The Past Attests to its Power.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIX, Issue 43, 31 July 1891, Page 5

The Past Attests to its Power.

On this subject We need only recall for one moment the examples written down in history. Of these things there cannot be the shadow of doubt; for instance, that civil societywas renovated in eve ypart by theteachings of Christianity]; that in the strength of that renewal the human race was lifted up to better things — nay, that it was brought back from death to life, and to so excellent a life that nothing more perfect had been known before, or will come to pass in the ages that have yet to be. Of this beneficent transformation, Jesus Christ was at once the first cause and the final purpose ; as from Him all came, so to Him rll was to be referred. For when, by the light of the Gospel message, the human race came to know the grand mystery of the Incarnation of the Word and the redemption of man, 'the life of Jesus Christ.God and Man.penetrated every race and nation and impregnated them with His faith, His precepts, and His laws. And if Society is to be cured now, in no other way can it be cured but by a return to the Christian life and Christian

* St. Gregory the Groat. Horn ix in Ei angel, b. 6. f 2 Corinthians vin. 9. % St. Mark, vi. i. } St. Matthew v. 3 : " litened are the poor in spirit." ° Ibid, xi. 28 : "Com? to Jfe all you that labour and are burdened, and I will refresh you." IT Romans vni. 17.

institutions. When a society is perishing, the true advice to give to those who would restore it is to recalt it to the principles from which it sprang; for the purpose and perfection of an association is to aim at and to attain that for which it was formed ; and its operation should be put in motion and inspired by the end and object which originally gave it its being. So that to fall away from its primal constitution is disease ; to go back to it is recovery. And this may be asserted with the utmo,t truth both of the State in general and of that body of its citizens— by far the greater number— who sustain life by labour.