Yesterday, in language which belongs only to himself, but which interprets our feelings as well, M. Le Compte de Falloux said to the illustrious Bishop of Orleans, "My Lord, you have recommended us to arise early; but you have joined example to precept; you have ever been the standard-bearer in all good causes." Well, what I could wish is, that each one of us could also be among the standard-bearers; that we could have the honor, we Catholics, of being in advance of others in the practical knowledge of what is preparing in the approximate future.
What is approaching? It is called by an illy-defined name, which awakens passions and dissensions—democracy. Two years ago I attempted to explain this word at Notre-Dame de Paris, [Footnote 48] and I have been blamed for it by some. I have since found a similar definition in the recent writings of the honored bishop whom I have just named. I retake it, then, with pride, and I say to all those who invoke this name, There are two democracies in the world. Which is yours? Is it radical revolution? Does social hierarchy, entirely prostrated before the force of numbers, constitute the grandeur of intelligence and virtue? Is it the brutal level which passes over all things to crush and to lower? If this be your democracy, it is the worst of barbarisms, and we will combat it, if necessary, even to the shedding of our blood. But if democracy be the gradual and peaceable elevation of the laboring and suffering masses, who are called peasants in the country and workmen in our cities; if it be their elevation to a more extended knowledge, to a more secure well-being, to a more efficient and refined morality, and by legitimate consequence to a more extensive social influence; we are with this democracy, not only because we are the sons of our century, but because we are the sons of the Gospel. [Footnote 49]
[Footnote 48: Advent Conferences of 1865. (3d conference.)]
[Footnote 49: "If democracy be the rising of the common people, of the peasants and the laborers, to a higher standard of education, of well-being, of morality, of legitimate influence, the church is with democracy." —Atheism and Social Peril, by Monsignor the Bishop of Orleans. 1866. p. 166.]
I see it arise. I salute it in your name; this Christian democracy, having its deep and solid foundations in the homes, the workshops of trade, and in the sanctuary of our temples. It will change history, which, in the past, has only recorded the intrigues of the wily or the conquests of the strong, the powerlessness of policy, the too frequent corruption of riches and art. It will give to the sages a subject of meditation in the intelligent and faithful working out of the laws of private life, to which public life itself is subordinate when it is understood. It will cause a great people to spring up who will seek the practical welfare of their existence, as well as the inspiration of their literature and art, in family affection, the struggles and joys of labor, and in the chaste emotions of prayer and the splendid festivities of religion.
Undoubtedly, the crisis that we are passing through is one of the most important and terrible that our race has known. Let us raise our efforts, our courage, and our faith to the height of these solemn events, but never doubt the final issue. I can explain the ruins of pagan society; but the society which has touched Jesus Christ, the humanity which has possessed for centuries the spirit of the Gospel—in a word, Europe—she may suffer, she may be in the pangs of death, but she cannot die. (Prolonged applause.)
Mater Filii.
Behind this vast and wondrous frame
Of worlds whereof we nothing know
Except their aspects, and their name,—
Behind this blind, bewildering show
Of shapes that on the darkness trace
Transitions fair and fugitive,
Lies hid that power upon whose face
No child of man shall gaze and live.
As one that in broad sunshine stands
While minster organs near him roll,
Screening his forehead with his hands,
And following through the gulfs of soul
Some memory that before him flies—
Thus, power eternal and unknown,
We muse on thine immensities,
Yet find thee in thy Son alone.
Immanuel—God with us—in him
The lineaments divine are glassed
Like mountain outlines, vague and dim
Upon the mists of morning cast.
The "Word made Flesh!" O power divine!
Through him, through him, we guess at thee,
And deepliest feel that he is thine
When throned upon his mother's knee.
"If I but touch his vesture's hem,
I shall be healed, and strong, and free—"
Thou wert his vesture, Mary;—them
His virtue heals that cling to thee!
Aubrey De Vere.