A TRIBUTE OF PRAISE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 207, 23 March 1877, Page 15

A TRIBUTE OF PRAISE.

A Lutheran minister in Germany thus eulogizes the Catholic clergy :— " Gregory VII. knew well what he was doing when with inexorable severity he enforced the law of celibacy among the cler°v The very life of the Roman Church is a continual struggle, and it is but natural that the priests have to bear the brunt of the battle To what an extent soldiers who are not bound by the ties of wife and children surpass their married comrades in courage and disregard of death is well-known. We have only to behold modern Roman priests to realize how well Gregory was acquainted with the nature of the Church and how skillfully he ruled it. The host of Catholic priests is a host of heroes. They are carrying on the struggle imposed on them by the exigencies of modern times with a valor and intrepidity that reminds us of the old Roman legions The world looks aghast upon these men whom no power can move

to do anything contrary to the law of their Church. They suffer themselves to be driven from office and livings, to be harassed by bailiffs, to be cast into prisons, but, unshaken, they persevere; and, driven away to-day, to-morrow they are again at their posts. They are priests, they are warriors, they are true men. It is not the least advantage of the Roman Church that so many warriors can be found within her fold. It may be six months now since we heard of the fearful disaster to a French ship which, being run through by a Spanish steamer, sunk within ten minutes with all on board. While the waves came streaming into the ship, and the unfortunate passengers and crew, roused from their berths, were running about on deck in wild confusion, some praying, others gazing about in dumb despair, others weeping, a Catholic priest was seen hurrying from one group to another promising to all who had a sincere sorrow the forgiveness of their sins ia the name of that God before whose tribunal they were all so soon to appear. Glorious type of a true priest ! Praise your generals irho in the rage of battle expose their breasts to the enemy's bullets , praise your statesmen who calmly look at the pistol levelled at their head by the assassin. Before such a hero they must fade into maignificance. Where all have lost their senses he alone remains calm. When all are terrified by the presence of death, he, with a firm hand, points to heaven, offering life to the dying. Among a hundren clergymen of the Evangelical Church, perhaps one such like may be found. "Yet we Evangelical pastors are great in words, and who that would listen to our words spoken in private circles could have but the highest idea of our courage ? Any one present at our conferences would stare amazed at our devotedness. Bat if words are to be converted into actions— if we are called upon to shield with our bodies the standard which we have so proudly unfurled — we are prostrated, and our courage vanishes like smoke. There are wife and child and anxious friends imploring, holding us back. The Catholic clergyman knows that God has placed realities in his hand, but we have only to deal in words. Rhetoric has overgrown everything with us. We are preachers but not priests. Many noble characters among us have been driven by this evident contradiction between the ideal of the Church and the clerical office and the reality, into the bosom of the Catholic Church. Nor can we blame them."