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Liberty of Conscience Threatened
317
Marvelous in shrewdness is the Roman Church, She can read
what is to be—that Protestant churches are paying her homage in
their acceptance of the false sabbath and that they are preparing to
enforce it by the means she herself employed in bygone days. How
readily she will come to the help of Protestants in this work is not
difficult to conjecture.
The Roman Catholic Church forms one vast organization under
the control of the papal see, its millions of communicants in every
country bound in allegiance to the pope, whatever their nationality
or their government. Though they may take the oath pledging loyalty
to the state, yet back of this lies the vow of obedience to Rome.
History testifies of her artful and persistent efforts to insinuate
herself into the affairs of nations, and having gained a foothold, to
further her own aims, even at the ruin of princes and people
It is the boast of Rome that she never changes. Protestants little
know what they are doing when they propose to accept the aid of
Rome in the work of Sunday exaltation. While they are bent upon
their purpose, Rome is aiming to re-establish her power, to recover
her lost supremacy. Let the principle once be established that the
church may control the power of the state; that religious observances
may be enforced by secular laws; in short, that the authority of
church and state is to dominate the conscience—and the triumph of
Rome is assured.
The Protestant world will learn what the purposes of Rome are,
only when it is too late to escape the snare. She is silently growing
into power. Her doctrines are exerting their influence in legislative
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halls, in the churches, and in the hearts of men. She is strengthening
her forces to further her own ends when the time shall come to strike.
All that she desires is vantage ground. Whoever shall believe and
obey the Word of God will incur reproach and persecution.
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6
See, for example, John Dowling, The History of Romanism, bk. 5, ch. 6, sec. 55;
and Mosheim, bk. 3, cent. 11, pt. 2, ch. 2, sec. 9, note 17.