The Pan-American Mass" et seq.

Evidently goaded by the success of Roman Catholic craft, and anxious to put a check upon it, the Reformed Church Synod when in session at As-bury Park, N. J., last June, passed a resolution to the effect that the Protestant Churches of Washington join hands together to have a joint service on Thanksgiving Day, which the President and high functionaries of the U. S. Government be invited to attend in the same fashion as they have been invited and have attended the Roman Catholic "Pan-American Mass" in past years.

A double cause of pain at once presents itself here to every thoughtful Christian.

First:That the President of the United States, whom no one would suspect of having any conscientious convictions in favor of the idolatrous and superstitious rite of the Mass, should let political matters so influence him as to be found there. Some of us Christian men, seeing the high principles which governed him, when in the face of opposition and ridicule he refused to recognize in Mexico a government founded on treachery and assassination, prayed for him most earnestly, for we realized he had come to a peculiarly difficult task. But what a blow came upon our heartiness by his yielding to the ambitious and selfish ends of the Romish hierarchy in attending their Mass!

And what of the Secretary of State, who has in past years made such a beautiful confession of experimental Christianity ? What interest could he have in a performance which, in its institutions and corruptions of the truth, sets at naught the very foundations of that Christianity ?

This course has been objected toby very many in this nation on the ground of its being un-American -as opposed to American institutions. We go much further. It was un-Christian. If it was not conviction, but under political pressure, it was asking the King of kings to bend the knee to Politics, and take a second place.

This is a great sin for Christians. We speak humbly, conscious we are speaking of the highest dignitaries of the land, and that we owe them genuine reverence, but if Mr. Wilson and Mr. Bryan, and others implicated in this matter, are true Christians-men redeemed by the blood of Christ-they belong to the same brotherhood as we do:the brotherhood in Christ, of which it is said, "Love the brotherhood." In this divine circle, social distinctions have no place, and if one of us soils his feet by the way, the Master's voice to all the rest is,"Wash one another's feet " (Jno. 13:14). To do this then is not impertinence but true Christian love.

Second:On the other hand, it is also a reproach to Christianity to see the Christian men of the Re-' formed Church Synod advocating for themselves what they condemn in the Roman Catholic Church. We do not believe this is a principle they are adopting, but only a means to counteract an evil. But why emulate Rome ? She is a thing of earth; she glories in earthly things-in wealth, in show, in pomp, in everything which gratifies man's lusts, and contradicts the holy character of Christ. She calls herself the only true Church, out of which there is no salvation, because this gives her a power over superstitious consciences which she can use to her own advantage; but if the Bible is to determine the character of things-by which we may recognize them-no one who knows the Bible and the Roman Catholic Church could recognize in her the traits of the Church of Christ at all. What reader of the word of God ever heard of "princes" and "monsignori" in the Church, distinguished from their fellow members by red hats and purple, and silk, and scarlet garments ?

These are the things which mark her that is described as "Mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth"- "the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus " (Rev. 17:5, 6). What a contrast to the Church of the living God, where the lowly character of our Lord Jesus Christ shines out everywhere! All good things have a counterfeit in this world, and Rome is the counterfeit of the Church of God. To emulate her, or even to oppose her by ways like her own, is but to dishonor Christianity. The Churches of the Reformation never committed a greater mistake than when they imitated Rome, and sought and obtained State recognition. Luther, Calvin, Zwingle and others of their spiritual leaders, who zealously fought for and recovered the truth of salvation by grace through faith, never recovered the truth as to the Church of God. They did not see that Church is composed only of men who have been born of God and indwelt by the Holy Spirit who unites them to Christ in heaven; that it is therefore a heavenly, spiritual body, whose resources are altogether in God and not from earth or earthly things; whose hope is not in any earthly attainment, but in the coming again of the Lord Jesus to take her away from earth into heaven; they did not realize that the third person of the Godhead-the Holy Spirit-had been sent from heaven, not only to gather all the members of the Church from out of the world, but also to take charge of her in her journey through the world-a lovely type of which we have in the Pillar of cloud and of fire sent to take charge of Israel from Egypt to Canaan.

Not having recovered this most important truth, they had no divine constitution to guide them, and therefore could not proceed in God's way for the establishment and guidance of Christian assemblies. They still went on in that matter with the principles of Rome, more or less modified by the light which the reopened Bible could not fail to give them. As they became recognized by the State, and received its favors, they came to be under the same yoke. And what an unequal yoke for a people born of heaven, linked with heaven, and journeying on to heaven!

And how could the State, whose calling is earthly, understand the true calling of such a people ? By coming under such a yoke, the Church soon lost the sense of her calling. Samson-like she lost her eyesight and her strength, and like him too became the maker of sport for the world, as everybody can now see. The world's idea concerning the Church is that she should reform mankind, and produce a condition of things after the pattern of Eden, that the world might live here in peaceful pleasure. The blinded Church accepted this, and lost her true mission; so now she is made accountable for the mad wars which disappoint and devastate the world. Oh, that the Church, like the Lord, had always been willing to be a sufferer here while walking as He walked, apart from the world, bent only on doing His Father's will in His Father's appointed way. The world could not bear the presence of Christ among them. His character and ways and words condemn them, so they killed Him and thought they were thus rid of Him. But God raised Him from the dead, took Him into heaven, and sent down the Holy Spirit to dwell in the Church, thus by her testimony to bring back, as it were, the presence of Christ in the world again.

Association with the world could not fail to annul the testimony of the Church, and lead her to take up with what the world would allow. Hence her downfall. She boasts of being "rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing, "while heaven's judgment is, Thou " knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked" (Rev. 3 :17). Heaven's thoughts do not agree with earth's.

When Israel, separated from Egypt by the blood of the lamb on their doors, were thus marked out as God's own people, they did not stop to be recognized by Pharaoh and get political preferment. God put the Red Sea between them and him at once, and they started across the wilderness under God's care alone, being strangers and pilgrims till they reached Canaan. Their food came from heaven and their water from the smitten rock. Church a stranger and a pilgrim here till she reaches heaven. She is separated from this world, and can draw no real sustenance from it. All her needs are supplied from heaven. The least link with the world is a blot on her garment. When the Lord comes, she will at once reach home, and her pilgrimage and strangership will be at an end forever. But to tread that path requires unfeigned faith-that which can abide God's time, and meanwhile suffer in patience. Blessed will they be who will be found in that path when the Lord comes, and that day is not far off.