The Irish standard., 1894-08-11


worlds, Its vernacnlar reaches from the
most barbariic tongue of the s Juth Amsa-
lean Indian to the classic tongues of
Greece and Rome. .
Dull indeed is the mind that can con-
template such ideal unmoyed. Il And then
think Of the devotion and toll that for
1900 years have struggled for the realize
ton of the inclusive ideal. Shallow and
hard is the mind that can dismiss with
aippant contempt or sarcasm the Catho-
lie church in the presence OF it's stupen-
dous history. How beautiful is it's dream
of spiritual Iife-a power that can silence
worldly ambition, lull the storm Of hui
man passion, bid the inquisitive agita-
tions of reason be still, wrap the soul in
q mantle of trust and fill the heart with
communion with the unseen and eternal
verities of heaven.
This ideal spirituality is what has given
q charm to that church. This is the
church that gave final rest to the mas
terly but vagrant intellect Of Oreetes A.
Brownson, one of the greatest metaphy-
sicisns this country has produced. 1t
gave peace to the great intellect of Car
dinal Newman. It wooed into it's arms
in the years of her notoriety the sweet
singer, Adelaide Proctor.
It is not given to the human soul to
realize it's ideals, but the Catholic church
has succeeded in embodying more of it's
ideals than are given to most human
dreams. It's antiquity is in question.
Would that we might realize what this
means. How rare are the things that
survive century; and yet here is a
church that has strung seventeen Con-
turtles upon continuous thread and
wears them like a necklace Of pearls
upon her bosom.
More than any other institution, the
Catholic church has succeeded in break
ing down the aristocracy of blood and
the pride of wealth. A peasant has
worn and may still win the mitre and
the triple crown. Maid and mistress,
master and slave, do kueel side by side
at her affairs to-day, as they do not in
any other church in Chrlstendom.
Nor has the dream of the reign Of the
spirit been all dream. The violence of
Viking and Goth was somewhat curbed
by the persuasive power Of Rome, a
power, as / believe, not wholly the sweet
persuasion Of consecrated souls. Stand
as far as you please from the thought
basis of the Catholic church-and you
can scarcely stand farther away in this
respect than I do-hold all religions
and religious influences as cheap as you
please, and still, if you but respect
the cauons of culture, the excellencies OF
literature and the unquestioned verdict
of history, you cannot read the story and
the words Of Augustine, Savanarola and
Kempis, of st. Patrick, st. Francis and
Loyola, of St. Catherine, Joan of Arc and
modern Guyon and regard them as other
than representatives of mighty power
that did make souls more genuine, lives
more consecrated.
Out of the Catholic church has come
q large percentage of the devotional
literature of Christeudom. In times
past the Church has enabled thousands
upon thousands of passionate men and
women to live apart from and above the
life of the season. What we proudly
boast of as modern civilization would be
a civilization less civilized bad these not
been. ...
am simply true to history when
say that the monastic life stood, from
the fifth to the tenth or twelfth century
for what intelligence there was in Chris
tian Europe The monks were the con
servators OF letters in the fullest sense
They preserved to us not only the
Christian scripture, but much if not most
of what we call classic literature. The
Catholic church shares with the perse
cuted but fertile and indomitable Jews
the honor Of establishing most of the
great university systems of Europe.
It is in the domain Of science that the
| mistakes and errors of the Catholic
church are not apparent, but even here
she has record which only the ignorant
can afford to sheer at. We see chemistry
rising out of the crucibles Of the monk.
ish alchemists. The Catholic church has
done more tor the science of geography
than all the other forms of modern
learning. Catholic missionaries nave
been the explorers of history. Modern
civilization rests not only upon letters
and science, but upon industrial arts
The modern artisan is the direct de-
cendents Of the monks. The artisan
grew into the artist, and modern art is
"A