TO ALL THE FAITHFUL MINISTERS OF THE GOSPEL,
I also, dedicate this book.
Venerable Ministers of the Gospel! Rome is the great danger ahead
for the Church of Christ, and you do not understand it enough.
The atmosphere of light, honesty, truth and holiness in which you arborn,
and which you have breathed since your infancy, makes it almost impossible
for you to realize the dark mysteries of idolatry, immorality, degrading
slavery, hatred of the Word of God, concealed behind the walls of that
modern Babylon. You are too honest to suspect them; and your precious
time is too much taken up by the sacred duties of your ministry, to study the
long labyrinth of argumentations which form the bulk of the greater number
of controversial books. Besides that, the majority of the books of controversy
against Rome are of such a dry character that, though many begin
to read them, very few have the courage to go to the end. The consequence
is an ignorance of Romanism which becomes more and more deplorable
and fatal, every day.
It is ignorance which paves the way to the triumph of Rome, in
a near future, if there is not a complete change in your views, on that
subject.
It is that ignorance which paralyzes the arm of the Church of Christ, and
makes the glorious word "Protestant" senseless, almost a dead and ridiculous
word. For who does really protest against Rome, to-day? where are
those who sound the trumpet of alarm?
When Rome is striking you to the heart by cursing your schools and
wrenching the Bible from the hands of your children; when she is not only
battering your doors, but scaling your walls and storming your citadels,
how few dare go to the breach and repulse the audacious and sacrilegious
foe?
Why so? Because modern Protestants have not only forgotten what
Rome was, what she is, and what she will forever be: the most irreconcilable
and powerful enemy of the Gospel of Christ; but they consider her
almost a branch of the church whose corner-stone is Christ.
Faithful ministers of the Gospel! I present you this book that you may
know that the monster Church of Rome, who shed the blood of your forefathers,
is still at work, to-day, at your very door, to enchain your people to
the feet of her idols. Read it, and for the first time, you will see the inside
life of Popery with the exactness of Photography. From the supreme
art with which the mind of the young and timid child is fettered, enchained
and paralyzed, to the unspeakable degradation of the priest under
the iron heel of the bishop, everything will be revealed to you as it has
never been before.
The superstitions, the ridiculous and humiliating practices, the secret
and mental agonies of the monks, the nuns and the priests, will be shown to
you as they were never shown before. In this book, the sophisms and errors
of Romanism are discussed and refuted with a clearness, simplicity and
evidence which my twenty-five years of priesthood only could teach me. It
is not in boasting that I say this. There can be no boasting in me for having
been so many years an abject slave of the Pope. The book I offer you
is an arsenal filled with the best weapons you ever had to fight, and, with the
help of God, conquer the foe.
The learned and zealous champion of Protestantism in Great Britain
Rev. D. Badenoch, who has revised the manuscript, wrote to a friend: "I
do not think there is a Protestant work more thrilling in interest and more
important at the present time. It is not only full of incidents, but also of
arguments, on the side of truth with all classes of Romanists, from the
bishops to the parish priests. I know of no work which gives so graphically
the springs of Roman Catholic life, and at the same time, meets the
plausible objections to Protestantism in Roman Catholic circles. I wish
with all my heart that this work would be published in Great Britain."
The venerable, learned and so well known Rev. Dr. Kemp, Principal
of the Young Ladies' College of Ottawa, Canada, only a few days before his
premature death, wrote: "Mr. Chinqiuy has submitted every chapter of his
`Fifty Years in the Church of Rome' to me: I have read it with care and
with the deepest interest; and I commend it to the public favor in the highest
terms. It is the only book I know that gives anything like a full and
authentic account of the inner workings of Popery on this continent, and so
effectively unmasks its pretence to sanctity. Besides the moft interesting
biographical incidents, it contains incisive refutations of the most plausible
assumptions and deadly errors of the Romish Church. It is well fitted to
awaken Protestants to the insidious designs of the arch-enemy of their
faith and liberties, and to arouse them to a decisive opposition. It is written
in a kindly and Christian spirit, does not indulge in denunciations, and,
while speaking in truth, it does so in love Its style is lively and its English
good, with only a delicate flavor of the author's native French."
