The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-05-27

taneous burst OF applause greeted this dccla-
ration of the OratOr.) Yes, gentlemen, If /
have any religious prediction, if I have
any prediction of sentiment and of faith, |
have 1t in favor of Catholicism But what says
Catholicism ! am the truth Make me the
only religion, make me the privileged religion.
fol am the truth. Well, gentlemen have not
all other religions said the same? With this
thought have they not justified all the crimes Of
all the theocraces | am the truth said Pagan
ism, and it gave the hemlock TO Socrates, and
Socrates died between the mockings of the
people and raiery of the stage / am the truth,
said Judaism, and it nailed up Jesus, and when
the leaders OF the people went through the field
of Jerusalem i'm that sublime hour of His sub
lime agony, they said to Him, "If thou art the
Son of God, come down from the cross!" ! am
the truth, said Professionalism to Justify the exc
cutlOn of Scrvctus, and the severe the cruel
the implacable Calvin enjoyed himself at Ser
yetus' agones, and while he died gnashiug his
teeth in the eternal agony of fanatcism. / am
the truth, has also said Catholicism, and il has
ruined and impoverished Spain in the name of n
religion OF peace and mercy fI1l
Thus, gentlemen to religious Intolerance
that eternal molester of the human conscience,
instead of that youthful humility whose heart
only beats to love, and whose lips only open to
bess-the inquisitors of the theocracies have
ever offered, like the idolatOrs of the ancient
gods of India and America, human sacrifices.
But cOncede for u moment that Catholicism is
true; | ask is It right to impose a true religion
by force? Here from these benches many VEN
1
it. They have issued at times from my lips l
confess and | feel it, We have come here hot
from the press hot from the tribune, hot from
the college More than as statesmen, we have
come here as men of thought, and we have
needed more the voice of our consciences than
our social interests. But / ask if ever there has
issued from these benches proposition so scan
dalOus as that which has issued from those
benches (pOintng to the bishops), when high
dignitary rose and said, Here are three millions
OF signatures of persons disposed to die in the
defense and sustenancc of religious unity" that
is to say, here are three millions of persons dis
posed to rebel against you Senators, and like the
ancient soldiers of the old religions, like the sol
diers of Omar to impose their belief on the other
Spaniards by force.
The human conscience and the mind reject
this idea, and protest against it. We, if we have
an idea, do not seek to impose it by force upon
anybody, like Omar imposed Mohammedanism
on the East. On the other hand, gentlemen,
what is error? In what does it consist? Error
is an infrmity, and this infrmity, l say it to
those sacerdotes whom l see here invested with
their sacred mantles-ths infrmity, Senores
Sacerdotes, of the Gospel-this infrnity. Senior
ManterOa--(lOud laughter)-this infrmity, if il
merits anything it is the sentiment of your COM
passion, not OF your vengeance: and if it needs
it is the remedy of the truth, not of
force. Cloud applause.) Yes gentlemen, reli-
giOn. like morality, cannot be true for the life if
it is not also true for the conscience. Religion
cannot work on our will if it does not first work
on our understanding What does religion do?
1t blesses the Grade, guides the first dawn of the
intellect to the truth and the first steps of
the life to the good; purifes the heart
so that our first loves shall not be as
the corrosive poison, but liquor full
of the sweetest scents: tightens the bonds
of the family, not only by the voice of con-
science and the sentiment of affection, but by
the community of beliefs; places the note of
infinite in art, and the light of the absolute in
science; converts the love of country into a wor-
ship, and the life of the citizen into II priest
hood, and, when the eXigencies of society
require it, into martyrdOm; and, when we ap-
proach our last hour and draw near to the
abyss of eternity, sustains and consoles us, pro-
missing that our good deeds shall not perish
but shall remain throughout all time bound up
in the human spirit, and promising us also that
the essence of our life shall not cvaporate, but
shall ascend from region TO region until it loses
itself in the bosom OF its God. tremendous
applause.)
But, gentlemen, and this ask especially from
my friend, Scnor Muntcrou; who with so much
attention listens to me Mautcrola had been
reading book at the time, and paying no atten-
tion ut all until this pointed cut of Castelar's
and the rOars of laughter Of the house compelled
him hurriedly to close it)-l ask of Senor Man
teroa, can religion or can morality answer to
any OF these ends if it is not voluntarily accepted?
Instead of refining us by grand sentiments, it
degrddes us if we have not faith: instead of
guiding us to good, it guides us to evil; instead
of helping us in the education of the little Ones
it disturbs us in this sacred ministry, for we
cannot teach the lips as truth that which the
heart feels as a lie; instead of strengthening in
us the love of country, it grounds us in hatred,
for then the country will not be the hearth, out
the dungeon of the soul. And then in our last
hour religion with whose ceremonies we are
not cOnformed, whose beliefs are not accepted
by our heart and our Intellect religion of this
class will cause us doubt between our faith
men and our faith as citizens, and convert into
a ridiculous farce the sublime tragedy of death
in which commences Immortality, and in which
the man has to present himself before God, who
can see with His scrutinizing vision the depth of
our conscience.
CASTELAR, went on to show from history that
forced religion led to no good, but, on the other
hand, to great evils. He said liberty was not
the end of history-it was only an instrument to
good The end of liberty was the good of all.
What was the definition of good? He would
give them the one his mother taught him
Good is that each may comply in the scale of
creation with the destiny for which he had been
created" Very well, if good was the end Of
life, what were the means to attain it? Certainly
none but moral ones; certainly not force, but
liberty Take liberty from art, and it would be
converted into a less beautiful thing than the
song of a bird; take it from labor, and it would
convert it into the blind movement of a machine;
take il from the affections and ii would convert
them into nothing less than the ferocity of the
wild beasts; take il from politics, and the people
would fall into the sad indifference and eternal
somnolence of the Oriental race; take 1t from re-
lgion, and it would convert that sublime code
for life and death into police ordinance, aud
turn God into an agent of public order-God
who had given to all worlds the law OF attrac-
lon, that they might comply with their eternal
harmony, and the light of liberty to the soul
that 1t might comply with that other and even
suDllmer harmony-the harmony of justice.
Examine all the words of Christ, and you will
see they all contained religious tOleratiOn. HOu
VINO VINO extend your maledictions over a society
Iii IL