whether I was white was white or colored, rich or poor, learned or ignorant, simply I was a priest, and as such I had a blessing to impart; and the good, simple people, of all grades, classes, and colors, were anxious to kneel and have me place my hands, as yet moist with the holy oils, on their heads in benediction. The most affecting incident of the day was the kneeling before me of an old white-haired priest-eighty years or more of age,--and his kissing my hands after I had given him the blessing.'

The history of England after the Norman conquest is an instance of the same force acting on a large scale. For some generations the bitterest enmity existed between the victorious Normans and the conquered Saxons. Macaulay's phrases are anti-Catholic, but his narration of the facts may be taken as

accurate:

"In no country has the enmity of race been carried further than in England. In no country has that enmity been more completely effaced. In the time of Richard the First the ordinary imprecation of a Norman gentleman was, 'May I become an Englishman!' His ordinary form of indignant denial was, 'Do you take me for an Englishman?' The descendant of such a gentleman a hundred years later was proud of the English name.

"Meanwhile a change was proceeding, infinitely more momentous than the acquisition or loss of any province, than the rise or fall of any dynasty. Slavery, and the evils by which slavery is everywhere accompanied, were fast disappearing.

"It is remarkable that the two greatest and most salutary social revolutions which have taken place in England-that revolution which, in the thirteenth century, put an end to the tyranny of nation over nation, and that revolution which, a few generations later, put an end to the property of man in man— were silently and imperceptibly effected. They struck contemporary observers with no surprise, and have received from historians a very scanty measure of attention. They were brought about neither by legislative regulation nor by physical force. It would be most unjust not to acknowledge that the chief agent in these two great deliverances was religion; and it may perhaps be doubted whether a purer religion might not have been found a less efficient agent. The benevolent

tinctions of caste. But to the Church of Rome such distinctions. are peculiarly odious, for they are incompatible with other distinctions which are essential to her system. She ascribes to every priest a mysterious dignity which entitles him to the reverence of every layman; and she does not consider any man disqualified, by reason of his nation or his family, for the priesthood. Her doctrines respecting the sacerdotal character, however erroneous they may be, have repeatedly mitigated some of the worst evils which can afflict society. That superstition cannot be regarded as unmixedly noxious which, in regions cursed by the tyranny of race over race, creates an aristocracy altogether independent of race, inverts the relation between the oppressor and the oppressed, and compels the hereditary master to kneel before the spiritual tribunal of the hereditary bondman. To this day, in some countries where negro slavery exists, Popery appears in advantageous contrast to other forms of Christianity. It is notorious that the antipathy between the European and African races is by no means so strong at Rio Janeiro as at Washington. In our own country this peculiarity of the Roman Catholic system produced, during the Middle Ages, many salutary effects. It is true that, shortly after the battle of Hastings, Saxon prelates and abbots were violently deposed, and that ecclesiastical adventurers from the Continent were intruded by hundreds into lucrative benefices. Yet even then pious divines of Norman blood raised their voices against such a violation of the constitution of the Church, refused to accept mitres from the hands of the Conqueror, and charged him, on the peril of his soul, not to forget that the vanquished islanders were his fellow-Christians. The first protector whom the English found among the dominant caste was Archbishop Anselm. At a time when the English name was a reproach, and when all civil and military dignities in the kingdom were supposed to belong exclusively to the Conqueror, the despised race learned, with transports of delight, that one of themselves, Nicholas Breakspear, had been elevated to the Papal Throne, and had held out his foot to be kissed. by ambassadors sprung from the noblest houses of Normandy. It was a national as well as a religious feeling that drew great multitudes to the shrine of Becket, the first Englishman who, since the conquest, had been terrible to the foreign tyrants.

that Charter which secured at once the privileges of the Norman barons and of the Saxon yeomanry. How great a part the Catholic ecclesiastics subsequently had in the abolition of villanage we learn from the unexceptionable testimony of Sir Thomas Smith, one of the ablest Protestant counsellors of Elizabeth. When the dying slave-holder asked for the last Sacraments, his spiritual attendants regularly abjured him, as he loved his soul, to emancipate his brethren for whom Christ died. So effectually had the church used her formidable machinery that, before the Reformation came, she had enfranchised almost all the bondmen in the kingdom except her own, who, to do her justice, seem to have been very tenderly treated" (History of England, vol. i.)

This last sentence is significant. It happens at times that the normal influence of the Church is in advance of the individual action of ecclesiastics. This seems to have been the case also in the Philippines. It shows that the Church has an inner life of her own, and does not subsist merely in the men. who, for the time being, fill her offices.

2. THE SACRIFICE OF THE MASS A BOND OF UNITY.

The Sacrifice of the Mass, which priests are ordained to "do in commemoration" of Jesus on the Cross, is a uniting force. Christian unity is threefold, being unity in faith, worship, and organization. The Mass gives unity of worship. No matter where a Catholic goes, in any foreign country, whether he understands the language of the people or not, he can and does unite with them in worship at Mass and feel at home. The Mass is the offering to God of the Victim of the Cross, who is present on the altar under the forms of bread and wine; and that highest of worship is everywhere and always the same. All sorts and conditions of men are equal in presence of the Infinite, except so far as degrees of grace or of sin may differ, and at Mass this humble-mindedness is felt. The Catholic poor feel as much at home in the Cathedral of New York as do the wealthy contributors. The Mass lifts worshippers to a height from which they can be in communion with the whole spiritual world. All Christians are at one in reserving the best they have in public worship for God alone. Those who have nothing higher than prayer, praise,

use these in public veneration or invocation of any saint. The awful majesty of the Most High would seem to them lowered if they did. But the Sacrifice of the Mass, which can be offered to none but God, makes us free to use the lower worship of prayer, praise, and thanksgiving in veneration and invocation of Saints and Angels, and prevents any possible confusion of thought regarding the infinite distance between God and any creature. It is through the Mass especially that we have access to "the company of many thousands of Angels, and to the assembly of the first-born who are written in the heavens, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the just made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the New Testament, and to the sprinkling of Blood which speaketh bet ter than that of Abel." The rich variety of devotions thence resulting help to limit the encroachment of worldly interests and to form auxiliary bonds of union in societies, confraternities, sodalities, festivals, and other "joints and bands" knitting the Church together.

3. HOLY COMMUNION—THE CLOSEST BOND.

Holy Communion, the joint-partaking of the Victim of Sacrifice, is a uniting force. It unites the faithful with our Lord, and therefore with one another. "For we, being many, are one bread, one body, all who partake of the one Bread (I. Cor. x.) The effect of the Bread of Life, as stated in vi. of St. John, is: "abideth in Me and I in him." The effect of the "glory" given for unity is: "I in them and Thou in Me."

The following is taken from a lecture delivered in England and has reference to London :

"I remember years ago Canon Barnett, of Whitechapel, saying to me that not one in a dozen of the people from the West-end who worked in his parish knew how to talk to the poor, simply and naturally. And I was reminded of this only the other day when I had to attend a meeting in my neighborhood of the Women's Liberal Association. It was held in a drawing-room, the lady of the house receiving the members, and I could have told with my eyes shut whether she was saying How do you do?' to a lady of her own social standing. or to a working-woman. She apparently could not feel to the

worker of many years' standing. Of course the workingwomen felt the difference as well as I, and next time they are invited to her house they will probably stay at home, and the lady will wonder why working-women are so unresponsive and so difficult to get on with."

Thus, a common political interest can bring people together; but fails to bridge the social gulf. A common religious interest is a stronger bond of union; but nothing short of sincere mutual respect can make intercourse mutually beneficial and lasting when people are far apart socially. Now, when the Lord of Heaven comes to people in Holy Communion, He thereby lays the foundation of this sincere mutual respect. The respect of reverence for persons thus honored at the Table of the King counteracts undue regard or undue aversion for social superiority. The sense of equality thus engendered is very noticeable in Catholic countries. In his Encyclical on the Holy Eucharist Pope Leo XIII. says:

"Very beautiful and joyful too is the spectacle of Christian brotherhood and social equality which is afforded when men of all conditions, gentle and simple, rich and poor, learned and unlearned, gather round the holy altar, all sharing alike in this heavenly banquet. And if in the records of the Church. it is deservedly reckoned to the special credit of its first ages that the multitude of believers had but one heart and one soul (Acts iv. 32), there can be no shadow of doubt that this immense blessing was due to their frequent meetings at the Divine Table; for we find it recorded of them: 'They were persevering in the doctrine of the Apostles and in the communion of the breaking of bread' (Acts ii. 42)."

4. THE PRIESTHOOD-AN ASSOCIATION WITH CHRIST.

The priesthood in the Church is an association by power-sharing with Christ. Its first function is to offer up Sacrifice in worship and administer Holy Communion. Its second function is to exercise the power given by Christ, when He breathed on the Apostles and said to them: "Receive ye the Holy Ghost; whose sins you shall forgive they are forgiven them, and whose sins you shall retain they are retained." The same power is spoken of by St. Paul (II. Cor. v.): "All things are of God, who hath reconciled us to Him