XXIV.

Divine Life and Rome.

"The feelings which the heart has raised to birth,

That holy mother never will disclaim;

She is no hireling minister of earth;

They are no bastard forgers of her name."

MILNES.

SUCH

are the answers of the Catholic Church

to man's wants, moral and intellectual, of the heart and of the head. But one may reply: "These, after all, though intended for all men, still do not meet the wants of all, and especially of that class of souls, who would realize in daily conduct the life of Christ, in all its purity, loveliness and beauty. What says the Catholic Church to this class of souls ? for we repudiate

all Christianity that does not hold up to men the life of Christ as a model, and teach the possibility of obtaining it. No, it is not enough to have found repose of mind and peace of heart; one needs also to find his place, and the work-task he is to accomplish, according to the divine plan of God in the universe. Does Catholicity meet the special wants of this class of souls? Does it offer to them a place, and the means and opportunity, for the fulfilment of their destiny ?"

We confess, at the outset, that our difficulty here is not to show that she does this, but to show what she does to meet these souls; so far does her actuality surpass the boldest visions of those who, outside of her sphere, have attempted to live a divine life. Their brightest dreams are but faint and feeble copies of a life realized in her bosom for centuries, and they are not even that. But let us go to facts and things, for we cannot stop to speculate, when so vast a field of realities lies before us, surpassing our highest speculations.

From the earliest times, there have been in the Church a large class of men and women who have devoted themselves entirely to God, and conse

crated their lives to his service, and that of their fellow-men; souls, with all their energies bent upon living a spiritual and divine life.

The religious orders in the Catholic Church date their existence from the first Christian community mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, at that time when "the multitude of believers had but one heart and one soul; neither did any one say that aught of the things which he possessed was his own, but all things were common unto them Neither was there any one needy among them, for as many as were owners of lands, or houses, sold them, and brought the price of the things they sold, laid it down at the feet of the apostles, and distribution was made to every one according to his need.”*

Here we have a picture of the religious community, and the religious orders of the Catholic Church profess nothing else than to be a perpetuation of this primitive community of Christians.

Shall we go on, step by step, and show how they copy most faithfully the Divine Models ? Justice requires it, for having tested Protestantism in this manner, let us put the same test to

*Acts ii.

Rome; Rome, the seat of Antichrist; Rome, that would crush in our souls all freedom of thought; Rome, that would extinguish in our hearts every spark of generous, noble and divine aspiration after a pure and holy life.

What does Rome, then, say to the practice of religious obedience ?

Rome replies: "Jesus obeyed, Christians must obey-all Christians must copy their divine model, the God-Man.”

But to those who would practise heroic obedience, to those who feel within them the inspiration to follow closely the footsteps of Him who was the way to life, she offers the opportunity of making their whole lives, like that of Jesus Christ, an uninterrupted act of religious obedience. She opens to such her religious orders, where, by their vows, they promise to obey, according to their holy rules, their superiors, until death. An act of sublime faith, of supreme courage; an act which frees them by one blow from all that separates man's will from God's will-self; an act which makes man a compositor with the angels who always do God's will; an act which gives to every thing they do a divine

character, an eternal reward. And say not, O ye blind, that it is diminishing one's liberty to determine by a supreme act of the will to serve God alone, and never to be a slave to self; say not that it is degrading to man to submit himself to the guidance of another, of whom Jesus Christ hath said, "He that heareth you, heareth me."

"Unjustly thou depravest it with the name

Of servitude, to serve whom God ordains."

Such language betrays an ignorance of what constitutes true liberty, and the repudiation of the Christian faith. Here, then, in submission, man can find, if Mr. Carlyle and his followers did but know it, the satisfaction of what he calls "this prime want of man,-true guidance for loveful obedience."

But we know their reply :

"Nothing but gloom and darkness there."

We repeat the answer of the poet :

"Shrewd Sir Philistine sees things so, Well may he narrow and captious grow, Who all his life on the outside passes."