The Last Gasp Of The Anti-catholic Faction.
Protestantism and the Protestant denominations may be considered under two aspects. Under one aspect, the former is an imperfect Christianity, and the latter are societies professing each a certain form of this Christianity. As such we respect them, recognize the Christian and evangelical truths they retain, honor the virtue and goodness which are found among their adherents, and freely admit their great utility in many important particulars. We have no desire to wage a fierce polemical war upon them, but rather desire to discuss with them in a fraternal spirit the differences between us, the causes which keep us in separation, and the means of reconciliation and reunion.
Under the other aspect, the one is a denial of the first principles of Christianity, and the others are aggregations under the control of party-leaders whose principal object is the destruction of the church of Christ with its dogmas and discipline. Although particular denominations do not avow a hostile intent toward all dogma and discipline, each one professing to maintain whatever it has selected as its constitutive principle out of the entire Christian system, yet the general sum and result of their combined efforts against the Catholic Church tends to the utter demolition of Christianity. This active, anti-Catholic Protestantism in our own day and country is principally confined to a comparatively small fraction of nominal Protestants. It is a wheel within a wheel, an imperium in imperio, a ring, a faction, very impotent, but extremely turbulent. The deadly quarrels of its component members with each other interfere materially with their unity of action against their common enemy. Now and then, however, a common sentiment seems to awaken in them that they had better postpone their private disputes until they have compassed by their united energies the fall of Babylon. Such a phenomenon has appeared quite recently in the ecclesiastical heavens. The newspapers of the principal sects have resounded with a call for united efforts on the part of Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Unitarians, etc., against the progress of the Catholic Church in the United States. Dr. Bellows, who is as restless as if he were pursued by the Eumenides, and who seems to get into a more uncomfortable frame of mind every day as he prosecutes his travels, sends over a loud call showing the necessity of doing something to preserve that Protestantism which it has been the business of his life to overwhelm with ridicule and contempt. The liberal papers, false to their reiterated protestations of hatred against orthodox Protestantism and sympathy with Catholics, re-echo the sound, which is taken up by one and another of the lowing presses in turn, until each one quid lachrymabile mugit. Dear friends, what is the matter? If you will permit the citation of a somewhat trite classical passage, permit us to ask, Tantaene animis coelestibus irae? We have been much at a loss to divine the immediate exciting cause of such a sudden aggravation of symptoms in our domestic "sick man." We think, however, that we have at last discovered that we are the innocent cause ourselves, through a few little harmless tracts, which were intended as a poultice, but have proved, we suppose on account of the extreme irritability of the patient's skin, a violent blister. We made the discovery by reading the following circular, which we publish cheerfully, in order to promote as much as possible that free and lively discussion which our excellent friends at the Bible House desire:
(Private.)
American and Foreign Christian Union,
27 Bible House, New York,
June 17, 1868.
Mr. Editor:
Dear Sir: We are desirous of employing, in your journal, the pen of one of your ablest contributors, in the fair and thorough discussion of the recent publications and pretensions of the Roman Catholic Church.
You have doubtless seen some of the popular tracts of the "Catholic Publication Society." They have been circulated in all parts of the country with great assiduity. They are very ingenious and plausible, and very fallacious. It is matter of common interest to all who love evangelical truth that these fallacies should be promptly and effectively exposed.
We have a proposition to make which seems to us to be for the mutual advantage both of your enterprise and of ours. If you will send us the address of that one of your contributors or collaborators whose papers on this subject will be most acceptable to you and your readers, we will make proposals to him for contributions to your journal, we supplying him with a copy of the series of popular tracts of the "Catholic Publication Society," and such other documents as he may need, and paying for his literary labor at a generous rate of compensation.
If you shall succeed in introducing us to writers on the Roman Catholic controversy who are learned, accurate, and courteous, and at the same time lively and effective in their popular style, we shall hope to continue and renew an arrangement which must be for the advantage of all the parties to it, and of the great cause of Christian truth.
Yours respectfully,
J. Romeyn Berry,
H. C. Riley,
Leonard W. Bacon,
E. F. Hatfield,
Samuel I. Prime,
Committee on Publications of the "American and Foreign Christian Union."
Naturally, we have been on the alert ever since receiving this interesting circular, expecting a rare treat from the articles to be furnished by the learned, courteous, lively, and well-paid contributors to the press who must have jumped at once at this handsome offer. We have not yet gathered in a very ample collection of choice morçeaux as the result of our study of the anti-Catholic press. We have obtained, however, a few gleanings which may be indications of an abundant harvest yet to come. Here is one from The Episcopalian, which no reader of that paper will expect to find either accurate, courteous, or lively, but which, as communicating a piece of rare and recondite information, may fitly prove a sample of the "learned" style:
"It has been suggested—and, we think, not without some reason—that the origin of ritualism in the Protestant Episcopal Church may be traced to the Roman Catholic Church itself; in other words, that the Roman Church, with the view of proselyting the Episcopal Church, has sent among us secret emissaries, of the Jesuit stamp, who, while pretending to be Episcopalians, are really Romanists, and whose mission it is to introduce one Romish novelty after another, until the congregations in which they are introduced are gradually but surely drawn into the communion of the Romish Church.
"To those who have studied the far-seeing policy of the Roman Church, and its secret workings for ages past, this suggestion will not seem strange or far-fetched. That equally subtle means for proselyting have been used by that church in times past no one can doubt who has read its history; and what has been done can be done—or, at least, tried—again.
"Freese.
"Trenton, N.J., June, 1868."
The following, from The Brooklyn Union, if not learned or lively, is at least in a high degree "accurate and courteous," being a most respectful remonstrance against the audacity of Catholics in presuming to be so numerous, and to lay the corner-stone of a cathedral in open day on Sunday:
"He that Rules the City Rules the Country.—The Pope of Rome well knows this axiom. The Jesuits know it. The politician knows it. They all act upon it. Cities are chosen as their centres of organization. From these centres their power radiates through every town and village and hamlet and district of our land. In a government like our own, this is particularly true. The pulsations of life and power of our larger cities, both in religion and politics, indicate the condition, in these respects, of our whole country. Hence the favored policy of the Papal hierarchy of inducing its subjects, when emigrating to the United States, to settle within the limits or easy access of our cities. Statistics show that the foreign Papal immigration, East, West, North, and South, settle chiefly within or about our cities. No one with his eyes open has failed to see this with respect to New York, New Orleans, St. Louis, Chicago, Cincinnati, and Buffalo. The foreign population of these cities rule them. They present a majority of thirty thousand in New York. What may be their exact proportions in our other populous cities, the writer has at present no means of ascertaining. But from the number, the grandeur, and the costliness of their cathedrals and educational institutions in other cities—in such as Chicago and St. Louis—we should judge that their number is greater in proportion to their population than it is in New York. This statement has reference to the Papists. For the infidel proportion who come to our shores from Europe, and who have been driven to infidelity by the tyranny and wickedness of Papacy, have no sympathy with that system in propagating its means of worship. All their sympathies are with our free institutions. Their licentiousness and disregard of the Christian Sabbath are the fruit of their infidelity. Even for this the Papal Church is responsible before God. But the Papacy, in its spirit and in its policy and in its designs, is opposed to our republican government. It is the sworn inveterate enemy to every principle and policy which favors republicanism. No bishop, no priest, and no member of the Papal Church ever has been or ever can be a loyal subject of a free government. Every pretence or profession or act which they avow to the contrary is the necessary outgrowth of wilful deception, hypocrisy, and falsehood. Among the masses of her members an oath of loyalty may be the result of ignorance; and it may be permitted to remain of binding authority so long as it does not conflict with their first and paramount obligations with their church. But with the bishops, the priests, and the Jesuitical hordes of their hierarchy, an oath of loyalty or of testimony is of no value as a test of truthfulness. Nay, it is often taken as a means of deception, to accomplish some concealed purpose. Their fundamental doctrines of mental reservation and universal subordination to Rome necessarily exclude from their virtues that of true patriotism. That this hierarchy has for some years past been collecting, arranging, and concentrating the elements of her strength in and around the cities of the United States, is evident to any one who has watched its progress. Her power is abundantly manifest in the influence which she has exerted in the legislation of our cities and our states, in the appointments of many of our highest offices of trust and power, in the disposition and distribution of our public charities, and in the control of our popular system of education; and that the time has come, in their judgment, when she can, with safety to herself, openly assert her power, can be seen in the popular tracts, now numbering some thirty-one, of her religious press, in the public discussions of her periodicals, in her politico-religious organizations, as well as in her open and defiant Sabbath parades, and other desecrations of that blessed day. Let her have full scope to her power and freedom as a church, in a legitimate way. Let her seek to build up her cause as a system of religion, the same as Protestant churches in our country. But let her not attempt to ride rough-shod upon the rights of Protestants by her noisy parades, with drum and fife and boisterous shouts in front of our churches upon the Sabbath—by her insolent and brutal outrages upon unoffending Protestants when peaceably pursuing their avocations. Let her no longer refuse to listen to the respectful remonstrances of American citizens against such encroachments. Public religious services and the administration of the Lord's Supper in some of our churches were almost entirely prevented by the noise and confusion of the Papal parade on a late Sabbath. This nuisance has been repeated in New York and Brooklyn in opposition to the respectful but earnest petition of Protestant laymen and clergy. On these occasions, several of our largest streets were piled up with city passenger-cars, that were forced to stop running on account of the procession. And what was all this confusion, all this violation of law and order, upon the Christian Sabbath for? Why, simply that a single Papal congregation might lay the corner-stone of the church of the 'Immaculate Conception.' Hundreds of quiet and orderly churches must be interrupted in their worship, the rights of large corporations must be trampled under foot, and the stillness of the Sabbath be invaded by the drum and fife and shout of a drunken rabble, for the sake of a single Papal congregation! Such occasions are not without a purpose. They afford the priesthood a fine opportunity of testing the strength of numbers, of trying the patience of the Protestant community, of gradually corrupting their respect for the Christian Sabbath, and of intimidating politicians with a show of power. Their design is a political one. There is no religion about it. Her power is broken upon the 'Seven Hills' of Italy, and she is trying now to re-establish it in the metropolis of America. But who dare array himself against her avowed determination to subordinate all things to her purpose? What politician, what party, or what partisan newspaper dare oppose the political system of Papal hierarchy? It remains for the Protestant clergy of our evangelical denominations to take up the cause of religious liberty. No one will dare to speak out if they remain silent. The eyes of all are toward them. They must take the lead in the conflict with 'the man of sin.' God has thrown the responsibility upon them. They can, if they will, sway both the religious and political destinies of our nation. Let no one talk about the danger or the fanaticism of introducing politics into our pulpits. The days of such cowardly conservatism are past. Let politicians as well as Papists, at whose feet the former bow, be made to feel that patriotism is a Christian virtue, and that its sacred fire is kept alive and pure only in the breasts of those who swear by an open Bible and a free conscience. If our Protestant ministers will do their duty, the masses of our people will see the danger which threatens us. They will unite their strength in a successful issue with the powers of darkness, and our politicians, seeing the strength of such a combination, will withhold their sympathy and patronage from a system which, in the garb of religion, aims its death-blow at the very root of our civil liberty.
C."
The following is a specimen of the "lively and effective" style:
Catholicism.
A Reply To J. G. Parton's Article In The Atlantic Monthly.
This little treatise is respectfully presented to J. G. Parton and all our Catholic brethren, by their brother and friend, Charles W. Gilbert.
"And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying. All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth."—Matthew xxviii. 18.
"This is the stone which was set at naught of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved."—Acts iv. 11, 12.
"It behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high-priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted."—Hebrews ii. 17, 18.
Galesburg, June 22, 1868.
Mr. J. G. Parton: Dear Sir: I flatter myself you will excuse me for the liberty I have taken in addressing you this letter. It has been called for by reading a communication in The Atlantic Monthly, in April last, respecting our Catholic brethren.
I have neither time nor space to write half I want to, only to mention a few points: And first, you say there is a difference between Catholics and Protestants in the mode of praying; you say a Protestant hides his face in his hands, but Catholics do not, though they kneel, but the body is upright. Dear sir, do you not know the reason? Our Catholic brethren worship images, which God has forbidden. Turn to the second commandment: "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath," etc. "Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain: for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. Remember the Sabbath-day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work," etc. Take your Bible and read all the commandments.
Dear sir, can you find one of our Roman Catholic brethren that keeps the commandments? Turn to the First Epistle general of John, second chapter, fourth verse, "He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him."
You speak of their communion. Do they drink the wine and eat the bread, as Christ has commanded? No, no! A little wafer is put on the tongue. Please turn to the seventeenth chapter of Revelation, fourth verse.
The next topic is the Catholic Sabbath-school. Sir, what is a Sabbath-school without the Bible to direct us how to teach little children the way of life and salvation? Do you not know that the priests do not allow the Bible to be read in a Sabbath-school nor in a day-school? This is the reason they will not send their children to the Protestant schools.
What said St. Paul to Timothy? "And that 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."—2 Timothy iii. 15, We read also, in the sixteenth verse, "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness."
What said Jesus? "Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me."—John v. 39.
You say the children in the Sabbath-school sing to the Virgin Mary the following stanza, "O Mary! Mother," etc. Dear sir, who is this Mother Mary? Let Christ answer. Turn to Matthew xii. 50: "For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother." Read also in Mark iii. 35; also Luke viii, 21.
You quote the prayer that the superintendent uttered, in Latin. How edifying that must have been to the children, especially when he used the word immaculate Host! Could the children have understood that word, they would have blushed.
You give us a glowing description of the different cathedrals, and how they are occupied. Now, my dear sir, let me tell you, the best prayer-meeting that I ever enjoyed was in a log-cabin. Read St. John iv. 23, 24. Jesus told the woman of Samaria that the hour had now come "when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." Christ told the woman of Samaria she need not go up into the mountains nor to Jerusalem to worship the Father, but anywhere, in the log-cabin or in your house, if you worship God in spirit.
The next topic is, you say: "Our Catholic brethren are very candid, and are as truly and entirely convinced of the truth of their religion as any Protestant."
I am now almost seventy-three years of age, and have labored among our Catholic brethren more than forty years. I have seen many of them happily converted, born again; as Christ told Nicodemus, told him repeatedly, "Except a man be born again, he could not enter heaven."—John iii. Yes, I have seen them put off the old man with all his deeds and put on Christ; yes, his very countenance was changed; yes, he will not visit the Dutch gardens or saloons on the Sabbath. Said a converted Roman Catholic lady to me, the other day: "I have perfect peace now. When I belonged to the Roman Catholic Church, I was in constant misery."
Said a converted Catholic man, aged sixty-six years: "I never took any comfort before." I asked him if he was ready to die. He said, "Yes." I asked him how he knew. Putting his hand on his breast, he said, "Spirit tell me so." So Christ says his Spirit shall enlighten every man that cometh into the world.
In all my conversation with our Catholic brethren, I have never found the first one that could say with St. Paul: "I long to be absent from the body that I might be present with the Lord, that I might be clothed upon with another body like unto his."
Our Catholic brethren are taught that there is a purgatory. I wonder if St. Paul had to go there first. I have often asked our Catholic brethren where the penitent thief went to, that was crucified with Christ, when Christ said to him, "To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise."
If there is a purgatory where we have to go to atone for our sins, Christ must have suffered in vain, though he cried on the cross, "It is finished."
I have seen Catholics die in despair. I had one in my employ as a sailor on the North River. He caught a severe cold; it ran him into a quick consumption. I asked him if he would like to have me read the Bible to him. He said, No; he said the priest had forbidden him to read the Bible or hear it read. As he was failing very fast, I went in again and asked him if he wished me to read to him in the Bible. He said, No, but wished I would go and call the priest. I did so, and after the priest went away, I went into his room and asked him if he was happy. He answered, No, and cried bitterly, and said, "I am going to hell! I am going to hell!" and died in a few minutes.
You next speak of young men that were studying for the ministry; you say they study Latin, Greek, and theology. Dear sir, what is theology? If I understand it, it is a Science of God. How can they study theology without the Bible, the word of God? They are not allowed the Bible, so a converted Roman Catholic priest published to the world, at least he said that there was not more than one in twenty that ever saw a Bible.
You say the Catholic Church is getting very rich, I do not doubt it. Oh! how I pity the poor Catholic brethren. See how they toil and work to support the priest and the nunneries, and to build meeting-houses to please the eye and charm the weak minded. And what do they get for all this? Let echo answer. Look at our poor-houses. Every winter thousands have to go to our poor-houses to be taken care of by our Protestant churches. Here in our city many would have perished this last winter, had not our poor-master fed them.
You next give us a history of a wonderful miracle that was performed in Washington in 1824. Dear sir, do you think any Protestant with one eye, and that half-open, can be made to believe such nonsense? If you wish to see miracles wrought in the nineteenth century, just give the Bible to our Catholic brethren, then you may see greater miracles performed than you speak of; for to see a man that is dead in sin changed to a spiritual man, made alive in Christ, is a miracle.
Our Catholic brethren are taught that their church was the first church. Let me inform you that there was no Roman Catholic church on the earth for three hundred years after the death of the apostles. Permit me to quote a few passages from the word of God. 2 Thessalonians ii. 3, 4: "Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God." Could an angel from heaven portray the character of the pope in any plainer language?
I Timothy iv. 1-5: "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer."
Paul speaks of visiting the churches; that is to say, little bands of Christians. We read in the Acts of the Apostles xv. 3: "And being brought on our way by the church;" that is to say, a few Christians. Read, also, xvi. 5: "Likewise greet the church that is in their house," etc.
You will now turn to Revelation xiii. 16-18: "And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads." Now, every true Catholic receives the sign of the cross in his forehead every Ash-Wednesday; every priest, when he is ordained for the ministry, receives the mark of the cross in his right hand.
A converted Roman Catholic priest, going through one of the streets in a Southern city, picked up the thirteenth chapter of Revelation, and, reading it, he was convinced that he was one of those that had received the mark in his right hand, and was led by the Spirit to see his error and was happily converted, and became a Baptist minister.
Give the Bible to all our Roman Catholic priests and brethren in America, and in less than five years there would not be a Roman Catholic church in existence. Rev. Mr. Hyacinthe, a Roman Catholic priest, in Paris, France, has come out in favor of reading the Bible. He is now preaching in the Notre Dame cathedral to audiences of three thousand. He presses upon the people, in the most eloquent words, the study of the Bible.
The news from Italy is very interesting. Thousands of our Catholic brethren are inquiring and receiving the Bible, that they may learn the way to Christ. In less than five years there cannot be found a Roman Catholic in all that vast kingdom, except in Rome, where the Catholic religion has to be protected by an army. That is a curious religion that has to be protected by the SWORD. Shame! shame!
That great city is soon to be destroyed, according to God's word. See Revelation xiv. 20: "And the wine-press was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the wine-press, even unto the horses' bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs. "You are aware, I suppose, that the pope claims two hundred miles square around Rome. The above number of furlongs make just that number of miles. Let Bonaparte send ALL his armies to Rome, and he could not prevent this prophecy from being fulfilled when the time comes.
Dear sir, you have a great deal to say about our Catholic brethren exercising greet faith. Paul says, "Faith without works is dead." What are the works that God requires? Let me tell you. It is not only to clothe the naked and feed the hungry; but it is to go out into the highways and hedges, and invite the sinner, the wayward—yes, the poor drunkard—to become reconciled to God; to put off the old man with all his deeds, and put on the new man which is after Christ. Did you ever learn of one of our Catholic brethren doing the like?
You speak of children being confirmed. What does that mean? Why, made Christians. Dear sir, who can change the heart of a child or a man? No one but God. What saith the Bible, speaking of those that were Christ's? "Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."—John i. 13.
You tell us that in this easy and pleasant way our Catholic brethren join the church. Dear sir, does joining a church make a man Christ-like? Christ says: "If ye have my spirit, ye are mine; if ye have not my spirit, ye are none of mine."—Romans viii. 9. Read the whole chapter; it contains the whole plan of salvation.
Our Catholic brethren are taught that the Virgin Mary was born immaculate! What blasphemy! And also that the church is infallible! When Christ asked Peter and the disciples, "Whom say ye that I am?" Peter answered and said, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." Upon this acknowledgment or confession of Peter, that Christ was the son of the living God, Christ said, "I will build my church"—not upon Peter, as the pope claims.
You say our Catholic brethren are not ashamed to be found praying. Please turn to the sixth chapter of Matthew, and read the sixth verse, which is as follows: "But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly."
You say the superintendent of the Catholic Sabbath-school you visited told you that he had visited many of the Protestant Sabbath-schools and had copied after them. I wonder where he found a Protestant Sabbath-school without the Bible!
You say that the Catholics expect to rule in this country, and that all Protestant children will be in their Sabbath-schools. Let me say, "Let God be true, but every man a liar."—Romans iii. 4. St. Paul has prophesied that the time shall soon come when the Sword of the Spirit SHALL destroy the Man of Sin.
There are thousands of our Catholic brethren in America that are sick of the Catholic religion, and will soon leave it. When I was engaged in teaching a Sabbath-school of Catholic children, a father and mother called on me and wanted to put their children in my school. I said, "Your priest will not allow you to do so." They said they did not care anything about their priest; they had been brought up in ignorance; they did not want their children brought up so.
You cannot tell us of a Sabbath-school in all Italy, or in any other country where the Roman Catholics rule, except those that have been established by Protestants.
You tell us about Roman Catholic benevolent societies. Where, oh! where is there an asylum for the blind and deaf and dumb, that they may learn to read the word of God, and get a knowledge of our Saviour Christ Jesus, and learn the way to heaven? You cannot show one in any Catholic country.
Permit me to give you another graphic picture from the Bible, giving a picture of the priests' dresses. Please turn to Revelation xvii. 4, 5; "And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet color, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand," etc.
Now, all this I have seen in the great cathedral in Montreal. I have seen our Catholic priests and brethren bowing down to graven images for several minutes.
Mr. J. G. Parton, dear sir, I sincerely pray that you will, after reading this communication, repent, (not do penance,) and turn to the Lord, and not be under the necessity of calling upon the rocks and mountains to fall on you and hide you from the face of the Lamb. (Revelation vi. 16.) Do read, also, verse 17: "For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?" Do read this communication carefully, and pray that it may be blessed to your salvation.
No more at present, and I remain your friend in Christ,
Charles W. Gilbert.