"No," replied Manuel, "he is writing many letters to Rome. Will you come and play to me?"
"Willingly!" and Angela went lightly up the winding steps of the gallery, "But you have been out all day,--are you not tired?"
"No, not now. I WAS weary,--very weary of seeing and hearing so many false things . . ."
"False things?" echoed Angela thoughtfully, as she seated herself at the organ, "What were they?"
"Churches princ.i.p.ally," said Manuel quietly; "How sad it is that people should come into those grand buildings looking for Christ and never finding Him!"
"But they are all built for the worship of Christ," said Angela, pressing her small white fingers on the organ keys, and drawing out one or two deep and solemn sounds by way of prelude, "Why should you think He is not in them?"
"He cannot be," answered Manuel, "They are all unlike Him! Remember how poor he was!--He told His followers to despise all riches and worldly praise!--and now see how the very preachers try to obtain notice and reward for declaring His simple word! The churches seem quite empty of Him,--and how empty too must be the hearts and souls of all the poor people who go to such places to be comforted!"
Angela did not reply,--her hands had unconsciously wandered into the mazes of a rich Beethoven voluntary, and the notes, firm, grand, and harmonious, rolled out in the silence with a warm deep tenderness that thrilled the air as with a rhythmic beat of angels" wings. Lost in thought, she scarcely knew what she played, nor how she was playing,--but she was conscious of a sudden and singular exaltation of spirit,--a rush of inward energy that was almost protest,--a force which refused to be checked, and which seemed to fill her to the very finger tips with ardours not her own,--martyrs going to the destroying flames might have felt as she felt then. There was a grave sense of impending sorrow hanging over her, mingled with a strong and prayerful resolve to overcome whatever threatened her soul"s peace,--and she played on and on, listening to the rushing waves of sound which she herself evoked, and almost losing herself in a trance of thought and vision. And in this dreamy, supersensitive condition, she imagined that even Manuel"s face fair and innocent as it was, grew still more beautiful,--a light, not of the sun"s making, seemed to dwell like an aureole in his cl.u.s.tering hair and in his earnest eyes,--and a smile sweeter than any she had ever seen, seemed to tremble on his lips as she looked at him.
"You are thinking beautiful things," he said gently, "And they are all in the music. Shall I tell you about them?"
She nodded a.s.sent, while her fingers, softly pressing out the last chord of Beethoven"s music, wandered of their own will into the melancholy pathos of a Schubert "Reverie."
"You are thinking of the wonderful plan of the world," he said,--"Of all the fair and glorious things G.o.d has made for those who love Him!
Of the splendour of Faith and Hope and Courage,--of the soul"s divine origin and responsibility,--and all the joy of being able to say to the Creator of the whole universe, "Our Father!" You are thinking--because you know--that not a note of the music you are playing now fails to reach the eternal spheres,--echoing away from your touch, it goes straight to its mark,--sent with the soul"s expression of love and grat.i.tude, it flies to the centre of the soul"s worship. Not a pulsation of true harmony is lost! You are thinking how grand it is to live a sweet and unsullied life, full of prayer and endeavour, keeping a spirit white and clean as the light itself, a spirit dwelling on the verge of earth but always ready to fly heavenward!--You are thinking that no earthly reward, no earthly love, no earthly happiness, though good in itself, can ever give you such perfect peace and joy as is found in loving, serving, and obeying G.o.d, and suffering His will to be entirely worked in you!"
Angela listened, deeply moved--her heart throbbed quickly,--how wonderfully the boy expressed himself!--with what sweetness, gentleness, and persuasion! She would have ceased playing, but that something imperative urged her to go on,--and Manuel"s soft voice thrilled her strangely when he spoke again, saying--
"You know now--because your wise men are beginning to prove it--that you can in very truth send a message to heaven."
"To heaven!" murmured Angela, "That is a long way! We know we can send messages in a flash of lightfrom one part of the world to another--but then there must be people to receive them--"
"And heaven is composed of millions of worlds," said Manuel, ""In my Father"s house are many mansions!" And from all worlds to all worlds--from mansion to mansion, the messages flash! And there are those who receive them, with such directness as can admit of no error!
And your wise men might have known this long ago if they had believed their Master"s word, "Whatsoever is whispered in secret shall be proclaimed on the housetops." But you will all find out soon that it is true, and that everything you say, and that every prayer you utter G.o.d hears."
"My mother is in heaven," said Angela wistfully, "I wish I could send her a message!"
"Your very wish has reached her now!" said Manuel, "How is it possible that you in the spirit could ardently wish to communicate with one so beloved and she not know it! Love would be no use then, and there would be a grave flaw in G.o.d"s perfect creation."
Angela ceased playing, and turned round to face the young speaker.
"Then you think we never lose those we love? And that they see us and hear us always?"
"They must do so," said Manuel, "otherwise there would be cruelty in creating the grace of love at all. But G.o.d Himself is Love. Those who love truly can never be parted,--death has no power over their souls.
If one is on earth and one in heaven, what does it matter? If they were in separate countries of the world they could hear news of each other from time to time,--and so they can when apparent death has divided them."
"How?" asked Angela with quick interest.
"Your wise men must tell you," said Manuel, with a grave little smile, "I know no more than what Christ has said,--and He told us plainly that not even a sparrow shall fall to the ground without our Father. "Fear not," He said, "Ye are more than many sparrows." So, as there is nothing which is useless, and nothing which is wasted, it is very certain that love, which is the greatest of all things, cannot lose what it loves."
Angela"s eyes filled with tears, she knew not why, "Love which is the greatest of all things cannot lose what it loves!"--How wonderfully tender was Manuel"s voice as he spoke these words!
"You have very sweet thoughts, Manuel," she said, "You would be a great comfort to anyone in sorrow."
"That is what I have always wished to be," he answered, "But you are not in sorrow yet,--that is to come!"
She looked up quickly.
"You think I shall have some great trouble?" she asked, with a little tremour in her accents.
"Yes, most surely you will!" replied Manuel, "No one in the world ever tried to be good and great at the same time without suffering miscomprehension and bitter pain. Did not Christ say, "In the world ye shall have tribulation"?"
"Yes,--and I have often wondered why," said Angela musingly.
"Only that you might learn to love G.o.d best," answered Manuel with a delicate inflexion of compa.s.sion in his voice, "And that you might know for certain and beyond all doubt that this life is not all. There is something better--greater--higher!--a glory that is worth winning because immortal. "In the world ye shall have tribulation"--yes, that is true!--but the rest of the saying is true also--"Be of good cheer,--I have overcome the world"!"
Moved by an impulse she could not understand, Angela suddenly turned and extended her hands with an instinctive grace that implied reverence as well as humility. The boy clasped them lightly then let them go,--and without more words went softly away and left her.
XIII.
The Church of Notre Dame de Lorette in Paris with its yellow stucco columns, and its hideous excess of paint and gilding, might be a ball-room designed after the newest ideas of a vulgar nouveau riche rather than a place of sanct.i.ty. The florid-minded Blondel, pupil of the equally florid-minded Regnault, hastily sketched in some of the theatrical frescoes in the "Chapel of the Eucharist," and a misguided personage named Orsel, splashed out the gaudy decorations of the "Chapel of the Virgin." The whole edifice glares at the spectator like a badly-managed limelight, and the tricky, glittering, tawdry effect blisters one"s very soul. But here may be seen many little select groups out of the h.e.l.l of Paris,--fresh from the burning as it were, and smelling of the brimstone,--demons who enjoy their demonism,--satyrs, concerning whom, one feels that their polished boots are cleverly designed to cover their animal hoofs, and that skilful clothiers have arranged their garments so that their tails are not perceived. But that hoofs and tails are existent would seem to be a certainty. Here sometimes will sing a celebrated tenor, bulky and brazen,--pouring out from his bull-throat such liquid devotional notes as might lift the mind of the listener to Heaven ifone were not so positive that a moral fiend sang them;--here sometimes may be seen the stout chanteuse who is the glory of open-air cafes in the Champs Elysees, kneeling with difficulty on a velvet ha.s.sock and actually saying prayers. And one must own that it is an exhilarating and moving sight to behold such a woman pretending to confess her sins, with the full delight of them written on her face, and the avowed intention of committing them all over again manifesting itself in every turn of her head, every grin of her rouged lips, and every flash of her painted eyes! For these sections out of the French "Inferno," Notre Dame de Lorette is a good place to play penitence and feign prayer;--the Madeleine is too cla.s.sic and serene and sombre in its interior to suggest anything but a museum, from which the proper custodian is absent,--Notre Dame de Paris reeks too much with the blood of slain Archbishops to be altogether comfortable,--St. Roch in its "fashionable" congregation, numbers too many little girls who innocently go to hear the music, and who have not yet begun to paint their faces, to suit those whose lives are all paint and masquerade,--and the "Lorette" is just the happy medium of a church where, Sham being written on its walls, one is scarcely surprised to see Sham in the general aspect of its worshippers. Among the ugly columns, and against the heavy ceiling divided into huge raised lumps of paint and gilding, Abbe Vergniaud"s voice had often resounded,--and his sermons were looked forward to as a kind of witty entertainment. In the middle or the afterwards of a noisy Ma.s.s,--Ma.s.s which had been "performed" with perhaps the bulky tenor giving the "Agnus Dei," with as sensually dramatic an utterance as though it were a love-song in an opera, and the "ba.s.so," shouting through the "Credo," with the deep musical fury of the tenor"s jealous rival,--with a violin "interlude,"
and a "cello "solo,"--and a blare of trumpets at the "Elevation," as if it were a cheap spectacle at a circus fair,--after all this melodramatic and hysterical excitement it was a relief to see the Abbe mount the pulpit stairs, portly but lightfooted, his black clerical surtout b.u.t.toned closely up to his chin, his round cleanshaven face wearing a pious but suggestive smile, his eyes twinkling with latent satire, and his whole aspect expressing, "Welcome excellent humbugs! I, a humbug myself, will proceed to expound Humbug!" His sermons were generally satires on religion,--satires delicately veiled, and full of the double-entendres so dear to the hearts of Parisians,--and their delight in him arose chiefly from never quite knowing what he meant to imply, or to enforce. Not that his hearers would have followed any counsel even if he had been so misguided as to offer it; they did not come to hear him "preach" in the full sense of the word,--they came to hear him "say things,"--witty observations on the particular fad of the hour--sharp polemics on the political situation--or what was still more charming, neat remarks in the style of Rochefoucauld or Montaigne, which covered and found excuses for vice while seemingly condemning viciousness. There is nothing perhaps so satisfactory to persons who pride themselves on their intellectuality, as a certain kind of spurious philosophy which balances virtue and vice as it were on the point of a finger, and argues prettily on the way the two can be easily merged into each other, almost without perception. "If without perception, then without sin," says the sophist; "it is merely a question of balance." Certainly if generosity drifts into extravagance you have a virtue turned into a vice;--but there is one thing these spurious debaters cannot do, and that is to turn a vice into a virtue.
That cannot be done, and has never been done. A vice is a vice, and its inherent quality is to "wax fat and gross," and to generally enlarge itself;--whereas, a virtue being a part of the Spiritual quality and acquired with difficulty, it must be continually practised, and guarded in the practice, lest it lapse into vice. We are always forgetting that we have been, and still are in a state of Evolution,--out of the Beast G.o.d has made Man,--but now He expects us, with all the wisdom, learning and experience He has given us, to evolve for ourselves from Man the Angel,--the supreme height of His divine intention. Weak as yet on our spiritual wings, we hark back to the Beast period only too willingly, and sometimes not all the persuasion in the world can lift us out of the mire wherein we elect to wallow. Nevertheless, there must be and will be a serious day of reckoning for any professing priest of the Church, or so-called "servant of the Gospel", who by the least word or covert innuendo, gives us a push back into prehistoric slime and loathliness,--and that there are numbers who do so, no one can deny.
Abbe Vergniaud had flung many a pebble of sarcasm at the half-sinking faith of some of his hearers with the result that he had sunk it altogether. In his way he had done as much harm as the intolerant bigot, who when he finds persons believing devoutly in Christ, but refusing to accept Church-authority, considers such persons atheists and does not hesitate to call them so. The "Pharisees" in Christian doctrine are as haughty, hypocritical and narrow as the Pharisees whom Jesus calls "ravening wolves," and towhom He said, "Ye shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against men; for ye neither go in yourselves, NEITHER SUFFER YE THEM THAT ARE ENTERING TO GO IN," and "Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity." The last words, it may be said, will apply fittingly to more than one-half of the preachers of the Gospel at the present day!
It was a brilliant, soft autumnal Sunday morning when Cardinal Bonpre, mindful of Abbe Vergniaud"s request that he should be present to hear him preach, took his slow and thoughtful way to the church of the Lorette, accompanied by his niece Angela and Manuel. The building was crammed, and had not the Abbe been previously careful to reserve seats, and to mention the Cardinal"s name to the custodian, he would have scarcely obtained admission. As it was, however, he pa.s.sed slowly up the centre aisle without hindrance, followed by Manuel and Angela, and watched by a good many inquisitive persons, who wondered as they looked, who the boy was that walked after His Eminence with such easy self-possession,--with such a n.o.ble and modest bearing, and with such a strangely thoughtful face. A few whispered and nudged each other as "the Sovrani" pa.s.sed them, dressed in her usual quiet black, her head slightly bent and her eyes downcast. The Marquis Fontenelle, seated in an att.i.tude which suggested a languid indifference to all persons and events, lifted his bright hazel eyes as she pa.s.sed,--and a sudden wave of consciousness swept over him,--uneasy consciousness that perhaps this small slight woman despised him. This was not quite a pleasant reflection for a man and a Marquis to boot,--one who could boast of an ancient and honourable family pedigree dating back to the fighting days of Coeur-de-Lion and whose coat-of-arms was distinguished by three white lilies of France on one of its quarterings. The lilies of France!--emblems of honour, loyalty, truth, and chivalry!--what smudged and trampled blossoms they seem to day! He frowned as this fancy crossed his mind, and turned his eyes away from the following of Angela"s slight form up the aisle; and his glance fell instead on a face he detested, because it was almost the counterpart of his own,--the face of the great French actor Miraudin. The same clean-shaven cla.s.sic face and cl.u.s.tering hair,--the same glittering, amorous hazel eyes;--the same charming and kindly smile,--all these attributes were in Miraudin"s face, indefinably coa.r.s.ened, while in Fontenelle"s they remained refined and inicative of the highest breeding. The Marquis moved uneasily in his seat,--he saw himself in the famous actor,--himself as he would be, if he continued his career of self-indulgence,--for Miraudin though gifted with a genius that could move all Paris to the wildest excesses of admiration, was in private life known as a man of detestable reputation, whose liaisons with women were endless, but who, in his extreme egotism and callousness had never been known to yield to the saving grace of a "grande pa.s.sion,"--one of those faithful pa.s.sions which sometimes make the greatness of both man and woman concerned, and adorn the pages of dull history with the brilliancy of deathless romance. Was he, Guy Beausire de Fontenelle no better, no n.o.bler, no higher, in his desires and ambitions than Miraudin? What was he doing with the three lilies emblazoned on his escutcheon? He thought with a certain fretful impatience of Sylvie, of her captivating grace, her tender eyes, her sweet laughter, and sweeter smile. She had seemed to him a mere slight creation of the air and the moonbeams,--something dainty that would have melted at a touch, and dropped into his mouth, as it were, like a French bon-bon. So he, man-like, had judged, and now lo!--the little ethereal creature had suddenly displayed a soul of adamant--hard and pure, and glittering as a diamond,--which no persuasion could break or bend. She had actually kept her word!--she had most certainly left Paris. The Marquis knew that, by the lamentable story of her dismissed maid who had come to him with hysterical tears, declaring that "Madame"
had suddenly developed a "humeur incroyable"--and had gone away alone,--alone, save for a little dusky-skinned Arab boy whom she had once brought away from Biskra and had trained as an attendant,--her "gouvernante" and companion, Madame Bozier, and her old butler who had known her from childhood. Fontenelle felt that the dismissal of the maid who had been such a convenient spy for him, was due to Angela Sovrani"s interference, and though angry, he was conscious of feeling at the same time mean in himself, and miserable. To employ a servant to play the spy on her mistress, and report to him her actions and movements, might be worthy of a Miraudin, but was it quite the thing for a Marquis Fontenelle? Thinking over these things his handsome face grew flushed and anon pale again, as from time to time he stole a vexed side glance at the easy Miraudin,--so like him in features and--unfortunately so equally like him in morals! Meanwhile, the music of the Ma.s.s surged round him, in thunders of the organ, wailings of violins, groaning of "cellos, and flutings of boys" and men"s voices,--and as the cloudy incense rose upon the air he began to weave strange fancies in his mind, and to see in the beams of sunlight falling through the stained gla.s.s windows a vision of the bright face of Sylvie looking down upon him with a half-tender, half-reproving smile,--a smile that seemed to say, "If thou lovest me, set the grace of honour on thy love!" These were strange thoughts for him to entertain, and he was almost ashamed of them,--but as long as the melodies of the Ma.s.s kept rolling on and reverberating around him he could not help thinking of them; so that he was relieved when a pause came,--the interval for the sermon,--and Abbe Vergniaud, leisurely mounting the steps of the pulpit, stood surveying the congregation with the composed yet quizzical air for which he was celebrated, and waiting till the rustling, fidgeting, coughing, snuffing, toe-sc.r.a.ping noises of the congregation had settled down into comparative silence. His att.i.tude during this interval was suggestive. It implied contempt, wearied patience, resignation, and a curious touch of defiance. Holding himself very erect he rested his left hand on the elaborate sculptured edge of the pulpit,--it was the hand on which he usually wore his ring, a diamond of purest l.u.s.tre,--but on this occasion the jewel had been removed and the white, firm fingers, outlined against the pulpit edge, looked as though they had just relaxed their grasp of something that had been more or less of a trouble to retain. Nothing perhaps is so expressive as a hand,--the face can disguise itself,--even the eyes can lie,--but the hand never. Its shape, its movements, its att.i.tude in repose, give a more certain clue to character and disposition than almost any other human feature. Thus, with the Abbe, while his left hand suggested a "letting go," his right hand, which held a small black-bound Testament implied defiance, grip, resolve and courage. And when the people seated immediately around the pulpit lifted their eyes expectantly to the popular preacher"s face, several of the more observant noticed something in his look and manner which was unfamiliar and curiously disconcerting. If it be true, as there is every reason to believe it is, that each human being unconsciously gives out an "aura"
of his interior personality which is made more or less powerful to attract or repel by the nature of his intentions, and which affects the "aura" of those with whom he is brought in contact, then Abbe Vergniaud was this morning creating all unawares to himself a very singular impression of uneasiness. Some of the persons thus uncomfortably influenced coughed violently in an instinctive attempt to divert or frustrate the preacher"s mood, but even the most persistent cougher must cease coughing at some time or another--and the Abbe was evidently determined to wait for an absolute silence before he spoke. At last silence came, and he opened the Testament. Holding it up to the view of the congregation, he began with all that easy eloquence which the French tongue gives to a cultured speaker,--his voice full and sonorous, reaching distinctly to every part of the crowded church.
"This," he said, "is a small book which you all pretend to know. It is so small a book that it can easily be read through in an hour. It is the Testament;--or the Last Will and Command to the world of one Jesus Christ, who was crucified on account of His Divinity more than eighteen hundred years ago. I mention the fact, in case any of you have forgotten it! It is generally understood that this book is the message of G.o.d and the key of Faith;--upon it our churches and religious systems are founded;--by its teaching we are supposed to order our conduct of life--and yet,--though as I have said, it is a very small book, and would not take you an hour to read it--none of you know any thing about it! That is a strange thing, is it not?"
Here he leaned over the pulpit edge, and his bright eyes, coldly satiric, flashed a comprehensive glance over the whole congregation.
"Yes, it is a strange thing, but I affirm it true,--that none of you know anything whatever about the contents of this small volume which is the foundation of the Christian Faith! You never read it yourselves,--and if we priests read it to you, you never remember it!
It is a locked Mystery,--perhaps, for all we know, the greatest mystery in the world,--and the one most worth probing! For the days seem to be coming, if they have not already come, which were prophesied by St.
John the Divine, whom certain "clever" men of the time have set down as mad;--days which were described as "shaking the powers of heaven and creating confusion on the earth." St. John said some strange things; one thing in particular, concerning this very book, which reads thus;--"I saw in the right hand of Him that sat upon the throne a book sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice; Who is worthy to open and to loose the seals thereof? And no man in heaven or in earth was able to open the book neither to look thereon. And I wept much because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon." But St. John the Divine was mad, we are told,--madness and inspiration being judged as one and the same thing. Well, if in these statements he is supposed to prove his madness, I consider a doubt must be set upon everyone"s sanity. For his words are an exact description of the present period of the world"s existence and its att.i.tude towards the Gospel of Christ,--"NO MAN IS FOUND WORTHY TO LOOSE THE SEALS OF THE BOOK OR TO LOOK THEREON." But I am not going to talk to you about the seven seals. They adequately represent our favourite "seven deadly sins," which have kept the book closed since the days of the early martyrs;--and are likely to keep it closed still. Nor shall I speak of our unworthiness to read what we have never taken the trouble to rightly understand,--for all this would be waste of time. It is part of our social sham to pretend we know the Gospel,--and it is a still greater sham to a.s.sume that we have ever tried in the smallest degree to follow its teaching. What we know of these teachings has influenced us unconsciously, but the sayings in the Gospel of Christ are in very truth as enveloped in mystery to each separate individual reader as the oracles of the ancient Egyptians were to the outside mult.i.tude. And why? Merely because, to comprehend the teaching of Jesus we should have to think,--and we all hate thinking.
It is too much exertion,--and exertion itself is unpleasant. A quarter of an hour"s hard thinking will convince each one of us that he or she is a very worthless and ridiculous person, and we strongly object to any process which will, in itself, bring us to that conclusion. I say "we" object,--that is, I and you; particularly I. I admit at once that to appear worthless and ridiculous to the world has always seemed to me a distressing position, and one to be avoided. Worthless and ridiculous in my own eyes I have always been,--but that is not your affair. It is strictly mine! And though I feel I am not worthy "to loose the seals of the book or look thereon," there is one pa.s.sage in it which strikes me as particularly applicable to the present day, and from it I will endeavour to draw a lesson for your instruction, though perhaps not for your entertainment."
Here he paused and glanced at his hearers with an indefinable expression of mingled scorn and humour.
"What an absurdity it is to talk of giving a "lesson" to you!--you who will barely listen to a friend"s advice,--you who will never take a hint for your mental education or improvement, you who are apt to fly into a pa.s.sion, or take to the sulks when you are ever so slightly contradicted. Tiens, tiens! c"est drole! Now the words I am about to preach from, are supposed to have been uttered by Divine lips; and if you thoroughly believed this, you would of your own accord kneel down and pray that you might receive them with full comprehension and ready obedience. But you do not believe;--so I will not ask you to kneel down in mockery, or feign to pray when you are ignorant of the very spirit of prayer! So take the words,--without preparation, without thought, without grat.i.tude, as you take everything G.o.d gives you, and see what you can make of them. "The light of the body is the eye,--if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!""
Here he closed the Testament, and rested it edgewise on the pulpit cushion, keeping one hand firmly clasped upon it as he turned himself about and surveyed the whole congregation.
"What is the exact meaning of the words, "IF THINE EYE BE SINGLE"? It is an expressive term; and in its curt simplicity covers a profound truth. "If thine eye," namely,--the ability to see,--"be single," that is straight and clear, without dimness or obliquity,--"thy whole body shall be full of light." Christ evidently did not apply this expression to the merely physical capability of sight,--but to the moral and mental, or psychic vision. It matters nothing really to the infinite forces around us, whether physically speaking, we are able to see, or whether we are born blind; but spiritually, it is the chief necessity of our lives that we should be able to see straight morally. Yet that is what we can seldom or never do. Modern education, particularly education in France, provides us at once with a double psychic lens, and a side-squint into the bargain! Seeing straight would be too primitive and simple for us. But Christ says, "If thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness." Now this word "evil," as set in juxtaposition to the former term "single," evidently implies a double sight or perverted vision. With this "evil," or double sight, our whole body "shall be full of darkness." Very well, my friends, if this be true,--(and you surely must believe it true, otherwise you would not support churches for the exposition of the truth as spoken by the Founder of our Faith;--) then we are children of the dark indeed! I doubt if one amongst us,--for I include myself with you,--can be said to see clearly with a straight psychic vision. The straight psychic vision teaches us that G.o.d is the Creator of all things,--G.o.d is Light and Love,--G.o.d desires good from us, and from every particle of his creation;--but the double or perverted line of sight offers a different view and declares, "This life is short and offers many pleasures. I cannot be sure of G.o.d because I have never seen Him;--the Universe is certainly very majestic, and somewhat startling to me in its exact mathematical proportions; but I have no more to do with it than has a grain of sand;--my lot is no more important than that of the midge in the sunbeam;--I live,--I breed--I die;--and it matters to no one but myself how I do these three things, provided I satisfy my nature." This is the Philosophy of the Beast, and it is just now very fashionable. It is "la haute mode" both in France, and England, Italy, and Spain. Only young America seem to be struggling for a Faith,--a Christian Faith;--it has almost, albeit faintly and with a touching indecision, asked for such a Faith from the Pope,--who has however declared it to be impossible in these words addressed to Cardinal Gibbons, "Discussion of the principles of the Church cannot be tolerated even in the United States. There can only be one interpreter, the Pope. In the matter of discipline, concessions may be allowed, but in doctrine none." Mark the words, "cannot be tolerated"! Consider what stability a Faith can have whose principles may not be discussed! Yet the authority of the Church is, we are told the authority of G.o.d Himself. How is this? We can discuss G.o.d and His principles. He "tolerates" us while we search for His laws, and stand amazed and confounded before His marvellous creation. The more we look for Him the more He gives Himself gloriously to us; and Christ declares "Seek and ye shall find,"--the Church says "Seek and ye shall not be tolerated"! How are we to reconcile these two a.s.sertions? We do not reconcile them; we cannot; it is a case of double sight,--oblique and perverted psychic vision. Christ spoke plainly;--the Church speaks obscurely. Christ gave straight commands,--we fly in the face of them and openly disobey them. Truth can always be "discussed," and Truth MUST be "tolerated" were a thousand Holy Fathers to say it nay! But note again the further words to America, "There can only be one interpreter,--the Pope. In the matter of discipline, concessions may be allowed, but in doctrine none." Let us examine into this doctrine. It is the doctrine of Christ, plain and straightforward; enunciated in such simple words that even a child can understand them. But the Church announces with a strident voice that there can only be one interpreter,--the Pope. Nevertheless Truth has a more resonant voice than even that of the Church. Truth cries out at this present day, "Unless you will listen to Me who am the absolute utterance of G.o.d, who spake by the prophets, who spake through Christ,--who speaks through Christ and all things still,--your little systems, your uncertain churches, your inefficient creeds, your quarrelsome sects, shall crumble away into dust and ruins! For humanity is waiting for the true Church of Christ; the one pure House of Praise from which all sophistry, all superst.i.tion and vanity shall have fled, and only G.o.d in the Christ-Miracle and the perfection of His Creation shall remain!" And there is no more sure foundation for this much-needed House of Praise than the Catholic Church,--the word "catholic" being applied in its widest sense, meaning a "Universal"
answering to the needs of all;--and I am willing to maintain that the ROMAN Catholic Church has within it the vital germ of a sprouting perfection. If it would utterly discard pomp and riches, if it would set its dignity at too high an estimate for any wish to meddle in temporal or political affairs, if it would firmly trample down all superst.i.tion, idolatry and bigotry, and "use no vain repet.i.tion as the heathen do"--to quote Christ"s own words,--if in place of ancient dogma and incredible legendary lore, it would open its doors to the marvels of science, the miracles and magnificence daily displayed to us in the wonderful work of G.o.d"s Universe, then indeed it might obtain a lasting hold on mankind. It might conquer Buddhism, and Christianize the whole earth. But--"If thine eye be evil thy whole body shall be full of darkness,"--and while the Church remains double-sighted we are bound also to see double. And so we listen with a complete and cynical atheism to the conventional statement that "one man alone" shall interpret Christ"s teaching to us of the Roman following,--and this man an old frail teacher, whose bodily and intellectual powers are, in the course of nature, steadily on the decline. Why we ask, must an aged man be always elected to decide on the teaching of the ever-young and deathless Christ?--to whom the burden of years was unknown, and whose immortal spirit, cased for a while in clay, saw ever the rapt vision of "old things being made new"? In all other work but this of religious faith, men in the prime of life are selected to lead,--men of energy, thought, action, and endeavour,--but for the sublime and difficult task of lifting the struggling human soul out of low things to lofty, an old man, weak, and tottering on the verge of the grave, is set before us as our "infallible" teacher! There is something appalling in the fact, that look where we may, no profession holds out much chance of power or authority to any man past sixty, but the Head of the Church may be so old that he can hardly move one foot before the other, yet he is permitted to be declared the representative of the ever-working, ever-helping, ever-comforting Christ, who never knew what it was to be old! Enough, however of this strange superst.i.tion which is only one of many in the Church, and which are all the result of double or perverted sight,--I come to the last part of the text which runs, "If therefore the light in thee be darkness how great is that darkness." IF THEREFORE THE LIGHT IN THEE BE DARKNESS! My friends, that is exactly my condition, and has been my condition ever since I was twenty. The light in me has been darkness. The intellectual quality of my brain which has helped me to attain my present false position among you . . ."
Here he paused, for there was a distinct movement of surprise among his audience, which till now, had remained to a man so still that the buzz of a fly on the window-pane sounded almost as loud as the drone of a bag-pipe,--then with a faint smile on his lips he resumed,--