The Irish standard., 1899-11-25
REFLECTED IN PROTESTANT MIRRORS
The Benevolent Old Lady Who is
Distributing Tracts.
HALF=PAY OFFICER AS EVANGELIST
The Man Who is the Gem of the
Entire Collection.

In a recent address at Birmingham,
England, Rev. ]. Mcintyre, D. D., ol
Oscott College, delivered an address on
Looking Glasses" in which he said in
part:
"Now, looking glasses are OF various
kinds and qualities. Some looking
glasses give back a reflection clear and
precise and definite, and man can
know what he is like Ladies never
look at one, OF course. daughter and
applause.) But there arc some other
looking glasses which distort the figure
they are supposed to reflect, and instead
oi a portrait give simply a caricaturc.
Everybody knows what he looks like
when he tries TO see himself i'll a spoon.
Nov, the Catholic Church is a great
factor in the public life OF the world
The Catholic Church has her own iea-
lures, and her own figure, but those
features and that figure vary upon mir
rors OF different kinds, and we know
how distorted is the picture which is
painted Of the Catholic Church when
she is supposed to be reflected from
minds that are not Catholic. When we
read the public press. when we read the
periodicals that are poured out in count
less numbers, what grotesquc carica-
lures do we find OF that great, that
noble, that divine institution which we
know the Catholic Church to be. To-
night l propose to set before you some
half dozen Of the caricaturcs OF the
Catholic Church, which in the world
outside sometimes stand for true, au-
thentic portraits l am going to look
at number OF mirrors-non-C Catholic
mirrors-and see what picture OF the
Catholic Church is drawn on them.
"The first, I think, will be that OF the
benevolent old lady. She is brought up
in the old orthodox school. She reads
no book that was not a hundred years
of age when she was child. Her
thoughts live in the distant past. She
scarcely knows anything of Catholic
emancipation, and perhaps has never
even heard OF home rule. She lives in
little world of her own, yet she is
large-hcarted, very sympathetic. She
subscribes generously to those number
less institutions that are formed in this
practical country of England, to send
out to the blacks OF Africa or the Equa-
tor trousers which they do not want
and moral pocket handkerchiefs which
they cannot read. She subscribes, 1 say,
generously to all these things, but what
she delights in most is in tract distrib-
uting. She is thorough believer in
tracts. She thinks those poor benight-
ed Papists' only want a little OF the
illumination OF divine truth in order to
be converted in shoals, and she lays in
a large supply Of tracts. They have
wonderful titles these tracts, if you have
ever seen any OF them. There is The
Woodcn-lcggcd Sailor Qaughter), or
Virtue Triumphant Another will be
The Pious Washcrwonan OF Finchlcy
Common Rcncwcd laughtcr.) Well,
the old lady is fond OF going about and
leaving these tracts in the waiting rooms
at railway stations, in omnibuscs, and
anywhere, where she hopes some casual
passcr- -by-a Catholic-wil take it up
and be enlightened. On ioggy nights,
perhaps, she may be observed stealing
along some quiet Catholic street push
ing a tract under the door, and her face
beams even through the fog with Il glow
OF heavenly delight as of one who has
been performing most apostolic ac-
ton. Well, the old 1adys face beams
because she thinks that every tract is
like a pinch OF salt which she has clcv-
crly put on the tail OF the simple Cath
olic bird. (Laughtcr.)
"The next mirror that would come
before us might be described as the
mirror of the moral Don Quixotc. The
moral Don Quixote is generally a half
pay officer who has come back from
abroad with shattered liver, and in
consequence he is very fiery, very i'll
tempered and exceedingly peppery.
daughter and applause.) Shattered in
health, all his vices have left him, and
he is under the impression that he has
left his vices. and in consequence he
suffers from deal OF moral exaltation.
He is a great hero for the pure Word
OF Cod He may be found very fire.
quently at Bible meetings, laundering