The Sun.
London, England, 1866-06-13 00:00:00

PRICF 4d.
STAMPED sd.

deemed us, and yet we have wounded His Sacred Heart
afresh.

And further, in the hour of His agony, the Sacred Heart
had also before its Divine vision the waste of spiritual
grace which, from the beginning of the world, and over
the face of the earth, has fallen like the rain from heaven
upon the just and upon the unjust. But most especially
Jesus foresaw the profuse waste of grace which within His
own mystical Body, and through the channels of the Holy
Sacrament, should he made to the end of the world.
And lastly, Jesus gazed with Divine prevision upon the
multitudes of the redeemed who would never be saved.
They came about Him thickening 'the night air, the races
of the heathen who, in all ages, had died, and were dying,
without God in the world, ascending, all tteeped in evil,
before their all-holy Maker: the chosen people of Israel,
who were filling up the cup of their transgressions, and
invoking His blood upon themselves and upon their chil-
dren ; and lastly, and above all,'souls regenerated and il-
luminated in Baptism, grafted into His mystical Body,
anointed, sealed by the Holy Ghost, dignified by the in-
delible characters of Baptism, Confirmation, and Priest-
fhnos
eo
ynur
encompassed, ured b yHissupstareictiteozs Body and Blood, and pro-
of Grace, who, after all, would andnot
besansactvifieded. by the Spirit
And finally, souls born of baptised parents, but robbed of
baptism by their neglect ; baptised, but robbed of their
inheritance by the sins of fathers and of mothers, by the
cruelty of oppressors, or by the apathy of Christians.
The multitudes who, by schisms and by heresies, should be
torn away from Him and make His Sacred Heart to bleed;
whole races who shall be born into the darkness and
coldness of lands, once full of life in the unity and light
of His Church ; the havoc of souls who should thereby
sink, generation after generation, further and further from
the supernatural life of God to the life of flesh and blood
of sensuality gross or refined; all this wrung from Him;
His prayer of agony. But there were still more bitter lees
in the chalice. He foresaw the pride, envies, jealousies,
hatreds, aversions, suspicions, rivalries, contehtions, evil
His Church,
tongues,murmurings,
own disciples h
scandalise the world, and destroy souls. All our sins
sco td ahflleiac rtt
-ebau each rningwhich even His
other, by
wound
against peace,' goodwill, charity, mutual humility, mutual
tenderness, gave sadness of tone to the voice in which He
said : " What, could not you watch with me one hour?"
if He would say : " The world knows me not, my own
people crucify me, and my
disciples forsake me. To whom
shall I go ?"
Such, dear Children in Jesus Christ, are the words He
is always saying to us. He looks to us to make Him a
reparation for our own sins, and for the sins of others. But
if, when He comes among us, He find us not only sleeping
but drowned in the world ; worshipping and wondering
after its power and its allurements; selfish and self-pleas-
ing; narrow-hearted to His Church, but profuse to our
worldly friends and to our ourselves ; lax in principles and
opinions, which, though not of faith, border on it, exact
and exacting in the etiquettes and fashions of society and
of public opinion ; keen and ardent in every labour of the
world, cold and heartless in the midst of souls that are
perishing, how shall we escape the most just doom of the
Church of Laodicea ? " These things saith the Amen, the
faithful and true witness, who is the beginning of the
creation of God ; I know thy works, that thou art neither
cold nor hot : I would thou wert cold or hot. Bat because
thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will begin
to vomit thee out of my mouth."
And now, that we may bring your thoughts to the work
which pleads for your alms to-day. It has been well said,
that tile little children in Jerusalem cried Hosanna, but
when the multitude cried Crucify, their voices were silent,
as birds cease their song when storms rave. Jesus had
taken them as His own. His first army of martyrs was
picked from their ranks, and when the scythe swept off
"the King's mowing" and the first flowers of the field in
Rama, the first palms of victory were lifted up before
the Infant King of Marty .. They were the special love
of the Sacred Heart. And in His agony, the foresight of
those who shall go into the pit was most terrible in the
vision of thousands, and tens of thousands, of regenerate
children who, through sinful negligence or apathy on our
part, shall grow up without Christian education, and shall
so fall from the grace of their Baptism, and die in the last
state which is worse than the first.

The multitudes of men of every rank and state, rich and
poor, kings and people, pastors and flock, who thronged
about Him in that hour of Divine Vision, walking hand in
hand to perdition, mocking Him as they passed, or dis-
daining to know him, wrung from Him the drops of His
life-blood before His sacred wounds were made. But there
was a keener, sharper, agonising grief to the tenderest of
all Hearts—the havoc made in the young souls of children,
fresh from the waters of life, by the stains of mortal sin,
and by the subtilty of falso teachers. God alone knows the
mystery of Divine Sorrow as, one by one, such little souls
are snared and murdered. A day ago they were in the
state of grace, and the light of the Holy Ghost was with
them. Their angel guardians were about them, and the
face of their Father who is in Heaven shone upon them
without a cloud. Fallen into mortal sin, or robbed of the
light of faith, they are not Only outcast, but at enmity with
God, and their recovery is a miracle of grace.
But we must turn to the work which is before us. It is
to keep them from falling, and to raise them from their fall,
that you are asked to give your alms to-day. It is to train
such children in the purity and sanctity of the Holy
Catholic Faith, to protect them against the seduction and
the robbery by which they may be stripped of their in-
heritance, that the Poor School Committee labours. We
desire to commend it heartily to your generosity, and
above all, because it has an office of general good for the
whole Church in England which no Diocese can under-
take for itself. It maintains, verf prudently, the Train-
ing Schools for Masters and Mistresses, on whose efficacy
as teachers, and on whose good example as Christians, the
education of our poor children must in chief depend.
The importance of the Poor School Committee is such
as to require more than a passing notice. It was founded
in 1847 is an -organ of communication in behalf of the
Catholic Bishops with her Majesty's Government. It con-
ducted its correspondence with the Committee of Privy
Council with great prudence and success ; and the agree-
ments made by it at that day continue as the basis of our
relations with the Privy Council until now. The consti-
tution of the Poor School Committee is that of a Council
composed of 45 members, one-third ecclesiastical and two-
thirds lay persons, nominated by each of the 13 Catholic
Bishops of England, and by two Vicars Apostolic of Scot-
land. It represents, therefore, the whole of the Church
in Great Britain. Every year, at the same time with the
annual assembling of the bishops in London, it holds its
general meeting. Priests and laymen from all parts of
England have then an opportunity of conferring on the
state of Catholic education. If it had no other office
than this—namely, to form a centre in which the 13
dioceses meet—a great value' would attach to it. As
the subject of education becomes more and more appre-
ciated in its bearings upon the social and spiritual
welfare of our people, such a body will become of still
greater usefulness.
In all common undertakings, common counsel is of great
moment. The friends and managers of Reformatory
Schools have wisely united themselves in a general alliance
of correspondence and co-operation, with the purpose of
meeting annually, as for this year they did last week in
London. It is evident that in this way the importance of
the Poor School Committee must always be permanent and
universal to the whole Church in England and Scotland.
It is obvious also that institutions for training masters
and mistresseg are of utility to the whole of England, and
are very costly. No diocese would alone need or could
alone support them. The burden of their maintenance
is therefore as widely distributed as their benefit—that
is, over the whole Church in England and Scotland; and
the Poor School Committee with great prudence has
assumed the maintenance of them. This, next after its
office as representative of the Catholic Church in relation
to the Committee of Privy Council, is manifestly its
highest function. Whatsoever is general to the dioceses
of England and Scotland it is obviously the work of a cen-
tral body to administer ; and as our education system is
extended, a centre will be more and more needed to unite
and consolidate it ; as our Schools are multiplied the num-
ber of teachers must be multiplied ; as their efficiency is
raised, the need of the Training Schools will be always
increasing. The Poor School Committee therefore has the
strongest claims upon every Diocese in Great Britain.
But every diocese has local and particular duties and
works which press with their full weight upon it, and such
Thees
can be discharged by no central body whatsoever.
parochial
multiplication and maintenance of the local and
adeadi
or Mission Schools must rest upon each mission n
diocese. The Poor School Committee assists accordingbl to its
power in such local needs ; but obviously it.ishiuenaTheetodido
more than give in a proportion hardly p
aceswesidoef
-Ls
emfretlsth,oeoOpootor
,nSdalfvoirgd,oroanusd Bsyirsti3nmagPhoreafmciehadauvennintiancnt,ivti:tys-
ipvreerpar and vigorous
inThneuscmhhoero,lsthoef
cost of which is
the diocese
xmn2abinosstooonaanyceear.of
The
ehigtatma utestthiceodstieeferso
School Committee, though very liberal in proportion to its
means, amount yearly to about £3OO or £4OO for the build-
ing and support of schools—that is, for the last year, about
e has
of dependits s e
ho uponol
e.
a fiftieth part of what is actually spent in and by
the diocese for its mission schools. It is manifest, there
ifteoreeif tfhearttehteemryuidtiiopcleieesetiaetn and
this moment
maintenance
And yet, though dependent on itself, the diocese pos-
Fundfor the founding
sseussepposrt noof spchiooocels7l Every
mission has to find its own
funds, arid with what difficult •It is, therefore, to create ay every Priest will know.
which the missions may be centralasste Diocesan Fund, from
d, that you are itivited to
attend a public meeting of Nvh.
ich notice has been already
given for the 14th of June next.
It is not necessary at WS time to enter into the details