[Footnote 83: See article on this point in the present number.]
The Liberal Christian, with a kind of audacious valor, backs him up, and declares that "the whole claim of the bishop of Rome is an absurdity." Suppose it to be so to the superior and enlightened minds of this editor and his compeers; the assertion of it carries no weight, and can have no effect upon any other person's mind. Another Unitarian, the Rev. Samuel Johnson, of Massachusetts, says: "If I believed in his (Christ's) authority even as Matthew presents it, not to say Paul or John, I should regard the principles of the papacy as in substance right, whatsoever I might think of the conduct of its representatives." [Footnote 84] Considering the very great importance of the subject, the great learning and number of those who differ from our enlightened friends, and the curious circumstance that almost every person thinks that no opinion or sect but his own can uphold itself against the claims of Rome, would it not be in better taste to have patience a little longer, and speak with a little more moderation?
[Footnote 84: Radical, January, 1869, p. 9.]
The Christian Quarterly, which is a ferocious young Campbellite periodical published at Cincinnati, thus addresses the Protestant community:
"Are you able to feel the sting in the following words of 'Pius, sovereign pontiff, ninth of the name, to all Protestants and non-Catholics?' In speaking of the multitudinous sects of the Protestant world, and of the restlessness, instability, and uncertainty that everywhere characterizes Protestantism, he says," etc. "The very fact that the Pope of Rome should, in the last half of the nineteenth century, have occasion to pen such a paragraph, ought to call the blush of shame to every Protestant cheek! Protestantism has been experimenting for three hundred years, and the pope of Rome has summed up the result! Let Protestantism try the force of its logic upon this papal dilemma!" [Footnote 85]
[Footnote 85: C. Q. Jan. 1869, pp. 52-3.]
We take the following item of news from the London Tablet:
"English Protestants And The Council.
"There are signs around us that a movement is beginning. The Diplomatic Review, a peculiar and certainly a remarkable journal, published the first Wednesday of every month, in London, contains a Protestant address to the pope, and notifies to its readers in town and country that it will lie for signature at its office till the end of the month. The purport of the address is to implore the pope to proclaim again, by his own authority or by that of the council, the observance of the laws of natural justice by Christian and civilized nations in their relations with the heathen and the uncivilized. In an article written in French this same journal says: 'We pronounce the words of the pope like texts, we draw our deduction from his maxims, and we see in the accomplishment of his work the only hope for the preservation of European society.' … 'The strength of the pope is the law:' our duty is to announce explicitly this truth, Christianity must be preached anew.' In addition to this remarkable declaration, we have the public expression of the Rev. E. W. Urquhart, at a meeting of the 'English Church Union,' presided over by the Hon. and Rev. C. L. Courtenay, in South-Devonshire. He said that the separation of church and state is not far distant, and suggested that the Anglican party should seek reunion with the Church of Rome, and that representatives should be sent to the council, to stipulate the conditions of their submission to the see of Rome. This language may sound startling in the mouth of an Anglican clergyman; but we expect the courage of Mr. Urquhart's utterance will unloose many a tongue. Of course, the only stipulation that can be made is that of unqualified submission to the holy see. To a human and fallible authority you may bring conditions; to one that is divine and infallible, you can bring only faith and docility."