UNKNOWN.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 56, 23 May 1874, Page 10

UNKNOWN.

Auckland. You remark that there is, properly speaking, no such thing ns n Christum Government now exiting any in Europe, and tl.at the Goyernm. Nt of New Zealand more especially cannot even pretend to be Christian, seeing the Premier himself is a Hebrew But a civil Government may be a just one though not Christian since natural justice h not peculiar to Christianity ; it may be practised by Jews or even Pagans. The government of the ancient heathen Romans though a severe, was substantially a just government, and beneficent in ?ts, inuuenee. Pilate, the Roman governor of fudea, indeed did a wicked cruel, and unjust act when he condemned Christ to be put to death it the request of the Jews. lint he knew lie was doin* wron<T anr ] lli% wife warned him to have nothing to do with the terrible crime which the infatuated Jews were bent on perpetrating. His unjust net «i, not the act of hus imperml master or the Roman Government • h- did it on his own responsibility for the sake of popularity, and to' ar-atifv Jewish maheeaud pride. We all know that many Roman governors stuck at no eiuelty to destroy Christianity. So long as power is any where in the hands of Jews and pagans, or philosophic infidels, as now, it cannot, be expectettthßtChiistiamty generally will get much fair play 5 still I,™ can it bo hoped that the Catholic Church and its adherents will meet with justice or that tLeir -rights will be respected. The tendency of this state of affairs is to break up modern civilized society into two grand divisions— the one departing more and more from any settled Ohntttan principle?, and the other advancing towards the Catholic

Church, where alone any fixed and definite Christian eroad can be found. This i» what we se<» going on before our eves. The modern creed o f the many appears to be that man was created chiefly, if not solely, for the purpose of making mon»y, and to invent machines of various sorts ;, that the»e ends b^in* accomplished, nothing more need be thought of. Seek first the wealth of this world, till you ba a<* rich as Rothschild, and all other things will be added. Tho ragje for purely secular education is one visible nnd outwar 1 proof of such an inward belief. Another peculia»itv of our age is tho cool effrontery with which pubic men profess one thing ami do th 3 reverse. Witness the way in which the Otago authorities profits to support a purely secular or non-sectarian system of school, which is a*-, the same time most unmistakably and intensely sectarian and Presbyterian in its character. These Scotch philosophers s n em lost to all sense of decency and shame ; they must hnve about "as mufh idea of hlu'shmsf as a man, blind from his birth, has of scarlet color " On it be that their living under .a nori-Christf nn government has so blunted their moral sense and conf»undcfl their ideas of right and wrong. Your patience and stood nature in correcting the errors, or removing the misapprehensions of the • fl-uirdian ' on Catholic questions are most commendable. It is to be hop°d he now fully understands that it is not " Catholic government* " who are robbing Catholic priests and nuns so unmercifully in different parts of the world, seeing that no Catholic, or even civil government in any proper s»n9e of tho term, really exists at this moment in any part of Christendom. Still the Church is stronsr. and will in due ti-ne bear down all ooposirion ; but when and how G-od will order. Christ is over all, and the Bishop of Rorao is his Vicar on earth. With Him many years are but as one day. — W.