God permitted that warning to come, but have we taken it as a
warning? What efforts have we made since to secure the
entrenchments? The danger passed, and we sank back into the old,
dreamy lethargy, and left the field open to the devil to sow his
tares anew. Our greatest danger to-day is our apparent safety. We
wrap ourselves into a false security, while a dry rot is
permitted to stealthily corrode the pillars of intellectual
conviction that must uphold all. Unless this is fought, and
fought effectively, the structure of our Catholic life will
topple like a house of cards.

[Side note: Objections answered]

All looks calm now, but so long as the causes that produced the
sad outburst of twenty years ago continue unchecked, worse
inevitably awaits us. I may be told. Look at the union of priests
and people to-day; look at our flourishing sodalities and our
beautiful churches.

The union of priests and people was then tested by one strong
wrench, and it snapped; and so long as the evil forces that
caused the fissure continue to gnaw once more the bond that
unites the hearts of priests and people, is it stronger you
expect that bond to grow?

With regard to our pious sodalities. Did the question ever
present itself--How much of the average sodalist's piety is
resting on sentiment and tradition, and how little of it on
intellectual conviction? Transplant him from the hotbed to the