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Show -. -, A METHODIST BISHOP'S OPINION OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. If the following had been , written by the editor of Thei intermountain Catholic, Catho-lic, many would hastily conclude that it was a hysterical cano of optimism produced by the writer's) inborn prejudice. preju-dice. It will put a different phase upon it. however, when we assure our readers read-ers that it is merely an extract from a sermon of a Methodist bishop: . "I have a great deal of respect for Roman Catholics and the Roman Catholic Cath-olic Church, and the feeling becomes stronger as I grow older. I do not think we can afford to criticise Catholics Catho-lics until we display at least equal zeal in the 6ervice of the Master. Who are they whose feet go clattering by ouri houses these cold winter mornings before be-fore daylight? Who are they who fill their churches: to worship God while we are in our own beds? Who throng our streets.. prayer book in hands, with reverend faces, aye, and with perhang as reverend hearts as any of you here? They are zealous, faithful Catholics, who believe in the truth of their Church, and feel that through it alone they can worship the God whom they fear and love." "To what church do those self-sacrificing communities belong that toil from morning until night for the good of God's people'? "' Who are those who come here from foreign lands, poor and strange, with nothing but a spade, and have erected temples of worship that put us to shame? Isn't the poor servant serv-ant girl, who lays a tithe of her earnings earn-ings on the altar of God, sincere in her belief, and will she not find favor in God's eyes? There was a paragraph in the Christian Advocate the other day which made me blush when I read it. It Ptated that Jn, .New. -York City the Catholics have church property to' the value of more than $11,000,000, a greater sum than the value of all other church property, except 'that ' owned -. by the Episcopal church;' These are the people who fill their churches three or four time every Sunday with different con gregations. These are the people who sixty years ago had but three churches in New York and are now filling all our Protestant cities and towns. What right have we to complain that this is so? Why should we abuse them because be-cause their churches crown the noblest eminences in the land? Let us possess, ourselves of -those virtues and qualities quali-ties which they have in a stronger degree de-gree than we and those added to what we already possess will put us in a position where we may have a right to criticise their actions." |
