The Roman Gathering [pp. 191-200]

The -Romam Gathering.
THE ROMAN GATHERING.*
BY W. G. DIX.
A MAN of many years, without vast
temporal resources, despoiled of a
part of his possessions, having many
and vigorous enemies about him, and
regarded by many even of those who
profess the Christian faith as about
to fall from his high place in Christendom, such a man invites his brethren
of the apostolical ministry throughout the world to honor by their personal presence at Rome the anniversary of the martyrdom,. eighteen
hundred years ago, of Saint Peter
and Saint Paul, and to join with him
in the exaltation of martyrs who, like
them, though in far distant lands,
were "faithful unto death." They
respond with eager joy and haste to
the call, and those who cannot go
send on the wings of the wind their
words of loving veneration.
To say not a word of the spiritual
claims of the man who sent forth the
invitation, so eagerly and widely accepted, there is in the fact just stated
a glowing evidence that, even in these
days of triumphant and insolent materialism, moral power has not entirely lost ascendency. Though millions
of knees are bent in honor of the
Dagon of materialism, in some one or
other of its myriad forms of degrading
idolatry, yet millions of hearts also
recognize the gift of God as present
evermore in his holy church. Never
before has the Catholic Church beheld so great a multitude, from so distant places, assembled at her call at
the central city of the faith.
* We give place to the above article in our columns,
though from a non-Catholic pen, thinking that it will
be read with interest by our readers, while it indicates,
at the same time, the religious tendencies which are
becoming more and more prevalent among not a small
class of minds in our country.-EDITOR C. W.
The enemies of catholicity have
again and again referred to the great
inventions of modern times as sure
destroyers of the claims of the Catholic Church and of her hold upon her
millions of members; but lo! these
very inventions are brought into the
service of the church. The printingpress, which was going to annihilate
the Catholic Church, has proved one
of her most effectual bulwarks; millions of printed pages inspire the
devotion of her children, and make
known her claims to reading men,
until many who were even her enemies
and revilers, from ignorance and prejudice, acknowledge their error, and
make haste to go to "their father's
house." Steam, in the view of many,
was about so to change the structure
of society that the old and decrepid
Church of Rome, the great obstacle
on the railroad of materialism, was
about to be run over and cast to the
roadside, a weak and useless wreck;
but lo! the power of steam enables
hundreds and thousands more to go
up to the sacred city, as the tribes of
Israel were wont to visit Jerusalem,
than could otherwise attend the festivals of the faith in St. Peter's
Church. Of the manifold uses of
steam, a large proportion is in the service of catholic truth. And then the
telegraph; that, surely, was to show an
advanced state of civilization which
could not tolerate the slow and ancient ways of catholicity; but lo!
here, again, the event has contradicted the prophecy; for, by means of
the telegraph, the assemblage of the
vast host at Rome was known throughout the world on the very day of its
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