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Show TRUTH MUST PREVAIL The last of a series of letters on the church in France appears in this issue. The learned writer probes the question of the present and past history of the church in that unfortunate country in its relations with the government to its fountain source. The information gathered is from personal experience and intimate knowledge of French history. his-tory. The writer has lived in France, associated and mingled with the brightest and brainiest churchmen, statesmen and literary men that France produced in the last century. Much of what he has written comes at first hand, secured through his intimate acquaintance, with French scholars whose confidence he enjoyed during his frequent visits and long sojourns in that country. The battles bat-tles of the church for a hundred years and more, and their causes he depicts vividly. The battleground battle-ground has frequently been shifted, but it is the same old enemy that perpetuates the strife. Credit i-j given to French missionaries, and the French in general for their excellent traits of character, for their intelligence, faith and piety, but the governing govern-ing class, though in the minority, havefrom away back shown a hoslile spirit to the Supreme Head of Christendom. This anti-papal French policy has played a prominent part in nearly all the contentions conten-tions of the church against schism and heresy since the days of the Reformation. The means adopted by those hostile to the Papacy in waging war against the church were different at times and made to suit the egigencies of the times and conform con-form to French prejudices, yet all had for the ulterior ul-terior object the lessening of the Pope's supreme authority in spirituals. This was the tendency of Gallicanism which aided Voltaire. Rousseau and their followers in their war against Christianity. On all these points the learned writer has given out of the best and most satisfactory explanations of the French troubles that have yet appeared. The evil influences of French literature, the press, art and theatrical performances in disseminating immorality, im-morality, and as a necessary consequence, in causing caus-ing a decay in faith aud morals, have been vividly, yet painfully depicted. In answer to the question which comes from all quarters. ''What will be the final result of the present contest i" he simply says in the words of the Savior, "Why are you affrighted, affright-ed, O ye of little faith?" The church in her origin, and in her existence for twenty centuries, is divine and divinely protected, and under the protection of the divine arm must, in the present combat, as in all past warfares, bo victorious. With the swords of peace and charity she conquered the Pagan world and on the ruins of the Roman empire, which fell to pieces because of its inherent rottenness, she erected the cross, the emblem of man's salvation, thereby substituting Christian civilization for that of ancient Greece and Rome. ."Oh. ye of little faith, will not be affrighted" as to the final result in the present contest if you only study and weigh well what this means. They (the whole Roman empire, exclusive of the children chil-dren of Israel) who worshipped at the shrine of ADhrodite, were commanded to lead singularly pure lives, and observe, under pain of condemnation, the sacred vows of Christian marriage. The ban of condemnation, placed by a few despised and persecuted perse-cuted soldiers of Christ on Aphrodite and Venus the Greek aud Roman goddesses of sensual love, was soon recognized, and this huge and corrupt Pagan monstrosity was vanquished. The anathemas burled against drunkenness soon put an end to the worship of Bacchus, which meant the most debasing debas-ing orgies and debaucheries that are conceivable. With such victories historically attested who could doubt the interposition of Providence. The final result in the present contest can not differ from that which took place when Napoleon T, the conqueror con-queror of many nations, sacrilegiously laid hands on the Pope, making him a prisoner at Savona, and still later at Fontainbleau. The un-Catholic world shouted with joy, because, as they supposed, the papacy had met its Waterloo, and "Babylon had fallen." But these joyous acclamations were soon changed into wails of regret and despondency, when the Holy Father left his prison celt and returned to Rome, where he received the warmest marks of affection, love and greetings from his flock scattered scat-tered throughout the entire Catholic world. Ever j after the. humble shepherd of souls, the servant of ; servants, reigned in peace, whilst the haughty and once invincible conqueror became a British prisoner pris-oner ainl died as such on the barren island of St. Helena. Prince von Bismarck tried his hand after the Franco-Prussian war. Intoxicated with pride j after his many victories he. sought the extinction i of the Catholic Church and the destruction of the Papacy. The May or Falk laws, enacted in lSTo-4, were purposely drawn up to restrict the liberties, and freedom of conscience of the saintly bishops, devoted priests, and good religious people who were subjects of the German empire. Many suffered exile, imprisonment and death in refusing to obey the Iron Chancellor rather than God. In the midst of the fight Bismarck proclaimed to the world that ''the Pope would find in the present war between him and the empire no Canossa." The result re-sult is long since settled. The Church survived the shock; Bismarck, disappointed and disgruntled, died without even enjoying the confidence of the emperor. Today the Church has more vitality and is numerically stronger in the German empire than she was since the days of the Reformation. The religious, re-ligious, who were exiled for their faith, have been invited to return and become honored citizens of the Fatherland. Are further proofs needed to show that a Church which has stood the severest tests that human ingenuity could devise to destroy her existence, and misarebly failed, is not human but divine? The promises of her divine founder that lie would send the spirit of truth to steer and direct her over the turbulent waves of a hostile world, and that the gates of hell would never prevail pre-vail against her, must last till the end of the world. |