Current Topics AT HOME AND ABROAD.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VII, Issue 396, 12 November 1880, Page 1

Current Topics AT HOME AND ABROAD.

BBVOLUTIONABY MOEALITY.

The party in France that are engaged in harassing the religious orders, or by their approbation aiding and abetting the ministry in doing so, betray a condition of morals quite in keeping with their conduct in the matter alluded to. The publications of the day tell what manner of men they are that are ardent in stamping out religion, and exhibit the condition of things that is to obtain under the uninterrupted regime of godlessness. The very women, it appears, are not ashamed to be seen in public amusing themselves with newspapers and illustrations «f the most revolting and obscene description. So far, indeed, haa the matter gone, that one of the Republican leaders, who claims with some air of display, a total freedom from the restraints of an over-modest mind or method of expression, has drawn .attention to it, and complains that he has noticed within the last few years the public singularly spoiled, and with a disposition to feed on engravings that would formerly have chocked them extremely. That is, since the reins of irreligion have begun to be loosened, the consequences of a downward career have become daily more evidentlhis, however, is but a sign of the times, and only what might rationally have been expected. M. de Sarcey himself, indeed, who now complains has, most probably, done a good deal towards bringing on the extreme he speaks of, by the freedom be claims to have shown m his own writings. He is certainly doing everything in his power to foster the evil referred to by his action against religion, for its cure lies in treating the minds of the public rather than in an attempt to cut off the supply of vicious food once it is desired by tbem. Bolong as a depraved appetite grows or lasts it will continue to be provided with nourishment, and all precautions to the contrary will be vain.

A wise opinion,

Donoso Cortes, Marquis of Valdegamas, one of the greatest intellects that Europe has produced in i. i. „ ° Ur centur y» and w to as a Freethinker and a statesman had had an ample opportunity of judging all the systems that divide the modern world before his conversion to Catholicism, gives the followxng evidence against certain delusions that our enlightenment delights in and testifies well to the worth of Catholicism «As to paruamenttsm, liberalism, and rationalism," he says " I belxeve the first te be the negation of Government, the second the negation of liberty, and the third the affirmation of folly. Bit they will say, if you are not for debate as it is understood among modern society • I J° U T lther a liberal> a lationali st, nor a parliamentarian, what are you? You are, perhaps, an absolutist ? I should be an absolutist, if absolutism were the contradiction of all these things ; but history teaches me that there are rationalistic absolutisms, even up to a certain pomt liberal and debating, and there are absolute parliaments Absolutism is, then, at most, a contradiction in the form, not a contradiction ln the essence of the doctrines combat-doctrines Z£ h f-T 113 the ereatneBse reatne8s of tfa eir ravages. There is no contradiction between things of a different nature: absolu- +*^ t fOrm nothin g mor e than a form ; and is it not contrS p a^dity to seek in a form for the radical contradiction of a doctrine, or in a doctrine for the radical contradicZ^ Catholicism alone is the contradiction of these t A?. 11 ? ° IVe MlateVer form y° u wiBh to Catho »« doctrine ; *L*eft? ia -% Tm ' a^' mhe< * arige(i in •* *»"*ant, M d you will fieethe face ox the earth renewed." This is a very pregnant passage and supply the solution of many difficult questions.

still on THE alert.

If we may give credit to recent cablegrams, Socialism continues to show a formidable face in Germany. Meantime its voice, alike formidable, has not ceased to make itself beard in France. Last August, for example, M. Theitz, who had been looked upon as one of the more moderate members of the Commune, commenting in the Intranngeant on a resolution expressed by the working men of

Havre to rely only on the hallot, and to renounce every appeal to arms, spoke as follows :— « We, who have been a witness and a combatant in the terrible struggle of the • Bloody week,' would wish to associate ourselves to this declaration, for we cannot with a cheerful heart desire a renewal of the massacres in which we have taken part. Unfortunately, in spite of our desire, we cannot, without previous demonstration, partake in the optismism of the men of Havre. Universal suffrage, in a political point of view, is, as things are, the least imperfect instrument for the discharge of a democratic Govern* ment. But it cannot approach the solution of economical questions ; and these, it is, that concern the well-being and the life of millions of producers." Here, then, we find ajmoderate Socialist declare him« self ready, should the occasion arise, to enter once more upon all the horrors of the Commune's orgies ten yeara ago, and that such an occasion will before very long arise the course that the Bepnblican Government have now entered upon affords a certain guarantee.

A strange movement,

Axjitatiokt against the Jews in Germany still continues. At the end of September, as we learn from the Berlin correspondent of the Univers, a petition, largely signed, was presented to Parliament on the subject. It was to the following effect : That Judaism threatened German society, not only under an economical aspect, but also relatively to civilisation and religion ; that it -was necessary to apply a remedy to this deleterious influence by legislation ; by repressing the immigration of Je*s, by controling their influence over transactions on change, as well as in the banks, and over the newspapers, and that they should be forbidden the entry into several of the profession?. The movemcut is an interesting one, and it is suggestive that it is not more widely discussed in tlie English Press. One is tempted to ask whether some secret influence is at work keeping back all mention of it, or whether editors are warned by the fate of George Eliot, who by treating of the people in question did much to hurt her reputation as an author, and produced a book of marvellous dullness, when considered in relation to the talents of the writer.

AN HONOURABLE source.

New that certain London newspapers seem disposed to draw upon tbe abominable revolutionary Press of France and Italy for cal umnies devised by atheists and red-handed disturbers not only against everything that is Catholic, but everything that is Christian in any degree, we may expect a full crop of false enormities to be circulated throughout that portion of our colonial Press which so greedily appropriates all that is vile relating to the Church, its ministers, and its religious Our good editors may expect to enjoy quite a feast of reason, and it will be a time of revelry for their like-minded patrons. The infamous revolutionary newspapers to which we allude- keep up an incessant invention and publication of anti-Catholic scandals and falsehoods, and furnish an inexhaustible fund for tbe selection of those journalists who may be degraded enough to have recourse to it. The unspeakable Fenouillas, some ten years ago, gave our editors a most delightful time of it for some week I',1 ', with respect to the convent in the rue JPiqms, and to-day there are many gentlemen in Paris of kindred sympathies with the wretch we speak of, who, while awaiting the happy moment of personally breaking into the religious houses and illtreating their inhabitants, seek relief in the publication of every kind of lying infamy relating to them. Our editors, however, who respect themselves, and do not desire to insult their readers, would do well to be careful lest they obtain their lying paragraphs from the denizens and supporters of haunts that any man of common decency might hesitate so much as to name. Meantime we have found the source whence there emanated the report published here concerning the nuns who roasted a thievish lay-sister in Italy. It was> copied from the Epoca Tribunal Illvstrea by the Parisian revolutionary organ, one of whose artistsi sts had the happy thought of drawing an illustration of the incident in question, and was not withheld from putting his design into practice by any qualms of conscience with regard to grossly libelling unoffending people. The Unirrrs, referring to the reported crime, says : " Cent odievx et bete, riest-ce i>as ? The deed, if it were true, would have been bruited abroad by every newspaper in France and Italy. It bears in full all the features of imposture and falsehood,"

A> OTHER USELESS " CLERICAL."

M. Victories Sardou, in his report on the distribution of the prizes for virtue, founded by Montyon, and to which we have referred in a former issue, spoke as follows of the Abbe Lambert, a Catholic priest, who had obtained one of the rewards in question :— " In M. l'Abbe Lambert, gentlemen, we approach an order of charity which is applied lesj to the needs of the body than to those of the mind. M. l'Abbe Lambert has devoted himself to the moral instruction of deaf mutes. As almoner of the institution of deaf mutes at Paris, the Abbe Lambert had proved that his predecessors had not possessed enough of the language of signs to give their religious teaching all the development desirable. Without letting himself be repulsed by the difficulties before which they had drawn back for more than fifty years, he composed and bad printed a whole method of language by gesture, that is to say, a syntax and three dictionaries, which place this language, that is so difficult, within the reach of every body. He has, besides, published an entire special course for the complete instruction of adult and illiterate deaf mutes who could no longer be admitted into the schools, and, think, gentlemen, there are not less than twenty-five thousand of them in all France. This giant's work, to quote the expression of a man competent to judge, M. Vaisse, Honourary Director of the institution at Paris, is not only the fruit of many years of reflection and woik, but also of great pecuniary sacrifices. This is not all, gentlemen. On coming out of the school the deaf mutes lacked moral guidance. The Abbe Lambert, twenty-five years ago, founded religious conferences in the language of signs, which have been field every Sunday in the parishes of Saint-Roch and Sainte-Marguerite. It would be superfluous here to describe the happy effects of these conference on souls devoted to isolation, and which, kept apart from men, feel more than any others the need of drawing near to God. M. l'Abbe Lambert had also noticed that tha reading of our ordinary books is more difficilt than it is thought to be even for the best instructed deaf mutes ; this difficulty results from the employment of words and expressions with which they are not made familiar, as we are by spoken conversation. He has established a special journal, the CanseUler des sourds-vmets, which, written only with words and turns of expression within reach of their understanding, and printed at his expense, is distributed to them almost gratuitously. In conclusion, gentlemen, it is by the initiative of the Abbe Lambert that there have been founded various houses of retreat, and the asylum of BourgAa-Reine, where are admitted female deaf mutes of three and four years old ; those of a more advanced age who desire to consecrate themselves to God, the infirm, the abandoned, and young girls who, on coming out of the special houses, poor and without support, are more exposed than others to perils that their infirmity renders more formidable. And this establishment, which does not reckon less than two hundred inmates, is managed by the Abbo Lambert, and always with his own means. In a word, it may be said that since the time of the holy Abbe de l'Epee. nobody has done more for the moral education of deaf mutes than M. l'Abbe Lambert, who during twenty -five years has applied himself, with a self-denial beyond all praise, to complete the great work of his immortal predecessor. The academy has decreed to the Abb 6 Lambert the Souriau prize of a thousand francs." Here, then, we have a picture of one of those " clericals " whom the Eepublican Government has begun to persecute as being the destruction of their country. We have, also, a true account of the manner in which a priest's life time has been spent, that our worthy contemporaries who hunger after far-fetched coavent scandals aud the reported misdoings of the Catholic clergy will be by no means anxious to rrpublish. Some infamous falsehood, borrowed from a scurvy source, fits in much better with their tastes and requirements.

THE tendeb sex.

M. Sakdou, ill the address from which we have quoted, also bore the following testimony to the more excellent heart of woman :— " Of sixty awards decreed this year, gentlemen, forty-seven have been merited by women. N» one will dispute this superiority with them. Everywhere the proportion is the same. Wherever there is sorrow, sickness, despair, woman app3ara — what am I saying, she runs there ! We may believe that evil has no other raixtm d'etre here below than to give scope to that spirit of sacrifice, of self-devotion, of which hur nature has need. And, with respect to this, permit me to conclude by quoting for you a saying that I have never forgotten, although it was said to me a very long time ago. I had just been assisting in an hospital (I ftpeak of thirty years s,inc<>) at a very painful operation. Tue use of chloroform was then still lately introduced, and, for me, as for all the assistants, its marvellous effects were something quite new. The operation had fully succeeded, the patient had not winked. I shall tell the whole ; he had only laughed aud sung all the time. Filled with emotion by co fine a result, we, young fellows, were there discussing the case, and in the generous ardour of our twenty years, we took a pleasure in imagining all that the discoveries of modern science promised in the way of new conquests to humanity. Already before our prophetic

vision all national boundaries had disappeared, war together with them, and the world was no longer more than one country ; ignorance was put down, misery unknown, sickness without a cause, vice without a field for action. We had just suppressed old age and were on the point of making a conquest of immortality, when one of us, in the heat of his enthusiasm, turned to a Sister of Saint Vincent de Paul, who was listening to us while she prepared some linen for the poor man who had suffered amputation, and said to her gaily : * Eh bien !ma Sceur, there is the future ! All the world happy !' ' Ah,' replied the Sister, with a sigh of regret, ' when all the world is happy what will become of charity ?' A regret so naif will make every man smile ; every woman will understand it." We had already quoted this saying of the good Sister's, but, having found a fuller report of M, Sardou's address, we have considered it worth while to repeat it.

ugly joking,

Oim friend of the " Passing Notes " is mistaken ; there are Englishmen who can "form a just opinion upon this horrible Irish land question." English simpletons, of course, can hardly form a just opinion on any subject. We publish in our present issue an article which has appeared in an English newspaper, the Nottinglubin Daily Express, and whose writer, an Englishman we have every reason to believe, seems very clearly to understand the Irish question. He, as any writer who respects himself and the public for whom he writes must necessarily do, treats a grave question with becoming gravity and betrays a thorough comprehension of it. A quotation or two from his article may perhaps tend to the instruction of our friend of the " Passing Notes," if, in~ deed he be not too gay a creature to endure instruction of the more solid kind. The writer to whom we allude, then, speaks as follows : " TCven in England cases of oppression occur, but there is note of warning uttered by the press and by that floating public opinion which none can define or escape, and this is sufficient to prevent much mischief ; but in Ireland class has been against class for centuries, and especially during the great absenteeism of this century. An Irish landlord does with pride what an English landlord could not do, till low prices and bad crops have ruined thousands of Irish as well as English farmers, but we don't often hear of rebates of Irish rent, and we do hear of pitiable cases of enforcing rent by means o£ armed constabulary whose hearts have melted at their own deeds." If the deeds that so effect the men whose odious duty it is to perform them have the further effect of driving to frenzy, here and there, a few of the unhappy people who suffer from them, and result in murder, is this a fit subject for a ' merry jest ' — or at least for an attpmpt at one? And let us further ask, by way of parenthesis, whether we may expect a " Passing Note " of some festive sort upon the hanging of Ah Lee the other day ? It is a topic that should prove most welcome to our funny friend, and afford him grounds to labour out more wit of the somewhat cumbersome nature of that now before us. Our friend will not be singular ; many funny people have ere this delighted in executions, but amongst the brutal crowds that in former years hastened to witness them, not tbs least brutal portion, notwithstanding their fun, was that which stood by to joke and grin. " Landlord shooting begins. ' "No fewer than five peers . . . are to be 1 bagged.' " " This peculiar form of ' ground game.' " How cheerily our friend treats of bloodshed provoked by tyranny, and all its terrible surroundings. Has he evGr known, or has it escaped his memory, that there are two classes of men only who can deal with such matters lightly, the utterly abandoned ruffian, the sight of whom almost is contamination, and the trifling fool who chatters of what he kaows nothing about, and wboso chatter inflicts the extreme of weariness ? But let u j , see how men of sense speak of this question of Irish disturbance. A Presbyterian clergyman, the Rev. John McMillan, minister of Leckmelm, a Highland district, abused like some of those in Ireland, writes thus to the Scotsman, ; — "Our Irish cousins are using a way of their own to rid their part of the earth of oppressors. Who can blame them ?" " And yet while Irish depopulation and discontent disgrace us before Europe," says the English writer to whom we have already alluded, " so that Turks can call Ireland our Bulgaria, and Russians can point to it as our Poland, the landlords think thtre is not enough of either. They have the effrontery to propose that depopulation shall go on, and that the English ratepayer shall pay for it in order that they may extinguish tenant rights, and although discontent has reached such a pitch that their own lives are not safe, yet their course is to refuse the small concessions required by Government, and then to call on it for more soldiers and more police to pub down the agitation raised by themselves. We do not wonder at Irish tenants combining to refuse al^ farms where unjust evictions have taken place. This is perfectly right, .and, considering how they combined and succeeded under O'ConneU, we hope they may combine ami succeed under some equally patriotic leader." Decidedly our friend of the " Passing Notes' ' is mistaken. Not only do Irishmen themselves understand questions of Irish politics without " muddleheadcdness," but Scotchmen and Englishmen, who are, besides men of good feeling and sense, understand them also, and deal very intelligently with them. Englishmen who are capable only of imbecility and forced wit, like the leader . writer of the Qtcujo Daily Times, to whom we lately referred, and

our friend of " Passing Notes " would do well to avoid the subject in question, lest, by being placed in comparison with their well-informed and right-minded fellow-countrymen, the foolishness and mauvais genre of their productions bring them into the ridicule and condemnation they so richly deserve.

DISINTEBESTED patriots.

Nepotism is the order of the day it seems. Mr. Graham Berry in Victoria, noted for his slaughter of the civil servants on " Black Wednesday," has now distinguished himself in a season of retrenchment and saving by advancing one of his sons to a lucrative position, his on| v claim to hold which appears to be that he is Mr. Berry's son. m brother of the yonng gentleman in question has been somewhat similarly dealt with, and also been appointed to a place under Government by virtue of his relationship to his father the Premier, The enlightened and liberal statesmen of the day, however, generally have a regard to the well-being of members of their families, and in France it is thought remarkable enough to chronicle the fact whenever any length of time is allowed to pass without the promotion in the public service of some scion of the famille Grevy. Mr. Berry's action ig considered especially shameless, and has caused much indignation in the colony whose destinies be at present sways.

wickedness and »oi,iiY.

One Eight Key. Dr. Hiley, a Protestant Bishop of Mexico, has been raaling an apostolical tour of the United Kingdom in the pecuniary interests of his diocese. The Bishop is a man of most fervent piety, from an " evangelical " point of view, as we may learn by the enormity of the falsehoods told by him, and the scandalous accusations of murder he brings against Catholics, and he has had immense success amongst the " evangelical " crowds addressed by him, who delight, as we know, in nothing so much as the gratification of their intense, and plainly diabolical, fury £ against the Church. We are not concerned, however, to examine the horrible •harges this man has made at a distance from all those who could have stood up and given him the lie, bad he been worth contradicting. They were of a kindred nature, though as it was reasonable to expect much aggravated in degree, with those we have been familiarised with by the inventions of the creatures of the Irish Church Missions, who are •o great in their false reports of stonings and beatings that never took place. As if all the world did not know by this time that there never was an. " evangelical " preacher yet who would not turn tail and run at the first appearance of danger, let it be pestilence or violence, or whatever it might be, of which have had some remarkable examples recorded of late ; wherever Protestantism has gained a footing we may be certain it has done so with all safety to the skins of its apostles, who never yet dared stand out against the contrary, or without a etrong temporal power to back them up. We merely mean to notice • picture drawn by this trustworthy divine of the difficulties experienced by " evangelical " Spaniards some years ago in pursuing their peculiar theological studies. " The few of them who dared to open the Scriptures in Spain in those terrible days, " said he, "had to do so secretly in the midnight hour, in the lowest cellar beneath their homes. There, at the midnight hour, throwing what light they dared to have on the pages of the Bible, they would read the words of Jesus, would unite in prayer, and cry to God for help." It is a picture taken from life in the catacombs, but somehow the sacred names introduced here have to our ears a tone of blasphemy. Nevertheless, suppose the picture true, let " evangelicalism" be the only creed, and our godly Spaniards engaged upon their Bibles, but how unfortunate would it have been should they have happened to select for their edification and instruction in righteousness any portion of Holy Writ now declared by Protestant revision to have been an interpolation. Suppose, for instance, some holy man skilful to expound — and some such man there would have certainly been amongst them, for his taste for expounding, and a firm conviction of his excellence in its performance in some leader, would have been the very thing that led our Spaniards at unseemly hours down into their cellar. Suppose some holy man, then, to have chosen that eighth chapter of St. John's Gospel for his subject, and to have held forth on the subject of the woman taken in adultery, would it not have made the angels weep to see him beguiled by monkish <Jeceit, even in the retreat into which he had fled to escape tnonlgj|i persecution, to see him preaching as the gospel of light the idlenale invented by some misbehaved ecclesiastic, as we are told, to excuse his evil life and secure his temporal pardon. Had not the age of miracles long since passed away, and silence been imposed upon all heavenly beings, in order to explain the condition of the Protestant Church, it would not have been too much to expect that a celestial admonition might have be^n sent to set matters straight in such a dilemma But let us propose it as a question to •• evangelical " theologians as to whether the quickening of the Spirit would find scope from the words imposed upon the text of holy writ by some knavish monk of old. Could the waters of life have flowed in that cellar from such a source ? It is a question that deserves attention. The chances are, however, that our Spanish expounder

would never have hit upon this passage after all. Men of his kidney find more congenial occupation with the writings of " Paul," as they familiarly style him, than with the simple word of the Gospel, which we have good reason to believe is unconsciously despised by many worthy " evangelicals." Our expounder would have been found, we may depend upon it, engaged with those " things hard to be understood, which the unlearned and unstable as also the other Scriptures, to their own perdition." The learning and stability, however, of our expounder would ensure him and his hearers against any such danger, and, although it would be superstitious to expect a supernatural warning that the passage in St. John viii. was not the word of God, it would be pious and rational to look for divine guidance to find the exact meaning of that word in the difficult writings of St. Paul, and the other Scriptures. But if contradictions were ridiculous, Protestantism would have been strangled in its very biith by ridicule.

clearing the way.

This Right Rev. Dr. Riley says, moreover, that the church which his Beet has organised in Mexico is in a most nourishing condition, and possesses several large congregations, as well &b " more than fire hundred children in their church schools." We do not know whether Dr. Riley can speak the unvarnished truth — it is evident he is well qualified to talk its direct contrary, — but if so here is charming news to be reported in certain quarters. Ihe Mormon missionaries, for instance, have now been excluded from Germany, in consequence of their inconvenient success amongst Evangelicals there, and it will be necessary for them to seek in other • ' Evangelical " regions " fresh woods and pastures new " in order to maintain the constant supply of their harems. It will be delightful to them to learn that ground^ is being broken for them near at hand to enter upon by-and-bye, and introduce a novel and agreeable element amongst their females* Catholic peoples have always proved impervious to their blandishments but a Catholic people perverted by " Evangelicals " and doubly corrupted by the manner in which their missions are invariably conducted will be open to any inducement that may offer. Mexico will afford a most convenient source of supply to the good folk of Utah They may probably after a little be invited to form a settlement there. Brigham Young's successor, we have no doubt, regards the Right Rev. Dr. Riley even more affectionately than he is regarded by the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Irish Protestant bishops, and watches his course more anxiously ; he is certain to profit far more by its results, and it is very probable would even favour a sending round of the hat at Salt Lake in its behalf. This, moreover, is a hint that possibly the Right Rev. Dr. Riley might not be averse to acting upon if it were suggested to him ; plenty of cash is the very well* spring of such a Gospel as he deals with.

A noble feat.

The valiant Orangemen considered their dignity rendered it necessary for them to assemble in great numbers at Timaru on the sth inst,, to hold a procession that could not be interfered with, and they have succeeded in carrying out their procession quite consistently with their dignity. It was somewhat amusing, however, to find that> in order to insure the complete safety of these gentlemen who dub themselve the defenders of the colony, it was thought necessary that a large police force should be present also and many precautions taken. We believe, nevertheless, than, even had the Orangemen been less numerous, and quite unprotected by the police, they might have gone on their stupid march uninterfered with. Catholics generally throughout the country were far from pleased at the hinderance that was thoughtlessly offered to them last summer, and the Catholics of Timaru themselves have long since recognised their mistake, and acknowledged tliat in a moment of rashness they made too much of a movement that was beneath their contempt, — honouring the» memory of an assassin and perjurer is at all times a low proceeding but when this is done with the motive of insulting an unoffending and peaceable body of people its baseness becomes much aggravated. A pretence has been made that the processions formed here by the Eev, Father Hennebery were of a kindred nature with these disgraceful Orange demonstrations, but it is evident that no man who has the least regard for truth can advance it. Father Hennebery's processions recalled no ugly memories &f the past ; they were undertaken only in an effort to improve the morals of the Catholic people, and to afford those who had taken the total abstinence pledge an opportunity of publicly renewing their resolution. No one could be offended at them, unless there might be looking on here and there some skulking bigots whose souls should be vexed at seeing a Catholic priest labouring at all for the elevation of bis people. A Catholic procession to be akin to those held by Orangemen should be held, for instance, in honour of the Duke of Alva on the anniversary of the St. Batbolomew, or under the invocation of Catherine de Medicis, on some day commemorative of the Draggonadi > of Louis XIV., and we admit, it would be a scandalous outrage on Protestant feelings and rights should any body of Catholics attempt such a thing. No treatment that they could receive would be too harsh for

them. Many years ago we were used occasionally to see the sole Orange inhabitant of a certain Irish parish reeling along the road in a state of great elevation, and under the influence of the bottle,

loudly cheering for King William and the Battle of the Boyne. He went

along in perfect safety, none of his Catholic neighbours taking any of his vociferations, which they knew were the effects only of his unfortunate condition at the time. All Oraugemen should walk in their regalia alike unimpeded. Catholics should recognise that they are drunk with bigotry and prejudice and therefore not masters of themselves. They may be allowed to go on their way blaspheming by word or act, "but still journeying towards that bar where every man must give an account of the venom and malevolence by which hejLias been inspired and receive their rewards. They are objects fox| ,ur contempt or pity rather than our anger.

NOT quite FULL ENOUGH,

At the celebration of the Raikes Centenary, held the other evening in Dunedin, Mr. Bathgate attiibuted the fall of several nations to their want of righteousness. Said he, " Egypt and her learning are now groaning in abject slavery. Greece and her refinement have perished ; Rome has bit the dust ; the fleets of Genoa and Venice are no more ; and the architectural glories of Palmyra are the sport of the whirling sand. We have no truer words than these, that 'It is righteousness alone that exalteth a nation.' " But these nations had nevertheless a tolerably long period of exaltation. What was it that exalted them ? How, for example, did Genoa and Venice come by their fleets in the first instance without righteousness, if righteousness only could exalt them 1 And if every nation that is righteous must necessarily hold an exalted place, how comes it that some righteous nations have lost their exaltation, at the same time preserving their righteousness ? The Dutch, for example, have lost their fleet, no less than Genoa and Venice, and still they continue righteous as of yore ; their off-shoot, the Boers, are also a most righteous tribe ; the Bible occupies an honoured position in all their households, and yet their exaltation is not remarkable — English travellers seem rather inclined to swear at it. We dare not dispute the soundness of Mr. Bathgate as a commentator, but his illustration of the text in question is not complete. It requires a little fuller expounding before it can he thoroughly understood.

THE EFFECTS OF BIBLIOLATItT.

Apropos of the oft-repeated assertion of the Chris* tian faith being derived from the Bible only the followiDg quotation from a recent number of the London Tablet may not be out of place :—": — " One of the distinctive features of popular religion m this country is what is called, not inaptly, Bibliolatry. The place occupied in the Catholic system by the Visible Church with its sacraments — nay, and to some extent the place of the Invisible Church too — is assigned to the Sacred Scrip, tures in the Gospel according to Exeter Hall. That the Bible ' from cover to cover ' is, in every jot and tittle of it dictated by God, and literally and infallibly true, is a principle deeply cherished by some of the best members of the community ; it is, indeed, their chief first principle. . . , The lower classes in England and Scotland, as Mr. Bright truly said a short time ago, care little for dogma : their religion is mainly religious emotion. That they term « Bible religion.' To them the sacred volume is, as De Maistre expresses it, ' a false God ;' it is to them the Word-Made- Print ; and they judge of all things human and divine by it, or rather by shreds and patches of it. And so long as they dwell in an intellectual region sufficiently in twilight to permit them contentedly to cleave to this principle, all goes well with them. Nor is mere argument likely to disabuse them of it. But in an age when the spirit of inquiry is rampant, facts may come to the knowledge of the more intelligent in the lower middle-class, which will strike a blow at the very basis of their creed. Books are cheap and easily accessible : and a taste for intellectual improvement is often a stepping- stone to improvement of the secular condition. And so if the honest tradesman or artisan, religious and Godfearing according to his lights, and the standards of Exeter Hall, turns his attention, let us say, to the history of the early Church and the canon of the Bible, he will certainly find, as an eminent Protestant writer allows, that ' the substance of the creeds down to the time of the Council of Nicea constitute what was known as the regula fidei, and that this regula >y^jSWB not taken from the New Testament, but existed before a single^ook of the New Testament was written.' He will find that • for more than three centuries Christianity was believed altogether apart from the evidence of scripture,' that 'it's truth wss not proved from the sacred writings,' that in short the Christian religion existed independently of those writings, and that his great first principle is therefore historically false. All this, and much more to the same effect, which is indisputable, as matter of fact, will be fatal, not indeed to true reverence for the Sacred Scriptures, but the Protestant superstition about them which is the basis of the popular religion of this country. And the chances are that in most cases where that basis is overthrown, the whole superstructure will fall with it, and

that faith in revealed religion will disappear. ' One or two rules,' say s Locke, with perfect truth, on which 'their conclusions depend, in most men have governed all their thoughts. Take these from them and they are at a losi, aud their understanding is perfectly at a no* plus.' " It is evident, then, that by their misuse of the Bible Protestant teachers are powerfully aiding the cause of infidelity. If those Spaniards Bishop Riley spoke of ever really existed, and frequented their cellars at midnight, it was towards this they were assisting, and the well-meaning followers of Ilaikes are also lending it a helping hand in spite of themselves.