MR. PRIMMER’S PROTEST.
THE Rev. Jacob Primmer, though retired from active service, is not idle in the good cause of Protestantism. The following resolution has been addressed by the Dunfermline Protestant Defence Association, of which he is president, to the Prime Minister, Home Secretary, and Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman:—
“That the Dunfermline Protestant Defence Association regards with amazement that within two and a half years of His Majesty King Edward making the Royal Declaration that he was a Protestant, and believed the sacrifice of the mass to be ‘superstitious and idolatrous,’ that on 18th August, in the Popish Mass-house at Marienbad. His Majesty freely and deliberately not only attended, but did actually take part in the Popish sacrifice of the mass, using the mass book, raising and sitting, and in the uniform of an Austrian Field-Marshal, and, after the manner of Popish soldiers, stood at what is called the ‘Elevation,’ i.e., when the Popish priest pretends that he has manufactured the wafer into Almighty God and now offers Him in sacrifice for the sins of the living and the dead; that His Majesty thus joined with Papists in the most superstitious and idolatrous rite of the Church of Rome, and which is declared by the Church of England to be ‘blasphemous fable,’ and by the Church of Scotland to be ‘most abominably injurious to Christ’s one only sacrifice,’ in violation of the Bill of Rights, did thus hold communion with the See or Church of Rome; that we believe that His Majesty was advised by His Majesty’s advisers openly, as the Popish Tablet puts it, ‘to do as Rome does,’ that it is ominous that this should take place immediately after the reception of and intriguing with the Papal Legate Vannutelli by the Government authorities in Ireland; that it is evident that the Government is desirous of getting the help of the Pope and his subjects in this country to assist them in governing the British Empire; that things are fast drifting into the same condition they were in when James II, sought to overthrow Protestantism and liberty by restoring the Papal despotic rule—and that we strongly protest against the Throne being tampered with in the interests of the Papal Anti-Christ, which has proved itself to be the foe of every government and every country.
“In name and on behalf of the Dunfermline Protestant Defence Association.
“JACOB PRIMMER, President.
“WM. WALLACE DRYSDALE, Secretary.
“Dunfermline, 3rd September, 1904.”
Popery in the Poorhouse.—The restless aggressive spirit of the Papacy, which finds its opportunity in the easy indifference and false liberalism of our country, has recently asserted itself in a way that has startled some sleepy Protestants. Through the treacherous apathy of the Protestant part of the Parish Council and the active zeal of the Romanist section a Popish altar has been erected at the public expense in Barnhill Poorhouse, Glasgow. The Established Church minister of Springburn, intending to hold a Communion service there, found this symbol of idolatry and superstition standing in his way, and the Protestant table consigned to a lumber closet or outhouse. Accordingly Mr. Dickie, the minister of Springburn, has made an outcry in the Presbytery and in the papers. The editor of the Glasgow “Evening Citizen” has also protested in a temperate way against the outrage. There is, however, no universal blaze of indignation and impatience such as the case well demands. The sense of the danger we are in, both for time and eternity, from this abomination that maketh desolate has died out of the minds of the men of the twentieth century, and we perceive that the revival of Popery long ago prophesied by seers of our nation will in due time take place, and that the tragedies of the past, in respect of bloodshed and ruination of souls, will be enacted over again. The fatal stupor in regard to Popery which characterises the body of the people, and the strange hostility of the press to any assertion of the rights of the Protestant public, are things which paralyse the energies of those who hate, with an honest patriotic hatred, these revelations of Antichrist. However, One sits in Heaven whose hatred is effectual, and will one day reveal itself terribly.