The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1903-02-07
THE BIBLE SOCIETIES.
Why the Catholic Church Opposes
Them.

Why is it that the Catholic Church
is so hostile to the efforts of the Bible
societies? Is it dislike for Gods Holy
Word? Every Catholic knows that
such is not, such cannot be the case.
The Catholic Church has too much
love and veneration for all that comes
from it's Creator and Redeemer. The
Catholic Church loves Gods Holy
Word too much to expose it to the
nameless horror and frightful indig-
| mites to which it has been subjected
by the action of the societies in dis
tributing millions of copies through
out the world.
OF the results of this action will
give few examples. Archdeacon
Grant in his hampton Lectures, c. 3,
p. 50, tells us: 1.-The cause of the eager
ness which has sometimes been evinc-
ed to obtain the sacred volume cannot
be traced to a thirst for the Word of
Life, but to secular purposes, the I'M
hallowed uses to which the Holy Word
of God, left in their hands, has been
turned, and which are absolutely
shocking to any Christian feeling"
"They have been SEEM" says Dr.
Wells Williams. son the counters of
shops i'll Macao, cut in two for wrap
ping up medicines and fruits, which
the shopman would not do with the
worst of his own books" 'They are
employed" said Bishop Courrazy, ito
roll round tobacco and bacon" Whole
cases of them were sold by auction
and purchased, says another eye-wit-
ness. at the price of old paper, chiefly
by the shoemakers, groccrs and drug
gists. Mr.. Tomlin admits that the
Chinese often stole them at night to
apply them to domestic purposes. and
hat some Of the missionaries appeared
to consider this theft an encourage
ing proof of their zeal for Divine
things. Marclini tells us from actual
observation that they are sold by the
weight to shoemakers to make Chinese
slippers, and then goes on to express
his establishment, because "the Eng
lish, who display so much discern
ment and accuracy Of Judgment in
other matters,' should allow them
selves to be the dupes of salaried spec
tators or visionary enthusiasts.
GLOW degrading is the idea," says
a Protestant writer in the Asiatic
Journal (vol. tx. p. 343), ITO put into
the hands of every Chinese bargeman
or illiterate porter package of tracts,
to sell or give away on his journey as
he pleases."
So rapid is the consumption of
Bibles in the various branches of the
retail trade in Hindostan that of the
millions circulated it is difficult, ex-
cept in the capitals, to find so much
as the trace of single copy. This we
are told by Captain ]. B. Seely in The
Wonders of Flora, c. 10, p. 524. second
edition. "Many of them have probably
gone to the pawnbrokers," said Sir
Charles Oakeley, Governor of Madras
In Ceylon they We're used for much
| the same purposes as in India and
| China.
In New Zealand the Maories, ac-
cording to Mr.. Fox, tore up the
Bibles to make wadding for their
guns, and even went so far, as Miss
Tucker Indignantly informs us, as to
convert them into New Zealand cart
ridges. In Africa, on the West Coast
at Gaboon, after grand distribution
of Bibles by the missionaries among
the negroes, as soon as the sacred
book had fallen into the hands of the
children, Nj. Besseux saw the leaves of
the Bible converted into pretty kites
ANNALS Of Propagation of Faith, vol.
viii, p. 75). Colonel Napier's tale is
that the Kaffirs converted lately. to
our cost, the missionary Bibles into
ball cartridges or wadding. In Tetuan
u