The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1910-01-31

Divine authority has gone BY Gen
eral intelligence has taught mankind
that II is mistake to suppose that
one God.appointed king and Kingdom
We're DivInely appointed TO wipe anoth.
er Divinely appointed king and king.
dom OF the face Of the earth. Hence
popes and kings now admit that they
reign by popular sufferance, and
their appeals for money, for armies
and navies, is no longer on the score
that they were Divinely instructed to
obliterate each other, but on the score
of selfdefense.
This claim, however, wholly de.
stroys the argument that we are now
or ever In the past have been under
Christ's Kingdom, either direct or
through the popes. Neither now nor at
| any other time in the worlds history
has there been reign OF righteousness
such as the Scriptures declare Christs
Kingdom shall be. May we not, then
with good grace-Catholics and Prot.
estants-admit that neither our Catho.
lie popes, emperors and kings, nor our
Protestant kings, emperors and heads
OF Churches are reigning with any
Divine authority manifest to human
judgment? Let us bumbly admit the
nonsense of the legends on our coins,
Catholic and Protestant, to the effect
that kings and popes reign by the
grace of God-by Divine appointment.
Let us rather say that they came into
power through the exercise of brute
force and in time of common public
ignorance. Nor by this do we mean
any disrespect to the governments of
today--rather we have shown that to-
! day the people are ruling through
| their Congresses, Parliaments, Reich
stays, ETC.. and that the kings and
emperors are mere figure heads of
| power, more or less useful and de-
pendent upon the goodwill of their
people.
IL II be asked how we shall account
! for the period Of the dark ages and au-
| tocratic and deyilish misrule. our re-
| ply would be to point to the Apostles
words. He declares that Satan Is the
god or ruler Of this world, who now
operates through the disobedient--
| through those not In harmony with
God, who constitute the vast majority
In Christendom and elsewhere And
we remind you that our Lord Jesus
also spoke of Satan as being the
Prince OF this world or age John xii,
3D, and Of himself as the Prince or
Ruler of the coming Age, the Millen-
nlal Age John xviii, 38).
All, yes! the sooner both Catholics and
Protestants admit what they and all
the world now see, the better-namely,
that for long lime our great Adver-
sary held us I'm a bondage of ignorance
and superstition, In getting free from
which many bright minds have reacted
towards infdellty, because they did
not see that many Of the teachings of
the past, both Catholic and Protestant
were not only Irrational, but most posi-
lively unscriptural teachings Of men,
and, as st. Paul declared, doctrines of
demons" q Timothy iv, u.
Not Vice .sersnt Christ
In view of the fore-going-in view of
the fact that the Divine titles Of all
kings and emperors are now abrogat-
ed, papacy need feel no special dis
grace to her cause In similarly abro-
eating the claim that the popes reign
as representatives of Christ or have
authority so to do. Indeed such a
claim Is more safely denied than held,
for in the light of our day papacy's
best friends cannot look into the past
and point with pride to any achieve
ments as properly representing the
reign Of the Prince of Peace-Imman-
uel. In the light of the present all of
Gods people, Catholics and Protesants
Of every shade, should rejoice to join
In the Lords Prayer-"Thy Kingdom
come; thy will be done on earth as II Is
done In heaven" Surely this is what
all saints of all denominations should
desire and pray for and labor for.
Not that we can hope to bring II to
pass of ourselves, however. Nearly
nineteen centuries of efforts show to
the contrary. Even our last century
OF great missionary endeavor, Catholic
and Protestant, proves this. United
States statistics show that in the year
1900 there were six hundred millions
of heathens, and that In the year 1900
their numbers had doubled-there were
twelve hundred millions Of heathens.
While continuing our exertions on be-
half Of the heathens abroad and at
home, let us tie our faith to the Apos-
ties words and wait for Gods Son
from heaven" Il Thessalonians |, 1O).
At the second coming of Christ and
the gloriication OF his Church, 'his
elect" "his saints" gathered from all
denominations, Catholic and Protes-
tant (and some from outside of all
OF them)--only then will the glorious
reign Of Christ and the Church begin.
Only then win the spiritual Seed of
Abraham be complete and the work of
blessing the unregenerate world begin
the Millennial Kingdom work-the
overthrow of Satan and his empire
the scattering of darkness, ignorance
and superstition which he fostered--
the flooding OF the earth with the light
of the knowledge OF the glory OF God
the restoration Of natural Israel to
Divine fayor-the bringing I'm OF ever