The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1899-05-27
THE.PREsBYTER1AN ASSEMBLY.

nave held their general council in Min
neapolis, and the daily papers have
given considerable space to their pro-
ceedings. One paper in particular dis
tinguished itself by Haunting the pic
lures of Calvin and Knox in the eyes
OF its readers of every denomination for
all entire week. 1t bestowed fulsome
praise upon the Presbyterian church
without any regard to historical accura-
cy, and falsely declared that "it has been
since its constitution, is now and PROM
ises to continue to be bulwark of civil
and religious liberty" and that "the faith
ers OF the church fought for their prin-
ciples, which included the right OF every
man to worship the true God in manner
and form dictated by his conscience"
The writer of such buncombe has evil
IDENTIFY never read the history OF early
Calvinism, or he would not be guilty OF
such adulation. II he peruses the work
oil the Protestant writer, Audin, which
has been translated from the French by
the bishop OF Richmond he will discov-
er from authentic sources that John Cal
vim was the very incarnation OF bigotry
and cruelty, and that he was the foe Of
civil and religious liberty in Geneva.
His followers in Connecticut were the
legislators who enacted the blue" laws
and made life not worth the living for
men OF any other creed than theirs. Cal
wins intolerance was notorious. Who
soever opposed him, whether in religion
or in politics, was hunted down and
destroyed, as in the case OF poor Mi
chael Servetus, OF whose murder the
historian Gibbon says: Il am more
deeply scandalizedat the single execution
OF Servetus than at the hetacombs which
have blazed at auto da fes of Spain and
Portugal" That is enough at this time
about Calvin, one OF the chief founders
OF the Presbyterian church.
But what of John Knox, whom Rev.
VIM. Wilkinson, the political parson OF
the Church of England, eulogizes in the
same paper?
John Calvin, the Frenchman, was a
man OF sanity character when compared
with John Knox, the Scotchman. Four
of his own countrymen, contemporaries
OF his, show him up in lurid colors.
They are Hamilton, Burne, LANG and
Baillie. They have been called impu-
dent liars by the friends of the Scotch
"reformer," but what they have said of
linn has not been successfully refuted
by his eulogists. McCrie, champion
OF Knox, tries to answer the three first
writer's mentioned, who published their
structures of him within nine years after
his death. His Catholic contemporaries
denounce Knox as an abandoned profit
gate, while his contemporary friends
kept an ominous silence on the subject
OF his moral character. He was a man
OF stern religion and, being an apostate
priest, he bore unrelenting enmity to the
faith OF his fathers Everywhere in
Scotland he caused tumults, sacrilege
and violence, and entertained bitter
hatred for the unfortunate Mary Stuart
who was brought to the block by Queen
Elizabeth. DR.. Samuel johnson stigma
tizcd him as "the ruffian OF the Reforma-
ton and during his tour in the Heb
rides, after having seen the effects Of
his vandalism in the destruction of state
ly temples decorated with Catholic art
he vehemently expressed the wish that
the bones Of the iconoclast were buried
liz the highway and not in Christian
cemetery.
These are the two Johns whom the
Presbyterians honor, and whom the
Minneapolis paper holds up to the ad-
miration Of this community as pro-
motors of civil and religious liberty
The denomination which they are re-
sponsible for is not conspicuous for its
federation. Some of the ministers at
the Minneapolis meeting are not re-
niarkable for breadth of thought One
OF them, Rev. John F. Carson, OF Brook
Ign, N. Y, in a sermon preached by him
last Sunday, exemplihes what we have
said OF their narrow views. He saw a
grave danger to the american Sab
bath" in the great number OF foreigners
who are coming from Catholic coun-
tries to the United States. "If l had it
in my power" said this genuine disciple
OF Knox, ~ would meet every incom-
ing ship as soon as it enters the harbor.
| would take the Bible in one hand and
the American flag in the other, and 1
would say to every emigrant, These are
our standards. Unless you can love and
respect both we don't want you here.
Go back to the oppression from which
you are fleeing"
There are certain foreigners whom
Rev. Carson would receive with open
arms. They are the Scotch, the Eng
fish, and the Scctch-Irish. OF the first
he said they are "the backbone of the
religious and moral life OF this country
When it is remembered that the Pres.
byterians form but one-fftieth of the