The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1869-09-26
Unity Among Protestants.

q q sl a.- b.
We have in the past two numbers given
short extracts from the mastery lecture of
Mr., Marshal, delivered at Baltimore, Fromth
same source we give the followings
% You are asked to believe, by those who
prefer the temple of chaos to the sanctuary of
God, this monstrous proposition that although
disorder is ineHornbly banished, as we have
seen, from every part of His donlinions, rs
thing abhorrent to the Divine Architect, it
finds its true home and congenial refuge pre-
cisely'in that spiritual kingdom of which He
is Mt once the lawgiYer and the lie. brute
matter knows nothing of it; earth, and sea,
and sky refuses to give it place; the Very
beasts of the field obey law which regulates
all the conditions of their existence; but con-
-fuson and chaos, which can find home no.
where else,- reign, and ought to reign, in the
Christian church, and in ngdom OF souls
That is the proposition which is deliberately
maintained, at this hour and in this land, by'
men whose profession it is to teach others
eternal truth. They gravely assert that
religion-which, when it is divine, IS bond OF
union stronger than adamant, and when it is
human, is the most active dissolvent, the most
powerful disinteGrating agent which divides
and derastates modern society-gaRs by ceasing
to be one, and that Christianity derives its
chief vitality from the very divisions which
makes it contemplate in the sight OF I'M
believers, and had often provoked the scorn
and derision even of the pagan world. AS
this statement may seem to yon impossible
even in this nineteenth century, which is
| tolerant of all absurdities in the sphere OF
| one of the most conspicuous preachers in this
| land, who holds position in the hierarchy OF
| chaos / take them from one of your own
| local journals of the second of this month,
| (June0 You know that of late years many
| PrCtsstants weary of their ceaseless conflicts
! and ashamed of their unending divisions, have
| begun at last to sigh for the unity which they
| have lost, land that in England they have even
| formed a society with the express object OF
| bringing together what they ignorantiy call
| the different branches of the Church. We
| told
| allude that the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher,
vehemently rejecting every such project, lately
union, whether planned by Pope, Protestant,
| or pa gan pray understand that these are not
my words-and added this characteristic
dissuasiye from unity: The strength h o. the 6e
| you suppose in it's truth, its holiness, or its
peace I no, but-'in the aMaber Of the eristiRg
such words. 4 pray,'s said He who will judge
the world, that they may all be one, as thon,
Father, art in me- and in thee / sincerely
trust, replies Mr.. Beecher, that they will never
be one BE perfect said st. Paul, in the
same mind and the same Judgment 1t is much
more important; rejeins Mr.. Beecher, that You
should maintain your divisions and perpetuate
your differences, for in them lies the strength
of Christianity. 'Sects,' observed the same
apostle, ARE the work of the flesh Mr.
Beecher judges them more leniently,. and
warns his hearers, as you see, against the
mistake of st. PauI Yes, these human teach
ers have come ut last to this. They know So
well that supernatural unity is beyond heiI
reach, that they have come to hate it, and call
it an evil! Yet even they will not deny that
it was the unity of the first Christians which
conquered the heather world; and when the
victory was accomplished, and the surviving
!, pagans had only strength enough left to beat
themselves against the ground where they had
fallen, they also cried out in their inlpotent
rage, Lrecranda est istG c0Hsensio'-cursed be
this unity of the Christians. They had tounC
II TO he irviffeifre, hut -I4et-kaoSstha i
was divine. Mr. Beecher tares not say openly
, Cursed be the unity for which Christ pr;iyed
for even his disciples, though they can bear
afraid to say, Blessed be ehaosp Confusion
, thou art my choicer Disorder, be thou min
, inheritance . Let us wish him a happier lot
l both in this world and the next"