The confusion and the
trouble of the world were not mere hearsay,--they in very truth
existed. And what seemed to the Cardinal to be the chief cause of
the general bewilderment of things, was the growing lack of faith in
God and a Hereafter. How came this lack of faith into the Christian
world? Sorrowfully he considered the question,--and persistently the
same answer always asserted itself--that the blame rested
principally with the Church itself, and its teachers and preachers,
and not only in one, but in all forms of Creed.
"We have erred in some vital manner," mused the Cardinal, with a
feeling of strange personal contrition, as though he were more to
blame than any of his compeers--"We have failed to follow the
Master's teaching in its true perfection. We have planted in
ourselves a seed of corruption, and we have permitted--nay, some of
us have encouraged--its poisonous growth, till it now threatens to
contaminate the whole field of labour."
And he thought of the words of St. John the Divine to the Church of
Sardis--
"_I_ KNOW THY WORKS,--THAT THOU HAST A NAME THAT THOU LIVEST AND ART
DEAD.
"BE WATCHFUL, AND STRENGTHEN THE THINGS THAT REMAIN, THAT ARE READY
TO DIE,--FOR _I_ HAVE NOT FOUND THY WORKS PERFECT BEFORE GOD.
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