was the last of the Caesars. We have to-day no reeking amphitheatre wet with the blood of martyrs, no Christians buried alive in catacombs, nor edicts against the preaching of Christ crucified, but a more subtle and dangerous warfare is being waged by science and agnosticism against Christ and His Church, against the Bible, against man's immortality, and against Christ's divinity. Ah, God does not change; given the same cause, He will be avenged as in the past, and even now perhaps He is arming our conqueror. Judge of the nations, spare us yet, lest we forget — lest we forget.
Brethren, in the Rome of Nero and Vespasian there was a little band of Catholics, with Peter at their head, who,, had they been permitted, could have saved the empire; aye, and they did save and Christianize the remnants of it later under Constantine. In America to-day that ancient Church carries on her heaven-appointed work. Her detractors regard her with suspicion, call her the republic's greatest enemy, and seek to compass her destruction, as Nero did to Peter and his followers, as Herod did to Christ. She is reproached with being able to appeal to the illiterate only and the poor — a calumny refuted by every page of history. Her especial solicitude for the lower strata of society is proof of her divinity, for she was sent to preach the Gospel to the poor by Him who resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble. Her sphere of activity in our land is one of paramount importance, and one that she alone can fill. Our vast domain is peopled with
