Will all Catholics be saved?
No: those Catholics only will be saved who believe and practice what the Church teaches. We teach, indeed, and we firmly believe, that there is no salvation out of the Catholic Church ; yet we do not teach that all who are members of the Catholic Church will be saved. Certainly in our cities and large towns, nay, even in small villages of our great country, may be found many so-called liberal or nominal Catholics, who are no credit to their religion, to their spiritual mother, the Church. Subjected as they were, in the land of their birth, to the restraints imposed by Protestant or quasi-Protestant governments, they feel, on coming here, that they are loosed from all restraint; and forgetting the obedience that they owe to their pastors, to the prelates whom the Holy Ghost has placed over them, they become insubordinate, and live more like non-Catholics than Catholics. The children of these are, to a great extent shamefully neglected, and suffered to grow up without sufficient moral and religious instruction, and to become the recruits of our vicious population. This is certainly to be deplored, but can easily be explained without prejudice to the truth and holiness of the Catholic religion, by adverting to the condition to which those individuals were reduced before coming to this country to their disappointments in a strange land ; to their exposure to new and unlooked-for temptations ; to the fact that they were by no means the best of Catholics, even in their native
countries ; to their poverty, destitution, ignorance, insufficient culture, and a certain natural shiftlessness and recklessness, as well as to the great lack of Catholic schools, churches, and fervent priests. As low and degraded as this class of the Catholic population may be, they are not so low as the corresponding class of non -Catholics in every nation,  at the worst, there is always some germ that, with proper care, may be nursed into life, that may blossom and bear fruit. Their mother, the Church, never ceases to warn them to repent, and be cleansed from their sins by the sacrament of penance. If they do not heed the voice of their mother, but continue to live in sin to the end of their lives, their condemnation will be greater than that of those who were born to an inheritance of error, and whose minds have never been penetrated by the light of truth : "That servant," says Jesus Christ, "who knew the will of his Lord, and did not according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not, and did things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. And unto whomsoever much is given, of him much shall be required,  and to whom they have committed much, of him they will demand the more." (Luke xii, 47, 48.) "Woe to thee, Corozain, woe to thee, Bethsaida, for if in Tyre and Sidon had been wrought the mighty works that have been wrought in you, they would have done penance long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you, and thou, Capharnaum, which art exalted unto heaven, thou shalt be thrust down to hell." (Luke x, 13-15.) To know, then, and to believe the Catholic doctrine, the will of God, is one thing, and to live up to it is another. Hence, "Not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified." (Rom. ii, 13.) Holy Scripture compares the true faith, sometimes to a buckler, and sometimes to a sword. The buckler protects him only who covers himself with it, and a sword, to be useful to repel an enemy, must be drawn from the scabbard. So it is not mere faith, but its practice, which constitutes its merit, and strength, and reward. The Gospel brought light and death: light to those who practice it, and death to those who neglect its practice. "From the days of John the Baptist until now," says our Lord, "the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away." (Matt, xi, 12.) The difference between the practical and the lukewarm Christian is simply this : the latter regards faith as a matter of fact, but without its consequences, or practical part. He remembers, it is true, from time to time, the great truths of religion : death, judgment, heaven and hell; but he remembers these and other truths, and his duties, only in a superficial manner, he never reflects seriously on them, and for this reason he is never touched by them. No wonder if he continues to walk on the broad road to hell, and is lost. But the practical Christian always tries to walk on the narrow road to heaven. He constantly meditates upon the sacred truths of his religion. Everywhere he carries with him their wholesome impression. The truths of faith animate him in all the details of life. He has for his principle of action the Holy Ghost. the Spirit of Jesus Christ. It is no more he who lives, it is Jesus Christ who lives in him. Accordingly, he judges of the things of this world in the knowledge which Jesus Christ has given us in their regard ; that is, he judges of them even as Jesus Christ himself judges of them. Hence it is that he fears only that which faith teaches him to fear. He desires only those things which faith tells him to wish for, he hopes only for that which faith teaches him to hope for. He loves, or he hates, or he despises, all that faith teaches him to love, or to hate, or to despise. What does he say of the riches of this world ? He says, with Jesus Christ : "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Matt, v, 3) ; and, "Woe to you that are rich, for you have your consolation." (Luke vi, 24.) What does he say of the honors of this world ? He says, with Jesus Christ : "Woe to you when men shall bless you." (Luke vi, 26.) What does he say of the wisdom of this world ? He says, with St. Paul : "The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God." (1 Cor. iii, 19.) And with Jesus Christ, he says : "Unless you become as little children, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven." What judgment does he pass upon the pleasures of this world ? He says, with Jesus Christ : "Woe to you that now laugh, for you shall mourn and weep." (Luke vi, 25.) "Watch ye, therefore, because you know not at what hour the Lord will come." (Matt, xxiv, 42.) What judgment does he pass upon old age ? With the Holy Ghost, he says : "Venerable old age is not that of long time, nor counted by the number of years, but a spotless life is old age." (Wisd. iv, 8.) What does he say of the trials, persecutions, and injustices of this world ? He says, with Jesus Christ : "Blessed shall ye be when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man s sake. Be glad in that day and rejoice, for behold your reward is great in heaven." (Luke vi, 22.) He watches and prays. He watches over his soul, that no sinful thought may enter there, and should it enter unawares, he casts it out instantly. He watches over his heart, that no sinful affection may possess it. He watches over his eyes, that they may not gaze on any pictures, books or other objects, that could soil the purity of his soul. He watches over his ears, that they may not listen to any immodest words, or words of double meaning. He watches over his tongue, and remembers that his tongue has been sanctified in holy communion, by touching the virginal flesh and blood of Jesus Christ. He watches over his whole body ; for he knows that the body of the good Christian is the temple of the Holy Ghost, consecrated in baptism, and that he who desecrates a holy temple is accursed of God. He is watchful day and night, and avoids the occasions of sin, those persons and places which might be to him an occasion of sin. He also prays often to Jesus. He knows that Jesus is a jealous God, who commands us to call upon him, especially in the hour of temptation, and to receive him often in holy communion. He prays to Mary, the mother of faith, the lovely standard-bearer of all the elect. The very name of Mary is sweet balm to him, which heals and fortifies the soul. The very thought of Mary's purity is a check upon his passions a fragrant rose that puts to flight the foul spirit of uncleanness. Thus he thinks, judges, and acts according to the truths of the Gospel, or the principles of Jesus Christ ; and it is thus that he lives by faith, as St. Paul says. Faith is the life of the just man. It is the life of his intellect, by the truths which enlighten him ; it is the life of his heart, by the sentiments of justice and holiness which it imparts ; it is the life of his works, which it renders meritorious for all eternity ; and this happy life is obtained and enjoyed in the Church Militant of Christ alone in the One Holy Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church, "which Christ so took unto himself, as to make it a partaker of his own divinity. He, therefore, who confesses in God this holy Church is so united to Christ, as to be translated into the whole glory of his divinity the body being united to its head; the Bride (Church) to her Bridegroom, Jesus Christ." (St. Peter Chrysologus, Serm. 57, 58 and 60.)
To be continued . . . . . . . . . . . .

Would it be right to say that one who was not received into the Church before his death is damned ?
No; because, in his last hour, such a one may receive the grace to die united to the Catholic Church. It is not our business to say whether this or that one who was not received into the Church before his death is damned. What we condemn is the Protestant and the heathen system of religion, because they are utterly false but we do not condemn any person God alone is the judge of all. It is quite certain, however, that, if any of those who are not received into the Church before their death, enter heaven, a lot which we earnestly desire and beg God to grant them, they can only do so after undergoing a radical and fundamental change before death launches them into eternity. This is quite certain, for the reason, among others, that they are not one ; and nothing is more indisputably certain than this, that there can be no division in heaven : "God is not the God of dissension," says St. Paul, "but of peace." He has never suffered the least interruption of union, even in the Church Militant no earth ; most assuredly he will not tolerate it in the Church Triumphant. God most certainly will remain what he is. Non-Catholics, therefore, in order to enter heaven, must cease to be what they are, and become
something which now they are not.

God, in his infinite mercy, may enlighten, at the hour of death, one who is not yet a Catholic, so that he may know and believe the necessary truths of salvation, be truly sorry for his sins, and die in such disposition of soul as is necessary to be saved. Such a one, by an extraordinary grace of God, ceases to be what he was ; he dies -united, at least, to the soul of the Church, as theologians call it. With regard to Catholics, the case is quite different. No change need come upon them, except that which is implied in passing from the state of grace to the state of glory.
They will be one there, as they have been one here. For them the miracle of supernatural unity is already worked. That mark of God s hand is already upon them. That sign of God's election is already graven upon their foreheads. Faith, indeed, will be replaced by sight, but this will be no real change, because what they see in the next world will be what they have believed in this. The same sacramental King (to borrow an expression of Father Faber), whom here they have worshipped upon the altar, will there be their everlasting portion. The same gracious Madonna who has so often consoled them in the trials of this life, will introduce her own children to the glories of the next. They will not, in that hour, have to "buy oil" for their lamps, for they are already kindled at the lamp of the sanctuary. No wedding-robe will have to be provided for them, for they received it long ago at the baptismal font, and have washed away its stains in the tribunal of penance. The faces of the saints and angels will not be strange to them, for have they not been familiar with them from infancy as friends, companions, and benefactors ? And being thus, even in this world, of the household of faith, and the family of God, not only no shadow of change need pass upon them, but to vary in one iota from what they now believe and practice, would simply cut them off from the communion of saints, and be the most overwhelming disaster which could befall them.

We have seen that there is no salvation possible out of the Roman Catholic Church. It is therefore very impious for one to think and to say that "every religion is good." To say every religion is good, is as much as to say: The devil is as good as God. Hell is as good as heaven. Falsehood is as good as truth. Sin is as good as virtue. It is impious to say, "I respect every religion." This is as much as to say : I respect the devil as much as God, vice as much as virtue, falsehood as much as truth, dishonesty as much as honesty, hell as much as heaven. It is impious to say, "It matters very little what a man believes, provided he be an honest man. Let such a one be asked whether or not he believes that his honesty and justice are as great as the honesty and justice of the Scribes and Pharisees. These were constant in prayer, they paid tithes according to the law, gave great alms, fasted twice in every week, and compassed sea and land to make a convert, and bring him to the knowledge of the true God.

Now, what did Jesus Christ say of this justice of the Pharisees?
"Unless," he says, "your justice shall exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." (Matt, v, 20.) The righteousness of the Pharisees, then, must have been very defective in the sight of God. It was, indeed, nothing but outward show and ostentation. They did good only to be praised and admired by men j but, within, their souls were full of impurity and malice. They were lewd hypocrites, who concealed great vices under the beautiful appearance of love for God, charity to the poor, and severity to themselves. Their devotion consisted in exterior acts, and they despised all who did not live as they did ; they were strict in the religious observances of human traditions, but scrupled not to violate the commandments of God. No wonder, then, that this Pharisaic honesty and justice were condemned by our Lord. To those, therefore, who say, "It matters little what a man believes, provided he be honest," we answer : "Your outward honesty, like that of the Pharisees, may be sufficient to keep you out of prison, but not out of hell. It should be remembered that there is a dishonesty to God, to one's own soul and conscience, as well as to one's neighbor." You say, it is enough to be an honest man.

What do you mean by an honest man?
The term, honest man, is rather a little too general. Go, for instance, to that young man whose shameful secret sins are written on his hollow cheeks, in his dull, lack-lustre eye : ask him if one can be an honest man who gratifies all his brutal, shameful passions. What will be his answer ? "Why" he will say, "these natural follies and weaknesses do not hinder a man from being honest. To tell the truth, for instance, I am somewhat inclined that way myself, and yet I would like to see the man that would doubt my honesty." Go to that covetous shopkeeper, who sells his goods as if they were of the finest quality, go to that tradesman, that mason, that bricklayer, or carpenter, who does not work even half as diligently when he is paid by the day as when he is paid by the job; go to these men that have grown rich by fraudulent speculation, by cheating the public or government ; go to the employers that cheat the servant and the poor laborer : ask them if what they do, prevents them from being honest people, and they will answer you coldly that they are merely tricks of trade, shrewdness in business ; that they do not by any means hinder one from being an honest man. Go, ask that habitual drunkard, ask that man who has grown rich by selling liquor to drunkards : ask them whether these sins do not hinder them from being honest, and they will tell you, "By no means. They are honest men, very honest men." Go, ask that man or that woman who sins against the most sacred laws of nature, go, ask that doctor who murders the poor helpless babe before it can see the blessed light of day : ask them if those who are guilty of such foul deeds are honest gentlemen, and they will tell you, with the utmost assurance, that such trifles do not hinder one from being a gentleman from being a respectable lady ! True faith requires obedience, humility, and childlike simplicity, it excludes pride, self-will, clinging to our own ideas, and that unwillingness to obey which hurled the angels from heaven, and cast our first parents out of paradise. Faith is a duty which God requires of us, and unless we fulfill this duty sincerely, we can never enter the kingdom of heaven. One may say : "To submit to the yoke of faith is to submit to a spiritual and moral tyranny ; it is to lose one's liberty."

There is liberty, and there is license. To be the slave of vile passions, and seek to satisfy them always, and at any cost, is not true liberty. Surely God is free. But God can not sin. It is, therefore, no mark of liberty to be under the power of sin; on the contrary, it is the very brand of slavery. The power of sin implies the possibility of becoming a slave of sin and the devil. Those, then, who are greatly under the power of sin, and so go to hell, cannot truly be called free men. They are blinded and brutalized by satisfying the promptings of their brute nature, and thus renounce their glorious freedom, to sell it for a bestial gratification. He only is truly free who wills and does what God wishes him to do for his everlasting happiness.

Now, as we have seen, God wishes that all should be saved in the Roman Catholic Church. Those, therefore, who believe and do what the Church teaches do not lose their liberty, on the contrary, they enjoy true liberty, and make the proper use of it. Hence, the greater our power of will is, and the less difficulty we experience in following the teaching of the Church, the greater is our liberty. Accordingly, Catholics, who live up to the teaching of the Church, enjoy greater liberty, and peace, and happiness, than Protestants and unbelievers, because they are the children of the light of truth, that leads them to heaven ; whilst those who live out of the Church are the children of the darkness of error, which leads them, finally, into the abyss of hell. If no one, then, can be saved except in the Roman Catholic Church, all those who are out of it are bound to become members of the Church. This is what common sense tells every non- Catholic. In worldly affairs, Protestants never presume to act without good advice. They never compromise their pecuniary interests or their lives, by becoming their own private interpreters and practitioners of law or medicine. Both the legal and the medical books are before them, written by modern authors, in clear and explicit language, but they have too much practical common-sense to attempt their interpretation. They prefer always to employ expert lawyers and physicians, and accept their interpretations, and act according to their advice. Now, every non-Catholic believes that every practical member of the Catholic Church will be saved. Hence, when there is question about eternal salvation and eternal damnation, a sensible man will take the surest way to heaven. It was this that decided Henry IV of France to abjure his errors. A historian relates that this king, having called before him a conference of the doctors of either Church, and seeing that the Protestant ministers agreed, with one accord, that salvation was attainable in the Catholic religion, immediately addressed a Protestant minister in the following manner: "Now, sir, is it true that people can be saved in the Catholic religion ? "Most assuredly it is, sire, provided they live up to it." "If that be so" said the monarch, "prudence demands that I should be of the Catholic religion, not of yours, seeing that in the Catholic Church I may be saved, as even you admit ; whereas, if I remain in yours, Catholics maintain that I cannot be saved. Both prudence and good sense tell me that I should follow the surest way, and so I propose doing." Some days after, the king made his abjuration at St. Denis. (Guillois, ii, 67.)

Christ assures us that the way to everlasting life is narrow, and trodden by few. The Catholic religion is that narrow road to heaven. Protestantism, on the contrary, is that broad way to perdition trodden by so many. He who is content to follow the crowd, condemns him self by taking the broad way. A man says : "I would like to believe, but I cannot." You say you "cannot believe." But what have you done, what means have you employed, in order to acquire the gift of faith ? If you have neglected the means, you show clearly that you do not desire the end. God bestowed great praise upon his servant Job. He said of him that "he was a simple and upright man, fearing God and avoiding evil." (Job. i, 8.) There is nothing that renders a soul more acceptable to God than simplicity and sincerity of heart in seeking him. There is on the other hand, nothing more detestable to him than a double-minded man, who does not walk sincerely with his God : "Woe to them that are of a double heart, . . . and to the sinner that goeth on the earth two ways." (Ecclus. ii, 14.) Such a man should not expect that the Lord will enlighten and direct him. Our Saviour assures us that his heavenly Father makes himself known to the little ones, that is, to those who have recourse to him with a simple and sincere heart. This sincerity and uprightness of heart with God are especially necessary for him who is in search of the true religion. We see around us numberless jarring sects, contradicting one another, we see the one condemning what the other approves, and approving what others condemn ; we see some embracing certain divine truths, and others rejecting those truths with horror, as the doctrine of devils. Now common-sense tells every one that both parties can
not be right ; that the true religion cannot be on either side. Among such confusion of opinions, the mind is naturally at a loss how to discover that one true Church in whose bosom the truth is to be found. In the search after truth, one must find immense difficulties. There is prejudice. It is the effect of early training, of life-long teaching, of reading, and of living in the world. It is the result of almost imperceptible impressions, and yet its force, as an obstacle, is such as in many cases to defy human efforts to remove it. It is like the snow which begins to fall, as the darkness sets in, on roof and road, in little flakes that come down silently all the night, and in the morning the branches bend, and the doors are blocked, and the traffic on road and rail is brought to a standstill.

There, again, is the favor of friends, the fear of what the world will say, worldly interest, and the like. All these will be set to work by the enemy of souls to blind the understanding, that it may not see the truth and to avert the will from embracing it. Nothing but a particular grace from heaven can enlighten the mind to perceive the light of truth through such clouds of darkness, and to strengthen the will with courage to embrace it, in spite of all these difficulties. It is, without doubt, the will of God, that "all men should be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim. ii, 4) ; but it is also the will of God that, in order to come to this knowledge, men must seek it with a sincere and upright heart, and this sincerity of heart must show itself in their earnest desire to know the truth : "Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice, for they shall be filled." Hence they must labor diligently to find out the truth, using every means in their power for that purpose. Negligence of inquiry, and the evidences of our faith, are great, and therefore the ignorance of many must needs be highly sinful. Man's understanding was given to him, to enable him to embrace holy and salutary truths. Negligence in this is worthy of damnation  and as everything tends easily to its natural end, so our natural, intellectual virtue is nearer finding God than it is finding his contrary, for God is always ready to aid those who seek him with a good and honest heart : and thus we find that to Cornelius, a Pagan, yet living religiously, and fearing God, St. Peter was sent to convert him and all his family. God, says St. Thomas Aquinas, will send an angel to a man ignorant of the Christian law, but living up to his conscience, to instruct him in the Christian religion, rather then let him perish through inculpable ignorance.

There are laws to regulate man's will and affections, and so there are also laws to fix limits to his understanding to determine what he should believe, and what he should not believe ; and therefore ignorance is damnable, for men ought to believe what they do not ; and they ought curiously to inquire what are these laws. Whereas, the multitude run, with all their strength, to sin and death as their end, and it is not strange that they should find it. The first and great cause of all these errors is negligence of inquiry ; and the second is, aversion to believe what; ought to be believed of God, and a hatred for the things that would enlighten and convert the soul. If men will not heed either holy words or miracles, it is not strange that they remain in error. They must study religion, with a sincere desire to find out the truth. If they wish to find out the truth, they must not appeal to the enemies of truth. They must consult those who are well instructed in their religion, and who practice it. They must consult the priest. He will explain to them the true doctrine of the Catholic Church. Moreover, sincerity of heart must show itself in a firm resolution to embrace the truth whenever it shall be found, and whatever it may cost the seeker. He must prefer it before every worldly consideration, and be ready to forfeit everything in this life : the affections of his friends, a comfortable home, temporal goods, and prospects in business, rather than deprive his soul of so great a treasure.

The New York Freeman's Journal, Sept. 2d, 1854, contains the following notice on the late General Thomas F. Carpenter. The words of this notice are written by ex-Governor Laurence. The general, when about to become a Catholic, made known his intention to a friend. The friend, of course, was surprised. He instanced the fearful results consequent upon a proceeding so unpopular, the loss of professional practice, the alienation of friends, the scoffs of the crowd, etc. "All such blessings," replied General Carpenter, "I can dispense with, all such insults I can despise, but I cannot afford to lose my immortal soul." The general spoke thus, because he knew, and firmly believed, what Jesus Christ has solemnly declared, to wit : "He who loveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me, and he that loveth son or daughter more than me, is not worthy of me" (Matt, x, 37) ; and as to the loss of temporal gain, he has answered : "What will it profit a man if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his soul?" (Mark viii; 36.)

But would it not be enough for such a one to be a Catholic in heart only, without professing his religion publicly ? No, for Jesus Christ has solemnly declared that "he who shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him the Son of man shall be ashamed when he shall come in his majesty, and that of his Father, and of the holy angels." (Luke ix, 26.)

But might not such a one safely put off being received into the Church till the hour of death ?
This would be to abuse the mercy of God, and, in punishment for this sin, to lose the light and grace of faith, and die a reprobate. In order to obtain heaven, we must be ready to sacrifice all, even our lives : "Fear ye not them," says Christ, "that kill the body, and are not able to kill the soul ; but rather fear him that can destroy both soul and body in hell." (Matt, x, 28.) How often do we meet with men who tell us that they would gladly become Catholics, but it is too hard to live up to the laws and maxims of the Church ! They know very well that, if they become Catholics, they must lead honest and sober lives, they must be pure, they must respect the holy sacrament of marriage, they must check their sinful passions; and this they are unwilling to do: "Men love darkness rather than light," says Jesus Christ, "because their deeds are evil." Remember the well known proverb : "There are none so deaf as those that will not hear." They are kept back from embracing the faith, because they know that the truths of our religion are at war with their sinful inclinations. It is not surprising that these inclinations should revolt against immolation. The prudence of the flesh understands and feels that it loses all, if the truths of faith are listened to and taken for the rule of conduct ; that it must renounce the unlawful enjoyments of life, must die to the world and to itself, and bear the mortification of Jesus Christ in its body. At the mere thought of this crucifixion of the flesh and its concupiscence, imposed on every one who would belong to the Saviour, the whole animal man is troubled. Self love suggests a thousand reasons to delay at least the sacrifices that affright them. The prudence of the flesh, having the ascendency, obscures the most simple truths, attracts and flatters the powers of the soul ; and when, afterward, "faith endeavors to interpose its authority, it finds the under standing prejudiced, the will overcome or weakened, the heart all earthly-minded ; and hard, indeed, is it for faith to reduce the soul to its dominion. Those who listen to the prudence of the flesh will never become Catholics.

Finally, those who seek the truth must show their sincerity of heart in fervently and frequently praying to God that they may find the truth, and the right way that leads to it. Faith is not a mere natural gift; it is not an acquired virtue or habit, it is something altogether supernatural. The right use of the natural faculties can, indeed, prepare one to receive faith ; but true faith, that is, to believe, with an unwavering conviction, in the existence of all those things which God has made known, is a supernatural gift, a gift which no one can have of himself; it is the free gift of God : "For by grace you are saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves, for it is the gift of God." (Eph. ii, 8.) God is so great and good, that we cannot merit and possess this good by anything we may do. Now, it is by the gift of faith that we have in some measure a glimpse of all that God is, and that consequently we attach ourselves to this supreme good, and behold ! we are saved. We can say with David, in the truest sense, that in enlightening us the Lord saves us : "The Lord is my light, and my salvation." (Ps. xxvi, 1.) Hence it is evident that this gift is a free gift of God, without the least merit on our part. When this light or grace shines upon the understanding, it enlightens the understanding; so as to render it most certain of the truths which are proposed to it. But this mere knowledge of the truth is not as yet the full gift of faith. St. Paul says (Rom. i, 2) that the heathens knew God, but they would not obey him, and consequently their knowledge did not save them. You may convince a man that the Catholic Church is the true Church, but he will not, on that account, become a Catholic. Our Saviour himself was known by many, and yet he was followed only by few. Faith, then, is something more than knowledge. Knowledge is the submission of the understanding to truth ; but faith implies also the submission of the will to the truth. It is for this reason that the light or grace of faith must also move the will, because a good will also belongs to faith, since no one can believe unless he is willing to believe. It is for this reason that faith is also rewarded by God, and infidelity punished : "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be condemned." (Mark xvi, 16.) God will never refuse to bestow this gift of faith upon those who seek the truth with a sincere heart, use their best endeavors to find it, and sincerely pray for it with confidence and perseverance. Witness Clovis, the heathen
King of the Franks. When he, together with his whole army, was in the greatest danger of being defeated by the Alemanni, he prayed as follows : "Jesus Christ, thou of whom Clotilde (the king's Christian wife) has often told me that thou art the Son of the living God, and that thou givest aid to the hard-pressed, and victory to those who trust in thee ! I humbly crave thy powerful assistance. If thou grantest me the victory over my enemies I will believe in thee, and be baptized in thy name ; for I have called upon my gods in vain. They must be impotent, as they cannot help those who serve them. Now I invoke thee, desiring to believe in thee; do, then, deliver me from the hands of my adversaries !" No sooner had he uttered this prayer than the Alemanni were panic-stricken, took to flight, and soon after, seeing their king slain, sued for peace. Thereupon Clovis blended both nations, the Franks and the Alemanni, together, returned home, and became a Christian. Witness F. Thayer, an Anglican minister. When as yet in great doubt and uncertainty about the truth of his religion, he began to pray as follows: "God of all goodness, almighty and eternal Father of mercies, and Saviour of mankind! I implore thee, by thy sovereign goodness, to enlighten my mind, and to touch my heart, that, by means of true faith, hope, and charity, I may live and die in the true religion of Jesus Christ. I confidently believe that, as there is but one God, there can be but one faith, one religion, one only path to salvation ; and that every other path opposed thereto can lead but to perdition. This path, my God ! I anxiously seek after, that I may follow it, and be saved. Therefore I protest, before thy divine majesty, and I swear by all thy divine attributes, that I will follow the religion which thou shalt reveal to me as the true one, and will abandon, at whatever cost, that wherein I shall have discovered errors and falsehood. I confess that I do not deserve this favor for the greatness of my sins, for which I am truly penitent, seeing they offend a God who is so good, so holy, and so worthy of love; but what I deserve not, I hope to obtain from thine infinite mercy ; and I beseech thee to grant it unto me through the merits of that precious blood which was shed for us sinners by thine only Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth, etc. Amen." God was not slow to hear so sincere and fervent a prayer, and Thayer became a Catholic. Let any one who is as yet groping in the darkness of infidelity and error, pray in the same manner, and the God of all light and truth will bestow upon him the gift of faith in a high degree. It is human to fall into error, devilish to remain in it, and angelical to rise from it, by embracing the truth which leads to God, by whom it has been revealed and is preserved in his Church.
To be continued . . . . . . . . . . . .

Who are not members of the Roman Catholic Church ?
All unbaptized persons unbelievers, apostates, heretics,and all excommunicated persons. But how do we know that unbaptized persons are not saved? We know it, because Jesus Christ has said : "Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." (John iii, 5.) Heaven is the union of Almighty God with the elect, those who are quite pure, without the least stain of sin. But God, who is holiness itself, cannot unite himself to a soul that is in sin. Now, as those who die without baptism remain forever stained with original sin, they can never be united to Almighty God in heaven. And why are unbelievers and apostates lost ? Unbelievers and apostates are lost, because it is said that, "without faith, it is impossible to please God." In our day and country, it is become fashionable for a large number of men to have no religion, and even to boast of having none. To have no religion is a great crime ; but to boast of having none is the height of folly. The man without religion is a slave to the most degrading superstition. Instead of worshipping the true, free, living God, who governs all things by his providence, he bows before the horrid phantom of blind chance or inexorable destiny. He is a man who obstinately refuses to believe the most solidly established facts in favor of religion, and yet, with blind credulity, greedily swallows the most absurd falsehoods uttered against religion. He is a man whose reason has fled, and whose passions speak, object, and decide in the name of reason. He is sunk in the grossest ignorance regarding religion. He blasphemes what he does not understand. He rails at the doctrines of the Church, without knowing really what her doctrines are. He sneers at the doctrines and practices of religion, because he can not refute them. He speaks with the utmost gravity of the fine arts, the fashions, and matters the most trivial, while he turns the most sacred subjects into ridicule. In the midst of his own circle of fops and silly women, he utters his shallow conceits with all the pompous assurance of a pedant.

But why is it that he makes his impious doctrines the subject of conversation on every occasion? It is, of course, first to communicate his devilish principles to others, and make them as bad as he himself is; but this is not the only reason. The good Catholic seldom speaks of his religion ; he feels assured, by the grace of God, that his religion is the only true one, and that he will be saved if he lives up to it. Such is not the case with the infidel; he is constantly tormented in his soul : "There is no peace, no happiness for the impious," says the holy Scripture. He tries to quiet the fears of his soul, the remorse of his conscience, so he communicates to others, on every occasion, his perverse principles, hoping to meet with some of his fellow-men who may approve of his impious views, that he thus may find some relief for his interior torments. He resembles a timid man, who is obliged to travel during a dark night, and who begins to sing and cry out, in order to keep away fear. The infidel is a sort of night-traveller ; he travels in the horrible darkness of his impiety. His interior conviction tells him that there is a God who will certainly punish him in the most awful manner. This fills him with great fear, and makes him extremely unhappy every moment of his life; he cannot bear the sight of a Catholic church, of a Catholic procession, of an image of our Lord, of a picture of a saint, of a prayer-book, of a good Catholic, of a priest, in a word, he cannot bear anything that reminds him of God, of religion, of his own guilt and impiety : so, on every occasion, he cries out against faith in God, in all that God has revealed and proposes to us for our belief by the holy Catholic Church. What is the object of his impious cries ? It is to deafen, to keep down, in some measure, the clamors of his conscience. Our hand will involuntarily touch that part of the body where we feel pain ; in like manner, the tongue of the infidel touches, on all occasions, involuntarily as it were, upon all those truths of our holy religion which inspire him with fear of the judgments of Almighty God. He feels but too keenly that he cannot do away with God and his sacred religion, by denying his existence. The days of the infidel are counted. What a fearful thing it is for him to fall into the hands of God in the hour of death ! He knows this truth, and because he knows it, he dies in the fury of despair, and, as it were, in the anticipated torments of the suffering that awaits him in hell. Witness Voltaire, the famous infidel of France ! He wished to make his confession at his last hour. But the priest of St. Sulpice was not able to go to his, bedside, because the chamber-door was shut upon him. So Voltaire died without confession. He died in such a terrible paroxysm of fury and rage, that the marshal of Richelieu, who was present at his horrible agony, exclaimed: "Really, this sight is sickening ; it is insupportable !" M. Tronchin, Voltaire's physician, says : "Figure to yourself the rage and fury of Orestes, and you ll still have but a feeble image of the fury of Voltaire in his last agony. It would be well if all the infidels of Paris were present. Oh ! the fine spectacle that would have met their eyes ! "Thus is fulfilled in infidels what God says in holy Scripture :
"I will laugh at the destruction of those who laughed at me during their life."

Witness Tom Paine ! A short time before he died he sent for the Rev. Father Fenwick. Father Fenwick went, in company of Father Kohlman, to see the infidel in his wretched condition. When they arrived at Paine's house, at Greenwich, his housekeeper came to the door and inquired whether they were the Catholic priests : "For," said she, "Mr. Paine has been so annoyed of late by ministers of different other denominations calling upon him, that he has left express orders with me to admit no one to-day but clergymen of the Catholic Church." Upon assuring her that they were Catholic clergymen, she opened the door, and invited them to sit down in the parlor. "Gentlemen," said she, "I really wish you may succeed with Mr. Paine; for he is laboring under great distress of mind ever since he was informed by his physicians that he cannot possibly live, and must die shortly. He sent for you to-day, because he was told that if any one could do him good, you might. He is truly to be pitied. His cries, when he is left alone, are truly heart-rending. O Lord ! help me ! he will exclaim during his paroxysms of distress. God, help, Jesus Christ, help me ! repeating the same expressions without any the least variation, in a tone of voice that would alarm the house. Sometimes he will say, "God ! what have I done to suffer so much ? Then shortly after : "If there is a God, what will become of me? Thus he will continue for some time, when on a sudden he will scream as if in terror and agony, and call out for me by name. On one of these occasions, which are very frequent, I went to him and inquired what he wanted. "Stay with me," he replied, "for God s sake ; for I cannot bear to be left alone."I then observed that I could not always be with him, as I had much to attend to in the house. Then, said he, "send even a child to stay with me ; for it is a hell to be alone. I never saw,"" she concluded, "a more unhappy, a more forsaken man. It seems he cannot reconcile himself to die." The fathers did all in their power to make Paine enter into himself, and ask God s pardon. But all their endeavors were in vain. He ordered them out of his room, in the highest pitch of his voice, and seemed a very maniac with rage and madness.  "Let us go," said Father Fenwick to Father Kohlman. "We have nothing more to do here. He seems to be entirely abandoned by God. Further words are lost upon him. I never before or since beheld a more hardened wretch." (Lives of the Catholic Bishops of America," p. 379, etc.) To the infidel and evil-doer these examples present matter worthy of serious reflection, while the believer will recognize in them the special judgment of God, which is too clearly indicated to be doubted by any honest mind. Let the unbeliever remember that the hour will come when he shall open his eyes to see the wisdom of those who have believed, when he also shall see, to his confusion, his own madness in refusing to believe. "Oh ! that he would be wise, and would understand that there is none that can deliver out of the hand of the Lord !" (Deut. xxxii, 39.)
To be continued . . . . . . . . .

Will such human faith save them ?
No, for St. Paul says : "It is impossible to please God without faith." (Heb. xi, 6.) To be saved, we must do the will of God : "Not every one that saith to me Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven ; but he that doth the will of my Father who is in heaven, he shall enter into the kingdom of heaven." (Matt, vii, 21.) The will of God the Father is that men hear and believe his Son, Jesus Christ : "This is my well-beloved Son. Him you shall hear." Now, Jesus Christ said to his apostles and their lawful successors : "He that heareth you heareth me, and he that despiseth you despiseth me,  and he that despiseth me,despiseth him that sent me," the heavenly Father. Now, Protestants despise God the Father, because they do not listen to his Son speaking to them through Peter and the apostles, in their lawful successors. Turning, as they do, their back upon them most contemptuously, they follow their own will in all religious matters. Assuredly no Protestant would engage and pay a servant who would tell him, "I will serve you according to my will, not according to yours." How, then, could God the Father admit one into his kingdom who has always refused to do his will, who, instead of learning the will of God, the full doctrine of Christ, through the Catholic Church, was himself his own teacher, his own lawgiver, his own judge, in religious matters? Every one who is not a Catholic
should remember that there never was a time, from the beginning of the world, when God left men free to fashion their own religion, to invent their own creed and their own form of worship. Christ never designed that the sacred truths of his religion should be submitted to the people by the apostles and their successors for discussion, for criticism, and for private interpretation, with liberty to alter and amend, or reject them, as ignorance, prejudice, or caprice might dictate. He never submitted his doctrines to the opinions or criticisms of the Scribes, Pharisees, or Sadducees of Jerusalem, or the learned Pagan philosophers, he never sanctioned what is termed, in modern times, "freedom of conscience" and "private interpretation" on the contrary, from the beginning of the world, God established on earth a visible teaching authority, to which it was the bounden duty of every man to submit, if he would be saved. If one, then, who is not a Catholic, seriously considers the question, "Is it God that speaks through the Catholic Church?" he fulfils a most sacred duty, and acts according to reason. Far from offending God, he honors him by using his reason to distinguish the voice of God from that of man the supreme, divine authority from mere human authority. But as soon as he is convinced that the authority of the Church is from God, he is bound to believe most firmly all that he is told on this authority. Common-sense tells him that, when he hears God speak, he hears nothing but truth ; no matter whether or not he understands it, he is obliged to say, Amen, it is so. "Without such faith" says St. Paul, "it is impossible to please God." Take the case of one who is not a Catholic, but who has studied all the doctrines of the Church. He makes up his mind that all that the Church teaches is reasonable and consistent with holy Scripture, and so he believes, and becomes a Catholic. Is his faith divine ? Does he become a Catholic in the right way ? No; his faith is based, as yet, on individual reason alone. There is another. He considers the antiquity of the Roman Catholic Church, her unity in faith, the purity and holiness of her doctrine ; her establishment by poor fishermen all over the world, in spite of all kinds of opposition ; her invariable duration from the time of the apostles, the miracles which are wrought in her ; the holiness of all those who live according to her laws, the deep science of her doctors, the almost infinite number of her martyrs, the peace of mind and happiness of soul experienced by those who have entered her bosom; the fact that all Protestants admit that a faithful Catholic will be saved in his religion, the frightful punishment inflicted by God upon all the persecutors of the Catholic Church ; the melancholy death of the authors of heresies; the constant fulfilment of the words of our Lord, that his Church would always be persecuted. He seriously considers all this; he is enlightened by God's grace to see that the Roman Catholic Church alone is the true Church of Jesus Christ; he is convinced that her authority is from God, and that to hear and obey her authority is to hear and obey God himself: and so he accepts and believes all that she teaches, because it comes to him on the authority of God, and therefore must be true ; not because he himself sees how or why it is true. This is true divine faith this is the right way to become a Catholic. Such faith is absolutely necessary. It is necessary by necessity of precept. Our blessed Lord says : "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be condemned." This pre- cept is affirmative; in as far as it obliges us to believe all that God has revealed ; it is negative, in as far as it for bids us to hold any opinions contrary to the revealed truth. Such faith is necessary by necessity of medium, for, "without faith, it is impossible to please God," (Heb. xi,
6.) "If you believe not, you shall die in your sins." (John v, 38 ; viii, 27.)

Must, then, all who wish to be saved die united to the Catholic Church ?
Yes ; for out of the Catholic Church there is no salvation :
1. because she alone teaches the true faith ;
2. because in her alone are found the means of grace and salvation.
Our divine Saviour says : "No one can come to the Father except through me." If we then wish to enter heaven, we must be united to Christ, to his body, which is the Church, as St. Paul says. We must then be united to his Church. Therefore out of that Church there is no salvation. Again, Jesus Christ says : "Whoever will not hear the Church, look upon him as a heathen and a great sinner." Therefore, out of the Church there is no salvation. Holy Scripture says ( Acts ii, 47) : "The Lord added daily to the Church such as should be saved." Therefore the apostles believed, and the holy Scriptures teach, that there is no salvation out of the Church. Hence the Fathers of the Church never hesitated to pronounce all those forever lost who die out of the Roman Catholic Church : "He who has not the Church for his mother," says St. Cyprian, "cannot have God for his Father" and with him the Fathers in general say that," as all who were not in the ark of Noe perished in the waters of the Deluge, so shall all perish who are out of the true Church." St. Augustine and the other bishops of Africa, at the Council of Zirta, A. D. 412, say : "Whosoever is separated from the Catholic Church, however commendable in his own opinion his life may be, he shall, for the very reason that he is separated from the union of Christ, not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him." Therefore, says St. Augustine, "a Christian ought to fear nothing so much as to be separated from the body of Christ (the Church). For, if he be separated from the body of Christ, he is not a member of Christ, if not a member of Christ, he is not quickened by his Spirit." (Tract, xxvii, in Joan., n. 6, col. 1992, torn, iii.) "ln our times," says Pius IX, "many of the enemies of the Catholic faith direct their efforts toward placing every monstrous opinion on the same level with the doctrine of Christ, or confounding it therewith ; and so they try more and more to propagate that impious system of the indifference of religions. But quite of late, we shudder to say it, certain men have not hesitated to slander us by saying that we share in their folly, favor that most wicked system, and think so benevolently of every class of mankind as to suppose that not only the sons of the Church, but that the rest also, however alienated from Catholic unity they may remain, are alike in the way of salvation, and may arrive at everlasting life. We are at a loss, from horror, to find words to express our detestation of this new and atrocious injustice that is done us. We love, indeed, all mankind with the inmost affection of our hearts, yet not otherwise than in the love of God and our Lord Jesus Christ, who came to seek and to save that which had perished, who died for all, who wills all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth ; who, therefore, sent his disciples into the whole world to preach the Gospel to every creature, proclaiming that those who should believe and be baptized should be saved, but that those who should not believe should be condemned. Let those, therefore, who wish to be saved, come to the pillar and the ground of faith, which is the Church, let them come to the true Church of Christ, which, in her bishops and in the Roman Pontiff, the chief head of all, has the succession of apostolical authority which has never been interrupted, which has never counted anything of greater importance than to preach, and by all means to keep and defend the doctrine proclaimed by the apostles at Christ's command. This apostolical authority of the Church has, from the apostles time, ever increased in the midst of
difficulties of every kind ; it has become illustrious through out the whole world, by the splendor of miracles and by the blood of martyrs ; it has been exalted by the virtues of confessors and virgins, it has been strengthened by the most wise testimonies and writings of the Fathers, it has flourished, and does flourish, in all the regions of the earth, and shines refulgent in the perfect unity of faith, of sacraments, and of holy discipline. We who, though unworthy, hold this supreme See of the Apostle Peter, wherein Christ has laid the foundation of the same Church of his, shall never at any time abstain from any cares or labors that, by the grace of Christ himself, we may bring those who are ignorant, and who are going astray, to this only road of truth and salvation. But let all those who oppose themselves, remember that heaven and earth shall indeed pass away, but that nothing can ever pass away of the words of Christ, nor change be made in the doctrine which the Catholic Church has received from Christ, to be kept, defended, and preached. (Allocution to the Cardinals, held on the 17th Dec., 1847.)
To be continued . . .  . . . .

Do Protestant sects teach divine faith on divine authority?
No, the faith of Protestants is based upon human authority, because their founders were not sent by God, nor did they receive any mission from his Church. The aim of Protestantism was to declare every man independent of the divine authority of the Catholic Church, and to substitute for this divine authority that of the Bible, as interpreted by himself. Protestants, therefore, hold that man is himself his own teacher and his own law giver, that it is each one's business to find out his own religion, that is to say, that every one must judge for himself what doctrines are most consistent with reason and the holy Scriptures; or that he must follow the teaching of the clergyman whose views best commend themselves to his judgment. He does not acknowledge that God has a right to teach him, or, if he acknowledges this right, he does not feel himself bound to believe all that God teaches him through those whom God appointed to teach mankind. He says to God: If thou teachest me, I reserve to myself the right to examine thy words, to explain them as I choose, and admit only what appears to me true, consistent, and useful. Hence, St. Augustine says : "You who believe what you please, and reject what you please, believe yourselves or your own fancy, rather than the Gospel." The faith of the Protestant, then, is based upon his private judgment alone; it is human. As his judgment is alterable, he naturally holds that his faith and doctrine is alterable at will, and is therefore continually changing it. Evidently, then, he does not hold it to be the truth, for truth never changes. Nor does he hold it to be the law of God, which he is bound to obey, for; if the law of God be alterable at all, it can only be altered by God himself, never by man, any body of men, or any creature of God.

But some Protestants, for instance, the Anglicans, think that they approach very near to the Catholic Church. They will tell you that their prayers and ceremonies are like many prayers and ceremonies of the Catholic Church, that their creed is the Apostles Creed. But, in principle, they are all equally far off. Thus they profess to believe in one Church, which has, unfortunately, become half a dozen; in unity, which ceased to exist long ago, for want of a centre ; in authority, which nobody needs obey, because it has lost the power to teach, in God's presence with the Church, which does not keep her from stupid errors, in divine promises, which were only made to be broken; in a divine constitution, which needs to be periodically reformed, in a mission to teach all nations, while she is unable to teach even herself; in saints, to whom Anglicans would be objects of horror and aversion; and in the sanctity of truths which their own sect has always defiled, and which are profanely mocked at this hour by its bishops, clergy, and people, all around them.

The world has had occasion to admire, in various ages, many curious products of human imbecility, but at no time, and among no people, has it seen anything which could be matched with this. Compared with Anglicanism and its myriad contradictions, the wildest phantom which ever mocked the credulity of distempered fanaticism was a form of truth and beauty, a model of exact reasoning and logical symmetry. Even an untutored Indian chief, by the aid of his rude common-sense, and the mere intuition of natural truth, does not fail to see the folly of Protestant belief, and confounds and ridicules it before those Protestant missionaries who come to convert his tribe to Protestantism. Elder Alexander Campbell, in a lecture before the American Christian Missionary Association, relates the following : "Sectarian missionaries had gone among the Indians to disseminate religious sentiments. A council was called, and the missionaries explained the object of their visit. "Is not all the religion of a white man in a book?" quoth a chief. "Yes" replied the missionaries. "Do not all white men read the book ?" continued the chief. Another affirmative response. "Do they all agree upon what it says ?" inquired the chief, categorically. There was a dead silence for some moments. At last one of the missionaries replied : "Not exactly ; they differ upon some doctrinal points." "Go home, white man" said the chief, "1 call a council, and, when the white men all agree, then come teach the red men."

The absurdity of Protestantism being so easily perceived by the rude child of the forest, Protestantism has never been able to convert a heathen nation, although it has very human means in its power. It has a vast number of ministers, plenty of ships to carry these ministers to every country, boundless wealth, and great armies and navies to terrify the heathen, also its merchants scattered through every quarter of the globe ; with all this, Protestantism has not converted a nation, nor even a city or tribe, of heathens to Christianity, after three hundred years existence. It has been ascertained that, during the last fifty years, Protestantism, in Europe and America, has collected and spent over one hundred and twenty-five millions of dollars, for the purpose of converting the heathens. One hundred millions of Bibles, Testaments, and tracts, have been printed in various languages, and scattered throughout the world for the same purpose. Five thousand missionaries, with large salaries, varying from a hundred to five hundred pounds each, and also an additional allowance for their wives and families, are kept annually employed in the work, and yet all to no purpose. No result whatever can be shown.

During every month of May, the various sects of Protestants hold their anniversary meetings in London and New York. At these gatherings speeches are made and reports read, in which the people are told of the wonderful conversions that are just going to take place ; of a great door opened for the Gospel, of fields white for the harvest, of bright anticipations, of missionaries who now enjoy the confidence of the natives, of Pagans stretching, or who are about to stretch, forth their hands to God immediately; of printing-presses which are in constant operation; of schools to be opened; of sums spent in Bibles of Bibles, Testaments, and tracts distributed. Every promise is made for the future, but nothing what ever is shown for the past. The meetings are ended, votes of thanks are given to the various chairmen, prayers said, subscriptions received, and the huge delusion lives on from year to year. Some of the missionaries give up the work in despair, others in disgust. Some run away from the first appearance of danger, others fly from persecution, being terrified at the very idea of martyrdom. One missionary comes back to his native country, because of the sudden death of his wife ; another, to bury his youngest daughter in her mother's grave, another leaves the field of his missionary labors, to console his dear mother on her death-bed ; another comes home to look after some small property left him by his father, who recently died, one comes home to preserve the life of a delicate child, who did not seem to thrive in the place where he was stationed,  another left to attend to the education of his children, whom he could not feel in his heart to rear up amongst Pagans ; another comes home, because his wife has quarrelled with the wives of some of the other missionaries, another, to be present at his eldest daughter's marriage. Many Protestant missionaries give up the work of saving souls for more lucrative pursuits, such as, good commercial or government situations, or to become merchants on their own account, whilst a few, possessed of sufficient ability, have become newspaper correspondents; and more than one, instead of converting the Pagans, have themselves become converts to the Jewish and Mahometan religions, having got rich wives of these persuasions.

Protestant travelers and writers who have visited the fields of Protestant missionary labor, have themselves furnished the world with these details. They tell of a few converts here and there, who relapse into paganism when ever the missionaries withdraw. They tell us that the missionaries become tyrants, and persecute the people when they get the chance ; that they drive the natives into the Protestant meeting-houses by force, and make them more brutal, profligate, crafty, treacherous, impure, and disgusting, than they were before. One writer states how he found, in the Sandwich Islands, that the Protestant missionaries had civilized the people into draught-horses, and evangelized them into beasts of burden ; that they were literally broken into the traces; and harnessed to the vehicles of their spiritual instructors, like so many beasts of burden. The poor natives are compelled to draw their pastors, as well as their wives and daughters, to church, to market, or for pleasure, and are whipped like horses. The same writer says, the missionaries destroy heathenism, and the heathens also, that they extirpate Paganism and the people at the same time,  that the natives are robbed of their land, in the name of religion, and that disease, vice, and premature death, make their appearance together with Protestantism. The missionaries are dwelling in picturesque and prettily furnished coral-rock villas, while the miserable natives are committing all sorts of crime and
immorality around them. The depopulated land is recruited from the rapacious hordes of enlightened individuals who settle within its borders, and clamorously announce the progress of the truth. Neat villas, trim gardens, shaven lawns, spires, and cupolas arise, while the poor savage soon finds himself an interloper in the country of his fathers, arid that, too, on the very site of the hut where he was born. When will Protestants learn wisdom from the rude child of the forest ? When will they see the absurdity of their teaching? It is strange how men will put their reason in their pocket, and prefer darkness to light, error to truth, folly to wisdom. That man might know what to believe, Christ, who alone could tell him, founded the Roman Catholic Church, to be forever "the pillar and ground of truth." Whoever declines to follow this guide, must live without any sure guide. There is. no other, because God has given no other. Hence Pius IX spoke lately of Protestantism, in all its forms, as "revolt against God," it being an attempt to substitute a human for a divine authority, and a declaration of the creature's independence of the Creator. The creed of the apostate has only one article. If God, it proclaims, chose to found a church without consulting man, it is quite open to man to abolish the church with out consulting God. A body which has lost the principle of its animation becomes dust. Hence it is an axiom that the change or perversion of the principles by which anything was produced, is the destruction of that very thing : if you can change or pervert the principles from which anything springs, you destroy it. For instance, one single foreign element introduced into the blood produces death, one false assumption admitted into science destroys its certainty ; one false principle admitted into faith and morals is fatal.  The Reformers started wrong. They would reform the Church, by placing her under human control. Their successors have, in each generation, found they did not go far enough, and have, each in turn, struggled to push it further and further, till they find themselves without any church life, without faith, without religion, and beginning to doubt if there be even a God.

It is a well-known fact that, before the Reformation, infidels were scarcely known in the Christian world. Since that event they have come forth in swarms. It is from the writings of Herbert, Hobbes, Bloum, Shaftesbury, Bolingbroke, and Boyle, that Voltaire and his party drew the objections and errors which they have brought so generally into fashion in the world. According to Diderot and d' Alembert, the first step that the untractable Catholic takes is to adopt the Protestant principle of private judgment. He establishes himself judge of his religion leaves and joins the reform. Dissatisfied with the incoherent doctrines he there discovers, he passed over to the Socinians, whose inconsequences soon drive him into Deism. Still pursued by unexpected difficulties, he finds refuge in universal doubt ; but still haunted by uneasiness, he at length resolves to take the last step, and proceeds to terminate the long chain of his errors in infidelity. Let us not forget that the first link of this chain is attached to the fundamental maxim of private judgment. They judged of religion as they did of their breakfast and dinner. A religion was good or bad, true or false, just as it suited their tastes, their likings ; their religious devotion varied like the weather, they must feel it as they felt the heat and cold. New fashions of belief sprang up, and changed, and disappeared, as rapidly as the new fashions of dress. Men judged not only of every revealed doctrine, but they also judged of the Bible itself. Protestantism, having no authority, could not check this headlong tendency to unbelief. Its ministers dare no longer preach or teach any doctrine which is displeasing to the people. Every Protestant preacher who wishes to be heard, and to retain his salary, must first feel the pulse of his hearers ; he must make himself the slave of their opinions and likings. It is, therefore, historically correct that the same principle that created Protestantism three centuries ago has never ceased, since that time, to spin it out into a thousand different sects, and has concluded by covering Europe and America with that multitude of free-thinkers and infidels who place these countries on the verge of ruin.

What is the spiritual life of Protestants ? They seem to have lost all spiritual conceptions, and no longer to possess any spiritual aspiration. Lacking, as they do, the light, the warmth, arid the life-giving power of the sun of the Catholic Church, they seem to have become, or to be near becoming, what our world would be if there were no sun in the heavens. For this reason it is that Protestants are so completely absorbed in temporal interests, in the things that fall under their senses, that their whole life is only materialism put in action. Lucre is the sole object on which their eyes are constantly fixed. A burning thirst to realize some profit, great or small, absorbs all their faculties, the whole energy of their being. They never pursue anything with ardor but riches and enjoyments. God, the soul, a future life, they believe in none of them ; or rather, they never think about them at all. If they ever take up a moral or a religious book, or go to a meeting-house, it is only by way of amusement to pass the time away. It is a less serious occupation than smoking a pipe, or drinking a cup of tea. If you speak to them about the foundations of faith, of the principles of Christianity, of the importance of salvation, the certainty of a life beyond the grave, all these truths which so powerfully impress a mind susceptible of religious feeling, they listen with a certain pleasure ; for it amuses them, and piques their curiosity. In their opinion all this is "true, fine, grand." They deplore the blindness of men who attach themselves to the perishable goods of this world ; perhaps they will even give utterance to some fine sentences on the happiness of knowing the true God, of serving him, and of meriting by this means the reward of eternal life. They simply never think of religion at all, they like very well to talk about it, but it is as of a thing not made for them, a thing with which; personally, they have nothing to do. This indifference they carry so far, religious sensibility is so entirely withered or dead within them, that they care not a straw whether a doctrine is true or false, good or bad. Religion is to them simply a fashion, which those may follow who have a taste for it. "By and by, all in good time," they say; "one should never be precipitate ; it is not good to be too enthusiastic. No doubt the Catholic religion is beautiful and sublime ; its doctrine explains, with method and clearness, all that is necessary for man to know. Whoever has any sense will see that, and will adopt it in his heart in all sincerity ; but after all, one must not think too much of these things, and increase the cares of life. Now, just consider we have a body : how many cares it demands ! It must be clothed, fed, and sheltered from the injuries of the weather ; its infirmities are great, and its maladies are numerous.  It is agreed on all hands that health is our most precious good. This body that we see, that we touch, must be taken care of every day, and every moment of the day. Is not this enough, without troubling ourselves about a soul that we never see ? The life of man is short and full of misery, it is made up of a succession of important concerns, that follow one another without interruption.

Our hearts and our minds are scarcely sufficient for the solicitudes of the present life : is it wise, then, to torment one's self about the future ? Is it not far better to live in blessed ignorance?" Ask them, what would you think of a traveler who, on finding himself at a dilapidated inn, open to all the winds, and deficient in the necessaries of life, should spend all his time in trying how he could make himself most comfortable in it, without ever thinking of preparing himself for his departure, and his return into the bosom of his family ? Would this traveler be acting in a wise and reasonable manner ? "No," they will reply; "one must not travel in that way. But man, nevertheless, must confine himself within proper limits. How can he provide for two lives at the same time?  I take care of this life, and the care of the other I leave to God. If a traveler ought not regularly to take up his abode at an inn, neither ought he to travel on two roads at the same time. When one wishes to cross a river, it will not do to have two boats, and set a foot in each : such a proceeding would involve the risk of a tumble into the water, and drowning one's self. Such is the deep abyss of religious indifferentism into which so many Protestants of our day have fallen, and from which they naturally fall into one deeper still : infidelity

To be continued . . . . . . . .

Is the faith of the Roman Catholic divine or human ?

The faith of the Roman Catholic is divine, for, to believe the Catholic Church is to believe God himself. The Roman Catholic Church is the heir to the rights of Jesus Christ. She is the faithful depository of the spiritual treasures of Jesus Christ. She is the infallible teacher of the doctrines of Jesus Christ. She wields the authority of Jesus Christ. She lives by the life and spirit of Jesus Christ. She enjoys the guidance and help of Jesus Christ. She speaks, orders, commands, concedes, prohibits, defines, looses and binds, in the name of Jesus Christ.

The Catholic believes in this divine authority of the Church, and therefore believes and obeys her; and in believing and obeying her, he believes and obeys Almighty God himself, who said to the apostles and their lawful successors in the Catholic Church : "He that heareth you heareth me, and he that despiseth you despiseth me." (Luke x, 16). His faith, therefore, is divine, because it is based on divine authority; it gives peace to his soul, and contentment to his heart, it is for him, as it were, a perpetual spring of happiness and joy.

Do Protestant sects teach divine faith on divine authority?

No, the faith of Protestants is based upon human authority, because their founders were not sent by God, nor did they receive any mission from his Church. The aim of Protestantism was to declare every man independent of the divine authority of the Catholic Church, and to substitute for this divine authority that of the Bible, as interpreted by himself. Protestants, therefore, hold that man is himself his own teacher and his own law giver, that it is each one's business to find out his own religion, that is to say, that every one must judge for himself what doctrines are most consistent with reason and the holy Scriptures; or that he must follow the teaching of the clergyman whose views best commend themselves to his judgment. He does not acknowledge that God has a right to teach him, or, if he acknowledges this right, he does not feel himself bound to believe all that God teaches him through those whom God appointed to teach mankind. He says to God: If thou teachest me, I reserve to myself the right to examine thy words, to explain them as I choose, and admit only what appears to me true, consistent, and useful. Hence, St. Augustine says : "You who believe what you please, and reject what you please, believe yourselves or your own fancy, rather than the Gospel." The faith of the Protestant, then, is based upon his private judgment alone ; it is human. As his judgment is alterable, he naturally holds that his faith and doctrine is alterable at will, and is therefore continually changing it. Evidently, then, he does not hold it to be the truth, for truth never changes. Nor does he hold it to be the law of God, which he is bound to obey, for; if the law of God be alterable at all, it can only be altered by God himself, never by man, any body of men, or any creature of God.

But some Protestants, for instance, the Anglicans, think that they approach very near to the Catholic Church, They will tell you that their prayers and ceremonies are like many prayers and ceremonies of the Catholic Church, that their creed is the Apostles Creed. But, in principle, they are all equally far off. Thus they profess to believe in one Church, which has, unfortunately, become half a dozen; in unity, which ceased to exist long ago, for want of a centre; in authority, which nobody needs obey, because it has lost the power to teach in God's presence with the Church, which does not keep her from stupid errors, in divine promises, which were only made to be broken; in a divine constitution, which needs to be periodically reformed, in a mission to teach all nations, while she is unable to teach even herself; in saints, to whom Anglicans would be objects of horror and aversion ; and in the sanctity of truths which their own sect has always defiled, and which are profanely mocked at this hour by its bishops, clergy, and people, all around them. The world has had occasion to admire, in various ages, many curious products of human imbecility, but at no time, and among no people, has it seen anything which could be matched with this. Compared with Anglicanism and its myriad contradictions, the wildest phantom which ever mocked the credulity of dis tempered fanaticism was a form of truth and beauty, a model of exact reasoning and logical symmetry.
Even an untutored Indian chief, by the aid of his rude common-sense, and the mere intuition of natural truth, does not fail to see the folly of Protestant belief, and confounds and ridicules it before those Protestant missionaries who come to convert his tribe to Protestantism. Elder Alexander Campbell, in a lecture before the American Christian Missionary Association, relates the following : "Sectarian missionaries had gone among the Indians to disseminate religious sentiments. A council was called, and the missionaries explained the object of their visit. "Is not all the religion of a white man in a book?" quoth a chief. "Yes" replied the missionaries. Do not all white men read the book ?" continued the chief. Another affirmative response. "Do they all agree upon what it says?" inquired the chief, categorically. There was a dead silence for some moments. At last one of the missionaries replied : "Not exactly; they differ upon some doctrinal points. "Go home, white man" said the chief, 1 call a council, and, when the white men all agree, then come teach the red men." The absurdity of Protestantism being so easily perceived by the rude child of the forest, Protestantism has never been able to convert a heathen nation, although it has very human means in its power. It has a vast number of ministers, plenty of ships to carry these ministers to every country, boundless wealth, and great armies and navies to terrify the heathen, also its merchants scattered through every quarter of the globe; with all this, Protestantism has not converted a nation, nor even a city or tribe, of heathens to Christianity, after three hundred years existence. It has been ascertained that, during the last fifty years, Protestantism, in Europe and America, has collected and spent over one hundred and twenty-five millions of dollars, for the purpose of converting the heathens. One hundred millions of Bibles, Testaments, and tracts, have been printed in various languages, and scattered throughout the world for the same purpose. Five thousand missionaries, with large salaries, varying from a hundred to five hundred pounds each, and also an additional allowance for their wives and families, are kept annually employed in the work, and yet all to no purpose. No result whatever can be shown. During every month of May, the various sects of Protestants hold their anniversary meetings in London and New York. At these gatherings speeches are made and reports read, in which the people are told of the wonderful conversions that are just going to take place; of a great door opened for the Gospel, of fields white for the harvest, of bright anticipations,  of missionaries who now enjoy the confidence of the natives, of Pagans stretching, or who are about to stretch, forth their hands to God immediately; of printing-presses which are in constant operation ; of schools to be opened; of sums spent in Bibles; of Bibles, Testaments, and tracts distributed. Every promise is made for the future, but nothing what ever is shown for the past. The meetings are ended, votes of thanks are given to the various chairmen, prayers said, subscriptions received, and the huge delusion lives on from year to year. Some of the missionaries give up the work in despair, others in disgust. Some run away from the first appearance of danger, others fly from persecution, being terrified at the very idea of martyrdom. One missionary comes back to his native country, because of the sudden death of his wife; another, to bury his youngest daughter in her mother's grave, another leaves the field of his missionary labors, to console his dear mother on her death-bed ; another comes home to look after some small property left him by his father, who recently died, one comes home to preserve the life of a delicate child, who did not seem to thrive in the place where he was stationed, another left to attend to the education of his children, whom he could not feel in his heart to rear up amongst Pagans ; another comes home, because his wife has quarreled with the wives of some of the other missionaries, another, to be present at his eldest daughter's marriage. Many Protestant missionaries give up the work of saving souls for more lucrative pursuits, such as, good commercial or government situations, or to become merchants on their own account, whilst a few, possessed of sufficient ability, have become newspaper correspondents; and more than one, instead of converting the Pagans, have themselves become converts to the Jewish and Mohammedan religions, having got rich wives of these persuasions.

Protestant travelers and writers who have visited the fields of Protestant missionary labor, have themselves furnished the world with these details. They tell of a few converts here and there, who relapse into paganism when ever the missionaries withdraw. They tell us that the missionaries become tyrants, and persecute the people when they get the chance ; that they drive the natives into the Protestant meeting-houses by force, and make them more brutal, profligate, crafty, treacherous, impure, and disgusting, than they were before. One writer states how he found, in the Sandwich Islands, that the Protestant missionaries had civilized the people into draught-horses, and evangelized them into beasts of burden ; that they were literally broken into the traces; and harnessed to the vehicles of their spiritual instructors, like so many beasts of burden. The poor natives are compelled to draw their pastors, as well as their wives and daughters, to church, to market, or for pleasure, and are whipped like horses. The same writer says, the missionaries destroy heathenism, and the heathens also, that they extirpate Paganism and the people at the same time, that the natives are robbed of their land, in the name of religion, and that disease, vice, and premature death, make their appearance together with Protestantism. The missionaries are dwelling in picturesque and prettily furnished coral-rock villas, while the miserable natives are committing all sorts of crime and immorality around them. The depopulated land is recruited from the rapacious hordes of enlightened individuals who settle within its borders, and clamorously announce the progress of the truth. Neat villas, trim gardens, shaven lawns, spires, and cupolas arise, while the poor savage soon finds himself an interloper in the country of his fathers, arid that, too, on the very site of the hut where he was born.

When will Protestants learn wisdom from the rude child of the forest ? When will they see the absurdity of their teaching? It is strange how men will put their reason in their pocket, and prefer darkness to light, error to truth, folly to wisdom. That man might know what to believe, Christ, who alone could tell him, founded the Roman Catholic Church, to be "forever the pillar and ground of truth." Whoever declines to follow this guide, must live without any sure guide. There is. no other, because God has given no other. Hence Pius IX spoke lately of Protestantism, in all its forms, as "revolt against God," it being an attempt to substitute a human for a divine authority, and a declaration of the creature s independence of the Creator
The creed of the apostate has only one article. If God, it proclaims, chose to found a church without consulting man, it is quite open to man to abolish the church with out consulting God.
A body which has lost the principle of its animation becomes dust. Hence it is an axiom that the change or perversion of the principles by which anything was produced, is the destruction of that very thing : if you can change or pervert the principles from which anything springs, you destroy it. For instance, one single foreign element introduced into the blood produces death, one false assumption admitted into science destroys its certainty; one false principle admitted into faith and morals is fatal. The Reformers started wrong. They would reform the Church, by placing her under human control. Their successors have, in each generation, found they did not go far enough, and have, each in turn, struggled to push it further and further, till they find themselves without any church life, without faith, without religion, and beginning to doubt if there be even a God.

It is a well-known fact that, before the Reformation, infidels were scarcely known in the Christian world. Since that event they have come forth in swarms. It is from the writings of Herbert, Hobbes, Bloum, Shaftesbury, Bolingbroke, and Boyle, that Voltaire and his party drew the objections and errors which they have brought so generally into fashion in the world. According to Diderot and d Alembert, the first step that the untractable Catholic takes is to adopt the Protestant principle of private judgment. He establishes himself judge of his religion leaves and joins the reform. Dissatisfied with the incoherent doctrines he there discovers, he passes over to the Socinians, whose inconsequences soon drive him into Deism. Still pursued by unexpected difficulties, he finds refuge in universal doubt; but still haunted by uneasiness, he at length resolves to take the last step, and proceeds to terminate the long chain of his errors in infidelity. Let us not forget that the first link of this chain is attached to the fundamental maxim of private judgment. They judged of religion as they did of their breakfast and dinner. A religion was good or bad, true or false, just as it suited their tastes, their likings; their religious devotion varied like the weather, they must feel it as they felt the heat and cold.

New fashions of belief sprang up, and changed, and disappeared, as rapidly as the new fashions of dress. Men judged not only of every revealed doctrine, but they also judged of the Bible itself. Protestantism, having no authority, could not check this headlong tendency to unbelief. Its ministers dare no longer preach or teach any doctrine which is displeasing to the people. Every Protestant preacher who wishes to be heard, and to retain his salary, must first feel the pulse of his hearers ; he must make himself the slave of their opinions and likings. It is, therefore, historically correct that the same principle that created Protestantism three centuries ago has never ceased, since that time, to spin it out into a thousand different sects, and has concluded by covering Europe and America with that multitude of free-thinkers and infidels who place these countries on the verge of ruin.

What is the spiritual life of Protestants? They seem to have lost all spiritual conceptions, and no longer to possess any spiritual aspiration. Lacking, as they do, the light, the warmth, arid the life-giving power of the sun of the Catholic Church, they seem to have become, or to be near becoming, what our world would be if there were no sun in the heavens. For this reason it is that Protestants are so completely absorbed in temporal interests, in the things that fall under their senses, that their whole life is only materialism put in action. Lucre is the sole object on which their eyes are constantly fixed. A burning thirst to realize some profit, great or small, absorbs all their faculties, the whole energy of their being. They never pursue anything with ardor but riches and enjoyments. God, the soul, a future life, they believe in none of them; or rather, they never think about them at all. If they ever take up a moral or a religious book, or go to a meeting-house, it is only by way of amusement to pass the time away. It is a less serious occupation than smoking a pipe, or drinking a cup of tea. If you speak to them about the foundations of faith, of the principles of Christianity, of the importance of salvation, the certainty of a life beyond the grave, all these truths which so powerfully impress a mind susceptible of religious feeling, they listen with a certain pleasure; for it amuses them, and piques their curiosity. In their inference they carry so far, religious sensibility is so entirely withered or dead within them, that they care not a straw whether a doctrine is true or false, good or bad. Religion is to them simply a fashion, which those may follow who have a taste for it. "By and by, all in good time," they say; "one should never be precipitate; it is not good to be too enthusiastic. No doubt the Catholic religion is beautiful and sublime; its doctrine explains, with method and clearness, all that is necessary for man to know. Whoever has any sense will see that, and will adopt it in his heart in all sincerity; but after all, one must not think too much of these things, and increase the cares of life. Now, just consider we have a body: how many cares it demands! It must be clothed, fed, and sheltered from the injuries of
the weather; its infirmities are great, and its maladies are numerous, It is agreed on all hands that health is our most precious good. This body that we see, that we touch, must be taken care of every day, and every moment of the day. Is not this enough, without troubling ourselves about a soul that we never see? The life of man is short arid full of misery, it is made up of a succession of important concerns, that follow one another without interruption.

Our hearts and our minds are scarcely sufficient for the solicitudes of the present life: is it wise, then, to torment one's self about the future? Is it not far better to live in blessed ignorance? "Ask them, what would you think of a traveler who, on finding himself at a dilapidated inn, open to all the winds, and deficient in the necessaries of life, should spend all his time in trying how he could make himself most comfortable in it, without ever thinking of preparing himself for his departure, and his return into the bosom of his family ? Would this traveler be acting in a wise and reasonable manner? "No," they will reply; "one must not travel in that way. But man, nevertheless, must confine himself within proper limits. How can he provide for two lives at the same time I take care of this life, and the care of the other I leave to God. If a traveller ought not regularly to take up his abode at an inn, neither ought he to travel on two roads at the same time. When one wishes to cross a river, it will not do to have two boats, and set a foot in each : such a proceeding would involve the risk of a tumble into the water, and drowning one's self. Such is the deep abyss of religious indifferentism into which so many Protestants of our day have fallen, and from which they naturally fall into one deeper still: infidelity. 

To be continued . . . . . . .

If, then, only the Roman Church is one, holy, Catholic and Apostolic, what follows?

It follows that the Roman Catholic Church alone is the one true Church of Christ.
There are men foolish enough to talk of Protestantism as if it were a name for some religious faith, system, or organization! They even speak of the Protestant religion, or the Protestant Church! There is nothing of the kind. There is, and there can be, but one true religion. The word  "religion," says St. Augustine, is derived from the Latin word re-eligendo (to reelect), because, after having lost our Lord by sin, we ought to reelect, or choose him again, as our true and only Lord and sovereign Master. But, according to the same saint, the word "religion" is derived from religando (to reunite), because, it reunites man with God, with whom he was primitively united, but from whom he voluntarily separated by sin. Hence, according to St. Thomas Aquinas, religion is a virtue which teaches us to live in union with God. Now, to live in union with God is to keep our will united to his; in other words, it is to do the will of God. Religion, therefore, is the knowing and doing of God's will. He alone who knows and does the will of God has religion is a truly religious man. Hence religion has always been one and the same:
1:   in its Author, who is God, who taught man his will, either in person or through those to whom he made his will known;
2.  in its doctrine.

As God has always taught man the same truths concerning himself, man, the world, morality, divine worship, grace, the object of religion, and the means to preserve and spread it, it is clear that religion must always have been one and the same from the beginning of the world. As to himself, God has always taught, from the beginning of the world, that he alone is the only one God, infinitely perfect, the Creator and Redeemer of all things; that the Redeemer would save the world, and that we would be sanctified by his Spirit. These truths, however, are more fully known to Christians than they were to the Jews. Concerning man, God has always taught that he created him to his likeness, being composed of a body, and a soul which is spiritual, free, and immortal; that man fell through his own fault; that all men are born in a state of sin and degradation; that they will all rise at the last day, and that there will be eternal rewards for the just, and eternal punishments for the wicked. With regard to the world, God has always taught that he created it out of nothing, that, by his infinite power and wisdom, he governed and preserved it, that he will purify it by fire, and that there will be a new heaven and  a new earth.

As to morality, God has always taught the same laws, the same distinction between good and evil; always commended the same virtues, and condemned the same vices. As to his worship, God has always taught the same two essential acts of worship, viz. : prayer and sacrifice.

As to grace, God has always taught that it was necessary for every man to be saved, that he would give it, on account of the Redeemer, to all those who would use those means through which he wished to bestow it.

As to the object of religion, God has always taught that it was to destroy sin, and to lead men to true happiness.

As to the means of preserving and spreading it, God has always used the same means, choosing certain men, and investing them with his own authority, to teach his religion authoritatively, and with divine certainty. So that to hear and believe the infallible teachers chosen and sent by God, is to hear and to believe God himself. Such infallible teachers were, as we have seen, the patriarchs and Moses and the prophets, before the coming of the Redeemer; and Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and his teaching Church, St. Peter and the other apostles, and their lawful successors, in the New Law. As religion has always been one and the same from the beginning of the world, because the same God has always taught one and the same religion, in like manner the teaching authority has always been the same, which is God's own infallible authority, invested in those of whom he said: "He who heareth you heareth me." There has, therefore, always been but one and the same religion, but one and the same Church. As man, by passing through the different stages of life, does not cease to be the same man, so religion has never ceased to be the same, though it has not at all times been taught as fully as it is at the present day; and the Christian religion, as taught by Christ in the Roman Catholic Church, is far more perfect, and is far richer in graces, than it was before the coming of the Redeemer.

It is, therefore, quite absurd to speak of Protestantism as of a religion or church; the truth is one, errors are many; the Church, the pillar and ground of truth, is one, sects are many that deny the truth and the Church's infallible authority to teach truth. Every sensible man, then, seeing a class of men drawn into a whirlpool of end less religious variations and dissensions, is forced to say: "This is only an ephemeral sect, without substance and without any divine authority, it is a plant not planted by the hand of Almighty God, and therefore it will be rooted
up, it is a kingdom divided against itself, and therefore it will be made desolate; it is a house built on sand, and therefore it cannot stand, it is a cloud without water, which is carried about by the winds, a tree of autumn, unfruitful, twice dead, by the want of faith and morality, and therefore it will be plucked up by the roots; a raging wave of the sea, foaming out its own confusion, a wandering star, to which the storm and darkness are reserved forever, a withered branch, cut off from the body of Christ, the One Holy Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church, which alone is established by Christ on earth as his pillar and ground of truth in one fold, watched over by his one chief shepherd, ever immovable amid the storms of hell; with unshaken faith, amid the variations of philosophical systems, the infernal persecutions of the wicked, the revolutions of empires, the attacks of interest, of prejudice, of passion, the dissolving labors of criticism, the progress of physical, historical, and other sciences, the unrestrained love of novelty, the abuses which sooner or later undermine the most firmly-established human institutions. The faith of this Church alone is divine, because she alone teaches with divine authority.  "This is clear to every unprejudiced and well-reflecting mind."  Mr. T. W. M. Marshall relates the following, in one of his lectures: "A young English lady, with whom I became subsequently acquainted, and from whose lips I heard the tale, informed her parents that she felt constrained to embrace the Catholic faith. Hereupon arose much agitation in the parental councils, and a reluctant promise was extorted from the daughter that she would not communicate with any Catholic priest till she had first listened to the convincing arguments with which certain clerical friends of the family would easily dissipate her unreasonable doubts. These ministers were three in number and we will call them Messrs. A, B and C. The appointed day arrived for the solemn discussion, which one of the ministers was about to commence, when the young lady opened it abruptly with the following remark: 'I am too young and uninstructed to dispute with gentlemen of your age and experience, but perhaps you will allow me to ask you a few questions?  Anticipating an easy triumph over the poor girl, the three ministers acceded with encouraging smiles to her request. 'Then I will ask you,' she said to Mr. A, 'whether regeneration always accompanies the sacrament of baptism?' 'Undoubtedly' was the prompt reply 'that is the plain doctrine of our Church.' 'And you, Mr. B' she continued, 'do you teach that doctrine?'  'God forbid, my young friend' was his indignant answer, 'that I should teach such soul-destroying error ! Baptism is a formal rite, which' etc., etc. 'And you, Mr. C' she asked the third, 'what is your opinion?'  'I regret,' he replied with a bland voice, for he began to suspect they were making a mess of it, 'that my reverend friends should have expressed themselves a little incautiously. The true doctrine lies between these extremes and he was going to develop it, when the young lady, rising from her chair, said:  'I thank you, gentlemen; you have taught me all that I expected to learn from you. You are all ministers of the same church, yet you each contradict the other, even upon a doctrine which St. Paul calls one of the foundations of Christianity. You have only confirmed me in my resolution to enter a Church whose ministers all teach the same thing.' And then they went out of the room, one by one, and probably continued their battle in the street. But the parents of the young lady turned her out of doors the next day, to get her bread as she could. They sometimes do that sort of thing in England.

Another friend of mine, also a lady, and one of the most intelligent of her sex, was for several years the disciple of the distinguished minister who has given a name to a certain religious school in England. Becoming disaffected toward the Episcopalian Church, which appeared to her more redolent of earth, in proportion as she aspired more ardently toward heaven, she was persuaded to assist at a certain Ritualistic festival, which it was hoped would have a soothing effect upon her mind. A new church was to be opened, and the ceremonies were to be prolonged through an entire week. All the Ritualistic celebrities of the day were expected to be present. Her lodging was judiciously provided in a house in which were five of the most transcendental members of the High Church party. It was hoped that they would speedily convince her of their apostolic unity, but, unfortunately, they only succeeded in proving to her that no two of them were of the same mind. One recommended her privately to pray to the Blessed Virgin, which another condemned as, at best, a poetical superstition. One told her that the pope was, by divine appointment, the head of the Universal Church ; another, that he was a usurper and a schismatic. One maintained that the Reformers were profane scoundrels and apostates ; another, that they had at all events good intentions. But I need not trouble you with an account of their various creeds. Painfully affected by this diversity, where she had been taught to expect complete uniformity, her doubts were naturally confirmed. During the week she was invited to take a walk with the eminent person whom she had hitherto regarded as a trustworthy teacher. To him she revealed her growing disquietude, and presumed to lament the conflict of opinions which she had lately witnessed, but only to be rewarded by a stern rebuke; for it is a singular fact that men who are prepared at any moment to judge all the saints and doctors, will not tolerate any judgment which reflects upon themselves. It was midwinter, and the lady's companion, pointing to the leafless trees by the roadside, said, with appropriate solemnity of voice and manner: "They are stripped of their foliage now, but wait for the spring, and you will see them once more wake to life. So shall it be with the Church of England, which now seems to you dead."  "It may be so" she replied, "but what sort of a spring can we expect after a winter which has lasted three hundred years?"  You will not be surprised to hear that this lady soon after became a member of a Church which knows nothing of winter, but within whose peaceful borders reigns eternal spring. And why do we see an eternal spring within the peaceful borders of the Catholic Church ?

The reason is contained in the answer to the question :
 To be continued . . . . . . . .

 11. Can Protestant sects claim to be One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic ?
By no means;
1. Because they have no infallible head and teacher, and every Protestant believes that he chooses to believe.
2. Because the founders of the sects were all wicked men, who taught impious doctrines.
3. Because they sprang up only long after Christ had founded his Church.

At the beginning of the sixteenth century, with the exception of the Greek schismatics, a few Lollards in England, some Waldenses in Piedmont, scattered Albigenses or Manicheans, and a few followers of Huss and Zisca among the Bohemians, all Europe was Roman Catholic. England, Scotland, Ireland. Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Hungary, Poland, Holland, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, every civilized nation was in the unity of the Catholic faith* Many of these nations were at the height of their power and prosperity. Portugal was pushing her discoveries beyond the Cape of Good Hope, and forming Catholic settlements in the East Indies. Christopher Columbus, a Roman Catholic, had discovered America, under the patronage of the Catholic Isabella of Spain. England was in a state of great prosperity. Her two Catholic Universities of Oxford and Cambridge contained, at one time, more than fifty thousand students. The country was covered with noble churches, abbeys, and monasteries, and with hospitals, where the poor were fed, clothed, and instructed. However, the progress of civilization tended to foster a spirit of pride, and encourage the lust of novelties. The prosperity of the Church led to luxury, and in many cases to a relaxation of discipline. There were, as there always have been, in every period of the Church, the days of the apostles not excepted, bad men in the Church. The wheat and tares grow together until the harvest. The net of the Church encloses good and bad. The writings of Wycliffe, Huss, and their followers, had unsettled the minds of many. Princes were restive under the check held by the Church upon their rapacity and lusts. A Henry VIII, for example, wanted to divorce a wife to whom he had been married twenty years, that he might marry a young and pretty one. He could not do this, so long as he acknowledged the spiritual supremacy of the pope. Philip, Landgrave of Hesse, wanted two wives. No pope would give him a dispensation to marry and live with two women at once. Then there were multitudes of wicked and avaricious nobles, who wanted but an excuse to plunder the churches, abbeys, and monasteries, whose property was held in trust for the education of the people, and the care of the poor, aged, and sick, all over Europe. Then there were priests and monks eager to embrace a relaxed discipline  and many people who, incited by the cry of liberty, were ready to rush into license, and make war upon every principle of religion and social order, as soon as circumstances would favor the outbreak of this rebel spirit in individuals and masses. Now when God, says St. Gregory, sees in the Church many reveling in their vices, and, as St. Paul observes, believing in God, confessing the truth of his mysteries, but belying their faith by their works, he punishes them by permitting that, after having lost grace, they also lose the holy knowledge which they had of his mysteries, and that, without any other persecution than that of their vices, they deny the faith. It is of these David speaks, when he says: "Destroy Jerusalem to its foundations" (Ps. cxxxvi, 7) ; leave not a stone upon a stone. When the wicked spirits have
ruined in a soul the edifice of virtue, they sap its foundation, which is faith. St. Cyprian, therefore, said : "Let no one think that virtuous men and good Christians ever leave the bosom of the Church, it is not the wheat that the winds lift, but the chaff ; trees deeply rooted are not blown down by the breeze, but those which have no roots. It is rotten fruits that fall off the trees, not sound ones; bad Catholics become heretics, as sickness is engendered by bad humors. At first, faith languishes in them, because of their vices; then it becomes sick, next it dies, because since sin is essentially a blindness of spirit, the more a man sins, the more he is blinded; his faith grows weaker and weaker; the light of this divine torch decreases, and soon the least wind of temptation or doubt suffices to extinguish it. "Witness the great defection from faith in the sixteenth century, when God permitted heresies to arise, in order to exercise his justice against those who were ready to abandon the truth, and his mercy toward those who remained attached to it to prove, by trials, those who were firm in the faith, and to separate them from those who loved error; to exercise, the patience and charity of the Church, and to sanctify the elect; to give occasion for the illustration of religious truth and the holy Scripture; to make pastors more vigilant, and value more the sacred deposit of faith, in fine, to render the authority of tradition more clear and incontestable. Heresy arose in all its strength, Martin Luther was its ringleader and its spokesman.reforming, as well in faith as discipline. Thus this new evangelist commenced that fatal defection from the ancient faith, which was styled a Reformation." The new doctrines, being calculated to gratify the vicious inclinations of the human heart, spread with the rapidity of an inundation.

Frederick, Elector of Saxony, John Frederick, his successor, and Philip, Landgrave of Hesse, became Luther's disciples. Gustavus Ericus, King of Sweden, and Christian III, King of Denmark, also declared in favor of Lutheranism. It secured a footing in Hungary. Poland, after tasting a great variety of doctrines, left to every individual the liberty of choosing for himself. Muncer, a disciple of Luther, set up for doctor himself, and, with Nicholas Stark, gave birth to the sect of Anabaptists, which was propagated in Suabia, and other provinces of Germany, in the Low Countries. Calvin, a man of bold, obstinate spirit, and indefatigable in his labors, in imitation of Luther, turned Reformer also. He contrived to have his new tenets received at Geneva, in 1541. After his death, Beza preached the same doctrine. It insinuated itself into some parts of Germany, Hungary, and Bohemia, and became the religion of Holland. It was imported by John Knox, an apostate priest, into Scotland, where, under the name of Presbyterianism, it took deep root, and spread over the kingdom.

But, among the deluded nations, none drank more deeply of the cup of error than England. For many centuries this country had been conspicuous in the Christian world for the orthodoxy of its belief, as also for the number of its saints. But by a misfortune never to be sufficiently lamented, and by unfathomable judgment from above, its Church shared a fate which seemed the least to threaten it. The lust and avarice of one despotic sovereign threw down the fair edifice, and tore it off from the rock on which it had hitherto stood. Henry VIII, at first a valiant asserter of the Catholic faith against Luther, giving way to the violent passions which he had not sufficient courage to curb, renounced the supreme jurisdiction which the pope had always held in the Church, presumed to arrogate to himself that power in his own dominions, and thus gave a deadly blow to religion. He then forced his subjects into the same fatal defection. Once introduced, it soon overspread the land. Being, from its nature, limited by no fixed principle, it has since taken a hundred different shapes, under different names, such as: the Calvinists, Arminians, Antinomians, Independents, Kilhamites, Glassites, Haldanites, Bereans, Swedenborgians, New-Jerusalemites, Orthodox Quakers, Hicksites, Shakers, Panters, Seekers, Jumpers, Reformed Methodists, German Methodists, Albright Methodists, Episcopal Methodists, Wesleyan Methodists, Methodists North, Methodists South, Protestant Methodists, Episcopalians, High Church Episcopalians, Low Church Episcopalians, Ritualists, Puseyites, Dutch Reformed, Dutch non-Reformed, Christian Israelites, Baptists, Particular Baptists, Seventh-day Baptists, Hard shell Baptists, Softshell Baptists, Forty Gallon Baptists, Sixty Gallon Baptists, African Baptists, Free-will Baptists, Church of God Baptists, Regular Baptists, Anti-mission Baptists, Six Principle Baptists, River Brethren, Winebremarians, Menonites, Second Adventists, Millerites, Christian Baptists, Universalists, Orthodox Congregationalists, Campbellites, Presbyterians, Old School and New School Presbyterians, Cumberland Presbyterians, United Presbyterians, The Only True Church of Christ etc.
 
Martin Luther, an Augustinian friar, a bold man and a vehement declaimer, having imbibed erroneous sentiments from the heretical writings of John Huss of Bohemia, took occasion, from the publication of indulgences promulgated by Pope Leo X, to break with the Catholic Church, and to propagate his new errors, in 1517, at Wirtemberg, in Saxony. He first inveighed against the abuse of indulgences; then he called in question their efficacy, and at last totally rejected them. He declaimed against the supremacy of the See of Rome, and condemned the whole Church, pretending that Christ had abandoned it, and that it wanted Restorationists, Schwentfelders, Spiritualists, Mormons, Christian Perfectionists, etc., etc., etc. All these sects
called Protestants, because they all unite in protesting are against their mother, the Roman Catholic Church. .

Some time after, when the reforming spirit had reached its full growth, Dudithius, a learned Protestant divine, in his epistle to Beza, wrote : "What sort of people are our Protestants, straggling to and fro, and carried about by every wind of doctrine, sometimes to this side, sometimes to that ? You may, perhaps, know what their sentiments in matters of religion are today, but you can never tell precisely what they will be tomorrow. In what article of religion do these churches agree which have cast off the Bishop of Rome? Examine all from top to bottom, and you will scarce find one thing affirmed by one, which was not immediately condemned by another for wicked doctrine." The same confusion of opinions was described by an English Protestant, the learned Dr. Walton, about the middle of the last century, in his preface to his Polyglot, where he says : "Aristarchus heretofore could scarce find seven wise men in Greece; but with us, scarce are to be found so many idiots. For all are doctors, all are divinely learned; there is not so much as the meanest fanatic who does not give you his own dreams for the word of God. The bottomless pit seems to have been opened, from whence a smoke has arisen which has darkened the heaven and the stars, and locusts have come out with stings, a numerous race of sectaries and heretics, who have renewed all the ancient heresies, and invented many monstrous opinions of their own. These have filled our cities, villages, camps, houses, nay, our pulpits, too, and lead the poor deluded people with them to the pit of perdition." "Yes," writes another author, "every ten years, or nearly so, the Protestant theological literature undergoes a complete revolution. What was admired during the one decennial period is rejected in the next, and the image which they adored is burnt, to make way for new divinities, the dogmas which were held in honor, fall into discredit; the classical treatise of morality is banished among the old books out of date, criticism overturns criticism ;
the commentary of yesterday ridicules that of the previous day, and what was clearly proved in 1840, is not less clearly disproved in 1850. The theological systems of Protestantism are as numerous as the political constitutions of France one revolution only awaits another." (Le Semeur, June, 1850.) It is indeed utterly impossible to keep the various members of one single sect from perpetual disputes, even about the essential truths of revealed religion. And those religious differences exist not only in the same sect, not only in the same country and town, but even in the same family. Nay, the self-same individual, at different periods of his life, is often in flagrant contradiction with himself. Today he avow opinions which yesterday he abhorred, and tomorrow he will exchange these again for new ones. At last, after belonging, successively, to various new-fangled sects, he generally ends by professing unmitigated contempt for them all. By their continual disputes and bickerings, and dividing and subdividing, the various Protestant sects have made themselves the scorn of honest minds, the laughing-stock of the pagan and the infidel.

These human sects, the "works of the flesh," as St. Paul calls them, alter their shape, like clouds, but feel no blow, says Mr. Marshall, because they have no substance. They fight a good deal with one another, but nobody minds it, not even themselves, nor cares what becomes of them. If one human sect perishes, it is always easy to make another, or half a dozen. They have the life of worms, and propagate by corruption. Their life is so like death that, except by the putridity which they exhale in both stages, it is impossible to tell which is which, and when they are buried, nobody can find their grave. They have simply disappeared. The spirit of Protestantism, or the spirit of revolt against God and his Church, sprung up from the Reformers spirit of incontinency, obstinacy and covetousness. Luther, in despite of the vow he had solemnly made to God of keeping continency, married a nun, Equally bound as himself to that sacred religious promise ; but, as St. Jerome says, "it is rare to find a heretic that loves chastity." Luther s example had indeed been anticipated by Carlostadtius, a priest and ringleader of the Sacramentarians, who had married a little before ; and it was followed by most of the heads of the Reformation. Zwihglius, a priest and chief of the sect that bore his name, took a wife. Bucer, a member of the order of St. Dominic, became a Lutheran, left his cloister, and married a nun. Ecolampadius, a Brigittin monk, became a Zwinglian, and also married. Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, had also his wife. Peter Martyr, a canon-regular, embraced the doctrine of Calvin, but followed the example of Luther, and married a nun. Ochin, General of the Capuchins, became a Lutheran, and also married. Thus the principal leaders in the Reformation went forth preaching the new gospel, with two marks upon them: apostasy from faith, and open violation of the most sacred vows.

The passion of lust, as has been already said, hurried also Henry VIII of England into a separation from the Catholic Church, and ranked him among the Reformers. Those wicked men could not be expected to teach a holy doctrine, they preached up a hitherto unheard-of evangelical liberty," as they styled it. They told their fellow-men that they were no longer obliged to subject their understanding to the mysteries of faith, and to regulate their actions according to the laws of Christian morality ; they told that every one was free to model his belief and practice as it suited his inclinations. In pursuance of this accommodating doctrine, they dissected the Catholic faith till they reduced it to a mere skeleton; they lopped off the reality of the body and blood of Christ, in the Holy Eucharist, the divine Christian sacrifice offered in the Mass, confession of sins, most of the sacraments, penitential exercises, several of the canonical books of Scripture, the invocation of saints, celibacy, most of the General Councils of the Church, and all present Church authority, they perverted the nature of justification, asserting that faith alone suffices to justify man ; they made God the author of sin, and maintained the observance of the commandments to be impossible.
As a few specimens of Luther s doctrine, take the following :
"God's commandments are all equally impossible." (De Lib. Christ., t. ii, fol. 4.)
"No sins can damn a man, but only unbelief." (De Captio. Bab., t. ii, fol. 171.)
"God is just, though by his own will he lays us under the necessity of being damned, and though he damns those who have not deserved it." (Tom. ii, foil. 434, 436.)
"God works in us both good and evil." (Toni. ii, fol. 444.)
"Christ's body is in every place, no less than the divinity itself." (Tom. iv, fol. 37.)
Then for his darling principle of justification by faith, in his eleventh article against Pope Leo, he says : "Believe strongly that you are absolved, and absolved you will be, whether you have contrition or no."
Again, in his sixth article :
"The contrition which is acquired by examining, recollecting, and detesting one's sins, whereby a man calls to mind his life past, in the bitterness of his soul, reflecting on the heinousness and multitude of his offences, the loss of eternal bliss, and condemnation to eternal woe, this contrition, I say, makes a man a hypocrite, nay, even a greater sinner than he was before." Thus, after the most immoral life, a man has a compendious method of saving himself, by simply believing that his sins are remitted through the merits of Christ. As Luther foresaw the scandal that would arise from his own and such like sacrilegious marriages, he prepared the world for it, by writing against the celibacy of the clergy and all religious vows, and all the way up, since his time, he has had imitators. He proclaimed that all such vows  "were contrary to faith, to the commandments of God, and to evangelical liberty." (De Votis Monast.) He said again : "God disapproves of such a vow of living in continency, equally as if I should vow to become the mother of God, or to create a new world." (Epist. ad Wolfgang Reisemb.) And again: "To attempt to live unmarried, is plainly to fight against God." Now, when men give a loose rein to the depravity of nature, what wonder if the most scandalous practices ensue? Accordingly, a striking instance of this kind appeared in the license granted in 1539 to Philip, Landgrave of Hesse, to have two wives at once, which license was signed by Luther, Melanchthon, Bucer, and five other Protestant divines.

On the Other hand, a wide door was laid open to another species of scandal : the doctrine of the Reformation admitted divorces in the marriage state in certain cases, contrary to the doctrine of the Gospel, and even allowed the parties thus separated to marry other wives and other husbands.

To enumerate the errors of all the Reformers would exceed the limits of this work. I shall therefore only add the principal heads of the doctrine of Calvin and the Calvinists:
1. that baptism is not necessary for salvation;
2. good works are not necessary;
3. man has no free will;
4. Adam could not avoid his fall;
5. a great part of mankind are created to be damned, independently of their demerits:
6. man is justified by faith alone, and that justification, once obtained, cannot be lost, even by the most atrocious crimes;
7. the true faithful are also infallibly certain of their salvation;
8. the Eucharist is no more than a figure of the body and blood of Christ.

Thus was the whole system of faith and morality over turned. Tradition they totally abolished; and, though they could not reject the whole of the Scripture, as being universally acknowledged to be the word of God, they had, however, the presumption to expunge some books of it that did not coincide with their own opinions, and the rest they assumed a right to explain as they saw fit. To pious souls, they promised a return to the fervor of primitive Christianity; to the proud, the liberty of private judgment; to the enemies of the clergy, they promised the division of their spoils; to priests and monks who were tired of the yoke of continence, the abolition of a law which they said was contrary to nature; to libertines of all classes, the suppression of fasting, abstinence, and confession. They said to kings who wished to place themselves at the head of the Church as well as the State, that they would be freed from the spiritual authority of the Church; to nobles, that they would see a rival order humbled and impoverished; to the middle classes, and the vassals of the Church, that they would be emancipated from all dues and forced services. Several princes of Germany and of the Swiss cantons supported by arms the preachers of the new doctrines.Henry VIII imposed his doctrine on his subjects. The King of Sweden drew his people into apostasy. The Court of Navarre welcomed the Calvinists; the Court of France secretly favored them. At length Pope Paul III convoked a General Council at Trent, in 1545, to which the heresiarchs had appealed. Not only all the Catholic bishops, but also all Christian princes, even Protestants, were invited to come. But now the spirit of pride and obstinacy became most apparent. Henry VIII replied to the pope that he would never entrust the work of reforming religion in his kingdom to any one except to himself. The apostate princes of Germany told the papal legate that they recognized only the emperor as their sovereign; the Viceroy of Naples allowed but four bishops to go to the council; the King of France sent only three prelates, whom he soon after recalled. Charles V created difficulties, and put obstacles in the way. Gustavus Vasa allowed no one to go to the council. The heresiarchs also refused to appear.

The council, however, was held, in spite of these difficulties. It lasted over eighteen years, because it was often interrupted by the plague, by war, and by the deaths of those who had to preside over it. The doctrines of the innovators were examined and condemned by the council, at the last session of which there were more than three hundred bishops present; among whom were nine cardinals, -three patriarchs, thirty-three archbishops, not to mention sixteen abbots or generals of religious orders, and one hundred and forty-eight theologians. All the decrees published from the commencement were read over, and  were again approved and subscribed by the Fathers. Accordingly, Pius IV, in a consistory held on the 26th of January, 1564, approved and confirmed the council in a book which was signed by all the cardinals. He drew up, the same year, a profession of faith conformable in all respects with the definitions of the council, in which it is declared that its authority is accepted and since that time, not only all bishops of the Catholic Church, but all priests who are called to teach the way of salvation even to children, nay, all non-Catholics, on abjuring their errors, and returning to the bosom of the Church, have sworn that they had no other faith than that of this holy council. The new heresiarchs, however, continued to obscure and disfigure the face of religion. As to Luther's sentiments in regard to the pope, bishops, councils, etc.he says, in the preface to his book, "De Abroganda Missa Privata:"  "With how many powerful remedies and most evident Scriptures have I scarce been able to fortify my conscience so as to dare alone to contradict the pope, and to believe him to be Antichrist, the bishops his apostles, and the universities his brothel-houses;" and in his book, "De Judicio Ecdesice de Gram Doctrina" he says : "Christ takes from the bishops, doctors and councils, both the right and power of judging controversies, and gives them to all Christians in general." His censure on the Council of Constance, and those that compose it, is as follows: "All John Huss's articles were condemned at Constance by Antichrist and his apostles" (meaning the pope and bishops), "in that synod of Satan, made up of most wicked sophisters ; and you, most holy Vicar of Christ, I tell you plainly to your face, that all John Huss"s condemned doctrines are evangelical and Christian, but all yours are impious and diabolical. I now declare,"; says he, speaking to the bishops, "that for the future I will not vouchsafe you so much honor as to submit myself or doctrine to your judgment, or to that of an angel from heaven." (Preface to his book, "Adversus
falso nominatum ordinem Episcoporum.") Such was his spirit of pride that he made open profession of contempt for the authority of the Church, councils, and Fathers, saying: "All those who will venture their lives, their estates, their honor, and their blood, in so Christian a work as to root out all bishoprics and bishops, who are the ministers of Satan, and to pluck by the roots all their authority and jurisdiction in the world, these persons are the true children of God, and obey his commandments." ("Contra Statum Ecdesice et falso nominatum ordinem Episcoporum.")

This spirit of pride and of obstinacy is also most apparent from the fact that Protestantism has never been ashamed  to make use of any arguments, though ever so frivolous, inconsistent, or absurd, to defend its errors, and to slander and misrepresent the Catholic religion in every way possible. It shows itself again in the wars which Protestantism has waged to introduce and maintain itself. The apostate princes of Germany entered into a league, offensive and defensive, against the Emperor Charles V, and rose up in arms to establish Protestantism. Luther had preached licentiousness, and reviled the emperor, the princes, and the bishops. The peasants lost no time in freeing themselves from their masters. They overran the country in lawless bands, burnt down castles and monasteries, and committed the most barbarous cruelties against the nobility and clergy. Germany became at last the scene of desolation and most cruel atrocities during the Thirty Years War (1618-1648). More than one hundred thousand men fell in battle, seven cities were dismantled, one thousand religious houses were razed to the ground, three hundred churches, and immense treasures of statuary, paintings, books, etc. were destroyed. But what is more apparent and better known than the spirit of covetousness of Protestantism? Wherever Protestantism secured a footing, it pillaged churches, seized Church property, destroyed monasteries and appropriated to itself their revenues.

In France, the Calvinists destroyed twenty thousand Catholic churches, they murdered, in Dauphin alone, two hundred and fifty-five priests, one hundred and twelve monks, and burned nine hundred towns and villages. In England, Henry VIII confiscated to the crown, or distributed among his favorites, the property of six hundred and forty-five monasteries and ninety colleges, one hundred and ten hospitals, and two thousand three hundred and seventy-four free-chapels and chantries. They even dared to profane, with sacrilegious hands, the remains of the martyrs and confessors of God. In many places they forcibly took up the saints bodies from the repositories where they were kept, burned them, and scattered their ashes abroad. What more atrocious indignity can be conceived? Are parricides or the most flagitious men ever worse treated ? Among other instances,in 1562, the Calvinists broke open the shrine of St. Francis of Paula, at Plessis-Lestours ; and finding his body uncorrupted fifty-five years after his death, they dragged it about the streets, and burned it in a fire which they had made with the wood of a large crucifix, as Billet and other historians relate. Thus at Lyons, in the same year, the Calvinists seized upon the shrine of St. Bonaventure, stripped it of its riches, burned the saint's relics in the market-place, and threw his ashes into the river Saone, as is related by the learned Possevinus, who was in Lyons at the time. The bodies, also, of St. Irenseus, St. Hilary, and St. Martin, as Surius asserts, were treated in the same ignominious manner. Such, also, was the treatment offered to the remains of St. Thomas, Archbishop of Canterbury, whose rich shrine, according to the words of Stowe, in his Annals, "was taken to the king's use, and the bones of St. Thomas, by the command of Lord Cromwell, were burnt to ashes in September, 1538.

The Catholic religion has covered the world with its superb monuments. Protestantism has now lasted three hundred years; it was powerful in England, in Germany, in America. What has it raised ? It will show us the ruins which it has made, amidst which it has planted some gardens, or established some factories. The Catholic religion is essentially a creative power, built up, not to destroy, because it is under the immediate influence of that Holy Spirit which the Church invokes as the creative Spirit, "Creator Spiritus." The Protestant, or modern philosophical spirit, is a principle of destruction, of perpetual decomposition and disunion.

Under the dominion of English Protestant power, for four hundred years, Ireland was rapidly becoming as naked and void of ancient memorials as the wilds of Africa. The Reformers themselves were so ashamed of the progress of immorality among their proselytes, that they could not help complaining against it. Thus spoke Luther: "Men are now more revengeful, covetous, and licentious, than they were ever in the Papacy." (Postil. super Evang. Dom. i, Advent.) Then again: "Heretofore, when we were seduced by the pope, every man willingly performed good works, but now no man says or knows anything else than how to get all to himself by exactions, pillage, theft, lying, usury." (Postil. super Evang. Dom. xxvi, p. Trinit.)
Calvin wrote in the same strain: "Of so many thousands," said he, "who, renouncing Popery, seemed eagerly to embrace the Gospel, how few have amended their lives ! Nay, what else did the greater part pretend to, than, by shaking off the yoke of superstition, to give themselves more liberty to follow all kinds of licentiousness?" "Liber de Scandalis") Dr. Heylin, in his History of the Reformation, complains also of "the great increase, of viciousness"  in England, in the reforming reign of Edward VI. Erasmus says : "Take a view of this evangelical people, the Protestants. Perhaps tis my misfortune, but I never yet met with one who does not appear changed for the worse." (Epist. ad Vultur. Neoc.) And again : "Some persons" says he, "whom I knew formerly innocent, harmless, and without deceit, no sooner have I seen them joined to that sect (the Protestants), than they began to talk of wenches, to play at dice, to leave off prayers, being grown extremely worldly, most impatient, revengeful, vain, like vipers, tearing one another. I speak by experience." ("Ep. ad Fratres Infer. Germanise")
M. Scherer, the principal of a Protestant school in France, wrote, in 1844, that he beholds in his reformed church, the ruin of all truth, the weakness of infinite division, the scattering of flocks, ecclesiastical anarchy, Socinianism ashamed of itself, Rationalism coated like a pill, without doctrine, without consistency. This Church, deprived alike of its corporate and its dogmatic character, of its form and of its doctrine, deprived of all that constituted it a Christian church, has in truth ceased to exist in the ranks of religious communities. Its name continues, but it represents only a corpse, a phantom, or, if you will, a memory or a hope. For want of dogmatic authority, unbelief has made its way into three-fourths of our pupils." (
a L'Etat Actual de l' Eglise Reformee en France, 1844.)

Such has been Protestantism from the beginning. It is written in blood and fire upon the pages of history. Whether it takes the form of Lutheranism in Germany, Denmark, and Sweden Anglicanism in Great Britain, or Calvinism and Presbyterianism in Switzerland, France, Holland, Scotland, and America, it has been everywhere the same. It has risen by tumult and violence, propagated itself by force and persecution, enriched itself by plunder, and has never ceased, by open force, persecuting laws or slander, its attempt to exterminate the Catholic faith, and destroy the Church of Christ, which the fathers of Protestantism left from the spirit of lust, pride, and covetousness, a spirit which induced so many of their countrymen to follow their wicked example, a spirit, on account of which they would have been lost anyhow, even if they had not left their mother, the One Holy Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church. Having seen the total absence of unity in Protestantism, total absence of holiness in its authors and their principles, total absence of catholicity for want of truth, which alone can rule and enforce obedience everywhere throughout the world, and total absence of apostolicity, because it arose only three hundred years, ago, and no honest man will say that the apostles were Protestants, it is easy to answer the question:

To be continued . . . . .
Source: God the Teacher of Mankind, Vol I, The Church and Her Enemies

 10. Did this power of the pope also include the power to depose temporal rulers ?

The London Tablet, Dec. 5, 1874, answers this question as follows :

"We firmly believe that the deposing power actually exerted by more than one Roman Pontiff, and owing its efficacy to the spontaneous assent of the Christian conscience, is manifestly included among the gifts of Peter.

We believe it, among other reasons, because no power can be wanting to his supreme jurisdiction, of which the safety of the Christian commonwealth, committed to his oversight, may at any time require the exercise. He is God's vicegerent. The Church, which is God's kingdom on earth, was built by her divine Founder a upon this rock." The Almighty Architect might have chosen another foundation, but he chose this, and the gates of hell have not been able to subvert it. It is true that St. Peter never used the deposing power, but that was because Christendom had not yet begun to exist ; it is equally true that neither Pius IX nor any of his successors are ever likely to use it, but that is because Christendom has ceased to exist. There is a great host of Christians more than ever there were but there is no longer any Christendom. There is not in the whole world so much as a solitary state, unless it be one of the South American republics, which even professes to shape its policy by the law of God, much less by the counsels of his Vicar. They did so for many ages, to their own advantage, but they have ceased to do it. Only the Moslem now affects to do everything in the name of Allah. Governments are no longer Christian. Their very composition proves it. Even in the cabinet of one who is called, as if in derision, His Apostolic Majesty, there are two Jews. Every one knows how the rest are formed ; they might all write over their council doors, if they were candid enough, No truth here. For them, as Gibbon would say, all religions are equally true and equally false. Some princes encourage their own children to change their religion, in order to make a good marriage. Others, while professing to honor Peter, sit down to table with miscreants whom he has excommunicated. Christendom no longer exists. If it did, certain crowned malefactors, who make a treaty with Atheists and Freemasons, and persecute bishops, would probably find that, as St. Ambrose says, Peter is not dead. But if Christendom should ever be restored, which does not seem likely, we profess our unhesitating conviction that the deposing power of God's Vicar would revive with it.

When states were wholly Catholic, as they were for a good many centuries, when all men believed, with the saints and martyrs, that it was to the pope that the Almighty said, Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven, when the supreme authority of the Holy See was at once the bulwark of thrones, and part of the public law of Europe  when Caesar said to bishops, presided over by the papal legates, as Constantine, the master of the world, said to the Fathers at Nice, "Nos a vobis rede judicamur" nobody disputed that, as members of the Christian commonwealth, kings and princes were subject, by the law of God, to the authority of the Roman Pontiff. It was his office to restrain, by all the means which the decree of God and the faith of Christians gave him, any abuse of their power by which either the interests of religion or the just rights of Christian people were prejudiced. He was at once the guardian of the faith, and the only invincible enemy of tyrants. The most eminent non-Catholic writers have confessed that Christianity was preserved from what Guizot calls the tyranny of brute force mainly by that vigilant and fear less intervention of the Holy See, for which, as some of them sorrowfully admit, no substitute can now be found.

But it is evident that the extreme penalty of deposition, the application of which is now transferred from the pope to the mob, could only be enforced in a state of society which has long since passed away, and is never likely to return. "The only remonstrants against the spiritual authority, even when its judgments were most formidable, were worthless princes, who wished to filch the revenues of episcopal sees, and a few depraved prelates, who wished to curry favor with such princes. The Church lived in those days, as Emerson observes with true American candor, by the love of the people? They knew who was their friend. His judgments had no terror for them. The modern jealousy of the Holy See, which has only transferred all spiritual authority, as Professor Merivale remarks, from the Church to the State, has been as fatal to liberty as to religion. The state most violently opposed to the Holy See at this day is Prussia, and the only representatives of liberty in Prussia are the Catholic bishops and clergy. Even German Protestants witness against the ruthless enslavement of mind and conscience in a country in which only two institutions now remain : the barrack and the goal. What Neander would have said of the present tyranny in Prussia, we may judge from his own words: "Beautiful" he exclaims, and worthy the frankness becoming a bishop, is the language of St. Hilary of Poitiers to Constantius. And what did the saint say to Caesar, who ruled after the fashion of Bismarck and his master? "Tyrannus non jam humanorum, sed divinorum es. Antichristum praevenis et arcanorum mysteria ejus operaris." That is, "the tyrant is no longer human but a Divine art. To precede Antichrist and the arcane secrets of his work." It was a strong thing to say to Caesar sitting in his purple robe. If St. Hilary lived in our day, he would soon be in a Prussian prison, with the learned Neander, if he ventured to applaud him, in the next cell. It was the popes, says Hurter, who saved Christianity from the tyranny of the temporal power, and from becoming a mere State function, like religion among the Pagans. It was well for Hurter that his lot was not cast in the age of Bismarck. Even Leibnitz would have been deemed a mortal enemy by the Prussian Constantius. It was the inventor of the integral calculus who actually proposed, though a Protestant, to establish in Rome a tribunal to decide controversies between sovereigns, and to make the pope its president, as he really did, in former ages, figure as judge between Christian princes. But ecclesiastics should, at the same time, resume their ancient authority, and an interdict or an excommunication should make kings and kingdoms tremble, as in the days of Nicholas I or Gregory VII. Leibnitz would evidently be out of place in contemporary Prussian society. They have no room there for such as he was, except in their prisons, and those cheerful abodes will soon be too full to hold any more. "If popes no longer depose bad princes by the authority of Peter, there are others who depose good ones without any authority at all. In order to depose them more effectually, they have taken to cutting off their heads. Cromwell and his fellows did it in England; Mirabeau and his friends in France. These energetic anti-popes did not object at all to deposition, provided it was inflicted by themselves. They object to it still less now; it has become a habit. Englishmen deposed James II, after murdering his father, and put a Dutchman in his place, In other lands they are always deposing somebody. The earth is strewn with deposed sovereigns. Sometimes they depose one another, in order to steal what does not belong to them. One of them has deposed the pope himself, at least for a time, and all the rest clap their hands. They do not see that by this last felony they have undermined every throne in Europe. Perhaps in a few years there will not be a king left to be deposed. Since the secular was substituted everywhere for the spiritual authority, kings have fared badly. The popes only rebuked them when they did evil; the mob is less discriminating. And the difference between the deposing power of the popes and that of the mob is this, that the first used it, like fathers, for the benefit of religion and society; the second, like wild beasts, for the destruction of both."

There is, therefore, among all true Catholics, but one unanimous voice as to the supreme authority of the head of the Roman Church, viz. : that Jesus, the Son of God and of man, gave to Peter and his successors that fullness of jurisdiction and power which will keep the Church in safety till he comes back in the day of judgment, and to deny that supreme authority is to be at sea, drifting about with the currents of opinion, and tossed on the troubled waves of Protestantism, Calvinism, Quakerism, Mormonism, Spiritualism, and all the other isms and sophisms.

Now, in order that the great power and authority bestowed upon St. Peter should be often present to our minds, that apostle is represented with keys in his hand. He holds two: one a symbol of his jurisdiction, and the other of his orders. One key is turned toward heaven, to show that St. Peter had the power of opening or closing it, the other is directed toward the earth, to show that he had full authority over the faithful, and the power of imposing laws upon them.

The pope, however, is not only the head of the Church, he is also a temporal prince. In the establishment of his Church, our divine Saviour did not consult the civil authorities ; neither Herod nor Pilate was asked for approval. If those rulers had not lived at all, they could not have been more completely ignored, so far as establishing the Church, preaching and teaching the doctrine of Christ, and performing all the offices of the Christian ministry, go. Caesar and his officers had no voice in this. They had authority in the kingdoms of the world, but none what ever in the kingdom of God. It was established, and to be spread and to last forever, whether they willed it or not. The apostles, especially the head of the apostles, and their successors, are to exercise their power in perfect freedom. They are freely to teach what is true, freely to condemn what is false, freely to denounce the crimes of men and of governments; freely to constitute the hierarchy in various countries, freely to let persons have recourse to them in their doubts, and freely to reply to them; freely to condemn those who refuse obedience to the Church ; freely to separate from the Church those who have separated themselves from her, by persisting in error or in disobedience ; freely to define religious and moral truths, that is, give laws binding on minds in believing, and on consciences in acting. The ruler of nations and the lord of many legions, though he had not been consulted at all in the establishment of the Church, was bound to hear her voice, like the humblest peasant, and submit his soul to her guidance, under pain of eternal banishment from the presence of God. He might pretend to command when it was his duty to obey, but the mistake was sure to be disastrous to himself, as indeed the final result proved.

When the divine Master had finished his work, and his Vicar reigned in his place, the independence of the spiritual power, in its own province, was, if possible, still more evident. We know what was the attitude of the apostles toward the State. In questions of the soul, they set it at naught. They taught loyalty to Caesar in all that religion does not condemn, as their successors do at this day, so that among Christians was found a host of martyrs, but not a single conspirator or assassin but when Caesar required disloyalty to God, the apostles and the Christians bade him defiance. They knew the penalty, and accepted it. It was perfectly understood that Caesar, like other beasts of prey, had claws and teeth, and could use them. He did use them with considerable effect. He had soldiers, lictors, prisons, axes, and scaffolds. But such engines, destructive as they were, could only hurt the flesh; and the apostles and Christians were told not to "fear them that kill the body, and are not able to kill the soul." They were warned that they would be " brought before governors," but that they were not even to take thought what they should say. The divine Master would teach them what to say.

The conditions of the combat between Christ and Caesar, between the spiritual and the secular power, will never cease. In order that the head of his Church might enjoy perfect freedom in the exercise of his power, under God's providence the pope became a temporal prince. He obtained his temporal power before Constantine abandoned Rome, and it was confirmed and completed by Charlemagne, more than a thousand years ago. God inspired Christian princes to attach a principality to the Holy See, called the Patrimony of St. Peter, the States of the Church: "It has been the will of God," says Pius IX, "that the princes of the earth, even those who are not in communion with the Church of Rome, should defend and maintain the temporal sovereignty of the Holy See, which has been, by a disposition of divine Providence, enjoyed for many centuries by the Roman Pontiffs. The possession of that temporal dominion enables the reigning pope to exercise his supreme apostolical authority in the government of the Universal Church with that liberty which is necessary to fulfill the duties of his apostolical office, and procure the salvation of -the flock of Christ." (Allocution, May 10th, 1850.) The pope, then, possesses his territory under a title higher and older than any government in the world.

Napoleon I sought to destroy this temporal power of the pope, but was forced at last to admit the necessity of papal independence: "The pope," he said, "is not at Paris; it is well: we reverence his authority precisely because he is not at Vienna nor at Madrid. At Vienna and at Madrid they feel the same with regard to Paris. It is, therefore, better that he should be neither with us nor with any of our rivals, but in Rome, his ancient seat, holding an equal balance between all sovereigns. This is the work of the centuries, and they have done well. The temporal power is the wisest and best institution that could be imagined in the government of souls." The temporal dominion of the pope being a moral necessity for the well-being of the Church, the Holy Father and the bishops have pronounced anathema against all those who impugn it. History, indeed, sometimes show! us the Supreme Pontiff under another aspect. There were times when his triple crown crumbled, when his sceptre shrunk to a hollow reed, when his throne became a shadow, and his home a dungeon. But God permitted this only to show us how inestimable is human virtue, when compared with human grandeur. Human grandeur may perish, but virtue is immortal. God permitted it, to prove to the scoffing infidel world that the simplicity of the patriarchs, the piety of the saints, the patience of the martyrs, have not as yet vanished from the earth. God permitted it, in fine, to show the rabid enemies of our holy faith that, though our common father were in chains, though his motives were calumniated, and though his kingly power were destroyed, yet the Church, the holy Catholic Church of Jesus Christ, is still able to guide and to support her children, and to confound, if she cannot reclaim, her enemies.

The pontiff is firm, immovable as a rock. No threats can awe, no promise can tempt, no sufferings can appall him. With exile, the dungeon, and death before his eyes, he dashes away the proffered cup, in which the pearl of his liberty is to be dissolved : "Non possumus" is his bold and noble language. "We can die, but we cannot give up the rights of the Church.  The Catholic world cannot, and will not, submit and agree to the sacrilegious occupation of the Papal States by any government. The voices of more than two hundred millions of Catholics will ring from every land under the sun, demanding perfect liberty of action for their common spiritual father, and the undisturbed possession of the Patrimony of St. Peter. The spirit of opposition to the temporal power of the pope is but the spirit of modern Paganism, which aims at the destruction of civil government, the rights of justice, the law of God and of man. All justice-loving men admit this. The opposers of the temporal power start from the pagan principle of separation of the temporal from the spiritual; they are either bigots, or infidels, or vain and frothy theorizers, or corrupt politicians of the Masonic sect, or restless demagogues ; and if they be Christians, their faith sits as lightly on their conscience as a feather on the back of a whirlwind: they are all pervaded by the pestilential spirit of modern Paganism. When a government becomes indifferent in religious matters, wishes to assume supreme control over the asylums of suffering humanity, secularizes churches and schools, caring only for the mere literary or arithmetical education of its subjects; when it makes laws infringing on the rights of conscience or property; when it interferes with the sacraments and the rites of the Church, then it is pagan in spirit. It endeavors to prevent men from attaining the end of creation; it ceases to be a free government, or to fulfill the end for which all governments were instituted. Every temporal ruler who denies the pope's rights to his temporal power, will soon find his own abolished.*
* When the pope is elected according to established regulations, and if he consents to his election, he becomes at once invested with authority over the Universal Church, though he be neither a bishop nor a priest, nor deacon, nor subdeacon, but a mere cleric. He is capable of performing every act belonging to papal jurisdiction; he can, for instance, grant indulgences, pass censures, grant dispensations, appoint canons, institute bishops, create cardinals. But the peculiar power of the priesthood and the episcopacy, such as forgiving sins, administering the sacraments of confirmation and of holy orders, he cannot exercise until he has first been consecrated. From what has been said, it follows that the Papacy, the Sovereign Pontificate, is a dignity, not of orders, but of jurisdiction. If the pope be a bishop at the time of his election, he receives no other consecration. Being clothed with the episcopal character, he is on an equality with the other bishops; but as pope, and vested with the dignity and authority of head of the Church, he is superior to all the pastors of the Church. If, at the time of his election, the pope is not in holy orders, he can receive them all on the same day. The privilege of consecrating a pope who is no bishop at the time of his election, belongs to the Bishop of Ostia. When the pope is elected he changes his name, because he is the successor of St. Peter, whose name was changed by Jesus Christ. The pope can be taken from any rank of the ecclesiastical hierarchy. In the early ages of the Church, subdeacons were but seldom raised to the dignity of the Papacy ; but deacons were often elected. Priests were seldom chosen to fill that high office, and the appointment of bishops to it was of very rare occurrence. The first pope raised from the episcopal office to the papal throne was Formosa, Bishop of Oporto, who was elected in 891. The discipline of the Church, in this respect, has undergone a great change; for, from about the end of the thirteenth century, it was the ordinary practice to select the pope from among the bishops, and from 1592 to 1775 we find but three popes elected who were no bishops at the time of their election. In our times, Clement XIV, Pius V, and Gregory XVI, were tho only persons who were simple priests at the time of their elevation to the Papacy. The pope is elected by the cardinals. For many centuries the pope was elected by the Roman clergy, and the faithful took a very active part in the election; but, for many years past, the election has been confined to the cardinals, who are the princes and senators of the Church, and are vested with a dignity inferior only to that of the pope.

The learned are divided in their opinions in reference to the origin of cardinals, and the derivation of the name cardinal, Some think that cardinal comes from the word cardo, cardinalis, a hinge on which a gate or a door turns; because the cardinals are the hinges or pivots on which the government of the Church rolls. According to Baronius, Bellarmin, and other liturgical writers, the officiating priests of the parishes and churches of Rome were the first cardinals; and they were so called because, when they accompanied the pope to the altar, they stood ad cornua, that is, at the corners or angles of it. Besides the churches served by priests, there were a great many hospitals, the administration of which was intrusted to deacons. These deacons also attended the pope whenever he officiated, and, with the priests of the parishes, stood at the corners of the altar; hence, the distinction between the cardinal priests and the cardinal deacons. The titular bishops of the sees in the vicinity of Rome, called suburbicarian bishops, attended the pope on all solemn ceremonies, and took up their positions, like the priests and deacons of whom we have just spoken, at the corners of the altar, and hence the origin of cardinal archbishops. The latter, in virtue of their episcopal consecration, have always taken precedence over the cardinal priests and cardinal deacons. The dignity of cardinal, in the sense in which that word is now understood, is the highest in the Church, next to that of the pope. The cardinals are the princes and senators of the Church, the councillors of the pope, his coadjutors and vicars in the functions of the Sovereign Pontificate. They form the consistory, or the council of the pope, who selects them from all nations, to aid him in the government of the Church.By a Bull of Sixtus V, published in 1586, the number of cardinals was fixed at seventy. They are divided into three orders, namely: six cardinal bishops, fifty cardinal priests, and fourteen cardinal deacons.

As the Papacy is of divine right, so also is the Episcopacy of divine right. Christ willed that there should be bishops to assist the pope in the government of the Church. For this reason St. Paul says, "The Holy Ghost hath placed you bishops to rule the Church of God." The word "bishop" means overseer, inspector, or superintendent. The choice of a bishop has to be made, or at least to be confirmed, by the pope; from him each bishop holds his jurisdiction over the territory assigned to him by the pope. Episcopal jurisdiction has been instituted by Christ in such a manner that each bishop should receive his jurisdiction from the pope, who makes the bishops sharers in the power of the keys which Christ gave to Peter alone, and, in his person, to his successors : "The Lord," says Tertullian, "has given the keys to St. Peter, and, through him, to the Church." St. Gregory of Nyssa says the same, in other words : "Through Peter, Christ has given the keys of the kingdom of heaven to the bishops." As Peter and his successors alone have received the keys of the kingdom of God, they alone can communicate the use of them to the rest of the pastors. From Peter and his successors the bishops hold the jurisdiction which they exercise in their dioceses it is by him that they hold, in their dioceses, the place of Christ, as priests, as pontiffs, as doctors, as legislators, as judges, as heads and pastors of the faithful under their jurisdiction, and are, as St. Paul says, ambassadors for Jesus Christ, God's coadjutors, who exhort the faithful by their mouth; for all this is what constitutes jurisdiction. This doctrine has been solemnly declared by Pius IX, in his Encyclical Letter of Nov. 9th, 1840, addressed to the archbishops and bishops of the Catholic Church : "Come with an open heart," he says, "and with full confidence, to the See of the blessed Peter, Prince of the Apostles, the centre of Catholic unity, and the summit of the episcopacy, whence the episcopacy itself derives its origin and its authority.

Episcopal consecration, however, is not necessary for the exercise of episcopal jurisdiction ; all that is necessary is, that the election of a bishop should be confirmed by the pope. This confirmation of the pope gives to the bishop-elect canonical institution, and confers on him jurisdiction over all the faithful of the territory which has been assigned to him. This jurisdiction, received from the pope, may also be taken away by the pope. Bishops, however, cannot be deprived of the power which is essentially connected with orders and the episcopal character, because that power is received immediately from God. Should, therefore, a bishop become a heretic, he still retains his episcopal character, in virtue of which he validly, though unlawfully, confers confirmation, holy orders, and offers the holy sacrifice of the Mass. All bishops are on an equality as to their episcopal character, but the jurisdiction of some, of patriarchs, metropolitans, and archbishops, is more extended than that of others. This privilege of greater power is conferred by the pope alone, as he may think fit to grant to this or that bishop a greater or less share of the supreme authority which he holds over all the churches.

In the early ages of the Church, the title patriarch (sovereign father, chief father) was given to the titular bishops of the sees of the most important cities, such as Alexandria, Constantinople, Jerusalem, and Antioch. The Patriarch of Rome has always been considered the universal patriarch. The bishops presiding over the capital cities of the empire were called metropolitans, but, in later times, archbishops, that is, chief bishops. The patriarchal churches were established by the Holy See, wherein the power rests of extending or limiting the jurisdiction of any bishop ; for, "everything," says St. Leo, "which Christ has given to the other bishops, has been given through St. Peter."

Besides the pope and the bishops, there are other legitimate pastors, called parish priests, who are subject to their respective bishops ; for, as the bishop possesses the plenitude of the priesthood, he enjoys by divine right, that is, by Christ's institution, a superiority not only of precedence and of honor, but even of authority, over all his priests, who, without his good-will and pleasure, can do nothing in regard to ecclesiastical matters. He is the pastor of his whole diocese. He can, therefore, give to this or that priest jurisdiction more or less extended. For good reasons he can also restrict the jurisdiction which he had given, and even withdraw it altogether.

In the early ages of Christianity, there was but one Church in each city or town, in which the faithful assembled under the presidency of the bishop. But when, in the course of time, the number of Christians had considerably increased, and bishops were unable to attend to the spiritual wants of their flock, dioceses were divided into parishes, that is, a union of many families, who assemble in a particular church, called parochial church, to assist at the holy sacrifice of the Mass, and the other duties of religion. Each parochial church is attended by a priest called the parish priest, whose duty it is to instruct the people in the way of salvation, and administer to them the sacraments of baptism, holy Eucharist, Penance, Matrimony, and Extreme Unction. From a custom long established, the parish priest can dispense his parishioners in matters of fasting and abstinence, and in the observation of Sundays and holydays. Parish priests are often assisted in their labor by other priests, called vicars or coadjutors. Every parish, then, has three immediate pastors : the pope, the bishop, and the parish priest. All the particular churches in the world profess their union with the Church of Rome. She is the mistress of all others : "To be united with the See of Rome," says St. Cyprian, "is to be united with the Catholic Church, for the Church of Rome is the principal Church ; the Bishop of Rome, the chief bishop ; the episcopal throne of this Church is the throne of Peter, the source and centre of ecclesiastical unity, and therefore all bishops of the world must, either directly or indirectly, be in communication with Rome, in order that, by thus communicating with her, the union of all may be preserved." And St. Irenseus, who lived in the first century, declares that, instead of scrutinizing the doctrine delivered by Christ and his apostles,  "and searching tradition, it is enough to inquire what is the teaching of the Church of
Rome: "For it is necessary," says he, "that the whole Church, that is, the faithful of the whole world, should be in communion with this Church, on account of its more powerful authority ; in which communion the faithful of the whole world have preserved the tradition that was delivered by the apostles. When, therefore, you know the faith of this Church, you have also learned the faith of the others." (Contr. Haeret. iii, 3, n. 2.)
"Whoever," says St. Jerome, "is not in communion with the Church of Rome, is outside the Church." (Adv. Jovian., lib. i, n. 26.)

The One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic and Roman Church, then, unites all the distinguishing marks of her divine institution and mission. Nowhere do these distinctive marks of the Church of Christ appear with more lustre than in those holy assemblies, called General Councils. The Church's unity appears most strikingly in the union of all the members to the same supreme head who convoked the council presides over it, confirms and Executes its decrees. The sanctity of the Church is clearly seen in her condemnation of errors, and extirpation of abuses. The catholicity of the Church is seen in the convocation of the pastors of the whole Christian world ; and the apostolicity of the Church is manifest in the assembly of all the bishops, the successors of the apostles, who are convoked, heard, and called to judge in matters of faith and morals, to regulate discipline, to acknowledge the authority of tradition, to confirm the doctrine of the apostles, and, after their return to their respective dioceses, to communicate to their diocesans "what hath seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to them" at which the hearts of all the faithful in the world are filled with consolation and joy, and deep gratitude toward Jesus Christ, who continues to speak to them through blessed Peter and the other apostles, in their lawful successors, the bishops of the One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic and Roman Church.

To be continued . . . . . . .

9. Why is the Catholic Church called Roman?
The Catholic Church is called Roman:
1. because the visible head of the Church is Bishop of Rome;
2. because St. Peter and his successors fixed their see in Rome;
3. because all the Catholic Churches in the world profess their union with the Roman Church.

The Catholic Church is called Roman, because at Rome the pope, as visible head of the Church, has fixed his see. St. Peter was the first pope and first bishop of Rome. After having preached in Jerusalem, and presided for seven years over the Church of Antioch, he left St. Ignatius in his place at Antioch, and went to Rome, where he fixed his see. He was, however, often absent to perform his apostolical duties in other countries. He came to Rome in A.D. 40. Having remained there for some considerable time, he went back to the East, but returned to Rome not long after. In 49, on account of some tumult raised by the Jews against the Christians, St. Peter and St. Paul were banished from Rome by Claudius, but they were soon allowed to return. St. Peter returned again to the East, and in 51 was present at the General Council held at Jerusalem by the apostles, where, in a discourse, he showed that the Gentile converts were not bound by the Jewish ceremonies. St. Peter went back to Rome a few years previous to his martyrdom, in the reign of the Emperor Nero. But before his final return thither, he preached the Gospel over all Italy, and likewise in other provinces of the West. When again in Rome, he and St. Paul, by their prayer, put an end to the magical delusions of Simon Magus. Enraged at this, the tyrant Nero put both apostles into the Mamertine prison. After an imprisonment of eight months, St. Peter was scourged, and then crucified with his head downward. He chose this manner of crucifixion, because he believed himself unworthy to suffer and die in the same way as his divine Master. According to Eusebius and Others, he held possession of the See of Rome for about twenty-five years, assisted by St. Paul, who shared with him the honor of having founded Christian Rome.

St. Peter, then, the Prince of the Apostles, who first occupied the Apostolic See, transmitted, by the command of God, to the pontiffs, who even to the end of time should occupy his see, his primacy in the apostolate and in the pastoral charge, together with all the authority which he
had received from God our Saviour. Hence the Greeks, in 1274, subscribed this profession of faith, which was presented to them by Gregory X : "The holy Roman Church possesses a supreme and complete primacy and authority over the whole Catholic Church, she acknowledges truly and humbly that she received it, together with plenary authority, from the Saviour himself, in the person of Peter, the Prince or Head of the Apostles, of whom the Roman Pontiff is the successor, and as she is bound more than the other churches to defend the truth of religion, so, if any questions arise concerning the faith, they ought to be determined by her judgment. Whoever considers himself wronged in any matter which pertains to the Church, can appeal to her tribunal; and in all the causes which relate to ecclesiastical jurisdiction, recourse may be had to her judgment. All churches are subject to her, and the prelates who govern them owe respect and obedience to her. The plenitude of power belongs to her in such a manner, that the other churches are admitted by her to a share in her solicitude. Several of these, especially the patriarchal churches, have been honored with
various privileges by the Roman Church, without prejudice to her prerogatives, which she must preserve whether in General Councils or in certain other cases." (Labbe, t. xi, p. 965.)

In the fourteenth century, it is true, several popes resided at Avignon, in France, yet they did not cease, on that account, to be the Bishops of Rome and the heirs of St. Peter. Rome is, indeed, the capital of Christendom, and is justly called the Eternal City, for it has always been the centre of Catholic unity, and the see of the successors of St. Peter.

From St. Peter's time every succeeding head of the Church was Bishop of Rome, and, seated in the Chair of Peter, governed the Church as her Sovereign Pontiff, as the visible representative of ecclesiastical unity, as the supreme teacher and guardian of the faith, as the supreme legislator and interpreter of the canons, as the legitimate superior of all bishops, as the final judge of councils, enjoying the primacy both of honor and jurisdiction; so that the pagan historian, Ammianus Marcellinus, styled Pope Liberius: "the overseer of the Christian religion," and the Fathers, the Councils, the Doctors of the Church, ecclesiastical writers, and the saints of all ages, have called the Bishop of Rome pope, that is, father, because he is the common spiritual father of all Christians. They have called him also the Most Holy Father, the Universal Bishop of the Church, the Vicar of Christ, the Pastor of pastors, the Judge of judges. They have given him the title of Sovereign Pontiff, because he is superior to all other pontiffs or bishops, not only as to honor, but also as to jurisdiction, and because he exercises supreme authority in the Universal Church. On account of this primacy or supremacy which the head of the Church has received immediately from God, in the person of Peter, the Council of Trent defines that the faithful, of whatever dignity, be they kings or emperors, bishops, primates, or patriarchs, owe him a real and true obedience. The same council declares that it pertains to him to provide the churches with pastors to determine the impediments which make marriage null and to dispense with them, to convoke a General Council, to confirm its decrees, to resolve the doubts raised by them, to create cardinals, to appoint bishops, to watch over the reform of studies, to correct abuses, to decide the most grave causes in which bishops are concerned; he can reserve to himself the absolving from certain grave crimes, absolve those who have possessed themselves of ecclesiastical property: without his judgment nothing of importance can be established in the Church.

To be continued . . . . . . . .

8. Show how the Catholic Church is apostolic.

We answer : The Catholic Church is apostolic, because her chief pastor, the pope, is the lawful successor of St. Peter, and the bishops are the lawful successors of the other apostles,from whom they have their doctrine, their orders, and their mission, through an unbroken succession of bishops.

The Catholic Church can show precisely how she obtained possession of the divine authority of the apostles. The Roman Pontiff, Pius IX, can name the two hundred and fifty-three popes who, without a break, handed down the authority of St. Peter, the head of the apostles, even to himself. He can tell the day and hour of his election and consecration, which are consigned to imperishable monuments. Every bishop of the Catholic Church can also show the authentic titles which prove the transmission of the apostolic authority from the pontiff, who founded his Church, down to himself, the validity of his ordination, and the legitimate character of his mission. Every priest receives his authority from his bishop. Thus there is not a break in those glorious lines of bishops, which each episcopal see, and above all sees, that of Peter, can show alike to friend and foe. Here nothing is arbitrary, nothing uncertain. The apostolic ministry is perpetuated, under the presidency of the head of the apostles, with the perpetual presence and assistance of Him who promised to be with his own, even to the end of the world. Thus the authority of the minister of our altars does not depend on the power of any temporal monarch, nor on the people ; it depends solely on the head and chief pastor in the apostolical hierarchy. What noble independence this ! It is the security of the faithful, and constitutes both the greatness of the Church, and the dignity of her pastors.

In the beginning of the thirteenth century the pope sent ambassadors to the famous Tartar monarch, Gengis Khan. The Tartars asked the ambassadors, "Who is the pope ?  Is he not an old man at least five hundred years of age ?" They might have said twelve hundred, and they would have been right ; for, as Pius IX has said so truly, "Simon may die, but Peter lives forever" and Peter will live until time shall have ended its course. Pius IX is to us Peter,  for each pontiff, as he comes, reigns upon Peter's throne, speaks with his voice, binds and looses with his hands, opens and closes the kingdom with the keys which Peter once took from the pierced hands of his divine Master ; and he will hold those keys of life and death till the number of the elect is filled, and the last of the redeemed enters his Father's house.

The Church taught and governed in our days by the pope and bishops, differs not in its essential character from the Church taught and governed by Peter and the apostles. Let us see how Peter exercises the authority conferred on him, and, through him, upon all his successors, by Jesus Christ. After the resurrection of our Saviour, who appeared to Peter first of all the apostles, he is the first to proclaim that resurrection to all the people, and he confirms the truth of his testimony by a miracle. ( Acts ii, 14  and, iii, 15.) After the ascension of our Lord, Peter assembled the apostles and some disciples in the upper chamber, and addressed them thus, "The Scripture must needs be fulfilled" which foretells the defection of Judas, and his place being taken by another. We, therefore, must choose one from among us, who has been a witness to the miracles and resurrection of the Son of God, to take his place. (Acts i, 16.) Is the Gospel to be preached to the Gentiles ? It is Peter to whom the solution of the
difficulty is revealed it is he who decides, "all holding their peace, and giving glory to God." (Acts iii, 18.) Peter first received the Gentiles into the Church ( Acts x ), after having been the first to introduce the Jews into her sacred fold. At a later period the question of circumcision and the ceremonies of the law came up. Peter at once rose up, and explained the common faith. All listened in silence. A decree was made in which the faith on this point was determined forever. Peter visited the Christians of Joppe, Lydda, Galilee, Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, Bithynia, etc. ( Acts ix.) Everywhere he founded new congregations of Christians, and visited them all in, his office of Supreme Pastor. From Jerusalem he went to Antioch, from Antioch to Rome, where he combated the heresy of Simon the Magician, and finally sealed his glorious apostleship by dying a martyr's death.

As the lawful successor of the Prince of the Apostles, the pope decides, without appeal, matters of faith and morals, convokes general councils, presides over and confirms them, founds churches, visits them in person, or by his delegates, appoints bishops, confirms them in the faith, and acts in all as the Supreme Head and Pastor of the Catholic Church. Peter took possession, for himself and his successors, of all the prerogatives and duties of the Sovereign Pontificate. Now let us see how the apostles exercise the authority conferred on them by Christ, From the Acts of the Apostles we learn that they teach and preach the Gospel, they baptize and impose hands, that is, give confirmation,- they found churches, and give them pastors ; they choose one to succeed Judas; in the Council of Jerusalem, they regulate whatever concerns faith and discipline, saying, "It has seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us" (Acts xv, 82) ; they resolve difficulties, and repress scandals that arise, and, if necessary, they excommunicate him who deserves to be cut off from the communion of the faithful, till he truly repents ; they command the Christians to avoid teachers who were not sent by Christ (Tit. iii, 10), and to receive their oral traditions as well as their written instructions (2 Thess. ii, 14); they clearly teach that the Church is founded upon the apostolic ministry (Eph. ii, 20) ; that Christ appointed apostles, pastors, doctors, in a word, a teaching and governing body, to accomplish the work of sanctifying the elect, that "we be not carried about with every wind of doctrine" (Eph. iv, 12-14); they also teach that the Holy Ghost has appointed bishops to rule the Church of God (Acts xx, 28) ; that the reading of holy Scripture "is profitable," to those especially who "teach and reprove others," yet that they contain difficult passages, "which the unlearned wrest" from their true meaning "to their own destruction." (2 Pet. iii, 16.) What is all this but precisely what the bishops of the Catholic Church practice today. They teach, decide on points of faith and morals, give confirmation, ordain priests; they govern, punish, excommunicate, grant indulgences, recommend the faithful not to become familiar with heretics; they assemble in council, to regulate in matters concerning faith, morals, and discipline ; and all this they do in the name of the Holy Ghost, who has promised them his assistance. They teach that the unwritten word of God is to be received with the same faith as the written ; and each bishop says, with the great apostle, that he is "appointed , by the Holy Spirit" to govern his Church.

Thus we see that the Church of Jesus Christ, as described by St. Luke, St. Paul, St. James, and the others, is precisely the same as the Church which is called one, holy, Catholic and Apostolic.

To be continued . . . . . . . . . . . . .

-6. What does the word Catholic mean?
The word Catholic means Universal. Now it is easy to show how the Roman Church is Catholic, or Universal.

The Roman Church is Catholic ;
1. because she has existed in all ages ;
2. because she teaches all nations ; and,
3. because she maintains all truths.

1. The Roman Church is Catholic, because she has existed in all ages.
This Church is Catholic, or universal, in her duration. She goes back, without a break, through the apostles to Jesus Christ, through Jesus Christ to the origin of the chosen people, and through Abraham and the patriarchs even to our first parents in paradise. The enemies of God hate his holy Church; they hate the pope, they hate the bishops and the priests ; they grind their teeth, they foam at the mouth, they tremble with rage, and seem as if they would tear into pieces all the popes, bishops and priests that have ever lived, from Peter to the present day. Why? Because Jesus Christ continues to live in Peter? and in his successors, he speaks to the world and teaches it, through them, like one having authority. It is for this very reason that the Church will remain forever ; for, truth and justice being in the end always victorious, the Church will not cease to bless and to triumph. All the works of the earth have perished, time has obliterated them. The Catholic Church remains : she will endure until she passes from her earthly exile to her country in heaven.

Human theories and systems have flitted across her path, like birds of night, but have vanished ; numberless sects have, like so many waves, dashed themselves to froth against this rock, or, recoiling, have been lost in the vast ocean of forgetfulness. Kingdoms and empires that once existed in inimitable worldly grandeur are no more, dynasties have died out, and have been replaced by others. Theories and sceptres and crowns have withstood the Church ; but, immutable, like God, who laid her foundation, she is the firm, unshaken centre, round which the weal and woe of nations move : weal to them if they adhere to her, woe to them if they separate from her. If the world takes from the Catholic Church the cross of gold, she will bless the world with one of wood. If necessary, her pastors and all her children can suffer and die for the faith, but the Catholic Church remains : she is immortal.

We cannot but smile when we hear men talk of the down fall of the Catholic Church. What could hell and its agents do more than they have already done for her destruction? They have employed tortures for the body, but they could not reach the spirit ; they have tried heresy, or the denial of revealed truth, to such an extent that we can see no room for any new heresy ; they have, by the hand of schism, torn, whole countries from the unity of the Church, but what she lost on one side of the globe, she gained tenfold on the other. All these assaults have ignominiously failed to verify the prophecies of hell, that "the Catholic Church shall fall." Look, for instance, at the tremendous effort of the so called Reformation, together with its twin sister, the unbelief of the nineteenth century ! Whole legions of Church reformers, together with armies of philosophers, armed with negation, and a thousand-and-one systems of paganism, furiously attacked the Chair of Peter, and swore that the Papacy should fall, and, with it, the whole Church. Three hundred years are over, and the Catholic Church is still alive, and more vigorous than ever. She is the glorious Church of all ages. And as Christ made her Catholic, or universal, as to time, so also he made her Catholic as to place.

2. She teaches all nations :
"Going therefore,"  said our Lord to his apostles, "teach ye all nations," and, "You shall be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, and even to the uttermost part of the earth."

More than fifteen hundred years ago there hung in the catacombs of Rome a lamp shaped in the form of a ship, at whose helm sat St. Peter, steering with one hand, and with the other giving his blessing. On one side of this miniature ship were engraved the words, "Peter dies not;" and on the other, the words of our Saviour "I have prayed for thee." (Luke xxii, 32.) There could not be a more beautiful symbol of the Catholic Church. She is the lamp which has dispelled the darkness of heathenism, and has furnished the nations with the brilliant light of truth; the Church is a ship, which has carried this light safely, through the storms of ages, to the ends of the earth, bringing with it blessings to the nations, and gathering into its apostolic net, as it sailed along, the perishing children of men. And at the helm sits the poor fisherman of Galilee, St. Peter, in the person of the pope, together with his assistants, the Catholic bishops and priests, directing the course of the vessel, now to this, now to that distressed country, now to this, now to that sorrowing people, to carry to them, not gold, not silver, but what is infinitely more precious, faith, and with faith, true civilization, based upon the unchangeable principles of supernatural morality, true prosperity, true happiness, and peace on earth and for eternity.

It was not by the circulation of the Bible, by Bible societies or by money, but by the living voice of the Roman Church, it was through the popes, the Catholic bishops and priests, that Christianity, at the end of the third century, covered the whole then known world. The Capitoline temple, and with it the many shrines of idolatry, the golden house of Nero, and with it Roman excess and Roman cruelty, the throne of the Caesars, and with it Roman oppression and Roman injustice, had all passed away, and there stood the Rome of the Fathers of the Church, the Rome which has yet to do such wonders in the world. "And the light shone into the darkness." Pope after pope, the principal bearers of the light of the true faith, sent forth to the nations bishops and missionaries, full of the spirit of self-sacrifice, solely devoted to their great task, and by the inflamed zeal, the fervent piety, the earnest prayers and penances, the astounding miracles, the bright examples and spotless lives of these apostolic men, new tribes and new nations were gained for Christ, year after year. Thus, St. Austin carried the light of faith to England, St. Patrick to Ireland, St. Boniface to Germany.

The Frieslanders, the Moravians, the Prussians, the Swedes, the Picts, the Scots, the Franks, and hundreds of others, were brought to the bosom of the Church through the preaching and labors of the bishops and priests of the Roman Catholic Church. Driven from one country, their influence was made to act on another. When Solisman, the Sultan, threatened to wipe out Christianity from Europe, Roman Catholic bishops and priests went to the East Indies, to China, and Japan. When Europe failed in its fidelity, and listened to the siren voice of heresy, Catholic bishops and priests were sent to the newly discovered continent of America, and to the West Indies. Gregory XVI devised plans for missions to the interior of Africa, missions which are yet working winders. This great work of enlightening the world with the true light of the Catholic religion, the Church accomplished, more particularly by those astonishing organizations called religious orders. Besides carrying the light of faith to all nations, those religious orders did another thing : they civilized the countries to which they had been sent.

In the pagan world, education was an edifice built up on the principles of slavery. The motto was: "Odi profanum vulgus et arceo" I hate and shun the common people. Education was the privilege of the aristocracy. The great mass of people was studiously kept in ignorance of the treasures of the mind. This state of things was done away with by the Roman Catholic Church, when she established the monastic institutions of the West. The whole of Europe was soon covered with schools, not only for the wealthy, but even for the poorest of the poor. Education was systematized, and an emulation was created for learning, such as the world had never seen before. Italy, Germany, France, England, and Spain, had their universities, but, side by side with these, their colleges, gymnasiums, parish and village schools, as numerous as the churches and monasteries which the efforts of the Holy See had scattered, with lavish hand, over the length and breadth of the land. And where was the source of all this light ? At Rome. For, when the barbarian hordes poured down upon Europe from the Caspian Mountains, it was the popes who saved civilization. They collected, in the Vatican, the manuscripts of the ancient authors, gathered from all parts of the earth at enormous expense. The barbarians, who destroyed everything by fire and sword, had already advanced as far as Rome. Attila, who called himself  "the Scourge of God,"  stood before its walls, there were no emperor, no pretorian guard, no legions present, to save the ancient capital of the world. But there was a pope : Leo I. And Leo went forth, and by entreaties, and threats of God's displeasure, induced the dreaded king of the Huns to retire. Scarcely had Attila retired, before Genseric, King of the Vandals, made his appearance, invited by Eudoxia, the empress, to the plunder of Rome. Leo met him, and obtained from him the lives and the honor of the Romans, and the sparing of the public monuments which adorned the city in such numbers. Thus Leo the Great saved Europe from barbarism. To the name of Leo might be added those of Gregory I, Sylvester II, Gregory XIII, Benedict XIV, Julius III, Paul III, Leo X, Clement VIII, John XX, and a host of others, who must be looked upon as the preservers of science and the arts, even amid the very fearful torrent of barbarism that was spreading itself, like an inundation, over the whole of Europe. The principle of the Catholic Church has ever been this : "By the knowledge of divine things, and the guidance of an infallible teacher, the human mind must gain certainty in regard to the sublimest problems, the great questions of life; by them the origin, the end, the aim and limit of man s activity, must be made known, for then only can he venture fearlessly upon the sphere of human efforts, and human developments, and human science. "And truly, never has science gained the ascendancy outside of the Church that it has always held in the Church. And what is true of science is true, also, of the arts. It is true of architecture, of sculpture, and of painting. We need only point to the Basilica of Peter, to the museums and libraries of Rome. It is to Rome the youthful artist always turns his steps, in Order to drink in, at the monuments of art and of science, the genius and inspiration he seeks for in vain in his own country. He feels, only too keenly, that railroads and telegraphs, steamships and power-looms, banking-houses and stock- companies, though good and useful institutions, are not the mothers of genius, nor the schools of inspiration; and therefore he leaves his country, and goes to Rome, and there feasts on the fruits gathered by the hands of St. Peter s successors, and returns home with a name which will live for ages in the memory of those who have learned to appreciate the true and the beautiful.

The depravity of man shows itself in the constant endeavor to shake off the restraint placed by law and duty upon his will : and to this we must ascribe the licentiousness which has at all times afflicted society. Passion acknowledges no law, and spares neither rights nor conventions, where it has the power, it exercises it to the advantage of self, and to the detriment of social order.

The Church is, by its very constitution, Catholic, and hence looks upon all men as brothers of the same family. She acknowledges not the natural right of one man over another, and hence her Catholicity lays a heavy restraint upon all the efforts of self-love, and curbs, with a mighty hand, the temerity of those who would destroy the harmony of life, implied in the idea of Catholicity.

One of the first principles of all social happiness is, that before the law of nature, and before the face of God, all men are equal. This principle is based on the unity of the human race, the origin of all men from one common father. If we study the history of paganism, we find that all heathen nations overturned this great principle, since we find among all heathen nations the evil of slavery. Prior to the coming of Christ, the great majority of men were looked upon as a higher development of the animal, as animated instruments, which might be bought and sold, given away and pawned, which might be tormented, maltreated, or murdered ; as beings, in a word, for whom the idea of right, duty, pity, mercy, and law, had no existence. Who can read, without a feeling of intense horror, the accounts left us of the treatment of their slaves by the Romans ? There was no law that could restrain in the least the wantonness, the cruelty, the licentious excess of the master, who, as master, possessed the absolute right to do with his slaves whatsoever he pleased. To remove this stain of slavery has ever been the aim of the Catholic Church. "Since the Saviour and Creator of the world," says Pope Gregory I, in his celebrated decree, "wished to become man, in order, by grace and liberty, to break the chains of our slavery, it is right and good to bestow again upon man, whom nature has permitted to be born free, but whom the law of nations has brought under the yoke of slavery, the blessing of his original liberty." Through all the middle ages, called by Protestants the dark ages of the world, the echo of these words of Gregory I is heard ; and, in the thirteenth century, Pope Pius II could say : "Thanks be to God and the Apostolic See, the yoke of slavery does no longer disgrace any European nation." Since then, slavery was again introduced into Africa and the newly-discovered regions of America, and again the popes raised their voices in the interests of liberty. Pius VII, even at the time when Napoleon had robbed him of his liberty, and held him captive in a foreign land, became the defender of the negro. Gregory XVI, on the 3rd of November, 1839, insisted, in a special Bull, on the abolition of the slave trade, and spoke in a strain as if he had lived and sat side by side with Gregory I, thirteen hundred years before. But here let us observe, that not only the vindication of liberty for all, not only the abolition of slavery, but the very mode of action followed in this, matter by the popes, has gained for the Church immortal honor, and the esteem of all good men. When the Church abolished slavery in any country where it existed, the popes did not compel masters, by harshness or threats, to manumit their slaves, they did not bring into action the base intrigues, the low chicanery, the canting hypocrisy, of modern statesmen ; they did not raise armies, and send them into the lands of their masters to burn and to pillage, to lay waste and to destroy; they did not slaughter, by their schemes, over a million of free men, and another million of slaves, they did not make widows and orphans without number, they did not impoverish the land, and lay upon their subjects burdens which would crush them into very dust. Nothing of all this. That is not the way in which the Church abolished slavery. The popes sent bishops and priests into those countries where slavery existed, to enlighten the minds of the masters, and convince them that slaves were men, and consequently had immortal souls like other people. The pastors of the Church infused into the hearts of masters a deep love for Jesus Christ, and consequently a deep love for souls. They taught masters to look upon slaves as created by the same God; redeemed by the same Jesus Christ, destined for the same glory. The consequence was, that the relations of slave and master became the relations of brother to brother; the master began to love his slave, and to ameliorate his condition, till at last, forced by his own acknowledged principles, he granted to him his liberty.

Thus it was that slavery was abolished by the preaching of the popes, bishops and priests. The great barrier to all the healthy, permanent, and free development of nations was thus broken down ; the blessings, the privileges of society, were made equally attainable by the masses, and ceased to be the special monopoly of a few, who, for the most part, had nothing to recommend them except their wealth. It is thus that the Catholic Church has accomplished the great work of enlightening society. She has shed the light of faith over the East and the West, over the North and the South, and with the faith she has established the principles of true science on their natural bases. She has imparted education to the masses, wherever she was left free to adopt her own, and untrammelled by civil interference. She has fostered and protected the arts and the sciences ; and today, if all the libraries, and all the museums, and all the galleries of art in the world were destroyed, Rome alone would possess quite enough to supply the want, as it did in former ages, when others supplied themselves by plundering Rome. She has abolished slavery, and established human freedom. She truly is what she is called : Catholic for all ages, Catholic for all nations, and

3. She is Catholic, because she maintains all truths.
The Roman Church is universal, or catholic, as to doctrine. Her doctrine is the same everywhere. What she teaches in one country, she also teaches in another. Her doctrine in one place is her doctrine in another. There can be in the Roman Church no new doctrine, no local belief, no creed in which the whole Church has not been united the Church uniting to condemn all variations from this belief. New discipline, new practices, new orders, new methods, may be adopted by the Church, according to the requirements of her work; but there
can be no doctrine which has not existed from the beginning, as it was received from Christ and the apostles.

A doctrine, to be truly Catholic, must have been believed in all places, at all times, and by all the faithful. By this test of catholicity, or universality, antiquity and consent, all questions of faith are tried and decided. Doctrines and articles of faith may be newly defined, as, for instance, that of the Immaculate Conception or of the Infallibility of the Pope, but there can be no new doctrine. Novelty is a quality of heresy ; for, though some errors may be very old, yet they are new as compared with the truth. In every case, the truth must first appear before its corresponding error. The denial of any truth supposes its previous assertion. Like the divine Founder of the Roman Catholic Church, her doctrine is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

"Some years ago," writes Mr. Marshal, a distinguished English convert, "I was present, officially, at the examination of an English primary school, in which the children displayed such unusual accuracy and intelligence, as long as the questions turned only upon secular subjects, that I was anxious to ascertain whether they could reason as well about the truths of the Catechism as they could about those of grammar and arithmetic. I communicated my desire to their clergyman, who kindly permitted me to have recourse to a test which I had employed on other occasions. I requested him to interrogate them on the Notes of the Church, and when they had explained in the usual manner the meaning of the word Catholic, I took up
the examination, with the consent of the priest, and addressed the following question to the class : You say the Church is Catholic because she is everywhere. Now, I have visited many countries, in all parts of the world, and I never came to one in which I did not find heresy.

If, then, the Church is Catholic because she is everywhere, why is not heresy Catholic, since heresy is everywhere, also "If you please, sir" answered a little girl, about twelve years of age, "the Church is everywhere, and everywhere the same ; heresy may be everywhere too, but it is everywhere different." The Church is unceasingly assailed by new errors, yet she always and everywhere is consistent with herself; she explains and develops her earlier definitions, without even the shadow of change appearing ; she has declared, hundreds of times, that she can introduce no innovations, that she has no power to originate anything in matters of faith and morals, but that it is her right and office to maintain the divine doctrine as contained in Scripture and tradition. She has convoked nineteen General Councils, and in each pronounced a solemn anathema on all who in the least deviated from the faith. In all ages she has undergone the most cruel persecutions, because she maintains all truths, and for this very reason she will be persecuted to the end of the world. But rather than yield one iota of her doctrine, she is willing to make every sacrifice: she permits whole countries to leave her, her pastors to be murdered, her children to be imprisoned and exiled, rather than permit one tittle of the law to be abolished. See, for instance, what she has done and suffered in upholding the dignity of the sacrament of marriage, the corner-stone of society !

See the workings of Catholic and Protestant doctrines of marriage in society! Take the common instance of a man in whose heart there is a fearful struggle between conscience on the one hand, and blind, brutish passion on the other ! His wife, that wife whom he once loved so dearly, has become hateful to him. Perhaps she has lost the charm of beauty which once fascinated his heart. Another stands before him she is young, she is beautiful. Protestantism, like the tempter of hell, whispers in his ear: "Sue for a divorce. The marriage bond can be broken. Youth and beauty may yet be yours." And the voice of conscience, the voice of God, is stifled. Brutish passion conquers. Divorce is sought and obtained, and the poor wife is cast away, and left heart-broken and companion-less. And the children of such a marriage, who shall care for them ? Who shall teach them the virtues of obedience and charity? How can they respect a divorced mother, an adulterous father ? No, these children become naturally the curse of society. They fill our prisons, our hospitals, the brothels.

On the contrary, if that man is a Catholic, the holy Church speaks to him in solemn warning : "See !" she says, "you took that wife in the day of her early joy and beauty. She gave you her young heart before the altar. You swore before God and his angels to be faithful to her until death. I declare to you, then, that, at the peril of your immortal soul, you must keep that union perpetual. That union shall end only when you have stood by her death-bed, when you have knelt at her grave." The Catholic Church has always regarded Christian marriage as the corner-stone of society ; and at that corner stone have the pastors of the Church stood guard for eighteen centuries, insisting that Christian marriage is one,  holy and indissoluble. Woman, weak and unprotected, has always found at Rome that guarantee which was refused her by him who had sworn at the altar of God to love her and to cherish her till death. Whilst in the nations which Protestantism tore from the bosom of the Church, the sacred laws of matrimony are trampled in the dust ; whilst the statistics of these nations hold up to the world the sad spectacle of divorces almost as numerous as marriages, of separations of husband from wife, and wife from husband, for the most trivial causes, thus granting to lust the widest margin of license, and legalizing concubinage and adultery, whilst the nineteenth century records in its annals the existence of a community of licentious polygamists within the borders of one of the most civilized countries of the earth, we have yet to see the decree emanating from Rome that would permit even a beggar to repudiate his lawful wife, in order to give his affections to an adulteress.

The female portion of our race would always have sunk back into a new slavery, had not the popes entered the breach for the protection of the unity, the sanctity, the indissolubility of matrimony. In the midst of the barbarous ages, during which the conqueror and -warrior swayed the sceptre of empire, and kings and petty tyrants acknowledged no other right but that of force, it was the pope that opposed their authority, like a wall of brass, to the sensuality and the passions of the mighty ones of the earth, and stood forth as the protectors of innocence and outraged virtue, as the champions of the rights of women, against the wanton excesses of tyrannical husbands, by enforcing, in their full severity, the laws of Christian marriage. If Christian Europe is not covered with harems, if polygamy has never gained a foothold in Europe ; if, with the indissolubility and sanctity of matrimony, the palladium of European civilization has been saved from destruction, it is all owing to the pastors of the Church. "If the popes," says the Protestant Yon Muller, "if the popes could hold up no other merit than that which they gained by protecting monogamy against the brutal lusts of those in power, notwithstanding bribes, threats, and persecutions, that fact alone would render them immortal for all future ages." And how had they to battle till they had gained this merit ? What sufferings had they to endure, what trials to undergo ? When King Lothair, in the ninth century, repudiated his lawful wife, in order to live with a concubine, Pope Nicholas I at once took upon himself the defence of the rights and of the honor of the unhappy wife. All the arts of an intriguing policy were plied, but Nicholas remained unshaken, threats were used, but Nicholas remained firm. At last the king's brother, Louis II, appears with an army before the walls of Rome, in order to compel the pope to yield. It is useless Nicholas swerves not from the line of duty. Rome is besieged, the priests and people are maltreated and plundered; sanctuaries are desecrated ; the cross is torn down and trampled under foot, and, in the midst of these scenes of blood and sacrilege, Nicholas flies to the Church of St.Peter. There he is besieged by the army of the emperor for two days and two nights ; left without food or drink, he is willing to die of starvation on the tomb of St. Peter, rather than yield to a brutal tyrant, and sacrifice the sanctity of Christian marriage, the law of life of Christian society. And the perseverance of Nicholas I was crowned with victory. He had to contend against a licentious king, who was tired of restraint, against an emperor, who, with an army at his heels, came to enforce his brother's unjust demands, against two councils of venal bishops : the one at Metz, the other at Aix-la-Chapelle, who had sanctioned the scandals of the adulterous monarch. Yet, with all this opposition, and the suffering it cost him, the pope succeeded in procuring the acknowledgment of the rights of an injured woman. And during succeeding ages we find Gregory V carrying on a similar combat against King Robert, and Urban II against King Philip of France. In the thirteenth century, Philip Augustus, mightier than his predecessors, set to work all the levers of power, in order to move the pope to divorce him from his wife, Ingelburgis. Hear the noble answer of the great Innocent III : "Since, by the grace of God, we have the firm and unshaken will never to separate ourselves from justice and truth, neither moved by petitions, nor bribed by presents, neither induced by love, nor intimidated by hate, we will continue to go on in the royal path, turning neither to the right nor to the left, and we judge without any respect to persons, since God himself does not respect persons." After the death of his first wife, Isabella, Philip Augustus wished to gain the favor of Denmark by marrying Ingelburgis. The union had hardly been solemnized, when he wished to be divorced from her. A council of venal bishops assembled at Compiegne, and annulled his lawful marriage. The queen, poor woman, was summoned before her judges, and the sentence was read and translated to her. She could not speak the language of France, so her only cry was, "Rome!" And Rome heard her cry of distress, and came to her rescue. Innocent III needed the alliance of France in the troubles in which he was engaged with Germany; Innocent III needed the assistance of France for the Crusade , yet Innocent III sent Peter of Capua as legate to France. A council is convoked by the legate of the Pope ; Philip refuses to appear, in spite of the summons, and his whole kingdom is placed under interdict. Philip's rage knows no bounds ; bishops are banished, his lawful wife is imprisoned, and the king vents his rage on the clergy of France. The barons, at last, appeal to the sword. The king complains to the pope of the harshness of the legate ; and when Innocent only confirms the sentence of the legate, the king
exclaims, a Happy Saladin ! he had no pope !?? Yet the king was forced to obey. When he asked the barons assembled in council, "What must I do ?" their answer was, "Obey the pope ; put away Agnes, and restore Ingelburgis." And, thanks to the severity of Innocent III, Philip repudiated the concubine, and restored Ingelburgis to her rights, as wife and queen. Hear what the Protestant Hurter says in his Life of Innocent: "If Christianity has not been thrown aside, as a worthless creed, into some isolated corner of the world, if it has not, like the sects of India, been reduced to a mere theory; if its European vitality has outlived the voluptuous effeminacy of the East, it is due to the watchful severity of the Roman Pontiffs to their increasing care to maintain the principles of authority in the Church." As often as we look toward England, we are reminded of the words of Innocent III to Philip Augustus. We see Clement using them as his principles in his conduct toward the royal brute, Henry VIII. Catharine of Aragon, the lawful wife of Henry, had been repudiated by her disgraceful husband, and it was again to Rome she appealed for protection. Clement remonstrated with Henry. The monarch calls the pope hard names. Clement repeats,"Thou shalt not commit adultery !" Henry threatens to tear England from the Church he does it; still Clement insists, "Thou shalt not commit adultery !" The blood of Fisher and Moore is shed at Tyburn ; still the pope repeats, "Thou shalt not commit adultery !" The firmness of the pope cost England's loss to the Church. It cost the pope bitter tears, and he prayed to heaven not to visit on the people of England the crimes of the despot, he prayed for the conversion of the nation, but to sacrifice the sanctity, the indissolubility of matrimony, that he could never do; to abandon helpless woman to the brutality of men who were tired of the restraints of morality, no, that the pope could never permit. If the court, if the palace, if the domestic hearth, refused a shelter, Rome was always open, a refuge to injured and down-trodden innocence. "One must obey God more than man." This has ever been the language of the Church, whenever there was question of defending the laws of God against the power of the earth ; and in thus defending the laws of God, she has always shown herself Catholic. Oh, how sad would be the state of society were the
popes, the bishops, and priests to be banished from the earth! The bonds that unite the husband and wife, the child and the parent, the friend and the friend, would be broken. Peace and justice would flee from the earth. Robbery, murder, hatred, lust, and all the other crimes condemned by the Gospel, would prevail. Faith would no longer elevate the souls of men to heaven. Hope, the sweet consoler of the afflicted, of the widow and the orphan, would flee away, and in her stead would reign black despair, terror, and suicide. Where would we find the sweet virtue of charity, if the popes, the bishops, and priests were to disappear forever ? Where would we find that charity which consoles the poor and forsaken, which lovingly dries the tears of the widow and the orphan, that charity which soothes the sick man in his sufferings, and binds up the wounds of the bleeding defender of his country! Where would we find that charity which casts a spark of divine fire into the hearts of so many religious, bidding them abandon home, friends, and everything that is near and dear to them in this world, to go among strangers, among savage tribes, and gain there, in return for their heroism, nothing but outrage, suffering, and death? Where, I ask, would we find this charity, if the popes, the bishops, and priests were to disappear forever? Let a parish be for many years without a priest, and the people thereof will become the blind victims of error, of superstition, and of all kinds of vices. Show me an age, a country, a nation, without priests, and I will show you an age, a country, a nation, without morals, without virtue. Yes, if  "religion and science, liberty and justice, principle and right," are not empty sounds if they have a meaning, they owe their energetic existence in the world to the "salt of the earth," to the popes, bishops, and priests of the Catholic Church. Finally, the Church, one, holy and Catholic, is also apostolic. 
To be continued . . . . . . . . . . . .

I'm going to interrupt the progression of my posts about the Corporal Works of Mercy from Father Muller and share some information from his first book in the series called, "The Church and Her Enemies."  If anyone wishes to download Father Muller's ebooks you can find them here. The following post is a long one but well worth the read. 

       "Come Holy Ghost fill the hearts of Thy faithful, and kindle in them the fire of Thy love."

                                                                                      CHAPTER IV
                                            THE NINTH ARTICLE OF THE APOSTLES CREED
                                                           "THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH" *
FOR love of man, God created the boundless universe, with its stars and countless worlds, and he made the universe, the temple of his endless love. The stars of heaven, as they sweep along in silent harmony, are ever singing a wondrous song, and the sweet burden of their song is, "God is love and TRUTH." This world is the temple of God's love and truth. The green earth, with its flowers, is the carpeted floor. The clear sky above is the vaulted dome, its pillars are the mountains, white with eternal snow. The mists and vapor that are ever ascending, like the smoke of sacrifice, remind us of the thoughts of love and gratitude that should ever go up to heaven from our hearts. The whispering of the winds, the rush of the storm, the murmuring of the brook, and the roar of the cataract, are the music that raises our hearts to God. And when God had finished that wondrous temple of his love, "He saw that it was good." (Gen. i, 25.)

* Enough has been said to show that God teaches mankind through his Church. It would be proper now to explain what the Church teaches, beginning with the explanation of the Apostles Creed. But as many may wish to see in one volume the whole doctrine on the Church, it has been deemed advisable to place, in this volume, the  explanation of the Ninth Article of the Creed.

For love of man, God has raised a still more wondrous temple, the temple of his holy Church. Millions and millions of chosen souls have aided in building this wondrous temple. Its foundation was laid at the gates of paradise. The patriarchs and prophets have labored at it, through the long ages of hope and expectation. It was completed, in the fullness of time, by the Only-Begotten of the Father, our Lord Jesus Christ. This temple of love was consecrated by the Holy Ghost on that wonderful day of love, the Feast of Pentecost. The summit of this glorious temple of love now rises to the highest heavens, and to the throne of the living God himself. In its depth, it reaches to that region of suffering where those are detained who are to be cleansed from all stain, before entering into the joys of heaven. In its width, it extends over all the earth, and shuts out no one who is willing to enter its portals. In this new creation, far more than in the old, God looks on those things that he made, and sees that they are "very good" What God does, is done well is a perfect work. The establishment of the Catholic Church is the grand work of his power; it is the greatest fact in history, a fact so great, that there would be no history without it; a fact permanent, entering into the concerns of all nations on the face of the earth, appearing again and again on the records of time, and benefiting, perceived or unperceived, directly or indirectly, socially, morally, and supernaturally, every member of the human family.

From the beginning of the world God always had but one Church to teach his religion to men, and lead them to heaven; Satan, too, from the beginning, has tried to have a church and a worship of his own. He found followers among the angels to refuse submission to God's holy will. Need we wonder at seeing him find followers among men! As the faithful servants of God are known and distinguished by their ready obedience to the divine authority of the Catholic Church, so those who are deceived by Satan are known by their want of submission to the divine authority of the Church. They form churches of their own, in opposition to the true Church of God. (The Novus Ordo is one of these) In the ninth century, the Greeks separated from the Roman Catholic Church, and formed a church of their own, called the Greek Church. In the beginning of the sixteenth century, Martin Luther, an apostate friar, preached a doctrine of his own ; he gained many followers in Germany, who left the Catholic Church, and formed what is called and known as the Lutheran, or Protestant, Church. In 1531, Henry VIII, King of England, fell away from the Catholic Church, and made himself the supreme head of the English, or Anglican, Church. These, and other churches, are the work of man. No doubt, every one who is acquainted with the life of our Lord and is asked:

1. How many churches did Christ establish ?
Will answer : Christ established but one church. Indeed, as there is but one Christ, so there is, and can be, but one Church of Christ. The Church is called the body of Christ. Now, as Christ has but one body, so he can have but one Church. Christ himself tells us plainly that he established but one Church. He did not say to St. Peter, upon thee I will build my churches : he said, "Upon thee I will build my Church." He never said, "The gates of hell shall not prevail against my churches" he said, "The gates of hell shall not prevail against my Church." In fact; that our Lord established but one Church, is self-evident; it needs no proof. We are as certain of it as we are that there is but one God. St. Paul asserts this in the clearest terms: "One Lord, one faith, one baptism;  "that is, as there is, and can be, but one Lord, so there is, and can be, but one faith, one religion, one Church. And as our Lord established but one Church, it follows, necessarily, that all other churches are not the work of Jesus Christ. They are the work of man; the Church of Christ, the Catholic Church, alone is the work of God. (It is therefore impossible that the Catholic Church can be united with all other faiths, as Jorge Bergoglio says,  he preaches heresy!) 
All the works of God have something divine and supernatural about them, something that at once proclaims their divine origin ; something that distinguishes them, in an unmistakable manner, from the works of man. As the Catholic Church is the work of God, she has something about her to show that she is from God,  she has marks graven on her which make it impossible for one to be mistaken about her being the true Church of Christ, she has the most incontestable proofs of her divine mission and authority, to convince all who wish to be convinced.

2. By what marks is the Church of Christ easily known ?
By these four : The Church of Christ is:
1. one;
2. She is holy ;
3. She is Catholic ; and,
4. She is apostolic,
Above all, perfect unity must be found in the Church of Christ; for Christ calls his Church a "building," a "kingdom," a "city," a "flock," a "house," a body." In order to establish, insure, and preserve unity, he made St. Peter the foundation of the building, the chief ruler of the kingdom, the key-holder of the city and house, the principal shepherd of the flock, the head of the body. And on the eve of his passion, Christ asked for a unity in His Church, like that which unites the three divine persons in one and the same nature : "Father," he prayed, "keep them whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, even as we are one." (John xvii, 11.) Moreover, he prayed that this union might last forever, and that it should be the distinctive mark of his Church : "I pray, also," he says, "for all those who, through their word, shall believe in me, that they may all be one, as thou, Father, in me, arid I in thee, that the world may believe that thou
hast sent me." (John xx, 21.) The apostles express very clearly the necessity of unity, and show that it is a distinctive mark of the true Church: "Be careful," says St. Paul, "to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. One body and one spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism." Unity, then, is a distinctive mark, and an essential condition of the Church of Christ. That Church which has no unity, cannot be the true Church, and that Church which has unity, must certainly be divine.

In the Church of Christ holiness also must be found, no less than unity. Christ shed his blood for no other purpose than to form for himself, says St. Paul, a pure Church, "without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing; that it should be holy and without blemish." (Eph. v, 25.) (Another mark that seems to be missing in Jorge's Church.  I see no holiness, only rotten fruit) Our Lord said, "by their fruits you shall know them." (Matt. 7: 16)  See the Church's commentary on this verse below.
Moreover, as the Church of Christ teaches the true faith, holiness must be the result of this faith, since Christ says: "A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit." (Matt. vii,18.) According to Christ's promise, miracles will be performed by the true believers of his Church, and bear "witness to her holiness." (Mark xvi, 17.)

The Church, however, is not composed of the elect alone, for Christ compares her to a net which draws out of the sea "good and bad fish" (Matt, xiii, 47); to a, field where the cockle grows together with the wheat, until the day of the harvest. (Matt, xiii, 30.)

Again, during his public life, Christ declared repeatedly that his unalterable purpose was to unite, in one religious society, all mankind, of every age and clime, and afford his followers the means to free themselves from sin, and become reconciled to God; to grow in purity and holiness of life, and thus enter into life everlasting. He spoke always and everywhere, in language most clear and explicit, of this note of universality, as one peculiar to his kingdom. (John x, 16; Matt, xxviii, 19.) All the prophecies relative to the Messiah spoke of the whole human race as the flock of Christ, whose kingdom was to extend its bounds "till it embraced all pagan nations." (Matt, xv, 24 ; Ps. cix, 2.) Christ's Church, therefore, must be Catholic, or universal.

Finally, Christ has most solemnly promised to be with his apostles to the end of the world, and he has made St. Peter the first Bishop of Rome, the foundation of the Church, and her supreme head. Christ's Church, therefore, must be apostolic. Holy Scripture itself gives us this full information about the marks of the true Church of Christ. And if it is asked :

3. Which Church is one, holy, Catholic and apostolic?
The answer is: The Roman Catholic Church alone is one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic.

It is easy to
4. Show how the Catholic Church is one.
The Catholic Church is one, because all her members are united:
1. in one faith;
2. in one worship;
3. under one infallible head.

1. The Catholic Church is one, because all her members are united in one faith. Unity is especially divine. It exists in its perfection only in the adorable Trinity. Wherever we find unity in created things, we may be sure that it is an image and reflection of God. Now, in this world, there is one society, and only one, in which unity has always existed, and has never been broken. This society is the Catholic Church. This society is the most numerous, the first, and the most ancient of all the communities that call themselves Christian. The Catholic Church is found in all kingdoms and states, it reaches from pole to pole, from east to west ; embraces all ranks and classes of men. The members of the Catholic Church differ from one another in their character, in their education, in their modes of thought ~ they differ in their language, in their habits of life, in their sympathies and prejudices; in a word, they differ from one another in everything that distinguishes man from man. But in one thing they are all united : in religion. In religion, alone, they are all of one mind and one heart. In this wonderful society you will find the passionate Italian, with his glowing imagination ; you will find, also, the stolid and tenacious Englishman ; the lively and brilliant Frenchman ; and the quiet, thoughtful German. You will find there the stately Spaniard ; the witty, impulsive Irishman, and the acute and practical American. All these, and so many other races, though they contrast violently with one another in every natural gift and habit ; though they retain all their distinctive peculiarities as men and citizens, yet in religion they are all one absolutely one. Throughout the whole Catholic world, the myriads of every nation, climate, and language, nobles and peasants, monarchs and slaves, philosophers and little children, there exists a unity of faith and doctrine, so divine and absolute, so spontaneous and yet so perfect, so unshackled and yet so complete, that a cardinal in Rome or a neophyte in China, a mathematician in Holland or a wood-cutter in Syria, or a little child anywhere, would give, in substance, the same answer to any question upon any doctrine of the Church.

2. When their children are born, all bring them to be regenerated in the same waters of baptism. When they become unfaithful to their baptismal vows, and sin against God's commandments, they all have recourse to the same tribunal of penance. They all seek strength at the same Eucharistic table, and, animated by the same faith, they receive truly the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. In sickness, when they are about to appear before their God, they all send for the priest of the Church, and receive the sacrament of Extreme Unction. They all are one, not only in faith, but also in worship. And what more natural than this oneness in worship, Christ, who taught us our religion, has also taught us how to worship his heavenly Father in a manner worthy of his divine majesty. He instituted the holy sacrifice of the Mass, in which he is at once the High-Priest and the Victim. Through the hands of his priests he offers himself for us to his heavenly Father as a sacrifice of adoration, of thanksgiving, of atonement, and of impetration. Since the institution of the Mass, paradise blooms again, the heavens are purple, the angels shine in white, and men are exhilarated. This sublime and profound mystery, which scandalizes obstinate unbelievers, and arouses the pride of Protestants, is nevertheless, that which renews the face of the earth, satisfies the justice of God redeems man unto salvation, opens heaven, sanctifies the world, and disarms hell. It is this mystery which has engendered a more holy religion, a more spiritual worship, and a purer virtue among men, because it is more interior from it spring the most efficacious sacrament, more abundant graces, more sublime ceremonies, more perfect laws ; it is that tender adoption of men, as children of God, substituted for the more ancient alliance between God and man, which was founded upon fear. This mystery is the striking manifestation of all truths, and the censure of all errors : all vices find their condemnation therein, all virtues their principle, all merits their recompense ; it is, in short, the foundation of faith, the support of hope, and the most powerful motive for the love of God.

The holy Mass is the sun of Christianity, and the summary of all that is grand, and magnificent, and most prodigious, both in the triumphant and in the militant Church of God. The angels almost envy us this divine sacrifice. Protestants and infidels may say, with a sneer, that it is the pomp and glitter of our ceremonies and altars that draw the faithful to the church. Not so. The fickle nature of man cannot be charmed long by such transitory things. Our altars, indeed, we adorn, we decorate our churches, we embellish the priestly vestments, we display the gorgeous ceremonies of the Church, but not to attract the people ; we do all this simply because our Lord Jesus Christ is present there, our Saviour and our God, surrounded by countless myriads of angels. This is the grand source of the magnificence of our architecture, the gorgeousness of our vestments, the diversity of our Ornaments, the sound of our organs, the religious harmony of our voices, and the grandeur and order of all our ceremonies, both in the consecration and dedication of our churches, and the solemn celebration of the Mass. This is the reason why we adorn ourselves with our gayest attire, why we rifle the gardens of their sweetest and choicest flowers to decorate our altars, and scatter them in lavish profusion before the feet of our sacramental King. This is the reason why our sacred altars glitter and sparkle with cheerful lights, while clouds of sweet-smelling incense float up and around the sacred Victim.

It is related of Frederick II, King of Prussia, that, after having assisted at a solemn high Mass, celebrated in the church of Breslau by Cardinal Tringendorf, he remarked : "The Calvinists treat God as an inferior, the Lutherans treat him as an equal, but the Catholics treat him as God." Yes, indeed ; it is only the Catholic Church that is the home for our dear Saviour. His presence fills her halls to over flowing with joy and gladness. Her propitiatory altars are the anchors of hope for the sinner,  her sanctuaries, the antechambers of heaven. Take away the Blessed Sacrament, and you take away her Saviour. Give her the Blessed Sacrament, and you give her a glory, an honor, a triumph, the greatest possible this side of paradise. Her altars are the altars of joy, because they are the altars of the saving Victim for the sins of the world ; for which reason the robed priest begins the tremendous sacrifice with the antiphon : "I will go unto the altar of God, to God who rejoiceth my youth."

This sacrifice of adoration, of thanksgiving, of atonement, and of impetration, is offered up daily, nay, hourly, all over the world. To it come the simple peasant from his woods; the shepherd from the mountains; the man of already the sweet spell upon him, and finds his heart beating in unison with the great heart of the Church, as if he had been suckled at her breast, and had lain in her bosom from infancy. In the whole history of the human race there is no record of any such miracle as this. Even were all the dead to rise from their graves, and to crowd our streets and thoroughfares, it would not be a greater miracle. Like the Jews of old, the men of the present generation "desire a sign," in order that they may believe; and now here is a sign, a standing miracle, more luminous, more dazzling, than the noonday sun. "Truly the finger of God is here."

One day a certain Protestant of Pennsylvania came to Archbishop Kenrick, of Baltimore, to tell him that he wished to become a Catholic. "What induced you," asked the archbishop, "to take this step ?" "The bugs, the bugs!" he replied. "What do you mean by that ?" "I have often noticed," said he, "how in nature animals follow their leader, and are kept united together by him. The same must be true in religion : only that one can be of divine origin which has a leader whom all are bound to follow. As I find this only in the Catholic Church, I feel convinced that she is the true Church, in which alone I can be saved." If St. Paul could say to the heathens, "You might have found out the true God by his works, if you had cared to do so," surely God may say, in the great day, to the children out of the Catholic Church : "You might have known the true Church by her unity, if you had not closed your eyes."

The next mark by which Christ wished his Church to be distinguished is that of holiness. But, in speaking of the holiness of the Catholic Church, we do not mean to say that every member of the Church is holy. The field of the Church is wide, and has weeds as well as wheat. In the very company chosen by our Lord Jesus Christ himself, there was a Peter who denied him, and a Judas who betrayed him. So it is at the present day, So it will be to the end of time. 

Commentary taken from the Douay Rheims version of the Bible ~ VERSE. 16.  As the true Church is known by the four marks of its being one, holy, catholic, and apostolical, so heretics and false teachers are known by certain vices, and the pernicious effects of their novelties in religion. As the true Church is one, by its members submitting with humility to the authority established by Christ, (he that will not hear the Church, let him be unto thee as the heathen and the publican. Mat. xviii. 17.) so are false teachers known by their separation from the ancient Church, and their divisions among themselves, the necessary consequences of rebelling against the authority established by Christ, and alone capable of determining controversies. The same pride and other secret vices which make them despise government, (2 Peter ii. 10.) make them also not afraid to bring in sects of perdition, blaspheming, and this in civil government as well as ecclesiastical. Those that called themselves Reformers, in the beginning of the 16th century, of all others were remarkable in this. What bloody tumults and wars were there not produced in Germany, by the first Reformers in that country! Calvin overturned the government of Geneva; and his followers, under the name Hugonots, filled France for a great length of time with slaughter and civil wars, frequently shaking the throne itself. In this country, the first cause of its separation from the universal Church, was the unbridled passion of a tyrant: the effects were adultery, and the murder of the successive queens that he had taken to his adulterous bed. In the reign of his successor, the insatiate avarice of a corrupt nobility, gratified with the sacrilegious plunder of the Church, established what is called the Reformation. The fear of being compelled to disgorge the fruits of their rapine, contributed much to the confirmation of that order of things in the reign of Elizabeth. She was inclined to it by the circumstances of her birth, which could not be legitimate, if her father's marriage with Catharine of Arragon was valid, as the first authority in the Catholic Church had declared. The natural spirit of this heresy, though checked a while and kept under by the despotical government of this queen, appeared in its own colours soon after, and produced its natural fruits in the turbulence of the times that succeeded, and the multiplicity of sects that are continually springing up to this very day.--As the true Church is holy, recommending various exercises of religion tending to purify human nature, and render men holy, as fasting, confession of sins, evangelical counsels,  so false teachers cast off all these, promising liberty, (2 Pet. ii. 16.) and giving full rein to the lustful passions, thus giving a liberty of living, as well as a liberty of believing.—Another fruit of false teachers is, separation from what was the Universal Church before their time, and which continues to be still the far greater part, not being confined to one state or country. If some modern principles, of not allowing any communion of religion out of each state, were admitted, as many religions should have been established by heaven as men think proper to establish different states; nor could Christ have given one for all mankind, under whatever state or form of government they might live.--

Finally, false teachers are to be known by their not being able to shew, that they have received their doctrine and mission from the apostles, in a regular succession from them. Some of our modern divines would spurn at the idea of their holding their doctrine and orders from the Catholic Church, such as it existed at the time of the Reformation, which is precisely such as it exists at the present moment.—In answer to this it has been retorted, that the fruits of the Catholic religion have been as bad, or worse; and the horrors of the French revolution are particularly mentioned, as a proof. . . . That great crimes have been committed by those who professed themselves Catholics, is not denied; but that they were prompted to them by the nature of their religion, is certainly not admitted. The revolution of France in particular, was the effect of the people falling off from their religion. As well may the Puritans, that brought Charles to the block, be said to be Catholics, because they or their parents once had been such: as well may the present bench of Protestant bishops be said to be Catholics, because the bishops of their sees once were so; or that Robespierre, Marat, and the Jacobins that persecuted catholicity in France, and brought its too indulgent sovereign to the guillotine, were Catholics, or directed in the least by Catholic principles.

5. Show how the Catholic Church is holy ?
We answer : The Catholic Church is holy :
1. in Jesus Christ, her Founder ;
2. in her doctrine, which is Christ s doctrine;
3. in her means of grace, the proper use of which makes us h6lyt;
4. in many of her members, whose holiness has been confirmed by miracles and extraordinary gifts.

1. The Catholic Church is holy in her Founder, who is our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. But what mind of man or angel can conceive the greatness of the holiness of Jesus Christ, which is, indeed, infinite ? To say that his holiness is greater than that of all the saints and angels united, is to fall infinitely below it. Jesus Christ, as God, is infinite holiness itself, and the sum of our conception of holiness is but the smallest atom of the holiness of God. David, contemplating the divine holiness, and seeing that he could not, and never would, be able to comprehend it, could only exclaim : "Lord ! who is like unto thee ?" (Ps. xxxiv, 10.) Lord! what holiness shall ever be found like to thine ? It is an utter impossibility for any human or angelic understanding to conceive an adequate idea of the holiness of Christ. All we can say is, that his holiness is infinite. The Catholic Church, then, is holy in her divine Founder.

2. The Catholic Church is also holy in her doctrine, which is the doctrine of Christ and his holy apostles, and his doctrine is the expression of the will of his heavenly Father : "My doctrine is not mine, but of him that sent me." (John vii, 16.) As the will of God is most holy, so also the doctrine expressing the holy will of God must be most holy. Hence, the book containing the word of God is called the holy Bible, or holy Scripture. Every action and every word of our Saviour breathes holiness, inspires holiness, and leads to holiness. Therefore he calls those blessed who learn his doctrine : "Blessed are your ears, because they hear. For, wnen I say to you, many prophets and just men have desired to hear the things that you hear, and have not "You are a chosen generation a holy nation." says St. Peter of the Christians. (1 Pet. ii, 9.)

The very enemies of the Catholic Church bear witness to the holiness of her doctrine. Why have so many fallen away from her faith ? It is because they had not courage enough to live up to her holy precepts. Why is it that so many do not embrace the Catholic faith who know that the Catholic Church is the only true Church of Christ? It is because they are afraid of her holy morals. Even the most wicked feel naturally convinced that the Catholic religion is holy: a fault in a Catholic is considered, and considered rightly, more grave than in one who is not a Catholic.

3. The Church is holy in her means of grace. It is her office to make men holy. She holds out to her children not only the holy example and doctrine of her divine Founder as the pathway to holiness, she also offers to them the means of grace, which enable them to live up to her holy doctrine. By his divine example and holy doctrine Christ showed us the narrow road that leads to heaven. But what would it avail us to know the road to heaven, if we had no strength to walk on that strait, and, to fallen humanity, hard road.  This strength we have not of ourselves. God is the greatest supernatural good. We can, then, acquire this good only by supernatural strength, that is, by the help of Almighty God. By his sufferings and death, Christ obtained for us all the graces necessary to live up to his holy doctrine, to overcome all the evil inclinations of fallen nature, all the temptations, all the trials and struggles of life. These graces he wished to be applied to our souls by means of the sacraments and prayer, and he appointed his Church to sanctify her children by these means of grace. The child is born in sin; the Church cleanses it in baptism, and makes it a child of God. The child is weak ; the Church strengthens it in confirmation, makes it a brave soldier, to battle with the world, the flesh, and the devil. The child is wounded, falls into sin; the Church, like the good physician, probes the wounds, and pours into the bleeding heart the oil and wine of hope and consolation, in the sacrament of penance. The child is hungry and weary ; the Church feeds it with heavenly food, nourishes and refreshes it with the precious Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. The heart of the young man feels the fire of that love which first came from God, and which has become unholy only by abuse, and the Church, like a fond mother, sanctifies and preserves this natural love of the bridegroom and the bride. In the holy sacrament of marriage she blesses this love before the altar of God, and declares its bonds perpetual. And should the heart of the young man aspire to a higher and holier destiny ; should he desire, in his inmost soul, to soar high above the weakening tenderness of mere human love, should he desire to become the saviour of his fellow-men, the cooperator with God himself in the great work of redemption, the holy Church leads him by the hand, she "blesses, sanctifies, and consecrates" him before the altar of God ; she makes him a priest forever, a priest of the Most High God. At last, when her child is dying, the holy Catholic Church comes to his bedside with sanctifying oil and the prayer of faith; she administers to him the sacrament of Extreme Unction, to strengthen and console him in his fearful death-struggle. But her love does not end at the bed of death. She opens wide the doors of her temple ; she offers an asylum even to the dead body of her child. She blesses that body which was once the temple of the living God, and she even consecrates the very ground in which that body is laid to rest. The love of the Church for her children does not pause even at the grave. Day after day she offers up her prayers ; day after day she offers up the holy sacrifice of the altar for the souls of her children departed. The husband may forget the wife of his bosom, the mother may forget the child of her heart, but the holy Church does not forget her children, not even in death : her love is divine, it is eternal. And in this love the Church is impartial : she is just to all. As the holy spouse of Christ, she loves justice and hates iniquity. She has spurned the anointed king from the temple of God, until he repented of his crime ; and on the head of the lowly monk, who spent his days in labor and prayer, she has placed the triple crown. At one moment she bathes with baptismal dew the peasant's child; and at another, she boldly confronts the imperial might that dares assail her holy altar. Now the Church is accused of despotism, because she upholds the rights of lawful authority ; and again, she is accused of arrogance, because she dares to protect the poor, the down trodden, and the friendless. She blesses all things that are good in this world, she protects and encourages the fine arts. Truth is the essence of order, the essence of beauty. Religious truth is heavenly order, is supernatural beauty. The Church is the living spouse of heavenly truth ; she must, therefore, be the friend, the protector, of all beauty and order, and so she has proved to be for over eighteen hundred years.

In the Church, all that is good and beautiful in art or nature has been purified as in a heavenly crucible, and consecrated to the service of religion. The poet seeks to please the imaginations of men, and the Church unfolds before him the annals of Christianity. She tells him of the august sacrifice of infinite love, which is her soul and life, and she tells him of her heroic sufferings, of her martyr faith ; and the poet draws holy inspiration from these touching records, and incites men to a higher, to a holier life.

The painter and the sculptor seek to place before our eyes the happiest, the most sublime of conceptions, and the Church bids them look into her treasure-house, where they find the most perfect models of every virtue, models of pure, of noble, of heroic self-sacrifice.

The architect seeks to build up a monument of strength, and intellect, and beauty; and the Church unlocks for him the sublime, mysterious meanings of her ceremonies and symbols. Guided by her inspiration, he teaches the lifeless stone, he teaches the spreading arch, the pointed spire,to speak to men of faith, of hope, of love; he teaches them to speak of prayer, of sacrifice, of heaven.

The orator strives to nerve men for the solemn duties, the grand conflicts of life; the Church of Christ, touches his lips with living fire from the altar, and his eloquence flows on in an impetuous stream of  "thoughts that breathe, and words that burn."

The musician seeks to weave his entrancing spells around ear, and heart, and soul; and the Church breathes into his soul the glorious, wondrous melodies which she has borrowed from the angels of heaven, and her music seems like beatific worship, and the worship on earth like beatific music.

4. The Church is holy in many of her members. What is more natural than this ? A mother that teaches her children so holy a doctrine, sets before them constantly the example of her divine Founder, that they may live and die as he did. A mother that has such powerful means to sanctify her children, cannot but be holy in the fruits of sanctity, in the saints, and in the sacred institutions which she has produced.

To be convinced of the personal sanctity of millions of her children, we have but to "pen the annals of Church history. " There we read of thousands of men and women who fulfilled the saying of Christ : "Whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the Gospel, shall save it." (Mark
viii, 35.) Such was the havoc made during the early persecutions of the Church, that her martyrs alone amount to thirty thousand for every day in the year. How many thousands of the children of the Church followed that saying of the Lord : "If thou wilt be perfect, go, sell what thou hast, and give to the poor, and come, follow me!" (Matt, xix, 21.) And, "Every one that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name s sake, shall receive a hundred-fold, and shall possess life everlasting. (Matt, xix, 29.) Astonishing, indeed, is the number of those who have followed this saying of our Lord, by embracing the religious life.

St. Athanasius writes that in his time there were monasteries like tabernacles, full of heavenly choirs of people, who spent their time in singing psalms, in reading and praying that they occupied a large extent of land, and made, as it were, a town among themselves. Such immense numbers resorted to the religious life in Palestine, that Isidore was the superior of one thousand monks, and his successor, Apollonius, of five thousand in the same monastery. In the cloistered community of Orynchus there were ten thousand monks. Upon a hill in Nitria, about twenty miles from Alexandria, there were five hundred monasteries under one superior. Palladius relates that he saw a city in which there were more monasteries than houses of seculars,"so that, every street and corner ringing with the divine praises, the whole city seemed a church." He also testifies to having seen multitudes of monks in Memphis and Babylon, and that not far from. These he met with a Father of three thousand monks.

St. Pachomius, who lived about three hundred years after Christ, had seven thousand disciples, besides one thousand in his own house, and Serapion had ten thousand monks under his jurisdiction.

Theodoret records that there were also multitudes of religious women throughout the East, in Palestine, Egypt, Asia, Pontus, Cilfcia, Syria, and also in Europe : "Since our Saviour," he says, "was born of a Virgin Mother, the fields of holy virgins are everywhere multiplied." Nor was the great increase of religious houses confined to the early ages of the Church, for Trithemius, who died about the year 1516, says that, in his time, the province of Ments alone contained one hundred and twenty-four abbeys ; and that there was a time when they had fifteen thousand abbeys, besides priories and other small monasteries, belonging to his order.

St. Bernard, in his Life of St. Malachy, records that, in Ireland, there was a monastery out of which many thousands of monks had come forth : "A holy place indeed," he says, "and fruitful in saints, bringing forth abundant fruit to God, insomuch that one man alone of that holy congregation, whose name was Luanus, is reported to have been the founder of one hundred monasteries. And these swarms of saints have not only spread themselves in Ireland and Scotland, but have also gone into foreign parts ; for St. Columba, coming from thence into France, built the monastery of Luxovium, and raised there a great people, their number being so great that the divine praises were sung by them day and night without intermission. St. Columba founded one hundred monasteries, of which thirty-seven were in Ireland, a country which was, for centuries, known all over Europe as the Island of "Saints and of Doctors."  According to Archdall, there were in Ireland seven hundred and forty-two religious houses.

St. Bernard, in the space of thirtv years that he was abbot, founded one hundred and sixty monasteries. So rapid was the progress of his order that, in the space of fifty years from its establishment, it had acquired five hundred abbeys,  and at one time no fewer than eight hundred were dependent on Clairvaux.

The Franciscans seem to have been particularly blessed in the speedy and extensive propagation of their order for, about the year 1600, one branch of this order, called the Observantines, is said to have numbered one hundred thousand members. This order reckons at present two hundred thousand men and three hundred thousand sisters, including the tertiaries. It possesses two hundred and fifty-two provinces and twenty-six thousand convents, of which five are in Palestine, and over thirty in Turkey. More than eighty-nine emperors, kings and queens have been admitted into the order, which has, moreover, the glory of having furnished three thousand saints, or beatified persons, of whom seventeen hundred are martyrs.

Nor is the Church less holy in many of her members, in our day. Who really takes Christian care of the poor, the sick, and the friendless, but the Catholic Church ? She has founded such orders as the Sisters of Charity, the Sisters of Mercy, the Sisters of St. Joseph, and so many others, in order to administer to their wants. Where can you find, outside of the Catholic Church, that young and beautiful virgin, who lays at the foot of the cross her youth, her wealth, and her beauty ; who sacrifices all earthly hope and love, to spend her days in a loathsome hospital, and to watch, during the long, dull night, by the bedside of the sick and dying ? The charitable, heroic deeds of these holy virgins have already brought conviction to the minds and hearts of many non-Catholics.

St. John the Evangelist tells us that our Saviour cured one day a young man who had been born blind. The Pharisees heard of this, and were filled with rage and envy. They took the young man aside, and said to him: "Give glory to God, that man that cured you is a sinner. "Well," said the young man, "whether he be a sinner or not, I cannot say. But one thing I do know, and that is, that he has cured me. God does not hear sinners. If this man were not from God, he could not do such things." (John ix.) This was the argument of the young man in the Gospel; this, too, is the simple argument of every honest non-Catholic. The bigots and Protestant preachers say to the returned soldier, to the young man who has just come forth from the hospital where he suffered during a long and painful illness: "The Catholic Church is
sinful and corrupt." "Well" the young man answers, "whether she is corrupt or not, I do not know, but one thing I do know, and that is, that I was at the point of death, and now I am well : and I owe it, after God, to the good Sisters of the Catholic Church. They waited on me in the hospital, in the battle-field, they nursed me as tenderly as a mother or a sister could have done : and they did it without pay? without any human motive or reward. Now, a bad tree cannot bring forth such good fruit. If the Catholic Church were as sinful and corrupt as you say, God would not give her children such heroic devotedness."

Behold, again, the holy charity of the Catholic Church toward the very outcasts of society, those poor, fallen creatures, that have become the dishonor of their sex ! See how closely she imitates her divine spouse, our Lord Jesus Christ ! Jesus is present at a great feast. A poor, sinful woman, notorious on account of her wicked life, falls prostrate at his feet. She washes his feet with her tears, and wipes them with her hair. The Pharisees are shocked and scandalized. They say in their hearts: "This man is no prophet ; if he were a prophet, he would know what kind of a woman that is who kneels at his feet; he would spurn her from him." But Jesus knows well the sinful life of Magdalen, and yet he does not reject her. On the contrary, he defends her before them all, and says to her: "My child, go in peace, thy sins are forgiven thee !" Ah, how full of mercy and compassion is the heart of Jesus Christ ! Now look upon his spouse, the holy Catholic Church, and see if she is not worthy of her heavenly Bridegroom ! The unfortunate woman whom many have helped to drag into destruction, has not now a hand stretched out to save her. The world that allured and ruined her despises her, and laughs her to scorn. The proud, self-righteous Pharisee turns away from her in horror and disgust. The grace of God at last touches her heart. She sees herself abandoned by all, she turns her despairing eyes to God. Friendless, homeless, and alone, she wanders through the dark by-ways of this valley of tears till at last she stands at the ever-open portals of the holy Catholic Church. She enters, she falls at the feet of the priest of Jesus Christ. She weeps, she repents, she is forgiven.

See those pure virgin nuns, who are justly called the Daughters of the Good Shepherd ! They have sworn, before the altar of God, to devote their whole life to the reformation of these poor outcasts of society, these unhappy victims of a heartless world. See how gently they receive the fallen one, how kindly they treat her ! See how she enters the convent chapel, and at the very feet of Jesus, in the blessed sacrament, she pours out her prayers, and sighs, and tears ! She experiences at last that there is rest for the weary, that there is hope for the sinner; that there is, indeed, a heaven on earth, in the holy Catholic Church.

In every age, and in every country through which the Catholic religion has spread, there have been many Catholics who showed, in their daily conduct, that they complied with the words of St. Paul : "This is the will of God, your sanctification." (I Thess. iv, 3.) They were scrupulous keepers of the commandments of God, fulfilling the whole law and the prophets. How could it be otherwise ? Jesus Christ, in the blessed sacrament, this divine food, the source of all sanctity, never ceases to bring forth holy bishops, like St. Charles Borromeo, St. Francis de Sales, St. Alphonsus Liguori, holy priests, like St. Vincent de Paul, St. Francis Xavier, St. Peter Claver; holy virgins, like St. Teresa, St. Catherine of Sienna, St. Zita, St. Rose of Lima ; holy widows, like St. Frances de Chantal ; holy martyrs, like Borie, Gagelin, and so many others.

That God confirmed the holiness of his servants by many miracles and extraordinary gifts, may be read in the Lives of the Saints, or in any Church history. "Amen, amen, I say to you," said Christ, "he that believeth in me, the works that I do he also shall do, and greater than these shall he do" (John xiv, 12) ; and, "These signs shall follow them that believe : In my name they shall cast out devils, they shall speak with new tongues, they shall take up serpents, they shall lay their hands upon the sick, and they shall recover." (Mark xvi, 17, 18.) Accordingly, we read that SS. Paphnutius, Remigius, Otto, Robert, Dominic, and many others, cast out the devil from possessed persons. When St. Bernardine of Sienna, St. Anthony of Padua, St Francis Xavier, and others, preached to an audience composed of people from different countries, every one believed he heard his own tongue spoken. St. Hilary, St. Magnus, St. Patrick, and others, banished snakes and other reptiles. St. Gregory Thaumaturgus moved a mountain, to obtain a site for a Church. St. Patrick, St. Martin, St. Benedict, St. Dominic, St. Anthony, St. Francis of Paula, and many others, raised dead persons to life. St. Francis Xavier raised twenty-five, and St. John Capistran, thirty dead persons to life. St. Stanislas the Martyr restored a man to life who had died three years before, and presented him before the court to testify that he had bought from him a certain piece of ground for his church, and that he had paid him in full.

The Catholic Church, then, is holy in her doctrine and means of grace ; she is holy in all those of her members who live up to her holy doctrine. She is holy in the strenuous efforts which she has always made to put down errors, correct abuses, destroy sin, and cure all kinds of evils. Any one who reads, for instance, the acts of the Council of Trent, cannot fail to notice that one-half of its chapters treat of the great work of reformation. In this council the Church proscribes duels, reduces liturgies to unity, banishes profane airs and secular music from her
temples, institutes seminaries for the education of the clergy, establishes, at cathedrals, free-schools and lectures on holy Scripture, for the instruction of the people , she reminds her pastors that they are bound to continence, to residence, to frequent and diligent preaching ; she interdicts all appearance of simony and venality in the distribution of ecclesiastical offices, in preaching indulgences, and in administering the sacraments. Thus the tree is pruned, but not uprooted, the pastors, those heavenly physicians, cure their patients, but do not kill them ; the clergy and the religious orders are reformed, but the priesthood and the religious state are not abolished, incontinence is suppressed, though universal marriage is not preached, the weeds in the field of the Lord are plucked up? but the good seed is preserved. This is a reformation, not of the Church, but by the Church, a reformation to bring about which, she was established by Christ ; a reformation which she accomplishes by her general councils, by her zealous bishops and holy priests, by her fervent religious orders and congregations of both sexes, and by so many pious confraternities. But the Church herself, her doctrine, her means of grace, her order of government, are all divine and holy, and therefore can never be reformed: it would be a monstrous impiety to say that she could be reformed.  

What a glorious Church is ours ! What power but that of God could make her so divinely one in her faith, in her morality, in her worship, in her government ? What holiness but that of the Lord could make her so holy in. her Founder, in her doctrine, in her sacraments, in her members ? What more natural than that the Lord of all power and of all holiness should make this Church Catholic, as to time, place, and doctrine ?

Do you see holiness when looking at the Church that is in the Vatican now?  I certainly don't.

To be continued . . . . . . . . . .

4. To comfort the sorrowful.
Great, very great indeed, is the number of those who feel desolate and sorrowful. Some are desolate on account of the loss of temporal goods; others, on account of the loss of a dear parent, husband, wife, a darling child; a true, faithful friend, others, are desolate on account of
scrupulosity; others, on account of spiritual dryness and so on.

It happened not long ago, that the parents, husband, and several children of a good mother died in the time of an epidemic. The good woman felt quite desolate, and, as it were, forsaken by God and man. Her means were all exhausted, and she saw no way of supporting herself and two little children. She could neither eat nor sleep. She wept day and night, and was reduced
to a mere skeleton. One day she went to see an old friend, who, some years previous, had suffered in the same way. To her she poured out her heart. After she had communicated all her afflictions of body and soul, her friend, a true servant of God, spoke to her in the following manner : "I sympathize with you more than I can tell you. I feel your crosses as if they were my
own. I have suffered in the same way some years ago. At first, I found it very difficult to be resigned to the holy will of God. I went to see my confessor, who is a true, faithful father of the sorrowful and afflicted. I have never forgotten his consoling words, and I have often repeated them for the consolation of those who, in their affliction, came to see me. They are as follows: "My dear child, said he, the Lord treats you as one of his best children. He has deprived you of what was most near and dear to you, now you are poor and desolate. But now it is that you can say in truth : Our Father, who art in heaven." As long as you are poor, you feel more dependent on God. You become thereby more closely united to God. It is, then, really a clear mark of his love when God takes away from you the goods of this world. He loves you. He is a jealous God. He wishes to take entire possession of your heart, of all your affections, and, therefore, he weans you from all things in this world, lest you should love them too much. God foresees that, if you were rich, and could enjoy the pleasures of this world, you would perhaps soon forget him, you would fall into grievous sins and be lost. He, therefore, deprives you of the dangerous gift of riches, just as you take away a sharp knife from the hands of your child. The Holy Ghost is the Spirit of divine Love and He is called "The Father of the Poor, He is the Father of the Poor, precisely because He is infinite Love. How consoling is this thought ! Be not solicitous, therefore, saying : What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, wherewith shall we be clothed ? . . . For your Father knoweth that you have need of all these things." (Matt, vi., 31-32.)
"You say that you have to suffer. That is true ; but who is there, in this world that does not suffer? There is not one. There is no man on earth without some trouble, whether he be beggar, Pope or king. You envy, perhaps, that rich man who steps so grandly out of his carriage, who is bowed into his splendid residence by a retinue of servants; but could you only look into his heart, you would, perhaps, see there a load of care and misery, compared to which, all your troubles are as nothing. Believe me, the gorgeous palaces of the rich, are too often but the gilded prisons of weary hearts. Remember that you cannot cure a sick man by clothing him in a costly robe of silk and diamonds, and neither can you cure a sick, weary heart with all the wealth in the universe. But you will ask perhaps why has God given one kind of suffering to you, and another kind to another man ? If you wish to know this, then look up to heaven. Remember, your loving Father in heaven knows what is best for you. He will explain it all to you on the last day. And if you think you have to suffer more than others, then remember that suffering is a sign of God's love. "God loveth those whom He chastiseth. He chastiseth every child that He adopteth."; (Prov., iii., 12.) God is also now your friend and protector. Holy Scripture assures us that "God is the refuge of the Poor." (Ps. ix.; 10.) "The poor man cries to God," says the Holy Ghost, "and God hears and delivers him." (Ps. xxxiii., 7.) In this world, even your best friends grow tired, if you appeal to their charity too often; but God acts far otherwise. He never grows tired. He is never annoyed, no no matter how often you ask Him for help. His ear is ever open to your prayers. He is ever ready to assist you in your necessities. But you will say : "How can I consider God as my friend ? He has treated me rather like an enemy. I was once well off. I was happy. Now I am poor ; sometimes I scarcely know where to find bread for my poor hungry children." Ah ! why do you not understand the ways of God? Were you then richer than Job was ? Certainly not ; and yet God took away from him, all that he had. God took away his health, his property, his children. God afflicted him with a very powerful and loathsome disease. Job was thrown out of house and home ; he was cast upon a dunghill. His friends, the very wife of his bosom, turned against him, accused him unjustly, and loaded him with insult. Now why did God afflict Job in this manner? Precisely be cause God loved him. God wished to draw him more closely to himself and to make him perfect. Job knew this well, and, therefore, in the midst of his afflictions, he said: "If we have received good things from the hand of God, why not receive evil also." (Job, ii., 10.) "Even though the Lord should kill me, I will trust in him." (Job, xiii., 15.) "St. Lidwine, the daughter of very poor parents, was a great sufferer for many years. She was covered from head to foot, with most painful ulcers. In some of these ulcers, as many as two hundred little worms could be counted. Her flesh came off in pieces. She was lying, not on a soft bed, but on a rough board, and stretched out there for thirty eight years. She could move only her head and left arm. She suffered from, dropsy, acute head-ache, tooth-ache, and most violent fevers. For want of sufficient clothes, she was, in winter, quite benumbed with cold. Her tears froze on her cheeks. In the last year of her life she had to endure one of the most painful sufferings that can affect the human frame. It caused her such violent pains that she was forced to gnash her teeth, and often fainted away.
She slept no more than half an hour in the year. "Besides these sufferings she had to endure the ill treatment of wicked people. One day an infuriated woman entered the room of the saintly virgin, and began to abuse her in the most shameful manner. She heaped upon her the most disgraceful insults and reproaches. She spat in her face, and raised such a loud out-cry that the whole neighborhood was disturbed. Another time, four brutal soldiers entered the chamber of the afflicted maiden and began to speak to her in a most insulting manner. They struck her repeatedly with the most barbarous cruelty. "Now, in all her bodily sufferings, Lidwine was patient and resigned. In the midst of insults, she was like a tender lamb before a ravenous wolf, bearing with a calm countenance the insulting behavior of brutal men. Whence
did she derive this superhuman patience, calmness and resignation in all her sufferings and trials ? It was from the consideration that by patience she would atone for her sins, satisfy God's justice, and gain an everlasting crown in heaven. Indeed, by her heroic patience, she became one of the most extraordinary saints of the Church of God. " Lord!" she exclaimed, "it is most pleasing to me that thou dost not spare me, nor withhold thy hand in overwhelming me with suffering, for my greatest comfort is to know that thy will be done in me. "Our divine Savior says when you are invited to a feast take the lowest place, so that when the master of the house comes, he may say to thee : Friend, go up higher;" and you shall be honored in the eyes of all that are present. (Luke xiv., 10.) Here in this world, you have perhaps the lowest place. Be patient; do not murmur ; and when the Lord comes at the end of the world, he will say to you in presence of the whole universe: "Friend go up higher now, the first shall be the last; and the last shall be the first;" and you shall he glorified before the angels and saints of heaven. God assures us that he is himself the defender of the poor, and he threatens the oppressors of the poor with the severest chastisements.

"Do no violence to the poor" he says; "and do not oppress the needy, for the Lord will judge his cause and he will afflict those that afflict his soul." (Prov. xxii., 22.) "Our Lord Jesus Christ is also now more than ever your brother. Look at the life of our Lord. He is the king of heaven and earth, and yet he has become the poorest of the poor. He is born in a stable. Was there ever a poorer place to be born in ? He lived on earth as a poor carpenter s son. He had no home of his own, no place to rest his weary head. The birds of the air have their nests, he says even the foxes have their lairs, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. He suffered hunger and thirst. Sometimes he was even compelled to break off a few ears of wheat as he passed through the field in order to satisfy the cravings of hunger. Now that you are in want, do not lose confidence. Look up to Jesus, and say to him: "Jesus, remember that thou wert once as poor as I am now. Have pity on me then and help me. But if thou wishest me to follow thee yet longer on the road of poverty and suffering, then give me grace to do so cheerfully!" It is also now that you are of the number of those to whom the Gospel is preached, that is, to the poor. Our dear Saviour himself assures us of this : "The spirit of the Lord is upon me, wherefore he hath anointed me, to preach the Gospel to the poor. (Luke, iv., 18.) And it is to the poor that he still preaches, through the ministry of his holy Church. It is precisely the poor that crowd our churches, and listen eagerly to the words of God. It is especially the poor that crowd the churches during Holy Mass. It is the poor that are found praying in the church, during the long day, and in the silence of the night. It is they, who come to adore our blessed Lord in the Sacrament of his love. It is they who visit him in his little crib at Christmas ; and who weep with compassion when they hear the recital of his sufferings. It is especially the poor who press forward to the altar, hungering for the bread of life. It is they who are so proud to take part in a holy procession, whether in the church or in the street. Yes, the Catholic Church is proud of the poor ; and as our Lord Jesus Christ himself declared, "the poor are always with her." The holy martyr St. Lawrence was commanded by the tyrant to show him the treasures of the church. St. Lawrence obeyed. He led the tyrant to the church, and pointing to a large crowd of poor persons who were waiting for alms, he said : "See, here are the treasures of the Catholic Church. Yes, the poor are a mark of the true Church of Christ. When our blessed Saviour went back to heaven, he left the poor to take his place here on earth. He says to every one of us : Whatever you do to one of these poor persons, you do it to me." As you are now poor and desolate, God will also be your sure rewarder. He makes more account of the little alms of the poor than he does of the grand contributions of the rich. One day, Our Blessed Lord saw a poor widow putting a few pence into the treasury of the temple. He saw also the rich Pharisees offering their gifts. Now what did Jesus Christ say of this poor woman?  Listen to his consoling words: "Amen, I say to you, this poor widow hath cast in more than all they who have cast into the treasury. (Mark, xii., 43.)
O, what a consolation for the poor ! That poor widow went away, little thinking who was watching her. Her's was indeed a poor offering, a mere trifle; but it was the best she had, and she gave it with a cheerful heart. 0, how great is her reward ! Wherever the Gospel is preached through out the wide world, her praise is uttered; and her praise shall resound throughout all eternity in heaven. O, what a consoling example is this for you ! You give small sum in alms, or for some other charitable object or you make a little sacrifice, some act of kindness to your neighbor. Men do not esteem that deed of charity. Perhaps the very one to whom you have done that favor, does not notice it, or soon forgets it; but God sees that good deed, he sees the good will with which you give that alms, and he remembers it : it is written down in the book of life. He shall proclaim it before the whole world on the last day, and he shall reward you for it through out a long, endless eternity.  "Amen, I declare to you" he says, that even a cup of cold water given in my name shall have its reward. And then the prayers of the poor ! how powerful are they ! how pleasing to God! The prayers of the poor pierce the clouds; they ascend like a mighty voice to the ear of God, and they do not depart until they are heard. Blessed is he for whom the poor are continually praying ; he is almost certain of his salvation.
"Now that you are poor and desolate, the gates of heaven are open to you. "Blessed are the poor, says Jesus Christ, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And the Apostle St. James says : "Hath not God chosen the poor to be heirs of the kingdom of heaven. (James, ii., 5.) Yes, if you are poor and resigned to the will of God, you can say in truth with Tobias of old: "Fear not, my children ; you lead indeed a life of poverty, but you shall have an abundance of good things, if you fear God, avoid sin and do good. The state of poverty frees you from many temptations, and makes it easy for you to gain heaven. Bear, then, courageously all your privations. When the hour of hardship comes, when you are tempted to murmur against God, when you are tempted to despair, then remember the consoling words of our Lord : "Blessed are ye poor, for yours is the kingdom of heaven." You are now in want. Remember that a throne awaits you in heaven. You live in a poor miserable hut! Remember that there are many mansions in the home of your heavenly Father, and one of these mansions is prepared for you. Poverty compels you to live in an unhealthy neighborhood, cruel death has snatched away several beloved members of your family. Even the worse has come; your heart has been crushed within you at seeing a dear father and mother, darling brothers and sisters, and children carried out in their coffin, one by one ; you are alone and desolate in this wide world. Ah, look up ; raise your eyes to heaven! See they are standing at the gates of heaven to meet you with out-stretched arms : father, mother, brother, sister, and the sweet little babies whose death rent your heart in twain. See they are all smiling upon you, they are waiting to welcome you home to heaven. Your heart is heavy and sorrow-stricken here below ; remember, in heaven you shall enter into eternal, unbounded joy. There shall be no weeping, or sighing, or sorrow any more, for God shall wipe away every tear and heal every broken heart. Gaunt hunger sits every day at your poor table ? O, have courage ! In heaven you shall sit at the eternal banquet of the Saints. You are poorly clothed ; your tattered garments call forth the heartless sneer of some unfeeling neighbor? Do not be discouraged ; in heaven you shall be crowned with a kingly diadem ; you shall be clothed with the costly robes which the angels and saints of heaven wear. Your friends have deserted you; you are a poor, homeless exile upon the face of the earth ; see, God is your friend ; a true and ever faithful friend, and a home of never-ending happiness awaits you in heaven. Here your hands have grown rough from hard labor; your whole body has been worn out by sickness and suffering! Ah! have courage! in heaven your body shall shine brighter and more glorious than the noon-day sun. Here you are ignorant and suffer much on account of it; but have patience ; in heaven you shall know every thing, you shall be filled with heavenly wisdom ; you shall behold the Eternal God face to face, and in Him you shall see all things. In all your joys or sorrows then turn your eyes constantly towards your true home; look up to heaven, to the mansion of your Father, the palace of His glory, the temple of His holiness, and
the throne of His grandeur and magnificence, the land of the living, the centre of your rest, the term of your movements, the end of your miseries, the place of the nuptials of the Lamb, the feast of God and His holy angels. O holy Sion, where all remains and nothing passes away: where all is found, and nothing is wanting; where all is sweet, and nothing bitter where all is calm, and nothing is agitated ! happy land whose roses are without thorns ; where peace reigns without combats and where health is found without sickness, and life without death ! O holy Thabor ! palace of the living God ! O heavenly Jerusalem, where the poor sing eternally the beautiful canticles of Sion ! "It is thus the good priest spoke to me, said the pious woman I have felt happy ever since. May his words also strengthen and comfort you in all your trials.

To be continued . . . . . . . . .

 2. To instruct the ignorant.
No doubt, there are many poor creatures around you, who labor and suffer and weep, and, in their blindness and despair, curse the loving God who created them; blaspheme the God who died for them; and hate the holy Church which he established in order to save them. And among these restless, wandering souls, you often find noble, generous hearts. Many are wavering between good and evil, many of them struggle, at least at times, against their passions. They are groping about in the dark. A kind word, a friendly advice, might save them. Many of them are like the poor paralytic at the pool of Bethsaida. They are so near the source of life, they long to reach it but they find no one to take them by the hand and lead them thither. And one soul brought thus to God will be the means of leading others to God, and so the good will go on till the day of judgment.

Kevelin Digby, author of the "Ages of Faith," who did so much to awaken what was afterwards called the "Oxford Movement," was led to the Catholic faith by means of the barber who used to shave him when he was a member of the University. The barber began to instruct him, in the broken conversations occurring from day to day. Then he lent Mr. Digby books, and the barber thus became the teacher of the University man. Ah! rest assured that every one, no matter in what state of life he is placed, will find opportunities to instruct the ignorant if he is zealous enough to perform this spiritual work of mercy.

A child passes you on the road. Why pass it by as coldly as if you did not see it ? Salute the child kindly ; speak to it. Ask, for instance, if it goes to school and where ; if it can read, can pray ; who is "Our Father" in heaven? You can thus give the child a short instruction ! You cast the seeds of eternal life into its heart seeds that will one day ripen with God s grace and bear fruit a hundred-fold. And even should the seed choke and wither in the child s heart, your eternal reward in heaven will not be lost. Your guardian angel has written down the good deed. If even a cup of cold water given in our Lord"s name shall be rewarded, how much more an act of charity done to the soul.A neighbor's child comes to your house perhaps to play with your children. Of course, should the child teach your little ones bad words or anything that is wrong, you must send it away or correct it. But if the child is well disposed, treat it kindly ; you have a good opportunity to do an act of charity to that child's soul. Do not imagine that the child comes there merely by accident. It is its angel that sends it, that you may instruct it, that you may teach it how to reach its heavenly home. Show the little one some pious pictures. Tell it something about our Saviour, about the Blessed Virgin, about the angels. Teach it how God sees it every moment, in the darkest night as well as in broad daylight.

You are living with a Protestant family. You edify them by your conduct. They are in doubt about their religion, or ridicule yours on certain occasions. Profit by these occasions, and tell them the most important truths of our religion. Be not afraid to do so. Our Lord makes use of you to convert that family if they are sincere before God.

Not long ago a poor but worthy Irishman came to the door of a respectable Protestant family, and asked for any employment that would secure his daily bread. He was engaged for some service on the farm, and gave satisfaction. But being a Catholic he was held in contempt in that part of this country. As he seemed utterly devoid of even the first elements of education, it was thought that an attack upon his religion would not only result in amusement from his ridiculous answers, but in an easy triumph over his evident ignorance. He was accordingly questioned and bantered on the "objectionable" points of his creed by the most intelligent member of the house hold. But the good man, though ignorant of most other things, had been thoroughly instructed in his catechism ; and this alone would have made him more than a match for a score of divines from Princeton or Geneva. His answers were so calm, so clear and correct, so logical, and, finally, so impressive, that the tables were soon turned and the laugh, or the defeat rather, proved to be on the wrong side. The questioner was not only vanquished but dismayed and terrified into the conviction that answers so simple, yet so cogent and logical must rest on some basis of truth. This brought about a serious examination of Catholic doctrine, and the examination was followed by submission to the Church. This conversion happily led to that of the whole family and of many others. These facts are well known throughout the county and State where they happened. (American Cath. Quart. Review, October, 1879, p. 723.)

3. To counsel the doubtful.

It often happens that a person is doubting as to whether a thing is lawful or not, whether this or that action is forbidden or allowed. On both sides he sees plausible reasons, which make an impression ; but amongst these reasons there is none that draws down the weight, none that is sufficient to ground a determination. Thus, wavering between these different and opposite reasons, he remains undetermined and dares not make a decision for fear of being deceived and of falling into sin. Now that person is not allowed to act with such a doubtful conscience. He must seek for light and instruction, if he can.

An heir, for example, has entered upon an estate which was formerly unjustly acquired by his ancestors ; but, at the time he accepted it, he had no knowledge, no doubt concerning its unjust acquisition. Afterwards he discovers a flaw in his title, and for good reasons begins to doubt as to whether he lawfully possesses the property.

There is another. He doubts as to the state of life to which God calls him. There is a Protestant ; for good reasons he has doubts as to the possibility of being saved in the Protestant religion. Now to counsel aright such persons, is to perform a spiritual work of mercy. For want of knowledge, or discretion, or some other reason, it may not be in your power to perform this kind of work of mercy. But you know, perhaps, a learned and charitable man who is competent to ad vise properly the doubtful. Now by referring to such a man, a person who has doubts of conscience, you share in the spiritual work of mercy the good advice which is given.
To be continued . . . . . . . . . . .

12. Which are the spiritual works of mercy ?
1. To convert the sinner;
2.  to instruct the ignorant ;
3. to counsel the doubtful ;
4. to comfort the sorrowful ;
5. to bear wrongs patiently ;
6. to forgive injuries ;
7.  to pray for the living and the dead.

1. To convert the sinner.
It is an article of our holy faith that the Son of God descended from heaven, became man, and died on the infamous gibbet of the cross, for no other purpose than to save mankind from perpetual destruction. His whole life was devoted to this end. For this purpose alone he established his Church on earth. Every Christian, therefore, ought to be inflamed with zeal for the salvation of souls.

Now, what is the meaning of zeal for the salvation of souls? It is a desire to see God truly loved, and honored, and served by all men. Those who are inflamed with this beautiful fire endeavor to communicate it to the whole world. If they perceive that God is offended, they weep and lament: they feel interiorly devoured and consumed by the fervor of their zeal. "Who should be looked upon as a man consumed with the zeal for the house of God ?"  asked St. Augustine. "He who ardently desires to prevent offences against God, and endeavors to induce those who have sinned to weep, and weeps and groans himself when he sees God dishonored." With such a zeal the saints of the Old Law were inflamed. "I found my heart and my bones," says Jeremiah (Xx., 9, 10.),
"secretly inflamed as with a fire that even devoured me ; and I fainted away, not being able to resist it; because I heard the blasphemies of many people." "I was in flamed with zeal for the God of armies," says Elias, "because the children of Israel have broken their covenant."  (III. Kings xix., 10.) "A fainting has taken hold of me," says the Royal Prophet, "because sinners have forsaken thy law  and my zeal hath made me pine away, because my enemies forgot thy commandments."(Psalm cxviii., 53.) These holy men were thus afflicted at the sight of the license with which the wicked violated the law of God. The sorrow of their minds passed into the humors of their body, and even into their very blood, as it were. "I beheld the wicked," says David "I pined away ; because they kept not thy commandments." (Ps. cxviii.158.) "Mine eyes became fountains of water; because they observed not thy law." (Ibid., 136.) It was the violence of his zeal that made David melt into tears when he beheld the infinite majesty of God offended. This zeal made St. Paul write to the Romans : "I speak the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have great sadness and continual sorrow in my heart ; for I wished myself to be an anathema from Christ, for my brethren, who are my kinsmen according to the flesh." (Rom. ix., 1-3.)
 
How much have the saints not done for the salvation of their neighbors ? Let us hear what the great Apostle of the Gentiles says of his own labors, troubles and sufferings for the salvation of men. In his epistles to the Corinthians he writes as follows : "Even unto this hourwe both hunger and thirst; and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no fixed abode ; and we labor with our own hands ; we are reviled and we bless; we are persecuted and we suffer it; we are blasphemed and we entreat; we are made as the refuse of this world, the off scouring of all even until now." (I. Cor. iv., 11, 13.)

"Our flesh had no rest, but we suffered all tribulation : combats without, fears within." (II. Cor. vii, 5.) "In many more labors, in prisons more frequently, in stripes above measure, in deaths often. Of the Jews five times did I receive forty stripes, save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods; once I was stoned; thrice I suffered shipwreck ; a night and a day was I in the depth of the sea. In journeying often, in perils of water, in perils of robbers, in perils from my own nation, in perils from the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils from false brethren. In labor and painfulness, in much watchings, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness." (II. Cor. xi. 23-27.)

Were a St. Francis Xavier to appear among us he could tell us how, for the sake of the barbarians, he climbed mountains and exposed himself to innumerable dangers to find those wretched beings in the caverns, where they dwelt like wild beasts, and lead them to God.

A St. Francis de Sales could tell us how, in order to convert the heretics of the province of Chablais, he risked his life by crossing a river every day for a year, on his hands and knees, upon a frozen beam, that he might preach the truth to those stubborn men.

A St. Fidelis could tell us how, in order to bring back the heretics of a certain place, he risked his life by going to preach to them. But here one may say : "I am not a priest, and, therefore, I cannot preach to sinners and convert them." To convert sinners, it is not necessary that you should be a priest. Your neighbor, for instance, has given up the practice of his religion for many years. He is sick and expected to die soon. Cannot you pay him a visit, speak kindly to him, and induce him to send for the priest and be reconciled to God? His salvation may depend on your visit, on a few kind words of exhortation and encouragement.

A certain Catholic once went to see a dying sinner. The unhappy man had led a long life of sin, and was now obstinate. He did not wish to hear of God or the priest. The good, zealous Catholic tried every means tears promises, threats, prayers, but all in vain. The dying wretch was hardened. At last the zealous Catholic fell on his knees and begged God to give him this soul, and offered, for his sake, to endure any pain that he would inflict on him. An interior voice then said to him : "Your request shall be granted, but only on condition that you are willing to fall back into your former illness." He had formerly been subject to violent fits of colic. The good Catholic offered himself generously. He then once more spoke to the dying man, and found him quite changed in the very best dispositions. He made his confession with every sign of true sorrow, and offered uphis life in atonement of his sins. He received all the sacraments, and died in the arms of his true Catholic friend. The prayers of the good Catholic were heard ; but no sooner had he returned home than he was seized with the most violent pains, which continued to increase until at last he died, the victim of his Christian zeal for the salvation of a soul.

To relieve the wants of the body is undoubtedly an act of great charity ; but to heal the wounds of the soul is an act of far greater charity. Now it is by admonition and counsel that we contribute towards the healing of the spiritual wounds of our neighbor. It is even a formal precept of the Gospel to do what is in our power to heal the wounds of our neighbor's soul, that is, to admonish him when he is in mortal sin or in danger of falling into it. "If thy brother transgress in thy presence," says our Lord, "reprimand and correct him." (Matt, xviii., 15.)

If you neglect to correct the sinner, says St. Agustine, you become thereby worse than himself. So all who have christian charity, whether superiors or inferiors, are bound to admonish and correct those who follow evil ways, if they have sufficient influence and authority over them, and have good reason to hope that the correction will be useful. Should the first admonition be fruitless, we are bound to repeat it several times, when we have good reason to hope that it will finally prove useful.

We are obliged to perform this act of charity :
1.  when the sin of our neighbor is certain, but not when it is doubtful;
2. when there is no other person capable of giving the admonition, and when it is not expected that any one else will give it;
3. when there is no reason for a prudent fear that, by correcting our neighbor, we shall suffer a grievous loss or inconvenience. For, if we have a good reason to fear that the correction will be attended with a considerable loss or inconvenience to ourselves, we are excused from the obligation of making it, because it is only an act of charity which is not obligatory under those circumstances. Parents, however, are obliged to correct their children, even when the correction is attended with great inconvenience.Has an inferior a right to correct his superior. Every act extends to all that is within the sphere of its power, as the sight, for instance, embraces all that is visible.

Now as charity comprises all men without exception, it orders us to exercise fraternal correction without distinction of persons. The inferior, therefore, has a right to correct his superior when he sees him in fault or in error. But this must be done in a mild, prudent, respectful manner, for those who are above us in age or authority, merit respect and veneration. " An ancient man rebuke
not, but entreat him as a father." (1 Tim. v., 1.)

Has one, who himself is in fault or sin, a right to correct another ? To exercise this right, no more than the use of reason is needed. Now, sin does not destroy the natural gift of man. But he who attempts to direct others in the path of virtue and justice, must, first of all, begin to correct himself, otherwise he cannot be supposed to act with a charitable motive. If he, therefore, shows signs of repentance and amendment, and acts with a spirit of humility, he can exercise fraternal correction.

What is to be done if the correction does not avail anything, but might, on the contrary, irritate the culprit and make him more obstinate ?

If his conduct is an annoyance or a scandal to the public, his superior ought to rebuke him and even take severe measures against him if necessary. A judge feels no reluctance to condemn a culprit in spite of his recriminations and the affliction of his family. However, in all such cases, the means must always be proportioned to the end.

Ought a private admonition precede a public denunciation ? If the crime is public, there is no necessity of making any mystery of the correction to be given to the criminal, "Them that sin reprove before all, that the rest also may fear." (1 Tim. v., 20.) If the crime or transgression is private, no public denunciation or revelation should be made, unless in case of something detrimental to the public or of a conspiracy against the state. In similar cases, we ought to imitate the skilful physician, who first strives to heal the wound if possible ; but if he cannot succeed, he has recourse to amputation, in order to save the life of his patient. A superior, therefore, should not have recourse to extreme measures, when there is hope that a private admonition will reclaim the sinner. Unless things transpire before the eyes of the public, justice and charity require the superior to keep all secret and leave all rest in the hands of God.

In what manner should correction be made?
To correct one is an act of charity. Therefore, correction should be made in the spirit of charity. A reproof is a kind of food which is always difficult to digest. Fraternal charity should, then, so sweeten it as to destroy its bitterness, or else it will be like those fruits which cause pain in the stomach. Charity does not seek its own advantage, but the honor of God. Bitterness and severity proceed only from passion, vanity and pride. A good remedy used at an improper time often becomes a deadly poison.Now, it is easy to know when the correction we make proceeds from charity. Truth proceeds from charity when we speak it only from the love of God and for the good
of him whom we reprove. It is better to be silent than to speak a truth ungraciously ; for this is to present a good dish badly cooked, or to give medicine unseasonably. But is this not to keep back the truth unjustly ? By no means ; to act otherwise is to bring it forth unjustly, because the real justice of truth and the truth of justice reside in charity. That truth which is not charitable proceeds from a charity which is not true. A judicious silence is always preferable to an uncharitable truth. Hence, in correcting others, we should remember the following advice given by the saints upon this subject :

1. Good example must precede the correction, otherwise it may justly be said: "Physician, cure thyself."

2. Patience must defer it, because, reproof being a bitter remedy, it should be applied, generally speaking, only when every other means has proved useless.

3. It must be given with charity, lest, while striving to heal one wound, we inflict several others.

4. Humility must accompany it by accusing ourselves and assuming thus a part of the disgrace of him whose weakness we have discovered.

5. We ought to be very careful to give a reproof in so mild a manner as to lessen the bitterness of this remedy to which nature is utterly averse. It thus becomes efficacious and strikes at the very root of the evil.

6. In reproving we should pay attention to the nature of the fault, its consequences, and to the degree of virtue in the delinquent.

7. It is sometimes advisable, before reproving a person, to point out to him the nature and greatness of the fault, and then request him to punish himself for it. The penance of a contrite heart is great when it sees itself kindly dealt with. We must blame the offense, but spare the offender.

8. When any one has corrected a fault, forget the past and treat him as if nothing had happened, according to what holy Scripture says : "Despise not a man that turneth away from sin, nor reproach him therewith : remember that we are all worthy of reproof." (Ecclus. viii., 6.)

It is in this way that we heal wounds without leaving a scar. We read in the life of St. Alphonsus, that his firmness towards those who persevered in their faults, was changed into mercy when he saw them contrite. He loved with an exceedingly great love those who amended their conduct after his admonitions. He pressed them to his bosom, forgot their faults, and never again alluded to the pain they had caused him. "I am informed," writes the saint in his book Preparation for Death, "that the celebrated Signore Pietro Metastasio has published a little book in prose, in which he expresses his detestation of his writings on profane love and declares that, were it in his power, he would retract them and make them disappear from the world? even at the cost of his blood. I am told, that he lives retired in his own house, leading a life of prayer. This information has given me unspeakable consolation ; because his public declaration and his most laudable example will help to undeceive many young persons who seek to acquire a great name by similar compositions on profane love. It is certain, that by his retraction, Signore Metastasio has deserved more encomiums than he would deserve by the publication of a thousand poetic works : for these he might be praised by men, but now he is praised by God. Hence, as I formerly detested his vanity in priding himself on such compositions (I do not speak of his sacred pieces, which are excellent and deserving of all praise), so now I shall never cease to praise him; and were I permitted, I would kiss his feet, seeing that he has voluntarily become the censor of his own works, and that he now desires to see them banished from the whole world at the expense, as he says, even of his own blood."

9. In reproving our neighbor great regard should be paid to his disposition. Sometimes a courteous little admonition, such as the reproving glance cast by our Lord at St. Peter, may be sufficient. In many cases it may be advisable to give the reproof in such a manner that it will appear rather as praise than blame. "If a word chastises, cast the rod away,  If a look suffices, have no word to say."

10. Never reprove any one when you are excited. A physician who is suffering from delirium or any other violent disorder should be first cured himself before he at tempts to prescribe for others.

11. The faults of those who sin more from weakness and ignorance than from any other reason, should move us to pity rather than to severity. We should kindly encourage them to amend their faults and avoid relapsing into them.

12. Whether we make corrections in public or in private, we should never use opprobrious expressions, such as fool, simpleton, and the like. We should seem to advise rather than to reprove, saying, for example : "Does it not appear to you, that such and such a thing is an abuse ? That whoever acts so, and so, exposes himself to censure ?" This manner of acting is more convincing and effective than any other. Prudence, then, requires us to prefer it to a more arbitrary course.

13. We must not be astonished at seeing one troubled at a reproof, or taking it badly. If the culprit is wanting in humility, we must not, on this account, be wanting in charity by forgetting our Christian dignity, and allowing aversions and ill-feelings to take root in our heart.

14. If a correction is to be given to a person whose dignity is to be respected, we should give it so as to reprove ourselves at the same time, speaking in the first person of the plural number, saying, for instance : "How much do we all offend God. We all have our faults, but we ought to be careful to avoid such and such faults."

15. There are certain persons who easily find fault with others. They themselves are generally the most guilty. It is one of their secret artifices to turn the eyes of others upon the faults of their neighbor, in order to keep them turned away from their own. You should never pay particular attention to what these great talkers say. Much less should you ever reprove any one with out having given him a hearing. To believe what you hear without further inquiry, and reprove instantly, is to expose yourself to a thousand evils and agitations.

16. Generally speaking, it is not advisable to reprove one on the spot for his faults. Medicine must not be given to a person who is in high fever, except in extraordinary cases. You should take time to consider the matter before God, and to reflect on the best and most useful manner of making the correction, especially when the fault is of a serious nature, and the offender is of a hasty temperament. Then when a favorable moment presents itself, ask with all humility and confidence, the guilty person to be kind enough to allow you, though full of faults yourself, to call his attention to something for his own benefit. In order to gain the affection and confidence of the offender, you may first praise modestly his good qualities. Then, place, with great delicacy, before him his fault, reminding him of its unhappy consequences, and propose to him the proper remedy. To this you may add, that you yourself were obliged to use this remedy in order to correct your own faults.

17. Never reveal the name of the person who reported the fault. Nay, if you have reason to fear that the guilty person may easily suspect the one that spoke of him and conceive a dislike for him, it is better to make no reproof, because peace and union with our neighbor should be preferred to every thing else.

18. Always conclude a reproof with some encouraging words, saying, for instance, that God allows such faults, in order to keep us humble and to increase our solicitude in acquiring virtue.

19. Under certain circumstances, it is advisable to give the admonition publicly without naming the guilty person. This should be done,
     a. When the evil is deeply rooted; for in this case it is not prudent to admonish individuals privately ;
       b. When the offender has a good heart, but is too weak in virtue to take a reproof in the proper spirit ;
        c. When it is to be feared that others may commit the same fault, if the warning is not given in public.

20. Correct the aged by way of sweet entreaty ; for it is not very easy to manage them ; they are not very flexible. The sinews of their soul as well as of their body have grown stiff. Hence the way of entreaty is the best manner of admonishing them.

21. Before giving a reprimand, recommend yourself to the Lord. Humble yourself in his presence and acknowledge that you are more faulty and, consequently, more blame- worthy than your neighbor.

St. Vincent de Paul says that those who are spiritually sick, ought to be more tenderly treated than those who are corporally sick. "I beg you," he wrote to a Superior who had notified him of the desire of a lay-brother to leave the Congregation, "to assist and encourage him to resist the temptation, but do it mildly and affectionately, seeming rather to advise than to reprove him, as is our custom." He also tells us, that although during his whole life, he gave a sharp reproof three times only, yet. each time he was forced to regret it, because, notwithstanding the apparent just reason for reproving sharply, the correction proved fruitless, while on the contrary, those reproofs which he had given mildly, were always effective.

St. Juliana Veronica occupied the post of Mistress of Novices for several years. During this time she had two novices who were of a head-strong disposition. One of them received her charitable admonitions in such ill part, that they produced not the least amendment. She was therefore expelled by the Chapter. However, St. Veronica obtained for her, from the Blessed Virgin, the grace of being received into another convent, where she corrected her faults. The other novice forgot herself so far as to strike her Mistress in the face, and with such violence as to bruise her lips. The holy woman, grieved at the scandal, and at the excommunication which the novice drew upon herself by this act, implored of God so earnestly her amendment that she shed tears of blood. For a time, the rebellious Sister did better, but her amendment was not permanent. One day, when she was again kindly reproved by St. Veronica for not fulfilling her duty, she felt so terribly provoked, and pushed the saint so roughly that she would have fallen, had not those standing near her come to her assistance. The prudent Superior said nothing about the affair at the time, as she knew that a reproof would be useless, nay, even injurious, because the offender was under the influence of passion. She merely remarked to those who insisted upon the punishment of the novice, that it was necessary to have patience, and that her only grief was that God had been offended. At the next Chapter, however, she calmly reproved and punished the fault. The fruit of this moderation was, that the delinquent entered into herself, arid blushing with confusion at the sin she had committed, performed the penance imposed upon her. From that time forward, she watched so carefully over herself, that she lived and died a true religious.

A short time after Father Lallemant had been appointed Rector of the College of Bourges, the brother baker came to him, one day, and rather rudely complained of having too much to do; he told the Rector to see to the matter and put some one else in his place. The Father calmly listened to him, and promised to relieve him. He then went himself quietly into the bake-house and began kneading the dough with the greatest diligence. After the brother had become calm again, he returned to the bake-house, and found, to his great surprise, the Father Rector doing his work for him. He immediately threw himself at his feet and begged his pardon, being filled with confusion at his fault, and moved by the meekness and humility of so compassionate a Superior.

Father Lallemant acted thus on all similar occasions, so prudently using lenity that every one readily conceded to him whatsoever he desired. He used to say that experience daily taught him more and more, that discipline should be kept up in the Company with extreme mildness ; that the Superiors ought to study to make themselves obeyed rather from love than from fear; that the way to maintain regularity is not by rigor and penances, but by the paternal kindness of the Superiors and their diligence in attending to the wants of inferiors; and in preserving and increasing in them the spirit of piety and prayer.

One day St. Vincent de Paul heard that one of his priests was too inactive during the missions, and that severity towards the people prevailed over charity in his sermons. He wrote to him as follows: "I write to you, dear Sir, to inquire your news and to communicate to you ours. How do you feel after your great fatigue ? How many missions have you given ? Do the people seem disposed to profit by your labors ? Do these labors produce the desired fruit ? It would be a great consolation for me to be informed in detail of all you have done. From other houses of the Congregation I have received good accounts, thanks be to God ! Their labors are to their great content blessed with happy results. The strength which God has given to Mr. N. is truly wonderful. For nine months he has been laboring in the country, and his missions, according to the Vicar-general, the religious of the place, and others, have done incalculable good. This result is ascribed solely, to the mildness and charity with which this gentleman seeks to win the hearts of these poor people. This induces me to recommend more earnestly than ever the practice of these virtues. If God deigned to bless our first missions, it as evidently on account of the kindness, humility arid sincerity with which we treated every one. Yes, if God deigned to make use of the most miserable among us, that is of myself, to convert sinners and heretics, it was, as they themselves unanimously admitted, in consequence of the patience and benevolence with which I constantly acted towards them. Even the galley-slaves were won in this manner. When I dealt severely with them, all my efforts were vain, whilst, on the contrary, when I pitied them, praised their resignation, kissed their chains, sympathized with them in their misfortune, or told them that their sufferings were their purgatory in this life, they listened to me and took the necessary means to save their souls. I beg you, therefore, my dear Sir, to help me to thank God earnestly for these favors and to beg of Him to bestow the grace, upon all our Missioners, to act towards every one, privately and publicly, even towards the most hardened sinners.; with meekness, charity and humility, and never to make use of wounding words, or bitter reproaches, or preach severe sermons. I doubt not, Sir, that as far as you are concerned, you will carefully avoid a manner of acting which is so exceedingly unbecoming a Physician of souls, and which instead of winning hearts and leading them to God, only estranges and embitters them. Christ, our Lord, is the eternal delight of both angels and men : we must also try to be the delight of our fellow-creatures, so as to lead them to their eternal happiness."

Thus St. Vincent knew how to draw the attention of his priests to their faults and imperfections, without wounding their feelings. He excused them as far as he could, manifested his love and esteem for them, and reproved so modestly and humbly, that none ever felt abashed or discouraged, but, on the contrary, all were edified and encouraged by his very reproofs. To the Superior of one of his houses, who greatly exaggerated the difficulties of his office, Vincent gave the following answer : "What you write to me is both true and not true. It is true in respect to those who do not like to be contradicted by any one ; who wish every thing to be conducted according to their opinion and will; who desire to be obeyed by all without opposition or delay, and who would like to see their every command approved of. What you write is not true, however, in regard to those who consider themselves as the servants of others, and who, while they perform the duties of Superior, keep constantly in mind their model, Jesus Christ, who bore with the rudeness, jealousy, want of faith, and other faults of His disciples, and who said that He had come into the world not to be served, but to serve. You used formerly to go through your duties patiently, humbly and cheerfully, and I know well that your only design now in using these exaggerated expressions, is to explain your difficulties better and to induce me to remove you from your post of Superior.It was, however, by no means the opinion of St. Vincent, that Superiors should connive at every thing in their subjects. He wished that the guilty should always be reprimanded and even punished, insisting, nevertheless upon the reproof being given in the spirit of meekness and in accordance with the above-quoted principles.

He was once told that one of his priests, a very zealous man, who at that time was the Superior of a Seminary, treated the Seminarians too harshly. In a letter to this priest, he reproves him in the following manner : "I believe all that you have written, quite as readily as if I had seen it with my own eyes, and I have too many proofs of your zeal for the good of the Seminary to doubt your words. For this very reason, I have with held my judgment in regard to the complaints which have reached me of your severe government, until I should have learned from yourself the true state of things.

In the meanwhile, I beg of you to reflect seriously upon the manner in which you act, and to resolve to correct, with the help of God s grace, whatever may be displeasing to Him in your conduct. Although your intention may be good, yet the Divine Majesty is offended, and the following are a few of the evil consequences of such conduct : "First, the Seminarians leave the house dissatisfied ; virtue becomes distasteful to them ; the consequence of which is, that they may fall into sin and ruin their souls ; and this, merely because they were, by your severity, too soon forced out of the school of piety. Secondly, they talk against the Seminary and are the cause of others not going, who otherwise would have come to receive the instructions and graces necessary for their vocation. Thirdly, the bad reputation of one house easily reflects upon all the others of the Society, paralyzing the members thereof in their ministry, so much so that the good which the Lord, until now, has deigned to perform by their instrumentality, immediately commences diminishing more and more. To say that, heretofore, you have not noticed these faults in your own person, betrays, no doubt, a want of humility on your part. For were you possessed of that degree of humility which Jesus Christ requires of Missionary Priests, you would not hesitate for a moment to believe, that you were the most imperfect of all and guilty of all these things. You would attribute to a hidden blindness your not noticing in your self those defects which are so easily discovered by others, and for which you have already been reprimanded. I have learned, that you do not like correction. Should this be so, ! how much should you fear for yourself! How far does your virtue fall short of that of the Saints who annihilated themselves before the world and were rejoiced at seeing their little failings made known to others. Are we not to imitate Jesus Christ, who, notwithstanding His innocence, suffered the bitterest and most unjust reproaches, without even opening His mouth to avert the disgrace from His sacred person?

My dear Sir, let us learn from Him to be meek and humble of heart. These are virtues which you and I must continually ask of Him, and to which we must always attend, in order not to be drawn away by the opposite passions, which make us destroy with one hand what we have built up with the other. May God enlighten us with His holy Spirit to discover our blindness and to submit to those whom He has given us for guides." To the Superior of a mission-house, he wrote as follows : "God be praised that you went yourself to do what Mr. N. refused to do. It was very good that you preferred doing this, rather than insisting any longer upon obedience to your command. There are some people, who, although devout and pious, and having a great horror for sin, will still from time to time commit some faults through human frailty ; we must bear with them, and not excite them still more. As God otherwise blesses this gentleman in the confessional, I think we ought to connive a little at his caprices, so much the more as they are of no serious nature. With regard to the other priest of whom you write, I hope that this word has escaped him from want of reflection, rather than from real malice. Even the most discreet when surprised by passion, may say something of which they soon after repent. Finally, there are men who show aversion to persons as well as to offices, but who still do much good. Alas ! it cannot be otherwise, live with whom you please, you will still have something to suffer, as well as some thing to merit. I hope, that he, of whom I speak, will still be gained, if we use towards him charitable forbearance and kind corrections. Do pray for him, as I unceasingly do for your whole community."

To another Superior he wrote : "The priest of whom you make this report, is a pious man ; he practices virtue, and before he entered our Congregation, he enjoyed a great reputation in the world. If he now manifests a restless spirit, meddling with temporal affairs and those of his family, and thus becomes a subject of annoyance to his brethren in religion, he must be borne with in meekness. If he had not this fault, he would have another; and if you had nothing to suffer, you would have no occasion to practice charity. Your Superiorship would, moreover, bear little resemblance to that of our Divine Redeemer who chose, for Himself, imperfect and uneducated disciples, both to manifest His charity and patience, and to give an example to those who have to direct others. I beseech you, my dear Sir, to imitate this Divine Model. From Him you will learn not only how to bear with your brethren, but also how to treat them, in order to free them more and more from their defects. Certainly on the one hand, we must not allow, through human interest, evils to increase or to take deeper root, but on the other hand we must try to remedy them by degrees and in a charitable manner."

To a priest who was in company with another on a distant mission, he wrote thus : "I hope that the goodness of God will bless your efforts, especially if charity and patience reign between you and your assistant. I beseech you, in the name of the Lord, to see that this be your principal care, because you are the elder and consequently the Superior. Bear, therefore, in patience what ever you may have to suffer on the part of your companion. Bear all, I say, so as interiorly to renounce your authority, and to be guided only by the spirit of charity. By this means Jesus Christ gained his Apostles and corrected them of their faults. You also will gain this good Priest by this means only. Have then a little regard for his character; do not contradict him at the first moment, though you believe you have reason for so doing, but wait awhile and then give him a charitable remonstrance. Above all, take great care not to let any one perceive the least difficulty between him and you, for you are exposed to the observation of all, and one single unkind look on your part, if noticed by the people, would make so bad an impression upon them as to paralyze all your labors. I hope you will follow my advice."

If all these admonitions and reproofs were, or seemed to be, of no avail, still Vincent did not lose courage, but continued to bear patiently, to pray, and to hope that God would, in the end, show mercy to these strayed sheep. This perseverance he also recommended to others. When Superiors of the different houses requested him to send such and such a priest to another house, he recommended patience to them, reminding them of the common lot of all men to have faults. If any of his subjects acted otherwise than he had told him, he would say only : "Sir, had you followed my advice, you would have succeeded better in your under taking." Sometimes he would not say anything at all.

St. Francis de Sales was one evening visited by a nobleman. His servant forgot to put lights in the house and in the room of the prelate, so that the bishop was obliged to accompany the stranger to the gate, in the dark. The only reproof which the Saint made to the servant, consisted in this: "Do you know, my dear friend, that two little pieces of candle would have been of greater value to us today than ten dollars ? Once one of the servants of St. Francis de Sales returned home rather late at night, being quite intoxicated. He knocked at the door, but no one answered, all having gone to sleep. The Saint, who alone was still awake, went to open the door, and seeing that his servant was intoxicated to such a degree as not to be able to walk, he took him by the arm and conducted him to his bedroom ; there, after having undressed him and taken off his shoes and stockings, he laid him on his bed, covered him well and retired. The Saint, on meeting him alone next morning, said to him : "O, my dear friend, you were no doubt, very sick last night!" On hearing this the servant fell on his knees, and, bathed in tears, begged the prelate s pardon. The holy bishop touched by his sorrow, gave him, though a severe, yet a paternal reproof; he reminded him of the danger to which he exposed himself of losing his soul, and imposed upon him the penance of mixing a certain quantity of water with his wine at table. The culprit accepted the penance, and was, from that time, so faithful that he never again committed a similar fault. "One day," says the bishop of Belley, "I was to preach at the Church of the Visitation. Being aware that our Saint would be present, and that a large concourse of people was expected, I felt a little personal anxiety on the occasion, and I prepared in good earnest. When we had retired to his house, and were alone together, Well, he said, "you have given general satisfaction today ; people went away exclaiming, mirabilia ! at your fine and elegant panegyric. I only met with one individual who was not satisfied." "What can I have said" I replied, "to displease this person?"  "Well I have no desire to know his name." "But I, for my part," said the Saint, "have a great desire to tell it to you." "Who is he then, that I may endeavor to give him satisfaction?" "If I had not great confidence in you, I should not name him ; but as I know you well, I willingly do so. Do you see him here?" I looked around, and saw no one but himself. "It is you, then," I said.  "Myself" he replied. "Certainly, I rejoined "I should have valued your approbation alone, more than that of the whole congregation. Thank God, I have fallen into the hands of one who wounds only that he may heal ! What, then, did you find fault with ? For I know that your indulgence will not excuse anything in me ! I love you too much," he resumed, "to flatter you, and if you had loved our Sisters after this fashion, you would not have amused yourself in puffing up their minds, instead of edifying them in praising their state of life, instead of teaching them some humiliating arid more salutary doctrine. It is with the food of the mind as with that of the body. Flattery is windy ; and windy food, like vegetables, is not nutritious. We ought, in preaching, to provide, not empty food, the memory of which perishes with its utterance, but meat which will endure to life everlasting. We must never, indeed, ascend the pulpit, without the special object of building up some corner or other of the walls of Jerusalem, by teaching the practice of a certain virtue, or the means of avoiding a certain vice ; for the whole fruit of preaching consists in making the people do away with sin and practice virtue. "Lord!" exclaimed David, "I will teach the unjust Thy ways, and the wicked shall be converted unto Thee." "What sort of conversion," I retorted, "could I preach to souls delivered from the hands of their enemies, the devil, the flesh, and the world, and serving God in holiness of life ? You should have taught them," he said, "to take heed, since they stand, not to fall to work out their salvation according to the counsel of the Holy Spirit, with fear and trembling ; and not to be without fear, even with respect to sin forgiven. You described them to us as so many saints. You must not place pillows under elbows in this way, nor give milk to those who need bitter herbs and wormwood. "My object" I said, was to encourage and fortify them in their holy undertaking. We must encourage," he replied, "without running the risk of exciting presumption and vanity. It is always safer to humble our hearers, than to exalt them to high and admirable things above their reach. I feel persuaded, that another time you will be cautious in this respect." The next day he made me preach at a Convent of the Nuns of St. Clare. He was present, and the congregation was not less numerous than on the preceding day. I took care to avoid the pit-fall he had pointed out to me ; my discourse was very simple, both in words and ideas, aiming at nothing except edification. I proceeded with much method, and pressed home my subject. Our Saint, on our return, came to see me in my apartment, which, in fact, was his own for when I was on a visit to him, he always gave me his, room. After tenderly embracing me, he said, Truly, I loved you dearly yesterday, but much more today. You are, indeed, quite after my own heart ; and if I am not much mistaken, you are also according to God's heart, who, I believe, has been pleased with your sacrifice. I could not have believed, you would have been so yielding and condescending. It is a true saying, that the obedient man shall speak of victory. You have conquered yourself today. Do you know that most of your hearers said, Today is very unlike yesterday and they were not as much pleased this time as the last; but the individual, who was not satisfied yesterday, is wonderfully pleased today. I grant you hereupon a plenary indulgence for all your past faults. You have fulfilled all my wishes today ; and if you persevere, you will do much service for the Lord of the vineyard. Preaching must not seek its strength in the words and the notions of human wisdom, but in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power. If you faithfully adhere to this method, God will give to your labors a full and honorable increase you will become prudent in the words of mystical wisdom, and will possess the science of the saints, the science that makes saints. What, after all, do we desire to know, save Jesus, and Jesus crucified.

One day Cardinal Cheverus learned that a parish priest was at open warfare with his parish. He went to the place with the view of re-establishing peace. The pastor in question was a man of irreproachable life and ardent zeal, but of an excitable disposition which some times hurried him beyond all bounds. It was from this defect that the dispute originated. A child had been brought to him for baptism whose godmother had neglected to make her Easter communion. Adhering rigidly to ancient regulations, he would not permit her to stand sponsor, which so exasperated the parents, that they refused to seek a substitute, preferring to leave their infant unbaptized: On his arrival, M. de Cheverus begged the pastor to withdraw his opposition ; but in vain. The Cardinal then directed one of the priests who accompanied him to perform the ceremony, in order that the poor child might no longer remain the victim of a quarrel. Irritated at this beyond all self-control, the pastor gave the most insulting language to his archbishop. The meek prelate opposed nothing but silence and calmness to the storm. He repaired to the church, where he ascended the pulpit and invited all the parishioners to peace and union with their parish-priest, on whom he pronounced an elaborate eulogium, detailing all the good qualities of which he was possessed. "You have," he
said, "but one complaint to make of him, he has, you say, a hasty and violent temper ; alas ! my friends, who is without defects ? If I were to remain twenty-four hours among you, you would perhaps discover so many faults in me that you would not be able to tolerate me : you see but one in your pastor, forgive then that single fault in consideration of so many virtues." Having finished his discourse, the Cardinal went to the sacristy, where he found the priest, abashed and ashamed, and, embracing him with the utmost kindness, he said : "My dear friend, I love you with my whole heart ; how shall we begin the service ?" Seeking by this means to do away with the recollection of the offense which had been committed, and prove his condescension in regard to every thing which was not inimical to his duty. The service over, the Cardinal called upon those of the parishioners who were the most embittered against the pastor, and, spoke to them so impressively that they declared themselves ready to do whatever he wished. The reconciliation was forthwith accomplished ; the kiss of peace was given, all sat down to the same table, and every heart was united in that of the Archbishop. Thus did he everywhere spread the dominion of charity, and illustrate by his example the words of the Apostle :

"Charity is sweet and patient, not hasty to anger, but pardoneth and suffereth much."

St. Alphonsus manner of correcting may be seen from the following letter, which he addressed to a Superior, of his Congregation : "To speak with all freedom, I remark above all, that I do not believe that your Reverence wishes me to treat you with too much consideration, in regard to obedience, and as a subject, weak in virtue, to whom nothing can be said for fear of giving offence. I have a better opinion of your Reverence, and I believe that you desire what is best and most pleasing to God. Now let me tell what I desire to see in you. Your Reverence knows how much I have always esteemed you ; I have given you proofs of this on several occasions. It would pain me very much were I to be told, as some time ago, that your Reverence is a holy man indeed, but unfit for the rectorship for the following reasons : first, because, when Superior, you would be seldom at home ; secondly, that you would at the same time busy yourself with too many affairs, write too many letters, trouble yourself about so many things that would not concern you, and introduce so many devotions to which you seem to be attached that the regular observance of the rule would soon suffer. I know of course, and every one acknowledges, that your Reverence does not go out for the sake of pleasure, or for some other similar reason, but from the motive of pleasing God in every thing ; but now that you are in the Congregation, and especially now that you have been made rector, you must be convinced, that you can do nothing more conducive to the glory of God, than to take good care of the well-being and regular observance of your community which is one of the most fervent, nay, even the most fervent of all we have. The number of your subjects being small at present, this regularity cannot be so perfect as yet ; however, you must endeavor to make it as perfect as circumstances will allow. As regards going out, your Reverence knows from your own experience, that if the head be wanting, all the rest is in disorder

Nevertheless, I do not forbid you to go out on an important affair for the good of the house or the Congregation? or when the greater glory of God is in question but should your Reverence wish to take part in all that contributes to the glory of God in your diocese, you could never be
at home. The greatest glory you can render to God is the accomplishment of his holy will. I repeat it therefore, henceforth, your Reverence must mind only the good of the house and the Church, Mater Domini; and the regular observance of the rule, that none of the things may come true which some have predicted of your Reverence. I speak with all charity, because I esteem you, and esteem you very much, and because I have a good opinion of you, trusting that you belong to the number of those who endeavor to sanctify themselves in the Congregation like Fathers Cafaro, Villani, Mazzini and others, who have renounced their own will and that you do not resemble those who wish to be treated too delicately, and whom I will treat thus, but of whom I foresee that they will never sanctify themselves, because they do not
obey blindly."
To be continued . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

10. How should we help the needy?
By corporal, as well as by spiritual, works of mercy. Our neighbor may be in bodily or spiritual want, or in both at the same time. To relieve him in the wants of the body is a corporal work of mercy, and to relieve him in his.wants of the soul, is a spiritual work of mercy. Now, as the soul is far superior to the body, a benefit conferred on the soul is, also, generally speaking, far superior to a benefit conferred on the body. In some particular cases, however, a corporal work of mercy, may be better than a spiritual work of mercy, because it may be more necessary. For a man dying of hunger, a loaf of bread is better than an eloquent discourse or a salutary counsel.

In the practice of charity a certain order must be observed. This order is determined by the ties of kindred, of country, and of religion. Hence, when our nearest relations are in distress, nature and charity require us to relieve them in preference to others, because they are more closely united to us by the ties of kindred and friendship. If, however, one of our nearest relatives is only in ordinary want, and a stranger is in extreme want, we are bound by the precept of charity to relieve the stranger in preference to our nearest relative. If a poor person is in extreme want and in danger of death by starvation we are obliged to relieve him with those means of ours which are not necessary for the preservation of our own life. If our neighbor is in great want, we are obliged to assist him with those means which we do not need for our condition of life.

11. Which are the corporal works of mercy ?
1.  To feed the hungry;
2.  to give drink to the thirsty; 
3. to clothe the naked;
4. to harbor the harborless;
5. to visit the sick;
6. to visit the imprisoned;
 7.  to bury the dead.
God has made the rich depend on the poor, and the poor on the rich. The rich should take care of the poor, in order that the poor may take care of the rich. The misery of the poor is corporal. The misery of the rich is generally spiritual. The rich, therefore, should give corporal relief to the poor, in order to receive from them spiritual aid in turn. Without the assistance of the rich, the poor would die corporally. Without the prayers and blessings of the poor, the rich would die spiritually. Graces and chastisements are in the hands of the poor. When they implore mercy for him who aids them, God grants their prayers. When they demand justice against those who send them away empty, God also grants their prayers. "Son, defraud not the poor of alms, and turn not away thy eyes from the poor. For the prayer of him that curseth thee in the bitterness of his soul shall be heard: for he that made him will hear him." (Ecclus. iv., 1., 6.)

A rich man is in danger of losing his soul when he has not the prayers and blessings of the poor. In this world, the rich are the judges of the poor. In the world to come, the poor will be the judges of the rich. Those who have not the poor for their advocates, will not find grace with their judge. He who has the poor to plead for him, need not fear, but may rejoice. Those, therefore, who are able to give alms, are strictly obliged by the precept of charity, to relieve the needy, especially those who are ashamed to beg. "He that hath the substance of this world, and shall see his brother in want, and shut up his heart from him, how doth the charity of God abide in him?" (1 John iii.,17.) "Be you, therefore, perfect,"  says our Lord, "as your heavenly Father is perfect." (Matt v., 48.) In these words, Jesus Christ points out to us his heavenly Father as the model of our charity.

We cannot imitate the omnipotence of God by performing miracles. We cannot multiply bread, change water into wine, give sight to the blind, speech to the dumb, hearing to the deaf, raise the dead to life, as Christ did. But no one has an excuse, if he does not imitate the charity of God. In his charity, God has created the heavens to give us light and rain; the fire to give us warmth ; the air to preserve our life; the earth to give us various kinds of fruit; the sea to give us fish; the animals to give us food and clothing ! In his charity, God the Father has given us his only-begotten Son, and his Son gave himself to us in the manger of Bethlehem, and upon the cross, and he gives himself still every day upon our altars, at each holy Mass, and in each holy Communion. God is almighty ; but his omnipotence is not able to give us any thing greater as a proof of his unspeakable charity towards us. He has given heaven ; he has given earth ; he has given his kingdom, he has given himself; what more has he to give ! Ah ! how prodigal is he of himself!

Now, this charity of God is most wonderful for five reasons :
1. On account of the greatness and majesty of the lover and giver; for who can be greater and more exalted than the Lord of heaven and earth ?

2. On account of the condition of those to whom he communicates Himself with all his gifts. By nature, they are but men, the lowest of rational beings ; they are proud, ungrateful, carnal sinners, prone to every evil ; they are mortal, corrupt, vile creatures, doomed to become one day the food of worms. "What is man,"  exclaims the Psalmist, "that Thou art mindful of him, or the son of man, that Thou visitest him ? "(Ps. viii., 5.)

3. This charity of God is wonderful on account of the manifold and extraordinary gifts which he partly confers on men, and partly offers them. These are a rational soul, created in God's own Image and Likeness ; His grace ; the promise of glory ; the protection of his Angels ; the whole visible world ; and finally, his own well-beloved Son. "For God so loved the world as to give his only-begotten Son ; that whosoever believeth in him, might not perish, but might have life everlasting." (John iii., 16.)

4. This charity of God is wonderful on account of the end for which he confers all these benefits, that is, for the happiness of man, and not for his own happiness ; for God does not expect to receive any advantage from man.

5. On account of the manner in which he communicates himself to men. It is peculiar to God s infinite love to lower himself to what is vile and despicable, to heal what is ailing, to seek what is rejected, to exalt what is humble, and to pour out his riches where they are most needed. He often communicates himself even before he is asked, as he does in all the so-called preventing graces, by which he moves the soul to pray for subsequent ones. He even gives more than is asked. The good thief on the cross asked of our dear Saviour to remember him in his kingdom. But our Lord did more than that; he promised him paradise. " Amen; I say to you; this day thou shalt be with me in Paradise." (Luke xxiii,, 42.) God often lavishes his blessings upon those who abuse them, and are ungrateful for them; nay, he lavishes them even upon the worst of his enemies upon infidels, atheists, heretics, blasphemers. "Be you the children of your Father who is in heaven, who maketh his sun to rise upon the good and the bad, and raineth upon the just and the unjust." (Matt, v., 45.) This charity of our Lord must be our model. "Be, therefore, followers of God as most dear children, and walk in charity," says St. Paul. (Eph. v., 1, 2.)

We need no money to buy charity, nor is it necessary for us to cross seas and travel into far-distant countries to find it. Charity is natural to man. He who is destitute of it, is said to have no heart, and, therefore, nothing is more detestable in the eyes of men than want of charity. Every one should be able to say with Job : "I was an eye to the blind, and a foot to the lame. I was the father of the poor." (Xxix. 15.) The goods of this world were made for man s benefit. If they had eyes, feet, and understanding, they would go where they are most needed. Now, if a man has charity, he will lend to them his feet to go, his eyes to see, and his tongue to inquire, where they are needed. Indeed, what are the goods of this world ? Are they not the alms which men have received from the Lord! "The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine," saith the Lord of Hosts by the Prophet Aggaeus. (Chap, ii., 9.) Men are all beggars before God. "What hast thou," says St. Paul, "that thou hast not received ?" (II. Cor. iv., 7.)

The Lord bestows these goods upon men in order that by means of them they may be enabled to imitate His mercy, charity and liberality. God wishes that men, His children, should resemble Him as much as possible. The more they endeavor to become like unto Him, the more He is delighted with them. "The Lord values a perfect soul more highly than a thousand imperfect ones,"  says St. Alphonsus. The reason of this is, because "there is nothing more like unto God," says Plato, " than a holy man."

Out of a thousand likenesses of himself, an emperor will value that one most highly which represents him most perfectly. In like manner, God values a soul in which His Image and Likeness shine forth most perfectly, more than a thousand others which resemble Him less perfectly. Hence, all good Christians apply themselves constantly to their spiritual progress ; they try to enrich their souls every day with greater merits ; they endeavor to embellish them more and more by acts of charity and liberality towards their fellow-men. They know that they cannot become like unto God, by any thing better than by the practice of the virtue of mercy. This truth is declared in Holy Scripture by the Holy Ghost Himself. "In judging be merciful to the fatherless as a father, and as a husband to their mother, and thou shalt be as the obedient Son of the Most High, and He will have mercy on thee more than a mother." (Ecclus iv., 10.)  To suffer with hunger, is so great a pain that many, to satisfy the cravings of hunger, have eaten most disgusting things. During the siege of Jerusalem (A. D. 68.), the famine had become so fearful in this doomed city that the inhabitants had recourse to the most horrible expedients to procure a single morsel of food. They dragged the dead from their graves, in the wild hope of finding food. A woman, a mother, murdered her own infant, roasted it and ate one half of its body, and presented the remainder to the famished soldiers, whom the odor of this execrable meal had attracted to the spot. "It is my son,"  she said "be not more tender than a woman, nor more compassionate than a mother."

Many of the readers of these lines will still remember the terrible time of famine in Ireland. There were thousands and thousands wasting away and dying of hunger. They were falling and dying as the leaves fall in autumn. To supply, then, with food the poor and the hungry is a work of charity most pleasing to God. Among the many thousands of Israelites who were led away by Salmanazar into Assyria, there was one, by the name of Tobias, who, for his charity, was distinguished from all the rest. As he had full leave from the king to go where he pleased, he went freely from one part of the country to another, to give all the comfort and assistance in his power to his fellow-captives. "He fed the hungry, and gave clothes to the naked." (Tob. i.) In going about he met a man named Gabelus, who was in great distress. Now, as he had money at his disposal, he loaned to Gabelus ten talents of silver. "From my infancy, " says Job, "mercy grew up with me. I have not denied to the poor what they desired. I have not made the eyes of the widow wait. I have not eaten my morsel alone,the fatherless have eaten thereof." (Job,xxxi.) The saints rejoice in having an opportunity of practising charity, and they feel sad if such an opportunity is wanting. In order to have always such an opportunity, many of the saints fed a certain number of poor people every day,  others sold every thing they had, and even contracted debts, to relieve the poor and needy.

St. Louis, King of France, used to feed some poor people at his table, and he himself waited upon them : it was his firm belief that, in the person of the poor, he had Jesus Christ Himself for his guest. He gave money to them with his own hands, because they are, said he, my soldiers to defend my kingdom,  I myself; then? must pay their salary. St. Charles Borromeo sold one of his estates for forty thousand dollars to relieve the poor. St. Serapion gave away even part of his clothing. Upon being asked why he did so, he pointed to the Gospel and said : "Behold what has robbed me of every thing ! "He gave in alms even the Gospel book itself. (Life.) St. Camillus de Lellis contracted a debt of thirty thousand dollars for the relief of the poor. Our Lord preserved the right arm of St. Oswald, king of England, uncorrupt, because He wished thus to honor him for having given with his right hand so many alms to the poor. (Butler s Lives of the Saints.)St. John the Almoner, Patriarch of Alexandria, was, as it were, an ocean of aims , the more he bestowed, the
more he received. The saint tells us what especially induced him to practice this virtue.  "When I was fifteen years old," he says, "and lived in Cyprus, I saw in a dream a virgin of charming beauty, with a splendid crown on her head. She drew near me, and gently struck me with her hand. I was frightened, and awoke from my sleep- When I asked her who she was, and whence she had come,
and how she could dare come near me whilst asleep, she smiled, cast upon me a most gracious look, and said in joyful accents :  I am the first among the king s daughters. If you have me for your friend, you will also have the king for your most intimate friend. No one enjoys more his confidence, and stands in higher favor with him than I. It was I who persuaded him to leave heaven for earth, there to become man. After having reflected on this vision for some time, I thought that it meant mercy and charity. I rose at once and went to church. On my way thither, I met a poor man who was almost naked, and shivering with cold. I took off my coat and gave it to him, saying to myself: Now let me see whether the vision I had was true. Before I reached the church, a certain man came and gave me one hundred dollars in gold, and then disappeared suddenly. Now I felt persuaded that the vision was no illusion, but a true vision from God." (Life by Leontius.) From that time the saint devoted himself so much to works of charity that he became the example and admiration of the whole world. "It is not right for us, " he used to say, "to attend to the affairs of others sooner than to those of Jesus Christ. Go, then, about in the town, and
take up the names of all my masters." And on being asked who they were whom he called his masters, he answered : "They are those whom you call the poor and needy. They are my masters and my helpers. For they alone are able to assist me, that I may not be excluded from life everlasting. And no sooner have I given away something, than I receive it back a hundred-fold." This saint, while admiring the great goodness of God who sent him so many good things, was often heard to exclaim : "So ! so ! my Lord ! Let us see whether Thou art more liberal in sending means than I in bestowing them !" One day Sophronius saw this saint much cast down. He asked him the cause of his sadness. "I feel unhappy to-day," he answered, "because I had no opportunity to offer to God something in expiation of my sins by assisting the poor."

To be continued . . . . . . . . . .

9. For which class of persons should we always show a particular love ?
For the poor, orphans, widows, and in general for all those who are in temporal or spiritual need. The precept of charity obliges us to love our neighbor internally and externally. We must love our neighbor internally, that is, our love for him must come from our heart. Hence Pope Innocent XL has condemned the pro position: "We are not bound to love our neighbor by an internal and formal act."; It is, therefore, a sin to take pleasure in the misfortune of a neighbor, or to be grieved at his welfare. However, it is not wrong to take pleasure in the temporal misfortune of an obstinate sinner, if we have reason to believe that such a misfortune will induce him to amend his life and to oppress no longer the innocent. But it is a sin to delight in the death, or in any kind of misfortune of our neighbor on account of some temporal advantage that we derive from it.

However, to delight in the cause of some temporal advantage, is one thing, and to delight in the advantage itself the effect of the cause is another. There are particular cases in which delight in the effect of a certain cause is no sin, whilst delight in the cause of the effect is a sin. It is, for instance, no sin to be delighted in the acquisition of property which comes to us after the death of a parent ; but it is sinful to rejoice at his death. Hence Pope Innocent XL has condemned the proposition (15 Prop.) which asserts "that it is lawful for a son to rejoice at the death of his father, on account of the inheritance which will come to him."

We should nourish and increase the love of our heart for our neighbor, by making frequent acts of love. "With out such frequent acts of love," says St. Alphonsus, "we shall scarcely be able to practice the charity which we owe to our neighbor. We should make such an act of love at least once a month."

Another means to practice the love of our heart for our neighbor is to show compassion for those who are afflicted in soul and body. True compassion makes us feel the misfortunes of our neighbor as if they were our own. We must also love our neighbor externally. Our life on earth is full of bodily and spiritual miseries. We are liable to meet with different reverses of fortune. How many have not been thrown from the summit of wealth into an abyss of poverty ? Hence the precept of charity obliges us to be always willing to help all without exception, and assist them according to our ability. "Give to the good," says Holy Scripture, "and receive not a sinner" (Ecclus. xii., 5) ; that is : give nothing to the sinner to foster his iniquity, but relieve human nature, because it is the work of God. It may not always be in our power to assist every body in his wants; but charity does not oblige us to do what is beyond our means. If we cannot give to every one that is in distress, charity obliges us at least to be charitably disposed towards all our fellow-men, to show sincere compassion for them in their afflictions and misfortunes, and to say, at least, some prayers for them, True charity of the heart, says St. Paul, makes us "rejoice with them that rejoice, and weep with them that weep." (Rom. xii., 15.)

To be continued . . . . . . . . .

 8. Are we also obliged to love our enemies?
Yes; for Jesus Christ says : "I say to you, love your enemies, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that persecute and calumniate you." (Matt., v., 44. )
To love those who love us and are kind to us, is the love of heathens. "If you love them that love you," says our Saviour, "what reward shall you have ? Do not even the publicans the same ? And if you salute your brethren only, what do you more ? Do not also the heathens the same?" ( Matt., v., 46. ) But to love those who hate us, calumniate and persecute us, is the love of true Christians. Now this love is strictly commanded by our Lord. "You have heard," said he, "that it has been said, thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy ; but I say to you, love your enemies, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that persecute and calumniate you." (Matt., v., 43.)

The law of Jesus Christ is a law of love. He wishes that all, even our enemies, should love us. In like manner he commands us to love even those who hate us and wish us evil. The spirit of enmity is in itself something bad and detestable. Hence we are not commanded to love that spirit. We are obliged to love human nature and the supernatural gifts that may be in our enemies. This love is of strict obligation, and not to have this love is not to have perfect charity. Though our neighbor may be our enemy, yet he is a child of God, and perhaps the object of his tender mercy and compassion. If we truly love a person, we also love his children and friends, though they may be
our enemies.

Now the precept of loving our enemies, obliges us to love them with internal as well as with external love, that is, we must love them with sincere love of the heart, by formal acts of love, and show them all the ordinary signs of benevolence and compassion which we show to a friend, especially when we see them in distress, or their life and property in danger. "If thine enemy be hungry, give him something to eat, if thirsty, give him to drink." (Prov., xxv., 21.) We are obliged to salute him when he salutes us. If he is a person whose rank is higher than ours, it is our duty to salute him before he salutes us ; and if, without a grievous inconvenience, we can salute first even an equal, and thereby free him from the hatred which he bears us, we are obliged to salute him first. However, we are not obliged to have such sentiments of affection for an enemy as we have for parents, for sentiments of affection are a voluntary and absolute perfection, but not a precept of charity. Hence charity does not oblige us to give any signs of particular esteem and affection to our enemies, it obliges us merely to practice benevolence and compassion towards them, especially when we see them in spiritual or temporal distress. The precept of charity requires no more, says St. Thomas.

Now, the love of enemies is difficult to human nature. Hence our dear Saviour has taught us by his example the love of enemies. When hanging on the cross, Jesus Christ was exposed to the gaze of a blasphemous multitude. No complaint, however, escaped his lips. He uttered not a word until, moved with tender compassion for his enemies, he cried out: - Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."  The blood of Abel demanded vengeance. The blood of Jesus cried only for mercy and grace for those who shed it. His enemies had accused him falsely, judged him through passion, condemned him through malice, and crucified him between two thieves: they insulted his mercy, and in spite of all this, Jesus excuses their sin, diminishes their malice, and assumes the office of advocate for them. He forgets his own bitter anguish to think of those who persecuted him unto death. Their guilt afflicted him more than all the torments he endured.

Now, he wishes us to imitate his example. "I have given you an example, that as I have done, so you do also." (John, xiii,. 15.) He promises us the forgiveness of our sins, if we imitate his example. "Forgive," he says, "and you shall be forgiven." (Luke, vi., 37.) In these words, our Lord has made a sort of contract or agreement with us. If you forgive, he says, I pledge you my divine word that I will show you mercy: I will receive you into my heavenly kingdom.

Now this agreement between God and ourselves is very consoling. We have the absolute certainty that, if we forgive others, God will forgive us. God himself has said this, and he cannot break his word:  "Forgive, and you shall be forgiven. We can then say confidently when we appear before the judgement-seat of God:  "O Lord, I have kept my part of the agreement ; I have forgiven all my enemies, do thou also now forgive me." If we, therefore, truly forgive our enemies, we may be perfectly certain of forgiveness.

This certainty of pardon is beyond all doubt. Hence a great saint used to say, that we ought to desire, nay, that we even ought to buy, insults and injuries with silver and gold, because if we forgive our enemies God will certainly forgive us. Most touching is what Father Avila relates of St. Elizabeth of Hungary. One day this saint prayed to God to give great graces to all those who had in any way injured her nay, to give the greatest graces to those who had injured her most. After this prayer, our Lord Jesus Christ said to her: "My daughter, never in your life did you make a prayer more pleasing to me than the one which you have just said for your enemies. On account of this prayer, I forgive not only all your sins but even all temporal punishments due to them."

To love our enemies, to pray for them, to do good to them, is, no doubt, an act of heroic charity an act which is free from all self-love and self-interest. The insults, calumnies, and persecutions of our enemies relate directly to our own person. Now, to forgive them, nay even to ask God to forgive them also, is to renounce our claim to our right and honor, and thus to raise ourselves to the great dignity of the true children of God, to an unspeakably sublime resemblance to his Divinity. Jesus Christ assures us of this great truth in these words: "If you pray for those who hate, calumniate, and persecute you, you will be the children of your heavenly Father who maketh his sun to rise upon the good and bad, and raineth upon the just and unjust."  (Matt., v., 45.) There is nothing more peculiar, nothing more honorable to our heavenly Father, than to have mercy and to spare, to do good to all his enemies, especially by giving them the grace of conversion that they may become his friends, his children and the heirs of his everlasting kingdom.

Now, by imitating his goodness in a point so much averse to human nature, we give him the greatest glory, and we do, at the same time, such violence to his tender and meek heart as to cause him, not only to forgive the sins of our enemies, but even to constrain him to grant all our prayers, because he wishes to be far more indulgent, far more merciful, and far more liberal than it is possible for us ever to be. Holy Scripture and the lives of the saints furnish us with most striking examples as a proof of this great and most consoling truth.

The greatest persecutor of St. Stephen was St. Paul the Apostle, before his conversion; for, according to St. Augustine, he threw stones at him by the hands of all those whose clothes he was guarding. What made him, from being a persecutor of the Church, become her greatest Apostle and Doctor ? It was the prayer of St. Stephen, "for, had he not prayed," says St. Augustine, "the Church would not have gained this Apostle." St. Mary Oigni, whilst in a rapture, saw how our Lord presented St. Stephen with the soul of St. Paul, before his death, on account of the prayer which the former had offered for him : she saw how St. Stephen received the soul of this Apostle, at the moment of his death, and how he presented it to our Lord saying: "Here, Lord, I have the immense
and most precious gift which Thou gavest me; now I return it to Thee with great interest." *(Ecomen is of opinion that on account of St. Stephen's prayer, not only St. Paul but many others most probably received the forgiveness of their sins and life everlasting.

Not long ago, quite an innocent person received a letter of twelve pages, containing the vilest, the most infamous, and most devilish calumnies. When she had read them she prayed : "Father, forgive them." A few days after, the writer of the calumnies, who had not been to confession for several years, became suddenly so dangerously sick that she could not help acknowledging that her sickness was a punishment for her calumnies. So she had another letter written in which she begged pardon of the person whom she had so maliciously calumniated, promising that, should she recover, she would come in person to ask her pardon. She sent for the priest and made a good confession. Two other persons, who had not been to confession for several years, and were instrumental in the invention of the calumnies, also entered into themselves, when they witnessed the excruciating pains of the writer of the calumnies. They, too, made a good confession and promised to ask pardon in person of the one whom they had calumniated with such devilish malice. No doubt it requires an extraordinary grace to convert an obstinate sinner, one who resembles the devil in wickedness. Now, if God grants such a grace to the prayer of him who prays for his enemy, what great graces will he not grant to him who, for his sake, forgives his enemy and even begs God to forgive him also and to bless him?

 We read in the life of St. John Gualbertus, that he one day met the murderer of his only brother in a very narrow street. The murderer greatly feared that John would take revenge on him, and, as he saw no possibility of escape, he fell on his knees and asked forgiveness for the sake of Jesus Christ, who, when hanging on the cross, forgave his murderers and prayed for them. John forgave him at once and embraced him as one of his best friends. Afterwards he went to a church, and prayed there before a crucifix. Oh ! how powerful was his prayer now with our Lord ! Whilst praying he saw how our Lord bowed his head towards him, thanking him, as it were, for having forgiven so great an offense. At the same time he felt a most extraordinary change in his soul. He renounced the world and became the founder of a religious Order. Let us rest assured that Almighty God will be just as generous towards us as he was towards this saint, if we are as generous as he was in forgiving our neighbor. An extraordinary grace, such as the thorough change of the heart, is attached to the performance of an heroic, virtuous act. Now, when God furnishes us with the occasion of practicing such an act, we either neglect the opportunity altogether, or profit by it only in a very imperfect manner. Hence such an extraordinary grace as changes us into saints, is withheld from us ; our want of generosity makes us unworthy of it. You have been treated very unjustly and uncharitably by one of your neighbors. Now, you forgive your neighbor; but no sooner is the name of that neighbor mentioned in conversation than you relate all the wrong you have suffered from him. You thus show that your forgiveness is not a complete, heartfelt forgiveness ; it is not such a one, to which God has attached the extraordinary grace of a full remission of all your sins and the temporal punishment due to them the extraordinary grace of a thorough change of your heart. You thus remain imperfect, and will perhaps for your whole life. Generous souls act very differently. St. Ambrose procured for an assassin, who had made an attempt on his life, a pension sufficient for a comfortable maintenance.

St. Catharine of Sienna performed the office of servant for a woman who had endeavored to destroy her good name. A relative of St. John the Almoner, who had been grossly insulted by an innkeeper in Alexandria, laid his complaint before the saint. St John said to him : "As this publican has been so very insolent, I will teach him his duties. I will treat him so as to excite the wonder of the whole city." Now what did the saint do ? He ordered his steward never afterwards to exact the yearly rent which the innkeeper had to pay him. Such was the revenge which the saint took, and which truly excited the wonder of the whole city. It is thus that the saints sought revenge, and it is thus that they became saints. But here some one might say : "I have no opportunity to practice acts of heroic charity towards enemies, for the simple reason that I have no enemies. How can I then make myself worthy of graces so extraordinary as to change one into a saint." In this case say to God : "Had I, Lord, a thousand enemies, I would, for thy sake, forgive them all, love them and pray for them." Thus you will practice, at least in desire, the highest degree of charity, and our Lord will take the will for the deed. But remember also that if you have no opportunity to practice this degree of charity in reality, you will always find plenty of opportunities to practice the degree of charity next to the highest, which consists in bearing with your neighbor s whims, weaknesses, faults of character, disagreeable manners, and all the little annoyances which he may cause you. The practice of this kind of charity will also move our Lord to grant you extraordinary graces.
"I know, " says St. Francis de Sales, "that frequent little vexations and annoyances are often more disagreeable than great ones, and that it often seems harder to bear with the inmates of the house than with strangers ; but I know also that our victory in these little annoyances, is often more pleasing to God than many apparently brilliant victories, which are more glorious in the eyes of worldings. For this reason, I admire the meekness with which the great St. Charles Borromeo suffered, for a long time, the fault-finding attacks which a great preacher uttered against him from the pulpit, far more than all his patience under the assaults which he received from others. Lord, when shall we be so far advanced in perfection as to bear with our fellow-men, with a truly strong love and affection.

We read in Holy Scripture that Moses was always the same kind and meek father to the Jewish people in the desert in spite of their frequent murmurs, reproaches, rebellion, and apostasy. His revenge was to pour forth fervent prayers to God for their spiritual and temporal welfare. Now, when such meek and forbearing charity is praying, God is forced, as it were, to listen to such a prayer and to hear it, Hence he could not punish the Jewish people for their sins, so long as Moses interceded for them arid asked him to pardon them.

Now, if on the one hand, it is certain that God, if we forgive our enemies and do good to them, forgives us, also graciously listens to our prayers, and grants extraordinary graces, both for the conversion of our enemies and for our own spiritual advancement, it is, on the other hand, just as certain that God will neither forgive us, nor listen to our prayers, nor accept our gifts, if we do not forgive our enemies. "And when you shall stand to pray, forgive, if you have aught against any man."  (Mark, xi., 25.) "Leave there thy offering before the altar, and go first to be reconciled to thy brother, and then coming, thou shalt offer thy gift."  (Matt., v., 23.) In these words, our Lord Jesus Christ teaches us that our prayers will not be heard by his heavenly father as long as we entertain in our hearts feelings of hatred towards any of our fellow men. If you have recourse to prayer, he says, and at the same time have aught against any man, go first and be reconciled to your brother, or at least forgive him from the bottom of your heart, and then come and offer up your prayers or any other good work, otherwise I will not listen to you. Our dear Lord has made every man his representative on earth, by creating him according to his own image and likeness; he has redeemed all men with his most precious blood ; he has, therefore, declared that whatever we do to the least of our fellow-men for his sake, we do it to him. Now, by commanding us to love our enemies, to do good to those that hate us, and to pray for those that persecute and calumniate us (Matt, v., 44.), he asks of us to give to him, in the person of his representatives, that which we can
give so easily. It is great presumption to ask for his gifts and favors, without being willing, on our part; to give him what he requires of us in all justice. To refuse this request of our Lord is, indeed, on our part, great injustice. We ask of him the greatest gifts : such as the pardon of innumerable and most grievous offenses, final perseverance, deliverance from hell, everlasting glory, and so many other countless favors for body and soul.

What he asks of us is little or nothing compared with his graces. I will give you, then he says, what I can, if you give me what you can. But if you do not give me what you can, neither will I give you anything. "If you will not forgive, neither will your father who is in heaven forgive your sins." (Mark, xi., 26.) It is but just that God should have no compassion on him who has no compassion on his neighbor. " Judgment without mercy to him that hath not done mercy," says St. James. (Chap., ii., 13.) "With what face,"  says St. Augustine, "can he ask forgiveness, who refuses to obey God's command to forgive others."

Sapricius and Nicephorus were intimate friends ; the former was a priest, the latter a layman. Their holy friendship lasted many years, till unfortunately it was at last broken by a foolish quarrel. Nicephorus soon repented, went to the friends of Sapricius and begged them to intercede for him. But in vain ; Sapricius would not forgive him. Nicephorus then went himself, fell on his knees before Sapricius, and conjured him to pardon him. But the priest was .obstinate ; he refused to forgive. This occurred during the persecution of the Emperor Valerian. Sapricius was accused of being a Christian, arrested and brought before the judge. He was put to the torture; he bore his sufferings with heroic constancy; he was finally condemned to be beheaded. On his way to the place of execution, Nicephorus meets him, casts himself at his feet, and cries out with tears, "0 martyr of Jesus Christ, forgive me, I am sorry for having offended thee ! "He continued thus to implore Sapricius till they came to the place of execution: but all in vain, Sapricius will not forgive ! Finally, the priest mounted the scaffold the head-man orders him to kneel down, to receive the fatal blow ; at this awful moment his courage fails, the terror of death seizes him. He turns traitor, renounces his holy faith and sacrifices to the false gods ! Nicephorus grieved by this cowardly apostasy and inspired by the Holy Ghost, proclaims aloud, that he is a Christian, he is beheaded on the spot and thus received the glorious crown that Sapricius lost by his unforgiving hatred. (Acta Mart., A. D. 300.)

There is one who has been greatly insulted by his neighbor. On being required to forgive him, he "I will indeed forgive the insult, but I think it is well that evil-doers should be punished." St. Alphonsus answers : "The precept of loving our enemies forbids us to entertain sentiments of revenge against our enemies. We are bound to overcome evil by good. Seek not revenge, nor be mindful of the injury of thy citizens. (LevL, xix.) He who seeks revenge for an insult received, is in the state of mortal sin. Now, if a person says, "I will indeed forgive the injury, but I think it is well that evil-doers should be punished, I can hardly see how such a person is free from the desire of revenge, and, therefore, I would hesitate to absolve him, unless there are other just causes to excuse him."

However, to rejoice at the temporal misfortune of an enemy is no violation of the precept of charity, if we believe that such a misfortune will contribute towards the salvation of others, nor is it wrong to be sorry for the temporal prosperity of an enemy if we have good reason to believe that he will use "his prosperity to oppress the poor, and lead many into perdition. How strange is it not, to see sometimes pious persons overcome by the hellish demon of hatred and revenge. There is a woman, who was once a model of piety. She went regularly to the sacraments, even gave alms to the poor, was liberal to the Church, and an object of joy to angels and men but unfortunately she took offense at some trifle. The demon of hatred entered her heart. She no longer receives the sacraments, or if she does it is only to profane the sacraments, to eat arid drink damnation, for she will not forgive her neighbor ; she still bears hatred in her heart.

A few years ago there was a poor man lying sick in one of the public hospitals of a certain city. He was good and pious, received communion every month, and spent the greater part of his time in reading the lives of the saints and other good books. Now, unfortunately for him, it happened that, from some slight provocation, he received a great dislike to a fellow-patient in the same ward. As the unhappy man did not banish this temptation, his dislike soon became a devilish hatred. Sometimes, in his fury, he allowed himself to be so over come by the demon of hatred that he would make use of the vilest language and throw at his companion whatever came to hand. One day the priest told him publicly that he would be obliged to refuse him the sacraments, even on his death-bed, if he did not give up his hatred. Not long after this unhappy man roused the ward at midnight by the most pitiful moans. All hastened to his bedside. There he was struggling desperately with smothered cries, as if he wished to rid himself of one who was choking him. He was unable to speak, and in a few moments he was a corpse. He died without the sacraments, with
out being reconciled to his neighbor he died with the devil of hatred still lurking in his heart. But one will say perhaps : "I will forgive that person ; I do not wish him any harm, but I do not want to see him or speak to him any more. I do not wish to have any thing to do with him any longer." You say that you forgive that person who has injured you, that you do not wish him any harm but that you do not wish to see him or speak to him any more ! And with that of course, you are satisfied: you go confidently to confession and communion. You consider yourself a good Christian. You do not even think of accusing yourself in confession of any want of charity; and should the confessor, through love for your soul, make any inquiries about the matter, you answer perhaps with a righteous air, that you have done your duty, that you cannot do more than forgive him. Now I must say to you that you have not forgiven that person. You hate him still, and therefore, you are still living in sin, still an enemy of God. Do you shun the society of those whom you love ? Now if you really loved that person who has injured you, would you be so very careful to avoid his company ? But you will say : " indeed I forgive him and love him, but I avoid him for peace sake, I do not wish to quarrel with him. The very sight of him makes my heart s blood boil."; What ! You say that you forgive that person and love him ! Does then the sight of one whom you love make your heart s blood boil ? You say that you forgive him. You mean to say, no doubt, that you do not wish him any harm. But mark well, that is not enough ; you must love him and love him truly. You must do good to your enemy. You must prove by your actions as well as by your words that you really forgive him. Unless you truly forgive and are forbearing with your neighbor, our dear Saviour will say to you in the hour of death:" I have loved you with an eternal charity, and I still love you, because you are my work  but I can neither see nor speak to you. A separation must take place. Depart from me. "There is another ;" he says : "If I offer to make friends with that woman, she will think me mean-spirited, and only despise me the more for it." Well suppose she does despise you, will that harm you ? Whose esteem should you value most. God's or hers ? But is it really true that she will think you mean spirited, if you offer to make friends with her ? I do not believe it. It is a suggestion of the devil. No, the Holy Ghost himself assures us that a  "mild answer turneth away wrath." (Prov., xv., 1.) There is something good in the heart of every one yet living on earth. It may indeed be buried far down in the soul, but a meek forgiving spirit will surely bring it to the surface, just as the warm sunshine brings up the flowers from beneath the frozen ground. This is, as St. Paul tells us, the only revenge which it is lawful for a Christian to take. "If," he says, "thine enemy hunger, feed him ; if he thirst, give him to drink ; for in so doing, thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head." (Rom., xii., 20.) If you treat your enemy with kindness, if you return good for evil, you will gain him gradually, and at last you will win his heart.

The brave Hungarian, Count Peter Szapary, was taken prisoner by the Turks, brought to Ofen, and dragged before Hamsa Bey. The cruel Turk rejoiced to see his dreaded enemy at length in his power ; he loaded him with insult, condemned him to receive 100 blows on the soles of his feet, then to be chained hand and foot, and cast into prison. It was a dark, loathsome, subterranean dungeon. The prisoner's bed was only moldy straw; his food was so wretched that he was soon reduced to the point of death. But the cruel Pasha did not wish him to die. He desired first to torture his prisoner, and then receive a heavy ransom for him. He ordered the prisoner to be cared for until he was restored to health; then, condemned him to work in the kitchen. One day Hamsa Bey asked him in mockery, how he felt. Szapary answered not a word, but turned his back upon the tyrant. At this the Pasha was so enraged that he ordered the brave nobleman to be harnessed to a plough and to till a neighboring field, with another unhappy Christian, exposed to the strokes of the lash and the jeers of the populace. Finally after three long years of cruel martyrdom, Szapary was exchanged for a wealthy Aga, who had been taken prisoner by the Hungarians. Szapary returned home in a most pitiable condition. He was worn to a skeleton and scarcely able to stand. It was a long time before he was again restored to health. Some years after, .Sept. 2, 1686, Ofen was captured by the Christians and Hamsa Bey taken prisoner. The Duke of Lorraine gave him over into the hands of Szapary, to do with him whatever he thought proper. A servant of Szapary went in haste to the Turk to announce to him the fact. Some time after Szapary went to the prison to visit his cruel enemy. "Dost thou know me?" he asked ; "I am Szapary. Thou art now in my power?" "I know it," answered the Turk sullenly; "now is your time for vengence." "Very well, I shall take the revenge of a Christian. I now restore you to freedom, unconditionally, and even without ransom.  The Turk smiles contemptuously. He did not believe such noble conduct possible. "I am a Christian," continued Szapary ; "my religion commands me to forgive my enemies, and to return good for evil." He then ordered the chains of his enemy to be struck, off and restored him to liberty for" the sake of Him who was nailed to the cross." The hardened Turk was completely overcome by this extraordinary generosity. He fell writhing at the feet of Szapary. "Your kindness comes too late"  he shrieked; "I have taken poison to escape the tortures which I expected. I now curse myself and my cruelty towards you. I crave your forgiveness. I wish at least to die a Christian, since the Christian religion teaches so sublime a virtue!"  Skilful physicians were speedily called, but it was too late. Hamsa Bey was baptized, and Szapary stood as his godfather. (Hungari.)

There is another. He says : "I cannot forgive that person. It is too much to expect from human nature. How can I love a person who has belied me, and calumniated me to all my neighbors ?" You say that you cannot love that person. Tell me, then, does the gospel make any exception? Does it say that you need not love those that belie you ? On the contrary, our Lord says : "Pray for those who calumniate you. " You say, it is too hard to forgive that person. But supposing it is very hard, is that any reason why you should not do it ? Are you not a Christian ? Is not the way to heaven, a way of suffering and self-denial? "If any one wishes to be my disciple," says Jesus Christ, "let him deny himself." It may be expecting too much from poor human nature to love your enemies, but it is not expecting too much from the grace of God for, with the assistance of his grace, you can do all things, as St. Paul assures us.

St. Francis de Sales relates that, when he was studying in Padua, some of the students were in the bad habit of going about in the city at night, challenging the people, and firing upon them if no reply was made. One night it happened that a student was challenged and killed for refusing to answer. The murderer took refuge with a good widow, whose son was one of his most intimate friends. She harbored and concealed him very carefully. A few moments after, she received the harrowing news that her son had just been killed. The truth flashed at once upon her mind, and going forthwith to the closet wherein she hid the murderer of her son, she thus addressed him : "Alas ! what had my son done to you that you should kill him so cruelly?" The culprit, overwhelmed by the atrocity of his crime and the remembrance of the former friendship, burst into tears and tore the hair from his head. Instead of begging pardon of the desolate mother, he threw himself on his knees before her, entreating her to deliver him up that he might publicly atone for so atrocious a crime. The heroic woman was satisfied with these feelings of true repentance, and instead of wishing for revenge, she desired only that the murderer of her son might live and secure God s pardon. Accordingly she had him taken to a place of security. Some time after, the soul of the murdered youth appeared to his merciful mother and told her that God had shortened his time of punishment in purgatory because she had so generously forgiven his murderer. "But everybody tells me that I shall be a fool, if I forgive that person after the way that he has treated me!"  Well, do you then intend to be guided by the maxims of the world?  Remember you cannot serve two masters. You cannot serve Jesus Christ and the world. The world, of course, will tell you: "Fight for your right. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. If you cannot punish him by law, then take the law into your own hands. Revenge is sweet." Tell me, then, is this your standard of morality ? This may do very well for heathens, but it will not do for Christians. No ; Jesus Christ says : "If a man smite thee on the one cheek, turn to him the other." (Matt, v., 39.) The motive of your action must be in your own soul, and not in the conduct of others. Men misrepresent you ! What matters it, God is your law-giver and your judge. "But there are so many wicked people in the world !" Well, act so that they may become useful to you. If there were no wicked people how could you grow -in the virtues of charity and patience. "But men are so thankless !" Then imitate nature which gives to man bountifully and hopes for nothing in return. "But they insult you." Remember that an insult degrades only him who gives it.
"But they slander you !" Thank God that your enemies, to blacken your character, must have recourse to lies. "But the shame of being treated thus !" Has then a just man any thing to be ashamed of? "But I will lose my character, every one will think me guilty, I will be disgraced forever, if I speak to that man, that woman !" What ! Look then at Jesus Christ, praying for his enemies ? Then he is the most degraded of men; for he forgives thousands of men every day ! Jesus Christ forgives his enemies. Now, do you not think it is an honor to resemble your God and your Redeemer ? Is it not true nobility, is it not heroic, to raise yourself above all vulgar prejudices, and to forgive your enemies ? Is it not God-like ? The heathens were astonished at the charity with which the first Christians for gave their enemies. Nay even at the present day the most selfish and degraded hearts cannot help admiring that man who forgives his enemies who returns good for evil.

Not long ago it happened, during a certain mission, that some prominent members of the community, who had been at enmity, were reconciled. The two enemies passing on opposite sides of the street crossed at the same moment and embraced each other in the middle of the street. Each one was eager to make the first advance ; and so marked was the fact, that every one in town spoke of it. It was a source of general edification. It revived in the place the old heathen cry about the early Christians : "Ah ! see how these Christians love one another !" "But that man, that woman is an ungrateful creature ! No one can live with him." Well, look again at our Lord. Were not his enemies ungrateful ? Were they not full of hatred and malice ? And yet he forgave them and prayed for them. "But he has done me too great an injury. I cannot forgive him." What ! Have you suffered more than our Lord has suffered. He is God, and you are after all but a weak, sinful man. Again, is the injury done to you greater than any of those you have offered to God ? Why, then should you not be willing to remit a small debt in order that God may remit your large debt ? "Thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all the debt because thou besoughtest me, Shouldst not thou, then, have had compassion also on thy fellow-servant, even as I had compassion on thee ?" (Matt, xviii., 32.)

Now, who are those Catholics who make such objections to the love of enemies and to the practice of doing good to them ? Generally speaking, they are those who are not in the habit of making frequent acts of the love of their neighbor. We grow in virtue by practicing it. Those, therefore, who but seldom make special acts of the love of their enemies, find it very difficult to practice it when the occasion for its practice is presented to them. They easily give way to their feelings of hatred, and are apt to die with them.

Two friends had the misfortune to quarrel about some trifle and from that moment became deadly enemies. This hatred lasted for several years. At last one of them fell sick. As the illness became serious, the priest was sent for. He came and told the dying man that God would not forgive him until he would first forgive his enemy. The dying man offered to forgive, and the priest, at his request, heard his confession. His enemy was sent for. He came: the two were reconciled, at least to all appearances. Unfortunately, as the one sent for was leaving the sick man's room, he said : "Ah, the coward ! he sent for me, because he is afraid !" When the dying man heard the remark, all his old hatred revived. "No," cried he in a rage,  "I am not afraid, and to show you now that I am not, I tell you I hate you as much as ever ! Begone ! May I never see your face again." Scarcely had he uttered these words when he fell back and died ! Think of the meeting of these two enemies in hell. In order that we may escape a similar misfortune, let us adopt the following means :

1. When saying the Lord s Prayer, let us say, with great fervor and with true sincerity, the words : "And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us," earnestly wishing that God may forgive our enemies and bless them with spiritual and temporal goods.

2. Let us accustom ourselves to banish all willful feelings of hatred and rancor as soon as they arise in our hearts, by saying some short but fervent prayer for those against whom those uncharitable feelings arise in our soul.

3. Let us do good to our enemies whenever we can.

4. Let us never speak against those who have hurt or ill-treated us.

5. As St. Stephen has, in many instances, proved to be a powerful intercessor and patron for all those who wish to convert not only their enemies but also other obstinate sinners, let us often invoke him, that he may obtain for us the grace .to love our enemies as truly and sincerely as he loved and prayed for his.

In a certain city of Spain, two of the principal inhabitants bore a mortal hatred to each other, and thereby divided the whole into two hostile parties. The streets were often the scene of bloody encounters and ruthless murders. The bishop of the place and even the king himself had tried to put an end to these disgraceful feuds ; but in vain. At last it was resolved to give a mission in the place. The missionaries came. When they heard of the two hostile parties, they resolved to erect in the church an altar in honor of the great martyr St. Stephen, in order to obtain, through his intercession, the grace of reconciliation of the two hostile parties. So in the opening sermon, one of the missionaries told the people that he had looked in vain in their city for an altar erected to the great martyr St. Stephen. "Now my brethren," continued he, "we wish to supply the defect. We wish to erect in this church an altar to the first Christian martyr. You must aid us in this good work. You must especially procure us a beautiful picture of St. Stephen, for we do not know where to find one. Whoever will get this picture for us will have a special share in the graces and indulgences of the mission." The missionary then spoke of the importance of saving their immortal souls. Scarcely had the missionary finished his sermon, when one of the ring-leaders who had been greatly affected by his words came to him and said : "Reverend Father, there is a very beautiful picture of St. Stephen in town ; but it belongs to my enemy. If you send somebody to him, perhaps he will lend it to you for the altar." "Excellent,"  said the missionary ; "I shall call on him immediately, but I want you to accompany me. " I?" said the man surprised "why, this is impossible ! He is a bitter enemy. He will not only insult me, but your reverence also." "Do not fear,"  said the priest ; "come with me, you shall be welcome. This is clearly the work of God." They went together to the house of the other ring leader. They were kindly received." We intend" said the priest, addressing him," to erect an altar in honor of St. Stephen. I have heard, that you have a beautiful picture of the Saint, and I have come to request you to lend it to us during the mission." "Most willingly,"answered the ring-leader. "I will not only lend it to you, I will bring it to the church myself, and this gentleman," pointing to his old enemy, "will have the kindness to help me to carry it."  He immediately took down the picture and the two enemies bore it triumphantly through the streets to the church. The people, who beheld this miracle of grace, could hardly believe their eyes. The two factions, inspired by the good example of their leaders, now vied with each other in erecting and adorning the altar. In a few days every trace of ill-feeling had disappeared ; the most perfect harmony reigned everywhere.

When the holy patriarch Jacob was on his death-bed, he sent a last message to his son Joseph. "Tell him," he said, "to forgive and forget, for my sake, the great malice of his brethren."
Our dear Saviour sends to you this message from the hard bed of the cross on which he died for us all : "I beg of you," he says, "to forgive and forget, for my sake, all the evil that your brother, that your enemy, has done you." Oh ! go in spirit and kneel at the foot of the cross. Look upon the out-stretched arms of Jesus. Look upon his pale face. Look upon his sacred head crowned with thorns. Say to him like Saul : "Lord, what wilt thou that I should do?" Ah ! listen to his voice. "my child," he says, "my dying request is that you forgive from your whole heart, that person who has injured you. But if you will be revenged, then come, here is my heart, glut your rage upon me, for I have become his surety,  I have taken his sins upon myself."

To be continued . . . . . . . . . . . . 

Are we also obliged to love sinners?
We have already remarked that the love of God for all men must be the model of our love for them. Now, God not only loves the just but also sinners. It is true, he hates and detests their sins, because he is offended, by them but he loves the sinner, because he created him, redeemed him, and has the greatest desire to see himself united to him by grace here below and by glory in heaven.

This love of God for sinners, we say, must be the model of our love for them. We must hate and detest the sins of our neighbor, because they make him an enemy of God; but we must love that sinful neighbor, because, as long as he is a pilgrim on earth, he is capable of meriting eternal happiness. How many saints are now in heaven who, for several years, were great sinners, but are now glorifying God in heaven throughout all eternity for his goodness and mercy to them?

Witness St. Augustine, St. Mary of Egypt, St. Margaret of Cortona, and so many others, who from great sinners became very great saints in the Church of God. If we read that the prophets and saints wished for the punishment of the wicked ("Let the wicked be thrown into hell, all the nations that forget God:" Ps., ix., 18.) it was rather through a desire of seeing divine justice triumph over impiety and iniquity,  but they did not wish the eternal damnation of sinners; for we should always have compassion for sinners, says St. Thomas, unless they publicly renounce or reject the true faith, and wish to die in the state of impenitence.

Should we have charity for the demons or evil spirits ?

God speaks through the prophet Isaias (Xxviii., 18)  "Your league with death shall be abolished, and your covenant with hell shall not subsist." The demons or evil spirits are the inhabitants of hell and the instruments of eternal death. Now, as charity is the perfection of peace and the seal of the divine covenant, we can have no charity for the demons, as such charity would be contrary to divine justice. However, in the same way that we have compassion for irrational creatures, because their preservation tends to the glory of God and the general utility of man ; so we may have the same sentiments with regard to the evil spirits as being a portion of the universal creation and wish that these evil spirits should be preserved in their natural state for the glory of the divine Majesty.

To be continued . . . . . . . . . .

7. Who is our neighbor?
All men are our neighbors. By our neighbor we are not to understand merely our parents, our friends, our benefactors, our fellow-citizens, or those who profess the same faith with us; our neighbor means all men, without exception of persons, or distinction of creed ; strangers as well as fellow-country-men; heretics, Jews, and idolaters as well as Catholics, our enemies as well as our friends. If the love of God the Holy Ghost is in us, it will make us love all men Jews, Greeks, barbarians, Christians, pagans, infidels, heretics; the just and sinners; parents and strangers; friends and enemies; benefactors and malefactors. He who excludes but one man from his love shows that he loves no one with true Christian charity, for the motives of charity are always the same. If, for God's sake I love him who pleases me, I must also, for God's sake, love him who displeases me ; for both are the creatures of God, made in his image ; both are bought with his blood, both are called to his eternal glory.

Our dear Lord, therefore, will despise us, if we despise our fellow-men. He will hate us, if we hate them. He will afflict us, if we afflict them. On the contrary, he will excuse us, if we excuse our fellow-men. He will support us, if we support them. He will pardon us, if we pardon them. In a word, he will treat us, as we treat them. We shall be judged by the charity which we have shown to our neighbor. "He that loveth not, abideth in death," that is in a state of damnation. (1 John, iii, 14.)
"But he in whom charity abides, abideth in God, and God in him." (1 John, iv., 16.) "Charity is the fulfilment of the law." (Rom., xiii. 10.) Ought we, then, to have the same charity for all men without distinction ?

I answer, we should love our neighbor as God loves him. Now God loves all men far more than we can understand but he does not love all with the same degree of love. As he is a Being of infinite perfection, he loves himself with infinite love. Next to himself he loves most those who most resemble him and who are most intimately united to him. Out of a thousand likenesses every one prefers that which is the most correct. In like manner out of a thousand souls God loves that one most, which is nearest to him in perfection. God's love for men, then, is in proportion to their merit and their virtue. Now this love of God for our neighbor should be our model.

Although he has commanded us to love all men, yet he does not require us to love all alike. The holier a man is, the more we should love him. We ought to have a love of preference for those in the highest degree of sanctity. We also owe a special love to our parents. In every act a just proportion must be observed between the object and the agent. The nature of the act, whether good or bad, proceeds from the object,and its in tensity from the agent. Now those who are more advanced in virtue than our parents, and consequently partake more abundantly of the gifts of God, have according to the principles of perfect charity a greater claim on our love than even our parents. But we naturally love our parents more intensely, for both grace and nature inspire us with more affection and sympathy for them. The ties uniting us to them are not only closer but also more indissoluble in fact death alone can dissolve them. It is, therefore, not contrary to true charity to be more strongly attached to our parents than to others who may be even more perfect.

Ought we to love our relatives more than those who are united to us by the ties of friendship, of society, profession, and temporal affairs ? There is no union more lasting and indissoluble than that of blood-relationship. All who are united by such ties derive their existence from the same source. All other ties and associations are but accidental and transitory : such, for instance, are the relations of citizens with regard to their habitation, their temporal and civil affairs, the relations of merchants in business and commerce; and the friendship of soldiers who live in the same camp and the same barracks. The ties of blood-relation ship on the contrary are the foundation of society. They hold together families, generations, and the entire nation. They survive the dissolution of all other associations, and are well-nigh imperishable.

If we owe a love of preference to our parents and relatives on account of the ties of nature, we owe also a special love to our country. The love of our native country is paramount to all other natural affections. The prosperity and independence of our native land are to be preferred even to the welfare of parents or kindred, says St. Thomas Aquinas. There are other degrees of charity between parents and children, husband and wife. St. Ambrose says that man should love God first, then his parents, then his children, and finally his relatives. As to our love for father and mother, St. Jerome says that after God, who is our common and eternal Father, we ought to love our father more than our mother. As to the husband he ought to have more affection for his wife than for his parents : for the Apostle says that the husband should love his wife as his own flesh. "They are not now two, but one flesh." (Matt., xix., 6.) Nevertheless according to the supernatural order and principle of charity, he ought to have more veneration for his parents than even for his wife. The same principle applies to* the duties and sentiments of the wife.

To be continued . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6. What is it to love our neighbor as ourselves?

It is to do as Jesus Christ has said : "All things, therefore, whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do you also to them." (Matt, vii., 12.) God has given us two precepts of charity, one to love him above all things, and the other, to love our neighbor as ourselves. Is not the first sufficient? It seems reasonable that, if we love God, we should also love those upon whom he has bestowed his gifts. Hence St. John says : "This commandment we have from God, that he who loveth God, loveth also his brother." (1 John, iv., 21.)

But all men do not see how the love of God necessarily includes the love of our neighbor. Even in the natural sciences, a man may have correct principles, and yet be unable to draw correct conclusions. Hence God has given us a special and distinct command to love our neighbor : "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." God has made the love which we have for ourselves, the rule and measure of the love which we are to bear to our neighbor. To love, then, our neighbor properly, we must first love ourselves properly. Inordinate self-love is always bad. Every sin springs from inordinate self-love, that is, from a wilful, disorderly and obstinate attachment to one's self or to some other creature. This inordinate self-love built the ill-fated city of Babylon; its walls arose in contempt and hatred of God. We must love ourselves in God, and for God's sake.

This love of ourselves is either natural or supernatural. It is natural when its object is the goods of nature. In this sense St. Paul says : "No man ever hated his own flesh." (Eph., v., 29.) Such love, when properly directed, is not condemned by God; for God is the author of nature as well as of grace. Love of ourselves is supernatural when its object is the goods of grace and glory. As we are composed of body and soul, it is our duty to take care of both. The same commandment which obliges us to show charity to our neighbor in his temporal wants, obliges us also, as St. Augustine and St. Thomas teach, to show charity towards our own body.

Now, as Christians we love our body, because it comes from God, and is capable of contributing to his glory. "Present your members as instruments of justice unto God," says St. Paul. We also love and respect our body because it was consecrated in baptism and became a temple of the Holy Ghost. "Know you not" says St. Paul, "that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you ? But if any man violate the temple of God, him shall God destroy, for the temple of God is holy, which you ar."  (1 Cor., iii., 16.) Again, we love our body because it is destined to rise bright and glorious on the last day, and to live reunited with the soul, and rejoice with it in heaven for all eternity. "The hour cometh, wherein all that are in the graves shall hear the voice of the Son of God. And they that have done good things shall come forth unto the resurrection of life; but they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment." (John, v., 28, 29.)

Finally, we love and respect our body, because it assists us in performing our duties towards God, towards our neighbor, and towards ourselves. We are, therefore, obliged to take proper care of our bodily health. In taking care of the health of the body, we may be guilty of two excesses: one in taking too much, and the other in taking too little care of the body. There are some who take as much care of the body as if the preservation of their health or rather the gratification of the senses were the sole or at least the principal object of our life on earth. Such love for the body is sinful and leads to the destruction of both soul and body. There are others, who take too little care of their health. They are indiscreet in the practice of corporal penances ; indiscreet in fasting, in night-watching, in excessive labor. These in discreet penitents commit four thefts, says St. Bernard: they rob the body of its strength and the mind of its vigor, and, thus, by degrees render both unfit for the practice of virtue.

Moreover, they rob their neighbor of the good example they owe him, and finally they rob God of his honor. Such indiscreet mortifications are, therefore, displeasing to God. Discretion must guide us in all our actions, affections, in all our conduct; it must assign to each virtue, its proper time, and its proper place ; without discretion virtue becomes really a vice. The care of our bodily health, then, should be moderate, and such care, says St. Alphonsus, is a virtue. "It is in the order of divine Providence," says St. Francis de Sales, "that we should treat our bodies according to their natural weakness, treating them as we treat poor people, with patience and charity, and this exercise is not one of the least meritorious, because it mortifies our pride. If, in the exercise of our duties, we contract a sickness, or shorten our life, we must bless the Lord for it, and suffer with a joyful heart. Love and respect for Divine Providence and charity towards ourselves oblige us to abstain from such practices of penance as would undermine our health for, as it would betray effeminacy on our part to have too much care for our health, so, on the other hand, it would be cruel pride to neglect such care altogether. As the soul cannot carry the body when fed too well, so, on the other hand, the body when fed too little cannot carry the soul. Let the body be treated like a child; let it be chastised, but not killed. It is related in the life of this saint that he used to abstain from such mortifications as were likely to endanger his health. Now, if it is our duty to take care of our body, it is far more our duty to take care of our soul. It is especially by caring for our soul that we show true love towards ourselves.

But what does it mean to take care of our soul ?
It is to use every means in our power to save and sanctify our soul. The usual means are prayer, meditation, the frequent reception of the sacraments of Penance and the Blessed Eucharist, the mortification of the senses, exterior and interior recollection, the control of our passions, the performance of good works, especially of such as are prescribed by the commandments of God and his holy Church.

In laboring for our sanctification, our chief object should be to glorify God in this world and in the next. "For," says St. Thomas, " the ultimate and chief end for which God created heaven is that we may glorify God in heaven. The glory which we are to receive should be only the secondary object which we have in view in laboring for our salvation and sanctification. It is but the means to reach the principle end. No one can glorify God in heaven but he whom God glorifies. It is, therefore, self deception, and self-interest to labor for our salvation only for the sake of the glory which we are to receive." The object of our Saviour's life on earth was to glorify his heavenly Father, in order that the Father in turn, might glorify his Son. "Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son may glorify thee. I have glorified thee on earth; I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And now glorify thou me, Father, with the glory which I had, before the world was, with thee." (John, xvii., 1, 4, 5.) If we in imitation of our dear Saviour, pass our life in glorifying God, that God may also glorify us, we have indeed true supernatural love of ourselves the love of hope which prompts us to love God as our supreme good and reward, and the love of charity which makes us love God and ourselves in him and for him, and causes us to refer all things to his glory. As the true love of ourselves consists in loving ourselves in God and for God, so the true love of our neighbor consists in loving him in God and for God. When we recommend a dear friend to any one we usually say: "The kindness you show him I will consider as a favor conferred on myself." In like manner, when our Saviour declared that "the second commandment is like to the first," he wished to give us to understand that the love which we bear him should induce us to love our neighbor also. "If thou lovest me" said Jesus to St. Peter, "feed my sheep" (John, xxi., 17) ; that is to say : If you really love me, you will show your love by taking good care of my sheep ? Our Saviour has substituted our neighbor for himself. He wishes us to bestow on our neighbor the charity and gratitude which we owe to God himself. He has transferred to our neighbor all the claims that he has on us and he desires us to pay to our neighbor all that we owe to himself. "As long as you did it to one of these my least brethren, you did it to me." (Matt,, xxv., 40.)

Our dear Lord calls this precept of charity especially his own commandment. "This is my commandment, that you love one another." He calls it his commandment, to teach us that this precept of charity is the foundation of all his heavenly doctrines, the sole object of his coming into this world, the sole aim of all his labors and sufferings. "I have come," he says, " to cast fire upon the earth (the fire of charity), and what will I but that it be enkindled." (Luke, xii., 49.)

Not satisfied with calling the precept of charity his own commandment, our dear Saviour calls it also a new commandment. "I give you," he says, "a new commandment." (John, xiii., 34.) But how is it new ? Is not the precept of charity as old as the world ? True ; the precept of charity, in general, and in a certain sense, is as ancient as the world. The law of charity is a law of nature. It is a law engraven on the heart of every man, that he must act towards others as he would wish that they should act towards him. But this law of nature was more or less obscured by the passions of men. Hence Christian charity, or that kind of charity which Jesus Christ commands, is a new commandment. It is new as to the spirit and perfection with which it is to be observed. We are to love one another as Jesus Christ has loved us. "I give you a new commandment, that you love one another, as I have loved you." (John, xiii., 34.) I have given you my entire self, all that I am and all that I have. I am now going to sacrifice my life on the cross for you and all men. I wish you to follow my example and to love one another with true, with divine, that is with a universal, love. My love is not limited by sympathies and aversions, by natural inclinations and antipathies, by ingratitude and hatred. My heart embraces all mankind. As I am infinite goodness itself, it is my pleasure to do good to every man who is my image, my subject, my work, and my child. There is no one whom this love of mine does not overshadow ; there is no one to whom I have not given all that is necessary for his temporal welfare; no one whom I have not enlightened by my inspirations, assisted by my grace. I have given to every one an angel to watch over him. I desire the salvation of all. I have given to each one the means of salvation. I have given to each one the sacraments of my Church. I have created each one for heaven. I gave you an example of this charity in the parable of the good Samaritan. The Samaritan did not ask the wounded man what country he was from whether he was a Greek or a barbarian. He did not wait for others to perform the duties of charity towards the poor stranger. He did not say : "It is the duty of priests and Levites to take care of this man; I can do nothing for him.  "He did not offer his ignorance of medicine as an excuse for abandoning the wounded man. He did not excuse himself on account of the danger he would incur of falling into the hands of the robbers if he delayed. He did not spare his wine and oil. He placed the sick man on his horse, and walked himself. He took the wounded man to an inn and defrayed all his expenses there. It is thus you must love all men, without exception. You must exclude no one from your love. You must do good to the most wretched and forsaken. "If you love one another," says Jesus, "all men will know that you are my disciples, and that I was sent by my heavenly Father." (John, xiii., 35.) "And not for them (the apostles) alone do I pray, but for them 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, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me."; (John, xvii., 20, 21.)

When St. Pachomius was yet a heathen soldier and noticed the cheerfulness with which the inhabitants of a certain place assisted the soldiers in their distress, he asked who those persons were who so cheerfully assisted others. He was answered that they were Christians whose religion obliged them to assist every one to the best of their power. This answer made a deep impression upon Pachomius. He felt convinced that a religion which inspired so universal and so disinterested a charity, must be divine, and he immediately became a Christian.

If we wish, then, to comply with the precept of charitv, we must behold our neighbor in the heart of Jesus Christ. There we will find our neighbor, and Jesus loves him so much that he died for him. He, therefore, who fixes his eyes upon the heart of Jesus, cannot help loving his neighbor truly. He, on the contrary, who looks at his neighbor out of the heart of Jesus, runs the risk of loving him with neither pure nor constant love. If we love our neighbor in God, our love becomes only the more intense and more perfect. This motive ennobles our affections and transforms them from natural into supernatural, from human into divine, from temporal into eternal. Mere natural friendship does not last long, because its foundation is unsteady. At the first misunderstanding the mere natural cools and dies. But this does not happen in friendship which is founded in God, because its foundation is firm and solid. The bond of divine charity alone can keep our hearts united.

You will find men, void of divine charity, slaves of their passions, who affect, when it suits their purpose, great religious zeal and purity. They talk of "Philanthropy," and "Humanity," show great compassion for a lame horse, and give the cold shoulder to the houseless orphan. The hearts of such men are cold and insincere. They are often addicted to shameful secret crimes. By their bad example and their impious principles, they cause the ruin of thousands of souls.

See what secret societies do to entice unwary Catholics into the lodges. They promise them assistance in all their temporal necessities; they promise them work; promotion to government offices, lucrative employment, and so on but it is false, poisonous charity ; it is but a bait thrown out to ensnare them to rob them of their faith, of God, of heaven, and draw them into everlasting perdition : it is but a hellish malice under the cloak of charity. These secret societies are a device of satan who wishes to bring men to kneel down and worship him. "All these kingdoms and their glory will I give thee," said the devil to our Saviour, "if falling down thou wilt adore me." (Matt., iv., 8, 9.)

Now, though we are obliged to love all men as our selves, yet we are not bound to love our neighbor more than ourselves ; we are not obliged to prefer his welfare to our own. The only exception to this is when our neighbor is in extreme want and the good he possesses is of a higher order than ours. Now, the order of our spiritual and temporal goods is:

1. the spiritual life of the soul the life of grace;
2, the temporal life of the body;
3, our good name ;
4, our wealth and temporal possessions.

If our neighbor, then, is in extreme want, we are obliged to prefer our neighbor's spiritual salvation to our temporal life: his temporal life to our reputation, and his reputation to our wealth and temporal possessions.But we must bear in mind that we are thus bound only when our neighbor is in extreme want. If he is not in such necessity, we are not bound to prefer his welfare to our own, even though his good should be of a higher order than ours. Should my neighbor, for instance, unjustly attempt to take my life, it is no sin for me to kill him, if I have no other way of saving my life; for, in such a case, I am allowed to prefer my temporal life to the spiritual life of my neighbor, for he is not obliged to kill me.

To be continued . . . . . . .

 5. How many kinds of love of God are there ?
Two kinds:
1.  perfect love, which is to love God for his own sake  and
2.  imperfect love, which is to love God for the sake of his gifts.
The manner of doing a thing may be perfect or imperfect. It is perfect when the end proposed is fully attained; it is imperfect when, though we do not attain the end, we endeavor to do all in our power to succeed.

Now, the end and object of the precept of charity are to love God with all the powers of our soul and body, and to be united to him in such a manner as to find it impossible to wish, to seek, or to love any thing but him, so that God is all our joy, all our honor, all our wisdom, all our riches, all our happiness. Such perfect love, however, is found only in heaven.

The moment a soul enters heaven, God communicates and unites himself to it as far as it is capable, and according to its merits. He unites himself to the soul, not only by means of his gifts, his lights and his loving attractions, as he does in this life, but he also unites himself to the soul, by his own essence. As fire penetrates iron, and seems to transform it entirely into fire,so does God penetrate the soul, and fill it with himself, in such a manner that, though it does not lose its own essence, yet, it is so replenished by God and buried in the immense ocean of the divine essence, that it finds itself, as it were, absorbed and transformed into God.

This spiritual union with God causes the soul to languish with love. It remains immersed in the infinite goodness of God; it then forgets itself, and, being inebriated with divine love, thinks of nothing but God. (Ps. xxxv. 7 9.) As one who is intoxicated forgets himself, so does the soul in heaven think only of loving and pleasing God. It desires to possess him entirely, and it really possesses him without the fear of ever losing him ; it desires to give itself entirely to God ; it really does so, every moment and without reserve. God shows the soul his love, and will continue to do so for all eternity ; and the soul loves God infinitely more than it loves itself. Its heaven consists in
the knowledge that God is infinitely happy and that his happiness is eternal.

Here it may be objected that love united to the desire of reward is not the love of true friendship, but rather the love of self. "I answer,"  says St. Alphonsus, "that we must distinguish between temporal rewards promised by man, and the reward of heaven which God has promised to those that love him. The rewards of men are distinct from their own persons, for they never bestow themselves, but only their goods; whereas the chief recompense which God bestows upon the blessed is himself." (Gen. xv., 1.)

To desire heaven is to desire God who is our last end. St. Francis de Sales says that supposing there were an infinite goodness, that is, a God to whom we did not in any manner belong and with whom we could have no union, no communication, we would undoubtedly esteem such a God more than ourselves; we might have even the desire of loving him,  but we could not love him in reality because love looks to union with the object beloved. Our soul will never be entirely at peace until it is perfectly united to God in heaven. It is true that those who love God enjoy peace in conforming to the divine will; but they cannot enjoy perfect rest in this life, because such rest is obtained only in heaven where we will see God face to face, and where we shall be consumed with divine love. As long as the soul is not in full possession of God, it is restless, it sighs and mourns. (Isai.xxxviii., 17.) The good which I expect is so great, says St. Francis of Assisium, that every pain is to me pleasure.

These ardent sighs and desires to be united with God and possess him in heaven, are so many acts of perfect charity. St. Thomas teaches that true charity does not exclude the desire of those rewards which God has prepared for us in heaven; because the principle object of our desire is God, who constitutes the essential happiness of the blessed, for true friendship desires the full possession of the friend. Such is the reciprocal communication expressed by the Spouse in the Canticles. (Cant, ii., 16.) In heaven God bestows himself upon the soul, to the extent of its capacity and according to the measure of its merits. The soul, on the other hand, gives itself entirely to God, it acknowledges its own nothingness in comparison with the infinite loveliness of God. It sees that God deserves to be loved infinitely more than it can love God. Hence the soul is more desirous to please God than to please itself. It rejoices at the glory it receives from God; but rejoices because God is thereby glorified. At the sight of God the soul feels sweetly constrained to love him with all its strength. The soul loves God so much that, were it possible, it would rather suffer all the pains of hell, with the privilege of loving God, than enjoy all the delights of heaven without God's love. The soul knows that God is infinitely more deserving of love than itself, and therefore it has a much greater desire to love God than to be loved by him. Hence the desire of going to heaven to enjoy and to please God, by loving him is a pure and perfect love. The pleasure which the blessed experience in loving God, does not affect the purity of their love; for they are much more pleased with the love which they have for God, than with the satisfaction which they find in being loved.

In this life, such perfect love is impossible. We can only sigh and aspire after it. The cares, and wants, and trials of this life are an obstacle to such perfect charity; they prevent our hearts and souls from being lifted up to God in perfect love. In this world, says St. Thomas Aquinas, man cannot perfectly fulfill the precept of loving God. None but Jesus Christ, who was the Man-God, and Mary who was full of grace and free from original sin, observed this law perfectly. As for us, unhappy children of Adam, our love for God is always mingled with some imperfection. The love that God requires of us in this life consists in being determined to renounce health, wealth, honors, all the goods and pleasures of this world, and even life itself rather than forfeit even for an instant the friendship of God. This kind of love God requires of us when he says : "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, with thy whole mind, with thy whole soul, and with thy whole strength," and this command is binding under pain of mortal sin.

By this same commandment God also requires, at least under pain ot venial sin, that we should consecrate to him all our affection. He does indeed not command us to love nothing but him, but he does command us to love nothing apart from him, to have no affection for any thing except for his sake. It is in this manner that many just and holy persons love God. It was this divine love that urged the Apostles to go even to the extremities of the earth to announce the Gospel. "l am sure," exclaims St. Paul, "that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities. . . . nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God." (Rom. viii., 38, 39.) It was this divine love that encouraged the holy confessors to enter the dungeons, and suffer there for their holy faith. It was this love that encouraged the martyrs to ascend the scaffold and shed their blood for Jesus Christ. It was this divine love that filled the deserts with anchorites; it induced kings and queens to renounce the crown and scepter and submit to the holy yoke of obedience in the monastery.

It was this love that induced thousands of tender virgins to give up all that this world holds dear in order to become the spouses of Jesus Christ, and they cheerfully endured every torment rather than to prove faithless to their heavenly Bridegroom.

There lived in the thirteenth century, in a certain town of Brabant, a pious maiden, named Mary. From her earliest infancy she consecrated her heart to God. Her good parents encouraged her in her virtuous life, and exhorted her to be very devoted to the Blessed Mother of God. When Mary grew older she renewed the vow of virginity which she had made in her childhood, and added the vow of poverty, in order to resemble more closely her divine spouse, who was so poor that he had not even where to lay his head. She renounced all claim to her lawful inheritance, and vowed to beg her bread from door to door. She even shared with the poor whatever alms she received. She thus led, for many years, a life of great hardships, a life of great virtue. At last God rewarded her, as he always rewards those whom he loves: he allowed great sufferings to come upon her.  

Mary was virtuous and modest ; she was beautiful and she was virtuous. It happens too often unhappily that great beauty leads to sin. Beauty and virtue do not always dwell together. Beauty is too cften; alas ! but the shining veil that hides a frail and simple heart. However this was not the case with the pious maiden. She was beautiful and she was virtuous. Mary was admired by all on account of her great virtue and her great beauty. There was especially one who not only a admired, but also loved her with passionate love. But his love was not pure, it was not from God. His love was base, animal passion. The demon of impurity took entire passion of his heart. This demon urged him on, and gave him no rest. One day this unhappy man met the pious maiden and disclosed to her the guilty passion that burned in his heart. He offered her gold and silver and costly garments; he offered her honors and wealth in abundance.

But Mary was not one of these frail creatures who sell their innocence for a gay dress, or a pretty ring. She shrank in horror from the guilty proposal. She told the wicked man that from her infancy, she had consecrated her heart to God, that she could never love any other bridegroom than Jesus. She exhorted him earnestly to think of death and to beware of the just vengeance of heaven. But the wretched man was blinded by passion ; he was deaf to every warning. The thought of gratifying his unholy desires alone occupied his mind. Day and night, waking and sleeping, this one thought, this one desire possessed him. He did not pray for strength ; he did not approach the sacraments. He gave himself up entirely to the power of the demon. In order to effect his guilty purpose, he hid one day a silver goblet in the sack of the pious maiden. He then went to her, boldly accused her of the theft, and threatened her with imprisonment and death, if she still continued to refuse him. Mary protested that she was innocent. She declared in a resolute tone that she would die the most cruel death rather than to offend God by mortal sin. Then the wicked man, in a rage, snatched the sack from her and drew forth the silver goblet which he himself had placed therein. Then, in malicious triumph, he cried out :

"Behold here the proof of your guilt. Now if you still continue to refuse me, you shall suffer imprisonment and death." The poor, helpless maiden grew pale ; she  trembled in every limb. She wept, and prayed to God for strength  and God, the comforter of the poor and the fatherless, strengthened her, and she answered boldly: "No, never will I consent to sin. I will rather die innocent than become the victim of your guilty passions." Wild with rage at seeing himself thus baffled, this wicked wretch swore that he would be revenged. His passionate love was now turned into deadly hate. This s always the case with sinful love. Sensual love turns sooner or later into deadly hatred. This we often see even in this life. This is especially the case with the damned in hell. Ah ! how those unhappy souls that once loved one another during life with sinful love, ah ! how they curse and hate one another in hell !

Holding the goblet in his hand, this wicked wretch ran in haste to the judge, accused the innocent maiden of theft, and, in proof of his accusation, he showed the goblet which he had taken from her sack. He accused her, moreover, of the fearful crime of witchcraft. He said that by her magic spells she inflamed the hearts of men with sinful love; that she had even bewitched himself, so that he could neither rest nor eat nor sleep. At first, the judge would not believe his words, knowing the unblemished reputation which Mary always enjoyed. He tried to defend her against the accusations of this wicked man. But this monster would not desist till Mary was taken prisoner.

One day, this pious maiden was at the house of her parents, praying and weeping in her great affliction. Suddenly the officers of justice entered, seized her, dragged her away with them and cast her into prison. In order to force her to confess the crimes of which she was accused, they put her to the torture. The innocent maiden was stretched on a rack, she was tormented in the most inhuman manner ; but she continued to protest her innocence. "It is true" she said "the goblet was found in my wallet, but I did not put it there, and I know not who did." "Do you not hear what she says," shrieked the accuser triumphantly;  "she acknowledges herself that the goblet was found in her sack. What more proof do you need?" "Yes,"  he cried in a rage, "she is a thief, she is a sorceress. Let her be put to death!"

Mary was poor, and the poor have but few friends on earth. She had no one to plead her cause, no one to defend her. Her accuser, on the contrary, was wealthy, and wealth has more power in this world than innocence and justice. Without further examination she was condemned to death. As she was being led to the place of execution, she passed a statue of our Lady that stood by the way-side. She begged permission to pray for a moment before our Lady s shrine. Her request was granted. And now she implored the Blessed Mother of God to assist her in her agony. She prayed for those who were the cause of her death, and begged God especially to forgive her accuser. She prayed, moreover, that all those who should visit her grave, might obtain relief in all their sorrows. She then arose from her knees and with a firm step walked on to the place of execution. All who saw her, wept. Even the heart of the executioner was touched. His hands trembled, his face grew pale, and the tears came unbidden to his eyes. "Holy maiden," he cried sobbing aloud," forgive me before I perform my sad task ; pray for me when you appear before your bridegroom, Jesus." "I forgive you from my heart," answered the innocent victim; "I forgive all those who have injured me, and pray that God may forgive them their sins."

Then Mary was bound hand and foot with heavy iron chains. A large deep grave was dug for her, and she like an innocent lamb was cast into the grave. The grave was then filled up with earth, and Mary was buried alive ! The executioner then took a long sharp stake, and, by means of a heavy sledge, he drove it with repeated blows through her tender body. O, what a frightful death ! This was, in those days, the punishment of all who were found guilty of witchcraft. The by-standers wept and trembled with horror, on witnessing the cruel death of the innocent maiden. Her accuser alone that wretched monster remained unmoved. Like an incarnate demon, he gloated in malicious triumph over her sufferings. But the justice of God overtook him. Scarcely had this wicked man left the place of execution, when, by God's permission, the devil entered into him and took full possession of him. He now began to rave and howl like a wild beast. He became so furious that he had to be chained to prevent him from doing harm. His hands and feet were bound fast with heavy iron chains and, as all were afraid of him, he was cast into a dark, deep dungeon. In this frightful state he remained for seven years. At last, his friends carried him to various shrines of our Blessed Lady, where many miracles had been wrought ; but the demon declared, in a rage, that he would never leave this wicked man till he had been brought to the grave of the murdered maiden.

Mary, the heroic martyr of virginity, was not long dead when God made her innocence known. Many miracles were wrought at her grave. The Blessed Virgin Mary herself was seen one night coming down from heaven, accompanied by a band of beautiful virgins. Thrice they went around her grave in solemn procession, and then disappeared. In consequence of this a chapel was built over Mary's grave and there many a sad heart came and found relief. Thither too this wicked man was brought by his friends, and instantly the devil departed from him. He was cured, and finally he repented of his enormous crimes.

To be continued . . . . . . . . .