IRELAND’S CONDITION.

Temuka Leader, Issue 269, 22 June 1880, Page 2

IRELAND’S CONDITION.

It is a significant fact, w ich the Irish flicmselvhs cannot dispute. that tim Prntesuan counties differ from the adjoining 1 Jonian Catholic emmtius as dayhght from darkn ss ; that while* in tin- f->r.ner then- i.-. peace, happim's*, and in the latter arc riots, murder, wrete 1 ; dness, and slarvalion. They all live mi fie same soil, h eath tin; tiniKi air, are of the same race, and under the same gov*rnm nt. There is no diff *r nee in them hnt their rclisd ns, ad wh t is caused by these religions. A traveller ean determine tlie religion f a people hy looking at th“ir coalition in lit*. H-* may pass through a country, entirely ignorant of its history, and without asking « question can tell Uie religion of its people } and probably nowhere in the world can this be done so easily as in [reland. Every traveller in that country, passing from a C tliolic to a Protest ant community, observes the striking contr st between the idleness, squalor and wretchedness of one, and the industr prosperity, and happiness of the othory An the aneconditions are seen when, passing from Protestant England to Bom an Catholic Ireland, or from Germany to Italy or or tro.n the United States o Mexico. In the forni r comdries the people are ashamed to ask for charity ; in the latter they are not a ions for their begging proclivities The e are great facts, and 'he d'rect results of the two relig'ons. The one is a religion of living, a r, ti"g fai'h, ' nd goes on, leaving the things that are behind, and loading its people up nto n divine light and power that brings free, dom, peace and the dcvelopra-nt of al their f.Wties an 1 rec.nreesin o a h lt*r life. The other is of a Church that boasts it never changes, the religion t’ at clings to the dead things o r the p°st ; one of outward firms and ceremonies, of mummies and the worship of dead nvms bones of idolatries and hypocrisies j a religion of show and detuning lhat hinds ‘ts people to men, instead of leading them to God, that in fore-s ignor.nce instead of diffusing light, fiat degrades and nslaves not only the bodies h t the s mis of its adherents j a religi- n that s opposed to the education of its m sses opposed to civilisation ; a. religion whose hand does n <t. lift up hut strike down ; a religion of ghas'-y fear, and not one of liberty, light. and love. It woidd not take much of a philosoph r to tell, from the study of these two religions, what kind of peopl ther would each produce. He would certainly conclude that the ouj would make a nation free and prosperous and the other a race of slaves cringing through life before their masters—-the priests — and 'rushed by hopeless poverty even upon death. And the latter is the conditi n of the Eomain Catholic part of Ireland to day. She will not be free until she gfts rid of the tyrants who do worse, even than to enslave the bodies in misleading the souls of men for this life and the life to come. i

For many generations or oven centuries Ireland has been uud t the domination of Rome, and her condition has been growing worse and worse. The Romish Church Las tv ver helped and can never save Iv r. In the words of rn eloquent Irishman ; ' “ Nt, it is not the British Cover - ment, nor the landlords, nor the soil, n< r the climate, of Ireland, that have oppressed and cursed that gem of the sea; but Imr filae and corrupt religion that has been the bane of her prosperity and the and the real cause of all her woes. What Ireland nee's is more cnlighfment,.more personal ability and a purer gospe' ..’’—The Christian Statesman Milwaukee, W is.