words, what Materialism is, and what Pantheism: "Materialism is reason abdicating her throne, which she abandons to the flesh; it is the mind compassimg its own ruin, and delivering itself up as a vile slave to the caprices of the body, which was made to serve it; it is the soul losing the very consciousness of its own reality, or believing itself to be the property, or dependent of the organs of sense; it is man assimilated to the brutes and glorying in this assimilation. And what is Pantheism? Pantheism is reason abdicating its throne, and abandoning it to sophistry; it is the radical change of all principles which form the moral and intellectual life of humanity; it is the negation of good sense and reason." According to Pantheism there is no real distinction between the universe and the Deity. In the wonderful harmony of creation-in the infinite variety we observe in the heavens, in the earth, and sea-in the striking beauty and order which reigns through every portion of the great universe-the Christian sees a reflection of the omnipotence and infinite wisdom of the great Creator, while the Pantheist regards it as the Deity itself. In the dust beneath our feet- in the rich vesture woven in nature's own loom with which early summer arrays herself, and on which we see plants and shrubs and flowers in every variety of form and tint-in the heaving bosom of the mighty ocean-in the cliffs beetling over the booming sea, in which the student can read the history of ages lost in the womb of time-in the mystic speaking brilliancy of the fiery orbs that light up the glorious vault of heaven-in the whispering breeze and roaring tempest-in the dead leaves which whirl to earth in autumn, as well as in every living form-the Pantheist only sees one great Being who pervades all, absorbs all, and is identified with all, outside whom there is nothing. Behold, then, in the Pantheist's mind there is no distinction between spirit and matter! The broad and familiar distinction between good and evil, vice and virtue, is recognised no longer; for when all is the result of fatal necessity there can be no moral obligations-no social duties. How correctly are the blinded advocates of those errors designated by our illustrious Pontiff Pius IX., in his Allocution dated June 9th, 1862:-"Insigni improbitate et pari stultitia haud timent asserrere, nullum supremum sapientissimum providentissimumque, numen divinum existere ab hac rerum universitate distinctum ac Deum idem esse ac rerum naturam. Quo certe nihil dementius nihil majis imprimo contra ipsam rationem majis repugnans fingi nequam potest." These-Materialism, Pantheism, General Infidelity are some of the doctrines received by those who, advocating the right of private judgment, do not hesitate to adopt its necessary and logical consequences. Do not such doctrines herald the ruin of society? They seem to threaten to reduce Europe to a more deplorable state than when it lay beneath the moral incubus of Heathenism; for even Paganism pointed to a future state of rewards and punishments, branded crime with its condemnation, and held out incentives to virtue. Upon Europe of to-day reasoning men must look as on a very plague-spot of sophistry and moral degradation. How Materialism can, even in name, be linked with Philosophy, I confess I am unable to see. Surely the reason which fails to discover in the world around it evidence of a supreme ruler, and can see no evidence of its own spiritual nature and destiny, must have emptied to the dregs the poisonous cup of error! But the independence of human reason, vindicated by the Reformers, meant the removal of restraint on pride and passion, and a total rejection of the Divine guidance of the Church. These were the results for which the early Reformers and the'r adherents struggled. The excesses at which society stocd aghast, the history of the struggle written in blood, the destruction of the union in which European states were bound together, are the indirect but natural results of the vindication of this principle. A vessel without rudder or ballast, exposed on the storm-tossed ocean to the mercy of every wave and every gale, is but a weak illustration of the unhappy condition of those who, adopting the principles of the Reformation, rejected the authority of the Divinely appointed guide in matters of faith. reason. The rejection of Christianity was the next natural and necessary result of the influence of this fatal principle. The chilling repulsive belief, which shuts out all hope of a future state, is formed under the free and unrestrained exercise of It matters little what form infidelity may adopt-in what plausible sophistry it may endeavour to conceal its hideousness-its spirit is the same. It is the spirit of hostility to the Catholic Church inherited from the Reformation. The humiliation or total extinction of the Church of Christ is the object on which it concentrates all its energies, towards which it directs all its deadly efforts. The destruction of a Church which breathes a supernatural life seems to be the great and primary object attempted by Materialists, Pantheists, and Socialists in the exercise of revolutions, in the horrors and crimes of communism, in the lawless plunder sanctioned by modern warfire. By the influence of the Catholic Church, with the idea of God and a reverence for His supreme dominion, the civilization of Europe was built up from the ruins of a mighty empire and the wreck of a pagan world. Under its holy influence, what was rude and fierce and lawless in the nature of the savage-Frank and Hun, and Goth and Norseman-disappeared. It united hostile nations in social ties, and educated them in the duties of citizenship and the useful arts. To abolish the idea of God, and destroy the Catholic Church, by which it is principally maintained, is now declared to be the grand mission of the Freethinkers of Europe. "Whereas the idea of God," say they, "is the source and support of every despotism and of every iniquity; and whereas the Catholic religion is the most complete and terrible personification of this idea, the Freethinkers of Pan assume, as an obligation, to abolish Catholicity promptly and radically." Such the decree promulgated at Naples on the 8th of December, 1869. A similar declaration was published at Marseilles in the same year in the following words :-"Our programme has for its basis the denial of God, the suppression of all authority, and every religious idea." Thus it is that infidelity proclaims its fatal errors from the hilltops, and the fundamental principles of the Reformation justifies the melancholy and blasphemous teaching. J. A. F. THE SWISS CHURCH. I. Episcopis et Sacerdotibus Ecclesiae Catholicae Intra Limites Statuum Helvetiae Foederatorum Militantibus Archiepiscopus et Episcopi Angiiae Salutem et Fraternam Caritatem. NIHIL sane novum Vobis, Fratres dilectissimi, infidelium odia pati, et a sectariorum conspirationibus vexari: a tribus enim saeculis Ecclesia in Helvetia Vestra constituta acatholicorum impetus et insidias iterum iterumque invicte passa est. Porro hisce etiam diebus omnium ferme aliarum regionum exules et transfugae ejurati et veteratores intra valles vestras hospitales inviosque montes refugium sibi et latibulum constituerunt. Cur igitur mirandum si in Vos, vigilantes Ecclesiae Dei Pastores, fidelesque Vestros greges, veritatis et obedientiae inimici insurgant et debacchentur? Ex nobis ipsis sunt qui jampridem Confratrem Vestrum praeclarum Lausannensem Antistitem, pro Ecclesia auctoritate Confessorem, exulem Romae vidimus et veneranter allocuti sumus. Hodie, tamquam filium per patris vestigia incedentem, eximium Hebronensem Episcopum pro eadem sacrosancta causa conspicimus exulantem. Immo Basilea Vestra, quae perversorum contra Sanctae Sedis auctoritatem molimina olim ploravit et detestata est, hodie Praesulem suum invictum, Clero et Fidelibus animose stipatum, in prima acie pro Ecclesiae libertate praeliantem, spoliatum, divexatum, gestiens veneratur. Ignobiles istae Pastorum Jesu Christi persecutiones, Helvetiae dedecus, Ecclesiae Vestrae gloria: Episcopatus enim egregiam constantiam, Cleri fidelissimi unitatem, gregis inseparabilem cum Pastoribus cohaerentiam, luculentissime prae nationum praevaricantium oculis demonstrat haereticorum, incredulorum, eversorum, odiosa ista et impotens in veritatem Jesu conjuratio. Omnes, Venerabiles Fratres, per Catholicam unitatem Sacerdotes et Christifideles Vobiscum gratulantur, exemplumque Vestrum tanquam Cleri Gregisque formam imitandum sibi proponunt. Pro nobili Vestra constantia gratias agimus, omnemque Boni Pastoris consolationem, vigilantiam et custodiam, Vobis populoque a Sacrosancto Corde Jesu peramanter adprecamur. HENRICUS EDUARDUS, Archiepiscopus Westmonasteriensis.' THOMAS JOSEPHUS, O.S. B., Episcopus Neoportensis et Meneviensis. RICARDUS, Episcopus Nottinghamiensis. GULIELMUS, Episcopus Plymuthensis. GULIELMUS, Episcopus Cliftoniensis. FRANCISCUS, Episcopus Northantoniensis. ROBERTUS, Episcopus Beverlacensis. JACOBUS, Episcopus Hagulstadensis Novicastrensis. JACOBUS, Episcopus Suthwarcensis. HERBERTUS, Episcopus Salfordiensis. BERNARDUS, Episcopus Liverpolitanus, In Festo S. Georgii Martyris, 1873. II. Rmis. ac Illmis. Archiepiscopo Westmonasteriensi Caeterisque Omnibus Catholicis Angliae Episcopis Episcopi Helvetiae Fraternam in Domino Salutem. Nobis nuperrime Friburgi Helvetiorum in unum collectis, ut afflictis apud nos Ecclesiae Catholicae rebus pro viribus consuleremus, redditae ac perlectae sunt Litterae quas ad nos difficillimo hoc tempore dirigere dignati estis. Quantopere illae nobis gratae jucendaeque acciderint vix dici potest. Quod, accepta persecutionum recentissimarum Ecclesiae in nostris regionibus notitia, nec mora, Vos onnes, Rmi. Collegae, magnopere nobis compassuri essetis, id pro certo habebamus, ob fraternam illam totius Episcopatus Catholici unionem quae, vix unquam ac hodiedum arcticr, existit; verum anne praestolari poteramus ut universus Episcoporum Angliae coetus in unum congregatus profundae suae compassionis sensus scripto testari properaret? Numquid non longo ab invicem distamus intervallo? Numquid non ipse quoque Angliae Episcopatus, noviter reconstitutus, circa renascentem et reflorescentem inibi Ecclesiam gravissimis occupatur curis, luctisque continuis fidei causa distinetur, variisque adversitatibus exagitatur, in regno quod per saecula se Ecclesiae Catholicae et hostem juratum et persecutorem acerrimum exhibuit? Et ecce Vos Vestri ipsorum oblivisci videmini, ut de nobis longe dissitis cogitetis, nostrosque dolores Vestros faciatis; ut diutine exagitatis varieque divexatis, praesertim e suis demum sedibus ejectis collegis nostris, necnon et clero mirabili constantia eis adhaerenti, peculiarem prorsus sympathiam commonstretis: atque, uti e Vestrarum Litterarum tenore facile colligere est, non hodiernus nec hesternus est, sed jam ab annis hic Vester fraternis in nos existit affectus. Quantum est lenimen tales habere Confratres, quos nec locorum distantia nec propriae divexationes et angores nostris calamitatibus extraneos reddere queunt, quique e longinquo nobis suas cordiales consolationes transmittere maturant! Dum pro his debitas Vobis gratias agimus, eas ut continuetis enixe rogamus; tanto quippe illis amplioribus egebimus, quanto majora quantoque plura nobis adhuc mala imminere videntur. In persecutionem etenim adhucdum initio consistimus; quod si hoc tam asperum existit, qualis earum prosecutio, earum demum finis erit? Certum est, id agi, ut primo nomen Romano-Catholicum tum etiam christianum ex Helvetiae solo extirpetur; unde nulli parcetur operae ut persecutio magis magisque sese extendat ac caeteros quoque pagos invadat. Omnia ista tanto nobis graviora ac magis dolorosa eveniunt, quod sacris foederibus juramento sancitis, pactis, ac solemniter acceptatis, constitutionibus adversentur quae nos contra hujusmodi divexationes prorsus securos esse jubebant ; quoque nos, qui in libertatis patria, quo nomine tantopere nostra gloriabatur Helvetia, vivere nos habebamus, modo nos in religiosae servitutis atque oppressionis patria deprehendimur. Verumtamen speramus, et quidem undequaque a nostris in fide fratribus magnopere confortati, potenter adjuti, eorum precibus suffulti firmiter speramus nunquam eo usque a modernis persecutoribus ipsorum consilia perduci posse. Quapropter Vestris Vestrorumque dioecesanorum ferventibus orationibus fraternaque charitate nos prosequi dignemini. Pro qualicumque debitae gratitudinis persolutione, Vobis, Venerabiles Fratres, Vestrisque gregibus, ac Ecclesiae Catho |