"^B E R K £ L E y"\ LIBRARY I UNiVER^ITY OF I CALIFORNIA J x^^ ^ El Li! UN C Illustrations FOR Sermons and Instructions Definitions, Word- Pictures, Exemplifications, Quotations, and Stories, explanatory of Catholic Doctrine and Practice. Gathered from the Sacred Scriptures, from the Works of the Fathers and Saints, and from the Writings of recent Authors and Preachers of Note. Edited By REVEREND CHARLES J. CALLAN OF THE Order of Preachers JOSEPH F. WAGNER (INC.) NEW YORK Bi\)il ©fafitat: V. F. O'DANIEL, O.P., S.T.M. J. A. McHUGH, O.P., S.T.Lr. 3[inpnmt potest: J. R. MEAGHER, O.P., S.T.Lr. LOAN ST^fZ^ Bm ©bfitat: REMIGIUS LAFORT. D.D. Censor STinprimatur: ►J.JOHN CARDINAL FARLEY Archbishop of New York New York, October 8, 1916 Copyright, 1916, by Joseph F. Wagner, New York EDITOR'S PREFACE In submitting to the public the present collection of Illustrations for Sermons and Instructions, the editor wishes respectfully to call the attention of its readers to the fact that it does not in any sense pretend to be complete. Both as to the number of subjects touched upon, and the manner of treating these subjects, the editor is, there- fore, fully aware that this compilation cannot be considered other than limited and fragmentary. The order followed in this volume and the method of arranging the quotations for the various topics herein developed may, indeed, be con- sidered logical, at least in a general way ; but even in these particulars a strict and exact sequence especially in minor details and in the number of points treated under each chapter and heading, has not been insisted on or aimed at. The compiler has simply put together under a numb'^r of headings which, for the most part, naturally follow one another, a collection of notes, thoughts and Scriptural citations gathered through years of careful reading. And as it was not at any time his intention or desire to arrange a volume for pub- lication, these quotations, although from a large number of authors, represent only those writers and preachers whom he has been accus- tomed to read most frequently. This will explain why so many great preachers and writers, past and present, do not figure in this work. It is, in truth, evident that if anything approaching a complete collec- tion of representative quotations from all the great Catholic preach- ers and writers on religious subjects were to be given, there would necessarily result not one, but many large volumes. Thus the work would become too cumbersome for convenient use, and its practical value would be greatly diminished. Let it further be noted, as already hinted, that the publication of this collection of notes has been entirely due, not to the compiler's wishes or choice, but to the urgent suggestions and positive action of friends, who, knowing of the existence of the collection, have earnestly felt that, through publication, others should be given the pleasure and the benefit of reading and pondering its useful contents. Only after long and repeated urging, consequently, have friends of the iv EDITOR'S PREFACE compiler succeeded in obtaining the consent necessary that this collection should be published. But aside from any part that any one has had in collecting these notes, or in arranging and editing this volume, it will be clear to the reader, from the number and high character of the authors quoted, that such a collection ought to be very useful for preaching and meditation. Assuredly the thoughts and words of great thinkers, of profound scholars, of devout and religious men and women, must at all times be profitable to all. and, in particular, to those whose state of life requires that they should give to others, by preaching and writing, that sound doctrine and spiritual nourishment which the life of the soul demands. It is thoughts and ideas that they who would speak to others need. Given the training and education that belong to each one's calling in life, it is not so much long treatises and volumes on single questions that one requires, as thoughts and ideas on the particular various questions which one desires to treat. Hence the writer or preacher on doctrinal and religious topics needs thoughts — he needs the thoughts and ideas of others to stimulate and set in motion his own stream) of thought. The subjects discussed in this work are partly dogmatic, partly moral. There has been no special attempt to insist more on the one than on the other, so that fairly equal attention has been extended to both. In view, therefore, of the variety of the topics considered, and in particular of the number and quality of the authors quoted, it is the earnest hope of the compiler and of the editor that the present volume will be found servicable to a large circle of readers. May the instructive and uplifting thoughts of the great authors here quoted be a stimulus and an inspiration to many more whose sacred vocation it is to teach others the way to truth, to virtue, and to eternal life. Charles J. Callan, O. P. CONTENTS PAGE Chapter I. God; The Blessed Trinity; The Divine Persons i The Blessed Trinity 15 Jesus Christ 17 The Holy Ghost 35 Chapter II. The Saints; The Blessed Virgin; The Angels. . 36 The Blessed Virgin 43 The Angels 58 Chapter III. Man; The Soul; Immortality; The La.st Things ; Eternity 63 The Soul 66 Eternity 69 Death 72 . The Judgment 78 Purgatory 85 Heaven 90 Hell 93 Chapter IV. Religion; Faith; The Church; Secret Socie- ties ; Socialism 100 Faith io6 Revelation and Tradition 114 The Bible 118 Mysteries 121 The Church 124 The Church and Science 135 The Church and Civilization 139 The Pope 142 The Commandments 149 Outside the Church 151 The Church and Social Conditions 159 Secret Societies 168 Socialism 169 Chapter V. Grace ; The Means of Grace 172 Prayer 181 The Sacraments 188 Baptism 188 Confirmation 191 The Holy Eucharist 191 v CONTENTS Chapter V. Grace; The Means of Grace — Continued page Penance 207 Extreme Unction 225 Holy Orders 225 Matrimony 232 Sacramentals 245 Ceremonies ; Liturgy 248 Chapter VI. The Love of God and of Our Neighbour; The Virtues 254 Virtues 268 Chastity 272 Hope 275 Resignation 280 Adversities 282 Good Works 289 Prayer 291 Perseverance 293 Temptation 294 Books and Reading 299 Humility 302 Mortification 305 Fasting 306 Alms 308 The Cardinal Virtues 310 Meekness 314 The Way of Perfection 315 Chapter VH. Sin 326 Presumption 338 Impurity 339 Anger 344 Untruthfulness 347 Hypocrisy 349 Slander ; Detraction 351 Rash Judgment 355 Scandal 357 Unlawful Gain 358 Envy 360 Pride 361 Intemperance 362 Varia 363 Ai.phabetua' Index 371 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS CHAPTER I GOD; THE BLESSED TRINITY; THE DIVINE PERSONS [Note — The quotations are invariably from approved Catholic sources, unless otherwise designated — Some subjects are referred to under various heads for which consult the Subject Index.^ THE EXISTENCE OF GOD I asked the earth, and it said, 'Tis not I. And all things therein confessed the same. I asked the sea and the deeps and the Hving things thereof, and they answered: We are not thy God, seek higher above us. I asked the fleeting air above, and the whole region of it, with its inhabitants, cried out: Anaximencs is mistaken, I am net God. I asked the heavens, the sun, the moon, and the stars : Neither are wc, said they, the God whom thou seekest. And I said to all these things which stand around the doors of my flesh: You have told me concerning my God, that you are not He, give me at least some tidings of Him. And they all cried cut with a loud voice: It is He that made us. My asking was my considering them, and their answering was the beauty I discovered in them. — St. Augustine. That zuhich is knozun of God is manifest in them. For God hath manifested it unto them. — For the invisible things of Him, from the creation of the ivorld, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made: His Eternal Power also and Diznnity : so that they are inexcusable. — Rom. I, 19, 20. The pagan philosopher Epicurus said to the atheist, Galcnus: "Observe your body and its wonderful structure, and then tell me whether you still doubt the existence of a God ! Behold, I will give you a hundred years in which to reflect upon it, so that you may examine whether you can discover a single fault in the entire human body, or whether you could, perhaps, alter any of the members of the body without thereby depriving it at the same time of beauty, useful- ness, power and strength. Surely, no man, only a God was capable of creating such a glorious model, such a wonderful masterpiece!" Before Abraham zuas made, I am. — John VIII, 58. He that cometh to God must believe that He is. — Heb. XI, 6. 2 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS The fool said in Jiis heart: There is no God. — Ps. LII, i. Overpowering proofs of intelligence and benevolent design lie around us, showing to us, through Nature, the influence of a free will ; and teaching us that all living beings depend upon one ever- acting Creator and Ruler. — Lord Kelvin (Non-Cath.). The heavens show forth the glory of God, and the firmament declureth the work of His hands. — Day to day nttereth speech, and night to night showeth knowledge. — Tfiere are no speeches nor lan- guages where their voices are not heard. — Ps. XVIII, 2-4. In the beginning, O Lord, Thou foundest the earth: and the heavens are the works of Thy hands. — They shall perish, but Thou rcmainest: and all of them- shall grow old like a garment: and as a vesture Thou shalt change them, and they shall be changed. — But ThuH art always the self-same, and Thy years shall not fail. — Ps. CI, 26-28. By faith we understand that the world was framed by the Word of God. that from invisible things visible things might be made. —Heb. XI, 3. Heaven and earth shall pass, but My ivords shall not pass. —Matt. XXIV, 35. THE EXISTENCE OF GOD OUR CONSOLATION' There was at one time in the United States Army a certain General, known to be an atheist. His wife was a good Christian, and tried to bring up their daughter, their only child, in the fear of God; and although her father endeavoured to instil into her mind his own wicked principles, the grace of God enabled her to remain firm in her faith. It happened that she became very ill, and lay in danger of death. Her father, who loved her with intense affection, watched by her bedside continually; but everyone saw that she was approaching her end. "O my dearest father," she said to him one day, ''you see I am at the point of death, and I must soon leave you. You have often told me that there is no God; and my dear mother has taught me that there is a God, who will make us eternally happy in the next life, if we adore and serve Him here on earth. Tell me now, whether I am to believe her or you?" The General for some moments did not answer. He did not wish to say to his dying child what he knew in his heart to be false, and at the same time he did not want to acknowledge the existence of God in the presence of his associates in unbelief, some of whom were about. The contest within him was only for a few moments. He looked on his darling child, and his eyes met hers. In an instant he exclaimed : "O my child, do not heed my words ; believe onlv what your mother has taught you." Those in the room who heard these words looked at him in amaze- GOD 3 merit. "Surely, General," they said to iiim, "you do not really mean what you have just now said." He turned towards them, and, pointing to his dying child, answered: "My friends, it is indeed more convenient to live accorrling to what we had pretended to believe, but at the hour of death it is only the ancient faith in the existence of the one true God that will give us consolation." WHAT IS GOD? Well might the ancient heathen shrink from answering, when a king, his patron, asked him what God was ! He begged for a day to consider his reply; at the end of it, for two more; and, when the two were ended, for four besides ; for in truth he found that meditation, instead of bringing him towards the solution of the problem, did but drive him back ; and the more he questioned, the vaster grew the theme, and where he drew one conclusion, thence issued forth a hun- dred fresh difficulties to confound his reason. For in truth the being and attributes of God are a subject, not for reason simply, but for faith also, and we must accept His own word about Himself. — Cardinal Newman. ETERNITY OF GOD Before the mountains zvere made, or the earth and the zvorld was formed: frotn eternity, and to eternity Thou art God. —Ps. LXXXIX, 2. ONE GOD Our God is one Lord. — Deut. VI, 4. / am the first, and I am the last, and besides Me there is no God. —Is. XLIV, 6. / am the Lord, and there is none else: there is no God besides tne. —Is. XLV, 5. One Lord, one Faith, one Baptism. — Eph. IV, 5. THE WISDOM OF GOD The "wisdom" of God is that attribute by which God ordains all things to certain ends and so arranges that everything created fulfils its destiny, according to His designs. From that wisdom all the laws of this universe emanate, and that wisdom forever accomplishes its purposes unerringly. There is no such thing as frustrating God's designs. He lays His plans without consulting any one. He suffers those plans to be frustrated for a time by human intermeddling. He laughs at the conceit of men who dream that they can interrupt the courses of His Providence, and then in His own good time He accom- plishes His object, and sets at naught the childish interference of His creatures. Nay, He often uses the wickedness of men for His own wise purposes, and is baffling that wickedness when it boasts that it is successful. Eve ate that apple in Paradise, and brought a curse upon her race. But that curse brought an infinite blessing in Christ Jesus. That lamp is burning before this Tabernacle because the Son of God is there; the Son of God would not be there if Eve had 4 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS not sinned. Full of fury and envy and sin and hatred, His enemies nailed Christ to the tree on that afternoon nineteen hundred years ago. That sin built this magnificent temple, that sin brought you and me here together to-day. Peter, the poor fisherman, knelt trembling on the sands of the Sea of Galilee. He heard a few words from His Master. Hence the oldest dynasty in the world, the empire that is destined to witness unshaken and unchanged the rise and fall of the empires of the world. For three hundred years the Church was smothered in the blood of her children ; that blood was the seed of Christians, of the hundreds of millions of Catholics who profess to-day the same creed for which these martyrs died. — P. A. Shcehan. O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and of the knozvledge of God! How incomprehensible are His judgments, and how unsearch- able His ways! — I-or who hath known the mind of the Lord? or loho hath been His coiinsellorf — Rom. XI, 33, 34. The eyes of the Lord are upon the just, and His ears unto their prayers.— Ps. XXXHI, 16. / know their thoughts and what they are about to do this day, before that I bring them into the land which I have promised them. —Dent. XXXI, 21. The Lord beholdeth the ways of man, and considcreth all his steps. — Prov. V. 21. The whole zvorld before Thee is as the least grain of the balance, and as a drop of the morning dezv, that fallcth dozvn upon the earth. —Wis. XI, 23. THE OMNIPRESENCE OF GOD According to St. Cyril of Jerusalem, some pagans adored the sun as their god, that during the night they might, in the absence of the sun, do what they pleased, without fear of divine chastisement. The conduct of these people was very criminal ; but at least they were careful not to sin in presence of their god. But Christians know that God is present in all places, and that He sees all things. Accord- ingly they deserve more severe condemnation if they sin. Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from Thy Face? — // / ascend into heaven, Thou art there: if I descend into hell, Thou art present. — // / take my wings early in the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea: — Ez'cn there also shall Thy hand lead me, and Thy right hand shall hold me. — And I said: Perhaps darkness shall cover me: and night shall be my light in my pleasures. — But darkness shall not be dark to Thee, and night shall be light as the day: the darkness thereof, and the light thereof, are alike to Thee. — For Thou hast possessed my reins: Thou hast protected me from my mother's womb. ' —Ps. CXXXVIII, 7-13. GOD 5 Boleslaus IV., Kin^ of Poland, had the p;reatest afifection for his father. He got a portrait of his father, put it into a beautiful setting, and hung it around his neck. Every time he wanted to say or do anything of importance, he would take this portrait into his hand, look at it for a moment, and lovingly kiss it. "O my father," he would say from time to time, "God forbid that I should ever say anything or do anything that would not please you, if you were beside me." God is always beside us, and if we, like King Boleslaus, always thought of that, we would never do anything wrong. A learned man, who did not believe in God, once met a simple countryman going to church to hear Mass. He said to him: "My good man, where are you going?" "To church, sir," he answered. "And what do you do in church?" "I worship God," replied the countryman. "Tell me," said the other, in a tone of mockery, "whether your God is a great or a little God." "He is both, sir," said the man reverently. "How can that be?" "He is so great," answered the countryman, "that the Heaven of heavens cannot con- tain Him, and He is so little that He can live in my heart." WHO ART IN HEAVEN To all who have a correct idea of God, it is clear, that He is every- where present. This, however, is not to be understood as though He were spread out into parts, filling and governing one place with one part, another place with another; for God is a spirit, and there- fore indivisible. And who would presume to circumscribe within the limits of any place, or confine to any particular spot, God, who says of Himself: "Do I not fill heaven and earth?" (Jer. xxiii, 24). This again is to be understood to mean, that by His power and virtue God embraces heaven and earth, and the things that are contained in heaven and earth; not that He Himself is contained in any place; for God is present with all things, either creating them, or preserving them when created, whilst He Himself is confined to no region, is circumscribed by no limits, nor so defined as to prevent His being present everywhere with His nature and power ; as the blessed David expresses in these words: "If I ascend into heaven, thou art there" (Ps. cxxxviii, 8; Amos, ix, 2). But although present in all places and things, and as we have said, circumscribed by no limits, yet God is frequently said in the Sacred Scriptures to have His dwelling in Heaven, because the heavens which we behold are the noblest part of the world; undecaying; excelling all other objects in power, magni- tude, and beauty, and moving in uniform and steady revolutions. To elevate, therefore, the soul of man to the contemplation of His infinite power and majesty, which shine forth pre-eminently in the work of the heavens, God declares in the divine writings, that He dwells in the heavens. He also frequently declares, which is the fact, that there is no part of the universe that is not embraced by the Divine nature and power there present. — Catechism of the Council of Trent. GOD'S OMNIPOTENCE Of Him, and by Him, and in Him are all things. — Rom. XI, 36. ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS At the beginning of the eleventh century, England was governed by a pious king whose name was Canute. Some of his courtiers, who wanted to flatter him in order" to obtain his favour, one day said to him: "O King, thou art indeed the greatest of all kings; thou art master of the seas, which obey thy voice and are submissive to thy will." Canute said nothing in answer to these words, but gave orders that his throne should be placed upon the beach as the tide was coming in. When this was done, he went thither with his courtiers and sat down. When the waves were coming near to the place where he sat, he with a loud voice cried out to them: "O waves, I command you to retire, and not dare to approach your royal master." But the water came up, heedless of his words, and, rushing onwards, wet his feet, and those of the courtiers with him. Then, turning towards them, he said: "O foolish men, behold how little is the power of a king. Learn from what you see that God alone has power to command the sea, and to say to it, ' Thus far shalt thou go and no farther.' " THE MEBCY OF GOD The mercy of our God towards us, His sinful creatures, is a mercy the very angels never knew. One would almost think we were necessary to His happiness, so anxiously does He labour for our welfare. Not even our blackest ingratitude, nor our most heinous crimes, nor our most inveterate perversity turn Him away from us nor can induce Him to abandon us and deal with us as we deserve. Strange, is it not? Yet how consoling, how encouraging! He seems to pity us more than He blames; even as we pity a wayward lad or lass who knows no better than to forsake a cozy home, fond parents, peace and happiness, in pursuit of a bubble of independence, a will- o'-wisp of pleasure whose false colours and lying promises fascinate and deceive ; who runs in the path of misery, despair and eventual perdition with no eye nor ear for the breakers ahead or for the appealing voice of mercy behind that pleads to return — poor, foolish thing ! No thought of vengeance or punishment. The rainbow is in the heavens. It reminds Him of His oath never again to allow the upper hand to justice against sinful man on earth. Mercy is ever His chosen weapon. Can we now deny that God is all mercy? In mercy He created us, in mercy redeemed us, in mercy preserves us, in mercy bears with our repeated transgressions, in mercy spares us, in mercy pursues us through the endless labyrinth of our sinning. In mercy He forgives us and brings us back to Himself when once the knee bends in contrition and the heart is softened with sorrow. We are to Him, each of us, however numerous our sins, however desperate our condition, a lost sheep, a lost goat, a prodigal son. While there is hope, He waits. There is hope while there is life. — John H. Staplcton. The Lord is patient and full of mercy. — Num. XIV, i8. As a father hath compassion on his children, so hath the Lord compassion on them that fear Him. — For He knoivclh our frame. GOD 1 He rememboclh that we are dust. — Man's days are as grass: as the flower of the field so shall he flourish. — Ps. CII, 13-15. According to His greatness, so also is His mercy with Him. — Eccl. II, 23. / hare loved thee with an everlasting love ; therefore Itavc I drawn thee, taking pity on thee. — Jer. XXXI, 3. He made the little and the great, and He hath equally care of all. —Wis. VI, 8. THE JITSTICE AND THE MERCY OF GOD It is a mystery to us how justice and mercy can co-exist, and both be infinite, and both be exercised at the same moment towards the same person. We know in our experience of strict justice over- riding mercy, and of mercy setting aside the claims of justice. But we cannot imagine what it is to be most rigidly just and most ten- derly merciful in the same case. Absolutely free forgiveness and the exaction of ample atonement are with us contradictory things. If a judge were always tender and lenient to the offending party, this would be, not so much a sign of exceeding God-like mercy, as of weak character or of sympathy with crime. On the other hand, if he always enforced the most rigid justice, he would prove himself to be hard-hearted and devoid of the sense of mercy. If such a man, were really tender-hearted, and at the same time a lover of justice, he would often find that these two sentiments were in contra- diction, and that one would have to yield. Hence, some persons picture to themselves two different, contradictory, qualities in God. They imagine Him changing from anger to love, from mercy to justice; at one time His mercy predominating over His justice, and again His anger at sin extinguishing all mercy; each at times neutralizing the other. But it is not so with God. God is one, single, simple. There is no multiplicity of differing qualities in Him, no opposition of attribute to distribute, no limitation of one by another, no change of moods at different times. God always sees in sin the most horrible of evils, the antithesis of all goodness; an outrage on His Majesty; an enemy that would destroy His being, if that were possible; and He hates it with a necessary and unchangeable detestation. His mercy does not cause Him to make little of sin. to gloss it over, to close His eyes to its enormity. Still, God loves the sinner with an infinite love, compassionates his weakness, and calls him to repentance ; for the sinner is God's own creation, made in His image, and purchased at the price of His Son's most Precious Blood and death. There is no opposition in God between justice and mercy. His love and anger are the same ; they are His indivisible, unchangeable essence. His love of good is identical with His hatred of evil. He is not more tolerant towards sin on account of His merciful goodness; and even when He punishes most rigidly He is still merciful. This co-existence of justice and mercy in punishment is the divine attribute of clemencv : "When thou art angry, thou wilt remember mercy" (Hab. iii, 2). — Bishop Bellord. 8 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS TH£ JUSTICE OF GOD God is not unjust, that He should forget your work, and the lo'oe you have shozcn in His Name, you who have ministered and do minister to the Saints. — Heb. VI, lo. The Lord will rezvard every one according to His justice and His faithfulness.— 1. Kings, XXVI, 23. / am the Lord Who search the heart and prove the reins: Who give to every one according to his way, and according to the fruit of his devices. — Jer. XVII, 10. Who will render to every man according to his works: — To them indeed who, according to patience in good zvork, seek glory and honour and incorruption, Eternal Life; — But to them that are con- tentious and who obey not the truth, but give credit to iniquity, wrath and indignation. — Rom. II, 6-8. THE FORBEAR.INCE OF GOD Because sentence is not speedily pronounced against the evil, the children of men commit evils without any fear. — Eccl. VIII, 11. THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD In all this wonderful providence God preserves His unchangeable- ness. He does not have to keep stepping in to put things right. If a stone rolls down the mountain side it fulfils eternal laws. If the lion goes abroad to seek its prey, it is because of the unchanging law of brute instinct. If man is allowed freedom in his actions, it is only because God wills those actions to be the result of man's free- dom. And if at any time something seems to happen contrary to the laws of nature, a miracle, it is not that the laws have been suspended, but that for some Divine purpose, these events have been foreseen and arranged, and so are the fulfilment rather than the alteration of the Divine Will. God reaches "from end to end mightily, and or- dereth all things sweetly." Thus all things that happen, if they be not influenced by the free will of man, happen of necessity. Many things seem to happen by chance. The lightning strikes an oak-tree and misses the man standing by. He thinks he is very lucky. But in reality there is no chance whatever in the incident. It is all due to the working out of fixed laws. Things seem to happen by chance simply because we can not see all the circumstances. Huxley spoke a great truth when he said that chance was but an alias for ignorance. But when we are face to face with suffering in reality, then it is that we need our faith in God's Providence. Aware of our own sinfulness we might bravely bear our own suft'crings. But the difficulty presses heavily upon us when we see those suffer whom we love and know to be innocent. The newspapers told us of a sad case recently. A young couple, father and mother, were putting their children to bed, their only two. The mother was bathing the baby while the father played with the elder boy. The boy, in his delight, jumped from his father's arms, fell downstairs and was killed. The mother rushed downstairs to her GOD 9 son, and, in her distress, forgot the child upstairs. Then when she did return it was only to find her baby drowned. What shall we say in the presence of such a calamity? What could the mother say? What could the father say ? We can not see the good of such effects of God's Providence. But by a strong- act of faith we can believe that God is good, and He loves all things that are, and hates none of the things that He has made. We may try to fathom the mystery, but our safer plan will be to bow down and adore. — Thomas J. Gerrard. Give not thy mouth to cause thy H'csh to sin; and say not before the Angel: There is no providence: lest God be angry at thy words, and destroy all the zvorks of thy hands. — Eccl. V, 5. Every best gift, and every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the father of lights, zvith Whom there is no change, nor shadozv of alteration. — Jas. I, 17. Who covercth the heaz'en with clouds, and prcparefh rain for the earth: Who makclh grass to grow on the mountains, and herbs for the service of men. — Who giveth to beasts their food: and to the young ravens that call upon Him. — Ps. CXLVI, 8, 9. A priest had just concluded a sermon on Divine Providence, when a man came to him and said, "I have heard your sermon, but I am a proof of the contrary of what you said. For me there is no Provi- dence ! I have a wife and family, and work hard to support themi. I've done no harm to any one, and for twenty years I have tried to live as a good Christian ; but all in vain ; I feel ready to drown myself, for I have bills due the end of the month, and am quite unable to meet them. I am lost, and would rather die than live ! " "Well, my good man, you yourself shall become proof of the Provi- dence of God! How much do you owe?" "Nearly 2,000 dollars." "Then, here are 2,500: this sum was given me some days ago to dispose of for the relief of the unfortunate. Go, pay your bills, and remember there is a Providence ! " Be not solicitous, therefore, saying: What shall we eat, or zvhat shall zve drink, or zvherezvith shall zve be clothed f — For after all these things do the heathens seek. For your Father knoweth that you have need of all these things. — Matt. VI, 31-32. Remove the pendulum from the works of a clock only for a ' moment and they stop immediately. Turn oiT the water-course from a mill, or stop its supplv, and at once the motion of the wheel will cease, the whole mill will be at a standstill. Launch a well equipped boat with sails, oars, etc., upon the high seas, but place no man at the helm to conduct its course, and it will be tossed hither and thither, become the sport of the winds and waves, finally be wrecked and go to pieces. Not even a little log hut can 'ast long without the care of a master's hand; first the roof, then the flooring, at another time the walls, are damaged by the weather, by rain, cold, etc., and 10 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS they have to be repaired or rebuilt. How is it possible, then, that this vast universe — heaven and earth, with everything that they contain — could have lasted so many thousands of years if the hand of God had not preserved it ? — P. Heliel, S. J. Behold the birds of the air, for they neither sow, nor do they reap, nor gather into barns: and your Heavenly Father feedcth them. Are not you of much more value than they!' — Matt. VI, 26. Consider the Hies of the field, hotv they grow: they labour not, neither do they spin. — And if the grass of the field, which is to-day, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, God doth so clothe: how much more you, O ye of little faith! — Matt. VI, 28, 30. If we do not wish to act against the decrees of Providence we must (i), avoid all solicitude which extends itself over temporal affairs to such an extent as to interfere with our happiness; (2), and all solicitude which causes us to work beyond our strength and pre- vents us from taking needed rest and recreation; (3), all solicitude which makes us timid and faint-hearted, believing that the future holds nothing but adversity and misery for us. — St. Thomas Aquinas. How very small then must be our partial insight into God's plans ! A fly lights upon a great picture, say the Sistine Madonna of Raphael. It sees only a little black patch on the hem of Our Lady's robe. It recognizes nothing of the superb composition of form and colour of which the black patch is a portion. So it comes about that if we look only to the particular end of things and neglect their final end, we get a distorted view of God's Providence. Relying merely on our own infinitesimal outlook we are bound to experience the difficulty of God's seeming improvidence, seeming forgetfulness, seeming weak- ness, seeming unkindness. The dark night comes to every soul sooner or later and causes it to lament as Sion lamented of old: "The Lord hath forsaken me, the Lord hath forgotten me." But God replies as He did to Sion: "Can a woman forget her infant, so as not to have pity on the son of her womb? And if she should forget, yet will I not forget thee." — Thomas F. Gerrard. The eyes of the Lord behold all the earth. — II. Par. XVI. 9. While the persecution of Decius was at its height, St. Felix of . Nola was one of those whom the persecutors of the Church were most anxious to arrest ; but God. who desired to make use of His servant, hid him from his enemies who pursued him. One day, while he was instructing and exhorting the faithful, those who were sent to look for him came near, and Felix fled and concealed himself in an opening of a wall. As there was no door to conceal him, he would undoubtedly have been captured had not God caused a spider to weave its web over the opening. The soldiers arriving at the place, and finding it covered with a web, thick and unbroken, thought that it would be folly to imagine GOD 11 that anyone could enter without breaking the web, and they passed by, and hastened to look for him elsewhere. TH£ PROVIDENCE OF GOD AND MAN'S FREEDOM Must we then suppose that this all-embracing care of God and our full submission to Him mean the stagnation of our mind and affections ? Are we to be merely as the brush in the painter's hand or as the clay in the potter's? That would be the degeneration of this most sublime and most consoling doctrine into a debasing and enervating fatalism. Must we suppose that God has given us a law of salvation and has not left us free to obey it? That He has commanded us to believe in Him and to love Him with all our strength and yet has not given us the strength of will and the freedom of heart to offer our faith and love? Far from it, for Divine Providence supposes human effort. The ravens sow not; the lilies of the field spin not; but man must labour and strive; he must seek, and seek first the kingdom of God, then shall other things be given unto him. Man is intelligent. Man is free. His life upon earth is a life of progress. Starting from the border of nothingness, a creature of capacities and capabilities, he is to be filled in time with material and mental good, with moral and social good, with human and heavenly good. — Thomas Burke, C. S. P. PREDESTINATION According to St. Augustine, predestination is the preparation of grace ; it is nothing more than God's Prescience and the preparation of God's benefits, by which are certainly saved all those whom He saves. St. Thomas says that predestination is the manner by which God guides reasonable creatures to eternal life, the preparation of grace for the present life. According to this, we can consider pre- destination under a twofold aspect; as grace without which we can do nothing as regards eternal life, and under the aspect of glory which is granted to those that have been faithful to grace. Although God gives to all men the graces necessary for salvation it is likewise a Catholic dogma that He does not give to all the same measure of grace; that there are particular graces, graces of choice, which He grants rather to one than to another, and that He reserves, from all eternity, eternal life to those who shall have persevered until the end. In other words, we must admit, on the part of God, the predestination of a certain number of men to eternal life. "This belief," says St. Augustine, "has always been that of the Church of Jesus Christ." Such is, besides, the teaching of Holy Scripture. At the last Judgment our Lord will say, addressing the elect: "Come ye Blessed of my Father, possess the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world" (Matt. XXV, 34). Those who are predestined to glory will infallibly be saved: the decree of predesti- nation is as infallible as divine Prescience. Thus the number of the predestined is fixed and unchangeable; it will be neither increased or diminished, because God's Prescience cannot be deceived. Neverthe- less those who work out their salvation do so freely; they always preserve their free will, and can resist grace if they so wish. It is of faith that predestination is gratuitous. Eternal life is a 12 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS grace of God, the grace of graces, which supposes all other graces. Nevertheless, predestination considered under the aspect of glory, also supposes the merits of the just. Eternal life is at once a grace of God, and the reward for good works done in the state of grace. It is a Catholic dogma that by the works of the justified man, or by the good works which he performs with God's grace and the merits of Jesus Christ, he himself really merits eternal life. — Ecclesiastical Dictionary. WHAT PREDESTINATION DOES NOT MEAN This foreknowledge of God, and the preparation of some souls for eternal glory, and the assent to the further loss of others, is part of God's Providence. It results from His knowledge of all future things, from His goodness and His justice. This Predestination and Reprobation do not mean that God has called some beings into existence for the special purpose of separating them from the rest and condemning them to hell. The enemies of Christianity have been pleased to assert that this is a Christian doctrine. But it is Christian only in this sense, that it was taught during a couple of centuries by the members of a small and now almost extinct heresy, the Calvinists, who called themselves Christians, but who were cut off from the Christian Church on account of this and other errors. It is distinctly a Protestant doctrine, and is justly condemned by the Catholic Church as false and blasphemous. — Bishop Bellord. PREDESTINATION DEPENDENT ON MAN'S OWN WILL St. Ambrose teaches that even if a man knew that he was repro- bate from God, "the Lord will know how to recall the sentence, if thou knowest how to amend thy ways of sin." In confirmation of this we have the example of Jonas and Nineveh. In the depths of eternity God knew of each man, his strength and his weakness, his excuses and his guilt, his sin and his repentance. He could sum up each man's life, and see his final decision as to serving or resisting God. Knowing thus His own, God elects them to eternal happiness. God does not predestine all men to glory as He destines them for life and grace; He can not do so, for they control their destiny. Although predestination is entirely from God, it is yet dependent on man's own will. — Bishop Bellord. If that nation against which I have spoken shall repent of their evil, I also will repent of the evil that I have thought to do to them. — And I will suddenly speak of a nation and of a kinqdom, to build up and plant it. — // it shall do cznl in My sight, that it obey not My voice, I zuill repent of the good that I have spoken to do unto it. — Jer. XVIII, 8-10. To help you understand that divine Foreknowledge does not inter- fere with the human free will, just remember that God knows, for instance, what you will do, and where you will go, after leaving this church, nevertheless you are absolutely free to do what you like, and GOD 13 to go where you please. Indeed, it is impossible for you not to exercise your free will. THC SOUL'S DESIRE FOR GOD St. Thomas of Aquin could think only of God, could speak only of God; nothing gave him any pleasure but to hear about God. If sometimes he was in the company of those who were conversing about other things, he seemed to take no interest in their conversa- tion; it was evident his thoughts were on something very different from what they were thinking of. Once when residing in Naples, Brother Dominic Caserte heard a voice proceeding from the crucifix, saying to him: "Thou hast written well of me, Thomas; what recom- pense dost thou desire?" He answered: "None other than Thyself, O Lord." Thou makest it delightful to him to praise Thee; because Thou hast made us for Thyself, and our hearts are not at rest till they rest in Thee. — St. Augustine. As the compass needle is invariably turned towards the North, God has impressed our souls with a natural inclination that makes them invariably turn toward Him.. — 5"^ Augustine. THE WORSHIP OF GOD Can it be much to serve Thee whom the whole creation is bound to serve? It ought not to seem much to me to serve Thee; but this seems rather great and wonderful to me, that Thou vouchsafest to receive one so wretched and unworthy into they service, and to associate him to Thy beloved servants. — Thomas a Kempis. THE NAME OF GOD St. Francis of Assisi always pronounced the Name of God with profound veneration. If by chance he saw lying on the ground a piece of paper on which the Name of God was written, he reverently took it up, and placed it carefully in his cell. He also counselled all his disciples to do likewise. THE HEART OF MAN, GOD'S TE>IPLE God dwells much rather in the temple fashioned by His own hands than in a temple built by the hands of men. Much sweeter is to Him a pious and devout heart than incense. — St. Thomas of Villanova. THE BLESSED TRINITY THE BLESSED TRINITY There is One God; for what we mean by God, is the Supreme Being, and there can be but One Being Supreme over all. * In this One Supreme Being there are Three distinct Persons, that is to say, each Person has the whole Substance of God; for God's Substance, His Supreme Being, cannot be divided. As the whole substance of the human soul subsists indivisibly in every separate 14 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS faculty of our being, so the whole Substance of God subsists in each Divine Person. Yet are not the Three Persons faculties or attributes of God; for attributes in God have no existence distinct from His Substance; and when we speak of God's attributes we merely put into words our imperfect ideas of Him. Properly speaking, God is not just, good, wise, powerful; but is Himself essentially Justice, Goodness, Wisdom and Power. So in like manner God is essentially Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; Eternal Substance, Knowledge, and Will ; and this 'Substance, Knowl- edge and Will are not, as in us, three different faculties of our one person, but three distinct Personalities of one and the same Substance, that is, three ways or modes in which the One God subsists. God the Father has been Father from all eternity. He never began to be Father, eternally originating the other two Persons, so that neither of them ever began to be. So God the Son is the eternal Son, and God the Holy Ghost the eternal Spirit, and the Three Divine Persons are thus co-equal and co-eternal. The Son is called "Son" and "begotten," to express that He is the same in Substance w^ith His Father ; the earthly relation of Father axid Son are visible types of Fatherhood and Sonship in God. The Son of God is "God of God, of one Substance with the Father, by whom all things were made." He is therefore not one of the things that were made. He is uncreated but eternally begotten by His Father of His own Substance ; not another God, another Supreme Being, for that would be impossible, but, as it were, another self, a reflection of the First Person — a Second Person. The Son, therefore, having a perfect knowledge and will as the Father has, but distinct from the Father as two human minds and wills are dis- tinct from one another; from the mutual knowledge and love of Father, and of Son proceeds a reflection of the Two combined, which never began to be, and is also Personal, a Third Person, distinct from Each, the Spirit of Father and of Son, Their mutual love proceeding eternally from each. Their bond of union. Thus there are Three Divine Persons Each eternally distinct from the other. Not that Father, Son and Holy Ghost are merely three names of the one God considered under different aspects or dift'ercnt dispensations. This was the heresy of the Sabellians, who were called Patripassionists, because their heresy made out but one Person in God under three names, and so it was really the Father who suft'ered on the Cross, only then He was called Son, as He was called Jesus Christ in respect of Plis Incarnation. These Three Divine names represent ineffable distinctions in the Godhead; not a distinction be- tween the Three Persons, in Essence, Nature or Substance, for this would be a contradiction in terms, as if we should say that our one indivisible soul was divided, but a distinction of Person from Person. —IV. Lockhart. There are Three Who give testimony in Hcaz'cn, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost. And these Three are One. — And zvc may be in His True Son. This is the true God and Life Elcrnal. — I. John V, 7, 20. THE BLESSED TRINITY 15 Going therefore, teach ye all nations: baptizing them in the Name of the tathcr, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. —Matt. XXVIII, 19. Seated on the sea shore, St. Augustine was preparing- a homily for the people on the Blessed Trinity, and was trying if by any explanations or sensible images he could make it clearer to them, when, looking up, he saw a child who had dug a hole in the sand, into which he was ladling the sea water. On being asked by the Saint what he was about, he answered: "Don't you see I am going to empty the sea into this little hole." Ah, thought the holy Doctor, it is as easy for you to do that as for me to explain the mystery of the Holy Trinity ; that small hole in the sand can as easily contain all the water of the ocean as the mind of man can comprehend the mystery of the Nature of God. It is impossible to know this secret; the mind fails, the voice is silent, and not my voice only, but the voice of angels. It is above the Powers, it is above the Cherubim and Seraphim, it passeth all created understanding. — IV. Lockhart. The Word is consuhstantial with the Father. It means, that there is but ONE Divine Nature, and that this one single Divine Nature is equally possessed of by Father, Son and Holy Ghost; not divided or shared out among the Three, but wholly and entirely possessed by each one; so that the Father is all that is God; the Son is all that is God, and the Holy Ghost is all that is God. That Divine Nature, that Godhead, then, which Jesus Christ Our Lord has, is the very same identical and single Divine Nature or Godhead as that of the Father. In other words, there is one God, and the Father is that God; the Son also is that God, and the Holy Ghost is that God. Three Persons, but one God. — H. G. Hughes. THE MEANTVG OF "PERSON" A very common error entertained by many Protestants and by most rationalists about the Catholic idea of God, is their assertion that we worship a personal God, meaning thereby, a corporeal being like ourselves, a sublimated man, as it were ; and they conclude that our religion can not possibly be spiritual, since it has such a foundation. This error is due to their ignorance of the meaning attached to the word "person." By a person we mean a being who is responsible for his acts ; one to whom an act may be imputed as to a responsible agent. The lower animals, for instance, are not held morally respons- ible for their actions, since they lack the source of responsibility — reason, and so are not spoken of as persons. Now a person, or responsible being, is not necessarily material or corporeal, and when we speak of a personal God we mean a pure spirit to whomi the various acts of Deity, such as creation, redemption, and sanctification, may be imputed as to a responsible being. Our God is, indeed, a Person, but none the less is He a pure spirit, and, in the words of the Apostle, "Those who adore Him should adore Him in spirit and in truth." — F. Harvey. 16 ILLUSTRATIONS LOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS ••NATIKE" AM> "PERSON" Let us see if we can grasp a little of the meaning of these words. As I look about nie in this cnurch to-day, 1 sec a number of human beings. All of you have something in common, something that is a distinguishing mark, that separates you from all other creatures, from the angels in heaven and from other species cr kinds of beings upon earth ; a something that makes you to be what you are, namely, human beings. This something we call human nature. I can see further that this human nature is complete in each indi- vidual. Thus you do not attribute your actions to another, or to the race in general, but you attribute them to yourself. You say of these acts, whether you performed them to-day or ten or twenty or more years ago, "I did them." You feel and realize that they belong to you individually. Now this condition in which a being is responsible for his acts, whether they be moral, or physical or intellectual, is called personality. In the human being, nature and personality are one. — Thomas /■. Burke, C. S. P. ADORING THE BLESSED TREVITY If we can not comprehend the deep mystery of the Holy Trinity, we may at least offer it our homage and adoration. St. Thomas Aquinas tells us, "It is impossible to come to a knowledge of the Trinity by natural reason," but we may say in the love of our hearts with the Church. "Our hope, our salvation, our honour, O Blessed Trinity" (Ant. II. Noct. off. Trinit.J. What prevents us from loving, honouring, and adoring one God in three Divine Persons? Because we can not drink all the water of the well, may we not partake of as much as is needful for us? IMAGES OF THE BLESSED TRINITY When St. Patrick was teaching the Irish people the truths of our holy P'aith, he saw that they were unwilling to believe the mystery of the Holy Trinity, because they could not understand how there could be three Persons in one God, that each Person is God, and that there are not three Gods, but only one God. Bowing down, he plucked a leaf of shamrock which grew at his feet, and holding it that they might all be able to see it, said: "Behold this little plant which bears on one stalk three small leaves; they are distinct from each other, but are exactly alike, and form but one leaf, and rest on one stalk. So it is, my brethren, with the great God I preach to you. He is one in Nature, and three in Person." The people im- mediately believed, and on that day many thousands embraced the Faith. Matter exists, but not always in the same state. It may exist in the solid state, or in the liquid state, or in the state of gas or vapor. How many states are there? Three. Yet these three include all. A fourth state can not be so much as imagined. Every creature in cither wholly spiritual, as are the angels and archangels ; or else wholly material, as the metals, the rocks, the seas and the mountains, or else partly spiritual and partly material, a.s THE BLESSED TRINITY 17 man, who unites the two in a single pcrscnaHty, his scul bcinjf spiritual, and his body material. Every conceivable line must have a beginning, or a point at which it starts; an end, cr the point at which it terminates, and the distance bctii'ccn. Try and imagine any single straight line that is not made up of these three parts. Impossible ! You can not. Material substances are composed, so far as their external form and shape are concerned, of lines, of surfaces and of solids. There is icgetable life, enjoyed by all kinds of trees, shrubs and plants; then there is sensitive cr purely animal life, possessed by all kinds of birds, beasts, fish, reptiles, etc., and lastly, there is rational life, special prerogative for men of all races and languages and colours. The one idea "life" is present in all; yet it exhibits itself in three several ways. No one can discover a fourth kind of organic life. There are just three: no more and no less. Now let us consider an individual human soul, over whose desti- nies this same mysterious trinity holds sway. The soul enters the earth possessing only its natural life: then the waters of Holy Bap- tism flow over it, and, at once, it is lifted up above nature and begins to live the life of supernatural grace ; which is totally different from the life of mere nature. If it perseveres it dies at last to the world, but only to enter upon a new and still sublimer life, viz., the life of eternal glory in heaven. Now observe : it is cnc and the same soul. — Bishop John S. Vaughan. In the sun we find very distinctly three things : the natural light which makes up its nature; the rays of light with which it illumines heaven and earth ; the heat whereby it produces wonderful operations upon earth. So there are three in the Godhead : the Father, who is the sun in its nature; the Son, who is the rays of light of the world and proceeds from the Father ; and the Holy Ghost, who is that fire of love and proceeds from the Father and the Son. In the same w-ay that the sun does not proceed from any other sun, so does the Father proceed from none other; and as the rays of light are from the sun, so also is the Son from the Father; and as heat pro- ceeds from the sun and from the rays of light, so does the Holy Ghost proceed from the Father and from the Son. But as the light, the rays and the heat together are only one sun, so also the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are only one God. — St. Cyril of Alexandria. JESUS CHRIST THE REDEEMER In the beginning was the Word, and the Word zuas with God, and the Word was God. — The same was in the beginning with God. — All things iverc made by Him, and without Him was made nothing that was made. — John I, 1-3. It is impossible, for man's finite mind to grasp any positive idea of God by the light of reason alone. Man of himself, even aided by 18 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS grace, cannot know God, or love God, or worship God as He deserves. For to know God as He is, we must be made sharers in an infinite knowledge ; to love God as He deserves, we must share in a power of loving which is infinite; to worship God according to what He deserves from His creatures, that worship must be infinite. Only God can know God and love God, and worship God as He deserves. Nor can we worship rightly without proportionate knowledge. But worship is the homage of a creature; yet to be worthy of God it must be the worship of a God. If then God willed to be worshipped "in spirit and in truth," that is, by the worship of intelligences and in a way proportionate to His dignity, a mode must be found by which God should become a creature, in order that there might be a creature who was God. Since the Incarnation has taken place, we know that the purpose of the Incarnation was in the mind of God from all eternity, and that we, too, were included in the eternal thought of God, and were begotten (not in reality but in purpose), and "predestinated together with Christ before all ages," "Who is thus the First-born of many brethren." But while this mighty Being tarried for the fulness of time, which God's infinite wisdom and goodness had determined on for all eternity, man was created and was lost. Yet the remedy was pre- pared, and now for the first time the mystery which had been hidden from the angels, was revealed to man, in the instant when he knew that he had lost everything by sin ; and so the Incarnate God Who was to come, was revealed as the Redeemer of our lost race, "the Lamb of God, foreknown indeed before the foundations of the world, but manifested in the last times for us." At length in the fulness of time, after centuries of type, figure, and prophecy, there appeared on earth, in the land of Judaea, near upon twenty centuries ago, this most wonderful of beings, the most wonderful Man of all human history: Jesus Christ. — W. Lockhart. HI8 DIVINITY But first let me say that, in order to make an act of faith in the Divinity of Jesus Christ, there must be a double action of God. The external evidence, through the bodily senses, of the miraculous facts, from which we infer that none but God could be the Operator, and the internal revelation, the direct action of God the Revealer, which draws aside the veil from the mind and heart of man, which shows man to himself, and enlightens his mind to see God by the intuition of faith.. "Flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee, but My Father who is in heaven." — W. Lockhart. Jesus being baptised, forthwith came out of the water: and to, the heavens were opened to Him, and He sazv the Spirit of God descend- ing as a dove, and coming upon Him. And behold a Voice from Heaven, savina : This is il/v Beloved Son, in Whom I am zvell pleased. —Matt. Ill, i6, 17. Peter said: Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God. —Matt XVI, 16. JESUS CHRIST 19 There is One God, and One Mediator of God and men, the Man Christ Jesus. — I. Tim. II, 5. ATTACKS ON HIS DIVIXITY We often ask ourselves how men . . . can possibly fail to understand how they destroy Jesus when they suspect His sincerity, representing Him as a visionary, the victim of the most monstrous illusions. How can these critics not see that the more they exalt the man in Jesus Christ, the more they strengthen the testimony He gave of Himself touching His celestial origin. His Divine sonship? —Pdre Rose, O. P. HISTORIC PROOF OF HIS LIFE The real existence of Jesus Christ is as certain as the other great facts of history, about which no one ventures to doubt. The Jewish historian Josephus, who wrote a short time after Christ's death, men- tions Him as the Founder of Christianity; and the Emperor Julian, who endeavoured to destroy the Christian Faith and restore Paganism does not attempt to deny the same fact; whilst Rousseau sums up the evidence in favour of His existence in this remarkable confession: "The facts of the life of Socrates, of which no one doubts, are less attested than those of Jesus Christ." — W. Lockhart. THE SACRIFICE OF JESUS Jesus Christ stripped Himself of His bliss, which was infinite, in order to make us partakers of it, and to associate us as His com- panions in it, taking for Himself our miseries and burdening Himself with them to remove them from our shoulders. — St. Ignatius. JESUS HIDING HIS GLORY UNDER THE VEIL OF A HUMAN BODY When Moses came down from the mountain, after conversing forty days and forty nights with God, his face shone with such brilliancy that the people feared to approach and converse with him. He found it necessary to hide his face with a veil. Blessed Lord, Thou hast hidden the glory of Thy divinity under the veil with which Thy Blessed Mother hath clothed Thee, in order that we may ap- proach and gaze upon Thy adorable face and press Thee to our hearts. We thank Thee, O Lord, for thus humbling Thyself, and coming amongst us, and we beseech Thee to grant that one day we may behold Thy face in its unveiled glory in Heaven. — C. H. McKenna, O. P. THE HUMAN SOUL OF JESUS Our Lord and Saviour, though He was God, was also perfect man ; and hence He had not only a body, but a soul likewise, such as ours, though pure from all stain of evil. He did not take a body without a soul, God forbid ! for that would not have been to become man. How would He have sanctified our nature by taking a nature which was not ours? Man without a soul is on a level with the beasts of the field; but our Lord came to save a race capable of praising and obeying Him, possessed of immortality, though that immortality had lost its promised blessedness. Man was created in 20 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS the image of God, and that image is in his soul; when then his Maker, by an unspeakable condescension, came in his nature. He took on Himself a soul in order to take en Him a body; He took on Him a soul as the means of His union with a body; He took oh Him in the first place the soul, then the body of man, both at once, but in this order, the soul and the body; He Himself created the soul which He took on Himself, while He took His body from the flesh of the Blessed Virgin, His Mother. Thus He became perfect man with body and soul; and as He took on Him a body of flesh and nerves, which admitted of wounds and death, and was capable of suffering, so did He take a soul too, which was susceptible of that suffering, and moreover was susceptible of the pain and sorrow which are proper to a human soul ; and, as his atoning passion was undergone in the body, so it was undergone in the soul also. — Cardinal Newman. HUMAN NATURE SANCTIFIED BY THE INCARNATION God stretched out His hand and touched human nature in the Incarnation and restored to the Temple those lepers cast out from the camp of God's people, so that they migfit offer their bodies a living victim to Him of whom it is said: "Thou art a priest for ever accord- ing to the order of Melchisedech." — Venerable Bede. The desired of all Nations shall come. — Agg. H, 8. Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain the Just: let the earth be opened, and bud forth a Saviour: and let Justice spring up together: I, the Lord, have created Him. —Is. XLV, 8. THE BIRTH OF JESUS Christ was not born according to the common course of Nature. As the conception itself utterly transcends the order of Nature, so also in the birth we can contemplate nothing but what is Divine. Besides, a circumstance wonderful beyond expression or conception. He is born of His mother without any diminution of her maternal virginity; and as He afterwards went forth from the sepulchre whilst closed and sealed, and entered the room in which His disciples were assembled, ''the doors being shut" (John xx, 19) ; as the rays of the sun penetrate without breaking or injuring in the least the solid substance of glass; after a similar, but more exalted manner, did Jesus Christ come forth from His mother's womb, without any injury to her maternal virginity, which, immaculate and perpetual, we celebrate with most just praises. This was the work of the Holy Ghost, who, in the conception and birth of the Son, so favoured the mother as to have imparted to her fecundity, and preserved her perpetual virginity. — Catechism of the Council of Trent. And the Word was made flesh. — John I, 14. This day is bom to von a Saviour Who is Christ the Lord. — Luke TI. II. JESUS CHRIST 31 FORMED OF VIRGIN EARTH LIKE AD.V.M As the first Adam was made of the earth before it was cursed, so the second Adam was formed of Virgin earth which was never cursed. — St. Andrew. THE INCARNATE EVIDENCE OF COD'S LOVE That God should redeem man at all, that He should make atone- ment for the sins of mankind, is an evidence of infinite mercy. But that God should have chosen this special way, the Incarnation of His Divine Son, is an evidence of His stupendous love for the creature of His hand. It is the answer of Heaven to the cravings, the longings of man, an answer to be conceived only in the Divine Mind. Religion, in its very essence, implies a loving creature and a loving God; and the history of man's spiritual life has been a series of cravings and a series of answers. — Thomas F. Burke, C. S. P. THE FATHER AND THE HOLY GHOST NOT JUAN Jesus Christ is truly man; but He is also truly God. Then, are God the Father and God the Holy Ghost also man ? No. By no means. But why not? For the simple reason that it was not the Nature of God that became man, that Nature which is common to all three; but it was the Person of God the Son, that Person who is not common to the three, but is distinct and undivided. — Bishop John S. Vaughan. THE INCARNATION THE CAUSE OF THE REVOLT OF THE ANGELS It is said that when the angels heard it proclaimed that the Son of God was to be born in the flesh, to unite in His person the human and Divine natures, some of them grew jealous of the dignity thus conferred on men; they revolted and were cast down into hell. Hitherto, the Second Divine Person had been Emmanuel to the spirits, God with them; henceforth, He should be also Emmanuel to men, God with us. For with our nature He took upon Himself our sins ; and, removing our sins, Pie removed the only obstacle that kept us apart from God, He united us to God; God in Christ became God with us, became truly in nature our Emmanuel. — John H. Stapleton. THE INCARNATION PROCLAIMING PEACE At Christ's birth, in the obscure village of Bethlehem, the angelic hosts, in accents of joy, proclaimed to the world that gladsome peace which He was about to establish between God and men. "Glory to God in the highest; and on earth peace to men of good will" (Luke ii, 14). That peace, which restores men to the right of citizenship in Heaven, He valued more than His life. For in the beautiful and expressive words of St. Paul "He made peace through the blood of His Cross" (Col. i, 20). Hence His first words of greet- ing to His beloved disciples on that eventful day of His Resurrection, when His glorified form appeared to them within the closed doors, were the consoling words of that eternal peace of which He is the pledge "Peace be to you" (John xx. 19). — /. A. M. Gillis. 22 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS WHY JESCS CAME IN HrJIILITY, POVERTY, AXD SUFFERrXG Coming to redeem our sinful race, and to enlighten a world "seated in darkness and in the shadow of death," as St. John described it, He began His work of reformation by preaching His first, sermon from the pulpit of the manger. It was pride and sensuality that caused the fall of our race; and pride and avarice and sensuality were the great evils of His day, as they are also of the days in which we live. St. Paul, in his Epistle to the Romans, gives us a sad picture of the degraded condition to which pagan Rome had brought itself through these three vices. What was true of pagan Rome was true of other ancient cities of the world; it is true of our cities to-day — pride, avarice, and sensuality are the ruling gods of our age. It is for this reason Our Lord came in humility, in poverty, and in suffering, to condemn the vices that lead most men to their eternal ruin. — C. H. McKenna, O. P. THE MEANING OF THE INCARNATION Literally, incarnation means the taking on of flesh. Applied to the Son of God, it is that act by which the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity came upon earth and took to Himself a human nature such as that which we possess. This does not mean that human nature became Divine nature, for this would be a contradiction in terms. It means that the Divine Person, in whom the Divine nature is complete, united to the Divine nature in that one person the nature of man, so that we have the mystery of the two natures, that of God and that of man, existing in the one Person who is Divine. — Thomas F. Burke, C. S. P. THE JOY OF THE NATIVITY Let us, while walking by faith, in exile from Him, hungering and thirsting for justice, and longing with unspeakable ardour for the beauty of His form as God, devoutly celebrate Plis natal day in the form of a Servant. Not yet can we contemplate Him begotten of the Father before the day-star; let us hasten to Him in the night hour born of the Virgin. Not yet do we comprehend how His Name continueth before the sun; let us recognize how in the sun He hath set His tabernacle. Not yet do we see the Only One abiding in His Father; let us recall the Bridegroom coming out of his bridechamber. Not yet are we fit for the Banquet of our Father; let us know the Manger of our Lord Jesus Christ. — St. Augustine. I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. No man cometh to the Father but by Me. — John XIV, 6. THE SACRED PASSION And what was the meaning of this life of unsurpassed sorrow and pain, humiliation, and seeming defeat? Love, was the reason. Jesus Christ our Lord lived and died simply for love of each one of us. He, the Good Shepherd, lays down His life for us who are His sheep, that He may save us from the power of the devil, from sin, and from eternal death ; he, the loving Master, teaches us the truth of God to which He bore witness every moment of His earthly life, that we may be truly free; He, the righteous Judge, offers us, as JESUS CHRIST 23 our reward, the gift of faith that we may inherit the joys of Heaven that never fade. Love is poured out upon the earth by One who manifested perfectly the love of God which passeth understanding. And all this is done, these manifold gifts of grace, truth, and life, are given to us of the sole bounty and goodness of God, Of our- selves we are thankless, selfish, heartless, God-forgetting. The Jews, who had experienced so many favours throughout the course of their long history, crucified the Messiah; and we, who call ourselves by the sacred Name of Christ, have little love in our hearts for Jesus; are ready, time after time, to sacrifice Him on the altar of our selfish advancement, or to crucify Him on the cross of an angry passion gratified, a revenge accomplished, an enmity embittered. — IV. R. Carson. As the celebration of the Coenaculum has become perpetual and universal, thus the battles of Gethsemani and Calvary are for all times and for all nations. — C. M. Thuente, O. P. Surely He hath borne our infirmities and carried our sorrows: and we have thought Him as it were a leper, and as one struck by God and afflicted. — But He zvas wounded for our iniquities, He was bruised for our sins: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and by His bruises we are healed. — Is. LUI, 4-5. He was offered because it was His ozvn will, and He opened not His mouth; He shall be led as a Sheep to the slaughter, and shall be dumb as a Lamb before His shearer, and He sliall not open His mouth. — Is. hill, 7. THE DISTRESS OF HIS SOUL This being the case, you will see at once, that it is nothing to the purpose to say that He would be supported under His trial by the consciousness of innocence and the anticipation of triumph; for His trial consisted in the withdrawal, as of other causes of consolation, so of that very consciousness and anticipation. The same act of the will which admitted the influence upon His soul of any distress at all, admitted all distresses at once. It was not the contest between antagonist impulses and views, coming from without, but the opera- tion of an inward resolution. As men of self-command can turn from one thought to another at their will, so much more did He deliberately deny Himself the comfort, and satiate Himself with the v/oe. In that moment His soul thought not of the future, He thought only of the present burden which was upon Him, and which He had come upon earth to sustain. — Cardinal Newman. We have seen Him despised and the most abject of men, a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with infirmity; and His look was as it were hidden. — Is. LIII, 3. The foxes liave holes, and the birds of the air nests; but the Son of Man hath not where to lay His head. — Matt. VIII, 20. 24 ILLUSTRATIONS TOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS CHKIST ON THE CROSS "Gaze en Me, O My children, if you will, for I am helpless; gaze on your Maker, whether in contempt, or in faith and love. Here I wait, upon the Cross, the appointed time, the time of grace and mercy; here I wait till the end of the world, silent and motionless, for the conversion of the sinful and the consolation of the just; here I remain in weakness and shame, though I am so great in Heaven, till the end, patiently expecting My full catalogue of souls, who, when the time is at length over, shall be the reward of My passion and the triumph of ]\Iy grace to all eternity." — Cardinal Newman. the: cross The cross, in the Roman world, was made of two coarse, rough pieces of wood, put together in the simplest fashion, to form a gibbet that should serve its purpose the more fully in proportion as it would aggravate the suffering and contribute to the degradation of the wretched man condemned to die en it. With us half of the punishment involved in death by hanging is the dreadful shame asso- ciated with death upon the gallows. But the shame of the gallows is slight compared to the ignominy attached in ancient days to cruci- fixion. The cross expressed the fullest possible measure of con- tempt, loathing, scorn; it was the greatest indignity that could be cast upon the vilest of human beings. No free citizen, however wicked, could lawfully be crucified. It was the death reserved for the depised slave and the hated outlaw, who were regarded not as men, but as the vilest of beasts. Raised high toward heaven, its arms stretching out toward both ends of the earth, the Cross of Jesus Christ proclaims to men that God's love has conquered the malice and wickedness of sinners; that mercy has overcome justice; for it announces that, notwithstanding our sins, God hath so loved the world that, for our sakes. He sent on earth His Divine Son to humble Himself for us unto death, even unto the death of the Cross. The Cross extends its arms to welcome all, to save all, to proclaim that all are welcomed as the ransomed children of the spiritual kingdom over which reigns the immortal King of ages, Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. — James J. Fox. THE SACKED PASSION TEACHING FORGIVENESS A valiant knight was once grievously insulted, and in his anger he swore to be revenged. Very early one morning he set out to punish his enemy with the sword. Now there was a chapel by the wayside, into which he entered, and glanced at the pictures upon the walls. There were three pictures. The first represented our Lord in His garments of mockery, and beneath was inscribed: "He reviled not, though He was reviled." The second one depicted the scourging with the words: "He threatened not, although He suffered." The third finally was the crucifixion, with these words beneath: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." The sight of these three pictures of the Passion touched the knight's heart. He knelt down and prayed, and his desire for vengeance melted away before the rays of the heavenly love of Jesus, like ice before the sun's rays. — P. llchcl, S. J. JESUS CHRIST 25 THE RESURRECTION: ITS EVIDENXE If there be cne fact in history, which is better entitled to credit than any other, I do not hesitate to say that that fact is the glorious resurrection of Jesus from the tcmb. Never, no, never, within the memory of man, was any transaction transmitted through every successive generation, from the period of its occurrence to the present day, amidst such a blaze of evidence. It is attested by the positive and unexceptionable testimony of persons of the highest integrity, who were themselves eye-witnesses of it, who saw Jesus dead, and who afterward beheld Him alive; who beheld Him not once or twice only, but frequently; not transiently but for" a considerable time; who not only beheld Him but who heard Him, conversed with Him, touched Him, ate and drank with Him, and had every imaginable certainty, both of the reality and identity of His person which it was possible for the evidence of the senses to convey, and who proved, moreover, theif honesty and sincerity by that best of arguments, the shedding of their blood. — Thomas F. Biirkc, C. S. P. This Jesus hath God raised again, whereof all zve are zvitnesses. — Being exalted therefore by the right hand of God, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, He hath poured forth this which you see and hear. — Acts II, 32, 33. As Jonas was in the whale's belly three days and three nights, so shall the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights. — Matt. XII, 40. Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will raise it up. — But he spoke of the Temple of His Body. — John II, 19, 21. THE IMPORTANCE OF THE RESURRECTION What a wonderful change was wrought at once in the Apostles' minds by the knowledge of the Resurrection ! What a revulsion from doubt to certainty, sorrow to triumph, despair to faith and confidence ! It was a change for them as from darkness to sun- shine, even as from death to life. The world had seemed to be shat- tered, and an abyss opened beneath their feet when all their beliefs and hopes, all thoughts and certainties, collapsed at once at the death of their beloved Master. Now it was as if the solid world had been created anew. After all, they were not deceived, Jesus was still a reality, His words were true; a great future was still open before Him and them. What did the scandal of the Cross matter now, or weakness, or obscurities, or the triumph of His foes, since Jesus was really risen? — Bishop Bellord. THE .4SCENSI0N: ITS ADVANTAGES FOR US In the first place, the merit of our faitK was greatly augmented; because faith has for its object those things that fall not under the senses, and are remote from the reason and intelligence of men. Wherefore, if the Lord had not departed from us, the merit of our faith would be diminished ; for Christ the Lord has declared them "blessed" that have not "seen, and have believed" (John xx, 29). 26 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS Besides, the ascension of Christ into heaven has great weight to confirm in our hearts hope; since, beheving that Christ, as man, ascended into heaven, and placed human nature at the right hand of God the Father, we are in great hope that we, His members, shall also ascend thither, and be there united with our Head, according to this testimony of our Lord Himself: "Father I will, that where I am, they also, whom Thou hast given me, may be with me" (John xvii, 24). In the next place, we have attained this most specially important advantage, that it has rapt our love to Heaven, and inflamed it with the Divine Spirit; for, most truly has it been said, that where our treasure is, there also is our heart (Matt, vi, 21). — Catechism of the Council of Trent. The Lord Jesus, after He had spoken to them, was taken up into Heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God. — Mark XVI, 19. "8ITTETH AT THE BIGHT HAND OF THE FATHEB" In these words we observe a trope, that is, the changing of a word from its literal to a figurative meaning, a thing frequent in the Sacred Scriptures, when, accommodating the matter to our under- standing, we attribute human affections and members to God, in whom, spirit that He is, nothing corporeal can be conceived. But, as, in human things, we consider Him who is placed at the right hand to occupy the more honourable place, transferring the same idea to celestial things also, in order to express the glory which Christ, as man, has obtained before all others, we confess that He is at the right hand of the Father. Here, however, "to sit" does not imply position and figure of body but declares the fixed and permanent possession of even royal and supreme power and glory which He has received from the Father; of which the Apostle says: "Raising Him up from the dead, and setting Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, above all principality, and power, and virtue, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come ; and He hath put all things under His feet" (Eph. i, 20, sag.) ; words which manifestly imply that this glory belongs to our Lord in a manner so special and exclusive, as not possibly to suit any other created nature; whence, in another place, the Apostle testifies: "To which of the angels said He at any time: Sit on My right hand?" — Catechism of the Council of Trent. THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST The spirit of Christ and the spirit of the world are so opposed that each is "death" as regards the other. Their aims are different: one pointing to a future life as the supreme object to which all else must be subordinate, while the other denies that there is anv reality beyond this life. To the one, all this present existence, with works and duties belonging to the family or the state, with pleasures and possessions, is but a means or instrument for some further end ; and at the same time it may be an impediment and a danger. These things, then, require to be pursued with caution, without exclusive attachment, and with much restraint. The carnal spirit considers temporal things as the sole object of existence; and all other con- siderations such as moral or spiritual laws must be subordinated to JESUS CHRIST 27 that great object. The spirit of Christ says that self-sacrifice for the sake of God and man is necessary to the perfect Hfe and future happiness. The spirit of the world says, "Seek first your own good; let all interests be sacrificed to your own." The world says, "Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow wc die." Christ says, "Mortify, there- fore, your members which are upon the earth." The qualities which the world admires, practices, and inculcates upon the rising genera- tions, are pride, covetousness, lust, anger, gluttony, envy and sloth. The qualities most cordially detested are the great virtues of the Gospel, humility, liberality, chastity, meekness, temperance, brotherly love, diligence. — Bishop Bellord. My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, that I may perfect His zvork. — John IV, 34. Whereas indeed He was the Son of God, He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. — Heb. V, 8. JESUS NEVER DEFENDED HIMSELF Thus Jesus spoke to guide the multitudes and to defend the simple people; but He never spoke to defend himself against the many unjust, malicious attacks made upon His sinless character and His holy work. Jesus is great and majestic in His Silence. —C. M. Thuente, 0. P. THE DISCIPLE OF THE SUFFEBEB MUST BE A SUFFERER HIMSELF He whose life was a life of sorrow, who was born in poverty, who was, even in infancy, forced to fly from those who would put him to death, who was ever offered insults and injuries, who was scourged and mocked and crowned with thorns, who was spat upon and treated with every indignity, who was finally compelled to suffer the ignominy and the torture of crucifixion, who was, throughout all His days, the Man of Sorrows, will naturally number among His followers not those whose object in life is to seek out pleasure and ease and comfort and sensual gratification of every kind, but rather those whose lives are resplendent with humility and denial, with sacrifice and suffering, with grief and affiiction. "Whosoever doth not carry his cross and come after me can not be my disciple." The child is molded after the character of its parent: the pupil drinks in the wisdom of the teacher: the soldier derives renewed courage from the bravery of his leader: the friend is formed in the likeness of his friend, and so the disciple of the Sufferer must be a sufferer himself. — Thomas F. Burke, C. S. P. THE MEBCX OF CHRIST What are the offenses which men judge most harshly and forgive least willingly ? In men, disloyality ; in women, unchastity. Our Lord Jesus Christ was the model of true and loyal friendship; He was the very perfection of piety, and yet He showed himself generous in forgiving offenses against these virtues. There was an Apostle whom He had signally honoured with His confidence. He had announced him as the future head of His Church. He had confided to him the leadership in the great work of carrying 23 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS on His mission. And yet in the time of His greatest trial, when He most needed a friend, that Apostle abjured Him. He had sworn but a few hours before to be faithful unto death, even thouyh all others should fail. The time of trial came and found him a deserter, cowardly and forsworn. His only punishment was a look, a look of reproach, no doubt, but back of the reproach was a great and Divine pity for his weakness and self-degradation. That look drove him forth into the night, but not into the night of despair. It loosed ihe fount of his tears, and with repentance came hope and new manhood. When Christ met him after His resurrection. He spoke to him no direct word of blame. St. Peter felt the gentle reproach in the thrice-repeated question, "Simon, son of John, lovest thou me?" but en his humble renewal of his loyalty, the gracious Lord rewarded him by once more committing to him the lambs and the sheep for whose salvation He had offered His own life. Could anything be more trustful, more winning, more benign? Let us now consider one other example of Christ's generosity in pardoning. One day, St. John tells us, the Scribes and Pharisees brought to Him in the Temple courtyard a woman taken in adultery. They quoted to Him the law of IMoses which decreed that such a one should be stoned. To their query He answered nothing, but stooping over. He wrote with His finger on the ground. Then He said, "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." And again stooping down, He wrote en the ground. The sacred narrative does not tell us what He wrote, but it is believed that His finger traced a hint of the secret sins of the accusers. The eldest among these glanced at the writing in the dust, then drew his hood closer round his reddening face, and silently slipped away. Another and another read the brief record of his own shame, and vanished from sight, until finally Jesus alone remained with the woman, in whose eyes terror and wonder struggled with dawning hope. "Woman," He said, "where are they that accused thee? Hath no man condemned thee?" She murmured, gratefully, "No man, Lord." Then said He, "neither will I condemn thee. Go, and now sin no more." — Francis P. Duffy. CHRIST'S exa:«ple of forgiveness In the life of Christ we find that He lifted His omnipotent hand almost daily to bless and to heal ; that He spoke often to console, to bring comfort and to call the dead to life, but we never find Him using His power Divine to humiliate or to frustrate an enemy. — C. M. Thuente. O. P. And I, if I be lifted up front the earth, ivill drazv all things to Myself. — / came not to judge the world, but to save the zi'orld. — John XII, 32, 47. For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which zvas lost.— Luke. XIX, 10. THE TEARS OF JESUS Tears, they say, have a great power over the human heart. What JESUS CHRIST 29 prayers and threats cannot accomplish, tears will achieve. The menaces of the Almighty, the inspirations of grace have not con- verted our hearts. Will the tears of Jesus also fail to soften them? Can we look up to the tear-stained, sorrowful Face of the Saviour and yet continue in our dissolute ways ! The tears of a mother have reclaimed many a prodigal son from a career of debauch and self-indulgence. Are the tears of Jesus less powerful? — Charles Brtiehl. THE PATIENCE OF CHRIST We know, as a matter of fact, that three long years of constant schooling, of intimate conversation and friendship, had left these men as ignorant, as gross and untaught, as on the day when they abandoned their nets on the bank of the sea of Galilee to follow the Master. Neither teachings, nor reproaches, nor repeated miracles, had been of avail to bring them to a reasonable stand in their attitude towards Him. He had foretold to them His death. His resurrection and the accompanying prodigies. The angel at the tomb, the disciples of Emmaus, the holy women, had confirmed His prophetic word. Yet naught of all this stirred them, nothing con- vinced them ; they seemed rather the more firmly grounded in their indecision and unbelief. Thomas refuses outright to believe. Mag- dalen with touching piety but wavering reliance in Christ's word prepares to embalm His Body with precious ointments. The disci- ples first receive the accounts of the holy women as a nightmare, an hallucination, a phantasy born of weak nerves and a sick brain. Con- fronted themselves with the glorified Body of Him whom they had seen slain, they imagine they behold a phantom, a ghost! What could equal this depth of obstinate and blind perverseness — what, but the compassionate goodness and condescending pity of the Saviour, whose patience seems to surpass all limit ! For would it not be unqualifiedly unreasonable to require of the Almighty that He measure the evidence of His works with the exigencies of an un- derstanding dulled by obstinate pride or beclouded by carnal interests? Yet He did it. The importance of the truth itself of the Resur- rection — the keystone of the whole edifice of religion He had come upon earth to raise; the need He had, for His glory, of the men He had formed with such jealous care; His affection for His Church, for His disciples, for us, for the hard of belief of all ages — forced Him to it. — John H. Stapleton. THE GOOD SHEPHERD The East, we are told, never changes, and what we see there to-day we may be almost certain the eyes of our Saviour rested on. We have the following description, from the pen of one who lived in Palestine for thirty years, of what can be witnessed there in this matter almost at any moment. "Our Saviour says (such are His words) that the good shepherd, when he putteth forth his own sheep, goeth before them, and they follow. This is true to the letter. They are so tame and so trained that they follow their keeper with the utmost docility. He leads them forth from the fold or from the houses in the villages just where he pleases. As there are many flocks in such a place as this, each one takes a different path, and 30 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS it is his business to find pasture for them." The traveler then tells us that the shepherd teaches his sheep to follow him ; that as they go on their way to the destination he has in view, he stops, turns, and calls to them, to remind them of his presence; that, when he calls, they hasten their steps and follow on ; and that, should another call them, they halt, remain motionless, and, should that other be a perfect stranger, they turn and flee, because his voice is unknown to them. This experiment, the writer proceeds to inform us, he has himself often made. He speaks of the dangers run by the shepherds for their sheep. "I have listened with intense interest to their graphic descrip- tion of downright and desperate fights with savage beasts." The wolf, the panther, the leopard come; the thief and the robber do their worst; and the shepherd has to submit to blows and wounds, and sometimes to death. "A poor faithful fellow," he goes on to narrate, "last spring, between Tiberias and Tabor, instead of fleeing, actually fought three Bedouin robbers until he was hacked to pieces, and died among the sheep he was defending." The sheep, we are reminded in this account, keep near to their shepherd. Some nearer than the rest are specially beloved; some stay farther away, but are careful not to go outside the range of his voice ; and a few, now and again, wander and are lost. "I have repeatedly seen the silly goat or sheep running hither and thither and bleating piteously after the lost flock, only to call forth from their dens the beasts of prey, or to bring up the lurking thief who quickly quiets its cries in death." — John Freeland. I am the Door. By Me if any man enter in, he shall he saved: and he shall go in and go out, and shall find pastures. — / am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd giveth His life for His sheep. — / am the Good Sliepherd; I know Mine, and Mine know Me. — John X, 9, II, 14. THE HUMILITY OF CHRIST There can be no doubt that our Lord could, if He had chosen, have made Himself exceedingly popular. He could have engineered a great social movement, or a political revolution, merely by force of that nameless attractiveness which led the crowd to listen to Him and follow Him. But at the critical moment He invariably refused or repelled the popular homage. When the multitude wanted to "make Him a king," a champion, probably, of the downtrodden poorer classes, He hid Himself. When a great following was attach- ing itself to Him as a benevolent wonder-worker, from whom a constant supply of the necessaries of life might be expected, He horrified His hearers by His unexplained reference to the great and august mystery in which His own Body was to be the food of His adherents, so that most of His followers turned back and walked with Him no more. So also, at the end of His career on earth, there came a final scene of enthusiasm, which He might, if He had chosen, have made use of to overwhelm the scheme of the Jewish authorities for His destruction, and to obtain for Himself a portion of natural authority and influence. The chief priests and Pharisees felt the menace of this popular outburst and their own powerlessness against it. "Do you see that we prevail nothing? Behold, the whole JESUS CHRIST tl world is gone after Him." But they need not have been afraid; our Lord was constant to His principle of independence, and would not use His opportunity. Now, as always, He acceoted the popular acclamation as some small part of His due, but He gave it no positive encouragement, and made no use of it whatever: He merely let it die out, for want of anything to feed upon. He would not fan the flame by a harangue, or feed it with a party cry; He led the shouting crowds nowhere and proposed no enterprise to them. H they liked to follow and acclaim Him as King and Messias, well and good; He was all that they thought Him, and more. But He would offer them nothing beyond His own personality — no gifts, no schemes of political reform, no incitement to revolutionary enterprise. "He entered into the Temple and viewed all things round about." That was all — a tame ending, indeed, to a day of so much enthusiasm. So there was nothing more to be done or seen, or said; the crowd had nothing to do but to disperse, and Jesus "went out to Bethania with the twelve." No hosannas, no waving palm branches, no carpet of foliage and the garments of passionate adherents, no splendour of sunshine to supply the lack of royal magnificence ; but the cold evening wind and the silence of coming night; withered leaves by the rugged wayside, and thirteen tired figures slowly climbing in the gathering darkness. — A. B. SJiarpe. HOW WE RECEIVE CHRIST We may also reflect that all do not receive and possess Jesus in the same way. Some, like the Bethlehemite, refuse Him a shelter, and these are bad Christians; others receive Him coldly and indiffer- ently, and these are lukewarm Christians ; others again, like the shepherds, come with faith to adore their Lord at the manger, and afterward return to their usual occupations, but continue to return again and again to the service of their Saviour, these are fervent Christians; finally, others, like Mary and Joseph, always remain with and possess Jesus, and these are the perfect Christians, who with their whole heart and with all their strength live to God and to Christ Our Lord. — Arthur Devine, C. P. CHRIST ALOXE SIUST RULE IX THE HEART The heart of man is naturally a pantheon. It is filled with idols and it worships them. Inordinate self-love and passionate love of creatures profane and defile it. When Christ enters the heart. He enters as a King. The heart must be His own, and in it He must rule supreme. He tolerates no false gods, no idols. They all must vanish before His face, even as the snow melts before the warm rays of the April sun. — C. M. Thuente, O. P. JESUS REJECTED A holy monk was going through a forest one Christmas night He was thinking about the love of God, in sending His beloved Son Jesus to be born on that night for us. As he was passing along, he thought he heard the cries of a newly born child not far from him. He turned towards the place from whence the sound came, and behold, he saw lying on the snow a beautiful child, crying and tremb- ■62 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS ling in the cold. Filled with compassion for the poor infant, he said, "My little child, how is it that you are thus left alone, lying on the cold snow? Who has had the cruelty to leave you there?" Then the little child — for it was a vision of Jesus Himself that the monk saw — answered him: "Alas! how can I help crying, when I see Myself abandoned by everyone, when I see that nobody receives Me or has pity for Me. Having said this. He disappeared. The monk then understood that this vision was given him to show him that men whom Jesus came from Heaven to save, instead of loving Him and receiving Him with joy, do Jiot make room in their hearts for Him, but cast Him out, as the Jews did, to a poor stable, and leave Him there to cry, without giving Him even one word of pity. — St. Alphonsus Liguori. JESUS, A MAN OF PRAYER Jesus, the Son of God, made flesh and dwelling among us to teach us how to live and save our souls, was a Man of prayer. He taught and illustrated every virtue, but none so frequently and emphatically as prayer. His long hidden life was a life of uninter- rupted prayer. At the beginning of His public life the Holy Spirit led Him into the desert to fast and pray for forty days. When He returned He ascended the mountain, addressed His disciples, the multitudes, the whole world — and preached prayer ! — C. M. Thuente, 0. P. THE SACRED HEART One day, as Blessed Margaret Mary was kneeling before the altar, Jesus appeared to her in a visible manner in all the splendour of His glory, His five wounds shining like five bright suns. He showed her His adorable Heart all surrounded with flames, and told her the great extent to which the excess of His love for man had carried Him. "Behold," He said, "behold this Heart which has loved men so much, and made every effort to testify that love. In return I receive from the greater number only contempt and ingratitude. It is this," He continued, "which I feel more deeply than all that I suffered in My Passion; for if they would only return My love, I would consider all that I have done for them as nothing, and, if possible, I would even wish to do more; instead of which I meet with coldness and repulses from men in My anxiety to do them good. At least, then," added He, "do thou give Me satisfaction by atoning for their ingratitude as far as thou art able." The devotion to the Sacred Heart is with reason called a treasure of true sanctity ; for it is the devotion which most pleases God and most helps souls. By it we return love for love, by it we repair the injuries of ungrateful men, by it we obtain the most precious of all graces, and we know that Our Lord prefers it, and rewards it, before all other devotions. He has asked us to honour His Divine Heart by pictures in our rooms and prayer-books, and has promised blessings wherever they shall be. Its practice is: (i) By thanking Him for His immense love for men, especially in the Blessed Sacrament, and therefore by consecrating ourselves, our prayers, works, and sufferings to Him every day. (2) By compassion for the ill-treatment He receives from sinners, and therefore by acts of reparation to His JESUS CHRIST 83 wounded honour. (3) By fighting self, that we may love Him better: first, in all affection to any deliberate sin; second, all indulgence of sensuality or self-love; and third, in dissipation of mind and heart over exterior things. (4) By making others know and love this Devotion at every opportunity. Lastly, by great love of our Lady. — /. Dignam, S. J. THE HOLY NAME The Holy Spirit saw that Name throughout the ages of man's existence, and, in all His work for the sanctification of souls, knew that it was through this Name that He could find entrance into the hearts of men. Whether before that day or since. His grace, as it is powerful in the insoirations with which He favours men; as it is manifested in the unerring guidance of the church; as it is poured forth through the Sacraments, could do its work only through the merits of Jesus, whose act of salvation was required that men might return to God. — Thomas F. Burke, C. S. P. Thou shaft call His Name Jesus. For He shall save His people from their sins. — Matt, I, 21, He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the Cross; — For zvhich cause God also hath exalted Him, and hath given Him a Name which is above all names: — That in the Name of Jesus every knee should bozu, of those that are in Heaven, on earth, and tinder the earth, — And that every tongue should confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father. — Phil. H, 8-1 1. Neither is there salvation in any other. For there is no other name under heaven given to men whereby we must be saved. —Acts IV, 12. Visit the bedside of the dying Saint; see him as life is ebbing away and the dawn of a truer life and love is breaking; see him fix the eyes that are being dimmed by death in a steady gaze upon the crucifix that he clasps in his hand; listen to the last word of his voice, uttered with unspeakable affection, and you will hear the sound of the name Jesus. Gaze back into the past, and on some Roman holiday stand in the amphitheater of the Imperial City; behold a man, despised of men, an outcast about to meet his death; see approach the racing beasts ready to devour him; see the smile of Heaven that lights up his countenance, and hear the martyr's last word in which he finds strength and courage — Jesus.' — Thomas F. Burke, C. S. P. Jesus! Speak the word, and you have made an act of faith. You have professed vour belief in Him who taught men the way of salva- tion, who said that He was the wav, the truth and the life. You have yielded the homage of vour intellect to Him who had the power and the right to teach men the thines of God. Jesus! Speak the word, and you have made an act of hope. You 34 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS have brought up before your soul the vision that gives you the right to hope. Despite the fall of the human race, despite your own sins, despite the cruel persistence of the powers of evil, despite the discouragement of many temptations, and the bitter weariness of the welfare of life, despite the weakness of the flesh and the infidelity of the world, in that Name your soul is raised above the struggling, tossing strife and empovi^ered to look into the very courts of Heaven. Jesus! Speak the word, and you have made an act of love. Through faith and hope you are enabled to utter it with that which surpasses these — love itself. If you were to ask the rabble that sur- rounded the Cross upon Good Friday why that name of Jesus was written above the form that hung upon the wood, they would tell you that it was the name of one who had blasphemed against God. If you were to ask your own soul why this name was there in- scribed, you would be compelled to answer: "It was because of my sins." But if it were given you to gaze with the spiritual eyes of faith, to read what the eyes of the executor and the sinner could not see, you would behold, burning with the light of Heaven and emblazoned in letters of gold, another word beside that sacred Name, and that word — Love! — Thomas F. Burke, C. S. P. In a New York hospital there was recently on the operating table a man who suffered of cancer of the tongue, and the only way to save his life was to remove the tongue. Surgeons and nurses were assembled and everything was ready for the operation, when the chief surgeon asked the patient if he wished to say a few words for the last time, because after the operation he would be speechless for life. The patient nodded his head, sat up and said with a loud voice: "Praised be Jesus Christ." Needless to say that all those assembled were most deeply affected by the sincere piety of the man, who devoted the last words he would ever speak to the praise of his Saviour. Let His Name be Blessed for evermore. His Name continueth before the sun.—Fs. LXXI, 17. THE DEVOTION TO THE HOLY NAME St. Bernardine of Sienna was the instrument made use of by Almighty God to promote devotion in his day to the Holy Name. In order to direct the attention of the people to this devotion he had a picture painted representing the Holy Name surrounded with rays of glory, which he exposed for veneration after his missionary sermons and by this means propagated the devotion. Later on, Bernardine de Bustis composed for the Franciscan Fathers the office of the Holy Name of Jesus, which Pope Clement VII. approved. After this the office and Mass of the Holy Name became more and more extended throughout the Church, till at length Innocent XIII. instituted the feast itself and ordered it to be kept throughout the whole Church. This is in brief the history of the institution of the feast. THE HOLY GHOST 85 THE HOLY GHOST THE HOLY GHOST We do not know the laws by which He acts. The Spirit breatheth where He will. Only this law we know — that He is ever with us with sufficient light and strength for all our needs. He is called the finger of God's right hand. Therefore it is that He is always leading us gently and sweetly even though we be unconscious of His influence. We may seem at times to be making our own spiritual careers, and saving our souls by methods which we judge best and safest. But as we grow older we begin to realize that it is another who guides us. We had thought we were choosing Him when in reality He was choosing us. It is not necessary to have lived very long in order to look back on the past and recognize the control of the Holy Spirit. Strangely enough we see this when it is all over, and either can not, or will not, see it when it is taking place. We are like the disciples who walked with Our Lord to Emmaus. They did not realize on the way to whom they were talking. But when, at supper, He made Himself known, then they remembered how their hearts had burned within them. — Thomas F. Gerrard. Whosoever are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. — For yon have not received the spirit of bondage again in fear ; but yon have received the spirit of adoption of sons, whereby we cry, Abba (Father). — For the Spirit Himself giveth testimony to our spirit that we are the sons of God. — Rom. Will, 14-16. / will ask the Father, and He shall give you another Paraclete, that He may abide zvith you for ever, the Spirit of Truth. — But the Paraclete, the Holy Ghost, Whom the Father will send in My Name, He zvill teach you all things. — John XIV, 16, 26. Know you not that your members are the temple of the Holy Ghdst, Who is in you? — Glorify and bear God in your body. — I. Cor. VI, 19-20. CHAPTER II THE SAINTS; THE BLESSED VIRGIN; THE ANGELS THE VENERATION OF THE SADfTS The Catholic Church teaches that the Saints reigning with Christ ought to be honoured by us, that they intercede for us, and it is good for us to ask their intercession. The Saints reign with Christ. He says of them : 'He that shall overcome, I will give to sit upon My throne, as I have overcome, and am set down on my Father's throne.' The Saints are honoured by God in the highest degree ; they share the glory of their Divine Master and Head. We are, therefore, bound to honour them on the principle laid down by St. Paul — 'Honour to whom honour is due,' a principle which is in its nature of universal application to all intelligent beings, according to the image of God which is in them, but especially in proportion to their likeness to God, that is, to their sanctity. This you will not deny. There is no principle on which we should give honour to great and holy men on earth which does not apply in a yet more eminent degree to those truly great and holy beings who reign with Christ in Heaven. — IV. Lockhart. THE VENERATION OF SAINTS DOES NOT UrWINISH THE HONOUR GIVEN TO GOD By honouring the Saints who have slept in the Lord, by invoking their intercession, and venerating their sacred relics and ashes, so far is the glory of God from being diminished, that it is very much increased, in proportion as the hope of men is thus more excited and confirmed, and they are encouraged to the imitation of the Saints. This office (of piety) is also supported by the second Council of Nice, the Councils of Gangra, and of Trent; and by the authority of the Holy Fathers. — Catechism of the Council of Trent. ENITNITE DISTINCTION BETWEEN GOD AND THE SAINTS A little reflection will enable any one to see the infinite distinction between God Who of His own nature knows all things, and is present everywhere; and the Saints and angels who only know much more than man knows upon earth, such knowledge being itself all derived from God, and only such as He is pleased to reveal to them. —W. Lockhart. SUPERNATURAL POWERS OF THE S.\INTS Holy Scripture informs us that even on earth the Saints of God have exercised supernatural powers, as we read in the lives of the Prophets in the Old Testament, and of the Apostles in the New. They declared future events and occurrences which were taking place at a distance out of sight; they wrought miracles and raised the 36 THE SAINTS 37 dead to life; and in attributing to them such powers we are in no danger of forgetting that they were only agents or instruments. So in attributing to the Saints in Heaven supernatural powers, similar to those which have been enjoyed by some Saints on earth, are we likely to forget that they too are only instruments in the hands of God, and receive all their knowledge and power from Him? — IV. Lockhart. THE SAINTS PEKFECT CHRISTIANS The Saints have been given to us not precisely that we may imitate all that they have done, but as an indication of the assistance of Jesus Christ to His Church, in the bosom of which He produces them to be the monuments of the power of His grace, and the honour of human nature restored by redemption. The Saints are not simply the elect, the just, who will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; they are the Christians who, having practiced all the Christian virtues in a heroic degree, have shone on earth as celestial torches of super- natural perfection, to serve them as an encouragement to the practice of their duties, as its salt to preserve the masses from corruption, to promulgate in an incessant manner the maxims of Christian morality, always exposed to danger from the spirit of the world. — Dom Giieranger. THE SAINTS DESERVING OF OUR GRATITUDE Thankful we should be for the Saints of earth; but we are prone to forget that the Saints are of all times, of all climes and of all conditions of life. Or else, the wrath of the Almighty must surely long since have been unchained against our sinful race ; and in the deluge of iniquity in which we find ourselves, there would be left none with the heart to continue the work of God. Only on the last day, when the grave shall give up its dead and the record of all lives shall be spread before the gaze of mankind, will it be seen who are the Saints, the full many gems of purest ray supreme held in the vast unfathomed depths of earth. — John H. Stapleton. THE SAINTS THE EXAMPLES WE NEED The doctrine taught by Jesus Christ is found to be difficult and exceedingly distasteful to the natural man. Now, the Church v»'ell knows that it is far easier for her children to learn it by example than by the solemn enunciation of dry precept. The abstract truth one may indeed admire, but it makes little appeal to the sluggish will. We approve and applaud, and then pass on our way, and soon forget the impression it has made. But, when the same truth is presented to us in the concrete, it arrests our attention, and fills us with holy desires. So that when we witness the conduct of holy men, we are inclined to exclaim, with tlie great Bishop of Hippo, "Why should not we do as these have done?" When we can look upon men and women of the world, practicing heroic virtue, and leading noble and self-denying lives, we soon begin to realize that Sanctity is not a blossom of another clime, but a plant of earthly growth, and that, so far from being unattainable, it may be secured by anyone who is thoroughly determined to do his best to make it his own. — Bishop John S. Vaughan. 38 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS THE IDEA OF A SAINT NOT REALIZED BY PROTESTANTS The reason why Protestants object to our mode of honouring the Saints is, because they have not practically realized the idea of a Saint, they have never brought home to their minds as a reality the existence of the Saints, and what their position is at this moment in the courts of Heaven. They do not see the relation in which the Saints stand to them, and hence they do not feel that they have any duties towards them. — W. Lockhart. THE COJDIUNION OF SATNTS It is wide in its sweep, this principle of Catholic teaching; it proclaims that there are no walls of partition between the souls of the just either this side of the tomb or beyond. There is one limitless kingdom, one wonderful body, one kingdom of God. Through every province of it. triumphant, militant and suiTering, course life-giving currents of Divine grace and of human sympathy. Part is close bound to part ; and neither sorrow, nor pain, nor death can dissolve the strong bond of fellowship which unites member with member. The Christian can never rejoice, neither can he ever suffer, entirely alone. Whether he lives or whether he dies, he is part of Christ's Body, so to remain throughout eternity. — Joseph McSorley, C.S.P. DEGREES OF GLORY AMONG THE SAINTS One of the ancient Fathers in the desert had a vision of Heaven. He saw there, as it were, four different companies of Saints, placed one above the other in glory. The lowest group" was composed of those who, while on earth, had been afflicted with sickness and bodily infirmities, and had borne them patiently for God's sake. The second group consisted of those who had spent their lives in acts of charity towards their neighbour. In the third group were those holy solitaries who for Christ's sake had left the world to seek the kingdom of God by a life of prayer and penance. All these were enjoying great happiness in God's holy presence. But the fourth group was still more glorious; and those who composed it seemed to possess even a greater happiness than the others. The solitary asked the angel who showed him these things who those were wno formed that glorious company. "Those whom you see so high up and so beautiful," answered the angel, "are those who, when in the world, had been obedient. The others served God well, therefore they are now enjoying the reward of their fidelity. But in their good works there was much that was agreeable to themselves. But those who were obedient renounced their own will to submit themselves to the will of others whom God had placed over them, and for this God has bestowed on thera a higher degree of glory." THE SAINTS AND ANGELS KNOW WHAT HAPPENS ON EARTH Do the Saints and angels know what goes on here on earth? Is there, or is there not, any communication between this world and the world of spirits? Catholics declare their belief in this every time they say "I believe in the Communion of Saints." by which we THE SAINTS 89 mean, amongst other things, that we believe in a real intercommunion and fellowsiiip between the Church militant here on earth and the Church triumphant in Heaven. We find this expressed clearly enough in the words of St, Paul, in his Epistle to the Hebrews: "We are come," says the Apostle, "to a great company . . . the Church of the first born, who are written in the heavens. We are compassed about with a great cloud of witnesses. Many thousands of angels and the spirits of just men made perfect." Here we are clearly told, that we, the children of the Church upon earth, are already come to the City of the Living God, the Heavenly Jerusalem, and to the company of many thousands of angels and the spirits of the just, that we have all this great cloud of witnesses around us. Who then can speak of the honour we pay to the Saints and angels as if it were given to dead men and beings far removed from all concern with earth and its inhabitants? — W. Lockhart, HOW CAN THE SAINTS HEAR OCR PRATERSt The Saints are not omnipresent, but God is, and they behold our prayers in God as in a mirror, for they incessantly enjoy the vision of God. They are in spiritual union with God and realize everything that "God communicates to them. That God wills the inhabitants of Heaven to have knowledge of the things on earth, follows from the words of Christ: "There is more rejoicing in Heaven over one sinner who does penance than over ninety-nine who need not penance." THE INTERCESSION OF THE SAINTS In Holy Scripture we have several cases exactly in point ; the friends of Job were told by God Himself to go and ask Job to pray for them, for He would not accept their prayers except at Job's intercession. Abimelech received a revelation from God in a vision, telling him to go and get Abraham to pray for him. Aaron offered incense at God's command and interceded for the people. The Saints reigning with Christ offer up their prayers to God for men ; it is good and profitable suppliantly to invoke them, and to have recourse to their prayers and assistance, in order to obtain favours from God through His Son Jesus Christ Our Lord, who is our only Redeemer and Saviour. — Council of Trent. The revelation of God assures us that the same law holds in things Divine as in things human. If I desire a favour of a man, I may ask him directly, or indirectly through his wife or a personal friend. The request ultimately must come to him. So it is in the supernatural life. I may always pray to God through His only Son, or feeling a sense of God's majesty and my own unworthiness, I may pray the Saints to plead my case in the presence of the Lord. The Saints no more interfere with our access to Christ than the pipe which carries the water from the reservoir prevents that water from entering our houses. They are links in the great chain of the Christian fellowship, uniting us one with the other in the bond of Divine love. — Bcrtrand L. Conway, C.S.P. 40 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS THE LORD'S TKAYER AN INTERCESSORY PRATER If you deny intercessor}' prayer let me beg you never to use the Lord's Prayer again, — for from first to last it is intercessory prayer, and never again pray for wife, or child, or ask another to pray for you. To do so is to make yourself, or another, a mediator with God, exactly in the sense in which we make the Saints mediators, neither more nor less. — IV. Lockhart. A SAINT'S rORTITlDE Blessed John Fisher was condemned to die because he would not deny his Faith, and would not yield to the iniquitous desires of an ambitious king. As he was advanced in age and weak from the sufferings he had endured, he leant upon his staff as he was led to the place of his death. But when he reached the scaffold he threw away the staff, saying: "Take courage, my feet, you have not much more to do; a few steps more, and you will bring me into the house of my God, where my sufferings shall be changed into joy." MIRACLES OF SAINTS RECORDED IN THE BIBLE -VXD IN EARLY WRITINGS One of the most famous and most highly esteemed of the Saints in the first century of the Christian era was St. Paul. He was consequently greatly beloved and most highly esteemed by the faithful. Knowing him to be a great Apostle and a great Saint, they not only asked his prayers, and sought his blessing, but they showed a reverence for everything that belonged to him, or that had even touched him or been connected with him. And they sought favours and graces both for body and for soul by the reverent use of these purely material objects. "So that," as we are expressly informed by St. Luke (Acts xix.), "they brought handkerchiefs and aprons from his body to the sick" and the feeble. And for what purpose? Well, what possible purpose could a handkerchief or an apron, a remnant of simple linen or cloth, serve? Unless there be some hidden virtue in it arising from its connection with the Saint; unless, in other words, it is to be considered as a relic, we should reply : None. As St. Luke clearly infers, its efficacy was wholly supernatural. He tells us how these objects were applied to the sick, and how, as a consequence, "the diseases departed from them and the wicked spirits went out of them." (Acts xix, 12). — Bishop John S. Vaiighan. In the city of Uzales, in Africa, there lived a man whose name was Concordius. One day, by a fall, his leg was broken, and from that time forward he was not able to walk without using a crutch. Hearing of the wonders that were wrought by the relics of St. Stephen, he dragged himself to a church where part of these relics was preserved. There he prayed with great devotion. Suddenly in the midst of his prayers he felt his leg healed, and, rising up, he was able to walk without the help of his crutch. In thanksgiving to the Saint for his cure, he caused a number of candles to be lighted before the shrine, and, going out, published everywhere the wonderful works of God in His Saints. — St. Augustine. THE SAINTS 41 It is related of St. Francis Solanus, the Saint of South America, that through his means a poor woman was cured of an issue of blood. There was an Indian settlement in Sokotonio, Peru, and the drinking water ran dry. St. Francis feared that if the Indians changed the location of the settlement that they would lose their religious faith, which as yet was not strong. He prayed as only a Saint can pray and sweet water gushed from the green earth. Even in the present day, the Spaniards and Indians call the spot the "Well of St. Solanus." ST, JOSKPH, THE PATRON OF THE DYING A missionary in South Africa having lost his way came to the house of a Protestant, and made himself known as a Catholic priest. The Protestant said to him: "You have come just in time; one of my workmen, a Catholic, is at the point of death." The priest went at once to visit the dying man. On seeing the priest he said: "Thanks be to God. I knew that St. Joseph would send me a priest to prepare me for death." He told the priest that, when he was a boy, his mother had taught him to pray every day to St. Joseph, saying: "St. Joseph, obtain for me a holy death." When he became a soldier and had to go to South Africa, his mother again admonished him never to omit saying that prayer daily to St. Joseph. This he promised and faithfully kept his promise. When he took sick the nearest priest lived one hundred and fifty miles away, and even if sent for could not have arrived in time to prepare him for death. But St. Joseph sent the missionary to the place where his client was dying, in order to prepare him for a good death by administering to him the last Sacraments. — F. Girardey, C.SS.R. PICTURES OF THE SAINTS The custom of treasuring the pictures of those dear to us is so general and natural that the Catholic custom of keeping images of Saints should not need any explanation. Since the world dedicates with great solemnity statues to its heroes and scholars, and offers honour to these statues, what is more natural than that we should show honour to the statues of Saints who are greater heroes than worldly eft'ort ever produced. Men have been put to death for trampling on their country's flag. To the mother a picture of her dead child in sacred; but, certainly it is not the flag or picture that are held sacred, but what they represent, and this of course is also the case with the statues and images of Saints. The statues and images of Saints are intended to make it easy for us to devote our thoughts to them. Even in the case of our earthly acquaintances we cannot give earnest thought to them without picturing them to ourselves in our mind. Without pictures and statues, a great induce- ment to prayer would be lacking. Our custom of venerating the relics of Saints is not different from the custom of the world to venerate the relics of great men that may be seen in every museum. It would be ridiculous to say that in the honour shown to the inkstand of some great poet, for instance, there is adoration, or idol worship, and it is just as ridiculous to say this of our veneration of relics of the Saints. 42 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS EFFIGLES A>T> IMAGES MADE BY THE COMMAND OF GOD We read in the Scriptures that eHigies and imnges were made, by the command of God, of Cherubim, of the brazen serpent (Num. xxi, 8, sq.). It remains, therefore, that we interpret images to have been forbidden only inasmuch as they might be the cause of detracting from the true worship of God, as though they were to be adored as gods. — Catechism of the Council of Trent. THE VENERATION AND EFFICACY OF RELICS Whom would not the wonders wrought at their tombs convince of t!ie honour which is due to the Saints, and of the "patronage" of us which they undertake? the blind, and the paralyzed restored to their pristine state, the dead recalled to life, and demons expelled from the bodies of men ! facts which St. Ambrose, and St. Augustine, most unexceptionable witnesses, declare in their writings, not to have heard, not to have read, but to have seen. But why multiply proofs? if the clothes, the kerchiefs (Acts xix, 12), if the shadow of the Saints (Acts v, 15), before they departed life, banished diseases and restored strength, who will have the hardihood to deny that God wonderfully works the same by the sacred ashes, the bones, and other relics of the Saints? This did that body proclaim, which, having been accidentally let down into the sepulchre of Eliseus, "when it had touched the bones" of the Prophet, instantly "came to life" (4 Kings xiii, 21; Eccli, xlviii, 14, sq.). — Catechism of the Council of Trent. VENERATION OF RELICS AND IMAGES When we honour or venerate relics and images, we do so, not for their own sake, but for the sake of the persons whose relics or images they are. To accuse us of the contrary is gross calumny. But there is something peculiar about images, in that they represent, J. e., make present to us, or stand for, the person of their original. It is not the material image we honour or worship, the marble, or canvas, or colour; it is the person in the image. The same is true of symbols. Who does not know of the military custom of saluting the flag? The flag stands for the country. Could anyone be so silly as to fancy that it is the country itself which flutters in the breeze? Yet when the flag is honoured it is deemed, and justly, that the country is honoured ; and conversely. Tell me, then, what is meant by burning bishops, or popes in effigy f . . . How is it childish to honour an image, if it is not childish to dishonour it? — Cardinal Nezuman. AN ATHEIST ON OUR VENERATION OF PICTURES AND STATUES Elbert Hubbard (Non-Cath.) had a word to say in rebuke to those who misinterpret our reverence for representations of the friends of God. He declared that the attitude of English Parliament on the question of paganism (in refusing, in 18 15, to pay for the Elgin Marbles because "these relics will tend to prostitute England to the depth of unbelief that engulfed pagan Greece") "finds voice occasionally even yet by Protestant England, making darkness dense with the asseveration that Catholics idolatrously worship the pictures and statues in their churches." {Little Journeys: Raphael.) THE BLESSED VIRGIN 43 A PROTESTANT ON THE USE OF KELIGIOUS PICTURES To the Church a picture was only a reminder of the devotion due, and the means of fixing the attention of the worshipper on the subject of his adoration — any contemplation of the refinements of the artist would cause distractions that were not favourable to reli|E^ious concentration — VV. J. Stillman (Non-Cath.), in The Century Maga- zine, August. 1890. THE BLESSED VIRGIN THE MOTHER OF THE LIVING GOD If Mary is the Mother of God, if she gave birth to Him, of whom St. Paul speaks when he says: "The Church of the Living God, which He (the living God) has purchased with His Own Blood"; if it was the "Blood of the Living God" by whom we were redeemed, it is as strictly true that Mary is Mother of the "Living God." H she is the Mother of God, she is worthy of Her office, since God does nothing unworthy of Himself; but nothing can fit a creature for any office in relation to God but holiness. Of His material Temple, but still more directly of His living Temple, it was said "Holiness becometh Thy House for ever." Mary's holiness, therefore, must be in proportion to her exaltation to that most sublime dignity, and as God's Mother it is her fitness to hold that dignity. Therefore, it is the greatest holiness existing in creatures. But if Mary is holy, she has the power of holiness ; and the power of holiness is the power of prayer, and as there is no holiness like her's so there is no power of prayer like to her's — VV. Lockhart. Behold, a Virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son, and His Name shall be called Emmanuel. — Is. VH, 14. BIABT, THE REAL MOTHER OF GOD It has been held from the first, and defined from an early age, that Mary is the Mother of God. She is not merely the Mother of our Lord's manhood, or of our Lord's Body, but she is to be considered the Mother of the Word Himself, the Word incarnate. God, in the person of the Word, the Second Person of the All glorious Trinity, humbled Himself to become her Son. "Non horruisti Virginis uteriim," as the Church sings, "Thou didst not disdain the Virgin's womb." He took the substance of His human flesh from her, and clothed in it He lay within her; and He bore it about with Him after birth, as a sort of badge and witness that He, though God, was hers. He was nursed and tended by her; He was suckled by her; He lay in her arms. As time went on. He ministered to her, and obeyed her. He lived with her for thirty years, in one house, with an uninter- rupted intercourse, and with only the saintly Joseph to share it with them. She was the witness of His growth, of His joys, of His sorrows, of His prayers; she was blest with His smile, with the touch of His hand, with the whisper of His affection, with the expression of His thoughts and His feelings for that length of time. U ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS Now, my brethren, what ought she to be, what is it becoming that she should be, who was so favoured? — Cardinal Newman. But ivhile he thought on these things, behold the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in his sleep, saying: Joseph, son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy ivife, for that whieh is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. — Matt. I, 20. It cavie to pass that when they were there, her days were accom- plished that she should he dcl.vered. — And she brought forth her First-born Son, and zvrapped Him up in swaddling clothes, and laid Him in a manger. — Luke II, 6. CHRIST'S CHOICE OF A MOTHER Jesus Christ was not as other sons, who are incapable of selecting their own mothers. The ordinary child, about to be born, has no voice in the matter. But Christ was God, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity. It rested with Him, therefore, and wholly and solely with Him, to choose among all women the most worthy and the most fitting for the purpose. His choice lay among all the members of the human race, future as well as present, and merely possible as well as actual. The honour He was about to confer was unique, unparalleled, sublime, and in a sense, infinite. On whom would He confer it? Would He choose for His mother a sinner, when He might as easily have a saint ? Would He choose a slave, when He might have a queen? Would He choose one stained and tarnished when He might have one pure and immaculate? Impos- sible ! — Bishop John S. Vaughan. BY LIVING WITH JESUS MARY CAME TO REFLECT HIS SANCTITY Do we ask how she came to reflect His sanctity? It was by living with Him. We see every day how like people get to each other who live with those they love. When they live with those they don't love, as, for instance, the members of a family who quarrel with each other, then the longer they live together the more unlike each other they become ; but when they love each other, as husband and wife, parents and children, brothers with brothers or sisters, friends with friends, then in course of time they get surprisingly like each other. — Cardinal Newman, MARY, A SECOND EVE The Apostle sometimes calls Christ Jesus "the last Adam" (i Cor. XV, 45, sqq; Rom. v, 12), and institutes a comparison between Him and the first; for as in the first all men die, so in the second all are "made alive" (Eccl. xxv, 33; Gen. ii) ; and as, in the natural order, Adam was the father of the human race, so Christ is the author of grace and glory. The Virgin Mother we may also in like manner compare with Eve; making the second Eve, that is Mary, correspond with the first, as we have shown the second Adam, that is Christ, to correspond with the first Adam. For Eve, believing the serpent entailed malediction and death on the human THE BLESSED VIRGIN 45 race (Eph. ii, 3) ; and, after Mary believed the angel, the Divine goodness made her instrumental in bringing benediction and life to men. From Eve we are born "children of wrath" (Gen. iii, 16); from Mary we have received Jesus Christ, through whom we arc regenerated children of grace. To Eve it was said : " In sorrow shalt thou bring forth children" (Gen. iii, 16): Mary was exempt from this law, lor, preserving inviokte the integrity of her virginal chastity, she brought forth Jesus the Son of God, without, as we have already said, any sense of pain. — Catechism of the Council of Trent. I zinll put enmities hetzueen thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel. — Gen. Ill, 15. THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION That Jesus Christ was, in a manner altogether supernatural, "conceived by the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary," is something which every thinking Christian believes, and professes when he recites the Creed, This is the Virgin Birth. To breathe such a thing as stain in connection with the coming into the world of the Son of God, is a sacrilege that amounts to a categorical denial of His Divinity. Mary's part in that mystery was that of a woman chosen to be a vessel containing the Holy of Holies ; in this mystery she becomes the mother of God. But between Mary conceiving her Son, and Mary being herself conceived, there is a whole world of difference. It is to this latter fact, the mystery of her being conceived immaculately in the womb of her mother St. Ann, that the Immac- ulate Conception refers. A whole generation separated these two mysteries in point of time ; eternity alone can measure the quality that differentiates them in point of dignity. — John H. Stapleton. No defiled thing comet h unto her. For she is the brightness of Eternal Light and the unspotted mirror of God's Majesty, and the image of His goodness. — IVisd. VII, 25-26. (See Gradual for Feast of the Most Pure Heart of Mary.) The conception of Mary Immaculate did not exclude all human agency, all natural operation, as did that of her Divine Son. Mary's parents were truly parents to her in the obvious meaning of the word. Nor may we pretend that the grace she enjoyed was any more than an exemption, made in view of a future dignity that precluded the very thought of sin, altogether undue, unessential to her nature. It was a pure gift, raising her higher than all other creatures, but leaving her nevertheless a pure creature with an engrafted endowment, "an unfallen child of Adam." Nearer to God than any of us, she is as far from being Divine as the least of us. She needed redemption like all of us ; but whereas redemption is applied to us by means of Baptism, it was supplied to her by anticipa- tion, at the moment that she began to exist. — John H. Stapleton. 4C ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND [NSTRUCTIONS THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION OF SIABY AND THE 8ANCTIFICATION OF JOHN THE BAPTIST There was one great approach to this singular privilege of Mary. We are told that St. John the Baptist was sanctified before his birth, at the meeting between St. Elizabeth and the Blessed Virgin. Such sanctification is as solitarj- as that of Mary; but it is wide asunder from it. Mary's soul was created full of grace, an object of love to God, St. John's as that of a fallen parent's child, blasted by his folly; Mary's soul received sanctifying grace with its existence, St. John's was without it till Mary came over the hills of Judaea to visit his saintly mother. Mary's soul began to exist full of grace, she was immaculate at her conception; St. John's began to exist devoid of grace, but received it before birth, through a special gift of God. — P. Sexton. THE EXALTATION OF IHARY NECESSITATED BY HER OFFICE A mother without a home in the Church, without dignity, without gifts, would have been, as far as the defence of the Incarnation goes, no mother at all. She would not have remained in the memory, or the imagination of men. If she is to witness and remind the world that God became man, she must be on a high and eminent station for the purpose. She must be made to fill the mind, in order to suggest the lesson. When she once attracts our attention, then, and not till then, she begins to preach Jesus. " Why should she have such prerogatives," we ask, "unless He be God? and what must He be by nature, when she is so high by grace?" This is why she has other prerogatives besides, namely, the gifts of personal purity and intercessory power, distinct from her maternity ; she is personally endowed that she may perform her office well ; she is exalted in herself that she may minister to Christ. — Cardinal Newman. Blessed art thou, O daughter, by the Lord the Most High God, above all women of the earth. — Judith XIII, 23. / will greatly rejoice in the Lord, and my soul shall be joyful in my God; for He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation; and with the robe of justice He hath covered vie, and as a bride adorned with her jewels. — Is. LXI, 10. Thou art the glory of Jerusalem, thou art the joy of Israel, thou art the honour of our people. — Judith XV, 10. Thou art beautiful, O My love, sweet and comely as Jerusalem : terrible as an army set in array. — Cant. VI, 3. Mary hath chosen the best part, which shall not be taken from her. — Luke X, 42. (See Gospel for Feast of the Assumption.) JESUS AND MARY CANNOT BE SEPARATED The two, Jesus and Mary, cannot and must not be separated. Together they were from all eternity in God's plan of the redemption of mankind; together we find tliem in the stable at Bethlehem; THE BLESSED VIRGIN 47 together we find them in sorrow on Calvary; together we find them in glory in Heaven ; together we find them in the history of the Church, in the liturgy of the Church and in the hearts of the children of the Church. The Infant Jesus without Mary is a King without a throne, and Mary without the Child is a queen without a crown. — C. M. Thuentc, 0. P. Mother ! whose virgin bosom was uncrost With the least shade of thought to sin allied; Woman ! above all women glorified. Our tainted nature's solitary boast; Purer than foam on central ocean tost. — Wordsworth. TWO ALTARS ON MT. CALVARY "Ah," cries a Saint, "I see two altars upon Mount Calvary ! One in the heart of Mary, one in the flesh of Christ. Christ is offering up His flesh, Mary is offering up her soul. For she desires indeed to add her own blood to the Blood of her Son, and with the Lord Jesus to consummate the mystery of our redemption by the death of her body ; but that is alone the privilege of our great High Priest, that with blood He should enter into the Holy of Holies." — Bcde Camm, O.S.B. THE WORD "WOMAN" EXPLAINED BY PROTESTANT SCHOLARS Setting aside all Catholic authorities, who may be thought to be prejudiced, let us turn to the reliable and very well known Greek dictionary by the two Protestant scholars Liddell and Scott, and we shall find, on such unimpeachable authority, that "gunai" means "lady," and further that it is not a term of reproach, but "a term of respect." The distinguished Protestant scholar, Dr. Westcott, writes: "In the word 'woman,' as employed in the Greek, there is not the slighest tinge of reproof or of severity. The address is that of courteous respect, even of tenderness." Hence when Our Lord at the wedding feast of Cana addressed His blessed mother as "woman," He used a term of respect. If this is not proof enough to satisfy the most scrupulous Protes- tant, perhaps he may be convinced by the yet more explicit words of the well-known Richard Whately, the Protestant archbishop of Dublin. In a published sermon (Sermons on Various Subjects; sermon ix, p. 226) this Anglican divine writes of Our Blessed Lady, on the memorable occasion of the marriage feast, as follows: "She applied to Him, when the wine was deficient. His answer has not that roughness, indeed, which our English translation gives it, from the use of the term 'woman.' The word" (he goes on to explain), ''in the original, is one which denotes no disrespect, being found in the classical Greek writers applied even to a queen." Thus we see that even a Protestant archbishop, because he is a scholar and z learned man, openly admits that the word, so far from denoting dishonour, is commonly applied to the highest ladies of the land, even to queens, and this, too. bv the best classical writers. 48 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS MART GEIE^'ED BY SIN The grief of Mary, at the sight of her only Son crucified, wai le&s than that caused her by seeing a man offend Him by sin. — St. Ignatius. aiAKY THE EXAJIPLK FOR ALL STATES OF LIFE God willed that Mary went through all states of life so that all states of life might have in her an example to live according to God's will. — St. Theresa. TMARY OUR MODEL Our exceptional love for Mary springs from many sources. But we love her more than all other mere creatures, chiefly because God has commanded us to follow Him and to walk in His footsteps; "Learn of Me," "I am the way," etc. And He Himself, our model, loved her more than all. — Bishop John S. Vaughan. MARY THE LIGHT OF THE CHURCH Take Mary out of the Church and what is left but darkness ! — St. Thomas of Villanova. THE DEATH OF MARY It became Him, who died for the world to die in the world's sight ; it became the Great Sacrifice to be lifted up on high, as a light that could not be hid. But she, the Lily of Eden, who had always dwelt out of the sight of man, fittingly did she die in the garden's shade, and amid the sweet flowers, in which she had lived. Her departure made no noise in the world. The Church went about her common duties, preaching, converting, suffering, there were persecutions, there was fleeing from place to place, there were martyrs, there were triumphs; at length the rumour spread abroad that the Mother of God was no longer upon earth. Pilgrims went to and fro ; they sought for her relics ; but they found them not ; did she die at Ephesus? or did she die at Jerusalem? reports varied; but her tomb could not be pointed out, or if it was found, it was open; and instead of her pure and fragrant body, there was a growth of lilies from the earth which she had touched. So inquirers went home marvelling, and waiting for further light. And then it was said, how that when her dissolution was at hand, and her soul was to pass in triumph before the judgment-seat of her Son, the Apostles were suddenly gathered together in the place, even in the Holy City, to bear part in the joyful ceremonial; how that they buried her with fitting rites; how that the third day, when they came to the tomb, they found it empty, and angelic choirs with their glad voices were heard singing day and night the glories of their risen Queen. But. however we feel towards the details of this history (nor is there anything in it which will be unwelcome or difficult to piety), so much cannot be doubted, from the consent of the whole Catholic world and the revelations made to holy souls, that, as is befitting, she is, soul and body, with her Son and God in Heaven, and that we arc enabled to celebrate, not only her death, but her Assumption. — Cardinal Nfzvman. Most undoubtedly she passed through the gates of death into Ufa THE BLESSED VIRGIN 49 eternal. This is the universal belief of the Church. Not that she merited death, since the law of death, as revealed in the inspired pages, is the punishment of those only who have been guilty of sin, and as Mary was exempt from original sin, as well as from all actual sin, therefore was she also exempt from its penalty. Nor can it be urged that death must ensue in consequence of her human nature, for, in her case, the claim of nature is superseded by a supernatural claim to immortality; which would have been true even of Adam and Eve, had they not sinned, and therefore, much more so in the case of Marv. On the other hand, IMary is the mother of ITim, who died for us, so that it was becoming and fitting that she should die also, and for two reasons, firstly, lest she and her Son's nature's should be thought unreal, and, secondly, lest the human Mother should be privileged above her Divine Son. — Bishop John S. Vaiighan. Disobedience closed to the first Eve the gates of the earthly paradise, into which her sinlessness through grace had given her a right to enter. Obedience opened to the second Eve the gates of the heavenly paradise, into which she had won a right to enter by her sinlessness through grace. And so, in obedience to the decree of the Eternal King, she first passed through the gates of death; even as, in obedience to the decree of an earthly king, she had passed in life through the gates of her native village. And as her passing through the gates of Nazareth was but an incident of her journey to Bethlehem, so was her passing through the gates of death but an incident of that last journey, from earth to Heaven. Through those same gates One had gone before her who robbed death of its sting and the grave of its victory. Disease she knew not; physical pang there was none. Her agony she had borne long aforetime at the foot of the Cress. Gently she passed, as one who goes into a sleep, or as the fruit that is ripe falls of itself from the tree. Love, stronger than death, claimed her, and to Love's sweet attraction she yielded her life. Love had sown good seed in a towardly soil ; the seed had taken root, and grown, and borne fruit; the fruit had ripened ; the time of gathering had come. It was autumn in the land of Juda, when the angels gathered to God this fairest of all earth's fruits. It beseemed Him, who was at once the rower and the seed. to pass in the springtime, when seed is sown : unless the grain of Wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone. Her it beseemed to await the time of reaping, when the grain is ripe and the fields are white unto harvest. — Bishop A. MacDonald. THE ASSUMPTION St. Matthew informs us that at Our Saviour's death upon the Cross, "the graves were opened, and many bodies of the Saints that slept arose ; and, issuing from the tombs, after the Resurrection, came into the Holy City, and appeared unto many. Thus, there is no doubt but that, on rising from the tomb, Christ, who was "the first fruit of the dead," caused many of the dead also to arise in their bodies. And it is the teaching of such sound authorities as St. Ignatius Martyr, Origcn, Eusebius, Epiphanius and others, that these did not return to corruption and the grave, but were assumed up to 50 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS Heaven in their bodies, with Our Blessed Lcrd, at the time of His Ascension. Now, if this opinion be admitted, who will have the hardihood to deny a similar privilege to the great Mother of God and Queen of the heavenly host? To say that such a favour was conferred upon ordinary Saints, and those, too, belonging to the old dispensation, and it was withheld from the highest and holiest of all creatures, is an outrage upon reason and common sense. — Bishop John S. Vaughan. UABT'S SUBMISSION TO GOD'S WIIL In considering the flight into Egypt, we must admire the nobility of our Lady's heart, as well as that of her Divine Child, as, according to St. John Chrysostom, Mary might have replied thus to the angel who urged them to take flight: "Not long ago thou didst tell me that He should deliver His people from their sins, and now He cannot even deliver Himself from danger of death; we have to take refuge in a strange land, and this fact appears to contradict the words that thou didst utter recently." But our Lady said nothing of the kind; she submitted readily to God's will. THE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN To have a solid devotion to the Blessed Virgin means to study and imitate her as a model, and to implore her motherly help with the simplicity and confidence of a child. — C. M. Thuente, O. P. THE HTMILITV OF MARY What was the special virtue beyond all others that won for our Blessed Lady the unapproachable dignity and glory of giving birth to the Son of God, and of reigning forever as Queen of Heaven and of earth? Surely, it was her unparalleled and most profound humility. "He hath regarded," says the inspired writer, "the humility of His handmaid." Then comes the consequence. "Behold, from hence- forth, all generations shall call me blessed." — Bishop John S. Vaughan. THE INTERCESSION OF JIABY As this our great advocate once said to St. Bridget, she regards not the iniquities of the sinner who has recourse to her, but the disposition with which he invokes her aid. H he comes to her with a firm purpose of amendment she receives him, and by her intercession she heals his wounds, and brings him to salvation. "However great a man's sins may be, if he shall return to me, I am ready instantly to receive him. Nor do I regard the number or the enormity of his sins, but the will with which he comes to me; for I do not disdain to anoint and heal his wounds, because I am called, and truly am, the mother of mercy." — St. Alphonsus Ligiwri. THE PBAYEKS OF MABV The prayers of the Saints are the prayers of servants; but the prayers of Mary are prayers of a mother, and therefore, they are regarded in a certain manner as commands by her Son. who loves her so tenderly. It is then impossible that the prayers of Mary should be rejected. — St. Alphonsus Liguori. THE BLESSED VIRGIN 51 MARY'S PRAYERS INFALLIBLY HEARD So great is Mary's merit in the eyes of God, that her prayers are infallibly heard. — St. Bonaventure. THE POWER OF MARY'S INTERCESSION If all the devils should be arraigned against me before the judg- ment-seat of God, if the whole of hell should rise up against me and open its jaws to devour me; if all the Saints should desert me; if thou, O Mary, wouldst only speak one word of intercession I should be saved. — Siiarec. A MOTHER'S PRAYER General Ccriolanus having received an olTense from the citizens of Rome, resolved, in revenge, to join the army of the enemy. The hostile army were already drawn up before the gates of the city, and threatened to destroy it. The Romans, perceiving that their former invincible general led the van, were filled with dismay, and clearly saw that any resistance would be useless. They sent mes- sengers to him asking for peace, but he refused to grant it, and told them that for the dishonour the people of the city had heaped upon him he would show them no mercy. Finally, as a last resource, they thought of his mother and they besought her to intercede for them, that for her sake he might spare the city. When Coriolanus saw his mother approaching, tears cam.e into his eyes; and when she asked him to have pity upon the ungrateful inhabitants for her sake, he said: "My mother, you have overcome my resentment. Your intercession has saved my enemies." There- upon he departed, along with his army, and Rome was saved. Will Jesus Christ refuse to listen, if His Mother requests Him to show us mercy ? THE HAIL MARY The prayer, which can most emphatically be called the prayer of the Blessed Virgin, is the Hail Mary. It is an authentic formula, sanctio>ned by God and the Church and endorsed by all Christian ages and generations. It embodies all the characteristics of the de- votion to the Blessed Lady and eminently produces its great and glorious effects. It is a polished mirror, focusing all that is best in the various forms of the devotion to Mary ; even as the sparkling glow of the diamond flashes forth all the bright colours and tints which other precious gems only reflect in part. There is no exag- geration in the words of the devout Thomas a Kempis, when he says : "When I recite the Hail Mary Heaven rejoices, the earth marvels, Satan withdraws, hell trembles, all sadness vanishes, joy returns, the heart glows, the soul is filled with holy unction ; hope animates my bosom and a wonderful consolation gladdens my whole being." The holy Fathers are unanimous in extolling the merits and the power of the Hail Mary. Let us quote one more passage. It reads: "The Hail Mary is small in extent, but great as to the 53 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS effects; it is sweeter than hcney and more precious than gold. It should be frequently on our lips and re-echo in our hearts." — Charles Bruehl. THE "HAFL MARY," ON THE BATTI>E-riELD Father ^^'e^i^ger S. J. relates that he once met a French officer who was a Protestant, but who had married a Catholic lady. During the conversation the officer said: "What I like most about Catholics is that they honour Mary with so much devotion. I myself am a Protestant," he added, "but I am delighted to hear my wife and my children say so often: 'Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now, and at the hour of death.' Let me tell you what cnce happened to me in Paris : During the great Revolution of 1848, General Bignau rode up to my house in great haste, and said, 'Come, my friend, hasten to the barricades!' I embraced my wife and children, mounted my horse and galloped forward to oppose the rebels. I have been in many battles, but the most terrible of them can bear no comparison to that street fight. When the bullets of the insurgents were whistling past me like hail in a tempest, I thought of the prayers that were being said for me at that moment by my dear wife and little ones, and in the roar and din of the conflict I also said within my heart: 'Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Mary, pray for me!' I did not receive even the slightest wound." THE "HAII- MARY" CONVERTING A HARDENED CREtflNAL A certain man was, on account of his great crimes, condemned to death. A priest, full of zeal for the salvation of his soul, went to him to prepare him to die well. But the wretched man would not as much as allow him to speak to him about God and eternity. The priest besought him with words full of earnest entreaty, and even threw himself at his feet, to try to touch his heart. But all was of no avail ; the heart of the criminal, harder than flint, would not yield. As a last resource, the priest had recourse to the most holy Mother of God; then, full of the most heartfelt compassion for the wretched man, he said to him: "Before I leave you, will you grant me one little favour?" The man, more to get rid of him than from the desire of pleasing him, answered that he would. "Let us, then, say together one 'Hail Mary!'" So they began together that holy prayer. But scarcely had they said the first words of it, when there came over the poor man a feeling of repentance. Tears fell from his eyes, and the next instant he was on his knees at the feet of the priest, and when the prayer was ended he begged of him to hear his Confession. He then confessed his sins with every mark of sincere sorrow, and when the time of his execution came he calmly died, pressing the image of Mary to his breast. THE rOWER or "HAn. MART" The secret of the power of the Hail Mary lies in the intercession of the Blessed Virgin. As powerful, as widely extended, as reliable and efficacious, as is the intercession of the Blessed Mother, so THE BLESSED VIRGIN 58 powerful and efficacious is the Hail Mary; for it is especially and principally through the Hail Mary that we obtain and secure the intercession of our Blessed Lady. There is no prayer that will render the Mother of God so propitious to us, so ready to hear our petitions, so willing to take into her own spotless hands our cause, and to plead on our behalf with her Divine Son, as the Hail Mary. It is the golden key to her maternal heart. It gains the ear and the good will of the Blessed Lady for us and makes us sure of her powerful inter- cession. We will try to understand why the Hail Mary has such a power over the heart of our Blessed Mother, and, hence, why it is for us such an unfailing means of grace and inexhaustible source of heavenly favours. We find the explanation in its threefold character; the Hail Mary being a prayer of praise, of thanksgiving, and of petition. And in each one of these qualities it is unsurpassed and unrivaled. — Charles Brtiehl. "HAIL, MARY, FULL OF GRACE" IS ALSO PRAISE OF GOD Among the congratulations which are offered to God on account of the Saints is the first part of the Angelical Salutation when we use it by way of prayer; "Hail" Mary, "Full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women" (Luke i, 28) ; for we render to God the highest praise, and return Him most grateful thanks, be- cause He accumulated all His heavenly gifts on the most Holy Virgin; and the Virgin herself we congratulate on this her singular felicity. But to this thanksgiving the Church of God has justly added prayers also to, and an invocation of, the most holy Mother of God, by which we might devoutly and suppliantly fly to her, that by her intercession she may conciliate God to us sinners, and obtain for us those blessings which we stand in need of in this life, and in the life to come. Exiled children of Eve, who dwell in this vale of tears, we ought, therefore, earnestly to beseech the Mother of Mercy, and the Advocate of the faithful people, to pray for us sinners, and to implore by this prayer aid and assistance from her whose exalted merits with God and whose earnest desire to assist mankind (by her prayers), it were impious and wicked for any one to doubt. — Catechism of the Council of Trent. THE ROSARY Verily, the Rosary is both an epitome of the Old Testament and an abridgment of the New. This we will better understand on a little serious reflection. The Old Testament contains a number of prophetic books, which proclaim chiefly the character, the power, the glory and the dignity of the Messiah, together with a portrayal of His sufferings. His triumph, the grandeur and perpetuity of His kingdom, the Church. With these is joined the history of the Jewish nation — of that strange people chosen to guard the sacred prophecies. The New Testament records the fulfilment of these prophecies. — C H. McKenna, 0. P. The Church divides the ecclesiastical year into certain periods of joy, of sorrow, and of triumph. Here, again, the Rosary offers the faithful an easy and most efficacious means of entering into her spirit, of uniting in her sublime liturgy. But millions of the faithful 5-1 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS are unable to unite with the priest in the chanting of the Divine Office, or at the daily sacrifice of the Mass. To all such the Rosary affords an admirable means of uniting heart and soul in the worship of God, in accord with the spirit of the Church. The beads supply the place of the Psalms, by enabling us to glorify our Creator and accomplish His adorable will. The Joyful, Sorrowful, and Glorious Mysteries of our Rosary unite us with the thought of the Church in the different seasons set apart to commemorate the life, passion, death and triumph of the Saviour. Hence, the Rosary is called the breviary of the laity, the catechism of youth, the companion and solace of old age, the instructor of the simple, and an inexhaustible book of meditation for our greatest theologians. —C. H. McKenna, O. P. THE KOSABY A9 A MEANS OF SANCTIFICATION As a means of sanctification, apart from the Sacraments and the Mass, there is nothing more powerful than the Rosary. It is a key to the most intimate knowledge of Jesus and Mary, It is an effective way of attaining to the perfection of charity. The young artist is taught to turn his eyes frequently on the works of the great masters, that he may learn to produce masterpieces like unto theirs. Now, Jesus is the Master of the Christian life; He is the Model whom we should all study to imitate. "Be ye followers of me," says St. Paul, "as I also am of Christ." By ever turning to contemplate that sublime Model the Christian soul will gradually imbibe His spirit, and will become an humble, though on imperfect, imitator of His sinless life. In the language of St. Paul, he will "put on the Lord Jesus Christ." — C. H. McKenna, O. P. THE ROSARY, A CONTEMPLATION OF JESUS AND MABY Inseparably united with the life of Our Lord is that of His Im- maculate Mother. It is her Son whom the Rosary proposes for our meditation. As Jesus was the most perfect of men, so Mary was the most perfect of women. If we are tempted to say that the life of Jesus, since He is divine, is too elevated for our imitation, the temp- tation must be dispelled by the contemplation of a creature, like our- selves, reflecting His perfections even as the moon reflects the brilliancy of the sun, — C. H. McKenna, O. P. CONSTANCY IN THE DEVOTION TO MARY When St. John Berchmans was lying on his deathbed, and on the point of appearing before God, the superior came to his room, accom- panied by all the other religious of the house. Kneeling by the side of the dying Saint, he said to him: "My dear brother, you are on the point of appearing before God; before leaving us, I beg of you to tell us what special devotion we ought to practice in honour of Our Blessed Lady, that we may obtain her protection every day of our lives, and in particular at the hour of our death." The dying Saint answered: "Any devotion you choose, provided it be constant." MARY, OirR HEJ-P IN TEMPTATIONS A young man who had many times fallen into grievous mortal THE BLESSED VIRGIN 56 sins went to Confession to a certain priest. The good priest was greatly afflicted on learning that he had fallen so often; but, to en- courage him, he said: "My son, I will tell you an easy means of over- coming the temptations to which you have so often yielded. If you do what J tell you, you will never fall again. Place yourself entirely under the protection of the Blessed Virgin. Say a 'Hail Mary' every morning and evening in honour of her immaculate purity; and when- ever you are tempted to do evil, say to her at once, *0 Mary, help me, for I am thine.' " The young man followed his advice, and in a short time was entirely delivered from his evil habits. SIABT, OUR TEACHER When Father de Smet. of the Societv of Jesus, was preach- ing the Gospel to the natives of Oregon, there was a little orphan-boy named Paul, who had the greatest difficuJty in learning his Catechism, and even his prayers. He was an innocent boy, and full of piety; he was especially fond of asking the Blessed Virgin to pray for him. One of the Christians of that place, seeing that the boy had the greatest difficulty in learning the truths of Faith, charitably offered to teach him ; yet, notwithstanding his great patience, Paul could not retain the instructions given him. On Christmas Eve, in the year 1841, Paul went as usual to the hut of the good Christian to learn his prayers and his Catechism, but his friend was absent, and Paul resolved to wait for his return. It was dark, and there was no light in the hut. Suddenly the place was filled with a dazzling light, and in the midst of it stood a beautiful lady. She taught him his prayers, and instantly disappeared. Paul immediately ran to the house where Father de Smet dwelt, and full of joy began to recite his prayers. This time he said them all, from beginning to end, without one mistake. "Tell me, my child," said the father, "how you have been able to learn your prayers so quickly. Surely God Himself must have come and taught you." Paul answered: "While I was waiting for my friend to come home it began to be very dark, and in an instant the room was filled with — oh, such a brilliant light! Then I saw a beautiful lady enter. Her feet did not touch the ground, and she was dressed in a white robe with a veil upon her head, I also saw bright rays of light coming from her hands and falling upon me. On seeing this beauti- ful lady I was at first filled with great fear, but in a few moments the fear went away. Then I felt my heart, as it were, burning in my breast, and my mind became so clear that I could understand all things at once." Thus did the Blessed Virgin respond to the prayers of Paul. HART AND THE ORPHAN GIRL There was once a little girl who had just lost her mother. She was left alone in the world, with no one to care for her, no one to love her. "Oh, my mother! my mother!" cried out the little child, ''what will now become of me? Who will give me something to eat, who will protect me?" And the tears fell from her eyes upon her mother's grave, as she knelt there, forsaken and alone. When night 56 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS came on, she rose from the ground to go away. But whither was she to go? She had no home now. She suddenly remembered that nearby stood a httle chapel dedicated to Mary, the Mother of God; so she went towards it. Going in, she knelt down before Our Lady's image, and with eyes filled with tears, she thus began to pray : "O my most sweet, heavenly Mother Mary, my poor dear mother on earth is dead, and I have no one to take pity on me. Ah ! dear Mother Mary, do not forsake your lonely child in her afflictions." And as she was thus praying, a sudden and dazzling light began to fill the chapel, and she heard the strains of the most ravishing music that ever fell on mortal ears. In the midst of the brightness there appeared a beautiful lady, clad in a raiment whiter than snow. On her head was a crown of the purest gold, and she was accompanied by a choir of the heavenly host singing joyously. The lady, smiling sweetly on the child, said to her: "I am Mary, the Mother of God. I have heard your prayer, and I will be your mother, and you shall be my child." When she had said this, she placed her hand upon the forehead of the little girl, as a sign of adoption, and then disappeared. The child's heart was now filled with joy and consolation. She arose from her knees to face with couiage the trials and tempests of a wicked world. She now feared Jiothing, because she knew that under the protection of her Mother in Heaven she would be safe from every danger, if she remained virtuous. When the time of her exile was ended, Mary was again by the side of her child to help her to die well ; and when the end came she carried her happy soul to Heaven, to rejoice for ever in the presence of God. MIKACULOUSLY CUBED THROUGH MARY'S ES'TERCESSION St. Philip Neri's love and devotion to Our Lady were deep and fervent. No child ever loved his earthly mother as tenderly as Philip loved Mary. He called her his love, his joy, his consolation, and uttered these words with so much tenderness that those who heard him were moved to tears. Whenever he wanted anything from; Jesus, he asked it through Mary ; she seemed to lead him, as it were, to the feet of His heavenly throne, and procure for him whatever he asked. One day, while lying on a bed of sickness, and so ill that the physicians themselves thought he would never rise again, he was suddenly heard to exclaim: "O my most holy Mother, my most beauteous and blessed Mother!" The physicians and priests present hastened to his side, and heard him exclaim: "Dearest Lady, I am not worthy of this favour. I do not deserve that thou shouldst come to visit and heal me. What return shall I make to thee if thou restoreth me to health — L who have never done any good?" To the surprise of all, he arose from his bed perfectly cured. Our Blessed Lady had healed him. MT MOTHER MARY St. Francis Xavier had always a great love for the blessed Mother of God. He used to call her his Mother — "mv own sweet Mother THE BLESSED VIRGIN 57 Mary." When he was at the point of death, and trembled as he thought of the judgment he was so soon to undergo, he turned his eyes heavenward towards Mary, and said to her "O Mary, I have always loved thee as my Mother! show me now at this terrible moment that thou art my Mother." He died the death of tlie Saints. The words, "Show thyself to be my Mother," were the last he was heard to utter. PKAYEKS T1L\T COME FROM A SINFUL HEART There was once a young man who had the evil habit of committing sins against holy purity. From the days of his childhood he had always honoured the holy Mother of God as his pious mother had taught him ; and although living in the state of sin, he every day said some prayers in her honour. One night he had a strange dream. He dreamed that he had gone out to walk in a forest, and that he Ixid lost his way. He wandered about for a long time looking for the path, but in vain. Soon he began to feel the pangs of hunger, and he looked on all sides for something to eat. but found nothing. Suddenly there appeared before him a beautiful lady surrounded with a heavenly light, who came to him and placed before him the most delicious food that he had ever seen, but on a dish which was exceedingly filthy. The sight of the dish filled him with disgust, and although he was almost dying of hunger, he could not bring himself to taste the tempting food upon the plate. The lady said to him : "Take and eat this delicious food I have brought to you." "Oh, how willingly would I eat of it?" he answered, "because I am hungry- and the food is tempting, but I cannot eat it out of that loathsome dish!" The lady (it was the Blessed Virgin) then said: "The prayers which you say in my. honour every day are indeed beautiful in them- selves, but your heart is so impure. How can you expect that I can receive with pleasure prayers from a soul steeped in the filth of sin?" Having said these words, she disappeared, and the young man awoke. "Ah !" he said, "my soul is indeed black and filthy on account of the sins I have committed, but from this hour I will change my life and never sin again." THE DEVOTION OF THE SEVEN DOLOURS St. John once heard the Blessed Virgin ask our Divine Saviour to grant some special favour to those who should keep her Dolours in remembrance. Our Lord replied that He would grant four parti- cular graces to all those who should practice this devotion. These are the four graces He is said to have promised: i. Perfect contrition for all their sins some time before their death. 2. A special protection at the hour of death, at that hour when souls are most in need of help. 3. That He would imprint deeply on their hearts the mysteries of His Sacred Passion. 4. A particular power of impetration granted to Mary's prayers on their behalf. — Father Faber. THE ANGELU8 PRAISED BT A PROTESTANT WRITER Robert Lynd, a Presbyterian, has this passage in his book Home Life in Ireland: "If you are in a little town in any part of Ireland — except the northwest — about noon, when the chapel beells ring for the 58 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS Angelus, you will see all the men suddenly taking off their hats and crossing themselves as they say their midday prayers. The world loses its air of work or of commonplace idleness, and the streets take on an intense beauty for the moment as the old people and the young people half hide their eyes and murmur a prayer to the Mother of God. ... I confess I like this daily forgetfulness of the world in the world in the middle of the day. It brings wonder into almost every country town in Ireland at least once every day." THE PETITION OF A PROTESTANT POET Ah, Mary, pierced with sorrow, Remember, reach and save The soul that comes to-morrow Before the God that gave ! Since each was born of woman, For each at utter need — True comrade and true foeman — Madonna, intercede ! — Rudyard Kipling. THE PBAYER OF A NON-CATHOLIC POET Oh, when our need is uttermost, Think that to such as death may strike Thou once wert sister sister-like ! —D. G. Rossetti. THE TRIBUTE OF A PROTESTANT POET And even as children, who have much offended A too indulgent father, in great shame. Penitent, and yet not daring unattended To go into his presence, at the gate Speak with their sister, and confiding wait Till she goes in before and intercedes; So men, repenting of their evil deeds. And yet not venturing rashly to draw near With their requests an angry Father's ear, Offer to her their prayers and their confession, And she for them in Heaven makes intercession. — Longfelloiv. THE ANGELS THE CREATION OF THE ANGELS (jod created angels innumerable, to serve and minister to Him ; and these he afterwards enriched and adorned with the admirable gifts of His grace and power. For that the devil and the rest of the rebel angels had been gifted at their creation with grace, is clear, since in the Sacred Scriptures we read that the devil "stood not in the truth" (John viii, 44). On which subject, St. Augustine has as follows: "He created the angels with a good will, that is, with pure love, by which they might adhere to Him, at once forming in them a nature, and bestowing on them grace. Hence we are to believe that the holy angels never were without good will, that is, the love THE ANGELS 59 of God" (Dc Ciznt. Dei, xii, g). As to their knowlcd(;^e, there is extant this testimony of Holy Scripture: "Thou, Lord, my King, art wise according to the wisdom of an angel of God, to understand all tilings upon earth" (2 Kings xiv, 20). Finally, to them the inspired David ascribes power in these words: "Mighty in strength, executing His word" (Ps. cii, 20) ; and hence it is that they are often called in Scripture "the powers" and "the hosts" of the Lord. But although they had been all adorned with celestial gifts, very many, nevertheless, who revolted from God, their Parent and Creator, being hurled from those loftiest mansions, and shut up in the darkest dungeon of the earth, suffer the eternal punishment of their pride, of whom the Prince of the Apostles writes thus: "He "spared not the angels that sinned; but delivered them, drawn down by infernal ropes to the lower hell, into torments, to be reserved unto judgment" (2 Pet. ii, 4). — Catechism of the Council of Trent. THE NATURE OF THE ANGKI.8 The Vatican Council speaks of them as "spiritual," and contrasts them with man, who is made up of matter, as well as spirit. Every- thing that we read about the angels in Holy Scripture makes it clear that they are not as we are. Except by means of some supernatural intervention, they are invisible to the eyes of the body. Had they bodily frames as we have, we should see them without the need of a miracle to enable us to do so. Not till his eyes were opened by the Lord, not otherwise, that is, than by some special intervention, was Balaam able to see the angel of the Lord. "Forthwith the Lord opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel standing in the way with a drawn sword, and he worshipped him, falling flat to the ground" (Num. xxiii, 31), The angel who appeared to Gedeon dis- appeared so suddenly from his sight, by which fact he knew that it was an angel who had been speaking with him. "The angel of the Lord vanished out of his sight. And Gedeon seeing that it was the angel of the Lord, said : Alas, my Lord God : for I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face" (judges vi, 21, 22). — H. G. Hughes. THE CONDITION OF AN ANGEL An angel is will and intelligence unhampered and untrammeled by the flesh. How often our soul sighs to be free from bodily hindrances; to feel no longer the fatigue and heaviness which oppress the bodily frame. Such is the condition of God's holy angels. And, to take another thought, what intense activity may be exercised in the spiritual part of our nature while the body is still. What wide tracts we can range over in thought; what violent struggles can take place in our inmost souls; what burning desires, what joy, what deepest grief, what serenity and what desolation our spirits can ex- perience, yet none know by any external act what is taking place within. From our own inner experience, then, by multiplying a thousandfold the energies of our souls, we may gain some notion of the vast activities of those spirits whom God has created, unfettered by fleshly bond, to be His court and to do His behests. This, then, is another truth taught us by Holy Scripture and the Church, that 60 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS angels are purely spiritual, without any admixture of material and bodily elements. — H. G. Hughes. ANGELS riCTURED To angels are fashioned both the human form and wings, that the faithful may understand how benevolent they are towards the human race, and that they are ever ready to execute the embassies of the Lord; for "they are all ministering spirits, sent to minister for these who shall receive the inheritance of salvation" (Heb. I, 14). — Catechism of the Council of Trent. THE SIN OF THE FALLEN ANGELS The angels who fell, like those who stood firm, were created for God's glory and their own happiness. But God would have free and willing service, and to this end it was necessary that his glorious creatures, the angels, should be endowed with free will, with the mastery over their own actions, with the power of choice between God's service or the worship and service of self. We can gather from Holy Scripture that the sin of the angels was a sin of immense and overweening pride. St. Paul, writing to his disciple Timothy, warns him not to elevate to the episcopate one who is a new convert, ."but," he says, "being puffed up with pride, he fell into the judgment of the devil:" into the judgment, that is, into which the devil himself fell. "Satan," writes St. Athanasius, "was not driven from Heaven for a sin of fornication or adultery or robbery; but pride cast him down into the lowest depths of the abyss." That the sin of the angels was a sin of pride is the common and universal teaching of Fathers and Doctors of the Church. — H. G. Hughes. THE SOULS OF MEN TO KEPLACE THE FALLEN ANGELS How long will the human race endure? How ^ong will sons and daughters continue to be born, and to fill the earth from sea to sea? The answer must be: until every vacancy in heaven is filled up. That is to ray, until the number of human beings who are saved and sanctified equals the number of the fallen angels. — Bishop John S. Vaughan. Thy tale complete of Saints Thou dost provide To fill the thrones which angels lost through pride ! — Cardinal Newman. INVOCATION OF THE ANGELS PROVED FROM SCRIPTURE Their intercession is to be invoked, because they always see God, and most willingly undertake the advocacy of our salvation assigned to them. Of this invocation, there exist testimonies of Sacred Scripture; for Jacob entreats, nay, compels the angel with whom he had wrestled, to bless him, declaring that he would not let him go until he had received his blessing (Gen. xxii, 24, sq., Osee, xii, 4) ; nor did he implore the blessing of the anirel only whom he saw, but also of him whom he saw not: "The an^el," savs he. "that delivcreth mc from all evils, bless these boys" (Gen. xlviii. 16). — Catechism of the Council of Trent. THE ANGELS «1 OUARDIAN ANOELS To angels is committed by the Providence of God the office to guard the human race, and be ready at hand with every man to protect him from any serious harm. For as parents, if their children have occasion to travel a dangerous way, infested by robbers, appoint persons to guard and assist them in case of attack, so has our Heavenly Fatlier placed over each of us, in this our journey towards our heavenly country, angels, protected by whose aid and diligence we might escape the snares secretly prepared by our enemies, repel their horrible attacks en us, and proceed directly on our journey, secured by their guidance against the devious wandering into which our treacherous fee might withdraw us from the way that leads to Heaven. — Catechism of the Council of Trent. He hath, given His Angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. — In their hands they shall bear thee up, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. — Ps. XC, ii, 12. The Angel of the Lord shall encamp round about them that fear Him, and shall deliver them.—Ps. XXXHI, 8. HOW OUR GUABDIAX AXGELS BENEFIT US The advantage derived from this special care and Providence of God over men, the functions and administration of which are in- trusted to angels, whose nature occupies an intermediate place be- tween God and man, is evident from the examples which the Sacred Scriptures supply in abundance, and which testify that, by the Divine goodness, it has come to pass that angels have frequently wrought wondrous things in the sight of men : by which we are admonished that innumerable like important services are rendered us invisibly by angels, the guardians of cur safety and salvation. The angel Raphael, who was appointed by God the companion and guide of Tobias (Tob. v, 15, 20; xii, 3), conducted him, and brought him back safe; assisted to save him from being devoured by an enormous fish, and pointed cut to him the singular virtue of its liver, gall and heart {ibid, vi, 2, sqq.) , expelled the demon, and, by fettering and binding up his power, preserved Tobias from harm {ibid, viii, 3) ; taught the young man the true and legitimate rights and use of marriage {ibid. vi, 17, sqq.) ; and restored to the elder Tobias the use of his sight {ibid, xi, 8, 15). — Catechism of the Council of Trent. THE GUARDIAN ANGEL OF THE DYING MAN St. Francis Regis had a deep devotion to the holy angels. He never passed a church without saluting the guardian angels of that church; and when he saw someone coming to confession, he always besought the angel guardian of that person to obtain for him the grace of true repentance. One day, passing down a street, he was suddenly stopped by someone. He looked round to see who it might be, but there was no one near him. He tried again to move forward, but he found it impossible. At that moment a window above his head was opened, and he h.eard a voice of one calling for a priest to attend a dying person. He at once ascended to the room, and, having heard 62 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS the sick man's confession, he anointed him, and the poor man died in sentiments of great piety. St. Francis attributed this to the inter- vention of the guardian angel of the dying man. MINDFULNESS OF OUR GUAKDIAN ANGEL KEEPS US FROM SIN One of the Fathers of the Desert, being asked one day why he was never angry and always so charitable, answered: "I always keep in mind the presence of my guardian angel, who is at my side and assists me in all my wants, who whispers into my soul what I ought to say and what God wishes me to do, and who writes down the manner in which I have performed each one of my actions. This thought fills me with so much respect for him that I am always careful never to say or do anything that may displease him." CONFIDENCE IN THE GUARDIAN ANGEL Blessed Jane of Orvieto had a great respect for her angel guard- ian, and placed entire confidence in his protection. When she was very young she lost both her parents. This was a heavy blow for the affectionate child; but her mother had taught her ever to confide in the care of her guardian angel, and this gave her consolation in her deep sorrow. A pious lady one day said to her: "My child, how can you bear so courageously your terrible loss?" The child showed her a little picture of a guardian angel her mother had given her, and answered: "Do you not know that my good angel has taken the place of my dear father and mother, and loves me even more than they could? Why, then, should I give way to sadness?" THE FALLEN ANGELS Do we believe in the devil? The truth of the existence around us of an active army of evil spirits, constantly striving by their attacks to kill the life of grace in our souls, is in danger of being forgotten through neglect. No doubt the doctrine of the devil's existence and power has been tinged with legendary superstition where it has not been distorted by exaggeration ; no doubt, in pagan lands devil-wor- ship, with its attendant vices, reigns in its most debased and degrading form, but all this is no valid reason why we should refuse to accept the Scriptural teaching about the nature of our spiritual warfare, corroborated as it is by the testimony of our own conscious experi- ence, any more than the thousand gods of false mythology should make us give up belief in the one true God? — W. R. Carson. CHAPTER III MAN; THE SOUL; IMMORTALITY; ETERNITY; THE LAST THINGS GOD AST) MAS Man himself is a great deep, of whose very hairs, O Lord, Thou kecpest an account, and not one is wanting in Thee, and yet his hairs are more easily numbered than his affections and the motions of his heart. — St. Augustine. The Lord God formed man of the slime of the earth. — Gen. II, 17. They are equal to the angels, and are the children of God, being the children of the Resurrection. — Luke XX, 36. THE NATURE OF MAN Not only are masters and servants equal before God, but also in the plane of nature. This the great Shakespeare had in view when he put these words in the mouth of Hamlet, touching Caesar the conqueror of nations : Imperial Caesar dead and turned to clay, Might stop a hole to keep the wind away, Oh, that this earth which kept the world in awe Should patch a wall t' expel the winter's flaw. THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY Glorious, indeed, will be the springtime of the Resurrection, when, . all that seemed dry and withered will bud forth and blossom. The glory of Lebanon will be given it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon; the fir tree for the thorn, the myrtle tree for the briar; and the mountains and the hills shall break forth, before us, in singing. Who would miss being of that company ? — Cardinal Newman. The hour cometh wherein all that are in the graves shall hear the Voice of the Son of God. — And they that have done good things shall come forth unto the Resurrection of Life: and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of Judgment. — John V, 28, 29. For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and in the Last Day I shall rise out of the earth. — And I shall be clothed again zuith my skin, and in my flesh / shall see my God. — Whom I myself shall see, and my eyes shall behold, and not another: this my hope is laid up in my bosom. — Job XIX, 25, 2y. THE FUTURE LIFE OF THE BODY We shall meet again, are words most frequently uttered, even by 63 64 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS the irreligious and the unbelieving, when the minutes of life may be numbered and the soul is shortly about to take its departure. But if it is the soul only with which, at some future time, we are to be brought again into contact, the idea of meeting is shorn of half its significance, and deprived of most of the consolation which it undoubtedly affords both to the mourner and the dying. The poet was voicing one of the truest instincts we have when he exclaimed : "Oh! for the touch of the vanished hand, for the sound of the voice that is still. " — John Frecland. It is soivn in corruption, it shall rise in incorruption. — It is sozun in dishonour, it shall rise in glory. It is sown in zveakness, it shall rise in pozvcr. — It is sown a natural body, it shall rise a spiritual body. — I Cor. XV, 42, 44. One is the glory of the sun, another the glory of the moon, and anotlier the glory of the stars. — For star differcth from star in Glory. So also is the Resurrection of the dead. — I Cor. XV, 41, 42. We will not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning them that are asleep, that you be not sorrozvful even as others zvho have no hope. — For if we believe that Jesus died, and rose again, even so them who have slept through Jesus, God will bring zvitJi Him. — I Thess. IV, 12, 13. THE FEEBLENESS AND THE POWER OF MAN When man contemplates nature in its glorious majesty, the thousands of brilliant stars, that whirl in unlimited space, that glorious light, destined to illuminate the world, as a mighty torch ; the oceans, filling the air with the bellowing of their waves ; that earth, finally, that seems to him so vast and yet is nothing but a dark speck in the universe; and when from this impressive sight he turns his attention to himself, this first look is, indeed, calculated to abash him. For what is he amidst this immensity but a shadow that passes? Yet, this immense world knows not itself; man knows it. He is but a feeble rod, but a conscious and thinking rod. — Pascal. WHAT IS THE MEANING OF LIFE? It is quite true that from time to time we do get bored with the preacher who is for ever harping on the baseness of this wicked world and the bliss of the future Heaven. We have even heard of the church warden who, when challenged, declared he was quite ready for eternal happiness but would rather not talk of such distressing subjects. Nevertheless, sooner or later, we must come face to face with this question: "What is the meaning of all this world, and where, I wonder, do I come in?" — TJiomas F. Gerrard. LIFE AND ETERNITY It is in eternity that our real lives shall be spent. This world has no lasting interest for us. We are only pilgrims, strangers staying here for a night — the broad day of our real existence is to be spent in Eternity. Shall we then compare this life to Eternity? No, we cannot. What is the length of the largest life compared with MAN 66 the length of eternity? An instant, a second, that flies by and is forgotten. What are the pains or pleasures of this life compared with the pains or pleasures of eternity ? So utterly insignificant that they will not bear comparison. There is no sorrow in this world so great that the mind may not rise superior to it. And however bitter yesterday, its pains are forgotten to-day. But the pains of hell are so overwhelming, that it is only the power of God that can support the victims of His anger, and the pains of hell are never ending. They who have once become the victim of God's justice shall never know His mercy. — F. A. Sheehan. UFE rN'SIGNIFIC.^NT Take any great city, such as London, Paris, New York, or Boston. Where are now the multitudes that formed their teeming populations but one short century ago ? An individual here and there, a great politician, a famous writer, a scientist or a philosopher may, perhaps, still survive the effects of "time's effacing fingers." Their names, and just a fact or two concerning them, may linger yet in the memory of the living. But soon even their very names will be forgotten, and oblivion will claim them as her own. Of the unnumbered millions of ordinary labourers, servants, artisans, profes- sional men, and others, is there so much as one that we know anything about? Is there a single individual among the masses of the people of that far-off period, whose name we could mention, whose life we could describe, or whose career is of the slightest interest lo anyone amongst us? No! So far as the present generation is concerned they arc as though they never had been. So will it be with us. We may be of some importance now. We may exercise some slight influence over our immediate friends and acquaintances ; and affect in some degree our own generation, but our names shall scarcely reach down to another. — Bishop John S. Vaiighan. LOSS AND GAIN One of the early martyrs said to his persecutors as they were leading him to death: "You take a life from me that I cannot keep, and bestow a life upon me that I cannot lose." SUFFER IN THIS LIFE BATHER THAN IN THE OTHER Burn, cut, spare not, in this life, that Thou mayest spare for eternity. — St. Augustine. THE rMPORTANCE OF SALVATION The salvation of a soul is so important, that in order to procure ii- we should expose not only our property, but our life. — St. Vincent de Paul. OUR ETERNAL SALVATION OUB MOST IMPORTANT BUSINESS The business for which we struggle is eternity. There is the question of eternity: there is the question whether we snaii be saved, and be forever happy in a city of delights; or be uamned and confined for eternity in a pit of fire. — St. tucharius. H6 ILLUSTRATIONS TOR SERMOXS AXD IXSTRUCTIONS THE ClXr OF THE WORLD AND THE CITY OF GOD A twofold love divides mankind into the City of the World and the City of God. Man's self-love and his self-exaltation pushed to the contempt of God constitute the City of the World; but the love of God pushed to contempt of self is the foundation of the City of God. — St. Augustine. THE SOUL THE sort Our soul is a spirit. It has an activity of its own. in which the •body does not partake. Therefore it has a being, an existence of its own, which does not share the destiny of the body. The soul can act without the body; it can be and live without it. Whatever destroys the life of the body, does not destroy the soul; for they are not one, but separable. And when that great catastrophe comes, which involves the body in ruin and death, the soul, having its own life, is not implicated in this nun. but survives. The death of the body does not reach the soul. When the body decays the soul retrenches itself into its inner world, into itself. Nor will it die when once separated from the body ; for, being simple, it can not be dissolved. We have no instance of annihilation in the world; death is not annihilation but dissolution of the whole into its parts. And since the soul has no parts, it can not be dissolved ; it can not be rent asunder ; it can not be decomposed ; it can not die. And therefore we sum up our first point in the words of Holy Scripture: "God made man incorruptible" (Wisd. ii, 23). — Charles Bruehl. SOUL AND BODY Faith teaches us that man is the personal union of a material body and of a spiritual, free, responsible, and consequently immortal soul. Beyond that body, with its exquisite beauty of form, its delicate texture, its lythe movement, its noble bearing, and its wonderful mechanism, all of which can be seen and handled, there is a something which sense can not reach. The voice, the manner, the expression are but the outward manifestations of a something always and necessarily invisible. The delicately wielded scalpel of the anatomist can not detect it in the folds of any human brain ; the psychologist's exhaustive analysis of human thought can not draw it into the light. Underlying face and form, speech and action ; under- lying all that is most private and subtle, is that around which all else is gathered and without which all else would never have been or would cease to be. Man is a being made up of soul and body. He is in the root of his being a person. He is that which each of us means when he says : "I." He is, or has within the outward form of his body, a personal spirit, or, as Scripture terms it, a being "made to the image and likeness of God." The carefully trained horse or dog may carry instinct forward to the very confines of reason, but it is only a specimen of its kind and it does not reflect that it is itself which lives, it has no consciousness of a personal existence. — /. //". Sul'ivan. THE SOUL 87 THE SOUL INCAPABLE OF CORKUPTION It has been clearly demonstrated by psychologists that the soul is a simple or indivisible substance; spiritual in its nature; and not intrinsically dependent on the body for its existence, or even for its action. Now, such a substance is incapable of corruption, either directly or indirectly. It is obviously incapable of corruption directly, since it is not made up of distinct parts, and can not therefore be resolved into anything else, as, for instance, water may be resolved into two gases. But it is likewise incapable of corruption or distribu- tion even indirectly, for it does not intrinsically depend on the body for its being, as the whiteness of the snow-flakes depends upon the . snow, and must vanish as soon as the particle in which it adheres is melted by the warmth. Hence the human soul can not come to an end in either of these ways. — Bishop John S. Vaiighan. WITHOUT IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL LIFE A FEARFUL DISORDER Without the immortality of the soul human life would be a puzzle, nay, more, the wild discohcrent dream of a maniac. Whereas we discover an admirable order and harmony in the material universe, there is chaos, jarring discord in the moral world. In the former everything is well balanced according to measure and weight; in the latter everything runs riot. The sinner outwits the honest; justice is persecuted; the good designs of the pious are thwarted, not only by wicked men, but by adverse circumstances, as if Heaven had foresworn their cause ; innocence is hunted down, captured, slandered and starved into submission by knaves ; virtue is barely permitted to exist; it is scorned and ekes out a wretched, ignominious existence. Righteousness succumbs, vice triumphs ; the pious shed bitter tears and the wicked smile in the broad light of day. This man, though he works and toils day after day, struggles in vain against poverty and sees the pinched faces of his little ones wane. Next door, however, lives a prosperous scoundrel enjoying splendid health, commanding the esteem of his fellowmen and gorging himself with ill-gotten goods. Here is the debauched, whose health does not fail despite his revelries; there lives a sober, temperate man, who drags through life a diseased body. Why? Why is this? Who can explain this horrible chaos? Indeed, we must say, if there is no immortality, there is nothing to relieve this fearful disorder. — Charles Bruchl. INFLUENCE OF THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY Voltaire, the most frivolous mocker of everything holy, had many a glimpse of the truth. One night his friends visiting him railed at religion, especially at the immortality of the soul, when he interrupted their discourse, saying: "Friends, restrain your tongues, lest my ser- vants hear you. I do not wish to be dispatched this night." THE SEED OF IMMORTALITY IS IN OUR HEARTS A man who had lost his faith saw a Sister of Mercy. She was young and beautiful and had forsaken a wealthy and comfortable home. Touched at this spectacle the unbeliever asked her: "Dear sister, would you not be cruelly deceived if there were no life here- 68 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS after?" The sister replied, and there was a reflection of Heaven on her face: "I do not understand what you mean; I possess and enjoy this coming happiness already in this life." Truly, it lies at the bottom of our hearts, this hope or fear of immortality; the consoling or dreadful certainty of an after life. — Charles Briiehl, EVIMOKTALITY OF LIFE AXD LOVE Here is a son, a good and dutiful boy, kneeling at the deathbed of his mother. Her life is fast ebbing away; he watches the love- light fade in her eyes. He rises and bends over her face. For the last time she gives him a kind and loving look and then a sigh ; she has passed away. Tell that boy: "Your mother is no more; all that remains is but this lifeless form: her soul was but vapour; it has vanished." And then for a moment he will forget his loss, a fierce anger at your frivolity will boil in his heart and he will shout at you: "She lives. She loves. She will forever live and love. That glorious wealth of love in her soul will never die. And I know, those kind eyes will once more beam on me again and her soul will hover around her boy." That is the instinct of nature. And that instinct is true. — Charles Bruehl. AN EMPEROR'S SOUL Otto, Emperor of Germany, on one occasion, while on his way to Rome, passed near the dwelling-place of a hermit named Nilus, known throughout the country for his holiness of life. The emperor having called on Nilus, and having been treated hospitably, said to him before leaving: "Nilus, ask of me a favour, and I will joyfully grant it." "All I ask," replied the Saint, "is that you save your soul; for although you are an emperor, you, like other men, must die and be judged. Therefore, have a care for your eternal welfare." Otto withdrew, but he never forgot the hermit's advice, and finally died a holy death. THE V.^LUE OF A SOUL Horace Mann (Non-Cath.) once made an address at the founding of a reformatory, and during his remarks he said that its existence v-"as justified if it saved a single soul. After the address a man came to him and said: "You, surely, do not mean that. All this expenditure of means and energy would be too much, if we were to accomplish the salvation of only one boy." Horace Mann replied: "It would not be, if it were my boy." The estimate of the value of a soul must be made by love. Consider, then, how God values the least of His children. He who loves them with an infinite love. St. Francis Xavier was one day sent for by a poor Indian to baptize his child, who was dying. The Saint went immediatelv. and baptized the child. It died soon afterwards. When he saw that the child was dead, he raised his eyes to Heaven, and broke forth into a hymn of joy. The people wondered when they saw this, and asked him why he was filled with joy, when those around him wept with sorrow. He said: "Many and painful have been the journeys I have undertaken since I came to India. This day I am sufficiently rewarded ETERNITY 09 for them all, because I have been able to clothe this soul with grace, and to send one child more into Heaven to glorify God." THE SOUL IN THE STATE OF GRACE AND IX THE STATE OF SIX A certain painter once met a little girl of such surpassing beauty that he sought permission to paint her picture, and under this picture he wrote "Heaven." Years had gone by, when the same artist happened to be in a court room and saw a dissolute woman dragged before the judge. The appearance of this woman was so repulsive and the unmistakable marks of vice and crime made her face so wicked and hideous, that he made a sketch of her and wrote under it "Hell", as a contrast to the other picture. The dissolute woman had observed the artist's scrutiny and she found an opportunity to tell him that she was the girl whom he painted years ago on account of her great beauty. The artist was shocked to see the destruction that vice and dissipation had wrought in the fair creature he had so greatly admired. The two pictures represent the soul in the state of grace, and made repulsive and hideous by mortal sin. ETERNITY THE IMPULSE TOWARDS ETERNAL LIFE The duration of our mortal life, however long it be, however energetic and successful, never satisfies the craving for life. No man's cup of life is ever full. Whether he has lived for pleasure, or for usefulness, for business, for possessions, or for God, he can never feel that his faculties are exhausted; the weakness and im- potence of age come upon him like an external and hostile force that crushes his powers by violence. There is an unconquerable life in him, which revolts against his physical decay, and even his mental decay. He may be unable to exercise any of his powers, but there is something in him which tells him that he has not arrived at the final natural term of existence, and that his destiny is not fully accomplished. The wish to live longer, to do more, is evidence that all is not exhausted in the most decrepid, worn-out man ; the ex- istence of a craving is proof that an object exists for it. No man who has ever lived is like a forest tree, which has flourished for centuries, putting forth and shedding its verdure year by year, work- ing its chemical action on the air, contributing its share of fertility to the soil, and at last falling to earth through decay, and giving back every particle of its substance to mix with the earth and sup- port other forms of life. The tree has expended the whole of its forces; all it has received in the way of moisture and sunshine has produced its full effect on the substance of the tree, and then upon the earth and atmosphere. But in man a residue of force survives all his action; an impulse towards life remains, which has never yet found adequate employment on any created object; and that residue of vital force is greater than all the force he has expended in life, it is in a manner infinite; it is the principal force or impulse with which he has been endowed, although he may make but little account of it, it is the impulse towards eternal life in God. — Bishop Bellord. 70 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS A PKOTESTA>'T rOET'S LONGING AFTER ETERNAL LUE Whatever crazy sorrow saith, No life that breathes with human breath Has ever truly longed for death ; O life, not death, for which we pant. More life and fuller that I want. — Tennyson. ETERNITY What then is this eternity? It is life without end! Try to realize what that means. As you pass along the road and lanes day by dav, you see so many whose faces are well known to you and familiar, and others again whom you meet for the first time and notice so little, that you may be hardly said to notice them at all. Do you ever think that every single one of them, strangers and ac- quaintances, shall live forever, and that you will see them all again in eternity? When you read in the Holy Scriptures of the victims of God's righteous indignation — the thousands who were swallowed up in the flood — those sinful inhabitants of the accursed cities of the plain, who perished in that pitiless rain of fire ; and so many others, whose history is handed down through the long ages as a warning to mankind — do you ever pause to think that they are still alive? Pilate and Judas and the Jewish priests — Herod and his mocking courtiers, the wretch whose sinful hand drove the cruel nails through the sacred Hands and Feet of Jesus Christ! — all, all are living still, and will live forever. And you and I will live for- ever. We must, must, whether we wish or no, and could we raise the dark veil of the future and look forward through a million years, we should see ourselves still alive and so full of real life and real consciousness that nothing could possiby destroy it, save the Al- mighty hand of God. — Raphael Moss, 0. P. We see noxi' through a glass in a dark manner; but then face to face. Now I knozv in part ; but then I shall know even as I am known. —I. Cor. XHT, 12. This is Eternal Life: that they may knozv Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, Whom Thou Iwst sent. — John XVH, 3. ETERNITY: ITS DURATION Let us wander down to the seashore, when the tide is out, and contemplate the unnumbered sands. Look to right and to left. See! As far as the eye can reach stretches out the silvery line of sand. Mile after mile it extends, all along the coast of our great country. Now let each tiny grain of sand represent a naught. Having placed our unit "i," we put one grain of sand beside it, and then another, and then another, and another, and yet another, until we have used up all the sands on all the seashores. What period of time would that figure represent? Then grains, representing ten naughts, would stand for ten thousand million years ; i. c., 10,000,000,000. Twenty grains, representing twenty naughts, would raise the number to 100,000,000,000,000,000,000 years. Which of you, my dear brethren, can realize a duration such as that ? Few of you can even read such ETERNITY 71 a figure, and probably none of you can at all estimate its true value. Yet we are at the very outset of our calculations. We have used up but twenty grains: less than we might pick up by pressing a moistened finger-tip against the sand! If but twenty grains represent a period so wholly and utterly unthinkable, what period would be represented by a shovelful of sand disposed and arranged according to a similar plan? And what period would be represented by a cartload? Here we are already out of our depth, and utterly at sea. Yet what, after all, is one cartload compared to the masses of sand, stretching for hundreds and thousands of miles along count- less shore, all the world over? When all these grains, each of which represents a naught, are added one by one to the original figure, then pound the rocks into powder and break up the vast mountain ranges, and having reduced the whole to the consistency of sand, add these grains also to the existing figure, and try to imagine what the sum will be and the duration it represents. — Bishop John S. Vaughan. THE SKEPTIC'S DREAM A certain doctor who doubted the existence of his soul, and in consequence believed that there was no future life — that all ended with death, one night had a dream : A youth, standing before him in shining garments, questioned him. "Are you asleep or awake?" The doctor answered, "I am asleep." "Can you see me?" the youth continued. A decided "Yes" was the response. "How do you see me?" the visitor inquired, "do you see me with your eyes?" "No," replied the doctor, "I know not how I see you." "Do you hear me?" queried the young man, "do you hear me with your ears?" "Yes, I hear you," was the answer, "but not with my ears. I know not by what means I do hear you." Thereupon the angel, for such the youth was, said to him: "The action of your senses is now suspended, yet you see, hear and speak. A time will come when you will not be able to use these senses of yours, yet seeing, hearing, and speaking will be as easy for you then as it is at the present moment." Then the angel disappeared and the doctor awoke, but from that day he firmly believed in the existence of a future life. — St. Augustine. THE THOUGHT OF ETERNm When Ven. Magdalen Dubois was four old, she was standing at the door of her father's house as a funeral procession was passing by. She asked her nurse what they were doing. "They are carrying the body of a young woman to the grave, because she is dead." "And must I also die?" asked little Magdalen. "Yes, my child, we must all die, and our souls must go to Heaven, or to Hell, for all eternity." "And how long is eternity? Is it longer than one day?" "Ah! my child, eternity has no end; eternity means for ever and ever." Magdalen said no more, but from that moment the thought of eternity never left her mind. Sometimes she was heard to say to herself: "An eternity in Heaven, or an eternity in Hell. We must all one day die, and when this life is over there begins one that will never end." Magdalen lived a holy life, and her death was that of the Saints. 72 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND L\STRUCTIONS DEATH DXATH. TITE MOST IMPORTANT ACT OF OER MVES However little we think of death, it is the most important act of our lives. Upon that one act a whole eternity hinges. Every act of our lives leads up to it. Apart altogether from its consequences, if we had no eyes of faith to see the future, death is such a solemn, dreadful thing, it is wrapped in so much mystery, that the wonder is how men can ever cease to think of it. How can the thought ever die from the minds of men that they will all be called upon to make a change, of whose nature no man knows anything, whose consequences we ourselves must determine? — P. A. Slicchan. Amen, amen I say to yoii, unless the grain of wheat falling into the ground dU', — Itself remamcth alone. But if it die, it brinoeth forth much fruit. — John XH, 24 25. By one ma^i sin entered into this world, and by sin, death: and so death passed upon aU mev. in whom all have sinned. — Rom. V, 12. Whx'ie we are in the body, we are absent from the Lord. — But we are confident, and hav( a good xvill to be absent rather from the body and to be present with the Lord. — H Cor. V, 6, 8. Jt is Thou. O Lord, that hast power of life and death, and Icadest dozini tu the gates of death, and bnngest back again. But it is im- possiblt to escape Thy hand. — JVis. XVI, 13-15. All flesh shall perish together, and man sJiall return info ashes. —Job XXXIV, 15. By the envy of the devil death came info the world: — And they follcii him that are of his side. — Wis. II, 24-25. EVEn? DAI WE DIE Withir us, death is busy. Every day we die, not only because every day w^ approach nearer the end of our lives, but because every day there is going on within us a decay ihat is a kind of slow death. Everv breath we breathe makes a demand upon our vital powers and decreases their strength Every exertion we make is so much strength that is spent; we are tired, hungry, thirsty; it is a tlow death, a decay that is going on within us, and we have recourse to such aitificial means as sleep, food, and drink to stop that decay and renew our exhausted powers There are few of us, too, that have not at least one friend in the world of spirits. A friend that lived and breathed and walked amongst men, but some one day he grew deaf rtud dumb and lifeless, and men lemoved him from among thtni, and he became invisible to us, and it was all explained by '.aying that he was dead. And thus this sermon upon death is forever driven ir.to uut tyes>. yet how few have an active faith or belief in it, ho\v vc/ few live as it they were to die.— P. A. Sheehan. DEATH 73 OEATII AN ANGEL OF XJCHT Death is a destroyer. As a weird phantom, a hideous spectre, it passes over the earth, robbing us of cur loved ones, sparing neither age nor sex nor rank. But to believers, to those who hope, who realize that "Christ hath risen," that "death shall no longer have dominion over Him," it is no longer an angel of destruction, but an angel of light, setting the captive free, bidding the lame walk, the blind see, the weary to be at rest. Death now only strikes off the prisoner's fetters, relieves the captive spirit, aids us to commend the spirit to the keeping of Him who gave it. Be it ever therefore our aim in life so to act, that when death comes round, we may calmly "bow the head in obedience to God's call, and give up the ghost, i. e., surrender our bodily life, our hearts and its best fruits to Him Who is the Father of all, and Who made all things for Himself." — IV. Graham. God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and death shall be no more, nor mourning, nor crying, nor sorrozv shall be any more, for the former things are passed away. — Apoc. XXI, 4. The redeemed of the Lord shall come into Sion with praise, and Everlasting Joy shall be upon their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and mourning shall flee away. — Is. XXXV, 10. He was taken away lest wickedness should alter his understanding, or deceit beguile his soul. — For the bewitching of vanity obscureth good things, and the wandering of concupiscence overturneth the innocent mind. — IVisd. IV, 11-12. DEATH It is but crossing with abated breath, And with set face, a little strip of sea, To find the loved ones waiting on the shore, More beautiful, more precious than before. I can not make it seem a day to dread. When from this dear country I shall journey out. To that still dearer country of the dead And join the lost ones so long dreamt about. I never stand above a bier and see The seal of death set on some well-loved face. But that I think, "One more to welcome me When I shall cross the intervening space Between this land and that one ever there, One more to make the strange "Beyond" seem fair. —Ella Wheeler Wilcox (Non-Cath). I heard a voice from Heaven saying to me : Write : Blessed are the 74 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS dead who die in the Lord. From henceforth note, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; for their irorks follow them. —Apoc. XIV, 13. THE VANITY OF WORLDLY THINGS AT THE MO»IENT OF DEATH Poor worldings ! of all the riches which they acquired, of all the pomps which they displayed in this life, what shall they find at death? They have slept their sleep: and all the men of riches have found nothing in their hands. The dream of this present life shall be over at death, and they shall have acquired nothing for eternity. Ask of so many great men of this earth — of the princes and emperors, who, during life, have abounded in riches, honours, and pleasures, and are at this moment in hell — what now remains of all the riches that they possessed in this world? They answer with tears : "Nothing, nothing." And of so many honours enjoyed — of so many past pleas- ures — of so many pomps and triumphs, what now remains? They answer with howling: "Nothing, nothing." — St. Alphonsus Liguori. WILLINGLY ACCEPTING DEATH He that offers to God his death makes an act of love most perfect that is possible for him to perform; because, by cheerfully embracing death to please God, at the time and in the manner which God ordains, he becomes like the martyrs, the entire merit of whose martyrdom consisted in suffering and dying to please God. — St. Alphonsus Liguori. To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. — And if to live in the Hesh, this is the fruit of labour, and what I shall choose I know not. — But I am straitened between two, having a desire to be dissolved, and to be with Christ. — Philipp. I, 21-23. THE UNCERTAINTY OF DEATH On the isth of August, 1824, Father Papillon was preaching a sermon in presence of a large and appreciative audience in the Chapel of the French Embassy in London. He was eloquently discoursing on the value of time, and how it should be employed in the service of the Creator, who has given to every one his allotted span to be used in arriving at the end of our creation — the eternal beatitude of heaven. He had just said the words, "How precious is the time of our life, because we never know what moment the Almighty shall summon us before His dread tribunal to give an account of all our actions," when he himself was suddenly called by death before that same tribunal of judgment that he was warning others to prepare for. PREPARATION FOR DEATH Why dost thou not provide for thyself against the day of judgment, when no man can be excused or defended by another, but every one shall have enough to do to answer for himself? — Thomas a Kempis. THE THOUGHT OF DEATH In all things look to thy end, and how thou shalt be able to stand before a severe Judge, to whom nothing is hidden : who takes no DEATH 75 bribes, nor receives excuses, but will judge that, which is just. O most wretched and foolish sinner, what answer wilt thou make to God, who knows all thy sins; thou who sometimes art afraid of the looks of an angry man? — Thomas d. Kempis. THE CHRISTIAN'S DEATH Christ has risen and death's terrors flee before Him. Of the Christian who faces death in the calm spirit of his Master, it can be truly said, in the words of a Protestant poet, that, ". . . . dying not as a coward that dies And dares not look in death's dim eyes. Straight as the stars on seas and skies. Whence moon and sun recoil and rise, He looked on life and death and slept." — A. Simnhurnc. TWO DEATHS The earth saw two deaths, one of them supremely happy and the other supremely sorrowful. The eyes of the chaste, sinless Joseph were closed by the hands of Jesus, and Mary was kneeling at his side. His death was supremely happy; he is therefore the patron of a happy deathbed. I may add that a Saint has told that the efficacy of his intercession is only second to that of Mary. The other death was supremely sorrowful; and the same sword that pierced Jesus pierced the Mother of Sorrows that stood by the foot of the Cross. — P. A. Shechan. THE SIGHT OF A DEAD BODY The queen of Spain had died far away from Madrid, and Duke Francis Borgia was ordered to bring her body with a solemn funeral cortege to the capital. Arrived there, he had to verify before the court the corpse as being that of the late queen. On opening the coffin, what an awful sight met his gaze: the queen's body had not only lost its beauty but was now a mass of corruption, fearful to behold ! Francis there and then resolved, at this sight of the end of earthly beauty, riches and honours, to serve God alone, and no longer to seek or care for things earthly. He kept his word and became a great Saint. WEALTH NO PROTECTION AGAINST DEATH A wealthy man there was, who erected for himself a magnificent mansion. Many visitors came to see the beautiful edifice, and one day the wealthy man invited a pious hermit to come and see his gorgeous palace. He took the hermit through the beautiful building, and finally asked him what he thought of it. The hermit said: "This is indeed a most beautiful place to live in, but the house has one fault, there is one door too many." Much astonished at this answer the wealthy man asked what door that was, and the hermit replied it was the door through which the owner would one day be carried out dead. The happiness of living in this beautiful house would therefore be of short duration, and, what then? NO EARTHLY POSSESSIONS AVAIL AT DEATH A certain powerful ruler in the East, Saladin, lay at the point re ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS of death. Seeing his end approaching, he commanded one of his courtiers to ride through the whole city, bearing on the point of his spear the winding-sheet in which he would so soon be wrapped, and to cry with a loud voice, saying: "This is all that the great Saladin, the terror of his enemies, the mighty potentate of the East, can take with him to the grave, out of all the riches and treasures he possessed." ONCE WE HAVE DIED WE CANNOT CHANGE OUK WTLL In the next world there are no longer the conditions for a change of will. The night has come when no man can work, probation is over, faith, conflict, victory, merit, do not belong to that sphere. Above all, grace has ceased, and grace is the necessary source of meritorious action. We cannot change our minds, turn to God, call upon His name, without a special influx of suggestion and strength from Him. It is so easy now that we think it depends entirely on a man's own self, and we forget that every such change and repentance is due to a special intervention of God that may well be called miraculous. In the next world this action of God has ceased, and man is utterly unable to initiate such a motion of himself. "He shall not give to God his ransom, or the pprice of the redemption of his soul. He shall labour for ever, and shall live to the end" (Ps. xlviii, 8-10). — Bishop Bcllord. WHO ARE THE BETTER OFF? Some men are punished only in this world, others in the other world, others here and there. Who are the better off? — St. Theresa. THE BUSINESS OF DYING BETTER UNDERSTOOD BY CATHOLICS Oliver Wendell Holmes (Ncn-Cath.), being asked his opinion as a physician on the effect of religious beliefs on the minds of the dying, made this curious reply: "So far as I have observed persons nearing the end of life, the Roman Catholics understand the business of dying better than Protestants. I have seen a good many Roman Catholics on their dying beds, and it always appeared to me that they accepted the inevitable with the composure which showed that their belief, whether or net the best to live by, was a better one to die by than most of the harder ones that have replaced it." HEROIC DEATHS OF CATHOLIC SISTERS An anonymous Protestant minister, wishing to eulogize five Catholic Sisters who had died of the plague in China, wrote some touchinsT verses in which he first alluded to the bravery of soldiers dying "hero deaths for God and Fatherland," and added: "We call them brave ! But brave, ah ! braver still, Tliose gentle Sisters in the plague-strick'n ward Who nursed each other, though they knew no skill Could save their lives, the fever once begun. And fell at dutv's call, one after one. We call them brave ! With God is their reward." THE DEAD SOON FORGOTTEN Trust not in thy friends and kinsfolk, nor put oflF the welfare of DEATH 11 thy soul to hereafter; fot men will sooner forget thee than thou imaginest. It is better now to provide in time, and send some good before thee, than to trust to others helping thee after thy death. — Thomas a Kempis. HOPE AJJD FEAR IN THINKING OF OUR DEAD A combination of hope and fear is the ordinary Catholic sentiment when we think of our dead. A want of hope would cause despondency and depression; we read of the Emperor Henry III. that in spite of many works of piety and charity he was always melancholy, be- cause he feared that his father was in hell, in consequence of the many sins of simony he had committed in the appointment of bishops. A want of hope also paralyzes our active charity toward our deceased friends and brethren. This is also the case when, on the contrary, people indiscriminately canonize all those that have passed away; for, if they are in Heaven, they do not need our prayers. Do these apparently charitable friends realize that in praising their departed they not only show indifference, but real unkindness, for they do not assist those who, in the words of Job, appeal to them: "Have pity on me, have pity on me, at least you my friends, because the hand of the Lord has touched me" (Job xix, 21). How different is the attitude of those who understand the meaning of the writer of our text: "It is a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead." —Lambert Nolle. 0. S. B. FICTION— AND FACT— ABOUT THE DEAD At last the inevitable hour is come. He dies — he dies quietly — his friends are satisfied about him. They return thanks that God has taken him, has released him from the troubles of life and the pains of sickness; "a good father," they say "a good neighbour," "sincerely lamented," "lamented by a large circle of friends." Perhaps they add, "dying with a firm trust in the mercy of God;" — nay, he has need of something beyond mercy, he has need of some attribute which is inconsistent with perfection, and which is not, cannot be, in the All-glorious, All-holy God; — "with a trust," forsooth, "in the prom- ises of the Gospel," which never were his, or were early forfeited. And then, as time travels on, every now and then is heard some passing remembrance of him, respectful or tender; but he all the while (in spite of this false world, and though its children will not have it so, and exclaim, and protest, and are indignant when so solemn a truth is hinted at), he is lifting up his eyes, being in tor- ment, and lies "buried in hell." — Cardinal Newman. THE CARE OF THE DEAD No doubt the care of the dead must be second in importance to the care of the living. While the Christian is in via there is question of his salvation or damnation. The Church's action must have for its object, to secure for him, the one thing necessary. When he is in iermino that question is decided, and the business of the Church is to hasten his beatitude, to alleviate and abridge his sufferings, and to treat with honour his mortal remains. This is, of course, of much 78 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS less importance than placing him while living in a state of grace, but yet it holds a large and prominent place in the ministrations of religion. — Bishop Moriarty. CKEMATION Cremation, in the majority of cases to-day, is knit up with cir- cumstances that make it a public profession of irreligion and mater- ialism. Freemasons first obtained official recognition of this custom from various governments. The Church has opposed from the be- ginning a practice which has been used chiefly by opponents of the Faith. She is justified by reasons of Christian charity and the interests of humanity. It is unseemly that the human body, once the living temple of God, the instrument of heavenly virtue, sanctified so often by the Sacraments, should finally be subjected to a treatment that filial piety, fraternal and conjugal love, or even mere friendship, seems to revolt against as inhuman. Another argument against cremation, and drawn from medico-legal sources, lies in this that cremation destroys all signs of violence or traces of poison, and makes examination impossible; whereas a judicial autopsy is always possible after exhumation, even after some months. — Catholic Encyclopedia. THE JUDGMENT ATTEB DEATH: THE JirDGMENT "After death, the judgment" (Heb. ix, 27), Here at least it might be thought that there is no room for mercy. The time of trial and grace will be over. We pass from life straight to the tribunal of God, and according to our state then will be our eternal lot. All have reason to fear that day when God "will search Jerusalem with lamps" (Soph, i, 12), when He will "judge justices," and find much to reject or punish even in what we have accounted our good deeds. There will be a terrible account to render for those who have been most favoured by God with knowledge and grace. Yet the judgment will be a great revelation of Divine mercy, too. Then we shall see how wonderful is God's goodness to those who seemed to be hardly dealt with, how He compensates them for the ignorance and want of grace in which He let them live, what large allowance He makes for their goodwill and the disadvantages which they could not help. Our Lord frequently indicates this in the Gospels, as when He tells of many not visibly of the kingdom of God here, who will yet come from the east and the west to the eternal kingdom, while its children will be cast out. There will be leniency in His dealing with Sodom and Gomorrha as compared with those who had the privilege of seeing the Messiah in the flesh ; and there will be consideration for those who knew not the will of their Lord, which many who know it will not receive. Cardinal de Lugo says that many will be accounted as Christians who, in ordinary parlance, are not Christians. The great day of the Lord will be as much a revelation of unsuspected mercies as of His rigid justice. — Bishop Bellord. We must all appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ, that every THE JUDGMENT 79 one may receive the proper things of the body according as he hath done, zvhefhcr it be good or evil. — II Cor. V, lo. The Lord will reward vie according to my justice, and will repay me according to the cleanness of my hands: — Because I have kept the zi.a\'S of (he Lord, and have not done wickedly against my God. —Ps. XVII, 21-22. OUR FINAL CHOICE MADE LONG BEFORE DEATH It seems to me that most men are judged in this world long be- fore the hour of death. That God does not wait until that hour, when the senses are numbed and the faculties torpid, to propose to the Christian soul the alternative of Heaven and hell. But that He comes to us when we are in the full possession of our faculties and asks us to make our final choice between Himself and everything that is not He. He takes no unfair advantage of us. He offers Himself to us only when we can make a deliberate choice of Him, and although in His mercy He sometimes accepts at the last moment the poor wretched remnants of a life that has been spent in the service of His enemy, and of a love that has been wasted upon the world, this is not His rule. It is the exception. — P. A. Shcehan. THE JUDG3IENT— A MIRROR The judgment of God may be compared to a mirror. It is not the mirror's fault if the face it reflects is hideous. — St. Jerome. JUDGES OF THIS WORLD AND THE ETERNAL JTDGE Have you ever considered the fear and terror of a culprit stand- ing before even a mere earthly judge? When a murderer has been caught red-handed, and brought before the magistrate, his whole courage fails. Though it is but a human judge, a man like him- self, and though the very worst penalty he can inflict is the short- ening of a life, which must, in any case, terminate in a few years, yet the unhappy criminal trembles with terror. At the sight of this human official, standing up, and solemnly pronouncing the sen- tence of death, how often even the most hardened offender has been known to faint away and to fall back trembling into the hands of his jailers. If such be the condition of one in presence of a mere man, invested with a brief authority, who shall describe the condition of a sinner in the presence of the Infinite and Omnipotent God. — Bishop John S. Vaughan. JUSTICE AND MERCY Terrible is the judgment of God if He judges according to His justice, even more terrible if He judges according to His mercy. — St. Theresa. THE LAST JUDGMENT So important, indeed, does the Church deem reflection on the great fact of the last Judgment, that, to call men's attention to it she begins and ends the liturgical year by reading for the Gospel of the day the portion of Holy Writ wherein are described the signs that precede, and attend, the second coming of the Son of God, in judgment. Now this is not a vague shadowy far-off event, that so ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS concerns only the world at large; but an intensely personal one, since the doom of the whole does but register the fate of each. What we say of the general Judgment applies to the judgment that awaits each singly. — IV. Graham. He hath appointed a day zvhercin He will judge the world in equity by the Man Whom He hath appointed, giving faith to all by raising Him up from the dead. — Acts XVII, 31. And then shall appear the Sign of the Son of man in Heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn; and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of Heaven with much Potver and Majesty. — And He shall send His Angels with a trumpet and a great voice, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from the farthest parts of the heavens to the utmost bounds of them. —Matt. XXIV, 31-32. When the Son of man shall come in His Majesty, and all the angels zvith Him, then shall He sit upon the seat of His Majesty: — And all nations shall be gathered together before Him, and fie shall separate them otic from another, as the shepherd scparateth the sheep from the goats: — And He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on His left. — Matt. XXV, 31-33. I will gather together all nations, and will bring them down into the Valley of Josaphat: and I zvill plead with thejn there for My people, and for My inheritance Israel, whom they have scatiercd among the nations, and have parted My Land. — Joel III, 3, 2. As the lightning cometh out of the east, and appeareth ez'en into the west: so shall also the Coming of the Son of man be. — But of that day and hour no one knozveth, no, not the angels of Heaven, but the Father alone.— Matt. XXIV, 27-28. But the Day of the Lord shall come as a thief, in which the heavens shall pass away with great violence, and the elements shall be melted zvith heat, and the earth and the works which are in it shall be burnt up. — II Peter, III, 10. The Son of man shall come in tJve glory of His Father with His angels: and then zvill He render to every nwn according to his works. — Matt. XVI, 27. They shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of Heaven with much Power and Majesty. — Matt. XXIV, 30. COME I DEPART! " Come ! Depart ! " These are the words with which that tremen- dous spectacle in the valley of Josaphat will end. "Come! Depart!" — with which everything that God has said, taught, proclaimed, all the actions of mankind, will be finished. "Come! Depart!" These are the words upon which depend salvation or perdition. Heaven THE JUDGMENT 81 or hell. " Come ! Depart ! " " Come, ye blessed of My Father, into heaven!" "Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire!" This is the final sentence which will be uttered, and either the one or the other will infallibly befall every man. — P. Hchel, S. J. Then He shall say to them also that shall be on His left hand: Depart from Me, you ctirscd, into Everlasting Fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels. — for I was hungry, and you gave Me not to eat: I was thirsty, and you gave Me not to drink. —Matt. XXV, 41-42. Then shall the just stand with great constancy against those that have afflicted them. — These seeing it, shall be troubled with terrible fear. — Saying witiiin themselves, repenting, and groaning for anguish of spirit: These are they, whom we had some time in derision, and for a parable of reproach. — Wisd. V, 1-3. When sudden calamity shall fall on you, and destruction, as a tempest, shall be at hand : when tribulation and distress shall come upon you: — Then shall they call upon Me, and I will not hear: they shall rise in the morning, and shall not find Me .-^Because they have hated instruction, and received not the fear of the Lord. — Nor consented to My counsel, but despised all My reproof. — Prov. I, 29-30. / will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man shall take from you. — John XVI, 22. We fools esteemed their life madness, and their end without honour. — Behold hozv they are numbered among the children of God', and their lot is among the Saints. — Wisd. V, 4-5. TEKRORS OF THE LAST DAY Terror will follow upon terror, curse upon curse, "till men will faint away with fear." The sun being not quite extinguished, a dismal gloom will be spread over all things, like a veil over the face of the dead: terrific signs are seen in the heavens, and all things announce that time is at an end. St. John says that before God pronounces the final word there is silence in Heaven : and voices are heard in the air, on the water, and on the earth. At length the skies open, and He pours out the first vial of His anger. And the end is come. God speaks the command, and all nature trembles as if in agony. The seas swell and boil, and rise and touch the skies. The mountains nod and sink, and the poles collapse. The lightnings flash, and the moaning tempests sweep over the furious deep, piling up ocean upon ocean on the trembling globe. The earth reels in convulsion, and the whole frame of creation struggles. A mighty conflagration bursts from the melting earth, rages like a hurricane round about, devouring all things in its storm and flood of fire, consuming the crumbling wreck of the condemned world. The heavens become terrible as the kindling earth and seas show their overwhelming flashes on the crimson skies. The sun muffled, the moon black, the stars fallen, floating masses like clouds of blood sweep the skies in circling fury. With what impressive terror does 82 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS the Saviour paint this scene in His own words: "Men fainting away with fear, running in wild distraction, calling on the ground to open and swallow them, and the rocks to fall on them and hide them from the face of the Lord." The earth on fire, the skies faded, the sun and stars darkened or extinguished: mankind burning, dying: the angry voice of God coming to judge the world, are realities which the history of God has never seen before, and which never again will be repeated during the endless round of eternity. — Cahilh False prophets shall show great signs and ivonders, insomuch as to deceive (if possible) even the elect. — Matt. XXIV, 24. Unless those days had been shortened, no flesh should be saved; hut for the sake of the elect those days shall be shortened. —Matt. XXIV. 22. FEAR OF THE JUDGMENT St. Mary Magdalen of Pazzi, being very sick, sent in haste for her confessor. "Father," she exclaimed, "I have been thinking about the terrible Judgment of God ; I am frightened. Do you think that I will be saved?" Unhesitatingly the good priest answered: "I have the fullest confidence that Heaven will be your home. Why are you fretting?" "God's judgments are so different from ours," she said, "and the time is coming soon when I shall stand alone before my Judge, to be examined on everything I have said or done in my whole life. " St. Augustine declared that nothing banished from him earthly thoughts so effectually as the fear of judgment. In the days of St. Bernard there lived a holy monk called Stephen. He had spent a long life in the service of God, and everyone looked up to him as to a living Saint. The time had come when the holy man was to receive the reward of the many labours he had accom- plished in the service of Jesus Christ, and to pass from the poor and humble state he had chosen, to go to His eternal home in Heaven. Then the abbots of his Order came to be present to witness his happy death, and to aid him with their prayers. When he was in his agony, they were speaking of the holy life he had led, and how happy must he now be, at the thought of having done so much good to the Church of God : how full of hope and confidence he must be of a happy judgment from Jesus Christ, whom he had served so well. At these words, which the dying monk overheard, he roused himself, and collecting all his strength, said: "My brethren, I go to the judgment-seat of God with as much fear as if I had never done any good at all. For if, by the help of Jesus Christ, some little good may have been done through me, I am afraid that I may not have done all that was required of me, and that I did not correspond with the graces of God as I ought to have done. " One say St. Rose was full of sadness as she thought that she might not persevere to the end, and that one day she might be condemned to hell for ever. In her distress Jesus appeared to her, THE JUDGMENT 83 and said : " My daughter, what makes you so sad, and why do you allow these thoughts to trouble you? Do you not know that I will never condemn to hell any but those who wish to be condemned?" as if to say: If a person is condemned it is his own fault, for if he had only asked Me for the grace of perseverance he would have obtained it. CONVERTED BV A PICTURE OF THE LAST JUDGMENT Bogaris, King of Bulgaria, greatly enjoyed awe-inspiring sensa- tions. The pictures and sculptures of his palace represented most frightful subjects. When he heard that a certain monk named Jerome was an excellent painter, he paid him a visit and begged him to paint a picture to suit his taste, that is to say, the most frightful that he could imagine. Father Jerome granted his request and painted for him the Last Judgment. In this picture the Divine Judge was seen seated upon a cloud surrounded by His angels, in a majestic and awe-inspiring manner. On the right were to be seen the just, radiant with glory, on the left the sinners, terror-stricken and fearful of the last sentence of the Judge. Below, the devils were depicted in hideous and frightful forms. Below these again there appeared an abyss, from which burst vicious flames. The pagan king was delighted with the picture, and declared he had never seen anything so impressive and awful. However, as he did not know what the picture represented, he asked the monk to come and explain it. Father Jerome explained it with such earnestness that the king was even more impressed with the explanation than with the picture. He became a Christian, and led a life so penetrated with the thought of God's judgment that whenever he was about to undertake anything, or when affairs were discussed in council, it was his custom to say: "Let us remember that that which we are now going to do, will be scrutinized at the Divine Judgment. " —P. Hchel, S. J. Peter of Arezzo was one who feared neither God nor man. If anyone spoke to him of the punishments of sin, or of the Last Judgment, he only laughed at him. One day he went to see a great picture in a church in Rome. It was a picture of the Last Judgment. He looked at it for a long time in silence, and then turned away. People wondered where he was going so silently, and watched him. They saw .him kneel down to say his prayers. The sight of the picture had changed his heart. He said, "If I am so frightened by the sight of a picture of God's judgment, what will become of me when that judgment itself comes?" A DREAiM OF THE JUDGJIENT St. Vincent Ferrer relates that a certain young man had a dream, in which he imagined he was brought before the tribunal of God to be judged. So terrible was the scene he witnessed — the majesty of the Sovereign Judge, the questions put to him to which he could make no satisfactory reply — that on his awakening in the morning he found himself trembling with agitation and covered with a cold sweat. His first thought was to thank Jesus Christ that it had not 84 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS been a reality, but only a dream. But at the same time he said to himself: "What I have seen in my dream will one day be a reality; I cannot escape it; perhaps, too, it may be soon, even this very day." He asked God to forgive him the sins of his past life, and took the resolution to lead, from that hour, a life of penance, and rather to die than ever again to commit a mortal sin. PREPARATION FOR THE JUDGMENT Among the Saints of the Middle Ages there is none better known than St. Elizabeth of Hungary. The people used to call her the "dear St. Elizabeth," because she was so charitable to the poor, and was so kind to all who were in affliction. Of all the works of charity she performed, that of visiting the sick and the poor was the one she loved most. The ladies of her household, who did not care for this kind of work, tried to persuade her that it was beneath the dignity of her position to perform such things. Elizabeth answered, " I am preparing for the Day of Judgment. On that day Jesus will ask me for an account of the good works I have done for Him, and I desire to be able to say to Him, 'You see, O Lord, when You were hungry, I gave You to eat ; v^^hen You were thirsty, I gave You to drink ; when You were naked, I clothed You ; when You were sick, I visited You ; because You said that in doing these things to the poor, I did them for Yourself. I beseech You be indulgent, therefore, to me in the sentence You are to pass upon me. JUDGE NOT, THAT YOU MAY NOT BE JUDGED A monk, lying on his deathbed, appeared so cheerful and joyous that the abbot of the monastery wondered exceedingly. " How is this?" he asked the dying man. "In all probability you will soon be summoned before the judgment seat of God, and yet you are so light-hearted!" "Father," replied the monk, "whenever my brethren have annoyed me or wronged me in any way, I have made it a practice to put the best possible construction on their words and actions. Now, since I have never judged others uncharitably, I venture to hope that I may find mercy in the presence of my Divine Judge." — F. Renter. THE THOUGHT OF DEATH AND JUDGMENT The great St. Francis of Sales tried to inspire those around him with that confidence in God that burned in his own breast. One day a gentleman came to him in great distress. The thought of death and of the judgment of God had thrown him into the lowest depths of sadness and despondency, and he went to him for consolation. "Alas! my friend," replied the Saint, "there is no torment so great as this one; I know it well, for I myself had to endure it for the space of six weeks, and I am well able from experience to speak on this matter. Let me tell you, then, that if anyone has the earnest desire to serve Our Lord, he should noways be tormented by the thought of death and judgment; or if we must needs have some fear of them, let it be a fear mingled with confidence. God is our Father, and His love for us is boundless; and has He not told us PURGATORY 85 that those who hope in Him shall never be confounded? So, my son, keep before your mind what St. Paul says of those who love God: 'There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.' " PURGATORY THE FIRE OF PCRGATOBY St Thomas, the prince of thcolof^ians, tells us that those confined in Purgatory suffer from the same fire as the damned in hell. It is one and the same flame, he argues, that torments the lost and that cleanses the saved. The light fauUs and imperfections and venial offences with which a soul enters Purgatory, may be burnt away by this fierce devouring element, and the soul, at last, cleansed, mounts at once, all pure, to Heaven. But the mortal sins and grievous crimes that stain the souls of the damned, are too deeply engrained in the very substance of the soul ever to be cleansed or burnt away, though eternity itself be employed in the process: hence, they must remain for ever in the bottomless pit. This is clearly implied in the passage of St. Paul, Epistle to the Corinthians, where he writes: "Every man's work shall be made manifest; for the day (of eternity) shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire : and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide . . . he shall receive a reward." — Bishop John S. Vaiighan. I consider that this transitory fire is more insupportable than all the afflictions of this earth; for as the unjust, so also will the just be tormented by this fire, only with this difference, that the purifying will not endure eternally — St. Gregory. The least suffering of a poor soul is greater than the most intense agony we can think of here. — St. Anschn. The Lord also hath taken away thy sin; thou slialt not die. — Nevertheless, because thou hast given occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, for this thing the child that is born to thee shall surely die. — II Kings XII, 13-14. THE SOUL KNOWS NOT THE LENGTH OF ITS STAY IN PURGATORY The agony is intensified by the fact that no soul knows how long it will have to endure its sufferings. As soon as it is separated from the body, all desires for earthly possessions vanish, as well as all those things which were the delight of the body. The soul knows only one aspiration, only one ardent desire, and that is the longing for God, who alone can satisfy, whilst everything that surrounded it has perished. What a torment it is to be irresistibly impelled by this perpetual longing, when it beholds itself so far removed from Him who alone can content it. Look at the sick man ! Violent pains rack him, sleep is banished from his pillow, he knows no rest ; he rolls from one side to the other, every moment seems to him an hour, and he is continually asking those about him if it is not yet day. O, how often will the suffering souls ask their guardian angels this 86 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS same question, when will the hour of my deliverance come? How long must I still remain here? Alas! no one answers! They only know this : that the greater the number of sins the longer will they have to remain in the fire of purification. — P. Hehd, S.J. The most valiant Judas exhorted the people to keep themselves from sin, forasmuch as they saw before their eyes ivhat had happened, because of the sins of those that were slain. — And making a gathering, he sent twelve thousand drachms of silver to Jerusalem for sacrifice to be offered for the sins of the dead, thinking well and religiously concerning the Resurrection. — (For if he had not hoped that they that were slain should rise again, it would have seemed superfluous and vain to pray for the dead.) — And because he considered that they who had fallen asleep with godliness, had great grace laid up for them. — It is therefore a holy and wholesotne thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins. — II Mach. XII, 42-46. / say unto you, that every idle ivord that men shall speak, they shall render an account for it in the Day of Judgment. — He that shall speak against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven him neither in this world, nor in the world to come. — Matt. XII, 36-32. CONSOLATIONS OF PURGATORY Oh, how solemn and subduing is the thought of that holy kingdom, that realm of pain. There is no cry, no murmur ; all is silent, silent as Jesus before His enemies. We shall never know how we really love Mary, till we look up to her out of those deeps, those vales of dread mysterious fire. O beautiful region of the Church of God ! O lovely troop of the flock of Mary ! What a scene is presented to our eyes M'hen we gaze upon that consecrated empire of sinlessness, and yet of keenest suffering ! There is the beauty of those immac- ulate souls, and then the loveliness, yea, the worshipfulness of their patience, the majesty of their gifts, the dignity of their solemn and chaste sufferings, the eloquence of their silence ; the moonlight of Mary's throne, lighting up their land of pain and speechless expecta- tion; the silver-winged angels voyaging through the deeps of that mysterious realm ; and above all. that unseen Face of Jesus, which is so well remembered that it seems to be almost seen ! — Power. THE SOULS IN PURGATORY TO BE ENVIED Father Faber was accustomed to say that he could never under- stand why we speak of the poor souls in Purgatory. He thought them rich indeed, much to be envied, little to be pitied. They are indeed truly rich, because they are certain of possessing God forever. Compared with us, living as we do in dreadful uncertainty about our salvation, they are to be envied exceedingly. And yet it is also true that they are deserving of our sympathy and pity. They are poor because they are suffering, and the promise of the future scarcely relieves their anguish in the present. THE SUPTERING IN PURGATORl' If there were in the whole world but a single loaf of bread, the PURGATORY 87 mere sight of which was destined to appease the hunger of all creatures, and if a man who had that desire to eat which is natural to all of us in a normal state of health, yet could not satisfy it, and yet though deprived of all food could neither die nor fall sick, is it not clear that he would suffer a hunger that was always increasing? Suppose this man to know the single loaf in question could alone by his seeing it satisfy him, and that without it he would remain in his hunger in a state of intolerable torture, is it not evident that the nearer he came to that loaf without being able to look upon it the more would his hunger be provoked and that his torments would be all the more cruel in proportion as his appetite yearned with greater force for the sight of the loaf, the single object of his desire? And again, if in the midst of this torture of hunger devouring him always more and more as time went on, this man were to acquire the dreadful certainty that he was never again to see that loaf, what would take place ? He would at once feel the beginning of hell within himself : he would from that moment he as are the souls of the damned who have lost all hope of seeing the Bread of Life, God their Saviour. Well, then, the hunger which this man would feel is precisely that which the souls in Purgatory experience, with the exception of the despair — for they have the hope that they shall one day see that loaf and satisfy themselves with it as they will. But the hunger and martyrdom which they suffer are something which can not be described as long as it is not given them to fill themselves with the Bread of Life, which is Jesus Christ the true God, our Saviour and our Love. — St. Catherine of Genoa. A certain holy nun received a letter which informed her that her father was dead. He had not only been a good Christian, but was spoken of as a living Saint, so great was his piety. His daughter, knowing how strict are the judgments of God, for a long time offered up fervent prayers and pious works for the repose of his soul. At last she ceased praying for him, because she thought he must be in Heaven, and that it was needless to pray for him any longer. But how great was her astonishment when Our Lord one day showed her in Purgatory the soul of her beloved father, suffering excruciating torments, and imploring her help. " O my daughter, pray for me, and do not forget your father who loved you so tenderly." At this sight she burst into tears, and, casting herself at the feet of Jesus, she besought Him through His most Precious Blood to free her father from his sufferings; or if it was necessary for someone to bear the punishment, she offered herself in his stead. Our Lord was pleased to accept the offering she made. Her father's soul was immediately set free from Purgatory, but heavy indeed were the crosses and sufferings she had to bear from that day till the end of her life. St. Catherine of Bologna was once permitted by God to see the souls who were suffering in Purgatory. First she saw a raging fire, which burnt even to the inmost soul ; it seemed to her as if the flames of hell could not burn more fiercely. Then she saw a countless number of people, all burning in these terrible frames. She saw there 88 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS many who had led holy lives on earth, but who were not yet pure enough to be with God. She also saw there many little children who had never committed great sins, but only venial ones, such as quarrelling with brothers and sisters, or disobeying their parents in small matters, and the pain she saw them suffering for these sins in those flames was awful to look upon. God permitted her to see these things that she might warn us to avoid even the smallest sins, since God punishes them with much severity in the next life. THE SUFFERING OF THIS WORLD AND THE SUFFERING OF PURGATORY There was once a man who suffered great pains for a whole year, without a moment's relief. At the end of that time he j.Tayed to God to take him out of this world, that he might be released from his terrible sufferings. God heard his prayer, and sent an angel to oft'er him his choice — to take three days m Purgatory, or to endure for another year in this world the same pain as he was suffering. The man said within himself, " I know that the sufferings of Purgatory are most severe, but they cannot be nmch more so than those I am suffering now ; and besides, three days will soon pass by, and then they shall be over. O my God," he said, "I choose the three days in Purgatory." His request was granted ; he died, and his soul entered Purgatory. He had not been many moments there when his guardian angel came to visit him. "O angel of God," cried out that suffering soul, "why have you deceived me? Why have you left me so many years here, when God said my punishment was to end after three days?" "But," the angel answered, "you have only just died; you are here but a few hours and why do you speak about years?" "O holy angel," said the soul, "give me my choice again, and I will go back to the world, and suffer gladly for another year all the pains of my former sickness, rather than remain another instant in this awful place. " Again his prayer was heard, and he returned to the world. For another year he suffered as he had previously. But to everyone who came to see him he said : " Oh ! accept willingly all the sufferings God sends you in this world, and oft'er them up in satisfaction for your sins, for the greatest of these suft'erings is as nothing when compared with the sufferings in Purgatory." — Turlot. PURGATORY . . . . Praise to His Name ! The eager spirit has darted from my hold, And, with the intemperate energy nf love, Flies to the dear feet of Emmanuel ; But, ere it reach them, the keen sanctity. Which with its effluence, like a glory, clothes And circles round the Crucified, has serged, And scorched, and shrivelled it; and now it lies Passive and still before the awful Throne. A happy, suffering soul! For it is safe. Consumed, yet quickened, by the glance of God. — Cardinal Newman. PURGATORY 89 ST. MONICA AND PURGATORY For she, when the day of her dissolution was at hand, had no thought for the sumptuous coverincf of her body, or the embalming of it, nor had she any desire of a fine monument, nor was solicitous about her sepulchre in her own country. None of these things did she recommend to us, but only desired that we should make a remembrance of her at the altar, at which she had constantly attended without one day's intermission ; from whence she knew was dis- pensed that holy Victim by which was cancelled that handwriting which was against us (Coloss. ii.) by which that enemy was triumphed over who reckoneth up our sins, and seeketh what he may lay to our charge, but findeth nothing in Him through whom we conquer. — St. Augustine. MASSES AND PRAYERS FOR THE DEAD Now it is the universal custom of the Church to have many Masses said for the dead, even for individual souls. One Mass is of infinite value, sufficient in itself to free any soul from Purgatory. We do not, however, content ourselves with having only one Mass said. It may be that God chooses to apply one Mass to one soul and another to another. We cannot depend on our own judgment in the matter: we must follow the practice of the Church. So also with our prayers for the dead. It may be that our first prayer for a departed friend opens the gate of Heaven for him. But we do not know. The number of the elect has been purposely kept concealed from us. It is part of the mystery of the Communion of Saints. The uncertainty is a motive to make us persevere in prayer for the dead. The prayer may not necessarily be applied to the person named in our prayer. But it will not be lost. It will be applied to some soul which, perhaps, needs it more. It will serve the function, too. of putting us in closer union with the spirit world. — Thomas F. Gerrard. THE SACRIFICE OF THE MASS AVAILABLE FOR THE POOR SOULS Such is the efficacy of this sacrifice, that it is profitable not only to the celebrant and communicant, but also to all the faithful, whether living with us on earth, or already numbered with those who are dead in the Lord, but whose sins have not yet been fully expiated; for, according to Apostolic tradition the most authentic, it is not less available when offered for them, than when offered for the sins of the living, their punishments, satisfactions, calamities, and difficulties of every sort. — Catechism of the Council of Trent. PRAYERS FOR THE POOR SOULS Cardinal Baronius relates that there was once a holy man lying in the agonies of death, whom the devil was tempting with thoughts of despair. During the whole course of his life this man had done much for the repose of the holy souls in Purgatory. In the midst of the darkness, he suddenly saw thousands of heavenly spirits, clad in shining armour, fighting in his defence against the Evil One. "Who are you, O blessed beings, who thus defend me?" "We are those souls," was the answer, "whom by your prayers, penances, 90 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS and Masses you have released from Purgatory, and we have come to conduct you to Heaven." WE DO SO LITTLE FOR THE POOR SOULS And then v^'e follovi' the souls of our friends into eternity. From the judgment seat we follow them intu their prison, where their angel conducts them, and our prayers, as it were, rain down incessantly on those fires. We pray for them at our public services ; we pray for them at our private devotions ; we pray for them even at our meals; there is scarcely a day in which the Holy Sacrifice is not offered for these suffering souls; there are many in the Church who have given to God all the merits of their lives, their prayers, fastings, almsdeeds for the souls in Purgatory ; there are religious Orders in the Church who repeat frequently during the day the De Profundis for the departed. And with all this, dear brethren, if we consider how great are the sufferings of these poor souls, we shall see how really uncharitable we are and how unreasonable it is that we do so very little. — P. A. Sheehan. A PROTESTANT POET'S PRATER Pray for my soul. More things are wrought by prayer Than this world dreams of. Wherefore let thy voice Rise like a fountain for me night and day. — Tennyson. A PROTESTANT MINISTER'S OPINION OF PURGATORY Rev. H. Page Dyer, of the Episcopal Church of the Ascension, Philadelphia, delivered a sermon on April 27, 1913, saying in part: "Almost everybody believes there is a Heaven, but there is a diversity of thought as to when the saved shall reach there. Of course, it is evident that the bodies of all the saved will be reunited to their souls at the time of the resurrection, for not until then will they have risen from their graves. But what about the entrance of the souls into Heaven? The Protestant belief is that every soul that does not go to hell goes to Heaven at the moment of death. One difficulty about this is that it takes no account of the quality or character of a man's mode of life. A man whose life has been so low and bestial that he barely escapes damnation, according to this theory, goes as surely and quickly to Heaven as a man who has lived a careful, holy and beautiful life." Dr. Dyer then gave our Catholic belief — and evidently his: "The ancient belief of God's Church is one of holy common sense. Few souls are so pure that they are fit for Heaven, where nothing that is defiled may enter. And yet there are many millions of people who are too good to go to hell." HEAVEN THE HAPPINESS OF HEAVEN Is it not altogether unreasonable to suppose that the Infinite Intelligence. Beauty and Love could fail to satisfy the aspirations and longings of our minds and hearts? As well say that we could HEAVEN 91 exhaust the ocean by drinking its waters, as dream of exhausting the treasures of eternal happiness that God has prepared for us. It is perfectly true that pleasure produces satiety in this life, but that can readily be accounted for. Sinful pleasure eventually causes disgust and ennui, for our hearts were made for something higher and nobler; intellectual pleasure is often so exacting in its demands that it wearies us exceedingly, just as the body becomes fatigued from too much physical exercise. But in Heaven no unhappiness is possible, because sin, the origin of it, is absolutely banished. "There shall not enter into it any- thing defiled" (Apoc. xxi, 27). No weariness or ennui is possible, because God gives us the sustaining help of His own infinite power and love. All the desires of mind and will and heart will be eternally gratified. Why, then, question simply because we can not form an adequate concept of the manner in which God will satisfy them? — Bcrirand L. Conway, C. S. P. Thus saith the Lord: Let thy voice cease from weeping, and thine eves from tears, for there is a reward for thy work. —Jer. XXXI, 16. They shall no more hunger nor thirst, neither shall the sun fall on them, nor any heat. — For the Lamb, which is in the midst of the Throne, shall rule them, and shall lead them to the Fountains of the Waters of Life, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. —Apoc. VII, 16-17. They shall rejoice before Thee, as they that rejoice in the harvest, as conquerors rejoice after taking a prey, when they divide the spoils. —Is. IX, 3. The Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a treasure hidden in a field, which a man having found hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field. — Matt. XIII, 44. The work of justice shall be peace, and the service of justice quiet- ness, and security for ever. — And My people shall sit in the Beauty of peace, and in the Tabernacles of confidence, and in wealthy Rest. —Is. XXXII, 17-18. / zuill turn their mourning into joy, and zuill comfort them, and make them joyful after their sorrow. — Jer. XXXI, 13. THE BEAUTIFUL CITY One day there came to Philip of Macedonia a man called Demades; he was one of the chief magistrates of the city of Athens. "I have often heard of your good city," said the king, "and I have been told that it is exceedingly beautiful." "My lord," answered Demades, "you have been told the truth; but no one can describe the greatness and beauty of our city, except one who has seen it, and even his words could never convey to your mind what it really is." Philip •urged him to give him a description of it, and Demades gave an &2 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS account of its rise and progress, and of the greatness it had reached. He spoke of the wealth of its inhabitants, and the beauty of its buildings, and the renown it had obtained for learning, and how people from all parts of the world went thither to visit it. The kinof listened in silence to the account of Demades, When he had finished, he said: "That city must be mine, cost what it may. I will risk everything I have to make that city mine." There is a city far more beautiful than Athens. That city is Heaven. It is to be given to us for ever, if we love and serve God faithfully. Say to yourself what Philip of Macedonia said: "That city shall be mine, cost what it may ; I will spare no pains that I may gain it." They that are redeemed by the Lord, shall return, and shall come into Sion singing praises, and Joy Everlasting shall be upon their heads, they shall obtain joy and gladness, sorrow and mourning shall Hee away. — Is. LI, ii. Therefore they are before the Throne of God, and they serve Him day and night in His Temple: and He, that sitteth on the Throne, shall dwell over them. — Apoc. VII, 15. In My Father's House there are many mansions. If not, I would have told you, because I go to prepare a place for you. — John XIV, 2. Thou hast made known to me the zvays of life. Thou shall till me with joy with Thy countenance: at Thy right hand are delights even to the end.—Ps. XV, 11. HAPPINESS IN THE WORLD OR HAPPINESS IN HEAVEN It is difficult, even impossible to enjoy perfect happiness both here and in Heaven. He who seeks his happiness in things of the world forfeits his happiness in Heaven. — St. Jerome. THE INEXPRESSIBLE GLORY OF HEAVEN One day God was pleased to give to St. Catherine of Sienna a little glimpse of the glory of Heaven which He would one dav bestow on her, and on all those who would be faithful to Him while they dwelt in this world. When the vision was over, she went down to the other nuns in the convent; but her face was so bright that they could scarcely look upon it. They knew that she must have had a vision, and they asked her to tell them what she had seen. "O," she exclaimed, "I have seen such wonderful things — such wonderful things!" But she could say no more. When her confessor heard about it, he asked her to tell him more plainly what God had been pleased to show her. "Father," she answered, "it is quite impossible for me to tell you what I saw: no human tongue could express, no words could describe the beauty of the heavenly things God showed me — the reward which He will give to everyone who serves and loves Him in this world. Oh! it is beautiful beyond all that can be imaerined." HEAVEN 98 WHAT A SAINT HEARD IN HEAVEN Jesus Christ one day gave St. Mechtildis a view of the glory of Heaven. As she was gazing on it in rapture and wishing that the happy day were come when she also would enjoy the happiness of the Saints, she heard a voice that seemed to come from the immense multitude of the blessed, saying, "O thrice happy are you who still live in the world, because it is in your power to increase your glory and your merit for ever." "Oh!" cried out the Saint, "if men did but know how much they might increase their merit every day, they would never awaken in the morning without their hearts being filled with gratitude to God for His goodness in giving them another day in which they might increase their glory for Heaven, their eternal home. This thought alone ought to be sufficient to strengthen them in all their difficulties and trials, and to give them courage to lead a mortified life, since each one of these things is of so much avail for them in eternity." Could we but see the infinite rewards bestowed in Heaven in return for the good works done in this world, we should devote all our faculties, our intellect, memory and will, solely to their accom- plishment, however much it might cost us. — 5"/. Catherine of Genoa. HELL THE ETERNITY OF PUNISHMENT The eternity of future punishment is not an unreasonable doctrine; on the contrary, the unreasonable thing would be to suppose that the punishment of unrepented sin in the next world could be only tempor- ary. The universal teaching of experience from nature is that law is vindictive and implacable, and that repentance is no reparation for disobedience. Vengeance follows every transgression of natural laws, even if they be violated only through mistake or ignorance. One act often brings a life-long punishment which no repentance will undo. The forgiveness of sin on repentance is the one exception to this law. The law of grace overrides the ordinary law of nature; and the special intervention of God in the Incarnation and Passion introduces a new force that counteracts the necessary effects of sin. — Bishop Bcllord. SIN A PER^IANENT STATE, THEREFORE PUNISHMENT PERMANENT To understand the eternity of sin, we must remember that the transient act is not all there is in sin. Those who deny the eternity of hell wish to see in sin only an isolated action which at once is over and done with. But sin is a permanent state of the soul follow- ing on a sinful act. We sec only the momentary act; human justice punishes that alone, and only so far as it is carried into external effect. God sees not only the act, but the enduring alienation of the soul from Him, and its state of disorder, which is hostile to the Divine Nature, and which is deliberately persisted in. The effect endures while the cause does. It is this permanent state of adhesion to sin which is punished by an eternal hell. There is, therefore, no unjust excess of punishment over guilt in hell. In duration as well as in 94 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS its pains, hell is exactly adequate to sin. It is intimately connected with sin as its direct cause. Hell is sin ; and for that very reason is necessarily adequate to it, and is necessarily eternal — Bishop Bellord. Let death come upon them and let them go dozini alive into Hell. For there is zvickedness in their dwellings: in the midst of them. —Ps. LIV, i6. THE ETERNITY OF HELL, In hell there is no calendar; there the years are not counted. St. Antonius says, that if a damned soul heard that it was to be released from hell after so many millions of years as there are drops of water in the sea, or grains of sand in earth, it would feel a greater joy than a criminal condemned to death would experience at hearing that he was reprieved and was to be made the monarch of the whole world! But, no! as many millions of years shall pass away as there are drops of water in the ocean, or grains of dust in the earth, and the hell of the damned shall still be at its commence- ment. — St. Alphonsus Liguori. THE BEDEIklPTION MEANINGLESS UNLESS THERE IS A HELL The infinite Redemption wrought by Jesus Christ is reduced to nothing if sin be not an infinite evil leading to an eternal hell. The mystery of the Atonement and the Incarnation of God the Son would have no adequate reason to explain them else ; and they would come to be regarded as unreal and untrue. — Bishop Bellord. AN ATHEIST'S UNCERTAINTY Some one said to Voltaire, "I am now finally convinced that there is no hell." He answered, "You are very happy. I am far from that, to my great sorrow." THE DENIAL OF HELL To deny hell is to misunderstand and underrate the power that free-will has of resisting God. If there be no hell man cannot finally reject God, there is no such thing as obstinacy in sin or final impenitence, there is no force in inveterate habits. There are two alternatives; either God forces the impenitent and resisting soul into an unmeritorious love of Him and crushes free-will : or the soul repents in the next world and goes again through a course of supernatural training for Heaven. In this case all these passages of Scripture and doctrines and exhortation crumble away, which treat this life as the time of probation and insist on the importance of using the present life well. — Bishop Bellord. DENIAL OF ETERNAL PUNISHMENT The present age has gone beyond all those that are past, in deny- ing the existence of hell. Hitherto the voice of the Church, the voice of Scripture, the voice of nature, reason, and conscience, have con- vinced even the most lawless sects that an eternal punishment awaits the violation of eternal laws. But now, various causes have com- bined to lead most of those who are outside the Catholic Church to reject this most important truth. Pride of intellect and spiritual HELL 9S ignorance, the tendency to rebellion and moral corruption, have created a new spirit of the a^e, which has set itself resolutely in op- position to this doctrine. Against it have been marshaled all the forces of sophistry, ridicule, misrepresentation. The attack has been most vigorously conducted with so much success outside the one true Church of Christ, that its leaders boast of having forever deliv- ered mankind (i. c. certain sections of some communities), from "an appalling burthen of cruelty and terror." — Bishop Bellord. Many may rejoice in the spread of incredulity about hell and think it a victory over religion and God, but in reality it is one of the severest punishments of men's sins. They have despised the light of truth, and it is becoming obscured and lost to them. This is the immediate consequence of their worldliness, pride, and sensuality; and the consequence of sin is also its punishment. The loss of this truth relieves the sinner from the wholesome restraint of fear, it closes in great measure the opening to repentance, it leads to further sins and greater ultimate punishment. An increase of crime follows as a punishment on the denial of hell, and so the denial of hell becomes the surest way of bringing men thither. — Bishop Bellord. THE SUFFERING OF HELL In the cruel days of the penal laws in England, when every effort was being made to stamp out the Catholic faith, we read of one glorious martyr, a woman, who was slowly crushed to death for sheltering a priest. And we are told how the weights were not laid on her all at once, but one by one, until at length her poor mangled body could endure no more, and she went to receive a martyr's crown. But all human suffering is of this type, given to us gradually moment by m.oment — whereas in eternity the whole weight is there always — the awful pressure of suffering is ever entire, and yet death can never come. — Raphael Moss, 0. P. THE TORMENT OF FIRE Even in this life the pain of fire is the most terrible of all tor- ments. But St. Augustine says, that in comparison of the fire of hell, the fire of this earth is no more than a picture compared with the reality. THE ITRE OF HELL How far the word "Fire" may be literally spoken of hell we have no means of judging. God has made no relevation, the Church has given no definition on the point. We are at liberty to interpret it as may seem best to each. We cannot explain it quite literally of fire such as we have on earth. That is a creation of God, beneficial, cheerful, intended for our use and comfort. The fire of hell has no beneficial qualities, it is not fed with fuel and liable to extinction, but it is lighted and fed by sin and fanned by the breath of God's anger. The Fathers and spiritual writers tell us that earthly fire, however furious, is but a dead, lifeless image compared with the terrible reality of hell. That fire is of such a kind that it can torment spiritual beings, fallen angels and human souls. St. Bernard would yo ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS seem to make it wholly immaterial when he says, "Nothing burns in hell except our own self-will." — Bishop Bellord. THE STATE OF THE LOST A distinguished writer lately dead describes the state of the lost thus: It is "an abiding consciousness of having missed the aim of life, a loss of all that the heart before clung to; an absolute impotence and want of energy, because all the powers of life are withdrawn, and the will is now empty and unfruitful, and only fixed on evil; the constant burning of unsatisfied passions, and the gnawing pain of a conscience which cannot again be laid to sleep." — Bishop Bellord. THE PUNISHMENT OF HELL TEMPERED FOR SOME As the punishment of hell varies for each one, as the realization of the loss of God depends on previous knowledge and guilt, there will evidently be some on whom the punishment of hell will fall very lightly. There are some, such as unbaptized children, savages, and possibly other adults (Balmez), who are not qualified for the super- natural vision of God, but who have never deliberately averted their will from Him. Such lose God indeed supernaturally, and it is an infinite loss; but no injustice is done to them thereby, for this super- natural possession of God is beyond all claims, requirements, and even beyond the ideas and desires of men in the state of merely natural endowments. — Bishop Bellord. VARIOUS GRADES OF PUNISHMENT IN HELL We do not belong to the ranks of those profligates, whose whole lives are devoted to outraging religion and morality, who are the declared enemies of God and man. Our destination cannot be the same as theirs. It would be unjustly to place us on the same level with them. Hell with its eternity of terrible torments is altogether out of proportion with our present state, tepid though that state may be. Yet it is no presumption in favour of our salvation that we are not as worthy of hell as the worst sinner. By similar reasoning we should be unfit for Heaven, for we can not think ourselves worthy of that ineffable glory that belongs to the Mother of God, the seraphim, and the highest Saints. But there are varieties of reward and punishment adapted precisely to the character of each individual; for each one is himself the source and measure of his joy or suffering. As star differeth from star in glory, so too is there the widest diversity among the fallen stars. We may not be very bad; but there is place in hell for all classes of criminals. Would not a state of tempered punishment in hell be more accordant with our worthlessness, than any participation, however limited, in the infinite sanctity and glory of the Divinity? — Bishop Bellord. THE "MEA CULPA" OF THE DAMNED Imagine a man who in his drunkenness sets his house on fire, what his despair will be when with the return of his reason he realizes that through his own fault he has lost everything he possessed, and that he never will be able to gain back what his folly robbed him of. Thus the damned in their fearful suffering will be compelled to HELL 97 remember that they lost Heaven and are in hell through their own fault. — St. John of the Cross. THE REMORSE OF THE DARINED A damned person once appeared to St. Hubert, and said, that two remorses were his most cruel executioners in hell : the thought of the little which was necessary for him to have done in this life to secure his salvation ; and the thought of the trifles for which he brought himself to eternal misery. The thought of having been the cause of their own damnation produces an internal pain, which enters into the very bones of the damned, and prevents them from ever enjoying a moment's repose. Hence, each of them shall be to himself an object of the greatest horror. Each shall suffer the pain threatened by the Lord : I will set thee before thy face. O fool, he will say, that I have been ! If I had suffered for God the pains to which I have submitted for the indulgence of my passions — if the labours which I have endured for my own damnation had been borne for my salvation, how happy should I now be ! — St. Alphonsus Liguori. After having eaten the potage of lentils for which he sold his right of primogeniture, Esau was tortured with grief and remorse for what he had lost, and roared out with a great cry. Oh. how great shall be the roaring and howling of the damned, at the thought of having lost, for a few poisonous and momentary pleasures, the everlasting kingdom of paradise, and of being condemned for eternity to a continual death ! — St. Alphonsus Liguori. AN EVU. SPIRIT'S DESCRIPTION OF HELL A holy priest was once casting the devil out of a man who was possessed, and while he was doing so he said to him: "In the Name of God tell me what are the punishments the wicked suffer in hell?" Satan answered: "The punishments the lost suffer in hell are a continual burning in an abyss of fire, remorse, and despair ; but the greatest suffering of all is not to be able to see God, who made them, and whom by their own fault they have lost." "What would you now do to be able to obtain the opportunity of re-entering God's grace?" "I would willingly suffer all the torments of hell for ten thousand years, if I could only see God for one moment, and if I had a body like you I would be always at His feet begging for mercy. Oh, if men only knew what it is to lose the grace of God!" I CANNOT BEAR THIS MUCH LONGER! One day St. Bernard went to see a man who was very ill. He had all his lifetime been negligent in his religious duties, and now, when he was so near the end of his life, he would not hear of returning to God by a sincere repentance. St. Bernard asked God very earnestly to show mercy to this poor sinner. So when he went to see him he sat down at his bedside and began to speak to him about his sickness. "Yes, sir," said the man, as he tossed about 98 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND LWSTRUCTIONS in his bed from the greatness of the pain, " I am indeed suffering awful torments. Oh, I cannot bear this any longer — I cannot bear this any longer ! It must come to an end soon ! " St. Bernard looked with eyes full of pity on the poor sufferer, and the tears began to fall from his eyes. The sick man saw him weeping. "Ah! dear sir," he said, "I see you feel for me! I see you are moved at the sight of what I am suffering. Is not my condition one to be pitied?" "Yes, my poor man, your condition is indeed one to be pitied, but these tears flow from my eyes, not so much on account of the state of your body, but because of the state of your soul. I am thinking that in a very short time, perhaps in a few hours, your poor soul must leave the body, and then be at once cast into hell for ever and ever, because you have not served God on earth. And I imagine that I hear it saying there the same words, ' I cannot bear this much longer ! ' and yet it shall have to bear for ever and ever torments infinitely greater than those you are now suffering. Poor unfortunate man ! " The sick man was much impressed by the truth of these words and at once made his peace with God. HOW A SAINT CONVERTED A SINNER St. Lidwina was for thirty-eight years a perfectly helpless sufiferer of fearful pains. She became by her patience, and perfect conformity to God's will, a great Saint, and converted many sinners. One day a nobleman, who had lost his faith on account of his wicked life, came to her and in mockery said he was going to make his confession to her. She tried to stop hun, but she could not, for she could not move about. So he told her of his horrible sins, even boasting of them. When he got through, he insisted that she should give him a penance. Inspired by God, she asked him : " You have a comfortable bed at home, have you not?" "Yes, my bed is most comfortable." "Your penance is this : when you retire to rest this night, take in your bed the most comfortable position you can find, and then do not stir from it until your usual hour for rising." The nobleman went away laughing at such an easy penance. At night he took what he considered the most comfortable position ; but he could not sleep ; after a quarter of an hour, he would have liked to move, but did not. After some time, he could bear it no longer, and the thought came to him: "If I cannot bear for a few hours the discomfort of such an easy penance, how shall I be able to bear the horrible pains of hell, for all eternity?" This thought frightened him, and in the morning he went to a priest and made his confession. — F. Girardey, C.SS.R. THE THOUGHT OF HELL A PROTECTION AGAINST SINNING If we are always thinking of hell we shall not easily fall into it. For this cause God has threatened punishment, for He would not have done so if there was not great advantage in thinking of it. But because the remembrance of it is effectual for good, He has fixed the menace in our souls as a wholesome medicine. Let us not then neglect the great advantage derived from it, but constantly reflect upon it. . . . But dost thou fear the pain fulness of such HELL m words? Dost thou then extinguish hell by keeping silent, or kindle it by speaking of it? Whether thou speakest or not, that fire will fiercely burn. Let it be continually spoken of, that thou mayest never fall into it. It is impossible that a soul anxious about hell should readily sin; for hear that most excellent advice, "Remember thy last end and thou shalt never sin." Let us not remember the kingdom so much as hell, for fear has more power than the promise. I know that many would despise ten thousand blessings if they weie not afraid of the punishment. . . . None of those who have hell before tlieir eyes will fall into it ; none of those who despise hell will escape it. Those who despise the threat will soon experience the reality. Nothing is so profitable as to discourse about hell ; it makes our souls purer than silver. . . . Christ continually dis- courses about it. For if it pains the hearer, it greatly benefits him. . . . . Let us not then avoid the remembrance of punishment, that so we may escape punishment. . . . Let us then, I beseech you, become watchful. Let us keep hell before our eyes. Let us consider that inexorable account, that, by thinking of these things, we may avoid vice and choose virtue ; and that we may be able to obtain the blessings promised to those who love Him, by the grace and living kindness of our Lord. — St. John Chrysostotn. Let us now in life descend often into hell, that we may not be obliged to do so after death. — St. Bernard. CHAPTER IV RELIGION; FAITH; THE CHURCH; SECRET SOCIETIES; SOCIALISM BELIGION God approaching to man, and man approaching to God, that is the summary of reHgion. God approaching to man — this is what the great mysteries of our faith amounts to; this is the truth mani- fested in the Divine works of creation, the Incarnation, Redemption, Heaven. Man approaching to God — this is the object of our striv- ing in all the acts of religion, in faith, prayer, sacrifice, self-denial, death. This drawing near of God and man is what actually takes place in true religion. God descends from His throne, visits the brilliancy of His glory, and manifests Himself. He appoints con- ditions for men's approach to Him; then He enters into union with them, becomes their life, their strength, their comfort, and satisfies the desire of His own goodness to be with the children of men. — Bishop Bellord. MAN MADE FOR GOD There is no such being as a man devoid of the aptitude for super- natural religion. Every man is made by God and is made for God. Education, heredity, temperament, may place special difficulties in the way, but these are no more entitled to the respectful considera- tion they generally meet with, than a man's natural inclination toward lying, stealing, or debauchery. God permits these depraved impulses so that we may have matter for a struggle and glory for overcom- ing. Opportunities of sufficient knowledge are wanting to none. Education, abundance of communication with other minds, the uni- versality of religious practices and worship, the interest and attrac- tion that seem to rise spontaneously for religion, and above all, the grace of Him who "enlighteneth every man that cometh into the world" (John i, 9), all this ensures sufficient guidance to lead every man through darkness to the light. — Bishop Bellord. RELIGION A WANT OF THE SOUL Religion has no varying and accidental relation to the minds and consciences of mankind. It is one of the essential wants of the soul, answering to its deepest, most spontaneous, and universal cravings. Religion is one of the most prominent facts in the history of hu- manity, in every stage from barbarism up to the highest refinement. Each element in religion meets a corresponding want in human nature. Theie is a craving in the human soul for truth, as universal as the cravmg for bodily nutriment. — Bishop Bellord. NATURAL RELIGION Human reason alone is able to delineate onlv the dim outlines ot religion. Its light is too dim. It gives twilight glimpses of the 100 RELIGION 101 Creator, too fugitive and indefinite to light the way. It gives the broad principles of duty, but its light is not strong enough to dis- cover the detailed application of these. It makes us feel in a gen- eral way the necessity of doing God's will, but it does not declare what that will is and how to do it. "The choices of life are definite things, and the rule to guide our choice must also be definite. It can tell us that all vice is to be shunned, but it does not tell us whether this or that particular thing is a vice. Natural religion is a religion of dreams, its doctrines are vague as dreams; like dreams their features are forever changing. It can never rule men; it has never ruled them. It excites more longings in men than it can satisfy. It ever cries for more. It is an alluring voice heard far off through the fog calling to them, 'Follow me,' but it leaves them in the fog to pick their own way out toward it, over rocks and streams and pitfalls which they can but half distinguish, among which they may be killed or crippled and are almost certain to grow bewildered." — Mallock (Non-Cath.). Yet in spite of all possible helps, in what a deplorable muddle do we find men concerning the truths of natural religion ! To begin with, they had most deformed notions about the nature of God. Polytheism, dualism and idolatry flourished universally; stars, plants, animals, wooden and metal idols were adored as gods, as is still the case among barbarous tribes. Sanctity or purity was not an attribute of these grds. The most revolting vices and crimes were attributed to them — pride, envy, jealousy, murder, incest, rape. Every human passion was defined and served as a patron to those addicted to such a vice. — Timothy P. Holland. HIGH INTELLECTUAL CULTIVATION OFTEN A HINDRANCE TO RELIGION High intellectual cultivation besides being unable by itself to raise men to spiritual heights, must often be a hindrance to it; in other words, a highly cultivated man, in seeking after God, may be in a worse condition and less likely to succeed than a man of inferior gifts. This is indeed frequently brought as a reproach against religion, and it may seem that we are admitting too much, and de- preciating religion by allowing it. But let us consider it. It is impossible to raise all the qualities of any man, or any race of men, or of any class of animals or plants, simultaneously to their highest degree. Nature is incapable of the strain of so much per- fection. No being can be perfect except God. If the colours of a flower be cultivated there will be some loss elsewhere, perhaps of scent or of size. If fruit is grown for size there will be probably a sacrifice of flavour. Highly bred animals are weak in constitution. What you gain on one side is lost on another. The more perfect a thing is in one quality, the more decided its imperfection on the whole. The eye which has been trained to books and can take in a whole page at a glance, could not track lost cattle through the desert or distinguish a distant sail at sea. A surgeon engaged in delicate operations could not take violent exercise; he must forego strength of muscle if he would keep his steadiness of hand. Excessive bodily exertion makes study impossible, and the highest mental cultivation 102 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS is seldom compatible with rude good health. If a man's muscle and endurance are highly developed, it is most likely that his higher faculties will be dwarfed. His physical perfection is inconsistent with his general perfection. He is worse as a man, because of his superiority as an animal. So too, the condition of any exceptional genius is generally abnormal and morbid; he too is less perfect as a man because of his very perfection, and there will be some grave defect in him to counterbalance the immense advantage he possesses over other men. From all of which we may conclude that there is no depreciation of religion in admitting that the highest intellectual cultivation must often be antagonistic to it. — Bishop Bellord. THE INTELLECTUAI. IMPEDIMENT TO BELIEF There is in our minds a natural disposition to distrust any demon- stration or line of argument, the result of which leads to consequences which we judge impossible. He who assumes that miracles are im- possible, will reject the Gospel as a tissue of impossibilities. Such persons must be reminded that their assumption of the impossibility of miracles is altogether gratuitous, that God has not tied His own hands by the laws which He has made ; the Legislator is always free from his own laws, so that He may change or suspend them at His pleasure. — W. Lockhart, NATCRAl. VIRTrE Noble-minded disciples of naturalism are parasites of a believing society and would die without it. — Balfour (Non-Cath.). We are ready to admit that a few rare specimens of mankind, in whom nature was more happily compounded, have been able with- out the teachings of faith to reach remarkable perfection in natural virtue. The "good emperor," Marcus Aurelius, a truly noble-minded man, is pointed out as a pagan saint because of his self-mastery, his love of wisdom and his zeal for virtue; Epictetus, the patient blind slave, by his spirit of resignation to the ills of life, and Seneca, the philosopher, tutor of the Emperor Nero, who, in the midst of corruption and licentiousness, lived an abstemious and frugal life devoted to the search of true wisdom. — Timothy P. Holland. The case of a few naturally good, though irreligious, men is no criterion as to the probable conduct of an entire generation or country without religion. The argument does not extend from them to those others who are not under the influence of early religious associations, who are not restrained by philosophy, refinement, sense of honour and propriety. The infidel multitude are more likely to take the view of that man who, having been restrained by his scientific pursuits and early memories from sinful grossness of life, said in his last days that he was sorry he had taken the trouble to restrain himself and lead a moral life, when he did not acknowledge the religious need of it. — Bishop Bellord. The numerousness of such cases is no disproof of the truth that all men need religion and are called to it by God. It is not incon- RELIGION lOa listent with the general application of that truth, that certain men should remain for a time without being as yet called, or that they should have extinguished in themselves their natural aptitudes. There are some men in whom certain ordinary faculties arc almost extinct. Custom and disuse, or disease, may destroy them. So in the lowest depths of the sea and in the subterranean rivers of great caves, fish are found that have no eyes ; they have been reduced to this state through countless generations of ancestors whose eyes have gradually withered away through want of use. But they still have the rudi- ments of eyes, which in the course of time, under ordinary conditions, might become capable of vision. Even those who seem to be without the faculty for religion retain the rudiments of the sense somewhere in their being, and through this remnant grace can work if they are willing, and bring them to the fulness of religion. — Bishop Bellord. THE DISPOSITION FOR BELIEF But besides those persons who have never considered the question of the Christian religion at all, or who approach the subject with little seriousness, with scarcely any thought of its importance, and without adequate consideration of the arguments on which it rests, there are, no doubt, some to be found, of a very different class. These persons tell us that they have given long and serious attention to the evidences of Christianity, but yet that they are not convinced. Now, it appears that this disposition of mind is the result of one or other of two causes, and sometimes of a combination of the two. One regards a certain moral disposition of the soul, and the other, an intellectual disposition. First, with regard to the moral disposition. It is certain that our will has a great deal to do with our belief. The prejudices of educa- tion, self-interest, and an unwillingness to submit our conduct to the strict rules of the Gospel are quite sufficient to account for the spirit of unbelief; and not wishing to find the Gospel true, but without any conscious dishonesty of purpose, the mind rests upon the apparent difficulties in the evidence, and passes over the great arguments in its favour: and this is nothing more than what we see in the judgments men form on all matters in which human passions are involved, in the different sides men take in politics, and the conflicting opinions they hold concerning the character of great historical personages. In these matters, the opinions they form of persons and principles and even of historical facts, receive a certain colouring from their preconceived views and natural tendencies. Democrat and Republican, Whig and Tory, find it difficult to believe in each other's sincerity. It is rare to find men who take pains of examining with perfect candour the reasons of opponents. In like manner the selfish man will not believe in disinterested heroism, the avaricious man in political integrity, the sensualist in spotless purity. — W. Lockhart. GOD OFFERS TO AIL MEN THE MEANS OF SALVATION St. Thomas tells us that if a pagan had acted according to his abilities, God would not suffer him to be lost for want of further light, but would send an angel to make him a special revelation of what was necessary. Have they but a vague desire of God, and 104 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS truth, and goodness? St. Bridget and Sister Emmerich speak of the tenderness which the Divine Judge will show to the heathen in accepting implicit instead of actual desires. Have some men rejected revealed truths? They will perhaps be simply in the position of uninstructed Catholics, who have never heard of certain doctrines or expressed adhesion to them. Have others hated and oppressed and injured the Church? In some instances our Lord's words may apply to them : " Father forgive them, for they know not what they do" (Luke xxiii, 34). Many by their subsequent conversion and fidelity show that they acted in ignorance ; that what they hated was not the Church as she is, but some figment of their imagination, or some creation of calumny which they mistook for her. However imperfect our knowledge may be, we can still see sufficiently well how God has a care for all His creatures ; how the means of salvation are to be found in every condition of life; how every man can save his soul if he will; how no one is punished in the next life on account of his ignorance or want of opportunities, and how "in every nation, he that feareth God, and worketh justice is acceptable to him" (Acts X, 35.) — Bishop Bellord. REVERENCE TOWARD GOD But let us not mistake the nature of this godly fear, which we call reverence. All who live under the law stand in awe of its majesty and fear those in whose keeping is its authority. Thus did Mephisbosheth do reverence to David and acknowledge him for his sovereign. Now there are two classes of citizens who fear the law and the custodians thereof: the law-abiding citizen and the law-breaker. They both fear, yet how different is the quality of their fear ! You know how and why the good citizen fears the law. He has assisted in its making, is interested in its maintenance, desires its triumph, and would rush to arms and die, if need be, to uphold and defend it. He respects the law, loves it. What he fears about it is that he might, in some moment of supreme folly, forget himself, go counter to its mandates and, falling into its clutches, have to pay the just penalty of his crime. He loves the law because it is good; he respects it because it is just; he fears it because it is strong and he himself is weak. The severity of legal chastisements awes him, but dees not cow him, for this very severity is his own protection and security, whose edge he shall not feel unless he comes to deserve it. And he is determined, as far as he is able, not to make himself amenable to the bar of justice. But the criminal, deliberate in his rebellion against the law, neither respects nor loves it. He simply fears with a servile fear, a slavish dread and terror. He hates it. — John H. Stapleton. THE ORDER OF NATURE AND THE ORDER OF GRACE Is it conceivable that the characteristic quality which is so prominent in the natural order should be absolutely wanting in the supernatural? Is it conceivable that the beautiful harmony and unity which mark the inferior works of God, should be absent from the most important work of all ; that God should have made such complete and regular provision for the secondary means of salvation, RELIGION 105 and only the most casual, scanty, and uncertain provision for the primary means of salvation, viz., religious guidance? Is there no analogy between the order of nature and the order of grace 't The general truths of nature are certain, the laws of nature arc immu- table, the duties of life always the same, and they are clearly mani- fested to us. Would not God's action be inconsistent with itself, if He had left the religious order in the state that some men con- ceive ; in a state of anarchy and lawlessness, uncertainty and discus- sion, divided against itself, split up into warring fragments, with no fixed criterion of truth, with no authority to command obedience? That is the ideal of the Christian Church according to th.e majority of non-Catholics. If the same were the Divine ideal, it would utterly falsify the Scripture which saith "God is not the God of dissension but of peace" (I Cor. xiv, 33). — Bishop Bcllord. UNITY AND HARMONY NECESSARY IN RELIGION The disintegrated Christianity that exists outside the Catholic Church can in no sense be called a united and universal kingdom; it does not in any way correspond to prophecy, it is rather a degen- eration from than a perfecting of the former system. The progress of the world combines families into tribes, tribes into nations, nations into confederacies, it puts an end to private feuds and civil wars, and tends to discourage wars between nations, it organizes human efforts of every kind throughout the world, and brings all men into closer relations with one another ; progress in short promotes union ; and the more united society is, the more perfect is it. The perfection of religion must also consist in unity and internal harmony. If it recedes from these, it is on the downward grade to dissolution, it is relapsing into the conditions of bygone barbarous times, it is inferior in character to the former Jewish system which it replaced. If it were not for the existence of the Catholic Church with its broad unity, its great numbers, its harmonious organization, Christianity, as it is outside the Church, would fail to accomplish ancient prophecy, and would be nothing better than a failure. — Bishop Bellord. RELIGION THE STRONGEST MOTIVE The highest results in the way of good life are attainable only under the influence of true and complete belief in Divine truths. Strong belief in a religion, whether incomplete and true as in the case of the Jews of old, or incomplete and false as in the case of Paganism, Mohammedanism, and Protestantism, has produced greater effects on men's lives than any other motive outside religion. It has engendered by turns a ruthless fanaticism, a violent though temporary enthusiasm, great organizing and subduing forces, great devotion, courage, generosity. Nay, further, there have been a few exceptional cases in those religions of men who, if regarded in some aspects only, and not scrutinized too closely, miglit almost seem worthy to rank among the Catholic Saints. — Bishop Bellord. RELIGION THE SOURCE OF HIGHEST BEAUTY The beautiful is one of the great sources of delight to mankind. It is something intangible and indescribable inhering in things; it is 106 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS something which is different from their material composition. We cannot analyze it. It is a certain harmony and proportion, variety and unity, which fills us with delight as we contemplate it. Whether we consider a melody, or a series of sounds, a mountain chain, or a problem in mathematics, a poem, a thunderstorm, an invention, there is a something which is the same in all, which appeals to our sense of beauty and gives us exquisite pleasure. It is some gleam of Divine beauty reflected in the creature. It might be thought that religion has no concern with the science of the beautiful, that it is too austere to bend to such frivolity, and that earthly beauty is rather the material of self-indulgence and sin. Not so. The perception and enjoyment and production of beauty are closely connected with God and religion. Religion is to us the source of the highest beauty as well as of truth and morality. The Scriptures speak of the beauty of Jerusalem, which is the figure of the present Jerusalem, the true Kingdom of God on earth. —Bishop Bellord. FAITH THE GIFT OF FAITH It is a magnificent privilege to be a Catholic. The true Faith is one of the grandest, greatest and most sublime gifts of God to man. It is a gift we can never be sufficiently grateful for, and which we can never value too highly, or, indeed, half highly enough. But, like every gift, it carries great obligations. It makes those who possess it doubly responsible. They have to watch over this inestimable treasure, to cultivate it, to make it bear fruit, to "trade with it," as the Scripture says, not to "bury it in a napkin." We have no warrant to treat it as if it were a charm or a talisman, that will work its marvellous effects of itself and independently of our own personal efforts and cooperation. No, our responsibilities increase and grow in intensity, with every additional grace and favour we receive. "To whom much has been given, of him much shall be required." — Bishop John S. Vaughan. THE DEFESmON OF DI\1NE FAITH I know that China exists, and India, and Japan. I know that Caesar was a great man, and that he wrote certain books ; and that Napoleon was a mighty commander, and was taken prisoner, and died at St. Helena. I know, further, that the earth turns on its axis, and that the succession of summer and winter is caused by the revolution of the earth round the sun. How do I know these, and countless other similar facts? I have acquired them by no personal industry. They all come to me on the testimony of other persons. I accept them without hesitation and without doubt ; but simply and solely upon authority. Now, the acceptance of a statement, upon the authority of another, is what is called faith; and the character of that faitli will vary, with the character and reliability of the authority invoked. If the authority be human, then faith is simply human faith. If FAirii lor the authority be Divine, then the faith is Divine faith. Hence, \vc may define Divine Faith to be the acceptance of any statements on tlie authority of God. — Bishop John S. Vaughan. rNREASONABLE AND REASONABLE FAITH A simple servant girl meets a wandering gypsy, who promises to tell her her fortune, if she will but cross her hand with a shilling^. She firmly believes her words. Why? Simply because she is old and ugly and has a hooked nose and wears a sugar-loaf hat. In this case the servant girl does, indeed, exercise faith, but it is a most ill-founded and unreasonable faith. It rests on a tottering foundation. On the other hand; instead of a foolish serving niaifl, take a prudent man, who lies sick, but wishes to get well. After due inquiry, he calls to his bedside the most learned physician he can find — who ha: already won for himself a high reputation in his own profession. He not only asks his advice, but he believes his words, puts himself into his hands, and carefully follows out all his directions. In a word, he "exercises faith" in his physician. He believes his words, and acts upon them. This is not an unreasonable, but a most reasonable and proper faith; and though it is merely human faith, its exercise is dictated by prudence and approved by common sense. The foundation here is practically firm and secure. — Bishop Johit S. Vaughan. Faith is the substance of things to be hoped for, the evidence of things that appear not. — Heb. XI, i. He that believeth in the Son hath Life Everlasting; but he that belicveth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. — John III, 36. Take heed that no men seduce you; for many will come in M\ Name, saying: I am Christ, and thex will seduce many. —Matt'. XXIV, 4-5. Without faith it is impossible to please God. For he that cometh to God nmst believe that He is. and is a Rezvarder to them that seek Him.— Heb. XI, 6. Amen, amen I say unto you, that he who heareth My word, and believeth Him Who sent Me, hath Life Everlasting, and cometh not into judgment, but is passed from death to life. — John V, 24. As many as received Him, He gave them potuer to be made the sons of God, to them that believe in His Name. — IVho are born, not of blood, nor of the luill of the flesh, nor of the zvill of man, but of God. — John I, 12-13. Amen, amen, I say to you, you seek Me not because you have seen miracles, but because you did eat of the loaves, and were tilled. — Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for That which endureth unto Life Everlasting, which the Son of man will give 108 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS yon. For Him hath God, the Father, scaled. — They said therefore unto Him: What shell zee do that ive may work the works of God? — Jesus ansivercd, and said to them: This is the work of God, that you believe in blim Whom He hath sent. — They said therefore to Him: What sign therefore dost Thou shozc that zee may see, and may believe Thee? zuhat dost Thou work? — Our fathers did eat manna in the desert as it is zn-itten: He gave them bread from Heaven to eat. — Tlien Jesus said to them: Amen, amen, I say to you: Moses gave you not bread from Heaven, but My Father giveth you the True Bread from Heaven. — John VI, 26-32. Every one that hcareth these My zvords and doth them not shall be like a foolish man that built his house upon the sand: — And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the zvinds blew, and they beat upon that house; and it fell, and great was the fall thereof. —Matt. VII, 26-27. Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona: because flesh and blood hath not revealed it to thee, but My Father Who is in Heaven. —Matt. XVI, 17. For our Gospel hath not been unto you in zvord only, but in power also, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much fulness, as you knozi' what manner of men we have been among you for your sokes. — And you became follozuers of us, and of the Lord: receiving the Word in much tribulation, with joy of the Holy Ghost. — I. Thess. I, 5-6. FAITH AND UNDERSTANDING Although no one can believe unless he understands, yet by the very faith with M'hich he believes, he is enlightened to fuller under- standing. For there are some things which we do not believe unless we understand them, and others which we do not understand unless we believe If wisdom and truth are not desired with all the powers of the soul, they can never be discovered By love we ask, by love we seek, by love we knock, by love it is revealed to us, by love, in fine, we persevere in what has been revealed. — St. Augustine. FAITH THE FOUNDATION OF VIRTUE A mansion may be a much more magnificent thing, in itself, than the rude foundation on which it rests ; yet, without the foundation there can never be a mansion at all. So, in a similar way other virtues may be, and are, sublime and more admirable than faith; yet, without faith they could never exist at all. From this we can readily understand the force of the Apostle's teaching, vi^ : "without faith, it is impossible to please God." — Bishop John S. Vaughan. FAITH AND GOOD WORKS (i) Faith is the principle, the source, the motive of good life. Good life in its highest expression is impossible without faith. (2) Faith, on the other hand, though not exactly impossible without good life, is dead and useless without it. Good works are often FAITH 109 the source and origin of faith; they are the evidence of its life and vigour; they are the nutrition and support of faith. (3) The two things together constitute true rehgion ; they embrace the whole spiritual life of man; they give him here rest and peace, they bring him hereafter to eternal life. — Bishop Bellord. FAITH AND WORKS Protestants of the sixteenth century taught justification by faith alone, without works. In the absence of confessional controversy, no evangelical Christian would now find fault with the teaching which declares only such faith to be of any worth which shows itself by the love of God and the neighbour. LOYALTY TO THE FAITH A certain Catholic had entered the army of the Shah of Persia, and gained his esteem. One day the Shah urged him to give up his religion and turn Mohammedan, saying: "If you do this, I will raise you to the highest rank." The young man replied: "My father died in your service, and I am ready to do likewise. But if you require me to give up my religion, here take this sword and kill mc, for I will rather die than apostatize." Struck by the noble answer of the soldier, the Shah praised him for his fidelity to God, and soon raised him to the highest honours in the Persian army. — Ferreol Girardey, C.SS.R. DISLOYALTY' DESPISED A Catholic young man in Holland applied to a minister of state for a government position. Being asked of what religion he was, he replied he was a Catholic, but added he did not care whether he remained one or not. The Protestant statesman said to him : "I have no appointment for you. You were born and brought up in the grandest institution in the world, and you do not know how to esteem the privilege. I feel sure that a Catholic who does not esteem and love his faith as his greatest treasure, is not fit for the king's service, because he does not know how to serve his God." — Ferreol Girardey, C.SS.R. THE APOSTASY OF THE WORLD There is a phenomenon peculiar to the present day, as prominent and as universal as the double fact we have been considering, of the success and the failure of modern progress; and that is the apostasy of the world from God. The times indicated by prophecy seem to have arrived when false prophets shall arise and seduce many ; iniquity shall abound, charity grow cold, and many shall depart from the faith, giving heed to doctrines of devils (Matt, xxiv, 12; I. Tim. iv, i). Religion has been dethroned from the height of esteem and influence which is rightly its own. It is no longer publicly recognized. Whilst in Judaism of old, and in Mohammedanism even at this day, the civil law is rightly made accordant with the religious law, nations that call themselves Christian make no pretense of conforming their acts to the law that Christ laid down. The supernatural destiny of man and the moral law are alike ignored. No one would think for a moment of allowing any weight in public life to the revealed Word 110 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS of God. The whole system of rehgion is treated as a private matter for individuals, a matter of fancy or a lingering superstition. Not only is it set aside, but religion is bitterly attacked. No effort is spared to misrepresent it, to calumniate it, to hold it up to ridicule and not a few countries have exerted their legislative and military force to crush it out of existence. In private life multitudes neglect every form of religious observance, such as prayer, public worship, and the Sacraments ; they have substituted wrong for right, and have said to evil, "Be thou my god"; they regard the most atrocious crimes with indifference, or with amusement, or tenderness, or respect. Many popular heroes are men who would be accounted criminals if their misdeeds were less enormous; and the chief objects of detesta- tion and ill treatment are those who love truth and justice as they are in Christ. Thus the life of civilized men has become, in great measure, irreligious and anti-Christian. — Bishop Bellord. LOSS OF FAITH Some years ago I met a gentleman who was taking his son, a boy of about twelve years of age, to a Catholic College to have him educated. I congratulated him on the wisdom of his choice and the means he was affording the youth of acquiring a sound Catholic education, and I alluded to the dangers to the Faith that lurk in some sectarian institutions of learning. "That," he said, "is exactly the reason why I am taking my boy to a college in which I know his Faith will be safeguarded, for," he added, "I deem the Faith the most precious treasure he can possess and the source of the greatest happi- ness he can enjoy." "Your sentiments," I remarked, "do credit to your religious convictions." "Religious convictions," he echoed, "father, I have none ; I have lost the Faith. When I was my son's age and older, I had the Faith and I had, too, the only joys and bless- ings life ever afforded me. My parents were unfortunate in the selection of a school for me, it was one in which religion was depised. I thought the correct thing for a young man was to profess hmiself emancipated from such a superstition. Agnosticism was rife among the students, and I imbibed its principles. Huxley, Tyndall and Spencer became my trinity. From the day they usurped the place of the three Divine Persons, I parted with everything that made life worth living. I left college a confirmed Agnostic and the most wretched of men. I feel, however, that I owe a duty to society, and most of all to my own flesh and blood, and I have determined that whatever else my son inherits he shall not inherit his father's legacy of woe." He noticed the amazement with which I listened to his talc and, anticipating remonstrances on my part, he courteousl)^ said: "No use arguing, father, my faith is lost, never to return." Here was a man of superior intelligence, with judgment enough to keep one he loved from following in his footsteps, yet a self-confessed apostate, miserable beyond expression, divested of the hope of human power to restore joy to his heart, and of heavenly grace to restore peace to his soul. — John J. Hurst. Hence, as you know, the loss of faith begins with religious in- difference, neglect of prayer, neglect of Mass, neglect of the Sacra- FAITH 111 mcnts. "First comes tepidity," sinj^s a German poet; "then doubt, then hatred and derision. Half-thinking leads to Satan! whole- thinking leads to God." "No one," says a French abbe, "shortens Ihe Creed before he has made a breach in the Decalogue." Surely this is of itself a proof that the Creed does not need shortening, and a proof that it is Divine and true. — P. J. Gannon, S. J. IS LIFE WORTH LIVING? "It was a wonderfully balmy evening in the fall of 1905," relates Rev. L. Ballet, missionary in Japan, "and the sun had just set behind Mount Fiji. Unexpectedly a young Japanese appeared in front of me, desiring to talk to me. I noticed that he was a young student. I bade him enter, and we saluted each other with a low bow, as persons meeting for the first time. I asked him to take a seat opposite me, and took advantage of the first moments of silence to take a good look at him. But imagine my astonishment when his first question was, 'Do you believe life is worth living?' asked in an earnest but calm manner. I confess this question from lips of one so young alarmed me, and went to my heart like a thrust. 'Why, certainly,' was my reply 'life is worth living, and living good. How do you come to ask a question that sounds so strange from the lips of a young man? You certainly do not desire to follow the example of your fellow-countryman, Fijimura Misao, who jumped into the abyss from Mount Kegon?' 'No, sir, at least not yet. I confess, however, that I feel my hesitation to be cowardice, for I have made this resolution for some time. In my opinion man is purely a thing of blind accident, a wretched, ephemeral fly without importance, without value. Why then prolong a life in which a little pleasure is added to so much sorrow, so much disappointment; a life that at any rate finally melts away into nothing? I am more and more convinced that this is the truth.' 'And what brought you to such views?' 'Well, science, philosophy, the books which I have read, for pastime or study. If it were only the opinion of our few Japanese scientists one might hesitate; but the science, the philosophy, of Europe, translated and expounded by our writers, teach the same thing. God, soul, future life, all is idle delusion. Nothing is eternal but only matter. After twenty, thirty, sixty years, man dies, and there remains nothing of him but his body, which will decay in order to pass into other beings, matter like He was. This is what science teaches us; a hard doctrine, I confess; but what is there to be said against it, considering the positive results of scientific research?'" Such is the disastrous result of materialistic teaching. RESISTING THE KNOWN TRUTH To resist the known truth does not mean to refuse an intellectual assent to a truth proposed. A known truth is a proposition which one has already weighed and recognized as true. To resist the known truth is to refuse to take it into account in regulating the moral life. Thus I may argue out the existence of God from the existence of created things. But my assent to the existence of God is not an act of faith until, under the influence of grace, I have recognized God as wv God and m\ reward. This is the faith without which 112 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS it is impossible to please God. "For he that cometh to God must believe that He is and is the rewarder to them that seek Him." This is a necessary means of salvation. To refuse such means of salvation is to sin against the Holy Ghost. To persevere in such refusal is to run the risk of final impenitence, for final perseverance is nothing but death at an opportune moment. Death, however, is a visitor certain in his coming, but most uncertain in his time of coming. — H. G. Hughes. For from a perverse will proceeded lust or strong desire, and the serving this lust produced custom, and custom not resisted became a moral necessity, with which, as with certain links fastened one to another (for which reason I called it a chain), I was kept close shackled by this cruel slavery. — St. Augustine. THE OBSTACLES TO CHKISTIANITY Looked at from a natural point of view, Christianity had every- thing against it; and, regarded from the same standpoint, paganism, which after three centuries lay prostrate, defeated in its fierce struggle with the religion of Christ, had had all things capable of ensuring it victory. At no time have enlightenment and culture stood higher than they did under the Roman emperors. Civilization had reached its culminating degree. Art, even long before this period, had attained to an excellence which has hardly ever since been ap- proached, not to say surpassed. The literature of ancient Rome, to- gether with that of Greece, was of so perfect a nature that, across the ages down to our own times, Plato and Homer, Cicero and Virgil, as well as a host of others, have kept their place as examples of what polite literature in style and in beauty of expression ought to be. What had the Apostles and the early Christians to offer in oppo- sition to this learning with its finish of style and beauty of diction? Those first heralds of the Gospel and members of the Catholic Church had none of the wisdom of the world, and, as society reckons learning, no learning. St. Paul himself says that among the follow- ers of Christ there were not many wise, not many learned, not many imbued with the knowledge of the philosophy of the days in which they lived. They had a doctrine to offer ; but it was a doctrine which went directly against three-fourths of those things which are the dearest to human nature, and which even severely censured most of the habits which had the society of that day so firmly within their grasp. The process of breaking with such habits would be a very painful one. To an age in which self had been elevated to the rank of a God, the Christian and Catholic religion preached self- denial. To a people with whom every kind of pleasure had been made to appear not only delectable but commendable, it is said that mortification and discomfort formed the better way. How could such a religion hope naturally to make progress? — Joint Freeland. CHRISTIANITY APPARENTI.Y DEFEATED The triumph of Our Lord's enemies was complete. They had avenged themselves fully on Him for holding them up to scorn and denouncing their hypocrisies. He had gained a great hold on the FAITH 113 people, He had spoken of a new era in religion. For a while they had feared Him, but now their power was confirmed, they could go on in their own way as before, no more would be heard of this dan- gerous movement. He was safely dead, and they could sate them- selves with the memory of His utter failure, His frightful sufferings, His indelible disgrace. The followers of Jesus were discouraged and broken. Simple, uncultivated men, called from their fishing-nets to follow One whose works they saw, but whose ideas they could not comprehend, their faith failed under the trial, they were "scandalized" in Him. The Holy Ghost was net yet given to them, Satan still had power to sift them like wheat. They laid aside their hopes of the re-establishment of the kingdom of Israel, and of sitting at the right hand and at the left hand of their Master. They hid themselves, or hastened away to their homes and previous daily labours. None kept the faith but the Blessed Virgin Mother; she alone, who possessed the secret of His Divinity, was able to trust in His promises and look forward to His triumph. — Bishop Bcllord. THE TESTIMONY SUPPORTING CHRISTIANITY The original evidence of Christianity rests upon the testimony of contemporary writers who tell us of the facts of which they were eye- witnesses, — the life and miracles, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. They wrote so nearly at the time of the events they narrate, that if their testimony could have been impeached, thousands would have impeached it; and some record of this would have been handed down by contemporary Jewish or Pagan authors ; for they were the few, and their opponents were the many; they were vmdistinguished and powerless, whilst all the engines of power and learning were on the other side. Yet they succeeded in gaining credit for their state- ments. On one day three thousand, and on another five thousand in Jerusalem were converted to the Faith, — men who had seen Jesus and heard Him, and seen Him crucified only two months before. And what personal advantage did the Apostles gain by their statements ? — Persecution, scourging, imprisonment, were the immediate result of them to their followers. In the midst of this aspect of affairs it was that one of the leading men of their opponents, a man who would have been remarkable in any age, — the learned Pharisee, Saul of Tarsus, who had every thing to lose in this world by the act, — gave his adhesion to the new religion, compelled by that testimony which he felt to be irresistible, when once his attention had been drawn to it by his vision on the road to Damascus. — W. Lockhart. PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY Protestants do not generally know that the identity of the Catholic religion and primitive Christianity is a first principle with us, and has always been so, centuries before Protestantism was heard of; this is the one and only basis on which the Catholic Church rests her exclusive right to "teach all nations," and has always rested on it. Disprove the justness of this claim, and you have reduced the Catholic Church to the level of one of the sects. — ]V. Lockhart. 114 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS REVELATION AND TRADITION THE MEANTVQ OF KEVELATION We may indeed, conclude by means of reasonings more or less satisfactory, that there must be a God, a great First Cause; yet such conclusions of reason are not direct knowledge. What I mean by a revelation, in the theological or religious sense of the word, is some proof given to us, through our senses, of a message from the spiritual v.-orld, bringing us direct knowledge of the existence of God, of His rights and our duties, of a future life, and what course we must take to secure happiness after death. Hence we see that if direct knowl- edge of God and our future state be necessary to man, and if he cannot acquire this knowledge by any natural means, the supernatural assistance of revelation is necessary. — IV. Lockluirt. I give you to understand, brethren, that the Gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. — For neither did I receive it of man, nor did I learn it: but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. — Gal. I, 11-12. INCOMPLETENESS OF REVELATION Revelation must of necessity be incomplete, in this sense, that though it be complete enough for God's purposes in us, it does not unfold Divine mysteries to us in their entirety. Our capacities are very limited. God may say to us, as Our Lord to the Apostles: "I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now" (John xvi, 12). Our minds can not rise to the heights of Divine mysteries, our speech can not convey them ; it is not given to man to utter them, as St. Paul says of those things which God showed him. Such knowledge would also increase our responsibilities be- yond our strength; it would be a source of danger to us, "lest the greatness of the revelations should lift us up" (H Cor. xii, 7). —Bishop Bellord. INCOMPLETENESS OF CHRISTIAN EVIDENCE Many complain of the difificultics and insufficiencies in the evidence in favour of Christianity and the Church. It does not come up to their notion of what the evidence should be. But we must not sup- pose that the incompleteness of the evidence is the real cause why so many men persevere to the end in rejecting the true Faith. Those who urge such a pretext would probably continue to disbelieve, even were the evidence as clear as they demand it to be. To grant them more convincing proofs would be not only casting pearls before swine, but it would be increasing their responsibility and their sin. If a completer revelation were necessary for begetting Divine faith in any souls, we may be sure that God would have given it to them. Those who find fault with the sufficiency of what God's Providence has done for their enlightenment are the counterpart of those Jews of old who found the evidence of the Resurrection imperfect. Our Lord antici- pated that very objection to His Resurrection. He provided against it, and gave a proof of its insincerity. In the parable of Lazarus and Dives, Abraham is represented as saying to the rich man about his incredulous brethren, "They have Moses and the Prophets. If REVELATION AND TRADITION 115 they believe them not, then neither if one rose from the dead would they believe." This was verified when Our Lord raised His friend, the actual Lazarus, from th& dead. One did rise from the dead, and Lore witness to Our Lord, but his enemies would net believe. The miracle was wrought before a multitude, it was noised abroad and well known. Lazarus was seen in public. Did men accept Our Lord the more on that account? No. For "the chief priests thought to kill Lazarus also, because many of the Jews, by reason of him, went away and believed in Jesus" (John xii, lo, ii). What wilful blind- ness, what a perverse choice of evil before good. It would be well nigh incredible, were not the examples of it too numerous. The ap- pearance of Our Lord once more before Ananias, and Herod, and the Pharisees, would, so far from converting, have stimulated them to attempt further outrages upon Him in His glorified state. —Bishop Bcllord. THE MEASURE OF REVELATION SUITED TO OUB CONDITION We are not adapted for an unlimited increase of spiritual knowl- edge. In the second place then, darkness is suitable to our present condition of corruption and the limited nature of our faculties. We could not bear the fulness of the revelation of God. Moses, who in type was the nearest approach to the image of Our Blessed Lord in the Old Testament, the great channel of early revelation, the leader of the people of God, the founder of the first dispensation, he who was the friend of God and conversed familiarly with Him, Moses asked for this fuller revelation and it was not granted to him: "Show me Thy face," he said, "that I may know Thee"; and again, "Show me Thy glory." And God made answer, "Thou canst not see My face; for man shall not see Me and live." And again God told him on his repeated request, that He would place him in a cleft of the rock and protect him with His right hand so that he might see, as it were, the skirts of His glory as He passed bv, "but my face," He said, "thou canst not see" (Exod. xxxiii). — Bishop Bellord. REVELATION SUFFICIENT Mankind being what they are, have we any reason for supposing that a further revelation from God would have any good effect? Is it not probable that what we each receive, and what has been given to the world at large, incomplete though it be, and insuffi- cient to answer all difficulties and objections, is precisely the quantity which is most beneficial to us? Is it not likely that God has so moderated the light that it is enough for human nature such as it is, and enough for the purposes of our existence, yet not so much as to overburden us and increase our responsibilities beyond human strength? It may be that fewer still would be found faithful with more abundant light. "To whom they have committed much, of him they will demand the more" (Luke xii, 48). Correspondence with our present graces is difficult enough almost to make us envy those who have received much less than we ; because with their actual opportunities they may yet rise higher than we ever shall, while, if unfaithful, they can never fall so low. So at the day of Judgment, Sodom and Gomorrha, with all their ignorance and crimes, will fare 116 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS better than many who actually looked on the face of God-made man, who were moved by His words of power and saw His miraculous works. Perhaps the chief result of further light would be to make unbelievers more incredulous still of Divine mysteries. The difficulty in many cases is not that too little has been revealed, but rather too much. They who reject what is offered to them might perhaps have accepted less. A greater quantity would only afford them additional opportunities for blasphemy and unbelief. The present revelation, if made to the Children of Israel of old, would have been too ad- vanced for their stage of development both mental and spiritual. Mankind needed to grow much older and acquire more cultivation of various kinds, before the mystery of the Trinity could be revealed to them or the mystery of the Incarnation accomplished. These doctrines might have been to them fresh incentives to polytheism and to new corruptions of the truth. The revelation which they received, fuller than that possessed in fragments by the Gentiles, was more than the Jews would bear and act up to. We may conclude that much the same would be the case now, and that a more complete revelation would be in advance of our actual state of development. — Bishop Bellord. REVELATION AND INBELIEK But, it may be objected, if the evidence for the Christian revelation is so strong, how is it that so many persons in this world, from the beginning to the present day, have not found it sufficient to convince them? How is it that there are any unbelievers? "How is it, that I myself," a person may say, "do not feel convinced of the truth of Christianity?" Now, in the first place, I reply that the fact of many persons not believing, affords no presumption against those who do ; for there is nothing to show that the great majority of unbelievers have given careful attention to the matter; and the presumption is that they have not ; because taking believers and unbelievers together, we find that questions of religion affect most men less than questions of the present life, temporal interests and the pleasures of the senses. —W. Lockhart. REVELATION AND TRADITION The Christian Revelation comes to us through the testimony of eye witnesses; but here, at the very outset, we must anticipate an objection. Many persons have said: "Here is the difficulty of receiv- ing Christianity, that we are called on to believe at second hand. If we had seen with our own eyes the alleged facts, the case would have been very different; but whatever rests on this kind of testimony seems to our minds cloudy and uncertain." But really, to argue thus, is to go against common sense, and to show that we do not understand the philosophy of human testimony although we act upon it hourly in every relation of life. The food which we eat, the medicine which we take, we receive on the testi- mony of others. We trust the cook and apothecary, for we have not investigated for ourselves, by chemical tests, whether that particular meat, or that especial medicine, may not contain deadly poison. We cannot prove to ourselves that we are the children of our own parents, we take the fact on testimony ; the laws of the land are framed on the same principle, and all questions of property are decided by the REVELATION AND TRADITION 117 examination of witnesses — that is, by testimony. If a man will not accept testimony, but will believe only what his own senses tell him he is fit only for the solitary confinement of a maniac, for indeed he will have become one. — IV. Lockhart. TRAniTION The tradition of the Church is the continual handing down, whether by word or writinp^, without addition or diminution, of the whole teaching of our Lord and His Apostles, by virtue of the per- petual guidance of the teaching Body, by the Holy Ghost dwelling in it. And that unless we admit an infallible Church we have no certainty of the truth of either oral tradition or Scripture itself, since even Scripture itself rests, for the only proof of its inspiration, on the tradition and infallibility of the Church as late as the fourth century. — IV. Lockliart. IV e give thanks to God zvithout ceasing: because that zuhen you had received of us the word of the hearing of God, yoti received it not as the word of men, but (as it is indeed) the Word of God, Who worketh in you that have beUcved. — I Thcss. II, 13. The things which thou hast heard of Me by many witnesses, the same commend to faithful men, who shall he fit to teach others also. —U Tim. n, 2. Brethren, stand fast: and hold the traditions which you have learned, whether by word or by our Epistle. — II Thess. II, 14. "What is there in common between the Scripture and your fabu- lous Tradition?" said a Protestant one day to a priest. "Hand me a Bible," said the latter. The Protestant gave him the volume, which the priest opened and examined, and then laid down, saying with feigned indignation: "I asked you for a Bible, sir, the Holy Scrip- tures, not this book of fables you offer me." "The book I gave you," said the Protestant, greatl}' scandalized, "is the grand Book of Books, containing the old and the new covenant of God with men." "And how do you know that this book is the Divine work of which you fpcak, and not a book of fables invented somewhere or other in the olden days?" "How do I know it? Why, by the infallible testimony of our forefathers who from age to age have transmitted this book to us as the Word of God." "Ah, you admit, then, an infallible tradi- tion, you who protest against Tradition !" — Guillois. Let me remind our friends of a familiar example, the substitution of Sunday for the Sabbath. We Christians work on Saturday, the seventh day, against the Commandment which says, on the seventh day thou shall do no zvork, and we keep holy, though in a less strict manner than the Jews, the first day of the week, namely Sunday; yet there is not a text in Scripture which commands the change or authorizes breaking the old seventh day obligation. There are passages in the Acts, for instance, which show that the 118 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS early Christians met together for worship on the first day of the week. But that dees not prove that they did not observe the seventh day as well. In fact, it is certain that they did so, for we find the Apostles, no less than Our Lord Himself, observing the Mosaic law, and even offering sacrifices in the Temple (Acts xxi.) in order not to give cause of scandal to the Jews, so we may safely infer that they would not, at that time, have authorised the breach of the Mosaic Sabbath. The change took place only gradually, as the Gentile converts in- creased and the Jewish converts became stronger in the faith. But, for the authority which made the change we must refer to the Church, infallible in teaching and with authority to dispense from the law which had been given from Mount Sinai to Moses, and to declare where it was of perpetual obligation, as in this instance, so far as regards the obligation of keeping holy one day, in seven, and where the obligation has ceased, namely as to the particular day of weekly observance, and special mode of sanctifying it. Infant baptism, again, rests on tradition, for there is not a text of Scripture commanding it, or a single instance in Scripture record- ing the baptism of infants. — W. Lockhart. THE BIBLE THE BIBLE NOT OUB ONLY GUIDB St. Peter warned us long ago against the Protestant principle of the Bible being our only and all-sufficient guide. Speaking primarily of St. Paul's writings he says, "In the which are many things hard to be understood which the unlearned and unstable wrest as they do also the other Scriptures to their own destruction." This text alone suflfices to show that the Scriptures are not by themselves a safe or sufficient guide. What other guide is there? St. Paul has already told us it is "the Church of the Living God, the pillar and ground of the truth," I ask again, have you any other meaning to give to the words? — W. Lockhart. THE BIBLE NOT INTENDED TO BE OUR ONLY GUIDE Catholics do not believe that the Bible was intended by Christ to be our only guide, and hence we cannot deem it, by itself, a sufficient guide. For, in the first place, if this principle was established by Christ our Lord, it must have been equally true in the beginning as at the present day. But it is an historical fact that during all the fifteen centuries between the time of Christ and the invention of printing, this rule was incapable of application, and therefore practi- cally a dead letter. The Bible could not be the practical guide for the many, when it was only in the hands of the few. When all books had to be copied by hand, there could have been no cheap books, and therefore none but public institutions, nobles, princes, and rich men, could have had copies of the Bible, since it is calculated that a com- plete copy of the Scriptures, written in the plainest manner, could not have cost much less than sixty pounds in English money. But not only were there no Bibles for the people, but there were no people to read Bibles ; for when hooks were scarce, there were few who THE BIBLE liy would undergo the task of learning; to read, since they knew before- hand that they would seldom have the fortune of meeting with a book. —W. Lockhart. THE BIBLE A MIRROB The holy Bible is a mirror. It reflects the goodness and greatness of the hidden God. It reflects, as no other book can, the secrets of the human heart. — C. M. Thucnie, O. P. All Scripture, inspired of God. is profitable to teach, to reprove, to correct, to instruct in justice. — Tluit the man of God may be perfect furnished to every good work. — II Tim. Ill, 16-17. THE BIBLE AND TRADITION For if "the Bible and the Bible only" were a sufficient guide in religion then there can be nothing important in religion, which can- not be proved on that principle. But there are many things which you consider important in religion, but which you cannot prove from the Scriptures only; therefore "the Bible and the Bible only" is not a sufficient guide. If either of my premises is doubted, I would invite you who have all along taken for granted that this principle is sound, to test it on its own merits, and to prove, if you can, by plain texts of Scripture, the following points: — I. — The obligation of the Christian Sabbath: — First — The Divine Command in Scripture to keep holy the first day of week, namely, Sunday instead of the seventh day, which is Saturday, and which is still kept by the Jews, who follow the command given by God through Moses. Secondly — The Divine permission in Scripture to work on Saturday, the old seventh day; whereof it is said, "The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord, in it thou shalt do not work, &c." (Exod. XX.) Thirdly — Proof from Scripture that we are not bound to keep lioly the seventh day also. II. — The necessity of infant baptism ; or a single instance of it recorded in Scripture; or any command or permission to confer it. III. — The lawfulness of eating fowl that has been strangled and meat killed with the blood in it, which the Jews never do, and which is a part of the Mosaic law, re-imposed on Christians by the Apostles — see Acts, xv, 29. IV. — Proof from Scripture only of the Canon and Inspiration of the New Testament, and rule by which to discover by internal evidence the inspiration of writing; as for instance of Ecclesiastes and Solomon's Song (otherwise called the Canticles), which Protest- ants admit to be inspired, as distinguished from Ecclesiasticus and the Wisdom of Solomon which they rank amongst the Apocryphal books. —W. Lockhart. An Indian Rajah, of vast possessions, one of England's subject Princes, dies, after having disposed of his treasures and his territories amongst the different members of his family. It comes to pass that after some years, disputes arise amongst the legatees. After passing through the Law Courts in India, the case comes to be heard in a Court of Appeal in the old country. The whole matter turns on the interpretation of some clauses in the will, that is to say, as to what 120 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS was the actual meaning of the testator. Now, on what principle would the matter be decided? Recourse, would naturally be had to adepts in the languages, and customs of India. The exact meaning of the words would be investigated. But the matter would not be decided on these grounds. For the question is not as to what the words might, with more or less propriety, express (for words are generally capable of more than one meaning), but what was the actual meaning of the testator. What he meant to convey, and was under- stood to express, at the time and on the spot where he made his will. What then would be the action of the Court? The whole case would be suspended until persons could be sent out to India to take deposi- tions on the spot, if possible, of the lawyer who made the will, and other disinterested persons, who were in the confidence of the testator, and could depose as to his intention in so wording his will. On these grounds the legal authorities on the spot would have given original possessions to the legatees, and these must be the basis of all future legal decisions. In short, the testimony of trustworthy eye-witnesses and contemporaries who knew the mind of the testator would be taken as conclusive, and as settling beyond doubt or cavil the real meaning of the will. Such witnesses would be accepted as the only really unexceptionable umpires, and the Courts of law would only endorse their testimony and give it the authority of law. The application is obvious. The inspired writers guided by the mind of our Lord are the authors of the will or testament, and stand in the position of the testator. The disciples of the Apostles, Ignatius, Clement, Polycarp, and their contemporaries, and scholars, Justin and Irenaeus, are the witnesses whose testimony would certainly be deemed conclusive, if they lived in our day, and were subpoenaed be- fore the Chief Justice of the United States, in any question which turned on evidence as to the intention of the Testator. — IV. Lockhart. THE CHURCH THE GUAKDIAN OF THE BIBLE The Westminster version is hailed (by the Phila. Public Ledger, Sejt, 7, 1913), as "the most important Roman Catholic work produced in England since the Reformation " ; the work of the Biblical Commission under Abbot Gasquet is called "the only serious attempt to revise the Bible since the third century," The New York Times, September 14, 1913, concludes a half-page article on this work with the statement that "the revision of the Vulgate could be intrusted to no sounder scholar, to no more skillful director of men" than to Abbot Gasquet; and the work he is directing is called by this paper "the greatest literary undertaking of the century," In regard to "higher criticism," the A^ccc; York Sun says that "as it is now, the Pope is the sole bold, positive and uncom- promising champion of the Bible as the Word of God." Anri Dr. Lorimer (Non-Cath.) says the same: "Only the Pope, only the Church of Rome, comes to the front as the champion of the Bible against the destructive critics." HfTEKPRETATION OF THE BIBLE The entire laws of a state are contained in a few volumes, whereas there arc thousands of volumes of commentaries on the meaning of THE BIBLE 121 these laws. Yet, when the laws were made, their wording was most scrupulously composed to make the meaning clear. Is the meaning of the Bible less subject to misinterpretation, less important than the laws of a state. Of a man who attempts his own interpreta- tion of the laws, and to be his own lawyer, it is said that he has a fool for his client. AN AUTHORITY NEEDED FOR INTERPRETATION "Just so, Judge," said the father. '"Now let me ask 3'ou a somewhat personal question. You are a United States' judge: what are you judges wanted for?" "Why," he replied, "to interpret the laws, and give sentence when they are broken." "But," said the father, "have not American citizens the legal code of the United States to go by?" "Certainly," he answered, "but no code can interpret itself, and no man is a safe interpreter in his own case, each would be likely to discover an interpretation favourable to his own opinion of what the law ought to be, and the diverse interpreta- tions of the law would be without end." — W. Lockliart. PRIVATE JUDGMENT There are people who act toward the Church of Jesus Christ, which He established to carry on His work and teaching, to represent Him, to manifest Him to the world by the action of His Holy Spirit dwelling within her, there are people, I say, who act toward God's Church precisely in the manner in which the Jews acted toward Jesus Christ. There are people who, though, like the Jews, they profess an ardent belief in and devotion to the Redeemer of Mankind, and to the interests of His Kingdom upon earth, yet have made up their minds for themselves, by private judgment, what the religion of Jesus Christ ought to be. — H. G. Hughes. MYSTERIES; MIRACLES THE MYSTERIES OF RELIGION— OUK TREE OF KNOWLEDGE The doctrines and mysteries of religion are our tree of knowledge, not to be tasted or investigated thoroughly by us. These we accept on the suflficient witness of the Church that they are the revelation of God ; we know that He has bidden us believe them, but we do not know the intrinsic reasons of these mysteries. They must not be treated by us as ordinary objects of curiosity; they must be approached with reverent meditation, with prayer for sufficient under- standing and faith to accept them. Free criticism, comparison with our own private standards of taste and fitness, the demand for such kind of proofs as we choose to yield to, hesitation as to whether we shall accept it or reconsider our opinion ; these are the methods to be followed with the objects of human science. These things God has delivered to us for discovery, examination, discussion; about these He has made no revelation ; we have absolute freedom in accepting or rejecting. These are all the other trees of the garden which God has left us to use as we wish. 122 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS Adam's revolt against the reservation from him of the tree of knowledge lias survived in his progeny, who have a rebellious tendency against anything that limits their knowledge. They feel humiliated by this yoke ; they would master all knowledge, investigate all secrets, even those which are unlawful. — Bishop Bellord. OBSCURITY IX RELIGION Obscurity in religion is also an evident requirement from the point of view of ourselves. The fact that faith is a supreme homage to God demands that there be a sacrifice of self in it; the fact that it is a virtue requires that there be an exertion in practicing it; the fact that it is highly meritorious demands that there be freedom in choosing or rejectmg it. If religious doctrines were as evident as the multiplication table, they would simply force our assent, there would be no alternative of rejection possible, our assent would not be free. — Bishop Bellord. OUB INABIUTY TO GRASP ALL RELIGIOUS TRUTHS How can any one expect that man should be able to grasp all religious truth ? Human faculty can not grasp the whole of anything, even of those things which lie within its own range. No man, though he had the most receptive mind, though he were to live ten thousand years, would be able to take in even the products of other men's minds. No one claims to distinguish an object ten miles off as clearly as one that is before the eyes; yet some expect that they should be able to master the remotest secrets of the Divinity, as they would a piece of present mechanism. — Bishop Bellord. THE BELIEF IN WHAT WE CANNOT SEE OB UNDERSTAND There was once a Princess who had been taught in her childhood the truths of Faith in her Catechism. But when she grew up she gradually lost her Faith ; and like other unbelievers, she used to say she would not believe anything she did not see or understand. One night she had a dream. She dreamed that she was walking through a great forest. She was alone. In the forest she saw a cottage, and at the door of the cottage there was a blind man sitting. She drew near to him and said, " My good man, I see you are blind ; tell me, were you always blind, or is your blindness the result of an accident?" "My lady," he replied, "I was born blind." "Oh, how sad must be your lot!" replied the Princess. "You have never seen the beautiful sun, and you do not know what light is." "No," he answered, "I have never seen the sun, and I have not the slightest idea what it is like, but I firmly believe that it must be something very beautiful." The blind man then changing the tone of his voice, and assuming a serious manner, continued, "You say you will not believe things which you do not see, or do not understand. Learn, then, from, my example that there are many things which you cannot understand, but which are really true, as true as the things which you can understand and see" The Princess awoke, but the dream gave her a profitable lesson. MIRACLES 12S WHAT IS A BIIRACLE? St. Thomas Aquinas says that a miracle is "A sensible effect, produced by God, which transcends all the forces of nature." Now an event may transcend the forces of nature in three different ways. Firstly, it may involve an act which no power in nature can ever produce under any circumstances or conditions whatever. Such a miracle takes place wIxmi the same body i-; made to occupy two dift'erent places at the same time : this we find in the bilocation of some of the Saints. Secondly, it may involve an act which nature may indeed produce, but not under the same circumstances, as for instance the flowering of a dry and dead branch in the depth of winter. Nature can produce blossoms and flowers on a branch, but not under such circumstances. Thirdly, it may involve an act which nature may indeed produce but not in the same manner. If, for example, a man have his legs broken, nature may knit together the shattered bones and heal the wounds by a slow and gradual process. But a sudden and instan- taneous and complete cure could not be ascribed to unassisted nature, but would partake of the character of a miracle. — Bishop John S. Vaughan. MIRACLES The Divine immutability is in no way compromised by a miracle since a miracle argues no change in the decrees of God. St. Augustine expresses the whole doctrine, with his usual accuracy and precision, in a single sentence : "Deus opera mutat, non consilium,." God produces a change in external things, but there is no change in His own mind. Both the laws and the exceptions to those laws fall under the same Divine Providence. He does not first establish a law and then suspend it when some special and unforseen circum- stance arises. There is no future in God's knowledge, and nothing unforeseen. Every circumstance which to us is future, is seen by Him, as actually present. His plans are laid from the beginning, with the full and present consciousness of every prayer that will ever be addressed to Him, and of every circumstance that would make a miracle useful or desirable. The interruption of a law, or the suspension of a decree, on account of exceptional circumstances, such as the need of manifesting His power, or the testifying to the truth of some doctrine, is all provided for and arranged from eternity, and denotes no shadow of mutability in the mind of the Supreme Ruler of the Universe. To deny this argues confusion in the mind of the objector. — Bishop John S. Vaughan. Consider how man himself can suspend or reverse the action of the laws of nature. Take the law of gravitation. Is it wholly inamenable to our will ? An example will show. Here is a heavy stone resting on the ground. The weight of gravity tends to keep it fastened and riveted to the earth. But I stretch down and, seizing hold of the stone, I lift it up over my head, a distance of six feet. What has happened ? I have not indeed destroyed the attraction of gravity. No. But I .have, in this particular case, and 80 far as the stone is concerned, rendered it inoperative. Indeed, 124 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS I have so utterly counteracted its effect that the stone, instead of following the line of gravity, and falling from A to B, rises in opposition to gravity's force and describes a path from B to A. Have I, in consequence, thrown the whole machinery of the universe out of gear? Have I, even in an infinitesimal degree, tended to produce confusion ? Evidently not. — Bishop John S. Vaughan. Protestants are ready enough to admit that Christ can and did work miracles. Some will go so far even as to admit that the more favoured of His followers may be made mediums of graces and favours. But they draw the Ihie at inanimate objects. They cannot persuade themselves that the water of Lourdes, for example, can be, under any circumstances, one whit better than the water of the Loire or the Lift'y, though the Scripture itself shows us how the waters of one place may be better than the waters of another, since Naaman was cured of leprosy by the waters of the Jordan, though no river in Damascus could do him any good. (IV. Kings.) Nor can they imagine that the dead bones of one man can possess any more virtue than those of another, though here again it is the Scripture itself that informs us that the bones of Elizeus wrought miracles not accorded to the bones of ordinary men. — Bishop John S. Vaughan. THE CHURCH THE CHURCH, THE VOICE OF GOD It is perfectly true that the Church does not allow her children to entertain any doubt of her teaching; and that, first of all, simply for this reason because they are Catholics only while they have Faith, and Faith is incompatible with doubt. No one can be a Catholic without a simple Faith, that what the Church declares in God's name, is God's word, and therefore true. A man must simply believe that the Church is the oracle of God; he must be as certain of her mission, as he is of the mission of the Apostles. — Cardinal Newman. THE CHURCH, THE APPOINTED TEACHER A party of travelers were standing on a lofty hill in the Aus- tralian Bush, where they have lost their way. Out-wearied and sinking, their provisions long exhausted, they are looking out with intense anxiety for some signs of human habitation, towards which they might direct their steps. Far as the eye can reach, extend the boundless plains, which seem as if they had never been trodden by foot of man. At last they all descry, in the far distance, a dark object, standing or moving, they cannot decide. "Ha!" exclaims one, "there is surely a man, far away in the midst of the plain." "Man !" says another, "I can see nothing but the stump of a tree." "No," says a third, "it moves and now I am confident it is a horse." Now all these three m.en have one, and the same object before their eyes, and yet they each understand it differently. Who shall decide between them? Clearly, tlicy might argue through the long summer day, till night came on ;ind took the object itself from their view. THE CHURCH 125 What is it they need to end their doubts and bring them to one way of thinking? Surely what they want is a witness, who is in a position to speak with conclusive authority and declare the truth. If now while they are disputing, one of their pariy who had long strayed from the rest, came up, having in his possession a telescope, he would be an umpire who could decide. He would examine the distant object with his glass and turning to the rest perhaps would say: "You are all more or less wrong; it is a mounted shepherd, riding in our direction. We cannot then be far from some settlement. Our lives are saved." The parable needs only to be applied. The travelers seeking their way, are men seeking the true religion, and the way to Heaven. The object before them is the text of Holy Scripture, as to the meaning of which they differ, and may differ to the end, unless an umpire can be found who is in a position to say who is right and who is wrong. And now, who is this conclusive witness and umpire? Let me say at once that to the Catholic this umpire and witness is that Divinely appointed Teacher "the Church of the Living God which is the pillar and ground of the truth. " — W. Lockhart. There will arise up false prophets, and they shall show signs and wonders, to seduce (if it were possible) even the elect. — Take you heed therefore; Behold I have foretold you all things. — Mark XHI, 22-23. Holy Father, keep them in Thy Name, whom Thou hast given Me: that they may be one, as We also are. — That they all may be one, as Thou, Father, in Me, and I in Thee: that they also may be one in Us: that the zvorld may believe that Thou hast sent Me. — And the glory which Thou hast given Me, I have given to them: that they may be one, as We also are One. — John XVH, 11, 21-22. But all these things One and the same Spirit zvorketh, dividing to every one according as He zvill. — For as the body is one, and hath many members; and all the members of the body, zvhereas they are many, yet are one body, so also is Christ. — For in One Spirit were we all baptised in One Body, zvhether Jezvs, or Gentiles, zvhether bond, or free: and in One Spirit we have all been made to drink. L Cor. XH, 11-13. As in one body we have many members, but all the members have not the same office: — So zve being many, are One Body in Christ, and every one members one of another. — And having different gifts, ac- cording to the grace that is given us, either Prophecy, to be used according to the ride of Faith; — Or Ministry, in ministering: or he that teacheth, in doctrine, — He that exhorteth in exhorting, he that giveth with simplicity, he that rnleth zuith carefulness, he that showeth mercy with cheerfulness. — Rom. XH, 4-8. You are a chosen generation, a kingly priesthood, a holy nation, a purchased people: that you may declare His virtues, who hath called you out of darkness into His marvellous light. — VVho in time 126 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS past were not a people: but are now the people of God. Who had not obtained mercy: but now have obtained mercy. — I. Peter II, 9-10. This is My Covenant with thetn, saith the Lord: My Spirit that is in thee, and My zvords that I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's ^ecd, saith the Lord, from henceforth and for ever. — Is. LIX, 21. THE NAMES OF THE CHUKCH Many names which are replete with mysteries, have been applied to designate the Christian commonwealth. Thus, by the Apostle it is called "the house and edifice of God." "If" says he to Timothy, "I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of truth" (i Tim. iii, 15). But the Church is called a house, because it is as it were, one family governed by one master of the family, and enjoying a community of all spiritual goods. It is also called the flock of the sheep of Christ, of which He is "the door and the shepherd" (John, x, 7; Ezech. xxxiv, 5). It is called the spouse of Christ: "I have espoused you to one husband," says the Apostle to the Corinthians, "that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ" (2 Cor. xi, 2) ; and to the Ephesians: "Hus- bands, love your wives, as Christ also loved the Church" (Eph. v, 25) ; and of marriages: "This is a great Sacrament, but I speak in Christ and in the Church" (Eph. v, 32), Finally, the Church is called the body of Christ, as may be seen in the epistles to the Ephesians (Eph. i, 23) and Colossians (Coloss. i, 24) — appellations, each of which has very great influence in exciting the faithful to prove themselves worthy the boundless clemency and goodness of God, who hath chosen them to be the people of God. — Catechism of the Council of Trent. THE CATHOLIC CHUBCH, AN mSTOBICAL INSTITUTION I freely admit the preeminence of Catholicism as an historical institution; here she is without a rival or a peer. If to be at once the most permanent, and extensive, the most plastic, and inflexible ecclesiastical organization, were the same thing as the most perfect embodiment, and vehicle of religion, then the claim of Catholicism were simply indisputable. The man in search of an authoritative Church may not hesitate, once let him assume that a visible and audible authority is of the essence of religion, and he has no choice; he must become, or get himself reckoned, a Catholic. . . . The Protestant Churches are but of yesterday, without the authority, the truth, or the ministries, that can reconcile man to God; they are only a multitude of warring sects, whose confused voices but protest their own sin of schism by the way it sets off the might, the majesty and the unity of Rome. In contrast the Catholic Church stands where her Master placed her upon a rock, endowed with the prerogatives and powers He gave to her, and against her the gates of hell shall not prevail. — Dr. Fairbairn (Non-Cath.). THE CHURCH 13Y THE CnrRCII, THE CONTRADICTION OF THE WORLD But it can never be too much insisted on that the Church is the direct contradiction of the world, and the law of her growth and power the flat denial of its laws. Her whole existence is a para- dox. She is a mighty army without horse or foot or guns; she wins astounding victories by defeat ; she thrives where by all natural laws she should decline, and declines where men might promise her prosperity. She carries the tidings of joy and the message of peace, and is ever in conflict. She lives apparently in perpetual danger of annihilation, yet survives to chant her requiem masses over the empires that assailed her. She nurtures civilization into being, and when the viper brood turns upon its gray-haired Mother, she calmly awaits the operation of God's inexorable laws, which consign such civilizations to putrefaction from within and dismem- berment from without ; and then, with her Divine patience, she sets about raising up a new order of things upon the ruins of the old. When one country spurns her, she shakes its dust off her feet, and carries her rejected blessings to another; when one continent falls away, she crosses the frontiers of the next. And thus, in eternal ebb and flow, she passes down the ages, with strong sweep of mighty waters moving noiselessly, because their channel is broad and deep, not with the loud brawling of mountain streams, bickering down their narrow, broken courses. — P. J. Gannon, S. J. THE CHTRCH, A SOCIETY The Church, in the strict and ordinarily accepted sense, is a visible society of men professing the same faith and governed by legitimately appointed pastors under the Roman Pontiff. The end for which this society was instituted is the eternal salvation of its members. — F. Harvey. God does not deal with each one of us directly in the sense that He communicates to the individual a scheme of belief and conduct. When Christ came upon earth He did not try to visit every country or to speak to every man face to face. The efforts of His public life were directed to the training and confirmation of the Apostles and the foundation of a society which would do His work when He had ascended to the Father. The Church, therefore, responds to the human need for society. We are all commanded to belong to it, to hear its voice, and to obey. It is the means by which we are put in line for salvation. We have indeed our own individual, personal work to do, just as the traveler who is on the right road must himself move on if he is to reach his destination. The Church is the road and besides this road there is none other by which men may reach their end. — P. C. York. THE FITNESS OF THE CHURCH It is incredible that God should maintain in existence by miracu- lous power a Church which He had destined to be incapable of doing the work of a Church. It would be an anomaly. It would be a more extraordinary miracle than the gift of perpetual life to the Church if God withheld from it the gift of perpetual fitness for all times. It 128 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS would be giving with one hand and taking away with the other, to grant life without that which enabled the life to accomplish its object. If God has the power to preserve the Church in continual existence, He can as easily preserve it in a state of efficiency. If the Church has vitality enough to resist the ravages of time and the assaults of the world and Satan, it is to be presumed that it has vitality enough to keep abreast of human progress. — Bishop Bellord. THE ADAPTABILITY OF THE CHURCH The enemies of the Church, even while condemning her, wonder at her unexampled adaptability to all circumstances. And indeed there is no such marvelous spectacle on earth. Age differs from age, country from country, all things vary according to time and place. The conditions that helped development in one period are unendurable fetters in the next. Only one institution goes on for ever, itself unchanged, yet adapting itself to every aspect of humanity. In every stage and society, under every form of government, from the center to the extremities of the world, there is one great figure that seems to preside over the destinies of men. It is a unique fact in history that the Church of the Catacombs should be the Church of the Middle Ages and the Church of the Nineteenth Century. —Bishop Bellord. THE CHURCH NEVER DISCOURAGED It is no new thing then with the Church, in a time of confusion or of anxiety, when offenses abound, and the enemy is at her gates, that her children, far from being dismayed, are rather glorying in the danger, as vigorous men exult in trials of their strength — it is no new thing, I say^ that they should go forth to do her work, as though she were in the most palmy days of her prosperity. Old Rome, in her greatest distress, sent her legions to foreign destinations by one gate while the Carthaginian conquerer was at the other. In truth, as has been said of our own countrymen, we, Catholics, do not know when we are beaten ; we advance, when by all the rules of war we ought to fall back; we dream but of triumphs, and mistake (as the world judges) defeat for victory. For we have upon us the omens of success in the recollections of the past ; we read upon our banners the names of many an old field of battle and of glory ; we are strong in the strength of our fathers, and we mean to do, in our humble measure, what Saints have done before us. It is nothing great or wonderful in us to be thus minded ; only Saints indeed do exploits, and carry contests through, but ordinary men, the serving men and privates of the Church, are equal to attempting them. — Cardinal Nczvman. THE DIVINITY OF THE CHURCH OBVIOUS Again, a world-conquest by poor and ignorant fishermen would be a miracle that would astound the minds of all thinking people. They would be obliged to recognize that some great force was behind it all, and since the work was the spiritual reformation of humanity this force must of necessity, they would say, be Divine. — F. Harvey. INFALLIBILITY NECESSARY There is nothing more important than to keep truth uncorrupted THE CHURCH 129 by error. The result of admitting a few even slight errors, would soon manifest itself on a large scale. Doctrines would come to be out of harmony with one another, they would not stand together in mutual support, they would seem contradictory, some would be dropped, and religion, instead of being a logical whole, would become a disjointed mass of fragments crumbling to destruction. Great ideas ultimately express themselves in the actions and lives of men. An error may seem too abstruse to be grasped by the multitude, but at last it will have its effect in relaxing faith and fervour and morality. Some think that religious doctrines are outside the sphere of practical life; but there is probably not a single doctrine that has not shared in forming the character of Christians, and not a single denial of any point which has not resulted in some definite soecies of irreligion or immorality in the general character of worldly men. For each indivi- dual it may, in a limited degree, be true, that lofty purposes, and strong endeavour, and rectitude of life, are more important towards his salvation than wide and accurate theological knowledge. But we do not live as unconnected individuals, we form a society which has a corporate life, and continuity, and development, and in which true and false ideas take root and bear fruit in good and evil lives. In a society, and in the long run, the ideas that there are germinating are of much more importance than any individual actions. As long as religious truth remains pure, it must be a source of power to correct men's actions and to preserve society. Therefore, God protected care- fully the body of religious doctrines entrusted to the Jews, though they themselves were most corrupt. So, too, has God made the Catholic Church infallible in doctrine, while He has not guaranteed any member of it against sin. — Bishop Bellord. OBJECTES'G TO AN INFALLIBLE CHURCH How do you account for so many real believers in the Christian revelation not being Catholics, nay, having an invincible repugnance to your doctrine of an infallible Church? I account for it in this way. Men are not strictly logical : of course, all men who use their minds go on logical principles to a certain extent. They must give what seems to them a logical answer to the questions which occur to their minds, but many questions do not occur to them ; they are content without going to the bottom of questions, and getting to the last or fundamental reason. Thus they may be fair and logical as far as they go, but they do not go far enough to be rigidly logical, and exhaust the whole matter contained in the question. Then again, when I say that they give to themselves what seems to them a true and sufficient answer, and again, that they are fair and logical as far as they go, I imply a great truth, of which every one must be conscious who analyses the acts of his own mind, especially whenever he is called on to exercise the faculty of judg- ment on any matter on which he has any prepossession or interest. This is, that besides the intellect which judges the question on which the mind is fixed there is another factor in the decision, namely, the human will, which is sure to pull this way or that, often under an unconscious or secret instinct of self-love, which has the fatal power of throwing cross lights, or false lights, as it were, on the 130 ILLUSTRATIONS TOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS scene, of casting in a weight, or tipping the scale imperceptibly in the very instant when the mind is passing judgment, and so the result is that we perhaps very seldom pass a perfectly unbiassed judg- ment, some element of the subjective gets mixed in the scale, and thus, though the balance is itself true and infallible, the weighing is not fair and true. — IV. Lockhart. THE INFALLIBLE TEACWIXO BODY If a revelation was necessary for man because of his ignorance and infirmity and tendency to error, it was equally necessary, that, revelation having been given, a way should be provided ot keeping that revelation undefiled by human error and weakness to the end. This was done by our Lord when He constituted a body of teachers, guarded from teaching error by His perpetual presence with thern, and with the power of handing down their commission to their successors, so that the promise of our Lord would rest on them also as it had rested on the Apostles. — IV. Lockhart. AN AUTIIOKITY NEEDED FOR Gl'IDANCE It is not within the power of any man to dispense with guidance. This is a most enlightened age. What does that mean for the bulk of mankind? That they are more independent of instruction and guidance? On the contrary. It means that there are more masters and guides for them to follow, that there is less scope for the wanderings of their imagination, and less tolerance for their errors. Even the most skilful of men shape their conduct in most important matters on the information they obtain from others; they will not trust their own foresight without taking abundant counsel. Outside their own particular sphere, they are ready to submit unreservedly to a competent authority, to the opinion of a medical man, a lawyer, an engineer, a man of business. And even in his own sphere, a man knows he is no judge in his own case. The physician will call in another to prescribe for him, and will speak as respectfully of that other's opinion as if he himself were quite ignorant of medicine. An eminent lawyer drew up his own will, and its irregularity and obscurity made it the subject of endless litigation. And what shall we say as to the capacity of men in general to guide themselves, ill-informed, undisciplined, prejudiced as they are, blinded by passion, unable to reason, obstinate, or weakly yielding to every fallacy? Of this educated generation it has been written, that none but the very few are capable of forming an opinion about anything that is not self-evident. Almost p.ll men are slaves to the ideas and fashions of the society they live in. Only half a dozen in an age can shake themselves free from these influences and make full use of that liberty of thought that everyone boasts of possessing. —Bishop Dcllord. SUBMISSION TO THE CIILKCII Submission to the Church is not, as many insist, an oppression and a disgrace, but it is the glory and the happiness of her children. They are enabled to render to God the homage of the noblest part of their nature, by bowing their intellect to the obedience of faith; for they submit themselves, not to man, but to God Himself, in THE CHURCH 131 recogfnizing the authority which He has delegated, and the mes- sengers He has sent. Their submission does honour to tb.emselves, not only as an act of generous sacrifice, but as delivering them from the servitude of error. — Bishop Bellord. SUBMISSION OF THE INTELLECT Take an illustration. Thus : God enunciates some sublime doc- trine, such as that of the Blessed Sacrament. We listen with respectful wonder as He unfolds, one by one, the marvels contained in that dog^a. We try in vain to grapple v/ith them, and to render them clear. But we fail to understand. We find ourselves face to face with mystery. Our intellect cannot help us. We must either reject the doctrine and exclaim, with the unbelieving Jews: "How can this man give his flesh to eat and his blood to drink?" Or we must throw ourselves wholly upon the veracity of God, and abandon ourselves unreservedly to Him, before whom the greatest intellect is immeasurably less than is the glow-worm's spark before the noon-day sun. It is not here so much a question of the submission of our will (though our will, too, has a share, and a very important share, in every act of faith) as the submission of our intellect. — Bishop John S. Vaughan. THE CHUKCH EMPOWERED TO MAKE LAWS Now, as to the subject matter of ecclesiastical legislation, and ihe extent to which it can go in prescribing or prohibiting — all this is to be determined by the Church herself, who is the supreme judge of all such questions, since to her alone has been committed the charge of the entire flock. In saying so much we must guard ourselves against a misapprehension. We do not mean that the Church can make laws and impose duties arbitrarily, as though it rested with her to fix for herself what she fancies, but in the sense that she is Divinely invested with supreme authority from above, both in deciding questions regarding her own power, and in framing and promulgating laws under the influence and guidance of the Holy Spirit, who has promised to abide with her for ever, and to defend her from all error. The reasonableness of this claim is patent to all. Why, even the state, with all its imperfections and with no special promise of protection from on high, asserts its right to exercise this prerogative, and will never allow its own competence to be impugned. The legis- lature in every civilized country is constantly asserting its right to pass laws and to impose restrictions which it considers to be for the benefit and well-being of the country. — Bishop John S. Vaughan. THE COM5IANDMENTS OF THE CHIJRCH In the time of Louis XVI., King of France, an old oflRcer who, though a child of the Church, was not too scrupulous in obeying her commands, took it upon himself to speak to his master with regard to the abstinence he was careful to practice when enjoined by the Church. "My lord," he said, "why do you act as the meanest of your siubjects do in regard to this matter? Has not Our Lord in the Scriptures told us that 'that which enters the mouth does net defile a man'?" "These are indeed his words," replied the monarch; "but 132 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS you must know that it is not eating the flesh-meat that is the sin, for one may at other times partake of it without offending God; the evil lies in the fact that by doing so one rises in revolt against legitimate authority by violating a formal command of the Church. You, who seem to know the Gospel so well, must have read in it these words: 'He who heareth not the Church, let him be to thee as a heathen or a publican.' " THE SOUL OF THE CHURCH As we have seen, the Church in this broad sense, or as we say, the Soul of the Church, has existed from the beginning. The Soul of the Church is nothing other than the union of the heart and will with God. Unlike the human soul, it is not limited to the external organization. It may exist in the midst of the heresy and schism innocently professed, and bind to the Redeemer hearts that have no visible union with the body of the Church. Still we must remember that the Church of Christ, the Catholic Church, is "the Divinely appointed organization for saving the souls of men," and that invincible ignorance and good faith form the precarious hope of those that are outside that society founded by Christ. — F. Harvey. THE CHARITY OF THE CHURCH Throughout the ages the Church "showed itself in good works done to the needy amd suffering; the tithes and offerings and income from real property of the Catholic Church went in great part to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to lodge and feed the stranger, to sustain the widow and the orphan, and to heal the wounded and the sick; in short, a great part, and indeed, one of the chief parts of the business of this Church was to take care that no person, however low in life, should suffer from want, either of sustenance or care." — Cohbett (Non-Cath.), in History of the Reformatio)!. THE WORUDLY D1S.\DVANTAGE8 OF RELIGION Those who aspire to have part with Our Lord in His kingdom must be prepared to accept the fact that their religion will be an obstacle to their getting on in the world, that it handicaps them heavily at the starting, and that the irreligious man often prospers while the faithful suffers. This was the case with our blessed Lord. He lived in poverty and labour. He was rejected by every class, He died in ignominy, absolutely crushed by His victorious enemies, precisely because He was the Holy One of God, and because He called me to a spiritual, unworldly and Divine life. We are not to suppose that He endured all this in our stead, but it was to show us what we must be prepared to endure, and often must actually endure. "It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord" (Matt. x. 25). St. Paul also warns us that we can not escape temporal evils if we would "live godly in Christ Jesus" (II Tim. iii, 12). The whole of the New Testament abounds in prophecies and examples of the persecutions, hatred, calumny, opposition, restraints, disabilities, losses, suspicion, ridicule and other evils, which are to follow those who are consistently and thoroughly faithful to Christ. — Bishop Bellord. THE CHURCH 133 PERSECUTION OF THE CHI RCIl Men who begin to fight the Church for the sake of freedom and humanity end by flinging away freedom and humanity if only they may fight the Church. — Chesterton {Non-Cath.), in Orthodoxy. These times are supposed to be liberal, tolerant, indifferent as to a man's opinions ; but even now may be found numerous instances of persecution. Our children are often persecuted in the schools, our young working men and girls in factories and workshops. Catholics are kept out of positions for which their abilities make them as fit as anyone else. Let them not murmur nor repine. Let them, indeed, use all lawful means to procure just treatment, but in the meantime let them rejoice that they are counted worthy to suffer something- for His Name's sake. — H. G. Hughes. THE WORLD PERSECUTES THE CEIURCH AS IT PERSECUTED CHRIST The world is fiercely attacking the Church, it aims to condemn Christ once more to death, and to this end brings false witnesses against Him. It aims to cast down and demolish His Church. — St. Theresa. THE CHURCH AND SINNERS Human at once and Christ-like, this attitude of the Church toward sin has ever been one of the strongest arguments for her Divinity. It takes the experience of ages and the wisdom born of world-wide practice, it requires the tender patience of a mother and the Divine love of an Infinite God, thus to commingle with the off-scourings of the race, to choose as a mission the treatment of all human sin and to succeed. And to see the Church in the fulfilment of this mission, to note her ability, her constancy, her long-suffering, her unselfish- ness, her success, is to have encountered an almost irresistible appeal to accept her as Divine. — Joseph McSorley, C.S.P. THE VISIBLE CHURCH COMPRISES BOTH GOOD AND B.4D MEMBERS Now this Church is known and compared to a city seated on a mountain, which is seen from every side (Matt, v, 14) ; for as all must obey her authority, it is necessary that she be known. Nor does the Church include the good only, but also the bad as the Gospel teaches in many parables ; as when it mentions that "the kingdom of heaven," that is, the Church militant, "is like to a net cast into the sea" (Matt, xiii, 47), or to a field in which tares were sown amongst (the good grain) (Matt, xiii, 24) or to a threshing- floor on which the grain is mixed up with the chaff (Luke, iii, 17), or to ten virgins, some of whom were wise, and some foolish (Matt, xxi, I, sq.). But long before also, we may behold a figure and resemblance of this Church in the ark of Noah, in which were contained not only clean, but also unclean animals, (Gen. vii, 2; I Pet. iii, 20). But, although the Catholic faith truly and constantly affirms that to the Church belong the good and the bad, yet it is to be explained to the faithful from the same rules of faith, that very different is the condition of each class; for, as the chaff is mingled with the grain on the threshing-floor, or as members. 134 ILLUSTRATIONS LOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS deadened in various ways, sometimes remain attached to the body, so also are the wicked contained in the Church. — Catechism of the Council of Trent. HOLT EMULATION IN THE CAUSE OF THE CHURCH There are ample motives urging us to take a wide view and to cultivate a generous disposition in our work of helping the Church and her institutions. If we are striving for anything higher than merely escaping hell, our rule of life will be to do that which tends to the greater glory of God. All our actions will be measured by this standard. The work of the Church, however, is especially God's work on earth. The Church is the instrument which God has devised for the salvation of men. Nay, it is the very continuation of His own wonderful Incarnation. To minister to the needs of the Church, therefore, is to minister to Christ's mystical body ; it is the most direct way of ministering to God Himself. If Christ were on earth, with what generosity should we provide for His ministrations ! But the Church exists solely to continue those ministrations, solely to save sinners. There can be no offering, therefore, too good that we can make to the Church in order to enable her the better to carry on her work. Secondly, we need to make special efforts in these days because the efforts of the enemy are so well organized and persistent. Secularism has summoned to its aid some of the best things that science, art or literature can provide. Theaters, municipal buildings, libraries, museums, technical schools and even railway stations are designed by the best architects. Shall God's house be served with a less worthy service ? Poor law schools, reformatories, asylums and infirmaries provided by the state or municipality are fitted with the latest scientific improvements. Shall the few institutions which the Church keeps directly under her control fare worse than these? Oftentimes the call upon Catholics is so great as to make this a necessity. It is well, however, to bear the contrast in mind, as a motive for holy emulation in the cause of God's Church. — Thomas J. Gerrard. THE SPIRITUAL WEALTH OF THE CHURCH One source of strength is the abundant wealth of the Church in doctrine, devotion, and practical piety, out of which she is able to satisfy every class of men, both simple and cultivated, and every faculty of mind, or imagination, or heart. Systems of philosophy have been adapted only to the few, the educated of one country or one age : they have never extended to the great masses of popula- tion. Religions also have generally had a special national character, which limited their influence to certain races, to Orientals, or to dwellers in the North, to Arabs, to Greeks, or barbarians. Some religions are eminently for respectable people, others are intolerable to any but the half-educated. — Bishop BeUord. LOYALTY TO THE CHURCH Is our attitude one of loyalty and devotion? Is our Faith the highest in our thoughts and deepest in our hearts? It has created a THE CHURCH AND SCIENCE 135 standard of living-. Arc our lives being shaped accordingly? Is our morality derived from the inspirations of that Faith? Are our thoughts thought, our judgments framed, our words uttered, our actions performed in consonance with its teachings? Have we tutored our wills to accept readily and unconditionally all the truths it proposes for our acceptance ? Are we proud of our religion ? Is it as much to us, or rather is it more to us than home or country ? Is it in our eyes our chiefest possession? This examination of conscience will reveal to us our position. Is there any need of exhortation ? Should it be necessary to remind you of what value your faith is to you? Should it be needful to ask you to be loyal to your Church, when that loyalty means loyalty to yourself and to vour best and most momentous and most lasting interests .'' —P. A. Hatpin. THE CHURCH AND SCIENCE RELIGION AND SCIENCE Religion is very frequently represented as obstructing scientific investigation. The current statements to this effect are absolutely false. Christianity has always been learned and scientific. She, too, says, "Nil luimanum a me alienum puto," all that concerns human life or thought is of interest to her. She has been the nursing mother of science; she preserved and revived learning, she primed gradually the mind of Europe, she taught the methods which in time produced the present marvelous results. All that she has done in the way of restriction amounts to this : she teaches that mundane physical science is not the most necessary, the most sacred, and the most irresponsible of all things, nor its rights supreme above all other rights; but it is susceptible of being wrongly used, devotion to it may run to injurious excess, like devotion to any other of God's creatures ; all knowledge is not expedient for every man, and, if it is injurious to his faith or morals, a man is better without it; indeed, a man can attain to his highest development as man without the aid of any natural science. Due guidance and moderation in pursuit of knowledge are necessary to men. Further, religion possesses a certain body of truths which she has received, not by way of critical investigation and scientific discovery, but by revelation from God. She presents these to us for our humble acceptance and reverent meditation, and she will not admit the capacity of the human intellect to sit in judgment on them to choose or reject. She is the sole and unerring guide, and her teach- ings are above question or discussion, for she speaks the words of God Himself. — Bishop Bellord. A PROTESTANT WTilTER'S VIEW ABOCT THE CHURCH AND SCIENCE Is the Church weakened by an opposing Science? Listen to an authority: "The parvenues of science who a generation ago foresaw the downfall of religion — 'in fifty years your Christianity will have died out,' said one — are going to be as disappointed as was the fashionable society of Butler's day [when, in his Analogy, he declared that Christianity had already one foot in the grave]. For there is 136 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS more to life than Science can ever deal with, and so far as the eternal problems of our human lot are concerned, all the sciences together are like inch-worms clambering^ up the Matterhorn in an endeavour to discover the distance of the stars!" — {Harry Emerson Fosdick, in the Atlantic Monthly, October, 1913.) THE CHl'RCH AND SCIKNCE And so the Church has been accused, and is still accused some- limes, of being the enemy of learning and science, the foe of progress, and the supporter of ignorance and superstition. She can afford to smile at the ignorance of her accusers, she has no need to defend herself, for the very stones cry out against them. The witness of history is clear and decisive, that if there have been preserved to the world the treasures of classical literature, the arts, sciences of bygone ages, the stored-up wisdom of the sages of old, it is due to the ceaseless efforts of the Church and her most devoted servants.- Strong in a faith which can never falter, and in a truth which neither modern discoveries nor ancient philosophy can ever, I will not say destroy, but even shake for a moment, she hands down to the world through all the ages the accumulated science of past generations. Take those IMiddle Ages, which are known by the contemptuous name of the Dark Ages, in which it is represented that the world was sunk in barbarism, owing to the power of the Church. What do we find when we examine them more closely? We find an age in which the light of faith burned brilliantly, in the midst of the turbulence of a society not yet completely civilized. We find striking contrasts, great crimes side by side with extraordinary sanctity, ignorance indeed, but at the same time learning such as it would be difficult to parallel nowadays. We find the Christian nations emerging from barbarism. And whose hand is it that is ever stretched out to draw from the abyss of ignorance but that of the Catholic Church? • — Bede Camni, O. S. B. FAITH AND SCIENCE A favourite argument of those who assert the incompatibility of faith and science has been the claim that almost all great scientists have been, and are, unbelievers. That this claim is false has been proved by inquiries made recently by both Protestants and Catholics. Investigation revealed the fact that ninety-two per cent of all scientists of real standing, of both the past and the present, are be- lievers in God, and the greater number are practical Christians. THE BIBLE AND SCIENCE A century ago or so, ridicule was iicaped in the name of science on the description in the Bible of the last day: "The stars shall fall," "and the powers of heaven shall be moved," "the elements shall be melted with heat, and the earth shall be burnt up," (Matt, xxiv., 29 seq. ; Luke xxi., 25 seq. ; Mark xiii., 24 seq. ; 2 Pet. iii., 10). Then the assertion that stones could fall from the skies caused a smile, but now science has come to the general knowledge that this is not only possible, but perhaps really will be the end of all things, if once our earth on its journey through unknown spaces of the universe THE CHURCH AND SCIENCE 137 should collide with a comet or get into a cosmic cloud of large meteors. FREEDOM OF TEACHIXG NOT UNRESTRICTED EVEN AMONG PBOTES- T.VNTS The Independent (New York) of Feb. 2, 19 14, reports vmder the head "Freedom of Teaching" the dismissal of a professor from the Presbyterian University at Easton, Pa. After quoting from the charter Article VIII, which provides "that persons of every religious denomination shall be capable of being elected trustees, nor shall any person, either as principal, professor, tutor or pupil be refused admittance into said college, or denied any of the privileges, immuni- ties or advantages thereof, for or on account of his sentiments in matters of religion," the report goes on to say: "It appears, however, from the investigations of the committee, that President Warfield insists that the instruction in philosophy and psychology has to be such, as, in his opinion, accords with the most conservative form of Presbyterian theolog>'." CREATION AND EVOLUTION The word "creation" has two meanings. In one sense it means the making of something out of nothing. In another sense it means the arrangement and development or evolution of that first something into the subsequent forms of nature. There are various opinions as to wdiat extent this evolution took place. A Catholic is allowed much freedom in this matter. One thing, however, he is bound to hold against all extreme evolutionists, namely, that the soul of man was specially created and infused into the body by God. There are other truths bearing on this subject which, though not of Catholic faith, should be insisted upon in the name of science. The two most im- portant are, first, that no one has yet succeeded in producing life from non-life; and secondly, that no one has yet bridged the gulf between reason and sensation. These truths are the two great stumbling- blocks which lie in the way of those shallow scientists who would explain away the dogma of creation by an artificial and exaggerated system of evolution. — Thomas J. Gerrard. SCIENTIFIC THEORIES SHORT LIVED And how often the hypotheses of profane sciences change ! "Lay- men are astonished," savs H. Poincare, "that so many scientific theories are perishable. They see them thrive for a few years, to be abandoned one after the other; they see wrecks heaped upon wrecks; they foresee that theories now fashionable will after a short while be forgotten, and they conclude that these theories are absolute fallacy. They call it tlie bankruptcy of science." The conclusion is certainly unjustified, but the fact itself remains. Is it then a loss to science when faith opposes in the field of religion these variations of opinion with fixed dogmas? — IV. Lockhart. WHAT AN INFIDEL SCIENTIST S.\YS OF HUJIAN KNOWLEDGE We grant at once that the innermost character of nature is just as little understood by us as it was by Anaximander and Empedocles 138 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS 2400 years ago, by Spinoza and Newton two hundred years ago, by Kant and Goethe one hundred years ago. We must even grant that this essence and substance become more mysterious and enigmatic the deeper we penetrate into the knowledge of its attributes. — Ernst Haeckel. And the great Newton, in the evening of his life, thus estimates the worth of his knowledge: "What the world may think about my labour I do not know : I feel like a child that plays on the strand of the sea: now and then I may perhaps find a pebble or shell more beautiful than those of my playmates, while the boundless ocean lies ever before me with its undiscovered treasures." CHANGES OF HUMAN OPINION The Church is, and always has been, independent of the changes of human opinion. What God has revealed is what man is unable to find out for himself; and no matter what discoveries man may make, or suppose himself to have made, the authority of Divinely revealed truth is supreme. That truth cannot be altered or abandoned by reason of any merely human opinion, however widespread or however strongly supported. But, indeed, even apart from the neces- sarily supreme authority of the "depositum fidei," the experience of past centuries would be sufficient to show the folly of abandoning the firm ground of revelation for the shifting sands of opinion. People are always strong advocates of their own opinion; their advocacy would even seem to be the stronger in proportion as their opinions are ill-founded; and from time to time the advocates of new opinions are passionately indignant at the Church's refusal to support them. But no opinion is permanent; the most popular is generally the first to give way to a successor, and if the Church could have made itself the advocate of every new opinion which could claim the support of numbers and of plausibility she would long ago have been too discredited to continue to exist. It is the same with all branches of human knowledge : theology, philosophy, science, litera- ture, and even art have all furnished the foundation for heresy after heresy, of few of which is there any vestige remaining in the world. A typical instance may be found in the treatment by most Christian bodies of the Darwinian theory of evolution in our own day. The outburst of intense indignation which greeted the address at Belfast, in which Professor Tyndall commended the doctrine to popular acceptance, is well within the memory of many of us. But it was not long, an affair of little more than months, before the Darwinian hypothesis was declared from countless pulpits to be not merely con- sistent with the Christian doctrine of creation, but a striking con- firmation, even in detail, of the Mosaic cosmogony. Finally, within the last few years, it has come to be considered doubtful, at best, whether the doctrine of evolution, as stated by the great naturalist, has any real foundation at all. — A. B. Sliarpe. THE NARROWNESS OF ATIIEISIVI It is a source of wonder to many of us how minds great in one department are deplorably weak in other fields. For instance, we are THE CHURCH AND CIVILIZATION 13d told that Lelande, the great astronomer, when discussing with one the existence of God, complacently said, without apparently seeing^ the absurdity and lack of logic in his remark: "I have swept the entire heavens with my telescope, and I can find no God there." So weak and illogical are others, who frequently affirm that they will believe nothing that they cannot see. As well might we say that we do not believe in most of the inventions of modern genius — the telegraph, the telephone, the phonograph, the X-ray, all of electric- ity's miraculous strides, and of spectrum analysis — all of which act as unseen forces, and in which we believe, though we do not see them. — W. Lockhart. THE CHURCH AND CIVILIZATION THE CHURCH AND PROGRESS The Church has always been concerned, and now as much as formerly, with the real progress of men, i. e., their moral and in- tellectual advancement, their social order, their happiness, and the averting of the evils of war, disease and the like, even although these lie outside the sphere of strictly spiritual progress. But there is another department of worldly progress, it is that which is simply material, or rather it consists of the instruments of progress, wealth, comfort, inventions, machinery, commerce, rapid transport, great buildings, sanitary improvements and such like. Although the Church has taken her full share in the development of these, still they lie further outside her principal object, and, in later times especially, she has devoted less attention to them. At the same time men are getting to value these things more and more, and to set them, not only above spiritual interests, but above the higher worldly interests of mankind. Material progress has come to be considered as the real substance of progress and an end in itself, instead of the means and instrument of progress. The Church has not shared in this exorbitant appreciation of material achievements. She has pointed out that their advantages are not unmixed; that, according to the way they are used, they may be injurious as well as beneficial; that they may be prejudicial to the highest progress of man, and that their use must be controlled and subordinated to the spiritual laws of justice and charity. — Bishop Bellord. THE CHURCH THE ENEJIY OF FAI.SE PROGRESS In one limited sense the Church is the enemy of progress, i. e., of a certain progress that is destructive of all real advance. It is only to be called progress in a logical sense, viz., because it is the carrying out of the false promises to worse conclusions. There is a certain kind of advance in the sense of continuing on the same lines; but it is the advance of one who is rushing blindly down a decline toward a precipice. This is the nature of what are called modern ideas, as opposed to Christian ideas. — Bishop Bellord. DECAY RATHER THAN PROGRESS IN THE CHRISTIAN LJFK Progress there has been in the arts and sciences ; but progress in the way of Christian perfection ; progress in the practise of the Christian virtues; progress in the art of living soberly, and justly, 140 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS and godly in this world it is to be feared there has been none. Rather do we see tokens of decay in the Christian life that were not visible to our forefatiiers. "My just man liveth by faith," says the Apostle, and, taking the world as a whole, faith does not appear to have grown stronger. On t'.ie contrary, outside of the Church, men have in their tens of thousands abjured that faith in the Divine inspiration of the Bible which their forefathers of a century ago cherished as their most precious possesion. — Bishop A. McDonald. RELIGION THE MFE OF CIVILIZATION The first need of human society is God. Religion is the life of civilization. This is historically true, inasmuch as Christianity started our present civilization, and supplied the forces which moulded it; and it is proved by the witness of loth the Old and New Testament. Those who will not accept that authority may learn the same truth experi- mentally. Nothing is more evident than that some other influence is required to make civilization a success besides civilization itself. Even the heathen knew this and asked: "quid leges sine vioribiis?" What are laws apart from morals? Of what use are the best of civil and social institutions when manipulated by men without conscience or integrity? Human corruption can turn the best of God's gifts into instruments of evil. The success of civilization depends not so much on the substance of it, as on the manner in which it is carried on. The passions of arrogance, and cruelty, and lust, and greed, need to be restrained, else they become the guiding principles of civilized life, and work out its ruin. The control of these is beyond the function of civilization; it belongs only to religion. — Bishop Bellord. THE rAILlRE OF CIVILIZATION But what are the actual facts? Are the hopes of mankind likely to be realized, or is it not rather the case that, as civilization advances, hopes give way to disappointment? The promises have been high enough to satisfy anyone, but there is no fulfilment. Every advantage gained seems to have some curse attached to it. Every evil seems to increase. Human nature has not changed, and life goes on in much the same way as ever. Man is still subject to the law of toil and suffering; we have the poor still with us; sin still prevails, and with it misery. The actual state of the world is an extraordinary problem ; it is so unexpected, so unaccountable, according to prevailing ideas, and so self-contradictory. It is full of extremes. Those who know one side of it can hardly believe in the other. Civilization is at the same time the greatest of blessings and the greatest of curses; it promises a magnificent future, and it threatens universal destruction; it raises and enriches those who are above a certain level ; all who are below that level it degrades and crushes into mere abject misery. It has been well said that "Our present type of society is in many respects one of the most horrible that has ever existed in the world's history — boundless luxury and self-indulgence at one end of the scale, and at the other a condition of life as cruel as that of a Roman slave, and more degraded than that of a South Sea Islander." —Bishop Bellord. THE CHURCH AND CIVILIZATION 141 THE INSTABILITY OF CIVILIZATION Those civilizations were of as good promise as ours, but there was an appointed limit which they could not pass. They did not continue; they withered like autumn leaves, and disappeared almost as completely. "The earth is the grave of dead civilizations as well as of men" (Devas); as we scrape its surface we are discovering each day memorials of the great power and high cultivation of royal races whose very memory has perished. Other nations come; in some cases they may take up the former civilization and carry it on in their own fashion; more frequently they begin again afresh and soon surpass their predecessors. We have no assurance that our civilization will not die out in its turn. It would be a fit ending for our pride were it to be humbled to the dust, and all our grandeur hidden from the knowledge of future generations under six feet of vegetable mould. — Bishop Bellord. I'KOTESTANTS ON THE CHURCH AND CI\TLIZATION No human ingenuity is capable of estimating what modern civiliza- tion owes to the ofreat Catholic Church. — Governor Szvanson. And I am happy to pay tribute to that Church which you represent, as one of the greatest forces for order and civilization. — Ex-Speaker Cannon. The crowd of unknown Saints whose names fill the calendars mainly represent the age of heroic spiritual ventures, of which we see glimpses of St. Boniface, the Apostle of Germany; of St. Columban and St. Gall wandering from Ireland to reclaim the barbarians of the Burgundian deserts and of the shores of the Swiss lakes. It was among men like these — men who were termed emphatically "men of religion" — that the new races first saw the example of life ruled by a great and serious purpose, which yet was not one of ambition, or the excitement of war; a life of deliberate and steady industry, of hard and uncom- plaining labour, a life as full of activity in peace, of stout and brave work as a warrior's was wont to be in the camp, on the march, in battle. It was in these men and in the Christianity which they taught, and which inspired and governed them, that the fathers of our modern nations first saw exemplified the sense of human responsi- bility; first learned the nobleness of a ruled and disciplined life; first enlarged their thoughts of the uses of existence; first were taught the dignity and sacredness of honest toil. These great axioms of modern life passed silently from the special homes of religious em- ployment to those of civil ; from the cloisters and cells of men who, when they were not engaged in worship, were engaged in field work, or book work — clearing the forest, extending cultivation, multiplying manuscripts — to the guild of the craftsman, to the shop of the trader, the study of the scholar. ... It was the power and sanction of a religion and a creed which first broke men into their yoke that now seems so easy. — Dean Church (Non-Cath.) in Influences of Christianity Upon National Character. 142 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS From the fifth to the thirteenth century the Church was engaged in elaborating the most splendid organization the world has ever seen. Starting with the separation of the spiritual from the temporal power, and the mutual independence of each in its own sphere, Catholicism worked hand in hand with feudalism for the amelioration of mankind. Under the influence of feudalism, slavery became serfdom, and ag- gressive was modified into defensive war. Under the influence of Catholicism the monasteries preserved learning and maintained the sense of the unity of Christendom. Under the combined influence of both grew up the lovely ideal of chivalry, moulding generous in- stincts into gallant institutions, making the body vigorous and the soul pure, and welding the Christian virtues of humility and tender- ness into the natural grace of courage and strength. During this period the Church was the one mighty witness for light in an age of darkness, for order in an age of lawlessness, for personal holiness in an epoch of licentious rage. — Canon Farrar (Non-Cath.) in The Victories of Christianity. Christianity, so far from belonging to the Dark Ages, was the one path across the Dark Ages that was not dark. It was a shining bridge connecting two shining civilizations. . . . Now can we say that the Church wishes to bring us back into the Dark Ages? The Church was the only thing that ever brought us out of them. Chesterton (Non-Cath.) in Orthodoxy. THE CHURCH AND POETRY Longfellow (Non-Cath.)) says of the Catholic devotional poetry of Spain that he knows "of nothing in any modern tongue so beautiful as some of its finest passages. The thoughts spring heaven- ward from the soul, — the language comes burning from the lip. The imagination of the poet seems spiritualized; with nothing of earth, and all of Heaven, — a Heaven like that of his own native clime, without a cloud, or a vapour of earth, to obscure its brightness" — Outrc-Mcr. THE CHURCH AND ART Dr. Charles J. Whitby (Non-Cath.), a contributor to the London Academy, affirms that , "In the Middle Ages poets, artists, scholars, and thinkers, were attracted to the Church by an inevitable affinity. The Church assimilated the work of such men, wrought it up into a coherent and more or less harmonious whole, and thus became the organ and the mouthpiece of every form of culture." THE POPE THE PRIMACY OF PETER The Son of God, having willed that His Church should be one, and solidly built upon unity, has established the Primacy of St. Peter to bind it together and cement it, wherefore we recognize that same Primacy in the successors of the Prince of the Apostles, to whom on that account is due submission and obedience, as the holy Councils and the Holy Fathers have ever taught to all the faithful. Surely, if the authors of the pretended Reformation had loved THE POPE 148 unity they would not have aboHshed the government of bishops, which was estabhshed by Jesus Christ Himself, and which we see in force from the days of the Apostles, nor would they have despised the authority of the Chair of St. Peter, which has so certain a foundation in the Gospel and a succession so evident in tradition; rather would they have preserved with care the authority of the Episcopate, which establishes unity in the particular Churches, and the Primacy of St. Peter's Chair, which is the common centre of all Catholic unity. . . . This Primacy is a Divine institution, not a mere point of discipline; one of the marks of the Church. — Bossuct. Jesus saitli to them: But whom do you say that I am? — Simon Peter answered and said: Thou art Christ, the Son of the Living God. — And Jesus answering, said to him: Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona: because flesh and blood hath not revealed it to thee, but My Father who is in JJeaven. And I say to thee: that thou art Peter; and upon this Rock I will build My Church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give to thee the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. And whatsoever thou shall bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in Heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, it shall be loosed also in Heaven, — Matt. XVI, 15-19. The Lord said: Simon, Simon, behold satan hath desired to have you that he may sift you as wheat. — But I have prayed for Thee that Thy faith fail not: and Thou being once converted, confirm thy brethren. — Luke XXII, 31-32. THE NECESSITY OF A LEADER Might we not just as well try to show the necessity of a head to the human body ? A body without a head ! Nature offers nothing like it. Let the body be human, politic, social, religious: in the collection of units that go to make up the whole, in the various members that compose it, there must be order, unity, harmony, solidity; and there can be none, as there can be no justification for calling such an aggregation of parts a moral whole or entity, without co-ordination of such parts, one principal unit or part emerging as the head or chief. It is a law of nature, based on accidental inequalities and diversity of tastes and aptitudes, that where many are gathered together, one takes the leadership, all follow the lead of one best fitted to direct. The flock, the herd, yields to this law of nature. Where will you find a fold without a shepherd, an army without a captain, a navy without an admiral, a ship-crew without a captain, a state without a chief magistrate? The very school boy becomes a leader of his companions. Even criminals obey this law. — John H. Staple ton. THE POPE DIVINELY APPOINTED " Is it right that a mere man should hold the place of God over his fellows?" Is it right that any man should hold a position of authority over orliers in any sphere? If in temporals, why not in spirituals? Worldly rulers are God's lieutenants. Parents are God's vicars. In His sight we are all children and subjects. Why not 144 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND LNSTRUCTIONS delegate His authority in one domain as well as in another ! And if He has done so in spiritual matters — as He has — why demand reasons of the fact of Him who is all wise? If God did confer supreme power on Peter and his successors, as we know from Holy Writ that He did, that ought to be sought for any one who believes in an infinite God. — John H. Staplcton. THE POPE, THE VIISIBLE HEAD OF CHKIST'S CHURCH That this visible head was necessary, to establish and preserve the unity of the Church, is the unanimous reasoning and opinion of the Fathers. This St. Jerome both clearly saw and wrote against Jovinian in these words: "One is chosen, that, by the appointment of a head, occasion of schism may be removed" (Lib. I, contr. Jovin. med. ) ; and to Damasus : "Away with envy: let ambition of Roman grandeur retire: I speak to the successor of the fisherman, and the disciple of the Cross. Following no chief but Christ, I am united in communion with your Holiness, that is, with the Chair of Peter : I know that on that rock is built the Church. Whoever eats the lamb outside this house is profane: whoever is not in the ark of Noah shall perish in the flood" (Epist. 57). The same was long before proved by Irenaeus (Adv. Haeret. Lib. iii. c, 3), and by Cyprian (De Simp. Prael. sub. init, ), who, speaking of the unity of the Church, says: "The Lord speaks to Peter, 'I say to thee Peter: Thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build My Church' (Matt xvi, 18). He builds the Church on him alone; and although after His resurrection. He gives His own equal power to all the Apostles, saying 'As the Father hath sent Me, I also send you. Receive ye the Holy Ghost' (John xx, 21, sq.) ; yet, to display unity, He disposed, by His own authority, the origin of this same unity, which has its beginning from one," &c. Again Optatus of Milevis says : "It cannot be ascribed to ignorance on your part, knowing as you do, that the episcopal Chair, in which Peter, the head of all the Apostles, sat, was conferred on him first in the City of Rome; that in him alone the unity of the Chair might be observed by all, and that the other Apostles might not claim each a chair for himself; so that he, who would erect another in opposition to this single Chair, would be a schismatic and a prevaricator" (Lib. 2, ad. Parmen. sub init). In the next place, Basil has left written these words : " Peter was placed in the foundation, because he said: 'Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God," and heard in reply that he was the rock ; for, although he was a rock, yet he was not such a rock as Christ, for Christ is truly an immovable rock, but Peter, only by virtue of that rock. For Christ bestows His own dignities on others: He is a priest, and He makes priests ; He is a rock, and He makes a rock ; and what are His own He bestows on His servants" (Horn. 29). Lastly. St. Ambrose says: "For great are the gifts of God, who not only restored to us what had been ours, but also granted us what are His own." Then, after a few words he proceeds: "But great is the favour of Christ, who bestowed on His disciples almost all His own titles. 'I am,' savs He, 'the light of the world' (John viii, 12) ; and yet with this title in which He Himself glories, He favoured His disciples saying 'You are the light of the world' (Matt, v, 15) ; 'T am the living bread' THE POPE 145 (John vi, 41) ; and, 'we are all one bread; I am the true vine,' (John XV, i) ; and to tliee He says: 'I planted thee a fruitful vineyard all true.' 'Christ is a rock, for they drank of the spiritual reck that followed them, and the rock was Christ' (i Cor. x, 4) ; and yet the favour of this title He denied not to His disciple, that he also should be Peter" (Matt, xvi, 18), because deriving from the rock the solidity of constancy and the firmness of faith. — Catechism of the Council of Trent. Should any one object that the Church, content with one head and spouse, Jesus Christ, requires no other beside, the answer is at hand; for, as we have in Chirst the Lord not only the Author of all the Sacraments, but also their inward minister (for He it is that bap- tizes, and that absolves; and yet He institutes men the external minis- ters of the Sacraments) ; so has He placed over His Church, which He governs by His inward spirit a man to be the vicar and minister of His power; for, as a visible Church requires a visible head, so our Saviour appointed Peter head and pastor of the faithful of every sort, when in the most ample terms. He committed to Him His sheeo to be fed ( lohn xxi, 15), so that He wished His successor to have the very same power of ruling and governing the whole Church. — Catechism of the Council of Trent. THE PAPACY AND THE NATIONS But for the Papacy the Middle Ages would have fallen a prey to barbarity. Even in our day the liberty of nations would be threatened with greatest danger if there were no Papacy. It is the most cfifective counterpoise to an omnipotent power of the state. H it did not exist, it would have to be invented. — Hiiblcr (Non-Cath.). THE PAPACY AND CIVILIZATION Napoleon is credited with saying that, if the papacy did not exist, it would be necessary to invent it. It may safely be taken for granted that neither faith nor piety prompted this utterance. It was simply that, with his profound knowledge of men and his common sense, acute to the point of genius, he saw for the spiritual world, in the absence of a head to rule and teach, spiritual anarchy and the destruction of the religious idea among civilized peoples — results than which nothing more appalling for the human race can be imagined. — John H. Stapleton. A PROTESTANT'S VIEW OF THE POPE'S INBXUENCE UPON CIVILIZ.\TION That an astonishing proficiency in the improvement of the human intellect was made during the pontificate of Leo X is universally allowed. That such proficiency is principally to be attributed to the exertions of that pontiff, will now perhaps be thought equally in- disputable. Of the predominating influence of a powerful, and accom- plished, and fortunate individual, on the character and manners of the age, the history of mankind furnishes innumerable instances; and happy it is for the world, when the pursuits of such individuals, in- 146 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS stead of being devoted, through blind ambition, to the subjugation or destruction of the human race, are directed toward those bene- ficient and generous ends, which, amid all his avocations, Leo the Tenth appears to have kept continually in view. — (William Roscoe, Life and Pontificate of Leo X.) NOX-CATHOriC OPIXION ABOUT A POPE Of Benedict XIV Ranke says: "It is well known how little Benedict XIV suffered himself to be dazzled by the elevation of his dignity" (History of the Popes) ; and Voltaire called him "the pride of Rome, the father of the world, who teaches that world by his writings, and honours it by his virtues." It is said, that when Sir Horace Walpole was presented to him and refused to kneel, Benedict said, in his captivating manner, "Kneel down, my son; receive the blessing of an old man; it will do you no harm!" upon which the young traveler with tears in his eyes immediately fell on his knees. DEFINITION OF FATAL, INFAI.LIBIIJTY The Vatican Council has in clear terms defined what is meant by Papal Infallibility. "We declare and define . . . that the Roman Pontiff, when he speaks ex cathedra, that is, when, exercising his office as pastor and teacher of all Christians, by virtue of his supreme Apostolic authority, he defines a doctrine concerning faith or morals as to be held by the whole Church, then, by the Divine assistance, promised to him in the person of the Blessed Peter, he enjoys that same infallibility. . . . with which the Divine Redeemer willed His Church to be endowed." Infallibility, then, is not the same thing as inspiration. It belongs to the Church and the Pope in virtue of a "Divine assistance," guard- ing from error in the teaching and the exposition of the body of truth once delivered to the Saints. It does not apply to any and every act of Pope or Church; but to teaching concerning faith and morals; finally, it applies, according to the words of the sacred Council, when a doctrine is taught as binding the universal Church — when the Pope is exercising his office as pastor and teacher of all Christians. If people would only study the Church's own presentment of her own doctrines, instead of taking the caricatures of them so often put before the mind of man, they would find them to be much more reasonable than they had ever supposed. So it is with this doctrine of infallibility. It is not that tremendous assumption which it is often to be : it does not confer upon him, whose prerogative it is, either sinlessness or freedom from liability to error in everything he may speak about, nor on every occasion on which he may speak. It is simply the power to do that which we should have expected Our Divine Lord to have provided for — to hand down from age to age, unsullied and pure, to expound correctly and interpret rightly, the truth that makes us free, the truth upon which our salvation depends, and that we must drink, if we drink at all, from an unpolluted channel, through which no poison of error can reach our immortal souls. — H. G. Hughes. THE POPE 147 PAPAL INFALLIBILITY Peter is to hold the keys. This, in nearly every civilized time and country, has ever signified the possession of supreme command. What Peter binds and looses on earth, what he commands or forbids, all his acts of authority, his decisions, his rulings, his govern- ment in general, are to be ratified and confirmed by God. "The Jewish way of using the words binding and loosing for 'to prohibit' and 'to permit'," honestly admits the Protestant Dean Alford, "would make the binding and loosing belong to the poivcr of legislation in the Church" {Greek Testament, abridged ed., in loco). Do you think that Almighty God would give such powers as this to any man — would bind Himself to confirm all that man's official acts, and yet so leave that man zuithont Divine guidance, that he might go astray and make mistakes in the exercise of his office? Would not God, by so acting, be engaging Himself to the ratification of error ? You must answer : assuredly He would. But that God can not do. — H. G. Hughes. Jesus coming spoke to them, saying: All power is given to Me in Heaven and in earth. — Going therefore teach ye all nations: baptis- ing thcni in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, — Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and behold I am zvith you all days, even to the consummation of the world. — Matt. XXVHI, 18-20. // he will not hear the Church, let him be to thee as the heathen and publican. — Matt. XVHI, 17. WHAT PAPAL INFALLIBILITY DOES NOT MEAN The infallibility of the Pope does not mean that he cannot sin ; it does not mean that he cannot err in matters of science ; it does not mean that he cannot err in political matters ; it does not mean that he cannot err in his personal theological views ; it does not mean that he cannot err in his private utterances relating to faith or morals; it does not mean that he cannot err in his personal decisions; it does not mean that he cannot err in his measures concerning the discipline and practice of the Church, for example: sanctioning or dissolving an Order, precepts of worship, ecclesiastical rules, etc. He that will be proud, and refuse to obey the commandment of the Priest, who ministereth at that time to the Lord thy God, and the decree of the judge, that man shall die, and thou shall take away the evil from Israel. — Deut. XVH, 12. When there shall be a controversy the priests shall stand in My judgments and shall judge. — They shall keep My law and My ordinances in all My solemnities and sanctify My Sabbaths. —Ez. XLIV. 24. The great Fenelon, proceeding to his pulpit in the cathedral of Cambrai, on Annunciation day in 1699, was handed by his brother 148 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS the Roman brief condemning twenty-three propositions of his Maxlmcs dcs Saints. The Bishop took the writing, cahnly ascended the pulpit and announced it forthwith, then preached a sermon on the submission due to ecclesiastical superiors, at which the whole congregation was greatly moved. A few days later he announced in an episcopal letter to his diocese his submission, "simple, absolute, and without a shadow of reservation." By this deed, an heroic act of obedience, Fenelon is placed higher in history than by his brilliant works. The difference between the Protestant and the Catholic manner of reasoning is stated by the convert, Prof. A. von Ruville, as follows : My mind had harboured up to now the characteristically Pro- testant thought that I, from my superior mental standpoint, was going to probe the Catholic Church, that I was going to pass an infallible judgment on her truth or untruth, and this in spite of my being ready to acknowledge the truth in her. But now I became more and more conscious of the fact that it was the Church who had a right to pass judgment on me, that I had to bow to her opinion, that she immeasurably surpassed me in wisdom. Many details, which I was inclined to criticize, demonstrated this to me, for in every instance I recognized that it was my understanding that was at fault, and that what appeared to me as an imperfection was rooted in the deepest truth. In this way I was gradually brought to the real Catholic standpoint, to accept the doctrines immediately as Truth, because they proceeded from the Church, and then to endeavour to understand them thoroughly, and to reap from them the fullest possible harvest of Truth. Formerly, with regard to Protestant doctrines, I always retained my independence and the sovereignty of my judgment. Why should I not have had my own opinion, when every denomination and every theologian had an individual opinion? How different with the Catholic Church. Before her sublime, never varying wisdom, as it is proclaimed by every simple priest, I bowed my knees in humility. Compared to her experience of two thousand years my ephemeral knowledge was a mere nothing. — (Back to Holy Church.) Immediate, implicit submission of the mind was, in the lifetime of the Apostles, the only, the necessary token of faith ; then there was no room whatever for what is now called private judgment. No one could say: "I will choose my religion for myself, I will believe this, I will not believe that; I will pledge myself to nothing; I will believe just as long as I please, and no longer; what I believe to-day 1 will reject to-morrow, if I choose. I will believe what the Apostles have as yet said, but I will not believe what they shall say in time to come." No ; either the Apostles were from God, or they were not; if they were, everything that they preached was to be believed by their hearers; if they were not, there was nothing for their hearers to believe. To believe a little, to believe more or less, was impossible; it contradicted the very notion of believing: if one part was to be believed, every part was to be believed; it was an absurdity THE COMMANDMENTS 149 to believe one thing and not another; for the word of the Apostles, which made the one true, made the other true, too; they were nothing in themselves, they were all things, they were an infallible authority as coming fron» God. The world had either to become Christian, or to let it alone; there was no room for private tastes and fancies, no room for private judgment. — Cardinal Newman. THE COMMANDMENTS TUE TEN COMMANDMENTS The Ten Commandments are the essence and expression of the natural law imposed by the Almighty and All-wise Creator to govern and regulate the conduct of man in accordance with his nature, his obligations, his final end. They are also the rule of all human actions, of all human laws. Civil laws, the precepts of parents, of superiors, that do not conform to the Ten Commandments, are unjust, can impose no obligation, must not be obeyed, for, as the Apostles rightly said: "We ought to obey God rather than men" (Acts v, 29). When there is a doubt as to the justice of human laws, of human commands, the Church is Divinely empowered to decide whether they may be lawfully obeyed, and her decisions in such matters are binding on the conscience of every one. — F. Girardey, C.SS.R. I will meditate on Thy Commandments, and I will consider Thy ways. — / will think of Thy justifications: I will not forget Thy words.— Ps. CXVII, 15-16. Not every one that saith to Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven: hut he that doth the will of My Father, who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. —Matt. VII, 21. Submit thyself then to Him, and be at peace: and thereby thou shalt have the best fruits. — Receive the Law of His mouth, and lay up His words in thy heart. — Job XXII, 21-22. If thou wilt enter into Life, keep the Commandments. —Matt. XIX, 17. He who saith that he knozvcth Him. and keepeth not His Com- mandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. — I. John II, 4. Let us all hear together the conclusion of the discourse: Fear God and keep His Commandments: for this is all man. — Eccl. XII, 13. The keeping of her laws is the firm foundation of incorruption; — And incorruption bringeth near to God. — IVisd. VI, 19-20. This is the charity of God, that we keep His Commandments and His Commandments are not heavy. — I. John V, 3. 150 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS If thou wilt keep the Commandments and perform acceptable fidelity for ever, they shall preserve thee. — Ecclus. XY, i6. THE COMMANDMENTS AN OBSTACLE TO MiVNY Many persons pretend that the Commandments are too difficult to keep. Not a few refuse to believe in the Catholic religion, not so much, in truth, on account of its mysteries, as on account of the obligation of keeping the Commandments ; were the Church to allow them to act as they like and to dispense them from the observance of the Commandments, they would most readily accept all her doctrines and become Catholics. But this the Church neither will nor may do, hence they never become Catholics. In like manner some fallen-away Catholics try to justify their course under the plea that they can no longer believe the doctrines they so willingly believed so long as they kept the Commandments and practiced their religion; but it is evident that the real reason of their giving up the Faith is that they fear the Commandments and the obligation of confessing, combating and overcoming their weakness in yielding to their passions and trans- gressing the Commandments. They prefer giving up their Faith to giving up their passions ! — F. Girardcy, C.SS.R. CONSCIENCE AND C03I3IANDMENTS There is a conscience in man that bears witness to a higher law of justice and goodness, a law superior to mere expediency, or caprice, or the power which springs from brute force. — Bishop Bellord. CONSCIENCE MUST BE GUIDED But noble and sublime as is conscience, it must itself be guided and directed. Look at a ship out upon the waste of waters. Whither is it sailing? How shall it reach its goal? What is there to guide it? The mariner will point to the compass. There, the little needle tells him how to direct his vessel. But there is a power beyond, that guides the needle, that causes it to point unerringly to the north. If other influences are allowed to interfere, to deflect the needle, then the compass is useless. It is no longer a trust-worthy guide. We are mariners upon the sea of life. Conscience is the needle that points out to us the way. But there is a power which guides the conscience. That power is Truth. Our conscience is guided by our intellect. We must therefore know the truth before we can put our trust in the dictates of conscience. In other words, to act, we must have a knowledge of the truth; to do, we must have for our guide the principles of truth. — Thomas F. Burke. C. S. P. CONSCIENCE NOT rNFALLIBLE Conscience is not infallible, and it is a reliable guide only if correctly informed. A man with a false conscience may commit crimes and consider himself righteous in committing them. St. Paul was as zealous in following the dictates of his conscience before his conversion as after, and he sincerely believed that he was acting rightly in the relentless persecution of the Christians. It is therefore not true if people say their conscience, even without the Faith and without the commandments, enables them to lead a righteous life. THE COMMANDMENTS 161 THB VOICE OF CONSCIENCE The voice of conscience is the voice of God; for it is God, the source, the author, nay the very essence of the moral law of right and wrong, who has given to man his reason whereby he can recognize good and evil, and, at the same time, the obligation of doing good and shunning evil. So strongly and deeply is this sentiment rooted in the being of man, that it is vain for us to endeavour to oblit- erate it. A man may blunt his conscience, may become hardened, may adopt an agnostic attitude, and look upon the moral and ethical teach- ing which is founded upon the universal voice of conscience as purely an invention of human philosophy ; but it may safely be said that no man wholly succeeds in this; in his heart of hearts the worst and the most hardened will retain — he can not help it — that dis- tinction between what is indubitably right and what is wrong, which is founded in the very nature of things, because founded in God Him- self. A famous writer of our day has composed a fantastic romance, in which, under the guise of strange and incredible adventures, he holds up to well-served irony certain dangerous teachings and tenden- cies of the modern world, and utters many a pregnant and r.ncient truth. One of his characters — a young man — is brought into close connection with a supposed dynamiter, one of those pests of humanity v/ho seek to gain their ends by the indiscriminating slaughter of their fellows. The young man is a professed agnostic. He boasts himself a total disbeliever, not only in revealed religion, but in the data, methods, and conclusions of the whole of ethics. Yet, when it came to dynamite, he found that he had got a conscience after all. He recognized something that was indubitably wrong and horrible from the moral point of view. And in the worst of men, however they may have overlaid their consciences, the still small voice will be heard at times, bearing witness to the fact that, in spite of all their reckless disregard or sophistical theorizing, the moral law exists, supreme, binding, unassailable. — H. G. Hughes. OUTSIDE THE CHURCH THE REFORMATION Although the causes of the Reformation have been variously given, it is agreed by all that the principal one was that which goes by the general name of "private judgment." Religion, it was main- tained, was a matter about which each individual was competent to arrive at the truth by his own unaided reason. Everyone should read the Scripture for himself. Everyone was capable of drawing the proper conclusion from its pages. The plowman at the plow; the weaver at his shuttle; the smith at his forge; the housewife at her spinning wheel, were all endowed with a mind to discriminate, and an intelligence to form an unerring judgment on spiritual things. In vain did the Church point out the extreme danger of such opinions. Private judgment had its way. Sacred Scripture was read, discussed, disputed about, as a celebrated English historian tells us, in every beer house and tavern. There was no subject howsoever 152 ILLUSTRATIONS TOR SERMONS AND INSTRCCTIONS holy, which did not become the topic of conversation, often ending in high words, often the cause of life-long contention, and always having, as its ultimate result, the one of making confusion more confusing. The astonishing part of the whole matter is that not even the wisest of the disputants would have laid claim to the power of passing a judgment in any other branch of knowledge. They would readily b.ave granted that not they, but the astronomer, the man who had devoted his life to the study of the subject, was alone able to approach somewhere near to the truth about the movement of the stars. The explanation, the meaning of the laws of the land, they willingly left to the lawyer and the judge. They did not pretend to know each man his neighbour's trade and profession better than he knew it himself; and they would have treated with ridicule the assertion that a mechanic from a town must know more about agriculture than the farmer in the country. Only in religious affairs did they consider themselves better qualified to judge than a Church which had been engaged in the work for over fifteen hundred years. In that one matter, of all others so difficult, so mysterious, teeming, so to speak, with so many deep and unfathom- able truths, they gravely asserted that everything could be certainly and surely known by the mere perusal of the Scripture itself. — John Fredand. THE FKUITS OF THE KEFOKMATION And this is the issue of three centuries of a boasted reformation, working with its eyes of intelligence and its hands of power. There have been agencies beyond number of operation ; Bibles circulated by millions and thrust into every hand, physical progress unex- ampled in its wide sweep, a fierce straining after a long expected human perfection ; license, called liberty, such as the world never saw before ; liberty of thought and action, liberty of speech, liberty of the press; the people's will proclaimed as supreme law, independent of all others, and all others dependent on it ; the open repudiation of everything supernatural and the severance of all social relations from contact with its ideas and from subjection to its influence; governments ruling without reference to the law of God ; Parlia- ments legislating not in accordance with Christian morality, but in accordance with the new philosophy, and from all these sources, growing and expanding since the Reformation, has come the hard, black issue — the doctrine which formulates the practical belief of the world — no God, no human soul ; man sprung originally from a beast, still a beast, to live a beast, to die a beast, and be no more. It is enough to make any heart that loves God, sick unto death to contemplate such a wreck of man's highest, holiest beliefs; it is enough to make us wish that God would free us by death from the mad, appalling blasphemies that are circulated in the world around us as freely as the news of the day. — P. A. Sheehan. LACK OF UNITY IN PROTESTANTISM Consider the Anglican Establishment. Everything there tends to make unity easy. The members of that National Ciiurch are almost all of one race. They all possess the same language, and live under the same form of government. They are already bound OUTSIDE THE CHURCH 168 together by a thousand bonds. The sovereign is the head of the Church and of the nation the bishops are all state officials, re- ceiving from five to fifteen thousand pounds a year from the government, and the clergy, for the most part, come from the same public schools and are brought up in the same vv^ay. To any observer it would seem that everything here made for unity. The British Church ought to be as united as the British Army or the British Navy, since it is quite as national, quite as insular, and quite as truly British. But, what do we find? Not unity, but endless divisions. The Church of England is broken up into High Church, and Low Church, and Broad Church. And each of these three divisions are subdivided in countless further divisions and subdivisions. Not only the laity, but the clergy, and even the bishops are absolutely disagreed on the most vital points of doctrine, and will give a diametrically opposite interpretation to the selfsame text of Holy Scripture. — Bishop John S. Vaughan. TRUTH AND INTOLERANCE Phillips Brooks (Non-Cath.) in his lecture on tolerance, tells of a boy of whom the stranger asked the way to Farmington. "It is eight miles," the boy replied. "Are you sure that it is so far as that?" the weary traveler asked. The boy, with his big heart over-running with the milk of human kindness looked at him and replied: "Well, seeing you are pretty tired, I will call it seven miles." How much of would-be tolerance is sounded in our ears like that ! There can be no tolerance of error. No weak sentiment can obtain at the expense of truth. THE CHURCH TOLERANT It was reserved to Maryland, founded by a Roman Catholic, to be the first American colony, perhaps the first of Christian States, in which all Christian sects were not merely tolerated, but cordially welcomed. — Poultney Bigelow (Non-Cath.) in The Children of the Nations. THE CHURCH INTOLERANT? They have branded her as intolerant when she was only faithful, they have stigmatized her as relentless when she was only true to the sacredness of her charge. Because she condemned the book, no matter who wrote it, the book which breathed the venom of infidelity, they called her an enemy of letters; because she repudiated the theory which was in germ a heresy, they styled her the foe of science ; because she anathematized a principle which led to revolution and anarchy they named her the antagonist of civilization. She has suffered everything in promoting the spiritual, aye, and the temporal well being of the race. She has been a martyr to her mission and her duty. Yet she is an intolerant, a bigoted, an uncompromising institution, and her light is darkness, and her zeal is ambition, and her love is cruelty, and she deserves not a footplace among the habitations of men. When they cry out against her intolerance they hardly know the meaning of their clamour. In one way their reproach is her glory. Yes, she is intolerant, yes, there 164 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS are things she will not abide. She will not tolerate error; she will not tolerate atheism or infidelity, or any of the views which aim at the destruction of all religion, of all morality, of all civilization. All the truths of God she must uphold. All the sacred rights of men she will declare and fight for. She believes in liberty, but she is intolerant of license. She believes in fraternity but not in communism. She believes in equality of all men before God, but she respects the conditions in which the race finds itself. She will stand up for all rightful possessions. She will not brook injustice, oppression, or slavery. Poor and rich are alike to her, but woe to the capitalist who defrauds the labourer of his wages, and woe also to the labouring man who rises up in unjust violence against his employer. Yes, the Church is intolerant, but this intolerance is not a badge of shame, but a crown of glory. — P. A. Halpin. CATHOLICS MORE TOLERA>'T THAN NON-CATHOLICS A non-Catholic contributor to The London Standard, a secular journal, states: "Clauses disinheriting beneficiaries on religious grounds in the wills of Christians are invariably directed against the Roman Catholic Church, and it is a curious and somewhat noticeable fact that, notwithstanding the general feeling that intoler- ance and Roman Catholicism are somewhat intimately connected, there has not yet come to light a clause in the will of a Roman Catholic disinheriting any of his or her children who shall forsake that Faith or shall marry one out of the Faith." INTOLERANCE OF NON-CATHOLICS Abraham Lincoln, writing in 1855 to an old friend. Joshua F. Speed, said: "When the Know-Nothings get control it (the Consti- tution) will read: 'AH men are created equal except Negroes and foreigners and Catholics.' When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense of loving liberty — where despotism can be taken pure and without the base alloy of hypocrisy." — Recollections of Abraham Lincoln, by Ward Hill Lamon. THE INQUISITION We must consider the minds, particularly of the legislators, of the ages when it was in use. It was made the law of the land for the avoidance of what was then thought serious evils to the common- wealth. Medieval society rested upon a foundation of religion, and that religion was the Catholic. There was no other. It had become so interwoven with the society of that time — with its habits, its customs, its occasions grave and gay, its business and its amusements — that religion could not be attacked without attacking society, and society, in defending itself, could easily be made to appear to be defending religion. Much the same condition of affairs in the modern state is to be noticed with regard to the Ten Commandments. Some of these Commandments are still knit with the moral fiber of Protestant nations. A great many of our laws are based upon them. Any infringement of them is resented by the state, not because it is the infringement of a religious law, but because it is OUTSIDE THE CHURCH 155 that of a state enactment. Future ages may think that the state is wrong in this ; but we can hardly imagine that any future age will accuse the state of wanton cruelty, much less of persecution, because of its zeal for the Ten Commandments. In a similar manner did the Catholic governments, while defend- ing themselves, seem to be defending the Church. — John Frecland OUT OF THE CHURCH NO SALVATION What is the exact meaning of the maxim, "Out of the Church no salvation?" The principle of it is admitted by all men who profess any form of religion. It means generally, that there are certain conditions of salvation imposed by Jesus Christ ; that among those conditions is a law of belief imposed on the intellect and a certain membership with the body of Christ's followers; and that these conditions bind all who have come to the knowledge of them. — Bishop Bellord. Penalties are for those only who deliberately disobey. The word, "Out of the Church no salvation" is to be viewed as an ordinary law. It is said of ordinary cases and not of exceptions. It is not applicable to those who are outside the scope of the law. It takes no account of those to whom the law has not been promulgated. Any who by no fault of their own are outside the unity of the Catholic Church will be judged by another law, by that which they do know. Penalties are not for the ignorant, but for the disobedient; and disobedience resides in the will, and not in external circumstances which are beyond one's own control. The accidents of birth or education can not be imputed to any one for blame. A person is not disobedient because he has been born outside the Catholic Church ; he is not in rebellion to God while, knowing nothing of the religion founded by Jesus Christ, he remains in a false one which he honestly believes to be true. That which would be a grievous sin in an enlightened man, is no sin to him, because, on our supposition, he is not morally responsible for it. "Out of the Church no salvation," means no more than this, that those who know sufficient of the Catholic Church to recognize or suspect her Divine authority and the obligation they are under of submitting to her, and who deliber- ately disregard the command of God, are guilty of a mortal sin, which separates them from God's kingdom on earth, and will cut them off, unless repented of, from the kingdom of Heaven. — Bishop Bellord. I meet the following case frequently on the missions to non- Catholics. A Protestant young man becomes convinced of the truth of the Catholic Church. His father threatens to disinherit him. His mother declares it will break her heart if he becomes "a Romanist." His friends laugh at him, and deem him mad, as Festus did St. Paul (Acts xxvi, 24). His sweetheart threatens to leave him forever. It is, indeed, hard to persevere in one's pursuit of the truth when so great a sacrifice is demanded. And yet, conscience must be obeyed. Relations, friends, love of woman, money — all must be set aside to 156 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS be loyal to Christ, who plainly said: "Every one that shall confess me before men, I will also confess him before my Father who is in Heaven. But he that shall deny ]\Ie before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in Heaven" (Matt, x, 32-33). — Bcrtrand L. Conway, C.S.P. WRONG IXTEKPRETATIOV OF "OCT OF THE CITIRCH NO SALVATION" The Catholic doctrine is erroneously assumed to be as follows: Every one who is not visibly and externally enrolled in the Church and who dies in that state, is lost forever. Christians belonging to all the different sects that have gone off from the one true Church, Jews, Mohammedans, Pagans are excluded from all possibility of salvation. However much or little they knew of Divine revelation, however good tlie lives tlicy lead, however they may have corres- ponded with grace and practiced such duties as they knew, not one of them can ever be saved. We are supposed to hold that there is no virtue, no service of God, no grace, outside the visible boundary of the Church. That salvation depends on a more external circum- stance beyond the control of most men, on account of birth, education, character, opportunities, things for which they are not responsible. That God, therefore, has created these uncounted millions with no other possibility before them than to be punished with eternal torments. Such a doctrine is most shocking and blasphemous, it is revolting to the moral sense of mankind; and this is what is attributed to the Catholic Church. But this is no part of the Church's teaching. — Bishop Bellord. A CONDITION OF SALVATION From these various considerations we learn that, with regard to membership in the Church as one of the conditions of salvation, there are two alternatives, viz., the actual visible communion with the Church, or, on the other hand, the completest sincerity in rejecting it. — Bishop Bellord. EVERY RELIGION CONTAINS SOME TRUTH In every form of religious error there is contained a cer- tain amount of truth. The fault of such religions is not that they deny all truth, but that they have corrupted it or rejected portions of it. They possess a certain amount which has come to them from authentic sources, from primitive tradition, from Judaism, or, as with modern sects, from the Catholic Church. The Christian heretics mostly teach all those doctrines that must be explicitly believed; and their members, if, as is often the case, they are validly baptized, are thereby ordinary subjects of the Catholic Church. They hold Catholic doctrine almost in its entirety; they have received it, although indirectly, from that Church which God appointed to teach it; they believe it because revealed by God. Many lead lives of admirable devotion, benevolence and strict morality. Supposing them to be in thorough good faith they will be saved as members of the Catholic Church. Orthodox Jews possess all that was essential to salvation in past ages. They have all that was revealed up to a certain date; they believe in the Messiah, though they know not OUTSIDE THE CHURCH 157 who He is. They are distinguished for their steadfast fidelity to their law, their constancy thronj^^h centuries of contempt and perse- cution which their religion has brought upon them. If, as may well be, any are ignorant that the promises have been taken away from Israel, it is easy to conceive that they may fulfil all the conditions of salvation. The Mohammedans have ever been known as, by excellence, the "Infidels." Yet their fanaticism shows their sincerity; and they, if any, can claim the excuse of invincible ignorance. — Bishop Bcllord. CHARITY TOW.\RDS NOX-CATIIOLICS We should be very slow to judge our non-Catholic neighbours. They are, of course, hopelessly wrong. Their Sect or Denomination is absolutely false, and teaches doctrines contrary to God's revealed truth. Yet, they may be where they are through no fault of their own. Heresy may have been their daily food, it may have been drawn in, unconsciously, and as it were, with their mother's milk. They may have always breathed the atmosphere of Protestantism, and have grown up with the idea of their own self-sufficiency and of the inalienable right of every man to the full exercise of his private judgment. In a word, there may be conditions, so numerous, so varied, so unaccountable in their force, so strange in their influence, and so far-reaching in their effects, that it becomes impossible for any living soul to determine how far a non-Catholic is responsible, or whether he be responsible at all, lor not accepting the revealed truth in all its integrity and submitting to the Church. — Bishop John S. Vaughan. PREJUDICE OF PROTESTANTS Dean Stanley (Non-Cath.) is "convinced that Protestantism in general treats Catholics with shameful ignorance and unfairness." — Life and Letters. Would to God that Protestants, instead of reading and hearing only what is said against us, would hear and read what we have to say for ourselves. These early prejudices, this "human tradition" which "they have received to hold," would be dispersed like the morning mist before before the sun. — W. Lockhart. BAD CATHOLICS, RATHER THAN GOOD, ATTRACT ATTENTION Bad Catholics are accepted, much more readily than good ones, as the accredited representatives of their religion. Evil is a great deal more obtrusive than good. Humility always cloaks the highest virtue. The majority of those who lead the most Christ-like lives, are, by the very conditions of the highest religious life, secluded from the gaze of mankind. They do not proclaim their good deeds, and as for their personal sanctity, it is a secret hidden in their hearts and known only to God. But evil rises to the surface ; and one man of scandalous life draws more attention than one hundred patient followers of the Crucified. — Bishop Bcllord. IGNORANCE OF PROTESTANTS ABOUT THE CATHOLIC CHURCH The Rev. J. B. Hemmeson, a Methodist minister of Wolfville, N. S., is quoted as saying: "It is a strange and lamentable fact that 158 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS not one Protestant in ten thousand knows the truth about the teaching and practice of the Catholic Church. Many do not know that there was any Christian Church from the first or second century until the Reformation, or for about a thousand four hundred years. And they believe that there was then, virtually, a new Revelation. When a person of common sense wishes to obtain information about anything, whether political, religious, scientific, or it matters not what it may be, he goes to headquarters for authentic information — never to those who seek to destroy, or who are the enemies of what he wishes to study. Not one Protestant in thousands ever seeks information concerning the Catholic Church from Catholic sources. Protestants never think of such a thing as reading Catholic books or periodicals or anything that 'smells of Rome.' I never did; and yet I, of all men, am not a bigot. It is an inborn and fostered prejudice of many generations. But that is not all. Not only are Protestants absolutely ignorant of Catholic teaching, practice and history, but they generally believe a distorted caricature and call it 'Romanism'." lGNORA^'CE, OB HATRED OF TRUTH? Much of the ignorance about the Church among men is the result of moral transgressions which make the soul incapable of seeing the truth. A great deal that claims to be sincere ignorance is sheer hatred of the truth. Many know the truth and will not acknowledge it. Very many more have received some inkling of the truth; some of them yield to negligence and allow themselves to be occupied by less important things ; others shrink from a fuller knowl- edge because they know they will be convinced ; and they vainly suppose that a deliberately chosen ignorance will shield them from the responsibility of disobeying the voice of God. — Bishop Bdlord. UNWELCOME TRUTH NOT ACCEPTED There is abundant reason for believing that great numbers, the majority perhaps, of those to whom an unwelcome truth is revealed, will refuse to accept it and prefer falsehood. It is easy to do this. — Bishop Bellord. SLANDER IS NOT PROOF Because so many speak against the Catholic religion, and it has been given a bad name, that is no proof that it is not right. The Jews said worse of the early Christians, and of our Lord Himself. —JV. Lockhart. THE CREDULITY OF UNBELIEF They talk of our credulity, who believe in the possibility of miracles, but there is nothing like the blank credulity of unbelief. He who has taken in the character of Christ and the idea of the Gospel as a whole, in which we find uniled the heavenly exalt;ition of a God-Man and the earthly humiliations of a crucified God, and attributes this to man's invention, would seem to have attained the acme of credulity; but what shall we say when he informs us that this system was a great success, and became the religion of the world without miracles, or else that it is the holiest system which THE CHURCH AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 159 the world has ever seen, and the exhaustive effort of human genius, but that its founders were cither mad fanatics or conscious impostors, or a mixture of both, but that all alike, deceivers and deceived, suffered and died for a lie or an imposture? And they did this willingly and must have known beforehand that such must certainly be their fate, since they set themselves to oppose the fiercest passions and prejudices of human nature and of religious fanaticism: whereas they could have had no means of knowing that their cause would survive them. Certainly, we are forced to say that those who can believe this have indeed turned away their minds from truth and are turned to fables. — W. Lockhart. THE CHURCH AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS CHCJRCH AND STATE In matters political God has laid down for Christians a certain line of conduct; to render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, to be subject to higher power for conscience sake, recognizing it as a delegation of God's own authority ; to endure with patience when that power is abused and turned to our oppression ; to render homage even to wicked and unjust rulers, and to leave the rest in the hands of God. — Bishop Bellord. OBEDIENCE TO AUTHORITY St. Augustine exhorts the faithful even to disregard disability and injustice in their superiors, to disregard their worthiness or worthlessness, and have in mind the fact that the same God who gave a kingdom to the pious Augustus, also made a Nero emperor; the same God who placed the crown upon gentle Titus also put the sceptre into the hand of cruel Domitian; the same God who elevated the zealous Constantine to the throne also gave rulership to the apostate Julian. They all will have to give an account to the King of Kings as to how they filled their office, how they used the power that God placed in their hands. All will appear before His tribunal. For many thousands of years emperors, kings and princes have ruled the people of the Lord, and for each of them the hour came when they had to lay down the crown and respond to the summons, "Give an account of thy stewardship." What an example of obedience and of love of justice is given to all by the Theban Legion ! "We are your soldiers, sire," they said to Maximian, who wished to make them persecute the Christians; "but we are also the servants of God: to you we owe military service, to God our innocence. We can not obey your orders if opposed to His; so long as not.'iing is asked of us tliat can oft'end Him, wc sludl continue to obey you as hitherto ; otherwise we must obey Him rather than you. " And, indeed, they allowed themselves to be put to death rather than execute the unjust commands of the emperor. — History of the Church. Servants, be subject to your masters zjith all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the frozvard. — T Peter H, i8. 160 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS Admonish them to be subject to princes and powers, to obey at a word, to be ready to every good work. — Tit. Ill, i. BELIGION THE BASIS OF POLITICAL ECONOMY In fact wc must make religion the basis of our political economy. This view is most unpopular. While all mankind acknowledges the beauty of our Lord's unselfishness and unworldliness, very few outside the Catholic Church will admit that His life as revealed in the Gospels is a desirable model for those who live a busy working life in the world. Even ministers of professedly Christian sects have said that society could not be carried on for a week on the principles of the Sermon on the Mount. Political economists insist that selfishness and greed are the very mainsprings of invention, industry, and prosperity, and that humility, contentment, disinter- estedness, self-sacrifice are hostile to the due production and distribu- tion of wealth. The Catholic Church, as the source of these virtues, is therefore, from the point of view of most economists, the enemy of human progress. They can allege with truth that Christian principles have fallen into complete disrepute with all those who write about or conduct worldly affairs, and they assume t.hcrcfnre that these principles are impracticable. But God can answer as of old: "I will leave me seven thousand men in Israel whose knees have not bowed before Baal" (III. Kings xix, i8). We can point to thousands of religious communities in every age, and more of them now probably than in any past age, which regulate themselves and their temporal affairs according to the law of Christ in its extremist form; we can point to the success they have met both in their internal relations and their relations with the outer world, to the absence in their case of those evils which beset all com- munities which act on unchristian principles, to the happiness they diffuse, their good order, and the economical benefits they have conferred on human society. I speak of the monastic system. — Bishop Bellord. POLITICAL IDEAS LEADING TO RELIGIOUS IDEAS Pere Lacordaire tells us that he returned to the Christian faith through social belief. "Many think it unaccountable that I should have been led back to religious ideas by means of political ideas. The further, however, I advance the more natural does this seem to me." THE STATE OF WEALTH God has called certain persons to the state of power and wealth, not through their own deserts or for their own advantage, but in order that they might render special services to Him and to human society. Their position has not been given to them to excite them to arrogance and contempt of others, nor to enable them to live apart from the rush of the world's work in a serene, lofty, exclusive sphere of their own. Their power is not given to them that they may oppress the poor, or combine to increase their own wealth by robbing the toilers, or exact from them a larger return than their labour pro- duces, or create solitudes for their own plea.surcs by casting out THE CHURCH AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 161 hundreds and refusing tliem the right to live and labour and draw their sustenance from their mother earth. Their wealth is not given to thcni in absolute irresponsible ownership to be hoarded up or squandered as caprice and extravagance may dictate. They arc stewards and trustees rather than owners of their wealth. They are accountable to God and man for the proper and unselfish use of the advantages they have received, 'i'hc civil laws at times restrain a man's ownership in the interest of his family or his fellow citizens; the Divine law puts a restraint en ownership, under eternal penalties, in the interests of God and human society. The rich are bound to be moderate in the enjoyment of their wealth and to restrain the excess of their desires, remembering that as men they, like the poor, have no absolute claim to more than is sufficient for good and decent life. They are not indeed bound to live as do the poor; they may allow themselves many things as suitable to their station, ^<'hich would be superfluity and luxury to many other men, for "Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out thy corn on the floor" (Deut. xxv, 4). But any excessive extravagance is a sinful misappropriation of goods not their own. — Bishop Bcllord. There is not a more wicked thing than to love money, for such a one setteth even his ozvn soul to sale because, while he liveth, he hath cast away Jiis bozvels. — Ecclus. X, 10. Thou shalt not muscle the ox that treadeth out thy corn on the floor.— Deut. XXV, 4. Set not thy heart upon unjust possessions, and say not: I have enough to live on: for it shall be of no service in the time of vengeance and darkness. — Ecclus. V, i. IVo to him that bnildcth tip his house by injustice, and his chambers not in judgment : that zvill oppress his friend without cause, and zvill not pay him his zuages! — Jcr. XXII, 13. Wealth is one of the natural goods of life, and one of the great instruments of religious works, especially the works of corporal mercy. Riches are not evil in themselves, but only the trusting in riches. But so generally does the trusting in riches follow on the possession of riches, that Our Lord is able to say of the rich as a class that they can hardly enter into the kingdom of God. — Bishop Bellord. A considerable amount of wealth ought to go back to the classes from whom it originally came; and that not in the wages of ordinary circulation — value given for value received — but as a tribute due. Turning to nature we find the rivers bringing down their treasure of limpid water to be lost in the ocean ; but the sea returns it all, giving it up first in vapours to the clouds to be deposited on the mountains, which again feed the river heads. The earth yearly gives up to us 162 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS its wealth in food for the myriad armies of man and beast and bird ; but the energy which has gone forth from it has to be restored in labour and irrigation and fertilization. So is it with the rich man. He receives from the community many privileges which he has not earned, he receives without an equivalent the fruits of the surplus labour of many of his fellow men; he has received artificial rights to those fruits, created by the laws, and continued long after the original justification for them had ceased. — Bishop Bellord. Thou shalt not refuse the hire of the needy and the poor, whether he he thy brother, or a stranger that divelleth zvith thee in the land, and is within thy gates: — But thou shalt pay him the price of his labour the same day, before the going down of the sun, because he is poor, and zvith it maintaineth : lest he cry against thee to the Lord, and it be reputed to thee for a sin. — Deut. XXIV, 14-15. He tlmt oppresseth the poor, to increase his own riches, shall him- self give to one that is richer, and shall be in need. — Do no violence to the poor because he is poor, and do not oppress the needy in the gate: — Because the Lord will judge his cause, and will afflict them that have afflicted his soid. — Prov. XXII, 16, 22-23. // any irvan hath done any work for thee, immediately pay him his hire, and let not the wages of thy hired servant stay with thee at all.—Tob. IV, 15. It is most desirable that there should be a great reserve of wealth held in store among a community. If each man earned and held only enough for to-morrow's needs, then any irregularity or disloca- tion of industry would cast all into absolute want. There must be ac- cumulated capital if vast bulks of commodities are to be purchased in one country and transferred to another, prepared in advance and held in readiness for emergencies. If property were all divided to- morrow — while the shares would be so small that none would profit much — there would be an end of commerce at once ; we could no longer obtain the production of other lands, and a deficiency of material for food or labour in one place could not be promptly made good from another. Capital is an ocean of varying depth, but main- taining a uniform level of commodities in every part of the world: exchange of commodities without capital would be much like trans- port in a mountainous country, by canals with many locks, and intermittent rivers full of shoals, and portages, and rapids. Again, great works, such as railways and manufactures, could not be undertaken unless there were large sums of money, not re- quired for immediate wants, which could be used for directing large amounts of labour to one object, and maintaining the labourers till the wealth created by them is complete and exchangeable for consumable wealth. Only a small part of labour is immediately productive ; and human work would be limited to that kind, were it not that some possess more wealth than they can use themselves, and so can employ it on enterprise that will not make an immediate return. — Bishop Bellord. THE CHURCH AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 163 DUTIES OF WEALTH Pope Leo XIII teaches that "Whoever has received from the Divine bounty a larp;c share cf temporal blessings, whether they be external and corporal, or gifts of the mind, has received them for the purpose of using them for the perfecting of his own nature, and, at the same time, that he may employ them, as the steward of God's Providence, for the benefit of others." Pope Pius X has declared the same truth. "An obligation of charity," he says, "rests on rich men and holders of property to help the poor and needy according to the Gospel precept ; and so grave is this precept that on the day of Judg- ment, according to Christ Himself, a special reckoning will be made of its fulfilment." WORK Because thou hast hearkened to the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, whereof I cominandcd thee that thou shoiildst not cat, cursed is the earth in thy work: zvith labour and\ toil shalt thou eat thereof all the days of thy life. — In the sweat of thy face shalt thou cat bread till thou return to the earth, out of which thou wast taken. — Gen. Ill, 17, 19. He that followeth idleness shall be filled with poverty. —Prov. XXVIII, 19. Six days shalt thou labour, and shalt do all thy works. — Ex. XX, 9. The labourer is worthy of his hire. — Luke X, 7. // any man will not work, neither let him eat. — For we have heard there are some among you who walk disorderly, working not at all, btit curiously meddling. — II Thess. Ill, lo-ii. For there is a perennial nobleness, and even sacredness, in work. Were he never so benighted, forgetful of his high calling, there is always hope in a man that actually and earnestly works. . . . The blessed glow of labour in him, is it not as purifying fire, wherein all poison is burned up, and of sour smoke itself there is made bright blessed flame ! — Carlyle (Non-Cath.) in Past and Present. THE BLESSING OF WORK God made man, for man's own good, to labour, to toil, and in some mysterious way has made his happiness and contentment in life de- pendent thereon. None so wretched as the idle, none so miserable as those who try to turn life into a dream or a pastime. Nothing can be held or gained without labour, and so far from complaining of being compelled to work for a livelihood, we ought rather to praise and bless God for thus preserving us from the danger and misery of idleness. Hunger, thirst, poverty, and fatigue, often regarded as a curse, are only healthy stimulants to God-ordained work. The happy and contented man is he who makes good use of his mental and bodily powers — the very instruments given him by God for work. — W. Graham. 164 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS THE COXDITIOX OF LABOfR The things of earth cannot be understood or valued aright without taking into consideration the life to come. ... As for riches and the other things which men call good and desirable, whether we have them in aliundance or lack them altogether, so far as eternal hap- piness is concerned it matters little ; the only important thing is to use them aright. . . . Therefore those whom fortune favours are warned that freedorli from sorrow and abundance of earthly riches are no warrant for the bliss that shall never end, but rather are obstacles; that the rich should tremble at the threatenings of Jesus Christ and that a most strict account must be given to the Supreme Judge for all we possess. — Pope Leo XIII. EQUALITY The Christian view is grounded on, and helps to maintain, the doc- trine of the natural equality of all m^inkind. Outside of religion men may declaim about equality, but they will never establish it. Theoretical and legal equality will never make men socially and practically equal, as long as wealth is held in supreme honour and poverty in contempt. The Catholic Church alone has the power to give the poor man his due place in human society, civil and religious; she makes him respected and contented, and gives him compensation for the hardness of his lot; this she does because to her alone has God given the blessedness of understanding concerning the needy and the poor. — Bishop Bellord. POVERTY But he that has received fewer must not be troubled, nor take it ill, nor envy him that is more enriched; but attend rather to Thee, and very much praise Thy goodness for that Thou bestowest Thy gifts so plentifully, so freely, and so willingly, without respect of persons. All things are from Thee, and, therefore. Thou art to be praised in all. Thou knowest what is fit to be given to every one: and why this person hath less, and the other more, is not our business to decide, but Thine, who keepcst an exact account of the merits of each one. — TIwDias a Koiipis. We are happy when the Lord places us in a condition to honour His poverty by ours; we are then under the happy necessity of de- pending in all things on Divine Providence. We have a thousand opportunities of relying on His bounty, of sympathizing with the miseries of the poor, and of practicing many acts of patience, humility, mortification, and conformity to the will of God. — St. Vincent de Paul. The Christian view of poverty is, that it is a state of economical and spiritual benefit to men. The world rejects this view; it does not care about the spiritual aspect, and considers that economical poverty is an evil. This false view has produced endless practical evils; all speculations about poverty have, in consequence, been vain, all schemes frustrated, all remedies useless. Men hope to destroy poverty; they might as well attempt to dry up the ocean. They en- deavor to alleviate its ills, but they can only touch its outskirts ; and, THE CHURCH AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 165 after all is done, poverty remains deeper and more hopeless than ever — a greater problem and a greater danger. The Christian view brings about a very different result. It causes respect for the poor, recog- nising their state as a respectable one and not degraded ; not excep- tional but the normal state of the majority of men. — Bishop Bcllord. To many of you, perhaps, it will sound a strange and novel Gospel that our highest reverence is due not any longer to wealth or strength, physical or intellectual, but to poverty, and weak- ness, and suffering. The witchery of the world at times will cast a strange glamour over us, but if it has not altogether blinded us, the light of God's revelation will shine through, and in that light the Gospel that I have spoken of stands out in its truth and beauty. For is it not written that the God of this universe adopted, elevated, and sanctified the state of poverty ; that He chose a stable for His birth- place, with the beasts of the field for His nurses, and a scaffold for His deathbed, with malefactors for His companions, and the lowliest of virgins to be His mother, and the poorest of artisans to be His reputed father, and rude, weak, illiterate fishermen to be the bearers of His name and mission to the world? No palatial residences had He. "The foxes have their holes, and the birds of heaven have their nests, but the Son of Man hath not whereon to lay His head." No purple or fine linen, but the one seamless garment which His mother wove. No sumptuous repasts. A little honey and fried fish were to Him and His disciples a luxury. And in His last agony, when the fever of suffering wrung from Him those words, "I thirst," there was no friend near to give the dying God one drop of water. — P. A. Sheehan. Ever since Christ chose poverty as His share, it has had its enthusiastic lovers, enamoured by its beauty and fairness. St. Francis of Assisi made poverty his beloved bride and wedded himself to his Lady Poverty for life, retaining for her a loyalty and tender affection, that have never been excelled. He speaks of his Lady Poverty in terms of endearment and exquisite devotion. Numerous are the fol- lowers of the Seraphic Saint, who, like him, renounced wealth and all that wealth can give, to imitate more perfectly our Saviour in His complete self-abasement. It is this fact that has reconciled the poor, inspired by Christian sentiments, to their lot and made them find in poverty a happiness and consolation which all the wealth of the world could not give them. — C. Briiehl. "THK POOR" SHOULD NOT MEAN "PAUPERS" The very poor, those who are downright, hideously poor, have every right to cry out against and complain of their poverty. When Our Lord said: "Blessed are the poor," He did not mean : "Blessed are the paupers." He meant men who owned boats and fishing-nets. The pauper then should allow the community no rest until he is on friendly terms with a little more of the mammon of iniquity. He ought not to be content with pauperism because, normally speaking, pauperism is a hindrance both to bodily and spiritual welfare. A 166 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS Saint could put up with it, and utilize it. But its tendency on the normal man and woman is to hinder their well-being. — Bishop Bellord. THE CHURCH OF THE POOU In the first ages Christianity was esteemed the creed of slaves and outcasts by the lordly pagans of the empire. In later times the Catholic Church has been held contemptible for being the creed of the poor and the ignorant, the creed of women and children, and not the creed of the arrogant and the independent, the successful poli- tician, and the speculator in millions. It is actually despised because it fulfils the prophecy of Jesus Christ, "The poor shall have the Gospel preached to them." — Bishop Bellord. CONTENTMENT The Eastern legend tells us of the wise man who ate garden stuff to appease his hunger. He said to himself, "Surely there is no one in the world more wretched than I." But, as he turned around, he beheld another man eating the leaves which he had thrown away. None of us is so poor that he cannot behold others less favoured. It is the part of wisdom to try and behold our blessings rather than our afflictions. Were it not for the Catholic Church in New York City, life would not be worth living. It does infinitely more than any one other agency to bring contentment into the lives of the people. — The Sun (New York). TRUE CONSOLATION ONLY IN RELIGION The great European war has brought it home anew in numberless instances that true consolation is found only in religion. In Germany the letter carriers were directed by the Government whenever they had letters or parcels returned from the front as undeliverable. on account of the death of the soldier, they were to ascertain to what church or parish the mother or widow of the man belonged, and to hand the letter or parcel to the priest or minister for returning it to the sender, so that the sad message might be conveyed by the one best fitted to offer consolation. LIBERTY The word "liberty" has only too often been misinterpreted or misapplied, and, as a consequence, the minds of men have in many instances given it a meaning which is entirely erroneous. We need but glance at numerous schemes that have, at various times, been concocted by those who have professed to labour in the sacred cause of freedom; we need but look around us to-day and examine many of the theories of political, social, and economic life to find that one of the misconceptions prevalent is that liberty is incompatible with law. If man be supreme, if he owes allegiance to no power beyond himself, if the dictates of intelligence and conscience be merely the voices of the wind coming from nowhere, then human liberty would necessarily consist in exemption from all restraint and from all law. But if, on the other hand, the very nature of man compels us to THE CHURCH AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 167 recognize the existence of One to whom man is bound to be obedient; to recognize in the commanding voices that speak within the breast of man, dictates implanted by the Author of all things, then human liberty can never exist apart from and dissociated from the restraints of law. On the contrary, liberty supposes law. Paradoxical though it may at first appear, the word of Goethe, which but echoes Catholic teaching, is true: "Only in law can the spirit of man find freedom." The same thought found expression in the words of our late Pontiff, when he said, "Nothing more foolish can be uttered or conceived than the notion, that because man is free by nature he is therefore exempt from law. Were this the case, it would follow that to become free, we must be deprived of reason, whereas the truth is that we are bound to submit to law precisely because we are free by our very nature." — Thomas F. Burke, C.S.P. RKLIGION AKD THE RLATERIAL WEI-FARE O-V RIANKIND Religion and holiness are most profitable as a stimulus to labour, and so to the production of wealth. Those who are spiritual are not so narrow-minded as men of the world ; they do not exclude from cultivation that side of human nature which they consider the less important; they are not intolerant of it; on the contrary, they regard earthly labour as a Divine ordinance to be observed as thoroughly as the ordinance for sanctifying their souls. Their motto is laborare ct orare, labour and pray. They are placed almost on the same level ; at any rate they are inseparable. Even those who aspired to the greatest perfection and separated themselves from the world, did not exempt themselves from doing duty to society. In their seclusion they alternated meditation with useful manual labour. None have been more faithful labourers than the members of religious Orders, "the lazy monks," as they are so often called. Among them were no strikes, no demands for higher pay, no squandering of their earn- ings on self-indulgence, no neglect of work for excessive recreation and holidays, no looking forward to retiring from their laborious lot. They were the pioneers of industry in the Old World. Another utility of religion consists in the works of benevolence which it has inspired. Look at the hospitals, the asylums, the schools, the associations for aiding prisoners, restoring the fallen, saving fouridlings, visiting the poor, nursing the sick. There is hardly a single one, out of tens of thousands of institutions for the relief of human wants, that has not originated in the mind of some holy man or woman. If religion and ail its natural good works were to perish to-morrow off the face of the earth, how few of such institutions would remain, and how much the great mass of unrelieved misery would increase ! Under the same head we may place the comfort, the encourage- ment, the restraint, the contentment, the guidance, which religion and the influence of saintly persons diffuses in the world. Surely this conduces more to human happiness, and indeed to material well- being than any mechanical invention. These are services which can not be estimated in money, which are not investments, and do not figure in statistics of a country's wealth. Yet can any one say that the prosperity of a country is not increased by the daily millions of 168 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS such intangible services rendered by holy lives to the commonwealth? There is another utility in holy lives less visible than the fore- going but not less important; this would vindicate their character as benefactors of the working world even if they did nothing else. In the midst of the throng of sinful men whose deeds are forever call- ing down the vengeance of God, there are numerous unpresuming unnoticed ones, whose holiness and whose prayers hold back the punishments that are ready to descend, and bring down a blessing on human labours. Terrible were the penalties of old inflicted on sin — the deluge, the destruction of Sodom, the extermination of the nations of Palestine, the captivities and final dispersion of the Jews. We look at the awful abominations of the great cities of the civil- ized world, and we wonder that the earth does not open and swallow them up. Is God indifferent? Has He grown used to the sight of sin? No. But the prayers of the Saints on earth, and the unceas- ing oblations on the altars of the Church, are saving the world from the chastisement it deserves. — Bishop Bellord. SECRET SOCIETIES THE DANGER OF FREEMASONRY Would it be an exaggeration to assert that the vast majority of Masons in our country deem the lodge a "good enough religion" for themselves? It would not. Many do not realize the danger or do not estimate at its true value this opposition offered to re- ligion by the secret society habit of supplanting it in the human heart. — /, W. Sullivan. WHY THE CHURCH IS OPPOSED TO FREEMASONS The answer of Archbishop Spalding, of Baltimore, to a Mason's letter, inquiring why the Catholic Church condemns the Order, is most important, as it gives the key to the situation. "This is done," savs he, "for many reasons, chief among which is the fact that Masonry is the very best human and natural counterfeit aiming to supersede our Divinely revealed and supernatural religion." In other words, the Church is not so much opposed to Masonry as Masonry is opposed to the Church, for it attempts to do that for which she has been Divinely commissioned. — /. W. Sullivan. THE JLASONIC ORDER A RELIGIOUS SECT In 1905 one Master-Mason of New York City admitted to his lodge a noted gambler. Suspension from the Order was the punish- ment meted out for the indiscretion. A request foi a charter to form a new lodge was made by him. The petition was denied. Unwilling to submit to what he regarded as harsh treatment, the master took the matter into the Civil Courts and won his case. An appeal to the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court was made by the Masonic Order. The authority of the Order must be maintained, it must therefore manifest its true character. "It is unconstitutional for the civil authorities to interfere," claimed the representative of the Order, as quoted in the New York Herald. "It is unconstitutional, SOCIALISM 169 for the Masonic Order is a religious sect. It is a sect with its ritual, its creed, its cult, just as much a sect as the Lutherans, the Methodists, the Roman Catholics," Can aught be plainer? Is there no danger that he who joins such an Order will deem it a good enough religion for himself? Is there no opposition in this to the religion of our Holy Mother, the Church ? — /. I'V. Sullivan. OATHS OF SECKET SOCIETIES The oaths administered by the secret societies, and especially the Freemasons, are both rash and unjust oaths; for the members swear obedience to unknown superiors, to obey unknown orders and com- mands. It is not surprising, then, that the Supreme Pontiffs have so often condemned these societies and stigmatized the oaths they take. — Cuillois. SOCIALISM SOCIALISM The word Socialism may indicate very various things. There is the Socialism which is immoral and unchristian, which declares that "Property is robbery," and which would rectify inequalities by seizing on all wealth and dividing it among all men. There is a doctrinaire Socialism, which has its plans carefully elaborated on paper without taking account of human nature. It disregards the law that a social system must be developed from the living organism of society, and can not be manufactured brand-new for the occasion out of the brain of an amateur. Then there is the Socialism of responsible statesmen who yield bit by bit to the requirements of the multitudes. This is founded, not on any deep, true principles, but on present material interests; it proceeds sometimes on right and sometimes on wrong lines, and at the best only does imperfectly what Christianity would have done in the natural course had it not been impeded. Finally there is a Christian Socialism, grounded on the equality of all men as declared by God, on brotherly love, and on the right of every man to receive a proper subsistence in return for honest labour. — Bishop Bellord. The spirit of revolt has spread throughout the nations with such virulence that serious thinkers are growing anxious for the ordered continuance of society. Nor can these fears be called unfounded. When all allowance has been made for the exa2:geration of alarmists, and when every period of unrest in the world's history has been passed in review before our eyes, we shall find, I fear, that there are symptoms at present so grave, that we must be pardoned if we look upon them as quite unprecedented. For, first, the discontent is more widespread, more universal, more deep-seated. It is more clamorous in its appeal, more menacing in its attitude, more unreasonable in its demands, more unscrupulous in its methods, more intolerant of delay, more disdainful of con- sequences. And, secondly, it is associated with, or indeed largely generated by, a bewilderment in the domain of religion and philoso- phy, which bids fair tO' upset the ethics of ages. The very Deca- 170 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS logue is being inverted, and in the name of progress men are tam- pering with the moral principles that underlie our civilization. Doubt is now a virtue, Faith a cowardly adherence to fond illu- sions; marriage is a slavery, honourable maternity a burden intoler- able to emancipated womanhood; reverence for or submission to authority is mean servility. Even youth is restive. Our young "Sons of Freedom" arc publishing their Declaration of Independence before they can well spell it, and cutting the connection with father and mother before they have learned to shave. Women is in revolt against restrictions that, if they curtailed her liberty, helped to shield her weakness and to enhance her dignity. — P. J. Gannon, S. J. Socialism in some form is not of itself necessarily unchristian or anti-social, but only in some of those vagaries which beset every great movement, and which fall aside as fuller light is cast on the subject. But it is an uprising of the popular conscience against those false maxims of the world which have obscured certain great religious truths. It is an incoherent demand for certain Christian rights which have been set aside by pride of race, and of class, and by the inordinate desire of riches. Unfortunately, in many instances, it is an attempt to realize the results of Christianity without the spirit of Christianity. It sometimes seeks to establish by paper or- ganization and minute rules those relations between men which can only proceed from hearts transformed by faith, and generosity, and justice, into the likeness of Jesus Christ. It is a stirring in the right direction, but unfortunately by the wrong methods. We should show pity to the disinherited for what they have lost, sympathy with their efforts to recover it, and give practical aid in pointing out their errors and helping them to better methods. — Bishop Bellord. Some think and say, "Times have changed. We must change with them." If Christ were living. He would still go to the Garden of Olives. If such saintly leaders as St. Benedict, St. Bernard, St. Ignatius, St. Francis, St. Augustine and St. Dominic were living, they would still follow Jesus into the interior of the Garden, and watch and pray with Him. What America needs is sincere, whole- souled, religious men, leaders, generals, lights of the world, salt of the earth. As these men of God solved the great social and religious problems of their own day, thus they would solve them to-day, if they were living. The spirit of the world has entered the convents, weakening religious life and religious influence. — C. H. Thucntc. 0. P. THE CHCBCH THE BULWARK AGAINST SOCIALISM Few men appreciate the great services which the Catholic Church is rendering in staying the rising tide of Socialism. The leaders of that Church grasp their danger, and the country owes a debt of gratitude for the activity that comes from the Catholic Church to educate its citizens upon the menace of Socialism. — The Qiiincy Whig (Non-Cath.). SOCIALISM 171 I regard the Catholic Church as the great bulwark in the United States against the bad features of Socialism and anarchy, and for the upholding of law and order. — Max Pavi (Non-Cath.). SOCIALISTIC AND COMMUNISTIC EXPERIMENTS During the nineteenth century the United States was repeatedly the scene of communistic experiments. Daring adventurers assembled people and founded settlements on communistic principles, private property being abolished. In 1824, Robert Owens founded a colony in Indiana, which soon grew to nine hundred members, living in the fashion of atheistic communism. In 1825 the colony adopted its first constitution, which within the following year suffered six complete revisions. In June of the second year the last members of the colony ate their farewell dinner together. The experiment had come to a speedy termination. A Frenchman, Etienne Cabet, founded, in 1848, a new colony, in Texas, called Icaria. Soon it numbered 500 members. Each family had its small homestead. Children were educated by the community. Amusement was provided for by a band and a theatre ; a library supplied the intellectual wants. But soon it all fell into decay. Cabet departed and died. In 1895 the newspapers reported the dissolution of the last remnant of the colony. Such is the fate of experiments. Daring adventurers may undertake them. The lecturer at college, too, will be readily pardoned for his eagerness to take up the cudgel in defence of what is ne win his profane science; he may easily correct himself. But the Church, the Teacher of the centuries and of the nations, in the sphere of religion and morals, has not the right to experiment. Here where mistakes may entail the direst consequences, the rule must be : slowly onward, to keep the whole from ruin. Cardinal Benedict Gaetani, later Pope Boniface VIII., once praised Rome for having "pedes non plumeos sed plumbeos" — no winged feet, but leaden heels. CHAPTER V GRACE; THE MEANS OF GRACE GRACE A clear account of the nature and efficacy of Divine grace is given by a holy Bishop of Paris. "It is," he says: (i) "an aid be- stowed on us by God in His mercy, to enable us to do good works and to secure our salvation; (2) an aid against ourselves, or rather against our depraved nature and evil inclinations; (3) an aid to help us to endure with success the sharpest struggle, and to conquer our- selves; (4) an aid against all opposed to our salvation, against all enemies seen and unseen, who strive, by means of bad example and temptation, to make us desist from doing right and fall into evil; (5) an aid enabling us to remain pure amidst the wickedness of this world, and to lead holy lives in the midst of godless men; (6) an aid in our efforts to accomplish good works and to become more holy."— P. Hehel, S. J. THE MEANING OF GRACE "I had rather feci compunction," says the author of the "Imita- tion," "than know its definition," So might we say of grace — which is measured out to every one of us — that the proper use of it is of vastly more profit than the ability to define it correctly or a profound knowledge of its mysteries. We know little of grace. No human mind has ever fathomed the depths of this mystery. Yet, than this term, grace, there is perhaps none more familiar on the lips of Christians. Accustomed to employ it on innumerable occasions, we understand in a general way what is meant by it. Our perception may not be of the clearest, nor our information the most minute and complete, nor our method of comprehension the most scientific, so tc speak. But our knowledge of it, such as it is. is sufficient for all practical purposes. — Jolm H. Siapleton. 'By the grace of God I am what I aw. — I. Cor. XV, 10. The Lord will he at thy side, and znll keep thy foot, that thou be not taken. — Prov. Ill, 26. He that is good shall draw grace from the Lord. — Prov. XII, 2. He hath not done in like manner to every nation, and His judg- ments He hath not made manifest to them. — Ps. CXLVII. 20. TWO KINDS OF GRACE And so we speak of two kinds of Divine grace. The one is a transitory succour or support, the other a permanent state of condi- 172 GRACE: THE MEANS OF GRACE 173 tion of being established to persevere. The former is a stimulus that quickens and facilitates action, makes it possible to think, to will, to do, according to God; the latter creates a state of ready fitness and vigour, of lasting comfort and pleasure. The one is like a flash of light which illumines the murky darkness — a jolt to the selfish, sluggish, faltering will — a sudden and mighty uplift to achieve what is begun and to complete it. The other is like the constant glow of the noon-day orb, the continuous pressure of a potent force, the exuberance of superadded strength and health and life. — John H. Staple ton. SANCTIFYING GRACE Sanctifying or habitual grace is not a gift that comes and goes according to the necessity of the moment, but an abiding virtue which "is poured forth in the heart, by the Holy Ghost, who is given to us." "We will come to him and take our abode in him," says the Holy Spirit. As Christ dwelt visibly in the house of Zacheus, so does God by grace abide invisibly in the soul, creating in us a new manner of being, called supernatural, which is truly a life; and a friendship colouring that life; and an energy capable of producing works in keeping with both that life and that friendship. In other words, this grace flows incessantly, exuberantly upon us if we are properly disposed; and, by its presence in the soul, effects three marvelous results — first, transforming; then justifying and sanctifying; finally, energizing the soul unto a capacity for super- natural merits. — John H. Stapleton. Sanctifying grace is described by St. Thomas as a communication of the Divine nature The first great result of its infusion into the soul is that it becomes closely associated with God. ACTUAL GRACE Actual grace is a passing of the Lord in our lives. If through our fault we miss Him, He is gone; and the grace lost will never return. Zacheus understood what it was worth to look upon the countenance of the Lord. If, unlike Him, we do nothing. He will pass unawares, as He did when the mob rose up and thrust Him out of their city of Nazareth and brought Him to the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast Him down headlong: "But he, passing through the midst of them, went His way." Actual grace is a visitation. If we receive Him not into the house of our souls, as did the publican, to our house salvation will not come. — John H. Stapleton. THE NECESSITY OF GRACE Here is a stone. It exists, but has not feeling. And feeling it can not give itself, or have, unless the almighty Power which created it interfere to operate a miraculous change. So is it supernatural, so to speak, for a mountain or tree to move about and walk. A fish can not run or fly about in the air above, nor can the beast rea- son and talk, for such manners of being and of doing are not accord- dng to the nature which God gave them, but belong to natures superior to theirs, and are therefore supernatural to them. And so, 174 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS because left to himself man disposes only of natural means, he can not without grace attain to the higher life to which he is called, or even strive after it by a becoming service, or even aim at so lofty a goal. No supernatural work of any kind can be accomplished by the unaided forces of nature; nothing "according to God" can be performed except with the assistance of grace. — John H. Staplcton. No man can come to Me. unless it be given him by My Father. —John VI, 66. Unless the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it. —Ps. CXXVI, I. Oh ! how exceedingly necessary is Thy grace for me, O Lord, to begin that which is good, to go forward with it, and to accomplish it. Without it I can do nothing. But I can do all things in Thee, strengthened by Thy grace. O, truly heavenly grace, without which we have no merits of our own, neither are any of the gifts of nature to be valued ! No arts, no riches, no beauty nor strength, no wit nor eloquence, are of any worth with Thee, O Lord, without grace. For the gifts of nature are common to the good and bad; but grace, or Divine love, is the proper gift of the elect, and they that are adorned with it are esteemed worthy of eternal life. — Thomas a Kcmpis. I knoiv that there dwelleth not in me, that is to say, in uiy flesh, that zvhich is good. For to will is present zvith me; but to accomplish that which is good I find not. — For the good which I will, I da not; but the evil which I will not, that I do. — Rom. VII, 18-19. GRACE A GIFT OF GOD This gift is Divine in a fourfold aspect. First, because it is from God, who is the donor, and its source. Then, it is a gift of God, for it is a participation, in some manner, of the life and nature of God. a communication of a Divine energy ; a virtue not belonging to the human nature with which we are endowed, not essentially required by it as such, infinitely beyond and above any force that can be conceived within or without man in the order of pure nature. Thirdly, this bounty of grace is for God, its purpose being for God's glory, to make possible in us a certain shaping and form of life and action in this world, which alone can insure salvation and eternal happiness for us in the next; to assist us in doing and living according to the will of God, after a manner pleasing to Him and worthy of a reward. Finally, through God in Christ is it procured for us and bestowed upon us, since to it we have no rightful claim or title, do not and can not deserve it, are insufficient to procure it for ourselves: Christ alone obtained it for us; He, suffering and dying merited for us; and His merits purchased for us this gift, the means of our salvation. — John 11. Staplcton. IV hat doth it profit God if thou be justf or what dost thou give Him if thy zvay be unspotted-' — Job XXII, 3. GRACE; THE MEANS Oh' GRACE 175 God giveth grace to the humble. — James IV, 6. It is God ivho zvorketh in you both to will and to accomplish, according to His good will. And do yc all things without ninrtnurings and hesitations. — Phil. II, 13, 14. By grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; for it is the gift of God, — Not of works, that no man may qlory. —Eph. II, 8-9. INSPIRATIONS By inspirations are meant all those interior attractions, motions, reproaches and remorses, lights and conceptions, which God excites in us, preceding our hearts with His blessings, through His fatherly- care and love, in order to awaken, stimulate, urge and attract us to the practice of every virtue; to heavenly love; to good resolutions; and in a word, to everything that may help us on our way to eternal happiness. This is what the Spouse calls knocking at the door, and speaking to the heart of his spouse; awaking her when she sleeps; calling after her when she is absent; inviting her to gather apples and flowers in his garden ; to sing and to cause her sweet voice to sound in his ears. — St. Francis de Sales. THE WILL TO BE SAVED ESSENTIAL St. Thomas Aquinas was once asked by his sister what she must do in order to be saved. Without a moment's reflection he replied : "You can be saved if you will." She begged him to explain his meaning and he replied: "If you have the will, you can abandon the vanities of the world, you can avoid evil, you can do good. If you have the will, you can be chaste, patient and gentle. If you have the will, you can do God's will in all things. If you have the will, you can increase God's grace within you, and, by means of sanctifying grace, you can be saved." THE WILL MUST PRODUCE DEEDS The consent being given, you must diligently procure the effects, and hasten to put the inspiration into execution, which is the height of true virtue; for to have the consent within the heart without producing its effects would be like planting a vine and not intending it should bring forth fruit. — St. Francis de Sales. GRACE OF NO AVAIL UNLESS WE CO-OPERATE If any one asks why, if God gives every man sufficient grace, so many are lost — we can only reply that Lucifer received far more grace than other blessed spirits, and yet he was cast into hell. Judas undoubtedly received as much grace as the other Apostles, and yet he perished. — P. Hchel, S. J. CO-OPERATION 1V^TH GR.'iCE "God," says St. Augustine, "has created us without our co-opera- tion, but He will not save us without it." In a word, grace will avail us unto salvation only when we make the necessary efforts on our part to be saved. Divine grace, we should be persuaded, will not 176 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS do everything for us, for it is only a help to our personal exertions, which are as indispensable as grace itself to our salvation. To illustrate this let us recall an ancient pagan fable. A teamster's heavily laden wagon was stuck in a deep rut, from which his team could not extricate it. He then began to invoke aloud the aid of Jupiter very earnestly. For hours he kept on crying out with all his might: "O Jupiter, the mightiest of the gods, help me out of this !" But it was all in vain, for the wagon did not move. Hearing his cries to Jupiter a passer-by said to him: "Friend, Jupiter will never help a lazy man like you; first help yourself and put your shoulder to the wheel, and then you may expect Jupiter to help you." The teamster followed the good advice, and in a moment the wagon was out of the rut. — F. Girardcy, C. SS. R. While men were asleep his enemy came and oversowed cockle among the wheat, and went his way. — Matt. XHI, 25. The virgins who slept, and whose lamps were not filled before the coming of the Spouse, were excluded from the Eternal Nuptials. —(Sec Matt. XXV.) My Son, give Me thy heart; and let thy eyes keep My ways. —Prov. XXn, 26. God does not carry on His work alone. He does not act directly in the world of nature or of grace, but chooses intermediaries, works through secondary causes. Each day He gives us our daily bread, but it is on the condition that some shall labour in producing, and some in gaining means to purchase it. He is the source, but there are those who act as dispensers of the mysteries of God. It is He who gives the increase to the Church ; but some must sow and some must water the crop. He founded the Church, but it was by the labours and preaching of the apostles. Jesus Christ is our Head, our Ruler, our Teacher; but He has bidden us to hear His infallible voice, and render our unquestioning obedience, through His Vicar on earth and the bishops appointed by the Holy Ghost. The treasures of grace are open to us, but they come through the channel of Sacra- ments administered by men, or through our own exertions in prayer. God demands the aid of men in His work. — Bishop Bellord. What things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that soweth in the flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption. But he that soweth in the Spirit, of the Spirit shall reap Life Everlasting. —Gal. VI, 8. WE MUST FIGHT OUR BATTLES Had our Lord remained with them, who can say whether they would have shown the boldness, the initiative, the resourcefulness that they manifested during the years of their lives that were spent lacking His presence. It might easily have been that they would have wanted to keep near Him, to depend on His counsel for every action. At any rate, His way of perfecting them was to throw them on their own responsibility and let them win their battles with the GRACE; THE MEANS OF GRACE 177 unseen helps of His jjrace. At the battle of Crecy, an ancient chronicler informs us, King Edward the Third of England took his stand on a hillock with the reserves and sent his son, the Black Prince, to bear the first shock of the French chivalry. For a time the Prince's small force seemed lost in the fierce onslaught, but the King refused to send him aid. "Is he dead, or unhorsed, or so wounded that he cannot help himself?" he asked the envoy. "No, sire," was the reply, "but he is in a hard passage of arms, and sorely needs your help." "Return to those that sent you, Sir Thomas," said the King, "and bid them not to send again so long as my son lives. Let the boy win his spurs; for if God so orders it, I will that the day may be his, and that the honour may be with him and them to whom I have given it in charge." — Francis P. Duffy. Sozv for yourselves in justice and reap in the mouth of mercy, break up your falloii) ground; hut the time to seek the Lord is when He shall come that shall teach you justice. — Os. X, 12. CSE AND ABUSE OF GRACE When in sickness or misfortune we are reminded of our frail hold on life and impelled to make a better use of what remains; when a friend or acquaintance is suddenly called before his Maker and a warning voice tells to put our own house in order ; when a word is dropped in a sermon or uttered in the confessional that sounds like a message from Heaven, all these are actual graces, on the use or abuse of which our very salvation may hang. H St. Paul, or St. Augustine, or St. Ignatius had persistently refused to pay heed to God's call, their lives would have had a very different ending. Indeed, we may say that the great difference between notorious evil- doers and good Christians lies in the good or bad use of their actual grace. — IV. Graham. THE USE OF GRACE Had Martin Luther watched the first grace that came to him, had he heard the knock at the door of his soul and allowed the Lord to enter, had he been faithful to the graces of self-command and self-denial that came to him, he would have been a cedar of Libanus, a mighty reformer, a source of great blessings to the Church. As there was no growth in him, there wa^ decay, and the festerings of his soul spread disease and disorder. His illustrious and saintly contemporary, Charles Borromeo, on the contrary, nurtured every ray of grace that pierced his soul; his was the good soil, and it brought forth fruit a . hundredfold. "In the sanctity and justice before the Lord all the days of his life, he grew, suffering the Spirit to lead him whither he would, until, with a soul strong in the Lord Jesus, he became, in the Master's own good time, the much-needed and true reformer of the Church." — /. W. Sullivan. GRATITUDE FOR GRACE Gratitude for graces received is one of the best means for obtain- ing new graces. — St. Vincent de Paul. 178 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS The hope of the unthankful shall melt away as the zmnter^s ice, and shall run off as unprofitable water. — IVis. XVI, 29. OUR DUTY TO SEEK LIGHT AND TRUTH God did not give us a mind proof against error and vice ; no more did he give us a conscience proof against deception. All these powers, mind and heart and conscience, must be moulded and trained and educated in the right way. If a Christian chooses to remain in wilful ignorance of what it is his boundcn duty to know — if he is blindly obstinate against light and truth — if he listens only to the voice of his own individual or national prejudices against plain reason and good sense — if he frequents bad company, reads bad books, studies anti-religious and immoral literature, how can he hope to preserve a true, God-inspired and enlightened conscience? — W. Graham. GRACE PURSUING MAN During the French Revolution there lived at Lyons a man who for many years had discarded religious practices of all kinds. It happened one day that he saw a priest carrying the Blessed Sacra- ment to a sick person. Wishing to avoid him, the man turned into another street, but great was his astonishment to find that the clergyman with his precious burden was coming the same way. Again the man tried a different road, and again the priest followed. At last the man took refuge in an open doorway, only to see the priest directing his steps towards him, for in that very house lived the sick person. Deeply moved by this evident invitation of Divine grace, he exclaimed: "See how God's mercy is pursuing me! I shall resist no longer. From this very hour I believe as firmly as of old." — Frederick Renter. You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen yon; and have ap- pointed vou, that you should ^0, and shoidd bring forth fruit. —John XV, 16. Behold, I stand at the gate and knock. If any man shall hear My voice, and open to Me the door, I zvill come in to him, and infill sup zvith hint, and he with Me. — Apoc. Ill, 20. Knoivest thou not that the benignity of God Icadeth thee to penance? — Rom. II. 4. This is the work of God that you believe in Him zchom He had sent. — John VI, 29. THE MEANS GOD USES To us, it does not belong to judge what are the most proper means to be employed, whether natural or miraculous. To God they are both equally easy, and the Christian religion assures us that sometimes He uses one and sometimes the other — sometimes He procures the sanctity and perfection of His servants (and we may add their temporal health, happiness, and well-being) by ordinary and natural means, and sometimes He employs miraculous and GRACE; THE MEANS OF GRACE 179 extraordinary means for this purpose, as He in His wisdom judges proper. But it cannot be denied that it is most becoming the Divine goodness and wisdom to use means for attaining His views which are most proper and conducive thereto. — Bishop Hay. THE GRACE OF CONVERSION If God is all-powerful over the mind and heart, why does He not move all the Buddhists and Hindus to become Catholics? Why does He require all this amount of laborious enterprise such as is represented by the work of our foreign missions? Surely to do so would be a far more useful miracle than the turning of water into wine or the raising up of the dead to life ! The answer is that Christ could and did use the direct way of converting souls as well as the indirect way. And even to-day God does move souls to Himself secretly rather than openly. It was the opinion of the late Cardinal Vaughan that the numerous conversions in England could not be accounted for by preaching, but must rather be attributed to grace acting directly in answer to prayer. — Thomas J. Gerrard. WHAT GOD OFFERS US Suppose some powerful prince were to approach a poor man and address him in this way: "Now, my poor man, I will make you an offer. If you will do a little easy work for me, and just behave yourself decently for one short day of twelve hours, I will make you rich and prosperous for fifty years. Nay, I will make you a still better offer. If you will be honest and industrious and work at the simple task I will give you to do during the space of one single hour, I will give you everything you desire for fifty years, and I will take you into my own house, and you will be treated as my son, and I will have my servants to wait on you, and my carriages at your service." What would you say? Well, you would be inclined, firstly, to doubt the sincerity of the offer. You would ask: "Do I understand you aright? Am I to have fifty long years of such delight in exchange for one short hour of easy work?" And again the prince would assure you that it is so. Well, you would, of course, accept such terms with the greatest gratitude and delight. Yet, this is nothing compared to what God offers us. — Bishop Joint S. Vaughan. GRACE CONVEYED THROUGH KIND WORDS In the French revolution, when so many priests were put to death, there was a wicked woman who would shamefully insult the priests on their way to be guillotined. One day when she was thus insulting a holy priest about to be executed, the priest turned to her, saying: "Madam, please pray for me." This request so struck her that she stopped insulting him, burst into tears and went home greatly moved. She could not rid herself of the thought of praying for the priest, and she, who had led an awful life and had not said a prayer for many years, began to pray, and was soon so thoroughly converted that, for the remainder of her life, she gave great edification. — Ferreol Girardey. C. SS. R. 180 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS SUFFICIENT GRACE It is a doctrine of Catholic faith that as long as the soul is in its state of probation, there is grace awaiting it sufficient for salvation. Divide a moment, as men measure time, Into its million-million-millionth part, and even in that last infinitesimal portion of life Divine strength is given to the soul for all its needs. It is given, moreover, with all the fulness and willingness of every other grace, whether at the beginning or at any moment during life. Nay, were it possible, it would be given with still greater willingness, for in that moment lies hell's last chance ; and we can not but think that Infinite Goodness would do everything compatible with its own very existence to thwart that chance. The Jansenist prayed: "From all sufficient grace, good Lord deliver us ; " insinuating that the merely suflficient grace was insufficient. If the grace were not powerful enough to enable the siimer to overcome all his sins, then it were not sufficient; and if it were powerful enough to enable him to overcome all his sins, then no more were needed. — Thomas J. Gerrard. My grace is sufficient for thee: for power is made perfect in infirmity. Gladly therefore zvill I glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may dzvell in me. — For when I am weak, then am I powerful. — II. Cor. XII, 9, sq. WE CAN DO GOOD ONLY WITH THE HELP OF GOD Those who believe themselves the authors of the good they have done, or who flatter themselves with having the least share in the world in it, or take complacency in such thoughts, lose more than they .gain, even when the works on which they are engaged are good and holy. — St. Vincent de Paul. Without Me you can do nothing. — John XV, 5. WITHOUT GRACE AVTE CANNOT AVOID SIN So has the race of men been depraved, that, even when they have done violence to their concupiscence, and subjected it to the Divine will, yet they cannot avoid sin without God's assistance, by which we are protected from evil and directed to good. Therefore we must beseech God to perfect in us what He has begun ; to repress the turbulent motions of desire; to render our appetites subject to reason; to make us, in fine, entirely conformable to His will. We also pray that the whole world may receive the knowledge of God's will (i Tim. ii, 4) ; that "the mystery of God, hidden from ages and generations" (Col. i, 26, sq.; Eph. iii, 4, sq.), may be made known and manifest to all. — Catechism of the Council of Trent. WITHOUT GRACE WE CANNOT LOVE OR SERVE GOD And if we accomplish some things, they are trivial, and of little or no moment towards the attainment of heavenly bliss ; but never shall we be able, unless assisted by Divine grace, to love and serve God as we ought, which is something greater and more exalted than PRAYER 181 in our present prostrate condition we can accomplish by human strength. — Catechism of the Council of Trent. Who distinguisheth thee? Or ivhat hast thou that thou hast not received f And if thou hast received: why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it? — I Cor. IV, 7. PRAYER PKAYEB It is a great and blessed privilege that we can pray to God, though we seldom stop to think of this, and perhaps for this very reason fail to make use of the privilege as we ought. It is hard for the poor and lowly ones of this world to gain favours from the wealthy and the great; hard even to have access to them. For the most part they can only present their petitions through others, and if they themselves venture to present them, they run the risk of being turned away and even treated with contempt. But the lowliest of the low can at any moment of the day or night gain admittance to the audience chamber of the King of Kings, and is sure to be made welcome. "Come to Me," are His words of standing invitation, "all ye who labour and are heavy-laden and I will refresh you." But prayer is more than a privilege, it is a duty; more even than a duty: it is a necessity. We must ask if we would receive, seek if we would find, knock if we would have the door of Heaven opened to us. It is of faith that no one who has come to the use of reason can be saved without prayer.. If you clip the wings off a bird it can not fly, it can not soar aloft into its own element and be happy in the companionship of its mates. So the soul of man can never mount upward without prayer, can never join the blessed company of the angels and the Saints in the happy home above. What the air we breathe is to the life of the body, that prayer is to the life of the soul. And as we know a man is dead when he ceases to breathe the vital air, so we know that the soul of the man who lifts not his voice in prayer is dead within him. — Bishop A. MacDonald. St. Thomas teaches us that prayer is preeminent among the acts of the virtue of religion. "It belongs properly to the virtue of religion to give due reverence and honour to God, and hence all those things by which such reverence is shown to God come under religion. By prayer, however, a man shows reverence to God inas- much as he submits himself to Him, and by praying acknowledges that he views God as the Author of all his good." — C. M. Thuente. O. P. Amen, amen, I say to you, if you ask the Father anything in My Name, He will give it to you. — Hitherto you have not asked anything in My Name: ask, and you shall receive, that your joy may he full. — John XVI, 23-24. 182 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS You shall call upon Me, and you shall go: and you shall pray to Me, and I will hear you. — You shall seek Me, and shall find Me, when you shall seek Me iviih all your heart. — Jer. XXIX, 12-13. If any of you want wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all vicn abundantly, and upbraidcth not: and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. — For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea, which is moved and carried about by the zvind. — Therefore let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord. — James I, 5-7. Yon ask, and receive not, because you ask amiss: that you may consume it on your concupiscences. — James IV, 3. O God, my God, to Thee do I watch at break of day. For Thee my soul lialk thirsted; for Thee my flesh. O how many ways! —Ps. LXII, 1-2. Let us go with confidence to the Throne of Grace: that we may obtain mercy, and find grace in seasonable aid. — Hcb. IV, 16. When thou shalt pray, enter into thy chamber, end having shut the door, pray to thy Father in secret: and thy Father, Who seeth in secret, will repay thee. — Matt. VI, 6. Pray one for another, that you may be saved. For the continual prayer of a just man availcth much. — James V, 16. RELIGION IRirOSSIBLE WITHOUT PRAYER Despite his thorough familiarity with Catholic teaching. Cardinal Newman confessed that before his conversion he knew nothing what- ever of the inner life of Catholics. We are frequently astonished on conversing with honest Protestants at their utter incapacity to sense the meaning of Catholic things; Catholic spirituality speaks to them in a language as foreign as that of the dead tribes of the Aztecs. A similar condition is soon born in the mind and soul of him who without prayer continues for a while outwardly to practice a form of religion. There is no substance to such a religion, for it is empty of its reality which is prayer. And it is bound in the long run to mean nothing to him more than a tissue of parables, proverbs and enigmas, in which he comes to see no sense, reason or utility, into whose life he does not enter, and cannot because he no longer comprehends. — John H. Stapleton. THE LORD'S PRAYER The prayer itself is so touchingly clear and simple that it carries its message to every heart, so much so, indeed, that it seems almost profane to analyze or dissect it. But the more we examine even the simplest of God's works the more admirable they seem. Reflection brings to light most complex mysteries in apparently the simplest and most commonplace objects in Nature — e. g., a drop of water, a sunbeam, the song of birds, or scent of flowers. We see herein PRAYER 183 the mind of God at work, all things, "in number, weight and measure," "reaching from end to end mightily, and disposing all things sweetly." So it is with the Lord's Prayer. It is an epitome of God's relations and dealings with His creatures. It sums up, in a measure, theology, doctrinal and moral. It is a sort of spiritual cell which involves, and from which by reflection we can evolve, the whole body of Christ's teaching. Hence, its constant use by the Church in her liturgy, in the Mass, the Divine office, the Sacra- ments and sacramentals, as well as her binding all her children to learn it by heart. To make it part of our daily tribute of worship, in morning and evening prayers, is deemed by all a matter of conscience — a duty we strictly owe to almighty God. — lyilliavi Graham. FRAYER IN THE NAME OF JESUS The prayer, "through our Lord Jesus Christ," is not infallible, I grant, in the sense of obtaining anything we ask for. It will not necessarily obtain for us wealth, pleasure, freedom from sickness or from spiritual trials. For notice that the text puts a restriction on the word "anything," viz., "in My Name," and "that yonr joy m.-^.y be full." Our prayer is addressed to a Father who is all-wise, as well as all-loving, and such a Father will grant anything to His dearly loved child, but only if it is for that child's real good. True love is so unselfish as to refuse when harm will follow. There is great selfishness in a love which cannot refuse when it is better to do so. Real love for us has our Heavenly Father. He wishes for us the "fulness of joy" rather than immediate and passing gratification. St. Gregory says : "You have not asked in the name of the Saviour," because you have not known how to ask for eternal salvation. Hence Paul was not heard, for if he had been freed from his temptation "it would not have been conducive to his salvation" (Cf. II. Cor. xii). Prayer in the name of Jesus infallibly gains for us what is really best for us. When we come to our Father's home we shall then appreciate how powerful for our real and lasting good have been the prayers offered in Jesus' name ; from how many evils, which to us in our blindness seemed advantages, we have thereby been saved; that many of the seeming hardships and miseries of life have been permitted or sent by a watchful Providence as a reward of such prayer ; and that many things, which went nigh to destroying our faith in prayer, have been amongst the great graces of our lives, in that, by making this world bitter to us, they saved us from its many dangers and deceptions. We must be full of faith in His love. He may answer us "in proverbs," but the time will surely come when He will no more speak to us in proverbs, "but will show us plainly of the Father." — B. Hayes, O. S. B. RESPONSE TO PRAYER A little boy in a crowd comes and "prays" me to lift him up, in order that he may see a passing procession. Gravity holds him down. But I can overcome gravity ; and in answer to the child's p-rayer, I can, by a simple act of the will, extend my arms about the child and exert muscular strength enough to raise him above the 184 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND L\'STRUCTIONS heads of the people so that he may see. Now, when God, in His turn, answers prayers, He does but do, in a higher and sublimer and in a Divine way, very much what He has enabled me to do in a smaller and mere human way. — Bishop John S. Vaughan. GOD EVER BEADY TO RECEIVE OUR PRAYER One of the best proofs of God's goodness and love is His readi- ness to receive our prayers and supplications. If we wish to unbur- den ourselves about our difficulties or our sorrows to an earthly monarch we are at once confronted by endless obstacles. We have to wait till it suits his convenience to give us an audience; we often have to travel far, and to spend much time, and to take much trouble, before we are ushered into his presence, and even then, perhaps, he scarcely attends to our words, but hastens off to engage himself in more congenial occupation. God, on the contrary, is ever ready to harken to our prayers at all hours of the day and night, and will open His ears to our petitions, which such infinite tenderness and patience that we might almost imagine that there were no other creature in existence to solicit His attention. He not only suffers us to address Him with the greatest famili- arity, but He encourages and even commands us to do so, and is never better pleased than when we are asking Him for graces and blessings. Though He is infinitely great and exalted and we are so poor and unworthy, He neither despises nor repulses us, but treats us as a loving father treats his own children. — Bishop John S. Vaughan. Louis XVI, King of France, had a special affection for one of his courtiers. Whatever this man asked was sure to be granted. One day he went as usual to ask a favour from the king. But it happened that the king was angry at this time, and said to him in a passion: "You are always asking me for something. Are you ever going to stop?" At these words the man hung down his head, and went away disappointed. Sometimes our request may be refused by people in this world, even by those who love us, but God will never be angry with us, nor refuse us when we pray to Him ; on the contrary, He is angry with us when we neglect to call upon Him in our needs. GOD ANSWERS PRAYER WITHOUT INTERFERING WITH HIS ESTAB- LISHED ORDER OF THINGS Is God less able than man to work His will in His own creation ? Man may flood the desert, divide the course of a river, clear a forest and drain a marsh ; or he may so confine and entomb a force within the iron boiler of a steam engine as to make it fly through space along its railway track at fifty or sixty miles an hour. Is there any interference with nature here? Is there any dislocation of the harmony of things? Evidently not. Man merely plays upon the forces around him, as a harper plays upon his harp strings. Man can not, of course, annihilate nor can he create so m.uch as a grain of sand ; nor can he create or absolutely destroy the simplest force; but what he can do is to acquaint himself with the PRAYER 185 characteristics of existing forces, to direct thein, to utilize them, to turn them to account, and to employ them for various purposes. Now, what God does in answer to prayer need no more interfere with the established order of the universe than what man himself does. There need be no more "meddlino^" and "upsetting" when God interferes to bring about some advantage, or to ward off a calamity from a person, a city, or a nation that has invoked His aid, than when I interfere by my free will. — Bishop John S. I'^auglian. EFFICACY OF PRAYER The scriptural history of the great prophet Elias is rich in instances of the efficacy of prayer to move the heart of God, and to bring down His graces and blessings. Even St. James in his Epistle, can cite no better example to move us to confidence and trust. He observes that, "Elias was a man, passable like us, and with prayer he prayed that it might not rain upon the earth, and it rained not for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit" (v, 16-18). But, marvelous as this was, he brought about still more wonderful results by the same simple means. He raised the dead body of the son of the poor widow of Sarepta to life; he multiplied the pot of meal and the little cruse of oil, which was all she had in her house, so that they sufficed for her sustenance during tlie three years of scarcity; and worked many other wonders through the power of his prayers. — Bishop John S. Vaughan. THE EFFECT OF PRAYER Now, devotion is that true spiritual sugar which corrects the bitterness of mortification by the sweetness of its consolations ; it removes discontent from the poor; solicitude from the rich; sadness from the oppressed ; insolence from the exalted ; melancholy from the solitary, and dissipation from him that is in company. It serves as well for fire in winter as for dew in summer. It knows as well how to use abundance as how to suffer want, and how to render honour and contempt equally profitable. In a word, it enter- tains pleasure and pain with equanimity, and replenishes the soul with an admirable sweetness. — St. Francis dc Sales. Prayer, as St. John Chrysostom says, "is a powerful means of warding off the attacks of the devil, and affords us protection against all dangers." "It preserves moderation, represses anger, checks pride and envy, quiets feelings of revenge, draws down the Holy Ghost upon the soul and raises man to heaven" (St. Ephrem.). "Whosoever arms himself with prayer, will not fall into sin, but, detaching himself from earth, will rise to Heaven" (St. John Chrys.). PRAYER NECESSARY After Baptism continual prayer is necessary to man in order that he should reach Heaven ; for, though by Baptism our sins are remitted there still remains concupiscence, to assail us from within, as well as the world and the devil to assail us from without. He further explains this when he observes that prayer is necessary not 186 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS in order that God may know our necessities, but in order that we may be compelled to acknowledge Him as the one and only supreme source of all our graces. — St. Thomas Aquinas. All the adults who are in Heaven are there because they prayed ; had they not prayed, they would never have reached Heaven. All who are in hell are there because they neglected prayer; had they prayed, they would not be in hell, but in Heaven. Two criminals died, one on each side of Jesus; one of them prayed and was saved; the other did not pray, and was lost. — St. Alphonsus Liguori. Since it is impossible without natural warmth that the human body thrives, thus the life of the soul is impossible without the warmth of prayer. It bestows upon the soul the strength to produce meritorious work. — St. Thomas of Villanova. And, if the angels and our first parents could not maintain them- selves in innocence, though they were created without sin and with- out concupiscence, how far more impossible must it be for us to persevere without prayer, who are born in original sin, and with so many and such strong natural inclinations to evil. — Bishop John S. Vaughan. GRATITUDE TO GOI> We should at least spend as much time in thanking God for favours received as we have spent in asking them. — St. Vincent de Paul. HUMBLE PRAYER Thou oughtest to seek the grace of devotion earnestly, to ask it fervently, to wait for it patiently and confidently, to receive it thankfully, to keep it humbly, to work with it diligently, and to commit to God the time and manner of this heavenly visitation, until it shall please Him to come unto thee. Thou oughtest chiefly to humble thyself when thou feelest inwardly little or no devotion: and yet not to be too much dejected, nor to grieve inordinately. God often giveth in one short moment what He hath a long time denied. He giveth sometimes in the end. that which in the beginning of prayer He deferred to grant. — Thomas a Kcmpis. The best dispositions which we can bring to meditation and prayer are humility, a conviction of our own nothingness, a mortification of our passions and of the natural inclinations that lead us to evil, purity of intention, the presence of God, an entire conformity to His will, and frequent aspirations towards the Divine goodness. — St. Vincent dc Paul. PERSEVERANCE IN PRAYER For sixteen years St. Monica prayed fervently and performed penances for ihe conversion of her son Augustine ; and by her earnest perseverance she not only obtained his conversion, but she herself became thereby a great Saint, a wonderful favour which she had not thought of praying for. "Let us not cease praying." says St. PRAYER 187 Augustine, "for God only defers, but docs not refuse to hear us." — Fcrreol Girardey, C. SS. R. PRAY£R AND CHARITY The prayer most likely to be heard by God is the prayer that is backed up by works of charity. — St. Leo the Great. PRAYER FN THOUGHT RATHER THAN IN WORDS Our conversation with God should be in thought rather than in many words. A few words on part of the Publican proved his salvation. A single petition saved the penitent thief. Martha said to our Lord only a few words : " Lord, behold he whom thou lovest is sick," and her prayer was heard. — St. Jerome. ORDER OF PRAYER The proper order is first to render thanks to God, then to confess our sinfulness, and repent of it, then to submit our petition. — St. Jerome. PRAY FOR GOD'S ASSISTANCE Let us imagine a person suspended over a great precipice by a cord held by another. Surely he would constantly cry out to the person who supports him : Hold fast, hold fast ; for God's sake, do not let go ! We are all in danger of falling into the abyss of all crime, if God does not support us. Hence we should constantly beseech him to keep His hands over us, and to succour us in all dangers. — St. Alphonsus Liguori. ATTENTION IN PRATER There is a threefold species of attention which may find place in vocal prayer, according to our Angelic Doctor. "One by which a man attends to tlie words which he recites, and is careful to make no mistake in them. Another by which he attends to the meaning of the words, and a third by which he attends to the end of all prayer — namely, God Himself — and to the object for which he is praying. And this species of attention is the most necessary of all." — C. M. Thuentc, O. P. DISTRACTIONS IN PRAYER St. Bridget suffered much in this way, and our Lady once appeared to her and said : "The devil is v/ont to torment anyone who prays, and to send him as many distractions as he can. But be not troubled on that account, my daughter, for though you may suffer from distractions, you can always have an earnest desire to pray well, and then your prayer will be pleasing to my Son." A MEANS AGAINST DISTRACTION St. Francis found a sure means of keeping his mind during prayer free from all external pre-occupation. Whenever he entered into a church he said : "Worldly and frivolous thoughts, stay you at the door till I return again." Then he prayed as though he were alone on the earth ; his devotion was so great that he seemed not to know what distraction was. 18S ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS THE SACRAMENTS THE SACRAMENTS AND THEIR EFFECT The doctrine of the Real Presence of our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, and the continual enforcement of it in all the ceremonies and surroundings of worship, does more than anything else to fix and crystallize into solid form the Catholic perception of the super- natural. The Sacraments have the same effect; they are not to us merely comforting forms, or dictates of piety and propriety, but they are actual remissions of sin, a conveyance of definite powers. So real is their effect on the soul that it overflows upon the body, changing the aspect of the countenance ; or, as with Extreme Unction, reducing the fevered temperature of the sick. — Bishop Bellord. BAPTISM BAPTISM With regard to the definition, although many may be adduced from sacred writers, yet that which may be understood from the vi'ords of Our Lord, in John and the Epistle to the Ephesians, appears more appropriate and convenient; for since Our Saviour says: "Un- less a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God" (John ii, 5) ; and the Apostle, when speaking of the Church: "Cleansing it by the laver of water in the Word of life" (Eph. V, 26) ; it hence follows that Baptism may be accurately and appositely defined to be, "The Sacrament of regenera- tion by water in the Word ;" for by nature we are born from Adam children of wrath, but by Baptism we are regenerated in Christ children of mercy, for "He gave power to men to be made the sons of God, to them that believe in His Name, who are born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God" (John I, 12). — Catechism of the Council of Trent. Unless a man be horn again of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. — John HI, 5. Now you are no more strangers and foreigners: hut yo\i are fellow-citizens with the Saints, and the domestics of God: — Built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief Corner-stone. — Eph. H, 19-20. Know you not that all zvc, zvho are baptized in Christ Jesus, are baptized in Plis Death? — For we arc buried together with Him by Baptism into death; that as Christ is risen from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also may walk in nczvness of life. — For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His Death, zve shall br also in the likeness' of His Resurrection. — Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin may be destroyed, to the end that zve may serve sin no longer. — Rom. VI, 3-6. Peter said to them: Do penance, and be baptised every one of you BAPTISM 189 in the Name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of your sins: and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. — Acts II, 38. He that bclicveth and is baptized shall be saved. — Mark XVI, 16. WHEN THE WTtLL STANDS FOR THE DEED As there are cases where non-Baptism is accounted Baptism, so, in similar cases, those who are external to the Church are accounted as members of the Church. The will stands for the deed. Those who are desirous of obeyinof God's commands have already obeyed them. Even though they be ignorant of the precise thing which God wills, and do not consciously desire to do that particular thing, yet they have an implicit desire of it. The love of God, devout service of Him, the wish to know His will, and the readiness to do it what- ever it be, this contains the desire to receive Baptism or to enter the Catholic Church, and is equivalent to actually doing so. Thus there are some, many we may hope, who are outside the visible communion of the Catholic Church, and yet are invisibly, even unconsciously, included in it. They do not know of the duty of outward conformity, they are not classed as Catholics, they do not belong to the Body of the Church; but they are said to belong to the Soul of the Church because of their invisible union with her through implicit desire of actual union. — Bishop Bellord. BAPTISM THE MOST NECESSARY OF THE SACRAMENTS Perhaps, with the exception of Holy Orders, the administration of no Sacrament is so elaborate as that of Baptism. The Church, no doubt, wishes thereby to impress the recipient and the attendants with the importance of this rite. It is the first and most necessary of the Sacraments, and therefore termed, sometimes, the "gate of all the Sacraments." It is the incorporation into the mystical body of Christ, the holy Catholic Church, and entitles us to participate in all the privileges of a Christian here on earth, and to look forward to the everlasting bliss of the Church triumphant in Heaven. — IV. Lieber. THE BAPTISM OF JOHN Christian Baptism, as instituted by Christ, differs greatly from the rite administered by St. John the Baptist, which was intended only to be a form of penance. The words used bv St. John were not the same as those used by Our Lord, and his Baptism was not necessary to salvation, nor did infants receive it, for they do not need penance. St. John's Baptism could not remove either original or actual sin, and was not a Sacrament. It could be received sev- eral times, whereas the Baptism of Christ can be received but once. —P. Hehel, S. J. SPONSORS We easily understand to what sort of persons the administration of this holy guardianship should not be intrusted; namely, to those who are either unwilling to discharge it faithfully, or unable to do so assiduously and accurately. Wherefore, besides the natural parents, who, to mark more strongly how much this spiritual bringing up differs from the carnal, are not permitted to undertake that charge, 190 ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SERMONS AND INSTRUCTIONS heretics, particularly Jews and infidels, are altogether to be forbidden this office, their thoughts and cares being ever occupied in obscuring by falsehoods the truth of the Faith, and subverting all Christian piety. — Catechism of the Council of Trent. THE DUTIES OF SPONSORS So negligently is this office treated in the Church, that its bare name alone is left ; but of the sanctity contained therein men seem not even to have the least idea. Let all sponsors, then, at all times recollect that they are bound principally by this law to exercise a constant vigilance over their spiritual children, and take particular care that in those things which regard the formation of a Christian life they approve themselves through life such as their sponsors promised they should be by the solemn ceremony. On this subject let us hear what St, Denis writes of speaking the language of the sponsor: "I promise by my assiduous exhortations to induce the child, when he shall arrive at a knowledge of religion, to renounce every- thing opposed to, and to profess and perform the sacred promises which he makes." St. Augustine also: "I most especially admonish you ;" says he, "men and women who have become sponsors, to know that you stood sureties before God for those whom you have been seen to receive at the sacred font." And, indeed, it eminently be- comes him who has undertaken any office, to be indefatigable in the diligent discharge of its duties ; and he who professed to be the teacher and guardian of another, should on no account suffer him to be deserted whom he once received under his trust and guardianship, so long as he shall understand him to have occasion for his care and protection. Speaking of this same office of sponsors, St. Augustine sums up, in a few words, the lessons of instruction which ought to be impressed by them on their spiritual children; for he says: "They ought to admonish them to observe chastity, love justice, cherish charity ; and above all, let them teach them the Creed and the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Commandments also, and what are the first rudi- ments of the Christian religion." — Catechism' of the Council of Trent. THE CBniE OF WITHHOLDING BAPTISM FROM CHILDREN To kill an innocent child even before it is born, is a dastardly murder. To kill a child before it is baptized and send it into the next world without the Sacrament of Baptism, is a heinous crime for which God will deal out terrible but just punishment. —P. Hehel. S. J.