rowed to the Catholic Church and the destructive forces of agnosticism. Protestantism is disappearing."

We do not believe that Protestantism is disappearing. But it is certainly true that if it should disappear or lose its power, the Roman Catholic Church would triumph over paganism. If indeed that is the alternative, I do not think we should delay to return to the bosom of the mother church from which we have wandered. But before taking that desperate step-which a few take every year, but which the American people in general have as yet shown no intention of taking-it might be well for us seriously to consider just what this would mean. And in so doing, I hope it will be believed that I am far from wishing to stir up religious hatred or to belittle the many services to the cause of true religion which the Roman Catholic Church has rendered in this land. We owe a great debt to the Roman Catholic Church. Were it to withdraw from the great cities, crime would increase by geometrical progression. It is the religious arm of the police. It stands for law and order in the community. There are self-denying priests in that communion who put to shame the self-indulgence of some of our Protestant ministers; there are saintly nuns and Sisters of Charity who are following in the footsteps of our Saviour; there are multitudes of earnest and devout communicants who are living beautiful lives, understanding little, it may be, of the dogmas of the church, but content to leave them to those who, they have been taught to believe, do know. It seems to them no more necessary for the laity to know what the priest is administering than it is for the patient in the hospital to know what the Latin prescription of the doctor means. Both are doing good and they trust them. All this we should rejoice in, but it does not follow that we should imitate their example and place our souls in the keeping of the priest.

But we cannot afford to drift. We must look facts in

the face and act. What would happen if the Protestant conception of religion were to perish from the earth? Suppose the whole nation were given over to secularism, there can be no doubt that the disintegration of manners, which all refined people regret, would be followed by a disintegration of morals. But if that were to follow, then would come the dreadful famine foretold by the prophet: "Not a famine for bread nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord.” * What would be the next step? Man is "incurably religious," and if our children lose the religion which they have inherited they will have to have some religion. What will that be? There can be no such thing as a "new" religion. Whatever it may be called, it will have its roots in some religion which has been found helpful in the past. But our whole Western civilization is built upon the religion of Jesus. Some form of that will be the only possible one. But if Protestantism be discarded, the only form left will be the Roman Catholic. If we take history as our guide, we may forecast the future with a certain confidence. We know what happened after the Reformation. At first it looked as if all Europe would adopt the Reformed religion, but in less than a hundred years that made no further conquests and lost much that it had gained. We know how the "CounterReformation" came about-first, by a reformation in the morals of the Catholic clergy, which was largely due to the influence of Protestantism, and, secondly, through the organization of the company of Jesuits, who through the education of children and the secret power of the confessional insinuated themselves into the secret life of the community. It may be said: "This is ancient history." Well, there is a modern instance which is even more instructive. In the last twenty years the increase in the membership in the Roman Catholic Church in Germany has been great. In the very lands where Luther preached, * Amos 8:2.

thousands of Protestants, in the last twenty years, have returned to the Roman Catholic fold. Why? Because, though they clung to the Protestant doctrine of individual freedom, they had lost the corresponding sense of personal responsibility, and when they lost that sense of personal responsibility and turned the church over to the state, the state gave them in return just what it thought was beneficial to them as members of the state. But the soul of man cried out for the living God; Protestantism was unable to supply the religious need of the people, and the Roman Catholic Church came in and supplied it.

Is that to be the history of this country in the next century? It is quite within the bounds of possibility.

CHAPTER V

SECTARIANISM

B. CATHOLIC

In the preceding chapter an attempt was made to analyze the meaning of sectarianism as it appears in the Protestant churches. We believe that the increase in the power of the Roman Catholic Church in American life is largely due to the weakness of the Protestant churches, and that unless that weakness can be overcome by some genuine religious co-operation among the Protestant churches the result of true spiritual unity—the Roman Catholic Church may dominate the religious life of this country. This danger not a few men foresee. Some believe that it can be prevented by the denunciation of the Roman Catholic Church on the part of Protestant bigots; others, that what is needed is a political party bound together by a secret understanding that no Catholic shall be elected to public office. Indeed, it is an open secret that in certain of the States where the Protestant feeling is strong, no man can be elected to public office who is not approved by one of the strong Protestant churches, just as in other States it is almost impossible for a man to attain certain offices without the approval of the Roman Catholic Church.

The spirit of Christ should prevent this; no denunciation of a church which, when its shortcomings and faults have been admitted, is trying to bring people to the discipleship of Christ can be justified. It will only serve to consolidate the Roman Catholic Church and prevent the many people in it who are dissatisfied with the autocracy of the priests from asserting their innate American

independence. While it is true that the Roman Catholic Church claims something like 16,000,000 members, what would not its membership be had it been able to retain the children to the third and fourth generations? The disintegration in the Roman Catholic Church as a result of breathing the American atmosphere of independence is as notable a sign of the times as is the increase in its membership by immigration and what Father Vaughan calls "Christian fecundity." But alas, these Catholics who have lapsed are of small value to the community. A few (perhaps more than is generally known) enter each year into the communion of one of the Protestant churches, but most of them revert to paganism and not a few of them take to crime. A more conciliatory spirit and a juster appreciation of the merits and value of the Catholic Church might be the means of saving many of them from such a fate.

The history of this country ought to show us the futility of political organizations on a racial or sectarian basis. If the Roman Catholic Church is not to become the dominant religious influence in this country, it can only be by the manifestation of such inspiring religious life in the Protestant brotherhood as will appeal to the imagination and win the allegiance of earnest religious men.

With these thoughts in mind, let us turn now to a consideration of the sectarian spirit as it appears in the Roman Catholic Church.

The Roman Catholic Church as it is known to most of us, and justly honored for its devout spirit, is the church as revealed in the lives of those who have been trained by it in England and Ireland and in the United States-that is, in countries where the influence of Protestantism is strong. What it is outside that influence we may see in Central and South America, in Spain and in Italy before the overthrow of the temporal power of the pope. If the knowledge of God and of Jesus which has come to us