The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1891-02-21
OUIDA'SAR-ICLE ANSWERED.
Mrs, Mary Elizabeth Blake Replies
to Her Article. "Has Chris,
tianity Failed"
THE LACK Or CHRISTIANITY
That is What is the Matter and All
Would Be Well if Things
We're Different.

Would BE well Ii Il'nss
We're Different.
'Rambling Talks.'' in the Boston
Journal Of last Saturday, which column.
as everybody may not know, is conduct
ed by the distinguished Catholic author
ess, Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Blake, con :
tains the following Interesting dis
course:
The article Of Ouida in the present
number Of the American Quarterly,
HAS Christianity Failed2" is one Of
remarkable interest from every point Of
view except the one for which it was In
tended. Its dramatic presentation is in
the best style Of its brilliant author; the
picture she presents is full Of those
artistic touches which have long made
her a popular artist; the forcefulness Of
her Remuneration is perfect, for the
false and evil thing she denounces"
But nothing of all this has anything to
do with Christianity. The vivid i'm
dgination and picturesque pen which
have wandered together through SO
many fields of fiction have here found
another; but it is marvel that one who
knows so well the value Of minute
detail and the truthful dellneation Of a
chosen subject should have allowed
herself to stray so far from a correct
ideal. Without exception, the evils
which Oulda quotes, the absurdities
she sneers at, the crimes and weakness
es she lays at the door of the followers
of the Cross in the strangely preverse
argument she uses springs from the
lack Of Christianity and not its practice.
| There is not q wrong she deplores that
would not be righted ii the spirit of
| Christ had been properly nOnrished in
His followers, instead of being allowed
to sink into such large forgetfulness
and decay as it has to-day. Yet even
more--as i'm the early days of His teach
| ing-whateyer is best and purest and
highest in life springs from the under
standing Of His law. Now, as then,
| unselislness. devotion, industry, sobTi-
ETY., the cultivation of every gift for the
benefit Of brother man and the evOlu~
tion of personal character. the uphold
ing Of moral and political law and order,
the revolt against oppression and wrong,
the beauty Of charity, love, peace and
patience are the dover and the joy of
the pure lives which follow Him. That
there is not more Of this saving grace
to rob the harsh world of it's sadness;
that hypocrisy and guile so often simn-
late the outward form. while they are
ignorant OF even the smallest knowl--
edge of the inward principle, is the sor.
row of those who know best what this
holy leaven would do If 1t could but be
more generally inculcated among the
rank and file Of humanity. That so
manv of the noble workers whose sci
ence and learning have helped to lift
material burdens from the shoulders of
mankind should have drlfted away
from it's benign and restful haven upon
an ocean of negatlon and doubt is no
argument against it's lasting force or its
convincing reality. Ii these men had
even truly known the hidden spirit and
divine nope of Christianity, no might
of intellect or pride of genius would
ever have dragged them from it. But
lacking this, they have foated rudder-
less away; as Door or rich, learned or
ignorant, one must always drift who
has not been brought to feel 1T.
Where it has remained as, thank
God. it often does and will for the glory
and delight of men, allied to talent and
riches and power, so much the more
gracious and beautiful has been the
life so lowered. Ever and again the
Pagan philosophers, without 1T. attain
ed knowledge and insight which placed
them as beacons to their fellow men,
but their loftiest heights were gained
according as they neared by intuition
the Christian ideal, and evolved for
themselves some prOximate conception
of this or that Christian principle. 1t
was not alone the sweetness, the ser
entity. the profound learning. the rich
invention of Plato which endeared nm
to mankind; it was above all the grasp
with which he seized upon the concep-
tion of immortality, and the clearness
of his prophetic outlook upon that great
subject which the Great Teacher of all |
was afterward to simplify and to prove.
II the Pagan philosophers Of the pres
ent knew how to make their dead issues
alive after his manner with faith and
hope. of how much more use they would
be to their fellows.
There are points in Uuida's article
where, in spite Of the desire t. believe
in the dislnterested she Processes,