746
A terrible punishment awaited the anti-pope
John XVI. Otho returned into Italy, seized
him, put out his eyes, cut off his nose and
tongue, and sent him through the streets
mounted on an ass, with his face to the tail,
and a wine bladder on his head. It seemed
impossible that things could become worse,
yet Rome had still to see Benedict IX, A. D.
1033, a boy of less than twelve years, raised to
the apostolic throne. Of this pontiff, one of
his successors, Victor III, declared that his
life was so shameful, so foul, so execrable,
that he shuddered to describe it. He ruled
like a captain of banditti rather than a pre-
late. ‘The people at last, unable to bear his
adulteries, homicides, and abominations any
longer, rose against him. In despair of main-
taining his position, he put up the papacy to
auction. It was bought by a presbyter named
John, who became Gregory VI, A. D. 1045.
“More than a thousand years had elapsed
since the birth of our Saviour, and such was
the condition of Rome. Well may the his-
torian shut the annals of those times in dis-
gust; well may the heart of the Christian
sink within him at such a catalogue of hide-
ous crimes. Well may we ask, Were these
vicegerents of God upon earth — these, who
had truly reached that goal beyond which the
last effort of human wickedness cannot pass?”’?
Subsequent popes were purer and more
moral men. But the germs of evil had been
planted, and in spite of all they could do to
cleanse the church, the leaven of wickedness
worked, and kept on working — till at last
with giant downward curves the political world
empire of the papacy hastened to its doom.
And the heavens thickened, and the floods
came, and the winds blew, and the thunders
of Luther and Melancthon, of Zwingle and
Farrell and Tyndale roared, and the Great
Reformation of the sixteenth century rolled
in and swept away the world-empire of the
church which the dragon had planted on the
ruins of pagan Rome.
Now all that is written above in regard to
the evils which like demons took posses-
sion of the soul and body of the church is not
written to prove that all of her adherents were
bad men and women. The men who have re-
corded her shame, and cried the most loudly
against the evil deeds of her leaders, were
members of her own communion. The great
Cardinal Baronius was a Roman Catholic.
And it must ever be remembered that the re-
formers Luther and all his host came forth
from the bosom of this same church.
But the awful condition of society written
above is written to show that the world-em-
pire scheme, first inaugurated at Babel and
tried again from Babylon to Rome, had come
to an end once more and from the same causes
as did its predecessors. Once again the hand
of God had been outstretched to annihilate
this gigantic and oft-tried conspiracy, upon the
success of which Satan seemed almost to stake
his all, and which he had erected for the op-
pression and persecution of all who would
worship God according to the dictates of con-
51d. 56, 57.
THE WATCHMAN
The Roman Catholic Universal
Church as an empire went down before the
sledge-like blows of the Reformers. And the
many churches of the Reformation were God’s
own answer to the one-church plan of Satan
in the papacy. P. T. M.
science.
EE
THE RUSSIAN CHURCH ON THE COMMANDMENTS
from Moscow a “Longer Cate-
chism ” of the Russian or Eastern
Church, prepared for the use of
schools. It was published under the di-
rection of the Holy Synod. Like most of
the church standards, it bears witness to
the departure of the church from the com-
mandments of God in the matter of the
Sabbath. On the ten commandments it
says :—
S OME years ago there was issued
491. Did Jesus Christ teach men to
walk by the ten commandments ?
He bade men if they would attain to
everlasting life to keep the commandments;
and taught us to understand and fulfil
them more perfectly than had been done
before he came. Matt. 19:17.
Of the fourth commandment it is writ-
ten :—
536. Why is it commanded to keep the
seventh, rather than any other day, holy
to God?
Because God in six days made the world,
and on the seventh day rested from the
work of creation.
537. Is the Sabvath kept in the Chris-
tian Church?
“Tt is not kept, strictly speaking, as a
holy day; but still in memory of the crea-
tion of the world, and in continuation of
its original observance, it is distinguished
from the other days of the week by a re-
laxation of the rule for fasting.
That is, “strictly speaking,” the Sab-
bath is not kept at all in common practice.
The catechism anticipates the question that
would naturally arise in the student’s mind
after such a reply, and the next question
18 i—
538. How, then, does the Christian
Church obey the fourth commandment?
A better question would have been: Why
does it disobey? But here is the an-
swer :—
She still to every six days keeps a sev-
enth, only not the last of the seven days,
which is the Sabbath, but the first day in
every week, which is the day of the resur-
rection, or Lord’s day.
Thus the Russian Church confesses that
the Sabbath of the commandment is set
aside for a day of human substitution, as
if men could honor Christ’s resurrection
by transgressing his holy law, to maintain
which, and yet save the transgressor, he
died and rose again.
One other question and answer is of in-
terest, coming from the catechism of a
state church :—
572 How ought we to act, if it fall out
that our pareuts or governors require of us
anything contrary to the faith or to the
law of God?
In that case we should say to them, as
the apostles said to the rulers of the Jews,
“ Whether it be right in the sight of God
to hearken unto you more than unto God,
judge .ye;” and we should be ready, for
the sake of the faith and the law of God,
to endure the consequences, whatever they
may be. Acts 4:19.
It is the answer many of our brethren
have had to give in Russia in times past,
when the state church had full power.
Now, as regards religious freedom, better
days have come to Russia. Ww. A. SPICER.
ANNAN
WA
TA Wy We VAY
EDITORIAL NOTES
~ a Va Va
AN effort is being made in New York City
to close theaters on Sunday.
appears, have a ‘
The actors, it
‘church alliance” (indicative,
it would seem, of a rather close relationship
between the churches and the theaters), and
the chairman of the Law Committee of this
alliance says in a letter to Governor Hughes
that “The actors and actresses cannot get an
engagement without contracting to play ac-
cording to the custom of the town, and they
receive no extra pay for Sunday work,” and
“ consequently these unfortunate people have
no rest whatever.” Theater managers in that
city will now have their licenses revoked, it is
said, unless they agree to Sunday closing.
It does seem as though actors and actresses
ought to be allowed one day in the week in
which to be natural; but we fail to see that
anything is to be gained for the cause of
Christianity by Sunday closing of the theaters.
As we understand Christianity, theaters and
theater going are morally wrong on every
day; and it is much worse from a Christian
standpoint for the church to condone the
theater than for the theater to remain open
every day of the week. The line of demarca-
tion between the Christian church and the
theater, and of the saloon as well, ought to be
on the point of their character, and not on the
point of keeping open or closing on a par-
ticular day of the week.
Tug New York Christian Advocate (Meth-
odist), in speaking of the recent action of Gov-
ernor Hughes for the closing of theaters on
Sunday, observes that “some of the men who
run vaudeville places on Sunday have the ef-
frontery to argue in behalf of their law-break-
ing and their shows, that they ‘draw young
men from the streets and from the saloons.
So,” says the Advocate, “if all the trades were
to go to work on Sunday, and were not in-
terfered with by law, they would draw the
young men from the streets and saloons; but
the final effects would be in all respects de-
grading, as well as destructive to health.
There are,” says the Advocate, “ some things