The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1882-06-16

Roman Centarian for whom the lew.
besought Christ that he would answer
his request and heal his servant "Fol
they said, he loveth our nation and
hath built us a synagogue" The
same M Of whom Christ said,
"Verily l have moi seer so great faith,
no not in Israel" His wealth must
have been immense, and his authority
was not Insignificant. You remember
he said to Christ, | have soldiers
under me, and / say to this man 60,
and he goeth, and to that mar come,
and he cometh. And yet with all
his riches and power and noble and
righteous character he perceived Mat
in the humble Jesus of Nazareth,
which made him ashamed to have
him come under his roof. "Lord /
am not worthy that Mou shoulds't
colne," he said. What a testimony
that was, when we think of it, to the
divine character of the Lord Jesus,
when a man who lived grandly
enough to have entertained Caesar
himself sumptously and without shame
could not presume for very admira-
,tion and worship Of his Godlike quail
tiles to open his doors to the lowlY
companion of fishermen and the
friend Of publican and sinners. 1t is
not difficult any longer in view of
these facts to appreciate the express
sion of Christ. 81 have not found SO
great faith--no, not in Israel.
The following day we said "Good-
bye" to our friends, the two Catholic
Priests in the Convent, who treated
us very cordially Notwithstanding the
unsuccessful efforts of one Of them
to convert us to his religion. l
asked him if he really thought l
would be lost forever if l remained a
Protestant. He said he hoped not
that allowance would probably be
made for the fact that l lived in a
Protestant country and was brought
up as a child in a Protestant family
and therefore had never been en-
lightened by the truth. But if once
| should become enlightened and
then should refuse to become a Cath
Ole and remain a Protestant-he was
sorry to say it, but he thought there
could be no hope for me. | tried to
argue the matter with him pleasantly,
but, like the majority of missionary
Priests whom we met, he was extreme
ly ignorant and excessively bigoted
and | very soon discovered that we
should enjoy each other better by let
ting the matter drop. They are
astonishingly deficient even in a
knowledge of the Bible and if you
corner them in an argument-they
simply say as a Priest said to me once,
after he had made the assertion that
Peter was the first and infallible Pope,
that after his conversion he never
made a mistake. l asked him if Paul
didn't think differently about that
when he "withstood him to the face
because he was to be blamed"
"Why," said he, 81 never saw that in
the Bible. l found the passage and
showed it to him and he said, "Well,
l don't know how to explain that,
but we have everything explained to
us in our books. If you will only
read them you will be convinced"
And you may take the great mass of
Catholic clergy throughout the world
and l am moi afraid of exaggeration
nor do l feel any bitterness of un-
charity when l say that they have al
most nothing OF real manly %indepen-
dence of mind. They are bound not
to have. They are good, pure,
conscientious men the majority
of them. But intellectually, they
are o~vergrown infants, who run
after the church as children after
their mamma, and take no doctrinal
nourishment except through the pre-
scribed bottle-who know nothing
except what the church teaches and
Wallis lltll W kllOW. L Wlol IL WClS
not SO, most sincerely, because l be-
lieve that the Catholic church has
still a great mission to perform in
this world. 1t has great influence
and is doing in~calculable good among
a certain class of people, and when l
think how much more it might &C.
complish for these very people and
and for others if it would divest it.
self Of those hindering superstitions
and empty ceremonials and a dead
doctrinal conservatism which keeps it
far back in the darkness of past cen
turtles, if it would stand abreast of
the age in liberty of thought and of
conscience, using all its vast and
well-regulated machinery not to break
down the human intellect and crush
out reason and m sense and
discourage every kind of investiga-
ton and all human progress, but to