has brought forth these fruits of salvation and effected the astonishing changes in their manners of which we in our day are witnesses. It is under the shadow of the standard of Christ that'this so profound moral revolution has its beginning and ending. These phenomena belong to history and are undeniable. But whence cames this efficacy and this civilizing power of the Catholic apostolate? No doubt, ,my brethren, we must first attribute it to the action of God, Lthat is, to grace; but we must also remark this: the CathoSic pastor identifies himself with his flock, he loves his sheep° with his whole heart, he is devoted to them under all circumstances, and if need be, he is capable of defending them at the peril of his own life. A Protestant, as impartial as he ' is learned, Mr. Arthur Help, tells us that when the Spaniards had conquered the New World, they set about torturing the pour Indians: Well, would you know what energetic, influence it was that neutralized the unjust aggressions of the Spanish invaders? It was the devotion of the illustrions sons of St. Dominic. Those were the first missionaries who evangelized the uncultivated field of America and watered it with their sweat.-- In speaking of the persecutions which the Indians suffered from the Spanish conquerors, I must not forget to add that their most intrepid defender was that admirable bishop, Bartolomeo de las Casas, the Father De Smet of. his day. He and his it was who protected the Indian inhabitants of the forests and deserts.
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Our dear and regretted dead friend followed the saine line of conduct; he loved the poor savages from the bottom of his heart, and he had a mother's tenderness and devotion for them. He made allowances for their weaknesses, attributing them to their nomadic habits of life, to which they are sa madly atttached. " What is there strange," said our wise and peaceful colonizer, " in the fact that the Indians have but an indifferent opinion of the benefits of our pretended civilization, when they can only judge of it from the examples of perversity and vice which the whites dis-