The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1871-06-11
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built thereon, il ia certain that the con-
templa ion of he long line Of its pontiis upon
earth must awaken at least one common feel
ing-that of something approaching to awe, If
not awe itself. When we speak Of the days of
Trajau or Cons. antne, or even those later
years Of the dying Western empire, they peer
out from the gray mist of ares like the eyes of
spectres, so much of another world do they
seem. That out of these discmbodied GEN.
turtles we can to-day touch something living
which has passed down unchanged and intact,
something that moves among us and is of the
actual present as much as ourselves, is surely
cause enough for wonder. Macauley traces
the Papacy back in few glowing
sentences to the days Of Pepin, King
of France, and then. as if the attempt
10 60 farther back in detail would mar the
concentrated word-picture, he exc!aims, "and
far beyond the time of Pepin does this august
dynasty extend" The very necessity of this
ellipsis is strong proof of the impossibility of
taking in so much of change, of building up
and destroying as broods under the wings of
the nineteen centuries which cover the history
of the Papacy.
On Friday next 0he 10Th inst the present
incumbent of the Papal chair will have CON-
pleted the twenty-ifth year Of his pont-
| fcate. That he will be the first Bishop
| of Rome who has sat there for that period
since the days of st. Peter is already known
10 our readers. The Catholic Church through
out the world is about to celebrate this jubilee
with uncommon pomp and splendor, in all
the solemnity of Its gorgeous ritual. In every
Catholic temple which rears its head will the
prayers of the children Of the Church be
heard. Amid polar SHOWS and tropic heats,
| where, in tue wilds and fastnesses and desert
| places no church built by human hands has
ever stood, the same IL Deatn will arise as the
dauntless missionaries gather their wild flocks
around them to bless Him who in their Holy
| Fathers tribulaton has sustained him to mark
an epoch in the history Of the Church. Not
alone to those who own CATH olcism as their
| faith and Plus TX as their Father will the day
be of interest. Those of other creeds who
stop to thiuk that Christ's promise to His
apostles of unremitting intcrcommuuion is
being fulfilled to-day as it was when the cata-
combs of Rome were the Christians house of
! prayer and the maws of lions and tigers his
only certain place Of rest, will join in il too.
| They will find, bitter sectarians as they may
be, that it is as impossible to separate the
Popes from the story of Christianity as it
would be the apostles themselves. From the
point Of the length Of time through which the
Papacy has passed we can turn to the breadth
Of influence it commands. Looking back
from the present, as it were from the broad
base Of triangle al whose distant apex CLOVIS
a Respondent light-the Light Of the World
we can note the steps of the ages by the
widening path which comes within its CLEAN.
This broadening illuminated field tells the
progress of Christianity. If we picture the
progress Of that beam we see it shine brightly
| ct first over narrow range. AT length we
see the great, solid temples of heathen Rome
melting in its gentle ray, and then the unim-
| psded light advances with rapid flight over
empires and peoples, over lands and seas.
Fierce hordes Of shaggy Goths and savage
Huns come for an instant like swarms of
desolating locusis in its way. But the mild
light that wells from the Saviour's
heart subdues them all, aud still
marches on until the limit Of civilization is
its only bound, and far, where savage igro-
| rance or standardization extends the light
may be seen in little threads pushing bravcly
| forward.
In the present century and the previous
one Christianity-Catholic and Protestant
has had enemies to deal with different from
those of former days. They ara Indifference,
infidelity and postivisn. Not for the sake Of
confusing or blending rival creeds do we
name them together, but to point out
the common danger to all, and to state
more broadly the lines against which
| the Catholic Church fnd5 itself drawn
up. The intensity of this danger
defines the position Of the Pope to-day and
! ings and wishings which two hundred and
fifty million souls in every land on the globe
| will send up on the 10th of the month for the
Holy Father
The stern, unyeldng, superhnman faith of
| the Catholic Church, immovable in all its
! tenets, stands naturally at one extreme of
belief whereof nondescrpt positivism is
| at the other. Those who stand midway
find and have found il difficult task
to determine between them. This is ma
tural, for they are irreconcilable. Positivism,
which means infielty, has been on the ag-
gressive, and, since it was the attacker,
Catholicism has been called conservative.
The pride Of this age Is that it is an age of
progress" therefore that which was named
conservative was confusedly voted eDete.
From this it is easy to find a reason for the
comparative favor which the onslaught on the
seat of Papacy found with the midway phiIo-