REMARKABLE CONVERSIONS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVIII, Issue 21, 19 September 1890, Page 3

REMARKABLE CONVERSIONS.

(Liverpool Catholic Timet.) Sib, — A recent publication directs attention to the various roads by whicb inquiries are led to the " One Fold of the One Shepherd." A contribution towards answering the how and the why has just been given to us in a letter to the same publication from the widow of the late and much-regretted Ambrose de Lisle. We learn that with the Bey. Ignatius Spencer, whilst be was a most zealous evangelical clergy mao, Mr. de Lisle had become acquainted, " and invited him, with his father's permission, to Garendon Park." The invitation whs accepted in January, 1830, and after a week spent in controversy, in wbich several clergymen of (he Church of England and Bishop Byder, of Licbfield, one of her Bishops, took part, Father Ignatius announced his conviction of the truth ot the arguments of the Catholic Church, and his determination to make his submission. Through the kindness of both the author and the publisher, who cheerfully complied with my request, I now give your leaders a most striking letter, written some twelve years ago to a Mr. Shaw, of Bristol, author of " The McPnersons ; or, England's Glory— the Koll of Honour." then published by Bums and Oates, and in which this letter appeared. The writer is the Bey. Father Selley, 0.5.A., now for some years the zealous Sab-Prior of the Augustinian Convent, Cork. Father Selley, besides writing some very useful spiritual books, cootributes occasionally under a norn de plume to the Eceletiattical Record, the leading organ of the priesthood. For the instruction and encouragement of many earnest inquirers not yet in the Church, those who have got that grace may with advantage tell us how it came to them, as in the case of Father Selley. — Yourß, etc., Cork . T. H. Atthidgi. London, December 16, 1878. Dear Mr. Shaw, — For the public good we are sometimes coerced to do what, from any particular advantages, we should shrink from. Many of us have come out of our sacred privacy of late to swell the " Koll of Honour of England's Converts," so lately styled " Rome's Becruita," in order that we may tbereby exercise a salutary influence on the many wavering and doubt-tossed Christians of tbe nineteenth century. From the day of my conversion— even to private enquirers— l have refused to satisfy the curious , but now, that we find ourselves brought to the " front," I deem it each man's duty to co-operate in tbe conversion of his fellow-countrymen, even at the expensa of unveiling what he may have loved to bold sacred to himself. Hence I now unveil the history of my conversion. Born of Church of England parents, and unconnected with a single Catholic family, good, bad, or indifferent, I was educated iv tbe tenets of the Low Church, aad remained a practical member of it until my twentieth year. I was tbe eldest of a large family, and, after » thorough commercial education, I was plased in my father's own business, which could then claim to be one of the most flourishing in the Bast End of London. In this I remained eight years, for three of which I almost entirely conducted his two large business establishments. I attended church generally twice on Sundays, almost as regularly and conscientiously as I do now ; and I tried, as well «s I could, unaided by the grace of a sacramental religion, to do my duty to my God, to my neighbour, and to mystlf. I knew nothing of Catholicism, I bad sever read a Catholic work, I had never known

a Catholic ; and yet, like so many of my fellow-countrymen, I was extremely prejudiced and fanatically bigoted. My only Catholic brother joined the Churcb two years before me. Nevertheless, outside his unceasing prayers to our Blessed Lady for my conversion, he bad nothing at all to do with it. Indeed, hie change of faith so estranged me from him, that, though close and constant companions ere this, I now became bis persecutor. I was, indeed, most bitter, and yet blindly so. I could not bear to come upon him at his prayers, which I often did, nor to see him go to churcb. Despite this, I believe that, had I been asked tbe reason of this bigotry, I conld have given no more logical answer than that it was because he was a Papist. A little befoie my conversion, I was about to marry a wealthy lady. Bright, then, were my worldly prospects, and never, therefore, can it be said in my oase that any mundane motive or fanciful attraction influenced me in the solemn step I was so soon about to take (after my withdrawal from a matrimonial engagement) — quite the reverse.

And now for tbe cause which was about to work so great a change. Strange as it may seem, though quite natural according to the rule of Protestants, my own Bible was the cause of my own conversion. Reading the sixth chapter of St. John's Gospel, and comparing it with the words of our Blessed Lord at the Last Supper, and then agaia applying the words of St. Paul to the Corinthians (1 Cor. xi. 29), " For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh judgment to himself, not discerning the Body of the Lord" I could not reconcile the divine Word with the rejection of the doctrine of the Real Presence.

My next step was to find out that the Church— the Catholic Church — which I had so despised and hated, held the doctrine of Transubstantiation. A doubt of my religion being the true one then flashed across my mind. It was the moment of grace, and thanks be ever due to God, I corresponded with that grace. I read more of the sacred volume. I purchased a Catholic Rible. 1 weighed the Scripture evidence. Mind you, I had every right ; I was a Protestant. I prayed for light to Him Who never refuses to bear oae who sincerely seeks for the truth, and the result was that, like a late noteworthy convert, Mr. Orby Shipley, I felt bound to change "tbe principles of private judgment for tbe revealed basis of faith, which is authority.

I then visited a Catholic priest, as far as I know, the first I had ever seen. He gave me a child's penny catechism to study, and in ten days from my first doubt I was recanting the errors of Anglican* isnvf md making my profession of the Catholic faith in the church of dt. Mary, Moorfields. And be it well remarked that, until then, I had never seen the inside of a Catholic church ; and, moreover, until my visit to this good clergyman, I had never made any study of Catholic dogma. This happened in the year 1863.

Though not cast adrift, as so many of the gentler sex have been on such occasions, my stout adherence to the Catholic faith, for conscience sake, worked sad effects in my family circle. I was no longer looked on as the right-hand and confidant of my father, and there arose that estrangement that only converts ever experience. I cast not, however, a shadow of blame on my otherwise exemplary parents, because / knew too well the force of prejudice and bigotry. Should we not rejoice to suffer Borne temporal loss for so great a spiritual gain? But God had further graces in store for me.

In two years' time I quitted the world, and commenced my studies for the priesthood in a leligious congregation. In a few years I was ordained priest. In Ireland, America, and England my labours cover a space of thirteen years, and now, in 1878, I have received from our good God the further grace to be admitted into one of the great Orders of the Church, being now enrolled among the sons of St. Augußtine, the illustrious Bishop of Hippo, one of the greatest and most eminent doctors of the Universal Church. May a more perfect and außtere life obtain from God the conversion of those bo dear to me on earth 1

Let me add to this brief sketch, that from the moment of my conversion I have never had a single doubt concerning any article of Catholic Faith ; and, further, that I owe the plenitude of the grace of faith, once mercifully given to me, to the fact that, instead of trying lo silence the doubt, or to smother the voice of conscience speaking within me, as I fear many do, to tkie loss of further graces from God, I immediately set about resolving the doubt, and thus corresponded promptly to that first exciting grace. By the blessing of God, \ have received very many converts into the Church during my sacerdotal career ; but, strange to say, especially in these days of Ritualism, they have been nearly all from the ranks of the Low Churcb part of the Establishment. Though I can count amongst them several neophytes from the Jewish religion, I have no High Churchman, Puseyite, or Ritualist, and scarcely a Dissenter to show. Another fact worthy of notice is, that according to my experience, the " chosen ones " are generally called by God from tbe ranks of sincere, moral, and virtuous Christians. May their number daily increase and be added to the household of the Faith !

In conclusion, my dear Mr. Shaw, when I look back upon my Protestant days, I never wonder now when I hear of anyone being very bigoted, neither do I so much despair of their conversion to truth as of the more liberal and, at the same time, more listlessly indifferent Christians. I believe I was in what is commonly called " goodjaith " down to .the time of my first doubt, and I am firmly persuaded that many of our countrymen lose the efficacious grace of conversion by default of not examining the question when the doubt first crosses tiheir minds, which very doubt I call one of the greatest graces from G)od. I remember also how vividly I experienced the utter inability of the " Established Religion " to aid practically one who wanted to live religiously and to give him a feeling of happy security. It was only when I came to experience the helps afforded by a sacramental religion that I understood what my soul was always thirsting after and yet never attained. For days, sometimes nearly the whole week, after a good Bermon (and I heard many in the Protestant Church), I would meditate on some Christian truth, and long for a more perfect lite. No doubt these^wrt; desires contributed much to move the

merciful Go Ito open my eyes to truth. / believe vtry little in con,' troversy. Lot us spend the time better in prayer, and in setting an example to our separated brethren of a virtuous and practically pious life. This is the firßt tiir . have ever revealed to anyone, even to the most intimate friend much concerning my conversion. I do so now only with the ht a mat lam accomplishing a great and glorious work. May God, in Hij infinite goodness, bless you in it, and carry it to a successful issue. This is the earnest wia lof yours sincerely, Edwabd Augustine Selley, 0.5.A..