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.