1

SOCIAL REFORM.

1 fnhxt.

BY J. W. CUMMINOS, D.D.
OP ST. STEPHEN'S CHURCH, NEW YORK CITY.

BOSTON:
PUBLISHED BY PATRICK DONAHOE,
NO. 3 FRANKLIN STREET.

18*3

SOCIAL REFORM,

A LECTURE.

Labies and Gentlemen :
The Mariners who from some goodly city go down to the sea in ships
may serve as an emblem of men journeying in various nationalities
over the ocean of life. There be among travellers, those who gaze with
regret on the fast-receding shore of home, while others look forward
with delight to the freedom, renown, or gold which awaits them in
some happier land far away towards the setting sun. Thus some na
tions seem to live wholly upon the Past, some wholly upon the Future.
The Hebrew of old thanked the Past only for a Promise. His eye
was strained to pierce the mist of coming time and discern the first
twinkling of Jacob's rising star. Europe roused from her medioeval
slumber, built the temple of wisdom from a fragmentary mass of re
collections. Light was sought in the folds of ancient manuscripts,
Kings held festivals upon the discovery of a classic painting, and
Sages wept for very joy over a Spartan coin, or the remnant of an
Athenian statue. Such influences in great measure determine the
tone and character of civilization. A people may settle down in the

apathy of unconcern upon the Present, and like the once powerful Ot
toman Empire allow its nationality to become stagnant and dead, but
then its influence will be trifling for good or evil. Our own country
in reference to which especially, I wish to lay before you some thoughts
upon Social Reform — the favorite theme of the Age — is yet in vigorous
youth and has its future before it. But at the same time, it has bor
rowed much from the Past, in its intercourse with older nations, and
would to God it had borrowed nothing but good. It is widely pro
claimed on all sides that evil influences from abroad, and carelessness
at home have already allowed much that needs reform to creep into
our social system. We must now make our preparations and agree
upon our plans for the future or it will soon be too late. The sunny
regions of South America were settled and peopled by a noble race of
Europeans before the Puritan moored his Bark near Plymouth Rock
or the Catholic sang his Te-Deum at St. Mary's. Nobles and war
riors sat in council in Mexico, science and arts flourished and Reli
gion's warning voice was heard in Peru, Brazil, and Paraguay long be
fore Washington girded on his sword or the Revolutionary cannon was
heard upon Bunker Hill. But vice begat weakness in those favored
lands, and disunion completed the social ruin which impiety had be
gun. Have we profited by the signs and warnings which are held
forth to us by the sad experience of our neighbors ? Alas ! in many
things we tread in the footsteps of the dead republics of the Past, and
are using the strength of our youth to bring on the wretchednesses of
premature old age.
This is a bold statement, Ladies and Gentlemen, and yet a few
general facts will show it to be a sad truth. Far be it from me to
speak of our noble country in words that may even seem to be unfilial
and disrespectful, or to dwell upon her faults unless with a good, a
generous purpose in view. If I succeed in drawing your attention to
some of the dangers that threaten our social welfare with disturbance,
and in enlisting your influence to avert them, then my labor will be
well rewarded, and my remarks fully justified. Let us look for a few
moments upon the dark, and sorrowful side of the great social picture.
Luxury is everywhere on the increase. Avarice has its myriad inven
tions at work to amass ill-gotten wealth. Jealousy and ambition fire
man against man, city against city, state against state, and trample-
upon the laws established by the wisdom of our fathers. Instruction
becomes the tool of licentiousness, and the indecent publications with

which the public press teems apply in practice the ungodliness which
had been theoretically taught in the School, the College, and the Uni
versity. The lower haunts of our great cities fester with pauperism,
intemperance, corruption and banded lawlessness which emulate the
sorriest degradation of London and Paris. I would I were able to
prove that in country towns and villages the still-remaining simplicity,
continence, and honesty of our fathers, cheer the heart of him who
goes forth seeking to breathe a purer moral atmosphere among the
tranquil beauties of nature. Juvenile depravity is frightfully on the
increase and the police reports of each year prove a spread and mag
nitude of crime greater than that of the preceding year. The country
is flooded with ceaseless reports of dishonesty in monied men, and
monied institutions, invasions of the sanctuary of married life, and
divorces granted in hundreds by state-authority. The official returns
of Asylums, Hospitals, and Prisons, show the appalling ravages of
disease and insanity brought on by crime, and almost every newspaper
you open startles you with the recital of deeds of blood done in our
most populous and enlightened Districts. Even the cypher of Suicide
has risen to a degree that is quoted elsewhere as a proof of uncom
mon disorder. Scientific inquiry proves that not only drugs, spices,
wines, and liquors, but even the commonest articles of food and drink
sold by shopkeepers as genuine, are adulterated with earth, metal,
paint and other poisonous ingredients destructive of human life. But
enough of the cheerless annals of social corruption. Let us turn
away from the dark details they unfold ; yet as we do so can we won
der that the cry from every quarter should be "Beform, Beform?" —
"Beform!" Sure enough; but where is it to come from, how is it to
be done? The people of Europe are crying out for Beform in many
countries and the great engine they seem to think will effect it is Pop
ular Government. "Away with your Kings," writes the Italian Maz-
zini. "Down with your Emperors," cries the Hungarian Kossuth. —
"No more of Boyalty," screams the Frenchman Ledru Eollin. "We
must, we shall have a Bepublic," sings the poetical Young IrelandeTf"
" we will not be still till we get one," vows the prosaic German Dem
ocrat. In our country we have never had practically anything but a
Bepublic, a popular Government. We have in all conscience enough
of liberty, and yet social evils of a very threatening nature exist, and
call for a remedy. In Europe the cry is again, "Educate, Educate." "The
people are bad and unhappy only because they are ignorant," cry the

secret societies and political clubs, from the Demagogues of the Cen
tral Committee in London at the one end, to the malcontents of the
Frankfort Diet at the other. "Give the people schools," they say,
" give them instruction, and verily you shall see them live in sweet
peace and die in fat plenty." Well, in this country, the school -mast
er is abroad everywhere, and school-houses abound. An American
who cannot write is seldom to be met with, one who cannot read still
more seldom, and one who cannot calculate, never. Yet our social
difficulties are great and growing, and the worst offences are not com
mitted by the unlettered, but by educated men. Turn again to Eu
rope, the next cry is "Toleration;" "Beligious Toleration," cries the
English tourist and the German traveller at Bome. "Equal Tolera-
ation," prays the Evangelical Preacher who devotes himself and his
growing family to the protestantizing of Corfu and Malta. "Tolera
tion " sighs the poor tract-pedlar, who, bent upon proclaiming that
the Priests are wicked, and the Pope a very wicked man indeed, brings
that interesting news to the Catalonian mountaineer, or the Hiber
nian peasant, and is treated to a sound thrashing for his impudence.
But in his country we have all of us Toleration to our heart's content
even for the most intolerable doctrines. Yet though doctors other
wise disagree, they unite in declaring that things here are morally
going to wreck as fast as they can. Is there no light to be got from
the boasted programme of the modern Beformers of Europe? "Im
provement," they cry again. " Improvement will bring about the hap
py social Millenium!" Yet wise men tremble for us, though we have
rail-roads enough to belt around Europe twice, and something to spare,
though the Mississippi river alone floats more steamboats than all the
inland waters of the mother continent, though after presumptuously
whipping our venerable ancestor twice on our ground, we beat him last
year on his own waters and under the eyes of his own Queen. All the
enthusiasts and philanthropists who profess to teach us how to make
this country great in a moral point of view as she is in other respects
must admit the truth of these statements, and so must all politicians,
decent or otherwise, of either party, both those who came down Salt
Biver on last election day, and those who on the same occasion got a
through ticket to go up. Classify the Beformers as you choose. Take
up the religious reformers first, and then the secular, or first the secu
lar, and then the religious. These men admit all the facts brought
forward, yet what do they do in consequence ? Nothing, or only

enough to prove their failure. The power that would marshal the
populations of North America under the principles of justice, for
bearance, charity, self-denial, and constancy, must be a strong power.
It must be strong in its constitution, strong in its expression, and
strong in its effects. We have on one side the country, her laws, her
institutions. We want on the other some noble energy, more sacred
than the law, more powerful than the will of the people, more univer
sal than the government, more ancient than the memory of its found
ers. There are several heads under which you can class the modern
systems of improvement, and the classification will show in each case
that they have not the energy of which we speak. The secular
schemers give us economical reforms, social reforms, political reforms.
The first make either the stayte irresponsible, or the individual irre
sponsible, and the weaker of the two is destroyed. The second break
the most sacred ties, and trample under foot the most undoubted rights
to make room for capricious agreements. The th"d can only succeed
when law and order are sacrificed to a Goddess of Liberty — that
makes Passion and Anarchy ministers at her fearful Altars. Pro
gressionists, in the view we now take of their schemes, attempt to lift
up matter into the order of spirit and thought, and bring down
thought and spirit to a chaotic fusion between them and matter. —
Their progress is a weary excursion through Swedenborgianism, Tran
scendentalism, Mesmerism, Animal and Mental Magnetism, Clairvoy
ance, Electro-Biology, Fourierism, Socialism, Communism, Mormonism
and BAPPiNG-ism. It ends by producing the same effects as alcohol,
opium and lunacy. Beformers of the individual have succeeded in
taking away the peace of mind they cannot restore from credulous
and. confiding persons. Domestic reformers have revived pagan or
gies in the pitiful farce of "Women's Bights" and Bloomerism. To
the public and national principles which they have substituted for our
old-fashioned honesty and straight-forwardness we owe our ridiculous
position as a nation whether we bully and insult Austria, Spain and
Mexico, because we think they are weak, or allow England to bully
and insult us because we think she is strong. Sectarian schemers and
innovators have had the whole country open to them from the begin
ning. What fruits of civilization has their training brought forth ?
Have they by patiently advancing their principles, or fearlessly re
cording their censure, or at least resolutely withholding their sanction,
have they kept off the confusion of mind, the pride of will, the base-

ness of heart that now threatens the country with destruction ?—
Neither they nor the secular schemers have lacked opportunities to show
what they could do. They possess abundance of wealth, they have
been encouraged by popular favor, they have had genius and talent in
their leaders, brilliancy and boldness in the schemes they proposed. —
But what can all this do when their utmost advance ends in unfixed-
ness and doubt ! They themselves do not believe in what they teach.
They dare not condemn those who are altogether opposed to them,
they insist upon no right to claim submission, they have no legitimate
organization. Always reckless and often insincere, intellectually dis
honest when not practically corrupt, they engage in what is an un
scrupulous plot, or at best a dangerous experiment.
Let us sum up the merits of the numberless plans that are so loud
ly recommended as a universal remedy for the social evils of our day.
As they are opposed to everything supernatural they seek for a God in
the material world from which they spring. Their progressive activ
ity is a fitful vibration between two extremes, one of which is Indi
vidualism, the other Universalism. One asserts the divinity of man,
the other the divinity of the world. Take up any sect or system
grounded upon irresponsible private judgement, and follow it logically
and you must fall down and worship Self, as the source of all good
ness and wisdom. Take up any of the generalizing isms of the day
as they stretch from the subtilest Transcendentalism down to the
grossest Socialism and Communism and you can resolve it by strict
reasoning into vague and hopeless Pantheism ; where it will stop un
less it goes on to insanity and self-destruction.
You have probably observed, Ladies and Gentlemen, that I endeavor
by a fair and gradual process to reach the principle of Christian civ
ilization, and social improvement as practically explained by the One
True Church ; and at the same, that I avoid discussing the various sec
tarian systems in the country, unless in as much as they are philosophi
cal and social engines. They are of course inefficient in this point of
view because they are theologically false. What the light of revela
tion shows to be an error the light of reason can never show to be a
truth. Protestantism from its nature and principles must become
popularized and secularized, and must work as a political system. —
Whenever the changing interests and caprices of the multitude turn
away from a political scheme once popular, Protestantism must turn
away from it too, and still follow the people perhaps in the most op-

posite direction, — or perish. Nor is it more consistent when it seeks
to gain support from the civil power by serving its ends against the
people. Under a James 1st it must assert the divine right of Kings,
and endorse Despotism, under a Cromwell assert the divine right of
Bebellion, and endorse Treason. When the sectarian pulpits rang
with resistance to the Government of England at the time of the
American Bevolution, the people liked the Text — praised the Sermon,
and caressed the preachers. When during the late Anti-slavery ex
citement the pulpits resounded with similar expressions against the
Government of the United States, the people disliked the Text,' and
discourse, and called the preacher a Woolly-Head. When the King
and Parliament of Great Britain found that the new religion served
their turn in robbing the Catholic Churches, Colleges and Abbeys
they upheld it. Should England get into a difficulty and need money
to get out of it, do you think it is likely that her rulers will scruple
to seize upon the same revenues because they are held by a different
set of incumbents ? Those Bulers did not respect the ancient Bish
ops established by the grace of God, will they respect under similar
circumstances the "Statutory Superintendents" established by act of
Parliament ? The trouble with Protestantism is, that like the cele
brated egg which served Columbus to illustrate his discovery of Amer
ica, it never can stand straight unless it is propped up at the sides. —
If you force it to stand by itself you break its very foundation. The
power which supports it rules it, and makes it most a slave where it
seems to be most at home. Protestantism, indeed, makes a living,
because it does not reckon without its host ; but then its host reckons
without Protestantism and makes it pay the ex'penses. — Not having
faith active enough to keep itself in life, where can it find vigor
enough to infuse new life into the institutions of the country ? — But
let us resume our theme and see now if Catholicity has any more vig
orous agency to offer for the correction of social evils and abuses than
the various human systems that have passed in review before us. To
proceed with fairness in this matter we must notice two mistakes that
are often made, one by the enemies, the other by the friends of the
Church, when surveying her history and looking into her social posi
tion. The enemies identify her with abuses which are merely acci
dental. Her friends identify her with beauties and embellishments
that are only accessory, and contingent. In history and in every day
life you may meet Catholics whose conduct is sinful and scandalous ;

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but do you hold the Church responsible for their actions ? What they
do is what she forbids, and what she commands is what they will not
do. You read of institutions, of cities where hypocrisy and vice go
unbridled, but in most cases you owe your information to some Bishop,
or Pope, or Council that interfered to correct the evil and sought to
punish the offender. The traveller in the deserts of the East who
approaches some far-famed monument of olden time, may see at first
only the uncouth outlines of a shapeless mass, and judge perhaps that
little of worth can be found in the rude pile before him. But as he
draws nearer and nearer he is undeceived, and gazes with intense de
light on one of the noblest structures of Memphis, Thebes, or Pal
myra, although its fair proportions are marred and partially hidden
beneath the gathering sands of the desert. Thus stands unmoved the
Church built by the hand of Christ ; the abuses which attempt to de
face the beauty of her divine form are like sand and dust which the
sweeping vicissitudes of time pile up around her to-day, and scatter
and whirl away on the morrow.
On the other hand the admirers of the holy Daughter of Sion's
eternal King are so struck with the costliness, and splendor of her
royal garments, that their language seems to grow cold and unimpas-
sioned when they go on to tell of her inward beauty and heavenly
grace. Who can read without a genial thrill of delight the annals of
the Church, and mark her long, and patient and persevering efforts to
polish the taste, to elevate the conceptions and habits of nations ? —
But let us not forget in our admiration for our divine mother that in
all these things, we see only the bright instruments she is pleased to
use, we admire only the graceful handmaids she calls around her and
trains to go with her towards the accomplishment of a nobler and
more exalted task. Praise if you choose the majesty of her archi
tecture, the sublimity of her painting, the chasteness of her sculpture,
the sweetness of her music, the power of her eloquence, the depth of
her learning, but remember that these are beauties and embellish
ments, not theological evidences. They are superb avenues all radiat
ing from a great central temple and leading back to it, not the solid
foundations of the temple itself. He who wanders in our primeval
forests when the Indian Summer throws its dreamy lustre over the
landscape finds every sense delighted by some gentle greeting. The
fragrancy of the wild-flowers, the countless tints of the foliage above
him varying from pale to orange and from dark evergreen to deep

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crimson, the songs of the woodland choristers perched upon the
branches, and the hum of insects sporting in the mellow sunlight, the
babbling brook and the long-drawn aisle of trees on its borders, would
each hold forth its charms and call for its meed of admiration. But
who so simple as to dwell on such a sight without sending his thoughts
beyond the fleeting sheen to admire the ever-enduring cause which
gives back in due season those fast-fading features of sylvan beauty.
Winter soon comes and the woodland choir is silent, the perfume and
comeliness of flowers and trees gladden the scene no more, yet vainly
does the storm wrestle with the sturdy boughs and unbending trunk
of the forest-oak. Thus vary the outward beauties of the Church, as
they are either torn from her brow by the hand of the despoiler, or
drop off withered by the chill breath of Time,— while the majestic
trunk with its living branches spread out even to the ends of the earth
decays not, but remains unharmed by any passing storm, remains un
shaken for ever.
The Church is still a fond Mother whether she chide and threaten
the wayward, or comfort and encourage the docile. Amid the gloom
and damp of the Catacombs she is as lovely as upon the throne of the
Caesars. Whatsoever has merited and received the seal of her divine
sanction on earth is truly beautiful, and recognized and honored as
such in heaven ; whether it be in the Christian Servant, or his Chris
tian Lord, in the toil-worn peasant, or in the generous youth, in the
sequestered Anchorite, or the devoutly heroic Nun, in the unresisting
Martyr, or the triumphant Crusader.
Instances of the loveliness of the Church may serve like the artistic
touch of the master upon the instrument he takes in hand announc
ing to the listener what his expectations may be ; but it is only when
the full tide of harmony gushes forth from orchestra and chorus blend
ing together a thousand various notes in one great melodious stream
that one can realize the depth and power of the most angelic among
the Arts. Thus it is only when the christian mind embraces altogeth
er the doctrines, duties, Sacraments, virtues, miracles, memories of
olden time and examples of modern date, that all the glorious vari
eties and harmonies of the Kingdom of Christ upon earth begin to be
understood. From what, Ladies and Gentlemen, are we to consider that the
strength of the Catholic Church, her strong words, strong actions,
strong unyielding spirit proceed ? Her strength is two-fold ; it is in-

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terior, it is exterior. She is strong because she is conscious of her
divine life, her imperishable nature. Hence the uncompromising
stand she takes in the world. Scarcely has she entered upon her mis
sion on Earth and been placed like her Divine Founder for the resur
rection and the ruin of many when meeting undismayed all the agen
cies calling themselves holy, religious, inspired — she proceeds at once
to tear the charter of their supposed rights and brands their children
with illegitimacy. Why does she proclaim that she only has the
truth — that she has all truth ? She does not shrink from the re
sponsibility of answering that she is infallible ! If asked for her
proofs, the pledged word of God that she shall not fail is her reply,
When called upon to undergo tests the most cruel, the most degrading,
that wicked men and fallen angels combined can devise, she fears not
the consequences, because she is immortal. None can take away her
life. At the tyrant's command she walks unmoved amid armed legions
to the judgement hall, the prison, and the stake. If you are her
enemy she knows full well, that she shall live to hear your passingr
bell — if you become her friend, that it shall be hers to drop a tear of
compassion upon your tomb. The strength of her position on* such
grounds can never be exaggerated. She holds and announces that
salvation is not possible out of her fold to any one who knows, or
ought to know, that she is the One True Church. Those who are not
Catholics can never understand why, or how it is that the Catholic
Church engrosses all the affections of her children — so that life has
no treasure that can bribe them to leave her, death has no terror that
can drive them to desert her. It is that they share in her conscious
ness of the divinity that abides in her, and with her until the end of
the world. She teaches them really and truly to worship Christ as
God whether appearing in his Transfiguration between two Prophets,
and surrounded by glory, or hanging between two thieves on a cross
to consummate his Passion. She does not seek to refine the doctrines
of her Lord so as to suit the tastes of an age which calls itself enlight
ened. She does not seek to be respectable. Her Lord did not seek
to be respectable. She leans not on popularity, nor did her Divine
Founder. A popular assembly cried out " Crucify him, Crucify him !''
This ardent, unswerving faith comes from above ; it is the indwelling
of the divine Spirit felt to be real, and known to be perpetual, that
makes all her inward strength. God is with her intimately, always ;
his mind is her mind, his will is her will. When she acts it is He

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who leads her, when she triumphs it is because He sustains her. He
allows her to be tried and afflicted in her outward person, her inward
peace and security can never be lost ; for He who is with her is her
safety and life.
Let us now turn to the exterior strength of the church, and show
its effects upon society at large. In this we shall behold the church
unfolding her practical influences. The various modern systems, whose
port of destination is that Araby the blest Social Improvement — car
ry as we have seen a great deal too much sail and too little ballast,
ever to reach that or any haven of rest in safety. The first fruit
of the earnest inward energy of the church is her outward independ
ence. The church is a kingdom in herself. She stands on ground
which is all her own and hers alone — she needs in no case to fall back
on any but her own pledged resources. No government establish
ment and no popular acceptance of her platform^re necessary to the
success of her undertakings. To secure an efficient remedy for our
social aliments she may not like the Alchemist of old wait for a lucky
conjunction of the stars, she need not leave the patient in anguish
until a favorable crisis occurs or till he reaches the grand climacteric;
such electrifying prescriptions for the body politic as a sudden revo
lution, or a coup d'etat from no part of her sanatory resources. —
Give her men, women and children in a clear field, and she will mar
shal them wisely and lead them on to victory without advice from
friends or warning from foes. Confusion will ensue, only when a gov
ernment or a people should act as if her divine power were likely to
fail unless aided by their -wisdom, armed with secular weapons, and
guarded by a shield of earthly temper.
She is helped best when let alone. Left to herself she is left in
all her might. In every event, however, she asks no man's leave to
raise her voice under any roof or bend her knee in worship on any
floor of his realms. We love the counsels of a voice that is free, un
prompted, unpurchasable ; and where is there a voice more independ
ent than that of the Catholic church ? A great battle is now waged
in the world ; it is a struggle for pre-eminence between State Despo
tism on the one side, and Popular Licence on the other. Tell me on
which side does the church range herself ? on neither one nor the oth
er. She is persecuted by both. Her children, her Priests even, lan
guish in the dungeons of the one, and are robbed and exiled by the
other. If in the raging of that storm which so lately swept over Eu-

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rope, the successor of St. Peter had seen fit to steer his Bark towards
these peaceful shores, and while here, in our midst, even in this hos
pitable city, had been respectfully asked : Who gave him greater
cause to complain, the Bulers or the Populace of Europe ? — neither
promptly nor unhesitatingly could the venerable pontiff have replied
to such a question. In the name of the Koman people, a mercenary
gang of adventurers from every quarter of the globe drove the Ninth
Pius from the same throne from which the Seventh Pius was torn by
the iron hand of an imperial despot. The sighs and groans of Cath
olics, thrust by the penal laws of the imperial council-chamber of St.
Petersburg into the frozen caves of Siberia, mingle at the gates of
heaven with the prayers of Catholic Ireland against the penal laws of
a British House of Commons. The King of Sardinia banished from
his states the Archbishop of Turin, and the Bishop of Cagliari. Those
exiled Prelates may soon receive in London perhaps, perhaps in Bome,
the kiss of peace from the Bishop of Carthagena, and the Archbishop
of Bogota, driven from their Sees by the liberal President and Con
gress of the Bepublic of New Granada. We have seen that no free
dom of speech greater than that of the Catholic church can be enjoy
ed or needed on earth — and what is the purpose and purport of her
speaking ? Does she draw from the sources which the pretended re
formers love to frequent ? Does she give us nothing but vague dec
lamations upon the beautiful and the good ? Does she tell us to listen
to the mandates of unsupported reason, leaving meanwhile us and our
fatally weak adviser at the mercy of Passion,- Fear, Uncertainty and
Despair ? Does she send us to go peering among the clouds in search
of knowledge, with the transcendentalist, to borrow with him from
poetry nothing but its fine phrenzy — to hearken with him to the di
vine utterances contained in the whispering of breeze, and the bab
bling of brook, or steal into the nursery to read wonderful lessons of
wisdom in " baby's eyes." Or, are we advised to give up in despair,
all these still, small voices and arousing with the radical Politician
the interesting animal called " Vox Populi," learn eternal verity from
his amiable growl ? Perchance, after the example of the ancient Bo-
man Augurs, who studied to interpret learnedly the prating of mag
pies and the cackling of geese, we may be sent by her direction to the
" Women's Bights Convention " and attempt to decipher the same
kind of oracles with equally profound and satisfactory results ? Or,
does she bid us stoop to hear the god of the Kochester Knockers

15
thump out queer information from the back of dusty bureaux and the
legs of tables and chairs ? Unbounded as may be the circle of her
resources, it reaches not so far but must be overstepped by the trav
eller who seeks for the bourne of this undiscovered country of mist
and vapor. Her principles are clear and strong ; pure as gold, and
lasting as the diamond, and the source from which she draws them,
the treasury of her inward faith. They are not one thing here and
another there ; white to-day and black to-morrow ; but settled and de
fined over all time and through all space. Laying open her Catechism
she holds over it the unquenchable torch of Faith that the votary of
holy science may read and understand. The first Chapter which ex
plains the natural law, and the end of man's creation was taught and
understood in the garden of Eden. The second Chapter containing
the Commandments of God was written upon tablets of stone, under
dictation from the voice of Jehovah upon Mouni Sinai. The third
embracing the Apostle's Creed is a record of what Jesus taught in
Judea, and the chosen twelve repeated all over the earth The " Our
Father," breathed from the heart of the God-man sketches perfect
civilisation in the eloquence of prayer, when it raises the fervent as
piration that the " Kingdom of God may come, and that his will may
be done on earth as it is in heaven." Furnished with good princi
ples and taught to understand them aright, man is fairly fitted to
enter Social life. The church thus prepares all who heaiRn to her
voice, and laying the foundation broad and deep, she does not disap
point the beholders when she commences to build. Principles, how
ever, must be upheld by powerful motives of good action. Systems
that are all human, and merely human can furnish none but merely
humari motives. They must make all human responsibility begin and
end in the fear of temporal evil, and the love of temporal good. —
Modern Philosophy, when not lost in visions of dreamy and imprac
ticable virtue, can only promise man, that if he is good, he shall most
assuredly be well fed and well clad and have a good time, but that if
he is wicked, there is nothing too bad he may not meet^ withal. This
reduces man to the level of the brute creation, and would make it not
too severe to apply to him the expression of the Dutch lecturer on
Natural History, when he said : " Gentlemen, the animal we come to
now is called the swine ; and richly does he deserve that name." The
promised reward of the Church for good behavior is freedom, peace,
and happiness here, and eternal blessedness unalloyed by evil here-

16
after. To the wavering she lays bare the heart of the wicked man a
prey to every insatiable passion, even in the midst of seeming delight,
while all shall end for him in eternal misery.
Man can be lifted up to the standard of civilization, only by insist
ing, as the Church does, that he shall rise above it. In obedience to
her every man, in every place, and at every time, must at least mean
to be right, and mean to do well. " The beginning of wisdom is the
fear of the Lord ;" a fear which while it binds man to the service of
the Ail-Powerful, frees him from the fear of King and people, of all
power that is not infinite. To all the rewards and punishments which
just laws and wise government hold out to form the good citizen she
adds all the weight of the powers that form the good christian.
She even goes farther than giving good principles and strong mo
tives to do right. She gives aid to do right, and begins her mission
practically where even the best of human systems must end theirs. —
Let us condense under a few heads the aids by which the Church
helps man to bear all the burdens that may fall to his lot during life,
and not sink under them till he safely reach the threshold of eternity.
First, then, she has in her ministry legitimate organs — all over
the world ; and through them she applies to each person, in every in
stance, the enactments of general morality. She applies them to all
with authority, binding the great as well as the small. The first
assailant ^k the soul who falls by her hand is the demon of Doubt :
Doubt, alas ! that chills the rising energy, and stifles the good resolves
of so many noble hearts outside of her pale. She does not, like her
adversaries, continually throw man back upon his own individuality.
She speaks precisely when he needs it ; and when all others have spoken
in vain, and are silent, then her voice is heard like the voice of Daniel in
the halls of Belshazzar. Secondly ; she and she alone, is the channel
through which the saving grace of God is dispensed to man. This
stream of spiritual life is directed to meet each ones's particular need,
as the rain and dew of heaven form the timely supply of plants,
giving moisture and freshness to the parched and drooping grass,
spreading out to the thin leaf of the forest and the juicy berry of the
wilderness, thickening into the mellow pulp of the apple and pear of
the orchard, and as they circulate through the long branches and deli
cate tendrils of the vine, giving to its generous clusters wherewith to
bloom and blush and ripen beneath the rays of the sun. Thirdly, she
teaches prayer. She teaches that if it is humble, — it is all-powerful.

17
Prayers become an unfailing resource to be called upon in every and
any case of need — they draw on the treasury of Heaven, which we
never can exhaust. By grace we can do all things. Do we need light
for the mind ? The grace of God is light. Do we need strength for
the will ? The grace of God is strength. How beautiful are the re
lations between prayer and corresponding grace ! As our prayer
ascends to Heaven, grace descends to us on earth. Fourth : she ad
ministers Sacraments. The Sacraments are grants of heaven-born
energy apportioned to each stage of life. Baptism opens the entrance
into the Christian fold. Confirmation fits the child to enter the
world. The Eucharist and Holy Penance sustain and raise man up
through life, and Extreme Unction as he goes out blesses his transit
to his eternal home. Holy Order and Matrimony meanwhile perpetu
ate the Sacraments by perpetuating the succession of those who ad
minister and of those who receive them. Thtse sacramental channels
of superhuman energy are like fountains opening upon the highway
of life at proper intervals for the comfort of wayfaring man. From
Baptism at his first setting out along and through his life-time, even to
Extreme Unction, which is at the end of the journey, the Christian goes
ever hopefully oh ; for he never loses sight of these blessed fountains,
they are always within his reach, scarce does he grow weary and faint
when he sees near him some life-giving source to renew his energies.
In the fifth and the last place, we may sum up all in Charity, which
is indeed the true love of God for his own sake, and the true love of
our neighbor for the sake of God. The love of God is a central point
of light, and the love of our neighbor, like the countless rays which
diverge in every direction, conveying brightness and heat into every
spot where grief is to be assuaged or want relieved. The human
heart of Protestantism cannot yearn with true charity towards the
wretched, the despised, the fallen. She may pity^the poor, she never
can respect them, but must feel that giving to poverty she degrades
it. She goes not to the victim of want and remorse who is unable to
go to her ; or should she indeed in kindliness of feeling seek out the
abode of misery, she stands powerless by the bedside of the lonely
sufferer. The Church alone can breathe into the ear of the unfortu
nate — "Arise, thy sins are forgiven thee." The sinner derives cour
age from the mercy which is extended even to him ; and then in the
words of a Catholic poet :

18
" Still, still though, taste and fraud and strife
Have strained the shining web of life
Sweet Hope the growing woof renews
In all its old enchanting hues."
To recapitulate and condense in a few words these several
thoughts : — Man, by his own natural power, cannot bring about
that social reform which all grant to be so much needed. All human
systems which are proposed to enable man to bring about this reform
add nothing to his natural power. The Church alone can give him
supernatural principles, motives, and aids, and so she alone can sup
ply him with the superior energy which he stands in need of. Man,
then, can get from the Church alone power enough to bring about
social reform. Let him, therefore, seek it in her alone. The sooner
mankind is convinced of this truth, and acts up to this convic
tion ; the better for man and for society — for then indeed social
reform may be attainable on earth. The records of history prove
that the Church has strengthened and refined the social condi
tion of nations; that she has done so successfully wherever man
has not interfered to hinder and confuse the sublime work, which,
blinded by his vanity and self-love, he could not, or would not, under
stand. At different times, and in different grades of civilization, the
Church has formed social institutions where they were unknown or
forgotten, reformed them where they tended to destruction. Let us
examine a few instances of her strength in this connection. The
social system she found in Greece and Asia Minor was refined to fas
tidiousness. Art was the handmaid of Luxury, and Genius a caterer
for the Passions. The people lived in idleness, but in an idleness
which they knew how to diversify with amusements and invest even
with dignity. Yet their silken repose grew irksome from very satiety
of pleasure. The Church taught them that there was something
higher and nobler to live for than ingenious recreation, and opened a
new era in the history of their language and of their national life.
She had to deal with a system more powerful and less refined in
Borne. The military spirit which pervaded society there mapped
out its operations under the guidance of ambition. Bold enterprise
produced dramatic pageants, and often, lasting and noble works. The
Church taught Borne that the nature of man was not imperial, and
obtained respect for the humility of the Cross in time to save much

JTwhere all must otherwise have perished
le wild hordes of Northmen who spread over
le downfall of the Boman Colossus brought with
Pit of restlessness and impulse, ignorance, and unruly pas-
vhich knew no man as a neighbor, and feared no law but force.
She curbed their savage rapacity, and made them less body and more
soul. Ignorance gradually passed away under her gentle sway, and
where war was the rule and peace the exception, war became the ex
ception and peace the rule.
The Church indeed, in her course fell in with some simple populations
which were pastoral and agricultural ; but they were reduced almost to
the brute instincts of the flocks and herds they tended, and material
almost as the turf from which their toil wrung a scanty subsistence.
They soon learned that all their interests were not imbedded in the
soil over which they bent, and could thrive els^svhere than in the grass
and herbs which mantled its surface. She taught them to fear more
than the flash of lightning, or the rolling of thunder, things not seen by
the eye, or heard by the ear of flesh. She taught them to love and
fear God, who created man and the world, and all that is terrible or
good therein. The civilization of India and China — incipient or
effete — crude or worn-out — has afforded hitherto but partial op
portunities for the exercise of her benign influence. But enough has
been seen to assure us that she alone has power enough to stimulate
the sluggish current, to re-kindle the smouldering fire of life in those
nationalities dying from sheer inanition.
The social system of the United States is peculiar to itself, and
different from those mentioned above. Greek cunning is surpassed
by the sharper edge of Yankee cuteness, and the institutionism of
Borne by America's fondness for hobbies. Material amelioration and
progress is the national aim ; Agriculture and Commerce the means.
The individual is admired and followed chiefly as he is the nucleus of
an enterprise, a system, an institution. We are undecided and infor
mal as yet in regard to principle. Power and cleverness of effect is
admired more than justness of cause, or purity of motive, activity more
than soundness. History may yet, perhaps, speak of us as the great
est nation of the earth. Still, there is reason to fear, that we may
figure in her pages like the Phenicians, roaming at large as commer
cial warriors, civilizers and thieves ; or like the Egyptians, narrowed
into refined seclusion, selfish greatness, and erudite laziness. Our

" -' fraud and strife
5 life
hero so far is the smart man that goes ahe^
and some suspect with truth, that we are a little ...
like the power of virtue very well, but the power 01 .
We trade no longer in wooden nutmegs, but we double our pi-ora]
the real ones. We like to get along in the world — honestly, ii .
can be done — but to go ahead anyhow. Wc are great in little things,
and little in great things. We are great inventors, but our inven
tions are often discoveries in natural philosophy, or physical appli
ances, making mind the slave of matter. We polish and perfect more
than we create, and our progress is not the progress of the whole
social and moral body ; it is the high-pressure developement of details.
We go on torturing and stretching, simplifiying and condensing,
twisting and turning and whittling away, and decomposing nature by
so many plans and specifications, that we are in danger of ending some
fine day by decomposing ourselves. Our society wants a strong under
current of moral principle producing an honest, healthy, chivalric
national tone. It must be patiently taught to esteem these things
enough to labor towards their acquirement. We have a hearty and
active social body ; we want a great social soul to animate it.
The matter in this case is all right ; it is the spirit that gives reason
to fear. The institutions of the country are good ; they must be pre
served. Abuses have crept in ; they must be reformed. Difficulties
arc ahead ; they must be overcome. Where is the source from which the
country must drink in this inward life, health, and strength ? Ladies
and Gentlemen, it is the Catholic Church, — the Catholic Cnurch
alone.

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JUN 7 1943