The American Sentinel 9
September 13, 1894
“Editorial” American Sentinel 9, 36, pp. 281, 282.
SATOLLI, “apostolic delegate” to the United States in an address delivered before the Catholic Congress in Chicago, Sept. 5, 1893, made use of the following words, with the immediate results indicated in brackets:— AMS September 13, 1894, page 281.1
Here, in America, you have a country blessed of Providence in the fertility of field and I the liberality of its Constitution [loud applause]. Here you have a country which will repay all efforts [loud and prolonged applause], not merely tenfold, but, aye, a hundredfold. And this no one understands better than the immortal Leo. And he has charged me, his delegate, to speak out to America words of hope and blessing, words of joy. Go forward! in one hand bearing the book of Christian truth—the Bible—and in the other the Constitution of the United States. [Tremendous applause, the people rising to their feet.] AMS September 13, 1894, page 281.2
When we heard these words we remained seated. There were “Protestants” who joined in the “tremendous applause,” but we didn’t and wondered why they did. AMS September 13, 1894, page 281.3
BUT does not this utterance indicate a change in papal attitude toward the Bible and liberty of conscience?—No: “Rome never changes.” When she recommends the Bible it is with a Jesuitical mental reservation. To explain: In the first place Rome did not refer to the Protestant, or King James’ Version. This is evident from the following quotation from Mgr. Segur’s “Plain Talk about Protestantism of To-day,” a Roman Catholic book indorsed by Joannes Josephus, Episcopus Boston, and for sale at all Catholic book stores. The author says on page 118: “The Protestant Bible is only a false skin, in which infidelity and resolution wrap themselves.” Now did Satolli mean the Catholic Bible as it reads. He meant the Catholic Bible as interpreted by the Roman Catholic Church. In proof we submit the following from the creed of “Pope Pius IV.,” which every Catholic is taught to recite and to which every prelate is required to subscribe:— AMS September 13, 1894, page 281.4
I do also admit the Holy Scriptures, according to that sense which our holy mother, the church, has held and does hold, to which it belongs to judge of the true sense and interpretation of the Scriptures; neither will I ever take and interpret them otherwise than according to the unanimous consent of the fathers. AMS September 13, 1894, page 281.5
Unanimous consent of the fathers! In order then to interpret the Scriptures the Roman Catholic must possess all the books written by all the “fathers” during a decade of centuries and must “go forward” carrying all this “in one hand.” It can’t be done. The poor fellow would have to charter a freight train. Nevertheless it must be done for Pope Leo XIII., speaking on the same subject and quoting the above rule, says:— AMS September 13, 1894, page 281.6
The professors of Holy Scripture, therefore, amongst other recommendations, must be well acquainted with the whole circle of theology and deeply read in commentaries of the holy fathers and doctors and other interpreters of mark. AMS September 13, 1894, page 281.7
Has the “church” and “the fathers” yet interpreted all the Bible so that if one should possess all the writing of all the “fathers” and “doctors” of the church he would then have all the Bible interpreted?—No: and Leo XIII. says no. He says there are “passages of Holy Scripture which have not as yet received a certain and definite interpretation.” Has the “church” ever published a list of the passages interpreted by “our holy mother, the church, whose place it is to judge of the true sense and interpretation of the Scripture,” together with those which have not been thus interpreted so that the Roman Catholic could go forth “bearing” this official “Bible” “in one hand”?—No: she has not. And now we challenge any man, whether Protestant or Catholic, Jew or Gentile, black or white, bond or free, to arise, and, resisting for the moment the impulse to applaud, tell us what, if not the soul-destroying dogmas of the papacy, Satolli meant the Catholic should go forward carrying in that “one hand.” AMS September 13, 1894, page 281.8
AND now let us examine “the Constitution of the United States” which Satolli tells Roman Catholics to go forward bearing in that “other” hand. But rest assured it is no more the Constitution of the United States as written by its framers and interpreted by the spirit of their times than is Satolli’s “Bible,” the Bible written by the prophets and apostles and interpreted by the Spirit of God. That the Roman Catholics have long ago repudiated the true interpretation of the Constitution is evident from the following utterance of the Catholic World, for September, 1871, Vol. 13, page 736:— AMS September 13, 1894, page 281.9
But as it [the Constitution] ... is interpreted by the Protestant principles, so widely diffused among us ... we do not accept it or hold it to be any government at all, or as capable of performing any of the proper functions of government; and if it continues to be interpreted by the revolutionary principle of Protestantism, it is sure to fail.... Protestantism, like the heathen barbarism which Catholicity subdued, lacks the element of order, because it rejects authority [the authority of the pope] and is necessarily incompetent to maintain real liberty or civilized society [like that of Spain and Mexico]. Hence it is we so often say that if the American Republic is to be sustained and preserved at all it must be by the rejection of the principles of the Reformation and the acceptance of the Catholic principle by the American people. AMS September 13, 1894, page 281.10
TO show that the interpretation of the Constitutions here so vigorously condemned is the true interpretation, and that the “principles of the Reformations” are the principles of the Constitution, further quotations are cited:— AMS September 13, 1894, page 281.11
No one thought of vindicating religion for the conscience of the individual, till a voice in Judea, breaking day for the greatest epoch in the life of humanity, by establishing a pure, spiritual, and universal religion for all mankind, enjoined to render to Cesar only that which is Cesar’s. The rule was upheld during the infancy of the gospel for all men. No sooner was this religion adopted by the chief of the Roman empire, than it was shorn of its character of universality, and enthralled by an unholy connection with the unholy State; and so it continued till the new nation,—the least defiled with the barren scoffings of the eighteenth century, the most general believer in Christianity of any people of that age, the chief heir of the Reformation in its purest forms,—when it came to establish a government for the United States, refused to treat faith as a matter to be regulated by a corporate body, or having a headship in a monarch or a State. AMS September 13, 1894, page 281.12
Vindicating the right of individuality even in religion, and in religion above all, the new nation dared to set the example of accepting in its relations to God the principle first divinely ordained of God in Judea. It left the management of temporal things to the temporal power; but the American Constitution, in harmony with the people of the several States, withheld from the Federal Government the power to invade the home of reason, the citadel of conscience, the sanctuary of the soul; and not from indifference, but that the infinite Spirit of eternal truth might move in its freedom and purity and power.—Bancroft’s, History of the Formation of the Constitution, book 5, chap. 1, pars. 10, 11. AMS September 13, 1894, page 281.13
The Constitution of the United States is therefore the “chief heir of the Reformation in its purest form,” and the “principles of the Reformation” so savagely assailed are the principles of the Constitution. AMS September 13, 1894, page 281.14
The framers of the Constitution understood that separation of Church and State and liberty of conscience was the result of the Reformation. Madison and Jefferson, the champions of a separation of Church and State in the constitutional convention which framed the constitution, said, in a petition signed and presented by them to the Virginia Assembly in a struggle which resulted in disestablishing the church in that colony, and from which struggle they came to the national convention:— AMS September 13, 1894, page 282.1
We would also humbly represent, that the only proper objects of civil government are the happiness and protection of men in the present state of existence, the security of the life, liberty, and property of the citizens, and to restrain the vicious and encourage the virtuous by wholesome laws, equally extending to every individual; but that the duty which we owe to our Creator, and the manner of discharging it, can only be directed by reason and conviction, and is nowhere cognizable but at the tribunal of the universal Judge. AMS September 13, 1894, page 282.2
To illustrate and confirm these assertions, we beg leave to observe that to judge for ourselves, and to engage in the exercise of religion agreeably to the dictates of our own consciences, is an unalienable right, which, upon the principles on which the gospel was first propagated and the Reformation from popery carried on, can never be transferred to another. AMS September 13, 1894, page 282.3
When, therefore, the Roman Catholic condemns that interpretation of the Constitution which recognizes the “principles of the Reformation,” he condemns the Constitution as interpreted by its framers. Rome’s interpretation of the Constitution of the United States is in harmony with the papal principle which curses the separation of Church and State; 1 curses the denial of the church’s right to use force; 2 curses the claim that priests may be punished by civil courts for their crimes; 3 curses the doctrine that “it is no longer expedient that the Catholic religion should be held as the only religion of the State to the exclusion of all other modes of worship;” 4 curses the claim “that persons coming to reside therein [in a Catholic country] shall enjoy the public exercise of their own worship;” 5 curses the rights of conscience as a most “fatal pestilence,” etc., etc., and yet tells its votaries to “go forward! in one hand bearing the book of Christian truth—the Bible—and in the other the Constitution of the United States.” And when she says it there is a “tremendous applause, the people rising to their feet.” Protestants, Americans, keep your seats! AMS September 13, 1894, page 282.4
“Significant” American Sentinel 9, 36, p. 282.
THE following statement of facts raise the query, Who are the antichrists?— AMS September 13, 1894, page 282.1
The lynching troubles in Colorado seem to be the work of an oath-bound league, in which officers of the State and Federal Government are implicated, as well as men who have hitherto been reckoned good citizens. This is part of the oath found on the person of a prominent resident of the State: “In the presence of Almighty God and these witnesses, whom I have this day chosen as my associates and companions, I,——, do most solemnly and sincerely promise and swear that I will do my duty at any and all times, as may be planned and agreed upon by these, my sworn companions, in exercising just and needed punishment on anarchists and such other criminals and murderers and strikers in Cripple Creek, and their fellow-sympathizers, either in high or low positions, the executive of the State not excepted, as we shall deem guilty of crime against law-abiding citizens of the United States, where human lives have been wantonly sacrificed, real and personal property destroyed or stolen, and many happy homes broken up.” The order constituted itself judge, jury, and executioner, proceeding against such “as we shall deem guilty of crime,” and there was no appeal from their decisions. AMS September 13, 1894, page 282.2
These men override all law in the interests of law! They commit high crimes in the name of law and order! They bind themselves by an oath to do unlawful acts and at the same time dub themselves, “The best people of the State, the law-abiding element” etc. But for this course they have eminent example. Anarchy is in the very air and the only escape from it is in strict and conscientious adherence to the rule: “Render to Cesar the things that are Cesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” AMS September 13, 1894, page 282.3
“Saint Worship” American Sentinel 9, 36, pp. 282, 283.
THE doctrine of saint worship, as taught and practiced by the Roman Catholic Church, puts poor humanity in the place of Christ and robs the sinner of a Saviour, and the Saviour of the office of the “one mediator between God and men.” To show this a number of quotations are published below. The reader will be tempted to regard the quotations as manufactured for the purpose of burlesquing the Roman Catholic doctrine, but they are all taken from a work entitled “Manual of Devotion to Good St. Anne,” a work containing the indorsement of “E. A. Card. Taschereau, Archbishop of Quebec,” and printed by the “General Printing Office, A. Coté & Co., Quebec.” The writer’s attention was first called to the work by seeing it in the hands of pilgrims at the shrine of “St. Anne” at Beaupré, Que., and afterwards he purchased it of the official booksellers near the church of St. Anne. No words of comment can be so strong and fitting as the words of God, hence each quotation is followed by an appropriate text of scripture. AMS September 13, 1894, page 282.1
“O GLORIOUS parents [St. Joachim and St. Anne] of the Queen of Mercy, she will never refuse to pray for those recommended to her by you! Vouchsafe then to recommend me to her and beg of her to inscribe me among her servants and clients: thereby shall I be inscribed in the book of life. If you will do this, Mary will grant me her favor and I shall be saved.” Pp. 167, 168. AMS September 13, 1894, page 282.2
“Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the fruit of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold I have graven thee upon the palms of My hands.” Isaiah 49:15, 16. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that beleiveth on me hath everlasting life.” John 6:47. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” Acts 16:31. AMS September 13, 1894, page 282.3
“MY powerful protectors, Joachim and Anne, this is my most ardent wish and ye can obtain it for me. Say one word in my favor to your beloved Daughter; tell Mary I would rather be the least of her servants than command the whole world; beg of her not to reject me because of my unworthiness. Thus ye will have saved a soul, and what could be more worthy of the father and mother of her through whom salvation has come to us.” Pp. 175, 176. AMS September 13, 1894, page 282.4
Thus saith the Lord: “Cursed be the mean that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arm.” Jeremiah 17:5. “Being made perfect, He became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him.” Hebrews 5:9. “But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved); and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should boast.” Ephesians 2:4-9. AMS September 13, 1894, page 282.5
“AND since thy blessed Daughter Mary has been entrusted by our Lord with the glorious task of distributing to souls that precious liquor of divine love, do thou beg of her to pour a large measure of it into my heart.” Pp. 134, 135. “St. Anne, obtain for me the love of Jesus crucified.” P. 252. AMS September 13, 1894, page 282.6
“The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.” Romans 5:5. “Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us.” 1 John 3:1. “But after the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward men appeared, ... which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Titus 3:4, 6. AMS September 13, 1894, page 282.7
“PLEAD for me with the Advocate of sinners [Mary] that she may obtain for me the grace of repentance and the pardon of all my iniquities.” Pp. 84, 85. AMS September 13, 1894, page 282.8
“And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and he is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” 1 John 2:1, 2. AMS September 13, 1894, page 282.9
“GOOD St. Anne, come to my aid; obtain for me from Jesus, through the merits of thine own sacrifice, that he may vouchsafe to change my disposition.” P. 216. AMS September 13, 1894, page 282.10
“But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God.” “For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.” Hebrews 10:12, 14. AMS September 13, 1894, page 282.11
“GLORIOUS and holy Queen [St. Anne], ... the just, the penitent and sinners claim thee as their powerful advocate with God, for by thy intercession the just hope for an increase of grace, the penitent for justification and sinners for forgiveness of their sins. Be thou then compassionate and merciful, and whilst here below, we are invoking thee; do thou be pleading for us in heaven. Do thou exert the great influence in our favor and let not those who put their trust in thee be lost. Show thyself to be always the refuge of sinners, the resort of the guilty, the consolation of the afflicted, and the assured help of thy faithful clients.” Pp. 182, 183. AMS September 13, 1894, page 282.12
“And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and he is the propitiation for our sins.” 1 John 2:1, 12. “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” John 14:6. “Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing that he ever liveth to make intercession for them.” Hebrews 7:25. “Who was delivered for our offenses, and raised again for our justification. Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” Romans 4:25; 5:1, 2. “In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.” Colossians 1:16. “To the Lord our God belongeth mercies and forgivenesses.” Daniel 9:9. “Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish. Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God.” Psalm 146:3, 4. AMS September 13, 1894, page 282.13
“SWEET Jesus, I thank thee for all the graces which in thy infinite goodness thou hast lavished upon St. Anne; for having chosen her among all women to be thy grandparent on earth and exalted her in heaven with so great a power of working miracles. In the name of her great merit I humbly recommend myself to the infinite mercy of thy divine heart.” Pp. 365, 366. AMS September 13, 1894, page 283.1
“Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole.” “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.” Acts 4:10, 12. AMS September 13, 1894, page 283.2
“THE sacred Scriptures speak very little of many holy personages whose destiny was bound up with the work of our redemption. A single page would contain all that is directly related therein of the Blessed Virgin, and scarcely is St. Joseph mentioned at all, while the life, the virtues and even the name of St. Anne are left in complete oblivion. The ever blessed and beloved name of St. Anne has been transmitted to us only by tradition and by the gratitude of Christian nations.” P. 71. AMS September 13, 1894, page 283.3
“From a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” 2 Timothy 3:15, 16, 17. “Why do ye also transgress the commandments of God by your tradition?” “Thus have ye made the commandments of God of none effect by your tradition.” “But in vain do ye worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” Matthew 15:2, 6, 9. AMS September 13, 1894, page 283.4
“Back Page” American Sentinel 9, 36, p. 288.
THOSE who read carefully the article on the first page of this paper will wonder how anybody could have been deceived by the papal platitudes about going forward bearing in one hand the popish bible and in the other an emasculated and distorted constitution; the one falsely labeled “The Book of Christian Truth,” the other “The Constitution of the United States.” It is not so strange, however, that under the magnetism of a gifted orator, an audience largely in sympathy with the speaker should be moved by his eloquent words rather than by sound reason; but it is more than passing strange that such a paper as the Independent, of this city, should, months after the utterance of such a sentiment, quote it in cold type as though Mgr. Satolli had really meant the Bible as it is, and the Constitution of the United States as it reads. And yet this is done in an article in the Independent, of August 16. It is true that it is not an editorial utterance, but it appears in the paper without dissent, and is evidently approved. But let no true Protestant be deceived by such Jesuitical utterances. Rome curses alike the Protestants’ Book of sacred truth and the patriot’s copy of the Constitution of the United States. Read the article referred to in this paper, and then when Rome asks for applause, Keep your seat. AMS September 13, 1894, page 288.1
WE have said before that these Saturday-Sabbath people are the worst enemies of the Lord’s day we have to contend with in our effort to secure a quiet Sabbath; it looks from this that they are the worst enemies the State has to contend with in its battle with anarchy.—Christian Statesman, Sept. 1, 1894. AMS September 13, 1894, page 288.2
This is just what “these Saturday-Sabbath people” have expected for forty years. We have all that time known from the Scriptures of Truth that those who were loyal to God’s Government would be denounced as enemies of civil government. The following quotation from “Great Controversy,” page 409, proves that we have been looking for just this thing:— AMS September 13, 1894, page 288.3
Those who honor the Bible Sabbath will be denounced as enemies of law and order, as breaking down the moral restraints of society, causing anarchy and corruption, and calling down the judgments of God upon the earth. Their conscientious scruples will be pronounced obstinacy, stubbornness, and contempt of authority. They will be accused of disaffection toward the Government. Ministers who deny the obligation of the divine law will present from the pulpit the duty of yielding obedience to the civil authorities as ordained of God. In legislative hall and courts of justice, commandment-keepers will be censured and misrepresented. A false coloring will be given to their words; the worst possible construction will be put upon their motives. AMS September 13, 1894, page 288.4
But Adventists are not the enemies of civil order; and to all such accusations, whether from pulpit or press, they reply in the words of Elijah to the wicked Ahab: We “have not troubled Israel; but thou and thy father’s house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and hast followed” the man of sin by observing his false Sabbath. AMS September 13, 1894, page 288.5