SUCH were the last recorded words of the dying Pope, Pius IX. If they expressed in all their true literal meaning the mind of the head of the Hierarchical System of Rome it were indeed well for him.
On a dying bed things are apt to assume truer proportions than when we are in health and strength. The fading, transient things of this life, slipping out of the grasp of the dying fingers, are often appraised at a truer worth than the fictitious value put upon them when they constitute the goal ambition is striving every nerve to attain—ambition whose vision, alas! is bounded by the fitful fever of this short life.
In the case of the Pope, in life one thinks of his view being divided between Christ, the Virgin Mary, and the countless saints who fill up to repletion the Roman Calendar.
On this let us be absolutely clear—the Lord Jesus Christ will not share His glory with another. He stands not pre-eminent, but—ALONE. Put Christ on a level with the Virgin Mary and the saints, and you lose Him.
He is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, and there is nothing and nobody between. Let us be clear as to this. He Himself said most emphatically, “I am THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me.” (John 14:66Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. (John 14:6).) And since His death and resurrection this is affirmed unchanged in clearest language. “This [the Lord Jesus Christ] is the stone which was set at naught of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other: tor there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” (Acts 4:11-1211This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. 12Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. (Acts 4:11‑12).)
Can it be that as the eyes of Pius IX. glazed in death his spiritual vision became clearer, or perhaps that his deepest cherished belief, buried beneath all the ritual and superstition of Rome, weighed down beneath the weight of the Pontifical tiara, inarticulate through fear of the tyranny of a religion at heart semi-pagan, found voice as the moment arrived when man and his religion, his favor or his frown, are as light dust in the scales of the sanctuary? Can it be that as his naked soul stood, as it were, on the threshold of the audience chamber of God, he learned at length wherein lay all his hope for eternity?
Sure am I that if Pope Pius IX., or the writer, or the reader of this article can say truthfully, “I trust all to Christ,” his trust will not be in vain.
Neither our own efforts on earth, nor the good offices of the Virgin Mary— “blessed... among women,” —nor of all the canonized saints in the Roman Calendar combined, have any place in Scripture in the plan of salvation.
How happy, then, to be able to say, “I trust all to Christ!” Can you say it, dear reader?
He finished the work of salvation. Atonement is made. On the cross He cried with a loud voice the mighty, triumphant cry of the Victor, “IT IS FINISHED.”
His glorious resurrection announces throughout the world the truth of this. His ascension proclaims the same upon God’s own throne. Can we have a doubt? He has broken the power of sin, and death, and Satan. God has accepted the work He has done on behalf of sinners. The empty cross, the vacant tomb, the filled throne, the glory-crowned brow—all speak with assurance and comfort as to this.
We must leave an open question the meaning Pope Pius IX. put upon his dying words. “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” was Abraham’s grand confidence; and it is to God we must commend the dead Pontiff. But we do ask you earnestly and affectionately: “Can you say, ‘I trust all to Christ’?” On your answer depends your eternity. Face this, we beseech you.
A. J. P.