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without the power is just what they desire. The Romanist feels at
liberty to sin, because the church claims the right to pardon. To
him who loves self-indulgence, it is more pleasing to confess to a
fellow-mortal than to open the soul to God. It is more palatable to
human nature to do penance than to renounce sin. It is easier to
mortify the flesh by sackcloth and nettles and galling chains than
to crucify fleshly lusts. Heavy is the yoke which the carnal heart is
willing to bear rather than bow to the yoke of Christ.
There is a striking similarity between the church of Rome and
the Jewish church at the time of Christ’s first advent. While the
Jews secretly trampled upon every principle of the law of God, they
were outwardly rigorous in the observance of its precepts, loading
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it down with exactions and traditions that made obedience painful
and burdensome. As the Jews professed to revere the law, so do
Romanists claim to reverence the cross. They exalt the symbol
of Christ’s sufferings, while in their lives they deny him whom it
represents.
Papists place crosses upon their churches, upon their altars, and
upon their garments. Everywhere is seen the insignia of the cross.
Everywhere it is outwardly honored and exalted. But the teachings
of Christ are buried beneath a mass of senseless traditions, false
interpretations, and rigorous exactions. The Saviour’s words con-
cerning the bigoted Jews apply with still greater force to the Romish
leaders: “They bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and
lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move
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them with one of their fingers.” [Matthew 23:4.] Conscientious souls are kept in constant terror, fearing the wrath of an offended God,
while the dignitaries of the church are living in luxury and sensual
pleasure.
Satan instigates the worship of images, the invocation of saints,
and the exaltation of the pope, to attract the minds of the people
from God and from his Son. To accomplish their ruin, he endeavors
to turn their attention from Him through whom alone they can find
salvation. He will direct them to any one that can be substituted
for the One who has said, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are
heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” [Matthew 11:28.]
It is Satan’s constant effort to misrepresent the character of God,
the nature of sin, and the real issues at stake in the great controversy.
By his sophistry he blinds the minds of men, and secures them as his
agents to war against God. By perverted conceptions of the divine
attributes, heathen nations were led to believe human sacrifices
necessary to secure the favor of Deity; and the most horrible cruelties
have been perpetrated under the various forms of idolatry. The
Romish Church, uniting the forms of paganism and Christianity,
and in a similar ma
resorted to practices no less cruel and revolting. In the days of
Rome’s supremacy there were instruments of torture to compel
assent to her doctrines. There was the stake for those who would not
concede to her claims. There were massacres on a scale that will
never be known to mortals. Dignitaries of the church studied, under
Character and Aims of the Papacy
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Satan their master, to invent means to cause the greatest possible
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torture, and not end the life of their victim. The infernal process was
repeated to the utmost limit of human endurance, until nature gave
up the struggle, and the sufferer hailed death as a sweet release.
Such was the fate of Rome’s opponents. For her adherents she
had the discipline of the scourge, of famishing hunger, of bodily
austerities in every conceivable, heart-sickening form. To secure the
favor of Heaven, penitents violated the laws of God by violating the
laws of nature. They were taught to sunder every tie which he has
formed to bless and gladden man’s earthly sojourn. The churchyard
contains millions of victims who spent their lives in vain endeavors
to subdue their natural affections, to repress, as offensive to God,
every thought and feeling of sympathy with their fellow-creatures.
If we desire to understand the determined cruelty of Satan, man-
ifested for hundreds of years, not among those who never heard of
God, but in the very heart and throughout the extent of Christendom,
we have only to look at the history of Romanism. And as we see
how he succeeds in disguising himself, and accomplishing his work
through the leaders of the church, we may better understand why he
has so great antipathy to the Bible. If that book is read, the mercy
and love of God will be revealed; it will be seen that he lays upon
men none of these heavy burdens. All that he asks is a broken and
contrite heart, a humble, obedient spirit.
Christ gives no example in his life for men and women to shut
themselves in monasteries in order to become fitted for Heaven. He
has never taught that love and sympathy must be repressed. The
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Saviour’s heart overflowed with love. The nearer man approaches to
moral perfection, the keener are his sensibilities, the more acute is
his perception of sin, and the deeper his sympathy for the afflicted.
The pope claims to be the vicar of Christ. How does his character
bear comparison with that of our Saviour? Was Christ ever known to
consign men to the prison or the rack because they did not pay him
homage as the King of Heaven? Was his voice heard condemning
to death those who did not accept him? When he was slighted by
the people of a Samaritan village, the apostle John was filled with
indignation, and inquired, “Lord, wilt thou that we command fire
to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did?”
Jesus looked with pity upon his disciple, and rebuked his harsh
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spirit, saying, “The Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives,
but to save them.” [Luke 9:54, 56.] How different from the spirit manifested by Christ is that of his professed vicar.
The Romish Church now presents a fair front to the world, cov-
ering with apologies her record of horrible cruelties. She has clothed
herself in Christlike garments; but she is unchanged. Every principle
of popery that existed in ages past exists today. The doctrines de-
vised in the darkest ages are still held. Let none deceive themselves.
The popery that Protestants are now so ready to embrace and honor
is the same that ruled the world in the days of the Reformation, when
men of God stood up at the peril of their lives to expose her iniquity.
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She possesses the same pride and arrogant assumption that lorded it