The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1874-12-13
FATHER BURKE'S LAST LECTURE.
Russell, Gladstone and Bismarck.
IRELAND'S FAITH.

From the Cork Examiner copy the perora-
ton of Father Burke g lecture, delivered before
an immense audience in Munster Hall, Cork,
ON the evening of the 9Th of November:
The Catholic Church has her testimony
from heaven in her unity. He said she to
be one, and one she is. and shall be until the
END OF time. The Catholic Church has her
to be persecuted in all ages, that the waves of
persecution were to arise in all their ocean
fury against her. but that she was built upon q
rock and should ontlive them all. "The wise
man." says the Saviour, Guilds his house
upon rock: and when the winds blow and
the waves rise and dash against it they cannot
destroy It because it is built upon rock )"
upon rock, and the gates of He'll shall never
prevail against it," And SO, these waves of
persecution arise with their angry crests,
sweeping away nations, destroying principah.
ties and powers, just as the angry waves of
the troubled ocean arise in their strength and
fling mighty ships, and shake them from t heir
bosom into the mighty depths of the sea.-so
also the mighty waves of popular Indignation,
of intellectual luprising-statesmen, politicians,
nations, kings-go to form the crest of that
mighty wave, and it rolls over the world,
appalling every one until it comes to the Rock
of Ages-until it dashes itself against the Ca
tholic Church-and then like the ocean wave,
dashing against the iron-bound coast it wastes
itself in idle foam and is'no MORE Is not this
reading of history has never yet shown me the
man, no matter who he was, king kaiser,
that raised his hand against the Catholic
Church and i did not Q: come come to grief The Roman
sword they fell, but the Church remained.
Coming to our own day, the greatest warrior
the modern world ever beheld went in his
bly, swept every battle field Of his enemies,
scattered the armies of Austria and Russia,
with their Emperors at their head, like flock
itself against him: he was acknowledged to be
Irresistible, until in an evil hour of intoxicated
triumph, he ventured to touch the old Pope of
Rome. he fell like a tower, like the temple of
under it, and down it came in its crashing
ruin. His nephew, the late Emperor, triumphed
as long as he kept peace with tho Catholic
Church and was loyal in his allegiance to her;
his army were the first men in the world I; bnt
when he proved traitor to Plus the Ninth,
and turned round falsely upon the Church,
that great and glorious France that had been
committed to him sank under his sway, and
misfortune followed misfortune until he was
stricken under the ruins of his Empire. A
great statesman, Lord John Russell-he was
the head of the Liberal party in England-a
man of great intellect, q man who had lived a
most honorable career, a man who had written
his name on the English Constitution, a man
who was held in honor, until in an evil hour
he wrote the Durham Letter. And from that
hour to this he was flung into contemplate
corner. No one was found to rememb Der the
mans name-he is o mere nonentity. Perhaps,
another greater name has consigned itself by it's
own act TO the same obscurity in the future, q
name dearer to Ireland Eve were never
gratefully, q name we used to associate in our
minds with purpose and glorious justice-he
has also found it necessary to draw tho sword
of his pen against the Catholic Church. And I
greatly fear the. same oblivion and contempt
will fall upon him. Take great, big, bullying
Bismarck, great mind, an awful, determined
will-how successfully though silently he pre-
pared the materials for the great campaign,
with what wonderful success he drew together
and welded into one powerful army the vari-
GUS elements of the German nation. He was
never crossed in the field or in the council, he
was in the full tide and highway of his pros
perity-Entil in an evil hour he thought he,
too, weald have a dash at the Catholic Church.
But, from the day he began to lay hold on the
Bishops and priests of Germany up to this
hour, nothing but disappointments and failu es
are his portion. He is, to-day, one of the most
troubled men in Europe. He has got into this
business with Count Arnim, and is like the
man who got present of an elephant and did
not know what to do with It. There's Arnim
now on his hands, and he does not know what
to do with him. The Catholic Church has her
testimony from earth as we'll as from Heaven.
My friends, pass over the various other
of the world, and pass through the
glorious history of that action of the Church,
rising upon the ruins of ancient pagan society,
and the ruins of tho Roman Empire, when the
Church, which alone could do it, drew order
ont of chaos, light out of darkness, and civili-
zation ont Of barbarism-passing over all the
evidences and testimonials of history, 1 will
come to one simple fact, and it is this: The
Catholic Church, because she was instituted
by Almighty God to meet the spiritual wants
of mans soul, must necessarily meet the
cravings and aspirations of man. Every !
legitimate aspiration of the sonl of man finds |
it's fultillment in the Catholic Church, either |
in her doctrine or her ritual. What is more
natural, for instance, when q man is in afflic- |
ton, to seek out friend to whom he can un- |
bosom himselfi A precious privilege it il to
have friend upon whose secresy, upon whose
honor and wisdom you can rely for counsel |
and for advice in seasons of afiiction. God,
who founded the Catholic Church, saw that
natural want, that natural craving, and He
set a friend in the confessional, the most
secret, the most confidential, the most power.
ful friend that ever afflicted soul turned
TO. What is more natural than for a man to
seek in the service of God some help from his
senses7 Something that would tell the eye
gazing, and the ear listening, that it is the
service of God, and that God is theref And,
therefore, Christ instituted in His Church her
ritual and her ceremonial. Now, l say, ont of
his natural fnlfllment of the legitimate