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 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 ; but 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 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 Roman Church now presents a fair front to the world , covering with apologies her record of horrible cruelties . She has clothed herself in Christlike garments ; but she is unchanged . Every principle of the papacy that existed in past ages exists today . The doctrines devised in the darkest ages are still held . Let none deceive themselves . The papacy that Protestants are now so ready to 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 . She possesses the same pride and arrogant assumption that lorded it over kings and princes , and claimed the prerogatives of God . Her spirit is no less cruel and despotic now than when she crushed out human liberty and slew the saints of the Most High .
The papacy is just what prophecy declared that she would be , the apostasy of the latter times . 2 Thessalonians 2:3 , 4 . It is a part of her policy to assume the character which will best accomplish her purpose ; but beneath the variable appearance of the chameleon she conceals the invariable venom of the serpent . " Faith ought not to be kept with heretics , nor persons suspected of heresy " ( Lenfant , volume 1 , page 516 ), she declares . Shall this power , whose record for a thousand years is written in the blood of the saints , be now acknowledged as a part of the church of Christ ? It is not without reason that the claim has been put forth in Protestant countries that Catholicism differs less widely from Protestantism than in former times . There has been a change ; but the change is not in the papacy . Catholicism indeed resembles much of the Protestantism that now exists , because Protestantism has so greatly degenerated since the days of the Reformers .
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