Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IV.djvu/556

CHRISTIANITY no change of principles, she has nevertheless heen able to throw off many old abuses and alliances that served more to encumber than to adorn her. This self-reforming and self- renovating power is claimed by Catholic wri- ters as a proof of the constitutional strength of that church, and, combined with unity of faith, sanctity in moral teaching, universality in time and place, and unbroken apostolic succession, as a mark of the Divine presence. The present condition of the Catholic church, as they hold, is inferior to no period of her past history, in the learning and efficiency of her clergy, in her many educational establish- ments, her missionary enterprises extending over almost every portion of the known world, her active associations for the exercise of every form of Christian benevolence. America, ac- cording to views recently propounded in this country, offers a new field to the ancient faith for the display of its diversified energies. Here, for the first time in the world's history, the Catholic church finds herself free from all entangling alliances with the civil government, and thus avoids a great source of distrust and dislike on the part of her opponents. Here, persecution, if it should occur at all, either for or against her interests, would be the result ef transitory passions, not of the system of government by which the country is ruled. Here, the very conservatism which in the old world has made her so many enemies is claimed as a title to respect, in view of the ne- cessity of vigorous principles to counteract the impetuous rush of unrestrained political free- dom, and the often erratic intellectuality of a transitional and protesting age. In the United States the progress of the Roman Catholic church is evinced by the large army of eccle- siastics who have gradually spread from the solitary cathedral in Baltimore, where Carroll exercised episcopal functions, to the most dis- tant parts of the land ; by the numerous churches, schools, convents, asylums, and hos- pitals that she has everywhere erected ; by her incessant labors among the great mass of emigrants who are sent to her door by the policy of European governments ; by the fre- quent accessions to her ranks from the strictest anti-Catholic communions ; and by the first fruits of a Catholic literature which is believed to promise largely for the future. "What con- clusion in respect to the future can be drawn from the history of the past ? Has Christian- ity a prospect of perpetuity and increase, or is it threatened with decay ? It must be remem- bered that Christianity is not wholly limited to the church. Many elements of its power are felt elsewhere. The philosophy of gov- ernment at the present day is preeminently Christian. The theory of human rights and of social progress differs from ancient theories in having a Christian basis. The literature of the civilized world is more and more a Chris- tian literature. A Christian philanthropy is breathed into poetry and romance, as well as into social and political life, more than in any former age. The public sentiment is deeply imbued with the principles of a Christian civilization. Christian nations and races of men are the dominant nations and races of the earth. Christian civilization at this moment, more than ever before, seems destined to spread over all Asia, Africa, and the islands of the great oceans. The paganism of the world is evidently to share the fate of the paganism of the old Roman empire, to fade away before Christianity, and become a mere matter of history. Is it probable that in Christendom itself Christianity will be com- pelled to yield to philosophical skepticism ? Never did Christianity stand stronger in Eng- land than after its contest with deism. Never did the philosophic mind of France grasp it with more power than after atheism had spent all its force. There probably was never a time nor a country in which a historical Christian- ity could be maintained against the fiercest as- saults of a skeptical philosophy with such a convincing power as in Germany at this time. That false rationalism which is essentially at variance with Christianity, deistically denying whatever is supernatural, has been already overcome. Nowhere, during the whole his- tory of the church, has the defence of Chris- tianity been conducted with such critical learning and philosophic power as in Ger- many, by the great theologians of the present century. Such a historical groundwork of Christianity as Neander has presented to the world in his history of the church, it is vain to look for in any former age. Indeed, history now, civil as well as ecclesiastical, is the im- pregnable fortress within which Christianity is securely intrenched. All the lines of philo- sophic history now converge in Christianity. "Will the influence of sects and parties destroy the efficacy of Christianity ? In respect to these, there is not only change but progress. It has become a pretty generally received opinion among the leading men of all sects, that the whole truth is to be found in none of them ; that each is working out some prob- lem, more or less important, to be adopted ul- timately by all ; that a more comprehensive view of Christianity will be possible after the good and evil in every system have distinctly made themselves apparent to the whole world. The greatest men of the age are already stri- ving more philosophically and more satisfactori- ly to answer the fundamental question, "How is Christianity to be conceived of as a whole ?" The old theological conceptions of it are found to be inadequate in many particulars, chiefly by defect. The theologians were at fault some- times in their metaphysics, sometimes in their criticism and interpretation of the Bible. Chris- tianity is many-sided. The old theological sys- tems were all more or less one-sided. One as- pect of this great subject, it would seem, was supposed to comprehend the whole. A broader and more comprehensive study of the subject