Year: 1875

Opinions OF the Religious Press.


The topic of chief Importance to the re-
ligious press, and the one on which they COM
ment more generally than any other this
week. is the relation of the Catholic Church
to political parties and especially as affected
by the recent election in New Jersey. The
Examiner and Chronicle thinks that little
State is too much for Rome, and that it has
made it clear that the American people are a
long distance from submitting to the impe-
rious demands of an alien priesthood, and
that such will always be the verdict in every
similar case. The only danger the Examiner
apprehends from Catholics in this country is
from the apathy of Protestant Christians and
those who from conviction act with them
In opposition to Romanist pretensions The
Christian at Worlc thinks that in the
matters involved between Protestants and
Catholics in New Jersey and elsewhere there
is but one course open for the consistent
Protestant the enemy must be met and
foiled with the very weapon he has chosen,
the ballot. The Observer, after q careful and
exhaustive review of the controversy in New
Jersey, adds that these questions are to come
up all over the country, and it feels assured
that the people need only to be informed in
regard to the designs and plans Of the Roman
lists in order to set their seal upon them.
The free public school system must be main
tanned, and neither the Roman Catholic nor
any other religion must be sustained by ap-
preparations from the public funds. The
Christian Advocate approves of the New Jer-
sey constitutional amendments, and thinks
that, left to their own free choice, without
undue interference by the professional
politicians, the American people may be
trusted that they will demand good and
wholesome legislation, with wise and upright
administration. The Advocate was not sur
prised, though it was greatly graft
fed, with the large majority by which
these amendments were carried and
stop thus put to corrupt legislation
in that State. 1t now waits for similar re-
sponse from Ohio. The Evangelist thinks
other States as well as New Jersey will do
well to have an eye on the matter which called
forth the defeat of the Catholics in New Jer-
sey, and expresses its belief that no great po-
litical party can afford to champion such
cause as theirs The Baptist Weekly says that
not day too soon has the republican party
recognized the idea of meeting an issue that
the Romanists are determined to force upon
us, and which must be decided by an appeal
to a special vote of the people. Not as Prot
estants alone, it says, but as American citi-
zens, sincerely desiring the preservation Of
our institutions, under the protection of an
advancing intelligence, and with no regard
to any sectarian ends, we are to-day called
upon to settle the vital question of the per-
petuity Of our free school system, and to ''de-
nounce as crime against liberty and repub-
hcan institutions any project for a sectarian
division or perversion of the school fund of
the State Let it be done. The Tablet,
citing the case of New Jersey, expresses its
sorrow to find much more unanimity in
bigotry than in religion among Protestants
1t is not religion, it says which should be
eliminated from politics, but bigotry and
Protestants have by their bigotry been led to
take sides with those who wish to break up
religious societies by throwing impediments
in the way of their existence. By the adop-
ton of the constitutional amendments in
New Jersey, the Tablet thinks, Protestant in
stitutions and churches will suffer much
more than any Catholic congregation, how
ever poor.