Chapter XVII (7)

And they did meet very often. Madge spent the summer at Newport, and Mr. Grey's cottage was near her guardian's lovely home. I suppose there is truth in the old and familiar theory of elective affinities; for the strength of his nature seemed to absorb her gentle, loving trust, and her impulsive, passionate heart was entirely swayed by his steady, strong affection; in truth, each chord felt the echo from his. And so, in the autumn, I was not surprised when she pointed to a magnificent _solitaire_ diamond on the forefinger of her left hand, and told me that she had promised to be the wife of Newton Grey.

They had returned to New York, and Madge and Mr. Grey were looking over a portfolio of engravings at the further end of the library, while I sat smoking in front of the bright coal-fire, dreaming day-dreams, as the smoke curled and floated away, when suddenly the door opened and Henry Elsdon came in. I shall never forget the look that, only for one single moment, darkened his features; only for an instant his face looked thus, and then, with a quick, soft step, he crossed the library, and _suavely_ joined the circle around the engravings. {841} I could see that Newton Grey would never stoop to suspect him; but Madge recoiled from him, for there was not the slightest affinity between such natures.

"Uncle Hal," she told me one morning, "I always feel that I ought to cross myself when Henry Elsdon comes near me, that I may pray to be saved from some impending evil."

And my lamb was right, for truly a wolf did prey near for her destruction.

Business called me to the South, and I left New York to breathe the balmier air of Charleston. It was a delicious winter, that soft season in the sunny South. Violets in the gardens in December, and the scarlet winter roses and sweet mignonette brightening the lovely villa--like houses on the battery.

I was slowly descending the stone steps that led from the beautiful cathedral, while the last echoes of the bishop's gentle voice yet rang in my ears, when a letter was put into my hands by my friend Colonel Everett. I did not open it then, but strolled down Broad street, to the Mills House, and in my pleasant room I sat down to enjoy Madge Cecil's confidence. Imagine my horror as I read:

"Come to me, dear Uncle Hal, for God alone can strengthen me in this fearful sorrow. I cannot understand, but yesterday Mr. Grey left me after a short visit, and to-day they tell me that he is dead. I hear low whisperings of a terrible sin, of which Henry Elsdon is guilty. For my dead mother's sake, come and aid your desolate Madge."

I left that evening, and on Saturday held my darling in my arms. Then the whole story in its fearful detail was repeated. Henry Elsdon had wished to marry my ward, but she had refused him, some time before her engagement with Newton Grey. Elsdon's pride was piqued, and he determined to be revenged. Then began a system of deceit that was Machiavelian; for with subtle skill he won Grey's friendship, till at last, in one unguarded moment, he dared to speak lightly of Madge. In an instant Grey rose, his face white with a terrible calm:

"I am in my own rooms, Mr. Elsdon, therefore you are safe; but you must feel that each word that you have uttered shall be retracted, else there can be but one settlement."

"And, by God! there shall be but one settlement!" And Elsdon's face glared with hate.

And so in the code that teaches murder--cold, passionless, brutal murder--they sought refuge; and Newton Grey fell, pierced through the temples.

Sorrows seem truly convoyed on this ocean of life, this sea of wild unrest; for in a few months Mr. Alan lost his fortune, and, of course, my ward's wealth was also engulfed in the great whirlpool of ruin.

A strange suspicion clouded my heart, and with an intuition of the truth, I felt that I could single out the demon who had spread destruction in this home.

But with the suavity of deceit, he subtly turned aside the tide of censure, so justly his due, and the world even forgave him for the duel; for strange travestied stories floated through the city. Who gave them to the public? I felt, I knew that Henry Elsdon had only added to the infamy which weighed upon his soul; but as yet the avenger had not struck, the race of hell had not been accomplished! ...

It was the exciting winter of '60 -- December, 1860! South Carolina had torn herself from her sisters, and Washington was in a ferment. Crowds congregated at the hotels to watch the opening of a season fraught with destiny. {842} Men with reckless, evil passions increased the excitement; for cognac burned and whiskey infuriated, and the whole mass of humanity seemed consumed by the one madness, mutual hate!

It was the evening of the 27th of December. The telegraph had spread the news of Anderson's evacuation of Fort Moultrie, and the agitation was culminating in effort. There is a season when enthusiasm pulses, till the wild madness intoxicates all feeling; then some sudden crowding on of events drives the fierce current into action, and the mighty mass heaves and surges with one will, one heart, for the conflict; and so it was to night. I stood on the corner of Pennsylvania avenue and Seventh street, watching the changing faces which the gas-light flared upon, when a woman's voice in wild terror startled me. "In the name of the cross, forbear!" she cried. And I turned to see a face pale with fear and horror. In an instant I was beside her; she held the cross of her rosary toward the man who had dared, not only to insult a woman, but one of God's ministering angels, those pure spirits of comfort, the Sisters of Mercy.

I struck the brute from her, but not without recognizing the features, even though inflamed and distorted by liquor. She almost fainted in my arms, but I placed her in my sister's carriage, just then passing, and ordered it to drive to the address which she gave.

What there was in the tones of that woman's voice I could not explain to myself; but a sad chord vibrated till the echoes waked in my heart feelings that I thought were sleeping quietly in a jealously guarded grave of the past. ...

Four years had gone by since that night, and the war that shook this continent had closed; ended were the years that had brought their holocaust, the proof of the calibre of the men who had died on the field of honor.

Grant's triumphant legions garrisoned the Confederate capital, and I was appointed surgeon in charge of ---- Hospital, where the sick and wounded of both armies were tended by the Sisters of Mercy.

The intense heat of those early summer days I can never forget, and the poor fellows in blue and gray tossed from side to side on the narrow cots in the fever wards. It was my night in ---- Hospital, for I was appointed to relieve Dr. ----, and I observed a "sister" bending over a patient whose white face and faint voice told me that his hours were numbered.

"Sister Mary," said the feeble tones, "will you bathe my temples? they burn and throb as fiercely as my own heart. Sister, can a vile wretch ask you to stand near when he is dying? Sister, you who are pure and holy, tell me if God will pardon me?"

"He came to save sinners!" I heard the low voice whisper. And she smoothed back the tangled masses of dark, waving hair, and tenderly soothed the poor fevered brow on which the dews of death were gathering. "Stay near me, sister. Let me hold your hand, while I listen to your voice, that recalls one in the long ago. O God! look down in mercy!"

And she whispered sweet words of comfort that calmed the unrest of sin and shame.

"Sister, if I could give all the years that I have wasted, if I would toil and struggle and pray for pardon, would Christ have mercy upon one whose years are heavily weighted with sin?"

"Repent, and ye shall be saved."

{843}

"Ah God! I do repent, and if a thousand years of suffering could atone for all, I would not shrink from a single pang. Sister," and he turned and held her hand closer, and gazed long and anxiously into her half-averted face. "My God! can it be?" But she turned further into the shadowy twilight, and her face was almost hidden. "Sister, I must tell you, because there is something in your tone and look, though I cannot see you well, that brings her back to me; so be patient for a little while and do not leave me yet. In the long ago I loved, and she whom I worshipped gave me no return. I think that circumstances might have moulded her differently, though my selfish passions taught me then to care for little, save what contributed to my own gratification. Well, I watched her love for another, and the devil influenced me; he stole away my truth, my love, my honor! I was mad with jealousy, I was wild with disappointed love, and I swore to be revenged. Therefore the schemes I laid, the deceit I practised; ay, I bided well my time. I stole the friendship of her lover, and poured my poison into his ears; but his noble nature shamed me, his trust could not be shaken; then--ah! how well I remember the evening--I spoke of her as my heart never believed; I lied, wickedly, maliciously lied, upon her! Then his knightly spirit rose, and he fell by my hand! I had begun; the poison was maddening; I could not stop, even though murder barred my path; so I counselled her guardian as to investments, and in one mad moment her fortune crashed with his.

"Still I tracked her on her mission of mercy to Washington; I dogged her steps when she left the couch of the sick woman whose death agonies she had soothed; I stood near the door of the wretched hovel, listening to the sweet tones of her voice that is haunting me to-night; and--I hardly knew what I was doing, I only felt that there was yet something undone which might humble her, might place her at my mercy; hell's fires raged in my heart--and, may God forgive me, but I spoke words to her which no man should utter and live. But she escaped me, and was torn from my grasp, while her pallid face grew whiter still as she spoke in terror, 'In the name of the cross, forbear!'

"Since that evening, I have never seen her face; but, sister, to-night all her saintly purity comes back to shame me, and I feel that the flames of hell would be less fiery if I could hear her say, 'I forgive you!'" There was a brief pause; the twilight of June shadowed the whitewashed wards, and the young moon shed a soft light over the starry heavens; but was it a message that flashed from Our Lady's crown, that lit the pallet over which the sister leaned? Ay, the face of Guido's angel, the angel of the lilies, shone over the dying man, as the sweet voice whispered, "Do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you."

"Her voice!" he cried. And a sudden strength seemed to possess him; for, seizing her hand, he pushed back the black bonnet, and whispered, "Madge Cecil, dare I pray for your pardon?"

"And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. Amen." And she gave him her crucifix, which he pressed to his lips.

"Then let me die in your faith; for, if its doctrines teach you even to forgive me, then through the prayers of your church will God grant mercy to my soul." He fainted in her arms, and she summoned me.

"Dr. ----, take care of him till my return."

{844}

I had heard it all, but she failed to recognize me. Grief had whitened my hair, and an iron-gray beard covered my face; and I preferred that she should not know me yet Soon I saw her return with Father Baker. My cordial had revived Elsdon, and in faint voice he repeated his wish.

"Let me be received, father, into the communion of the Holy Catholic Church, and pray God to have mercy on my soul."

The time was short, and no precious moment of it was to be lost. The good priest proceeded at once to his work of preparing the poor man for death. His penitence seemed sincere and profound, and his desire for the sacraments of the church most earnest. They were at once administered to him; and on his fervently expressed wish that the holy viaticum might be permitted to him, it was brought.

A snowy linen cloth was spread on the table by his bed, and two candles placed beside the crucifix. Solemnly we gathered near, for we felt that his life was fast fleeting. I have never seen nor realized more of the agony of contrition than when he slowly repeated after the priest, suffering at each word most intensely, "Jesus, Son of the living God, have mercy upon me!" At last he grew calmer. A quiet peace rested on his pale face, and after receiving the most holy communion, he murmured faintly, "Jesus, have mercy on me! Holy Mary, pray for me!" and folding the crucifix to his heart, he closed his eyes and we thought he slept. A deathlike stillness reigned, broken only by the solemn tones of the priest's voice: "Into thy hands we commend his spirit, which has been created and redeemed by thee!"

And in that pentecostal hour, when the storm of her life wailed its wild requiem in her heart, a holy calm, as a message from God, glorified her exquisite face, for the Comforter had sealed her with the expiation--the working out of life's great charity-- "Do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you."

--------------

The Rights Of Catholic Women.

By A Lady.

[We took occasion, some months ago, to sketch a number of the
charitable works of Paris, in the hope of stirring the
emulation of some of our leisured, zealous, and wealthy
fellow-citizens to undertake something of the kind in this
densely crowded city. The correspondent whose communication is
given below, and whose contributions have often graced our
pages, has felt her soul stirring with the same impulse in
visiting Catholic Europe. Her earnest words came appropriately
after the letter we published last month respecting a Refuge or
Central Mission-House for vagabond children. There lies an open
field where hundreds may work without jostling each other; and
we hope this iron may be hammered while it is hot into a
practical shape, and not merely serve as a poker to a useless
fire of sentimental philanthropy. There is nothing like
reducing the abstract to the concrete, sentiment to work,
resolution to definite action.

{845}

We venture to suggest something else, also, to those of our
fair readers who may be awakened to a desire of claiming their
woman's rights by the appeal of their gifted countrywoman. It
is practical, and yet not so difficult, as sending checks for
one thousand dollars, or searching the streets for vagrant
children. A society exists in Paris for making and embroidering
vestments and other ornaments for the altars of poor churches
and missions. Why not inaugurate the same work among the ladies
of New York, for the benefit, first, of small country churches
and chapels in our own diocese, and secondarily of similar
churches elsewhere? We cannot rival Paris by a sudden _coup
de main_ or accomplish everything in a day. But it is
possible to make a beginning with one necessary work of charity
after another, and to bring them gradually to the colossal
dimensions which want and misery and vice have attained without
any effort.--Ed. C. W.]

In _The Atlantic Monthly_ of April and May, 1868, appeared a generous and high-toned article, entitled "Our Roman Catholic Brethren," in which the author, appreciating the fact that no one can lose ground by treating with justice those who differ from him in opinion, frankly recognized the noble struggles of our priesthood and the success with which they have been crowned.

One assertion in this article we shall venture to comment upon, making this the occasion for a few suggestions to the Catholic women of the United States, whose right to share the labors of Catholic men is inalienable and incontestable, being founded upon the unvarying teaching of the church.

The author, in speaking of a missionary bishop whom he had known and respected as an "absolute gentleman," an "exquisite human being," in whom all the frailties springing from self-love had been consumed, leaving the "whole man kind, serene, urbane, and utterly sincere," concludes thus: "_A Catholic priest, indeed, would be much to blame if he failed to attain a high degree of serenity, moral refinement, and paternal dignity;_" because, be it understood, he has neither family cares nor business anxieties to harass him.

Most assuredly true, so far as concerns priests in a Catholic country, where the ranks of the priesthood are full; perhaps true in a purely missionary country, where the priest, in his intervals of repose, communes with his only companions, God and nature; absolutely untrue when applied to a parish priest in the United States, drained of his spiritual riches all day, and often half the night, and for relaxation thrown sometimes upon the companionship of his inferiors. It is no uncommon thing to see a noble priest, at the very centre and core of life, when powers should be ripe, strength unbroken, hope and nerves unshaken, break down, crushed under the weight of work which should have been divided between several persons, leaving to each one work enough to occupy a man of average capacity, time for study, and time for the recuperation of his spiritual powers by prayer and meditation.

Now, where is the remedy for this? Not in a sufficient number of clergymen, because we cannot hope for such a blessing for many years to come. Not in a diminution of labor, thank God, for the domain of the church is constantly widening, and souls are clamoring more and more eagerly for the privileges of religion. {846} The assistance must come from the laity, not working each one after a fashion of his or her own, but in a systematic manner, doing the work recommended by the parish priest in the way most agreeable to him.

That the Conference of St. Vincent de Paul contains all the elements necessary for providing Catholic men with missionary work, we are well aware; therefore we address ourselves exclusively to Catholic women.

Early in February of the present year, on a radiant Roman day, the remains of Saint Ignatius, bishop and martyr, were brought in triumph to the Colosseum from their resting-place in San Clemente. There, where, 1758 years before, the cry had gone up from 80,000 spectators, "Ignatius to the lions!" the Litany of the Saints arose to heaven; there, where wild beasts had snarled over their consecrated prey, canonized bones lay on a gorgeous bier, surrounded by cardinals, bishops, priests, and religious, gathering about them in veneration. One, at least, of those who watched the scene from the crumbling galleries, asked herself eagerly if God has ceased to call upon his children for sacrifices, as he called upon the early Christians; and conviction answered. No; that, though martyrdom has a mysterious value in the eyes of the church, she tenderly loves those who patiently endure the pangs of "that incurable malady which we call life."

And the Christian passing through the catacombs of Rome to-day, pausing in silent awe beside the tombs of martyred virgins, mothers, children, and pontiffs, draws in with every breath the same glorious assurance which gave them strength to suffer--the assurance that God would have us serve him with every nerve and fibre of our being. He claims from the nineteenth century, as he claimed from the first, not, indeed, its blood, but its energies, its faith, its charity. He summons every soul capable of the sacrifice of self to a life in the catacombs, to a holy, interior solitude, where his inspirations can be distinctly heard, where the buzz and hum of the world are inaudible. And as, after the celebration of the sacred mysteries, the early Christians were dismissed, and sent back to the performance of their ordinary avocations, invigorated and renewed; so God releases such souls after communing with them, and sends them forth to work for him, setting upon them three signs to distinguish them from other laborers--peace, simplicity, and perseverance.

In the early ages the laity suffered martyrdom with the clergy. In our own day, the laity should share the labor of the clergy. We are not summoned to bear witness to God in one mighty confession of faith sealed with our blood; but we are bound to show our fidelity to him by lives of unremitting devotion, to lighten the burdens weighing on the priesthood, to do our utmost to leave them leisure for the direction of souls, and for those works of supererogation which are the very heart and pulses of a life consecrated to God.

There are four things which we do not wish to recommend to Catholic women; namely, neglect of domestic duties, overexertion on the part of invalids, indiscreet activity in recent converts, the undertaking of difficult enterprises by those who are not gifted with executive faculty.

Home is the training-school of souls, and a mother's chief duty is to her husband and children. The physically weak serve God by renunciation and sacrifice, hardest and noblest of all apostleships. Converts, generally speaking, should show their families, by tact, affection, fidelity to home duties, that conversion has only knit them more closely to old friends and to natural claims; and this is seldom consistent with much exterior activity soon after conversion. It is very rarely advisable to undertake any work of importance without the advice of a judicious confessor; a just appreciation of one's personal strength and weakness is too rare a gift to be relied upon as a right.

{847}

It is our misfortune in the United States that the number of communities is very small in proportion to the work to be done; but though a clergyman would rather receive assistance from religious than from any one else, he would gratefully accept the aid of women of the world, provided they were possessed of judgment, tact, and perseverance.

To take up a charitable enterprise from love of excitement and lay it aside just as one's assistance had become valuable, would not be a proceeding modelled on the actions of the early Christians.

To make one's way into a public institution to patients or prisoners in a manner at variance with the regulations of the establishment, would not tend to advance the cause of religion.

To foster the whims of the poor and excite in them false wants, would add to their sufferings, not lessen them.

All these mistakes may easily be made by well-meaning persons who have not prudence. With fidelity, modesty, and common sense, it is impossible to make serious blunders, and it is possible to do a great deal of good without the sacrifice of much time or comfort.

Those who have health and leisure can work for the church; those who are too busy or too ill to undertake missionary labor can pray for the church. All who have an hour to spend or an ave and pater to recite, or an ache or a pain to offer to Almighty God, can do their share of the blessed work.

Without questioning the fact that the highest of all vocations is the call to a religious life--conceding the point that the work done by women has been usually better done by religious than by women of the world--we think there is a tendency to deny, to that obligation resting upon us all to do the work God marked out for us, the name of _vocation_, unless it leads us to a life in the community or to marriage. We venture to predict that an important share is to be taken in the work of the church in this country by women who have neither a vocation to join a religious order nor to marry.

There is a correspondence between the various vocations of religious orders and those of persons living in the world. Let us read over the golden record, and decide which path we are called to follow. There are the working orders, Sisters of Charity, of Mercy, of the Good Shepherd; the teaching orders, Ursulines, Sisters of the Visitation, Ladies of the Sacred Heart, and that sweetest of orders, the Sisters of Notre Dame, whose fame is hidden behind humility and obedience; and the contemplative orders, on whose prayers hang the fruit of thousands of energetic enterprises.

Most of the prisons, work-houses, and hospitals in the United States need the influence of judicious women. As such institutions are almost exclusively filled with poor people, and as more than half our poor people are Catholics, more than half the inmates of asylums, penitentiaries, etc., are Catholics; it is, then, a matter of justice that Catholic prisoners, patients, and paupers should be under Catholic influences. {848} Obedience to discipline is a principle most strongly inculcated by the church, and no consistent servant of the church will infringe the smallest regulation in any institution to which he has admission. When this truth is fully recognized, Catholic ladies will be allowed to visit freely all the public establishments in the Union. Let those who wish to do work corresponding to that of the working orders use all available opportunities for alleviating the sufferings and ameliorating the condition of the lower classes.

There are hosts of children who must learn the catechism; not after a parrot-like fashion, such as any ignorant person can teach it to them, but in a vital manner, so that the truth shall be set in their souls like a jewel, to be transmitted to future generations as a precious heritage. Every well-disposed and intelligent Catholic child can be sent forth from his course of instruction in the Sunday-school with the fervent determination to be a missionary in his own little sphere. Those who emulate the labors of the teaching orders have not far to seek for their work.

The Catholic literature of France, Germany, and Italy should be in general circulation in America, through the medium of good translations. Women are especially fitted to be translators. Their impressionable and adaptive minds make it easy for them to understand an author's thought and adopt his style. Let those who would follow in the footsteps of the contemplatives of earlier ages, whose leisure hours were given to writing for the benefit of religion, study critically their mother tongue and one other modern language, and thus unlock some of the treasures of foreign literature to those less gifted than themselves.

But enough, and more than enough for the present. We have sought to arouse a sense of the importance of the work to be done, not to explain the best method of accomplishing it. We have tried to show Catholic women what are their rights, leaving it to God to awaken in them a noble ambition to claim and appropriate those rights.

--------------

The Last Gasp Of The Anti-catholic Faction.

Protestantism and the Protestant denominations may be considered under two aspects. Under one aspect, the former is an imperfect Christianity, and the latter are societies professing each a certain form of this Christianity. As such we respect them, recognize the Christian and evangelical truths they retain, honor the virtue and goodness which are found among their adherents, and freely admit their great utility in many important particulars. We have no desire to wage a fierce polemical war upon them, but rather desire to discuss with them in a fraternal spirit the differences between us, the causes which keep us in separation, and the means of reconciliation and reunion.

Under the other aspect, the one is a denial of the first principles of Christianity, and the others are aggregations under the control of party-leaders whose principal object is the destruction of the church of Christ with its dogmas and discipline. {849} Although particular denominations do not avow a hostile intent toward all dogma and discipline, each one professing to maintain whatever it has selected as its constitutive principle out of the entire Christian system, yet the general sum and result of their combined efforts against the Catholic Church tends to the utter demolition of Christianity. This active, anti-Catholic Protestantism in our own day and country is principally confined to a comparatively small fraction of nominal Protestants. It is a wheel within a wheel, an _imperium in imperio_, a ring, a faction, very impotent, but extremely turbulent. The deadly quarrels of its component members with each other interfere materially with their unity of action against their common enemy. Now and then, however, a common sentiment seems to awaken in them that they had better postpone their private disputes until they have compassed by their united energies the fall of Babylon. Such a phenomenon has appeared quite recently in the ecclesiastical heavens. The newspapers of the principal sects have resounded with a call for united efforts on the part of Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Unitarians, etc., against the progress of the Catholic Church in the United States. Dr. Bellows, who is as restless as if he were pursued by the Eumenides, and who seems to get into a more uncomfortable frame of mind every day as he prosecutes his travels, sends over a loud call showing the necessity of doing something to preserve that Protestantism which it has been the business of his life to overwhelm with ridicule and contempt. The liberal papers, false to their reiterated protestations of hatred against orthodox Protestantism and sympathy with Catholics, re-echo the sound, which is taken up by one and another of the lowing presses in turn, until each one _quid lachrymabile mugit_. Dear friends, what is the matter? If you will permit the citation of a somewhat trite classical passage, permit us to ask, _Tantaene animis coelestibus irae?_ We have been much at a loss to divine the immediate exciting cause of such a sudden aggravation of symptoms in our domestic "sick man." We think, however, that we have at last discovered that we are the innocent cause ourselves, through a few little harmless tracts, which were intended as a poultice, but have proved, we suppose on account of the extreme irritability of the patient's skin, a violent blister. We made the discovery by reading the following circular, which we publish cheerfully, in order to promote as much as possible that free and lively discussion which our excellent friends at the Bible House desire:

(Private.)

American and Foreign Christian Union,
27 Bible House, New York,
June 17, 1868.

Mr. Editor:

Dear Sir: We are desirous of employing, in your journal, the
pen of one of your ablest contributors, in the fair and
thorough discussion of the recent publications and pretensions
of the Roman Catholic Church.

You have doubtless seen some of the popular tracts of the
"Catholic Publication Society." They have been circulated in
all parts of the country with great assiduity. They are very
ingenious and plausible, and very fallacious. It is matter of
common interest to all who love evangelical truth that these
fallacies should be promptly and effectively exposed.

{850}

We have a proposition to make which seems to us to be for the
mutual advantage both of your enterprise and of ours. If you
will send us the address of that one of your contributors or
collaborators whose papers on this subject will be most
acceptable to you and your readers, we will make proposals to
him for contributions to your journal, we supplying him with a
copy of the series of popular tracts of the "Catholic
Publication Society," and such other documents as he may need,
and paying for his literary labor at a generous rate of
compensation.

If you shall succeed in introducing us to writers on the Roman
Catholic controversy who are learned, accurate, and courteous,
and at the same time lively and effective in their popular
style, we shall hope to continue and renew an arrangement which
must be for the advantage of all the parties to it, and of the
great cause of Christian truth.

Yours respectfully,
J. Romeyn Berry,
H. C. Riley,
Leonard W. Bacon,
E. F. Hatfield,
Samuel I. Prime,

_Committee on Publications of the "American
and Foreign Christian Union_."

Naturally, we have been on the alert ever since receiving this interesting circular, expecting a rare treat from the articles to be furnished by the learned, courteous, lively, and well-paid contributors to the press who must have jumped at once at this handsome offer. We have not yet gathered in a very ample collection of choice _morçeaux_ as the result of our study of the anti-Catholic press. We have obtained, however, a few gleanings which may be indications of an abundant harvest yet to come. Here is one from _The Episcopalian_, which no reader of that paper will expect to find either accurate, courteous, or lively, but which, as communicating a piece of rare and recondite information, may fitly prove a sample of the "learned" style:

"It has been suggested--and, we think, not without some
reason--that the origin of ritualism in the Protestant
Episcopal Church may be traced to the Roman Catholic Church
itself; in other words, that the Roman Church, with the view of
proselyting the Episcopal Church, has sent among us secret
emissaries, of the Jesuit stamp, who, while pretending to be
Episcopalians, are really Romanists, and whose mission it is to
introduce one Romish novelty after another, until the
congregations in which they are introduced are gradually but
surely drawn into the communion of the Romish Church.

"To those who have studied the far-seeing policy of the Roman
Church, and its secret workings for ages past, this suggestion
will not seem strange or far-fetched. That equally subtle means
for proselyting have been used by that church in times past no
one can doubt who has read its history; and what has been done
can be done--or, at least, tried--again.

"Freese.
"Trenton, N.J., June, 1868."

The following, from _The Brooklyn Union_, if not learned or lively, is at least in a high degree "accurate and courteous," being a most respectful remonstrance against the audacity of Catholics in presuming to be so numerous, and to lay the corner-stone of a cathedral in open day on Sunday:

"He that Rules the City Rules the Country.--The Pope of Rome
well knows this axiom. The Jesuits know it. The politician
knows it. They all _act_ upon it. Cities are chosen as
their centres of organization. From these centres their power
radiates through every town and village and hamlet and district
of our land. In a government like our own, this is particularly
true. The pulsations of life and power of our larger cities,
both in religion and politics, indicate the condition, in these
respects, of our whole country. Hence the favored policy of the
Papal hierarchy of inducing its subjects, when emigrating to
the United States, to settle within the limits or easy access
of our cities. Statistics show that the foreign Papal
immigration, East, West, North, and South, settle chiefly
within or about our cities.
{851}
No one with his eyes open has failed to see this with respect
to New York, New Orleans, St. Louis, Chicago, Cincinnati, and
Buffalo. The _foreign_ population of these cities
_rule_ them. They present a majority of thirty thousand in
New York. What may be their exact proportions in our other
populous cities, the writer has at present no means of
ascertaining. But from the number, the grandeur, and the
costliness of their cathedrals and educational institutions in
other cities--in such as Chicago and St. Louis--we should judge
that their number is greater in proportion to their population
than it is in New York. This statement has reference to the
Papists. For the _infidel_ proportion who come to our
shores from Europe, and who have been driven to infidelity by
the tyranny and wickedness of Papacy, have no sympathy with
that system in propagating its means of worship. All their
sympathies are with our free institutions. Their licentiousness
and disregard of the Christian Sabbath are the fruit of their
infidelity. Even for this the Papal Church is responsible
before God. But the Papacy, in its _spirit_ and in its
_policy_ and in its _designs_, is opposed to our
republican government. It is the sworn inveterate enemy to
every principle and policy which favors republicanism. No
bishop, no priest, and no member of the Papal Church ever has
been or ever can be a loyal subject of a free government. Every
pretence or profession or act which they avow to the contrary
is the necessary outgrowth of wilful deception, hypocrisy, and
falsehood. Among the _masses_ of her members an oath of
loyalty may be the result of ignorance; and it may be permitted
to remain of binding authority so long as it does not conflict
with their first and paramount obligations with their church.
But with the bishops, the priests, and the Jesuitical hordes of
their hierarchy, an oath of loyalty or of testimony is of no
value as a test of truthfulness. Nay, it is often taken as a
means of deception, to accomplish some concealed purpose. Their
fundamental doctrines of _mental reservation_ and
_universal subordination_ to Rome necessarily exclude from
their virtues that of true patriotism. That this hierarchy has
for some years past been collecting, arranging, and
concentrating the elements of her strength in and around the
cities of the United States, is evident to any one who has
watched its progress. Her power is abundantly manifest in the
influence which she has exerted in the legislation of our
cities and our states, in the appointments of many of our
highest offices of trust and power, in the disposition and
distribution of our public charities, and in the control of our
popular system of education; and that the time has come, in
their judgment, when she can, with safety to herself, openly
assert her power, can be seen in the popular tracts, now
numbering some thirty-one, of her religious press, in the
public discussions of her periodicals, in her
politico-religious organizations, as well as in her open and
defiant Sabbath parades, and other desecrations of that blessed
day. Let her have full scope to her power and freedom _as a
church, in a legitimate way_. Let her seek to build up her
cause as a system of religion, the same as Protestant churches
in our country. But let her not attempt to ride rough-shod upon
the rights of Protestants by her noisy parades, with drum and
fife and boisterous shouts in front of our churches upon the
Sabbath--by her insolent and brutal outrages upon unoffending
Protestants when peaceably pursuing their avocations. Let her
no longer refuse to listen to the respectful remonstrances of
American citizens against such encroachments. Public religious
services and the administration of the Lord's Supper in some of
our churches were almost entirely prevented by the noise and
confusion of the Papal parade on a late Sabbath. This nuisance
has been _repeated_ in New York and Brooklyn in opposition
to the respectful but earnest petition of Protestant laymen and
clergy. On these occasions, several of our largest streets were
piled up with city passenger-cars, that were forced to stop
running on account of the procession. And what was all this
confusion, all this violation of law and order, upon the
Christian Sabbath for? Why, simply that a single Papal
congregation might lay the corner-stone of the church of the
'Immaculate Conception.' Hundreds of quiet and orderly churches
must be interrupted in their worship, the rights of large
corporations must be trampled under foot, and the stillness of
the Sabbath be invaded by the drum and fife and shout of a
_drunken rabble_, for the sake of a single Papal
congregation! Such occasions are not without a purpose. They
afford the priesthood a fine opportunity of testing the
strength of numbers, of trying the patience of the Protestant
community, of gradually corrupting their respect for the
Christian Sabbath, and of intimidating politicians with a show
of power. Their design is a _political_ one. There is no
religion about it. Her power is broken upon the 'Seven Hills'
of Italy, and she is trying now to re-establish it in the
metropolis of America. But who dare array himself against her
avowed determination to subordinate all things to her purpose?
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What politician, what party, or what partisan newspaper dare
oppose the _political_ system of Papal hierarchy? It
remains for the Protestant clergy of our evangelical
denominations to take up the cause of religious liberty. No one
will dare to speak out if they remain silent. The eyes of all
are toward them. They must take the lead in the conflict with
'the man of sin.' God has thrown the responsibility upon them.
They can, if they will, sway both the religious and political
destinies of our nation. Let no one talk about the danger or
the fanaticism of introducing politics into our pulpits. The
days of such cowardly conservatism are past. Let politicians as
well as Papists, at whose feet the former bow, be made to feel
that patriotism is a Christian virtue, and that its sacred fire
is kept alive and pure only in the breasts of those who swear
by an open Bible and a free conscience. If our Protestant
ministers will do their duty, the masses of our people will see
the danger which threatens us. They will unite their strength
in a successful issue with the powers of darkness, and our
politicians, seeing the strength of such a combination, will
withhold their sympathy and patronage from a system which, in
the garb of _religion_, aims its death-blow at the very
root of our civil liberty.
C."

The following is a specimen of the "lively and effective" style:

Catholicism.

A Reply To J. G. Parton's Article In The Atlantic Monthly.

This little treatise is respectfully presented to J. G. Parton
and all our Catholic brethren, by their brother and friend,
Charles W. Gilbert.

"And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying. _All power_
is given unto me in heaven and in earth."--Matthew xxviii. 18.

"This is the _stone_ which was set at naught of you
builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is
there _salvation_ in any other: for there is _none_
other name under heaven given among men, _whereby we must be
saved_."--Acts iv. 11, 12.

"It behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he
might be a merciful and faithful high-priest in things
pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the
people. For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he
is able to succor them that are tempted."--Hebrews ii. 17, 18.

Galesburg, June 22, 1868.
Mr. J. G. Parton: Dear Sir: I flatter myself you will excuse me
for the liberty I have taken in addressing you this letter. It
has been called for by reading a communication in _The
Atlantic Monthly_, in April last, respecting our Catholic
brethren.

I have neither time nor space to write half I want to, only to
mention a few points: And first, you say there is a difference
between Catholics and Protestants in the mode of praying; you
say a Protestant hides his face in his hands, but Catholics do
not, though they kneel, but the body is upright. Dear sir, do
you not know the reason? Our Catholic brethren worship images,
which God has forbidden. Turn to the second commandment: "Thou
shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of
anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth
beneath," etc. "Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor
serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting
the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third
and fourth generation of them that hate me; and showing mercy
unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain: for
the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in
vain. Remember the Sabbath-day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt
thou labor, and do all thy work," etc. Take your Bible and read
all the commandments.

Dear sir, can you find one of our Roman Catholic brethren that
keeps the commandments? Turn to the First Epistle general of
John, second chapter, fourth verse, "He that saith, I know him,
and keepeth not his commandments, is a _liar_, and the
truth is not in him."

You speak of their communion. Do they drink the _wine_ and
eat the bread, as Christ has commanded? No, no! A little wafer
is put on the tongue. Please turn to the seventeenth chapter of
Revelation, fourth verse.

The next topic is the Catholic Sabbath-school. Sir, what is a
Sabbath-school _without_ the _Bible_ to direct us how
to teach little children the way of life and salvation? Do you
not know that the priests do not allow the Bible to be read in
a Sabbath-school nor in a day-school? This is the reason they
will not send their children to the Protestant schools.

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What said St. Paul to Timothy? "And that from a _child_
thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are _able_ to
make thee wise unto salvation through _faith_ which is in
Christ Jesus."--2 Timothy iii. 15, We read also, in the
sixteenth verse, "_All_ Scripture is given by inspiration
of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for
correction, for instruction in righteousness."

What said Jesus? "Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think
ye have _eternal life_: and they are they which testify of
me."--John v. 39.

You say the children in the Sabbath-school sing to the Virgin
Mary the following stanza, "O Mary! Mother," etc. Dear sir, who
is this Mother Mary? Let Christ answer. Turn to Matthew xii.
50: "For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in
heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother." Read
also in Mark iii. 35; also Luke viii, 21.

You quote the prayer that the superintendent uttered, in Latin.
How _edifying_ that must have been to the children,
especially when he used the word _immaculate_ Host! Could
the children have understood that word, they would have
blushed.

You give us a glowing description of the different cathedrals,
and how they are occupied. Now, my dear sir, let me tell you,
the best prayer-meeting that I ever enjoyed was in a
_log-cabin_. Read St. John iv. 23, 24. Jesus told the
woman of Samaria that the hour had now come "when the
_true_ worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and
in truth; for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a
Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit
and in truth." Christ told the woman of Samaria she need not go
up into the mountains nor to Jerusalem to worship the Father,
but anywhere, in the log-cabin or in your house, if you worship
God in spirit.

The next topic is, you say: "Our Catholic brethren are very
candid, and are as truly and entirely convinced of the truth of
their religion as any Protestant."

I am now almost seventy-three years of age, and have labored
among our Catholic brethren more than forty years. I have seen
many of them _happily converted, born again_; as Christ
told Nicodemus, told him repeatedly, "Except a man be born
again, he could not enter heaven."--John iii. Yes, I have seen
them _put off_ the old man with all his deeds and put on
Christ; yes, his very _countenance_ was changed; yes, he
will not visit the Dutch gardens or saloons on the Sabbath.
Said a _converted_ Roman Catholic lady to me, the other
day: "I have _perfect peace_ now. When I belonged to the
Roman Catholic Church, I was in constant misery."

Said a converted Catholic man, aged sixty-six years: "I never
took any comfort before." I asked him if he was ready to die.
He said, "_Yes_." I asked him how he knew. Putting his
hand on his breast, he said, "_Spirit tell me so_." So
Christ says his Spirit shall enlighten every man that cometh
into the world.

In all my conversation with our Catholic brethren, I have never
found the first one that could say with St. Paul: "I long to be
absent from the body that I might be present with the Lord,
that I might be clothed upon with another body like unto his."

Our Catholic brethren are taught that there is a
_purgatory_. I wonder if St. Paul had to go there first. I
have often asked our Catholic brethren where the
_penitent_ thief went to, that was crucified with Christ,
when Christ said to him, "To-day shalt thou be with me in
paradise."

If there is a purgatory where we have to go to atone for our
sins, Christ must have suffered in vain, though he cried on the
cross, "It is finished."

I have seen Catholics die in despair. I had one in my employ as
a sailor on the North River. He caught a severe cold; it ran
him into a quick consumption. I asked him if he would like to
have me read the Bible to him. He said, No; he said the priest
had forbidden him to read the Bible or hear it read. As he was
failing very fast, I went in again and asked him if he wished
me to read to him in the Bible. He said, No, but wished I would
go and call the priest. I did so, and after the priest went
away, I went into his room and asked him if he was happy. He
answered, No, and cried bitterly, and said, "_I am going to
hell! I am going to hell!_" and died in a few minutes.

You next speak of young men that were studying for the
ministry; you say they study Latin, Greek, and theology. Dear
sir, what is theology? If I understand it, it is a Science of
God. How can they study theology without the Bible, the word of
God? They are not allowed the Bible, so a converted Roman
Catholic priest published to the world, at least he said that
there was not more than _one_ in twenty that ever saw a
Bible.

You say the Catholic Church is getting very _rich_, I do
not doubt it. Oh! how I pity the poor Catholic brethren. See
how they _toil_ and _work_ to support the priest and
the nunneries, and to _build_ meeting-houses to please the
eye and charm the weak minded. And what do they get _for all
this_? Let echo answer. Look at our poor-houses. Every
winter thousands have to go to our poor-houses to be taken care
of by our Protestant churches. Here in our city many would have
perished this last winter, had not our poor-master fed them.

{854}

You next give us a history of a wonderful miracle that was
performed in Washington in 1824. Dear sir, do you think any
Protestant with one eye, and that half-open, can be made to
believe _such nonsense_? If _you_ wish to see
miracles wrought in the nineteenth century, just give the
_Bible_ to our Catholic brethren, then you may see greater
_miracles performed_ than you speak of; for to see a man
that is _dead in sin_ changed to a _spiritual_ man,
made _alive_ in Christ, is a miracle.

Our Catholic brethren are taught that their church was the
_first church_. Let me inform you that there was no Roman
Catholic church on the earth for three hundred years after the
death of the apostles. Permit me to quote a few passages from
the word of God. 2 Thessalonians ii. 3, 4: "Let no man deceive
you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there
come a _falling away first_, and that man of sin be
revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth
himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so
that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself
that he is God." Could an angel from heaven portray the
character of the pope in any plainer language?