A CHANGE FOR THE BETTER.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XX, Issue 27, 22 April 1892, Page 29

A CHANGE FOR THE BETTER.

(Pilot, February 6).

Two notable religions movements are going on outside of the Catholic Church in New England : tbe one, impelling devout and earnest sonls into her visible communion ; the other, for the satisfaction of souls who lick either the light or the courage to go further, grafting Catholic practices upon Protestantism itself. People not yet old can remember when Christmas and Easter were unthought of in New England outside the Catholic Fold ; when a stained-glass window in a Protestant church would have been denounced as a dangerous " Popish " innovation, and the daughters of the Pnritans would have looked askance at a Madonna. Now practically all tbe Protestant churches have splendid Christmas and Easter services ; many of the sects have some sort of Lenten observances, their church architecture conforms more and more to the old Catholic model, and pictures of tha Blessed Virgin adorn many Protestant homes. Among the more thoughtful there is an almost resentful reaction against " the purblind foolish policy of the Puritans 'Mo their opposition to religious symbolism. This finds an especially candid and energetic expression in Bebecca Harding Davis* " Old Lamps for New," in last week's Independent. We quote some striking passages. Tbe writer* having a reasonable mind, instinctively uses the Catholic arguments for tbe veneration of religious symbols and images :—: —

" Let us talk common sense about this thing and put aside for awhile the prejudice of our grandfathers.

" It is folly to say that symbols and painting or sculpture do* not powerfully influence the majority of men, Tbe very people, good, well-meaning men and women, who would shudder at the introduction of a picture or crucifix in their meeting bouse, touch their bstrotbal rings with tenderness, and lo k with brimming eyes at the clothes* which their dead baby wore. Does not the poor photograph on the wall soften their hearts towatdo the prodigal eon who is sowing his wild oats they know not where 1 Did they not march to battle with stouter hearts for the tight of the old flag going before? " They all know the value of symbol?. They use them in their college clubs, their political organisations, their friendships, their tenderest home ties, their treatment of their dead ; everywhere — but in their reH<?ion. Why ? " The Amtric n, passing through Continental Eurape, finds in almost every to« n galleries of paintings of scenes in the history of the Saviour. At the street corners there is the carven figure of the Infant Jesus, His hands outstretched to bless. The roofs of the bouses, even s< metiine3 of tbe barns of pious peasants, bear His Name ; in the fields or in solitary mountain passes stands tbe rude crucifix, to remind the lonely traveller of him. "What is all this? " ' Romish ' superstition you bave been taught. Clear your ryes, look for you i gel f, and fee that it is a great object leason, by which the facts oa which the Christian faith is based reach the knowledge and hearts of the people through their eyes. "You 'fear that thesi people believe that the poor picture or stone figure is tbe real God nnd make an idol of it V " Do you believe that it is your real son who hangs on the wall in tbe photograph, or your country itself that flutters in tbe flag 1 11 Do not fall in'o the vulgar error of supposiDg that the man whom you do not know is necessarily less intelligent and more of a savage than yourself." And she goes en to plead for similar object lessens in religious truth in America for the s.ke of the " millions of men, women and children in the United Stales, both ignorant and educated, who never read the Bible, never go into a churoh, never hear a sermon.' 1 Further on Mrs Davis pleads for another Catholic custom, the opening of the churches on week-days. The church " should be always open," sho >ays ; " the place where they could be sure of finding, what every human being should find each day, bolitude and quiet for a brief space, to recollect himself, to Bee where he stands, to face his own soul aod bis God. . . . The people whom we accuse of idolatry before their pictures and crucifixes are not troubled by these qualms or fears. Spend a morning in a cathedral in Rouen or Antwerp, and you will see not only young women and old crones on their way to market come in and drop on their knees in silent prayer, but merchants going to change, fashionably-dreesed young fellows and school-boys. They do no heed you or the crowd. They say their prayers and go ont as simply and quietly as they would have bought food. One act is apparently as necessary to the day's routine as the other."

She does not realise that the Catholic is drawo to hit open cbaroh, not by pioture or crucifix, or tbe mere chance for solitude and quiet, bat by the Real Presence of Christ on the altar. Catholics and Protestants, as has well been said, live in two different worlds ; and the kindest Protestant eyes still see the Church as through a glass i darkly.