The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1874-09-06
TIE CHURCH AND THE WORLD.
THE GIANT STORM APPROACHING
The Church Always Triumphant.
NAPOLEON THE FIRST.
From the London Register Aug. ISL

From the London Register Aug. Isl
Twice during the late session of Parli!
ment the Prime Minister of Euglan,
speaking in terms of unusual gravity, d.
clared his absolute conviction that strue
gle of the most mOmentous character and
portentious magnitude Is at this moment a
over the civilized world in active prepar
alton. Throughout Europe, throughou
Christendom, thoughtful men are rangin
themselves rapidly upon one of two sides
according to the nature of their opinions
or, more correctly speaking, according t.
the dictates of their belief or of their un
belief. The confronting forces TINS hastil,
we may like to term them, CT Imperialism
and Ultramontanism, of the Church and
the World, of Christianity and of the Re
| volution. 1t is impossible not to recognise
in all directions the evidences of this great
movement. The political atmosphere i,
full Of portents of the giant storm that IL
approaching Upon neither side are the
adherents Of the two great confronting
causes phlegmatic or Indifferent. The time
for Indifference is gone by. We are all o.
us-whichever side is chosen-in terrible
earnest.
Never was Catholicism in those halcyon
days of her rule, which are called empha-
tically the Ages of Faith, in more raptur-
GUS earnest than she is now. Never were
her children more numerous, more widely
distributed on the face of the globe, or, at
the same time, more absolutely united in
their allegiance to the great central au-
thority of Holy Church, the supreme and
sovereign See of Peter, whence for nineteen
centuries the Prince of the Apostles and
his successors, as vicegerents of the Good
Shepherd, have fed the lambs and the sheep,
have preserved intact the Faith, and ruled
with an unerring hand the perpetually ad-
vancing and expanding destinies of Chris
tendon.
Opposed to Catholicism from the first
and to the last, confronting her at every
turn as her deadliest enemy, irrecopcifabte.
implacable, naughty, insolent, domineer
ing, the power Of this World was seemingly
never stronger than it is at this juncture-
its crown was seemingly never more firmly
planted upon its arrogant brow-its sceptre,
which is drawn sword, was seemingly
never more firmly held in it's strong grasp
its foot was seemingly never more Sc
curely planted upon the earth, which is for
its pride as an indestructible pedestal.
Apparently the conflict between these
two confronting forces is unequal, but only
apparently. The one is material, the other
spiritual. The one is aggressive, repres-
sive, acts by brute force, is creature, or
rather, let us say monster, according to |
It's own showing, compounded of blood and |
ron. The other, which in it's very nature |
10 altogether apart from the reach of sub |
lection to the powers of this world, is as |
intangible and impalpable as an ethereal |
and eternal essence. It has often been
yrappled with before now, but has always !
passed, must always pass, not merely |
scatheless out of the grasp of its assaiiants, |
but even, ut these times, strengthened by |
the very strife through which it has en-
,rged.
During the first three hundred years of
ts existence it was all but drowned in |
NhA
The world has ever known, that which, in |
me old Pagan days, gave supreme lower |
INTO the irresponsible hands of the Ro.
nan Emperors, trod it literally under
DOT for three centuries in its grave of the
Its sublime baptismal font
vas the Coliseum. There the sacred rite
vas performed, not with water, but with
Hood, as the pastime of the impious Cse sars,
Who called themselves Divine. Yet three
enturies having rolled by, the giant tomb
4 the Catacombs was opened, and the
,hurch, like it's Divine Founder, after His
hree days of sepulture, had its Resurrec-
ion. From that time forward it has set
Material force at defiance. AS the glorifed
ody of the Redeemer passed through the
oors when they were looked, earthly OBJ.
tacles are as nothing to its coming and
DING. Barbarism advances upon Rome ]
nder Attila:. An old man, in the person
the Pontitf, confronts the Hun at the 6
AAS hoANSos ouN az % "OTup AT a {
the overwhelming hest is re- s
elled. A Christian Emperor, in the per-
On OF Charlemagne, owns his spiritual 8
llegiance to the Successor of st. Peter as {
ller of the Universal Church, and, in re- 6
ard for his loyal adhesion to the supre- t
acy of the Holy See, his descendants for I
thousand years enjoy the rights of Sow
eighty in the midst of Christendom. At
e end of that thousand years the most
'dless Revolution recorded in the history r
the human race suddenly breaks forth +
ward the close of the last century, like o
/" opening of the neither pit. AT it's COM Il
g.
Religion, blushing, wells her sacred fires
ana pnawares morality expires. n
4 10 thX dread empire, Chaos is restored !,
yer the public Cemeteries there ia in I
is an Eternal Sleep. The b
lurches are closed. The Priests are dri- u
n into txils, or, if captured, are guillo- n