The Premier’s Visit to the Pope.—So rapidly do events follow on the heels of one another in these days that the foregoing may be regarded by some as ancient history by this time, but the matter is of sufficient importance to us as a nation that the visit of the Prime Minister of a Protestant State to the Man of Sin requires some words of strong condemnation. This is all the more necessary, in view of the statements made by Mr. Chamberlain in the House of Commons in reference to this un-called for visit. Mr. Chamberlain is reported to have said: “It was a privilege which neither of us [Lord Halifax, Foreign Secretary, and himself] will easily forget, to hear from the lips of ‘His Holiness’ the expressions of admiration and affection entertained for their Majesties, the King and Queen, and for the peoples of the British Empire.” Evidently both statesmen came under the spell and glamour of the Roman Pontiff and their effect may bear fruit some day. Rome is a past mistress in seducing men of stronger religious convictions than either Mr. Chamberlain or Lord Halifax and it would be wiser for them and other statesmen of a Protestant power to give the Temptress a wide berth.
Death of the Pope.—Pope Pius XI. is dead and has gone before the Great Judge where things will appear very different from the disordered state of things here below. We are not to
trouble our readers with any attempt at delineating the Pope’s character. To every true Protestant of the New Testament type the Pope is regarded as the head of a system that dishonours Christ and makes blasphemous claims. Our Protestant press—unfortunately its Protestant element is rather nebulous—has given much of its space to biographical and descriptive details of the late Pope’s life. Things have not gone too well with the Papacy in the wider sphere of European politics under the pontificate of Pius XI. and it is no secret that R.C.s are deeply concerned at what may happen in Germany and Italy. The late Pope professed great love for Britain but, it is to be feared, it was the kind of love the wolf had for the lamb. The fulsome flattery of the Archbishop of Canterbury and lesser dignitaries of the Church of England is what one would expect from men who are traitors in their Church. The religious (Protestant) press to a great extent came under the seductive influences that are leading too many astray.