Bible Readings for the Home Circle Part 73

4. Notwithstanding the lamblike appearance of this power, what is it ultimately to do?

"And he _spake as a dragon_." Rev. 13:11.

NOTE.-The voice of the dragon is the voice of intolerance and persecution. This indicates that the ecclesiastical development dealt with in this prophecy, obtaining a foothold for its initial power and influence in the government of the United States, will repudiate the mild and lamblike principles of civil and religious liberty, and become like the beast before it, a world-wide persecuting power. This is why in Rev. 19:20 it is called "the false prophet." Born of the Reformation, it will repudiate Reformation principles.

5. How much power will this beast exercise?

"And _he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him_, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to wors.h.i.+p the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed." Verse 12.

NOTE.-The "first beast before him" (papal Rome) exercised the power of persecuting and putting to death all who differed from it in religious matters. The only way the _earth_ can be made to wors.h.i.+p is by causing work to cease on it through voluntary or enforced rest, or sabbath-keeping. "For as long as she [the land]

lay desolate she _kept sabbath_." 2 Chron. 36:21. Enforced Sunday observance is evidently implied here.

6. What means will be employed to lead the people back into this false wors.h.i.+p?

"And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth _by the means of those miracles which he had power to do_ in the sight of the beast." Verse 14, first part.

7. What will this power propose that the people shall do?

"Saying to them that dwell on the earth, _that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword; and did live_." Verse 14, latter part.

NOTE.-The beast "which had the wound by a sword, and did live," is the Papacy. That was a church dominating the civil power. In other words, it was a union of church and state, and enforced its religious dogmas by the civil power, under pain of confiscation of goods, imprisonment, and death. An image to this beast would be another ecclesiastical organization clothed with civil power-another union of church and state-to enforce religious dogmas by law.

8. Is there any evidence that such an image will be made?

Large and influential organizations, such as the National Reform a.s.sociation, the International Reform Bureau, the Lord's Day Alliance of the United States, and the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America, have been formed, by professed Protestants, and for years have been persistently working to that end. Many Roman Catholic societies recently formed in the United States, such as the Knights of Columbus and the American Federation of Catholic Societies, are looking to a like end-that of making America Catholic.

9. What, according to its const.i.tution, is the avowed object of the National Reform a.s.sociation?

"To secure such an amendment to the Const.i.tution of the United States as shall ... indicate that this is a Christian nation, and place all the Christian laws, inst.i.tutions, and usages of the government on an undeniable legal basis in the fundamental law of the land."-_Article II of Const.i.tution._

NOTES.-Upon the question of making this a "Christian nation,"

Bishop Earl Cranston, D. D., of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in an address delivered in Foundry Methodist Episcopal Church, Was.h.i.+ngton, D. C., March 13, 1910, made the following observation:-

"Suppose this were to be declared a Christian nation by a Const.i.tutional interpretation to that effect. What would that mean? Which of the two contending definitions of Christianity would the word Christian indicate?-The Protestant idea, of course, for under our system majorities rule, and the majority of Americans are Protestants. Very well. But suppose that by the addition of certain contiguous territory with twelve or more millions of Roman Catholics, the annexation of a few more islands with half as many more, and the same rate of immigration as now, the majority some years hence should be Roman Catholics,-who doubts for a moment that the reigning Pope would a.s.sume control of legislation and government? He would say, with all confidence and consistency, 'This is a Christian nation. It was so claimed from the beginning and so declared many years ago. A majority defined then what Christianity was, the majority will define now what Christianity now is and is to be.' That 'majority' would be the Pope."-"_The Church and the Government_," page 7.

The National Reformers in their attempts to justify the legal establishment of Christianity as the national religion, have erroneously declared that the statement of Justice Brewer of the Supreme Court of the United States in 1892, "This is a Christian nation," is a decision of the court, whereas it was only a statement in the argument leading up to the decision of the court.

In a sermon at the centenary of the establishment of the Roman Catholic hierarchy in the United States, in 1889, Archbishop Ireland said: "Our work is to make America Catholic.... Our cry shall be, 'G.o.d wills it,' and our hearts shall leap with crusader enthusiasm."

The theory of the National Reformers is thus expressed: "Every government by equitable laws, is a government of G.o.d; a republic thus governed is of Him, and is as truly and really a _theocracy_ as the commonwealth of Israel."-"_Cincinnati National Reform Convention_," page 28.

10. How does this a.s.sociation regard the Catholic Church on this point?

"We cordially, gladly, recognize the fact that in South American republics, in France and other European countries the Roman Catholics are the recognized advocates of national Christianity, and stand opposed to all the proposals of secularism.... _Whenever they are willing to cooperate in resisting the progress of political atheism, we will gladly join hands with them_ in a world's conference for the promotion of national Christianity, which ought to be held at no distant day. Many countries could be represented only by Roman Catholics."-_Christian Statesman, Dec. 11, 1884, official organ of the National Reform a.s.sociation._

11. What has the Pope commanded all Catholics to do?

"First and foremost, it is the duty of all Catholics worthy of the name and wishful to be known as most loving children of the church ... to endeavor to bring back all civil society to the pattern and form of Christianity which we have described."-_Encyclical of Pope Leo XIII, __"__Immortale Dei__"__ Nov. 1, 1885, __"__The Great Encyclical Letters of Leo XIII,__"__ page 132._

NOTE.-The prophecy says that this power will make an image to the Papacy. In the days of Constantine and his successors, the church made use of the civil power to carry out her aims: through this means the Papacy was developed. In our own day the same theory is advocated, and prominent men in the nation, in both church and state, are doing all they can to bring about the same result, which, when their work is completed, cannot fail to fulfil the specifications of the prophecy. The climax will be an image of the Papacy.

12. What is the object of the International Reform Bureau?

"The Reform Bureau is the first 'Christian lobby' established at our national capital to speak to government in behalf of all denominations."-"_History of the International Reform Bureau_," by its founder and superintendent, Rev. W. F. Crafts, page 2.

NOTE.-The securing of compulsory Sunday legislation is one of the chief objects of this and other like organizations. See pages 61 and 65 of the above-named work.

13. What are the objects of the Lord's Day Alliance of the United States?

"(1) To preserve the Lord's day [Sunday] for America; (2) to secure an active Alliance in every State not yet organized; (3) to induce the general government as far as possible to set the example of Sabbath observance; (4) to press the rest-day feature of the fourth commandment, until every toiler in the land has guaranteed unto him fifty-two full rest days a year."-_From leaflet published by the Alliance._

NOTE.-By all of which is meant the securing, as far as possible, of compulsory State and national Sunday legislation,-the very means by which the church gained control of the state and by which church and state were united in the fourth and fifth centuries of the Christian era.

14. What is the purpose of the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America?

"That the great Christian bodies of our country should stand together" in dealing with "questions like those of marriage and divorce, Sabbath desecration, social evils." etc.-"_Report of Federal Council_" (1908), pages 5, 6.

15. How does it propose that the matter of "Sabbath desecration" shall be dealt with?

"That all encroachments upon the claims and the sanct.i.ties of the Lord's day should be _stoutly resisted_ through the press, the Lord's day a.s.sociations and alliances, _and by such legislation as may be secured to protect and preserve this bulwark of our American Christianity_."-_Id._, page 103.

NOTE.-Thus it will be seen that the securing of laws for the enforcement of Sunday observance is a prominent feature in all these organizations in their efforts to "Christianize" the nation.

In doing this many fail to see that they are repudiating the principles of Christianity, of Protestantism, and of the United States government, and playing directly into the hand of that power which originated the Sunday sabbath, and gained control of the civil power through Sunday legislation-the Papacy.

16. What action of the American Federation of Catholic Societies indicates that Catholics will gladly "join hands" with Protestants in enforcing Sunday observance by law?

"Our societies in the various parts of the United States have been urging the abolition of Sunday labor, and have indorsed and a.s.sisted the movement of closing the post-office on Sunday."-_Tenth Annual Convention of American Federation of Catholic Societies, Columbus, Ohio, Aug. 20-24, 1911._

NOTES.-With the active cooperation of the Lord's Day Alliance of the United States, a Protestant organization, a proviso was attached to the post-office appropriation bill, 1912, requiring that "hereafter post-offices of the first and second cla.s.ses shall not be opened on Sundays for the purpose of delivering mail to the general public."

The following resolution was adopted by the Boston Archdiocesan Federation of Catholic Societies:-