Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1913-12-15
REV. DIR. MckIM's LECTURE.
Alexandrians Among the Doctors
Auditors Yesterday Afternoon.

| a number of resilents of this city
and neighborhood went 20 Washing
ton yesterday to hear Rev. DR.. r,
H. NlcKim deliver an address on
why We Are Protestants." The
speaker was rector Of Christ Church,
Alexandria. forty years ago. The lee
turc was delivered in the New Ma
tiona Theater The theater was
crowded to its capacity and several
hundred persons were unable to gain
admission. The speaker, among other
things, said
Eve are Protestants because we
do not believe in bartering our splr-
itual liberty for the miserable bond
age exacted by the Church at Rome
There is no church in Christendom
which has varied in its teachings as
much as the Catholic Church, There
is no mention in the Bible of purga-
tory or auricular confession and the
infallibility of the Pope is absurd
and confession booths are soul
traps" I'VE are Protestants be-
cause we love our country and can
not contemplate with equanmity the
possibility that this land Of the free
and the brave should be brought un-
der the dominion Of the Pope. Why
mot? Because the popes have solemn
" condemned free speech, free
press, religious liberation, and liberty
of conscience.
"TeIl me then, pray you. When
politicians who are candidates for
office trembIe lest they should offend
the Roman Hierarchy; when merchants
stand in awe of the boycott which
the priests may proclaim against
item; when the public press is ever on
its guard less it offend the Roman
Church; when lecturers and Salvation
Army preachers are in danger of mob
violence in this land of free speech;
when a great newspaper in our own
city is beaten to it's knees b. the
club, which the priests know so well
how to use-I ask, when these things
are true, is it not fact that our
liberties are abridged, ina. ali cccie'
siastical tyranny does already, in
fact. exist in our midst?
"What then? Why this? Our
preat Protestant communonS must
realize the seriousness of the crlsls
and make common cause against tbs
insiduous menace to our liberties.
They must come out into the open
and stand together in solid phalanX
against all these invasions of personal
liberty. not in anger, not in bitterness
rot with violence Of speech or action
but calmly, resolutely.
In concluding. Dr. McKim said:
81 ask YOU then, my fellow-cltlzens,
is il not time for all Protestants 70
take counsel together for the security
of our liberties, for preservation OF
the heritage of personal liberty, llb-
erty of conscience, liberty of speech
liberty Of action which we recelveA
fron our forefathers? Colonial
America was Protestant, overwhel-
mjnglv so, and the statesmen ana
natriots of the Revolution also. were
overwhelmingly Protestant, though
there we're many Roman Catholics
who nobly and bravely labored ana
ronoht and suffered with them. But
the ideas which gave birth to the
Revolution were the offspring Of the
Protestant Reformation.
"The principles which lay at the
root Of the American Constitution
y,ere horn of the Reformation; and
= hahooves lis. whose ancestors pled-
ood their lives. their fortunes, and
their sacred honor, for American IN
depen:ence, to guard those principles
of l.,ertv from every open or secre'
assault.
"Jn other words, be content to be
snir;tnal and not political organi'
: zatien. and beware that you make
no attempt, direct or Indirect ti
tamper with the sacred principles o, "
our Constitution. Then there WI
be peace between us, and we can l'V'
and labor together for the honor an'
; the glory of our common country
Murderer Escapes.