” Rev. M. Cohen Stuart of Rotterdam spoke for Holland, and said:
— “Nearly four-tenths, it is true, of the population belong to the Roman Catholic church, and nowhere, perhaps, has the pope more pious devotees and zealous adherents. Neology, unbelief, and religious indifference, have sadly served the cause of the Roman, See, its church daily increasing, if not in relative numbers, at least in power, boldness, and influence.” This is not a very flattering view for a Protestant to contemplate. After three hundred years’ contention with the Romanists, the Catholics are now rapidly gaining on the Protestants. The speaker continues :—
” No, it is not the church of Rome, however daring and dangerous, which is :the most dreadful enemy of Christianity in Holland. There is a tide of neology, a flood of unbelief, which no dykes or moles can keep back. Thousands, it is true, of the lower and middle classes, and these undoubtedly the best and soundest part of the people, steadfastly and stanchly cling to their old Bible faith, often with a strongly marked, ultra-dogmatic tendency, and with a narrow-minded stubbornness in some secondary points (an inveterate aversion, for instance, to hymn singing and to vaccination), still with a piety, on the whole, solid and sound. But a great many, a sadly increasing number, are more or less forsaking the gospel and becoming estranged from Christian truth. Materialism and irreligion are slaying their tens of thousands in the ranks of so-called Christians. So it is everywhere in Europe, so in Holland especially.”
Link to Publication
https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/RH/RH18740310-V43-13.pdf