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Show 1 Catholicity in Dixie-Land. i - : The Rev. A. P. Doyle, the Paulist, who is to lecture in Boston early in January, said last week in an address: "The hope of the South lies in the Church. Its best civilization can only be maintained main-tained by a religion that preaches restraint of passion, pas-sion, reverence to authority, and submission to tho laws." Father Doyle is right. From the very fact that the South, above all parts of the Union, still clmgs to Christian truths, imperfectly understood, it is a ' good field for missionary effort. Xowhere in this country are there so many who hold firmly to the truths of Revelation. Unitarian-ism Unitarian-ism and various forms of quasi-antheism hold no place there; yet nowhere, unfortunately, does there exist so much misunderstanding as to the principles and practices of Catholics. At the same time nowhere does purity of life, simplicity of heart, reverence, constancy, and abiding abid-ing faith so appeal to the heart. The spiritual condition of the colored people is appalling. Before the war, thousands of them in Xew Orleans and Baltimore were Catholics'. They followed the faith of their masters. At present, in both cities the percentage of Catholics among the colored population is very much less than it was in I860. The religion of the negro is a strange blend of superstition illuminated by real religious fervor. The negro is naturally religious. The poetry of religion appeals to him. There i3 nothing he enjoys more than to be deluged by religious emotion. Still does not our charity in truth-telling lie nearer at home ? Even the apostles who went into the world preaching and baptising did not seek the land of the bamboo tree nor did they journey into the far reaches of the Congo. Xow, really, notwithstanding the mock-heroics that we utter concerning the negro, isn't his religion, relig-ion, which curiously ignores the Fifth and Sixth Commandments, veTy much like third-rail trolley lightning? Boston Republic' ' |