Napoleon III and the Papacy [pp. 686-702]

69apoleon III. and the Papacy.
with the rest of the world? And why should so populous and
renowned a city, with a situation central for social advantages,
with facilities for commerce, with a history the most memora ble, next to Jerusalem, of all the cities of the world, and with a
name as venerable in the circles of literature and jurisprudence,
as in the Christian church, be doomed, in an age of light and
of surrounding advancement, to that ignominious bondage?
God has accomplished a great work in the world by the
Catholic church. Despite of her manifold corruptions she was
the depositary of precious truth. The doctrines of the Trinity,
of God in Christ crucified, of salvation through his blood, of
the I Holy Ghost, of the forgiveness of sin, of the resurrection of
the body, and of the life everlasting, are the light of the world.
And these doctrines that church always professed. By the power
of the truth thus maintained, thousands within the pale of the
Romishli communion were beyond doubt brought to the knowledge of God; and the light of the gospel was preserved from
utter extinction. But her work is accomplished. Her form
a pillar of salt between Sodom and Zoar. The Spirit of God
goes out of her into other forms; while she, with her fanatical
conceit of infallibility, forges chains of bondage, and yokes of
galling captivity for her people out of the very truth which
should make them free. Her vices, as an institution, are concentrated and immovable. She can never again be a form and
an embodiment of Christianity for the world. She has nothing
more to do in her present shape, but to linger with her lessening train, till her followers have walked by her flickering taper
to the grave, and their children have become disciples in another Christian school.
What then should Romanism do? And what should this
generation expect?
Popery, as such, should give up the ghost. We would not
consign it to death as a punishment for having existed. Grant
all that may be claimed for it as useful in its time. But its
work is done, and done long ago. The Pope has done no
good in any country for the last hundred years. And we cannot conceive a condition of things as likely to arise out of the
present state of the church and the world, in which a Christian
man, with the title of supreme and universal head of the church,
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