Page:The Last Judgement and Second Coming of the Lord Illustrated.djvu/340

 But let us turn our attention to some more direct evidences of this fact. One of the characteristics of the Lord's second coming is that "He will make all things new," and surely no one can look abroad and fail to see that this Divine promise is being fulfilled in almost every department of civilized existence. The cruel system of slavery, which a century ago carried on its hateful traffic with a high hand and a mercenary spirit, has, by the efforts of philanthropy and a liberal expenditure of public money, been put down by the governments of Europe. For a long

apart from the State in Italy as Dissenters do from the State in England. Baron Ricasoli, the Minister of the Interior, addressed a letter to the Italian bishops on the subject, in which he says,—"The government desires, not less than yourselves, that Italy should enjoy the magnificent and imposing religious spectacle of which the free citizens of the United States of America pride themselves in the council of Baltimore, where religious doctrines are freely discussed, and whose decisions, approved by the pope, will be proclaimed and observed in each city and village, clothed with spiritual sanction, without exequatur or placite. I beg you, however, well to consider that this admirable spectacle is really the production of liberty, a liberty professed and respected by all in principle, and in fact in its largest application to civil, political, and social life. The intention of the Italian government is, as far as in it lies, to prove that it has faith in liberty, and that it desires to apply it as fully as is consistent with the interests of public order. It therefore tells the bishops to return to their ministries, from which they were removed precisely on account of those very considerations of public order. It imposes no other condition than that which is incumbent on every citizen who desires to live peaceably—to confine himself to his own duties, and to observe the law. The State will provide that no one shall be molested nor impeded in the discharge of his duties, but he must not demand privileges if he does not desire bonds, the principle of every free state—that the law is equal to all, admitting of no distinction of any kind." This, from a great Catholic government in the very heart of the Catholic Church, reveals the diminution of its power, and shows that it is undergoing changes little dreamt of a century ago.