The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1901-09-21

all the power and glory and wealth
of the Egyptian monarchy. Does this
prove that the God of Jacob was a
false god and that Osiris was the true
divinity to be worshiped? 1t does
prove it, according to the prosperity
theory, unless it's advocates say again
that God has changed, and that al
though poverty and persecution were
once the paths to His favor, in our
day wealth and luxury and avarice
are the proofs of His special regard.
Again, for three centuries the disci-
pies of Christ were poor, despised
and prosecuted people. Although they
have been looked up to by all succeed
ing ages as the most perfect models
: Christian virtue, they were desti-
tute of prosperity, either personal or
national. This prosperity, this strange
evidence of the possession of the true
religion, was found in those days i'm
pagan Rome alone. For she, indeed,
had received the DEVILS promise, and
all the kingdoms of the world and the
glory of them were hers. Therefore,
according to the non Ca holic test, God
frowned upon the worship of the poor
and despised Christian in the cata-
combs and looked with delight upon
the smoking sacrifices laid on the al
tars of the heather divinities.
But let us come to later times.
What power was dominant in two
hemispheres three centuries ago? Into
whose Golfers flowed the gold gathered
from the four quarters Of the globe:
1t was Spain, and Spain, too, just
when her Catholicity was most fer
vent, and was doing most in perme,
ating the lives and moulding the char
acter of her people. What answer
have our friends to this objection to
their notion that Catholicism of neces,
sity entails poverty, ignorance and
degradation upon a nation? None that
we can see but this-that God must
have changed once more, and that
while He favors the Protestant peoples
in the nineteenth century because they
possess the true Christian faith, in the
sixteenth century He was pleased to
pour out the blessings of wealth and
power and magnificence upon nation
whose religion was in Ills sight Il
mass of Ignorant, degrading, SOUL
destroying superstitions.
Once more, what becomes of the
theory when applied to nations that
were once almost as powerful and pro-
gressive as was Spain, but have sunk
almost, If not quite, to her present
level? Holland once had splendid CO.
lonial possessions in widely different
parts of the earth. But she has lost
them and has shrunk to the dimen-
sions of her own insignificant home
land. Yet she was, and still is,
staunchly Protestant. But if it is Prot
estantism that eXalts and Catholicism
that debases people, how is 1t that
each has produced the same unhappy
result in these two different cases?
SO, too, Sweden once had a command
ing Influence in the affairs of the
world. But now she has little more
than Greece or Turkey. Yet she en-
braced and still clings TO the principles
Of the Reformation.
Look. too, at Russia, perhaps the
most ambitious as well as the mighti-
est and most progressive of all the
world powers, progressive ut least in
all that goes to make a nation the
dominating factor in the affairs of the
world. NapoleM's prediction that she
would one day rule the continent seems
first uttered. II, then, there he any
truth in the national prosperity the
Dry, here again it's advocates must
swallow their own words. For upon
their principles the case of Russia
proves that it is neither Professionalism
nor Catholicism, but the faith Of the
Greek church, that is most pleasing to
God.
But a word more upon another oh
lection to the prosperity theory. 1t
is the flippant, cocksure way in which
its advocates decide off-hand Il ques-
tion so complicated and difficult as to
require the highest degree Of learning,
critical analysis and good judgment to
answer it we'll and wisely. 1t is the
question of the manifold causes that
lead to the decline and fall of once
powerful nation. We do not purpose
to say anything about 1t, except to
show that causes more reasonable and
sufficient than their religion may gen
orally be assigned for the material
progress or decay Of nations.
Why, for instance, should England's
commercial supremacy be credited to
the Reformation, when it can be read
! lily accounted for by her abundance
of coal and iron, and by the modern
! applications of steam to navigation
by which her finished products can be
easily and quickly carried to all the
markets Of the world? Protestant as
she is. where would her commerce be
If she had no more coal or iron thar
Switzerland, and no more coast line
than Bavaria? Here. too. we may ash