'This Also Shall Pass'

New Zealand Tablet, Issue 17, 25 April 1907, Page 10

'This Also Shall Pass '

An " Arab legend tells how a Sultan asked Solomon for a~ signet-ring motto that should hold good for both prosperity and adversity. Arid Solomon wrote :— ' This also shall pass away.' Tlve storm and blood and plunder of the Great Revolution- pasae-d away. The tyranny of thie First Napole>on passed away. The K'ulturkarnpf of the Man of Blood and Iron passed away. So, too, we believe will the present atheistic Kulturkampf in France, leaving the Church, as it did 'in Germany, like gold that has passed through fire. ' Let thy gold be^cast in the furnace, ' Thy red gold precious and bright, . J>o not, fear the hungry fire With its caverns of burning light, ! ■ v And thy gold shaLl return more precious, Free from each spot and stain, For gold must be tried by fire • As a heart must be tried by pain '. - The Church (says the French secular paper," 'the ' Repoi'bliq,ue. Francaise ') ' accepts ' poverty. She will regalin in moral prestige all she loses in material wealth. That is one of the far-reaching consequences which her enemies had not foreseen, and which is far more important than all the incidents of the present conflict". . ' The puller-down often builds up in a way 'that he wots not. -And more tflan once in- history has ' Antichrist borne the cross for Christians.