The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-03-06 00:00:00

LENTEN SERVICES IN PARIS.

The Pall Mall Gazette of Monday remarks :—One
of our Paris correspondents, writing last evening,
says :—Not even in the time of Lacordaire was the
metropolitan church of Notre Dame more crowded
than it has been these last three Sundays since the
Dominican Father Monsabr6 has begun a series of
Lenten sermons, which will, to juche by the three
already delivered, hold a high place as examples of
pulpit oratory. Father Monsabre ascends the pulpit
at one o'clock, immediately after the termination
of High Mass, and his hearers, recruited from every,
rank and class of society, are so numerous that a consi-
derable proportion of them must find some difficulty in
following the thread of his close and logical dis-
course. The vast nave of the cathedral, the side
aisles, and even the transepts are crowded, and the still-
ness of the congregation is something marvellous. The
rev, father has taken as the subject of his Lenten
sermons for this year the "Existence of God in
Creation: His being, His perfection, and His action
in the Universe," and he has undertaken to prove
that the universe is the work of God, and that
it is governed by Him exactly in the way that
the Bible tells us it is. In his first sermon he
dealt with the "Genesis of the World," and in
his second with the "Harmony of the World."
The third, which was delivered this morning, was
devoted to showing that the angelic hierarchy is an
actual, necessary adjunct of the Divine system, and
that the Bible itself proves to demonstration that the
existence of angels is as certain as that of God him-
self. It would be impossible to summarize in a few lines
the series of arguments upon which Father Monsabr4
relied in support of his declaration, for the sermon lasted
more than an hour, and it is not too much to say
that there was not a redundant sentence. My main
purpose in writing to you on this subject was to notice
his peroration, in which he made a pointed allusion
to Marshal MacMahon as chief of the State. Aftgr
saying that nations like men had their guardian angels
he exclaimed "Yes, and we know to whom has been
entrusted the sacred mission of watching over the
destinies of France; and we know, too, that when,
amid the misfortunes of our country, we turned in des-
pair to the God of Battles, our prayers were not
answered in the way we had hoped; and this was be-
cause the chastisements with which we were visited
had been only too well deserved, and because we needed
some severe lesson to win us back to the faith of our
fathers! May our repentance be sincere, and may,
under the fearless soldier and the upright citizen who
is placed over us, the time soon came when we shall be
able to say to our unfriendly neighbours, 'Have done
with your insolent pity, your contemptous sympathy!
l'Kehold the angel of France !' " After the sermon,
Monsignor Guibert, the Cardinal-Archbishop of Paris,
gave the blessing, and the vast congregation slowly
poured out of the cathedral, contributing largely to the
collection for the orphans of Alsace-Lorraine which
was made at the doors.