virtues; and I feel how much we should be on guard against those who speak of "Sans Culottes" to the people, while they themselves live in insolent ostentation. I feel that we must be on guard against those men who vaunt themselves as patriots par excellence, and yet could not stand an investigation on one-not on a single one, of their actions in private life!

Perhaps I have devoted time enough to a rôle to which my conscience is unaccustomed. It is time to pass on to the part my duty obliges me to assume. "A chain," you say, "extending from London to Paris!" I believe it! "It is a chain of corruption! » I still believe it. And without it, would we have here, even here, these same people, applauding your movements, guiding themselves by your wishes? Yes, I understand it! - Pitt or some other criminal coalition works against us by intrigue. But supposing that some one were here to accomplish his ends, the destruction of the Republic and of liberty, what would such a one do? He would have commenced by depraving the public morality, that the citizens might be in his hands what they formerly were, what they still are in some sections in the hands of the priests: he would have brought the National Assembly into disrepute and contempt; he would have robbed it of public confidence; he would have sown in the Republic, and especially in the city where the Convention sat, the love of pillage, the love of murder! He would have made audible the voice of blood!

JAMES, CARDINAL GIBBONS

(1834-)

HE Parliament of Religions, held at Chicago during the World's Fair, was, without doubt, the first religious congress ever held which represented, even approximately, all the religions of the earth. The principal creeds of both hemispheres and every considerable denomination of Christians were represented in addresses delivered before the Parliament. Among those addresses, none was more remarkable than that of Cardinal Gibbons. Representing the strictest orthodoxy of the Roman Catholic Church, and asserting the claims of the Church with a comprehensiveness rarely, if ever, attained before, he conceded fellowship in good works to all other denominations of Christians, and closed by making such fellowship of actual beneficent achievement the test of true religion. "There is no way by which men can approach nearer to the gods than by contributing to the welfare of their fellow-men," he said with Cicero, as his final word.

He was born at Baltimore, July 23d, 1834, and ordained priest at St. Mary's Seminary in that city in 1861. In 1877 he became archbishop of Baltimore, and was made a Cardinal in 1886,- a result due, not only to the growing importance of the Church in America, but to his own great abilities. He has published 'The Faith of Our Fathers,' 'Our Christian Heritage,' and other works appropriate to his vocation as one of the leaders of the world's religious thought.

ADDRESS TO THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS (Read Before the Parliament at Chicago, September 14th, 1893- From a Contemporary Verbatim Report)

WR

E LIVE and move and have our being in the midst of a civilization which is the legitimate offspring of the Catholic religion. The blessings resulting from our Christian civilization are poured out so regularly and so abundantly on the intellectual, moral, and social world, like the sunlight and the air of heaven and the fruits of the earth, that they have ceased to excite any surprise except in those who visit lands where the

religion of Christ is little known. In order to realize adequately our favored situation, we should transport ourselves in spirit to ante-Christian times, and contrast the condition of the pagan world with our own.

Before the advent of Christ, the whole world, with the exception of the secluded Roman province of Palestine, was buried in idolatry. Every striking object in nature had its tutelary divinities. Men worshiped the sun and moon and stars of heaven. They worshiped their very passions. They worshiped everything except God, to whom alone divine homage is due. In the words of the Apostle of the Gentiles: "They changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of the corruptible man, and of birds and beasts and creeping things. They worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator who is blessed forever."

But, at last, the great light for which the prophets had sighed and prayed, and toward which the pagan sages had stretched forth their hands with eager longing, arose and shone unto them "that sat in the darkness and the shadow of death." The truth concerning our Creator, which had hitherto been hidden in Judea, that there it might be sheltered from the world-wide idolatry, was now proclaimed, and in far greater clearness and fullness into the whole world. Jesus Christ taught all mankind to know one true God-a God existing from eternity to eternity, a God who created all things by his power, who governs all things by his wisdom, and whose superintending Providence watches over the affairs of nations as well as of men, "without whom not even a sparrow falls to the ground." He proclaimed a God infinitely holy, just, and merciful. This idea of the Deity so consonant to our rational conceptions was in striking contrast with the low and sensual notions which the pagan world had formed of its divinities.

The religion of Christ imparts to us not only a sublime conception of God, but also a rational idea of man and of his relations to his Creator. Before the coming of Christ, man was a riddle and a mystery to himself. He knew not whence he came, nor whither he was going. He was groping in the dark. All he knew for certain was that he was passing through a brief phase of existence. The past and the future were enveloped in a mist which the light of philosophy was unable to penetrate. Our Redeemer has dispelled the cloud and enlightened us

regarding our origin and destiny and the means of attaining it. He has rescued man from the frightful labyrinth of error in which Paganism had involved him.

The Gospel of Christ as propounded by the Catholic Church has brought, not only light to the intellect, but comfort also to the heart. It has given us "that peace of God which surpasseth all understanding," the peace which springs from the conscious possession of truth. It has taught us how to enjoy that triple peace which constitutes true happiness, as far as it is attainable in this life - peace with God by the observance of his commandments, peace with our neighbor by the exercise of charity and justice toward him, and peace with ourselves by repressing our inordinate appetites, and keeping our passions subject to the law of reason, and our reason illumined and controlled by the law of God.

All other religious systems prior to the advent of Christ were national, like Judaism, or State religions, like Paganism. The Catholic religion alone is world-wide and cosmopolitan, embracing all races and nations and peoples and tongues.

Christ alone, of all religious founders, had the courage to say to his Disciples: "Go, teach all nations.' 'Preach the Gospel to every creature.' 'You shall be witness to me in Judea and Samaria, and even to the uttermost bounds of the earth.' Be not restrained in your mission by national or State lines. Let my Gospel be as free and universal as the air of heaven. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof.' All mankind are the children of my father and my brethren. I have died for all, and embrace all in my charity. Let the whole human race be your audience, and the world be the theatre of your labors!"

It is this recognition of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of Christ that has inspired the Catholic Church in her mission of love and benevolence. This is the secret of her all-pervading charity. This idea has been her impelling motive in her work of the social regeneration of mankind. "I behold," she says, "in every human creature a child of God and a brother or a sister of Christ, and therefore I will protect helpless infancy and decrepit old age. I will feed the orphan and nurse the sick. I will strike the shackles from the feet of the slave, and will rescue degraded woman from the moral bondage and degradation to which her own frailty and the passions of the stronger sex had consigned her."

Montesquieu has well said that the religion of Christ, which was instituted to lead men to eternal life, has contributed more than any other institution to promote the temporal and social happiness of mankind. The object of this Parliament of Religions is to present to the thoughtful, earnest, and inquiring minds the respective claims of the various religions, with the view that they would "prove all things, and hold that which is good," by embracing that religion which above all others commends itself to their judgment and conscience. I am not engaged in this search for the truth, for, by the grace of God, I am conscious. that I have found it, and instead of hiding this treasure in my own breast, I long to share it with others, especially as I am none the poorer in making others the richer.

But, for my part, were I occupied in this investigation, much as I would be drawn toward the Catholic Church by her admirable unity of faith which binds together in common worship two hundred and fifty million souls, much as I would be attracted toward her by her sublime moral code, by her world-wide catholicity and by that unbroken chain of apostolic succession which connects her indissolubly with apostolic times, I could be drawn still more forcibly toward her by that wonderful system of organized benevolence which she has established for the alleviation and comfort of suffering humanity.

Let us briefly review what the Catholic Church has done for the elevation and betterment of humanity:

1. The Catholic Church has purified society in its very fountain, which is the marriage bond. She has invariably proclaimed the unity and sanctity and indissolubility of the marriage tie by saying with her founder that: "What God hath joined together, let no man put asunder." Wives and mothers never forget that the inviolability of the marriage contract is the palladium of your womanly dignity and of your Christian liberty. And if you are no longer the slaves of man and the toy of his caprice, like the wives of Asiatic countries, but the peers and partners of your husbands; if you are no longer tenants at will, like the wives of pagan Greece and Rome, but the mistresses of your households; if you are no longer confronted by uprising rivals, like Mohammedan and Mormon wives, but are the queens of domestic kingdoms, you are indebted for this priceless boon to the ancient Church, and particularly to the Roman pontiffs who inflexibly upheld the sacredness of the nuptial bond against the arbitrary