To speak upon an assigned subject has always been difficult for me. If I had the privilege of speaking upon a subject of my own choice before a gathering such as this, surely my theme would not be the one assigned to me here. However, I have made an honest effort to solve this problem and have solved it to my own satisfaction and I hope to the satisfaction of some of you at least.

The question as phrased in the program brings to my mind most forcibly the abiding tragedy of religious confusion. Exchanging the bird's perspective for the frog's is a fair example of the fall from the clear doctrine of the Gospel to the infinite pile of dogmas of the Papacy. To think that a political organization, known through the ages as the Roman-Catholic Church, may in any way interfere with the coming of the 2Kingdom of Jesus Christ is to say the least, absurd!

How any one can conceive of an elephant's interfering with an eagle, of the straw's interfering with the wheat, of an illusion's interfering with reality, lies entirely beyond my power of comprehension.

Yet I have no trouble whatsoever in discovering the source of such pertinent questions as, Is the Italian Mission a failure? Do the restrictive immigration laws render our work unnecessary? Are Italians not self-supporting? Why not let the Italians remain Roman-Catholic?

It is a hard saying, but I think that I am justified when I declare that the one who propounded the above questions must be someone not at all conversant with the true doctrine of the Roman-Catholic Church, someone who has had little or no contact with the people who come from the so-called Roman-Catholic countries.

If we compare Christianity as it appears in the Gospel with the Roman Catholic Church of the last seventeen hundred years, it does not take a genius to discover that the name of Christian has survived, but its meaning has vanished.

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One wonders just what is meant by the reawakening of Roman Catholicism. It may mean any one of a hundred things. For instance, it may mean the Eucharistic Congress held in Chicago two years ago, followed by a crime wave which finds no parallel in the annals of any nation nor in the criminal records of any city of ancient or modern times. It may mean the ably planned, careful, and relentlessly pursued policy which would exclude the Holy Bible from our public schools. It may mean the candidacy for the office of President of the militant governor of New York. It may mean the assassination of President Obregon of Mexico at the hand of a faithful instrument of the Jesuits. It may mean the proposed return of the High Anglican Communion to the fold, and it may mean the breaking away of seventy-six per cent of the people of Czecho-Slovakia from the papal dogma a kind of Unitarian doctrine. It may mean the kissing of the toe of the Pope by the handsome Mayor of New York, and it may mean the burning of hundreds of copies of the Holy Bible placed by that gallant Gideon's Band in the hotels of America and removed by the Knights of Columbus, who delivered them to the Bishop of Boston to be sprinkled with holy water and subsequently destroyed by fire. It may mean the last papal encyclical De Vera Religionis Unitatis Fovenda, which appeared on the sixth day of 4last January, and in which we read that "Christ our Lord instituted His (the Roman-Catholic) Church as a perfect society," and that "the Apostolic See cannot on any terms take part in any assembly having for its object meeting on equal terms with other churches."

It may mean the ever-increasing interest of the Roman-Catholic Church in the parochial school system, and it may mean the resolution passed unanimously by the Knights of Columbus at their annual convention in Philadelphia demanding that the President of the United States withdraw diplomatic recognition of the Government of Mexico. Yes, the reawakening of Roman Catholicism may mean any one of these things and many others that could be added to the list.

But let us observe for a moment one or two of these various manifestations of the possible reawakening of the Church of Rome. Take the last one on our list. What seems to be the trouble with the Roman Catholic Church beyond the Rio Grande River? Are the Mexican people mad? Is the so-called persecution of priests, monks, and nuns due to their religious fervor? Was the conflict between the Roman Catholic clergy and the government 5born of the clergy's passion for saving the people from their sins? The answer is that the present conflict is only for political control. The cause of all trouble, we are told, is the adoption of the new Mexican constitution. Up to this time the Catholic Church had demanded that the constitution of Mexico should provide that "the religion of the Mexican nation is and shall perpetually be Roman Catholic Apostolic. The nation will protect it by wise and just laws and prohibit the exercise of any religion whatsoever." Now this devilish article has been replaced by one more modern and more spiritual. It reads as follows: "Every one is free to embrace the religion of his choice and to practice all ceremonies, devotions, or observances of his own creed, either in places of public worship or at home, provided that these do not constitute an offense punishable by la bang, bang, bang!" The Pope refuses to submit to the enforcement of a national constitution and issues his mandate to a nation, calling upon his spiritual subjects to disobey the laws of their country. And he has done this in the most sweeping terms. The document concludes with these words:

"Thus we make known to the faith in Mexico and the Catholic Universe that 6we energetically condemn every decree that the Mexican government has enacted against the Catholic religion, against the Church and her sacred ministers and pastors, against her laws, rights, and property, and also against the authority of this Holy See. We raise our pontifical voice with apostolic freedom before you to condemn, reprove, and declare null, void, and of no effect the said decree and all others which have been enacted by the civil authorities in such contempt of the ecclesiastical authority of this Holy See, and with such injury to religion, to its sacred ministers, and to illustrious men."

This is an expression, to be sure, of the reawakening of Roman Catholicism, and it cannot be over-emphasized that the Vatican is not half so much interested in the coming of the Kingdom of our Lord as it is in claiming the right to a voice in the temporal affairs of nations.

In former days the Pope compelled the German Emperor to stand for three days in the snow of Canossa, but today because his influence is waning with the progress of civilization, and because the government of Mexico turned a deaf ear to the Pope and actually punished those priests and 7nuns who deliberately refused to obey the laws of the land, the Church of Rome ordered the assassination of President-elect Obregon just as in former days it ordered the assassination of that brave soldier of the Cross, William of Orange. That is one expression of the reawakening of Roman Catholicism.

Let us focus our attention on just one other possible expression of such a revival. Let us take for our observation the tremendous parochial school building program. It is because the Roman Catholic Church is so enthusiastic about education? Is it not true that wherever the Roman Catholic Church has had full sway, illiteracy and superstition and poverty abound? Who dares to deny that the largest groups of illiterates are to be found in Russia, in Spain, in Latin America, in Austria, and, until recent years, in Italy?

Could it be that the Roman Catholic Church, which up to yesterday had condemned education in all its forms, is now making an honest effort to follow in the footsteps of the Protestant Reformation by ushering in a new era of learning?

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There has been a series of articles on the Roman Catholic Church in the Atlantic Monthly from the pen of an American Roman Catholic clergyman of more than national prominence, as the Atlantic itself informs us, adding: "For over thirty years he has ministered to his large flock with gentle devotion and untiring zeal. Renowned for his intellectual attainments, he has held high and responsible positions in his church."

This clergyman, in his article entitled "The Heresy of the Parochial School," writes:

"The truth is, the activities of the Catholic Church in America have been diverted from their proper aim. Education has supplanted religion in its own sphere. The Church has become so institutionalized that it has been commercialized. It is already top-heavy. The financial burden is becoming almost unbearable to many. To support the ever increasing number of institutions, the martyr spirit is developed in the people. Poor souls, who must pay the public school tax and at the same 9time meet the private school assessment! It is unjust, they are told, yet they must bear it manfully. The excellence of their Catholic school is continually dinned into their ears. Nevertheless many are growing skeptical. They are beginning to apply Christ's test, "By their fruits ye shall know them." They are beginning to ask wherein these children, who are nursed in the lap of Mother Church, excel. None can maintain that they are more pious, more religious, than the children of generations which attended the public schools ..... There are just as many criminals .... We are already reaping the whirlwind sown in our schools. Many thoughtful priests are disturbed by the failure of the system, but they are the victims of circumstance. They may not, unscathed, voice their fears and doubts. They see the new generation drifting away from the practice of religion."

Why, it sounds almost like a Protestant of the K. K. K. school summing up the situation, and yet he is a Roman Catholic clergyman of more than national prominence!

Listen to him some more: "The priest submits humbly, abjectly, if he 10would maintain his standing. But many there are who rebel at heart. The world would be astounded did it know the number of priests with the desire to remain faithful to the forms of ecclesiasticism while their very being cries out against the system. These are not the frivolous, not the careless, not the negligent or the unworthy, they are those who have broken through the fanatical wall that was built about them during the years of their seminary training. They are men who have burned the midnight oil and through travail have come to know the glorious privilege of independent thought.

Such clergymen see clearly that religion in the Catholic Church today has become a complex and intricate mass of laws, dogmas and practices that little resemble the simple faith of the early centuries.

Now, ladies and gentlemen, tell me, can anything like that interfere with our work? Of course the largest number of our American friends have trouble in understanding even the simple language of this Roman Catholic writer. But I have no trouble at all. I still remember one little story which I read when I was being intellectually nursed by a saintly Roman 11Catholic priest. The story is from a little book entitled, "The Little Flower of St. Francis." Here is the story:

"Once St. Francis received twelve boys who wished to become friars, and to test them he called them to the garden and gave them a set of little plants to be transplanted, and he told them: 'Look at me and do just the same thing that I am doing.'

"And he began to make holes in the ground and to put in the plants in this queer way, with the branches buried in the holes and the roots sticking up out of the ground. The boy who was next to him was shocked at this way of planting, but remembering his instructions, he made a hole in the ground and put the branches of the plant in and left the roots out. The next boy did the same, and the next, until one of them said: 'Father Francis, I am the son of a farmer and know how to plant these plants, and the way to plant them successfully is to put the root into the ground and leave the branches out.'

"'Oh my boy,' said St. Francis, 'go thy way. Leave the monastery at once and return to the farm of your father. You may be a good farmer, but you 12would never be a good friar.'"

It is possible in this day and generation that anything like that will interfere with our work? Shall I continue now to describe one by one the various manifestations of the reawakening of Roman Catholicism, such as the burning of the Holy Bible, the candidacy of Mr. Smith for the presidency, the Eucharistic Congress with its results? Only he who does not wish to see it could fail to see that all these manifestations of reawakening cannot interfere with our work for the simple reason that our work is in the field of religion, while theirs is in the field of politics.

So let us not waste any time in argument about anything's interfering with our work and especially about the reawakening of Roman Catholicism's interfering with it, but let us consecrate ourselves anew to the task of saving souls. We know that we can release that fresh life which comes only from a renewed vision of God and a clearer understanding of our Christ. One who along the lines that Christ laid down has in his own 13life overcome doubt and mastered the inward strugle, becomes by his mere presence a source of creative power to those among whom he lives. Why do we know so much more about the life of Francis of Assisi than about the life of Goldoni? The answer is that while Goldoni made many plays all of which we have, Francis of Assisi made only one play. The play of his life, presented with all the temperament of an artist, was the pattern and example of Christ.

Let us not forget that a Bunyan writing in an unspeakable English prison, a George Washington kneeling at Valley Forge, or a Sherwood Eddy seeking the presence of God in all our human relationships will do more to deepen the spiritual lives of men than any great spectacle, however widely noted and successfully exploited by a sensational press.

Let us not forget that we are ambassadors of God to a bleeding world crying from the depth of its suffering for the redemption of its body and its soul.

We are heralding in the Kingdom of the Lord of Glory, messengers of 14reconciliation. How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation, that saith unto the Italians, "Your God reigneth!"

This precious Gospel of ours cut its way through centuries of enthroned heathen supersitition and heathen morals. I can do it again if only it is proclaimed by those who know it to be true because they have lived it themselves.

That wonderful man of God, Robert N. Sneer, the present Moderator of the General Assembly, in an address given on the evening of the Student Volunteer Convention at Detroit said: "One is our Master, even Christ, and we have His clear command:

"'Go out and make disciples of all nations, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.'

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"It was His intention to release forces which would stir and overthrow the world of sin, destroying injustice and inequality, polygamy and slavery, child marriage, infanticide, and the oppression of the poor wherever these things, or anything else that is evil, should be found. And whenever they are found the Gospel of Jesus Christ (and the reawakening of Roman Catholicism) turn a pitiless light upon them and work to remove them. Our mission is not a cultural mission nor the offer of another religion. Our mission is the fulfillment of a trust, the offer of the only religion, the religion of Christ the Son of the living God."

As for me, I consider it my sacred duty to offer to every Roman Catholic his only Savior and mine, Jesus Christ. The Jesuit fathers upon landing at Ellis Island proudly stated, "We have come to make America Catholic." That is their business. One morning the great English architect, Sir Christopher Wren, while St. Paul's Cathedral was in process of construction, passed among his workingmen, most of whom did not know him, 16and of three men engaged in the same line of work he asked the same question, "What are you doing?" The first answered, "I am cutting this stone." The second one's answer was, "I am earning three shillings and six pence a day." But the third man straightened up, squared his shoulders, and holding his mallet in one hand and his chisel in the other proudly replied, "I am helping Christopher Wren build this cathedral." Our business is to help God build His Kingdom.

Of course there is nothing more futile than the attempt to make a prediction concerning great religious revivals. But I know that there is one coming very soon among our own people. When will it begin? Where will it be started? Who will lead it? What means will be employed?

I have no suggestions to make, but I do know positively that the way of God in history may be likened to the course of those rivers which flow underground, breaking forth at last in astonishing volume and 17strength and when this happens, the gates of hell shall not prevail.

Does the reawakening of Roman Catholicism interfere with our work? The answer is to be found in the 23rd chapter and the 28th verse of Jeremiah: "The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the straw to the wheat? saith Jehovah. Is not my word like fire?"