Page:A Memorial of John Boyle O'Reilly from the City of Boston.djvu/31

Rh that love of Holy Church and love of country can go hand in hand.

It is no wonder that, with these common sources of feeling and bonds of sympathy, we should have become bosom friends as soon as we met and knew each other in this country. I used to think that O'Reilly had a special affection for me. Hundreds of other friends of his, I have no doubt, flattered themselves with the same notion; nor were they far wrong. O'Reilly was quick to discern whatever was good in the characteristics of each, and honored it with a corresponding regard. If not a king among men, he had some royal prerogatives, and one of these was the faculty of making each of his friends feel that he held him in special affection.

These qualities in our friend were the source of that influence that enabled him to render such valuable services to his country and his church. He was a conservative force in Irish political agitations, and on more than one occasion he reconciled warring factions at critical junctures in the Land League and Home Rule movements. He was a bond of union, harmonizing conflicting policies.

He was a Roman Catholic in religion. He was Catholic in faith, because he gave the assent of his will to all the truths of religion made known to him by reason, revelation, and the teaching of the church which he knew was founded by Christ. He was a Roman Catholic, because he accepted the Bishop of