Chapter II: Preface

The following pages contain the substance of two Lectures given a few months ago in Edinburgh. The selection of the subjects upon which they treat, and, indeed, the fact of their being delivered at all, were, it may be said, accidental. The author, a missionary priest, was, after over twenty years’ labour in Australia, compelled for health reasons to visit Europe; and during the past season took advantage of an opportunity to make a tour through Scotland. His object in visiting that historic land was first to gratify his Scotch friends and converts in Australia by a sojourn, however brief, in a country, and in several special localities of it, which he knew to be very dear to them; and next to satisfy his own desire of seeing the progress of religion in that as well as in the other portions of the British Islands which he had already visited. The condition of the Church in Ireland, and her advance amidst the adverse influences with which she has to contend in England and Scotland, are of intense interest to Australian Catholics; and an Australian missionary who visits these countries is supposed to bring back much information regarding the state of religion in each one of them. Scotland besides is so full of historic reminiscences, and so favoured by nature with splendid scenery, that a visit to Europe is incomplete without a look upon its rugged hills, its romantic lakes and lovely valleys, now made so interesting by the works of Sir Walter Scott and other writers. The land once evangelized by Columba and his bands of missionary saints, has besides an indescribable charm for a Catholic missionary. He went, therefore, with great pleasure to Scotland, and he cannot speak too highly or too thankfully of the kindness which the Venerable Archbishop of Glasgow, the Bishops and the Clergy he happened to meet with showed him. But, with the exception of a Sunday sermon to oblige the good pastor of whatever locality he happened to pass through, it was his fixed intention not to speak publicly during his rather rapid progress through the country. It happened, however, that on coming to Edinburgh he found an old and very dear friend and College companion in charge of the most populous Catholic district of the metropolis, and in deference to the earnest solicitations of that friend, he departed from his resolution and gave during the few days his stay lasted, first, a lecture on Secret Societies for the benefit of a large and flourishing Catholic Association for men; and secondly, as a sequel to that, a lecture on the Spoliation of the Propaganda.

Both lectures were delivered extemporaneously; that is to say, so far as the language which conveyed their substance was concerned. The matter, however, had been made familiar to the speaker by many years of observation and reading. Very flattering, and, in some cases, very full reports of them appeared in Catholic newspapers. The report of the principal Protestant organ of public opinion in Edinburgh (the _Scotsman_) was very fair, but another paper bitterly resented what it chose to consider an attack on “Freemasonry and Freedom.” It was not, however, so much in the hope of diverting Protestants from Freemasonry as in the desire to show to Catholics that all kinds of secret societies were as bad as, if not worse than, Freemasonry—were, in fact, united with, and under the rule of the worst form of Freemasonry—that the lecturer essayed to speak at all upon the subject. If what he said could influence anyone outside the Church from joining the worse than folly of British Masonry, he would rejoice at the result; but his principal aim was to save his own co-religionists from an evil far more pernicious to them than British Masonry has ever been to Protestants. In this latter design, he was glad to learn that he had considerable success; and amongst those who heard or read his utterances, very many expressed a desire to see what he happened to have said in a permanent form. Notwithstanding the difficulties of doing this with any effect during a vacation tour, he determined, at whatever cost to himself, to gratify their wishes, and therefore took advantage of a few weeks’ rest, while spending Christmas in his _Alma Mater_—All Hallows’ College, Dublin—to put both lectures into the shape in which he now presents them to such as may desire to read them.

It must, however, be remembered that these lectures are nothing more than what they were originally; that is, casual discourses, and not formal and exhaustive treatises on the subjects upon which they touch. For convenience he has divided each one into separate headings; and where necessary to illustrate the text, he has added notes. These are necessary in order to form a clear idea of the whole matter treated. Notes, however, are not always proofs; and proofs however difficult to be obtained against opponents intent on concealment, must, nevertheless, be forthcoming in order to convince. He has, therefore, embodied in the text several documents which were only referred to, or but partially quoted in the spoken lectures. Those now occupy many pages of the lecture upon Secret Societies, and will, he believes, be read with considerable interest by such as have not previously been acquainted with them. “The Permanent Instruction” and the letters of _Vindex_ and _Piccolo Tigre_, originally published by M. Cretineau-Joly from the archives of the _Alta Vendita_, after they were fortunately discovered by the Roman police, are of this class. Certain extracts are also given of equal value. Most of those documents have been translated into English from French translations of the original Italian and German; and one passage, that of Mr. Robison on Freemasonry as the cause of the first French Revolution, is taken from a translation from the English into French, re-done into English, as it was impossible to find the original English work of Mr. Robison, which, though extremely valuable, is, he believes, long out of print. The documents regarding the Spoliation of the Propaganda have been translated from the Latin and Italian originals. He has endeavoured to translate all such documents as literally as possible, so as to preserve their value as evidences.

The first lecture, which he has entitled the war of Antichrist with the Church and Christian Civilization, is intended to treat, in as brief space as possible, the whole question of Secret, Atheistic Organization, its origin, its nature, its history in the last century and in this, and its unity of satanic purpose in a wonderful diversity of forms. To do this with effect, it was necessary to go over a large area of ground, and to touch upon a great variety of topics. The writer was conscious that much of this ground and many of these topics would be very much better known to a large number of his readers than to himself. Nearly every matter he had to speak about had been already very frequently handled ably and exhaustively in our Catholic reviews, magazines and newspapers. But notwithstanding this fact, very few, if any, attempts have been made in our language to treat the subject as a whole. Many articles which he has seen, proposed to treat some one feature only of the Atheistic conspiracy—for example, Freemasonry; or the Infidel war upon Christian education and Christian institutions; or the Revolution in Italy; or the efforts of sectaries against the Temporal Power of the Pope, and against the welfare of Christian States generally. Several writers appeared to assume as known that which was really unknown to very many; and few touched at all upon the fact—a fact, no doubt, difficult to prove from the strict and ably guarded secrecy which protects it—of the supreme direction given to the universality of secret societies from a guiding, governing, and—even to the rank and file of the members of the secret societies themselves—unknown and invisible junta ceaselessly sitting in dark conclave and guiding the whole mass of the secret societies of the world.

If it be difficult at this moment to point out the place of meeting and the members of that powerful body its existence can be proved from past discoveries of the secret workings of the Order, and from present unity of action in numberless occurring circumstances amongst a vast multitude of men, whose essential organization consists in blind obedience to orders coming down through many degrees from an unknown source which thinks and orders for the purposes of the whole conspiracy. The great object, in order to understand the nature of such a conspiracy, is to find out the ends for which those who framed or adopted it, took it up. For instance, Infidelity, as it is now known in the world, never, it may be said, existed to any appreciable extent before the time of Voltaire. Voltaire devoted his whole life to spread Infidelity and destroy Christianity. When we see Voltaire and his disciples eagerly seize upon Freemasonry, and zealously propagate it, as a means to their ends, we may reasonably infer, it was because they judged Masonry fitting for their Infidel and anti-Christian purposes. This is further confirmed when we see Masonry adopted by all men of their principles without exception. And it becomes proved to demonstration when we see its organization seized upon as the basis of further and more complex planning for the avowed purposes of ruining Christianity and placing Atheism in its stead. French Atheism using Masonry thus perfected, produced what it aimed at during the Reign of Terror in France, which, as we shall see, is only a prelude to what it means one day to accomplish throughout the entire world.

In order to make these facts clear, the writer, so far as the form of a single lecture would allow, has given as much of the history and character of both Voltaire and Freemasonry, as might serve to show the adaptability of the latter to the designs of the former. He has spoken of the union and illuminism of Masonry through the instrumentality of Weishaupt, and has shown the immediate consequences of the organization and influence of that arch-conspirator in the first French Revolution and its outcome, the Consulate and the Empire. He deemed it a duty to dispel the glamour of false glory which many Christian writers have aided in throwing over Napoleon I., a real child of Freemasonry and Revolution, and to represent him in his true colours. For though it cannot be denied that Napoleon restored the Church, it is equally true that his half-hearted measures in favour of religion tended to deaden that strong reaction against Atheism which even Robespierre’s attempts could not control; while the encouragement he gave to Freemasonry caused that organization to so powerfully permeate Europe that it has since controlled the civilized world with a subtle, powerful force which nothing has been able to stay save the Catholic Church alone.

Under the headings mentioned, the author has given the salient phases of the action of the whole dread conspiracy. He has dwelt at considerable length on its efforts in Italy and in Europe generally. He has given _in extenso_ documents of the dark directory which rules all the secret societies of the world. These documents give the key to that satanic policy which guides the Revolution to this day. He adopts the opinion of Eckert, Deschamps, Segur, and other grave Continental authorities, as to the fact that Lord Palmerston succeeded Nubius as Chief of the “Inner Circle,” and consequently Grand Patriarch of all the secret societies of the world; and he judges this not only from the testimony of Henry Misley, one of the _Alta Vendita_ under Nubius and Palmerston, but much more from the suicidal, revolutionary policy which Palmerston adopted when Foreign Minister of England, and which leaves that country now without an ally in the world. This policy suited the conspirators of Europe; but no man should have known better than Palmerston that it could not suit Great Britain. It was the reversal of all that the best British statesmen had adopted as safeguards against the recurrence of Bonapartism and revolution, after the peace obtained at Waterloo. But Palmerston was made a monarch to become a slave to the secret sects, and for their views he unceasingly laboured, regardless of country or of any other consideration.

The existence of two parties in secret-society organization is a fact not generally known; but it explains many things in events daily occurring both on the Continent and at home, which would be otherwise inexplicable. It explains how ministers like Cavour can sometimes—in play, of course—imprison generals like Garibaldi, how Thiers could crush the Commune, and how Ferry can make show of being adverse to anarchists in Paris. Nevertheless, the anarchists are the children of the Sovereign Directory. Their highest leaders are men of the “Inner Circle.” If policy requires a revolution or an outrage, anarchists of the rank and file are led on to make it; and are generally left also to their fate—a fate, in its turn, made use of for the purposes of the general Revolution. The Inner Circle of high conspirators, in the solitude of their dark plottings, manage all and find uses for all. Politics, with them, are mere playthings. Upon great social movements, upon discontented populations, upon corruption, distraction, and contention, they rely to bring their one redoubted enemy, the Catholic Church, to what they call the tomb.

There are few people on earth more concerned with this fact than the Irish people.

The Irish people are now found not only in Ireland, but outside Ireland in large centres of industry, where the action of the International Association of Workmen, and other kindred working men’s associations, have most influence. It must be borne in mind that the amelioration in the condition of the working man is never attempted by the International without coupling with it the strongest hatred for Christianity. Nothing proves more clearly its origin and its connection with the Supreme Directory of the Cosmopolitan Atheistic Conspiracy against religion and order than this one fact. In 1870, the society had on its rolls ten millions of members. Its numbers have yearly increased since. At the famous International Congress, held in Geneva in 1868, it formulated the following declaration, which has since been more than once acted on by its members on the Continent:

“MANIFESTO.

“The object of the International Association of Workmen, as
of every other Socialist Association, is to do away with the
parasite and the pariah. Now, what parasite can be compared
to the priest who takes away the pence of the poor and of the
widow by means of lying. What outcast more miserable than the
Christian Pariah.

“God and Christ, these citizen-Providences have been at all
times the armour of Capital and the most sanguinary enemies
of the working classes. It is owing to God and to Christ that
we remain to this day in slavery. It is by deluding us with
lying hopes that the priests have caused us to accept all the
sufferings of this earth.

“It is only after sweeping away all religion, and after tearing
up even to the last roots every religious idea, Christian and
every other whatsoever, that we can arrive at our political and
social ideal.

“Let Jesus look after his heaven. We believe only in humanity.
It would be but to fail in all our duties were we to cease,
even for a second, to pursue the monsters who have tortured us.

“Down, then, with God and with Christ! Down with the despots of
heaven and earth! Death to the priests! Such is the motto of
our grand Crusade.”

This address gives the true spirit and aim of the International League, which has emissaries everywhere striving to decoy working men into secret-society intrigues. In America it has already led Irish Catholic labourers into lamentable excesses. It has under its control some seemingly laudable benefit societies which it uses as a means to draw Catholics gradually from the influence of the Church. The necessity therefore of being prepared for its efforts must be evident to everyone.

From the general consideration of secret societies, the author turns to their action amongst ourselves. He gives the most salient features of British Freemasonry, its oaths, passwords, and signs. He shows to what extent it differs from Continental Masonry, and how it is essentially unlawful and dangerous. He then passes to the principal point of his lecture, so far as his auditory were concerned—Fenianism.

All that he had stated before, here becomes of use as explanatory of the nature of that mischievous conspiracy, which had its rise, development, and ending—if, indeed, it has ended—while the author was engaged upon the Australian mission. But he has given ample proof of its designs from admitted authorities. The history of its founders he has taken from a source that cannot be impugned, the works of the late Mr. A. M. Sullivan, of the _Nation_. The other articles, on the sad ending of conspirators, and the wonderful indestructibility of Irish Faith rest upon their own merits.

A discourse which aimed at illustrating the words of our Holy Father Leo XIII. could not be complete without a reference to such societies as the wisdom of the great Pontiff has pointed out as fitted for Christian men. The author, therefore, speaks in favour of the excellent Temperance Society he found already in action, connected with the Catholic Institute, as a sovereign antidote against secret societies of every description, and as the best remedy for those ills he could not help witnessing when passing through Edinburgh, and other great centres of population in England and Scotland. He plainly refers to the evil which certain idle agitators bring in those cities amongst poor, good-natured, but credulous, Irish Catholic working men. He believes that nine-tenths of the pabulum which keeps such pernicious seducers in employment would be destroyed if Irish working men could be removed from the influence of persons who make profit out of their unfortunate drinking habits; and that misfortune of nearly every temporal kind would cease for them, if they became temperate and continued to practise those virtues which Catholic confraternities with strict sobriety as a first rule, foster. He has therefore given his aid in advocacy of such societies as are calculated to keep the Irish in England and in Scotland, and indeed everywhere, sober,—a quality which, with habits of industry, economy, and thrift, enables them to live happily, and to bring up families educated, fairly provided for, and a credit, instead of a shame, to the country and the religion of their parents.

The necessity of compressing a large amount of matter into the small space at his disposal, has caused many of the topics touched upon to be treated very inadequately considering their claims to attention. He has, however, given as much fact and matter as he could, even at the risk of occasionally sacrificing smoothness and ease in writing. His desire was to give within the shortest limits, as full, complete, and consecutive a view as possible of the whole subject he undertook to treat. Under any one of the headings given, a volume, and in some cases, a very large and interesting volume, could be written. Facts, however, tell for themselves, and in most instances he has left to the intelligent reader the task of drawing the inferences.

Indeed, his principal object in printing these lectures at all, and his chief hope, has been to direct the attention of those whom it most concerns to the question of secret organization _as a whole_; to point out the fact that there exists an able, vigilant body of men, trained for years in the work of conspiracy, who never cease to plot for the destruction of Christianity, and of Christian social order amongst mankind; and that the success of these men has hitherto arisen mainly from their astute and ceaseless efforts to remain concealed. The world in all its past history has never been accustomed to deal with such a body. The sworn secret society anywhere, is, what Mr. A. M. Sullivan tells us it is, in his admirable description of its action in Dublin in his time. Its policy, then, was to stifle every form of Irish public opinion except that which supported its own views. Every other expression was to be prevented by emissaries, who found their way into every popular gathering, and by secret concert, known to themselves alone, and not even so much as suspected by others, were able to make “public opinion” seem to be in favour of the policy of their chiefs. If these emissaries failed, others of the secret brotherhood menaced the adverse popular leaders with loss of business and character, with violence, and even death. With every one of these evils the secret-society men of the time threatened Mr. Sullivan. He, however, foiled their astuteness, and braved their menaces. He succeeded in escaping; but it was much more owing to the conscience remaining amongst some of the Irish Fenians than to the mercy of the organization itself.

This incident, which is related at length in Mr. Sullivan’s “New Ireland,” gives a true idea of the action of every secret-society organization, working, under many apparent public pretences, for the ends of its chiefs. The ruses of a bird to draw away attention from the nest of its young, is but a faint resemblance of what every secret society does to avoid detection, either of itself or of its intentions or doings. It scruples to commit no crime, not even murder, to divert suspicion, and to remain concealed. Concealment is, and has been from the beginning, the very essence of its inward organism and of its outward policy. It is vain therefore to suppose that because no visible manifestation of its presence appears, or because some evidences—always suspicious when they are shown—of its dying out, or becoming ridiculous, impotent, or dead, appear, that there is no further danger to be dreaded from its attempts. It has the cunning of the serpent, and the patience too. It can feign itself dead to save its head from being crushed. The author of these pages was assured in Rome, that it was all nonsense to suppose that secret societies any longer existed in Ireland; that they were things of the past which Irish Faith had banished. In a few days after, however, the world was startled by the deeds of the Invincibles, led on, as was subsequently discovered, by a miscreant who had used the cloak of the most sacred practices of religion to conceal his real character, and to win confederates, and then victims, to his infernal designs.

Now, if the following pages prove anything, it is that over the whole world there exists a formidable conspiracy—the War of Antichrist—carried on by a secret directory ruling every form of secret society on earth, and losing no chance of seducing men from God by first bringing them, under some pretence or other, within its ranks. It is certain that this directory will not lose sight of the Irish race in the future, any more than in the past; that most likely in the future its plans for seducing them from, or turning them, for political or other reasons, against the Church, will be laid more astutely and less visibly than ever. The methods by which these high conspirators deceive, change continually; and in the constantly recurring political agitations of Ireland, a wide field is open which they are certain to cultivate to the best advantage for the ruin of souls. Unceasing vigilance is required, therefore, to guard against their machinations and unceasing diligence in exposing their aims.

The Holy Father, in his late celebrated Bull, _Humanum Genus_, has, therefore, manifested his desire that the bishops, the clergy, and even the laity of the Church should join in exposing Freemasonry and other such societies. But without a proper knowledge of the conspiracy as a whole that cannot be done. The author attempts to give such knowledge; but he hopes that his efforts may be improved upon by others more able than himself, and that he may have the happiness before long of seeing some compendium of the whole subject in English which might form a text book for seminarists and others to whom the future fate of the people of God in dangerous days is to be committed. All he could do in the time at his disposal was to give a popular idea of the subject. The works which he has chiefly used for this purpose are those of Cretineau Joly, Eckert, Segur, Dupanloup, and Deschamps (as edited by M. Claude Janet), together with the current information given in the _Civiltà Cattolica_ and other Catholic reviews and periodicals. He believes moreover, that, as philosophical studies of the soundest kind on the basis of St. Thomas have, through the care of the Holy Father, assumed their proper influence in ecclesiastical education, seminarists, and others also, should study the practical growth of those Pantheistic and immoral principles to which that philosophy is opposed. The fundamental basis of Freemasonry, as perverted or “illuminated,” by Weishaupt, is Pantheism; and Positivism and all the “isms” which the philosophers of the sect have since introduced, are meant ultimately to cause Pantheism and its attendant practical immorality to dominate over the earth. It is a new form of the oldest seduction: “eat the forbidden fruit and ye shall be as gods knowing good from evil,” and is always accompanied with that other lie, of “the liar and the murderer from the beginning,” “No, ye shall not die the death.”

Furthermore, it must be remembered that secret societies have little dread of mere denunciation. Exposition, calm and just, is that of which they are most afraid. The masses in them are nearly always in that sad condition through deception. The light thrown vividly upon the real nature of the secret sect; the gentle, kind indulgence of the Church mourning over the ruin and yearning for the return of her children, put before them, will do wonders to win back Irish victims from secret societies. Mere abuse does no good. For the rest, prevention is better than cure; and the time seems to have arrived when in schools, in preparation for first communion, in constant, well-judged recurrence in the instructions given to the people, in lectures and articles in our Catholic newspapers, the evil of secret societies—too sure to manifest itself in many countries—should be made known to all classes of the faithful, who can thus be easily trained in such a way as to treat the secret society or any emanation from it as their ancestors treated heresy, and reject, even at the peril of their lives, the “unclean thing.” Sound Catholic associations, temperance, and pious confraternities, are the remedies pointed out by the Holy Father, and these will preserve the portions of the flock already untainted, and retain those whom grace and zeal may bring back to the Fold of Christ.

THE WAR OF ANTICHRIST WITH THE CHURCH AND CHRISTIAN CIVILIZATION.

MONSIGNOR SMITH, REV. FATHERS, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,

It gives me, indeed, great pleasure to find the Catholic body in this great city possessed of such a valuable, and, I may add, magnificent block of buildings as that which forms this “Catholic Institute,” and to know that over nine hundred of the Catholic young men of Edinburgh are gathered together by its means for mutual improvement and for moral and religious aims. I feel proud of it as the work of my friend and fellow-student, Father Hannan, your respected pastor. I am sure his energies, which have been in other directions—in the erection and sustenance of your extensive Parochial Schools, for instance—so well employed, could not be afterwards put to better purpose than in forming and watching over such an institution. A Catholic Society founded on the spiritual lines of this Society, and enjoying its advantages in a temporal sense, is in fact, now-a-days, a necessity. It takes up and protects the Catholic boy at the most perilous and decisive period of his life—that is, when he leaves the employments and restraints of his school days to learn some trade or profession. It keeps him until manhood, well removed from those dangerous and seductive associations, so common in all large cities. It gives him rational amusement and the means of self-improvement. It causes him to frequent the sacraments, to practise prayer, to be provident, temperate, industrious, and, above all, religious. It places him in constant communication with, and therefore under, the special care of his Pastor. It is, in fact, the special antidote which our present Holy Father—whom may God long preserve to us—advises the Bishops of the Catholic Church to employ throughout the world against the poisonous influence of those secret societies, which the demon has rendered so general and so disastrous in our days. Speaking of the operative classes, Leo XIII. says, in his celebrated Encyclical _Humanum Genus_ of this year, “Those who sustain themselves by the labour of their own hands, besides being by their very condition most worthy above all others of charity and consolation, are also especially exposed to the allurements of men whose ways lie in fraud and deceit. Therefore, they ought to be helped with the greatest possible kindness, and be invited to join societies that are good, lest they be drawn away to others that are evil.”

Now, these words of the Holy Father came very forcibly to my mind when I was shown, on last Saturday, the fine hall in which we are now assembled—the library and study-rooms, and the various means for recreation and improvement attached to this building. I was specially pleased to see so many young men innocently enjoying themselves, or usefully employed, on a day, which, of all other days of the week, is the one which most invites the youth of our cities to dissipation and sin. And so it happened that when Father Hannan asked me to say “a few words”—by which, I suppose he meant the lecture advertised in this morning’s papers—on this Monday evening, I could not well refuse; and as the time for preparation was very short, I determined to say “the few words” on the conflict which during this, and the last century, has taken place between the Church of Christ and Atheism. My reason was, because I knew, that Atheism, closely masked, and astutely organized, not only has sought, but still seeks, the destruction of the Church, and the destruction of the souls which it is her mission to save; and as the Catholic Young Men’s Society of Edinburgh is one of those beneficent associations pointed out by the Vicar of Christ as the special means for defeating the designs of Atheism, I believe I cannot do a more appropriate, or indeed a greater service, than by unfolding what these designs really are. In this, as in all matters of importance, “to be forewarned is to be forearmed,” and it is specially necessary to be forewarned when we have to contend with an adversary who uses secrecy, fraud and deceit. We shall see then, that all the organizations of Atheism appear at first as does their author, Satan, clothed in the raiment of angels of light, with their malignity, their Infidelity, and their ultimate designs always most carefully hidden. They come amongst all the faithful, but more especially amongst young men, to seduce and to ruin them, never showing, but when forced to do so, the cloven foot, and employing a million means to seem to be what they are not. It is, therefore, first of all, necessary to unmask them; and this is precisely what the Supreme Pontiff asks the pastors of the Universal Fold to do as the best means of destroying their influence. “But,” he says in the Encyclical already quoted, “as it befits our pastoral office that we ourselves should point out some suitable way of proceeding, we wish it to be your rule, first of all, to tear away the mask from Freemasonry, and to let it be seen as it really is, and by instructions and pastoral letters to instruct the people as to the artifices used by societies of this kind in seducing men and enticing them into their ranks, and as to the depravity of their opinions and the wickedness of their acts.”

In this extract the Holy Father makes special mention of Freemasonry; but, remember, not of Freemasonry only. He speaks of “other secret societies.” These other secret societies are identical with Freemasonry, no matter by what name they may be called; and they are frequently the most depraved forms of Freemasonry. And though what is known in these Islands as Freemasonry may not be so malignant as its kind is on the Continent—though it may have little or no hold at all upon the mass of Catholics in English-speaking countries, still we shall see that like every secret society in existence it is a danger for the nation and for individuals, and has hidden within it the same Atheism and hostility to Christianity which the worst Continental Freemasonry possesses. These it develops to the initiated in the higher degrees, and makes manifest to all the world in time. The truth is that every secret society is framed and adapted to make men the enemies of God and of his Church, and to subvert faith; and there is not one, no matter on what pretext it may be founded, which does not fall under the management of a supreme Directory governing all the secret societies on earth. The one aim of this directory is to uproot Christianity, and the Christian social order as well as the Church from the world—in fact, to eradicate the name of Christ and the very Christian idea from the minds and the hearts of men. This it is determined to do by every means, but especially by fraud and force; that is by first using wiles and deceit until the Atheistic conspiracy grows strong enough for measures as violent and remorseless in all countries as it exercised in one country during the first French Revolution. I believe this secret Atheistic organization to be nothing less than the evil which we have been long warned against by Our Blessed Lord Himself, as the supreme conflict between the Church and Satan’s followers. It is the commencement of the contest which must take place between Christ and Antichrist; and nothing therefore can be more necessary than that the elect of God should be warned of its nature and its aims. With your permission, then, I shall glance to-night, first, at the rise and the nature of Atheism itself and its rapid advance amongst those sections of Christians most liable from position and surroundings to be led astray by it; and then at the use it has made of Freemasonry for its propagandism, and for its contemplated destruction of Christianity. We shall see its depravity perfected by what is called Illuminism. And we shall see that however checked it may have been by the reaction consequent upon the excesses of its first Revolution, it has not only outlived that reaction, but has grown wiser for doing an evil more extended and more complete. We shall see how its chiefs have succeeded in mastering and directing every kind of secret association whether springing from itself or coming into existence by the force of its example only; and have used, and are using them all to its advantage. We shall see the sleepless vigilance which this organized Atheism exercises; and thus come to know that our best, our only resource, is to fly its emissaries, and draw nearer in affection and in effect to the teachings of the Church and her Supreme Visible Head on earth who can never deceive us, and whom the hosts of Satan never can deceive. We shall see that the voice of the Vicar of Christ has been raised against secret associations from the beginning to this hour, and that the directions which we receive from that infallible voice can alone save us from the wiles and deceits of a conspiracy so formidable, so active, so malignant, and so dangerous.