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ANSWERS TO POPULAR OBJECTIONS -AGAISST THE- CATHOLIC CHURCH J^ VERB^TIIM: REI^OPtT -BY- W. H. WALLER D. & J. FADLIER& CO. MONTREAL & TORONTO. '\; •gVi-i , 111 < lO r A f ll M l I' iiifai r ■ ,. »^ - h \ m UNlVhlRSlTT LIBRAH^ TH£ UNIVERSITY 0£ ALBERfA ' M) ^ V V TUESDAY EVENING. " Remember my word that 1 said to you," said Jesu«, " The servant is not greater than Ids Master ; if they have persecuted mo they will also persecute you ; if they have kept my word they will keep yours also ; but all these things they will do unto you for my name sake, becaus ! they know not him that sent me." St. John, 15th cliap., xx and xxi verse. Dearly beloved Christians !— The Blessed Saviour has foretold that those who believe in Him and who follow His religion shall be persecuted, shall be calumniated, shall he slandered and mis- represented. " The Disciple is not better than the Master," he has said. " And if they have calumniated, and slandered and persecuted the master, they will do the same to the disciple." Hence, my dearly beloved catholic brethren and sisters, it is the lot of the true church of God for ever to be slandered, calumniated and persecuted. Tt has been so of old. " Who are the Prophets ?" says the Saviour. " Did not your fathers stone them and put them to death ? " And the Apostles and primitive Christians for three hundred years suffered a fearful persecution for the religion of Jesus Christ. Hardly had the church been ushered into exist- ence when she was surrounded by a host of enemies, that all swore aloud her destruction and hor annihilation. Rome and Jeru- salem combined together to check her progress ; all the powers of the Pagan Ca>sars and the Jewish Church ; all the Magistrates and Jewish Priests, all the Synod, and the Jewish Synagogue, all combined together and swore aloud that they should leave noth- ing untouched, and nothing undone to smother in its very cradle the church of the Most High God — the Holy Catholic and Apos- tolic Church. For throe hundred years the sword of persecuMon was lifted up, and the earth was anointed with the blood of the martyrs of the church of Jesus. Rome, Jerusalem, Antioch, Lyons, and other cities were covered with the bodies of her gener- ous and heroic sons ; her Martyrs that died for the faith of Jesua Christ. Even the tyrants and the despots got tired with putting them to death one by one, and finally enveloped entire cities in one conflagration that thousands might perish at once. Three hundred years I have said of^^earful persecution was raised against the church, and during these three hundred years not less than eighty millions — that is nearly three times the population of the United States — died martyrs for the Holy Catholic and Apostolic 852464 d •*-- /w ANSWERS TO POPULAR OBJECTIONS 1 Faith, and are in the enjoyment of heaven to-day, for their heroism and devotion. The reign of persecution ceased on the conversion of Constantine the Great, who wns the first Catholic emperor. When freedom of conscience and freedom of religion was given to the Catholic Church, even then the Church had never heen without persecution, and even up to his day the Church meet^ with opposition on all sides — in Austria, in France, in Russia, in England, in Ireland, and in Scotland — and I may say, throughout the world. It is true, my dearly beloved people, few countries there are now where Catholics are put to death for their faith, except in Japan and China ; but where i« the country the Catholic is not slandered in ? is not calumniated ? is not mis- represented ? I do not knoAv of one. And should we be vexed about this, my dear friends ? Not at all, we should feel cheerful and happy, because it is one of the evidences that the Catholic religion is the true religion — the Catholic Chuich the tnie Church of God ; because she is, as the Saviour has foretold, ever treated as her Divine master was — slandered, calumniated and misre- presented. Perhaps some of you will say "That is not done in our Dominion ; here we are free." I say, my dear people, that I do not know ol a country where the Catholics are freer than they are in this Dominion ; but even in this Dominion the prophesy of the Saviour is fulfilled : — " They shall slander you and calumniate you, and they shall say all manner of evil against you for my name's sake ; " and that is done in tlm Dominion as we'll as in every other country. All kind of evil is said against the Church of God ; all kinds of doctrineb are attributed to us, which in reality we abhor, so that the objections of our separated brethren against the Catholic religion all proceed from ignorance, because they know not that religion which they defame. If they but saw the Catholic religion as it is, they would atlmire it, would fall in love witli it and become Catholics unless they were cowards. Some are cowards ; they become couvinced that the Catholic religion is the religion of Jesus ; but they reflect — " What will our friends say ? what think ? and how will they look upon us ?" Such a one thinks he is a brave man ; but no, he is a coward. " I am a brave man," he says. No sir, you 4. re a coward, a slave, fet- tf'ied and chained and not free ; you are convinced that the Catholic religion is the religion of Jesus Christ, but, " what will they say, and how think?" and you (fare not embrace the religion of your Saviour ! because by " what will they say," you are made a coward. Hundreds and thousands there are in a special manner in the old Country, and in this Dominion, that are kept from AGAIS8T THE CATHOI.ir rHURCH. embracing the Catholic religion hecanso their friends will fall out with them, and their business not be as succepsful as liefore— you are therefore cowards. Even in this Dominion 1 say there is a petty persecution against the Catholic Church. Our separated brethren, with all their gootl and kind feeling towards us, yet have objections against us ; but these objections are grounded in ignor- ance. I have announced that I would answer this evening these popular objections against the Catholic religion and the iirst of these objections is this : Our Protestant frieuils say Catholics are not allowed to read the Bible. This is false, this is a calumny, this is a slander. Catholics not allowed to read the Bible ! Have you ever seen a Catholic Bible, my dear Protestant friend ? " No, I never did." If you had seen .i Catholic Bible, you would have found on the first page a letter from Pope Fins the VI., exhorting all to read God's Holy Scriptures, for edification, for instruction, for sanctification. This is the letter of the Pope to all the faithful throughout the whole world, that the Bible shouhl be open to all. Hence you arc wrong, my dear Protestant friend- you have been badly informed whJ or Nunnery, her virtue is in perfect safety. If I sent her to a fashionable Protestant School she might be married before I knew anything about it." " My boy," says the Protestant father, " is a wild fellow, and I want to keep him in. I sent him to the Catholic College because I know that the education is good, and the dis- ciplim stricter there than anywhere else; therefore," says he, " I senci iiy boy to the Catholic School." And yet, with all that, you say the Catholics want to keep people in ignorance. Why then send your boy or your daughter to the Catholic institutions? With one eye you frown upon the Catholic religion, and with the other smile upon it, and say it is, after all, the best. The Catholic 1 'igion opposed to education and tine arts ? If it had not been for the Catholic Religion the fine arts would have entirely fallen into decay and ruin. What are the tine arts? Music, Sculpture, Painting, Architecture, and Poetry. These are the fine arts. Well, now, the Catholic religion, you say, is opposed to the fine arts. Sculpture for instance. The moment Protestantism came into existence, and wherever it had the power of doing it, it did away with the statuary in the House of God ; broke the statues of the Saints and the Blessed Virgin, and did not even respect the image of the Saviour, but broke it asunder, and took the bread out of the mouth of the sculptor. The Catholic religion has always encouraged the sculptor by the statuary in her churches. The same in regard to painting. The paintings were torn from the walls of the churches that Protestants stole from us ; they tore them from the walls and effaced the frescoes because they looked upon them as violations of the first law of God. And so with regard to music — that beautiful art that stirs up the soul ; lifta it up to heaven, takes us away from earth as it were. Music — where has it found encouragement if not in the Catholic Church ? Who are the great masters of music ? Mozart, Beethoven, Meioadante, Rossini, and a number of others all of whom were Catholics. The grandest music, most masterly and soul-stirring now in existence from the Catholic brain and pen. Protestantism has been in ex- istence 350 years or so, and during all that time it has never pro- duced a musician that can be compared with Mozart or Beethoven or Mercadante. So well convinced are Protestants of this now in the United States, that in all the fashionable churches in New York and Boston and other large cities, they are all adopting the Catholic music, because they know that there is nothing in their AGAINST THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 9 own music but something like Yankee Doodle — nothing to stir up the soul and lift it up to God and to heaven; and, therefore, they are adopting the compositions of the great masters of the Catholic Church. And so again with regard to architecture, my dear peo- ple. Have Protestants, for the last 350 years, with all the wealth that they have in England, and other countries, producf/d such architecture as the Catholic Church has given to the world ? Tlie great architects of England, of Canada and the United Stp.tes, when they travel through Europe stand wrapped in wonder before the grand Catholic Churches and Basilicas they see in Rome, and every where else ; stand before them perfectly amazed — taken out of their senses as it were, as they contemplate the grandeur and architectural beauty of those magnificent edifices — before St. Peter's in Rome, St. John Lateral, St. Mary Major; before the Cathedrals of Cologne and Notre Dame of Paris and Antwerp. All these grand productions of the brain of the architect were of Catholic conception, ideas conceived by architects full of Catholic faith and sublime ideas of the beauty and grandeur that should adorn the temple constructed for the worship of the Living God that dwells upon our altars. And the generous Catholics come forward with open hands and purses in order to build those grand Cathedrals and Basilicas. London, in England, made an attempt to throw St. Peter's into the shade by building St. Paul's. Ha! Ha! St. Paul's in London is nothing but k " ginger bread " compared to St. Peter's in Rome. A:kI ir the United States, where among our separated brethren there is so much atHuence and wealth, have they done anything or built anything that would be a monu- ment of grand and sublime ideas in the shape of a temple for the worship otthe Living God? Nothing. Poor as the Catholics of New York are, they have commenced a cathedral on which they have spent altogether one million three hundred thousand dollars, and it is not one-lhird finished yet. With all their poverty they have undertaken to build a grand structure that will be the won- der and beauty of the United States. And yet you say the Catho- lics are opposed to fine arts. Ignorant man ! — stupid man ! — you must never have travelled out of your own country, or you would never have made such an assertion as that the Catholic religion is opposed to fine arts, education and learning. Again, they say that the Church is opposed to discoveries and inventions. Why, my dear people, the greatest and most useful inventions now in the land are all of Catholic origin. Who invented the art of printing ? Was it not a Roman Catholic? — a hundred years before there was a Protestant on the face of the earth. Who invented the gun- j: 10 ANSWERS TO POPULAR OBJECTIO>'^ V I powder? A Catholici Wlio invented the spectacle? — an article 1 i'sueli great aid to the near-sighted? It was a Catholic that in- verted the magnifying glass. Who again invented the mariner'* compass? Was it not a Catholic ? TVie Catholic religion opposed to inventions and discoveries ! My dear Canadians, how dare you say it. Who first gave you America ? — and gave you this coun- try, this land of freedom and prosperity ? A Catholic — Christopher Columbus. He it was who has given you the very soil on which you stand, and the bread you eat and the clothes you wear. The Catholic religion has at all times encouraged discoveries and inventions, and supported the artist and cheered him up, whereas Potestsintism, you must acknowledge it, has crushed the energies and eflbrts of the Sculptor, the Painter, and the Musician. "Again, '^ says my Protestant friend, " I could never be a Catholic because the Catholics violate the first commandment of God." That com- mandment says, " Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven im- age, nor the likeness of anything in the heavens above, nor on the earth beneath, nor in the waters under the earth, thou shalt not adore nor worship them." " Now you Catholics violate that com- mand of God, and there is no slander about this: you have only to go to the Catholic Church to find the evidence. What is that over their altar there ? " The image of Christ crucified — a likeness of the things in the heavens above." " And what is that, there ?"" The image of of St. Ann, the mother of the Blessed Virgin. "And that ?" " That is St. John the Baptist, and therefore, the likenesses of the things in the heavens above." " Therefore you Catholics violate the commandments of God by making those images and statues." " Well," my dear Reverend Minister of the Gospel, my dear preacher, " will you allow me to come to your home ?" "Yes," says he, " I have no objection to let even an old Jesuit come to my house." I go, and walk into my friend's drawing room, and point to a painting on the wall and ask " what painting is that?" "That'^ says he, " is the portrait of my dear mother." "Where is your mother now ?" " I hope," says he, " she is in heaven with God." " What is that painting?" "That is the likeness of my darling wife." " Where is she ?" " She is up stairs in the nursery with her little ones." " And that other painting there over the door?" "Well, sir, that is an oil pointing of one of the great masters, it represents a fish." " Why," my dear Protestant preacher, " what a breaker of God's conmiandments you are ! There is the like- ness of your mother, who you say is in heaven above ; there is the likeness of you wife, who is on the earth beneath, nnd there is that fish, the likeness of the things in the waters under the earth I AGAINST THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. n '' Foolish, foolish priest," says he, "do you think becau o I have those pictures hanging up there that I break the commandments of God ?" '* No," my friend, " I do not ; but you say that we Catholics break it by having the pictures in the Church." " There is no harm to make them," he says, " but you adore them." "Here you slander us, we do not adore any of the images in the Church." " Why have you them thrn ? Why have you the ]-ortrait of your mother?" '* Because" says he, " whenever I look at ii, I remem- ber how good a woman she was, it seems to say to me: — ' Be good, be a Christian !' When I look at that picture, I feel myself ex- cited to practice all the virtues of which she has j;;iven me the ex- ample. I remember all the good lessons she used togiveme."" Wliy you are a Catholic my friend ! This is precisely the use Catholics make of the pictures and statues, in the Church. When the Catholic looks at the image of Christ crucified, he says, ' See what the Saviour has suffered for me, — how he has shed out his precious blood to save my soul. 1 njust, therefore, love Jesus.' Whenever the Catholic looks at the statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary, he says, ' How pure, how holy, and how chaste was Mary, the Mother of Jesus ; I must endeavor to imitate her purity in the service of God.' When we look at the statue of St. Joseph, or any other saint, we say, ' These saints were men as we are ; they lived in this world, had the same passions and the same difliculties to con- tend with, as we have, but in spite of all these they were faithful to God. I can do the same, says the Catholic, ' I must, therefore, make an efibrt to imitate their virtues and copy their example in human conduct." "But," say.s my Protestant fiipnd"you bow down before them. Have I not seen Catholics in this Church, during this mission, bowing to that image over the altar ?" " No ; not to the image, but to Jesus, whom they Lolieve to be in the Holy Tabernacle. The Catholic bows not to the image, but bends his knee in homage to Jesus Christ. Is that wrong, my dear friend ?" " No," says the Protestant, for at the name of Jesus the Bible tells us that every knee shall bow in hea'en and earth, and even in hell." " But yon bow also to the statue of Blessed Virgin," says he. "No, not to the statue, but to the one represented by the statue, the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God." " Is not Mary a creature?" "Yes, a creature, but an exalted and holy creature." "Well," says the Protestant, "you must not bow to any creature." " Why, my dear man, when first I came to Ottawa, I met you in the street one day — you were pointed out to me as the minister of such and such a church ; I watched you as you went along, and you met a friend, a lady, and in a moment you had 12 ANSWERS TO POPULAR OBJECTIONS your hat in your liand, and bowed politely to her." "Yes, sir, but she is such a nice creature, she is such a good and pious per- son, and we should respect virtue and piety, and therefore I bowed to her." "And is not the Blessed Virgin Mary good and holy, and should not I bow to her and honor her exalted dignity as the mother of God ?" " Well yes, that, after all, appears to be pretty reasonable; button Catholics overdo the thing; you make too much fuss about the Blessed Virgin; you cannot hnd a Catholic Church with an altar to God in it, in which there is not one to the Blessed Virgin also. I think that is wrong, sir." " Well," my dear Protestant friend, "suppose for a moment that the mother of George Washington was to come to New York on a visit ; what excitement and fuss there would be theie — roaring of cannon and firing of pistols, and bands of music marching through the streets, and bon fires and illuminations ; the ladies of New York dressed up in the grandest possible style, and in beautiful carriages, roll- ing through the streets of New York. Should I say, ' Ladies, what is all this fuss and excitement about ? Where are you going ? They would answer, "Sir, we go to pay our respects to the mother of Washington ; she has put up at the Astor House, and we go to see her." ' Well, ladies,' I would say, ' why is the mother of Washington more than any other woman that you should thus honor her?' 'Oh, sir, they would say, 'it is easy to see you are a Dutchman ! What, sir, ! you say not honor the mother of Wash- ington, who has given us so great a son; a son who has made us a free, independent, glorious, and prosperous people? And you say, we should not honor the mother of Washington ? 'All right, say I, 'go and lionor the mother of Washington; I love to see gratitude in the hearts of the people.' " But tell me, my friends, has not Mary given us a greater son than Washington ? Has not Jesus done more for us than Washington ? Has not He delivered us from the slavery of hell, and male us heirs of Heaven ; and would not we Catholics be an ungrateful people if we did not res- pect the mother that has given us so great a son? " Well, I de- clare," says my Protestant friend, "that is pretty reasonable after all." So it is witii all the doctrines of the Catholic religion ; it is a reasonable, a scriptural religion. It is a natural religion, for, my dear people, if the Catholic religion is the religic of God, then it must be a reasonable, a scriptural and natural r* ligion. There can be no discord in the works of God — God is the author of rea- son, the author of the Bible, the author of nature, and the author of the true religion. All these are the works of God ; and there must be in the works of God a harmony, a concord, a union ; and AGAINST THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 13 therefore, the Catholic religion is reafionable, scriptural, and natu- ral. " Well, anyhow," says my Protestant minister, "tho Msone thing in your Church I don't like. I have been coming to this mis- sion several nights, and when the Priest says " Hail Mary," the congregation say " Holy Mary." Now, sir, I don't like that " Hail Mary ! Hail Mary ! Holy Mary ! Holy Mary ' " it appears to me to be all nonsense, I cannot understand it." "Well, toll me, my dear reverend sir, do you never say the "Hail Mary?" "Never, sir; God forbid I should." "Well, my dear reverend preacher, I think you say the " Hail Mary " sometimes ?" " Never, sir, never !" "I think you do; have you not family prayer every night?" "Yes." Will you allow me to come to your family prayer?" "Yes, and if you do, we will pray hard for your conversion." "Well, you will have to pray mighty hard, for Father Damon will prove a nard case to convert." Well, I go to his family prayers ; and it consists in an extemporaneous prayer and in reading a chapter of the Bible ; and, after the prayer is said, with the great- est solemnity, the minister opens the Book of God, and roads the first chapter of St. Luke : and, among other things he reads, is this: — "and the angel Gabriel came to Mary, and said: Hail Mary, fu.l of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women;" and Elizabeth, inspired by the Holy Ghost, said " and blessed is the fruit of thy womb." " Stop, stop," says I " you are saying the Hail Mary." " No, no," says he, " 1 am only reading my Bible." "Yes, but my dear man, the Hail Mary is in the Bible." " Well, my God, that is a fact, and I never knew it befoie," says he. " Well, Rebecca," says he to his wife, " what is going to become of us? We are half-Papists already; we have been saying the ' Hail Mary ' all along, and never knew it ! " Is it true or not? Bible readers, when you go home to-night, read the 1st chapter of St. Luke, in your own Protestant Bible, and you will find the " Hail Mary " there. See how blind you have been in turning up youi eyes to heaven at the nonsense of poor ignorant Catholics for saying the " Hail Mary." And so it is with all the texts of God's Holy Book that contain Catholic doctrines. You read it over and over again, but you are blind, and do not seek the evidence of the doctrine of the Catholic religion in your Bible. And why is it that, you are blind ? Because of your prejudice. You have formed your religion, and opinions about religion, before you ever opened the Bible at all ; formed it from the teaching of your parents, and the preaching of your Church ; througL your teachers and not the Bible. You have taken their preaching in preference to God's Holy Book, and yet with all that dare to say u ANSWERS TO POPULAR OIJJKCTION8 the Bible is your giiide. If yours were to be a Bible, Christian, you would be a Catholic, and never anything else. " Well, any- how," says my Protostaut friend, "I will never be a Catholic. Who are those Catholicw ? — Poor people ! " And who was Our Lord, my dear Protestant friends — wur he not i)oor? Who wee the best friends of Jesus ? — Th>^ poor. Whom did He choose for His mother? — A poor Virgin. Whom did He appoint to be His guardian upon earth ? — ^The poor mechanic, St. .Joseph. The first martyrs, the Apostles of Jesus, who were they ? — Poor fishermen. And what does Jesus say : — " Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven." Never did He say ' blessed are the rich," for He knew they would have a hard time of it to get to Heaven. And you, my dear fashionable oeople, do not want to be among the Catholics because they are poor ; but if you had lived in the days of the Aposiles, you would have looked at the bare feet of the fishermen, and have said, " Shall we submit to the teaching of these poor bare-footed fishermen ? " That is pride, my dear friends ; but God .esists the proud, and gives His grace to the humble. Tlien again, says the American, and I suppose the English Protest- ants too, " We never could become Catholics, for the Catholics are for the most part Dutch and Irish. We could never associate with the Catholics, because there are too many Paddies and too many Biddies among them." Well, my dear Protestant friends, if you do not want to associate with the Paddies and Biddies, if ever you get a chance to go to Heaven, you will find plenty of Paddies and Biddies there. Again. " There are in your religion so many unnecessary ceremonie* nd I like to worship God in faith, and truth, and simplicity, with all my heart, and '^lo not want all these ceremoni js. Go to a Catholic Church, and, in the middle of the day, they have a dozen of candles on the altar — in the very middle of the day ! What is the meaning of that ? How did they come in use ? " Why object to what you do not know anything about ? The candles upon the altar were introduced by the Apostles. They were persecuted, and had to celebrate mass or divine service in subterranean caves, in the Catacombs of Rome, in cellars, in the darkness of the night, in order to escape persecution ; and, there- fore, they had to use lights. When the persecution ceased, 300 years after the Chi 'ch had been established — when Constantine the Great gave us freedom of religion — the Catholics continued to make use of lights upon the altar, as a remembrance of the per- secution of their fathers in faith. So that candle on the altar says to every Catholic Christian child, " Remember that your ancestors and the Apostles suflFered for their faith and religion." Con- AGAINST THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 15 aequently, the candle on the altar is an v;;iiblem of love. Fire is the figure of love ; Jesus has given us His hody and blood in thr Holy sacrifice of the Altar because he loves us, because Ha wished to remain vith us all dayn, even to the con- summation of the world. Now that lamp hanging there in front of the altar, is an emblem of the love of Jesus for man ; and that little lamp that burns day and night, all the time, is an indication that Jesus is there upon the altar ; and that little lamp and the candles upon the altar, say to every Catholic : " Love Jesus ; " give love for love. He has loved you so much that He has given you His Body and Blood for the nourishment of your soul'f. Return, then, love for love. " Love Jesus, and servo Him faithfully," says the little lamp and the candles upon the altar. Assuredly, the candles upon the altar are burning thereto give honor and glory to God. " Well, now," says my Protestant friend, *• is not that a queer idea ! What honoi and glory can an old candle give to God ! " Well, my dear friends, you believe in that. Whenever you have obtained a great victory, a great triumph, and you want to honor the general that obtained it, what do you do ? Have a great illumination, liglit many candles, many torches, and turn the darkness of night into the brightness of day ; and besides that, you light many bonfires. And what arc these bonfires made of? All kinds of old rubbish and old barrels; and all to give honor and glory to the great general that made you a triumphant people. Whai honor and glory can an old barrel give to your general ? " Well," they say, that is one of the means we take to show we love the general that gave us such a great victory." For the same purpose the Catholic burns the candles upon the altar to honor Jesus. Again, "Why have we candles upon the altar?" It is, my dear people, because the candle upon the altar is a repre- sentation of the Holy Ghost drscending upon the Apostles on Pentecost's Day. We read in the Bible that ten days after Christ ascended into Heaven, the Holy Ghost came down on the Apostles and qualified them to be preachers of the Gospel of Jesus, and to plant the Churcli all over the earth. Before that the Apostles were ignorant men, timid men, cowardly men, who dare not preach in public through fear ; but when the Holy Ghost came down on them in the shape of tongues of fire they were filled with the spirit of God, and went forth and planted the Church all over the earth. Now, this blaze of the candle is the emblem of the Holy Ghost coming down on the Apostles, and says, " Christian, remem- ber that thou art the child of a Church not established by man — by Martin Luther, Henry the VIH, Calvin or Wesley — but a child \( 16 ANSWERS TO POPULAR OBJECTIONS ' , ' i^i!; i of tho C'Imrch established by Jesus and the Holy Ghost, therefore," suys the candle upon tho altar, " let your hearts expand with joy and happiness that you are a child of the Church not establisiicd by man but by God." "There is another queer thing " says my Protestant friend, " I see every one who comes here sprinkle him- self with water ; this appears to me very nonsensical." And do you read the Bible and never read that God commanded that in the temple there should be a fountain of water, and that all should wash their hands in it before entering the temple, in order to ad- njonish them that they should come into the temple of God with a pure heart, and worship Him. So in the Catholic Church there is a fountain with water and every Catholic puts his hand in that, . .1 that, is a monitor to him and says, " Christian child enter in- to the house ot God with a pure intention and worship Gotl, do not go there to see and be seen, and show oil' your nice clothes, but go and worship God." That water at the door of the hurch is a monitor to everyone. " Then again," says my Protestant friend, " I have seen a queer thing here during this mission ; towards the end of the service the Priest would be raising smoke." Why, my dear friend, that is incense to God. Did you never read of such a thing as that ? If not it shows your ignorance of the Bible. In the Bible, God commands that incense should be burned before Him. It is burned in order to recognize God's supreme dominion over aL things and man's dependence on God. The burning of the incense is emblematic that our prayers may ascend before the throne of God. " Well," says my Protestant friend, "That is in the Old Testament and that is done away with." It is in the Gospel too. When the Saviour was born in the stable at Bethle hem, the wise men came and ofiered incense, gold, frankincense and myrrh. They ofiered incense to recognize Him as a God, and so we burn it on the altar in order to adore Him and worship Him as our God. " Why is it, among you Catholics, that there are so many bad people ; " asks my Protestant friend. Are all of my separated brethren saints ? I never heard of a Protestant Saint. Have you one at nli ? I don't believe the Protestants know if they have a single Saint; and they object lo bad people among Catho- lics. There is a good share of Protestants bid. "Among you," says my Protestant friends, "Theie are bad priests." If there never had been a bad priest there never would have been a Pro" testant in the world. There are some bad priests but they are mighty few. There are some bad preachers too. We read, from time to time, in the papers, of the Rev. Mr. So and So, i'alling in love with his neighbor's wife, and they skedaddle. Sure, my dear i' AGAINST THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. n people, that is not nice to run away with his neighbor's wife. So you see you have your sharo of the bad people. There are good and bad people among all ■iunominations. Bad Catholics and bad Protestants, and so it will to th{^ end of time. As long as the Church is composed of human boings, there shall be good and bad, Is the Church to be blamed for that? Is it the Church that teaches them to be bad ? The Church does all she can to make her children good, moral, honest, pure, chaste and sober. Docs not she work all the time, priests constantly preaching and mis- sions continually given for the reformation of the people ? The Church is not to blame if some of her children done* obey her, and bo guided by her instructions and admonitions. Are parents to bfi blamed when they have a bad son, notwithstanding luiving done everything to bring him up in a Christian-like manner ii ml make a good man of him ? No; so the Church is not to blame if some of her cliildren do not obey her instructions and admonitions. The Church spares no pains ; it makes every possible effort to make her children good. But where do you see, out of the Catho- lic Church, such heroic charity as you see in it. Look at the Grey Sisters of Charity, going to the huts of the poor, and waiting upon them and nursing them, no matter what their disease or disorder, small pox or fever, it matters not. Will any of your Protestant ladies do that ? Oh no, not they ! In the Catholic religion you see that devotedness, that charity without any reward, serving the poor and tending them as though they were their mothers. And who are those sisters — those kind ministering angels ? Most of them have been young ladies reared in the lap of luxury and ease — young ladies of wealthy families, but who have renounced the world, and given their heart and hand to Jesus Christ and to the poor. My dearly beloved people, I have been speaking to you for rearly two hours. I am delighted with all of you, my dearly be- loved people of Ottawa. To-morrow evening I will speak to you again, and to-morrow night bid you farewell, meantime let me assure you that Ottawa has made a favorable impression upon me ; that I have fallen in love with the people of Ottawa. . ^^^ i Date Due 1 1 1 1 ■ / / 0) L t^ hi QC D « p«i ft^vi I I HiM -UNIVERSITV LIBRAR7 ! I Oca ■< 1 I t^ 1-3 U-1 LX o J ^ 852464 BX 175^ D15 Damen^ A. Father Damea*s lecture. CAMERON LlBRARIt n FATHER DAMEN'S LECTURES. ANSWERS TO POPULAR OBJKCriOXS AGAINST THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. Paper lo do do do Dozen 75 do do do per 100 copies 5.00 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, THE ONLY TKUE CHURCH OEGOD. Paper 10 do do Dozen 75 do do per 100 copies 5.00 TRANSUBSTANTIATION. Paper 10 , do Dozen 75 do per 100 copies 5.00 HOW TO SAY THE ROSARY WITHOU T DISTRAC- TION, or points for mental occupation, wliilst reeling the Vocal Prayers. Paper 05 do . do Dozen 40 do do per 100 copies 3.00 THE IRISH IN CANADA, by J. O'Karrell Esq. Paper... . to do do do Dozen 75 do do do per 100 copies. 5.00 LIFE AND LABORS OE THE MO.ST REV. J. J. LYNCH, D.D., first Archbishop of Toronto; bovnid in rich green satin cloth with full gilt cover and edges and full page photograph 2. o do do Plain Edges with Photo 1.25 do do Gilt cover without Photo 1.50 SERIOUS HOURS OF A YOUNG LADY. Cloth 50 HISTORY OF ANTI-CHRIST. Cloth 35 ONCE EVER i WEEK, a treatise on weekly Communion. Paper 05 Dozen 40 THE PRACTICE OF HUMILITY, by His Holiness Pope Leo XIII 20 TWELVE VIRTUES OF A GOOD TEACHER, by Fev. H. Pottier, S. J. Cloth red edges 35 A FLOWER FOR EACH DAY OF THE MONTH OF MARCH. 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