86 DISCOURSES OF FATHER HYACINTHE. 



quired concerning liis title to royalty. "Art thou a 

 Kino-, then ?"' he asked. And Jesus answered, " Thou 

 sayest it ; I am a King." But he added, " My kingdom 

 is not of this "world." His kingdom, indeed, is in this 

 world, or rather it enters into it, but it comes to it from 

 above, and returns thither whence it came. It leaves 

 to Caîsar that which is Cœsar's — that is to say, the poli- 

 tics of this world. It claims for God that which is 

 God's — that is, the conservation of righteousness. 



[II. HavlDg shown that the Catholic Church alone, Ijy virtue 

 of being a society at once universal and spiritual, is capable of 

 realizing the unity of nations, Father Hyacinthe inquired how 

 tliis work was accomplished by it. He answered, cliiefly in two 

 ways : 1, by becoming the higher and divine organ of national as 

 well as individual morality; 2, by creating, through the influence 

 of religion, common interests and sentiments in the different 

 peoples, and, so to speak, a universal country, which unites all 

 countries in itself without confounding them. It is thus that it 

 has realized that wonderful expression of Saint Paul, " that the 

 nations should be f(;llow-heirs, and of the same bod}^ and par- 

 takers of his promise in Christ by the gospel."* The nations are 

 more than copartners ; they are " concovporeaV — forming but one 

 bod}^ in Jesus Christ. 



The limits of this report do not permit us to enter into the de- 

 velopment which Father Hyacinthe gave of these two positions. 

 "VYe sliall simply present the conclusion of this discussion, and of 

 tlie discourse itself] 



Cosmopolitan society has two centres — each of them 

 a religious centre — Jerusalem and Rome : Jerusalem, 

 which has prepared everything; Rome, which is to 

 complete everything. Tliesc are those mysterious cities 

 of which the prophet says, in his profound and forcible 

 language, that they are like "' the navel of the ear(h."f 

 Separating from them, humanity forgets its own bcgin- 



* Ephcsiand, ii. G. t Ezckiel, xxxviii. VI. See marginal trans'latiou. 



