. This is shown by the message which the prophet Samuel received from the Lord when Israel demanded a king, that she might be like the nations around her. The Lord said to Samuel:— “Harken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.” 1 Sam. 8:7.
This was a change of kings, but it did not end the theocracy. The law of Sinai, the code given to the people through Moses, the sanctuary containing the representation of God’s government, were still retained; and God spoke to the kings through his prophets, directing as to what they should do in every crisis. The kings were often intractable; nevertheless God did not abandon his sovereignty over that people until after they had slain “the Lord of glory.” Looking forward to the time when that chosen nation should smite the Redeemer, Jesus said: “Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.” Luke 13:35. When the last act had been performed in that greatest of earth’s tragedies, the apartment of the Jewish sanctuary, wherein was set the symbol of God’s government, was thrown open by the angel hands that tore the temple veil in twain from top to bottom. Josephus tells us that on that occasion voices were heard in the temple saying, “Arise, let us go hence.” Jehovah had finished with that nation. The time had come when the “owner of the vineyard” had been slain by the wicked servants. Theocracy was finished, never to appear again in its true form until the time foretold by the prophet Ezekiel:— “And thou, O deadly wounded wicked one, the prince of Israel, whose day is come, in the time of the iniquity of the end, thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Remove the mitre and take off the crown; this shall be no more the same; exalt that which is low, and abase that which is high. I will overturn, overturn, overturn it: this shall also be no more, until he come whose right it is; and I will give it him.” Eze. 21:25-27.
The possession of the mitre and the crown by the one individual indicated the religious and civil rulership in that individual. But when that third overturning came, the verdict of Jehovah is that the theocratic system of government should never be re-established until “he come, whose right it is.” Then said he in whose power it is to set up and pull down kingdoms, “I will give it him.” Jesus Christ, who purchased with his own blood the right to the rulership of this world, has not yet come to take over that rulership. Consequently, any system of government setting itself forth as a theocracy between the time when Jesus of Nazareth was slain on Calvary and the time when Jesus the Christ comes again to earth, is a false theocracy. Between those two events there can be no true theocracy in this earth. There have been many false ones; and being false, they have wrought havoc in the fold of the Good Shepherd. Now the purpose of this seeming digression is to make apparent where lay the blame for the terrible indignities and punishments suffered by innocent persons in New England (and incidentally in Europe) during the witchcraft trials. The Massachusetts and New Haven colonies were both established upon the theocratic plan; and Connecticut, while not founded upon such a platform, did have very much of the theocratic principle in its modus operandi. On June 4, 1639, the New Haven Assembly held its first “general meeting to consult about settling their civil government according to God, . . . for the establishing of such civil ruler as might be most pleasing to God, and for the choosing the fittest men for the foundation work of a church to be gathered.”—“New Haven Colonial Records,” anno 1639. That assembly entered into an agreement that “the Word of God shall be the only rule attended unto in ordering the affairs of government.”—“New Haven Historical Papers,” Vol. I, page 17. The Mosaic code was the foundation of all law in New Haven, and any crime punishable by death under that code was made a capital offense in the New Haven colony. Only church-members were admitted to the privileges of free men, and regular church attendance was made compulsory. The General Assembly declared that “the Scriptures do hold forth a perfect rule for the direction and government of all men in all duties, which they are to perform to God and men, as well in the government of families and commonwealths as in matters of the church.”—“New Haven Colonial Records,” anno 1639. The general government of Connecticut regarded itself responsible for the state of religion in the commonwealth and for the purity of doctrine. It required that every person should “carefully apply himself on the Lord’s day to the duties of religion—to attend public worship in some congregation allowed by law, provided that he conscientiously and conveniently can attend.”—“New Haven Historical Papers,” Vol. III, page 399. Neglect of public worship, or forming companies separate from the churches recognized by law, was punishable by fine; and any person, not a regular minister, who dared to administer the sacraments was to be whipped and fined. Concerning Massachusetts in this particular, the record is that Mr. John Cotton was appointed by the general court to draw up an abstract of laws for the guidance of magistrates, patterned after “the laws of judgment delivered from God to Moses.” He did so, and writing of it in after-years, Cotton declared the government of Massachusetts to be a theocracy. In 1641 the general court of Massachusetts formally adopted the principles of theocratic rule. Upon this basis, so completely subversive of all liberty of individual conscience and freedom of worship, did these three colonies conduct their governments. There is no question that those responsible for these conditions and operations honestly believed they were working in the interests of the Redeemer’s kingdom. The fruit of their operations ought to have convinced them, as it must convince us, that their hypothesis was unfounded. For All People
By W. A. S.
HUMAN nature is a stubborn thing; and it is so very natural to view matters from one's own point of view. It required many a sharp lesson ere even those apostles who had companied with Jesus from the first were delivered from their national and tribal ideas. But the message of God itself knows no boundary-lines. It is the good news of salvation for all peoples; and in that truth the sinner of every kind, no matter where, finds just the salvation that he13 needs. The Lord Jesus is Elder Brother to all flesh. One of our canvassing brethren in Germany fell in with a Lutheran priest who was very free to criticize the Bible, and naturally the priest found decided fault with our work. The following conversation ensued:— Priest: “Adventism is an exotic plant which can never come into Europe and thrive.” Colporteur: “Christianity is also an exotic plant in Europe, yet it thrives here. Just so it is with Adventism.” Priest: “With Adventism it is ‘Matthew the last chapter.’” [A German proverbial saying, meaning that a thing has reached its limit, or the last gasp.] Colporteur: “There you are right, Mr. Priest; for it is written in Matthew the last chapter, ‘Go ye therefore, and teach all nations,’ and that is what the Adventists are doing. They are a missionary people, and they are going into all the world; and everywhere that this message takes root, the fruitage springs up.” The answer was a true one. This third angel’s message is a plant that thrives in every soil. Speaking last summer of experiences in Europe, Elder L. R. Conradi recalled an article written by a great German theologian in one of the papers when our work was first beginning in Germany. “This third angel’s message,” said the professor, quoting our familiar phrase, “makes us smile. It sounds strange to us. It will never go here. It may make some headway in America, but it will never do so in Germany.” The history of our growing work in Germany, with its thousands of believers, and its publishing and training centers, shows how little the professor understood the nature of the third angel’s message. The third angel’s message is nothing else than the preaching of the Word of the living God as it speaks to this day and generation. The Final Conflict
By F. M. W.
INTENSITY marks the struggle to-day between the forces of good and of evil. The world has become transformed into a great battle-field of contending forces. Warring elements which for the last six thousand years have been striving for the mastery, are engaged to-day in the great culminating conflict of the ages. Six thousand years of history look down upon the scene. The enmity created between the author of sin and the seed of the woman, has grown with the years and with the centuries, and to-day we who read these words are participants in the grand culmination of the controversy. And what a scene is presented to our vision as we look out over the battle-field! What a marshaling of evil forces is beheld! What fearful inroads have been wrought by the powers of evil! For the most part the world is given up to the leadings of evil influences. The most stable institutions of society have been assaulted, and in them a rapidly leavening process is going forward. The home, the church, and the state, God’s three great bulwarks for the regulation of society and the suppression of evil, are being honeycombed to their very heart. Consider these individual institutions for a moment:— The integrity of the home is the very foundation of stable society. That which lessens its dignity and purity strikes a blow at every other institution. The apostle tells us that the last days will be especially marked, in that men will be “without natural affection, truce-breakers,” etc. This is forcibly illustrated in prevailing conditions around us. The old-time simplicity and integrity of the home life are fast passing away. Many home unions, formed as a result of caprice and fancy rather than of sound judgment, and as the fruit of lust instead of love, have destroyed the high and holy standard of home life; and in consequence, alienation, family discord, separation, and divorce, if not greater tragedies, are the common result. The alarming increase of divorce furnishes cause for grave concern to every student of human philosophy at the present time. Marriage vows are but lightly regarded. Wedlock is coming to be considered only as a civil contract, to be set aside as lightly as it was entered into by the contracting parties. Free love and libertinism, if not openly taught, are all too generally practised. These evil principles of laxness and of a lowering of Christian standards have invaded the sanctuaries of religious thought. The church itself is succumbing to the spirit of the times. Old-time doctrines, setting forth the truth and simplicity and vital power of the Word of God, are coming to be discountenanced. The Scriptures of truth themselves are rejected by many. A modern theology has been evolved, as a result of so-called scientific thought and higher scholarship, which sets aside primitive faith, and counts as silly fables of mythological lore the Bible teachings and records which have stood as the very foundations of Christian faith and practise. Evolution is taught for regeneration. The miracles of the Word of God are sought to be accounted for by the laws of natural philosophy. The divine incarnation is denied. Jesus Christ is represented as only a great historical character, with no power to save above the influence of any other godly man. The accounts of the creation and the resurrection are looked upon as mythical tales, and the influences which will bring about a transformation of life, a “resurrection” into higher spheres, are the powers of mind directed in intellectual and ethical culture. These wicked, pernicious principles are set forth to-day, and that, too, in many instances by professed ministers of the gospel. Received by the multitude, they are lowering moral standards, and leading men to question if there is indeed a God who takes account of the acts of his creatures. Added to these faith-destroying doctrines, is the work of such movements as Christian Science, Spiritualism, Emmanuelism, Theosophy, and allied perversions which hold multitudes of men and women in their ruthless grasp to-day. O, that the church of God might realize its situation, that it might return once more to its simplicity of faith and practise, and take hold of the only Power, the divine hand from heaven, which could aid it in its Titanic struggle with the forces of evil! A remnant will be saved according to grace. God will raise up faithful witnesses who will sound the cry of warning against these overwhelming evils. Some will heed the call. Some, in the days of moral degeneracy upon which we have entered, will remain unshaken in their faith and allegiance to the great God of heaven, and to his revelation to the children of men as found in the Scriptures of truth. This is the rift in the cloud of moral darkness. The influences operating in the church and the home are subtle and insidious. Their work is done in part in secret. They make no display of figures or statistics. But when we come to the national phases of human life, we see there in clear light the forces of evil working in the open. And against this important institution of society, which was ordained of God for the correction of evil-doers, and for the protection of those who do well, Satan is now marshaling all the forces of evil. While without doubt every political party in every nation to-day, holds men of integrity and moral worth, and while in positions of trust are found scores of men who in the fear of God are trying to stem the rising tide of evil, the records of current history reveal all too clearly the inroads which are being made upon the integrity of governmental life. Municipal, State, and federal office-holders become the prey of scheming men. Votes are bought and sold. Franchises are purchased. Corporations buy special privileges with gold wrung from a suffering people. One great concern of government legislation to-day is to determine ways and means whereby the public may be protected from privileged classes and the money power.14 The conflict between capital and labor has become acute. The commercial interests of the nations and of individuals are in sharp competition. It has become to-day a struggle for the mastery in wealth, in human ambition, yea, more than this, it has become a struggle with thousands for very existence. Increased cost of living commodities, coupled with the spirit of extravagance and high living, have brought about conditions which serve as goads to the struggling multitude. This spirit of mastery and of rivalry is particularly marked in the attitude of the nations toward one another, the struggle for national growth and expansion, and for the increase of commercial power, bringing them into sharp and strenuous competition. Each jealously watches the movements of the other; each vies with the other in seeking the state of preparedness for any emergency in national existence. In consequence, we have a continual increase of naval armaments, large standing armies, and rapidly growing burdensome taxation. In this connection the words of the Independent of February 9, on the preparations for war upon the part of the European nations, are worth repeating:— Germany is prepared to put 3,000,000 men in the field at short notice, and estimates that the cost of keeping such a force under arms will be $4,500,000 a day. Over $100,000,000 is to be spent on the German navy next year, and the reconstruction of the fleet on the dreadnaught basis is being pushed with feverish rapidity. Austria is suddenly possessed of a desire for a big new navy of sixteen dreadnaughts, although there is no apparent reason for a great increase of its sea power. The Austrian military and naval estimates for the coming year call for nearly $110,000,000, of which about $25,000,000 goes to the navy. This is about $18,750,000 above the ordinary appropriation. The total cost of the naval program will be $70,000,000 or more. The government holds it to be of the highest importance that four first-class battle-ships of the dreadnaught type be completed by 1913, or 1914 at latest. On account of this haste two of them were begun at the shipyards in Trieste without waiting for the authorization of the expenditure by the delegations of Austria and Hungary. Besides the four vessels of over 20,000 tons, there will be constructed three cruisers, twelve torpedo-boats, and six submarines. This naval project is being energetically pushed by the heir apparent, Archduke Francis Ferdinand, who presented the program to the delegations in person. The government also wishes to increase the army at the rate of 50,000 more recruits annually, and to establish a system of two years’ military service. It may be surmised that Austria-Hungary is looking forward to an active interference in Balkan affairs, and possibly a war with Italy. At least that is surmised by the Italians, who are making strenuous efforts to get their first squadron of dreadnaughts ready by 1913. The French government has decided to ask the Chamber for large accessions to the navy. The Swedish government has prepared a plan for the reconstruction of the navy, and wants $1,110,000 a year for the next three years to build the first battle-ship of the new type. It is proposed also to extend the period of compulsory military service to one year. These are the elements of evil combining for the last great conflict. Depressing indeed would be the situation were it not for the fact that there is another picture we can contemplate. That picture is the working out of God’s great purpose in the affairs of men. While a spirit from beneath is rising and fast taking hold of satanic agencies, and marshaling them for the final fray, there is comfort in the thought that there is descending from on high a power in which the children of God may find protection, and which is more than a match for all the forces of evil. That power is the power of the Holy Spirit, the power of invincible truth. That truth is going to the nations of men, and in the final gathering call is bringing together from the east and the west, from the north and the south, those who will stand for God and truth in this evil generation. The messengers of this truth must storm the very strongholds of the enemy; they must enter into the very citadels of evil, and snatch here and there, as brands from the burning, those who have been deceived. In this work the invincible God is their tower of strength. His Holy Spirit will prove their guide. He that is with them is more than all they that be against them. For a time, evil may seem to run riot and wickedness to prevail, but the truth of God will prove victorious in the end; and he who makes God his refuge in these days of peril, who takes hold of the strong hand that is reached down to save, will triumph with the truth of God throughout the eternal ages. In the great conflict between truth and error now going forward, let us be sure to stand on the right side. The real conflict is in the hearts of men. In some measure we must meet it in our own lives, but through divine grace we may come off more than conquerors through him who has loved us, and who is abundantly able to keep that which we may commit unto him against the day of final triumph. France’s Expanding Civil Service
THE French government has nearly 1,000,000 men and women under its direct employ. In the last fifty years, paid officials have increased 110 per cent, while the population has increased only 11 per cent. The civil service salaries have risen from $49,000,000 to $137,000,000 annually. Poor Prospects of Peace
By F. M. W.
An anomalous condition is presented in the world to-day. On the one hand is the cry, which is becoming quite general, for world-peace and the arbitration of all international questions. On the other hand is the feverish preparation for war, and increased expenditure for naval armaments, in every government. Says the Christian Statesman for January:— The wickedness and misery of warfare and the need for peace agitation have long been evident to thoughtful minds, but recent figures do much to emphasize the awful cost of war and its foolish extravagance. It is said that the average annual cost of army and navy for the eight years since the Spanish war (1902-10) has been $185,400,000, and that the total increase in eight years has been $1,072,000,000, an amount exceeding the national debt by $158,000,000. This is nearly three times the estimated cost of the Panama Canal, including what was paid the French company. The Hon. James A. Tawney, chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations, said, in an address of May, 1909, as follows: “The fact that we are expending, during this fiscal year, seventy-two per cent of our aggregate revenue in preparing for war and on account of past wars, leaving only twenty-eight per cent of our revenue available to meet all other government expenditures, including internal improvements, the erection of public buildings, the improvement of rivers and harbors,15 and the conservation of our natural resources, is to my mind appalling.” The Congressional Library at Washington, said to be the finest library building in the world, was built, we are told, for but little over half the cost of a battle-ship, and is maintained for three fourths the cost of keeping a battle-ship afloat. One twenty-six-thousand-ton battle-ship costs as much as the total contributions of the United States and Canada in a year to the cause of foreign missions. Such considerations as these should awaken and alarm every true patriot and sincere lover of humanity. Whither are we drifting? Where will all this end? It is high time to bestir ourselves in behalf of peace. Well may we ask, Whither are we drifting? and where will all this end? The Scriptures of truth afford an answer to these queries. We are rapidly nearing the great battle of Armageddon, which is to witness the close of this earth’s history. We see fulfilling before our eyes to-day the prophecy of Joel 3:9-16. On the other hand, we see the fulfilment of the prophecy found in the second chapter of Isaiah and the fourth chapter of Micah. These chapters declare that notwithstanding the warlike preparations which will be going forward, the multitudes will be deluding themselves with the hope of peace. That delusive hope will prove their snare; for the apostle Paul says, “When they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them.” Let us be admonished by the crying signs of the times around us. F. M. W. As Daniel the prophet, in the vision of the seventh chapter, saw the Papacy rising amid the kingdoms of divided Rome, he observed of this “little horn” that his “look was more stout than his fellows.” That proud look the Papacy wears even to-day, though no longer possessed of a temporal kingdom. The despatches from Rome the other day said:— After Fairbanks and Roosevelt comes Prince Victor Napoleon, the standard-bearer of the French imperials. It appears that Prince Victor forgot to observe the etiquette required by the Vatican; and while on his wedding journey, he visited the Quirinal before he went to the Vatican. This is a breach of etiquette. If he were not a Catholic, this omission would not have made so much difference. But since the year 1870, etiquette requires that all Catholic rulers and princes must first visit the Vatican. So when Prince Victor, after having been so cordially received by Prince Victor Emmanuel, decided to pay his respects to the Pope, he found the Vatican closed against him. When the German emperor was in Rome, he pleased us by the splendor of the equipage which conducted him to the Vatican. He paid his visit in state, and neglected not one of the many formalities. Prince Victor has not helped his cause by causing the doors of the Vatican to be closed against him.