Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1881-06-27

they are retained" The solemn words by
which Christ prefaces the bestowal of the
power, show that the gift is one of an extra
ordinary kind, and then the clear, plain words
which tell the power do not permit their
meaning to be doubtful. What palmer words,
l would ask our opponents, could Christ have
used to convey to the apostles,'i lin your view,
the actual power to forgive sins? In Mr..
Smiths Interpretation there is nothing given
to the apostles. Simply from the spread Of the
gospel through them, the abandonment of sin
would follow among the nations of the earth,
the same as it may follow from his preaching
in the pulpit of the Methodist church. The
apostles, hearing the words of our Lord, were
to understand that no power was conferred
upon them as his special ministers.
How the apostles were to ex-
ercise this great power of forgiving sins, the
infallible church decides it is by confession, in
the worthy performance of which it required
on the part Of the penitent, deep, interior sor-
row. Let it be proved that the church is not
infallible, and we need not believe that confes-
sion is divine appointment. In the teaching
of the church, the priest is the judge Of sin,
and OF the sinners dispositions, and the spirit
ual physician of the soul, which offices he can
not fill without knowing the precise condition
of the SOUL
sion is the supposed immoral consequences
that follow from confession. The charges he
makes in this instance are most serious. They
are nothing but
AN ACCUMULATION OF FEARFUL FALsEHooDs.
Mr.. Smith knows nothing of the
moral teachings Of the Catholic church,
of the safeguards thrown around the
confessional, of the fruit of this divine sacra-
ment in souls. He owed it to himself and 10
his hearers to study the question before speak
ing upon it. "Men who CONFESS" he says,
''are exposed to dangers. With the doctrine
of the Jesuits made well known in the famous
treatise of Pascal, who proves from their own
authorities that lying and perjury are all right
If you or your church may be helped by it;
with that strange doctrine, that the intention
governs the promise, that you may make a
mental reservation which shall mean precisely
opposite to what you say. / say with prin-
ciples of morality like these, one may under
stand the tremendous danger to society from
this institution
When Mr.. Smith attributes such immoral doe
trlnes to the church, he tells base and un-
justifable falsehood; he insults his hearers,
who surround his pulpit, in the suppositon
that he has studied his subject, and will
state facts. What Pascal may have said is not
to the point. Are Mr.. Smiths words true,
applied to the church? 'If desred' he con-
tinues, 81 can furnish examples of the Catho-
lie use of the most solemn Oaths to show that
the church, Please furnish them. l have
often wondered at the deepseated prejudice
against the church existing in the minds of
some Protestants. Mr.. Smiths words explain
it. The most fearful falsehoods and vile in
situations are SO constantly thrust upon them
by their ministers, that by dint of repetition
the conclusion forces itself into their minds
that there is something dreadful In Romanism,
whether they see it or not. No minister shall,
in st. Paul, fling falsehoods into the face of
the church without feeling them instantly
flung back at him. l respect too much my
Protestant fellow citizens to allow them to be
deceived so horribly in our regard.
"You cannot Judge of the spirit and aims OF
the Roman church by their professions, or
even by their actions in this country where
they are in a hopeless minority. You cannot
Judge of them fairly in any country or age
where they have not had full swing" Per-
ceive the venom: he fears his hearers will look
around and see for themselves. 1t is too easy
for sincere Protestants to question in St. Paul
the upright men, the pure women who confess
their sins to the priests of the church, and who
will be too glad to tell the fruits of the sacra-
ment in their souls. Don't mind st. Paul; go
back into history, and he places before his
hearers the grOssest exaggerations of local
and temporary evils which pen could well
write. "Go TO Italy and Spain," he says"
and in the horrors Of their
history learn what the riotous
spirit of gleed and lust will do" 1t is the
old calumny that Catholic countries are dread
fully immoral. l need not say that there are
bad Catholics; need not say that there are in
Professionalism pure and righteous souls. But
in defense of truth proclaim the incontestlble
fact that as rule,
CATHOLIC POPULATIONS ARE MORE MORAL
than Protestant populations, and that in Cath
Ollie countries those provinces are the more
moral where the confessional is more fire.
quented-and this morality of Catholics l
ascribe to the church's sacrament. / will not,
for proof, refer you to the tourist who in his
haste through foreign country meets but the
oily y-tongued cicerOne, or the cunning proprie-
tor of hotels gotten up fol the express accom-
modation of English and American travellers.
l refer you to carefully prepared statistical
tables in the Cyclopedia Britannica, and to
works of thoughtful and careful writers.
The most moral countries in the
world are Sardinia and Ireland,
and Thackeray in his admiration of Irish
virtue declares it to be his opinion that it is
the most direct result of the confessional.
Among the countries where illegitimacy pre-
walls to the greatest extent, we must mention
Protestant Norway, Sweden, Scotland. Spain
easily leads in virtue England Leave out of
French statistics Paris and few large cities,
where too many no longer confess, and France
has an admirable record. In Protestant Eng
land, the rural populations, on the contrary,
show worse in the record of illegitimacy than
those of the cities. In Prussia, tine Catholic
provinces of Westphalia and Rhineland are
away in the record of virtue beyond its
Protestant provinces.
These are undoubted facts. Yes, go to
Spain and Italy, and Ireland, and Westphalia,
and French Brittany, where men and women
confess, and test the confessional. Go
TO divorce courts at home and abroad,
and test the confessional. Read
the work of a New England physician, DR..
Storer, on the most fearful because hidden,
family destroying evil Of the age, and he Will
tell you that the women who confess are nev-
er guilty of it. Go TO the very villain who
lies in wait for female innocence, and he will
declare that no one triumphs more quickly
over his wiles than the maid who confesses.
will say no more, though l am ever ready, if
need there were, to say as much as may be re-
quired on this subject: The fruits of the con-
fessional are the glory of the church, the proof
of the divine power working through the
sacraments. This is the way to judge the
church, by her general record, not by isolated,
local facts. We judge of Christs companion
ship, not by one Judas, but by the eleven
faithful apostles. Nor are we to judge of an
institution by the possible abstract dangers
which our fancy conjnres up, without regard
to the safeguard thrown around it,or to its ac-
tual general results.
CIVIL LIBERTY.
Another popular objection against the
church with which ministers strive to frighten
their hearers. Americans, they repeat, you
hold liberty as your most priceless treasure;
be on your guard against the arch enemy OF
liberty, Romanlsm! And how Is the charge
sustained ? By Misrepresentation OF the
church's teaching, and of the church's his
tory. Mr.. Smith wards off all replies in these
words: at is worse than useless TO attempt
to ascertain the meaning of Roman principles
from the action Of Catholic authorities in