The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1868-05-24

The Church Of Christ, beafiSg on h
t brow His holy seal, and in her hands Hi
f glfss OF power, knelt in sorrow at His grav<
put she hailed His resurrection with joy
ana was endowed anew with treasures Z
: in,nortal life. Afterward, the might q
heathendom arose against her, aad she de
;, scended from the wrath of man into the ca
tacembs but She reascended, to wear upol
| her brow the diadem of q spiritual empir
! that shall never fall until the clements shAl
meE with fervent heat and even then
true to all her history in deriving new g2er,
aron every apparent defeat, she Will rts.
again from the great grave of nature 10 en-
10y for ever the vision of God Kings Of tn
earth have denied her right to invest thu
pastors Of her children with their due pre-
rogat1ves, and have even dared her to NOR
tai combat; but though distressed and
tTarthed, she has never relinquished he,
inherent rights, and she never will. As
many times as the head of the Church on
earth has been driven from Rome by armed
| ungratetul violence, 80 many times exactly
has he been welcomed back with tears OF
penitence and shouts of rapture. "'fi
| DesP0lled OF treasures committed to her
care by faithful stewards of Gods bounty,
she has iabOred with her own hands to feed
her needy children. At one time, prosecuted
IN the wilderness, she has found a refuge
and welcome in the courts of princes; at
another, driven from thee courts of princes,
pCSuuSe SNS WOulu uOt ueny Icr lLOTu or her
divine eommission, she has found humble
sanctuary in the wilderness, and knelt upon
the bare earth to adore the Lord of life and
light, once the child in the manger and to
invoke all the saints in glory to plead her
cause in the ear of infinite justice and
goodness.
She has spurned the ;,nointed king from
the temple of God. until he repcntcd of his
crime and on the head of the lowly monk
who was spending his days i'll labor and
PRAYER, she has placed the triple crown
With one hand she has batlled with ."bal-
t,smai dew the brow of the day laborer~
child, while the other she has raised in de-
fiance of imperial might, which dared to as
sail her holy altar.
One of the most violent objections to the |
Catholic Church has been urged for the very
reason that she has SO faithfully held the |
balance between the contending forces of
society. She has been accused Of favoring |
the claims of absolutism or popular de-
mands, as the triumph of either at the time !
would favor her own ends, irrespective of |
right. The charge is unjust, is urged by
many who know better, yet it springs from
an honest misapprchension in many minds.
1t would have been utterly impossible for
IN institution, designed to enlighten and
guide mankind in it's higher relations, not
10 touch human interests of every kind, and
human institutions generally in many ways;
yet the challenge may safely be given to
tuOuSut1ul SCuOeuC OF history, TO ac-
knowledge with candor, whatever may be
lis ecclesiastical position, that the Catholic
ihurch, having often been chosen to be,
md having an inherent right to be, the UNI
ire between the rights of authority and the
lights of individuals, has faithfully labored
sustain lawful authority when assailed
y the wild fury of misguided multitudes,
nd that she has interposed her powerful
held, often with the most triumphant sue I
ess, to protect men whose rights as men
!ere assailed by authority changed by am {
ltlon into arrogant and exacting tyranny. t
hat inconsistency and insincerity have t
cen charged against the Catholic Church 9
,r this remarkable and noble fact in her q
lstory In this respect the Catholic Church a
as followed strictly in the steps of her Di-1 +
inc Author, who, when on earth, invaria- g
ly upheld the rights of authority, while b
ehemently denouncing those who unjustly 4
xercised it; and while going about doing t
ood, the friend of the friendless and the a
elper of the helpless, pleading with di- u
Inc eloquence and laboring with divine a
over for the outcast and the poor, never
nd nowhere sanctioned the spirit of insur- p
'ctlon, but enJolned obedience as one of n
lie main duties of life. Hence, it has come n
,out, by one of those sublime mysteries,
hich prove the divine origin of Christiani- a
,, that the greatest revolution which has il
-er taken place in religious belief and in a
vii society in all their bearings, has been C
fected by the teachings, by the life and is
'ath of one who by no word or deed ever p
sailed authority itself or melted resistance N
it. I'll
Beauty and order being the same thing, II
I'd religious truth being the beauty OF ho- A
less, Christ, who was truth in person, IL
ust have made His Church the friend and p
'holder of all beauty and order; and so it Ii
8 proved for eighteen hundred years. The HI
lurch has been the celestial crucible in OF
lich Whatever of human art or invention Ii
d within it the essential attributes of I'll
CHER and spiritual goodness has been puri- w
d and adapted to the service of reli gion. d.
as poetry sought to please the imagina- m
ms of men the Church of Christ unfolded al
fore her the annals of Christianity, with b,
+ grand central sacrifice of infinite love, d,
d all her demonstrations of heroic suffer- b,