The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1914-02-14
CONTINUED from page ~
WILFRID WARD AND CARDINAL
NEWMAN.

he had undertaken proved a failure.
Among his former Anglican friends
he was deemed a traitor; in the
Church of his adoption he was sus-
pected, distrusted, and lived, as he
said himself: under cloud The
university he attempted to found in
Ireland proved a failure, his much
heralded translation of the Holy
Scriptures came to nothing. The mag
aZine called the Rambler, which he
started soon fell under the ban be-
cause of dangerous intellectualism if
not for .'heretical leanings' Doubt
had been thrown on his whole-hearted
loyalty in the matter of the Temporal
Power. And while English Catholics
for the most part suspected him, while
political and ecclesiastical circum-
stances made him out a failure, he
penned the following lines in his jour-
nal: Not star in my sky is now
left shining but thee, o st. Philip!
My God! when shall l learn that
have so parted with the world, as
never again to make friends with it!'
This is the cry of a human spirit
bowed to the very earth beneath a
weight of misfortune and sorrow.
Newman continues: I am writing on
my knees and in Gods sight No one
putting his hand to the plow and
looking back, is worthy of the king
dom of heaven. And yet, o Lord, be
gracious unto me for the way has
grown dark, and trouble and sorrow
and defeat and disappointment have
come upon me. Yet have 1 remem-
bered my creator in the days of my
youth; I have not wilfully opposed
cause felt it was Thy holy will. Yet
now 1 have no friend at Rome; l have
labored in England only to be mis-
represented, backbitten and scorned.
I have labored in Ireland with a door
ever shut in my face. l seem to have
failure for my portion wherever l go
and in whatever I undertake, and
what I have done we'll has been mis-
understood. But, o my Dear Lord,
Thou can'st make it otherwise. In
the Blessed Sacrament is my great
consolation. Thou canst give me
grace to endure. Thou Who didst
lead me in my youth to Thy Holy
Tabernacle, wilt not desert me in my
old age Thy hand is not straight
ened that it cannot save. What now
feel Thy Servants have from the
earliest times felt before me; Job and
Moses and Habacuc felt as I feel
thousands of years ago, and am able
to plead with Thee in their never
dying words o Lord! remember me
in this dark, this terrible hour of my
affliction'"
1t is tragic cry from the depths
a tragic prayer similar to that uttered
on the Ash-Heap or in the winter
gloom of Valley Forge or beneath the
Olive Trees. 1t is the "de profundis"
of David with David's beautiful faith
and trust in the mercies of God. The
supreme lesson taught in Newman's
darkest hour is his absolute trust
and confidence in God.
The Lifted Cloud.
After the long night glorious
morning broke with all the glory of
second spring or resurrection. The
Apologize came, and then the Car
dinal's hat, and the cloud was lifted
forever
The biography of Newman will re-
pay careful reading and study The
literary style of Wilfrid Ward, so ele-
CANT and refined, makes the subject.
matter doubly interesting. Yet quite
apart from the classic beauty and fin.
ish of the literary dress, the reader
will become absorbed more and more
in the theme itself-the story of a
life replete with the deepest moral
and religious lessons-the story of a
Man sent by God to restore the true
faith to England.