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4 stTfll REV. A. J, RYAN, Editor- AUGUSTA, GA„ AUGUST 15, 1868. THE ECUMENICAL COUNCIL. On the 13th of December, three hun dred and twenty-three years ago, in the midst of religious agitations, political com motions, and wars which shook the social fabric in Europe to its very foundations, the Nineteenth General Council of the Catholic Church, assembled at Trent. Germany, at the bidding oi a Monk who had broken solemn vows, and who raved against that Home to which his obedience was due, had abandoned the living teach ings of a living Church, and had substi tuted in their place the Bible interpreted according to the freaks and fancies ol each individual. England, at the sum mons of a monarch whose hands w'ere red with the blood of his murdered wives, had renounced the faith and the glories of the faith of nine centuries. Switzerland, in large part, had risen up from the foot of the Cross, where, for centuries she had knelt, and had bowed down to kiss the feet of Calvin. Charles the sth, the ruler of Spain and the Germanic Empire, and a large portion of Italy, was dealing roughly enough with the Papacy. The King of France had leagued the Cross of the Christian with the Crescent of the Turk, and was looking for the flash of the scimitar on the shores of Italy. In Sweden, and Denmark, and Scotland, and, indeed, throughout the entire of Eu rope, the bark of the Church seemed about to be whelmed beneath the waves of religious revolution. In such a time, and under such cir cumstances, at the call of Pope Paul dd, met the Council of Trent, Interrupted time and again, opposed by Kings, and the ministers of Kings, denounced by the Reformers, the Council, despite the in trigues of Courts, the violences of ene mies, and the murmurs of many of the children of the Church, continued its sessions for eighteen years, deliberated, with the calmness of a faith that knows not fear, on all things relating to the in terests of the Church, drew up its dis ciplinary laws and its definition of dogmas, closed its sessions in 1564, and sent all its acts to Romo for Papal con firmation. Three hundred years and more have passed, and the Code and the Faith of the Council of Trent are the Code and the Faith of the Catholic world; ami the Catholic world is the kingdom on which Heaven’s sun can never set; and the subjects of the kingdom are two hundred and fifty millions—one-fourth of the human nice! When scarce more than a score of Bishops opened the Council three hun dred and twenty-three years ago, the ene mies of the Church railed at their folly, and loudly and lustily proclaimed that the old Church was passing away—that yet, in a little while, and her place would no longer be found. And she buried her enemies and wrote their epitaph, and passed on. And their children and chil dren’s children rose up against her in the proud spirit of' their forefathers, and with their forefathers’ prophecy loud on their lips—“ in a little while—a little while and the hated Church shall be no more.” And they died—but the hated Church still lived. And church rose after church, but not one of them all could ever look like the Queen of Churches that came down from Calvary with the sign of the Cross upon her brow—not one of them all could ever sway the world with a sceptre of empire as powerful as hers. And “ the little while” in which she was to pass away, has grown to be three centuries and more. The men of this generation, too, have often times predicted her downfall.— Pius the 9tli answers these predictions by his Bull convening in solemn council, on the Bth of December, 1869, the twelve hundred successors of the Apostles, and representatives of the two hundred and fiity millions of Catholics. There is life in the old Church yet. She no more fears the machinations and conspiracies of her enemies in this age than in any of the eighteen centuries across the ruins and graves of which she has passed. She has announced her twentieth Coun cil—she will hold it—and its decrees shall hind the one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. THE WOLF’S HOWL The wolf of Puritanism still howls from his lair in Boston. The animal pants for blood. From pitiless jaws, still clotted with Southern gore, issues the old cry of the old thirst for Catholic blood. That thirst can never be allayed. We know the wild howl—our Church has heard it many a time before. It sounded over Ireland many a hundred years ago, when the ravenous wolf of Puritanism, unleashed by the hand of Cromwell, sprang from its English lair on the track of the faithful Irish. Ah ! Irish Catholic blood was fresh and pure, and the wolf drank it up and howled for more. And Irish Catholic blood flows through the veins of millions on this continent, and the wolf looks out from its lair in Boston, howls for the blood which was so savory and so sweet, and prepares to spring upon its victims and to satisfy its thirst. Let the wolf spring—the blood is ready. “ But how shall we arrest this mon strous foe, breathing her bold and bloody designs, concocting her treason, maturing her strength, and filling the atmosphere of liberty with poisou and pestilence ? “In union is strength. Asa similar fate awaits all Protestants and all Infidels, let them organize on a platform which shall embody universal toleration, free discus sion, and untrammeled liberty of speech.” * # * * “ Adopting the policy of Catholicism, the justice of which she has acknowledged in h r practice, and which she cannot condemn without condemning her history and principles, let them take adequate means for relieving all Catholics from po litical, civil, penal, charitable, education al, and secular positions, for abolishing all ecclesiastical revenues, for prohibit ing all convents and churches from hav ing dungeons, for obliging all religious edifices to keep their recesses open to the ' inspection of the public, for requiring all | nuns to have the undoubted liberty of leaving their abode at pleasure, for iin- j posing oaths of office and naturalization which shall prevent any person from hold ing a governmental position, or any for eigner from becoming naturalized who believes in the supremacy of tho Pope, or in his power to absolve from the obliga tion of oaths, or who disbelieves in equal religious rights or universal toleration ; for establishing the same censorship over the press that Home has established in Italy respecting Protestantism ; and for maintaining it so long as she maintains hers ; for adopting every judicious and honorable method to prevent the Church of Home from repeating in our country the horrors of her past history, and at the same time protect her in the exercise of her mode of worship and the free discus sion of her principles; and for uniting every Infidel and Protestant speaker and writer in one voice to utter a peal of moral thunder in the ear of America, which shall reverberate along every vale, and be echoed by every mountain, till every freeman be startled from his slum ber, and Home is fetteicd in harmless ness.” * * * * “ Hut is a union of Infidels and Pro testants practicable ? It appears rational to hope it is, as their interest is identical and their danger common. In every land where religious liberty has tri umphed, it has been accomplished. Are American freemen less tolerant and com promising than a Europcau freemen have been ? It seems not; for they have united like a band of brothers in sup pressing the great rebellion, and will they not again unite when Catholicity is threat ening to imprison them in her cells and burn them at her stakes ? * * * # It is true that the Constitution guaran tees unconditional religious freedom to •Mill® ©S £ll B©lom- all. But the Catholic Church is not a reli gious, but a political institution ; a fact substantiated by her principles and practice. * * * # Catholicity declares that Protestantism, Heresy, and Infidelity, have no rights where she is triumphant; that, when she acquires the numerical strength, she will punish them as crimes; that she merely endures religious freedom until she can subvert it; and when she commands a majority, it is at an end. Let Protestants and Infidels, then, unite upon some judi cious and efficient platform, and, as they have the numerical strength, they can control the Government and shape the country at will, and in 1900 wreak upon Catholicism, if she provokes it, the fulfill ment of her own prophecy.’’ Thus howls the wolf of Puritanism, through the Boston Investigator . When will the wolf spring at our throats ? Our friend, who sends us the following, is a deadly enemy to all current shams. He uses hard words, and we believe he is right. Strong diseases need strong rem edies. His pen is as sharp as a lancet, lie knows how to probe and dissect shams and humbugs of all kinds. We know that the following will hurt— but, at times, to be hurt is to be healed. The country is sick with shams—religious, political, social. Friend A., you are a good physician, though your doses are bitter. Give us some more of your prescriptions. They will do good : ONE OF THE MODERN RELIGIOUS SHAMS- “ Search the Scriptures !” What an unmitigated sham our religious folks have made of that text ; never, we ven ture to say, were words more misunder stood ; nor upon such a slender founda tion, was a greater sophism perpetrated. Starting out with a total misapprehen sion of time, place, and circumstance, at tending its first utterance, it has been made the engine of one of the world’s humbugs. The Ass, no doubt, while luxuriating on thistles, during the time he masticates what to him is the best of food, wonders ti at other animals than himself do not like thistles ; so men, in their ignorance, . eize hold of an isolated text, and rush frantically into isolated efforts to give forth to the world so many copies of the Bible, as they can persuade men to pay for, and wonder that more don’t subscribe. How many men are there who have read the Bible—and how many men are there who, having read the Bible at all— have read it intelligently, we mean with the same degree of intelligence as the business man gives to the telegraphic column in the morning paper, to the price current last received from Europe ? We hear of many lacky-daisioal effusions, about “ childhood’s hours,” “ mother’s influence,” “ old family Bible,” Ac., the latter chiefly valuable because it proves some men in this aristicro-democratical country had grandfathers; how many men are there who, after suffering such stuff to pass current, deceive themselves into the belief that they really like it ? How many men are there who really and practically carry out their own grand pre cept, and do search the Scriptures ? How many men, and with how many motives, subscribe various sums, without the slight est consideration of the practical ques tion of what becomes of the money, and what disposition is made of the Bibles ? The amount of money collected annual ly by Bible Societies, is astounding—the sums might he stated in millions of dol lars. It is time we heard something of the result; and, although it may he urged that, as we Catholics give no money to this cause, therefore the question does not affect us, yet we would say that the out side world, in general, is very fond of making particular inquiry as to what we do—for that reason, perhaps, some perti nent questions may he asked, and the query may still be offered, to wit : What amount of good can be clearly ascertain ed to have been effected by Bible Socie ties, and by the Bibles distributed by them ? Suppose an intelligent and polite Ha gan, lands, for the first time, on the shores of this enlightened and advanced country ! and is informed, while travel ing through the land, of the existence of this sacred volume, and what a valuable possession it is, and, as an example ot the general circulation ol so blessed a book, his attention is called to the fact, that every steamboat cabin, hotel parlor, read ing-room, and oven hotel bed-rooms, have a copy, which has been generously donat ed to it for the comfort of its suffering guests, and it is demonstrated to him in some pretty speech, that in this free and glorious country, a ready-made reli gion is to hand for every seeker, we would like to inquire if all these Bibles would be proof positive, to the aforesaid polite and intelligent Pagan, of advanced and refined civilization ? If so, do not let the gentle Pagan open the covers of any of the numerous Bibles lying about, else he might find out exactly what the general public value such great privi leges at; for he would find the blank leaves, and margins of pages, profanely illustrated by iow wit, fools’ names, and obscene jests. This is a fact; we appeal to any of our readers, who have travelled through any of our larger cities, to say that it is not so. It seems as if familiari ty has, in this instance, breeded the largest sort of contempt. It is useless to say such acts were committed by thoughtless young men, for the varied expressions, the different styles of humor, and the characteristics of hand-writing, show that the habit is a general one, and is com mitted by a rather general sort of people In our Southern army, during the late war, we recall to our memory the distri bution of Bibles and tracts —wc remem ber what little value was placed upon either of them. Now, il the Bible could, or would, be generally read at all, surely Confederate camps was a fair place to make the test; the long weary days were frequently passed in camp in utter idle ness ; books were eagerly sought after — almost anything lor a change—but Bibles and tracts were opened only on rare occa sions, by about one man in a thousand. We heard pretty tales of affections mani fested for Bibles and tracts by our sol diers; also, of thrilling escapes from the deadly bullet by reason of a Testament carried in the breast pocket, but we sol diers never knew of such a case; nor did we believe the Bible distributors ever saw T one, for the reason that the last named were never known to trust them selves in the neighborhood of bullets. No; Bibles are not generally read, hardly ever studied, and but rarely searched. Tfie nauseating doses of Bible reading, and Bible lessons, administered to children in their tender youth, is amply sufficient to give a large majority of them a distaste for it in after life, and also to cause them to lose the appreciation of its real comforts and blessings, not to speak of its Divine teachings. A. Richmond, July 22d, 1868. lieu. A. J. llyan : Sir — My attention has been called to an article in your issue of the 18th ult., which a due sense of self-respect forbids me to pass unnoticed. It seems that the Radical Postmaster of this city, who, I wish you to understand, at once, is no political friend of mine, thought proper to direct your publishers to discontinue my paper, and with mine, he associated the names of five or six gentlemen of this city, who, from the simple fact of having subscribed to the “ Banner of the South,” gave some evidence at least of their sympathy with the “ Lost Cause and who, so far as I can ascertain, are all conservative in sentiment. Taking this, in connection with the report that an Irish Radical Club had been organized in Richmond, (you will excuse me if I fail to see the connection between the two,) and some article in the Southern Opinion , as inspi ration, you jump at the illogical conclu sion that these unfortunate gentlemen, and myself, arc Irish Radicals ; and you as sert that “ These Richmond Irishmen dare to stand up in the light of day and proclaim themselves members of such a party.” lam surprised, sir, that, with the im perfect information you evidently pos sessed on the subject, you would have been so hasty and inconsiderate as to pub lish an article reflecting so severely on the character of men who, I venture to say, have at heart the prosperity and hap piness of the South. On the strength of an assumption which is not true , yoti arraign these men before the public, and pour upon their devoted heads u storm of invective and denunciation which, if it has not overwhelmed them, is because it is unmerited, uncalled for, and unjust. I, who have shared with other gentle men the burthen of this indignity, must say, that you have done me a most grievous wrong by placing me in such an unenviable position. I have no sympathy for Radicalism, in any shape or form, whether it be Irish, Scotch, or Yankee, and I call upon ‘you, sir, to repair the injury you have done me, by making the amende as full and ample as the occasion demands, and give publicity to this, through your columns. Very respectfully, yours, Alexander Delaney. “ Father,” said a cobbler’s lad, as lie was pegging away at an old shoe, “ they say that trout bite like everything now.” “ Well, well,” replied the old gentlemen, “ stick to your work, and they won’t bite you.” GEN. LEE. The following is the conclusion of an address on “ Integrity of Character,” de livered at the Commencement of the Ken tucky Military Institute, June 4th, 1868, by Rev. R. A. Holland: I rejoice, young gentlemen, that I can find an embodiment of this sublime in tegrity of character in a hero—not of the past but of the present —not of some di«- tant realms of your own suffering section —-not. of foreign birth, but of blood brother to that which throbs thrills of en thusiasm through y r our veins at the men tion of his name. I rejoice that we p as sess a model of manhood worth more to our noblest attributes than all the for tunes spent in the terrible war that re vealed his grandeur to our gaze. Whatever may have been the errors of the South—errors for which, if they ex isted, she has by the dearest hecatombs, sufficiently atoned ; the world is indebted to her for a gift that will enrich mankind forever. That gift is the example of a man who, in civil conflict, wins the admi ration of his enemies, who charms envy into love and awe, or malice into silence; who comes forth from among the smoke and carnage of battle, revealing a brow unstained with dishonor and hands nn clotted with cruelty; who, although victor in a hundred fights against such odds of troops and treasures skill never van quished before, suffers no word of boast ing to soil his pure lips, and notices his success only in modest ascriptions of gratitude to the Lord of Hosts; who, marching forward in the perilous path of duty, refuses a moment’s pause for dal liance with the fame which others must follow', but which, like one entranced, tracks his steps and courts the conde scension of his kingly glance ; who, as he kneels under triumphs, vises above re verses, and when the last blow is struck, and genius can no longer cope with force, surrenders his sword with the same equa nimity with which he had ever wielded it, and receives it back from the conqueror in mute testimonial that none but him self is worthy to wear a weapon whose blade blazes with a lustre of purity and prowess bright as the scimitars of Eden's sentinels. Great in victory, greater still in de feat ; great as described through the red haze of war, greater still as contemplated througli the clear air of peace ; great as a General, hut greatest as a man—behold him a character which, if not perfect, conceals its faults with the refulgence of its virtues, even as a sun conceals the spots on its dazzling disc. I need not call his name; nor need History, when she carves for the highest niche in her Pantheon a statue to represent manhood apotheosized by its own glory, inscribe beneath it a name which the very design of the statue speaks aloud—the immortal name of Lee. GENERAL HOWELL COBB’S SPEECH AT THE MASS RATIFICATION MEETING AT Atiaiita Georgia. July 23d, PREPARED FOB THE CHRONICLE & SENTINEL XD TH2 MI AUTHORIZED REPORT. Mt. President, ladies and gentlemen: I congratulate you, my friends, that the time has come in Georgia when the people can meet together as you have assembled to-day. When I “say the people" I mean just those I see before me —these women and children, these good men ami true, who are the representatives of tho men and women throughout our State. I con gratulate you, that you meet and again hear the voices of your favorite sons—that you can respond in your hearts to the patriotic sentiments which fall from die lips of those sons. While the past cass its shadows over the land, and mv own heart is in full sympathy with the picture which was drawn by my friend, yet I do feel rising up in my soul the promise of a brighter day not far distant in the future. To-day, in common with you, I have heard the familiar voice of one who, m times past, has aroused his countrymen from the mountains to the seaboard. H'-‘ speaks freely and there is none to make him afraid. [Applause.] God speed the day when the echoes of that voice shall*oo heard throughout all the land, speaking from his old standpoint in the National Legislature. My friends, the argument m that branch of the subject which ha- ’ n discussed by my friend has been presented to you so comprehensively that 1 shall net trespass upon your time, nor weaken it power and influence by a recapitulation ol it. It was an exposition of truths that will live when you and 1 have passed away and are gone. The people of Georgia to day are passing through a trying ordeai. which, I trust and believe, will he of short duration, and from which they will emerge refined and purified like gold from tie iuruace. They are living under a govern ment whose days are numbered, hut who it exists it is well that we make the best w can of it. I shall offer some suggesti m here in your hearing for the benefit 1 those who are called upon to adtninismi that government in order that, to the ei-