Presidents left out would be more intelligible than the history of the
Church to the exclusion of the Vicar of Christ. How, I ask, could such
authority endure so long if it were a usurpation?

But you will tell me: "The supremacy of the Pope has been disputed in many
ages." So has the authority of God been called in question--nay, His very
existence has been denied; for, "the fool hath said in his heart there is
no God."(171) Does this denial destroy the existence and dominion of God?
Has not parental authority been impugned from the beginning? But by whom?
By unruly children. Was David no longer king because Absalom said so?

It is thus also with the Popes. Their parental sway has been opposed only
by their undutiful sons who grew impatient of the Gospel yoke. Photius,
the leader of the Greek schism, was an obedient son of the Pope until
Nicholas refused to recognize his usurped authority. Henry VIII. was a
stout defender of the Pope's supremacy until Clement VII. refused to
legalize his adultery. Luther professed a most abject submission to the
Pope till Leo X. condemned him.

You cannot, my dear reader, be a loyal citizen of the United States while
you deny the constitutional authority of the President. You have seen that
the Bishop of Rome is appointed not by man, but by Jesus Christ, President
of the Christian commonwealth. You cannot, therefore, be a true citizen of
the Republic of the Church so long as you spurn the legitimate supremacy
of its Divinely constituted Chief. "He that is not with Me is against Me,"
says our Lord, "and he that gathereth not with Me scattereth." How can you
be with Christ if you are against His Vicar?

The great evil of our times is the unhappy division existing among the
professors of Christianity, and from thousands of hearts a yearning cry
goes forth for unity of faith and union of churches.

It was, no doubt, with this laudable view that the Evangelical Alliance
assembled in New York in the fall of 1873. The representatives of the
different religious communions hoped to effect a reunion. But they
signally and lamentably failed. Indeed, the only result which followed
from the alliance was the creation of a new sect under the auspices of Dr.
Cummins. That reverend gentleman, with the characteristic modesty of all
religious reformers, was determined to have a hand in improving the work
of Jesus Christ; and, like the other reformers, he said, with those who
built the tower of Babel