The Last Gasp of the Anti-Catholic Faction [pp. 848-855]

The Last Gasp of the Anti-Catholic Faction.
its dogmas and discipline. Although
particular denominations do not
avow a hostile intent toward all dog ma and discipline, each one profess ingto 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, antiCatholic 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
VOL. VII —54
another of the lowingpresses in turn,
until each one quid lachrymabile mugit. Dear friends, what is the mat ter? If you will permit the citation
of a somewhat trite classical passage,
permit us to ask, Tantane animis celesfibus ire? 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, x868.
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
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