The League of the Cross.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 4572, 17 February 1893, Page 4

The League of the Cross.

A meeting of this Society was held on Friday evening. The Eev Bro Joseph, who has consented to become a VicePresident, occupied the chair. The object of the sodality is to promote the cause of temperance, ,' and for this purpose Mr Mulvilhill submitted a code of rules, which, with a few emendations, were approved of, and when a great deal of routine business had been transacted the reverend Chairman read, for the entertainI ment and edification of members, a very in- ; teresting paper on the benefits conferred on society by the Papacy. Ha maintained that owing to the fall of man, and to the subsequent immorality which prevailed in | society, the establishment of the Church was necessary even in a temporal sense to protect the lives, the reputation and the property of individuals, and thus to promote the happiness of families and States. She wbb to take cognisance of the dealings of men with .each other in bo far as such dealings affected her mission, which was the salvation of bouls. In order to effect this important work she was furnished with a code of laws which were truly the foundation of society. He spoke of slavery, whioh he showed prevailed to a great extent in the ancient world. The Romans usually treated their slaves with great barbarity, who were often sacrificed to gratify the cruel caprice of their masters, or to afford a prey for wild beasts in the public games. It had been said that twenty thousand lives were, frequently sacrificed in those games and gladiatorial shows. The Church, true to her mission, set herself to work to bring the empire under the yoke of her divine laws, and Bhe abolished eventually these and other abominations, whereon people now look back with horror. This work cost her three hundred years of persecution, and every species of torment which the malicious ingenuity of man could invent was employed against . her. The Crnsadeß, or military expeditions, undertaken, at the request of the Popes, to rescue the holy places at Jerusalem from the Saracens, and to protect people who frequented these places from revolting cruelties and oppressions, were touched upon. No force on earth but the Papacy could unite the conflicting Powers of Europe in such an undertaking. These enterprises were shown, besides the end for which they were organised, to have benefited European civilisation. They checked the progress of Eastern barbarism, and thus saved Europe from imminent peril. They, by uniting States against a common foe, healed petty feuds and prevented internecine strife and bloodshed. The Crusades also facilitated navigation, extended commerce, and were productive of good in many ways. It was sometimes objected that these enterprises entailed a great loss of life, but' the persons who made these objections overlooked the fact that it was more than probable that two hundred years of strife among the warlike, nations of Europe wonld have occasioned a still greater. In tbe matter of jurisprudence the Papacy had rendered signal services, and the wiser and milder spirit of the Tbeodosian and Justinian codes placed them in strong contrast with the systems they superseded. It bad been said of the former code that it illustrated strikingly "the immense superiority of the ideas of the Church on the subject of legislation and the administration of justice." When the paper was concluded a vote of thanks was accorded to the writer, and the meeting ended.