The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1901-07-27
General Alpheus Baker Tells How 1t Met
and Overcame Barbarism in
Bygone Times.
In the Course of His Address He Praises
Ireland for Her Fidelity
to the Faith.

On the occasion of the jubilee Of
Pope Plus IN, June 3, 1877, Il re-
mnrllable GRAFTON was delivered by Il
Protestant gentleman, General Alphcus
Baker, in the city Of Montgomery, Ala.
The words and sentiments are as ele-
waited as though they came from con-
secrated lips. General Baker spoke Of
the wonderful work and progress Of the
Catholic church, and said among other
things:
And yet in that day, rs in this, it
was through calumIl. alton and suffer
ing and otIcn martyrdom that the
church was forced to pass. For 1t.
st. Peter himself had to die upon the
cross. And he, who had tremblcd be-
fore servant maid in the porch of
Pilates palace, when charged with ever
the compnnionslip of the meek Naza-
rene, craving but the privilege of be-
ing nailed to his cross with his head
down, in token of humiliation below
sake with that death -defying spirit Of
the martyr, which has been demanded
Of many since in the long line of his
SUCCESSORS, and which fires the uncOn-
qucrable soul of the illustrlous one
who keeps watch for the church ut his
tomb today.
The course of Christianity, 1t is true,
is sometimes traced with difficulty III
the darkness and confusion of those
early days of illitcrcy and violence
through which it had to pass. But,
as the direction Of an army, now and
then Obscurcd by smoke and dust, or
lost to view from intervening obstacles,
is best observed by watching the stand
ard that is carried Mt its head, so the
course Of Christianity, the advance Of
its steady columns of eternal truth,
confronting everywhere the enemies Of
civilization, innocence and society, is
most surely indicated by that cheering
ensign, flashing perpctually through
hlstory's thickest gloom, which has
been steadily borne aloft through all
the ages, at the head Of the church, by
the Holy Father of the faithful. or
that ensign, thus upheld, history has
never for moment lost the sight.
For eighteen hundred years it has been
cOnspicuously visible in every crisis Of
civilization.
We see 1t there before the tent of
Alaric, when its senate and the EN-
peror were helpless, twice save Rome
from sack and pillage. And when that
powerful barbarian, upon his third and
last invasion, had in the night burst
through the Salaran gate into the city,
and by the light Of palaces which had
been set OH fire, turned his wild hordes
loose to slaughter and to rapine, we see
again that banner defending the So
cred vessels of the churches of st.
Peter and st. Paul, and with them a
multitude of terrOr-stricken women
and children, who in that night of
horrors crowd around that only sanctu-
ary, as by the order of Alaric a bar
barian guard, mingling their savage
shouts with Christian hymns, escort
the sacred and the golden treasure,
through ruin and fire, safely across the
wide diameter of Rome, and place it,
and the trembling throng that follows,
unharmcd within the hcaven-defcndcd
fortress of the Vatican.
Again we catch the sight of it, in the
bold hands OF Pope Leo the Great, as
he goes out from shuddcring Rome to
confront Attila, the Calmuck tiger, who
called himself "the scourgc of Cod"
and striking terror to even his heart
with those thunderbolts which un.
armed justice and holiness can WELD,
warns him away from Rome and turns
aside the whirlwind with feather!
We hear people Of this enlightened
age, Judging all things by its stand
ard, talk about the ignorance and su,
pcrstition of the church Of Rome in
the dark ages. But an immortal au-