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VOLUME I—NUMBER 7.
ItU sotttl*o*tt €*ooo.
WILLIAM RANKIN, Publisher.
135 Bay Street.
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“SOUTHERN CROSS!”
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BEST.
Mother, I see you with your nursery light
Leading your babies, all in white,
To their sweet rest;
Christ, the Good Shepherd, carries mine to- # night,
And that is best I
I cahnot help tears when 1 see them twine
Their fingers in yours, and their bright curls Bhlne
On your warm breast;
But the Saviour's is purer than yours or mine:
He can love best!
b
You tremble e*ch hour because your arms
Are weak; your heart is wrung with alarms,
And sore oppressed;
My darlings are safe, out of reach of harms,
And that is best.
You know over yours may hang even now
Pain and disease, whose fulfilling slow
Nought can arrest;
Mint in God's gardens run to and fro,
And that ia best.
You know that of yours the fseblest one
dearest may live long years alone, . f g
Unloved, unblest;
il-HP- cherished of saints around God s XfetQH*,
And that is best. 'totS
Yon mii*t dread for yours the cri9 sear*, .
Dark guilt unwashed by rep*st*fitA*&ri/
And uiK’onfeased.;
Mine entered spotless on.eternal years:
Oh, how muck the best! .JsSb^< :
BA gri.f i* Mlffsh, Mid I cMinot •••
ay,W M 7 o“tr.^t; k * nb# '
B “ tlkno ; o r^t“ forthem ' 22
Papal Infallibility and Confession.
Editors Southern Cross:
With the dogma of “Papal Infallibil
ity” I had no difficulty, for my reading
and experience had taught me, that in
claiming that attribute for their chief
Bishop, Catholics only did, but on • more
sure grounds, that which every Protest
ant clergyman asserted, and their con
gregations assented to, whenever they
announced from their pulpits views on
questions of morals, or controversies
of faith. With this difference, however,
that the Pope spoke ex cathedra with
the authority of the Church; but they,
only expressed private interpretations,
a right the individuals of their congre
gations were at liberty to exercise with
themselves, and in the exercise of which
right, to change their teachers in their
Churches, if the doctrines enunciated did
not chime in with their own ideas of
what they should believe, and practice.
Catholics, I learned, believed their Pope
to be, as a man, fallible as themselves; but
that when he in his official capacity, as
the chief Bishop, announced from his
official seat a decision upon some con
troverted question in the Church, of
faith or morals, knowing as they do, for
there are men in the Church as learned
as the Pope, that he did not express his
own private opinions or conjectures, but
arrived at his conclusion of what was the
faith delivered to the Saints by diligent
search in the Bible, the traditions of the
Church, and other Christian documents,
earnestly praying for light, and aided,
moreover, by the Divine influence that
Christ had promised to His Church,
“that he would be with it always,” they,
I found, sensibly and obediently ac
cepted the decision. As I have
before intimated, what would be
come of us in this country, if the
principles laid down by the Supreme
Court upon controverted questions of
Constitutional Law, should be derided
and disregarded, and every man in the
pride of private interpretation, should
be the law unto himself? The Govern
ment could not go on for a day. Anar
chy, confusion, and rebellion against
authority would necessarily ensue. This
is the case now with Protestanism, and
there is not an earnest Protestant writer
of any distinction, who, viewing the
anarchy and confusion in the Protestant
world, does not wish for a supreme au
thority to decide, and check the licen
tiousness and wildness of private inter
pretation. There are more than one
hundred Protestant sects, or churches,
now in Christendom, besides those that
have sprung up and died out; and new
ones are in embryo. According to a
SAVANNAH, G-A., SATjUITDAY, OCTOBER 23, 1875.
learned Professor <m | ‘hurch History in
the Union of New
York City, there than fifty of
these sects in tjjg apt-id States. 1 have
listened to several private inter
preters of the was frequent
ly reminded of Ip: h-aptc interpretation
of the Mormqggjb I’hSAier. who told his
congregation,,'Jjfra-t mariner’s com
pass was not ai’ic<em invention, as
mention of it ■ in the Bible; for
it was ther%|i| Paul “fetch
ed a compa|pwj* wme to Rhegium,”
and if there were i- > ,•••!• passes in those
days, ho®iffiM|'KJ r uh one?
While aHHHMwK are differing and
piselves, quibbling
about words, And i%i' Ving hairs on trifles,
the (|ithbiic Clid(?i|kpjnsent to the
world mbekutifel ,s v * of union, unity
and order. .Every however,
or otherwise, knows what
i.he has to believe for ms soul’s health,
; and whet he hits to do in subjection to
his belief. Many years ago, from inter
; course with thousands of poor Catholics,
in the way of professional duty, and in
domestic life, (“the ignorant Irish,” aS
they are sneermgly called by some), I
had been impressed with the fact, that
however uneducated ignorant they
might be in other things, that in the
Life and Doctrine# of Christ they were
better instructed/and 7 ' grounded, than
most educated ithistrating
poor.” ’
Human reason, tradition, and Divine
teaching support‘the theory of a central
authority to preserve, perpetuate, and
declare the grand truths of'revelation;
and but for the existence of such a sys
tem during the dark ages, what would
(niristianity have been now ? How could
the Bible have been collected andcompiled
into its present form? How could it
have been preserved during the wars,
insurrections and turbulences of the
middle ages ? And hnw could it have
been shaped for distribution to the
world, when the art of printing was in
vented, but for the Catholic Church?
The Catholic Church has done all this by
her unity centered around the chair of
Peter; and now preserves the standard
of Holy Scripture, by which the errors
of Protestantism may be detected and
corrected. This is the strong point of
the Catholic Church, and she invites in
telligent examination of her doctrine of
Papal Infallibility. What she teaches is
not what Protestantism represents it to
be; and what she teaches, is consonant
with reason and God’s revelation, a de
signed purpose to a desired end, the pre
servation of the Truth once delivered to
the Saints, one Lord, one Faith, one
Baptism.
Confession.
Confession was the greatest impedi
ment to me. Self-love opposed it. I
was aware of its Catholicity, and that
confession and absolution had been re
tained by the Church of England in her
schism, though its use was by a weak
inconsistency, confined to the visitation
of the sick. Still, if aiji English clergy
men had the power to say to a sick man,
after his confession, in substance the
same as a Catholic priest, “Our Lord
Jesus Christ, who hath l4ft power to his
Church to absolve all sinners who truly
repent and believe in Him, of His great
mercy forgive thee thine , offences; and
by His authority committed to vie, / ab
solve thee from all thy sins, in the name
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the
Holy Ghost. Amen,” (English book of
Common Prayers, ) why could not he also
say it to a well man, and why did he not
do it ? But I knew it t<j> be one of those
concealments of the faitll (hat the English
Church did not dare )}o assert openly
in the face of its Calvanif.tic leaders and
supporters. My own Church I knew
denied this power of absolution, as
proved by its omission from our book of
common prayers. For if not denied, the
assertion of so vital an element of Chris
tian Faith, would not hitfebeen left out.
And yet in principle, myf Church invited
to Confession on the saim ground as the
Catholic Church. In exhorta
tion, accompanying the Holy
Communion, the says, after
urging self-examination and preparation,
“And becausqrii is required that no man
should come writhe Holy Communion,
but with a full trust in God’s mercy, and
withjuguiet conscience; therefore, if there
be of you, who by this means cannot
quiethis own conscience hereijfe but
requireth further comfort or counsel,
let him come to me, or to some other
Minister of God’s Word, and open his
grief, that he mag receive such godly coun
sel and pdvice as may tend to the, quieting
of his Conscience, and the removing of all
scruple (fed doubtfulness.” This is pre
cisely thejprinciple oh which the Catho
lic with this difference on
ly, £hat knowing the weakness of human
nature ir dealing with its own sins, she
requires every penitent to open his griefs
that she may strip his conscience of the
veil of self-delusion; and exposing his
sin to him, in the light of God’s require
ment, enable him to go to the Commun
ion with ns clean a heart as possible, and
worthily—that is, as God d&mands, in
true 'repentance, with an humble and
contrite heart. While an Episcopalian,
I maintained the power of our ministers
to absolve, from sins on just repentance
and confession, • believing them that
they had an Apostolic commission; for
I could not think that Christ used the
language of empty compliment, when he
sain, “Whatsoever thou shalt bind on Earth
;Lall,be. bound hi Heaven, and whafeio*
us I attributed to two causes, the fear oj
Dissent on the part of the clergy, and
the distrust of. the gossip of married
ministers, on the part of the laity; neith
er of which are to be apprehended in the
Catholic Church, as she has no fear of
the first, and as her discipline and re
ligion are so severe on this point, that
the Secrets of the Confession have never
been betrayed by the most unfortunate
priest who has fallen into the hands of
the Evil One; not even by Luther or
Calvin, who would gladly have done so
if they had dared. With all this, self
love, however, triumphed*' until con
science did its work. And now, speak
ing from experience, I can bear testi
mony to the wisdom, sacredness, and
benefits of Confession. It is a prepara
tion for the Holy Communion, such as I
never knew or heard of in Protestant
ism, putting one to a severe test of the
examination of conscience by the light of
God’s commandments, and of our deadly
sins. It is, indeed, a great individual
and public religious and moral agent.
Why is it that Catholic servants are
in so much demand in Protestant fami
lies, who otherwise depreciate the Catho
lic Church ? Here is the reason, the
Confession. Protestants say, “It is the
Priest who 'does it.” True; it is the
Priest, as God’s minister, who, repre
senting Him, enforces His Divine Laws.
Let any one try Confession faithfully,
and he will know of the doctrine by the
proof. It is a wonderous help towards
salvation, and in strengthening to bear
the troubles, injuries, and contumelies,
that may come upon us. It requires hu
mility. Christ said we must oorne to
Him as humble as a little child. If one
is sincerely penitent, and earnestly de
siring forgiveness, and grace to amend,
there will be no lack of words to ex
press our faults; and the words of sym
pathy and advice received, cheer and
encourage, while sin is condemned. I
have heard persons say, “they would not
know what to say.” Such an one has
never been convicted of sin by con
science, and knows not repentance. For,
“out of the abundance of the heart the
mouth speaketh.” Confession, absolu
tion, penance, Communion, are enjoy
ments and helps not known to Protest
antism. “And Joshua said unto Achan,
My son, give, I pray thee, glory to the
Lonl God of Israel, and make confession
unto Him; and tell me now what thou
hast done; hide it not from me. And
Achan answered Joshua, and said, In
deed I have sinned against the Lord
God of Israel, and thus and thus have I
done.”—Josh. vii:l9, 20.
[to be continued.]
The conclusion of the “Life of Lord
Palmerston” is promised for early publi
cation in England.
PRICE TEN CENTS.
TRUTH.
ippK- '
The simplicity of the dove is more to
be desired in, our times, than the prudence
of the serpent, the capacity of having
and imagining evil motives, of guarding
against them by double dealing and fake
pretense, the habit of using language to
oonceal thought, of saying not what is
true, bbt what will put the listener in
your power, is too common already.
Parents practice it, when they smile wel
come in the face of those whom the chil
dren heard them say they hoped not to
see that day.
Children practice it,when they say “yes”
or “no,” to suit the form and tone of the
ease. Religious people praetioe it, when
they say, we need not mention that to
the spiritual director. ,
We, in America, have plenty of short
sigltted prudence. We are almost in
the condition of the Romans, • after the
Empire became Christian, when men fled
to the Egyptian deserts in order to save
themselves from the universal corruption.
So few acknowledged the supreme do
minion of Jesus Christ over them! En
gaged., in enterprises of .zeal and charity,'
they qo not throw themselves on His
care for the'outcome of them, but resort
to and even uncharitable rival
ries, to secure their ends, arid often ac
cept, the world’s applause over their,suc
cess, as a compensation for the sacrifice
of pcaoe of mind and conscience they,
JA -Wiii’ii ring!
we learn tiit sinui mw
you free?” All freedom that comes from
self-conceit and passion and a vain glory
is a mockery of the name. He alone is
free who believes in Jesus Christ, and
believing, has no aim but to shape his
life according to the Redeemer’s teach
ings.—Columbian.
THI TUB iwn ITS FBIJITV
Under the above heading “A Cheshire
Man” writes to the Times to enquire if
Cardinal Manning “has never heard that
in nearly every instance of stabbing,
brutality, or wilful murder in Liverpool,
the guilty parties are members of his
Church ?” And he goes into gaol statis
tics to prove that it is the Tree of Catho
licity which produces all this Fruit of
crime. We emphatically state that it is
not. Assuming his figures to be correct,
what do they prove? Simply this—that
when you remove our people from where
they have free liberty to learn and prac
tice the principles of their religion, and
place them amongst an alien and hostile
population who do all they can (and have,
owing to local circum stances, to a
great extent succeeded) to choke that
religion out of all Catholics, both
young and old, then you need not
be surprised to find that their virtue
disappears along with their freedom
of teaching and of worship. A bad
Catholic is far worse than a bad Prot
estant, for he cannot lose the faith that
is in him with the loss of the practice of
it, and all restraints of his religion be
ing withdrawn, his badness is apt to
culminate into the recklessness of des-
pair, and so he sins the worse, the more
madly. The Protestant, on the other
hand, is most often indifferent to either
hope or despair, for the future, and he
sins in cold blood, and after a careful cal
culation of how far he can go without be
ing caught by the hand of worldly law.
Lucifer, the highest of the Angels,
has fallen into a deeper hell than
his fellows: The Apostle who, dip
ping his finger into the Master’s dish,
betrayed Him, is more punished than
those who heard him not. The “Ches
hire Man” takes the Cardinal to task
for daring to condemn Rationalism;
would it not be well if the former left the
so-called Rationalism alone, and in
dulged in a little ordinary reason ? Let
him judge of the Fruits of the Tree on
its own soil. Let him judge it in Ire
land—where the judges declare there is
almost an entire absence of crime—not
in Liverpool, where it is without its
proper gardening, without its appropri
ate sustenance, but, instead, is circum
vented on all sides by surroundings of
evil the most abominable and the most
poisonous. —Liverpool Catholic Timet.
