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Show tin tm Erofi)eil.yrroe8sson Controversial Dialogue Between a Presbyterian and His Catholic Brother, Leading Up to Former's Conversion. IX. In every large community, because be-cause in every natural man, there is always a predisposition, predisposi-tion, more or less manifest. to rebel against the existing order, and to welcome and adhere to those who are nrepared to war against it, especially espec-ially to credit whatever may be advanced ad-vanced to its prejudice. They who attack at-tack the existing order, appealing to this predisposition, and have the appearance ap-pearance of attacking tyanny and oppression, op-pression, and of being champions of freedom and justice. This fact renders ren-ders them respectable, almost sacred, in the eyes of the multitude. Their position, moreover, permits them to assume a bold and daring tone, to make broad' and sweeping assertions, and to forego clear and exact statements, state-ments, and close and rigid logic. They can desclaim, denounce. be impassioned, im-passioned, and affect all the eloquence of virtuous indignation. The eloquence of denunciation is the easiest thing in the world to command; for it appeals directly to those elements of our nature na-ture which lie nearest the surface and weak men prefer it and excel in it. But he who defends authority labors always under a disadvantage. He has an unpopular cause. To the superficial and they are always the great majority ma-jority he is the advocate of tyranny, the enemy of liberty, warring against the best interest ami true dignity and glory- of his race. He can appeal to no popular passion, use no burning words, and pour forth no strains of indignant in-dignant eloquence. He cannot speak to the multitude. He must speak to sober sense, to prudent judgment, and aim to convince the reason, instead of moving the sensibility, or inflaming the passions. His words, to all but the few, are cold and spiritless, tame and commonplace. For the foaming tankard or sparkling goblet. with which the popular declaimer 'regales his auditors, he has only simple water from the spring. He must be subdued in his tone, measured in his speech, exact in his statements, rigid in his reasoning, and few only will listen to him, and fewer still can appreciate him. He who for years has been on the side opposed to authority, and by his bold and daring declamation roused up a whole ocean of popular passion, and at every word brought an echo from the universal heart of humanity, no sooner finds himself on the other side, than all his marvelous eloquence is lost, and he is pronounced by the very public which had hailed him as a second sec-ond Cicero or Demosthenes, cold and weak, a Samson shorn of his locks and grinding in the mill of the Philistines. No matter how true and just his thought, how deep and searching his wit, how wise and prudent his counsel, how lucid and exact his statements, how' clean and cogent his reasoning, he can excite n passion, move no sensibility, and bring no popular echo. The spell is broken; his magic is over, and his power to charm is gone for ever. He is no Indian hound, fearinff not to attack the lion, and the poodles see nothing in him to admire. Then, again, the poodles regard the lion attacked as the lion vanquished. They hold objections boldly and confidently con-fidently made to be true, till it 1 proved to be false. In this fact, in the tendency of the great majority to regard re-gard every objection made to existing authority as well founded till the contrary con-trary is shown, lies the secret of the Protestant reformation. To this the reformers owed their brilliant success. They well understood that their objections ob-jections to the Church would be credited credit-ed by multitudes till refuted. It was a matter of little importance so far as their success was concerned, whether their objections were true or false. What theywanted was simply sim-ply objections easily made, but not easily refuted susceptible of being proposed in a popular answer, not susceptible of a popular answer. Such objections they employed their wit in inventing, and their skill and activity in circulating. A lie, happily, conceived, adroitly told, and well stuck to, was in their case hardly, if at all. inferior to the truth: and it must be conceded that they had a mar- i-oliia faeilitv In invpntinEr lies, and in adhering to them when they had once told them. Whoever cooly examines ex-amines their objections to the Church will readily perceive that they are all framed with respect, not to truth, but to the difficulty of refutation, and on the principle that a lie is as good as the truth' till it is contradicted. Gloriously Glor-iously did they chuckle, we may fancy, when the "father of lies" helped them to a popular objection, to which no popular answer could ne returned. Boldly, or with brazen impudence they threw it out. sent it forth on its errand er-rand of mischief, and then laughed ax the heavy answer wiiTch, in process of time, came lumbering after it. The objection was made in a few words, on a loose sheet, and wafted by the wind of controversy through every land, town, village and hamlet, to every door, and became universally known: the answer followed in a ponderous quarto or folio, all bristling with scholastic schol-astic formulas and scholastic distinctions, dis-tinctions, formidable even to the professional pro-fessional reader. Its circulation was necessarily limited; few only heard of it; fewer read it, and still fewer were, able to appreciate it. The authors au-thors of the objection, safely ignoivd it, or, if they could not, they misrepresented misrep-resented it, denied its conclusiveness, and even made it the occasion of a new triumph with their followers. Or. when they could neither conceal the fact of the answer nor its conclusiveness, conclusive-ness, they could still count -on all the poodles, who insist that there must have been something in the objection, or else it would not have required so elaborate and so learned a refutation. The Hon had been attacked and that was something. "Where there is- much smoke, there is some fire," says the popular proverb. prov-erb. Surely there must be something w rong in the church or so much would not, and could not, be said against her. Whether, therefore, the objections objec-tions actually urged be precisely true or not, it is evident the church is not unobjectionable, and if not unobjectionable, unobjection-able, we are justified in rejecting her. So reason the poodles forgetting that our blessed Lord himself was everywhere every-where spoken against, was called a glutton, and a drunkard, the friend of publicans and sinners, a blasphemer, a seditious fellow, a fool, said to be possessed pos-sessed of the devil, and finally crucified between two thieves as a malefactor. There was smoke enough was there also some fire? Here was objections enough raised, charges enough preferred pre-ferred was there also some truth in them? Where is the blasphemous wretch that dare think it? . If they called the Master of the house Beelzebub, Beelze-bub, bow much more then of his household? house-hold? If so they have accused the Lord himsolf, how much more his church? To ore competent to reason on the subjei t, the gra ve character and multiplicity mul-tiplicity of the objection alleged against the church are an evidence that she is Go'"s church. "Will you tell me what books I may-read may-read to become acquainted with the Cathclic faith?" said, the other day, an intelligent Protestant to the writer. "I am wholly ignorant of the Catholic Church, but I hear everywhere so muth said against it that I cannot help thinking there must be something good in it, and that possibly It is the true church." This lady, brought up a rigid Calvinist, through God's grace, had j learned to reason far more justly than I she hfid been taught by her Protestant i masters, and. if true to the grace she has received, will ere long be admitted into t-ie "Cummunion of Saints." Bur I she. is not one of the poodles: and the reformers preferred, and their siuces-; siuces-; sor piefer. the admiration of these to . the ai probati'Vi of the sober and pru-. pru-. dent freyhounds. The policy of the re-forme re-forme rs was indicated by Luther, when he to ik the discussion of theological questions out of the school and from the tribunal of professional theologians, and brought it before the unprofessional unprofes-sional public, f picked up the other day. in a steamboat, a flaming quack advertisement. It appeared that the advertiser had. as he allesred, discovered discov-ered an entirely new medical system, which placed all the regular tnedicin-ers tnedicin-ers from Esculapius down, quite in 'he wr.inj. He had challenged the regular reg-ular practitioners to a discussion of the merits of their respective systems. The challerge h.ui been accepted, but on condition that the discussion should be before a jury of medical men. The advertiser scoimed this condition. Tt proved that the "regular doctors" had no confidence in their own system: for if otherwise, they would not shrink "' j'uuiie discussion, it was an insult to the public, and he would not submit to it. He was ready and anxious anx-ious to discuss the question: hut he would do- it before no prejudiced Jury of professional men: he would do ft openly before his free and enlightenel fellow-citizens, who were the oniv proper prop-er tribunal. He trusted his fellow-citizens, the free and enlightened pulIic would appreciate his motives in refusing refus-ing to be a partner in offering so gross an indignity to their intelligence and impartial judgment, and would be at no loss to understand why the regular practitioners had annexed to their ceptance of his challenge so insulting a condition. Now, here am I. said I to mvself. throwing down the advertisement, at least a fair average of the popular intelligence. in-telligence. I have even studied, with considerable attention, several branches of medical science: and yet how utterly utter-ly unqualified I should be to sit as judge on the respective merits of rival systems! I might listen to the statements state-ments of either party, but I am too ig-noiiant ig-noiiant of the general subject to be able to perceive the bearing and real value of the statements of one or the other. I might, indeed, if such should happen to "be the case, perceive that this pretended pre-tended discoverer silenced his opponent; oppon-ent; but I could draw no inference from that, for nothing is more common than for a man to triumph through impudence, impu-dence, or because too ignorant to be refuted. The proper judges of a controversy con-troversy like the one here proposed are medical men themselves, as lawyers law-yers are the proper judges of law questions. ques-tions. Indeed, the very fact that this advertiser refuses to argue his case before be-fore an audience of professional men and appeals to the unprofessional pub lic, is to me full proof that he Is a quack, and sufficient to decide me. without further examination, against him. If I need medical advice I am sure I shall not call him in. anymore than I would a miserable pettifogger in an important and intricate law case. I can confide by health and that of my family to no practitioner whose science and skill are not superior to my own, and vouched for by those who know more of medical matters than I do, and are far better judges of medical systems than I am. (To Be Continued.) ' m m 1 |