after
centuries that Abbot Cartaut dared to write that if St. Jerome was
whipped at all, he was whipped for having _badly_ imitated Cicero.
Still, the doctrine of Christian charity is so sublime in its
simplicity, that not even the subtility of scholasticism dared ever to
profane it by any controversy, and still that sublime doctrine is not
executed, and the religion of charity not realized yet. The task of this
glorious progress is only to be done by a free and powerful nation,
because it is a task of action, and not of teaching. Individual man can
but execute it in the narrow compass of the small relations of private
life; it is only the power of a nation which can raise it to become a
ruling law on earth; and before this is done, the triumph of
Christianity is not arrived--and without that triumph, the freedom and
prosperity even of the mightiest nation is not for a moment safe from
internal decay, or from foreign violence.
Which is the nation to achieve that triumph of Christianity by
protecting justice out of charity? Which shall do it, if not yours? Whom
the Lord has blessed above all, from whom He much expects, because He
has given her much.
Ye Ministers of the Gospel, who devote your lives to expound the eternal
truths of the book of life, remember my humble words, and remind those
who, with pious hearts, listen to your sacred words, that half virtue is
no virtue at all, and that there is no difference in the duties of
charity between public and private life.
Ye Missionaries, who devote your lives to the propagation of
Christianity, before you embark for the dangers of far, inhospitable
shores, remind those whom you leave, that the example of a nation
exercising right and justice on earth by charity, would be the mightiest
propagandism of Christian religion.
Ye Patriots, loving your country's future, and anxious about her
security, remember the admonitions of history--remember that the
freedom, the power, and the prosperity in which your country glories, is
no new apparition on earth; others also had it, and yet they are gone.
The prudence with which your forefathers have founded this commonwealth,
the courage with which you develop it, other nations also have shown,
and still they are gone.
And ye ladies; ye fairest incarnation of the spirit of love, which
vivifies the universe, remember my words. The heart of man is given into
your tender hands. You mould it in its infancy. You imprint the lasting
|