SEVENTY-THREE Catholic Tracts ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS. NEW YORK : THE CATHOLIC PUBLICATION SOCIETY CO., 9 Barclay Street. Any one, or any number, of the Tracts in this Volume will be printed, in quantities of not less than 1,000 copies of each Tract, -at the following rates : 1,000 copies of a 4-pp. tract, $3 00 1,000 “ 8 “ “ 6 00 1,000 “ 12 “ “ 9 00 1,000 “ 16 “ “ 12 00 1,000 “ 24 “ “ 18 00 The above are jstet prices. The number of pages in each Tract is given in the Table of Contents. SEVENTY-THREE CATHOLIC TRACTS ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS. VISITGR USRMW 0W !££»« New York: the catholic publication society CO No. 9 BARCLAY STREET* 1882. / CONTENTS. NO, 1. 2 . 3 - 4 - 6 . 7 * 8 . 9 - 10. 11. 12. 13 ' i5- 16. i7- 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23 - 24. 2 5 - 26. 27. 28. 29. 3 °- 3 1 - 32 . 33 - 34 - Jf 1 KAL 1 . NO. op pAGES> Religious Indifferentism and its Remedy, . 8 The Plea of Sincerity, ..... 8 The Night before the Forlorn Hope, The Prisoner of Cayenne, What shall I Do to be Saved ? “ The Plea of Uncertainty, ” . What My Uncle said about the Pope, How shall we Find True Christianity ? On Catholic Tradition, What is to be Done in Such a Case ? The Senators of Sherburn, The Catholic Doctrine of the Real Presence, A Conversation on Union among Christians, The Gospel Door of Mercy, . What shall I Do to Become a Christian ? The Church and Children, A Voice in the Night, The Gospel Church, Who is Jesus Christ ? The Trinity, Control Your Passions, Heroism in the Sick Room, Is the Sacrifice of the Mass of Human or o Divine Institution ? Why did God become Man ? The Catholic Church, Who Founded the Catholic Church ? The Exclusiveness of the Catholic Church Children and Protestantism, How to Keep Lent, . Is it Honest ? . What Does the Bible Say ? The Roman Gathering, The Religion I Want, How to Have a Happy Christmas 12 12 12 4 4 8 8 12 *4 8 4 8 4 4 12 4 8 't N OO CO CO 00 't ^d -00 00 00 00 00 00 00 CONTENTS. NO. OF PAGES. NO. OF TRACT. . . , 35. Progress and the Pope’s Encyclical, 36. How’s That ? No. I., 37. How’s That ? No. II., 38. Popery and the Apostles, Converted by an Infidel, . . - 40 What think ye of Mary ? Whose Mother is She? . • • ' 41. CEcumenical Councils, . • . • 42. Devotion to Mary a Duty of Justice, ax The Duty of Obeying the Pope, . • • 44. The School Question in its Relation to Catho- lics, . • • . • 4 c. The Love of Jesus Christ, The Pope’s Temporal Power, A Short Reading for the Sick, Is it True ? The Mission of the Press, How to Utilize the Press, Who shall have the Child ? - Be Sure you are Right— and then Go Ahead . . Pastoral Address of the Catholic Archbishops and Bishops of Ireland, Progress in Religion, . * How to Get Married, How to Die, Sally Branch, . • * Something about Indulgences, co. How to Find the True Religion, • • 60. Saint Worship—The Mediation of Saints, 61 An Appeal for Christian Education . 62. Saint Worship—The Invocation of the Saints, 63. Practical Piety, • • • 64. The Last of the Pope, 6c;. Baptism, . • _ * r • 66 How tb Make a Good Confession, . 67. Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, . 68. No Sect in Heaven, • . • 60 The Sacrament of Confirmation, 70’ Devotion to the Angels, . 71. Too Good to be True, . 72. Purgatory, • • 73. A Pastor’s Plain Talk, 46, 47 - 48. 49. 5 °* 5 1 * 5 2 * 53 - 54 - 55 - 56 . 57 - 58 . 59 ' 4 4 4 4 4 8 8 4 8 , 4 4 . 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 24 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 PREFACE In the Spring of 1 866 The Catholic Publication Society issued its first tract. Since that time it has pub- lished seventy-three tracts on different subjects. More than four millions (4,000,000) of these short and popu- lar papers have been sold and circulated. This is suf- ficient evidence of their value and popularity. Some of the ablest writers in our country have con- tributed to this work. Although we have never given the names of the authors, we feel at liberty to say that eminent prelates and learned theologians—men who have a world-wide reputation—have written many of these tracts. A well-written tract often costs more labor than an essay or an article for a magazine. Nor have these tracts been written and circulated with- out good effect. We know of Protestants converted and received into the church by their means. Countless preju- dices against our religion have been removed, even when persons have not been led to become Catholics. Their minds have been thus prepared for accepting the truth at some future day. In addition to this, we must remember that many of the tracts are written for the instruction of Catholics. Numerous letters from those in charge of preface. Hospita.s, Asylums, and Prisons, in various- sections oi our country, bear testimony to their value in this respect. An objection is sometimes made to the word “ tract.” We do not altogether like the word 'ourselves. If any friend can suggest a better, we will cheerfully adopt it. Until then, w'j must continue to use it. Surely Catholics have a right to any word in the English language. Some- times an objection is made to the tract form of publica- tion. Those who have scruples on this score are relieved ny the publicati iin of this volume. These tracts nowforn. a book. No ons can fairly object to the matter it con- tains. We trust, therefore, that they who find benefit from nis little volume of tracts, will endeavor to increase its circulation. To the clergy we recommend Tract 50 as one intended to place before them a practical method of circulating Catholic literature among their people. We cannot close without expressing t ae strong desire to see this volume spread over the length and breadth ot our land. ATc, f . RELIGIOUS INDIFFERENTISM AND ITS REMEDY. Xndifferentism in matters of religion is a prevalent and probably the most crying evil of the times. Men now-a-days either affect to believe nothing beyond certain obvious first principles which even heathens do not reject, or they believe what they please; and they even profess to defend this course as conformable to the true laws of religious liberty. They are either indifferentists or latitudinarians.° What is the origin of this singular unsettledness of religi- ous principle; what is its remedy? We propose briefly°to answer these two important questions—very important be- cause closely connected with man’s religious welfare here and with his eternal happiness hereafter. We entreat our readers’ patient attention to our essay, which will not detain them long. I. ORIGIN OF INDIFFERENTISM. We often hear such conversation as this : Catholic . u Why do you not diligently inquire into and promptly embrace the one only true religion of Christ ?” Protestant. “ Really there are so many religions in the world, even among those calling themselves Christians, all of them professed and sustained by good men, that I am greatly embarrassed to find out which is the true one, or whether any one is true to the exclusion of the others; and hence I have made up my mind that it really matters not which of them a man will embrace, or whether he will em- brace any ; and that, provided we be good moral men, faith- fully doing our duty to our fellow-men in all the relations of 1 INDIFFEKENTISM. life, it really matters not what religion we profess, or whether we belong to any particular church. When we come to be judged, God will not ask us what we have be- lieved, or to what sect we have belonged, but only whether we have been good and honest men. It is not, therefore, necessary for salvation to belong to any particular religion or church.” Herein is contained, as in a nutshell, the whole secret of modern religious latitudinarianism and indifferentism. Sectari- anism is the fruitful source and parent of both. It has un- settled men’s minds to such a degree that even the sincere and the honest-minded are often embarrassed to know where to find the true religion. Only think of it! Eighteen hundred years have elapsed since Christ taught this one true and holy religion, and died on the cross to seal its truths with his precious blood ; and still it remains an unsettled question, and men are yet in doubt what it is and where it is to be found ! He built his church upon a rock, and pledged his sacred word that the gates of hell should not prevail against it.* He promised that he would abide with his divinely commissioned teachers “ all days even to the consummation of the world;”! be commanded all mankind “to hear this church ” under the awful penalty of being reckoned “ with heathens and publicans”!—still it remains uncertain where we are to find that religion and that church which he found- ed, and for which he died ; and it therefore matters not whether we find it or not ! Surely, there must be something grievously wrong some- where ; and it is not difficult to find out where the wrong lies. Sectarianism has plainly unsettled faith ; but who in- troduced sectarianism ? Clearly not the old church of all ages and of all nations ; for the old church always did condemn, and she still condemns, all sectarianism whatsoever. She still places all sects in the same category in which St. Paul placed them in his epistle to the Galatians—along with mu* t St. Matt, xxviii. SO. t St. Matt, xviii. 17 * St. Matt. xvi. 8. INDIFFERENTISM. 3 del's and drunkenness; and, with him, she still says of them all, “ Of the which I foretell to you, as I have already lore- told, that they who do these thiugs shall not possess the kingdom of God.”* She still earnestly exhorts the wander- ing to return to the “ one fold of the one shepherd ;”f and to those who sow dissensions, and set up conflicting sects, she puts the significant question of St. Paul to the schismatic Corinthians : “ Is Christ divided t”% After eighteen hundred years she continues to proclaim the great truth which St. Paul so emphatically witnessed in chains : “ that there is but one Lord, one faith, and one baptisrn.”§ Yes, as surely as there is but one God in the heavens, as surely as there is but one Christ, so surely is there but one faith taught by him and one church established by him for the salvation of mankind. Had there been many Christs, there might have been many religions ; as there is but one Christ, there cannot, in the very nature of things, be but one religion and one church, founded by him to teach this one re- igion ; unless, indeed, you are prepared to say that he con- tradicted himself, and was therefore neither God, nor even a wise or consistent human teacher ! Tins no one pretending to be a Christian would assert, or even think. For fifteen hundred years afteik Christ died on the cross to establish his one true and divine religion, there was but one church on the earth; or if there were occasional sects, who “ separated themselves,” they were generally insignificant in point of numbers, as well as short-lived in duration. The Greek schism formed the only important exception ; but the Greek schismatics always believed nearly all the important doctrines and adopted all the important practices of religious worship, against which the founders of the modern sects pro- test. When what is called by its friends the Reformation be- gan, Christendom was substantially both one in faith and in worship. Who sowed the seeds of religious dissension ? Who rent * Gal. v. 20, 21 t 1 Cor. i. 13.t St. John x. 16. $ Eph. iv. ft. 4 INDIFFERENTISM. into fragments the hitherto seamless garment of Christ ? Who divided Christ himself? Those who u separated them- selves,” who would not “ hear the church who, setting up their own private opinions against the authority of the church officially proclaiming the hallowed and hitherto un- questioned faith of ages, erected altar against altar, and founded new churches in opposition to the old one estab- lished by Christ. Once they had begun their rebellion against divinely constituted authority, they knew not where to stop ; divisions followed divisions ; every gifted preacher claimed, and with reason, as much right to establish a new church as Luther, Calvin, and Henry VIIL ; thus sects multiplied over the land ; and, instead of a hitherto undivid- ed Christendom, men saw a seething mass of conflicting and ever-changing creeds—a new Tower of Babel erected on the hitherto peaceful and smiling plains of the Christian earth ! The prestige of authority and unity and antiquity was swept away wherever this revolution triumphed ; and men, instead of being taught by Christ through his church, which he solemnly commanded all to hear as himself, were now left to the devices of their own hearts, and “ were tossed to and fro like little children by every wind of doctrine.”* The result was, that vdst numbers of the separatists, fol- lowing out to its ultimate conclusions the logic of error, w Teut off into the ranks of disguised or open infidelity, while the rest were unsettled in their faith, and, yielding to the logical embarrassments of their position, at length settled down in latitudinarianism and indifferentism. Is there any exaggera- tion in this picture ? Is one light of it made too strong, or one shade too deep ? The whole question resolves itself into this : Is the church of Christ human, or is it divine ? And this again depends upon the answer to another, which is. cognate: Is Christ a mere man, or is he God ? If Christ be only man, then his church, which is “ his body,” of which he is “ the head,”f t EpH. i. 23 ; Colosa. l. 21* Eph. iv. 14. INBIFFERENTISM. 5 is only human, and therefore liable to all the changes of hu- man things, and in this hypothesis sectarianism is right and the Catholic Church wrong. But if, on the other hand, Christ be God, blessed forever, then his church, his body, is plainly divine, and therefore certainly one and unchangeable ; and, in this case, the church is surely right and the sects as surely wrong. Logic, history, and revelation all combine to establish the soundness of this principle ; and we are willing to rest the issue upon their united verdict. Christ and his church, the head and the body, stand or fall together; either both are divine or both are human. “ I*- matters not what a man believes, so he be a good man !** As if a man could be good without believing what Christ taught and doing what Christ commanded : without subscrib- ing, heart and soul, to his solemn declaration, “ He that be- lieveth not shall be condemned !”* As if St. Paul were de- ceived when he so emphatically stated that “ without faith it is impossible to please God !”f As if a man can be good without complying with the first and greatest commandment; Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, with thy whole soul, with all thy mind, and with all thy strength !”J Only think of men going to heaven who seldom, if ever, think of, much less love, God with their whole heart and soul ; who think only of and love the world, and who believe that merely being honest in their dealing with their fel- low-men, and being benevolent towards those in distress, will suffice for their salvation ! Even the respectable heathens had, at least, as high a standard of holiness as this ! If this be true, what was the use of Christ’s coming or dying at all P Socrates or Pythagoras might have done as much for man- kind. “ It matters not what a man believes Then why did our blessed Lord do and suffer so much to teach men what they should believe in order to be saved ? Why did he establish a church at ail, if it was not necessar^for men to enter it in order • St. Murk xvi. 16. f Heb. xi. 6. $ St. Matt. xxii. 35 ; St. Luke x. 27. 6 INDIFFERENTISM. - to be saved? Why did his apostles and ministers, in every age, endure so much privation and suffering to extend the boun- daries- of this church and to bring mankind into its ever- widening fold ? Why did they even willingly lay down their lives, as their divine Lord and Master had done before them, to secure this object, if, after all, it was not necessary for the salvation of men that they should belong to this church ? Instead of being the wise and holy men we have always taken .hem for, they were the veriest fools and drivellers, if this hypothesis of the indifferentists be correct. “ But we can be saved if we only believe the fundamental truths ; it is surely not necessary to believe in all the minor details.” Another sad delusion, my good friends ! Who author- ized you to make a distinction, where Christ and his apostles plainly made none ? “ He that believeth not, shall be con- demned,” embraces all that Christ taught and commanded his apostles ; it clearly excludes all exception whatsoever, on the principle that “he that offendeth in one point [of the law] is guilty of all.”* But where is the foundation, either in Scripture or in reason, for the distinction between essential and non-essential doctrines, now so popular among out modern enlightened latitudinarians ? IIow dare you say that anything which God revealed is unimportant, or even non essential? Is not his authority as great, and as much to be respected, in what we poor, puny mortals may regard as small things, as it is in those which we may choose to regard as important and fundamental? So your theory is totally fallacious ; it has no solid ground whereon to stand ; and you should abandon it at once. A II. THE REMEDY. The remedy is as simple as the disease is inveterate. It consists in a return to first principles, to the original point of divergence, thence to take a fresh start. This is pre- cisely wha: the bewildered traveller does when he has gone. * St. James xi. 10. INDIFFERENTISM. 7 astray from the right road ; and th s is clearly what you should do, my honest friend, if you, really wish to re-enter upon the old paths hallowed by the footsteps of saints and of martyrs, by which they went so safely to heaven. Thus only can ' you be fully assured of being in the way of salvation. We know that this road leads to heaven ; have you any relia- ble assurance that yours does ? The matter is vital and all important ; eternal salvation is at stake ; and what doth IT PROFIT A MAN, IF HE GAIN THE WHOLE WORLD AND LOSE HIS OWN SOUL ? OR WHAT SHALL A MAN GIVE IN EXCHANGE for his soul ?”* If you do not take our advice, my Chris- tian brothers, it may be too late to retrieve the consequences of your error after you will find it out, as find it out you surely will. Better be advised in time. Time is short, eter- nity never ending. « But how am I to find the truth amidst so many conflict- ing denominations ?” Nothing is easier, my friend. You have only to obey the teaching of Christ himself : “ Ask, and it shall be given to you ; seek, and ye shall find ; knock, and it shall be opened to you. For every one that asketh, re- ceived ; and he that seeketh, findeth ; and to him that knock- eth, it shall be opened. ’t You have but to ask, to seek, to knock ; to ask, in humble, fervent, and persevering prayer, for divine light and guidance ; to seek after the truth with dili- gent and persistent industry ; to knock with earnest zeal at the portals of the temple of truth—the church of God—“ the pillar and the ground of the truth and you shall most assuredlv obtain what you ask for and seek after ; the wide doors of the temple will fly open, and the superabounding treasures of the inner sanctuary of God shall be revealed to you in all their brightness and exhaustless riches. Do but try the experiment, and see whether your earnest efforts will not be crowned with success. But you must ask “ in faifh nothing wavering ;”§ you must ask with the confiding humility of a little child, mindful of * St. Matt. xvi. 26. t St. Matt. vii. 7, 8. * 1 Tim. iii. 15. § St. James i. 6. 8 mDIFFEREOTISM. what our blessed Lord said : “ Unless ye be converted and become like unto little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven above all, you must ask with earnest perseverance, for he only “ who persevereth to the end fi hn.ll be saved.”! You must seek and inquire with laborious diligence and eager earnestness, knowing and feeling in your inmost soul how all-important is the object of your search, how infinitely more important than the discovery of a treasure—whethei of gold or of oil—in the bowels of the earth. You who have been taught to protest against the old church should surely, in common justice, labor to find out that against which you protest by inquiring with earnest interest into the real teachings of the old church, and into the grounds upon which rest her claims to be the one true church divinely establish- ed, which you are bound to hear under the penalty of being cast out with heathens and publicans. How can you logic- ally protest against what you are not acquainted with, or concerning which whatever meagre knowledge you may pos- sess is derived from the imperfect statements or malicious misrepresentations of enemies ? Is it fair or just to base your opinions on such a foundation as this? Would you yourself like to be judged by such a standard? In conclusion, we earnestly implore all sincere inquirers after the truth to follow faithfully the advice which God’s plaintive prophet, Jeremiah, addressed to the Jews, who had wandered from the true path : “ Thus saith the Lord : Stand ye on the ways, and see, and ASK FOR THE OLD paths, which is the good way ; and walk ye in it, and ye shall find refreshment to your souls.”! You can find unity, peace, and “ refreshment to your souls” nowhere else but in these old paths so long trodden and worn by the hallowed footsteps of your fathers as well as mine. * St Matt, xviii. 3. t St. Matt. xx. 13. $ Jer. vi. 16. Printedfor “ The Catholic Publication Society Co.,” New York. Pi'ice $6 per 1,000 copies. No. 2 , THE PLEA OF SINCERITY. “ h Is a matter cf no importance wliat a man believe?., if lie be only sincere.” Popular Creed, Art. 1. Not many years ago, I happened to be on board a steamer on one of our Southern rivers, having been ordered by my physician to spend a few months in the old town of A . The passengers were men of all classes and of different pursuits ; and every morning after breakfast a number gathered together in the cabin for con- versation, when all things knowable and unknowable were discussed. One morning the following dialogue on religion took place between a professor, a lawyer, and a missionary ; a lieutenant of the U. S. army, two planters, and a merchant sat by as listeners. Prof. — “ It i3 curious how widely men differ in their religious beliefs; but this is not perhaps to be regretted, for, after all, it is a matter of no importance what a mau be- lieves, if he be only sincere.” Lawy.—“ So says the poet, too, and I agree with him ; “ ‘ For forms of faith let graceless zealots fight, He can’t be wrong whose heart is in the right.’ ” ‘2 THE PLEA OF SESTCEEITT. Mis.—“ Allow me to say that, while I agree with you in prizing sincerity very highly, at the same time it seems to me you put a pretty low estimate on truth.” Prof—“ How so ? We do not undervalue the excellence of truth.” Mis.—“ It seems to me you do ; for, if it be a matter of nc importance what a man believes, then, whether a man is a Pagan, Jew, Turk, or Christian, it is all the same, provided he is only sincere. On your theory all religions are equally good, for sincerity is the important thing, not truth, and therefore Christ’s death, for the conversion of the Jews and the Gentiles to Christianity, was a mistake !” Prof. —“ Why ! What would you have more than a pure and honest love of truth ?” Mis.—“Truth itself ! Because truth is to the mind what light is to the eye. Deprive the eye of light, and soon it becomes weak, falls into decay, and is rendered useless- useless as the eyes of the fish found in the Mammoth Cave of Kentucky, where the light never penetrates. Deprive the mind of truth, and it becomes feeble, imbecile, dies, great as your sincerity may be. The mind was made for truth, and must have truth to live.” Prof. —“ But if a man is sincere he will seek earnestly for the truth.” Mis.—“ Grant it ; so will a man who is hungry seek earnestly after food to eat. But hunger is not food, no more than sincerity is truth. To say that it is of no consequence what a man believes, if he only be sincere, is as absurd as to say it is no matter whether a man has anything to eat pro- vided only he has got a keen appetite !” Plant.—“ You will, however, admit that a man may be in error and yet sincere ?” Mis.—“ That is possible ; but I do not admit that a man’s being in error, though sincere, is of no consequence. For if you give to the stomach bad or poisonous food, dys- pepsia will soon declare itself, and wretchedness and death THE PLEA OF SINCERITY. 3 will soon overtake the man, it matters not how great his hunger. You give to the mind error and falsehood to feed on, and scepticism and doubt will soon appear, and despair or suicide will soon close up the account, it matters not how great a man’s sincerity may be.” Prof, —“ At any rate, if a man is really sincere he will find the truth ; you won’t deny that sincerity is the way to truth ?” Mis.—“ Certainly not ; but the way to a thing and the thing itself are not the same, or to be esteemed the same. Do not confound sincerity with truth.” Laioy.—“ That’s so. Gold is a mighty good thing to have, but a trip to California, and the digging for gold, is no joke ; that I know !” Mis.—•“ Just so. The gold we seek is truth ; sincerity is nbt truth, but is the way to truth, and is to be esteemed only in view of truth.” Plant.—“ I never saw things in that light before ! I have heard so much said about sincerity that I have taken jt wr granted it is all one needs to care about.” Mis.—“ That is the popular error. He who is content with sincerity without truth, is as foolish as one who has made the journey to California for gold” (here our mission- ary gave a glance at the lawyer), “ comes home without any, and fancies himself satisfied !” Plant.—“ If sincerity is not truth, and never can stand in the place of truth, then the question what a man believes is, after all, rather a serious one, I reckon.” Mis.—“ Of course it is ; it is a question which will have rather a serious settlement one day.” Prof. —“ Will you admit the promise, that he who hungers after righteousness shall be filled ?” Mis.—“Not only will I admit this promise, for it was made by Christ, but I most sincerelv believe m its fulfil- ment. Pray tell me. Professor, what is it to huDsrer after truth ?” 4 THE PLEA OF SINCERITY. Prof.—“ Why it means to desire it earnestly, and to seek it with all sincerity.” Mis.— ‘ Bat a man who neglects to inform himself of the truth, or neglects, when informed, to follow his convictions, can he he said to hunger after righteousness ?” Prof.—“ Of course not ; but I believe most men seek after truth sincerely.” Mis.—“ I share that opinion with you ; however, I cannot shut my eyes to the fact that there are not a few who pro- fess to be sincere and are not.” Prof. — “ What sort of people do you mean ?” Mis.—“Well, for example, there’s our friend A. His neighbor, a Unitarian, makes him a visit. He rejects the divim ity of Christ, and calls the religion of millions of Christians, for nineteen centuries, 4 a remnant of idolatry/ and A. has not a word of contradiction to offer. On his way to his place of business he meets an old friend, a Trinitarian, and is ready to agree with him that his belief in the divinity of Christ is the corner-stone of Christianity, and it is unworrliy of an honest man to call himself a Christian and deny it. Another time he gets into conversation with a Quaker friend, wT ho tells him that religion is entirely an affair between God and the soul, Christianity is exclusively spiritual, and that a priesthood, sacraments, ceremonies, are Jewish ordinances and mummer- ies, and he is inclined to think that quite an enlightened view of religion. Now he meets a high-church Episcopalian, who assures him that Christianity without a church, a priesthood, sacraments, and a ceremonial, is at best only a dream, and he begins to think of taking a pew in an Episcopal church. At an evening party he finds himself in company with infi- dels; they declare that all religion is an invention of priest- craft to keep men in darkness and to tyrannize over them, and by his silence he seems to assent to what they say. One morning, on his way to his counting-house, his friend, a Pres- byterian or Methodist, gets him by the button-hole of his coat, and drags him off to a prayer-meeting. This man, on the THE PLEA OE SINCERITY. 5 theory that all religions are equally good, tf one is only sin- cere in his belief, cares not a toss of a copper for truth. “ Here is B., who is a faithful husband, a kind father, a warm friend, and an upright man in his dealings with his fellow-men. He is a man of good intentions, generous im- pulses, and a worthy citizen. k' His heart/ as you would say, ‘ is in the right place.’ He wrongs no one. I retract ; he does wrong, a grievous wrong, to himself, to his own soul. For what does he know of the great truths of divine revela- tion, and their claims upon his imeiligenee for recognition and belief? What does he know of the positive duties which he owes to his Creator and God ? Scarcely anything. You can hardly say that this man is insincere. So far as he goes he is sincere, but his sincerity only goes half-way ; it includes only his relations with this world. Let me ask what will it profit a man if he lives ever so well in the round of duties connected with this world, if he does not open his eves to the next? Men do not perish when they die, like the beasts of the field. I said he wronged no one but himself—thi3 was a mistake ; he wrongs his wife, his children, his friends, hi3 neighbors, he wrongs everybody, for to be a man and to be satisfied with a vague sentiment of religion, and not to have true personal relations with God ; to inherit and- enjoy the benefits of Christian civilization and not share its duties and labor for its perpetuation and perfection ; briefly, to be a man and not a Christian, is a wrong to one’s own soul, to all so- ciety, the race, and to God ! “ There is C., who has given some serious thoughts to re- ligion. He has some doubts concerning some of its doctrines. He promised himself on his sick bed, or at the death of a child, or a friend, or a parent, or a wife, that he would give to the subject the time and attention which its importance demands, and clear up his doubts. He has made some efforts to keep it. Books were bought, but there they lie on the table, or in hi3 book-case, with their leaves uncut ; he re- mains in ignorance and doubt, and probably will die so. Ho 6 THE PLEA OF SINCERITY. persuades himself he is sincere all the time, but never puts his sinceri y to any use. “ There, too, is D., who is a great reader of the Bible , he knows its contents almost all by heart, and should you doubt the sincerity of his belief it would be taken as a gross insult to liis Christian character. On the one side he reads of the hu- manity of Christ, and he accepts it ; and on the other he reads of the divinity of Christ, and this he rejects. He finds in it that there is a heaven for the just, and he rejoices ; and at the same time he reads that there is a hell for the unjust, and this he explains clean away. He learns by its pages that faith is necessary to salvation, and this becomes an ar- ticle of his creed ; while, in the same book, he is told that good works are equally necessary, and he calls them ‘ filthy rags.’ He reads that Christ pardoned sinners their sins, and feels consoled by it ; and he reads also that Christ gave th power to pardon sins to his apostles, and he exclaims : ‘ Oh, we do not interpret that text as you do !’ Does not all this mean that our friend D. sincerely believes what pleases him best, and not the truths God has revealed in Holy Writ ?” Plant.— Now that you bring it to my mind, it seems to me I have heard a good many persons talk just as you have described.’’ Mis, — “ Of course you have. We should not be obliged to go ashore, I imagine, to find some one who would repeat just what I have said. And there is our friend E.; he stout- ly maintains that the Catholic church is the old woman in scarlet, that the Pope is anti-Christ, that Catholics pay their priests for the pardon of their sins, give divine worship to the Blessed Virgin, the saints, and their relics ; that an in- dulgence is a permission to commit sin, and the Pope has recently declared the Blessed Virgin equal to God!” Plant,—“ That’s true, sir, every word of it ; you have pho- tographed my neighbor Deacon E. to a T.” Mis. “ And your neighbor Deacon E., will he listen to the THE PLEA OF SINCERITY. 7 refutation of these calumnies ? Has he ever read a Catholic book to be rightly informed ? Is he willing to do so ?” Plant.—“ Catch Deacon E. reading a Catholic book ! The other day he heard that a friend of his had joined the Roman church, and he went to convince him of the errors of Popery, as he called it. I was present. He thought he would have an easy time of it ; but, in the course of the discussion, he got the worst of it. But that did not hinder him from repeating afterward the same old story again.” Mis.—“ Where, then, is there that pure love of truth in these sincere believers ? Give me a man truly sincere, and you will find him not indifferent to the claims of truth, or shutting out the light of truth, or hugging error to escape the force of truth ; but one open to conviction, earnest in search after truth, not content until he finds it, and when found, .embracing it, cost what it may, with his whole heart. Away with that* sham and cant, which under the cloak of sincerity puts truth and error on the same footing, and makes the possession of truth a matter of no consequence!” Prof—“ Do I understand you, sir, to say that the Catholic church invites inquiry?” Mis.—“ That is precisely my meaning ; and' all that the Catholic church fears is ignorance and the want of fidelity to truth when once known; in a word, the lack of sincerity where she is concerned.” Lawij.—“ Why, you would not have us all to become Cath- olics, would you ?” Mis.—•“ Why not? The Catholic faith is the true Chris- tian faith, and sincerity ought to lead a man to the truth, as our Professor has just now observed.” Lawy.—“ But ‘ all men cannot believe alike.1 ” Kind reader, that is the second article of the popular creed, that “all men cannot believe alike !” and if you will get “Tract No. 6,” you will find the conversation on board the steamer continued on that point. Before we part, sincere reader—for I trust you are such — 8 THE PLEA OF SINCERITY. be on your guard lest you confound sincerity with truth, or substitute sincerity for truth ; and remember that no man has the right to put in the plea of sincerity who is igno- rant of the truth and neglects the means of knowing it, or who knows the truth and neglects to follow it. All such are in a bad way. Last of all, do not forget that “ tract” on the second article of the popular creed: “We cannot all believe alike.” Printedfor “ The Catholic Publication Society Co.,” New York. Price $6 per 1,000 copies. A'o, 3. THE NIGHT BEFORE THE FORLORN HOPE; OR, PRAYER A RESOURCE IN ALL DANGER. During the war between the United States and Mexico the commander of a battalion of United States troops who’ were fighting their way towards the capital had taken pos- session of a Mexican town and quartered his men there for he night. He perceived that he would be obliged to march ln» troops the next morning over a narrow road, leading through a morass, which was commanded by a small battery in the possession of the enemy.^After reconnoitering the ground and making bis dispositions for the work of the°next n^,i° rd i ereC !- a , y0UI ? g lieutenant of his command to pre- pare to lead a forlorn hope detailed to carry this battery bv assault at the point of the bayonet. The ' lieutenant U 2 THE NIGHT BEFORE THE FORLORN HOPE. pied a room in the same house where the headquarters of his commander vere established, and divided from his sleep- ing apartment ty a glass dooi. The colonel retired to rest as usual in the evening, but was wakeful until a late hour, and observed that there was a light burning in the apart- ment of hi3 subaltern until after midnight.«^TIe was sur* prised at this ; and, knowing the well-tried courage of the young officer, wondered that he had not gone to sleep as usual” to refresh himself for the arduous duty of the next day. lie thought to himself, can it be possible that a senti- ment of fear and dread on account of the imminent danger m which his duty requires him to place himself has overcome him ? Is he thinking of his wite, and, oppressed by a sad presentiment that the hour of death is at hand, employing the little time that he is sure of in writing to her his last, . farewell letter ? He loved the young man tenderly, for he had a warm and generous heart, and in his solicitude for him he arose quietly from his bed, and went softly to the door, to see how he was occupied, and, if need be, to speak a word of cncouragement.^The lieutenant was kneeling at a little table, with his prayer-book in his hand, busily engaged at his prayers with a tranquil and composed air which be- spoke no emotion of cowardly distress unworthy of a soldier, but only the earnestness of a good Christian intent on pre- paring himself to face death with a good conscience and at peace with God. The colonel looked on for a moment, with respect and admiration, and then withdrew as quietly as he came. In a few moments the light was out, and sleep closed the eyes of the two brave soldiers.<%The next morning early all were astir for the march, the young man took his place at the head of the assaulting party, and they charged steadily and swiftly upon the battery, expecting every instant that it would open upon them with deadly effect. In a few mo- ments, the silence of the artillery and the cheers of the soldiers told their comrades that they had possession of the battery without the firing of a gun ; for the Mexicans had spiked their guns and retired during the night. Both these officers came safely through the dangers of the campaign. The colonel lived for some years afterward as a good and devout Catholic, and at last died the death of the just. ^The young lieutenant also died, and, in his last moments, met death himself with the same composure that he had shown in view of his expected approach at the time I have dcscrib- THE NIGHT BEFORE THE FORLORN HOPE. 3 ed. There was no shadow of fear or sadness on his brow as he a,waited his coming, but with cheerful and heroic calm- ness he called hi3 wile and child, his servants and neighbors, around his bed-side, and bade them farewell without°a tear or sigh of regret. In the act of pronouncing the sweet names of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, he breathed his last, just as the priest of the parish was offering up the IIolj Sacrifice in the neighboring church and recommending his soul to God. Perhaps he had often, as men usually do° an- ticipated this last struggle as the forlorn hope in the spiritual combat. But its terror and danger vanished as he approach- ed it, and he found the guns of his adversary spiked and the adversary fled. There is many a forlorn hope in our earthly warfare, when our narrow path through a treacherous world seems to be crossed by a barrier which can only be passed by the most resolute courage. It seems like walking up to the cannon’s moulh to go forward in the path of duty. On these occasions, the proper resource of the soul is prayer. Light the lamp of faith, watch in the night, and pray ; then gird yourself for the strife aud go forward. You will find your enemy has spiked his guns and fled while you were preparing to meet hiim^iM’here is no real danger before a soul thafis in the grace of God, so long as it is firm and courageous in carrv- ing out its good resolutions, full of confidence in God, and conitant in prayer. No real disaster can befal it; and whatever seeming adversities may beset it in its earthly prog- ress, it will walk over the course in perfect security. The only danger is in halting or falling back through cowardice, or in neglecting to have recourse to God as the only source of strength. Is it temporal evil and suffering which you have to en- counter ? Poverty, sickness, hardship, family affliction, the unkindness of others ? These are trials, and severe ones. It requires great patience and courage to surmount them. But they are not dangerous to the spiritual welfare of one who walks steadily up to them, and prepares himself for all that is before him by assiduous, fervent prayer to God. Thev are so far from hindering the soul in its progress toward the City of God, that they are the occasions of winning merit, and a title to the most brilliant rewards when the campai” replied the preacher, “ do you mean to tell me that I need any thing more than this blessed Bible, which I hold in my hands, to understand the Christian religion aright ?” “Why, yes, sir ; permit me to say, without offence, that after your interpretations of this morning which, I doubt not, are your honest convictions — it is evident to my mind that you do need something more. If, be- fore commencing to preach, you had studied more care- fully the interpretations of Christians who lived nearei to the days of. Christ, you would understand the Bible better, and be more able to expound it safely.” “ You oppose my doctrine, then, if I understand you, because it is new ?” “ Yes, sir.” “ But, upon such a principle, there could be no prog- ress in Christian knowledge.” “ Progress in Christian knowledge, my dear friend, consists in developing the old faith , not in changing it. ON CATHOLIC TRADITION. 3 I do not find fault with your preaching merely because it presents new views of old doctrine, but because it is in opposition to the old faith. It is not only new, but radically new. Christianity did not commence like human sciences, in darkness, but in light. It did not grow from a seed but was planted a perfect tree. It can grow only as the tree grows, by the putting forth of aew leaves upon the old branches, and the extension of its branches upon the old trunk which God first gave it.” , The passengers, who had listened eagerly all this while, applauded these sentiments heartily. I could not peTceive that our Millerite preacher had the sympathy of any one in the cabin, his Millerite companion ex- cepted. During the progress of the debate, I noticed one per son in particular, who seemed well pleased while my friend spoke, and often nodded his head in approbation. His dress and general appearance had something un- usual about it, I could not say what. Some time after- ward, as we sat conversing together, he approached us and joined in the conversation. “ Are you aware,” said he to my companion, “ that what you have said this morning to our Millerite friend is nothing more nor less than the Catholic doctrine of Tradition f n * I presume it is.” “ And yet, all these passengers who applauded it ar* Protestants. Is not that strange ?” “ It is somewhat strange.” “ It proves clearly enough, however, that all sensible men must acknowledge the authority of Tradition when once they understand what Tradition means.” “ I think so myself.” “ And yet you are a Protestant ?” My friend was silent for a moment ; at length > t said to the othe : 4 ON CATHOLIC TRADITION. u And you—you are a Catholic, of course ?” “ I am.” “ And a priest ?” “ Yes, a priest. And I shall pray God most fervently to increase the light which He has already given you— that you also may soon be an acknowledged Catholic and (if it may be) a priest, for you have shown yourself already this morning a ready preacher of Catholib truth.” Not a great while after, my friend and I were both united to the Catholic Church, and at the present time we are Catholic priests, holding and preaching in our native land the ancient doctrines which tradition has brought down to us from Christ and the Apostles." In our ears, as in those of every true Catholic, are ever rinscing the clarion tones of St. Paul : “ Therefore, brethren, stand firm ! And hold fast the traditions which you have learned, whether by word or by onr epistle” 2 Thess. i. 14. Printedfor “The Catholic Publication Society Co.,” New York. Price $3 per 1,000 copies. No. 10. WHAT IS TO BE DOXE LX SUCH A CASE? PART FIRST. JOHN EGAN’S PICTURE, BY HIMSELF. Ton don’t understand how I can behave so ! I sup- pose you don’t. I don’t understand it myself. Look here, my friends, it is all very well to cry “ Shame !” and turn up your noses ; hut here is the question, “ What is to b§ done in such a case Tell me that. That’s my house, sir. One story and two rooms. A front door that shuts with a latch, and a back door on one hinge, that stays where it’s put, without a latch. That’s my wife, sir. A good-looking woman, sir, and a handy one to work when she’s well. You don’t like that black ring about her eye ! It was a present from her husband, sir, last Saturday night. She sold her wed- ding-ring long ago, to buy bread. She gets this kind of japanned jewelry from me, now and then, to remind her that she is my wife. There are my children, sir. What do you think of them ? Dirty ! Of course they are. Why shouldn’t they be ? It’s their native land, sir, and they don’t like to part with it. I see you don’t like the pattern of their clothes. What would you have ? The biggest boy has no pantaloons to be sure ; but he has a^eoat on big enough for three. Ilis brother, Tim there, took the pantaloons. What’s Tim crying for ? It’s a way he has. He’s crying for something to eat, I suppose. I should cry for the same reason, except that I’m put to it worse for the want of something to drink. Lou don’t like to hear me laugh, eh? You think I talk too lightly, do you, considering the ruin that lies around me? Well, perhaps I do. But, my God, sir, what would you have ? If I were to follow my feel- ings, sir, I shouldn’t trouble any one with my laugh- ing. If I were to listen to the devil that whispers so often in my ear, I should soon be lying cold and quiet 2 WHAT IS TO BE DONE IN SUCH A CASE ? at the bottom of the river. Why, man alive ! you don t know how often I ’ve stood looking from the dock by the river-side upon the quiet water that seemed to call me to come and li.e down in its bosom, and be at rest. If it weren’t for the little I remember of my cat- echism, and the fear of hell that still clings to me, I shouldn’t be sitting here a terror to myself, and a show to my neighbors, and a shame to my family. God help them ! And God help me ! I don’t need preaching, sir. Nobody need tell me how bad I am. I know it all better than any one can tell me. I ought to be ashamed of myself ! Of course I ought. And do you think I am not ? My Mend, let me whisper it in your ear, that's what is hilling me ! I am so low down in my own estimation, that I am ready to die with the disgrace. It’s only when I have a Jittle whisky in me that I feel like a man again. Now, my highly moral and religious friend-, you have a picture of me drawn by myself. If you can make a better, do it. If not, don’t stand there, pouring misery into a bucket that’s already full, but tell me something I don’t know already. Tell me what is to be done in such a case ? PART SECOND. JOHN EGAN’S KEMEDY, BY A FBIEND. I think I understand your case, J ohn. And I think I know what ought to be done. .. I. In the first place, don’t be discouraged. I he devil will whisper a great many foolish lies in your ear. He will tell you that there is no hope for you ; that it is useless to try to help yourself ; that your character is all gone, and nobody will ever respect you or trust you to-ain. These are all lies. Many a man before you that has been as far gone in intemperance as yourself has broken loose from his bad habits, and^taken Ins rightful place in society again; perhaps got to the top of tie heap. You can do the same thing. Bright days are before you, if you will only make the right effort. . II. In the second place, begin with a strong resolution, and make it before God. Don’t take any oaths, WHAT IS TO BE DONE IN SUCH A CASE? 3 or make any vows. Oaths and vows are very extras ordinary things, and ought not to be made lightly 01 without great caution. But do this. Go into some room alone by yourself, or into the church, and there npou your knees promise God to set about reforming yourself with all your power, and ask his grace to guide and help you. there also, on your knees, make a firm promise not to touch or taste the least drop of intoxicating drink, of any kind, until you have spoken to the priest and arrangedunatters with him. Don’t go to the priest while there is the least sign of liquor upon you. Wait until your head is as clear and cool as a glass of fresh spring water. . And in the meanwhile wash your face, comb your hair, clean your shoes, and make your- self look and feel as much as possible like a respectable man. There is a great deal in brushing up the out- side, although of course that’s not the principal thing. III. Then go to the priest’s house, ring the bell and ask for him. Don’t make any long speeches, but tell him the state of the case at once. Let him know that, if he approves of it, you are ready to take the total abstinence jfiedge for one year, five years, ten years, or for so long a period as he may advise, and that once taken, nothing on earth shall ever make you break it. This done, ask when it will be convenient for him to hear your confession, and prepare you for Holy Communion. J IV. It is important now to get your soul into a state ot grace. . Begin at once to prepare for a good confes- sion. This means, of course, not only to tell the sins you have committed, but to come before God and His priest with a true hearty sorrow for your sins, and a firm determination to avoid all kinds of sin, and to commence at once a holy life. Coming in this way, the priest’s absolution pronounced over your head will be a real, pardon from God. After this you need not be afraid to receive the Holy Communion. This holy food will give you strength from heaven to resist temp- tation, and keep * your soul in grace. I would ad- vise you to come once every month to confession and communion, until you become thoroughly confirmed in your new life and good habits. \ . In order now to insure your perseverance, you need above all these three things—prayer, industry. 4 WHAT IS TO BE DONE IN SIJCH A CASE? and great watchfulness against temptation and the occa- sions of sin. Pray . Pray at least every morning and evening. I do not say, make long prayers, but pray ! And after saying your usual prayers, add this : “ My God ! I offer my pledge to Thee ! I firmly resolve once more to keep it to the end. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.” Be industrious. Idleness is the parent of many vices, and especially it is the father of drunkenness. Besides, remember that you owe it to your family and your friends to make up for the lost time. Avoid the grog-shop and other occasions of sin. Be careful of your companions. If your company won’t suit them unless you drink with them—why then, the sooner you separate the better. Don’t make any false excuses for not drinking. Tell them plainly and openly that you have taken the pledge, and would rather die than break it. Keep away from the places where liquor is sold. There’s danger there. People get together in these places to chat and talk, and that makes attraction for a man in the evening when his work is over. I know it does, but that is an attraction which you must resist. How much better to spend your evenings at home ! How happy you would make your wife by doing this, and what a benefit it would be to your children! Ah ! there is no place like home for true happiness, when love lights the fire and spreads the board. The -first society that God made was the Family, and He gave it His blessing. There, John, I have answered your question. I have given you my very best advice. What will you do with it ? Printed for “ The Catholic Publication Societt Co.,” New York. Price $3 per 1,000 copies. No. 11. THE SENATORS OF SHERBTJEJST; OB, A LAWYER’S RULE OF FAITH. In the northern part of the State of New-York, and on the borders of that central tract of high hills and crystal lakes, from whose copious watersheds origin- ates the Saranac River, and the Racket, and the Black, and the glorious Hudson, and a host of other streams running to every point of the compass, is situated a lit- tle village, which for present purposes we shall call Sherburn. It had no court-house, no 'academy, nor even a hotel of any repute. But what of that ? It possessed Russel’s store, and that was enough. Here the farmers and the farmers’ wives all traded ; here stopped every team that was driven over the road ; here all the beauty of Sherburn came to select its appropriate ornaments ; here, too, was gathered, almost every evening, the intel- lect of Sherburn. Beside Abram Russel, himself an or- acle of wisdom, here came Seth Adams the miller, Dali T\ hippie the Deacon, Dan Sloane the smith, with many others ; and, towering above them all because of his college education, and of two years spent in the Legis- lature, here presided, at many a deep discussion, the Hon. Ira Bloss, commonly known as Squire Bloss. These gentlemen 'constituted the Sherburn Senate, so named by the younger wits of the neighborhood. One evening in December, 1859, the circle in this store was enlarged by the presence of a stranger that nobody knew. A few friendly inquiries of a°general character, intended to elicit some indirect iutelliejence of the stranger’s quality and pursuits having proved un- successful, the. Senate finally fell back upon its usual routine of business. Squire Bloss was in the religious mood that night, and so was Deacon Whipple, but they did not precisely agree. Both were regular members of the same church ; but the Deacon was a stickler for 2 THE SENATORS OP SHERBXJRN. church discipline, while the Squire was what is com- monly termed a man of enlarged and liberal views. One could have seen that in his very attitude. He sat with his back to the counfer, his chair resting on two legs, his left foot,upon the round in front, and his right crossed upon the left knee, while his two hands hung suspended by the thumbs from the armholes of his vest. His upper lip was overlapped and held in subjection by the under. One eye was closed, and the other fixed upon a bend overhead in the stove-pipe. “ It’s all very well for you, Deacon,” said he, “ to stand up for church regulations and church formu- laries. Perhaps I would, myself, in your place. But, after all, I ask, What is the rule, Deacon Whipple ? We are bound to square our faith and practice by something, of course. But what is the rule, Deacon Whipple ?” “ Why, Squire,” # the Deacon replied, “ the great rule undoubtedly is the Bible.” “ The great rule, Deacon Whipple ? Why the great rule ? Is there any other rule, Deacon Whipple ? Tell me that, Deacon Whipple ; tell me that.” “ Why, yes. Wall, no, not exactly another rule, as you rhight say. But we have our Catechisms, long and short, and our Confession of Faith, and our Directory, and other church rules, Squire Bloss ; and as a good church-member, Squire, you ought to be the last to break ’em, or say any thing agin ’em.” “ All very well, Deacon Whipple, all very well. Or- der is a good thing, and therefore discipline is a good thing. But we were talking about rules to regulate our belief\ Now, I hold that the Bible is the only rule of Protestants. Do you dispute that ?” “ Wall, no. Every body knows that, I ’spose.” “ Is there any other authority to regulate our faith, Deacon Whipple ?” “ No, not ’xactly another authority, as you might say.” “ Then, sir,” retorted the other triumphantly, “ don’t fling catechisms and confessions of faith in my face when we are talking about religious doctrine. I follow the Bible alone, Deacon Whipple ; and you might as well put thumb-screws on at once, as to fasten me up to any rule but the Bible. No, gentlemen of the jury— I I THE SENATORS OF SHERBURN. . 3 mean, Deacon Whipple—the Bible, and nothing but the Bible for me.” % The rest of the company looked at the Deacon as if they thought he was in a very tight place. The Deacon looked as if he thought so himself. To the surprise of all, the stranger came in to the rescue. “ Are you a lawyer, Squire Bloss ?” There was a quiet confidence in the stranger’s tone that startled the village oracle. It brought the two thumbs out at once from the armholes of his waistcoat. “ I have a license to that effect, sir,” he replied. “ course, then, you know what makes law.” “ Law, sir ! Why, yes, sir. Let us understand each other, if you please. Law is a very general term, sir. Of what law do you speak ? There is statute law, and there is common law ; there is marine, martial, and commercial law ; there is also what we call practice. In fine, what is the precise drift of your inquiry, my fiiend ? Squire Bloss was afraid of the stranger, and anxious to take his measure before closing in. 14 1 mean law in general, sir ; that science in which gentlemen of your profession are supposed to be edu- cated.” • “ a L> sir 5 verY good , very good ; well, what then, sir ?” 44 Questions of law must, of course, be decided by some authority. _ What authority do you recognize ?” Authority, sir ! TVhy, we have various author- ities,” replied the lawyer. 44 We have, in the first place, our Jus Scriptum y or written law — ” 44 Precisely,” interrupted the stranger. 14 And pray what do you mean by that ?” u Ly the Jus Scriptum , or written law, we mean the whole body of statutes or enactments made by the leg- islative power at any time, and still remaining in force.We call it written law, sir, not because it is the only law that we have in writing, but because it was prop- erly put on record at the very time of making, and has come down to us in that form from the beginning. Then we have our 4 Common Law,’ sir, a body of an- cient customs and recognized principles of justice, which we also call Jus non Scriptum , unwritten law, because it is older than any record we have of it. In other words, it was practiced first, and got upon record after, ward.” 4 THE SENATORS OF SHERBURN. « It appears to me, Squire Bloss, that this Jus Scrip- turn corresponds very nearly with what is called in Christian science the Holy Scriptures ; and the Jus non Scriptum is very like oral, or unwritten tradition.” “ It may be, sir.” “ And this Jus non Scriptum—this traditionary law —is it not of equal authority with the other ?” “ It is, sir.” “ But how can you admit it as authority, when you have no record of its enactment ?” “ Because our forefathers did. It is to be supposed that they knew what law they lived under. If, at any time, attempts had been made to foist upon them false rules or practices, under the name of law, they would have expostulated, or even rebelled, as did the English barons against King John. In such case history would have brought down the news of it to us. On the con- trary, in the absence of all such protest, and when our fathers in every generation always hold up a prevailing custom or principle, as a legacy from their fathers, it must be held for well founded and authentic law. “ Of equal authority with the Jus Scriptum, sir ?” “ Yes, sir, of equal authority with the Jus Scriptum ; and for the plain reason that it emanates from the same source.” “ You speak like a true lawyer, Squire. And now I ask you : Does not the same principle hold good in re- ligion ? Ought not the same authority to attach to im- memorial doctrines and observances in the Christian Church ?” The lawyer was silent. “ When our Christian fathers from time immemorial held to certain observances and doctrines as derived from our Lord and the Apostles, ought we not for tha same reason to accept their testimony as sufficient au- thority, even although the Bible, our Jus Scriptum, may be doubtful or even silent in the matter ?” u What you say, sir, would be very reasonable,” re- plied the lawyer, “ in questions of mere human law. But our Lord Jesus Christ was a divine legislator, and therefore an all-wise one. It is not to be supposed that he would have left any thing important unwritten, and exposed to the chances of tradition.” “ But, my friend, our Lord never drew up a code of THE SENATORS OF SHERBURN. s laws, or doctrines, nor was any such code made in his lifetime, nor did he leave directions to have any such code made, nor is the New Testament a code in any proper sense of the word. But even supposing it to be so, and written by our Lord himself, is it possible to provide for all contingencies in any code?” The lawyer was silent. “ As a matter of fact, does the Bible obviate this dif- ficulty ? Are you and your neighbors agreed upon the true meaning of it ? Do you find all questions settled by it ?” “ Well, yes, sir—all questions of vital importance.” “ All questions which involve the necessary means of salvation are of vital importance, are they not ?” “ Why, yes, of course,” said the lawyer. “On the question, then, whether we are saved by faith alone, or by faith and good works united ; whether bap- tism is a means of regeneration ; whether Jesus Christ is God, or only man— are you and your neighbors all agreed here ?” “ No, no,” said Seth Adams, the miller, “ not by a long shot. Neighbor Russel here, who is a Methodist, has had many a tussle with the Squire on that first ques- tion. I myself was raised an Episcopalian, and I hold with our prayer-book, that every baptized child is ‘ re- generate.’ We have Unitarians around here too, for the matter of that.” “ ^ seems to me,” said the stranger, “ that the Bible, although a most excellent authority in all religious ques- tions, ought not to be eonsidered as the only one. The Jus non scriptum , the early traditions of Christianity, ought also to carry some authority—at least to the mind of a lawyer.” “ An very well, my friend,” replied Squire Bloss, “ all very well, my friend. But I hear a great deal of con- troversy about these traditions too. The authority of the fathers is dragged in on both sides of many a ques- tion. With the Bible and tradition both together you are not out of difficulty yet.” “What do you lawyers do, sir, in such a case? W hen, with ail your statute-books and rules of common you can not agree upon the merits of a cause, what then, Squire Bloss ? “ We try it before a judge, sir.” 6 THE SENATORS OF SHERBURN. “ Ah ! yes ; and the final judgment of the court is the final settlement of the question, is it not ?” “ It is, sir.” 44 So, then, we are approaching now to the true philo- sophy of the whole thing. It seems that there are in law two kinds <5f authority—a passive, monumental au- thority, which is to be examined, and an active, living authority, which examines and decides. These other rules, of which we have been speaking, are simply monuments of the law. The decision' of all questions is left finally to a living judge. Am I right, Squire ?” “ You are right, sir, undoubtedly.” 44 Is this an arbitrary arrangement of the lawyers, or is it necessary in the very nature of things ?” “It is necessary, sir. If every one were his oivn judge of the law, law would soon become another name for confusion.” “ And if every one is his own judge in religion, will not religion become another name for confusion ?” “ It is that already,” said Dan Sloane, “ at least in this part of the world. Why, bless your eyes, sir, there isn’t a text in Scripture but has been hammered out, over this very old stove, into as many shapes as any bit of iron on my anvil.” “We need some living rule, I think,” said the stranger, “ in religion as well as in law ; and even more so, if religion is more important than the civil law.” “We do,” said Dan, “by George ; and if any such thing can be got up, it shall have my vote.” “ It was got up long ago, my friend,” feplied the stranger, “ and by orders that no good Christian ought to dispute. You will find an account of it in the Bible, which I hold to be an excellent rule of faith, although not, as this gentleman has insisted, the only rule. The Church, the ever-living Church of Christ, instituted and ’organized and officered by Christ himself, she is the tri- bunal established by him to settle all differences in reli- gion. She is the bond of peace, so named by the Apos- tle Paul, because it is her office to bind all Christians together in one harmony of faith and love. 4 Be care- +'ulj he says, 4 to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond ofpeace ; one body and one spirit, as you are called in one hope of your vocation ; one Lord, one faith , one THE SENATORS OF SHERBURN. 1 baptism In order to guard against all confusion of doctrine, he has left us in this his Church a perpetual succession of orthodox pastors, by following whose teaching we may all believe alike and believe right. The Church, speaking through this body of legitimate pastors, is the living rule or authority in all questions, and our Lord has made it obligatory upon us to obey her authority and believe her doctrine. For he it is* who said to the first ministers and missionaries of that Church, ‘He that heareth you heareth me, and he that despiseth you despiseth me.’f And also, ‘If any man wild not hear the Church, let him be to thee as the heathen and the publican .’J And again, after giving his commandment to go and preach the Gospel to the whole world, he adds : ‘He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved ; but he that believeth not shall be condemned..’§ If this does not mean that the voice of the true Church of Christ, speaking through her legitimate clergy, is a rule of faith prescribed to us by Christ himself, why then I do not understand the force of language.” • “ It is a hard rule then,” said Squire Bloss, “ to oblige us, under such heavy penalties, to believe what after all might not be true.” “ So it would be a hard rule,” replied the stranger, “ if there was any danger that the true Church of Christ could become the teacher of false doctrine.” “ Well, is there no such danger ?” “ No, sir.” “ This Church, then, must be infallible, and that is more than we ever claimed for our judges, necessary as they are.” u She is infallible, and therefore her authority is in- finitely superior to that of your courts of law. She is infallible, for the plain reason that the infallible spirit of God .dwells in her and guides her. ‘ I will ask the Father,’ said Jesus, 4 and he shall give you another Paraclete, that he may abide with you forever ; the spirit of truth. Infallibility is a gift expressly prom- ised to her by her Master and founder : ‘ I say to thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, anal the gates of hell shall not prevail against itFf I can not conceive what greater victory the gates * Ephes. 4:3. + Lake 10 : 16. * Malt. 18 : 17. § Mark 16 : 16. [ John 14 : 16. ^ Matt. 16 : 18. 8 THE SENATORS OF SHERBURN. of hell could gain over the Church than to bring her into false doctrine. Moreover, the Son of God has promised to be always present with his Church ; but in what sense can he be said to be present with a false, heretical, and misguiding Church ? Yet such would be the char- acter of a Church that could lead us wrong in any essen- tial matter. It seems to me that, thoughtfully consid- ered, there is a world of meaning in the great commis- sion given by our Lord to his Apostles : 4 Go, therefore , and teach all nations ; baptizing them in the name of the Father , and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost : teaching them to 'observe all things whatsoever 1 have commanded you j and, behold, I am icith you all days , even to the consummation of the world? ” “ All nations !—all things !—all days !” repeated Dan Sloane, very slowly. “ I’ll be hanged if there isn’t more in them words than I ever thought of before. They seem to spread over pretty much every thing, and yet somehow they seem to hold every thing pretty cluss to- gether too.” “You are right, Mr. Sloane,” said the stranger; “ you will find in those words both the catholicity and the unity of the Church. And, if you examine them closely, you will find there also a living authority to decide all questions of faith.” “ The Bible,” he continued, after a pause, and turning to the lawyer, “ the Bible is undoubtedly a rule of faith furnished us by the kind providence of God, but not the entire rule. The Bible, illuminated by the sacred tradi- tions of Christianity, and interpreted by the Church 0f God — that is the true Rule of Faith, Squire Bloss ; that is the true Rule of Faith.” Printed for “The Catholic Publication Society Co.,” New York. $6 per 1 ,000 copies. Pti.ce Xo. 12. THE CATHOLIC DOCTRINE REAL PRESENCE SHOWN FROM HOLT SCRIPTURES. “ I will not now call you servants. . . . but friends : because all things what- soever I have heard of my Father, I have made known to you.”— J ohn 15 : 15. AThat does our Lord and Saviour mean by these remarkable words, “ I will not now call you servants, . . . but friends : because all things whatsoever I have heard of my Father, I have made known to you”? Nowit is certain that he neither did nor could manifest to them all that he heard from the Father. Human language could not express aU that he had heard from his Father. He, as God, was the eternal word, in whom the Father, in beget- ting him, infused his immense wisdom. And, as Paul says, in the man-God, Christ Jesus, “dwelt all the fullness of the* God- head corporally.” Even if he would extend the power of human language so that it might express, if possible, all that he heard from his Father, human intellect could not comprehend it. You, beloved brethren, you will understand this impossibility. Further, in the next chapter, the 16th of Saint John, Christ says : “ I have yet many things to say to you : but you can not bear them now.” And several other times, before and after his sacred death, our Lord declares, or insinuates, that he has yet much to tell them. A mystery is hidden under the sacred words of my text. A passage from the twenty-first Psalm will aid us to understand and develop this sacred mystery. The passage I will cite is the more wonderful because it is in the twenty-first Psalm, the first verse of which our adorable Saviour intoned on the cross, as priest and victim, when his agony began. His priests now, as human shadows of the eternal priest, who has an everlasting priesthood, intone the first verse of a prayer or Psalm, and of- ten continue and finish the prayer in silence. Learned and holy men assert that Jesus began aloud the Psalm, “0 God my God, look upon me : why hast thou forsaken me ?” and continued the holy sacrificial Psalm in awful silence as the darkness of night grew over midday. This prophetic Psalm, written about one thousand years be- 2 CATHOLIC DOCTRINE OF THE REAL PRESENCE. fore the coming of Christ, pictures the Saviour-God in all the terrors of his martyrdom of love, in all the agonizing circum- stances of his passion. The royal prophet sees the true Lamb of God, surrounded by a furious, insulting mob, like wild beasts, raging against him, uttering the very words that were really ut- tered under the Cross, when they mocked the victim, and shouted this Vah of derision, as they marked how he, through wounds and bruises, had become “like a worm and no man ; the re- proach of men and the outcast of the people.” The prophet tells us of his limbs most violently stretched out ; of his hands and feet that were dug with the nails; of his garments, for which they cast lots, and other awful events of his sacred passion. A little more than half of this long Psalm is devoted to the humilia- tions, internal woe, and dreadful torments of Jesus. But after the middle, the Psalm changes its tone : it becomes a song of triumph, of joyous, rapturous, grateful praise to the eternal Father. Christ sees the mighty fruit of his deadly battle with hell, he sees the fruit of his sacred death : “ A great Church, which shall be his praise. All the ends of the earth shall re- member, and shall be converted to the Lord : and all the kin- dreds of the Gentiles shall adore in his sight. The poor shall eat, and shall be filled ; the rich, too, shall eat, and adore ” what they have eaten ; all that go down to the earth shall fall before him ; it is no longer me, or /, as in the prior verses, but him that was eaten and adored. A book might be formed by merely collecting the many texts, similar to this, in which a lamb was eaten, after holy prepara- tion with worship, prayers, hymns, and praise. Just before Jesus uttered the words of my text, “ I will not now call you servants, . . . but friends : because all things whatsoever I have heard of my Father, I have made known to you,” as re- lated in the thirteenth chapter of Saint John, he had given to his apostles, and left for us, his very body and blood in the most holy Sacrament. And with his body and blood, he also gave his soul and divinity. He, the eternal word of the Father, giving them himself, gave them, made known to them, all that he had heard of the Father, under sacramental vails, the only way in which, during our present state, such a gift could be received. Whilst on earth, he hid his glory, and his ravishing beauty. On Thabor and at the Ascension he showed some rays of it, but not its fullness, (mortal man could not see his full glory and live ;) and yet those few rays shown on Thabor made the apostles fall to the ground as dead men ; still it was a most rapturous approximation to death, and they would willingly have remained forever there. Even in heaven, our divine Lord dwells with his Father in inaccessible light. The angels desire to behold his face. With his Father, he gladdens the blessed by unveiling at times more or less of his majesty, to throw a halo of joy, and glory, and bliss over all the intervals from one revelation to the other. CATHOLIC DOCTRINE OF THE RE AT. PRESENCE. Then in my text Jesus means, “I have made all things known to you, whatsoever I have heard of my Father,” for I have just given to you myself, the word of the Father, the fullness of his truth and wisdom. But it is under a vail, the weakness of your present state requires that it should be so. TVhen however you prepare well, and try to correspond to the grace of such k visit, I will rend more or less of the vail, to make you see some- thing of my eternal beauty, to feel something more of the power of my truth, and to burn with more and more of my love. And truly, has not each one felt at times, in approaching worthily and after due preparation, some flashes of glory from above' • could we not at times have said with the apostles of Emmaus : “Were not our hearts burning within us as he spoke to us in the way f” Oh ! what wondrous, joyous transports are re- counted, in most authentic history, of saintly men and women when Jesus occasionally rent the vail, and revealed to them his sweetness. «* This mystery of boundless infinite love is great and wonder- ful. But God is love, and there surely is no mystery that Chris- tians believe, which is revealed more clearly than this. Twice under the form of an oath does Christ pronounce it. Four times in the sacramental act does he most solemnly assert it. Then he sat as a Father naking bis last will and testament, and for this the words should be most plain and clear. He sat as a lawgiver, making a law, under awful penalties, and surely, for this his words ought to be plain and clear. He sat as a God-man, establishing a sacrament, and for this his words should be plain and clear. They could not be plainer and clearer than they are. It is an axiom that when you have announced a judgment in sufficient words to tell what you mean, every redundant word appended to your assertion, only gives room for cavil and doubt. God as the Saviour was, I do not see how he could say more plainly, “ This is my body,” than by saying, “ This is my body.” Yet we may say that in the original Greek there are two pro- nouns to say “ my.” Christ takes precisely that pronoun “ my,” which asserts most emphatically the identity of his body. There are fourteen texts of Scripture which, under awful and most solemn circumstances, declare this sublime and glorious mystery. The enemies of the holy doctrine have often been in- vited to show a single text which denies the doctrine, or asserts that real absence which is generally believed by non-Catholics, who even accuse Catholics of idolatry because they worship the Lord of glory in the sacrament by which indeed he does not leave them orphans. Non-Catholics are content with adducing, to disprove the most solemn words of Christ, such passages as “I am the door,” “Christ is the rock,” etc. But Christ ex- plains in the context what he means ; nor is this kind of lan- guage uncommon among men ; nobody misunderstands it. A man will say, “I am a horse,” etc. ; but no man will say, “ This horse is myself or, if we speak ungramatically, “ This horse is 4 CATHOLIC DOCTRINE OF THE REAL PRESENCE. me.” “ I am the bread of life,” though it has, no doubt, refer- ence to this Sacrament, is widely different from the words of the institution : “ This is my body,” “ This is my blood.” What lawyer that values his reputation would take a few texts, confessedly obscure, to place them as triumphant refutations of fourteen plain, energetic texts, spoken even with solemn adjura- tion and in sacramental act ? Can we for a moment think t lat God’ would leave his Scriptures full of texts that assert what many call an idolatrous falsehood, and not put in them one single text to say plainly the truth on so important a subject? It might seem astonishing that the apostles did not start when Christ, at the Last Supper, said: “This is my body which is given for you; take and eat.” But we, dearly beloved, must remember that one year before, at the Passover before the last, our divine Lord had prepared their minds for it under circum- stances so wonderful as to make it impossible fbr them to forget the solemn declaration made through a divine Teacher that never spoke at random or in vain. Never, perhaps, in the life of the Redeemer was there a tune when his hearers would be more prepared to believe all that he would say. On that day he had fed five thousand men ,, with five loaves and two fishes. They sat down in bands of fifty, that is, in one hundred companies. Saint Matthew says that there were five thousand men, without counting the women and children. And Saint Mark tells us that they sat down “ in ranks by hundreds and fifties.” The women and children then swelled some companies, or, as was more usual, companies of females, so there would probably have been there from six to eight thousand persons. Christ broke the five loaves and two fishes among them. He did not create new bread, for he said afterward to his disciples : “ When I broke the Jive l°av®s amon^ five thousand, how many basketfuls did you take up ? The same bread must then have been in many hands at once— most miraculous must have been the multiplication. When all were fully satisfied, he ordered his disciples to gather up the fragments, lest any should be lost, “and they took up of the leavings twelve full baskets of fragments. 1 The fragments must have been many times more than the lew loaves with whicti the Saviour began the feast for six or eight thousand persons ! They wanted to take him by force and make him their king. But he ordered his disciples to cross the lake, dismissed the people, and went up into the mountain to pray. Very late that night, a storm raging, and the waves running mountain high, Jesus had pity on his disciples, who could hardly make any headway. He then cavne to them walking amidst the roaring wind over the rolling waves; as he approached near enough to be seen, the disciples uttered a cry of fear ; they thought they saw some evil spirit. But Jesus cried out to them not to fear, because it was he. Peter recognized his voice, and begged leave to walk to him on the troubled water. Jesus said: CATHOLIC DOCTRINE OF THE REAL PRESENCE. 5 “ Come.” Peter stepped on the sea, and walked with safety, until, as he advanced further in the wild waste of raging waves, and receded farther from the ship, he began to doubt, and as he doubted, did he also begin to sink. Peter cries out, “Lord save me, for I perish!” Jesus says, “O man of little faith, why didst thou doubt?” and stretching out his arm, he raises Peter; in an instant they are aboard the ship. The Lord commands the winds and the waves, and they obey him ; all is at once calm ; the vessels, too, immediately reach the port ; the disciples run through the town and country to bring all the sick and afflicted ; Jesus cures all ; a word, a look, a touch, is all that is needed to expel devils, to restore the sick to perfect health, to cure the cripple, the deaf, the dumb, and the blind. Never do we read of so many stupendous miracles being concentrated in so few hours. The thousands whom he had fed take vessels, come across the lake ; hear all the wonders I have narrated, and the proofs of his wonderful charity and love, and of his divine power. Never was there a time when they might be better expected to hear with docility, and believe without doubting the teaching of such a Master. It would lead me too far, were I to pause upon each verse of this remarkable chapter, the whole of which is evi- dently a preparation for this mystery. It is sufficient to say, that from the forty-eighth verse to the fifty-third, his words assume a more solemn and awful tone. He ends that part by saying: “If any man eat of this bread he shall live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.” The Jews were scandalized, and said: “How can this man give us his flesh to eat ?” They understood him clearly and distinctly to say what we know that he said ; they soon left him, and in leaving him, they left their eternal salvation. Ah! if the merciful Jesus had not meant and intended just what he did say, his loving heart would have forced him to save that crowd of Jews, and the many disciples who afterward also left him on account of this sublime and mysterious doctrine, that the sacred victim, the true lamb of God, was really to be eaten by those for whom the adorable victim was to be offered. In his mercy he would have said to them : “ Do not leave me, for in leaving me you rush to death eternal. I did not mean that you should eat my very flesh and blood ; I only meant that you should eat some bread, and drink some wine, and think of me.” Would they, after the wonders of the past few hours, have been so scandalized at a rite which even a mere mortal man might establish and might cause to be observed? But did Jesus give such an explanation ? The very contrary ; his words be- came more awful and positive; in words that approximate to the solemnity of an oath, he, according to the Protestant ver- sion, says: “Verily, verily, I say unto you: unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, you shall have no life in you.” In the Catholic version, it reads : “ Amen, amen, unless you eat of the flesh of the Son of man, 6 CATHOLIC DOCTRINE OF THE REAL PRESENCE. and drink his blood, you shall have no life in you.” He goes on promising eternal life and blessed resurrection to those that eat his flesh and drink his blood. As reasons of so glorious a pro- mise, he says : “ For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. As the living Father hath sent me, and as I live by the Father ; so he that eateth me, the same also shall live b}^ me. Many, therefore, of his disciples, hearing it, said : This saying is hard, and who can hear it?” Jesus adds words of powerful import, which unbelievers try to suppose intended to explain away the force of his words ; but it is easy to show, through the usual force of human language, that they strongly confirm his intention of giving to them the flesh and blood of the very vic- tim that was to be slain for them. Without taking up, dearly beloved, too much of your time in critically examining these words, it is sufficient to point out to you that at the end of all the words of Jesus regarding the real presence in the Eucharist, the Scripture says in the sixty-seventh verse: “After this many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.” Not only he does not make the easy explanation which would have calmed their deep discontent, “ I don’t mean what you gather from my words ; I only mean that you shall eat bread and wine and think of me not only he does not do this, but because he did mean just what he said, he turned to the twelve, and said: “Will you also leave me?” The power of human lan- guage would imply that he meant: “If you will go, go; but what I have said I will do. Out of these stones I can raise up children to Abraham, and I will do rather that, than retract my loving promise, or not fulfill all the noble figures of the lamb slain from the beginning of the world, and eaten by those who offered the victim to the eternal.” Peter seems troubled ; his answer indicates amazement and bewilderment. But in strong faith and ardent love he cried out : “ Lord, to whom shall we go ? Thou hast the words of eternal life. And we have believed and have known that thou art the Christ, the Son of God.” As if he said : What you declare is most strange ; the highest seraph could not do what you say that you will do. But we know who you are ; therefore we will not leave you, for all things are possible to you. You are the Son of the Living God ; whatever you say, you can do ; and, as the Truth Incarnate, will do all that you say. One year after, on the last passover of our divine Lord, in miraculous manner, He had the “upper chamber” prepared for celebrating the last passover of the Jewish law, and the first- of the Christ- ian Church. To clear up an apparent difficulty in St. Luke 22 : 18, it may be well to cite something of the present Jew- ish rite, which is identical with the ancient Jewish rite, as far as change of circumstances will permit. The paschal lamb could not be immolated outside of the city of Jerusalem; in place of the lamb, they have now but the shank-bone of a lamb, surrounded with bitter herbs. He who presides, after CATHOLIC DOCTRINE OF THE REAL PRESENCE. 7 suitable prayers and blessings, takes one cake or large wafer of unleavened bread from the little pile on the table, and lavs it aside for the end of the service ; the wine is to be passed four times, the last time it is to be taken with the wafer set aside at the beginning of the repast. Jesus eat the last Pasch with them: “With desire I have desired to eat this Pasch with you before I suffer.” As St. John says : “ When supper was done, ... he riseth from supper, . . . and, having taken a towel, he girdeth himself. After that, he putteth water into a basin, and began to wash the feet of the disciples, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded. . . . Peter saith to him, Thou sbalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou shalt have no part in me. Simon Peter saith to him. Lord, not only my feet but also my hands and my head.” Jesus washes their feet, though they had all been already purified by the sacred rites, sacrifices, and purifications of the old law. To show them how much nobler .is the passover of the new law, how much more sacred the victim, he himself, the Incarnate God, washes their feet; then, seating himself at table, he takes the large wafer first set aside, and pronounces on it the word which, when he pronounced it on nothing, called the universe into existence. He says : w This is my body, which is given for you ; this is my blood of the new testament, which shall be shed for many unto remission of sins.” By these noble sacramental words of the Incarnate God, he makes the bread ?.nd wine all that he de- clares it to be—his very body and blood. I need not adduce the many texts of St. Paul which clearly and strongly announce this sublime truth. You can read them at your leisure. I will only call your attention to the eleventh chapter of 1 Corinthians, where St Paul, after telling us that Christ himself revealed to him the sacramental words, says : 4 ‘ Whosoever shall eat this bread or drink the chalice of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. . . . For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh judgment to himself, not discerning the body of the Lord.” How could any one be guilty of the body and blood of Christ, eien by eating the bread alone , unless under that sacra- mental form there was the living body of the adorable Victim, his body and blood, his soul and divinity ? Or how could a man be damned, (as the Protestant version has it,) for not dis- cerning in that sacramental bread the body of the Lord, when really there was no such body there? This doctrine of God giving himself to prepare us for a life of glory, may appear strange to those who have not in them the life of God. But if they will only reflect on the words of Scrip- ture, which assure us that we shall become “ partakers of the Divine Nature if they remember what St. John says in his first epistle, “ that when we see him, we shall become like unto him or what Jesus said when he was going to die for us, 8 CATHOLIC DOCTRINE OF THE REAL PRESENCE. “And not only for them do I pray, but for these also, who through their word shall believe in me. That they all may be one, as thou, Father, in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us they will feel that infinite condescension of divine love, immense helps of almighty power are philosophically and logically to be expected in order to prepare man for the sublime state of glory which is promised to him. Look around and see the fruits of this sacred gift. The ador- able hidden God not only prepares us, in this august sacrament, for a union of eternal glory with himself in his blessed eternity, but also so feeds and nourishes the soul as to make the duties and sacrifices of Christian life, in every state, not only possible, but also light and sweet. Look at the learned and venerable bishops, bowed down by the cares, anxieties, and arduous duties of their sacred office. What gives them the strength to re- nounce all the hopes and all the joys of earth, to devote them- selves to your service, and to that of the Church of God ? Is it not the bread of angels, which each morning strengthens their hearts, makes the world and its joys fade away from their minds, filling them with zeal and heavenly aspirations ? See those holy and learned priests, whose talents might have assured them riches and high positions in civic life. But they preferred the poverty and humility of Christ. Day and night, unterrified by cholera or contagious disease, in the poorest cabins as well as in the mansions of the great, they minister to you the sacraments of the Saviour-God. What gives them the apostolic courage to brave death almost daily and nightly in consoling the dying ? Is it not the sacred, divine bread which they receive daily at the holy mass ? What gives many talented and well-educated ladies the grace to renounce the world and make the same sacred vows that Jesus so well kept, and devote themselves to instruct and educate your children, bringing them up so as to be your joy here below, and your crown of glory in heaven ? What makes them dearly love a life which mere nature could not relish ? Is it not the holy Sacrament? When the fury of most bigoted hatred had passed, those that had forced, at the point of the bayonet, crowds of faithful nuns from their convents, felt the want of such institutions. Often, within the last hundred years, they tried to get up nuns for their new-fangled religions ; but every effort has been a sad, mortifying failure. They have no blessed Sacrament. They have bread, earthly bread, enough ; but it does not fill the soul. And how cheerless would life be to you if you could not often receive your Lord, the pledge of eternal glory, and hope that at death he* would come to give you the last kiss of peace, and, taking your anxious soul in his sacred arms, bring you safe through the narrow gate, and carry you safely to your blessed eternal home ! Printedfor “ The Catholic Publication Society Co.,’' New York. Price ijib per 1,000 copies. No. 13. A CONTYEBSATIOJN ON UNION AMONG CHRISTIANS, BETWEEN MESSRS. BRIGHT AND TRUMAN. Truman.—“ Good morning, neighbor Bright. Did you attend the meeting, last night, for the promotion of union among Christians ?” Bright.—" A very good morning to you. I did attend it.” T.—“And how did you like it?” A 1 Instead of being a meeting to promote union among Christians, it seemed to me like a meeting to pro- mote discord among Christians.” T.—u I am sorry to hear you say so. I have been in hoDes something important would grow out of this movement, to bring Christians together. Do give me an account of the proceedings.” B.—“The first speaker was a reverend doctor of the Dutch Reformed Church. He stated, that although he gave his name to the movement, he had really never had any confidence in its ' success. He knew too well the obstacles to be overcome. There were, for example, the Episcopalians with their exclusive ordina- tion by bishops, and the Baptists with their exclusive baptism by immersion. These were bars in the way, and they could not be removed. Such pretersions were, he considered, an insult to their common Protestantism ; they would come with a better grace from the Church of Rome, with her pretended infallibility . Such things, he said, ought to be put away, so that all the Pm- f UNION" AMONG CHRISTIANS. estant denominations might unite against the twin enemies of true Christianity, Infidelity and Romanism.” T.—“ Seems to me this was rather hard on the Catholics, and in very bad taste in a meeting to promote unity among Christ- ians. The Catholics are three times as numerous as the Prot- estants of all sorts put together. Any union which does not embrace them can not be called a union among Christians. I was in hopes they would have been invited to give their views among the rest. They might, after all, have thrown some light on the subject, for they have succeeded far better than Protr estants in maintaining union among themselves. The doctor was right in saying that no union among the denominations was to be expected. All movements to this effect have failed : there is plenty of splitting up, but no uniting. When people get an opinion into their heads, they do not give it up so easily . But tell me what the other speakers said.” B.—“The next one was an Episcopalian. He agreed that there was no hope of the union of Christian religious bodies, but repelled the charge of arrogance on the part of Episcopalians. He put the case of one of them reading antiquity and becoming convinced of the Apostolic succession, and contrived to make out quite an argument for his own church. He wound up by say- ing, that he did not think it desirable that all the denominations should unite in one. They put a more agreeable face on Christ- ianity as they were. They made variety, just as the different flowers in the garden make it more beautiful. All the union they needed, or that was desirable, was a cooperation in benevo- lent enterprises, such as the Bible or Tract societies. Such union, he considered, presented the most sublime and exhilarat- ing exhibition the world had ever seen.” T.—“ It is very poetical and imaginative to talk of the flowers of the garden, but I can not see either any beauty or sweet odor in this division of Christendom into sects. It always has and always will tend to destroy that love and harmony which ought to prevail among the followers of a common Master. It is a little too much to call these divisions, which are a scandal to Christ- endom, sweet-smelling flowers. They smell bad enough in my nostrils. What did the doctor consider the special advantages of these divisions ?” UNION AMONG CHRISTIANS. 3 “ He said they created emulation, and prevented Christ- ian s from going to sleep ; that it made them more careful of what they said and did, because they knew they were watched by others ; and more to the same effect.” T—“ What a strange idea this presents of the Christian relig- ion This seems to*ne to make our Lord produce evil in order to bring good out of it. I can not and will not believe that the Lord ever set Christians at variance in order to make them active and watchful.” U I agree with you. What the Saviour established must have been entirely and purely good, without any mixture of evil. When there is, in any state of things, a mixed good and evil, we may be sure the devil has had a hand in it. Love must be the moving principle of Christians, and not hatred or dislike or disagreement.” T. “ Well, then, I suppose they all gave up the idea of any union among the different denominations ?” “^es ! The last speaker, a Congregationalist, gave it up very pleasantly and good-humoredly. The gist of his speech was, that difference of opinion was inevitable. We might just as well get reconciled to it and take it easy. If any believed him wrong, he believed himself right, and he could afford to let them have their own opinions. Let them unchurch him if they pleased, he did not thereby consider himself unchurched. He might pity what he thought their folly, but he did not see how he could blame them if they were sincere in their notions. The doctor threw oil on the troubled waters, but every body felt that he and all the rest were giving the movement for union a decent burial, and were glad enough to get the dead body out of their sight.” T.—“ I am sadly disappointed. I have shared in the desire which seemed to swell the hearts of all Christians, that the present state of division should cease, and have looked with hope upon any movement to put an end to it. Perhaps I was foolish to form any such hopes, for these unfortunate divisions have gone on increasing ever since the reformation was first estab- lished. What can we expect? Every one puts his own mean- ing on the Bible. He is right, and every body else is wrong. He is sincere, and the Holy Ghost guides him to the true mean- ing ; the rest who differ with him are all insincere, and all mis- A r*t* UNION AMONG CHRISTIANS. taken With the Bible for a rule and guide to each one, say what you please, people will differ, and they will disagree. Perhaps, after all, our Lord intended these divisions, or he would, certainly, have appointed some other way of ascer- taining the truth. What do you think about it ? B What ! Our Lord intend Christians to be divided up into’ different sects 1 The idea is monstrous ; I can never re- concile myself to such athing. He arrange his religion in such a way as to produce these bickerings and heart-burnings and divisions of society and the family which we see all around us ! Never ! His last prayer was for unity ; that all his dis ciples might be united in the closest bond of love and con- cord. * Father,’ he cries, ‘ that they may be all one, as thou. Father, in me, and I in thee, that they may all be one in us ! Tm “ But can we not be united in charity or love, though divided into different denominations?” ' B—“ No, we can not. Why is there any division into differ- ent denominations? Is it not because there is a difference o doctrine or opinion, and when there is such difference, there s estrangement and disagreement? Look at any of our sma towns or country villages, what do we see? The community and the family at variance on the score of religion 5 charity, in- stead of being diffused as it should be, confined to the limits ot the religious society, and dissension and strife without end. These things grow as naturally out of the organization of the church into sects as weeds grow in the garden. Depend upon it, our Lord never intended any such state of things. T.—“ You are right. As long as we are divided into sects, love will be at a discount. And as long as we are divided in opinion, sects will abound. To be of one heart and soul we must be of one mind. How can we all be of one mind ? Is it possible to secure such a basis of union ? . . F B.—“ It must be. Our Lord prayed for the union of his followers ; therefore, union must be possible, and he must have provided the means of realizing it.” . . h 71_“But as long as each one puts his own meaning on me Bible, and thus constructs a religion for himself, there will be difference of opinion, and no union will be possible. B. “Very true, and therefore that is not the way appointed by God.” , „ Please tell me, then, what is the way. B “ We must get the true meaning of the Scriptures, and not any other meaning which is different from the true meaning Then all accepting this one true meaning, our differences would disappear, and there would be no hindrance m the way of un r—“Yes: but how to get this true meaning is the very question. Who can explain it to us, so that we may'be sure< of it? Any man or any body of men are human like ourselves, UNION AMONG CHRISTIANS. f »nd liabxe to be mistaken. It would be useless to expect man- kind to submit to their interpretation.” I know that, and therefore I conclude that the way of ascertaining the true meaning of the Bible must be appointed by God himself, and have God’s sanction upon it. It must be essentially divine and not human.” T-—“ 1 agree with you ; we may be asked to submit to God, but not to man. But you do not mean to say that God directs each sincere reader in such a way that he can find out his religion for himself?” B.—“ No ; I mean nothing of the kind. This pretense leads to the most obstinate and wrong-headed fanaticism. It is de- structive of unity, and its effects are plainly enough to be seen in the hopeless divisions around us.” T—“ What, then, is the way appointed by God to agree as to the truth and live in unity ? In your reading of the Bible have you found any thing to throw light on this subject?” * did read, not long ago, a passage which set me to thinking. It is this : ‘ The church of the living God, the pillar and the ground of the truth.’ (1 Tim. 3 : 15.) The church must be the guardian and the interpreter of the truth, otherwise I do not see in what sense she can be called ‘ the pillar and the ground of the truth.’ ” T. “How was it that this text made such an impression on your mind ?” B.—“ The more I reflected upon it, the more reasonable the idea seemed to me. We need some tribunal to decide in case of disagreement as to the meaning of the truth, and we need one to whose decisions we should feel ourselves bound to submit. This is the only road to unity. Where can we find such a one, unless it be ‘ the church of the living God, the pillar and the ground of the truth’ ? I was so much impressed by this consideration, that I was led to look farther, and I found much more to confirm my opinion.” T.—u Pray give me the benefit of your researches, for I am very much interested in the matter.” -S.—“In the twenty-eighth chapter of St. Matthew, Christ says to his apostles : ‘ Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations ; baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you ; and behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the world.’ Here is the establishment of a ‘ minis- try to last to the end of time.’ Here, the truth, and the whole truth, is intrusted to this ministry that they may teach it. And Christ makes himself responsible for the truth of this teaching, for he promises to remain with them always.” T-—“This amounts to constituting the church the perpetual tribunal to decide differences, with a divine guarantee that her decisions shall be true. I do not see how we can avoid the conclusion.” 6 UNION AMONG CHEISTIANS. 2?._“We can not When Chi'ist made his church the inter- preter of the meaning of his truth, .le must necessarily hare made her unerring, not liable to be deceived, or infallible; for how could she otherwise discharge her office, and be the fit instru- ment to produce a unity among all Christians? He said very fitly : ‘ He that heareth you, heareth me, and he that despiseth you, despiseth me.’ When we obey the church, we obey not men, but God.” T.—“ When people, then, say, as I have often heard them, 1 will not pin my faith to any church or any set of men,’ they for- get that Christ promised to be with his church, and to send the Holy Ghost to teach all truth, and to abide forever with her ; and what they say is sheer folly.” B. “It is; but they have reflected very little on the matter, or they would hesitate to express themselves in such a way. But you objected to each one picking out his own religion for himself from the Bible. Are we not doing that very thing now ?” T. “ No ; I do not think we are. Being convinced that we can not construct a religion for ourselves out of its pages, we look into them to see if Christ has pointed out any other way. And we find that he has, and that this way is the church. Is it not so?” B.—“ I was only bantering you a little. B “Well, please, let us pursue the conversation, I feel already much’ indebted to you for the light I have gained from your explanations. I am convinced that unity is to be secured bv means of the Church of God. Now, let us come to the prac- tical question, Where is the church at this moment ? How can we find her?” , B. —“ Your enthusiasm for the truth edifies me very much, and I feel that I am as much indebted to you as you are to me. But you ask, How shall we find the true church ? I answer, oy examining the different churches, and seeing which one of them corresponds to the idea we have formed of the true church. It only one shows such correspondence, then that one must be the true church, and our task is at an end. Does any one of the churches claim to be the judge of the true sense of Holy Scrip- ture, and require us to accept her decisions in regard to it? Does the Episcopal Church make such claims ?” T 7.—“She does not. I doubt if any one of her members would have the hardihood to say so. It is true she has her thirty-nine articles of religion, but they are not pretended to be of divine authority, or to bind any body to believe tnem, because set forth by the church. We see her split up at this moment into two factions, at swords’ points with each other and no one dreams their difficulties could be settled by the authority of the church. It is all individual judgment, as well an ong the High as among the Low Church parties.” B. Does any other Protestant denomination assert such a claim ?” UNION AMONG CHRISTIANS. A ] 1 ' agree in remitting the individual to the Bible to settle his doctrine for himself.” R—“Thus far we have done with the different Protestant denominations. They all originated in the same principle of the individual interpretation of the Scripture, and of the right to set up agarnst the existing religion. This is their distinctive mark, and it will remain impressed upon them as long as they exist'How is it with the Catholic Church ?” ° 7 * < L m ? St ad 5 mit that , the Catholic Church has claimed to DnpfV t he - 6 d ^ c ^ rine tbrough a11 ^s. I remember what^ Ep f?? pallan clergyman, wrote against her: It is useless to expect Rome to reform her errors, for a doctrine she nas once committed herself to, she can never change.’ She O?r h h e r1« 0 i ne a ^ d the . sam® do ? tI ‘ 1 . ne everywhere as the very doctrine of Christ and requires the individual to accept her judgments.” rlafL ic Enou^h on that point It is no use to waste words ; her claim is known to any one who has any information. Let us pass to the next point. What church claims to have her teach- ing protected by God, or, in other words, to be infallible ? Does nation?” byterian ’ Episcopallan > or an7 other Protestant denomi- . n0t ttm" Vhey a11 P^fess to be exceedingly shockedat such claim. Why they should be, I can not see° since R is plainly scriptural ; but such is the undeniable fact ” ‘ Then none of them can be the Church of Christ, for notKTS mn anu ?f s®PurinS unit7 within its own borders.H ™ «w l h in e Catholic Church, does she claim infallibili*y ?” J.— We all know that she alone does.” ’ she . al ?? e can be the Church of Christ. She alone has a principle suitable to secure the union of divided Christen- dorn. She alone can possibly allay the conflict of opinions. ^ni7v r, m °/?i tGSt bef°r ? WG conclude - Christ prayed for theumty of his followers, and provided a sufficient means for secur- ing it. these means are in existence to-day. But Christ’s w nS,M SeCm^ t0> me, ought not to prove inefficient or inopera- v “e“s t? daPted t0 an , “d generally accomplish great re- snlts. Christ s means ought to produce unity in a wonderful the ciVnT- 8 ™y mactual practice. What is the actual state of In nraetie ° m regard to ? Do principles work in practice ? Do her members agree in doctrine ?” i T'~ ;[n . a wonderful manner. To see 200,000,000 of people y far the larger part of all Christendom, agreeing as they do P in the profession of one and the same faith, is as striking spec- tacle as the world affords. The means here have secured the result. It is not theory, but actualization.” , ^r . e aP °f one nation or language or climate or nrodnri i > H* nCiP v° r ?° the7 *gree in anF other aspect so as to produce a disposition to unity in religion ?” T.—“No ; they are of all nations, climates, governments, and 8 UNION AMONG CHRISTIANS. languages under the sun. Tb 1- makes their unity of belief truly a wonderful phenomenon.” B. “Do they all worship God in unity and peace * T. “Yes, that is evident. A Frenchman or a German com- ing into a Catholic Church here, finds himself as much at home as° in his own country. If an American Catholic goes to any quarter of the globe, it is the same with him. They have sub- stantially the same worship everywhere.” B. “Is religion with them an element of love and concord everywhere?” ... , B “ It is ; it tends to smooth away all other asperities and differences. When a Catholic meets another Catholic, their agreement in religion is a true bond of union, and mutually warms their hearts toward each other. Witness in our own country the sacrifices of the members of this church to build tiieir churches and found their benevolent institutions. Catho- lics of all nationalities are ready enough to join hands when the prosperity of their religion is concerned.” _ B “ My friend, I think we may as well stop. Enough is as good as a feast. To tell you the truth, I am convinced of the divine character of the Catholic Church. The elements of con- viction were in my mind before, but our conversation has brought them out, and made me see them more clearly and distinctly. I shall seek admission into the Catholic Church. T.—“And I also, in spite of all my prejudices, must do the same: for we must obey our convictions; we must obey God when he calls, even if we have to forsake houses or lands, father or mother, wife or children, yea, even life itself, to do so. B “ The movement for the union of Christians has not en- tirely failed. It has brought us back to the very bosom of Unity itself.” . T.—“And God grant that a strong desire for unity may one* the minds of all Christians to the truth, and thus bring them U the realization of their desires.” Printed for “ The Catholic Publication Society Co.,” New York. Price^ J $6 per 1 ,000 copies. So. 14. THE GOSPEL DOOR OF MERCY. •‘Ad open confession is good for the soul.”—Popular Creei^ Art 4. It is a sad, it is the saddest of all things, to have to say that all men have sinned ! That no one can look up in the face of heaven and declare : “ I am innocent, and have no sin !” This, after all, is only repeating the words of the apostle when he said, “ If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”* Sin, then, is a most common thing. That is not the worst of it. Sin robs man of peace, tortures the con- science with the stings of remorse, and makes the soul sick. It is the most dreadful evil that can befall man, for the anguish of a guilty conscience outweighs all other torments. “ Trust me, no tortures which poets feign Can match the fierce unutterable pain He feels, who, night and day devoid of rest. Carries his own accuser in his breast.” Siu is also the greatest of all evils. For “ the soul that sinneth, the same shall die.” You are strong; but your strength will come down when the trumpet sounds in your ears, “ Come to judgment !” You are prosper- ous ; but you will be stripped of that when your time comes, as come it surely will. “ Say not, How mighty am I ? who shall bring me under for my deeds ? For God will surely take revenge. Say not, I have sinned , what harm hath befallen me ? For the Most High is a pa- tient rewarder.”f Is there no way of getting rid of this evil ? Is there * 1 John 1 : 8. t Ecclus. 5 : 8, 4. 2 THE GOSPEL DOOR OF MERCY. then no remedy for sin ? There is. The primary war t of man’s heart, when moved by any strong impulse of feeling, whether of joy, or of surprise, or of gnilt, is expression. Man must have some one to whom he can unbosom himself. “ I am lonely, lonely, lonely ! There is a secret in my heart that devours me, that tortures me ! Sometimes I fear to go mad of it ; sometimes I hope to die of it ; but neither of the two happens. Oh ! if I could but whisper it to only one human soul !” Such is the cry of the alarmed and guilty conscience. Man has power to commit sin ; but he is powerless to conceal it : and the first effort of the soul to relieve itself of the weight of sin is an open confession. The child can not yield to sleep until it has opened its heart and whispered its little fault to its mother, and re- ceived her pardon with a kiss. Confession is a natural instinct, and on this instinct is based the common saying, “Murder will out.” Men have been known to confess their misdeeds and crimes at the cost of their lives. A case of this kind occurred about twelve years ago, in Bristol, England. A man had been guilty of murder, and all traces of the deed had been covered up for twenty years or more. The tortures of his conscience were so great that he could conceal his crime no longer. He wrote to a magistrate, acknowledged the deed, was put on trial, and expiated his crime with his life. The same thing took place in Fredericksburgh, in the State of Pennsylvania, about fifteen years ago. The murderer voluntarily made known his crime, was tried, condemned, and hung. “ Foul deeds will rise, Though all the earth o’erwhelm them to men’s eyes.” Sin, like poison, can not be concealed, and the only outlet to the guilty conscience is confession. The human heart seeks to unbosom itself to one who has the sympathies of a friend ; one who not being ex- THE GOSPEL DOOE OF MERCY. 3 emPt from human weaknesses, can have compassion on its miseries. It seeks a sincere and disinterested friend who will not betray its confidence or take advantage of its secret guilt. But the conscience is sacred, and hence it asks for a sacred friendship, which will enable it to make known its faults and show its wounds, without fear that its sanctuary will be profaned. Oh ! where shall the poor sinner find such a friend ? Surely religion should take up in its scope these strong inclinations of the souL Christ was snch a friend to the sinner when he walked upon earth. He was frill of com- passion and tenderness toward sinners, forgave them their sins, and bade them sin no more. Can it be that Christ came down from heaven to walk among men for only a few years, and then withdrew with all his powers and gifts to an eternal silence, leaving man as before—alone in his sins, misery, and wretchedness ? Or did he com- municate his powers and gifts to men, to be employed by them as his representatives in the salvation of mankind until time shall end? Xo one who believes in the Holy Scriptures will deny that Jesus Christ had the power to pardon sin. He for- gave Magdalen, the leper, and the man sick with palsy, and in this latter instance, confirmed his right to for- give sins, and his authority to do so, by working a mira- cle. Xo Christian, either, will deny that Christ could communicate to men as his representatives the power to forgive sins, if he chose to do so. Did it please Jesus Christ to communicate this power to men? This is a question of fact, and may easily be settled by referring to the record of his life and actions in the Xew Testament! There is no fact in Holy TCrit more plain than this. Open St. Mathew’s gospel at the sixteenth chapter, and you will find that after Christ had promised to buila his church on St. Peter, and that the gates of hell should not prevail against it, he spoke these words: “And I will 4 THE GOSPEL DOOR OF MERCY. give to thee the keys of the kingdom ofheaven : and what- soever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall he bound also in heaven : and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven.” The power to loose and bind sins is conveyed in these words by Christ to Peter, without limitation, and its exercise by him upon earth Christ pledged to ratify in heaven. Is it not clear from this passage that Christ contemplated the continuance of his work of pardoning sinners, through the agency of men, after he should leave the world? Some persons may be disposed to quibble and say, The pardoning of sin is not expressed in these words of Christ. True enough; but the words, “Whatsoever you shall loose,” etc., are ample enough to include the power of forgiving sin, particularly so, when you consider that our Lord prefaced these words by promising to Peter “the keys of the kingdom of heaven.” Christ himself, how- ever, has anticipated your objection. Open your New Testament again, and this time at the twentieth chapter of St. John’s gospel. Begin at the nineteenth verse and read: “ Now when it was late that same day, the first of the week, and the doors were shut, where the disciples were gathered together for fear of the Jews, Jesus came, and stood in their midst, and said to them : Peace be to you. And when he had said this, he showed them his hands, and his side. The disciples, therefore, were glad, when they saw the Lord. He said, therefore, to them again : Peace be to you. As the Father hath sent me, I also send you.” Let us stop here for a moment and ponder on this passage : “ As the Father hath sent me, I also send you.” By these words Jesus Christ conveyed to his apostles the mission he had received from his heavenly Father. It is the same as if he had said, “My Father sent me upon earth to preach the gospel, to convert sinners, to forgive them their sins ; and as I am now about to THE GOSPEL DOOE OF 1TEBCT. 5 leave the earth, I choose you to go on with my work, and, in my name, preach the gospel, convert sinners, and for- give them their sins for “ as the Father hath sent me, I also send you.” Continue now the text : “ When he had said this, he breathed on them : and he said to them : Receive ye the Holy Ghost.” Stop there and mark the meaning of these solemn words: “Receive ye the Holy Ghost.” Why does Christ invest his apostles with this divine power ? Evidently it must be to exercise by its virtue a divine prerogative. What is this office they are to fulfill by the power of the Holy Ghost ? Read on, and slowly, and weigh well the words, and you will learn : “ Receive ye the Holy Ghost : whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them : and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained.” Here, by these plain, simple, and express- ive words, Christ bestows upon his apostles the power to forgive sins. After this, can any one who trusts his own eyes and reads the gospel, and is a Christian, deny it ? The words of Christ are too plain and direct to be per- verted to any other meaning than that which they bear on their face and naturally signify. There is no escape from their meaning except it be to give up the Bible and deny the authority of Christ. Had I not reason when I said that there is no fact in Holy Writ more plain than that Jesus Christ gave to his apostles the power t<^ for- give and retain sins ? “ Suppose Christ did give to his apostles the power to forgive sins, it does not follow that one must tell his sins to a priest in order to obtain their forgiveness.” But it does follow, and follows necessarily, as you shall 6ee. \V hen Christ gave the power to forgive sin, he also gave the power to retain sin. There is, therefore, a ques- tion to be decided when the sinner comes to the priest : Shall his sins be forgiven or shall they be retained ? He must forgive the sins of those who are trulv penitent 6 THE GOSPEL DOOR OF MERCY. and coidemn those who are not. It would be a sacri- lege to pronounce forgiveness over a sinner who is im- penitent and not resolved to avoid offending God in the future. How then is the priest to know whether he should use the power to forgive or to retain sins unless the sinner manifests his sins and the disposition of his heart ? This manifestation is nothing else than confes- sion. The power to forgive and retain sin, and confes- sion, are inseparable ; the former can not be exercised rightly and with discretion without the latter. And as the power to forgive and retain sin comes from Jesus Christ, it follows that confession is also of obligation and of divine institution. It is in the priest, who “ is ordained for men in the things that appertain to God, . . who can have compassion on them that are ignorant, and that err : because he himself is compassed with infirmity,”* the sinner finds that dis- interested and sacred friend to whom he can pour out the secret sorrows of his soul, and make known its wounds : in the priest he finds a spiritual physician who has the science and skill to cure the soul of the ravages of sin, and to prescribe such rules as will place it out of the danger of falling again ; in the priest he finds a spiritual father who feels in his breast an interest akin to that felt for souls by Christ, and whose duty it is to coun- sel,^encourage, and console the sinner. Moreover, the priest is a friend who not only consoles, but who also, by the authority of Christ and in the name of the Most Holy Trinity, pronounces the forgiveness of his sins ; 'Which, being ratified in heaven, frees the sinner from the bonds and guilt of sin, and fills his soul anew with a peace and joy above all earthly possessions. Here are all the wants of the human heart satisfied by the fulfillment of a religious duty. Here friendship takes the character of religion, and by a divine power, is transformed into a sao* * Hebrews 5 : 1, 2. THE GOSPEL DOOR OF MERCY. 7 rament. Confession, at the same time that it is adapted to meet all the wants of man’s nature, has for its author- ity the express words of Holy Scripture, and for its author •Tesus Christ ! u Grant that Christ gave the power to forgive sins to the apostles, but when they died it ceased.” Who told you that? Why should the apostles forgive sins, and their successors not ? Is there any reason in the one case which is not equally good in the other ? There is no word in Holy Writ about it. It is a mere assertion of yours, and that has no value in matters of this kind, and of such great moment. Did the power to preach the gospel, or to baptize, cease with the apostles ? If not, where do you find in the Bible that the one was to be transmitted to the successors of the apostles and not the other? Your as- sertion carried out would overthrow Christianity entirely. If all sin had ceased when the apostles died, your wrords would have some real value ; but as for sin and sinners, there is no lack of them nowadays, hence the power to forgive sins is no less necessary for us than it was in the times of the apostles. “ But I confess to God alone !” There is no objection to that ; it is a devout and praiseworthy exercise to confess one’s sins to God alone. But do you in this way obtain forgiveness of your sins ? That is the question ! In a matter of such serious importance it will not do to trust to mere fancy, or a theory spun out of one’s own brain. Confess your sins to God alone, if you please, but there is no word in the gospels to assure you of their forgive- ness for it. To trust to your own authority here, is like leaning on a broken reed. Saint Augustine, fourteen hundred years ago, answered well those who would set up their fancy of confessing to God alone, against the words of tne Bible and the authority of Christ : “ Let no one say I do penance in secret before G od ; God knows what passes in my heart, and it is he who par- 8 THE GOSPEL DOOR OF MERCY. dons. Is it then in vain he has said, 4 Whose sins you shall forgive they are forgiven ; whose sins you shall re- tain they shall he retained’ ? Is it uselessly that Christ has given the keys to the Church?” The obligation of confessing sin to those who have the power to forgive sin, is not left optional, for this is the way appointed by God to obtain forgiveness. And who can hope for pardon, if he neglects to seek it in the way God has ap- pointed ? Is it not degrading to our manhood to be obliged to tell our sins to a fellow-man ? It is a necessity and law of our nature, as has been shown, and there is no argu- ment, as you know, against necessity. Degrading ! why degradation comes from sin, and confession is the very means by which we get rid of sin, assert our true man- hood, and again rise to the dignity of a Christian. Does not confession take away the feeling of personal responsibility to God ? No ! for it is in obedience to God that you make your confession ; in confession the man is forgotten in the priest, whom God has intrusted with power as his agent. The Catholic doctrine concerning the sacrament of confession must be full of consolation to those who can believe it! Can believe it! Why, my friend, do you not see that it requires a greater stretch of faith to hope for pardon of your sins without confession than with it V The one has in its favor the plain words of the gospel and the express authority of Christ, and the other has no ground at all to stand on ! Truly the Catholic Church alone, answers the cry of the soul for confession, and opens in the confessional the gospel door of mercy to sinners, and thus faithfully lep- resents him who came to save sinners. His spirit actu- ates her, and she can, with the accents of truth, address sinners in his touching words, “ Come to me, all you that labor, and are burthened, and I will refresh you: . . . and you shall find rest to your souls.” Printed foi ’ “ The Catholic Publication Society Co.,'’ New York. Picejt! unwj |G per 1)0ou copies Wo. 15. WHAT SHALL I DO TO BECOME A CHRISTIAN! My name is George. I have a dear, good aunt, whose name is Mary, and we live on the old Righter farm, which, you know, is just on the outskirts of one of the prettiest towns in our State. Aunt Mary was a Presby- terian of the Old School, as my parents also had been, and as I grew up I was sent regularly by her to meet- ing, to the Sunday-school, and to the Bible-class. I had never been baptized, as my parents were among the non- oommunicants of the church whose children were denied that rite until “ conversion ;” and as I never got converted, 1 remained, in spite of Sunday-school, Bible-class, and sermons, an unbaptized heathen, as were not a few of the people, I am sure, known in the community as Pres- byterians. Not that I ever for a moment imagined I was a heathen. I never was told, nor did it occur to my mind that, until I had made some act of profession as a Christian, I was nothing but a heathen in the sight of God, else the penny subscription for the conversion of “the heathen” in Allahabad and other places where “ golden sand rolled down,” might have appeared to my mind as an inconsistent offering sooner than it did. I lived very happily with Aunt Mary, and the only source of anxiety which she seemed to have was, that I still remained unconverted. She prayed for that desired end, I have no doubt, every day of her life, but never nerved herself to speak to me about it seriously but once. Fired with zeal by h u* attendance upon a revival then going on, she ventured one day to say to me, “ George, dear, you are the one object of my love and my prayers There is but one thing I have asked of the Lord for you that I did not get”—and here her dear old eye3 tilled 2 WHAT SHALL I DO TO BECOME A CHRISTIAN ? with tears — “ you haven’t yet laid hold of the precious promises of the Gospel. I know you have not resisted, for you have never been wild or dissipated ; and I know it is the Lord’s doings, and we must wait for his time of grace; but”—she added, letting her affection get the better of her principles — “ I do wish, George dear, that you would once try seriously to feel convicted, just to see if the Lord may not be ready for you.” “Well, Aunt Mary,” said I, “I’m ready enough, not only to fed convicted, but to be convicted, yet I don’t precisely see how much more conviction I need. I be- lieve the Bible to be true, and that religion is good ; I believe in the Creed ; I believe one ought to be good, and so forth. I’m convinced enough, Aunty, if that’s all.” “But you have not yet felt yourself to be a sinner, dear ?” “ Oh ! yes I have, Aunty ; more than once, I can tell you.” “ A child of wrath, sold under sin, justly condemned for the utter depravity of your heart and doomed to — to—eternal woe ?” she added inquiringly. “ No, Aunty,” I replied, “ I can’t say I do feel all that, neither do I think that you believe me to be quite as bad as that. Do you believe now, that I am an utterly depraved wretch, and that because I have not acknow- ledged myself to be one, I should fall iuto everlasting fire, if I died here by your side ?” “No, George,” she answered, rather taken aback by my way of stating tlie case—“ you are not an utterly depraved wretch, certainly not; but your heart, dear, you know you need a change of heart. The Scripture says, ‘ The heart of man is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.’ ” “ But it does not say that God made him so,” said I, “ it is wholly repugnant to reason ; and equally so to say that God will punish a man with everlasting fire for be- ing just what He created him. Why, Aunt, it’s sheer nonsense, and when I am told that I must believe all this to be a Christian, I am simply told to put my reason under foot and act out what seems to me to be as blas- phemous as it is nonsensical; and now you know why I never joined the church.” WHAT SHALL I DO TO BECOME A CHRISTIAN ? 3 “But you have hopes?” asked my aunt, dreadfully chopfallen and disappointed. “No hope, Aunt, as long as that doctrine is held out to me as Christianity. But don’t you fear,” I added, “ I’ll be a good Christian one of these days, when I can find out how to be a good one without calling myself in the same breath a bad mau.” “You will come to the revival, won’t you, George dear?” she asked, with her hand on my shoulder. It was hard to say no, but my principles were at stake and so I answered : “ I don’t think I will, Aunt, though I’m very sorry to do any thing to distress you ; but the whole thing is a preposterous contradiction ; for they preach —- ‘ Ho ! every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters and yet they say that I can never come one step until I am forced to come ; and that I mustn’t complain if I am not forced, and am left to die of thirst for all eternity. It is all very well for those who think they are elected and sure of heaven, to say that they deserve to go to hell ; but for those who are left out it is quite another thin a-’ I feel, Aunt, that if I went to this revival, I should be doing something against my conscience, and you would not have, me do that, I know, for all the revivals and churches in the world.” “No, my dear,” said my aunt, “I’ll never ask you to do any thing against your conscience; but I’ll never cease to ask the Lord to give me this last and greatest blessing of all his mercies.” I was pleased to lieaj- her say that; for to tell the truth, I was half afraid she would be true to her doc- trine, and reply that as my conscience was a part of my utterly depraved and deceitful nature, the more directly I acted contrary to it the better it would be. So taking her hand, I said : ° “ And I will pray too, that my dear Aunt Mary and her good-for-nothing- nephew may yet both serve God faithfully together as good Christians before they die.” Aunt Mary went to her room and I walked out to stroll about the farm. Naturally my thoughts reverted to our conversation, and I fairly trembled at the thought of my thus unchristianizing myself at one blow. I had never spoken my thoughts out before, and the bit 4 WHAT SHALL I DO TO BECOME A CHRISTIAN ? ter reality was for the first time apparent to me. Was I then indeed no Christian? Plainly not in the eyes of those who had been my spiritual guides and teachers from my youth. I had never felt “conviction” in their sense of the word. I had never experienced the change of heart which was regarded by them as the sign of being selected as a member of Christ’s fold. But f couldn’t understand it. I never doubted that Jesus Christ was the Saviour of the world or that Christ- ianity was true, and yet I was a heathen. If I ask them what I must do to be saved, they tell me to believe on :he Lord Jesus Christ, and in the same breath that I can’t do any thing, not even believe. Believe! believe and be saved, I kept repeating to myself ; “ the devils be- lieve and tremble” .and are not saved. Can’t we do as much as the devils any way ? There is something wrong about the devils’ belief. They know what’s right, but they won’t do it. Now to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ in the right way is to do Avhat you believe, I should say, and have your heart in your belief as well as your head. But then I can’t be a Presbyterian, or a Protest- ant at all, if I stick to that. They say that a man’s heart is totally depraved and knoweth not the things of God. Now, how can a totally depraved heart bebeve in Jesus Christ, and love to do what he has commanded ? But then, they say, you can have a “ change of heart.” Yes, but they won’t be reasonable, and allow that your heart is changed one whit for all that, but that it remains, as Luther said, “ as ugly and as black as the devil almost,” just as it was before. There, said I, musing, is that revival going on, and when it is over they will be calling the converts Christ- ians, and baptizing them into the church. Now, if the baptism only meant something, and washed some of the black off, it might pass as not an empty and unmeaning ceremony ; but there they are, baptized Christians, elect saints, as ugly as the devil and as black as—as old Tat, over there, I added, my eye accidentally falling upon our old negro coachman industriously cleaning the harness on the sunny side of the barn. Tat had once been a slave, but had purchased his free- dom and come North, where he was hired by my aunt, in whose service he had continued ever since, now some WHAT SHALL I DO TO BECOME A CHRISTIAN? 5 twenty years. When asked his name, he replied, “ Cato is my baptize name, but de chill’uns allers calls me Tat, an’ ob de two pronounciations, Tat is my ’special prefer- ence and Tat he was called from that day forth. On this occasion Tat was indulging in one of his old hymn* ditties : “ De reason why I tells you dis, Glory ! glory ! glory hallelujah ! De debbil hates de Methodists, Glory I glory! glory hallelujah !” Just then I came up to him. “ Day, Tat.” “ Day, Mass’ George.” Tat never got over his South- ern habits. “Tat, what is the reason why the devil hates the Methodists, as you were singing, just now?” I was thinking of Luther. “ Dunno,’ Mass’ George, ’cept dey prays an’ sings so dat de debbil can’t git near to ’em.” “Were you ever baptized, Tat?” I asked. “ Yaas I war, Mass’ George, when I wrar de leastest little mite ob a pickaninny. Ye see, I b’longed to ole Mass’ Tom Lantrum, down in Georgia, an’ he war a des- p’rate strict member ob de ’Pistipul church, an’ nebber got no niggers but he had ’em baptize on de spot. ‘Kase,’ as I heered him say one day, ‘I won’t hab no unbaptize heathen niggers ’round me.’ P’raps you’ve heered tell o’ Mass’ Tom Lantrum, one ob de fust, if not de bery fustest, fam’lies in Georgia ; high connected too, wid de Yoshs an’ de Polters an’ all dem dere. O’ course you knows dem. Ebery body mus' know dem ; and den, dere was de ” “But, Tat,” said I, interrupting him, you said your master had his slaves baptized, so as not to have them heathen. Were you made a Christian then, when you were baptized ?” “ Dere you ax me too much, Mass’ George, kase you gee I was too young to receibe information on dat sub- jeck jus’ den.” “ Well, you are a Christian now, I suppose,” said I. “Bress de Lord, I is.” “ When did you become one, Tat ?” “ Laws ! Mass’ George, dere you has tne agin. I ’speet 6 WHAT SHALL I DO TO BECOME A CHRISTIAN ? de Lord choosed me some time or oder, and so I be, from dis time fort’, now and for eber mo’, Amen. Kase when de Lord done choose you, den he done choose you, and dere’s an end ob it. You’s baptize, Mass’ George ?” “ No, not yet, Tat.” “Well, you b’lieves in de baptize, I s’pose, de same as you b’lieves in de catechize ; and I reckon it don't make a heap o’ diff’rence to a man, ’long as he b’lieves in de baptize, wedder he is baptize or no : jus’ as if one only b’lieves in de catechize, it don’t matter wedder he has a catechize or no.” I could not help smiling at such a practical applica- tion of “ faith alone but feeling more and more interest- ed in old Tat’s religious career and notions, I ventured to ask him what made him turn Methodist. “Now, g’way, Mass’ George, you ain’t serous, to say dat I, dat b’longed to one ob de bery fustest fam’lies, mus’ be a turnin’ an’ a turnin’ an’ a jumpin’ Jim Crow like yer low, mis’able fellers dat don’t ’long no whar!” “ But you said your master had you baptized into the Episcopal church.” “ Golly ! what has got into dis yer harness ?” grumbled Tat, pretending to finding it tangled in order to give himself time to get out of the difficulty about the bap- tism. “ As I was a sayin,’ Mass’ George, my ole massa was a desp’rate strict ’ Pistipul, an’ ’longed to de High Church. In course, he couldn’t ’long to no oder, kase he come o’ de highest fam’lies, an’ war high connected all ’round ; but den, ye see, we sarvants didn’t ’long to dat. ’T’wan’t o’ no kind o’ use to us, kase dat took lamin’; high lamin’ too, ebery sort o’ readin’, writin’, an’ cipherin’. We ’longed to de Methodis’ church. I allers ’longed to it, kase dat war our church. Baptize a ’Pistipul ! No sar! I war horned a Methodis’. I war a Methodis’ ’fore I war bajitize, an I’se a Methodis’ now I is baptize. Don’ yer see de circumstantial ebidence ob it, Mass’ George? You’s a Prisbeterian now, ’fore you is baptize, an’ you is jis’ de same after you is baptize. Dat is de consiquential logic ob de whole ting. G’way, baptize don’ hurt nobody !” “No,” thought I, “it don’t wash any of the total depravity out, according to Protestant notions. But, Tat,” said I, “the Catholics say. I’m told, that a man is WHAT SHALL I DO TO BECOME A CHRISTIAN ? 7 actually made a Christian when he is baptized, and your High Church Episcopalian master thought the same thing, and the Bible says, you know, 4 Except a man be born of water and of the Holy Ghost, he cannot ente* the kingdom of God.’ That looks as if one could not be saved by Christ except he be baptized.” 44 1’se done been baptize rnyse’f, I has,” said Tat, rub bmg away hard at the harness. I envied old Tat the happiness of being able to say that. I felt that he was something more than I was. He was baptized and had a right tcerely ask forgiveness, for God is already ready and anxious to forgive him as soon as lie is sorry. To make the matter sure, and to comply With an institution of Christ he is tano-ht cerf°c t0 f hlS - SpiritU i al f ather ’ the priest > and make a Su- JesaaChriTh and tha* l r e prieSt ’ as the minister of sa?d «m ’ haS ?°W-er t0 forSlve him‘ For Christ has ®l‘;„ Whosoever s sins you forgive they shall be for- fi. n i, * them, and whosoever’s sins you retain they shall be retained.” The child does so, and comes away with a joyful heart and new resolution to serve God better in future. This institution is admirable for a°lbut especially for children, for they especially need an external complete assurance of pardon, that they may cheer up and recover their confidence and innocent ioy 7 • 7 j \ and also as a corrective for vices and secret dert’r^t^’ lf aI , lowed t0 fester m concealment, might destnoy them before they are aware of their danger. • • W 'r\ i . eiy true • children being taught that the Driest is m Christ s. stead and that they are bound to confess tohim every grievous sin, will open to their spiritual father mortal ** l WhlCh i he n W ? uld conceal from every living oital else and thus be warned in time, and saved of ?he s° n i 18T °nly the “"Nation, but the medYdneof the soul, and a most efficient one at that. , ^ut may not, on the other hand, the innocent w’ d ea £ n the knowledge of evil, of which he knew not w- ’IW t us vel '-v means of confession 9 IV. No! the confessor is bound to the utmost oru- fore C tt a L d prXd tl0n b T ’l- W°Und must be manifest^- lore it is piobed. Questions not necessitated bv theactual condition of the penitent are prohibited. 7 yo^ explanation^ 6" 6ntire'y Satisfacto*T- on with 8 THE CHURCH AND CHILDREN". w.—Children are taught to go regularly to confession as soon as they are old enough to know what sin is. They see no difference made between themselves and grown people. They are members of the church, and as much children of God as any one. There is nothing wanting to them if they are only sincerely disposed to be good. That is the only change of heart they ever need ; as to faith they never doubt ; it is not in them to doubt the truth they have been taught. They have faith all the time, and never give themselves any trouble on that score. Do right is their formula, and right well do the little things understand it. B.—This is just as it should be. It is the right theory of the thing. Does it work well in actual practice? W.—Excellently well. Catholic children love their religion, they like to come to church, they like to serve the°priest in the sanctuary, they come to confession will- ingly, they love and respect the priests, and are most anxious to make their communion, which is permitted to them at about ten years of age. B.—I should like to see it ; it must be a beautiful sight. jjr. Nothing can be more affecting. To see perhaps a hundred little ones, in one of our city churches, coming forward to receive their first communion, all dressed in their best, the girls in white, with lighted candles, as a symbol of their faith, in their hands, walking two and two, so modestly and reverently—they look like little angels, and they are so, for when “in later life will they ever so much resemble the angels in the purity and . innocence of their hearts ? No sight can be more affecting. B.—Yes, our Saviour said of the little ones, a Suffer them to come unto me, and forbid them not.” I am glad that in the Catholic Church they are not forbidden to receive the communion. Enough for the present. I am strongly impressed with what you have told me. dhe Catholic Church treats her little ones as the true church of Christ ought to treat them. It is a mark that she is divine, as she claims to be. I will examine honestly her claims, and if, as I suspect, they prove true, nothing shall hinder me from following my convictions. ]panted for “The Catholic Ptji lic tion S< oiett Co.,” New York. Price $6 per 1 ,00U copica. \«. ir. A VOICE L\ THE SIGHT; .LESSORS OF THE SICK-ROOM. I had been ill for months. My illness was accom- panied with much pain. Under many severe par- oxysms, I cried aloud and wept involuntarily. At times my courage failed, and, with sorrow and* shame l say it, I murmured against the providence of God. Oh! those weary nights as I now recall them, each a long, long year ! Time has since smoothed down their rough edges. I speak now of one night in particular. My nurse had left me at ten o’clock, wishing me what he really hoped, a good night’s rest, although the rule had been the reverse. An hour’s doze, an awakening, restlessness, pain, more pain, con- tinuous pain hour after hour, this was the fulfillment of his fallacious hopes. As I lay tossing about those weari- some, lonely hours, thoughts came thronging in upon my mmd, some from below , but more, thank God, from above. The night had advanced into those hours of perfect still- ness—the burglar’s hours—when, except from the street lamps, no light could be seen unless from the window of a sick-room like my own. The latest wagon had rattled its way over the stones, and all was still. “ All thino-s pass away, God only does not change;” and, true to the proverb, there came at last a lull to my pain, and, with the gratifying sense of rest to my poor body, there spread 2 A VOICE IN THE NIGHT. over my soul a peaceful calm, acccompanied with, many most sweet and profitable reflections. “ Child of God !” for thus it seemed an interior voice addressed me, “why this impatience? and why these inconsiderate, unkind n^irmurings ? You tire of these lonely hours of suffering, but will you refuse your right, ful share of the heavy cross which I bore so cheerfully before you? You have not been so much alone as you fancy, for tender, sympathizing spirits have kept unre- mitting vigil at your bedside. Unseen they were it is true, but for a thoughtful, devout soul, more really com- panions than the nurse and friends of the daytime. Thy angel guardian has fanned thy feverish brow with his protecting wings, and it was he who whispered in thy ear the resignation, so many acts of which have been re- corded in thy favor, against thy well-nigh involuntary complainings. She too, thy chosen patroness, the his- tory* of whose life, years ago, so completely won thy ad- miration, and whose example has quickened thy devo- tion ever since, moved at the sight of thy pain and tears, has been putting up before my throne many and earnest appeals in behalf of thee her adopted son. One day thou shalt know the number of graces which I sent thee for her sake. But with more interest still than either of these, and with a deeper love, I, thy God, have been with thee. I purposely brought thee to this seemingly pitiful condition that I might get a hearing from thee. The holy Scriptures say truly of me that I am ‘ a jealous God? I had seen with impatience and alarm how deeply engrossed thy affections had become in creatures, and re- peatedly I called out to thee ; but ‘ the world made such a noise in thy ears ’ that my ‘ still small voice ’ could not be heard. At last illness has obtained an audience for me, and I make my appeal to thy filial heart. In the stillness of this night, lying helpless on thy bed of pain alone with me, nothing intrudes to break the charm and A VOICE IN THE NIGHT. 3 power of my advances and admonitions. Ice will not form when the rough winds agitate the waters to and fro ; but on a still night, at even a higher temperature, the chilled waters will quickly congeal and the morning sun will find its rays brilliantly reflected from a smooth hard surface, where, at its setting the evening before, it had but faintly seen its image in the troubled waves. Such a mirror I have long wished to form in thy heart, upon which my graces might sweetly fall, and from which in return thy love and gratitude might be reflected back to me. Believe me, my child, thou hast no true concep- tion of the ardent longing which I have for the insep- arable union of thy soul with myself. I made thee for myself, and perfect peace and rest thou canst never find until thou hast found them both in me. The blood- stained cross of Calvary tells thee how true is this love of mine 5 the altar with its sacrament of love renews perpetually before thee the assurance of it, unceasingly proclaiming that welcome of mine, “ Come unto me,°all ye that are weary and heavy-laden, and I will refresh you.’ ” As the voice which had thus spoken to me died away, I was moved to tears at the thought that God should bestow such love and care on one who had been so faith- less to him. My heart swelled with compunction, min- gled with a peculiar joy such, as I am confident I had never experienced before. Are hours of loneliness and pain, I thought, the moderate price at which one can purchase such delight as this? and with this I bade them welcome, and earnestly too, for I meant it, although so short a time before I had prayed to be released from them. Whilst I lay absorbed in the enjoyment of these thoughts, the same interior voice spoke again : “ My child, the sick-room has yet another lesson ; so listen again. It is no small advantage that I offer thee in the 4 A VOICE IH THE NIGHT. opportunity of making amends to me for thy sms past. Look back over the years of thy life. Along their path- way he strewn the remembrance of many grievous sins, repented of and forgiven, it may be, but for which no fitting reparation to me has ever been made. Moreover, no intelligence less than an angel’s can count the num- berless sins, which, without being grievous offenses against my Majesty, have yet been to me an ever-recur- rin°' source of displeasure ; have stopped the course of my 5 graces which I had destined for thee, and which would have contributed in thee, and through thee to others, to my greater glory. Would it be generous of thee, would it he just that thou shouldst accept the re- ward of the faithful servant, whereas thou hast been untrue to thy trust, even though by an unmerited act of condescension I had overlooked and forgiven thy mis- conduct ? Shall my eagerness to forgive supplant tliy sense of what is honorable and fair? ‘No, Lord,’ said Saint Augustine to me, ‘ my sin shall not go unpunished. I know His justice whose mercy I seek ; it shall not go unpunished. But therefore do I seek that thou punish me not because I punish my own sin. Therefore do X ask thee to forget because I forget not.’ Now in the suffering of these months past I have afforded thee the means of forestalling the rigor of my judgments, when the days of mercy and probation shall be over. What if then, when, as thou thinkest, thou art about to repose eternally on the bosom of thy God, what if an angel s sword, such as kept the garden of Eden, should flash be- fore thee, warning thee back from ground where ‘ nothing that is defiled can enter!' What if, thy soul now un- trammeled by any affection to things of earth, panting like the hart for the waters which flow ‘from the foun- tains of the Saviour,' thou be suffered to parch with a supernatural thirst, that so the ravages of irregular and unholy desires indulged in during life may be atoned for! A VOICE IX THE NIGHT. 5 Dost thou not remember the severity of that penalty which I exacted of Moses, the leader of my people in their journey of forty years through the wilderness? — that faithful son among his faithless brethren ! Look at the old man as he stands upon the summit of the moun- tain overlooking the promised land, the land represented as ‘flowing with milk and honey.’ Its fair fields lie be- neath and before him, which his eye indeed sees, but which his feet shall never tread. Never ! why, how is this ? Has it not been his special work to lead his peo- ple there? Was it not for this that God made him suc- cessful in breaking the Egyptian yoke which lay so heavily upon the neck of his people? Was it not for this that he opened for them a way of escape through the dividing waters of the Red Sea ? Was it not he who alone was able to still their rebellious outbreaks, match- less in their frequency and violence ? Now he has brought this headstrong race to the long-wished-for goal of his and their hopes, and shall he after all be excluded ? Surely his must have been some extraordinary offense ! No, you are wrong. His sin was only a lack of patience and confidence in me ; and I willed that he should be an example to those who had done worse, that my judg- ments are sure even though they be delayed. This it was for which I pronounced upon him the sentence : ‘ Because you trespassed against me in the midst of the children of Israel at the waters of contradiction, thou shalt die in the mountain .... Thou shalt see the land before thee ; but thou shalt not enter it? Hard-seeming, heart-breaking sentence ! For this is he taken as a type of a soul in Purgatory—heaven in sight, but entrance to it denied for a time, in punishment for past sins.” With this there came into my mind the thought of the holiness of God ; the outrage upon his honor which sin is, and the seventy of that reparation which should be of right exacted, to be at all adequate ; and I said, “ O pains of * A VOICE IN THE NIGHT illness ! so distressing up till now, how calmly I can faee you ! In view of the penalties from which it frees me, penance now wears the face of a friend. I understand now that eagerness with which the saints embraced it through a long lifetime. I appreciate now Saint Jer- ome’s praises of Saint Paul the Hermit. ‘ You,’ he said, 4 who possess so much that you can not keep count of it ; whose palaces are of marble ; who have in one necklace of diamonds and pearls the value of many estates ; I ask you what want had this old man, who had none of this world’s goods? You drink from goblets set with pre- cious stones, he from the hollow of his hand. You dress in garments trimmed with gold ; he is clad poorer than the meanest of your slaves. Heaven has opened to this poor man, and your magnificence will not save you from being cast into hell. Poorly clad as he was, he kept his baptismal robe pure ; while^you with your rich clothing have lost it. What will it avail you to bury your bodies in silk and gold ? and why cherish your vanity in a land of sighs and tears ?’ Whoever you may chance to be who read this, remember, I pray thee, the sinner Jer- ome, who would love better, if God gave him the choice, the poor tunic of Paul with his merits, than the purple of kings with their power.’ ” How changed the remem- brance of my illness had become in a single night ! I had found courage to wish for more opportunities of suf- fering. I felt ashamed of my past cowardice, and I said with a full heart, “ Try me once again, O my God ! and pardon my childish fears.” In a measure only, but yet with truth, I could say with Saint Paul, “ I can do all things in Him who strengthens me.” Rocked to sleep by the sweet consolation of these inte- rior communications, I awoke to find the bright sun of a frosty winter morning breaking its way through my cur- tains, while my nurse was standing by my side ready to assist me in making my toilet for the day. I really A VOICE IN THE NIGHT. 7 believe I was extremely good-natured that morning, and in spite of my want of .sleep, bright and cheerful. That night and morning are now among the things that were long ago, but never can the impression then made be effaced from my memory. Alas ! however, how frail is poor, fallen human nature. Its willfulness is deep-seated, and can not be rooted out but by a long process of self- denial and mortification, the reverse of that by which it has been acquired. The lessons taught me that night are still most imperfectly learnt ; but many is the time I have thanked God for that illness, as being among the most precious of His gifts to me. I learned more in those few hours than in all my life before, of my own helplessness ; of the vanity of all earthly things in com- parison with the things of heaven ; of the value of soli- tude, of silence, and of suffering, as so many helps to bring my soul into closer union with God. I learned how suffering makes the soul a willing and profitable listener to the penalties of sin, and teaches it as nothing else usually does at how great a cost of pain a little pleasure is purchased. I had numerous and devoted friends ; my heart Was warm, and I clung fondly to them : but I had now found a friend who had won the first place in my affections. “ Taste , and see how sweet the Lord is /” is the invitation of Holy Scripture, and I had found how truly he is so. To become completely his by an unre- served offering of myself to his service, to spend my strength in helping to spread the true Faith, to fan the flame of interior devotion in my own heart, that others more cold than myself might be attracted to a holy life by my example, then became the one idea for which I cared to live, and in doing which I hoped to be found at my death. Christian sufferer ! whom I suppose to be holding this little Tract in your feeble hand, or who it raav be art listening with painful effort as some kind soul at thy i A VOICE IN THE NIGHT. bedside is reading it to you, I sincerely pray that the ex- perience which I have related to you may become your own. The hope that this may be so, has made the writing of this little Tract a pleasant task, and with this hope I send it on its unknown way, remembering how the Scrip- tures say, “ Cast thy bread upon the running waters : for after a long time thou shaltfnd it again” “On a joyful Easter-day, Henry Suso, being in very blithesome mood, and sitting for a short time, accord- ing to his custom, in the repose of contemplation, de- sired earnestly to hear from God what meed of delights they shall receive from him in this life who have borne manifold sufferings for his sake ; Whereupon, being wrapt in ecstacy, a light shone into his soul from God to this effect : Let all who suffer with detachment re- joice, for their patience shall be gloriously rewarded ; and as they have been here below an object of pity to many, even so shall many rejoice eternally at the de- served praise and everlasting honor which shall be theirs Three special gifts I will give them, so precious that no one can reckon up their value. First, I will give absolute power to their wishes in heaven and on earth, so that whatever they wish shall come to pass. Secondly, I will give them my divine peace, which neither angel, nor devil, nor man, nor any other creature can take away from them. Thirdly, I will so inwardly kiss them through and through, and so lov- ingly embrace them, that I in them and they in me, and we together, shall abide eternally, one undivided unity forever. And since long waiting and praying are pain- ful to restless hearts, this love shall not be withheld from them during this short present hour of life which lasts but for a moment, but it shall begin even now, and be enjoyed eternally, so far as man’s mortal nature can in each case more or less support it. ’ Printed for “ The Catholic Publication Society Co., m New York. Pric p per 1,000 copies. Xo. IS. THE GOSPEL CHURCH. Among the variety of opinions that prevail about the Catholic Church, one of the most charitable, and per- haps the most common is, that, be it good or bad as a religious system, at all events it is not the church of the New Testament. On this ground men affect to ig- nore it, and feel it their duty to oppose it. This tradi- tion, the growth of a few generations, has no foundation in either the letter or the spirit of the Gospel. I am in hope of being able to prove the truth of my declaration by what follows. I shall give three principles peculiar to the teaching of the Catholic Church, and by these test her claim to being the church of the Gospel. First, She claims the right to speak with authority , and declares that every one without exception is hound to listen to , and obey her teaching. In conformity with this, she denies that religion is just what one may chance to think it; but maintains, on the contrary, that it is just what God made it. She upholds the principle of authority as the guardian and teacher of this revela- tion, and maintains that faith and obedience are the true tests of love, and the only sure ground for hope. Thus, she delivers a body of revealed doctrine to be embraced, because it is true, as coming from God ; and prescribes a rule of conduct to be followed, involving self-denial and the control of the passions, which she declares to be God’s way of training the soul for heaven. She contends, in fine, that this principle is the only one which is in harmony with the idea of faith, without which, says the holy Scripture, “it is impossi- 2 THE GOSPEL CHURCH. ble to please God.” Let us see how far the New Testa- ment will support her in this. I give first the testimo- ny of St. Paul. He thus describes the process by which we are able to make an act of faith. “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” “ How hen,” he asks, “ shall they call on him, in whom they *ave believed ? Or how shall they believe him, of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how can they preach unless they be sent ? As it is written : How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, of them that bring glad tidings of good things !”* The conclusion which St. Paul draws from his argument, is this : “Faith then cometh by hearing : and hearing by the word of Christ.” In other words, St. Paul declares that if you would hope to be saved, you must pray. To pray aright, you must believe aright ; to believe aright, you must be taught aright; to teach aright, one must be divinely commissioned, as Christ himself was, of whom it is written, “ God so loved the world, as to give his only begotten Son ; that whosoever believeth in him may not perish, but may have life everlasting.”! Thus St. Paul has reasoned out, and insists upon the principle of faith, which he makes identical with the one for which I am contending. St. John, too, confirms it with his testimony; and he is as little likely as any of the New Testament writers to give an unnecessarily harsh judgment, since he is emi- nently the apostle of love. He says, “ Whosoever seced< eth and continueth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God : he that continueth in the doctrine, hath both the Father and the Son. If any man come to you and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into the house, nor say to him: God save you.”J Strong language this, in any one’s mouth, but doubly strong in the • Romans 10 : 13-15. t John 3:16. t 2 John 9, 10. THE GOSPEI CHURCH. 3 mouth of this gentle-hearted Apostle ! I am at a loss to know what those whose religion is purely of the heart, to the disparagement of the intellect, can make of such passages as this from the writings of their ideal teacher and patron. You hear it often said in regard to relig- ious discussions, “ After all it’s only two- ways of look- ing at the same thing ; and if one is only sincere, it will make little difference here or hereafter.” In plain lan- guage the meaning of this is, “ There is no creed in heaven, why should there be any upon earth ?” “ The toilsome journey of life was done ; And all who in Christ the Saviour died Came out alike on the other side. No forms or crosses or books had they ; No gowns of silk or suits of gray ; No creeds to guide them or MSS ; For all had put on Christ’s righteousness.” No creed in heaven ! how monstrous! Is it not true in heaven that there is one God, and but one ? That in that one God there are three distinct Persons? That the Son, the second Person, became man in the womb of the Virgin Mary? That he died for our sins upon the cross ? Are not the resurrection from the dead, and life everlasting, such truths as there is no freedom for saint or angel to deny ? And if so, is there not then a definite creed in heaven ? Sentiment is a fine thing in its place, but truth, not sentiment, is the food of the soul. St. James says, “If a brother or sister be naked, and want daily food, and one of you say to them : Go in peace, be you Avarmed and filled; yet give them not. those things which are necessary for the body, what shall it profit?” As then the body will starve on sym- pathy, so the soul Avill staiwe on the emptiness of senti* went. Again St. Paul says, “Though we, or an angel of God, 4 THE GOSPEL CHURCH. preach to you any other gospel than that which we have preached to you, let him be anathema.”* Lastly our Lord himself says, “As the Father hath sent me, so I send you. Preach the gospel to every creature. Whosoever lieareth you heareth me, and whosoever despiseth you despiseth me ; whosoever be- lieveth and is baptized shall be saved, but whosoever believetli not shall be condemned. In vain do they wor- ship me, teaching doctrine and commandments of men. This is not the connection in which these passages actually stand, but I feel sure that no fair-minded person will say that it is not legitimate to bring them together, as the idea in each is the same. Again the Gospel says, “And it came to pass when Jesus had lully ended these WOrds, the people were in admiration at his doctrine, for he was teaching them as one having authority, and not as their Scribes and Pharisees.”! Now, connect with this passage the words I have already quoted, “ As the Father hath sent me so I send you.” As it is plainly contrary to the justice of God, that such severe denunciations as the above passages contain should be made by his authority for the violation of that, in refer- ence to which there is liberty of choice, therefore I consider my point proved ; namely, that the Catholic Church in her claim to teach with authority, and to ex- act obedience, is supported both by the letter and spirit of the teaching of Christ and his Apostles. A second principle which is characteristic of the Catholic Church is this: Divine power is ordinarily transmitted through the medium of material thin^i. a certain ceremonial. In other words, the Cath; lie religion is a sacramental, and a ceremonial religion Now what is meant by a sacrament ? By a sacrament is meant some outward ceremony to which our Lord by promise has attached a secret, definite, divine power. t Matt. 7 : 28, 29.* Gal. 1 : 8. THE GOSPEL CHURCH. 5 If we may venture to ascribe a motive for his having willed to impart his graces in this, rather than in another way, we say it was in order to teach us humility, through the practice of faith and obedience. These two virtues, I have already said, are the surest tests both of our love of God, and of our hope in him ; and at the same time, the most destructive of the greatest obstacle to the union of our souls with God ; namely, self-love. Accordingly, the Catholic Church teaches that an au- thorized ministry, with a legitimate form of words, and the use of water, can wash away the disgrace of -the Fall from a soul, restore it to perfect beauty and sancti- ty, and make it a child of God, and an heir of the king- dom of heaven. She maintains that, under similar circumstances, she can change the substance of bread and wine into the body and blood of the living Jesus, the accidents or appearances of bread and wine remaining unchanged. She teaches that as the body is nourished by food, so really is the soul made strong in virtue and holiness by the sacramental presence of Jesus Christ. She teaches again, that by still another form of words, with a like authority, oil will effect what neither water nor wine can ; namely, impart to the soul a suppleness and activity, such as shall enable it to elude the grasp of the devil in its last struggle with him at the hour of death ; as the putting of oil upon their bodies enabled the combatants in the Roman amphitheatre to slip away from one another in their public wrestling matches. She claims, moreover, by the laying on of hands of this same authority, to be able instantaneously to in- vest a man with more dignity than the longest line of royal ancestry can do, and with more power than a monarch’s unlimited rule. This twofold power of for- giving sins and consecrating the Holy Eucharist, as completely distinguishes a priest among men, as the 6 THE GOSPEL CHURCH. Mother of God was distinguished among women in being at once Virgin and Mother. Now, are these, and similar claims, audacious forgeries upon the revelation of God, and unblushing assumptions of fancied power ? If Luther’s doctrine of justification by faith alone b© true, then they are such. Let us see. Our Lord said to Nicodemus, “You must be born again.”* You must be re-formed, re-modeled—taken to pieces and put together again, as it were. This com- plete change must take place in you before you can see heaven. “Except a man be born of water, and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.”f Both are necessary. Water is declared to be the medium through which the Holy Spirit communicates himself to the soul. To show us what is effected by this sacrament, our Lord was pleased to be baptized himself; on which occasion we read, “ And behold the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God de- scending as a dove, and coming upon him, and behold a voice from heaven saying, This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.” Does the Catholic Church then claim any thing more in the case of the baptism of each one of her children than Christ has led her to ex- pect, in having been pleased to reveal these phenomena at his own baptism, which illustrate so accurately and so beautifully the effects which she ascribes to this sac- rament ? We come now to the Sacrament of the Holy Eucha- rist. Our Lord feeds five thousand people with five loaves of bread. In connection with this miracle of his, he refers to the manna, “ the bread of angels,” with which he had fed the children of Israel on their way to the Promised Land. But as if referring to both, only in order to disparage their excellence in favor of another bread more miraculous than either, he says, • #ehn 8 : 8. t Jois» 8 : 5. THE GOSPEL CnURCH. 1 u Moses gave you not bread from heaven ; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.” “I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread he shall live forever, and the bread which I will give is my flesh for the life of the world. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth me, the same shall live by me.”* Some of his disciples are scandalized, and say, “ How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” and they leave him. Time passes; it is the eve of his death. The Master and his disciples have kept the feast of un- leavened bread, true to the requirements of the Jewish law, when our Lord takes water and a towel and begins to wash their feet. St. Peter is distressed at this act of humility, and protests, “ Lord thou shalt never wash my feet.” Our Lord replies : “ If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me ”f St. Peter, in alarm, and, in the fer- vor of his devotion, exclaims, “Lord, not my feet alone, but my hands and my head.” How the Apostles must have wondered as Jesus went the round of their little company ! What can this mean ? they must have thought, as they exchanged looks with one another. Now he has finished his humiliating task, and he returns once more to the table. He takes up bread in his hands, and as I think we may fairly conjecture, reminds them of what had passed ; saying, “ Do you remember the day I multiplied the loaves of bread, and how I said to you, ‘I am the living bread, which if a man eat he shall live forever ; the day that your companions, my disci’ pies, left me, because I said this? You said rightly, Thou hast the words of eternal life,’ and on this assur- ance you stayed with me. Here, then, is the reward of your faith and of your fidelity. ‘ This is my body ; take and eat.’ ‘This is my blood; drink ye all of this. I This is my parting legacy. I am going from * 6 - t John 18. $ Matt. ?*v «&, *7. 8 THE GOSPEL CHURCH. amongst you. Do not forget me who have loved you so well. To-morrow I give my life for yours. ‘He is at hand who shall betray me.’ ‘Do this in remem- brance of me.’ ” A lady now living, at the time a Prot- estant, hearing it said that the sixth chapter of St. John was strongly corroborative of the Catholic doc- trine of the real presence of Christ’s body and blood, sat down one evening beside her maid, and taking her Protestant Bible on her lap, said, “Dolly, I am going to read to you the sixth chapter of the Gospel of St. John. The Catholics say that it teaches their doctrine of Transubstantiation, by which is meant the changing of bread and wine into the Saviour’s body and blood.” She accordingly read it through, and was much struck with the force of the wording of it. “ Dolly,” said she, “ I am puzzled, I shall read it over again.” When she had finished she shut up the Bible, and turning to her maid said, “ Dolly, I never will say a word against this belief of Catholics as long as I live.” It was not long after this that she became a Catholic. The letter of the New Testament is equally plain as to the sacrament of Extreme Unction. Indeed, it is so clearly an ordinance of the newly established Christian church, that St. James speaks of it as if he were only reminding those to whom he was writing of what they already knew. “Is any man sick among you? let him bring in the priests of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.” This is exactly what is done in administering this sacrament in the Catholic Church. As the priest anoints each one of the sick person’s senses, he prays, and instructs both the sick man, and those who kneel around, to pray that “by this holy ointment, and by his sweet mercy, the Lord will be indulgent to the sick man on account of whatever sins he may have committed by his eyes, his ears, his mouth, his hands, THE GOSPEL CHURCH. 0 etc.” Has this ordinance of the early Christian church ever been abrogated ? Since clearly it never has been, how is it that its practice is confined to the Catholic Church alone ? We come now, last of all, to the ordinance of “ the lay- ing on of hands.” In the ordinations performed immedi- ately by our blessed Lord, there was no necessity for this formality. It was .enough for him to say,^“Thou art Peter ... to thee do I give the keys of the kingdom of heaven, whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose upon earth shall be loosed in heaven.”* Or, again, “ Receive ye the Holy Ghost ; whose sins you do forgive, they are for- given, and whose sins ye do retain, they are retained.”! Or, once more still, “ Do this in remembrance of me.” Take bread and wine, and repeat my own words, “This is my body,” “This is my blood.” My word of com- mand is your power of execution. But for the better ordering of the Christian society, as we have said, it was fitting that a definite ceremony should be created. Accordingly, when the Apostles proceeded to their first ordination of successors to themselves, they chose out men oi a good reputation, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom,” who being placed in their midst, “praying, they laid their hands on them ”J On a later occasion in Samaria, when the Apostles had conferred the sacrament of Confirmation, the impious Simon Magus, “ seeing that by the imposition of hands the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money, saying, Give me also power, ^ that upon whomsoever I shall lay hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost.”§ Tell me, candid reader, have I, or have I not, proved my second point? It is characteristic of the Catholic Church in the third place, “ that she encourages in her children the highest standard of self-denial and mortification , as a necessary means of uniting the soul most closely to God.' 9 Her celibate priesthood stands before the world in pi oof of this. Her convents and monasteries rise from among the roofs of every considerable town in Christen- dom, and adorn and sanctify many a hill-top and moun- tain slope the wide world over. In these sacred retreats, * Matt. 16 : 18, 19. + John 20 : 22, 23. § Acts 8 : 18, 19. % Acts 6 : 8. 10 THE GOSPEL CHURCH. communities of men and women find their highest hap- piness in the practice of the three exalted virtues of chas- oi,-— » sursiSitsa b“ For this she has constructed her science of inteiio. and exterior mortification, called Mystical Theology ; bv means of which self-love and creatures are deposed from their usurped thrones upon the human heart, and Jesus Christ, its rightful sovereign, is set up ln 4 nlace. For this third characteristic, perhaps more than For either of the other two, is the Catholic Church dis- liked and frowned upon. Let us see whether, consist- ently, the infant church of Christ ought not to shaie her d With' regard to chastity, St. Paul says, “Now con- cevnino- virgins, I have no commandment of the Loid but I "give counsel as having obtained mercy of the ?"rd to be faithful. I would have you to be without solicitude. . . . He that is with a wife is solicitous for the things of the world how he may please his wife, and he is divided ; and the unmarried woman, and the virgin, thinketh on the things of the Lord, that she may be lio y wl in Udv and spirit. . . . Therefore he that giveth his virgin in marriage doth well, and lie that g»veth h«sr not doth srs: ’an a d Sim. y **** t£t the Catholic Church grounds Fhe greater perfection of celibacy as a state of life ; while at the same time, she does not deny the possibili- tv of perfection of the highest kind to individuals in the married state, of whom she exhibits amnios as for instance, St. Louis of France, St Jtuza w'h of Hungary, and others. It is this undivided de- votion to the cause of holiness, whicli has made the Catholic missionary the sole converter of the nations which has raised the Sister of Charity to that point o reverence and honor, which even the unbelieving world cheerfully accords to her ; and which assures the com >ni *- nity in which pestilence in its most malignant foim may hove' broken out, that the Catholic priest shall surely be * 1 Cor. 7:83, 38,34,38. THE GOSPEL CHT7BCH. 11 found at his post to give the last sacraments to the dying at the risk of his life. But let me confirm the disciple’s words by the Master’s. St. Paul’s by our Lord’s. He had been d'enouncing di- vorce and adultery by subsequent marriage of the di- vorced person, when the people said to him, “If the case with a man and his wife be so, it is not good to marry.” To this he replied, “ All receive not this word, but they to whom it is given. He that can receive it, let him receive it.”* What is this but saying that vir- ginity is a gift whose excellence is so great, that like all great gifts it is rare ; and few have sufficient zeal for the honor of God, and for their personal perfection, or suffi- cient courage and spirit of self-sacrifice to accept the mortification which it involves? Moreover, our Lord himself, his blessed Mother, his reputed father, the husband of the Virgin Mary, St. John the Baptist, and St. John the Evangelist, each enroll their names on the side of virginity. What shall I say of jmverty ? Can one practise it more perfectly than when he freely chooses a rude cat- tle-shed open to the rough winds of winter as his birth- place, with straw his only bed and covering ? when, in after years, he can say truly of himself, “ The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air nests ; but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head”? when at his death his executioners cast lots for the one poor piece of clothing he had worn ? His example is the inter- pretation of his advice to the young man .who was seek- ing how to lead a perfect life : “If thou wouldst be per- fect, go sell what thou hast, and come, follow :ue.”f This is, in fact, what the Apostles did, for they say, “Lord we have left all things and have followed thee*.” This complete renunciation, under certain circumstances, is binding even now, for our Lord says, “If any man come to me and hate not his father and mother, and wife and children, and brothers and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.’’^ V ith regard to the law of abstinence from flesh meat, and fasting upon one meal a day, some may think it an idle practice ; but let him say why Moses fasted forty days and forty nights before promulgating the Ten Com* * Matt. 19 : 10, 11. f Matt. 19 : 21. % Luke 14 : 26. \2 THE GOSPEL CHURCH. mandments ? Let him explain, too, why the prophet Elias did the same, and that under the guidance of an angel? Let him say, again, why St. John the Baptist kept a fast of thirty years in solitude in preparation for his short public life as the forerunner of Christ. But nore than all, let him tell us why the all-holy Son of God himself, “ was led by the Spirit into the desert for the space of forty days . . . and did eat nothing in those days.” If there be no virtue in fasting, why should our Lord tell his Apostles that one species of devil could not be cast out “ but by prayer and fasting” ?* To give up what one has, or might have, is little m comparison with giving up what one is. In reference, therefore, to the virtue of obedience, our Lord’s hidden life for thirty years at Nazareth, during which, as the Gospel says, “ he was subject to them,” namely, to the Blessed Virgin and St. Joseph, is sufficient to account for the fact that the church encourages her children to follow our Lord’s footsteps along this way ot perfection also. . My task is now done. I have shown that m three respects, in which the Catholic Church differs from all forms of Protesantism, her teaching and practice coincide with those of the New Testament. I have left a far larger number of points untouched, which are equally distinctive, and as clearly capable of proof. Reader, are you not a Catholic? The Bible is pro- fessedly your only guide, and yet the New .Testament portion of it, by my showing, confirms Catholic, in opposition to Protestant, teaching and discipline. Is it not true that this fact has a serious bearing upon your intelligence and conscience ? The knowledge of truth necessarily involves the obligation of embracing it. On what ground can you consistently refuse to do so ? * Mark 9 : 2S. Pi'iutedfor " The Catholic Publication Society Co.," New t ork. Fries $9 per 1 ,000 copies. No. !9o WHO IS JESUS CHRIST ? OiS'E Monday morning Mr. Mayflower was sitting in the cosy private office of his counting-house, absorbed in deep thought. A certain literary air was given to the room by the presence of a number of books and periodicals of a more intellectual sort than are usually found in the private cabinets of our merchant princes. The countenance and bearing of the man himself, also, betokened that, although his energies were chiefly em- ployed in the direction of his commercial affairs, he still had time and inclination for the higher pursuits of the mind. Descended from an ancient Puritan family of Boston, he had been well educated in his youth, and had engaged in business for the sake of acquiring wealth, in order that he might provide himself and his family with the means of indulging all the most refined intellectual tastes to the utmost, and that he might be able to pro- mote the schemes of general philanthropy in which he was interested. He was addicted’ to the so-called Liberal school of theology, and one of the principal members of the select congregation of the Rev. Mr. Mythic. On this particular Monday morning he was thinking over the sermon of the preceding day with a great deal 2 WHO IS JESUS CHRIST ? of misgiving and dissatisfaction, and imagining what the old pastor of his boyish days would say about it if he were still alive. Just then a familiar step and tap were heard at his door, and in walked another portly, middle-aged gentleman, with a very wealthy creak to his shoes, who was his old and bosom friend from boy hood, Mr. Oldcastle. As this gentleman’s visits were of frequent occurrence, and the two friends always dropped very speedily into some serious discussion, we will waive all ceremony, and begin at once with the conversation of this morn- ing, which naturally turned upon the subject Mr. May jjower was thinking about as Mr. Oldcastle tapped on bis office door. Mr. M. We had a very singular sermon yesterday, or rather, I should say, a very singular series of sermons came to their climax yesterday, not greatly to my satis Mr. O. Let us know what particular article of faith was destroyed yesterday, to clear the ground for the Church of. the Future, in which, no doubt, you will be a shining light ! . . Mr. M. You are satirical. But, this time, I think you have good reason to be so. Our pastor is certainly a clever man and an ingenious reasoner, and I have hitherto taken pleasure in following his arguments, with- out much thought of the direction their drift was taking. But yesterday I seemed to catch a sight of the breakers upon which all that I have venerated as true Christi- anity is to be dashed in pieces. His topic was the character and mission of Christ, and, upon my word lie seemed to leave but little of either remaining. 11 1 were to adopt his views, I should regard the gospels as no better than Lempriere’s Classical Dictionary. A droll sensation came over me of the absurdity of our pastor’s position, and of all our doings in the congrega- WHO IS JESUS CHKIST ? 8 tion. Here is a man, standing up in a pulpit, calling himself a Christian minister, reading the Bible, offering prayers, giving out hymns, taking a text, and preaching a sermon, according to the outward forms which have come down from our Puritan ancestors, and the doctrine itself of the sermon is not one tenth part as Christian as the lectures of old Socrates and Plato. Cicero is an orthodox divine to him, and if either one of these old pagans were alive, I would propose to build a marble church for him in the Fifth Avenue, and start a new congregation. Mr. 0. TV ell done, son of the pilgrims ! The latent orthodoxy in your blood is stirring at last. I am both astonished and delighted to hear such a stanch Unita- rian as you talking in this strain. I think you have ex- perienced a change ! Mr. M. It is precisely because I am a true, old-fash- ioned Unitarian that I talk as I do. I am sure that Dr. Charming, Dr. Ware, and all our old divines would agree with me, if they were alive. Last night I felt so misera- ble at the thought of getting mythicized and Renanized in my old age, leaving all the faith I learned from my good mother and turning pagan, that I could only quiet myself by reading the New Testament for two hours,* after which I said my prayers more fervently than I had done for years, and went to sleep thinking of these words I had just read, “ This is life eternal, to know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou Hast sent.” Hang this mythical sophistry ! The gospels aie true after all, and I will never cease believing that Jesus Cnrist is just what he says he is himself, for he spoke the truth if ever man did. Mr. 0. A very sensible conclusion ! But let me ask, What do you think the gospels really teach about the character and mission of Jesus Christ? II 13 ? - real incidenW related to the writer by an esteemed friend, wlvo ia a Unitarian minister. 4 WHO IS JESUS CHRIST ? Mr. M. Wliy, that he was a perfectly holy man, and the greatest of all the inspired prophets of God, who gave mankind a perfect example and a perfect doctrine, which he sealed with the blood of martyrdom. The humanity of Jesus Christ appears to me so plainly set forth in the New Testament that I wonder how any re- flecting person can question it. Pray tell me why it is that you believe that Jesus Christ had a divine and not a human nature ? Mr. 0. With your permission I will postpone answer- ing that question for a while. I am very anxious to hear from you a full explanation of your own views; afterward I have no objection to explain mine if you desire it. Will you please give me some conclusive reasons from the Scripture for your belief that Jesus Christ was a man, with a human nature like ours ? Mr. M. What is a man ? and what is human nature ? A man, I suppose, is an individual of the human race, whose first progenitors were created by God, and which has been continued by generation from them. Human nature is that which is common to all the individuals of the race, and makes them one genus. The most essen- tial parts of human nature are soul and body. There- fore we say that man is a creature composed of soul and body. Now, if Jesus Christ was descended from Adam and Eve, and inherited from them a nature composed of soul and body, he had a human nature, that is, he was a man. Am I right ? Mr. 0. Perfectly so. Mr. M. Now, Jesus Christ was born of Mary, and the Evangelist himself traces his genealogy through the kings and patriarchs to Adam. He had a human body which was nurtured and grew to maturity, which was capable of suffering and subject to death. He had a soul also, for the human body is not a body without the soul, which is its form or vivifying, animating principle, WHO IS JESUS CHRIST ? a giving it life, form, and sensibility. This soul could not have been the divine nature dwelling in a material form, for the divine nature cannot suffer; and so, if the soul of Jesus Christ was not a real human soul, his human acts and sufferings would have been all phantastic, mere appearances. Moreover, the gospel tells us that he “ grew in wisdom and in favor with God and men,” and that he complained, “My soul is sorrowful, even unto death.” Have you any objection to make, and do you require me to give more proofs that Jesus Christ had a real human soul and body ? J\L . O. I am perfectly satisfied with what you have said. It is evident that Jesus Christ was really and truly a man. Will you now give me your reasons for believing that he was a prophet, divinely inspired, and having an immediate divine mission from heaven? If he was a man, like one of us, why is it not reasonable to suppose that he founded his religion by the mere natural force of genius, wisdom, and moral excellence ? Mr - Foi‘ two reasons. First, because the creation of such a work as Christianity is altogether above the power of human genius. And second, because, apart fiom supernatural gifts, Jesus Christ was not placed in those circumstances which are necessary to call out genius and to concur with it for producing great effects in a natural way. The greatest geniuses of the world have failed to find that form of divine truth which is at once complete and universal. You know very well that the only ancient philosophers worth mentioning are the Greeks* and the Hindoos. Now, what an imperfect, unsatisfactory sys- tem is that of Plato, with his eternal matter out of which God formed both souls and bodies ; and that of Aristotle, in which God and the universe have each inde- pendent, self-existing being! How little were those wonderful men, Socrates and Plato, able to accomplish, 9 WHO IS JESUS CHRIST ? in the way of promoting elevated views and high moral principles. As to the Hindoos, they never rose above Pantheism, and their social system was a grinding, mer- ciless tyranny. Religious and moral institutions* before Christ, were never propagated except as they spread with the growth of particular nations into whose polity they were interwoven. Even Judaism, superior as it was to all religions and philosophies of tho world, was barren of all results, so far as the rest of mankind were concerned. Now, Jesus Christ has broken down all these barriers, surmounted all these difficulties, and regenerated man- kind. He was born and bred in seclusion from all the means of acquiring learning or philosophy, or studying the laws and polities of the great nations. He did not teach a philosophy, or propose any new political doctrine. He did not and could not set on foot any system of hu- man, natural means, by which his ideas should be pro- pagated and become dominant in the world. Studying his" life, character, and doctrine, apart from its connec- tion with a system of supernatural revelation and prov- idence, whose messenger he was, I find no adequate cause whatever for the effect he has produced in the world. And such an effect ! He has given, in his pure, perfect doctrine of the One God in his relation to the created universe, to Greek philosophy the solution of all its vexing problems, and has made that philosophy do homage to the creed of the children of Israel, henceforth to serve it as a handmaid. lie has given to the Roman empire a law which has overmastered her imperial ju- risprudence, and turned her world-conquering power into an instrument for the universal diffusion of the tradi- tions preserved in the institutions of Moses. This com- bination of all the forces contained in the Jewish, Greek, and Roman civilization into one doctrinal and moral code, could not have been the work of mere human genius. It comes from the same hand which created the human race, and assigned each portion of it ite special task in the grand plan of human regeneration. Pronhecy foretold it, a long series of miraculous events prepared the way for it. Jesus Christ was the last and greatest of a series of prophets. He claimed to be s prophet, his entire religion was based on the belief thal he was a prophet. It is impossible to vindicate hit WHO IS JESUS CHRIST ? 7 character as a truly great and good man, without main- taining his prophetic character. If he was not a proph- et, Socrates was far superior to him. Yet, the world, that is, the true elite of the race, the portion of man- kind which has carried on the work of intellectual, and moral progress, has venerated him as the Ideal Man. The power of that idea of Jesus Christ Axhich has been stamped upon Christendom has regenerated mankind. Either it is a true idea, or mankind has been regenerated by an illusion, a myth, and all the future hopes of the race depend on the perpetuity of the illusion. That is more than I can believe. Of all credulous mortals in this world, commend me to your Colensos, Renans, and other mvthics, who believe in effects which have no efficient causes. Mr. O. I can not express how much I am delighted with your reasoning on this subject. It is not°alto- gether new to me, it is true, but it strikes my mind with a new force, as you represent it. Christendom is the great miracle which proves the divine mission of Jesus Christ. It is a work above the order of created and secondary causes. It is supernatural. The idea which really constitutes Christianity must be looked for in the mind ot Christendom, and must have been first in the mind of Jesus Christ himself. This idea must be the truth, for it could not regenerate mankind unless it came from the same God who created mankind. We are to look, then, in the mind of Christendom for the true idea of Jesus Christ, and then to trace this idea to its source in the original himself as he presents himself to us in the gospels. In few words, whatever Jesus Christ affirms himself to be, or is declared to be in the gospels, and is universally believed to be through faitlfin this original word, that he really is. Mr. M. Yes, I can assent to that statement, as I in- terpret the words. I suspect you will try to slide in Bomething I can not accept, under that last clause of uni- versal belief, and endeavor to trace some of your ortho- dox, metaphysical abstractions, or the exaggerations of populai theology, to a forced, irrational explanation of some of the texts of the New Testament. But I think 1 am a match for you there. Mr. O Doubtless! I know you too well to think that sophistry or logical artifices of any kind can with- 8 WHO IS JESUS CHRIST ? stand the hard blows of your common sense. 1 will not pretend to establish any thing which is not contained in clear, distinct statements of Jesus Christ himself and the Evangelists. You admit that whatever is clearly affirmed respectin0* Jesus Christ there, must be true? Mr. M. Of course ! Is not that what I proved my- self? Did I not prove to your satisfaction that Jesus Christ is a true man, and a prophet of God? You have admitted this, in a most frank and sensible manner. You can not, then, prove any thing contrary to it. The true humanity of Jesus Christ being admitted, together with the doctrine of the unity of God, I have my funda- mental Unitarian creed secured. You can not differ from me essentially in idea, whatever strange, old-fash- ioned words you may use. In fact, there is no contro- versy between us, since you have acknowledged so candidly that the nature of Jesus Christ is a real human nature. . Mr. 0. I beg pardon, my friend. You have over- looked one essential point. You have proved that Jesus Christ has a human nature, but you have forgotten to prove that he has not also a divine nature. Your whole argument was superfluous so far as I am concerned, foi all the orthodox have always believed in the true hu- manity of Christ and in his 'prophetical office. But we affirm his divinity also. He is really and truly man, but he is also really and truly God. Mr. M. How can a human nature, composed of soul and body, created, and finite, be also a divine natuie, simple, uncreated, infinite ? Mr. 0. It can not be ; no orthodox theologian ever said it could. But a human nature can have its com- pleting principle, its personality, in the divine nature, and thus be so closely united with it that the two distinct natures converge and coalesce in one Person. You be- lieve that “in God we live and move and have our being.” Now, can you show that it is impossible for a created spirit to have its being in God in such a perfect way that it has its personality as well as its efficient cause of existence in him? Is your reason competent to say beforehand that God can not reveal the possibility and reality of this union of the divine and human na- tures in one person? If there is good evidence that God has revealed it, can you reject that evidence on the ground that the doctrine is incredible ? TD WHO IS JESUS CHRIST ? 9 Mr. M. Ton have brought me so suddenly into deep tester, that I can hardly give an answer at once. I am not prepared to say positively that the doctrine von mue presented is incredible. If it appeared to me that there were good grounds to believe that Jesus Christ did really teach it, I should examine those grounds most carefully If you are prepared to prove^that he did teach it, I am ready to give you a candid hearing Mr. 0. I begin, then, from the point agreedT on be- tween us, that Jesus Christ had a true human nature. 1 affirm that Jesus Christ said things of himself that can not be true of his human nature, and, therefore that his person was superhuman ; and, moreover, that he said things whicn can not be true of any created nature, and therefore, that his person is divine.* In the first place he says of himself; (St John, iii. 13,) “No man hath as- cended into heaven, but he that descended from heaven, the Son of Man who is in heaven.” Xow, mark the force of these words! Thev affirm that Jesus Christ, was in heaven before his earthly life began, that he came from heaven to earth, and that he remained in heaven while he was on the earth. That shows that he had a superior nature, pre-existing to his human soul, and existing simultaneously in heaven and on earth. More- over, it is the Son of Man, the very person born of Mary who existed in heaven before his human birth, and who declares with his human lips that he is at that moment m heaven. This shows that it was the superior nature of Jesus Christ in which his personalitv sub- sisted, and that the superhuman and the human nature were united in one person. Does it not ? Mr. M. It does, so for as I can see at present. Please to proceed. «Jbs?us Christ also affirms that his superior nature is eternal, self-existent, that is. divine. “ Before Abraham was, I am,” (St. John, viii. 58.) He does not say I was,” but “I am,” repeating the words in Which Jehovah revealed his eternal, self-existing being to Moses which proves that he claimed to be the same person who thus revealed himself to Moses, He calls himself the “ only-begotten Son of God.” (St. John, iii. I, .) showing that he claimed identitv of nature with the father, and not the mere similitude "which is in all cre- ated spirits ; and he said also, “ I and mv Father are 10 WHO IS JESUS CHRIST ? one,” (St. John, x. 35.) All these and similar passages in St. John’s gospel must be explained in harniony with the principal purpose he had in writing it, which appears plainly in the preface of the gospel. “ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him, and without him was not any thing made that was made,” (St. John, i. 1, 2, 3.) It is evident that St. John here affirms the divinity of Jesus Christ, ascribes to him the creation, which is the exclusive work of God, and proposes the exhibition of this doctrine as the principal topic of his gospel. According to your own principles, that Jesus Christ is a true prophet, and that the Evangelists give a true exposition of his life, character, and doctrine, you must admit his divinity. I know that you Unitarians have never been fond of St. John’s gospel, and have fre- quently tried to disprove its authenticity. Mr. M. That is so ; but it was only on account of the difficulty of explaining it. I am not one ot that sort. If it is proved that St. John wrote it, I say we must take it, just as it is, and admit that it expresses the doc- trine of St. John, and consequently the doctrine of Jesus Christ. Tischendorff has fully vindicated its authenti- city against the shallow objections of German critics, as one of our learned Cambridge professors admits, in the “ Christian Examiner.” I think we have conversed enough for one sitting, my dear friend. I must think and read carefully on this point, before I can make up my mind about it. All that I desire is to know and believe the truth which God has revealed through Jesus Christ. Good-by, Oldcastle, I am extremely obliged to you. This has been to me an exceedingly interesting conversation. TEXTS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE. Blessed be the Lord God of Sem. May God enlarge Japheth, and may he dwell in the tents of Sem. Gen. ix. 26, 27. The Lord shall glorify the boundary of Japheth, and his sons shall become proselytes and shall dwell in the school of Sem. R. Jonathan, (Jewish author.) May he dwell in the tents of Sem ; that is, in the church which the apostles, the sons of the prophets, have found- ed. S. Aug. In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. (Said to Abraham.) Gen. xxii. 15. Abraham your father rejoiced that he might see my day. He saw it and was glad. S. John viii. 56. The Lord thy God will raise up to thee a Prophet of thy nation and of thy brethren like unto me. (Moses.) Dent, xviii. 15. Then these men when they had seen what a miracle Jesus had done, said : This is the Prophet indeed that is to come into the world. St. John vi. 14. The Lord hath said to me, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. (David.) Ps. ii. 7. Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the sceptre of thy kingdom is a sceptre of uprightness. Thou hast loved justice and hatedst iniquity, therefore God, thy God hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. Ps. xliv. 8. The Lord said to my Lord, sit thou at my right hand until I make thy enemies thy footstool. Ps. cix. 1, 2. And the Pharisees being gathered together, Jesus 12 TEXTS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE. asked them, saying, What think you of Christ ? whose Son is he ? They say to him, David’s. He saith to them, How then doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying, The Lord said to my Lord, etc. If David then call him Lord, how is he liis Son? St. Matt. xxii. 42—45. God having spoken on divers occasions and many ways, in times past, to the fathers by the prophets ; last of all, in these days, hath spoken to us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the world : who, being the splendor of his glory, and the figure (express image) of his substance, making purgation of sins, sitteth on the right hand of the majes- ty 011 high ; being made so much better than the angels, as he hath inherited a more excellent name above them. For to which of the angels hath he said at any time, Thou art my Son, etc. ? And to the angels, indeed, Le saith : He that maketh his angels spirits, and his minis- ters a flame of fire. But to the Son : Thy throne, 0 God, is for ever and- ever, etc. Ileb. i. ,1-14. God said to Moses : I am who am . Exod. in. 14. See ye that I alone am, and there is no other God be- side me? Deut. xxxii. 39. The Jews then said to him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham ? Jesus said to them, Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham was made I am . St. John, viii. 57, 58. Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel. Isa. vii. 14. For a child is born to us, and a son is given to us, and the government is upon his shoulder : and his name shall be called, Wonderful, Counsellor, God the Mighty, the Father of the world to come, the Prince of peace. Isa. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the"Word was God. . . . And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us; and we saw hi* glory, the glory as of the Only-Begotten of the Father. St. John i. 1, 14. Printed for “ The Catholic Publication Society Co .,’ 1 New 3 ork. Price $9 per 1,000 copies. No. 20. THE TRINITY. A SECOND DIALOGUE BETWEEN MR. MAYFLOWER AND MR. OLDCASTLE. Mr. Oldccistle.—“Well, my friend, have you made up your mind about the subject of our conversation of last Monday ?” Mr. Mayflower.—“Partly; but not altogether. I am convinced that it is necessary to acknowledge the divin- ity as well as the humanity of Jesus Christ in some sense that is compatible with the unity of the Godhead, and that, at the same time, gives a sufficient value and force to those passages of Scripture which you have cited. I am not quite clear, indeed I am extremely confused and perplexed, as to what this sense is ; but I hope, with your help, to clear up some of my difficulties about it. I find that some Unitarians are willing to acknowledge the deity of Christ ; that some of our best writers, at the present time, admit that St. John teaches it; and I think, from what I can remember, that Dr. Channing held it, at least during the latter part of his life. Let me try to express what these good people think; Avhat has been the idea floating before the eye of my soul since I was a boy ; what I suppose is the doc- trine on which is based that sentiment of the Lordship of Jesus Christ over men which is so strong and sacred in our hearts. “The Father dwelt in Jesus Christ in an essential manner, which was more than prophetic inspiration. St,. Peter says that we are. made ‘ partakers of the divin« nature.’ J accidentally opened that superb edition of the works of St. John of the Cross, which you have in your little study at home, one day, at a passage wherein he says that the blessed become God by participation. We are, now, sons of God, if we really love God. Why 8 THE TRINITY. can we not say that Jesus Christ is called God because he is the first and highest of the sons of God, partaker in the highest degree in the divine nature, the most intimately united of all men to the Father ?” Mr. 0 .—“ If you will consult the notes of our last con- versation which I see lying on the table, you will find that we agreed upon two conclusions. The first was, that Jesus Christ had a human nature composed of a created soul and body. The second, that he had also a superior, preexistent nature, in which the personality of the two natures united in him was seated. Divine names and works are attributed to him on account of this superior nature, as I proved at our last interview. I will confirm this, however, by a little more proof. Let us take up the text: ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.’ Is it not plain that the Word is distinguished from the Father, and also called God ? Is he not declared to have created the world ? Again, our Lord, in his last, sublime prayer, says to the Father: ‘And now, glorify thou me, Father! with thyself, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was: (St. John 17 : 5.) Do you not see from these and many other passages that the question really is, IIow is the Word, or Son, distinct from the Father, and yet rightly called by the name of God ?” Mr. M. “ I see it. But may not the names Father, Son, or Word, and also Holy Spirit, denote diffeient aspects, relations, offices, or personified attributes of God, which are thus represented in order to be more intelligible to our minds ?” Mr. O.—“ If you mean real, necessary, eternal rela- tions in the Godhead, yes ! If you mean merely abstract distinctions, or relations toward men, no ! Christ is Prophet, Priest, and King. Do you mean to compare the names Father, Son, and Holy Ghost as applied to God, to these three names as applied to Christ ?” Mr. M.—“ That is precisely what I meant.” Mr. 0.—“Such a definition of the distinction of per- sons is purely arbitrary, and without foundation in the sacred writings. Moreover, it is palpably absurd to say that Jesus Christ spoke in this forced and dramatic style when he prayed to the Father to glorify his human THE TRIXJTY. 3 nature with the glory which he had, before the world wa3 made, with him, in his divine natnre. The Scripture expresses everywhere a real, personal distinction be- tween the Father and the Son. ‘He whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God.’ ‘The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand.’ (St. John 3 : 34 , 35 .)” Mr. Jf.—“I believe the notion I just now expressed is untenable. I am forced to admit that the Son, or Word, is distinct from the Father, and that his existence precedes the date of the creation of the universe, which the Father accomplished through him as a medium. It is necessary, therefore, to find some way of explaining how the same deity which the Father possesses in him- self in plenitude could be essentially indwelling in the Son, and that the Son could thus be called God without implying that he was another God, independent of the Father, and distinct in being from him. “ The person of the Son is distinct from the person of the Father. We are agreed on that. “It is the divine nature of the Father in which the Son participates which constitutes the divinity of the Son. Are we agreed on that, or not ?” Mr. O—“ If yon will admit that, and stand by all the consequences of your admission, I will ask no more.” Mr. J/.—“Very well! The Word, then, considered as a distinct person, is not God. Therefore, he must be a creature of God ; the first created, the highest and most perfect of creatures, the model and archetype of all intelligent creatures. The Father, having created him, gave him such a communication of his pwn divine attii- butes that he might be called a counterpart, an image, a reflection of himself He gave him power to create the universe, and to rule over it as supreme Lord. In re- spect to us he is divine, because through him God cre- ated and rules us. It is as manifested through him and represented by him, that we know the Father. He is called the Son of God, because he is an image of his per- fections and the object of his special love, the heir of his kingdom and the first-b »rn of ail his rational child- ren.” Mr. O .—“Your theory, my dear frend, is as leaky as a cullender. St. Athanasius made an end of it in the THE TRINITY. fourth century, and you will hardly be able to revamp it now so as to give it even an appearance ol plausi- bility. God can not communicate the creative power to a creature. ‘He who created all things is God. (Heb. 3 : 4.) The power to create out of nothing is the most mysterious and incomprehensible of all the divine attri- butes. You might as well say that God could commu- nicate self existence or infinity to a creature, or say at once that he could create another God, as to speak oi his communicating creative power. You admit that the Word created the universe. Therefore, the Word is God, in the strict and proper sense, and, of course, un- created. The notion of a subordinate divinity, such as you imagine, is the very principle of polytheism. 11 there is one such divinity, there may be thousands. Ac- cording to this notion, the Word is an JEon emanating from the unknown, silent, unrevealed God. He is a Demiuro-e, or subordinate creator. The union of the human nature with his superior nature becomes an ab- surdity. In fact, it is rank Gnosticism that you have ‘ advanced. Now, we know that St. John wrote lus gospel expressly against these Gnostics and their emana- tions. It is impossible to read St. John’s gospel, or the Scriptures generally, and not to see that they mean God when they speak of God; that they teach pure theism and put an infinite distance between the one God and Creator and all creatures. It is God who is present by essence to all existing things, especially to all rational spirits, as creator. In God we live and move and are. Now if the Word is our creator, if we live and *nove and have ofir b«ing in him, he is God, by beiug one with the Father in essence, or consubstantial with him. That is the reason why he is called the Son, because he is consubstantial with the Father.” n , jjf But are not angels and men sons ot Cod— children and heirs of the eternal Father—brethren and co-heirs of Christ ? How can that be true if the filial relation to God the Father requires identity ot nature ( 0. —“You overlook the important fact that Jesus Christ is the only-begotten Son of God. All other sons of God are sons only by adoption and grace m Christ. Jesus Christ is the Son of God by nature— begotten, not made—proceeding from the Father by an eternal genera- THE TRINITY. 5 tion. The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among ns . and we have seen his glory, the glory as of the only-be- gotten of the Father.’ ‘ No one hath seen God at any time: the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.’ (St. John 1 : 14, 18.) I£ Jesus Christ is the Son of God merely because God dwells in him by his Spirit, communicates to him glory and beatitude, and raises him to an intimate communion with himself, he may be said to have the primogeniture among his brethren, but he can not be called the only- begotten Sou of God. All Christians arq temples of God, and the indwelling, sanctifying grace of the Holy Spirit in them is an essential presence of God, far supe- rior to mere prophetic inspiration. Christ, therefore, would difter from the other sons of God only in the rank or decree of his adoptive filiation, but not in its nature and kind. Yet the sacred writer affirms most positively that his sonship is entirely different from that of angels or men ; and that on account of this difference he is called God. Here is a passage in the Epistle to the Hebrews which settles the matter : ‘ Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath inherited a more excellent name above them. For to which of the angels hath he said at any time : Thou art my Son, this day have I be- gotten thee? And again : I will be to him a Father; and he shall be to me a Son ? And again, when he in- trod uceth the first-begotten into the world, he saith : And let all the angels of God adore him. And to the angels, indeed, he saith : He that maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire. But to^the Son : Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever: a sceptre of justice is the sceptre of thy kingdom. Thou hast loved justice and hated iniquity: therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above them that are partakers with thee. And : Thou in the beginning, O Lord, hast founded the earth ; and the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, b it thou shalt continue ; and they shall all grow old as a garment : and as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed ; but thou art the self-same, and thy years shall not fail. 5 (Heb. 1 • 4-12.) 55 Mr. M.—4 * This passage is, indeed, very clear and strong. It shows both the distinction there is between 0 THE TRINITY. the Father and the Son, and also the equality or identity of nature. I see that the eternal generation of the Son is something quite different from creation or adoption. Jesus Christ is the Son of God by nature, and therefore he must have the same nature and essential attributes with the Father. In the same chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews from which you were reading, the sacred writer calls him 4 the splendor of his glory and the ex- press image of his substance.’ It is idle to invent forced interpretations of the Scriptures to make them square with our Unitarian theories. They teach the true and proper divinity of Christ too plainly for any subtle evasion to deceive me any longer. Either we are bound to believe that doctrine, or we are not. Either that doctrine is reconcilable with pure theism and the pri- mary truth of the divine unity, or it is not. Any way, the doctrine is there ; and I see that I must either be- lieve it to be true, or say right out that all the prophets and apostles, and Jesus Christ himself, were mistaken. This last supposition is a little too much for me. I think it more likely that I have been mistaken, and have had confused ideas about the orthodox doctrine. Jesus Christ appears to me to have had the perfection of reason and understanding. I think it there were a point- blank contradiction between the doctrine of the Trinity and of the Unity in God, he would have seen it. More- over, lie says positively that he has seen the Father, and that he was with him before the world was made. I think he must have known who he himself was, and who the Father was. I have no doubt at all that he saw God as plainly as I see you. And I think he was wise enough to teach his apostles what his true doctrine real- lv is. I am going to believe St. John and St. Paul and the other disciples of our Lord, and quit chasing the jack-o’-lantern of rationalism. I am satisfied that they teach the divinity of the Father and of the Son in such , a sense that there is no division in the substance or one- ness of the Godhead. But there is the third person in the Trinity—the Holy Spirit. We have said nothing about his personality or deity. Will you be kind enough to throw a little light on this point ?” ]\fr, 0.—44 The distinction of persons in the Godhead being once established, the great difficulty of admitting THE TRINITY. 7 the distinct personality and the divinity of the Holv Spirit is removed. The number of persons* in the Godhead is to be learned from the divine revelation. That the name, Holy Spirit, in the Scripture, is one of the names of God no one can or will deny. The only question that can be raised is, whether he is a distinct person from the Father. This is settled by the baptismal formula prescribed by Jesus Christ himself: ‘Baptizing them iu the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.’ (St. Matt. 28 : 19 .) If the Son is a distinct person from the lather and equal to him in the Godhead, then the Holy Spirit is a distinct person, equal to the Father and the Son. The three terms, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, in the formula, are introduced as equal, and as constitut- es *he name of God. The doctrine of the divinity of the Holy Spirit has always been inseparably associated* with the doctrine of the divinity of Christ* The doc- trine of the divinity of Christ has always been held as included in the doctrine of the Trinity. * The universal ascription of praise, ‘ Glory be to the Father, and to the ~on > and to the Holy Ghost : as it was in the beijinuin^, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Ameif,’ expresses the ancient .and universal faith of the church. The beautiful book of worship used in some >of vour Unitarian churches contains this Doxolosy, aud ’is a witness to the fact that in the speech and°langua£re of universal Christendom God is kuown and worshiped under the threefold name of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.” ' J Mr. ML—“ This is true. Nevertheless, God is one being. He possesses all those perfections and attributes which are necessary to constitute the plenitude of beincr in a most pure and infinite act of intelligence, life, and beatitude, but no more. God can not add to his’ own being. All that is in God is necessarv to constitute him the infinite, concrete, livinsr, self-existiucr bein of the. unity which is affirmed alike by reason and revelation. The Fathe can not exist or act except m relation to th ® S°n ‘ " Holy Spirit, or the Son except m relation to the rathe md the Holy Spirit, or the Holy Spirit except in rela- tion to the Father and the Son. The exclusion of either one of these three terms of relation is the annihilation of the idea of the unity of God, just as truly as the ex- clusion of one of the three terms of a syllogism is the annihilation of a logical proposition. jL£r ]\[ “I like that wav of stating the case \ery much." But pardon me if I object that it does not ,ap- pear to me consistent with the terms of the orthodox formula, that there are three persons in God. Mr. O.—“ Why not ?” . , , Mr M “Because personality includes all that is necessary to constitute an intelligent substance in its complete act. If the Father is a distinct person, his person includes all that is necessary to give to Ins being or substance its last complement, that is, to make him infinite intelligence in act, self-sufficing, peifect, and blessed in himself.” , o. “ How do you prove what you have as serted ?'* . t Mr M. “ By analogy from created natures. In every man there is one distinct intelligent substance in- dividuated in one, and incapable of constituting moie than one. This substance has its principle, medium, and term of thought and volition m itself, and is thus made intelfigence'in act without passing out of its own pel jlfr.' o!— ‘ I deny that. A created intelligence com- pletely isolated and confined within its own limits could ^neither think, will, nor act. The individual soul, THE TRINITY. or spirit, lives only in communion with other individuals and with God. A creature is not self-sufficing because tmite, and, having in itself no relations of plurality, it must go out of itself for its objects of thought and love God is self-sufficing because he has only the perfection and not the imperfection of unity of nature. Therefore lie hap in himself, though he is one, the perfection which constitutes plurality of beings in creatures. That is, he has, without passing out of his own being, or dividing’ his unity, that which constitutes in him plurality of persons He has m himself society, fellowship, life, love, beati- tude. Mr. M. “ Nevertheless, there appears to be a con- tradiction between the terms unity of substance and plurality of persons. In human nature unity of sub- stance is identical with unity of person. One self-con- scious, intelligent subject makes one substance and one person. You can not have another distinct person with- out another distinct principle of self-consciousness, intel- ligence, and will, that is, another distinct spiritual sub- stance. By analogy we should conclude that it is the same in the divine nature.” Mr. O .—‘‘ Is the idea of God primarily derived from analogy, or is it original, primitive, and positive ?” Mr. J/.—‘‘ It is original, primitive, and positive in its first principle, but evolved by demonstration from the analogies of the creation.” Mr. 0.—“ Are. these analogies perfect and adequate, or imperfect and inadequate ?” ^ * Mr. M.—“ They are imperfect ; and by them we see God only, as it were, reflected in a glass, darklv.” Mr. O. “ Very well. Then, by these analogies, we can not comprehend the eternity, the infinity, the omni- presence, or the other attributes of God, which can be demonstrated to reason. If we apply these analogies as a measure of the divine attributes, we shall err greatly Much more must this be the case if we apply these ana- 1ogies to measure that divine substance and those divine Relations which we can not perceive by our intelligence. Ibe words person, nature, substance, unity, plurality are analogical terms which only inadequately represent the infinite realities for which they stand. You can not argue that the divine substance can subsist in one per- son only, without division or multiplication, because the 10 the trinity. substance of the human soul is thus limited. It belongs to the infinitude of the divine substance, to its plenitude of being, that it can subsist iu three persons, without be- ins: divided or multiplied. ’ . r , £fr j/_“ Are there, then, three principles ot intel- ligence, life, aud action included in the one divine sul> St N/r 0. “ No ; there is but one. The Father is the sole principle in the Godhead, from whom the Son ana the Spirit proceed.” . ... Mr. M.—u Why, then, is not the intelligent act ot the Father, in which lie contemplates his own infinite being, and is supremely blessed in the knowledge and love of its infinite beauty, complete within his own personality, exclusive of any relation to the bon or the Spirit ? o “ Because by this act of contemplation lie necessarily generates the Son, or Word, his own express image; and the Holy Spirit proceeds from the bather and the Son as the necessary consummation ot the act, through which it returns to its .principle and unites the three terras in one.” . . , j[r y; u Then the Word is like an idea which the Father produces as the term of his infinite thought, and the Spirit is like the complacency which his lntnute m- tellio-ence may be conceived to have m this idea . Mr. 0.— u That expresses in part what we can appie- hend of this great mystery. — Mr. M. “ But why does this act produce two per- sons distinct from the person of the Father, and not rather two modifications of his intelligence ? W hy is not the Word merely ideal, like the conception ot a poet or a philosopher, and the Spirit a mere emotion or sentiment, like that which the poet has when he is pleased with the images ot beauty w Inch Ins imagma ][[r m Q m u Because in God act is identical with being*. He is most pure act His act is essential. His being is in his act and in its term, and in Ins interior relations. The imao-e produced by his intelligence is equal to him- self, because it is the term of an infinite necessary action into which his whole being pasaes. Moi^ve^ the term Son necessarily implies the personality ot the o d and the generation of the Son denotes that lie proceeds Irom the Father by an act which is the archetype ot human TK2J TRINITY. 11 generation. The human father produces a living, equal simililiide of himself. So the Eternal Father begets a coequal bon, in whom the total substance of the Father is impersonated. The spiration of the infinite love of the father and the Son finds its term in a third person, the Holy Spirit, for the same reason that the act of God is identical with his being, and has all the infinite real- ity which is possible. This act being necessarily con- summated in the procession of the Holy Spirit from the h ather as principle and the Son as medium, there must be three persons m God, and there can be but three ^necessary being of God is constituted by Trinity in . ^f r* U -^° y°u think that this can be demon- strated by pure reason ?” ,, 0:T ‘ ”° ?! eans‘ Reason could not disoover t e Tiimty. It is disclosed by revelation. Nor can reason, even when in possession of the revealed formula demonstrate its necessary truth by its own principles.’ It can only make the terms partially intelligible from created analogies, refute objections, and show that not only is there no adequate explanation of the most pure act of God without the Trinity, but that the Trinity is itself an adequate explanation, so far as we can see. But then we can see but a little way, and that dimly. Wherefore, the rational argument for the Trinity would never make it more than probable. Certainty, undoubt- ing faith, is generated only by the word of God, and it is only on the veracity of God that we rest our firm belief in the Trinity.” Mr. M.—“l have one more difficulty to propose. The orthodox statement of the doctrine of the Trinity and Of the two natures united in the person of Jesus Christ, appears to furnish a key to the explanation of the Scriptures both of the Old and the New Testa- ment. but what is the authority of this key, what is the evidence that it is the true key ? How was Athana- nrecu J WerVhe Nicene able to make theirprecise dogmatic statements respecting the three per- Son^nd 11 W* at o°“ S ’- the “^substantiality of the Father, nn t’v f HoIJ Spi'-it, the distinction of natures in the and y rnlA erS °VV\e S°-n? The>’ aPP>y a standard a"!, i by which they interpret the Scriptures, evi- dently derived not fr om the Scriptures themselves, but 12 THE TRINITY. from some other source. It is the same' that are called orthodox, and I am inclined to think that it is the same even with Unitarians, rationalists, liberal Christians as they are called. There is already in the mind a formula, in the spiritual sense an idea, wine i is obtained from somewhere before the Scruituw is i , , and which is the medium through which we lead it. 71[r 0.—“What you say is most tiue. And tins shows the necessity of tradition, or of the oral teaching which came from the mouth of Christ and the apostles, and has been preserved pure and uncorrupted in the church By till aid of this tradition, and the assistance of the Holy y Spirit, the chief pastors of «hurch wme able to express and define with unerring exactitude the mm and orthodox doctrine of the Trinity as it is revealed in the inspired Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. Those Trinitarians who have rejected the authouty of the Ihurch have retained the orthodox definitions made bv the early councils, and the Christian sense which they received from their Catholic ancestors. Thus it ^ that they are able to interpret the Scriptures couectly, rithofg?they fancy that it'is through illumination and private study of the bible that they bel ]/rif-“What y a sublime view does the revelation am but a child as yet in true Christian knowledge, and S*“^Xr MJTlK with°the docility of a child, and to believe them on lus divine word. Prav for me, my dear friend, that i may b B„M,a to .» wilh ,M , . | and «... what has become of me.” ’ pnnudfor- ‘ThjsCateouc PubuoawnSocibtt Co.,” New York. Pric* n irutajw {)er i tptoo copter. Xo. 21 . CONTROL TOUR PASSIONS. As I now look back upon the years I serred an Eng- IS wor -house as its chaplain, very many pleasant mem- ories come up fresh before my mind. The Catholic poor always devoted to their priesthood, were particularly so there. The interest and care of their pastor were brought out in strong and favorable contrast with the heartlessness of many of the officials placed in charge by the board of guardians. There is one incident connected ruth my services there which hangs like a cloud over the otherwise bright picture. It may profit some one if l relate it, and with this hope I proceed. In a room of the old men’s bedridden ward were MoU men ’ tW° °f T whom we™ Catholics, Mclvan and Olloy. Dear Mclvan, how his face would brio-hten up when the priest appeared in the door-way ! ° The fingers of his poor hands were cramped up in a heap, and bent backward to the wrist with rheumatism; but they were not so useless that they could not push up the wl « °ap whl0h fie always wore, the better to get a look at his reverence.” By this time the priest was at his side, and the deformed hands, in their own awk- ward fashion would clasp his, when up it would go to the bps while a tear, partly of joy, partly of sadness, would start to the eye of this noble-hearted Irishman. 1, s long y made, brought up on the mountains, Mclvan would boast that he could run and jump like a deer; and, as in honest pride he said this, a sigh would t CONTROL YOUR PASSIONS. break from him, like one of those youthful bounds, which needed no interpreter. It was like the low moan of the panther as he turns at each corner of his iron cage in his quick, nervous walk, which says, as plainly as words can do, “ Oh ! for a roam through the woods once more !” But my story is connected not with Mclvan, but with Molloy. He, too, was a victim of rheumatism, which had deprived him of the use of his legs. Day and night the year round, there lay the two prisoners of God’s mys- terious providence. Molloy could read well, and his favorite reading was the lives of the saints, with which I kept him regularly supplied As a rule, both these men received holy communion every month. Each bade fair to receive a large share of his purgatory in this world. On an ill day, as it proved for poor Molloy, another bed- ridden Catholic was put into the room. This poor man was half-witted, and, in all candor, I must admit not at all neat in his personal appearance or orderly in his habits. He may fairly be said to have had a kind of liy drophobia, such was his aversion to water, at least as an ablution. I can not deny that his absence would have been far more agreeable than his company. This is what Molloy thought too, and his first move was to expostulate with the poor man. Dirt and he, how- ever, had so long been fellow-travelers that it was no easy matter to part them now. He had been brought up in slovenliness and ignorance, and indolence had fostered it in after life, until, losing his home, and be- coming a “tramp,” he had wandered on in an aimless, fruitless march from work-house to work-house, until at last sickness had laid him on his back beside Molloy. From expostulation, Molloy now began to use insulting language. The other patients remonstrated with him for what they considered his unfeeling severity. The nurse was now called in to interfere. He in turn appealed to me. I endeavored to get, the Door man removed, as the CONTROL YOUR PASSIONS. 3 ppeediest and surest means of restoring peace. It was found inconvenient to do so ; and as we Catholics enjoyed our privileges there by a kind of sufferance, I thought it prudent not to press it, and he remained. I then had several serious talks with Molhy. I tried to persuade him that this unfortunate man was not accountable for the annoyance he was giving, and, therefore, rather to be pitied. I urged him to take this opportunity of imi- tating the saints of whom he had been reading, whose acts of heroic self-denial he had spoken of with such admiration. I made no sensible impression upon him owever, and I left the room, hoping to find a better state of mind on my return. Going there a few days a ter, I found matters had grown worse. Not content with using his tongue to vilify this poor man, he „ad gone so far as to throw at him dirty water, or whatever came to hand. I now told him that it had become my duty to refuse him the sacraments, even though he were at the point of death, unless he gave up his enmity, and expressed sorrow for the scandal he had given his reli- gion. As though completely in the power of the demon of hatred, even while I was speaking, his raging tongue became so violent in its abuse that I closed his mouth with my hand, and pressed his raised head back upon the pillow; but I could not quell his infuriated spirit even in this way; and again I left him. My next visit to the work-house was on Sunday mornin is there a Catholic Church in Ogdens- burg?” • ° • two * I don’t know at what hour service is held. “Surely,” said my traveling companion, “you don’t mean to attend worship to-morrow, and to leave me here all alone ‘ m the blues ’ ?” “ I must hear Mass if in time for it. If you like vou can come with me.” J J Thank you; I don’t care to attend service in the morning ; but, if you wish, I will go in the evening Cannot you be content for one Sunday to worship under hands^?” 7 °f heaven > in a temPle not ‘built by human But, I said, “ I am bound by a precept of my church to attend Mass to-morrow morning, if I have no reason- able excuse for absenting myself.” inconvenient,” remonstrated my friend, Moreover i do not see why you may not adore God as 2 THE SACKIFICE OF THE MASS. well on board this vessel as under the roof of a church. May we not pray, and give thanks, and worship in every place ?” “ Undoubtedly, with the inward worship of the heart, which may be offered in every place, and under all cir- cumstances ; and the oftener we do so the better. But there is another kind of worship, which we can offer only where we have an altar, a priest, and a victim, which we have not on board this steamer—I mean worship by sacrifice properly so called.” “ Sacrifice properly so called !” he repeated. “What do you understand by that ?” “ I understand ‘ the outward offering of a substance, perceptible to the senses , ichich undergoes some change ef- fected by the act of a priest properly ordained, and which is thus changed (or immolated) in the name of the community , for the purpose of signifying Gods su- vreme perfections , especially his dominion over life and death? Three things are therefore essential to a true and proper sacrifice : firstly, a substance perceptible to the bodily senses ; secondly, the outward oblation by the sacrificial action of the priest, which produces such a change in the substance as entitles it to be called a host, or victim ; thirdly, a priest appointed by authority binding on the religious community, and empowering him to act and offer in its name.” “ But all persons will* not agree in your explanation of sacrifice properly so called, will they ?” “ Yes. Protestants as well as Catholics agree sub- stantially in this description of it. Moreover, it is easy to determine its meaning and its constitution. Because it is a sign, an arbitrary sign : a sign, because it leads the mind to the knowledge or thought of the divine ma- jesty, which it has been instituted to honor; and arbi- trary, because, like the matter of the sacraments, it Inis not this signification of its own nature, but because it has been ordained and accepted in religious society with this meaning. As the coin or stamped paper represents to the civil community a certain value, not of its own na- ture, but because it has been so chosen and appointed by authority binding on the community, in the same way sacrifice has been set apart as the outward substantial representative of the adoration due to God. Usage, THE SACRIFICE OF THE MASS. 3 therefore, is the test of its constituent elements as of its significa tion. A cursory examination of its history amon g the different nations from the beginning shows that the three things already mentioned were always essential to form the sacrificial sign. In any case, if the Catholic can prove that sacrifice thus explained is necessary for a perfect religious worship, or that Christ instituted it as an ordinance of his religion, it is sufficient to decide the controversy between Protestantism and Catholicity, be- cause Protestantism has not , and does not pretend to have, any sacrifice in this sense.” “ Taking this statement of the question,” said my fel- low traveler, “ the Catholic position is clear ; but you can not sustain it by proof.” “ Do you admit,” I went on, “ that men are borne in- stinctively to manifest their inward feelings by words and actions outwardly and adequately , if possible ?” “ I do.” “ Do you not also admit that the highest, holiest, no- blest, and strongest sentiments of the soul conscious of its relations to God are those of the supreme adoration due to him ?” “ Yes.” , “Now, then,” I continued, “the only outward sign which represents these sentiments of itself, (that is, when presented without explanation before the public eye,) and in an adequate manner, is—sacrifice. Every other out- ward rite or ceremony, or act of religion, may of itself be used to manifest the lower reverence paid to creatures as well as the high worship which is God’s inalienable right. We may bow, kneel, prostrate ourselves before creatures, as the subject in eastern countries does before the monarch’s throne, or as Abraham did before his an- gelic visitants. We may, like the balm-tree, diffuse sweet odors, burn incense, as did the Jewish priests be- fore the ark of the covenant and the winged cherubim, or utter ‘the harmony of sweet sounds’ in honor of the saints and angels. Take away sacrifice, and religious worship has no outward , enduring , 'public sign, which by itself expresses adequately and exclusively those high feelings toward the divine perfection which are the most obligatory on mankind individually and as mem- bers of society. In this respect Christianity as a wor- 4 THE SACRIFICE OF THE MASS. ship would be less perfect thau Judaism, or even pagan- ism ! But retain sacrifice, and then it possesses an en- during, substantial, acknowledged rite, which can be presented to God, and to God alone ; which from the very threshold of Eden has been set apart and used by all peoples with this signification. Thus Cain and Abel offered sacrifice, Noah and his children, Abraham and Melchisedech, Isaac and Jacob, all the patriarchs offered sacrifice. Job, Tobias, and other holy men, who, thrown among the Gentiles, ‘ worshiped God as they knew him,’ offered sacrifice. The Gentile nations themselves, ‘ seated in the valley and shade of death,’ did not lose every ray of the primal revelations and usages. With the notion of a Supreme Being, they preserved univer- sally the practice of sacrifice—a fact which goes far to show that sacrifice, if not originally the suggestion, was after the heart of man’s rational nature. God himself appointed the number and the variety, the times and places, the nature and the manner, the objects and the effects of the Mosaic offerings. Here, then, we have the cravings of our rational nature, the morally universal practice of mankind, ^nd the sanction of God in our fa- vor. The number of those who abolished the sacrificial rite weighs only as a little dust in the scale against the countless generations who have used it as the only ade- quate and worthy mode of worshiping God. Behind these facts as an impregnable fortress the Catholic takes his stand ; nor can he be thence dislodged, unless it be positively proven that Christ abolished sacrifice in the new law.” “ Oh ! the new law,” he interposed, “ has the sacrifice of the cross, and that suffices it ; doesn’t it?” “ Yes ; as an atoning , but not as a continuing sacrifice, unless you suppose it to be perpetuated, which is done only in the Mass. The cross is the atoning , the redeem- ing sacrifice ; and, as such, is as much the property of the patriarchal and Mosaic as of the Christian religion. The argument I have been urging proves the necessity of a continuous sacrifice ; that is, which may be offered from time to time, which will supply successive genera- tions with a substantial sign of the homage they owe and ought to pay God, and will be worthy of his infi- nite majesty, and which will last as long as the religious THE SACRIFICE OF THE MASS. 5 worship of which it is the perfection and the crown. If sacrifice were only useful as the prjce of our ransom from sin, then c the one sacrifice once offered’ would suf- fice ; and there would be no necessity for continuing sacrifices either in the Jewish or in the Christian sys- tem. But it is useful and required for other purposes already mentioned ; and these the sacrifice of Calvary, unless perpetuated in the Mass, does not meet. View the Protestant and Catholic hypotheses side by side. The former has nothing to satisfy the cravings of the human soul, which looks for an offering worthy of its own feelings, and of the divine Being. It introduces, after five thousand years of the world’s history, the startling novelty of a ministry without a priesthood, a worship without a sacrifice, a temple without an altar. It has robbed religious worship of its shining crown, religious society of its brightest and strongest link of union. It presents to view the sad picture drawn by the prophet Daniel of the Jewish temple in the hour of ruin : for once again the rail is pulled up, the sanctuary laid waste, the altar overturned, and confirmed desolation reigns in the holy place ! The Protestant can not esti- mate the benefits and consolations of which he is de- prived. But the Catholic in the Protestant temple feels as in the presence of a body from which the spirit has departed. The outward features of worship may be, in some respects, the same as those of his own church, as they were indeed before the ever-shifting atmosphere of Protestant opinion had yet time to decompose them ; but they are cold and lifeless. The tabernacle, in which the Emmanuel of the new dispensation was to have dwelt with his people, is closed. The sun and centre of all life has departed ; and nothing but the coldness of death remains ! But look at the Catholic system. Here re- ligious worship has its perfection, society its golden bond of union, the typical sacrifices of the old law their com- plete fulfillment. Here the aspirations and cravings of the human heart, and the claims of God’s infinite nature, are satisfied by a victim of infinite value. Here Chris- tianity has not to bow the head to Judaism, but presents an offering as far superior to the Jewish victims as the reality is to the type, the substance to the shadow, as heaven is to earth, or God to man. Here there is no op- 6 THE SACRIFICE OF THE MASS. position to reason and human nature, to universal tra dition, or divine authority. “ But the Protestant,” interposed my friend, “ can show that Christ positively abolished the practice of con- tinuous sacrifice, as you call it. Because Holy Writ speaks only of ‘one sacrifice once offered’ by Christ.” “ Complete the verse,” I said, “ and you will find the answer to your objection. ‘Christ was offered once to exhaust the sins of many.’* Does not the passage clearly refer to the atoning or redeeming sacrifice? Now, we Catholics insist as strongly as you that the re- deeming sacrifice was not, is not, and can not be repeated. But Holy Writ in other places speaks of a continuing sacrifice, which would apply individually to us the fruits of the redeeming sacrifice, and would in this sense be its perpetuation.” “Where does Holy Writ so speak?” “In many passages too numerous to mention. Have you ever examined these words of the first chapter of Malachi: ‘ I will no longer receive a gift at your hands’ which God addressed to the Jewish priests foretell- ing the future abolition of the Mosaic offerings ? The reason assigned is, because in their place would be sub- stituted a sacrifice which could not, like the Jewish vic- tims, be corrupted or polluted by the malice of the priest or of the people, and which would be offered up among the Gentiles in every place from the rising to the setting of the sun. ‘ For,’ says the Lord, ‘ from the rising of the sim to the going down thereof great is my name among the Gentiles ; and in every place there is sacri- fice,, and there is offered to my name a clean oblation’f This description is verified nowhere in Christianity save within the bosom of the Catholic Church. There only is found a true and proper sacrifice, which the Lord promised would succeed the sacrifice in the temple. There only is found a victim which can not be polluted by priest or people ; and that is, the body and blood of Christ under the appearances of bread and wine. There only is found a sacrifice offered in ‘ every place from the rising to the setting of the sun.’ For the sun is ever ris- ing on some part of Christendom, and as it rises the Catho* * Heb. 9 : 28 t Mai. 1 : 11. THIS SACRIFICE OF THE MASS. 7 lie priests ascend the altar of'the church; and thus the ‘clean oblation ’is being constantly offered, encircling the earth, like the encircling sunshine, with one contin- uous chain of praise and adoration to the great Crea- tor.” “The passage, as you interpret it,” said ray fellow- traveler, “ is strong and striking.” “ It can be interpreted in no other way. But it is too late now to dwell further on it. I bring it forward to show that the Mass was foretold in the Old Testament. I will point your attention to another passage in which it was foreshadowed. David in his 109th Psalm, and St. Paul in the seventh chapter of his letter to the He- brews, call Christ ‘ a priest forever after the order of Melchisedech.’ Now, as a priest of that order, (or as the Hebrew has it literally, ‘after the thing , the rite, or custom of Melchisedech,’) Christ must have offered the characteristic rite or sacrifice of the Melchisedechian priesthood, must he not?” “ I think that is clear from the words. Moreover, it would be strange to call him ‘ priest of an order or of a rite ’ according to which he never even once offered.” “Very well. But an offering under the appearance ofbread and wine was the characteristic ofMelchisedech’s priesthood. Because, firstly, there is no other rite men- tioned in Scripture to distinguish it from the order of Aaron. ^ Because, secondly, it is said, in Gen. 14, that ‘Melchisedech, bringing forth bread and wine , for he was a priest of the Most High, blessed Abraham,’ etc. We may quibble over the reading of this sentence. But the context and common sense show that there is no con- nection between his being a priest and his ‘ bringing forth bread and winej save only that of sacrifice. Final- ly, Christ offered sacrifice under the appearance of bread and wine at the Last Supper. For, ‘ taking bread, he blessed and brake it, and said, This is my body .’ This sentence, to be true, requires that at its close the substance of Christ’s body be present where that of bread was at its commencement. And similarly of the chalice. Here, then, you have the three essentials of a true and proper sacrifice: first, a victim , which is Christ himself under the appearance of bread and wine ; second, its immolar tion. This is evident from the words of St. Luke as found THU SACRIFICE OF THE MASS. in the Greek : ‘This chalice is the new testament in my blood, which (chalice) is offered for many unto the re- mission of sins,’ showing that the blood as in the chal- ice, as under the appearance of wine, was offered then and there. Now, what he did then and there he com- manded hi3 Apostles and their successors in the priest- hood to do to the end of time, ‘ This do in commemora- tion of me.’ Here we have, third, the priest ordained by legitimate authority.” “ There is one difficulty to my mind. Melchisedech offered the substance of bread' and wine. You do not hold this substance to be the victim at the Last Supper or in the Mass ?” “ What we insist on is that Christ offered according to the order or rite of Melchisedech. A rite means that which is outwardly seen, which falls under the senses: a sacrifice, as I said, is an outward sign. Now, in order that Christ would offer the same rite , or sacrificial sign, with Melchisedech, it is only necessary that the outward appearance of his victim would be the same as the out- ward appearance of Melchisedech’s, even though the in- ward substances be different.” It was far advanced in the night. The waiters were putting out the lights. We were soon in our berths; and nothing was heard but the wind rattling the case- ments of the windows, and the waves murmuring about the steamer as she cut her way through them. In the morning I found my Protestant friend pacing the deck thoughtfully. After salutation his words were : “ Do you know I have been thinking much of what you were sav- ing last night, and I will go to Mass with you to-day?” “All right,” said I, “time did not permit me to say half what I might have said to you. But we will have more leisure after Mass.” There was not a more attentive worshipper in the church that morning than my Protestant friend. Pi'intedfor “ The Catholic Publication Society Co.,' 1 New York. Pi ice $>6 per 1,000 copies. THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. t, FOURTH DIALOGUE BETWEEN MR. OLDCASTLE AND MR. MAYFLOWER. Mr. Oldcastle and Mr. Mayflower did not meet again for several months after their conversation in the Park. The former soon after this conversation left the country for a summer tour in Europe, and the latter went to his country-seat, where he divided his time between reading and rural amusements. A short time after both these gentlemen had settled themselves once more comfortably in their ordinary course of life, Mr. Oldcastle received a note from his friend, inviting him to drop in on his first leisure evening for a quiet family dinner, and a long, cosy chat afterward in the study. The benevolent old gentle- man, surmising that this indicated a desire on the part of his friend to resume their conferences on religious topics, lost no time in complying with the invitation. The evening of the day on which he received the note saw him seated tete-a-tete with his old friend in the comfort- able study of the latter, all ready for a conversation which was evidently to last till midnight. Mr. Mayflower only waited for his friend to get well settled in his chair, when he broached the subject of their evening’s discussion in his usual direct and frank manner. Mr. M.—“ Oldcastle, I want to have a long talk with you, and I am going to come to the point at once, with- out losing any time in beating the bush. Since I saw you last, I have become fully confirmed in my belief of 2 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. the doctrines of the Trinity, the Incarnation, and others which make up positive, dogmatic Christianity. More than this, I have almost made up my mind that the belief in these doctrines requires in strict logical consistency the belief of the entire Catholic system, of which they peem to me to form only a part; the most essential part, it is true, but nevertheless a part : requiring to be completed by the other integral though subordinate portions ofre- vealed Christianity, in order to make a cbnsistent, perfect whole. I say, almost made up my mind, because I have not quite made it up. If I do, of course I shall lose no time in applying to be received into the Catholic Chuich. But I want to be sure of every step of my ground before I advance further, so as to do nothing with premature haste. Now, then, if you can help me to come to a satis- factory conclusion, I give you a fair chance, and you may have all the glory of making a conquest of your obstinate old Unitarian friend, whom I dare say you have often inwardly consigned, though I doubt not with regret, to the company of the finally impenitent. o . “ I am in the best disposition, my good old friend, to help you as far as I can, without, however, as- senting to the truth of your last observation. But, man alive ! am I to give you a complete theological course in three’ hours? Where am I to begin ? Where does the shoe pinch? We must have some precise, definite point to aim at, or we shall be obliged to protract our discus- sions into the next century. Let me know what you are prepared to admit, and what particular point you wish to have cleared up, so that I may know where to begin.’ “I am prepared to admit, in a general way, that the historical succession and continuity ol Christian- ity lie principally in the Catholic Church. Also, that a reunion of all Christians in the communion of the Catho- lic Church is desirable. Moreover, that, If Jesus Christ did establish one organized communion under a hierar- THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 3 ehical constitution, in strict external unity of doctrine worship, and government, with a precept obligatory upon all persons m all times to join that communion, that communion can be no other than the Catholic Church rhe if 1 n my statement will show yon where my doub ;es, and it is this doubt which I wish you to assist m im Clearing up.” Mr. ft-‘‘Very well. Let ns attack this point at g0 back for a fir8t principle and starting-point to the dogma we have previously established of the divinity of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is truly God • his laws are therefore divine, and irrevocable by any author- mf ' feU0, '.t0 , hls own ; his institutions are divine, and unchangeable by any human authority. He came for ie express purpose of accomplishing the work of human recemption in Ins own person, abrogating all preceding and merely preparatory dispensations, and establishing C mstianity as a final, perfect, universal system for the regeneration and salvation of the whole human race I suppose you will admit all this, will you not?” Mr. JK—“ Without difficulty.” r) ru'° U aCkn0Wlcdge > also > that the Personal wo.k of Jesus Christ was finished when he ascended into heaven, and that he is not to be expected to return In^nUy ?” 6arth * ^ ^ ~ Mr. M.—“ Most certainly I do.” J/>. a, Now, then, I have a fair starting-point formy argument. Merely human philosophers have been able to impress their doctrines so firmly on the minds of then disciples that they have gained a lesser or greater degree of permanence and extension in propoiL to the genius of the men and the force of their ideas. Iuman institutors and lawgivers have been able to ac- complish a similar result with their institutions. In- spired men, messengers and prophets of God, like A bra- 4 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. ham, Moses, David, Isaiah, and the Macchabees, have done more ; they have preserved, defended, handed don n the sacred deposit of divine revelation, the precious crenn-of human regeneration, in a successful manner; Thus accomplishing the end of the preparatory dispensa- tion committed to them. Jesus Christ, being God ae well as man, having, therefore, the plenitude of wisdom and power, must have been able to perpetuate Ins doc- trine and institutions through all ti ne, and to give them a sway coextensive with the world. Now, the Catholic Church, as you have admitted, is organized, historical Christianity. Its beginning cannot be traced or its in- ventors designated by any one who denies that Jesus Christ and his apostles are its founders. It tills the space which Jesus Christ intended to fill with the genuine Christianity of which he is the author. It has been able to perpetuate its doctrines and to extend its sway over such a laroe portion of the human race, that there is nothing improbable in the supposition that it may one day subdue the whole. I apply, then, the argument of- ten used respecting the character of Jesus Christ poi- trayed in the four gospels. Either the true genuine character of Jesus Christ is copied from the life by the wnters of those gospels, or some person, by his creative genius, has conceived the ideal of that character in his own mind. But any person who could conceive such an ideal would be himself equal to the ideal created by his own imagination, and would in reality have accomplished bv means of a myth or an imposture the very regener* tion of mankind which this ideal Christ is believed to have accomplished. The supposition is absurd; an therefore the ideal Christ of the gospels is truly the real, historical Christ who lived and died in Judea bo with the historical Christianity of the Catholic Church. I it does not proceed from Jesus Christ himself as 1 author, it must proceed from another mind equally great. THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 5 nay more, far greater, because able to snpplant his work, and to accomplish that which he was unable to accom- plish. Yet, nevertheless, it must be a myth or an im- posture, pretending to be the genuine religion of Christ when it is not so, pretending to be the work of the Christ of history when it is but a counterfeit. This is inconsis- tent with a belief in the divinity of Jesus Christ. If he is t he Son of God, he must have given perpetuity to his doctrine, permanence and universality to his institutions. He has not done so, unless his doctrine and institutions are to be found in the Catholic Church. Moreover, it is inconceivable that, after this long lapse of time, the genu- ine, original doctrine and law of Christ should be restored and universally extended, unless Christ himself were to return and to recommence his work from the beginning —a supposition which destroys the credibility of his dl vine mission by assuming that it faded of its proposed end in the first instance and must therefore be repeated. My conclusion is, therefore—and I defy the world to re- fute it—that the very fact of the existence of the Catholic Church, with the four, bright, legible marks of unity, sanctity, catholicity, and apostolic succession, demon- strates her claim to have Jesus Christ as her founder to be true and undeniable. AVhat have vou to sav to this Mr, Mayflower?” “ Your conclusion appears to me to be just. I am convinced that the Catholic Church is substantially and essentially the embodiment ofthe genuine Christianity of Christ. But is the Catholic Church, as an external, organized hierarchy united under the supremacy of the Bishop of Rome, the sole, complete embodiment of Chris- tianity, exclusive of the Orientals, Anglicans, and other bodies of professed Christians? Is there a divine precept, binding every one in all times, which requires member- ship in this communion as the condition of salvation * Suppose, now, that the Catholic Church is the principal THU CATHOLIC CHURCH.« and most perfect portion of Christendom. Other bodies may he minor and more imperfect portions, really united with her in essentials, separated in regard to external com- munion by misunderstandings, dissensions, and various sorts of revolutions. It is undoubtedly incumbent on all to seek for a reunion of Christendom under the head- ship of the principal see. Yet the Roman Church may be partly in fault for the division which has taken place, and it may be necessary for her to make some conces- sions. The state of Protestants may be a sort of tem- porary, provisional condition. I do not like it, and I wish to see the reunion of Christendom take place. Yet, why should I be bound individually to go over to the Church of Rome ? I can have more liberty of thought, perhaps may do more good, by joining Dr. Flower’s congrega- tion, where there is a sort of Unitarian Catholic move- ment going on, or at the most, going to the Episcopal Church, a step which is not by any means such a long stride as becoming an out-and-out Roman Catholic.” Mr. 0.—“Why do you say that the Catholic Church is more perfect than the Oriental, Anglican, or other Protestant communions ?” Mr. M.—“ Because she alone possesses the perfect prin- ciple of unity in doctrine and organization.” Mr. 0.—“ You admit, then, that it is only through this principle that a reunion of all Christians with the Catho- lic Church can take place ?” Mr. M.—“I do.” Mr. 0.—“ Is not this principle seated in the doctrine of the supremacy of the Holy See over the universal church, in relation to all matters of faith and discipline ?” Mr. JZ—“It is.” Mr. 0.—“ Then the Roman Church can make no con- cession on the points of difference between herself on one side, Orientals and Protestants on the other, without losing the principle of unity, and thus making all reunion THE CATHOLIC CHTJKCH. 1 for ever impossible. All the concessions must be on their part. They must yield in regard to every point which involves a rejection of the supremacy of the Roman Church, whether as to discipline or doctrine. That is to say, they must recognize the justice of the claim put forth by the Roman Church, that communion with her is essen- tial in order to constitute a particular church an orthodox and legitimate member of the church universal. This is precisely the exclusive claim to which you object. For it requires by logical necessity that all who are not within the communion of the Roman Church should be excluded from the true Catholic Church founded by Christ. The Catholic Church comprises within itself the universal body of pastors and faithful in unity with the Roman Church. This Catholic Church is infallible in doctrine, sovereign in legislation. “ Beh°ld- the entire, special, and exclusive claim of the Catholic Church, the principle of her unity and stability, the principle which alone can enable all Christians to participate in the same unity and stability, and thus escape from the state of perpetual division and change in which they now are. This is the very principle which consti- tutes the Catholic Church of to-day the. true successor of all the preceding ages, or, in other words, the real em- bodiment of historical Christianity. Therefore, by the force of what you have previously admitted, you must acknowledge that this principle has been received from Jesus Christ himself, and by him implanted in the origi- nal constitution of the church.” Mr. M. “ I believe I must; anyhow, I don’t see how I can help myself. The sovereignty and infallibility of the Catholic Church as constituted a corporate unity by the supremacy of the Roman Church, must be acknow- ledged, or we must fall back on individualism, alias ration- alism, alias nihilism, and return to the region of chaos and old night. Still, I would like some positive proof 8 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. that Jesus Christ did personally promulgate a decree w- tablishing theRoman Church in the imprescriptible rights claimed by her, and a precept commanding obedience to the doctrine and law proclaimed by her.” j/,._ o “ Allow me to modify your verbal statement of the demand you have made, and I will satisfy it as full v as any reasonable man can desire. 1 on speak of a See nivL rights to the Roman Church. There was no supremacy conferred by Jesus Christ on the Roman Church as such; that is, considered as a congregation oi diocese existing in the city of Rome. The ruling and teaching functions of a particular church are lodged m b : 3hop. WL in we speak of the supremacy of the Roman Cl Lrch, we mean the supremacy of the Roman hvh-ra, wno are aided by the counsel and advice ot their clergy, and fulfil a great portion of their official du- ties through their instrumentality, but whose authen i acts of jurisdiction proceed from their own personal au- thority. It is not precisely in their quality as bishops of Rome that they possess a universal, episcopal jun - diction over the Catholic Church. That jurisdiction is a rio-ht annexed to or superinduced upon the oidin. / episcopal jurisdiction of the Bishop of the Roman Church by virtue Of his succession from St. Peter. It is because St Peter made the episcopal see of Rome his own apos- toiic and pontifical see, leaving his own special, personal authority as Vicar of Christ, together with the ordinal y power of the episcopate, to his successors in the same see that the bishops of Rome are the supreme bishops of the Catholic Church. Our Lord Jesus Christ did con- stitute St. Peter and his successors Ins vicars on eaith St Peter did establish an order of succession to this vi- cariate in the line of succession to the Roman episcopate^ It is easy enough to prove these two facts; and that is equivalent to proving that the supremacy oiAhe Roman Church is derived from a precept of Jesus Clinst. THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 9 Mr. I have been studying this matter for the last five months, and, indeed, I had examined ecclesias- tical history pretty carefully long before this. I am con- vinced that Christ gave the primacy to St. Peter, that St. Peter was the first Bishop of Rome, and that the bishops of Rome have always had the primacy as suc- cessors to the see of Pater.” Mr. 0.—“Well, then, my good friend, what more do you want ?” Mr. M.—“ Proof that there is a precept of Jesus Christ requiring all persons to submit to that teaching of the Bishop of Rome, regarding his own supremacy in mat- ters of faith and law, to which the Bishop of Rome exacts submission, as the condition of enjoying the privileges of his communion.” Mr. 0.—“ I suppose you will admit that Jesus Christ, when he proclaims himself to be the Son of God, by that vei y fact exacts all the obedience from men which is due to him as supreme ruler ?” Mr. M.—“ Yes.” Mr. 0. “In the same way, when he proclaims St. Peter and his successors as his vicars in the supreme pastorate of the universal church, he has already given a precept to all the members of the church to submit to their pastoral office. He gave to St. Peter the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and declared that whatsoever he should bind or loose on earth should be bound and loosed in heaven. This is a delegation of his own supreme pow- er to St. Peter, which constituted him, in the full force of the term, the Vicar of Christ. Now, when the succes- sor of St. Peter requires the acceptance of certain doc- trines and the obedience to certain laws as a condition of enjoying the full rights of a member of the church or a citizen of the kingdom of heaven, he exercises this pow- er of the keys and this power of binding or obliging the conscience. Jesus Christ has given his own full, unre- 10 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. served sanction to it beforehand, and, as it were, affixed his signature and seal to the blank sheets on which his vicars write their laws. In doing this, Jesus Christ has made himself responsible that his vicars shall never exact as a term of communion in the Catholic Church the belief of any doctrine as of faith which is not con- tained in the divine revelation, or the rejection of any doctrine which really is of faith, or obedience to any law which is sinful, or the violation of any law which is morally binding. He can and he ought to do this, in order to conform to the truth of his divine nature as God Incarnate. He can make his church indefectible and infallible, because he has divine power. He must do it, because he has given to his church an authority which would be nugatory, or else subversive of his own authority, unless he did confer this unerring gift. By appointing St. Peter and his colleagues the teachers of the world in his own name, with his own previous and explicit sanction of their teaching, he has sanctioned the teaching of their own infallibility which they have put forth from the beginning. Still further : as there is no legitimate authority in the Catholic Church except St. Peter and his colleague’s, and every member of the church is bound to obey the legitimate authority of its pastors, and every baptized person is a member of the church, every baptized person is bound to obey the Pope and those bishops who are in communion with him, as the successors of St. Peter and the apostles. This is a necessary consequence of faith in the divinity of Jesus Christ. Because Jesus Christ is truly God, his institu- tions are permanent and unchangeable, his laws divine and obligatory, his vicars and delegates clothed with au- thority by right divine. He being supreme lord and sovereign over all, obedience to his precepts, whether given directly by himself or immediately through his duly authorized legates and ambassadors, is of universal THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. li obligation upon all men, in all times and places. There- fore, my dear friend, that obligation which Pope Pius IX. and the Archbishop of New York bind upon you to sub- mit yourself as a docile child to their pastoral authority is bound in heaven ; and that excommunication from the company of the faithful which they bird upon you as the penalty of knowing, wilful disobedience to their pre- cept, is also bound in heaven. Show me a dispensation, if you can, countersigned in the celestial court with the same authentic seal and signature. For that alone could justify you in staying out of the Catholic Church, with such a clear knowledge as you possess of the grounds which prove that she is the only true church of Christ.” Mr. M.—“I have no such dispensation, nor do I want it. I am convinced, and I am glad of it. Mrs. May- flower, as women usually do, has taken the shorter road of the heart and the holy instincts of the spiritual nature to the same result. The children are all ready and eager to be received into the Catholic Church. I started them off in the right direction, and they got ahead of me. I have been lagging behind to reason up the matter, after my fashion as a slow old gentleman. But I have reached the gate at last, with some puffing and blowing, and you may be sure that I shall not be slow in knocking for ad- mittance.” Mr. 0.—“Well said; and when done, it will be well done, and so, of course, it will be well if it be done quickly. I am sure you will make one of the staunchest Catholics going, after you are once fairly in the church.” Mr. M.—“You may rely on me for that. I like to be true to my own principles, and, when my premises are well established, to follow them out logically to their conclusions. There is no tenable ground between being an utter sceptic or a thorough-going Catholic, on sound philosophical principles. To be a sceptic is to be a fool ; and therefore the highest wisdom, the most perfect act of 12 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. reason, the most ennobling act ofmanhood, is to submit tc the infallible authority of the Catholic Church, which alone can give us certitude in matters of religion elevated by their very nature above reason.” The two old gentlemen, finding it was already past twelve o’clock, here ended their conversation ; and after a very affectionate adieu, the one betook himself to his own home, and the other to his night-prayers before going to bed. Mr. Mayflower was as good as his word ; and the very next day made his appearance, accompanied by his wife and his family of blooming children, at the parlor of a religious house, asked for one of the fathers, and requested him to take the whole group under his instruc- tion. Last Sunday they all made their first communion together, and Mr. Oldcastle knelt at the rail beside his old friend, without any great demonstration of emotion, but with his honest, upright heart full of a calm, intense joy at the happy result of his example and conversation during so many past years. We take leave of our respectable old friends, with our best wishes for their future happiness, and the devout hope that many others like them may be led into the bosom of the Catholic Church ; where the reason is satis- fied, doubt allayed, the conscience purified, the heart filled, and both life and death made blessed by the grace of the true God and our Saviour J esus Christ, who is the only Light, and the true Life of the world. Printed for “ The Catholic Publication Society Co.,” New York. Price $9 per 1,000 copies . Ko. 26 . WHO FOUNDED THE CATHOLIC CHURCH ? Whe2? Jesus Christ walked upon earth among men, the question was asked, “Who is he?” Some answered, “He hath Beelzebub, and by the prince of devils he casteth out devils.”* Others took him to be a holy and inspired man: some saying, “He is John the Baptist, others Elias, and others Jeremias, or one of the pro- phets.” f On the other hand, his true disciples, with the Apostle Peter, confessed his divinity, declaring him to be “ Christ, the Son of the living God.” J In the same way the question is asked in our day, “What is the Catholic Church?” Some men answer, She is the work of Satan, the seat of error, and the sy- nagogue of Antichrist. This is what Luther and his followers would have the world believe. On no other ground could he or can they justify themselves for break- ing off from the Catholic Church and setting up another form of religion in opposition to her. This belief of theirs was made a part of the Protestant creed. Hence they took every means in their power to destroy the church. They even called, upon the Turks to aid them in its destruc- tion. The great body of Protestant commentators on the Holy Scriptures interpret them, when they speak of “the man of sin,” and the “harlot of Babylon,” to mean the Catholic Church. In their synods and in their ser- mons they keep up the same language, ard prophesy the speedy downfall of the Catholic Church. * Mark. lii. 23. t Matt, xvi. 14. $ Matt. xvl. 14. 2 WHO FOUNDED THE CATHOLIC CHURCH? Is it not strange, thoughtful reader, that the Catholic Church, which has faithfully preserved the Hcly Bible, and from whose hands all Christians have received it, and which alone has been instrumental in converting the nations to the Christian faith, should be spoken against and vilified in this manner? Do such works look like the works of “the man of sin?” Is it not strange that the Catholic Church, which counts among her children millions of martyrs, who laid down their lives for the testimony of Christ, should be the church of Antichrist ? Is it not strange that missionaries like St. Austin, St. Boniface, St. Patrick, and St. Francis Xavier, and men like St. Bernard, St. Charles Borromeo, and St. Vincent of Paul, should be the ministers and apostles of Anti- christ? Is it not strange that men who are acknow- ledged by all as eminent for their intelligence and virtue, such as the Schlegels, the Newmans, the Wilberforces, and the Mannings, should, in the light of our day, become members of the Catholic Church and she be the syna- gogue of Satan? Are such fruits as these the fruits of Satan? Is Satan divided against himself ? “How can Satan,” was the reply of our Lord to his calumniators, “cast out Satan?” Are not these accusations against the Catholic Church proofs of her being Christ’s Church according to his own words : “ The disciple is not above the master, nor the servant above his lord. It is enough 4or the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the good man of the house of Beelzebub, how much more them of his house- hold ? Therefore fear them not.” * Men of another class, who have more knowledge and are less blinded by prejudice, such as Macaulay, Chan- ning, and Bancroft, seek to account for the founding of the Catholic Church on another theory. They recognize Matt x. 25. WHO FOUNDED THE CATHOLIC CHURCH ? 9 the greatness, the permanence, and the Christian charac* ter of the Catholic Church, but attribute this to “human skill and sagacity in religion,” and regard her as a monument of human genius.” These men are like those Jews who looked upon Christ as Elias, or Jeremias, or one of the prophets. What truth is there in this theory ? Let ns see : Here is a church that possesses unity of faith and an un- changeable code of morals, which counts two hundred millions of men as her children, which has lasted for nineteen centuries, and bids fair to last until the end of all time. Now, to tell us that this is all due to the sa- gacity and genius of Catholics is much too flattering to be true, and we honestly cannot so accept it. Without any claim to an unusual degree of humility, we may, on the part of Catholics, venture to express the opinion that they are not endowed with any more skill, sagacity, or genius than other folk. We disclaim all natural supe- riority, as Catholics, over our fellow-men. The invent- ors of this theory do not believe it themselves, but, like the inventors of the Satanic theory, they put it forth in order to avoid the necessity of acknowledging the true character of the Catholic Church. For there is no other way of giving a rational account of the Catholic Church, except by recognizing that she was founded by Christ, and is guided and upheld by the Holy Spirit of God. The Catholic Church was founded by Jesus Christ. This is what the third class acknowledge. That Christ intended to found a church there can be no question. Here are his words: “And I say to thee, that thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my Church.”* No Christian will venture to doubt that Christ fulfilled this his promise. He promised that his Church should never fail; for, * Matt, xvi, IS. 4 WHO FOUNDED THE CATHOLIC CHURCH ? after having made the above promise, he added, “And the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” * Hence the truth of the saying, “ Once the Church, always the Church.” Christ gave to his Church the commission and com- mand to preach his Gospel to the whole world. “All power is given to me in heaven and upon earth. Going, therefore, teach ye all nations.” f A command which the Catholic Church alone has fulfilled. He promised to remain with his Church always. “ And behold, I am with you all days, even to the consumma- tion of the world.” Hence the Church is always holy, for Christ always dwells in her. Be not stultified, sincere reader; it is not Satan, it is not human sagacity or genius that has founded the holy Catholic Church, but the word of Jesus Christ, the God-man, who has said, “ Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away.” J Be no longer misled, sincere reader ; it is not ignorance or superstition which so strongly attaches Catholics to the Church. It is nothing of this sort ; but it is their firm faith, grounded upon the express words and prom- ises of Jesus Christ. Do you, reader, believe firmly in the divinity of Christ? If so, be a consistent follower of him, and believe, also, firmly in his word, and acknowledge the Catholic Church, “ which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.” § * Matt. xvi. 18. t Malt. xxiv. 35. t Matt, xxviii. 18. § 1 Tim. iii. 15. Printed for “ The Catholic Publication Society Co.,” New York. Pt'tce S3 per 1,000 copies. Ko. 27. THE EXCLUSIVENESS OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. A DIALOGUE BETWEEN MR. MATHER, A PROTESTANT, AND MR. APPLETON, A CONVERT TO THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. Mr. Mather meets Mr. Appleton returning from church one Sunday morning, and after some desultory conversation he is emboldened to ask, “ Friend Appleton, why did you become a Catholic?” Mr. Appleton. — “ Why did I become a Catholic ? To save my soul, of course. What other motive do you sup- pose I could have had ?” Mr. Mather.—“Well, I don’t know precisely. The fact is, I have been a good deal puzzled by your leaving the good old paths of your forefathers and joining the Catholic Church, and I have often thought I would like to hear what you had to say in justification of such a course. You certainly do not mean to say that you could not have been saved just as well in the religion of your ancestors as in that religion which we have all been taught to look upon as superstitious, and even idolatrous and abominable ?” Mr. A .—“I mean just what I have said. I joined the Catholic Church to save my soul, and because I became fully convinced that I could not save my soul in the re- ligion in which I had been brought up.” Mr. 31.—“ Ah ! then I see it is true, what we have so often heard charged against the Catholics : you believe 2 EXCI USIVEXESS OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. that the Catholic Church is the only true church, and that out of that church there is no salvation.” Mr. A.—“ Well, yes, I do believe that the Catholic Church is the only true church, and that out of it there is no salvation, for me at least.” Mr. M.—“ For you at least ? Of course, if there is no salvation for you, there is no salvation for any of us. Mr. A.—“ I did not say that, but if you like the logic I will not be so bold as to deny it.” Mr. Jf.—“ If I like the logic ! But I don’t like the logic. The conclusion is too absurd and too dreadful for any sane man to admit.” Mr. A.—u Why is it so absurd? If the premises are good the conclusion follows as a natural consequence, whether we like it or not.” Mr. M.—“But l am not so sure of the premises.” Mr. A.—“ Bo you believe Almighty God established a church in the world?” Mr. M.—“ Of course I do ; we believe in the church as much as the Catholics do.” Mr. A. “ What was the church established for ?” Mr. M.—“ To save souls, of course. Our Lord chose His apostles and sent them into the world to preach the Gospel and establish His church ; and His great commis- sion was, ‘ Go and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. He that believetli and is baptized shall be saved, he that believeth not shall be damned.’ ” Mr. A.—“ Very good I am glad to see you are so orthcxlox. Now if, as you have clearly proved, our Lord made the church the ordinary means of salvation to man, what becomes of those who are out of the church ?” Mr. M.—“Ah! I see you are trying to corner me. But remember a great apostle has said, 4 In every nation he that fearcth God and worketh righteousness is ac- eepte 1 of Him,’ ” EXCLUSIYEXESS OF THE CATHOLIC CIIUECH. 3 Mr. A.—“I might ask why you twist the word nation’ about to mean ‘church ’ in that text, since, if you refer to the verse Acts x. 35, you will see that St. Peter said that because he had just been convinced by a vision that other people could be saved besides those who were by nation Jews, and that there is no question about ‘ church ’ at all. Certainly a Hottentot can be saved as well as an American, and on what condition friend Mather ?” Mr. M. “ He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.” 3Ir. A.—“ And he that believeth not— ” Mr. M.—“ Shall be damned.” Mr. A.—“ And is not that, also, too absurd and dread- ful for a sane man to believe ?” Mr. M.—“ Then you mean to say that it is no more absurd and dreadful for you Catholics to believe that we poor heretics will be damned if we do not believe what you teach than it is to believe that the heathen and infidels will be damned if they refuse to receive the message of the Gospel ?” Mr. A.—“ Did I call you a heretic ?” Mr. M.—“You might as well. You claim to be the only true church, and of course all who are out of that church mast necessarily be heretics, or at least schis- matics, which is not much better.” Ĵ~r’ You have learned logic, I see, under an ex- cellent master.” Mr. M.—“But this is not my argument; it is yours.” Mr. A.—“ Well, what is your argument ? Do you mean to say that heretics and schismatics will ‘ be saved ?” Mr. M. “ Of course not. How can I maintain that those will be saved whom our Lord and His apostles con- demn ? ‘ Mark those who cause divisions (schisms) among you, and have no fellowship with them.’ And schisms 4 exclusiveness of the catholic chuich. are included among those sins which merit the divine reprobation.” Mr. A .—“That is good Catholic doctrine. I assent to that most fully. Wherein do we differ ?” Mr. M.—“ You need not try to maks cu • that we are agreed ; I’m sure we are not.” ' ° Mr. A. —“ But why should you insist that there are differences between us when there are none? Is it not desirable that Christian people should agree as far as possible ?” Mr. M.—“ Yes, but I don't like you to turn me over to the uncovenanted mercies of God.” Mr. A.—“ The uncovenanted mercies ofGod ! I never used such an expression. That is not Catholic language. Mr. M.—“ I don’t know what Catholic language is, but I know what Catholic theory and Catholic practice are. They unhesitatingly consign all who are out ol what they call the church to eternal perdition.” Mr. A.—“ What do you do with all who are out of what you call the true church?” Mr. M.—“We leave them in the hands of God.” Mr. A—“In the hands of the ‘uncovenanted mer- cies ?’ ” Mr. M. “I see you are determined to poke fun at me. But I am not to be put off in that way. I still maintain there are very serious differences between the Catholic and Protestant theory.” Mr. A. “ Oh ! I have not the slightest doubt of that, but so far as we have gone I don’t see but we are pretty well agreed. You believe that Christ established a churchon earth to be the ordinary means of salvation to man. So do we. You hold that those who willfully re- ject the truth will be damned. That is our belief also. You believe that heresy and schism are damnable sms. So do we. And those who are out of the church, as you understand it, you leave to the ‘ unoovenauted meicies EXCLUSIVENESS OF THE CATHOLIC CHUECfl. 5 of God,’ or, as we prefer to say, in the hands of a merci- ful God, which is not necessarily to consign them all to eternal perdition, since, ‘in every nation he that feareth God and worketli righteousness,’ he that honestly lives up to the light he has, and walks humbly before God, he that loves the truth and seeks for it as for hidden treas- ure and is ready to follow it wherever it leads, ‘is accepted of Him.’ That is our doctrine also with refer- ence to those who are out of the church, as we understand it.” Mr. M.—“ Then you do admit that some of other churches may be saved ?” Mr. A. “ If I do, it is not because they are members of those churches, but in spite of it.” Mr. M.—“Rather a spiteful reason, it seems to me; but explain, if you please, how they will be saved.” . Mr- A .—“ They will be saved by virtue of their bap- tism and belief. ” Mr. M.—“ But they do not believe in the Catholic Church nor have they been baptized into it.” Mr. A.—“Yes they have, if they have been validly baptized. True baptism unites to the b^dy of Christ and necessarily makes one a member of the Catholic Church.” Mr. M.—“ But how, pray tell me, can a man be a member of the Catholic Church and at the same time a member of some other church ?” Mr. A .—“ There can be but one true church of Christ, that is the Catholic Church. If a man has been validly baptized, he thereby has become a member of the Catholic Church, and will continue so until, by some voluntary act of his own, he forfeits his title to member- ship, no matter what other society he may belong to whether it be a temperance society, a moral reform Socie- ty, or a religious society calling itself a church.” Mr. M.—“ Then a man can really be a member of the 6 exclusiveness of the catholic church. Catholic Clmrcli though he be not in visible communion with the church ?” j\fr a. “ Exactly so. And if his separation from that visible unity be noli the result of his own voluntary act, (such as apostasy or refusing to join her visible communion through any motive when he is interiorly convinced of her truth,) and if he is validly baptized and perseveres to the end, he will undoubtedly be saved.” Mr. M.—“That, I suppose, is what you call being saved by invincible ignorance?” Mr. A. “ No. The Catholic Church does not teach that any man will be saved by ignorance of any kind, lie will be saved by virtue of his union with the body of Christ. His invincible ignorance will excuse him for any want of compliance with the visible institutions of the church.” Mr. M.—“ After all, I must confess those views are much like our own in reference to the spiritual nature of the church. True, we profess not to attach so much im- portance to baptism and what we call the externals ; but still we hold that baptism is the door of entrance into the church, and we admit that a man is bound to believe the truth under pain of damnation; and if he really has a disposition to accept the truth, when made known to him, if he love the truth for the truth’s sake, and is ready to follow wherever it leads at any sacrifice, Almighty God will excuse him for ignorance of such truths as may not have been made known to him. Still, I must insist that the church as you understand it. and the church as I understand it, are two very different things.” j\£Vm A.—11 No doubt of it. If I had not been con- vinced of that fact, I never should have abandoned the religion of my fathers and accepted that of the Catholic Church; and"l want you to confess now, as an honest man, that the real ground of your objection to that church is not the old slander, that she consigns all out 7 exclusiveness of the catholic church. of her pale to eternai perdition, but simply that she claims to be the true church of Christ.” Mr. M.—“Well, I will candidly acknowledge, if it will be any satisfaction to you, that tliere does not seem to be *0 much difference between us on that point as I had supposed. The real ground of my objection I see is, as you say, to the exclusive claim of the Catholic Church to be the true church of Christ. It seems so absurd and unreasonable for one denomination to set itself up above all others and say, ‘ We are the church.’ ” Mr.A.—“ Then you don’t claim to belong to the church ?” Mr. M. “ Well, yes, I claim to belong to the true church of Christ of course, as I understand it.” r* “ The true church as you understand it ! But the church as you understand it differs from the church as I understand it ?” Mr. M.—“ Of course it does.” Mr. A.—“ And they can’t both be true ?” Mr. M—“ No. The Protestant religion and the Cath- olic religion cannot both be true.” Mr. A. “ Then, if you maintain that the church as you understand it is the true church, and the church as I understand it is not the true church, do you, or do you not, set yourself up above others and claim to be the church ?” . 3 f r- M'—“ I am not absolutely sure that I am nght. We do not claim to be infallible, as you do.” Air A.—“£sTow, friend Mather, that is just the point wish to come at. You admit that there is a true church ?” Mr. M.—“ Yes, I am certain of it.” Mr. A. “ And there are false ones?” Mr. M.—“ No doubt of it.” Mr. A.-“Now, tell me, do the false ones know that they are right?” 8 EXCLUSIVENESS OE THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. Mr. M.—“ How can they know they are right when they are not ?” . . , Mr. A .—“Does the true one know that she is right. Mr. M.—“ Well, I suppose she ought to know it.” « Suppose she ought.’ Speak out, man, ana look the truth in the face. She does know it. She must know it. Pretty kind of a true church that would he which couldn’t tell herself from a heresy. Mr. M.—“ Well, what do you make out of that? Mr. A.—“ Just this, my friend. The Catholic Church is the only one that says she knows infallibly that she is ricrht All others disclaim that infallible certainty for themselves, as being falsa they honestly ought to do, and therefore the Catholic Church, and she alone, is the true church of Christ.” Mr. M.—“ I give it up. Your argument is unanswer- able. I must examine into the claims of your church more particularly.” Mr ^4 “ Do. The Catholic Church courts inquiry, and urges all men to study her doctrines, to weigh the reasons she gives for her faith and practice in the bal- ance of common sense, and to examine her whole cha- racter in the light of the holy Scriptures and the teach- ings of history. Examine, examine, examine, my dear friend. The only thing I fear is that you will drop this matter, aud not examine it thoroughly. jfr ; “ Oh ! yes, I will. Don’t fear. What you have said to me this morning puts me under the obliga- tion, as a sincere and honest man, who is not afraid to confront the truth, to examine these serious claims of the Catholic Church.” Printed fat' “ The Catholic Publication Society Co.,” New Yat'k. Pt ice ^ $6 per 1,000 copies. No. 28. CHILDREN AND PROTESTANTISM. Oxe bright summer morning the writer of this was on board a steamer going down the Lower Bay of New- York, to Red Bank, to get a sniff of the fresh sea-breeze. A decently dressed individual came up and asked me whe- ther I was a “ professor of religion.” I replied that I was a member of the Catholic Church. At this he began to inveigh against the awful superstition of this corrupt Church, as he was pleased to style her, and declared that it was by the merits of Christ alone that any one could be saved. I replied, that I by no means felt inclined to dispute that assertion. “ But no one,” he proceeded, “ can be saved except by a simple personal reliance or trust in Christ.” “Well, then, my friend,” said I, “you will oblige me very much by telling me in rvhat way infants and young children are to be released from the state of sin in which they are born, and how they are to be introduced into the kingdom of heaven.” This was a question which had evidently been for the first time brought to his mind, and he was not prepared to give any answer to it. It is a most practical one, and leads to important con- sequences, as I propose to show very shortly. The doctrine of “Justification by faith only” shuts the gate of heaven to all infants and young children ; it is therefore false, and the whole edifice of’Protestant 2 CHILDREN AND PROTESTANTISM. religion built on this foundation is built on error, and the reformation is no reformation at all, but the substitution of a new falsehood for an old truth ; and the quicker we return to the old truth the better. The doctrine of “Justification by faith only” proceeds on the assumption that all men, young and old, are born in “ original sin,” by which they are totally depraved, lying in the wrath and anger of God, and under sentence ‘of eternal misery. We are introduced into this state by birth, and must continue in it until we are delivered from it. And the only means by which this can be done is by “ faith alone,” or by a personal simple trust or reliance on Christ for salvation, apart fiom any other disposition of the soul, or any other condition whatever. Now, an infant t>r young child can not make any such personal acts, for it has not the use of reason sufficiently to do any such thing, and therefore, in the failure of any means of release, it must remain in original sin and a state of condemnation until it arrives at an age in which it is supposed to make the act of “ simple reliance” which shall deliver it. Baptism can not deliver the soul of the child from original sinj for then we would not be 1 justified by faith alone,” but by baptism. If there is only one meaus of justification, every other one is necessarily excluded. Neither can children be justified by the faith of their parents or guardians, for this is no personal faith, but the frith of mother, which can only operate to his own benefit. Besides, every adult person, whether baptized or no, is exhorted to exercise this “ faith alone” to secure his sal- vation. If he has in any way been already justified, this niode of treatment is inexplicable and impertinent. Hence, I conclude that, according to the theory of “Justification by faith alone,” children are left in a CHILDREN AND PEOTESTANTISif. 3 state of condemnation and disfavor with God until thev arrive at years of discretion. J nuSl! Th^ vu trf T C , 0nStantly incuIcated the pulpit. The child who listens is told that ^e and all else are included in both the guilt and condemnation of the ffl ifrrr toW that he is in G°d,s fev°r > °r the fault Of Adam in which he was born has in any way isXfS 8T ! l01’ °° the COntrafy> he gathers that heis the child of wrath and a sentenced criminal „ T W ? r n DOt f7’ theD> th3t the Protestant doctrine of Justification by faith only” is true ; for this consideration that it excludes children from the pale of salyation is forth •i P y 00 0f w S fa’Sity- A good tree ca“ "ot brine fake 6V1 M Wt , The trUth °f God can not lead to any than2 , C0 Tn ' A m01e “J™ consequencethan the exclusion of children, who are fully half the hu-man family, from all participation in the promises of Christ, we can not well conceive of do?r nteT anJ !lat ''ed °f rel ‘g'on which this falsedoctrine produces in the minds of the young is too wellknown that it need be enlarged upon. « A word to the lse is sufficient,” and I appeal most confidently to the ex- penence of those who have lived under such teaching, literal ,mb "“* “ “id “ »"* P>»" pit” ^ » p- ( ( p A , , * . urio inal sin and its consequences ” Go teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost ; ” and Glioft he XCePt 3 maD ^ b°rn °f Water and of the HolyGhost he can not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” he Church of God, for all ages, and in all countries Ghost ” ’ n 3t be!ng “ b0rn of water and the HolyGhost means that when the water of baptism is an plied, according to Christ’s institution, the Holy Ghost sanctifies the child, rendering it really and truly the friend A CHILDREN AND PROTESTANTISM. and child of God, and the heir of heaven; removing all the disability it contracted through the sin of Adam. Surely the practice and teaching of the Church for all ages ought to weigh more than the private and personal interpretations which even twist words out of their na- tural and obvious sense. In consequence of this perverse treatment of Christ s words, we find baptism fallen into great disuse. The Baptists reject altogether infant baptism, and many other sects think so little of it that it is safe to say the great majority of infants are not baptized. The greater part of children who die, die without the waters of regene- ration. Strange! that parents who guard their children from all possible harm in this life, and toil and sweat to pro- cure for them the means of living well here, should be so indifferent and so careless about applying that simple means which nine tenths of Christians in all ages thinly believe to be the door of heaven, and the appointed means by which God has provided that they who, with- out any cooperation on their part, lost the grace of eter. nal life, should by his free bounty receive back again the grace they had lost. The Catholic Church is a true mother of the soul to children as well as adults, as has been shown more fully in Tract No. 16, of this series. Here I leave the matter to the consideration of the reader, in connection with the words of our Saviour, “A good tree can not yield bad fruit, neither can a bad tree & yield good fruit. By their fruits ye shall know them.” Planted for “Thb Catholic Publication Society Co.,” New lork. Price $3 per 1,000 copies. /fa*- HOft TO KEEP LENT. You are well aware, my dear reader, that the Holy Church has set apart each year a certain time called Lent, in which she enjoins on her children to practise Casting and abstinence from certain kinds of food. Now, one may ask, Why does the £hurch do this ? I will tell you. Many people think it useless and even superstitious to fast from food, or to deny one’s self in other things which are pleasing to our natural inclinations. Their idea is, that, so long as we do not do anything positively sinful, there is no need to put any further check upon our own will and pleasure. This is a very deceitful and flattering delusion, and one calculated to eat out the very life of the Christian character. Self-love and self-indulgence are the worst enemies of the soul. As they grow strong- er, the love of God grows weaker. The more they are kept under control and made powerless, the more the grace of God will exert its effect upon us. Hence, our Saviour has said, “ He that will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.” And he, as we read, went out into the desert and fasted forty days and forty nights, to give us an example. He kept the first Lent, and the church has kept Lent ever since in memory of that first Lent, and to imitate the example he then gave us. She prescribes fasting from food in order to sanction and recommend the grand principle of self-denial in re- 2 EOW TO KEEP LENT. gard to worldly things and pleasures, so that we may raise up our minds to a greater earnestness in heavenly desires. In this she shows clearly the divine wisdom which directs her, and that she is truly Holy Mother Church, that i^a-ttuemo^her of our souls. Is it not plain that most people need such a t‘me as Lent to renew themselves in spirit, and to correct what has become amiss? It is so with the merchant. No matter how carefully he manages his affairs, he must have his set times for posting up his books and taking account of his stock, or his business will fall into dis- order. When he has done this and brought every- thing into good order, he feels great satisfaction, and is prepared to go on with new life and energy. And I may say that God himself seems to renew the face of nature in the spring of the year. The grass grows green, the buds swell, the leaves open, and the whole country is clothed in a new dress. In like manner Lent is the spring-time of the soul, when the cold, frosty 'winter gives way, and the soul grows young and fresh once more in her love of God and resolution to keep his commandments. And when this time of Lent comes round each year, God stirs up a new life in you, and makes you say to yourself, no matter how careless or how wicked you have been : “ It is high time for me to attend to myself. God calls me, and I must obey his voice. It will not do to let this Lent go by 'without having set the accounts of my conscience in order, and made my peace with my Creator.” This is the thought of the Catholic heart. And now let vs see how this blessed time can be spent in the best manner possible. In the first place, begiu it with a right good will, and say : “ I will endeavor to get all the good I can out of tnis Lent. I will now endeavor to give my best atten- tion to the affairs of my soul, and in order to do this I nOW TO KEEP LENT. 8 will withdraw it as much as possible from all vain and useless things, which would take up my mind and drive God and holy things out of it. My fast shall not be merely from the meat of the body, but from vain thoughts and idle words; and I will go into Lent with a cheerful and hopeful spirit, trusting in the goodness of God, who never refuses to help those who sincerely seek him, and ask his grace with humility.” Begin, then, on Ash-Wednesday, so as not to lose time, and be in the church on that morning to receive the ' y ashes. The priest will mark the sign of the cross with them on your forehead, and repeat the words, “Remem- ber, man, that thou art dust, and unto dust thou shalt re- turn.” A most impressive ceremony, and one calcu- lated to remind you forcibly of the one great fact which sooner or later must come to every one of us. Bear in mind this great lesson, and think on death, for this will drive out all that is evil, and sanctify your soul ; for, as Scripture says, “Remember thy last end, and thou shalt never sin.” (Eccl. vii. 40.) Make up your mind to attend all the services which are held in the church during this time; assist at Mass with all possible devotion; and whenever the word of God is preached, be there to hear it. If there is to be preaching or the Way of the Cross in the evening, do not mind the cold weather, but get your supper and be off to the church. Keep in mind the saying of a good old woman, who, when she came back from an early Mass on a cold winter morning, was asked by her grandson, who had just crept out of a warm bed to his breakfast, “ Grandmother, how can you, old as you arc, go out to church on such a morning as this ?” and she replied, i My son, my faith keeps me warm.” Let your faith warm your heart, and go to the church. There God is present in the blessed sacrament, and speaks through the mouth of his minister, the priest. 4 HOW TO KEEP LENT. How much better to be there than at a place of ^Tfim^,-whci-e-«ft aboun (l8 and all sorts conversa- are-carried otri How much better to be there than to be idling away your time at home in jokes and laugh- ter, if not in slandering your neighbor or in more sinful Go to church, even if it costs you some self-denial, and you will come back happy and contented. Stay at home because you are careless and indifferent, and you will be self-condemned, cross, and miserable. People are often unhappy and they do not know the reason why. It is because they place their happiness in selfish indul- gence, and they cannot be satisfied with it. If they would only seek it in God and his service, they would en- joy a satisfaction beyond the power of words to express. ButPl^oing ttrfffie^church would be of little avail without adding prayer to it. Pray as much as you can during the Lent. Fasting would be of no great advan- tage without prayer. If you do not offer up the fast I with the right intention to God, it will not be accept- able to him ; and this, right intention cannot be kept up without much prayer. One ought to say to himself: “ I have a good deal of business to transact with my God at this time, and I must be about it. I must send up to heaven a great number of prayers to beg for mercy and pardon, and for a thousand graces I need so much. I will do it in the house and in the street, at my work and at my meals, at home and in the church, by night and by day, at all times and in all places.” Short prayers, or ejaculations, as they are called, such as, “ God be gracious to me,” “ O Lord ! be merciful to me and par- don my sins,” “The will of God be done in all things,” “God preserve me from all sins, small and gi?at,” etc., repeated frequently, have a most powerful effect tc draw down the grace of God in abundance upon the soul. Some who have practised them faithfully for even a few 5 days have been go changed that they have abandoned a wicked life, and turned to God with their whole hearts, and continued to lead holy- lives ever after until the hour of their death.^ c And try to gotwft jghad time each day when you can be alone with God, and spend it in sending up sincere and earnest prayers and good wishes to draw down the grace which he has promised to give to all who persist in begging until their prayers are granted. He that hears the cry of the young birds will not despise the cry of a poor soul, for whom our Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross. If you will have a profitable and a delight- ful Lent, pray much. Try it, and see if my words do not come true. But what would be the use of going to the church and praying, if you should allow yourself to go on in slu or in any sinful habits ? It is of the very first and prime importance to shut the door on such things at the very beginning of Lent. Bid good-by, then, to any old habits of sin you may have, and you need not be very polite about it either. Say to them all : “ Get you gone ! you have deceived and cheated me long enough. You pretended to make me happy, and you have made me miserable and poor enough ; for you have robbed me of my God, you have stolen all the treasure of my soul from me. Begone ! and never come back. I have done with you for ever !” ^d the haunts of dissipation, the drinkfng-sl aud bar-rooms/ or any othek bad resorts. Say to yoi ^lf: “ Afpto such or such a place, I will never set m 1 footwkhin it from this moment If I would avoid the' kingdom of Sa'taivib^ll eternity^nusi^ep out.of his tominions now.” Make this firm and good resolution. Stop all sin at the outset of Lent. Cut off all the occasions of sin which led you into sin before, and will do so sgain if you go into HOW TO KEEP LENT.s them. Do this, and it will be the surest way of drawing down God’s blessing upon you. It w_ll most surely drive the evil one from you, and break up his power, so that hs cannot get it again. God has said, and he will be true to his word : “ When the wicked man turnetk away from his sin, and doeth that which is right, he shall surely save his soul.” This will sometimes cost a great deal, and require a strong resolution ; but think of the reward beyond all price, and it will give you courage to make the sacrifice, and to make it gladly and cheerfully. With these dispositions, I can safely promise that the Easter-time will not go by without your having made & good and satisfactory confession^and obtained the par- don of your sins. You may have been along time away, or your conscience may be weighed down by heavy sins, and you may feel a dread of confession, but your good- will will remove all the difficulties. These difficulties are always more imaginary than real, and, when one is in downright earnest, they disappear like the clouds before the wind. Think on your soul, and pray, and your sins will come up before you, and you will see them in their real enormity, so that it will not be difficult either to examine your conscience, or to conceive a true sorrow for your sins when you discover them. Your thoughts will naturally be directed to your confession, and with no gT8£t effort or difficulty you will be able to make it satisfactorily, and at the time of your confession the priest of God will assist you, so that there is really no obstacle in your way which need hinder you a moment. The confession and the communion put the seal on the good work begun by prayer and self-denial, and this is the reason why the Easter communion is made an obli- gation on all Catholics. Would that Holy Church, and the holy angels and saints, and our Lord Jesus Christ could look with satisfaction on the spectacle of all the HOW IO KETTP LENT. 7 faithful, clothed in white garments of innocence and re- newed in the spirit of their minds, assisting each year at the celebration of the festival of Easter, when our Lord arose from death to immortal life ! Then, arising from the death of sin to the life of grace, we should soon arise to eternal life, to share with him his boundless and un- yy speakable glory and happiness^ course, you will endeavor to keep the fast and ab- stinence prescribed by the ^urch as well as your health and the nature of your occupation will permit. If you are unwell, or have laborious and exhausting la- bor to do, and in some other circumstances, you are not rg ^ required to fast. In such case, try at least to keep the K. spirit of the fast, and deny yourself what you can without 5 ^ Hury- Observe moderation in all things, and cut off J - r^hat simply serves luxury and pleasure, and offer all your mortification to our Lord with great cheerfulness. Say : “ What a privilege it is to be able to deny myself a few things now, that my soul may be stronger and more inclined to heavenly and spiritual things!” R e- member the words of our Lord: “ When you fast, be v < not, as the hypocrites, sad : for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. But, when thou fastest, anoint thy head, and wash thy face; that thou appear not to men to fast, but to thy Father, who is in secret : and thy Father, who seeth in secret, will repay thee.” * J Those who are able to read would find it a great help to spend their Lent well, if they had some good books to occupy themselves with when they find leisure time. I would recommend particularly the Holy Scriptures or the lives of the saints. Nothing is more powerful than example to encourage us to the practice of virtue. The words and life of our Lord, the lives of the saints and their happy deaths, influence our soul with an ardent de- sire to imitate them, and to be associated with them in 8 HOW TO KEEP LENT. their reward. Instead of trashy novels and irreligious newspapers, how much better to read moral and reli- gious books. Books are a powerful engine nowadays either for good or evil ; we should use them to promote the life and health of the soul, and not for its destruction and death. For the rest, remember that Lent is the time for all sorts of good works. The examples of Jesus Christ and of his Blessed Mother ought to be before your eyes constantly. He went about doing good, and you, ac- cording to your opportunity, should try to do good to a poor neighbor, or at least to speak a good word to en- courage him. Jegus Christ was mild and gentle in all his actions. The thought of this ought to keep down many a rising of angry passion, many a harsh word, many a rash judgment, and make you give up all en- mity. Jesus Christ was humble, and looked up to his Heavenly Father as the author of all good. This should make us put away all pride and contempt of others, and make us acknowledge that there is no good in us which has not been given us by our Creator, who can take it away when he pleases. Jesus was patient, and suffered all kinds of pains and hardships. If we are sick, or pool, or afflicted, let us remember this, and we shall be able to say, as Job did, “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away : blessed be the name of the Lord.” Draw near to God in this way during Lent, and he will draw near to you. Spend even one Lent in this way, and you will be quite sure to spend the next in the same way, and all that come after it. By and by there will be no need of Lent, for you will enjoy a perpetual, never- ending Easter in heaven. Printedfor Price IV o. 30. IS IT HONEST To say that the Catholic Church prohibits the %4se of the Bible— When any body who chooses can buy as many as he likes at any Catholic bookstore, and can see on the first page of any one of them the appro- bation of the Bishops of the Catholic Church, with the Pope at their head, encouraging Catho- lics to read the Bible, in these worcjs : “ The faithful should be excited to the reading of the Holy Scriptures,” and that not only for the Catholics of the United States, but also for those of the whole world besides ? IS IT HONEST To say that Catholics believe that man , by his own power , can forgive sin— When the priest is regarded by the Catholic Church only as the agent of our Lord Jesus Christ, acting by the power delegated to him, ac- cording to tliese words, “ Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them, and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained ?” St.John xx, 23. 2 IS IT HONEST To repeat over and over again that Catholicspay thepriest to pardon their sins— When such a thing is unheard of anywhere in the Catholic Church — When any transaction of the kind is stigma- tized as a grievous sin, and ranked along with murder, adultery, blasphemy, etc., in every cate- chism and work on Catholic theology ? IS IT HONEST To persist in saying that Catholics believe their sins are forgiven , merely by the confession of them to the priest , without a true sorrow for them , or a true purpose to quit them— When every child finds the contrary distinctly and clearly stated in the catechism, which he is obliged to learn before he can be admitted to the sacraments ? Any honest man can verify this statement by examining any Catholic cate- chism. IS IT HONEST To assert that the Catholic Church grants any indulgence or permission to comniit sin— When an “indulgence,” according to her uni- versally received doctrine, was never dreamed 3 of by Catholics to imply, in any case whatever, any permission to commit the least sin; and when an indulgence has no application whatever to sin until after sin has been repented c&f and pardoned ? IS IT HONEST To accuse Catholics ofputting the Blessed Virgin or the Saints in theplace of God or the Lord yesus Christ— When the Council of Trent declares that it is simply useful to ask their intercession in order to obtain favor from God, through his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who alone is our Saviour and Redeemer — When - asking their prayers and influence with God,” is exactly of the same nature as when Christians ask the pious prayers of one another ? IS IT HONEST To accuse Catholics ofpaying divine worship it images or pictures, as the heathen do— When every Catholic indignantly repudiates any idea of the kind, and when the Council of Trent distinctly declares the doctrine of the Catholic Church in regard to them to be, ‘ that 4 there is no divinity or virtue in them which should appear to claim the tribute of one’s ve- neration but that “ all the honor which is paid to therrTshall be referred to the originals whom they are designed to represent?” Sess. 25. IS IT HONEST To make these and many other similar charges against Catholics—o When they detest and abhor such false doc- trines more than those do who make them, and make them, too, without ever having read a Catholic book, or taken any honest means of ascertaining the doctrines which the Catholic Church really teaches ? Remember the commandment of God, which says : “ Thou shalt not bearfalse witness against thy neighbor .” Reader, would you be honest, and do no in- justice? Then examine the doctrines of the Catholic Church; read the works of Catholics. See both sides. Examine, and be fair, for AMERICANS LOVE FAIR PLAY. Tainted for “The CatholicVcblication Society Co. New York. Price r) inieajur a. $3 per 1)000 copi^. \ No. 31. What Does the Bible Say? Does the Bible afford conclusive proof, as many believe, against the doctrines of the Catholic Church ? Catholics say not ; that, on the contrary, they are laid down in the Bible in plain and simple words. Which are right ? Let us be impartial, and examine the principal doctrines of the Catholic Church by the light of the Holy Scriptures. It is denied that our Lord appointed St. Peter to be His vicegerent , and the head of His Church upon earth. Now, on the headship of St. Peter, What Does the Bible Say? “ And when Jesus beheld him, he said : Thou art Simon the son of Jona : thou shalt be called Cephas : which is by interpretation, Peter.” (Rock or stone. See word Peter in Cruden’s (Protestant) Concord- ance.) (St. John i 142.) “ And I say unto thee : Thou art Peter, (Rock,) and upon this Rock I will build my church ; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” (St. Matt. 16:18.) “ And I will give unto thee the keys of the king- dom of heaven ; and whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose upon earth shall be loosed in hea- ven.” (V. 19.) 2 “Jesus said to Simon Peter : Feed my lambs. He said to him again : Feed my lambs. He said to him a third time : Feed my sheep.” (St. John 21 : 15-17.) It is denied that the Church of God is unerring in teach- ing the doctrine of Christ. Now, in regdrd to the Church of God, What Does the Bible Say-? “ Go ye, teach all nations. . . . Teaching them to observe whatsoever I have commanded you ; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world.” (St. Matt. 28 : 19, 20.) “ And he shall give you another Paraclete, that he may abide with you for ever, the Spirit of Truth.” (St. John 14 : 16.) “ But the Paraclete, the Holy Ghost, whom the Fa- ther will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring all things to your mind whatsoever I shall have said to you.” (V. 26.) “ Upon this rock I will build my church, and the GATES OF HELL SHALL NOT PREVAIL AGAINST HER. ’ (St. Matt. 16: 18.) “ He that heareth you, heareth me : and he that despiseth you, despiseth me. And he that despiseth me, despiseth him that sent me.” (St. Luke 10 : 16.) “ The church of the living God, the Pillar and Ground of the truth.” (1 Tim. 3 : 15.) It is said the Holy Sacrament is not the true Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, but only bread and wine. Now, on this print, 3 What Does the Bible Say? “ And the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” (St. John 6 : 51.) “ And Jesus said to them : Verily, verily I say unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.” (St. John 6 : S 3 -) “ Take and eat : this is my Body. Drink ye all of this, for this is my Blood.” (St. Matt. 26 : 26.) “For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eat- eth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discern- ing the Lord’s Body.” (1 Cor. 11 : 29.) It is denied that thepi lest of God has power toforgive sins, though Christ Himself, with impressive cere- monies, gave a solemn commission to His ministers to do this. Now , on this point. What Does the Bible Say? “ And he said to them again : Peace be to you. As the Father hath sent me, I also send you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them : and he said to them : Receive ye the Holy Ghost : Whose SINS YOU SHALL FORGIVE, THEY ARE FORGIVEN THEM .* AND WHOSE SINS YOU SHALL RETAIN, THEY ARE RE- TAINED.” (St. John 20 : 21-23.) Catholics are condemnedfor honoring the Blessed Vir- gin Mary so much. Whether Catholics , or those who condemn them, are right, is decided by asking— 4 What Does the Bible Say? “ And the angel (Gabriel) having come in, said to her : Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Bless- ed art thou among women.” (St. Luke I : 28.) “ And she (Elizabeth) cried out with a loud voice, and said : Blessed art thou among women.” (V. 41*) “ And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me.” (V. 42.) “ And Mary said : For behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.” (V. 48.) “ A woman of the crowd lifted up her voice and said : Blessed is the womb that bore thee, and the paps that gave thee suck.” (St. Luke 11 : 27.) It is considered superstitious and ridiculous to anoint the sick with oil,, as the Catholic Church does . Now, in regard to this matter, What Does the Bible Say? “ Is any man sick among you ? Let him bring in the priests of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord : and the prayer of faith shall save the sick man : and the Lord shall raise him up : and if he be in sins, they shall be forgiven him.” (St. James 5 : 14, I 5 -) Reader, the “ Word of God ” is not to be trifled with. No man can explain it away, or evade the duty of obeying it. Read it, then, in view of this most heavy responsibility, and faithfully follow its teachings if you would save your soul. Print, <1 for “ Thk Catholic PUBLICATION SOCIETY Co..*' A'. W I 'ork. FW « $3 pet' 1.000 copies. Xo. S2, From The Catholic World * THE ROMAN GATHERING. BY W. G. DIX. A % man of many years, without vast temporal resources, de- spoiled of a part of his possessions, having many and vigorous enemies about him, and regarded by many even of those who profess the Christian faith as about to fall from his high place in Christendom, such a man invites his brethren of the apostolical ministry’- throughout the world to honor by their personal pre- sence at Rome the anniversary of the martyrdom, eighteen hun- dred years ago, of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, and to join with him in the exaltation of martyrs who. like them, though in tar distant lands, were “ faithfiil unto death.” Thev respond with eager joy and haste to the call, and those who cannot go send on the wings of the wind their words of loving veneration. To say not a word of the spiritual claims of the man who sent forth the invitation, so eagerly and widely accepted, there is in the fact just stated a glowing evidence that, even in these davs of triumphant and insolent materialism, moral power has not en- tirely lost ascendency. Though millions of knees are bent in honor of the Dagon of materialism, in some one or other of its mynad forms of degrading idolatry, yet millions of hearts also recognize the gift of God as present evermore in his holy church. Never before has the Catholic Church beheld so great'a multi- tude, from so distant places, assembled at her calfat the central city of the faith. , ^ie en ^ ra *es °f catholicity have again and again referred to the great inventions of modern times as sure destrovers of the claims of the Catholic Church and of her hold upon her millions ? laC l t ?f le a ^° ve Article in our columns, though from a non-Catholic sen, h ? WlI‘ h* read wth ,merest b>’ our readers, while it indicates, a: the sameSc'ZvT “ which are becommg more and more prevalent among nota small cass o! m.nds m our country —Editor Catholic World. Q THE ROMAN GATHERING. of members ; but lo ! these very inventions are brought into the service of the church. The printing-press, which was going to annihilate the Catholic Church, has proved one of her most effectual bulwarks ; millions of printed pages inspire the devo- tion of her children, and make known her claims to reading men, until many who were even her enemies and revilers, from igno- rance and prejudice, acknowledge their error, and make haste to cr0 to “ their father’s house.” Steam, in the view of many, was about so to change the structure of society that the old and de- crepit Church of Rome, the great obstacle on the railroad of materialism, was about to be run over and cast to the roadside, a weak and useless wreck ; but lo ! the power of steam enables hundreds and thousands more to go up to the sacred city, as the tribes of Israel were wont to visit Jerusalem, than could other- wise attend the festivals of the faith in St. Peter’s Church. Of the manifold uses of steam, a large proportion is in the service of catholic truth. And then the telegraph ; that, surely, was to show an advanced state of civilization which could ngt tolerate the slow and ancient ways of catholicity ; but lo ! here, again, the event has contradicted the prophecy ; for, by means of the tele- graph, the assemblage of the vast host at Rome was known throughout the world on the very day of its occurrence ; and al- most literally, in all parts of Christendom, thousands of devout worshippers could turn their faces reverently toward the altar of God in Rome at the very instant when those in its immediate presence were bending before it, and could join in the same prayers and anthems, as though the world itself were one vast St. Peter’s Church, and the strains of penitence and hymns of jov could reverberate across oceans and mountains, among dis- tant nations and islands of the sea, as among the corridors and arches of one great temple sacred to the triune God. As in these, instances, so in many others, the church has ex- tended her sway and deepened her power by the very forces which many supposed would work her ruin. The history ol the church has shown in the domain of natural science, so often ap- plied in the service of infidelity and disorder, as in the field of human passion, that God will make the wrath of man to praise him, and turn weapons designed to attack his holy church into her consecrated armor of defence. The grace of God so over- rules the inventions of man and the powers of nature, that even the terrible lightning becomes the vivid messenger to convey to the ends of the earth the benediction of the Vicar of Christ. THE ROHAN GATHERING. 3 What is the chief lesson of the recent gathering at Rome ? It is this, that the church of God, so often, in the view of her ene- mies, destroyed, will not stay destroyed; that after every “de- struction” she renews her invincible youth, and rises to pursue her career of conquest over sin, prejudice, and wrong ; that though she may bend awhile to the storm that beats upon her sacred head, she has never been wholly overcome ; that, not- withstanding all that mortal enmity, defection, outrage, have done or can do, she yet lifts her forehead to the sky to be anew baptized with light from the sun of truth above ; and, strong in the faith and promise of the Eternal God, she falters not in her endeavors, patient and persistent, to subdue the world to Christ The history of the Catholic Church abounds with instances hke the Roman gathering in June, which prove that her hours of affliction are those very ones when her faithful children gather to her side, to assure her of their prayers and support, and to decern upon her saintly face those “ smiles through tears ” which, in times of trial, are the warmest and most touching ac- knowledgments of filial veneration. The commemorative assemblage at the capital of Christendom signifies that the church of God is indestructible by any forces that earth or hell, singly or united, can bring against her. She may be at times like the bird in the snare of the fowler ;'but she is sure of being released at length, and then she plumes her wings afresh, and soars heavenward, filling the air with the di- vine, exultant music of her voice. The powerful of the earth have sometimes loaded the church with fetters ; but by the strength of Christ that dwells evermore in her, she has broken the bonds asunder, or, by his transforming grace, they have be- come the wreaths and garlands of new victory, even as the cross of humiliation has become, by the sacrifice of our Lord, the em- blem of unfading glory. The church of Christ, bearing on her brow his holy seal, and m her hands his gifts of power, knelt in sorrow at his grave ; but s e ai ed his resurrection with joy, and was endowed anew with treasures of immortal life. Afterward, the might of heathendom arose against her, and she descended from the wrath of man into the catacombs ; but she reascended, to wear upon her brow the diadem of a spiritual empire that shall never fall until the ele- ments shall melt with fervent heat ; and even then, true to all her history in deriving new glory from every apparent defeat, she will rise again from the great grave of nature to enjoy for 4 THE ROMAN GATHERING. ever the vision of God. Kings of the earth have denied her right to invest the pastors of her children with their due prerogatives, and have even dared her to mortal combat ; but though distress- ed and thwarted, she has never relinquished her inherent rights, and she never will. As many times as the head of the church on earth has been driven from Rome by armed, ungrateful vio- lence, so many times exactly has he been welcomed back with tears of penitence and shouts of rapture. Despoiled of treasure committed to her care by faithful stew- ards of God’s bountv, she has labored with her own hands to feed her needy children. At one time, persecuted in the wilder- ness, she has found a refuge and a welcome in the courts ot princes ; at another, driven from the courts of princes, because she would not deny her Lord or her divine commission, she has found a humble sanctuary in the wilderness, and knelt upon the bare earth to adore the Lord of life and light, once the child in the manger, and to invoke all the saints in glory to plead her cause in^the ear of infinite justice and goodness. She has spurned the anointed king from the temple of God, until he repented of his crime ; and on the head ot the lowly monk who was spending his days in labor and prayer, she has placed the triple crown. With one hand she has bathed with ‘‘baptismal dew” the brow of the day-laborer’s child, while the other she has raised in defiance of imperial might, which dared to assail her holy altar. One of the most violent objections to the Catholic Church has been urged for the very reason that she has so faithfully held the balance between the contending forces of society. She has been accused of favoring the claims of absolutism or popular demands, as the triumph of either at die time would favor her own ends, irrespective of right. The charge is unjust, is urged by many who know better, yet it springs from an honest misap- prehension in many minds. It would have been utterly impos- sible for an institution, designed to enlighten and guide man- kind in its higher relations, not to touch human interests ot every kind, and human institutions generally in many ways ; vet the challenge may safely be given to any thoughtful student of history, to acknowledge with candor, whatever may be his ec- clesiastical position, that the Catholic Church, having often been chosen to be, and having an inherent right to be, the umpire between the rights of authority and the rights of individuals, has faithfully labored to sustain lawful authority when assailed by THE ROMAN GATHERING. 5 the wild fury of misguided multitudes, and that she has inter- posed her powerful shield, often with the most triumphant suc- cess, to protect men whose rights as men were assailed by authority changed by ambition into arrogant and exacting tyran- ny. What inconsistency and insincerity have been charged against the Catholic Church for this remarkable and noble fact in her history ! In this respect the Catholic Church has followed strictly in the steps of her Divine Author, who, when on earth, invariably upheld the rights of authority, while vehemently de- nouncing those who unjustly exercised it ; and, while going about doing good, the friend of the friendless and the helper of the helpless, pleading with divine eloquence, and laboring with divine power for the outcast and the poor, never and nowhere sanctioned the spirit of insurrection, but enjoined obedience as one of the main duties of life. Hence, it has come about, by one of those sublime mysteries which prove the divine origin of Christianity, that the greatest revolution which has ever taken place in religious belief and in civil society in all their bearings, has been effected by the teachings, by the life and death of o*ne who by no word or deed ever assailed authority itself or incited resistance to it. Beaut}" and order being the same thing, and religious truth being the beauty of holiness, Christ, who was truth in person, must have made his church the friend and upholder of all beauty and order ; and so it has proved for eighteen hundred years. The church has been the celestial crucible in which whatever of human art or invention had within it the essential attributes of higher and spiritual goodness has been purified and adapted to the service of religion. Has poetry sought to please the ima- ginations of men ? the church of Christ unfolded before her the annals of Christianity, with her grand central sacrifice of infinite love, and all her demonstrations of heroic suffering and cou- rageous faith ; and poetry drew holier inspirations from the view, and incited men by higher motives to a higher life. Have paint- ing and sculpture sought to represent objects of refining grace and sublimity ? the church cf Christ persuaded them to look into the records of the Christian past, and there they found trea- sures of beauty and splendor, devotion and martyrdom, whose wealth of illustration as examples, incentives, and memorials, art has not exhausted for centuries, and will never exhaust! Christian history is the inexhaustible quarry of whatever is most noble and heroic in man, purified by the grace of God. Has 6 THE ROMAN GATHERING. architecture sought to invest stone with the attributes of spirit ual and intellectual grace ? the church of God has so portrayed before her the sublimities of the Christian faith, that she knelt at her feet in veneration, and thenceforth consecrated herself to build enduring structures, which, the more they show of human power and skill, the more they persuade men to the worship of God. Has eloquence sought to nerve men for the grand con- flicts of life ? the church of Christ has touched the lips of elo- quence with living fire from her altar, until have sprung forth words that flamed with love to man and love to God. Has mu- sic sought to weave her entrancing spells around the ear and heart and soul ? the church of Christ has breathed into music her own divine being, until the music of the church seems like beatific worship, and worship on earth like beatific music. As in these respects, so in others, the church has made a holy conquest of whatever is noblest among the endowments of men. In speaking of Catholic history, even from the secular point of view, it may be justly said, that nowhere else has there been such wonderful discernment of the various capacities of the human mind, and of their various adaptations. Tenacious of the truth and of all its prerogatives, the Catholic Church has, nevertheless, allowed a wide liberty of thought. That the Catholic Church has narrowed the understandings of men, is a singular charge to make in the face of the schools of Catholic philosophy, in which men of varying mental structure, training, ^ or habits of thought, have had full, free play of their faculties. And where else have there been so many free and varying ac- tivities as in the Catholic Church ? The false charge that the church fetters the minds and movements of men, may be traced to the fact that all Catholic diversities of thought have converg- ed, like different rays of light, in the elucidation of truth, and that varying modes of Catholic action have had one object—the advancement of truth. Here is the intended force of all these illustrations, for they have had a logical purpose. The world will never outgrow the church. All the boasted improvements in science, in art, in civilization, so far from impeding the church of Christ, and mak- ing her existence no longer needed, will, at the same time, advance her power, and make her more needed than ever. If in the middle ages, when society was in the process of transition from the old to the new, the church was pre-eminently needed to keep what was just and right and true in the older forms of THE ROMAN GATHERING. 7 civilization, and gradually to adapt to them what was just and right and true in the newer developments of society, most truly is the church needed now, when there exists a perfect chaos of opinions, and when a part of the civilized world is in another transition, from the aimless, rudderless vagaries of Protestantism to the solid rock of Catholicity. If ever the voice of authority was needed, like the voice of the angel of God, heard amid and above the howlmgs of the storm, it is needed now. Much false reasoning has been uttered about the “unchange- able church,” as though, because “ unchangeable,” it was not adapted to a changing and striving world, when, in truth, for the very reason that the church of Christ is unchangeably true she is required and adapted for all the changes and emergencies of time. Who ever heard a sailor complain of the mariner’s com- pass, because, on account of its unchangeable obstinacy it would not conform to his private judgments and caprices about the right course? No one. It is for the very reason that the mariner’s compass is unchangeably true to the eternal law of magnetic attraction, under all circumstances and in all places that it is the unerring guide among the whirlwinds and heaving o the great deep. Catholicity is the mariner’s compass upon a greater deep—even that of the wild and rolling, beating ocean of humanity, pointing, amid sunny calms, or gentle winds, or racing- gales, unerringly to the cross of Jesus Christ, as the needl? of the mariner s compass points to the north—guiding, age after age, the precious freights of immortal souls to the harbor of infi- nite and unending joy. The force of this illustration is all the stronger that the mari- ner s compass is a human adaptation of an immutable law of na- ture to navigation, while the church of the living God is divine alike in origin and application, and has existed from the begin- ning, unchangeable, like God himself, yet adapting herself to & the wants of every age. The church of God is like his own infinite providence, in which unchangeable truth meets in the harmony ot mercy the innumerable changes of human need. Much has been written and more said about “the church of the future, as though it were to be some millennial manifesta- tion altogether different from the historic church; but the Ch Ur °u f the future > whlch is not also the church of the past and of the present, can be no church ; for a true church must reach to the ages back as well as to those before. If the conti- nuity is broken, truth is broken, and cannot be restored As for eighteen centuries there have been no forms of civil societv no calms or tempests in the moral, political, social, or religious world, in which the Cathonc Church has not been true to the organic principles of her divine life, even the enemy of catholici- ty should admit—that fact being granted—that the presumption is on her side that she will be equally true to those principles during the centuries that are to come. He may deny that the 8 THE ROMAN GATHERING. Uliiliiii past, present, an ^f t0 “7 atholiC Church, from her beginning to rrSSHHSss— 1 stsa for the quality of continual existence, has so good ? ( ? onsider .. llgiiSH. EfllSfilgl reacheXan'end^f hfa panderings and a solution of his doubts Tl« Cadrolic'chulcS^o' ^requeX and unjustly denounced as ,« -n i .he: past ; ^-fore: £"wto e e sWes haVe no’t 6 at one time or another sent iss^^-Isls u]h C U«rature. a He^d^T^m^ drum-beat, following the romax gathering. the sun, and keeping company with the hours, circles the earth daily with one unbroken strain of the martial airs of England.” That grand figure of speech may be applied to the extent of the Catholic Church. Yet it is not by martial airs, but by hymns of praise and penitential orisons and the continuous sacrifice that the Catholic Church daily celebrates, “ from the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same,” the triumphant march of the Prince ot Peace. How like “the sound of many waters ” roll hourly heavenward the anthems of catholic worship throughout the world ! Not only is every moment of every day consecrated by catholic hymns sung somewhere on earth'; but how majes- tically roll down through eighteen hundred years the unbroken anthems of catholic devotion ! Minute after minute, hour after hour, day after day, night after night, month after month, year after year, century after century, the holy strains go on unend- ing. To the mind’s ear seem blended in one almost overpower- ing flood of holy harmony the unnumbered voices which have sounded from the very hour when the shepherds of Bethlehem heard the angelic song to this very moment, when, somewhere, catholic voices are chanting praise to the Lord and Saviour of men. And, in this view, how literally has been fulfilled that consol- ing prophecy, “ Henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.” Wherever the Divine Son has been duly honored, there also she, who was remembered with filial love even amid his dying ago- nies for a world’s salvation, has been remembered and called blessed ; called blessed from that lowly home and from that mount of sorrow in the distant east, in millions of lowly homes, and under the shadow of mountains to the farthest west ; called blessed by millions of loving and imploring voices through all the ages since ; called blessed in all the languages that have been spoken since that time in all the world ; called blessed in the rudest forms of human speech and in the most ecstatic music of voice and skill ; called blessed by the lips of the little child that can hardly speak the name of mother, and by the lips that trem- ble with age and sorrow ; called blessed by the sailor on the deep, by the ploughman on the land, by the scholar at his books, by the soldier drawing his sword for right upon the battle-field ; called blessed by the voices of peasant-girls singing in sunny vineyards, and by the voices of those from whose brows have flashed the gems of royal diadems ; called blessed in cottages and palaces, at wayside shrines, and under the golden roofs of grand cathedrals ; called blessed in the hour of joy and in the hour of anguish—in the strength and beauty of life, and at the gates of death. How long, how ardently, how faithfully has all this loving honor been paid for so many generations, and will continue to be paid for all generations to come, to that sorrow- ing yet benignant one, who bore him who bore our woe ! The recent gathering at Rome indicates that there is no de- 10 THE ROHAN GATHERING. mand which civilization can rightfully make of ‘he Christian Church which she will not eagerly, fully, and faithfully meet- The largest assemblage of professed ministers of Christ which this age has known—leaving here out of view the claims of the Catholic Church to an apostolical priesthood—has been held in Rome by the church so extensively proclaimed and derided as being behind the age. If there is life deep, ^1, Pervading hfe anywhere on earth, it is in the Catholic Church and in all her movements. She will continue to draw to herself al the quali- ties and capacities of life which are in harmony with her spirit ; and this'accumulated spiritual force wil constantly^^ken the barriers that divide her from the sympathies of a laige part Qt Christendom, until at length she will be acknowledged by all as the only living and true church of Christ. “ The restoration of the unity of the church lias been the subiect of many thoughts, of many words, of earnest and devout prayer, of much and noble effort, and, when understood as; refer- ring to the reconciliation of those who have left ‘he Catholic Church, or who are now out of it because their fatheis left it, the phrase may pass without objection; but the phrase is gieatly obiect1onab y ie! even to the extent of expressing an untru h, when it is used to convey the idea that the unity of the gurch h^ ever been broken. This has not been, and could not be. The church, intended to be one, and to endure until the end of time, could not, in its organic structure, be really broken at any Pet'°d of its history, without destroying its title as the one . c ^ urc b°/pnS^ok Individuals, communities, even nations, as such, have been brok- en off from it ; but the essential church herself has remained one and unbroken through all vicissitudes The theory that the Church of Rome, the Greek Church, and the Church of England are equal and co-ordinate branches of the one church of Christ has no foundation as a historical fact, and is as destructive of all true ideas of the unity of the church as the wildest vagaries of Protestantism. Is there on earth an institution which schism, heresy, and political ambition have tried to destroy and have tried m vain? There is; it is the Catholic. Church. Is there 5 in institution on earth which, leaving out of regard all its claims, has had the quality of historical continuity for eighteen centu- ries ? There is ; it is the Catholic Church. The charge, if not of bigotry, yet of most u ^ reas0 J ial”e .^ r ,?‘ gance, has been more or less directly made against the Catholic Church, because she has not received overtures of reconciliation from enthusiastic and earnest individuals claiming to represent national churches, as cordially as was expected. But how can she accept, or even consider, any such overtures, proceeding as they do from the assumption of equal position and authority, without disowning herself, without denying even those chims and prerogatives, the existence of which alone makes union with iier desirable ? If there is no institution on earth which has a THE ROMAX GATHERING. 11 valid title to be the continuous church of Christ, all efforts will be vain to supply the gap of centuries by an establishment now. A union of churches will not satisfy the design or promise of our Lord, when he founded the unity of his church. If the Christian church has really been broken into pieces, it will be in vain to gather up the fragments ; for, on that supposition, the di- vine principle has long since departed, and the gates of hell have prevailed. Those men of strong Catholic predilections, who, nevertheless, have clung to the theory that the church of Christ has been really broken, and must be repaired by management, will yet thank God from their inmost souls for the immovable firmness with which that theory has been denied at Rome. The Catholic Church has never condemned a heresy more /alse or destructive than the proposition that she is herself but one of the divisions of the Christian church, having no authority to speak or to rule in the name of her Lord. To deny that the one church of Christ is now existing, and that she has existed for ages, is to deny not merely a fact in history, but it is to deny the word of our Lord ; and to do that, is to deny alike his holi- ness and his divinity. How can the Catholic Church treat with those who wish to make terms before submitting to her authori- ty, on the basis of a positive untruth ? Catholicitv is not an in- heritance, to be divided among many claimants, no one of whom has any right to be or to be regarded as the sole heir of the homestead ; but it is an estate left by the divine Lord of the manor, in charge of the Prince of the Apostles and his success- ors, on the express injunction that it is to be kept one and.undi- vided, in trust for the benefit of the faithful for all time. The estate has been kept one and undivided, according to the title- K injunction has never been broken ; notwithstanding all defections from the household, the homestead of the Christ ban world remains in the hands of the same faithful succession to which it was committed'by our Lord himself. May God grant that all the younger sons who have gone astray, may return with penitential alacrity to their Father’s house ! The Catholic Church will not stop in her progress, until she has converted the world to Christ ; but she has not denied and will nocdeny, her sacred trust and prerogative of catho- licity for the sake even of adding whole nations to her fold YV hoever enters her fold must admit by that act her claim to be the one undivided, indivisible Church of Christ. There can be no branches of the Catholic Church ” which are not directly joined to the root and trunk of catholicity. A severed branch is no branch. It is. not the fault of the Catholic Church that multitudes “who profess and call themselves Christians ” are not members of her communion. She affords the very largest liberty for individual or associated action that can be yielded without denying her faith or her commission. The highest poetry and the severest 12 THE ROMAN GATHERING. lnoir mav Uneel in brotherly harmony at her altar Gifts and fomrparts'rchriste^mm which a?e broken into litfle inde- tfSL d^” a the^a"piring tokens ISlBtlil! PSBS18S centuHe^of separation'from tht source of all they have that has S£liiSn?5i^S own will. She has.never Am 1 d > ^ , being that she the very necessity “ we as the rea dj inution and this S !' h do lfthe g “ "ater0f hen ” cSnnot prevail against the she will do. It t e ^ , <- n mortai might. The sun thTchurch^ 1 sSah be extended in benignant power over an obe- dient and rejoicing world ! The CathoucPvbi.ic.vi ioh i otm Co..” ® 1 " ; Pnnuajoi $y ptr i,oou copter. Mce fto. 33, THE RELIGION I WANT. " I want a religion that makes the people happy who possess it.” Then I would advise you to join the Catholic Church. ‘ I want a religion which will make me feel so sure of its truth that it would be a sin to doubt it.” Then you must join the Catholic Church. “ I want a religion which teaches that God will reward a man according to his works, and not condemn him for what is not his own fault.” Then you want the religion of the Catholic Church. “ I want a religion which teaches that God is good and kind to all his creatures, that he has called all men to sal- vation, and thus leaves no man to despair.” Then you had better join the Catholic Church. 2 The Religion I Want. “ i want a religion that is equally acceptable to rich and poor, to high and low, to the master and the servant, to the king and the peasant. Then, of course, you want the religion of the Catholic Church. “ i want a religion that makes children members of the fold of Christ, and treats them as such.” You will find such a religion in the Catholic Church. “ I want a religion that does not teach one day what it will probably deny the next.” Such a religion can only be had in the Catholic Church. « I Want a religion that will permit me to hold commu- nion with my dear departed relatives and friends. Your want will be satisfied when you join the Catholic Church. ' “ I want a religion that will give me a plain and reason- able way of obtaining pardon for my sins, and show me how I can obtain a sure absolution.” Such a plain and reasonable way is known to all those who belong to the Catholic Church. “ I want the same religion the twelve apostles had. That is the religion of the Catholic Church. The Religion I Want. 3 “ 1 want the same religion that the hundreds of thousands of martyrs believed in who were slain for the faith of Christ during the great persecutions of the Roman emperors.” That is also the religion of the Catholic Church. I want the same religion which St. Augustine preached in England, St. Boniface in Germany, St. Martin in France, St. Patrick in Ireland, St. Francis Xavier in Japan, and to which these apostolic men converted all those peoples from paganism.” That is also the religion of the Catholic Church. I want a religion that can make Sisters of Charity and such others like them, who leave all for Christ to give com- fort to the wretched, the poor, and the sinful.” The religion of all such is the religion of the Catholic Church. “I want a religion whose priests love nobody better than they do me.” The priests of such a religion are all priests of the Catholic Church. “ 1 want a reIiSion whose priests are not afraid to come and give me its consolations if I should happen to have the small-pox, or the yellow fever, or the cholera, or any such contagious disease.” Then you want the ministrations of the priests of the Catholic Church. 4 The Religion I Want. “ I want a religion whose priests preach the Gospel and not politics.” Then go to the Catholic Church. “ I want a religion that is a religion for all nations,, and for all time, even unto the consummation, of the world.” When your want is realized, you will call yourself a member of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. “ I want a religion that both Protestants and Catholics agree to be a safe religion, in which I can save my soul.” Then, my dear friend, you have no choice but to become a Catholic. All these wants the Catholic Church alone can satisfy. Go and examine for yourself. Any Catholic priest will gladly give you the proofs of the truth of what I say. catholic Publication S9 ciett Co.,” New York. 1HE covm. Price Printedfor No. 34. HOW TO HAVE A HAPPY CHRISTMAS. “ Happy Christmas to you, friend Moreton !” cheerily exclaimed Mr. McWorthy, overtaking his friend, and slapping him on the shoulder with the familiarity of old acquaintance. “ Good-morning, Mac,” replied Mr. Moreton, grasping the proffered hand. “ You look as if it was ‘happy Christmas’ sure enough with you, at any rate.” And so he did, for his face was all lit up with a ruddy glow, which showed how blithely his blood was bounding under the influence of his active morning walk, and of the dry, cold December wind that was whistling along the snowy pavements, while every feature wTas radiant with a smile of exuberant contentment and good humor. “ To be sure it is happy Christmas with me,” said he, ' taking his friend by the arm and hurrying him into a quicker step, “ and I’d like to know^ what else it should be with any man? Isn’t it happy Christmas with you, old friend ?” “ Well, no, Mac, I can’t exactly say it is,” replied Mr. Moreton. And then, as if anxious to evade the subject : “ But where are you coming from, so early in the morn- ing ?” “Why, I’ve just been to early Mass and received my Christmas communion, and now I’m hurrying home to breakfast. And where are you going, if it is a fair ques- tion ?” “Well, I thought I’d step down to the store a minute. I had to leave rather early, yesterday evening, and I want to see whether anxiety to get to their Christmas jollifications hasn’t made my scatter-brained clerks neglect a matter of importance that I told them to attend to.” “ Going to the store on Christmas morning !” exclaimed Mr. Mac. “ Who ever heard of such a thing ! Now, look here, my dear Moreton, do let me use the privilege of an old friend, and ask you what you meant when you said just now that Christmas wasnT exactly happy Christmas with you.” 2 How to have a Happy Christmas . “ Well, no, Mac,” he replied, “it isn’t. To tell you the truth, Christmas day always gives me the blues. \ou needn’t look so astonished—it is a fact ; and I’ll tell you why. Of course, there was a time when I looked on Christ- mas day as most other people seem to do. When I was a little fellow, I suppose I used to dream about it for weeks ahead, with its glorious visions of sweet things, and toys, and fire-crackers-the Fourth of July wasn’t a circumstance to it. Then, when I grew up, its social gatherings and home enjoyments made it a day of real happiness to me. But, as I became older, the sugar-coating wore off; and now the whole thing seems so empty, and I can feel so little sympathy with all this bustle of enjoyment, that positively it gives me the blues to have to see it. There at home, now, I’ve just left my family in the height of their Christ- mas merriment. I didn’t wish to throw a cloud over it with my gloomy face ; and, to tell you the truth, that is more than half the reason why I started out for my count- ing-room. May be I’ve grown too cynical ; but I can’t help it. It’s just as I’ve told you.” And he struck his walking- stick heavily on the sidewalk three or four times, as if he would gladly pound to death the mirthfulness that annoyed him. “ Why, my dear Moreton !” exclaimed Mr. Mac, you do indeed astonish me, and pain me too. This is so unlike what I should expect to hear from my dear friend on Christ- mas morning! There must be a screw loose somewhere. Surely this sweetest festival of the ySar ought to be enough to gladden any heart that has a spark of religion in it. Why, man alive ! just to think that it is our blessed Sa- viour’s birthday—and to hear the big-toned church-bells telling us so—and to listen to the organ at early Mass pealing forth the Gloria in Excelsis, which the angels sang on Christmas morning—and to hear the priest repeating to us their joyous salutation : ‘ Behold, I bring you glad tid- ings of great joy, which shall be to all the people, for this day is born to you a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord. I ask you, is not this enough to thaw out any heart that is not ice itself?” . . “ Surely, Mac, it ought to bq, and I wish it could thaw mine ; but it don’t.” 3 flow to have a Happy Christmas. “ Have you ever given it a chance i” “ ^e *‘> probably not as fair a one as I ought. To be candid with you, Mac, there is the whole trouble ; my reli- gion has always been more in my /Wthan in my heart I have always been ready to defend my faith, but remiss in practising the religious duties it enjoins ; and, of course not practising its duties, I have not been animated with its spirit, and so its festivals find my poor heart in no condi- tion to share in their sanctifying and consoling influences. I see it all clearly enough ; but how can it be otherwise with all the business worry and family cares that I have to engross my thoughts > ' And now, while we are on the sub- ject, let me ask you plainly, Mac, how you, having similar cares to engage you, have still managed to keep up the good spirit so well.” 1 P “Well now, friend Moreton,” said he, “I don’t wish to seem as though I were preaching you a sehnon ; but as youve asked a plain question, I’ll try to give you a plain answer 1 didn’t begin life with the principle that my worldly duties must necessarily interfere with my religious duties, and I have never found it necessary to adopt it. I started with two good resolutions : first, that, as I am God’s creature, and not my own nor the world’s, my duties to God should always go before every other consideration ; sec- ondly, that, as an absolutely necessary means of keeping this resolution, I would always be faithful to my religion and regular in receiving the sacraments. I’ve always tried' to stick to them. Of course, I have all along found plenty of obstacles, and many a time, when the day would come for receiving the sacraments, some other attraction, or an annoyance or care of some kind, would come athwart my good resolution to throw me off the track ; but I had de- termined that my duties to God must go first, and, thanks pe to God, I have found that, ‘ where there’s a will, there’s a way.’ So I go on quietly, and I must say I don’t find it very hard. In fact, friend Moreton, I can’t help feeling certain that any man can manage to live up to his religion If he only tries in earnest, and that, if he does, he will need no stretch of imagination or enthusiasm to taste the sweet- ness of religion, to enter with gusto into the spirit of its fes- tivals, and so, when Christmas morning comes round, to feel 4 How to have a Happy Christmas. that it is happy Christmas in earnest. Eh ! friend Moreton, now don’t you believe so yourself?” “ Ah you rogue !” he replied laughingly. “ You want to catch me, and make me condemn myself! Still, I suppose I must own up, and say yes. But let me ask you to make me understand a little better than I do now the meaning of that expression you use, ‘ the spirit of the festivals.’ I must acknowledge my notions are more indistinct than they oug rt to be about such things. And then you’ll tell me what the spirit of Christmas is.” “ Why,” said Mr. Mac, hardly able to conceal his aston- ishment ’at his friend’s unusual interest in such a subject, and barely managing to overcome the embarrassment which he could not help feeling at finding himself moraliz- ing so seriously. “ Why, it means simply this : Every fes- tival comes to teach us a particular lesson, brings with it a special grace to help us to learn and profit by that lesson, and has attached to it a special blessing from Almighty God for those who shall have tried to do so. This is what is meant by the spirit of a festival. Then, to look forward to a coming festival as being m this way a season of instruction and grace, to endeavor to attune one s soul to the lesson it comes to teach, and to pray for the grace it brings that we may benefit by its influence—this, you see, is what is meant by entering into the spirit of the festivals. So they pass by, and pass again, year after year, benefiting every soul that cares to be benefited by them, and . leaving a new blessing from Almighty God with every soul that is willing to receive it.” « Come now, Mac !” interrupted Mr. Moreton, with as matter-of-fact an air as he could assume. “ That is all very nice ; but don’t you think there is more fancy than reality in it ?” _ _ _ T “ No, I don’t, you provoking fellow !” retorted Mr. Mac, “ and i’ know you don’t, either. You know just as well as I do that our blessed Lord intended his life to be oui model, as he says himself, ‘ I have given you an example, that as I have done you also may do.’ You know, without my tell- ing you, that every mystery of his life is full of instruction for us, and must bring grace to help us to profit by it, and that it is according to the guidance of the Spirit of God How to have a Happy Christmas. 5 that the church brings these mysteries before us in the various festivals of the year. I’m sure } rou are not a deist, and if you are not, you must know that all this is true. Eh ! old fellow, what have you to say for yourself?” “ Well, well,” he replied, with pretended pettishness, “ I suppose I must let you have your own way about it. But go on, and let us hear about the spirit of Christmas.” “That is easily understood,” said Mr. Mac, resuming the line of thought which his friend’s pretended incredulity had interrupted. “ The spirit of Christmas flows from the lesson taught us by our infant Saviour in his birth. To know what the lesson is, I have only to take a little peep into the poor stable of Bethlehem, and every feature of the scene speaks it loudly enough. Whew !” he exclaimed, as the wintry blast came rushing down the street they were just then crossing, “how the wind is sporting itself, this morning ! I wonder if it blew so cold and fierce around, the poor stable on that first Christmas night. Ah ! yes,” he continued, with real emotion, “ I’ve no doubt it did; for our good, kind Lord was pleased always to take the worst and bitterest for his portion. Yes, as I was saying, every circumstance of our Saviour’s birth 'teaches me a lesson. The poor stable itself, so strange a palace for the King of kings ; the manger with its bed of straw, and its little Baby occupant, wrapped in swaddling-clothes, and weeping the tears of infantile weakness ; the poor young mother, bend- ing over her Babe to screen him from the blast, and min- gling her tears with his ; good, simple-hearted St. Joseph, and the lowly shepherds, kneeling or standing around in wondering awe—all these are like so many great voices that speak to me of humility and self-denial, and detachment of heart from the world’s goods, warning me at the same time how important must be the lesson which the Son of God has taken such pains to teach us, and coaxing me to the love of the good God who has loved his poor creatures with so touchingly tender a love. Friend Moreton, when I think of all this, I could not, if I would, resist its influ- ence. For the life of me, I couldn’t help taking the lesson to myself, and trying in my own poor way to put it in prac- tice ; and, small though the result may be, yet the mere effort makes me feel like a better and happier man. The 6 How to have a Happy Christmas. effort to imitate our Saviour s humility gives me more peace of mind, by helping me to be tranquil and cheerful under things that would otherwise torture my wounded pride ; and, far from depressing me, makes me stronger and more resolute, by causing me to lean more on God’s strength and less on my own weakness. The effort at detachment from the world’s goods gives me a more confident trust in divine Providence, enables me to look with comparative calmness on reverses which would otherwise worry me to death, and gives a real stimulus to my industry, by making me esteem money not for its own sake, but for the sake of the good I can do with it ; not as a means for my own sel- fish aggrandizement, but as a treasure which Providence puts in my hands, that I may use it for the good ends which Providence sends in my way, and as enabling me to prove the sincerity of my compassion for our infant Sa- viour’s poverty, by relieving the poor whom he has declared to be his representatives. Then, too, when I try to animate all that with love for our loving God, I can’t tell you the buoyancy and freedom of spirit it gives me. My Christmas communion, which I would not miss for the world, becomes a real feast with our infant Saviour himself; and when I leave the church, I feel as if I did indeed carry with me a blessing from his own and his Mother’s hand. How in the world, then, could I feel otherwise than happy on Christmas morning ? But, gracious me !” he exclaimed, remarking in his friend’s pensive air and softened features the effect which the simple eloquence of his own warm feelings had produced, “ see how I’ve been running on, preaching away at you, and ‘ blowing my own horn ’ too ! Friend Moreton, forgive my thoughtlessness !” “ God bless you for it, my dear Mac !” replied Mr. More- ton with genuine feeling. “ God knows it would be well for me if I heard more and thought more of the same kind. If I did, I shouldn’t feel as I felt this morning. But may be it isn’t too late yet.” “ Too late ! My dear Mr. Moreton, it is never too late for such a heart and such a will as yours. Just try it, and I m sure, when this day next year comes round, you won’t feel like growling at your old friend for wishing you a happy Christmas.” 7 How to have a Happy Christmas Taking his friend’s hand for a parting shake—for they had reached the corner where Mr. Mac turned off to his home—and looking full in his face, he thought he saw something like tell-tale moisture glistening in his eyes. Glad to escape further risk of his own emotions, with a Squeeze of the hand that spoke more than volumes he darted round the corner, and in a few moments was in the bosom of his family, spreading around him the same happi- ness whose seeds he had just planted in his friend’s heart. Mr. Moreton, meanwhile, continued his walk. He looked thoughtful and abstracted. Every now and then he punched the snow-heaps with his stick, as if angry at the emotion caused in him by the conversation, and anxious to get rid of it. But he could not shake it off. He thought he would not go to the store this morning after all. Turning another way, he soon found himself amid a stream of persons all going in one direction. Almost unconsciously he followed the tide, and, in a minute more, found himself in St. Patrick’s church, where second Mass was just beginning. Drop- ping mechanically into the nearest pew, he knelt motionless • but his brain was working hard and fast. The Mass went on, but he felt as if in a maze. He had a vague conscious- ness of rising to his feet with the rest of the congregation at the Gospel , and then of hearing the priest saying something that sounded very much like what Mac had just been saying, and the thoughts crowded faster still The Offertory began, and from the transept-gallery the sweet voices of more than a hundred orphan-girls floated out in the touching strains of the Adeste Fideles. He could stand it no longer; he broke right down, and, after a convulsive quiver or two through his strong frame, wept the first genu- me tears that his eyes had known for many a day. he little bell in the sanctuary tinkled at the Sanctus, and then at the Consecration, and again at the Domine, non sum dignus , and then there was a movement among the Zr gatl °tr." him - Lifti"S hi * f-e from hishands, in which it had been buried, he saw the crowds advancing to the communion-rail. He felt very lonely wo T CaSt ThCn and thGre he ^solved that heuould be ready to receive holy communion on the follow- ing bunoay , and the resolution made him calmer. 8 How to have a Happy Christmas . Mass was over. The congregation dispersed, save those remaining for their thanksgiving after communion ; and still he was on his knees, his lips saying nothing, but his heart - a great deal. At length he arose. As he passed out, he saw apoor woman kneeling near the door, an infant in her arms, and shivering with the cold that crept through her scanty clothing. He thought of the Mother and Child shivering in the stable. He slipped a dollar into her hand . “ Here ; buy something for your Christmas dinner, and left her wondering at the unusually large alms. The out- side air felt bracing. Passing his hand across his forehead two or three times, he set his hat firmly on his head, and started homeward. * Things wore a new face that day. Somehow or other, the noisy merriment on the streets did not annoy him as it used to; the young ’folks at home remarked how much more pleasant than usual pa was ; Mrs. Moreton wondere what good news he could have heard upon the street ; he went with them all to High Mass and Vespers ; at the dinner- table he was the life of the party ; and when he lay down that night, with the events of the morning still fresh in 11s mind, he felt that he had at last learned how to have a happy Christmas. „ . , He kept his resolution. The following Sunday he re- ceived holy communion. The two friends met frequently, feeling more friends than ever, and often reverting with arateful pleasantry to “that Christmas morning walk. Twelve months passed, and Mr. Moreton received his Christmas communion kneeling at friend Mac s side. He never let the ice grow over his heart again. Kind reader, do you use the same irieans that good Mr. Mac did to make Christmas happy ? If not, the lesson conveyed by his simple words is as needful for you as it was. for his old friend. Learn the lesson as well as Mr. More- ton did, and you will have learned sufficiently how to have a happy Christmas. Printedfor . t„k Catholic Publication Society Co.,” New York. $0 per 1,000 copies. Xo. 83. PROGRESS AND THE POPE’S ENCYCLICAL. Prot. “Well, my friend, what do you think of yourself now ? Have you seen the letter of your Pope Pius IX., in which he condemns ‘progress, liberalism, and modern civil i- zation ?’ ” Cath. “ No ! I have seen no such letter, and I do not believe there is any such in existence. The Popes have al- ways been in favor of progress and civilization, and Pius IX. is abetter friend of them than you yourself, if you did but know it.” rS r0t' U Why ’ man allve ’ are your eyes and your ears ? The whole country is ringing with the stupid folly and in- conceivable blindness of the Pope and Cardinals in pub- lishing such sentiments in the blazing light of this nine- teenth century. Why, not a newspaper, review, magazine or periodical of any kind that I take up, but is full of the subject. They all with one voice agree that the Pope has thrown down the gauntlet, and declared himself the irre- concilable enemy of progress, liberality of sentiment, and all our modern civilization.” Cath. “ I am not at all surprised at this agreement of the newspapers to put a false construction upon the words of the Tope ; for you know as well as I, that they have about the same sentiments toward him that a pack of wolves have toward a traveller, when they smell out a chance to tear him to pieces and lick up his blood.” Prot “ What you say is true, but not to the point. Here | S the very Pr°P°sition condemned in the Encyclical: hat the Pope ought to reconcile himself and come to 2 Progress and the Pope s Encyclical. terms with progress, liberalism, and modern civilization. Here it is in to-day’s paper ; read it for yourself. Cath. “ I have no need to read it. I know precisely the words, and I say there is no condemnation whatever, or disparagement of either progress, liberalism, or modern civ- lhZ prot “Why, how is this? Does he not deny that he has any need to be reconciled to them ?” Cath “You catch yourself in 'your own trap there, ut course he does, because he has never been their enemy, and therefore has no reconciliation to make. This is the way the proposition reads, and this is what it means. Prot. “ It is true it is capable of such an interpretatio , and a friendly spirit would so interpret it. But still, having been educated to think ill of the Pope, I cannot agree with you, unless you prove that you are right. . Cath. “I can easily do so. Each proposition which is condemned, is extracted from some one of the Pope s a - dresses or public letters, and a reference is made to the very one from which it was taken. By referring back to this one, we find in exactly what sense the Pope condemns the proposition, just as when we quote a text of the Bi e w give the book, chapter, and verse, so that we can gather from the context what its meaning is. The proposition we are speaking of was taken from the Address or Allocu- tion of March 18th, 1861, which begins thus : ‘ We have for a long time been witnesses of the agitation of civil society, particularly in our time, caused by the violent struggle of opposing principles of truth and error, of virtue and vice, of light and darkness. For certain men favor on the one hand what they call modern civilization ; others, on t le con trary, defend the rights of justice and of our holy religion. The first demand that the Roman Pontiff should reconcile himself to, and come to terms withprogress and liberalism, (such are their expressions ;) in a word, with what t ley ca modern civilization. But the others reclaim, and with right, that the unalterable principles of eternal jusuce should be preserved unimpaired’ ” 3 Progress and the Pope's Encyclical. Prot. “ I see the broad distinction which the Pope makes ta cTh P f r H SreSS ’ dVmZati0n ’ etC" “d " hat “me choose to call by those names. In declaring against the 'after he professes to uphold that progress, liberality, and civilization ££,*Sri b“d0" justice. But all this is generality. Why does he not come to particulars, and tell us in what respects the ideas he op-poses are against right and justice ?” ^ th™ “7 d°es thiS Veiy thing- He g°es on to say that in ded is hrl Pr °tr SS ’f fa‘th of treaties > solemnly concili- ate e t ? a n ; hat the most leS'timate rights of property are entirely- disregarded ; that the church is robbed of for herS ^ th ? f h°PS and defend- of the church and 5 aSks uno X r ‘hr0Wn int° Pris0n ; that a" sorts writin^tn 7f ?° n and m0raIity 3Te aPowed, while nunkhme r 1 6nCe the ChUrCh Sub j ects the authors to punishment of extreme severity, etc.” Prot. “Well, I have no doubt the old gentleman hasmuch to vex him, from what we read of the fines, imprison- ments confiscations, exiles, etc., in the papers eve™ day CalT^Vu haV'ng rather a hard time of it, I know.” rather fast We’h 3 ^ °f pr0greSS she “aiders rather fast. We have made considerable such progress in country a progress in corruption, in bribery, in vice • seem t V o 0 be e - ^ ^ g0t “t0 3 gallop lately > and we ’ seem to be in a rapid progress toward free love as well as free speech and free religion. Perhaps we may, by and by plunder^andTT* ** ** wi“ ' come to free plunder, and confiscate our churches, asylums, hospitals tTes S H S ;w n d f dS ,,° f the Kble ’ and uussionary socie,’ ties How do you think our Methodist, Episcopal, or Pres. in theTame'of 611 "a* ^ ** " hen tbey are P°iiteIy invited, to CmliZati0n> t0 reCOndIe themSe'- asnoftn [ NOt a i a11 - But ’ my friend ’ are you so ignorant . , . now 1 at 1,: makes all the difference in the world gored yoLT Zr^ ^ ^ °*’ b”» 4 Progress and the Popes Encyclical. Cath “ I am glad you’re not so blind as a good many who do not care to see when their prejudices are involved. To make the matter clearer, the Pope continues: Let things be called by their right names, and the Holy See will always appear consistent with itself. It has always been the initiator and the protector of true civilization ; the monuments of history attest this in all ages. . . . But it under the name of civilization, we are to understand a sys- tem invented precisely to break down and destroy the church, the Holy See can never ally itself with such a civi - ization.’ . . . ‘We declare, therefore, before God and man, that we have no motive for reconciling ourselves with any one whatever.’ ” Prot. “ Pius IX. is after all not so foolish as they strive to make him out. His words are brave and full of convic- tion. I have not reflected much about it, but I should not wonder if he was right, after all.” Printedfor The Catholic Publication Society Co.,” New Fori. $3 per 1.000 copies. Price No. 36 HOW’S THAT? NO. I. Mr. A. “One thing I don’t like about you Catholics is, that you have crosses stuck all over your churches, and on all the clothes the priest wears ; and then you are for ever making the sign of the cross. How’s that?” Mr. B. “Well, you see, this holy sign is made use of in all the sacraments to give us to understand that they all have their whole force and efficacy from the cross ; that is, from the death and pas-sion of Jesus Christ. The reason we use it so often is to show that we are not ashamed of the cross of Christ ; it is to make an open profession of our believing in a crucified God ; it is to help us to bear always in mind his death and passion.” Mr. A. “There is another thing I want to ask you about. One of my neighbors, who is a Catholic, told my wife that your Church teaches that Christ is really and truly present on your altars ; but I knew him to be only an ignorant man, and con- cluded, of course, he was mistaken. How’s that?” Mr. B. “No, my dear fellow, he was not mistaken; and, no matter how poor or ignorant a Catholic may be, he always knows what his Church teaches. He was right. The Catholic Church does teach the real presence of the body and blood of Christ in the sacrament of the altar; and, if you will only listen a moment, I think I can prove it. I prove it first from the express and plain words of Christ himself—the eternal truth — delivered at the time of the first institution of this blessed sacra- ment, and recorded in no less than four different places in the New Testament ; and in all these places Christ himself assures us that what he gives us in the blessed sacrament is his own body and blood. St. Matt. xxvi. 26: ‘Take, eat. This is my 2 Hows That? BODY; this is my BLOOD of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sin.’ St. Mark xiv. 22 : ‘ Take, eat. This is my body ; this is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many.’ St. Luke xxii. 19 J ‘ This is my body which is given for you; this cup is the New Testament in my blood which is shed for you.’ . 1 Cor. xi. 24 : * This is my body which is broken for you; this cup is the New Testament in my blood Mr. A. “Yes; but why do you take these words of Christ at his last supper according to the letter, rather than in a figurative sense? How’s that?” Mr. B. “ You might as well ask a traveller why he chooses the high-road rather than to go by by-paths, with evident danger of losing his way. We take the words of Christ according to their plain, obvious, and natural meaning. The words them- selves plainly speak for us ; for Christ did not say, This is a figure of my body, and this is a figure of my blood ; but he said, ‘This is my body,’ and ‘This is my blood.’” Mr. A. “But your priests are the only ones who receive the cup. How’s that?” Mr. B. “Well, you see, the Catholic Church has always looked upon it to be a thing indifferent whether the faithful receive in one kind or both ; because she has always believed that they receive Jesus Christ himself, the fountain of all grace, as much in one kind as in both ; but her custom and discipline for many ages has been to administer this sacrament to the laity only in one kind—viz., under the form of bread— for fear of the danger of spilling the blood of Christ, if all were to receive the cup. Communion in one kind can also be proved from the Scriptures ; for in St. John vi. 57 , 58, Christ tells us, ‘ He that eateth me even he shall live by me ; and he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever;’ besides, it stands to reason that whoever receives the body of Christ most certainly receives his blood at the same time • since the body which he receives is a living body (for Christ can die no more-Rom. vi. 9), which cannot be without the blood. There is no taking Christ by pieces. Whoever receives him, receives him whole.” _ w Mr. A. “But priests always take the cup. How’s that? Mr. B. “ No, my dear fel’ow ; you’re wrong. U iless a priest is saying Mass, he only gets communion under one kind ; and no priest, bishop, or Pope, even on his death-bed, ever receives otherwise than in one kind, unless, as I say, he is saying Mass. Mr. A. “What do you mean by Mass?” How's That? 3 Mr' B “ The Mass is the Liturgy of the Catholic Church, and consists in the consecration of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ, and the offering up of the same body and blood to God, by the ministry of the priest, for a perpetual memorial of Christ’s sacrifice upon the cross, and a continua- tion of the same to the end of the world.” Mr' A ' “ But 1 hear that y°ur service is all in Latin, sermons and all. Now, you don’t mean to say that all the poor folks I see going up to your church know what you are talking about? How’s that?” Mr.B. “As to the sermons, they are not in Latin; they may be in English, German, French—fn fact, any language that the people best understand—and as the sermon is the principal thing in your service, our people, you see, get all yours do—but, as to the holy Mass, that is in Latin. It always has been and always will be. You see, the Catholic Church don’t change with every whim and fashion of the age. Latin is her ancient language, used in all her sacred offices, even from the Apostles’ days, through- out all the western parts of the world; and, therefore, the Church desires to celebrate her liturgy in the same manner as the saints have done for so many ages.” Mk A. “ Still, it must be a great prejudice to your folks that the Mass is said in Latin, which is a language that the generality of them do not understand. How’s that?” Mr. B. “ Not at all. They know how to accompany the priest with prayers and devotions adapted to every part of Mass; hence it is visible to any unprejudiced eye that there is far more devotion amongst Catholics at Mass than there is at a Protestant prayer-meeting.” Mr. A. “Well, I believe you Catholics—at least, most of you— think that your priests can forgive sins. How’s that?” Mr. B. “Most of us! Yes, indeed! all of us. That is easily proved. When Christ was founding his Church he said to his ministers, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whose sins soever ye forgive, they are forgiven unto them ; and whose sins soever ye retain, they are retained ’ (St. John xx. 22, 23). And again, in St. Matt, xviii. 18: ‘Verily I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.’ ” Mr. A. But, then, I’m told that you can go and give the priest a dollar, and he will forgive you all the sins you want to commit. How’s that?” 4 Hows That f Mr. B. “Oh! no, my dear fellow. You certainly don’t be- lieve any such trash as that. In the first place, a man s sins can’t be forgiven unless he is heartily sorry for having com- mitted them, and that is what we call contrition; and then he has to make up his mind that hereafter he will fly from all occa- sions of sin. And as to paying for having your sins forgiven, that’s all nonsense. I’ve been a Catholic for fifty years, and I’ve never paid the priest for anything of the kind.” Mr. A. “Yes; but my wife gave our servant a dollar last week which she said she had to take to get her sins forgiven. How’s that?” Mr. B. “ Unfortunately, servants sometimes do get money from their mistresses with that excuse ; but I can assure you they use it for a very different purpose : and I would advise you. as a friend, never to keep such a servant around your house, or you may some day find some of your silver or your wife s iewellery gone.” Mr. A. “Well, now, I see it is getting late, and I’ll have to be going. Still, there are a few other things which I would like to ask you about. After all, I don’t think you Catholics are as bad as I was led to believe. If you have no engagement to- morrow evening I will bring my wife along with me, and then we can finish up this talk about religion. You see, I don’t often caie to talk on this subject ; but, somehow or other, I got think- ing of your Church to-day as I was going down the avenue. I saw a couple of Sisters of Charity, with their calm faces and modest demeanor, on their way on an errand of mercy ; and I thought to myself, Can it be possible that these folks are playing a farce, or is there something in their religion? Well, I must go. Shall we come over to-morrow night?” Mr. B. “Yes, certainly; I shall be most happy to see you. I’m glad you are honest enough to examine our religion, and shall do all in my power to clear up any doubts that may pre- sent themselves to your mind concerning the Holy Church. Don’t condemn a thing which you know nothing of. Read both sides; then give a fair, unbiassed opinion, remembering the old adage, “Fair Play is a Jewel.” Printed for “ The Catholic Publication Society Co.,” New York. Price ^ $3 per 1,000 copies. No 37 HOW’S THAT? NO. II. Mr. A. “Well, Neighbor B., here I am, and, as you see, I’ve brought my wife with me. I told her all about our conversation last night ; and she is very glad of a chance to hear a Catholic explain his religion. She thought that Catholics were ashamed to talk about their Church, or, at least, when they did so, it was in the dark, in an undertone, and always with superstitious people.” Mr. B. “ Be kind enough to sit down. I’m very glad to see you both ; and I hope before you leave here Mrs. A. will find that Catholics are neither ashamed of their religion nor afraid to talk about it.” Mrs. A. “Well, it always seemed to me that the Romish churches were so dark, and often built in obscure places, and that, as a general thing, Popish priests were — ” Mr. B. “ Excuse me, madam, but, before we go any further, let me suggest that in our conversation we use the English lan- guage. Last night your husband found fault because in tht Catholic Church the Latin language—a language which most of the people don’t understand—is made use of : now let me say that you are making use of language which I don’t understand. There are no such words in the English language as ‘ Romish ’ and ‘Popish.’ I might with equal impropriety say ‘the New Yorkish Bay,’ or that Baden is a Gexmish city, or that Paris is the capital of a Europe^ empire. I beg your pardon for cor- recting your grammar; but this common grammatical error of Protestants generally sounds very badly.” Mrs. A. “ I don’t think that Protestants generally are aware that they are using bad grammar when they make use of those words. It never once occurred to me.” 2 How s That ? Mr. A. “As for me, I always like things called by their proper names. Catholics are not ashamed of their name ; therefore let them be called Catholic. But I notice many of our Episcopalian friends are ashamed of their name, and are now trying to shake off the ‘ P. E.’—Protestant Episcopal—from their name, and make folks believe they are Catholics. I have no objections to 'heir being Catholics, but I like to see fair dealing.” Mr. B, “Yes, you are right; things should be called by their right names, and that openly and above-board too. If your friends want to become Catholics and have a right to the name, lot them do so in a legitimate way.” Mr. A. “Well, now I’m going to open my battery on you. Are you ready ? ” Mr. B. “ Yes. Fire !” Mr. A. “ I hear that you Catholics pray for the dead. Cer- tainly after a man is dead that is the last of him, as far as we are concerned. How’s that?” Mr. B. “ Praying for the dead is a practice as ancient as Christianity, received by tradition from the Apostles, as appears by the most certain monuments of antiquity. This practice is grounded upon Christian charity, which teaches us to pray for all that are in necessity, and to implore God’s mercy for all that are capable of mercy—which we have reason to be con- vinced is the case of many of our deceased brethren ; and there- fore we pray for them.” Air. A. “Yes; but, even granting that your prayers can help the dead, where will the dead be all this time, as you know they have to go to one of two places? How’s that?” Mr. B. “You’re wrong again. Fortunately there is a middle place called purgatory. This I prove first from the Scriptures, which teach us in many places that it is the fixed rule of God’s justice ‘ to render to every man according to his works.’ See Psalms lxii. 12, St. Matt. xvi. 27, Rom. ii. 6, Apoc. xxii. 12, etc. So that, according to the works which each man has done in the time of his mortal life, and according to the state in which he is found at the moment of his departure out of this life, he shall certainly receive reward or punishment from God. Hence it evidently follows that, as by this rule of God’s justice they that die in great and deadly sins, not cancelled t* repentance, will be eternally punished in hell, so, by the same rule, they that die in lesser or venial sins (which is certainly the case of a great many) will be punished somewhere for a time, till Hozv's That f 3 God’s justice be satisfied. Second, I prove it from the words of our blessed Lord in St. Matt. xii. 32, where he says that ‘ who- soever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, nor in this world, neither in the world to come.’ In this text our Lord (who could not speak anything absurd or out of the way, would never have mentioned ‘forgiveness in the world to come’ if sins not forgiven in this world could never be for- given in the world to come. Now, if there may be forgiveness of any sin whatsoever in the world to come, there must be a middle place or purgatory ; for no sin can enter heaven to be forgiven there, and in hell there is no forgiveness.” Mr. A. “I notice, too, that you Cathblics won’t eat meat on Friday. How’s that?” Mr. B. “We have every reason to think that fasting and abstinence are agreeable to God, since John the Baptist’s absti- nence is commended—St. Luke i. 15 and St. Matt. iii. 4. And Anna the prophetess is praised—St. Luke ii. 37—for serving God with fastings and prayers night and day. The Ninevites, by fasting, obtained mercy—Jonas iii. 5. Daniel joined fasting with prayer—Dan. ix. 3—and by fasting was disposed for heavenly visions—Dan. x. 3, 7, 12. And God, by the prophet Joel, calls upon his people—Joel ii. 12—‘to turn to him with all their hearts in fasting, weeping, and mourning.’ And then, too, our Saviour himself gave an example by fasting forty days—St. Matt. iv - 12—and prescribed lessons concerning fasting—St. Matt, vi. 16; so you see, like most other things which the Catholic Church teaches, she can go back to Jesus Christ as the origin- ator or founder.” Mr. A. “Another great fault I have to find with you Catho- lics is that you pray to the Virgin Mary and the saints, when you ought to pray to God alone. How’s that?” Mr. B. “We have every reason to believe that it is a pious and profitable practice to beg the prayers of the saints and angels, just as we have to desire the prayers of God’s servants here upon earth, or as St. Paul had to desire so often the prayers of the faithful, to whom he wrote his epistles. See Rom. xv. 30 ; Eph. vi. 18, 19; 1 Thess. v. 25. For if it be pious and profitable to desire the prayers of sinners here upon earth (for all men here upon earth must acknowledge themselves sinners), how can it be otherwise than pious and profitable to desire the prayers of saints and angels in heaven? Certainly you cannot say that the saints and angels have no knowledge of what passes upon 4 How's That ? earth, and therefore are not to be addressed for their prayers since our Lord assures us ‘that there is joy m the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth -St. Luke xv. io—which could not he if the citizens of heaven knew nothing of what passes here upon earth. And as to the great r«sPe' and devotion which we have to the Blessed Virgin Mary, that grounded upon her great dignity of Mother cf God, and thet c °s relation she has thereby to Jesus Christ, her Son possible to love and honor Christ with our whole hearts, not value and love his blessed Mother?’ Mr A “Well, now, I have one more question to ask yo , and then' I've done. I hear that you Catholics pray to pictures an^images^Hows Aat?take ^ ^ them no, only for ornament and for the instruction of the igriorant but d honor and remembrance of Chris, and his saint .and to raise our thoughts and hearts to heavenly ‘hingS- Besules we don’, worship these things, as you Protestants are so fond of saying; for the Second Council of Nice has expressly declared that divine worship is not to be given them ; .to winch t cil of Trent has added, that we 'are not to believe that there . any divinity or power in them for which they are to be wor- shipped ; and that we are not to pray to them, nor put ou trust or confidence in them.’” Mr A. “I declare my eyes have been opened by yom re marks I always thought that Catholic priests were a bad of men and that yonr system of religion was suited to them; but I find there is no, a word of truth in all these stories gotten • UP ;fr’’C.“s me good to hear you say so. Hike an honest man-one who is no, afraid or ashamed to examine for himself, and, when he finds he is wrong, come out like a man and admit it. . Now, my dear friend, I want me to keep on in the good work already begun You certa'" y can no longer worship with those who make a living by teach ing false doctrines. There were such persons in our Saviours time • learn a lesson from their unhappy end, and do tight. Mr A “ I thank you with all my hear, for your kindness in explaining these knotty questions, and promise to examine fur- ther and ask God’s guidance into the right path. Good night. Catholic 3 “ A ' No. 38. POPERY AND THE APOSTLES; OR, THE BITER BIT. Calvin Cutloose, Esq., just home from Germany, where he has had the opportunity of conversing with some of the more “advanced thinkers” of our day, meets with his old friend, Mr. Peter Groper. Getting upon religious topics, Mr. Groper re- marks : “ There is a fact about the Christian religion, Friend Cutloose, which perplexes me, and I must say troubles me too.” Mr. C. “What’s that, Groper?” Mr. G. “ It is that the Christian religion, as taught by the Apostles, developed so soon as it did into Popery. The Apos- tles had no sooner founded the Church than Popery took complete possession of it, and held it until the Reformation.” Mr. C. “Doesn’t she hold it yet?” Mr. G. “ Happily not all. But it must be confessed she still manages to keep the lion’s share.” Mr. C. “ I think it quite reasonable she should.” Mr. G. “ You astonish me, Mr. Cutloose ; not to say shock me. What ! reasonable that Popery should claim and hold the Church of the Apostles and the great majority of Christians in subjection!” Mr. C. “ I don't see anything to be astonished at, Groper., 2 Popery and the Apostles. If the Church of the Apostles developed into Popery from the very start, as it undoubtedly did, / conclude that Popery is the natural result of Christianity as the Apostles preached it. A tree is known by its fruits. And if the Church of the Apostles has not budded and blossomed and borne Popish fruit for nineteen centuries, and, from all appearances, is likely to bear the same for nineteen centuries more, then histoiy and facts are not worth the notice of a man with a grain of common sense.” Mr. G. “ That is a disheartening reflection ! ” Mr. C. “ Possibly for you, Groper ; but not for me. If you were as true a Protestant as I am, and hated Popery as much as I do, you would take quite another view of it.” Mr. G. “As true a Protestant as you! You astonish me still more. Am I not a child of the Reformation, even as you?” Mr. C. “ Yes, but only yet, I see, half reformed.” Mr. G. “ In the name of truth, Friend Cutloose, what do you mean ? ” Mr. C. “Just this, Groper. Did not the Church of the Apostles immediately develop into Popery?” Mr. G. “ I have said that is just what troubles and per- plexes me.” Mr. C. “It needn’t. Do not all the Papists, numbering some two hundred and fifty millions of people, believe, to-day, that such a development was both natural and true?” Mr. G. “ It is a lamentable fact.” Mr. C. “A word in your ear, now, old fellow. I hate Po- pery with all my heart and soul and mind and strength, and I don’t nor won’t believe in anything that could develop so quickly, easily, and entirely into Popery as your Church of the Apostles did, and ought to have done ; for the sincere convic- ^tion of two hundred and fifty millions of all nations and tongues, not to speak of the proofs they bring that such a development was a true and logical one, is not to be de- spised.” Mr. G. “ Can my old friend and fellow church-member have visited the home of Luther and all the venerated Popery and the Apostles. 3 shrines of Protestantism only to recum a disbeliever in Chris- tianity ? ” Mr. C. “ Not at all. I am a Christian yet, in ray own way, but not in a way that can be developed into Popery, I can tell you ; and that is more than you can say of the way of the Apostolic Church you still hold to.” Mr. G. “ But, my friend, if you cut yourself loose in this fashion from the ‘faith once delivered to the saints,’ where will you end?” Mr. C. “Not in Popery, thank God!” Mr. G. “ May I presume to ask you where you start from, if not from the Apostles?” Mr. C. “From Jesus Christ, sir, Bible in hand.” Mr. G. “ But Jesus Christ never wrote a word of the Bible. It was written by the Apostles.” Mr. C. “ H’m, well — i/e inspired them to write it, and so it amounts to the same.” Mr. G. “ True. And then he commanded them to teach it, too, telling them to go into all the world and preach the Gos- pel to every creature ; and that, I take it, amounts to something more.” • Mr. C. “What do you make out of that?” Mr. G. “I make out that the Church the Apostles founded, and the Christianity they taught, is the Church Jesus Christ commanded them to found, and the religious doctrines and practices he commissioned them to teach—the Church which you and I and all men must belong to, and whose teachings we must believe or be damned ; as our Lord told the Apostles all would be who refused to hear and believe them.” Mr. C. “ It will land you into Popery, man. It will land you into Popery ; and you can’t help yourself.” Mr. G. “I don’t care to help myself, if it does land me there. If Popery is the legitimate fruit of Christianity as the Apostles taught it, so be it. In the name of God, I will em- brace it.” Mr. C. “Heaven help us! is the man mad?” Mr. G. “ Mad, Mr. Cutloose ! I think it is you that have lost your reason ; to imagine yourself at 1 berty, Bible 4 Popery and the Apostles . in hand, to sit in judgment upon the Apostles of Jesus Christ.’ Mr. C. “ I tell you again, Apostolic Christianity developed into Popery.” Mr. G. “ If so, I only repeat, Popery is then the develop- ment of the truth, from which I conclude that if your new- fangled way cannot be developed into Popery it must be false, for all truth ought to be in harmony.” Mr. C. “Would you become a Papist in the light of the nine- teenth century, Groper?" Mr. G. “ Most assuredly, if I would have become one by following the Apostles in the first. You have helped to open my eyes not a little on this subject. By the way, friend, you told me where you started from, but you have not told me yet where you will end.” Mr. C. “ Just where I began, with myself, Bible in hand." Mr. G. “ That’s pretty good ! Here am I, Calvin Cutloose, Esq., dry-goods merchant, with the Apostles’ words in my hand, ready to make a religion warranted never to develop into the religion which did develop from them, and which, in the judg- ment ofi the great majority of Christians in every age, and in my own opinion as well, ought to develop from them. That is : Here am I, Calvin Cutloose, Esq., dry-goods merchant, ready to guarantee that two and two, in my hands, will never make four.” Mr. C. “ Bah ! Down >*qth the Pope p. — Mr/fc. “Long live Pius the Ninthf successor of ties l Printed for “ The Catholic Publication Society Co.,” New York. Price $Sper 1,000 copies. No. 39, • \ CONVERTED BY AN INFIDEL. At the University of Cambridge, England, among the subjects to be taken up for the Little-Go (the first public examination) is Paley’s Evidences of Christianity. A young Cantab, named Richard Hannan—a seriously inclined young man, and intending to follow in the clerical footsteps of his father—had recently passed his Little-Go very well, especially distinguished by his Pa- ley paper. It happened that one evening, in a friend’s rooms, he met an adherent of that school of rationalism which is spreading so rapidly in the English Church, and particularly in the Universi- ties, There were five other guests (making the party eight), and the conversation was lively till it finally turned on the “ neo- iogians.” Hereupon Richard, having watched his opportunity, put :n a very strong remark, to the effect that these men were as shallow as they were infidel ; for that, regarding the claims of Christianity, it was wholly a question of evidence. “ I accept the issue,” said M’Donald, the rationalist. “ I have heard of your flooring the last Paley paper ; but I floored one too in my year ; so I’m quite prepared for you on that ground.” “ Then please show me,” answered Hannan, “ the joint in Paley’s armor.” “ Why, he assumes the supernatural, to begin with.” “ I beg your pardon : he does nothing of the sort. He insists on the credibility of human testimony to facts which are not of the natural order ; but this is not assuming anything, except that testi- mony which is credible in one thing is equally credible in an- other.” “ And that’s the very point I deny. I deny that the evidence of the senses can prove the fact of a miracle. If I saw with my own eyes what was called a miracle, and what I could not account for by any law hitherto discovered, I should put it down to the unknown, perhaps, or, if you please, the unknowable ; but I shouldn’t call it supernatural.” “ Then you’d be contradicting the universal judgment of hu- manity.” ‘ Possibly—as far as it has hitherto progressed ; but wail tor its i^ice a thousand years hence.” . “ Then you think yourself and the favored few who happen to /lold your opinions a thousand years ahead of the race?” This caused a laugh at M’Donald’s expense ; and our host op- portunely remarked, “ Mac, old boy, you’ve a genius for fouling ; you ran foul of me on the river to-day, and to-night you’ve run foul of common sense.” “A miracle,” continued Hannan, “is proposed to the reason through the senses ; if reason is incapable of pronouncing upon it as something contrary to the laws of nature, and which, there- fore, must have come from a supernatural power, it is equally 2 Converted by an Infidel. incapable of pronouncing upon any, the most ordinary, phenom- enon ; and you’ll have to say, in the end, that man is «* contra- diction to himself.” “ And what if he is?” said.a deep bass voice, as its owner filled his glass. “ I’ll be bound M’Donald is conscious of being a con- tradiction to hijnseXf.” M’Donald rose amid the general laugh, to take a tresh cigai and light it. Though a Scotchman, he kept provokinglv cool. “ Well,” said he, “we’ll waive the question of possibility: for I •ee you either cannot or will not understand me. I’d like to know the utility of miracles—the call—the necessity for them. Let Mr. Hannan tell me that.” “ You must surely remember,” replied Hannan, “ that Paley is careful to state that. He lays down, as a thing universally con- ceded, that miracles are the only proof we can have of the veraci- ty of any one claiming divine mission. Besides, the working of miracles was doubly necessary to Christ, because the Jews, to whom he preached, had a divine religion already ; a divine law was in possession ; and they could not have listened justifiably to the preachers of a new doctrine until they were reasonably certi- fied that the same authority which had given them their law had now, in turn, repealed it ; and this certitude they could not have received from any other proofs than miracles.” “ Oh ! very good !” rejoined M’Donald, with a sudden flash of triumph on his face. “ You have all heard, gentlemen, what Mr. Hannan says ?” “ Yes,” said the other six voices in the room. “ And you all, I presume, are members of the Church of Eng- land as by law established ?” “ Of course.” “ Very well, then ; I have you. You’ve all been thinking me — illogical, to say the least. I ask you, then, which is the more illogical—the man who, rejecting the supernatural altogether, re- gards Christianity as a human system ; or the man who, believing Christianity divine because established by miracles, adheres to a negative form of it which was not established by miracles?” As all remained silent, quite taken by surprise, and wondering what he was driving at, he hastened to follow up his advantage. “You adhere to the Reformation. Did the authors of that movement work miracles to prove their divine mission? Did Lu- ther, or any of the Continental reformers? Did Cranmer or any of the British reformers? Not one of them even pretended to do so ; though Luther did ask Zuingle for his—forgetting that the question was equally applicable to himself. Then where was the diviQ£ mission of these men to abolish the ancient faith and start a new one? And' what right had the Catholics of their day to listen to them and become their followers? The Church was in possession—to use Mr. Hannan’s phrase. Then, for the matter of that, she’s in possession still ; and you, to be consistent with your profession of Christian ty, ought at once to return to her alle- giance.” Such a sudden turn of the tide told with crush'ng effect. There wa? not a man in the room, except M’Donald himself, but felt a strange uneasiness ; although Richard Hannan was the only one present sufficiently in earnest about religion to appreciate the situ- Converted by a?i hiftdeL 3 atit 1 dulv. As for him, he felt carried off his legs and being swept out to sea. “ Can any gentleman help me?” he asked ; “ I acknowledge I’m nonplussed quite.” “Why, my dear sir,” said the bass voice again, “you’re not going to let yourself be floored by a Scotchman’s sophistry, are you ? He knows very well that the age of miracles was over long before the Reformation ; and also that the reformers appealed to the Bible for their authority.” m “ 1 beg your pardon, Mr. Holt,” retorted the candid Hannan. “There’s no Scotch sophistry here. If the age of miracles was over, then so was the age of revelations. While as to their ap- pealing to the Scriptures for their authority, where was their au- thority for appealing to the Scriptures?” “ Well, but, Mr. Hannan,” said another voice, “didn’t Christ and the Apostles appeal to the Scriptures?” “ In a very different way, Mr. Davis. They appealed to pro- phecies which their enemies themselves admitted were to be ful- filled in the Messiah ; besides having wrought miracles first, as their credentials for presuming to appeal against the authority in possession. Whereas the Reformers appealed against received doctrines and interpretations, and without any such credentials for attacking the authority in possession. Moreover—for it now recurs to my mind that our Saviour warns us against false work- ers of miracles—even if the Reformers had shown this power, that wouldn’t have justified the Catholics for listening to them. \ ou see, gentlemen, the Church was in possession (a legal term, but the best I can find) ; and this is everything. And now that I think of it, I keep remembering several passages of the New Testament in which the Church is promised that immunity from error which the Catholics have always claimed for her. Why, doesn’t St. Paul even call her * the pillar and ground of the truth’? To be sure he does ; and it seems to me I’m waking from a sleep of some kind—a forgetfulness, or a blindness, or something. Yes, here s another text. St. Paul declares •that even if an angel from heaven should come and preach a new gospel, he should be held accursed. So that even if Luther and Calvin and the rest had been angels from heaven, you see, the Catholics to whom they preached ought, according to St. Paul, to have held them ac- cursed.” Mr. Hannan,” said M Donald gracefully, “ I beg to assure you of my profound respect ; not only because of your clear-headed- ness, but also because of your sincerity. From the day that Gib- bon enlightened me as to'the substantial identity of the Catholic Church of modern times with that of the first four centuries — identity, I mean, in doctrine and discipline, for no one disputes their historical identity—I recognized the fact that the ‘ evidences oi Christianity are identical with those of the said Church. If, therefore, I believed in the one as divine (that is, in your sense ol the word) I should also believe in the other as equally infallible anu superhuman. As it is, you and I must agree to differ: not, however, that this need prevent us from being good friends. My plan is to let every man alone, provided he’ll let me alone. And, believe me, should you become a Catholic, my esteem for you Will only be increased.” 4 Converted by an Infidel . Richard was touched and interested. “ Besides thanking you most cordially, Mr. M’Donald, for your good opinion of me, I must add thanks equally sincere for the ‘change that has come over the spirit of my dream ’ through your masterly reasoning this evening. You have quite upset my repose ; quite cut away the ground from under me yet I thank you for this, I say, because truth before all things is what I believe in. At present the posi- tion of my mind is this : That the ancient Church which our fa- thers left ought to be right after all ; that her doctrine ought to be pure and unchanged. I have therefore no choice before me but to examine without delay ; and if I indeed find Rome in the right, to Rome I go, be the consequence what it may.”********* About a month after the above scene, Richard Hannan was received into the Catholic Church by the worthy priest of Cam- bridge. He had kept his resolve manfully; had called on the priest the very next day, and opened his whole mind to him. He found the priest a very pleasant man, and one of the first order of intellect ; and after some earnest conversations, and the reading