One other ominous feature of present day conditions in Scotland I find referred to in the following clipping from a British journal:
"In Edinburgh of late the Jesuits have been showing unwonted activity. Owing partly to the unsettling effect of Biblical criticism upon the average mind, and partly to some utterances by some of the leading ministers in the Scottish churches, the Society has evidently deemed the moment opportune for pressing the claims of Rome upon the Scottish people. In their spokesman, Father Power, who addresses a great gathering every Sabbath evening in the open, they have an instrument well fitted for their purpose. Of fine presence, manifest learning, and no mean orator, he is bound to make an impression on some minds. Here is one sentence from his last lecture. After referring to the utterance of a noted Scottish divine in the General Assembly, reflecting on some passage in the Confession of Faith, he said, 'So that fundamental basis being removed (the Confession), the Presbyterian Church collapsed like a house of cards. And hence I say that the Catholic Church has an opportunity, let us hope a God-given one, for entering the field once occupied by our late lamented sister.'"
But he would be a sanguine man, indeed, who could believe that the people of Scotland generally would ever become Roman Catholics. For one thing, there is too much printing there. For the Vicar of Croyden was a true prophet when he said, in the early days of the Reformation, "We must root out printing, or printing will root out us."
FOOTNOTE:
[2] December, 1903.—The Prime Minister of the British Empire is a Scotchman. The leaders of both parties in the House of Commons are Scotchmen. The Archbishop of Canterbury and the Archbishop of York, the two heads of the Church of England, are Scotchmen. These are specimen facts.
CHAPTER XIV.
Stirling, the Lakes, and Glasgow.
Glasgow, September 1, 1902.