sometimes leave their ancient homes and join the nearest settlement already established. It only remains that we should inquire whether the conversion of these tribes was real as well as nominal; whether these thousands and tens of thousands of savages became Christians in deed as well as in name. For a sus picion might arise in the minds of some of our readers, that to bring them to an outward profession of the faith was no such hard task; that is, that though there might have been difficulties in the way of persuading them, in the first place, to come and try this new mode of life, yet that the moment they could be prevailed upon to do this, they could not fail to be so struck by its many advantages as to be induced to adopt it themselves; that the profession of Christianity, therefore, might have been received only as a part and parcel of this happier and more comfortable way of living, a necessary condition without which it was not possible to obtain all the superior advantages of civilisation, but not as binding them in any way to a change of conduct, or imposing upon them any form of religious belief. Such a suspicion, I say, might naturally suggest itself to the reader's mind; nevertheless it is clear from the testimony both of eye-witnesses and of facts, that in truth the people really did become Christians in heart and in practice no less than in profession; nay more, that they became very patterns of Christian virtue. The modesty and recollection of their behaviour in church was such as to astonish even the missionaries themselves: when they recited the act of contrition, with which the preachers always concluded their sermons, the church rang again with their sobs and sighs; when they approached the sacrament of penance, though the faults they had to accuse themselves of were often so slight that they were scarcely sufficient matter for absolution, yet they could not confess them without shedding torrents of tears. If at any time they suffered themselves to be overcome by temptation, so as to fall into any greater sin, they would immediately leave the business they were engaged in, whatever it might be, and run to the priest to confess their fault and to wash away its guilt in the sacrament of penance. If the fault they had committed was public, so that they had given scandal by it, they gladly performed public penance, that they might make what reparation they were able, and that the contagion of bad example might not spread among the flock. It often happened on these occasions, that others, who had committed the same fault in private as they now saw punished in public, used to come forward of their own accord, publicly accuse themselves, and beg to be allowed to suffer the same penance. This reminds us of what we read of the early Church; and indeed every body who visited these settlements, and had an opportunity of examining them at all closely, was always struck with the resemblance which they bore to the manners and customs of the first Christians. One of the missionaries themselves, writing to a friend, says, "There is no suffering we would not voluntarily undergo for these poor Indians; for we are eye-witnesses of their docility, of the ardent love which they have for all that concerns the service of God, and of their exact obedience to all the commandments of the law of Christ. They no longer know what it is to indulge in fraud, theft, revenge, drunkenness, impurity, and all those other vices which were formerly so deeply rooted among them. I confidently assure you, and have no fear that any one will accuse me of exaggeration, that these men, once abandoned to the grossest vices, present to our eyes (now that they are become Christian) the innocence and the holiness of the first believers." "I have often visited the Jesuits' missions in Paraguay," says the Bishop of Buenos Ayres (a religious of the order of the Holy Trinity, instituted for the redemption of captives,) writing to the king of Spain; "and in all those numerous towns, composed of Indians naturally given to all manner of vice, there reigns so much innocence, that I do not believe a single mortal sin is committed in them; the extraordinary watchfulness of their pastors prevents the commission of even the slightest faults." "The union and the charity which prevails among these Christians is perfect," writes a Capuchin priest who had spent three or four weeks in a very large settlement numbering 30,000 Indians, under the direction of four Jesuit Fathers; "they spend their whole time in prayer, and in labour to provide for their families. All approach the holy sacraments every month, and many of them every week. Some, inspired by a special grace, aim at evangelical perfection; and even those who are not guided by the Holy Spirit to this degree of perfection, yet lead a life of innocence not inferior to that of the first Christians." It would be easy to multiply evidence of this kind; but what has been already quoted is more than enough to convince us of the reality of the conversion that was wrought in the lives and hearts of these savages. And truly when we compare this description of them with their former miserable condition, we cannot for a moment doubt but that this change could only have been wrought by the power of the Spirit of God. The missionaries must have been, as St. Paul speaks, only "God's coadjutors ;"* they "planted and watered," but it was He that " crease. gave the inWhat a wonderful and convincing testimony then does this history afford to the divinity of the Catholic Church! It was she that received the commission to go unto the whole world and preach the Gospel to every creature, and to her was the promise made that Christ would be with her even unto the end of the world; it is by her therefore, and by her alone, that the commission has ever been faithfully executed, or the fulfilment of the promise ever been truly realised. There is not a single Protestant sect in the world, however numerous or however zealous, which can produce so manifest a proof of the presence of Christ's blessing upon their labours.† * 1 Cor. iii. 9. See the sixth and seventh of Cardinal Wiseman's "Lectures on the principal Doctrines and Practices of the Catholic Church." Dolman, London. Robson, Levey, and Franklyn, Great New Street, Fetter Lane. |