The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1878-02-17
Gathering Clouds.

Ihaye O heavy scourge Of this sort lifted
threatenipgly over their backs. Germany
Hhas been amusing herself for several years
with an unsparing persecution ofthe Church
THE hour Of her reckoning may be nearer
than Mr.. Bismarck imagined when he
entered upon q reproduction of Julian the
Apostate's career. England, since the
days of Henry VIII. has, with short in
termission, been the head and front of all
antagonism to the Church. She has been
its most determined, persistent, vindictive
enemy. Her penal laws against Catholics,
both lay and cleric, have been more bloody
and more bIoodily executed than any
Others. Her literature has more abounded|
than any other with misrepresentation i
islanders and barefaced lying against Cath
&olic doctrine and history. Her whole popu
lation was saturated with bitter, bigoted|
hatred OF Christian truth and unity. TheI
other Protestant powers, Switzerland, Nor
way, Denmark, etc., merely revolye as satel
lites around the great centres of ofpersecution|
Prussia and England.
But time always brings it's retributions,|
and sooner or later God remembers theH
evil doer. 1t is impossible to suppose that
his hand will be forever withheld fromI
visiting upon those countries the just re-
ward of their frightful wickedness. 1t
may hs that the day of that visitation isE
now rapidly approaching, though no one
can speak with certainty of the future. I'll
requires no prophet to cay that punishmentE
will come but prophecy only could fix its
date.
Humanity judging, however, serious
crisis seems to be impending over them.
England is in q position, apparently, when
|she can escape the fearful eyils of war
|only by the absolute surrender of her com +
lmercial supremacy and the abandonment
|of her foreign possessions. She may avoid
war and maintain a dastardly peace, it isI
true, but at what q COST Her mortal
enemy, the Russ, will be master of Con-
|stantinople, the Bosphorus, the Dardan-
elles and the Mediterranean. Her prestigeE
will be gone forever, and the general con
tempt into which she will have fallen will
but embolden the Gear in seizing her Asia
tic colonies and reducing her to position
os utter unimportance in European affairs s
But tho state of public opinion in Eng
land does not permit such a supposition toS
|be entertained. The populace has an in
stinct, it may be, of impending peril, OF
perhaps only q eense of present humiliation.
but its war spirit is too much aroused tol
permit of further and more utter degrade 4
tion than that which has already been|
rl,t tbair l,yyfh ha hac kyl
lof their ruling lordlings. There must be
IVA
And what a war Austria ia girding)
herself to mighty struggle. Greece sl
all ,me. Italy has given intimations of al
direct interest in the issue. Germany
is credited with being the sworn ally OIL
Russia in case of general complications, and
France is waiting for Germany to make thel
fret move. In case all these powers 60 toI
war, it will be almost impossible for Bel
GUM, Holland, Denmark and Sweden toI
keep out of it. Such a!war means devasta-
stion, ruin, desolaton. 1t means tactoriesI
closed, commerce abandoned, cities burnedl
and populations exterminated. 1t means
one of those mighty upheavals of 80
ciety which sometimes, like an earth.
quake, destroy all former landmarks
Who can foresee the consequences
immediate and ulterior7 Who can tell
what changes in the boundaries of nations
the fortunes of war will bringT or what
strides may be made by the spirit of Rev
olution, OF Communism When the day
has arrived for national punishment of
national crime, divine justice knows how
to make the wicked the agents of their
own mutual chastisement.
OF one thing, only, We can be sure in
the general outcome of such a struggle
The Church of Christ will issue from the
ordeal unharmed, unnamed, as young and
vigorous and beautiful as ever.