ee. Besides, ecclesiastical
affairs in the German Empire are in a very critical state, and this
must add to the interest of the Assembly. Meeting, as I frequently
do, the leading minds of Europe, enables me to compare views,
appreciate difficulties, and hear objections.

"It is just as difficult to get the Celtic [and Latin] mind to
conceive and appreciate the internal notes of the Church, and the
character of her divine interior life, as it is to get the Teutonic
mind to conceive and appreciate the divine external constitution of
the Church, the importance, and essential importance, of her
authority, discipline, and liturgy. But the weakness of the former,
and the persecutions now permitted by Divine Providence to be visited
on the latter, are teaching them both the lessons they need to learn.
To complete the development of the truth, of the Church, each needs
the other; and Divine Providence is shaping things so that in spite
of all obstacles, natural and induced, a synthesis of them both is
forming in the bosom of the Church. The work is slow but certain,
concealed from ordinary observation because divine; but exceedingly
beautiful. Underneath all the persecutions, the oppression, the false
action, the whole outwardly critical condition of the Church and
society, there is an overpowering, counteracting, divine current,
leading to an all-embracing, most complete, and triumphant unity in
the Church. To see how all things--wicked men as well as the good,
for God reigns over _all_--contribute to this end and are made to
serve it, gives peace to the mind, repose to the soul, and excites
admiration and adoration of the Divine action in the world.

"To have a conception of this all-embracing and direct action of God
in the affairs of this world, and by the light of faith to see that
the Church is the dwelling place of His holiness, majesty, mercy, and
power, and is the medium of this action, at first stupefies,
overwhelms, and, as it were, reduces the soul to nothing. By degrees
and imperceptibly it is raised from its nothingness; timidly the soul
opens its eyes and ventures to cast a glance, and then to contemplate
the Divinity which everywhere surrounds it, as air and light do our
bodies. The contemplation of the Divine action becomes its only
occupation and it is an irresistible one. All the life, mind, and
strength of the soul is involuntarily absorbed in this direction,
leaving the body scarcely sufficient strength t