THE EARLIEST Highlaiid CatMic Mission IN NOVA SCOTIA: c:^ A SERMON^- C?i2^1"Ut:AC!IED A'l THE DKDICATIOS OF TIIK^JCO CHIRCH OF ST. MARGARETS, ARISAIG, S^JULY 15th, 1878.^^ By Rev. R. Macdonald P. P., Pictou. rublished in aid of the Buildintr Fund of the Convent of Stella Maria, Tictou. » ^' • . I ^ >^ . I • .. » PICTOr, N. S.: I "COLONIAL STANDAHIV HOOK AM) JOIJ I'UINT. 1878. ':.,i> .,>■■- ,,. ... ... ; • y, , ; • •• ,::.;>;• .•^: ••••••:•■• • • • • • • • • ♦' ^iheir posterity arc a hohj inheritance ; and their seed hath stood in the covenants ; and their children for their sakcs remain forever; their seed and their glory shall not be forsaken. Their bodies are buried in peace ; and their name livelh unto genera- tion and generation. Let the people show forth their wisdom, and the Church declare their praise.^' These words are recorded, by the Holy Ghost, in the forty fourth chapter of Ecclesiastics. They are beautifully expres- sive of the eveuts, which cluster around, and gather into, the ceremony we have witnessed here this morning. The dedica- tion of a Church in this old parish of St. Margaret's is a con- suinmatioti of more than ordinary interest. For the devoted descendants ot the Highlanders, who carried with them across the Western Ocean to these shores, the grrand old faith ot "the dark attired Culdees, Albyn's earliest priests of (rod" — the faith which they and their forclathers had, during long years of trials and persecutions, so heroically preserved amid the wilds and fastnesses of their native glens, this day records a victory. " This is the victory which overcometh the world, our faith." *' Their children for their sakes remain forever. Their bodies are buried in peace ; and their name liveth unto generation and generation.'" Whatever of progress our holy religion has made, during the last ninety years, in this the eastern diocese of Nova Scotia, it must never be forgotten, that the jjood work had its beginnini; here. The fire of divine faith, which now — the glory be to (Jod — gives no dim uncertain light in our midst, was first kindled at the fire which faintly flickered on the early rude altar of St. Margaret's. . This parish has a history of its own, which though not written is sacredly treasured up in the fond renuniscences of the few — the now very few — of the earlier settlers, who yet hover above rti^A nn 4, Ififl horizon of life. •' Still they lingering liuimt the grccrrcst spot in nieniory's waste." It is not l>y any means a record of great events, or brilliant aehievements, butono of single heaited , earnest, loving, and confiding laith, patiently stniggling with, and in the end .-^orniounting, all adverse (nrcuinstancres — a faitJi which to us when we look back, appears all the more Iwantiful and heroic tor the n«)ble simplicity ot the primitive manners and for the social and domestic virtues in which it found so strong an expression. This siujple. unadorned namtive gf^s back not quite an hundred years. In I7M7. the first Catholic Highlander, the pioneer of the faith, took up his solitary abixle in tnc bosom of the •* forest primeval," which then waved in unbi-oken gran- deur on these shores. In the territory IncliKleil by the boundaries ot the diocese of Arichat, Catholics were at that period few and tar l>etween. In November 1783, the 8'ind Regiment, which had a large contingent of Catholics from the Western Highlands, was disbanded at Halifax None, however, ot these htul hitherto made their way thus far to the East. To those forlorn inhabitants of the forest in a strange land the consolations of their religion were first carried, as often they had been to others in similar circumsUinces, by the ubiquitous and irrepressible Irish Missionary — a character which perhaps had never before been more fully sustained, than it was in the present instance by the zealous Father Jones. This was an Irish Capu- chin Friar, learned as he was pious. Protected by the tolei'ation extended to him, by Edward, Duke of Kent, he publicly exer- cised the sacred ministry at Halifax unmolested, and held a Vicar Apostolic's jurisdiction over the extensive region laved by the waters of the Gulf ot St. Lawrence. The country, it is true, had under the domination of France, an anterior period ot Catholic history, dating as tar back as 1^4. Few ot the colonists of that period had remained, and fewer werrj the prospects, Irora the same quarter, of future colonization. Louisburg had then for thirty years been in ruins. Its churches had been demolished, its convents disman- tled, its priests and religious communities banished the country. Its existence belonged to the realm of the past, and its history had been written. In the graphic description of the historian breathes a sad tone of melancholy beauty. " Desolation," writes he, " now sits with a ghastly smile around the once formidable 5. bnstions. All is silent as a grave, except when the loul reverberating ocean semis baek its trementlons surges on the roeky beaeii, A solitary deseendant of tlie heroic (iaul is seen wandoring amid the ruins under which are deposited the remains of liis gallant ancestors, who there fought, and bled, and dieth of July, 1738, followed WoUe to the conquest of the doomed city, were in the hands of CJod, the harbingers of a new, a more glorious, and a more enduring victory for our faith. On the restoration of peace in 1763, the Highland regiments, as you well know, were disbanded, and offered by the Imperial Government free grants of lands in the most fertile portions of the Piovinces, in which they had so gallantly served. But their predilections for their native straths and glens still chained them to the sweet homes of childhood. And who could find it in his heart to blame them ? What son of the heather could of his free will exchange his own *♦ loved green slopes ot Locha- ber," for the then unhospitable, unexplored wilds of America ? Alas ! the time at length came when the exchange was no longer a matter of choice, but of dire neeessity. The heartless chief- tain has discovered that the raising of cattle and sheep affords larger profits, than the letting of his lands to poor tenants, and forthwith he begins to eject them from the cozy cottriest, the Rev. James Macdonald, of Morar, and in 1792, their first church was built. I need scarcely tell you, that it could lay but little claim to the constructive beauties of the Gothic. or to the more ornamented magnificence of ('lassie, architecture. It was a small and unpretentious log structure. It stood mod- destly back on the lonely beach in the neighborhood of the j)resent pier. IJut although not very imposing looked the building, we can well imagine how fervent were the prayers, fjow earnest the faith with which they were uttered, and how strong tiie hope that inspired them. Devotion burst forth in gushing frosiiness, in tlirilling tenderness, from the grateful hearts (, until the arrival of Father Alexandi^r Macdonald in 1802, the good people of St. Margaret's depended for spiritual succour on the transient visits of the late saintly Bishop McE/ichern, of Prince Edward Island; and indeed, fmm the day of his arrival in America, in 1790, until the day of his deatli. the Highland Catholics, who had settled on the mainland were to him objects of scarcely less pastoral solicitude, than were those who were placed under his more immiHliate care. I shall not now attempt to describe how much power for good this holy priest held and exercised over Ills countr3'men, or how r-heertull}' they in tlieir turn yielded to him, without his exacting it, the ready submission which we find accoriled only to those whom sanctity has in- vested with authoritv. T. Much of tlio i)r«)gres9. which is niivdo by nil ctunnmniiios, in tlie «::irli«'r stii;j({.s, is duo to tho iin('r«;y ut iiiiliviiliuil ininorn in l7ol, at CMeanoeg, (Jlenspean, in the Hraes of Lochaher. He was or- dained priest in his twentv-eighth year, and tor twenty years subsequently .served on tl. Scotch Missions When ho arrived at Arisaig, he was in the full vigor of manhood, and a priest and Highlander evtry inch. lie was a man of commanding appearance, /rtctVc princcpa, born to govern. Of a deeply sym- })atlii7.ing nature withal, his big heart seemed to have but two pulsations — one for his faith, tho other for his countrymen. He was brave as ho was disinterested. Obstacles, which to others were unsurmountablo, bent pliantly before him. Impifjvr illc Jnrasibi tmta negct. SX his arrival, a brighter vista began to api)ear in the dawn. The dark horizon, which had hitherto cir- cumscribed the wavering hopes of the settlers, was at once relieved ot its gloom. He inspired them with his own manly courage, and cheered them on by the example of his great powers ot endurancio. Kveiy thing seemed the better, and every heart the lighter, for his presence. Under his auspices their struggles for subsistence gradually became loss arduous. The soil, the rivers, th« sea, and the forests had trom the be- ginning taken kindly to tho new comers, and continuing in .symiiathy with their wants, supplied them from their stores. From the embarrassing circumstances in which on their arriv.-il they found themselves placed, they began to emerge with a feeling of greater selt-relianco. Persevering industry changed forest lands into smiling farms ; and comparative ease and comfort took place of previous privations and toils. The words ot the prophet were verified. " The land that was desolate and impassable shall be made glad. The wilderness shall flourish like tho lily." To say that with their inbretl love of freedom, our lathers were made glad in tlieir altered circum- Btances and luippy, is to assert no more than that thoy wore sincere and virtuous Calliolies. Happiness, my frientls, does not inseparably attaeli itself to rank, o^ riclics, much less to the luxury or fastidious refinements of fashion. True hap])ines» is the price ol virtue. Wherever virtue makes its abode, there happiness dwells, and, like the morning sun, shells arf)und it a golden Hood of hght, loveliness and bejvutj' over tjie humblest homes. The simfile joys, the warm aflfections, the kindly inter- course, the native charms, of those dear old homesteads, were marred by no selfish or sordid avarice. All were bound together 1)3' the strong ties of common interests, common hardships, anti common dangers Charity in its genuine .simplicity was there, and amid the privations which are inseparable from the settle- ment of a new colony, found its readiest expression in the discharge of the various duties of hospitality. Witli them, hospitality was no jiiere name. Every log cabin was freely thrown open to all th.il might ch{>ose to share in the best cheer its humble inmates could afford. It Avas the chivalrous hospi- tality of their Catholic forefathers, which for tlie nonce made no distinction, allowed none to be made, between acquaintance and stranger, friiiud and foe. o " lie gave him of bis Highland cheer The hardened Hesh of mountain deer. Dry fuel on the lire he laid. And baiie the Haxo7i share his plaid." Intenselv conservative as thev certainlv were of their national customs, language, and traditions, tlicre was onethouirht which soared above all others, and ever occupied in their atlections a higher s;^)here and holier, that namely of their religion. Tho faith of St. Ninian had for a thousanii years taken possessioi of the national heart, moulded the national characti;r, become a part of the intellectual life of the nation, and woven itself in limpid terseness into every fibre of their beautiful though un- written (iaelic literature. Our fathers disdained in their honest, manl}' hearts to sacrifice one iota of that faith to craven worldly interests, because they knew that divest theujselves of it they couhl not, without undoing all that was n)ost chivalrou': in their past history, truest in their nature, and most sacred in their best afTecitions. For the love of Jems and the Virgin Mother they reserved a place in the citadel of their hearts inaccessible to all 9. i.tther love. WIkmi from their new homos m America, the mo«- »»age of their fidelity to Scotland's ancient faith was waited across the seas to the land that gave them birth, that message was worded in the language of St. Paul "Thou hast fully known my doctrine, my faith, my long sutfering, lovo, and patience. What «hall separate us from the love of Christ, shall tribulation and distress, famine or nakedness, or danger, or i>ersecution, or the sWord? But all things we have overcome because ot Him who hath loved us." Like the Hebrews, in their captivity, they preserved here tlieir national hope, and pang the song o! Zion to the (iod of Israel — a song, which to them, be it remembered, breathed its deepest pathos, its sweetest tenderness, only in the rugged numbei's ot Ossian. There was no sacrifice too great, no labor too arduous, to be undertaken for the honor and main- tenance ot tlreir religion. Every degree of improvement in their worldly comforts marked a corresponding tlesire to enhance their spiritual welfare, and in every enterprise they were guided to a successful issue by the clear unerring instinct ot a single hearted and resolute faith. In 180H, their second church, which stood on the site ot the present one, was begun. The building was forty feet by twenty-six originally, but it w:;s subsequently enlarged. The three thousand miles of ocean which now separated them from the homes, did not divide them from the Church, ot their fathers. With the untutored aborigines as co-religionists, they te loth of April, 181(>, an event occurred by which all tliese tair i)rospects were for a time greatly overcast — the good rather Alexander died at Halfax. A deep shadow of sorrow crossed the widowed hearts of St. Margaret's. A darker cloud iievor lowered on a hopeful community. The (iovernor, and Adn)iral on the Station, offered to send a man-of-war with the remauis to Arisaig, but a gallant littl« bsind of Highlanders (only one ot whom now survives) who had hastened to the capital on the first tidings of the deatii of their pastor, gratefully declined the proffered honor. He was their own dejir priest : jiiirt with him in death they could not. Carrying his i-emaitis on their shoulders, they travelled homewards niglit and day, over all but impassable roads, forded rivers, through deep i^nows and dense forests, until they reverently laid them in their l)eaceful grave, on yonder hill, in the shadow of the altar at >vhich in life he had so often offered the august mysteries for the living and the dead. Dulces rnoriens reniiniscihir Argos. With iiis tlealh, the history of the parish elosjs its first quarter of a century. The great problem had been solved. The reli- gious destiny of the country was forever decided. The land, which on his coming he found a fruitless and forbidding wil- derness, he saw peopled with fervent souls. And victory* whi(;h had so long hung in the balance, fluctuating between hope and fear, returned once more to old Acadia to perch on the banners of the former church of the land. The vineytirl, which lie lia«l planted with so much loving care, was watered by the successive labors of other missionaries not less zealous than himself; and God in His own good time gave the increase. Father Alexander Macdonell of Strathglas, who, since his arrival in 1811, had been assistant priest at Arisaig, now sue- It. ceeded to the charge of the parish, anveen the first log churt^h in which our foretathers assembled at divine worship, and this magnificent edifice on which your piety has lavished the rich and gnieetul decorations of art, and in which you have the happiness this morning to witness the 5ic;reil rites performed in all their solemn and impo.'^ing gran- tleur ; the real proof is found in the number of priests — double that of the first college ot Apostles— this par ish has already given to the service ot ti)e altar. lint enough. My task is finished. My sketch, though imperfect, has <'onnectetl the dead of this ])arish with the living, the past with the present. The future is in your hands. It sliall be, under (Jod, what you will make it. That it may bo worthy of so promising a beginning let me in conclusion admonish you in the words of Deuteronomy to •* remember the d.vys of old, and think ot tlie gcn.erations which have passed away.:"V 1 » • ' * , , . . . .(:■:!::■ ,.. -.if' i