themselves in one way and another. Even Fenianism, which has flourished in spite of priestly opposition and churchly anathema (Chs. XI., XXI., XXII.), may be in this way a blessing in disguise. And the lamentation, which comes to us, of immense losses to the Roman Catholic church in this country (see Chap. XXVIII.), is another encouragement to American Protestants to labor in hope. Many of the first generation, and more of the second, among the Roman Catholics of Irish or German or other foreign origin, pass entirely beyond the control of the Roman Catholic church. Many of them have become and are becoming enlightened Protestant Christians. And through the power of social and Christian influence these changes prepare the way for other and still greater changes to follow them. But still further, our fathers' God and our God is with us, and will be with us, if we are faithful to honor him; and "if God be for us, who can be against us" (Rom. 8:31)? His dealings with our nation in the past are an earnest of what he will do with us hereafter. He has brought us safely through terrible dangers; he has brought these Roman Catholics to our very doors and into our houses to give us the opportunity and make us feel the necessity of trying to save them in order to save ourselves and our children from ruin. And the victory or defeat here is a victory or defeat for the world. The relations of our country to the rest of this continent, to Europe and Asia and Africa and the isles of the sea, to the whole population of the globe, are such that a victory here for liberty and truth and righteousness and heavenly love is a victory for them everywhere, and a defeat here will tend to the triumph of darkness and death everywhere. But God knows all this, and is interested in all this. His church is a living church among Protestants in this land; it is built, not upon Peter alone, but "upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone;" it shall be "a holy temple in the Lord;"" and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Eph. 2: 20, 21. Matt, 16:18). The promises of God are of no doubtful sig

nificance; but they belong only to those who fulfill the conditions on which they are based. Egypt and Assyria and Babylon and Persia as well as Greece and Rome and other names of ancient power and renown attest the truth of the ancient prophet's declaration; "The nation and kingdom that will not serve thee [= Jerusalem, or Zion, the seat and representative of God's church or people] shall perish; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted" (Is. 60:12). No false and corrupt church-no Christless people-can have the blessings which God has pledged himself to bestow on his true and living church and Christ's own people. The assumptions and pretensions which may deceive men, do not deceive God.or prevail with him. It is "in Christ Jesus "-not in the Virgin Mary, or the apostle Peter, or other departed saints, or in any pretended saints, living or dead, but in Christ Jesus-that "all the promises of God are yea and amen" (2 Cor. 1: 20). Every thing of real and permanent value to our nation, including the continuance of temporal prosperity and of republican institutions, as well as the bestowment of spiritual blessings, depends upon the existence and exercise of Christian love and faithfulness, or upon a vital union with the Lord Jesus Christ. The past history and present condition of unhappy France may teach us that a long-lived republic must have virtue and religion for its basis. No substitute for these can be found in glory or magnificence or wealth or power or fashion or ingenuity or learning or wisdom or any other department or species of worldly preeminence.

American Protestants, we glory not in Peter or Paul or Mary; but whatever foes may assail or threaten us-if we are Christ's, then the victory over them is ours, and whatever we need before this victory or after it or with it is also ours, infallibly and irresistibly and unendingly; for the inspired apostle has spoken distinctly and expressly:

"Let no man glory in men: for all things are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas [= Peter], or the world, or life, or death,

are

'or things present, or things to come; all are yours; and ye and Christ is God's" (1 Cor. 3:21-23).

Christ's;

And the beloved disciple has thus recorded his vision of the yet future victory in which all the truly faithful shall have a part:

"And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever" (Rev. 11:15).

Let a New England Protestant (Rev. Timothy Dwight, D. D., President of Yale College, 1795-1817) express for us the spirit of a multitude of these Scriptural promises :

"Sure as Thy truth shall last,

To Zion shall be given

The brightest glories earth can yield,
And brighter bliss of heaven."

And yet, let it never be forgotten for a moment that the consummation of all these bright hopes involves work, present, earnest, diligent, whole-souled WORK, for all and for each of those who would either share in the triumph personally or would have our nation blessed. God's plans and promises will never fail; but, as in the case of the apostle Paul and his companions who had to save themselves from imminent death after God had assured them there should be no loss of life among them (Acts 27: 22-44), so now the realization of the predicted future triumphs of Zion demands of men the use of the appropriate means. The deep-laid plots of the Roman Catholics to gain the supreme control in our land must be understood and defeated; all good citizens mnst unite to preserve order and sustain law and give to wisdom and virtue the first place in the government and in society as well as in the family and in the church. The Roman Catholic church is the same in America as in Ireland and in Spain and in Rome; its modes of action may be greatly modified here and now, and its whole outward appearance may be chang

ed, but it never changes (see pp. 699, 700); in it not the intelligent people, but the pope and the cardinals and the bishops and the priests bear rule; and, while its animating spirit is the same now as when the 4th Lateran council was held (see pp. 391, 578-9) or the Inquisition (see Chap. XI.) was at the height of its power, the misunderstanding and hatred of Protestantism which prevail among its members and the bigoted fury of the Catholic populace are the same now as when the massacres of the Waldenses or of the Huguenots* or of the Irish Protestants† were perpetrated.

Overweening confidence in our "manifest destiny" as the great American nation has well nigh been our destruction. The great conflict of 1861-5 came upon us while we were reposing in fancied security; and the signs of another impending conflict are neither few nor small. The Roman Catholic church is rapidly gaining the power in our land. Its multitudes of adherents work and pray and talk and vote as a unit under the direction of keen-sighted and quick-witted leaders; while Protestants, disunited, eager perhaps for the success of this or that party, or busy here and there in plans and labors for themselves and their families, pay little attention to the dangers which threaten our liberties and our welfare. Irish Catholic mobs, like those of 1863‡

*For the massacres of the Waldenses and of the Huguenots, see Chapter XII.

In the Irish massacres, which began Oct. 23, 1641, and did not entirely cease till Sept., 1643, at least 40,000 to 50,000 Protestants were murdered. The brutality of the Irish Catholics was frightful. Clarendon says of the Protestants who "escaped best," that they "were robbed of all they had, to their very shirts, and so turned naked to endure the sharpness of the season; and by that means, and for want of relief, many thousands of them perished by hunger and cold.”

In the New York riots of July 13-15, 1863 (see p. 586), the fury of the mob, at first directed against the officers and buildings connected with the draft for filling up the armies of the national government, was soon attracted towards the negroes, who were chased about, dragged forth from their hiding-places, maltreated, murdered by beating or shooting or hanging or burning with the most awful cruelty. A colored orphan-asylum (Protestant, of course) was burned to the ground, and the lives of the helpless inmates were saved only by the daring interposition of a few determined friends. Many other most shameful outrages were

and 1871* in New York city, are liable to occur in other places and at other times, and must be put down by the civil authorities or by the military or by armed citizens at a terrible sacrifice of property and of life; but most American Protestants shut their eyes to these and other signs of the times, and trust that all will be well without any special exertion of theirs. The salvation of America depends, under God, on the faithfulness of his friends in America, and on the actual and manifest existence here of a virtuous and intelligent Christian people, a nation who shall be-each and all-workers of righteousness and laborers together with God.

committed in various parts of the city, before the civil and military authorities succeeded in quelling the riots.

*The New York riot of July 12, 1871, was connected with the celebration of the battle of the Boyne, which took place July 1 (old style), 1690, about 30 miles N. W. of Dublin in Ireland, and in which the English army under king William III. of England (prince of Orange, whence the name "Orangemen" assumed by lodges of Irish Protestants in 1795) gained a decisive victory over the Irish and French under the ex-king James II. (uncle and father-in-law and predecessor of William on the English throne), who was both a Roman Catholic and a tyrant. The Orangemen of New York, Jersey City, &c., proposed to celebrate this battle, as heretofore, by processions, &c. The procession in Jersey City, under the resolute protection of the civil and military power, was unmolested. The Orangemen of New York had been mobbed and a large number killed and wounded at a picnic in Elm Park, July 12, 1870; and in consequence of the bitter opposition and threats of the Irish Catholics, Mayor Hall and Police-Superintendent Kelso prohibited the marching of the Orangemen in procession in 1871. Governor Hoffman, however, countermanded this prohibition, and declared that the Orangemen had a right to parade, and should be supported, if necessary, by the whole police and military force of the State. Accordingly, the Orangemen marched in an orderly procession a short distance, but they and their protectors were attacked by the mob, and the procession was broken up. The mob was fired upon and finally put down; but about 40 persons (soldiers, policemen, rioters, and spectators) were killed, and from 100 to 200 wounded, some of them fatally. The fiendish rage of the rabble was shown in the murderous use of pistols and other weapons by Irish Catholic women as well as men against the Orangemen and those who sympathized with them, in the savage threats against Gov. Hoffman, in the wanton killing of a little girl (Mary York) who wore an orange-colored scarf, &c.