The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1902-07-05

are educated and in every way worthy
men, and are no doubt doing all they
can to uplift their people in the char
acter of life they live in and out of the
church..
The natives of those Islands were no
higher in the scale of civilization when
Catholic missionaries went there than
were our American Indians 300 years
ago. A contrast between the results
obtained viii show that the influence of
the Catholic church in those years has
been productive of more good than that
of Protestant missionaries among the
Indians. Those, who survive, are still
at zero. Their primitive instincts are
unchanged. They are held as wards
beyond the confines of civilization. and
if they no longer go on the warpath l.
is because they are too few in number,
or are restrained by the law of fear.
1t is not so in the Philippines We
again quote from the address of Mr..
Carlisle 10 mis- fellow ministers:
I'm any consideration of this question
we must take into account the material
on which the work of the Catholic
church has been done. I have found
marked difference in the morals and
character of the people of Manila and
the people of Dagupan, 12O miles north
of Manila. The Catholic church has
been at work for two centuries or more
in Manila, while its influence at the
other point is of comparatively recent
date. AS an illustration of the clinical
material, take the Negrote Qittle ne
gro), a semi-savage of North Luzon.
may have some conception of the prob
ability of the Negrote being wrought
into a Catholic Christian and of the
time and labor expended in doing it, or
a Christian plus episcopacy. Perhaps,
too. a Christian plus rivers of water
Mayhap a Christian plus a discipline
But even the possibility of working this
nature into an accredited Presbyterian
appals me. If, instead OF the friars
and the class of ecclesiastics, the Cath
Ole church had had in all these years
such men as now constitute its army of
churchmen in these islands, the Fill
ipinos would be noted for their intelli-
gence and progressive spirit"
This is a candid admission. 1t is true,
too. Mr.. Carlisle brings in the "if' as a
saving clause. The friars to whom the
'if'' is applied are free agents, and the
Catholic church cannot control mans
free will. That is a gift of the AL
mighty and cannot be controlled by the
bayonet Judas, when he betrayed his
Master, was a free agent, and Jesus
left him free. So were the friars whose
faults are exaggerated.
1.-The evil that men do lives after
them,
The good is oft inferred with their
bones."
The Catholic, following his instinct
and guided by the teaching of the
church, would apply that convenient
little word eff differently from Rev.
Mr.. Carlisle. He would say, IF the
friars," who made a vow of poverty,
which meant selling all they had and
giving it to the poor, instead of accu-
mulating property, followed the spirit
of the law, remained poor in reality as
well as IN name, the Filipinos would
today love them. Their mistake was in
laying up treasures which sooner or
later will be consumed by the moth,
or taken by robbers" Wherein is the
Catholic church responsible for this?
Neither in her creed nor system of
morals does she sanction greed or ava
rice. Why not stop it? Why did not
Christ stop the avarice which forced
Judas TO betray him? But supposing
the allegiance of the Filipinos is
weakened for or drawn away from the
Catholic church, what will be the re-
suit? Regardless of consequences that
is the hope of some zealots who con-
slider their mission fulfilled if they sue
coed not in making converts, but in I'M
making Catholics. They are disturb
ing element who consider themselves
specially commissioned to reform the
world, remodel society and set them
selves up as the only true ideals to be
followed. To attain their end they will
not only exaggerate, but tell false
hoods. A pious missionary from Utah
once told in a public lecture in the
east that he went into the pulpit with
the Bible in one hand and a pistol in
the other to save his life" But Mr.
Carlisle, who aims to be fair and would
not, if possible, add one discordant note
to the efforts of the civil authorities
to secure peace in the islands, says:
This thought of eXpediency impels
me to say, and frankly and candidly,
that in these present conditions, 1 am
assured that any Protestant mission
airy campaign, aggressive in its atti-
tude, as it must be necessarily, to the
prevailing religious status, will prove a
very disturbing element at a critical
moment in the settlement of difficult
civil and governmental problems.
There is, as we know, a complicated
state of things in these islands, and
the adjustment of the questions in
volved, inconsonance with our declara-
lions as a people, is taxing the skill
and tact and patience of the represent
tatives of our civil and military au-
thorities. 1t is certainly inexpedient, to
say the least, TO thrust into it the him
dering, disturbing elements attending
a religious campaign. If it is anything,
the Protestant church is moderator
Of passions, and an arbiter of peace.
As Christians here at home we have
intense contempt for the Protestant
who. in speech or act. reproaches the
Catholic or his religion, and we utterly
despise the religious kidnaper in the
Protestant church; nor making. any
great difference in the principle of
stealing $40 or the theft of proselyte.
Tho ,-en.u "a Of Tint &c pr.ntnStnrts