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Vou. XXVI ALLEGHENY, PA., OCTOBER 1, 1905 No. 19 VIEWS FROM THE WATCH TOWER BOMANISM’S LOSSES AND GAINS While Roman Catholicism has been steadily losing ground in priest-ridden lands—Italy, France, Mexico, etc.,—it has of late been making headway in Protestant countries—Great Britain, Germany and the United States. President Roosevelt's latest appointee to his cabinet, Secretary Bonaparte, a Roman Catholic, is the attorney who was influential in securing a large sum from the Indian funds for Catholic schools. At the recent Young People’s Christian Endeavor Society’s gathering in Baltimore, Secretary Bonaparte, who represented the President, was one of the special attractions. SECRETARY TAFT’S TRIBUTE Manila, Aug. 10.—‘I do not think I can illustrate better the character of Theodore Roosevelt than to say what he has said: ‘I wish as President of the United States to act toward the Roman Catholic church as I would have a President who was a Roman Catholic act toward the Protestant churches,’ ” said Secretary Taft tonight, responding to the toast, “The President,” at a dinner given to the male members of the Taft party by Archbishop Harty. Mr. Taft said the relations between the United States government and the Roman Catholic church have been made closer by the government’s occupation of the Philippines and Porto Rico, where formerly church and state were intimately connected. Although the separation of the church from the state was necessitated, he said, nevertheless an association between the two was established thereby which has never before existed. KAISER GREETS ROMAN CATHOLICS Berlin, Aug. 10.—Emperor William, alluding to Polish discontent in a speech made yesterday at a dinner at Gnesen, Prussia, said he wished each Roman Catholic Pole to know that his religion was honored by his emperor. “In my last visit to the Vatican,” said his majesty, “the great Leo xu. held me with both hands and, notwithstanding that I am a Protestant, gave me his blessing. You are my fellow-workers, and Germanism stands for culture and for freedom for every one in religion, in thought and in achievement.” CHURCH AND STATE IN FRANCE “The passing of the bill for the separation of church and state in France, an event of first-class importance, has hardly secured the attention from the press of this country to which it is entitled. The Chamber of Deputies gave a majority of upward of a hundred in favor of the measure, which will not become law until it has received the approval of the Senate, from which, however, no serious difficulty appears to be anticipated. “Thus the concordat entered into between Napoleon and Pins the Seventh in 1801 has been practically abolished. This instrument regulated the relations between the government and Protestants and Jews, as well as Roman Catholics. The Protestant pastors, the Jewish rabbis, and Roman Catholic priests and bishops have received stipends from the government since 1804 under its provisions, though the vast preponderance of the latter gave them the advantage. The new measure is an approach to absolute religious freedom, but not entirely so, for the government contemplates the payment of stipends to those who at present draw salaries, but new priests and other religious functionaries will henceforth be compelled to rely upon their congregations for support. The government claims the ownership of religious edifices, but will lease them to local associations and to groups of local associations forming episcopa] sees. “Whatever may be the practical working of the measure it undoubtedly implies a loss of ecclesiastical prestige, as the protest of the five cardinal archbishops and the French bishops practically admits, when it cries out for the preservation of the concordat. Italy bears testimony to the same tendency. There the Pope has issued an encyclical, under the terms of which Italian Catholics are declarcd to be at liberty to exercise their political right, and the non-expedit policy of Pius the Ninth and Leo the Thirteenth is thus reversed. The Pope says: ‘Catholic activities must find a field in the promotion of all those practical] measures which are dictated by the study of social and economic science, by the condition of civil affairs, by the political life of the state.’ After this it is not surprising that negotiations should be reported as being carried on between the Vatican and the Quirinal looking to the surrender of the temporal power in consideration of the payment of the arrears accumulated under the guarantee laws. These, the annual sums guaranteed by the Italian government and refused by the Pope’s predecessors, now aggregate about twenty-two millions of dollars. There appears to be little doubt that a (291-292) basis of agreement will be reached, and that the Pope will resign all claims to temporal sovereignty. “So little by little, power passes from the hands of the Popes of Rome.”—-San Francisco Argonaut. TO ABANDON SOVEREIGNTY “No matter what is said in Vienna, I have positive information that Emperor Francis Joseph will go to Rome in the fall to visit King Victor Emmanuel, and will stay for several days in the Quirinal as the guest of the king, and before he returns to Vienna he will visit the Pope in the Vatican. “Pope Pius, who is anxious to end the long feud between the church and state in Italy, and who also would like to see the difficulties which have arisen between Italy and Austria smoothed over, has personally arranged this visit. “The importance of this visit cannot be overlooked, as it means that His Holiness has definitely decided to abandon all claims to the old temporal sovereignty of the church and to accept a fact which was established thirty-four years ago—the consolidation of the Italian kingdom, with Rome as its capital. “After October at least there will no longer be a ‘Prisoner of the Vatican,’ and Romans will see Pope Pius walking or driving through the streets of Rome and making a friendly call upon the king and queen in the Quirinal.”—Jean de Bonnefon, Paris. WHY HE WAS NOT A CHURCH-MEMBER Rev. Hiram C. Hadyn, referring to the late Secretary of State, John Hay, said in a sermon in Cleveland, O., recently :— “Hay was not, so far as I know, a member of any church. Once he stated his reason. It is characteristic. He said: ‘My faith in Christ is implicit. I am a believer. I am in fullest sympathy with all that the church mainly stands, for, but I feel that to unite with it formally I should be in full accord with its methods, creeds and aims, and I cannot go that far.’” Whether Grant, Lincoln, Hay and other men of recognized character had too much heart or too much head, or too much of both with too much honesty, to join any of the sects and subscribe to any of their creeds we know not, but we surmise the latter. INSANITY AFTER REVIVALS An investigation made by the State Board of Control of Charitable Institutions, Topeka, Kan., during the last week shows that the counties in which lengthy religious revivals have been held during the last year have the high records for the number of insane persons sent to the State asylum. “Insanity,” says H. C. Bowman, a member of the board, “seems to have followed the religious revivals like an epidemic. Reno county, where there was a protracted revival early last year, has sent 32 insane persons to the State asylum in Topeka in twelve months. I find that this epidemic of insanity has also followed the revivals which were held in Topeka, Arkansas City, Winfield, Wichita and other places.” “THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS SHALL ARISE’’ The Women’s Board of Foreign Missions has published the diagram which we reproduce below. It speaks of their appreciation of the difference between the Darkness and the Light. And yet it shows too brightly. There are really no such light spots as the illustration shows. The civilized communities thus represented are but drab at very most, not white. The very few who in the Lord’s estecm are white are those of whom the Apostle says, “The righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit.” * DARKNESS AND LIGHT an IN J [3636]