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Review and Herald, Vol. 80, No. 21.

Isles of Calm

Review and Herald

May 26, 1903

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 26, 1903

Isles of Calm

By Whittier

O isles of calm! — O dark, still wood! And stiller skies that overbrood Your rest with deeper quietude!
Life's burdens fall, its discords cease, I lapse into the glad release Of Nature's own exceeding peace.
O, welcome calm of heart and mind! As falls yon fir-tree's loosened rind To leave a tenderer growth behind,
So fall the weary years away; A child again, my head I lay Upon the lap of this sweet day. — Whittier.

Publishers' Page

By Editor

Conducted by the Department of Circulation of the Review and Herald Publishing Company

The Life and Epistles of St. Paul

BY CONYBEARE AND HOWSON
Bound in cloth, 12mo, $1, postpaid
Our “Sketches of the Life of Paul,” being out of print, we offer the “Life and Epistles of Saint Paul,” by Conybeare and Howson, as a substitute. This book will prove to be of great value in the study of the present Sabbath-school lessons.

Education

BY MRS. E. G. WHITE
321 pages, beautifully bound in three-color cover design; price, $1.25.
Education in its entirety, covering all phases. Especially prepared for parents, teachers, and students. Excellent for all classes. The great principles of Christian education are clearly set forth, and invaluable counsel for the education of the youth is placed within the reach of all.
In answer to the question, “What is education?” and in defining its source, we quote a few sentences from the first chapter of the book:—
“Our ideas of education take too narrow and too low a range. There is need of a broader scope, a higher aim. True education means more than the perusal of a certain course of study. It means more than a preparation for the life that now is. It has to do with the whole being, and the whole period of existence possible to man. It is the harmonious development of the physical, the mental, and the spiritual powers. It prepares the student for the joy of service in this world, and for the higher joy of wider service in the world to come.”
“The Source of such an education is brought to view in these words of Holy Writ, pointing to the Infinite One: In him ‘are hid all the treasures of wisdom.’ ‘He hath counsel and understanding.’”
Order of the State Tract Societies, or of the Review and Herald Publishing Company, Battle Creek, Mich.

The Place of the Bible in Education

BY A. T. JONES
248 pages, in paper and cloth bindings, 25 and 75 cents, postpaid.
One of the new books just out. An excellent volume to study in connection with “Education.” Its chapter divisions are as follows:—
Christian Education; The World's Education; The Essentials of Knowledge; The Secret of the Great Apostasy; The Greek or “Scientific Method” Today; The Separation of Christianity and the State; The Bible's Right to Supreme Place in Christian Education; The Education of Daniel; What Was Taught in the Schools of the Prophets; The Study of Wisdom; The Study of Knowledge; The Study of Science; The Study of Mental Science; The Study of Moral Science; The Study of Physical Science; The Study of Physical Science—Anatomy; The Study of Physical Science—Healing; The Study of Physical Science—Physical Culture; Literature, History, Law, Logic; The Failures of Popular Education.
Order of the State Tract Societies, or of the Review and Herald Publishing Company, Battle Creek, Mich.

Personal Questions and Answers Concerning the Sabbath

BY MRS. S. M. I. HENRY
We have just issued a new edition of this excellent tract. A large number have been sold, yet the demand is increasing.
When Mrs. Henry began to keep the Sabbath, she was National Evangelist for the W. C. T. U. Her correspondence with the leaders of that great organization on the Sabbath question led to the production of “Personal Questions and Answers,” which is a series of questions selected from her private letters, with the answers which were returned, with but few changes. These questions being so often repeated, and as they are clearly answered in an easy, personal manner, by one especially gifted in language and possessing thorough knowledge of the question, this tract meets a want long felt by the rank and file of our people in their missionary work.
This tract is published as Number Seven of The Words of Truth Series. It contains 56 pages; price, 3½ cents a copy.
Order of the State Tract Societies, or of the Review and Herald Publishing Company, Battle Creek, Mich.

Prophetic Charts

We have a series of prophetic charts, seven in number, each of which is finely lithographed on muslin. These charts are large—31 x 44 inches. And instead of crowding everything into one chart, each line of prophecy is illustrated on a separate sheet. This serves to keep the mind of the listener upon the subject under consideration. The lecturer will find the charts well adapted for large audiences. The Bible worker, also, can use them to good advantage.
Number one, of the series, shows Nebuchadnezzar's image, standing three feet high, appropriate colors distinguishing the four nations.
Number two presents the four beasts of Daniel 7.
The ram, and the he-goat with the notable horn between his eyes, dwell together peaceably on the third chart.
The central part of the next sheet is occupied by the sanctuary, showing the position and the proportionate size of the two apartments; and the table of showbread, the golden candlestick, the altar of incense, and the ark, overshadowed by the cherubim, all stand in their respective places. Above and below the sanctuary are diagrams explaining the different sections of the twenty-three hundred days.
The space of another chart is divided between the seven-headed, ten-horned dragon of Revelation 12, and the leopard beast and the two-horned beast of Revelation 13.
Number six: The three angels of Revelation 14, flying one after the other, in the midst of heaven, shed their light over city and country, land and sea, dispelling the gross darkness which covers the earth.
A ten-commandment chart, the regular retail price of which is $1, completes the set.
Sold only in unbroken sets.
But few of our workers are familiar with the merits of these charts. We quote from a letter just received from one who has secured a set of these charts:—
“The charts received. I am very much pleased with them. I feel sure that if our laborers generally were acquainted with this series, they would prefer them to any other charts on the prophecies.”
The special price of the set, postpaid, is $2.50. The regular price is $4.
Order of the Review and Herald Publishing Company, Battle Creek, Mich.

The History of the Reformation

BY J. H. MERLE D'AUBIGNE
The recognized standard and most popular history of the great Reformation of the sixteenth century. In five volumes, bound in cloth, put up in cases. Publishers' price, $3.50; our special price, $2.75.
Order of the Review and Herald Publishing Company, Battle Creek, Mich.

Special Sale of Bibles

We have a few copies of the American Standard Edition of the Revised Bible, printed in long primer quarto, a very large, plain print, especially desirable for impaired vision, or for reading by gaslight. Size, 8¾ by 6¾ inches; bound in cloth board, red edges. As long as they last, we will sell them for $1.25, postpaid.

The Nelson Bible

We have a few of three very popular styles of the “Nelson Bold Type Series,” which we offer at special reduced prices. This series is printed on fine India paper, with maps and index; only ⅝ of an inch thick, and about six by four inches in size, a very popular size for ladies and young people.
Number 3258X, French morocco, divinity circuit, linen lined, silk sewed, round corners, red under gold edges; regular price, $2.50; reduced to $1.75, postpaid.
Number 3108X, Egyptian seal, divinity circuit, linen lined, round corners, red under gold edges; regular price, $2; reduced to $1.35, postpaid.
Number 3265X, levant, divinity circuit, calf lined to edge, silk sewed, round corners, red under gilt edges; regular price, $4.50; reduced to $3.25, postpaid.
Send all orders for the above styles of Bibles directly to the Review and Herald Publishing Company, Battle Creek, Mich.

Wisdom in Working

By Editor

Editorial

Wisdom in Working

WHEN Jesus sent forth his twelve disciples, he gave them full instruction concerning their work, and then he said, “Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.” And the example of Jesus himself is the best interpretation of the meaning of his words. He went about among men with a message of salvation from heaven, but divine wisdom guided him in all his efforts to reach men with that message. He often refused to answer the caviling questions of the Pharisees, but he never repelled the humblest seeker after the light of life. More than this, he sought every opportunity to satisfy any longing soul, and to awaken the desire for salvation from sin in those who were almost lost in despair; but that wisdom, of which he was the personality, always revealed itself in his method of dealing with different ones. Upon Nicodemus, the formalist, he pressed the necessity of the new life from above. His ability to read her past life of sin convicted the woman at the well, so that she said, “Come, see a man, who told me all things that ever I did: can this be the Christ?” In his teaching among the people he was so wise that while enlightening them concerning himself and his work, he yet gave the watchful Pharisees no occasion to catch him in his words. This same Jesus has been made wisdom unto us; and when he dwells within us, he can reveal the same wisdom in working in our flesh that was revealed in his own flesh. The wise worker wins souls. He knows when to speak and when to keep silent, and his words have an influence. “If any of you lacketh wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all liberally and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.” Much is lost in our work through a lack of this wisdom. Let us learn of him who is meek and lowly in heart.

Walking With God

AMONG the examples of faith recorded in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews we find the case of Enoch. Of him it is said, “By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and he was not found, because God translated him: for he hath had witness borne to him that before his translation he had been well-pleasing unto God.” The account as given in Genesis is in these simple words: “And Enoch walked with God; and he was not; for God took him.” Enoch’s faith in God took away from him all that spirit of self-exaltation which leads one to lift up himself above God, and with the true spirit of humility he walked with God. This experience of communion with heaven prepared him to be a blessing to others. What he received in seeking the fellowship of God in secret he imparted afterward to the multitude. Thus the blessing which he sought he shared with the people. Enoch’s life of walking with God in the time just before the destruction of the world by a flood of water—a time of great wickedness—is both an example and an encouragement to us who live in this time of wickedness just before the destruction of the world by fire. Even though iniquity abounds, and the love of many waxes cold, still it is our privilege to walk with God. The same loving Father invites us to the same closeness of communion with him that we may be ministers of his grace to others.
“O, let me walk with thee, my God, As Enoch walked in days of old; Place thou my trembling hand in thine, And sweet communion with me hold; E’en though the path I may not see, Yet, Jesus, let me walk with thee.”

The New Reformation

THE purpose of the gospel of the kingdom is to reveal the principles of the kingdom of heaven in opposition to the principles of the kingdom of this world. This work is not accomplished in organizations, or by teaching mere forms and creeds. It is a question of the relation of each individual with God, and this is determined by the fruits seen in the life rather than by a mere connection with some outward organization, whether that organization be the papacy or the true church. Whenever an effort is made either by the individual or by an organization to discard Babylonish principles, and to accept the principles of the gospel, then the god of this world, who is the inspiration of all the ways of Babylon, seeks to defeat this effort, or failing in this, to introduce the same old principles under new names, and thus to accomplish the same result in another way. This has been the history of nearly all the movements for the restoration of the pure gospel.
In the Reformation of the sixteenth century a protest was made against the perversion of the gospel in the papal system, and a work of reform was inaugurated, which, if it had been carried to its full extent, would have restored a pure gospel, and prepared a people to stand in the great day of the Lord. But this great movement soon ceased to make further progress in bringing the people back to the old paths, because it began to crystallize the teachings of the Reformers into a creed, and to look to them for light, rather than to follow the principles which they adopted in seeking light directly from the Scriptures for themselves. But this was simply to put man in the place of God again, the difference now being that it was another man instead of the pope. Whenever any revelation of truth from the Scripture is rejected because it is not in harmony with a creed previously accepted, then the papal principle is adopted, and even that which was formerly light becomes darkness.
It was just this departure of Protestantism from its original principles which has made necessary another world-wide message to reveal the full light of the truth of the gospel which will deliver the people not only from the papacy as a system, but also from all the principles of the papacy wherever found. Adopting the Bible and the Bible alone as the sufficient rule of faith and practice, and taking for its keynote the fundamental principle of the Reformation, justification by faith alone, it has sent forth fresh rays of light and hope in many parts of the earth. For the last half century it has been calling the attention of the people to the true Sabbath of the Lord, the seventh day of the week, the sign of genuine sanctification through faith which is in Christ Jesus, and urging a complete reform from all the methods and principles of the papacy whether found in the Roman Catholic or the Protestant churches. The foundation principle of the everlasting gospel, that God the Creator is alone to be worshiped, the results of following in the ways of Babylon, and the fearful punishment awaiting all those who obey the dictates of the papacy, as set forth in Rev. 14: 6-11, are to be proclaimed “to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people,” in order that a people may be brought out who shall not be partakers of the sins of Babylon, and so shall not receive of her plagues. Every individual is thus called upon to decide whether he will follow papal principles in opposing God and changing the law of faith into the law of works, thus himself becoming a part of the mystery of iniquity; or whether he will accept the gospel message, “Fear God, and give glory to him,” and thus become a part of the mystery of godliness. “Choose you this day whom ye will serve.” “If the Lord be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him.”

Some Admissions of a Leading Educator

By L. A. S.

The question whether religious infidelity is increasing in the colleges of this country is propounded and discussed by President Harper, of Chicago University, in Christendom, a new religious weekly which he has started. President Harper is obliged to admit that infidelity is increasing in these higher educational institutions, though he professes to find that more attention is given to religion in them now than formerly, and that there is a stronger belief in the “fundamentals of the Christian religion.” In one paragraph he says:—
What is the situation to-day? Is it true that there has been a remarkable decrease in the actual teaching of Christian truth, while a large and growing emphasis has been placed upon the teaching of branches altogether devoid of religious character?—Yes. Is it true that of the students who enter college very few indeed look forward to Christian service of any kind, the larger number having, as a matter of fact, only the slightest possible interest in religious matters?—Yes. Is it also true that many college men who might otherwise enter the ministry turn aside to teaching, or to business, or perhaps to some other line of work because of the influence of the purely technical instruction given in the colleges?—Yes. Is it certainly a fact that many men and women who enter college as Christian workers in their home churches take little or no active part in church life after they have completed their college work?—Yes. President Harper admits further that “if now, all this is true, or even half of it, one need not be surprised to find the feeling frequently expressed throughout the religious world that college education is tending to decrease Christian faith, and that institutions founded and conducted for distinctly Christian ends are, in fact, educating their students away from the church.” And by his own admission the half of this, and much more than the half, is certainly true.
It may be true, as he says, that there is greater religious activity in the colleges to-day than formerly. He believes that “there is to be found to-day religious interest in our colleges which is absolutely unparalleled. It is not only that Young Men’s Christian Associations and Young Women’s Associations are more prosperous and influential than ever before, but the colleges themselves are awakening to their responsibilities to care for the religious life of their students. Everywhere we see the establishment of chairs for Biblical instruction, the formation of Bible departments, the institution of preacherships especially adapted to the needs of the college mind, the outgoing of the earnest life of the students of college settlements, great conventions of college men and women under the direction of religious teachers.” It may be true that there is all this religious activity in the colleges to-day, while at the same time the religious vitality is lacking. It is quite possible to maintain religious societies in a flourishing condition, conduct successful religious conventions, establish chairs of Bible instruction, etc., and at the same time neglect the vital, saving truths of Christianity. Mere activity in things of a religious nature is not sufficient evidence of the working of the Spirit of God. If God were at work in the colleges in a more marked manner than was formerly seen, the admission that their influence is such as leads away from God would not have to be made.
Institutions for instruction in human knowledge and wisdom can not of themselves exert an influence for Christianity. Their natural tendency must be rather toward skepticism than toward faith, because the teaching given promotes a questioning spirit in the mind of the student, and an attitude of skepticism toward that which science does not reveal. Man by wisdom can not find out God. The revelation of God to man is through faith, and faith is man’s “amen” to God’s word, however contrary that word may be to the deductions of the human intellect. Since men have begun to criticise the Word of God, and subject its teachings to the test of their own wisdom, rejecting portions as erroneous, and making other parts of no effect by their traditions, a waning belief in that Word has been conspicuous on the part of the rising generation; and under present conditions this skepticism can only continue to grow worse. And when men like President Harper are forced to admit that it is growing worse, the most skeptical individual should be convinced that this is indeed the truth.
And all this emphasizes the need of the re-establishment of the schools of the prophets, in which the pupils shall be taught of God, and the knowledge of things made shall not be separated from the knowledge of their Maker. Thus is the move which Seventh-day Adventists have been led to make in educational work abundantly justified by facts and conditions to which leading educators in the world are calling attention to-day.
L. A. S.

An Appeal in Behalf of the Large Cities

By Stephen N. Haskell

[The following appeal was read at the General Conference, and we think it ought to reach all our people. We therefore present it through the columns of the Review.—Ed.]
To the General Conference Assembled: As I shall not be able to attend the General Conference, I wish to make a plea in behalf of the leading cities of America. About twenty years ago there was a boom to enter our large cities and establish missions, until the cost nearly ruined many of our conferences. But now it has been demonstrated that missions can be established without robbing any conference, and be made self-supporting. We do not say this boastingly, but understandingly. We have tried it in some of the largest cities in the world, and while not every mission has been entirely self-supporting,—the conference has helped us in some instances,—yet as a general rule a company of workers will in one year support themselves, build meeting houses, and not be dependent on funds that would go to other portions of the work.
There are in the United States thirty-eight cities the smallest of which contains over one hundred thousand, and they aggregate over fourteen million. Is it not the people that we are after? And what are we doing in these cities? Something is being done in most of them. But all must admit that there is not one half as much being accomplished as should be. There should be training schools in every one of them, and workers should be trained to enter other cities, both in this country and in foreign fields. They should be trained in the field, and instructed both in the Bible and in practical work. It was in the leading idolatrous city of the world that the great apostle taught and “showed” how, both in public and in private, from house to house, the workers are to labor for souls. Acts 20:17-21.
Three of these cities—Boston, St. Louis, and Baltimore—have a population of over half a million each; while three of them—Chicago, Philadelphia, and New York—have over one million each. The six taken together, have a million more than the other thirty-two of the thirty-eight cities. The relative importance of these cities is in the number of inhabitants they contain, their wealth, and their commercial relations to other parts of the world. In each of these three points, Greater New York stands far in advance of every other city in this country, and in wealth and commercial relations it is the leading city in the world. Many trusts and money monopolies have their headquarters here. It is the gateway to the Eastern world—Europe, Asia, Africa, and the islands of the Atlantic Ocean. These are important considerations; for the truth is to go to every people, nation, and tongue. And God says to his people, “Thou shalt also suck the milk of the Gentiles, and shalt suck the breast of kings [who knows but this refers to money kings, as well as other ruling monarchs?]. . . . For brass I will bring gold, for iron I will bring silver, and for wood brass, and for stones iron: I will also make thy officers peace, and thine exactors righteousness.” Isaiah 60. That is, our resource, as compared to God’s supplies, will be as brass to gold, iron to silver, etc. The entire chapter is in the loud cry of the third angel’s message. It can be read and studied with profit.
Greater New York alone has a population of nearly three and one-half million. These include people of every class and clime. It contains nearly one twentieth of the entire population of this country, reckoning the population at seventy million. It is a world by itself. It is in our own land. Every class of people can be reached by the English tongue, only their native tongue is better. It is a foreign field. It has a million Germans; eighty thousand Scandinavians; hundreds of thousands of Jews of every grade and class; and some of every other nationality in the world. Every kind of religionist, from the Buddhist and Confucian to the most enlightened Christian, may be found here. There are the fewest of the East India people and the Mohammedans. India is the place in which to reach the most enlightened of these people.
As to the customs of the people, they are different from any other English-speaking city in the world. On the surface there is no acknowledgment of the races, as in the South, but beneath the surface it is as strong as in the South. First-class houses or flats are refused if colored people are taken on social equality. Each day you will see every class and shade of people mingling as in all other cities, only more so; but when they retire to their homes, the line is drawn. It is the strongest city I ever was in for social lines and caste. This being the case, no person can judge of how the work is to be carried forward in detail unless he is on the ground and knows the people. There are scores of men who are agents for the wealthy, looking around for some philanthropic enterprise, some religious work, and other enterprises where they can invest their money. To obtain access to these men there are as many sentinels to pass as to reach a general of an army. But there are avenues to every one of them. God works through means, and if the means or agents exist, that is one essential step. This city is to be warned, and what are we doing?
We have three vegetarian restaurants, all private enterprises. We do not say but that each one of them is doing what it can. They have all been advertised and are known as Seventh-day Adventist restaurants. We do not wish to cast the least reflection upon any of them, but should the denomination take one of them, and it be conducted under a committee of management, there might be an improvement in some respects.
As for treatment rooms, what have we? There are many nurses scattered throughout this city, and we do not say that they are not Christians, nor that they do not represent our work; but I think we can truly say that there is not one representative treatment room in the city. We have some graduated nurses; we take patients for treatment in our training school, and they receive good treatments; but a private house is not a representative place for public treatment of the sick. This needs no argument.
We have held several cooking schools and health schools, and are holding a cooking class now. This has opened doors for us in some of the best homes in the city. On the 8th of April we have a demonstration of healthful foods, when we intend to furnish luncheon for one hundred women of the W. C. T. U. They are among the very best ladies in the city. Openings whereby we can reach the best class of people in the city are presenting themselves. We have nurses in the mission who are equal to the occasion, we have no fears as to that part of it; but what we fear is that when a good impression is made by the proper persons, those will enter as Seventh-day Adventists who will not leave a good impression of our work. It is God’s work, and he can take care of it. But it has already been demonstrated that when he opens a door for us, and we do not enter it, others do, and the last is not as favorable as it was to begin with. I am not talking in parables. There are to-day in this city scores of individuals claiming to represent sent our principles, ready to step in any opening, but they do not, from our standpoint, correctly represent our work. This is so everywhere, in every branch of the work. God always sets before his people the first open door, and if they enter at once, many a severe battle is saved. Some of the severest battles were fought in the wilderness after God had prepared the way for Israel to go over, and they failed to move forward. It has been so in our work over and over again. The city of New York is not an exception.
To fill such openings as I have referred to, costs money. We furnish this luncheon at our own expense. We feed one hundred of the ladies of the W. C. T. U. We shall have to do such things from time to time at the expense of some one. We can not in this city, while we are introducing the work, go at their charges, but it must be at our own to a great extent. There is a volume I might say were I present and had the opportunity, which would not be appreciated by writing it out.
This is not a country town where a public place can be secured for a trifle, and a few pay the bill. It is very different. Rents are high. If we do anything, it costs money. We should have first-class, experienced help in these enterprises. Second-class will reach those of their kind. But if we place the health question on a proper basis, there must be proper persons and proper occasions, and it should be done in a proper manner. Some will appreciate what I say, and some will not. I never knew grace to take the place of common sense, when God has given it to us to use.
S. N. Haskell.
(To be concluded)

A Frenchman’s Warning

In The Independent of May 14 a well-known French writer, Urbain Gohier, contributes an interesting article on “The Religious Situation in America,” in which he gives his view of the significance of the rapidly growing power of the papacy in the United States. His statements are all the more interesting and instructive because he speaks from the standpoint of one whose country has, as he says, been instructed in the ways of the papacy by experience:—
The Catholic question in the United States is one of extreme interest. Within a few years it will be the Catholic peril. When one expresses this opinion to an American Protestant, he laughs loudly, shrugs his shoulders, and pooh-poohs with hearty contempt. He answers that the Catholics of his country are animated by a genuinely republican spirit, that they have no religious fanaticism, that they are a petty minority with neither the purpose nor the power to trouble American public
public, but they will interest the French public, which has been instructed by experience:—
The Roman Church, which in the United States numbered 44,500 communicants in 1790, to-day numbers 12,000,000 or more. The total population of the country is twenty times more numerous than at that epoch; the Catholic population, three hundred times more numerous. To this we must now add 6,500,000 Catholics in the Philippines, and 1,000,000 in Porto Rico. The territory of the republic maintains one cardinal, 17 archbishops, 81 bishops; administering 82 dioceses and 5 apostolic curateships, almost 11,000 churches, more than 5,000 chapels with 12,500 officiating priests. There are 81 Catholic seminaries, 163 colleges for boys, 629 colleges for girls, 3,400 parochial schools, 250 orphanages, and nearly 1,000 other various institutions. Finally, the United States alone sends more Peter’s pence to Rome than all the Catholic countries together.
Two incidents within a short interval may have opened the eyes of American citizens, here and there, to the Catholic question: the situation in the Philippines and the Pennsylvania strike.
We have already noted that while the Protestant clergy were divided in their partizanship between the strikers and the operators, the Catholic clergy went solidly for the strikers. Its attitude and policy was directly contrary to that which it holds in Europe, except that it was the essential Catholic policy of playing for favor. In the United States the Catholic population is in the lowest stratum of society, comprising Irish, Polish, and Italian immigration of the pauper class, besides a large influx of Canadians, who are as abjectly submissive to their priests as their forefathers of the seventeenth century. Under these conditions the politics of the Catholic Church is and will continue to be that of demagogues. In the case of the recent strike it is to be remarked that John Mitchell, “the Bonaparte of the miners,” is a Catholic, the son of an Irish Catholic, and his oldest son is being educated for the Catholic priesthood; that the Federation of Catholic Societies of the United States petitioned President Roosevelt to end the strike; and that on the request from the operators that a clergyman be included in the arbitration committee, the president chose a Catholic bishop.
The question of the status of the friars in the Philippines gave a striking illustration of the changed position of the United States. In 1776 the government in its infancy forbade the pope the nomination of a single prelate, and refused to make any kind of recognition of the Holy See. To-day the outcome of the Philippine issue is that the pope has the official nomination of one hundred prelacies within American territory, with the added triumph of having received American ambassadors at the Vatican. The mission of Governor Taft, it is true, was represented by the government at Washington as without any official character, but this flimsy hooding of the facts can not bear examination. As The Independent observed, Judge Taft was equipped with credentials and empowered to negotiate with the Vatican as formally and completely as any other ambassador. The conduct of American leaders in America at the beginning of the agitation against the friars was significant.
Archbishop Ireland counseled prudence and forbearance as the course for the church, lest public apprehensions should be roused by a revelation of the power of the Catholic community now solid and formidable in the heart of the American nation. His counsels, however, were not adopted by the Federation of Catholic Societies then in convention at Chicago. Bishop McFaul, of Trenton, led in a bold arraignment of the American administration in the Philippines, declaring that it had been animated by Protestant fanaticism, and calling on the president to do his duty under the Constitution and secure personal rights and property—to the friars—in the Philippines. This means that Catholicism in the United States feels itself sufficiently powerful to lay aside diplomacy.
The power and success of the Catholic Church are apparent to discerning eyes in every part of America. The public press, for example, carefully tempers its news and its views in deference to its Catholic patronage. In most of the larger towns the Catholic youth are not only united in special societies and clubs, but even in military organizations. The church even derives profit from the American weakness for marrying foreign titles by introducing young Catholic aristocrats into the society of millionaires, and she is often rewarded not only by gaining control of great dowries, but even by gaining fair converts, who embrace the ancient faith for the pleasure of being married by a bishop or cardinal amidst the theatrical and medieval pomp of Rome. The Catholics, it is true, are a minority; but they are a minority that is homogeneous, organized, and disciplined. They form a solid block in the midst of a heap of crumbling Protestant fragments. They are, it is true, the lowest element of the nation; but under universal suffrage the vote of a brute is worth that of a Newton. When there shall be an army of fifteen or twenty millions of Catholics, firmly united by a tyrannical faith, trained under the régime of the confessional, blindly committed to the will of their priests, and directed by the brains of a few high Jesuits, we shall see how much of a showing there will be for American liberty.
Continue reading: Education in Lawlessness