a long series of humanitarian works which have been achieved by men who happened to be ecclesiastics; these become an imposing record of the Church’s wondrous benefits to humanity in art, science, sociology, and philanthropy. So even in ethics the Church of Rome professes a more effective promotion of the welfare of humanity than other Churches, though in this department its claim of special power does not seem difficult to impugn.
Such would seem to be the peculiar strength of the Church of Rome in the religious struggle, as distinguished from all other Christian sects. The influences at work for its extension and consolidation are undoubtedly effective, but side by side with them it has many characteristic weaknesses which seem to give less security to its fabled immortality. In the first place, seeing that it does not shrink from and repudiate the rational criterion which the new-born age is applying to every existing institution, its very vastness is a source of danger; it presents a broader front to the keen rationalistic attack. If the mysterious dogmas which are common to all Christian sects invite criticism, nothing is gained in point of security by adding to them that microcosm of miracles — Transubstantiation — or the seven sacraments, or the vaguely floating tradition of an Immaculate Conception. Then, too, the Church of Rome is so dogmatic in its teaching, and has so frequently to abandon very positive positions. In other sects the privilege of
