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WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

We clip the following item from a daily paper of recent date:

“The Pope will attend the coronation of the Czar. The coming together of these two heads of the different wings of the Catholic church, one of which recognizes the Pope as the supreme authority, and the other the Czar, is one of the most important religious events in the history of this century. It indicates a radical change in the prejudices of these two great religious bodies, the Roman and the Greek Church, that has been accomplished in the Protestant Church by the Evangelical Alliance.”

What does it mean? Is it possible that this is to be the first open step toward a re-union of the Greek and Catholic churches? Is the breach of such long standing about to be closed? Originally, as is well known, the Church was one, with Constantinople as the residence of the Emperor, and the recognized

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center of religious power. Afterward, a breach occurred, the Church became divided, the Bishops of Constantinople and Rome antagonized each other, and all attempts to heal the wounds and close the breach were fruitless. From that day to this the two have been apart. Rome maintained its supremacy, while Constantinople was wrested from its Greek professors, and has been held by the Mohammedans to this day. It is confidently expected, however, that it will ere long pass into the hands of Russia, and again become the recognized center of the religion of the Greek Church, of which the Czar is at present the recognized head.

In view of the marvelous changes through which the Roman Church has passed during the last twenty-five years, and the recent experiences of the Czar in his own dominions, may we not expect that the differences of the past will be buried, concessions made, and a reunion of the two Churches effected so as to give united strength to the work of restoring order, and checking, if possible, the dreaded opposition so rapidly coming to the front in all parts of Europe. That some change must take place, and that right early, is manifest.—Our Rest. [Ans. See Isa. 8:12-16.—ED.]

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— May, 1883 —