I find that some are beginning to get a little perplexed by not doing what we agreed to the first night, or else they did not get here in time to agree to that. The first night, you know, we agreed to stand by that text of Scripture, and say it is so, that "If any man thinketh he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing, yet as he ought to know." Some who have perhaps come in since these lessons began, and others who have not remembered fully to stick to the text, have begun to say like this: "Well now, all these things are plain that you have set forth, but I do not see how they are going to fit" such and such things that we have held before.
Don't be a bit afraid. If these things are plain ─ and they say they are ─ then look at them. If they are new
─ don't try to put new wine into old bottles. To all such who may think these things are new, I say, Do not try to put new wine into old bottles. You cannot do that. Do not get concerned about what you thought before. I am not talking at random on these things at all. I know what I am saying and I know some other things that are coming besides. If you have been thinking right before, this will fit; and if you have not been thinking right, it ought not to fit. Let us study these things together. Have I brought any matters before you that are not actual facts? [Audience: "No"].
All we are studying this week is that one text we started with. Many other things are going to come that we have not yet taken a text for, but we are studying this week this text: "The people who will now see what is soon to come upon us by what is being transacted before us, will no longer trust in human inventions and will feel that the Holy Spirit must be recognized, received, presented before the people."
Now so far we have got along pretty well in seeing what is being transacted before us and some of the things that are soon to come upon us. Let us take what we have and make the most of it, and the rest will take care of itself when it comes.
Now tonight I am going to take up another study right in the same line ─ of what is being transacted before us. I will simply call attention to facts
─ things that you can see and things that everybody in the world can see who reads the common daily events as they appear in the daily papers of the world. You can see them, and everybody else can see them. Have we brought up anything in these lessons yet as to what is being transacted before us, that everybody cannot see? [Audience: "No."] As to what is coming upon us, we can tell them. They may not believe what is soon to come, of course, but they cannot help seeing what is before them.
Four years ago last fall I was appointed to write a reading for the week of prayer on "Our present Standing and Work." In that I mentioned some of the thoughts that I referred to the other night, but I call attention to this one particular thought now for our study tonight. Here it is:
Under our Constitution as it is, the total separation of Church and State and the perfect religious liberty thereby assured, have been a beacon-light of progress to all other nations for a hundred years. The American principle of the liberties and rights of men had an irresistible influence upon other nations in all parts of the earth. This is the genuine principle of Protestantism, which is, in short, the principle announced by Christ, that men should render to Caesar only that which is Caesar's and unto God that which is God's.
Against this principle the papacy has constantly maintained that no State could exist without alliance with the church; in fact, that States exist only for the support and for the sake of the church. It is true that the American principle has not been adopted in its clearness by any other nation, but yet its influence has been untold in turning the minds of men from the influence of the papal theory. But just now, when the other nations in their perplexity are courting the support of Rome, the papacy takes advantage of this to reassert the papal theory and to claim that these things are an acknowledgement on the part of rulers and governors that her theory is correct.
Now in view of all this, and just at this time, in fact this very year, 1888 [Here I mentioned the proposed Constitutional Amendment and the National Sunday Bill, which were then before the country, as proposed by Senator Blair, in which Christianity as the religion of the nation and Sunday as the sabbath were to be recognized and then continued as follows:] When this is done, its influence in favor of the papacy will be inestimable. Then it will be said that this nation, which has made such great pretensions to religious liberty and which has been set forth as the model for earthly governments, has been compelled to reverse that which was supposed to be the enlightened order and to adopt the principles which the church has all the time maintained.
Then as this nation has been the model of liberty, enlightenment, and progress to all others, so when its principles shall have been reversed, when the liberties and rights of men are denied, when the nation is carried back to the principles of the papacy in the Dark Ages and persecution for conscience's sake is carried on, the reaction upon other nations will be such as will infinitely confirm and magnify the claims and power of the papacy.
And so will be fulfilled the scripture: 'All that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life.' In this way power will again be given to the papacy to make war with the saints of God, even as the scripture shows: 'The same horn made war with the saints and prevailed against them, until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the Most High, and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom.' Dan. 7:21, 22.
I had not then found this passage, which I shall now read from Schaff's "Church and State." Dr. Philip Schaff, having been in Europe, being a born European himself, and not coming to this country until he was a man full grown, being a graduate of European universities and understanding European affairs better than any other person in the United States and then coming over here and understanding the affairs of the United States to a considerable extent, writes thus in his "Church and State in the United States," page 83:
"In conclusion we must briefly survey the influence of the American system upon foreign countries and churches.
"Within the present generation the principle of religious liberty and equality, with a corresponding relaxation of the bond of union of Church and State, has made steady and irresistible progress among the leading nations of Europe, and has been embodied more or less clearly in written constitutions. . . .
"The successful working of the principle of religious freedom in the United States has stimulated this progress without any official interference. All advocates of the voluntary principle [in the support of churches and religion] and of a separation of church and state in Europe point to the example of this country as their strongest practical argument."
Elder Lewis Johnson: We know that is so in Scandinavia.
Yes, it is known in all Europe. But what we want to know is, that it is so in this country, that that is the influence our country has borne hitherto, and this, in order to see what its influence will be now that it has turned about and is going the other way.
Here is Dr. Schaff's statement as to the principles of the papacy in connection with the German Empire, in 1871:
The Westphalia Treaty of 1648 confirmed the equal rights of the two contending churches. But the pope never consented to even this limited toleration and will always protest against it. The papal syllabus of 1864 condemns religious toleration among the eighty heresies of the age. The Roman Church acknowledges no other church, and cannot do it consistently. She knows no geographical and national boundaries and rallies around the common center of the Vatican 'vice-gerent of God on earth.' She must submit, of course, to hard necessity, but does it under protest. Pp. 91, 92.
So you see, according to that, the principles of the papacy are directly opposed to the principles of the United States Constitution.
I will read a few passages further concerning the papal principles. I read from
a book by Gladstone and Schaff, entitled, "Rome and the Newest Fashions in
Religion," page 113. It is declared to be an error and condemned as such by the
Pope to say that ─
Every man is free to embrace and profess the religion he shall believe true, guided by the light of reason.
That is an error condemned by the church of Rome, but that is the doctrine of the government of the United States; that is the doctrine of the Constitution of the United States.
Another error condemned by Rome is to say that ─
The church has not the power of availing herself of force or any direct or indirect temporal power. P. 115.
That is an error condemned by the Catholic church. But that is the doctrine of the Constitution of the United States. It is a fundamental principle of the Government of the United States, that the churches shall have nothing to do with the affairs of the government.
Another error condemned by the papacy is to say that "The Church ought to be separated from the State and the State from the Church." p. 123.
All these are condemned as errors by the Catholic church. But all these express the very doctrine of the Constitution of the United States, as its makers established it and intended it to be. And nothing could show more plainly how directly antagonistic are the principles of the papacy and the principles of the Constitution of the United States government.
There is another word I will read. It is the statement of Leo XIII in 1891 as to what the authority of the church is, what her right is. Page 868 of "The Two Republics." He is writing to all the world about the condition of labor and the difficulties between labor and capital, governments and workingmen, etc., and says:
It is the church that proclaims from the gospel those teachings by which the conflict can be put an end to, or at least made far less bitter; the church uses its efforts not only to enlighten the mind, but to direct by its precepts the life and conduct of men . . . and acts on the decided view that for these purposes recourse should be had, in due measure, and degree, to the help of the law and of State authority."
That is the very latest doctrine of the papal church, officially set forth and as in every other, in direct antagonism to the doctrine of the Constitution of the United States as it reads, and as it was intended to be, not as it has been made to mean by the Supreme Court of the United States, Feb. 29, 1892.
That is how it is that the influence which this government has had upon the other nations has been to carry them away from the doctrine of the papacy. And, as Dr. Schaff says, this influence has been "steady and irresistible." Well now in the Supreme Court decision, Feb. 29, 1892, and in the legislation of Congress recognizing and establishing Sunday as the Christian sabbath, the government of the United States has reversed that order. The Constitution has been disregarded and overridden entirely. The government of the United States stands tonight in the hands of a hierarchy here, which, in order to accomplish its purpose, joined hands with the papacy specifically.
Well now as to the influence that this will have upon the their nations, let me read from that testimony that is now in No. 1 of the Bulletin, top of page 16. It touches this question that is before us tonight and the Lord tells what is the consequence of this reversal of the original order of things in this government:
As America, the land of religious liberty, shall unite with the papacy in forcing the consciences of men to honor the false sabbath, the people of every country on the globe will be led to follow her example."
How far then, brethren, is the influence of this nation to go, now that it has turned about? To every nation on the globe. What did the turning about of this nation do? That made the image of the beast. Well then as in view of that fact, other lessons that we have had bring us face to face with the giving of that message in its express words and terms, how far is that message to go? To every nation and kindred and tongue and people. Then as this nation, having turned about, will lead every nation on the globe in the wrong way, back to the principles of the papacy in fact, so it is time for the third angel's message to reach every nation on the globe.
That is the message now. Well then are you ready to go? That being the message that is to go, does it not become every professor of that message to hold himself in readiness to go to the ends of the earth, when God calls him to go? The influence of this is to lead every nation on the globe back to the papacy. The work of the third angel's message is to warn all nations of the earth against the worship of the papacy, and this image of it which brings us back to the papacy. Just as certainly as that influence reaches every nation on the globe, so certainly this warning must go to every nation on the globe. Then every man is unfaithful to the trust which God has given us in the third angel's message, if he holds himself back from the call of God to go anywhere on the globe, isn't he? Then that brings us again face to face with such a consecration as there has never been among Seventh-day Adventists. It brings us face to face with such a consecration that home, family, property, everything is surrendered into the hands of God to let him call us and send us or such means as we have, where he pleases and do what he chooses with us. Are you ready? Isn't it time to get ready?
Elder C. L. Boyd: Yes, all are ready, Brother Jones.
Elder Jones: Good! But that is a thing we are to think of.
I was constrained to say today to one brother, while talking with him, that these things as they stand now, make a greater strain upon real, actual faith than we have ever had yet. For it is just to stand face to face with ourselves and tell ourselves and set it down as a convincing, actual fact that the seven last plagues are going to come pretty soon; that we are working in view of that fact; and that the coming of the Lord follows the seven last plagues, in view of which we are working, and the coming of the Lord is the end of the world. And for me to face myself and talk to myself like that
─ I tell you it draws on a man. I find that it draws on me. Well, all I can say, brethren, is, Let it draw. I can't dodge it; I wouldn't if I could. I would not go back on it if I could. But it draws on the very vitals of a man's faith; that is a fact. Well, brethren, let it draw, until it draws us completely out of self and into Jesus Christ wholly.
As America, the land of religious liberty, shall unite with the papacy in forcing the consciences of men to honor the false sabbath, the people of every country on the globe will be led to follow her example. Our people are not half awake to do all in their power with the facilities within their reach to extend the message of warning to the world. New churches must be built, new congregations organized. Let the light shine to all lands and all peoples.
I hope Brother Robinson will get all that he called for to build up the work in London, and I hope Sister White will get all she calls for to build that church in Australia and Brother Chadwick get all that he calls for and everybody else get all they call for. How long will our property be good for anything anyhow; when the seven last plagues are soon to fall? What will it be worth? What good is it going to do when the seven last plagues fall? What is the good of it?
But there is the point. When we come to say from real conviction and stand face to face with the fact as a fact, that the seven last plagues are indeed soon coming and that the Lord is coming right at the end of that
─ it is going to draw on the very vitals of our faith. It is going to bring out what is in us. If a person has real confidence in the message this is going to reveal it.
And there will be plenty of means. I am not a bit uneasy about the means. If Seventh-day Adventists who have means do not consecrate themselves to the Lord and let Him have their means the Lord will get means somewhere else. He will call up other people. Brethren, it is the worst thing that can happen to a Seventh-day Adventist who has means, when God has to pass him by and find somebody else that will give what is wanted. A Seventh-day Adventist left to himself is the worst-off man in this world. We have come to a place where God wants us to use all we have. And when we believe this, our means and ourselves will be for His use. And His work will soon be done and then we shall not need any more means. That is the situation now.
This government as it was drew the nations in its train away from the papacy. This government as it is, draws all in its train back to the papacy. And the papacy knows it. And knowing it she is working for that very thing now and has her
─ I was going to say her fingers ─ but no, she has got her whole arms in it and is beginning to wield the government in her own interests. All that Protestantism is today in the United States and all that these churches are that have worked for the Sunday law, is merely a tool in the hands of the papacy.
How many of you have seen a Punch and Judy show? [Many of the audience held up their hands.] Those little figures that work back and forth there, bobbing up and down and to and from above the curtain are manipulated by someone behind the curtain. You don't see him. Those little puppets that bob up there are exactly what these Protestant churches are today in the hands of the papacy. She is beneath; she sits behind the curtain; she works the wires; she touches the triggers. These Protestants, in their blindness, think they are doing great things for themselves, but they are simply the puppets in the hands of the papacy, working as she desires, upon this government and through this government for all the world.
And it is time to tell them so. But when the message goes that tells them so, it tells them that "Babylon is fallen," and that they must come out of her, if they would escape the plagues. and when they are called out of her, where can they go? All the world is under the control of the papacy
─ except the third angel's message, thank the Lord! All the world is under the control of the papacy and its principles. But when they are called out of it, where alone can they go? To the third angel's message as God gave it.
Brethren, we are in the grandest time this world ever saw. Oh, that we may consecrate ourselves to God as becomes us who are living in this grandest of times!
I shall read you at another time a statement from Vol 4, how that great numbers of ministers will turn to the truth of the third angel's message under the "loud cry." Many of the ministers who now think that this Sunday law work and all this is all right- -they do not see what is under it
─ when the papacy begins to move a little more openly they will back out of the whole thing; they will cut loose from that thing. But where can they go? To the third angel's message. Thank the Lord! I tell you, brethren, the power of God is going to do something right away. Oh, that we may surrender all things to Him that He may!
Let me read here the aims of the papacy, as set forth in her own words. This is from the New York Sun of July 11th, 1892; and if there is an official Catholic paper in the United States, it is the New York Sun; don't forget that; not that the Sun is run professedly as a Catholic paper, but it is that. And The Sun has a correspondent in Rome, in the Vatican
─ a priest ─ I don't know what his name is. He doesn't sign his name but writes under a nom de plume. And you can bear in mind that dispatches to The Sun from Rome are always straight. So I say that The Sun is virtually more representative of the Papacy, of the Catholic church in this country, than the most of Catholic organs even, unless perhaps Cardinal Gibbons's organ. This was the letter written directly by The Sun correspondent from Rome last summer. So I read it here. It is entitled "The Papacy and Nationality, Pope Leo and the United States." After speaking of certain classes in the Catholic church, bishops, archbishops, etc., and as to their aims in the United States it says:
"But Leo XIII has a still higher aim. His appeal for national unification is founded upon a traditional conception of the Holy See.
"In his view the United States have reached the period when it becomes necessary to bring about the fusion of all the heterogeneous elements in one homogeneous and indissoluble nation. Statesmen are preoccupied, and very properly, with the multiplicity of centrifugal forces which threaten the republic with disintegration. Enemies make use of this latent danger to accuse the foreign Catholics of having a tendency to form a State within the State. It is for this reason that the pope wants the Catholics to prove themselves the most enlightened and most devoted workers for national unity and political assimilation. Certain incidents have given a bad color to the loyalty of some foreign groups. All doubt upon this subject ought to disappear. The church has always been the able collaborator of all people in the work of national unity. It was she that constituted, through the efforts of popes and bishops the great political bodies and the great national organizations. The most united races and the most solid populations, politically and nationally, are those who have most profoundly felt the salutary action of the papacy and the church. France is the typical example of this law of history. If Italy in the middle ages did not take advantage of this incomparable benefit, was it not because the jealous States interfered with the work of unification of the church and of the Roman pontiffs?
"America feels the urgent need of this work of internal fusion. Formed of a mosaic of races and nationalities, she wants to be a nation, a collective being, one strong and united. What the Church has done in the past for others, she will do for the United States. . . .
"That is the reason why the Holy See encourages the American clergy to guard jealously the solidarity and to labor for the fusion of all the foreign and heterogeneous elements in one vast national family. The American Church furnishes and must furnish at the present time the proof that Christianity is the school of patriotism and of national sentiment. By continuing to favor this work of unification it will form the grandeur of the United States and will demonstrate the degree to which religion and the Church are the generators of political and patriotic independence.
"As the approaching danger to the United States lies in fractionizing the republic into centrifugal and hostile parties, the Catholics will appear, through their cooperation in national concentration, the best sons of the land and the upholders of political unity. The pope will impose upon all the American motto, E pluribus unum, applied to the subject we are treating.
"Finally, Leo XIII desires to see strength in that unity. Like all intuitive souls, he hails in the united American States and in their young and flourishing church the source of a new life for Europeans. He wants America to be powerful, in order that Europe may regain strength from borrowing a rejuvenated type."
And I tell you another thing right here brethren, when things have come to that pass in the government of the United States that the papacy can afford to set forth her purposes and intentions as plainly as that
─ I tell you they are pretty far gone. The papacy doesn't speak openly until she knows she has the advantage. She always works underneath and secretly until the time comes to spring and she doesn't spring until she is ready. And when the affairs of the United States are so under the control of the papacy that she can talk like that, openly to the people of the United States, then things are in a shape satisfactory to the papacy.
"Europe is closely watching the United States. Certain things there may frighten some people, but the general attraction is invincible. Bryce, Claudio, Fanet, Carlies, and all the historians and publicists have the inclusiveness of the record. Henceforth we will need authors who will place themselves upon this ground: 'What can we borrow and what ought we to borrow from the United States for our social, political, and ecclesiastical reorganization?"
Until 1892 what could any European nation or any other nation borrow from this government for ecclesiastical reorganization? Nothing. What had this government to do with ecclesiastical affairs? The Constitution was absolutely pledged against the whole thing. But now since the Constitution has been overridden, the papacy can begin to ask: "What can we borrow from the United States for our ecclesiastical reorganization?" But the example has been set, and the thing has been done, which has put the United States into a place where the papacy can borrow from the United States example and influence for ecclesiastical reorganization in Europe and all other nations. And she is doing it. She is borrowing and using it for her purposes now.
"And from the pope's particular point of view, 'What are the examples that these American Catholics are giving us?' The problem is difficult; but in its wanderings and its immense variety it captivates all strong and far-reaching minds.
"The answer depends in a great measure upon the development of American destinies. If the United States succeed in solving the many problems that puzzle us, Europe will follow their example, and this outpouring of light will mark a date in the history not only of the United States, but of all humanity. Res vestra agitur is what we might then say to Americans. 'That is why the holy father, anxious for peace and strength, collaborates with passion in the work of consolidation and development in American affairs. According to him, the Church ought to be the chosen crucible for the moulding and the absorption of races into one united family. And that especially is the reason why he labors at the codification of ecclesiastical affairs, in order that this distant member of Christianity may infuse new blood into the old organism. . . ."
Brethren, can anybody in the world shut his eyes to this that is taking place before us? This that is even taking place before the whole world? Can anybody see what is taking place before him? Do we know what is soon to come upon us by that thing that is taking place before us?
But the papacy not only proclaims her purpose ─ she follows it swiftly with a bold stroke to carry it into effect. That special representative of the pope that "permanent Apostolic Delegation which was established in this country only the other day, what does that mean? Monsignor Satolli came to this country as the pope's personal representative to attend the opening exercises of the World's Fair
─ a good excuse. Professedly he came as any other would come on a special mission. But when he got over here, then he was to stay awhile; temporarily as delegate of the pope. But there was an off-sided party in the Catholic church who began to say "We don't want him." Then the pope simply established him forever. This is the account of it in the New York Sun:
Rome, Jan. 14 ─ The pope has decided to establish a permanent apostolic delegation in the United States, and has nominated Mgr. Satolli to be the first delegate. This decision the Vatican considers to be a sufficient reply to the opposition to Mgr. Satolli and his mission.
The Propaganda will send by the Rev. F. Z. Rooker the documents authenticating the new power conferred upon Mgr. Satolli as permanent delegate.
Pope Leo is said to be greatly interested in the situation in America, and desirous of putting an end to the ecclesiastical differences existing there. With this purpose the pope is preparing an encyclical to the American episcopate, advising harmony and union.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 14 ─ Mgr. Satolli, the papal ablegate, received at the Catholic University today the following cable message from Dr. O'Connell, the American Secretary of the Propaganda, who accompanied Mgr. Satolli to this country, and recently returned to Rome:
Rome, Jan. 14, 1893
Mgr. Satolli:
The apostolic delegation is permanently established in the United States and you are confirmed as the first delegate.
O'Connell
Information was also received here confirming the announcement that the Rev. F. Z. Rooker of Albany had been formally appointed Secretary of the apostolic delegation, and stating further that he had left Rome for New York and was no doubt the bearer of the Papal bull creating the delegation and confirming all the powers of Mgr. Satolli.
ST. PAUL, Jan. 14 ─ When asked about the institution of an apostolic delegation in the United States, this afternoon, Archbishop Ireland said: "Yes, a permanent apostolic delegation has been established in the United States, and Mgr. Satolli has been named the first apostolic delegate. The decree was issued in Rome last evening. I have had myself a direct cablegram from the Eternal City to this effect. I am heartily glad. The controversies agitating American Catholics for some time past are over and peace will reign.
"Mgr. Satolli came to this country as a Papal Ablegate ─ a term which indicates a temporary mission and somewhat limited powers. Objections were at once raised in certain quarters against him, his authority was questioned or denied, his recall demanded, his mission declared a failure. To all clamorings of this nature the pope gives answer swift and effective. He declares that we shall have a permanent apostolic delegate in the United States. So well satisfied is he with the work accomplished by the ablegate that, as a perfect recognition of Mgr. Satolli's rights, he names him the first apostolic delegate.
"Leo XIII. is a man of firm character: opposition strengthens his resolve. All that has occurred since Mgr. Satolli's arrival demonstrates the more plainly the need of a representative of the pope clothed with well-defined and extensive powers. For Catholics Rome is the supreme tribunal; but Rome is rather far away. A hand near by is needed that will at any moment reach out and bid the sea be placid. If some men had been seeking the most effectual way to make evident to all eyes the necessity of a delegate in America, they could not have adopted in proof of their thesis more effective arguments than the method they have in fact been pursuing. God be thanked for all that has been done.
"The Catholic Church in America is now thoroughly organized and has put on the mantle of perfect stature. She has on her own territory a supreme court
─ a branch of the Appellate Court of Rome, deriving from this latter its life, but capable in itself of immediate action. This is home rule for American Catholics, so far as Catholics away from Rome can have home rule. In addition to our own energy and inspiration, we shall have in all our undertakings the direction and impetus, as directly as never before, of the sovereign head of the Church. Catholics will have a more practical realization of what Church unity and papal supremacy means. Remote authority dwindles at times into a speculative theory, or a beau ideal; present authority is a living test. It tests one's obedience, while at the same time adding new power for well doing.
"So far as the country at large is concerned, the American people will welcome the recognition that a religious element of the and so important as the Catholic has this new glory added to its record, this new strength infused into its life.
"Moreover, a closer acquaintance with the workings of the papacy will be interesting and salutary; it will dissipate many an old-time prejudice. The papacy will appear to all of us in its true light, harmonizing magnificently with the aspirations of modern democracy and accelerating the march of all that is useful, good, and elevating in modern progress. The clouds of old fogyism, said to hang around the throne of Peter, exist only in the befogged river of religious prejudice or the darkened recesses of narrow and blind-folded minds.
"They exist not in the Vatican. The most far-seeing, liberal mind in the world today is that of Leo, the most gentle and generous heart is his. Neither Catholics nor Protestants of America know him sufficiently. It is the duty of all to study him; it is the particular duty of Catholics to draw nearer to him and follow more loyally his spiritual guidance."
There are other things that have taken place in connection with the matter of public money to the churches. The Catholic church is getting nearly all of it now, because the Methodists, Baptists, and Episcopalians have refused to receive any more money from the government. And leading ministers of the Presbyterian church are trying to get that church to refuse to take any more money from the government. Soon therefore the Catholic Church will be getting money, almost wholly alone, from the public treasury
─ nearly $400,000 a year. Then will Protestants stand by and allow the Catholics to have that money without raising a wonderful opposition against it? But it will do no good for them to protest against it. If they protest against it as unconstitutional, the Catholic church can simply reply:
This is a Christian nation: The Supreme Court has decided that this is a Christian nation. And to prove it, the Court has cited the decree of Ferdinand and Isabella, who were Catholics only, and who sent out Columbus, who was a Catholic, to discover new worlds, that they might bring them to God and to the Christian religion. And the only religion that Ferdinand and Isabella or Columbus meant or had anything to do with was the Catholic religion. When the Supreme Court cites that decree to prove that this is a Christian nation, that proves that it is a Catholic Christian nation. That is the argument the Catholic church may make, and Protestants cannot successfully dispute it. Protestants cannot deny the constitutionality of the argument, because they have used the Supreme Court decision for their own interests, for their own purposes in Sunday legislation. They have endorsed the decision as all right, and when they have used the decision for their own purposes, they can not go back on it, when the papacy uses it for her purposes. They are caught as firmly as ever anything was ever caught in a trap, and the only way they can ever get out of the trap is by having the Lord Jesus Christ deliver them from the iniquity of it by the third angel's message. Is it not time they were having that message?
The Catholics conducted the last campaign upon that very issue. President Harrison tried during all his administration to stop that appropriation of money to the churches. The Catholic church opposed his efforts all through his administration. She tried to prevent his nomination at Minneapolis, but failed; then when Cleveland was nominated, she threw all her influence for Cleveland, and he was elected.
President Harrison tried to stop that appropriation but could not do it and was obliged to confess through Senator Dawes on the floor of Congress that he found it impossible to do it. Well, then, when it was impossible to break this off by an administration that was absolutely opposed to it, how can it possibly be broken off in an administration that was absolutely opposed to it, how can it possibly be broken off in an administration that began it, that is in favor of it, and that was supported by the Catholic church upon this sole issue?
Then in whose hands is the government of the United States tonight? In the hands of the Catholic church and she holds it there and she will hold it there in spite of all that the Protestants can do. But she never would have got it, if the Protestants had been Protestants indeed, and had not played into her hands. False Protestantism has betrayed the government of the United States, as established upon God's principles, into the hands of the papacy, and there it will stay in spite of them.
Here is a word that Brother Conradi gave today which is taken from a paper from Germany. It is the boast that the Catholic church is making respecting Germany now. Germany, you know, is the grand model Protestant nation of Europe. This is taken from a Catholic paper, so it is the voice of the Catholics on this question.
"The Catholic papers in Germany declare openly that soon the power will be in their hands and Germany return to the Catholic faith. As two and one half millions of dollars have been appropriated for a Protestant cathedral at Berlin, they said this was all right, as soon it would become Catholic anyway."
And these things are going on before the world, and the world sees them, and the world reads them. Brethren, has not God given us a word to say on this subject. Here is a word on that. Speaking of the papacy, in the chapter in Great Controversy, Vol. IV, on "The Character and Aims of the Papacy," page 579, it is said: "She can read what is to be." When she with the light only of the wisdom that Satan can give
─ the wisdom gathered from her wicked experience only, the wisdom gathered only from her own history
─ when she by this can see what is to be, does it not become a people to whom God speaks, to see also what is to be?
Here are the events and there is the word of God, that as this nation now has turned from the principles which God gave, the influence with which it irresistibly drew nations away from the papacy, will carry them all back to the papacy. Then that elevates the papacy to the highest place it has ever held on this earth. And in that place she fulfills, and in that place there is fulfilled the word which is spoken in Rev. 18:7: "She saith in her heart, I sit a queen and am no widow and shall see no sorrow."
The nations to whom she was wedded have in the past, one by one, from the time of Napoleon, one by one drifted off, drifted off, until not one remains and she sits desolate, a widow, not a single husband left to whom she had bound herself all these years. What them? Here stood the grandest nation, the youngest of all, standing before the world, standing in the vigor of the principles which God has established for nations, and was drawing all these nations in its train, leaving her more and more desolate. Then and therefore she turned her blandishments upon this nation to seduce it into her train, into fornication and adultery with her. And through a false and apostate Protestantism, she has succeeded. And now when she has gathered this nation to herself, in this she gathers all the others back to her, and then she is so glad of it all that she glorifies herself and lives deliciously, and joyfully congratulates herself, saying, "I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow."
What then? "Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her."
Then these events, these things which the papacy is doing tonight, bring us face to face with the judgments of God upon the nations of the earth. And we see what is coming upon us, by what is being transacted before us. Is it not time that we began to tell the people who know not these things that these things are so? Is it not time? Some were saying, Well it seems to me I never could preach a sermon or give a Bible reading again in the way I have, about the United States in prophecy. Thank the Lord! Thank the Lord that you cannot. Thank the Lord that you know where the United States is in prophecy indeed, and that you cannot use any old dried up stuff. We want the United States as it now stands in prophecy, and that is what is wanted. Can you not give it? [Audience: "Yes."] And can not people see that that is so? Whether they will believe what is coming, that is not the question. But they will have to go back on their own reason and their experience in daily life, to deny that it is a fact.
"Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her." But what is the fire that burns her? "And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming." "For our God is a consuming fire" to wickedness. Thank the Lord that He is. But brethren, He is a glorious salvation to those who are free from iniquity. Let Him cleanse us from iniquity now, that when His glory appears we will not be consumed but changed into His glorious likeness itself. That is what He wants. "And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning, standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come."
Whether that "hour" is prophetic time, fifteen days, or a short indefinite season, I do not know. But whether it be really prophetic time, or a short indefinite season is not material to this discussion tonight; for either way it shows that the time is exceedingly short from the time when she congratulates herself that all the nations have returned to her
─ the time is exceedingly short ─ till the judgments of God come upon her and upon all the nations. And when that comes then God's people are delivered.
Well, then, brethren, where are we? We are in the very presence of the impending judgments of God. Well, then, let us act as though it were so. Let us act as though we were there.