SECULARISM AND THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION IN THE UNITED STATES.—ASSASSINS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XI, Issue 21, 14 September 1883, Page 17

SECULARISM AND THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION IN THE UNITED STATES.— ASSASSINS.

Ih the United States of America the evil fruits of secularism, or, in other words, of the pretended " Reformation " are seen in an exaggerated or gigantic scale. The late President Garfield, in ascending the President's chair, appealing to statistics, said that in spite of the enormous sums spent by Government ou popular education, the ignorance, or as he phrased it, the " illiteracy " of the people was positively " appalling " ;— that was his word, I noted it at the time — appalling, and the ignorance was, he said, steadily increasing. Human nature and political nature in this colony, we may presume, are not much different from Yankee nature. Like causes produce like effects. Our system of Government education does not differ much from that of America. We may therefore look forward to the time when some future Viceroy, if the present education system continue, will tell the people of New Zealand that in spite of the millions hitherto spent on popular education the "illiteracy" of the New Zealand populace is aomething positively "appalling." Illiteracy or no illiteracy, the money being spent or squandered on popular education in thi3 Colony even now, may well be described as " appalling," considering the comparatively small numberof the population, and our heavy taxes and debts. But there was another evil, also— the direct fruit of Protestantism, which the President indicated as one of extreme danger to the morality and future peace and welfare of the Union. Vj^ftt. was Mormonism. Now, anyone acquainted with Luther's history knows that this apostate monk was the real author of Mormonism, or Christian Polygamy. There exists a document under his own hand by which he gave permission or authority to a German prince, being one of his proselytes, to marry a second wife, — his first a virtuous woman, being then alive. If a second, why not a third, a fourth, or as many as King Solomon himself wedded? Luther appealed to Scripture to justify his disciple's polygamy, as Brigham Young did. Oh, that " open Bible." What religious, moral, political abominations and extravagancies may it not be made to sanction when read and interpreted by Protestants. In the hands of Protestants the Bible, like the Press, is more of a curse than a blessing to mankind. It is a source of perpetual dissention and mischief-making — an obstacle to the practice of the Gospel, and a cause of bringing it into contemDt. It gave us the great Maori war, and a war debt of seven millions, and has made English, that is Protestant Christianity and all Christianity, indeed, stink in the nostrils of our native non-Christian fellowsubjects to this hour. It has often struck me as something passing strange that President Garfield had no sooner declared war Against the existing system of Government education in America, with its appalling waste of public money, and against Mormonism, in both of which so many powerful parties are interested, than he fell by the bullet of an assassin. The assassin was a half-witted man, whom it was almost a crime to punish capitally. It is just possible that he was acting at the prompting of some parties more deep and designing and wicked than himself. The affair is still shrouded in mystery, which may possibly never be cleared up, publicly, till the day of "judgment arrive. I should like much to see a Minister in this Colony, possessed of the moral courage of the late lamented President Garfield, declare war asainst Ihe present education system of New Zsaland and the lavish, the appalling expenditure of public money connected with it. The probability is. he would ere long be assassinated — politically, though not physically. They do things more thorough in America than in New Zealand on these occasions. Talk of Irish assassins, indeed ! they are mere babies of the business, compared with your American assassins. Henry VIII. paid an assassin for " removing " Cardinal Beaton, who stood in the way of his " Reformation " work in Scotland.— (See Tyller's " History of Scotland.") The " good " Queen Bess wanted Sir Amies Paulet to " remove " poor Mary Stuart in the Castle of Fotheringay, but he declined the work, whereupon she, gentle creature, called him " a dainty fellow, and no friend of her's," to refuse. John Knox and his "congregation of the Lord," the reformers in Scotland, were a band of bloody assassins— and no mistake. One of their chiefs, and Knox's bosom friend, the Regent Morton, was hanged in Edinburgh for his share in the murder of Darnley, after vainly trying to fasten the wicked deed on the innocent Mary Stuart, then Queen. Henry VIII., the Regent Morton, and the good Bess, with the members of Knox's " congregation of the Lord " must all go down to posterity in company with James Carey, Joe Brady, and other Irish " Invincibles," assassins, or would-be assassins. So, after all, ths English Government, people, and Press, need not be so very squeamish about Irish assassination, seeing the leaders of their " Reformation of religion " were either, in intention, or in fajjfef the worst of assassins. They bequeathed a bad example to those who have come after them. The Bradys and Careys have been but too apt to follow it. " The evil that men do generally lives after them." The evil that the authors of the sham Reformation did lives to this day, and will long live. We feel it in our New Zealand Education Act— a plundering and intolerant Act to us. North Bbiton.