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    Due. 6, i85i.] «&e matter* * 16 *

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    Babylon And Jerusalem. Babylon And Jerus...

    stillness promised repose for my fevered brain , and I flung myself upon the marble altar steps , resolved to stand there for evermore ! " To one speaking in that strain we can have no remonstrance , no thought of " argument , " nothing but a silent" God speed you ! Be it as you hope ¦! ' * . Because we , not tried beyond our sinews of endurance , can find no peace in that Temple , and are certain none would be there for us , shall we , in pride of intellect , stop to " discuss the point " with one who has found peace there ? Idle and insolent would be discussion ; and to what end i yfixs-t did the sufferer seek ? Peace ! If he has found ifc , let all rejoice .

    Poor Ida , Countess of Hahn-Hahn , had wandered aimlessly enough through Babylon and could say : — * 'I have gone as a pilgrim from one end of this part of the globe to the other—from the cataracts of the Nile to the grottoes of Staffa—from the hills of Cintra to the gardens of Damascus—across the Alps , and Pyrenees , and the Lebanon—across the seas and the Arabian Desert—from the banks of the Shannon to the banks of sacred Jordan . I have made my home under the tents of the Bedouins , and in the

    palaces of the aristocracy of Europe . I have known whatsoever I could know of the various classes and conditions , peoples and men . I have moved in extremes . In London , for instance , I went from Ragfair to be presented to her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent . The highest and lowest points of civilization ; the various degrees of national development ; the connection of civilization with the religion and the character of a people , with acts and morals ; in short , the history of humanity in tableaux vivans , ' I desired to have before my eyes ; from face to face did I propose to behold the life of humanity . "

    And so she moved amidsfe the " pomps and vanities , " herself one of the vainest , a restless , yearning , loving soul , disturbed by impulses of a questionable nature , until Calamity- —swift , crushing , irremediable—suddenly reared its pale and solemn sphynx-like face before her path . The Revolutions of 1848 uprooted her faith in Humanity . The death of her lover loosened her hold upon life . Where was Peace to be found ? Not without , in the world ; not within , in her heart . Without , there were Revolution and terrible Democracy ; within , there was desolation . And thus it was she sought Peace in the Church .

    Dr . Nitsch has divined this . Hi 6 beautiful work now lying before us , is written in explanation rather than in controversy . He is not a Protestant theologian , polemically indignant at her insults to Protestantism and her glorifications of Rome . He speaks to her and to the world , from his deep and pious heart , of all the points in which she wishes to set up her experience as an example ; and endeavours to show that the Peace she found , is to be found in Christianity , not simply in Rome .

    " It was not the force of eternal truth and of divine life and love which seized and attracted you ; it was the Romish Church which awed you with its splendour , consistency , totality , and completion . It was not the feeling of your own inward and individual guilt and estrangement from God which urged you to repent and seek for salvation ; it was not an abhorrence of your Self ; it was an abhorrence of the wickedness of the * world , of the excesses of the Itevolution , of the Babylonian division and confusion

    around you , which wan indeed reflected and reproduced in yourself . These were tho things which turned yoar eyes to the unity nnd community , to the majestic tranquillity of the Ilomish Church . You fled for refuge within its aisles for the sake of that vast , splendid , and tranquil space which wan set apart from the noise and the contentions of the busy mart of life . After some time you found in the temple what you never thought of Becking when you entered—namely , an altar and a cross . "

    We emphatically declare that a more beautiful an d trul y Christian work haw . not come- before uh this many a day ; u book the peculiar doctrinal J « netH of which we cannot be nupposed to approve : but ho dignified in its rebukes , ho candid in its arKUincntH , no nobly pious and generoliH in spirit , tlv . it w « marvel how itH excellent translator could , after reading tho proof sheets , have added the cold , "arciwtic prefaco , which is m discordant with what follo ws .

    A beautiful book this , and quite a model of Y » ri 8 tian polemics . Dr . Nitach i « »¦ Protestant '"vine , but speaks with unusual candour on some ot the many deficiencies of Protestantism , and rec ° gniz « B some of the peculiar merits of Catholicism

    —especially in influencing the imagination . We get hard names flung at us for our " sympathy " with the Catholics . But when we see how Catholicism powerfully appeals to the two great motors—Imagination and Logic—when we find that its absurdities are systematic , and its errors all of one woof , and when we also see that the woof is of splendid , eye-captivating colour , we cannot wonder if men like to wear it . Protestantism has few such claims . Its basis is as absurd , its method is less consistent , its manifestation is less picturesque . Dr . Nitsch sees how the Countess was seduced by the picturesque : —

    " Even among the Protestant missionaries in the Orient , among those gentlemen in black dresscoats , with wives and children , ' and with that Anglican bishop , ' who tended his nine children which were sick of a fever , ' you might , if you had thought it worth , your while to look deeper than the mere outward seeming , have discovered a Christian humility and devotion , which would have given you cause to be heartily ashamed of yourself ; while I am sure their humility and devotion had no reason to be shamed by an excess of the same qualities in the Franciscan ' s cowl , and with the beggar ' s sack . But there ' s the rub ! A black dress-coat and a quiet

    family life are not likely to awe any one . They are not poetical . But a barefooted and cowled Franciscan , with a begging-bag , is not only highly poetical , but also a proper and fit person to awe a lady in a silk dress and Paris boots . It would appear that you never thought it worth your while to look through the cowl and the dress-coat . I admit , and indeed I mnst admit , that the first impression is very much like the one you describe . I speak of my own experience , for I felt the same sensation when I first saw the Protestant missionaries and the monks"from

    the Convents of the Terra Santa . But I have seriously reproached myself for my injustice ; for I considered how frequently that man in a black dresscoat , and with a wife and children , may have been called upon , in the world , and within himself , to practise more real self-denial and devotion , —ay , and that he is daily called upon to practise the same , when , amidst his cares for wife and children , he fulfils the arduous duties of his calling , faithfully and conscientiously , in spite of the discouragement of their apparent want of success . " Further compare this—a Protestant ' s—¦ VIEW OF THE TWO CHURCHES . " It is perfectly shocking that our churches are not open on week days ; that the weary labourer may not enter them and find rest and comfort for his body , as well as for his mind ; that their doors do not stand open , inviting the pilgrim through life , for a moment to leave his stormy path , and to seek and find peace and heavenly aspirations . It is a woful thing to see , that the most important events in the life of individuals and nations pass by unremarked and unheeded by the Church ; it is shocking to behold in Protestant towns burial procession after burial procession passing through the streets , without the Church showing the least interest or sympathy in the death of a fellow Christian . Do not believe that these sentiments are confined to you . I , surely , am the last man to accuse you for having entered a Romanist chapel—for the purpose of prayer . I myself have done the same , when in the crowded city , or on the solitary country road , I passed the open doors of a Catholic church or chapel . I have said my ' Ave Maria' when passing your image of the Madonna , whoso lamp cast a shimmer of comfort and consolation through the gloom of the night , a type of that silent , uninterrupted heart ' s prayer , the yearning of every created being in its aspirations to the

    world beyond . The greeting which the angels addressed to the Holy Virgin is surely permitted to mankind , and wo may utter it , whenever we set ! her image , without thereby becoming guilty of idolatry ! " But if it be a bad thing that our church doors are cloued for six days in the week , how much worse is it in many cases , when those doors are opened on the seventh day ? Ih this , indeed , Divine service — thin singing of long prosy hymns , which have been emasculated by the milk-and-water tendencies of this aesthetic age ?—this reciting and listening to a sermon , which chiefly consists of some phraseology

    wrapped round a biblical text , which it neither explains , nor brings home , while , glorying in its own petty wisdom , it remains utterly oblivious of JJible text and congregation . And even where they have attempted to reinforce the Church service with liturgical elements , can there be any edification in that jumble of ntyleless , hmrtle . su prayers , mixed up with tho mundane chanting of the choir ? Even at this , our time , 1 have heard many a comforting , strengthening , and heart-touching word in our churches . And deeply grateful am I for every such word . Hut an ( iothe , surrounded by all tho pomp , pride , and circumstance of Divine service in St . Peter ' s Church at

    Komo , moat inexplicably groaned and yearned in his heart , praying that the Head of tho Church would open hi » golden mouth to charm his hearers , by tolling them , of tho unutterable blisB of tho blcsued in heaven ; bo in our churchoB havo I often been

    seized with a deep yearning for that black man m the pulpit to leave off talking , and give us a little time only for collection , prayer , and adoratibn , which , his empty or fine words so unmercifully disturb and even destroy . Oh ! how edified and adoring we might sit , or even kneel , in church , were it not for the preacher ! These sentiments of adoration avail not much indeed ; they avail just as little as knowledge or teaching ; but pray ye , gentlemen with white neckcloths , what other aim and effect have your best and finest sermons , than the waking of an ephemeral edified temper , which vanishes at the first gossiping

    question that meets vs at the church door , or , perhaps , they contain a lesson for which no one thanks you , because it is generally addressed to those who are not in churchy because the uneducated among your congregation do not understand it , and because the educated have but too often occasion to shake their heads at it . Oh , I tell you , my heart bleeds sometimes when in church , I listen to a good and pious preacher , and when high public functionaries , or military officers , or members of Parliament , surround me on all sides , laughing and nodding , rubbing their hands , and almost clapping them when the clergyman holds

    forth against revolutions , and riots , and contempt of all authority , while pious old women of either sex delight in the preacher ' s invectives against impertinence and irreligion , and his striking arguments against infidelity , and his picturesque representation of the misery which awaits us unless we believe , and which , consequently , awaits all unbelievers ; and when I consider that of the revolutionists , and of the impertinent , and infidels ( that is to say , of those whom the clergyman preaches at , for in reality every Christian has a leaven of these three sins in his

    heart ) , there are none in the church ; and when at length I consider what a deal the clergyman might say and preach to those who are in church—to some , respecting their wilfulness and overbearing nature and abuse of power ; to other , on the littleness and the petty passions of their everyday life and working ; on their coldness and indifference to the sufferings of the poor and lowly , and to all , on the lifelessness and lovelessness of their faith , and how he might exhort and instruct that the faith which they brought to church , may go out with , them again and enter life , there to multiply and bear fruit a hundred-fold . "

    Having said enough about this little volume to stimulate your curiosity , we have now another point to turn your thoughts towards . Ida of Hahn-Hahn has turned Catholic , and declares that her heart has found peace . So far all should rejoice . It is but an unchristian zeal in the Protestant to grudge her that peace , because she found it not in his chapel . But let us , in extenuation of Protestant scorn , remind the reader that there is something insolent , defiant , and not altogether sincere in the tone which the Hahn-Hahn has adopted . Go into

    the Church if you can find peace there ; nay , call unto others to follow you , if that be your conviction ; but let your call be the voice of one speaking purely from the heart , or it will rouse no echoes but echoes of laughter or of scorn . Ida , Countess of Hahn-Hahn , you have made a mistake in publishing ! The influence of your example will be destroyed by your preaching . What you were as a novelist , that you remain as a prophetess—elever but declamatory , hollow , supercilious—and here we speak with l ) r . Nitsch : —

    " For , alas I the greater portion of your book has evidently been written for the purpose of proving to us how grand and how generous your faults and errors have been ; and that you , long before you hecame a Christian , were , in fact , closely allied to Christianity and to the Church ; that nothing low , small , and imperfect , could ever attract or detain you in the manner of the low and vulgar crowd ; that you ( pardon me , but the . French word must be quoted ) have always been an nine d ' elite to such an extent , that your former life , although you condemn it , and your gigantic errors , though you acknowledge them as such , are , nevertheless , of such a kind , that they fill you with a certain degree of pride . I will

    not here adduce any of the many instances in winch you most unconsciously exalt yournelf and your faults . This spirit of pride and self-laudation pervades the whole of your book , and stares from every page . And this is , indeed , the cause of that disagreeable and painful impression which it produces on llomnii Catholics , as well as on me , who 11111 a . Protestant . Not your extraordinary and superficial attacks on Protestantism and the Keforirmtion ( unworthy as they are , and most unworthy of yourself , for they arc ; A mere parrot ' s repetition ) —not your idolization of a Church to which 1 do not belong , \ h it which pains m " in your book . 1 feel aggrieved by that continuous idolization of your own self . "

    There in , indeed , too much of thin . It runs through her novels ; it ruiuH heir religious books . Home ; hitH not changed her then ? Changed ? Who is changed by the- changing of a creed ? Tlui altitude of mind may change , but not tho nature ol that mind .

    Due. 6, I85i.] «&E Matter* * 16 *

    Due . 6 , i 85 i . ] «& e matter * * *

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 6, 1851, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_06121851/page/17/