A CRIME AGAINST THE FAMILY.
The Rev. Alfred M. Christopher, of Oxford, England, writes: “I will vouch for the thorough truthfulness and accuracy of the subjoined painful account.” In Dublin resides a family consisting of a father, mother, and three children—two girls and one boy. The father is a professional man, and necessarily much engaged in his calling. He has, however, been entirely devoted to the interests of his children, working hard for them, and giving them the best education Dublin could supply. He is a strict Presbyterian, and most earnest and decided in his religious convictions. The mother has been a most tender and affectionate parent, completely devoted to her children, thinking of them in everything, and in the course of many years has only left them once or twice for short periods of time. The children were doing well in their studies, and giving every promise of success and usefulness in their future lives. About five and a half years ago a Roman Catholic servant was admitted into the family. She at once set about the task of corrupting the principles of the children, and of leading them astray from the Protestant faith. In February, 1874, the three children, then of the ages of thirteen, eleven, and ten, respectively, were admitted into the Roman Catholic Church by one “Father” Hall, of the Carmelite convent in Whitefriar street, Dublin, without the knowledge and consent of their parents. In July, 1876, they were taken secretly in a cab to Cardinal Cullen, who—again without the knowledge and consent of their parents—confirmed them. In February, 1878, the father accidentally discovered the deception that had been practiced upon him. During the four intervening years the children had been residing at home, attending family worship, going regularly to school on week-days, attending on Sundays the Sunday-school of their church, and never by word or deed giving any indication of what had taken place. Trained skillfully in the art of deception by those who had led them astray, they lived one protracted lie in the sight of their parents, who had no reason to suspect anything wrong in them. When they were at last found out, they at first denied everything. “We are Protestants, and intend to remain Protestants,” said the three with one voice. When, however, lying was no longer of any avail, they changed their cry, and alike with one voice exclaimed, as it were, in unison, “We are Catholics; we are Catholics.” They have since openly defied and disobeyed their father, refusing to attend church with him, or to be present at family worship, or otherwise to submit to his lawful authority in the religious ordering of his household. They had evidently been instructed, first to systematically lie and deceive, and then to be openly defiant. When remonstrated with by their father for their lying and deceit, they replied, “It is no harm to tell lies in the cause of religion!” Thus discord and misery have been introduced into a happy family, a respectable home has been broken up, and many fond hopes have been blighted. The father is in the deepest distress, and the mother almost broken-hearted; while the children—as may be gathered from the above narrative—are demoralized to the core of their nature, alienated from their nearest relatives, whose hopes for their future are utterly destroyed. It is well that parents should know the dangers to which their children are exposed from a system which in the sacred name of religion attempts to subvert the nearest relations, and to sunder the most sacred ties of the human heart. Religion can thus recklessly interfere with family life, deprive the parents of the control of those dear to them in the most important of all concerns, and teach the young to lie, deceive, and at last to openly defy their parents. Such an invasion of the family circle, and such a trampling upon parental rights, is surely not to be tolerated in a free and civilized country.—N. Y. Observer.