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Show INFIDEL GOVERNMENTS REPENTING OF THEIR FOLLY. Statecraft is a subject now wholly neglected by writers. No books are now written to instruct men how to rule. People used to think it was an art; nay, even a science, to govern men. Now it is left to amateurs and adventurers. People having ceased to be governed by principles, it is idle to apply principles to their political life. The primary principle of all human government is the supremacy suprem-acy of God. All just rights and legieimate powers are derived from Him. Rule without God is tyranny. ty-ranny. All political rule today is divested of all divine sanction, and rulers are at the mercy of tho ruled. There 13 no longer any truth or loyalty in the political world. Emperors, kings and presidents presi-dents are but puppets, controlled by the mob. The man who holds in his hand the ballot was heretofore hereto-fore said to be king; he has become a despot. There is no stability in any government in the world today, to-day, whose corner-stone does not rest on loyalty to God. The United States is the only country on the face of the earth that recognizes, in spite of her silent constitution, the indefeasible sovereignty of God; and our government is the most stable of all governments in consequence. The church has always been ready to teach the world Christian statesmanship; and her conception concep-tion of the duties of the ruler and of the rights of the ruled are the only ones that have stood the test of experience. If there is ever to be peace in Europe again it wll be by a return of rulers and peoples to the principles of Catholic theology. Not only are the teachings of the church on the abstract questions of statesmanship sound and conservative, but her views on the practical work-j work-j ings of statescraf t are instinct with divine wisdom. The greatest menace of social and political orders today is the curse of secret societies. For a hundred hun-dred years the church has been declaiming against secret societies. Her enemies rallied around them, and both made common cause against her. All tho infidel governments of Europe have, from time to time abetted secret societies, those most hostile to the church have been most closely allied to them. The Carbonari in laly; the Freemasons in Spain; tho Freethinkers in France; the' Socialists and Anarchists An-archists in Germany, have all inherit dethe Protestant Protest-ant hostility to the Catholic church, and tho gov-ernments gov-ernments that warred against Rome always encouraged encour-aged their secret plottings against religion; where they did not enter into open and avowed alliance. The church has suffered much from them separately separate-ly and in conjunction; but she has survived and lives to witness the truth of all her prognostications. prognostica-tions. The governments that have been founded on anti-Catholic principles are today in a death struggle strug-gle with their common enemy, secret societies. France is governed by the Freemasons. Italy bows under the yoke of the Socialists; Germany, Austria, Aus-tria, Spain and Russia are ruled by the lodges. They would break the yoke; but how? By a return to Catholic loyalty. No. They would break the power of the secret societies by publicity. . That is tho only remedy. But how apply it? How arrive at the secrets of the lodge room ? We would gladly see tne curtain lited, as it would prove the dawn of a very bright day for the church. We believe in publicity as a remedy ' for -alf plottings against church and state. Those societies that enjoy a public pub-lic charter should be made to work in the light. All public corporations should be forced to conduct their business in public. If this was done in the past we would be spared the terrible scandals that daily fill the columns of our newspapers. The people peo-ple would be protected from the impositions of trusts and combinations. Above all these semi-political secret societies would be dragged into the light and wholly shorn of their power for mischief. We certainly favor publicity as a measure of protection pro-tection both for governments and peoples. This i3 the measure contemplated by all the church's anti- secrot-society legislation. AH her laws against Freemasonry and kindred societies have had for their end and aim this publicity. It is Catholic teaching under a modern name. When will the prodigal world come to itself and say: I will return re-turn to my mother's house, where there is order and peace; I will confess my sin and ask material forgiveness. for-giveness. The church is the visible representative of Christ on this earth, and in a true, if restricted sense, she can say: "I am the way, the truth and the life." Western Watchman. |