EVIDENCES OF GOOD WILL AMONG

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VII, Issue 340, 24 October 1879, Page 11

EVIDENCES OF GOOD WILL AMONG

NON-CATHOLICS.

TN these days, when Protestantism, which although young in comparison with the Church, is disintegrating, and many 'of its' members arc losing all faith in a revealed religion "and becoming rank infidels, it is consoling to sec so many taking refuge in the barque of St. Peter' and many otlici«, almost unconsciously, drifting towards it. This is well. The nuidein Piotestant sects have nearly run their course, and the conflict will soon he exclusively between the Church on the' one hand and Materialism and Infidelity on the other. It gladdens one, therefore, to .see that not only in England but in this countiv the purest m mind and deepest in thought among Protestants, and'especially among Episcopalians, are one by one taking up the Catholic usages discarded by the so-called Rcformeis of the lGth century. We already see auricular confession, devotion to the Blessed Virgin and the Saints, and the Catholic litual adopted. Were it not that we hope their good faith or purity of intention saves them fiom sin in their empty mimicry of the Holy Saciifice of the Mass, we could depiccate most heartily what seems almost sacriligous to a Catholic : but with regard to devotion to the Blessed Virgin and the Saints, invoking their intercession for light, theie can be no misgiving ; nothing but what is good can come out of it. These thoughts, consequent upon what we hear of the ritualists both in England and in this country, have been suggested by an account of a memorial window letely placed in an Episcopal church in Houghton, Mich., which we read of in a secular paper which has kindly been sent to us. It is a triplet window, consisting of three equal lancets and threo tiefoils, the centre lancet lepresenting the Blessed Virgin bearing in her arms the Infant Saviour. " Both the figures and the faces in this group,"' says the newspaper .account, -are of exquisite workmanship and of great artistic merit, and will bear close inspection. The group is surrounded by a nimbus, and the head of each figure by a halo, that about the Head of the Child being crucifoim, as is customary in ancient paintings. This lnucet is inscribed at tbe bottom wi*h the ancient legend on the tombs in the Catacombs, ' Hequivxcant lit, pan;' applying of couise to those for whom the memorial was erected, a mother atuf son who had been members of the parish, run etas ha-rctrs sola in nnlrerso in idi do is a familiar praise of Our Blessed Lady; let us hope that through her intercession the ranks of the Chuich will soon bo swelled with those throughout her pale, and especially those who evince some filial legaid for the Mother of the Redeemer.— Ayr Maria.