The Sun.
London, England, 1867-09-30 00:00:00

I could not, since I feel greatly fatigued, and
shall be able only to say a few short words. They
are words of St. Paul, which that great champion
addressed to his valiant companions in arms
Nolle vinci it malo, sed vince in bono malum."
"Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil by
good." As you see, gentlemen, these are words
full of portent—words which make you feel that
you are surrounded by evil ; you, of whatever
nation you are ; to what rank soever you belong ;
from what people you come out; and you, perhaps
—more than all, you Catholics of Belgium ; yes,
all evil is there—living, growing, working, speak-
ing, teaching, and ardent in its teaching, per-
suasive in its speech, and indefatigable in its work
—and our task is to conquer evil ; to conquer it,
not by evil, but by good. Your work and mine
is simply this :—" Vince in bono malum." Evil
and the presence of evil is no strange or novel
phenomenon on the earth, and that is precisely
why we must neither be surprised nor discouraged
at it. Now, without entering into the history of
evil, only just look at the great battle against
Christianity, which has been waging for three hun-
dred years and more. What did not Protestantism
do in the sixteenth century ? It attacked the
Church. What did not the Revolution do in the
eighteenth century ? It attacked Christianity and
all supernatural belief. What does the nineteenth
century do ? It takes a further step—it attacks all
principle. It admits no God, no soul. Free and
spiritual, immortal, it denies everything—future
life, all distinction of good and evil, all morality ;
it desires to create a new order of things. The
natural order is no longer tolerated, and it is cer-
tain that sophists are engaged daily in fabricat-
ing a new order of things. (Deep emotion.) Such
is the extent of evil that surrounds us, and that is
what we must overcome by good. We can do it,
but we shall have to make strenuous efforts to effect

it ; and what struggle, let me ask you, does not ?
Yes, truly, the work is great, for it is not only dog-
mas or relicon that are attacked, but everything

—reason as well as faith ; natural as well as
supernatural ; liberty as well as authority ; philo-
sophy as well as religion—every principle which
is the basis of human societies as well as Christi-
anity, and it is to us Christians to gain the glory
—to us to whom belongs the honour of defending
these principles which are the truth, against these
most violent, as well as most absurd enemies. The
struggle is serious, and I will tell you the
reason why you are worthy to bear it, for in
you exists that faith divine, that intelligence,
that love which inspires you every time the
Holy names of Jesus, Mary, and the immortal
Vicar now in St. Peter's Chair is named, to
feel a glow, and to show how distinctly you
and their cause are one and eternal. The contest
is serious, because it reveals, above all, that it is
the souls of men that are sick. Let us rise up and
go and heal them, as our Blessed Lord did, when
he heard that Lazarus was ill ; and, above all, recol-
lect, gentlemen, the end of the struggle for us is to
save souls ; for our adversaries—they fight in order
to destroy ; but we —we must fight to save. Let
them conquer; but we must convince. We must
not spare our strength, our blood, our lives ! Our
crucified Lord, who sees us now, impresses us with
the immense price at which He values a soul. The
struggle is serious, because it is not only the most
deeply rooted we have ever witnessed, but also
because it is only in this age that evil has ever had
such powerful engines for its creatures. See for
an instant its extraordinary organization, whether
we view its subterranean organization, in the in-
finity of secret societies and all their ramifications,
or we look at its outward organization, in the mass
of anti-religious and anti-Christian publications.
And what shall I say of this propagandism, so im-
mensely prolific and so determinately bent on its
work of destruction, which attacks the young man
on his first entry into life, the riper age, and the
experienced in years and in knowledge, alike with
the ignorant and the idle, the poor man in his
misery and the rich man in his luxury ; it attacks,
I say, even the woman and the young girl her-
self, and it spares not the sick couch and the dying
bed ; and darkening alike the consciences of all,
would tear from each the last consolations and the
hope of a last return ! (Prolonged emotion.) We
are living, are we not, gentlemen,' in the broad
daylight of the sun? Well, I ask, where shall we
find, on any part of the globe, anything like this
infernal compact, this frightful engagement, which
is fully as absurd as it is impious, by which a man
determines to die hardened to every better feeling,
disregarding the faith of his father, at open enmity
with God ? Can any tyranny equal this, that a
man should allow another to come between him and
his God, to prevent Him from finding his soul, from
pardoning him and saving him ? This struggle is
a terrible one, but I believe that it is, perhaps, more
violent here in Belgium than anywhere else, and it
is to your honour that I say it to you, Belgian
Catholics—yes, to your honour !—for it is certain
that those who attack you so vigorously are well
aware who they are attacking, and that their desire
is to crush the truth there, where it is most vigor-
aus, and sending forth shoots of life into every
other country. Yes, it is to your eternal honour ;
it proves you are a Catholic nation, a chosen
people, the most Catholic on the face of the earth,
and that is why the enemy has directed such des-
perate attacks against you. Indeed, there is a
question which we may all ask ourselves, and
wonder as we ask it—Will this struggle last for
ever? There is a deep melancholy in the thought
of an eternal struggle, even to persons the best
disposed in spite of all to struggle on ; and I find
myself obliged to tell you, in all truth, yes, the
struggle against evil, with different phases, is to
be eternal ! Understand it well, gentlemen ; un-
derstand it with the respect due to the Sovereign
Master of all. " I send you," said our blessed Lord,
"as sheep in the midst of wolves." He does not
say that ye are sheep having one wolf sent among
you. No, no ; think rather what it is to be a
sheep among a troop of wolves, in niedio luporum.
It is a most startling simile, and that is our posi-
tion. " They have persecuted me; they will also,"
said our Lord, " persecute you. The disciple is not
above the Master. If they have called the Master
of the house Beelzebub, what will they not call the
servants? The day cometh when ye shall be hated
because of Me." Because of Me ! How well said ;
for it is for that we are hated—for Him, for the
truth, for justice, for Christian liberty, for prin-
ciple. It is because they hate Me, that ye, who
are only disciples, they hate also. Your name
they also deem a crime in their sight—Nornen
maim. And that is why I -said just now it was
the glory of Belgium. to have been marked by this
hatred, just as it is your glory to have among you
that holy and valiant company, which is the honour
of your country, which gives devoted instruction
to your children, among whom we find more than
one illustrious representative of sacred science.
Such I should not fail to designate as the princes
of erudition and of Catholic hagiography. In
the midst of this struggle it is:the Holy Spirit who
says, "Be not afraid." St. Augustine, in the
strong expression of that African eloquence which
resounds to our shores and far further, bids us
again fear not. You wonder that the attacks and
success of the wicked reach you and prevail among
you, and when you see the tide of p 3rsecution rise
and menace to engulph you, you cry, " Oh, my
God, is this Thy justice, that the wicked flourish and
the good suffer loss ?" and I ask you in return,
"Is this your faith ?" " Ipsa est fides tua ?" " Did I
promise you anything else at your baptism ?" says
our Lord ; " Did I ever promise you ease and
indolence, luxury and pride ? No, ye were
not made Christians to flourish in the world." Gen-
tlemen, if you will allow me, I will follow this
question a little deeper, and say what many may
be tempted to say. It is true God holds in His
immortal hands the hearts of all nations and of all
ages, and that He can turn the minds of the power-
ful and the rulers of His people as He wills. How
sweet it would be to think that He intends to bind
the clouds and to come down and make men bridle
their human passions, and save His Church and
give His children peace eternally. " Well, no," the
prophet answers ; "so high as the heavens are
above the earth, so high are God's thoughts above
our thoughts, and His ways above our ways."
What has lie thought? To whom alone belongs
wisdom and power? He has found it wise in His

profound counsels to permit the existence of evil
and to change and to overcome evil—by good rather
than not to permit evil to reign? And, truly, is
there anything more divine than to bring good out
of evil, to command evil and to use it as an instru-
ment of good. It is, if I may use the expression, a
divine artifice of the power of the Almighty on the
hearts of Ilis children. God has done it; and you,
whoever you may be, who hear this, and every one
ought to ponderthese divine laws which are based
on this principle, as it is the crown of all God's pro-
vidence, should learn that God does not make the
evil, He permits it, but in permitting it He rules
it, Ile governs it, He subdues it, He makes it enter
into his providence, whether we will or not ; and
why, then, is this mysterious permission of evil?
Because God has deemed it more worthy of Him,
as well as more worthy of us, that there should
be struggles and triumphs of virtue over evil.
More worthy of us —God has preferred that the
free will of man for good should suffer the possi-
bility of evil in order that there should be, here
below, that great thing we call virtue, or, in other
words, struggle, suffering, courage, and victory.
God found that, even after the Fall, man was yet
noble creature enough to sustain this combat. More
worthy of Him, for when Ilis Divine Son descended
on earth He gave Him no other glory than that of
the Cross, and St. Paul does not hesitate to pro-
claim loudly and before all the nations that Jesus
Christ was only raised to the pinnacle of all
greatness because He had descended by a volun-
tary abasement to the deepest humiliations. And
that is what God was pleased to think ; and when
I reflect within myself, in my innermost self, I
cannot but feel, if I may dare so to express myself,
that God has well thought. I believe that adver-
saries are much better for us than injudicious
friends. I think that struggles are far better for
us than apathy, or too much prosperity, or an
enervating repose. I feel bound to add, that if
these struggles are eternal there are also consola-
tions, and it was only this morning that I found a
passage in the Psalms, giving a most:vivid image of
this truth. " Thou hast placed the darkness, and
it was thick night "—" Posuistis tenebras, et facta
est nox." There are times when the light seems to
be darkened—when impiety, atheism, materialism,
cast their fatal shadow over the world, and even
the friends of God, by means of some deplorable
misunderstandings, are deceived. In such darkness
and thick night wild beasts come out of their dens,
animals who never see the day pass and repass, and
then their cries are heard, " Catuli leonum regi-
entes." One cries out, " God is the principle of
evil. War against God. 'Five l'enfer. Property is a
theft." And another says, and this one comes from
our own land, "Let us quench Catholicism with the
mire of the streets. Let us strangle it." And we,
who are so short-lived and short• sighted, think
that all is lost. No, not yet. • God sends a ray of
light, as we saw at the commencement of this cen-
tury—" Ortus est Sol." When all these miscreants
went into their dens, and their reign ended, what
happens then ? The Christian opens his door, the
sees the sky is clear, the light of day has reappear-
ed, and he goes out to his daily labour and his work,
to deeds of charity and virtue, and soon to the end
of his life. " Exibit homo ad opus suum, usque ad
vesperutn "—" He doeth good and preserves joy
and hope in his heart." This is the struggle and its
alternative. Now, in the midst of all these dark-
nesses and tempests;the Church remains invincible,
immutable, indestructible, repeating to us the
words of her Lord, " 0, ye of little faith, why do
ye fear ?" And recently only, on my return from
Rome, where all was joy, courage, and hope, I
passed the town and tower of Pisa. My eyes were
directed to that famed marble monument, and I
thought as an image of the Church, how much we
could learn from it. It leans, it has leant for
centuries, and it will lean on still after we have
ceased to live, a perpetual enigma to every travel-
ler who passes near it. I could not help saying,
" Yes, there is the Church—the Tower of David—
as the Holy Scriptures calls it—from which hang
suspended thousands of bucklers, Mille clypei
armatura fortium.' " She, too, is always leaning
and often tottering, and those who cannot pene-
trate the secrets of the Divine Architect cry out,
"It is very alarming." No, not at all. There
is a better emblem still of this Church ready to fall,
which suddenly rights itself ; and then this
Tower of David is the glorious temple—the St.
Peter's at Rome—at once greatness, grandeur,
splendour, and incomparable majesty—with its
mighty cupola casting rays of light all around, as
the sun sets behind the surrounding hills. Oh,
how I have loved to look upon her thus ! That
is the Church, and there the Divine wonder of our
faith is well fitted to raise our courage and to
encourage our faith, as wrote, yesterday, one of
the Church's greatest athletes, who languishes and
suffers not far from us, but who, from his couch of
sickness and trial, finds courage and a voice to give
his testimony to the glory and honour of the Church
he so nobly serves. (Great cheers.) The struggle
is necessary, as we have seen ; but what are the
conditions of this struggle ? The first, of which
I have no need to tell you, is courage. St. John
the Evangelist says—" I write to you, young men,
not that ye may be strong, but because ye are
strong, and you have overcome the wicked one"—
" Quia fortes estis et vicistis malignum." There
are young men among you, many in this auditory,
but to them especially it is that I address this
word ; for if ever they should be tempted to fear
or relax, I would say to them, look at those among
us who have grown old and grey in the Church's
service, and who have borne so many years the
weight of the battle and the heat of the day's action
—do as they have done, sustain the honour of
their contest. (Bravo, bravo.) The next condi-
tion, more difficult—one that requires a longer
breath than the first—is devotedness or constancy.
You must be the friends, the devoted servants of
the poor, the young, the ignorant, the little, the
despised, the neglected—of those who suffer, of
those even who are your adversaries. Let your
devotedness to the cause enliven your life and your
combats, and make a generous glow to circle in
your veins, and from them to the Church's broadest
arteries. And the third condition is patriotism.
For you must not suppose that because you are to
be devoted to this universal cause—this cause of
the Church—you are not also to devote yourselves
to true patriotism. But patriotism—oh, no, I am
not come here to preach on that. I will say one
single word on that, and that is—You have a coun-
try—know how to keep it. (Long and redoubled
cheers.) Yes, you have everything that renders a
country noble and dear to you. You shine in arts,
perhaps not more than one country equals yours.
You have noble temples, and to the honour and
renown of your people be it said, they press into
them in crowds, so that in seeing them, I could
but say to myself—Happy Belgians, you are
Catholic to the very marrow of your bones, and
to the very heart within you. You own the noblest
names of Europe's race. You have splendid
edifices, monuments of your municipal liberties,
in every town in the kingdom. Your industry and
commerce are flourishing. You have an instinc-
tive force of generous courage which helps you to
combat oppression, and to. rise above what saps
other nations. Well, I say that all this constitutes
a "fatherland." (Renewed cheers.) Notwith-
standing, I was told the other day that Belgium
was called in a journal (not a bad journal either)
the " sink " of other nations. The writer, I believe,
meant by that expression that there were in the
depths of this country— and where shall we go not
to find what I am going to state ?—there are cases
of disgraceful misery, hidden crime, and wanton
profligacy in every large town and in every coun-
try. And truly, indeed, enough I saw this morning
in passing your glorious Hotel de Ville, that admi-
rable monument of your civil enfranchisement.
I entered a small street called, I am sorry to say,
Hotel de Ville-street. My eyes met a wily
(astrieuse) inscription on the wall of a large house,
with these words, " Association Libdrale ; Union
Constitutionelle." Underneath was a public
house, whose sign was " Hell." (Great sensation.)
And this, gentlemen, close under that beautiful
golden statue of the glorious Archangel Michael
subduing the devil—an image so popularly asso-
ciated with Belgium and all its soarenirs. No, no ;
there is no society, let it be ever so select, so good
I—there is 110 yewl o'er f3O large and beautifully

built, but has its foul corner and its sewer or
sentive. I saw something of this this morning,
and there are many others I have not seen. Now,
it is precisely because we love our native country
better than any one else, we ought, gentlemen,
out of love to our country, to consecrate all our
powers, and all our strength, to prevent such spots
from existing on its soil. We must will and work
to make it pure, fair, glorious, and unblemished.
Be courageous in the struggle, and, above all,
let these things be prominent in your actions—devo-
tion, patriotism, work, and knowledge. Oh, I
would that Catholics were the most devoted and
laborious of all men ! It is from my heart that I
counsel all to work. Work is the very element of
our nature—it is the honour of our families—the
secret of our success ; and it alone can secure us a
happy future. Believe me, the man who fears not
to work has already the elements of happiness
at his command. But I will observe en passant,
in order to work well, young men, you must learn
to rise early. I promise you that that nation who
would consent to rise at six o'clock and go to bed
at ten, and work eight hours a day, would be the
first nation in -the world, and all the nations of
the earth would envy her. I must add yet another
condition of the struggle, which is intelligence
and prudence. And here again I remind you that
these are the words of the Holy Spirit who says,
" Have the innocence of doves with the prudence
of serpents." And since we have the example of
the Lord of Life to strengthen us, I will add, let
us have, in addition, moderation, gentleness, and
humility, though the feeling of the present day is
to brand these virtues with the name of weak-
nesses. Yes, gentlemen, the gentleness of lambs.
Yes, the simplicity of the dove in the heart,
with the prudence of the serpent, and never to
give your head to the enemy ; by head I mean
your principles, your strength. Reflect : to give all
that up to the enemy, is to be a traitor. We must
act with the intelligence that the position, the
society, the age, the necessities of the day and
hour require, as God and the Gospel demand.
(To be continued.)