Varia

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXV, Issue 13, 28 March 1907, Page 10

Varia

The February number of ' Evangelical Christendom ' (a non-Catholic missionary^ organ) has been placed' in our hands by an esteemed Northern friend. In tone and' substance iti is. a refreshing contrast to "another nonCatholic religious organ which reposes upon our desk, and which is a potent reminiscence of the old- elec- . tioneering -days, when rotten eggs were considered sound arguments. The missionary organ makes as a rule not unkindly reference to Catholics ; the other speaks poniards, , and every word stabs ; and if (as Shakespeare said of a bitter tongue) its breath were as terrible as ' its - J language, it would infect the polar star. The "missionary journal states (on the authority of ' the-latest and most trustworthy statistics ')■ that there are in- the world ' 272,000,000 Catholics and 166,000,000 Protestants. ' The unhappy and lamentable divisions which . exist amongst the CAhristians are', says one earnest ,. writer in „ its columns, l the chief hindrances- to the members growing into the likeness -of their Lord and • Master . In Madrid (according to another writer) four' such income patible foreign denominations as the Anglicans^ Presbyterians, Baptists, and Lutherans unite at times in public prayer. 'No better proof ', says the writer, '' could be given of the absolute unity in faith and aims of these different denominations'— an ' absolute unity in faith and aims ' which (the writer hints) is far finer-spun and better-knit than. ' the alleged uniformity cf Roman Catholicism' ! For the rest, we are interested in the information, given at first hand, that^ Catholic Poles are very refractory to Evangelical preaching, and that in Rourmanla ' the Roman Church has a huge propaganda, and is sweeping many into its net '.