Huntington advertiser. [volume] (Huntington, W. Va.) 1874-1921, 1875-06-03
Address Of CongratulatiOn
Right Rev. ]. j. Kahn, d. D.
BISHOP OF WHEELING.

RIGHT REV. AND BELOVED BISHOP
Mindful of the injunction of Holy
Writ; "obey your prelates and be
subject to them. For they watch as
being to render an account of your
souls; that they may do this with
ioy and not with grief; tor this is not
expedient for you Heb. Chap. Mi
V. 10 we take the earliest occasion,
on recongregating after the eventful
festival of your conservation, to pre-
sent to you our fluctuations on your
elevation to the exalted dignity of
the Episcopate; our congratulations
that YOU should have been found
worthy of such great honor; and our
homage of the heart as due from the
children of Holy Church, to their
spiritual father and future shepherd.
In an age, when the malignancy of
men and the spirit of impiety have
locked hands, in firm and sworn ALI
ance, to trouble the harmony and
disturb the peace of the church by
following that olden policy of the
wicked, "strike the shepherd and the
sheep of the flock shall be dispersed
Zach, Chapter XIII. V. 70the e1-
preston of underwriting devotion !;
undying constancy; and untading
reverence for the "Magisterium Ec
clesia" (Pastorate) is no longer mere
" an act of courtesy but an obliga7
ton and necessity Of faith on every
true Catholic soul.
Stricken in its head-Pius TX; woun.
ded in its MEMBERSHIP Episcopal
order of Germany, Switzerland, aud
Brazil and harassed in many lands
by social prescription, consuetudiual
persecution, aud covert bigotry, the
church has abundant sources ofgrisf,
and sufficient cause for profound sor-
row and incessant disquietude. But all
is not gloom and sadness. There is
unmistakable evidence of rekindled
fervor; more active faith; closer union;
purer charity; and the wondrousre-
turn, after more than ten generations,
of so m my thousands to the true Fold:
The multiplication of clergy, aud
consecrated edifces, and the constant
creation of new dioceses more than
compensate the high-handed spolia>
tions, ruin, poverty, tears, exile and
tribulations, caused by oppressive ma
chinations and adverse legislation
Applied to the church, the words of
the Psalmist, "Renouabitr ut aq,utr,
ji,lrent,ts tua," Ohy youth, like the ca
giles shall be renewed fndiu our own
Immediate day a singular illustration
aud another strong continuation
"Ever ancient, ever new,'the Cathc'
lie Church maniiests the strange phe-
nomenon of the vigor and freshness
of youth conjoined with the ripe wis
dom and reverential gravity of ex-
IRENE age. The Church mot of yes
terday nor the prior day." nay not
even claiming nativity in the marvel>
lous nineteenth century, but eschew-
ing q recent birth, looks back with
pride to the days when she lived an
obscure felon hidden away in the
catacombs of Rome. banned and out
lawed by mighty and imperial Cesar.
Her weapons would, indeed, be
"rusty tools" as Gladstone termed
them, did she not possess the happy
facility Of fabrlcating new ones. At
his conservation she furnishes each
Bishop new panoply and lays his
predecessor to rest in complete char
ness In the extensive gallery of
the universe, her trophies hang each
in its centennial department never to
be called into requisition again. The
sword she bears, in comparison with
which the keenest blade of State, Is
Jagged and hacked "toasting-iron," is
not forged of rusting material, but of
incorruptiole truth and grace-a dou-
bic. edged D,uandel. With this in her
infancy she slew the Goliath OF pa
ganism ; with it in her youth she sub
dued the fierce Barbarian Giants of
the North and in her maturer years
she brandishes it still with the fullest
assurance of victory, while the turbu-
lency of her fees exhausts itself In
impotent fury around the immoveable
pedestal on which she stands; from
on high, where she rests her head
"throned above all height" she looks
down with loving commiseratIon and
asks: "Quare premuer,nt genteS ct
populi mesitati somt inania% ("Why
have the nations ragged and the peo-
pie devised foolish things?' Psalms,
II, V. ~
Generation follows generation to
death in the order of Nature but as
the Catholic Church is OF the order OF
grace, it suffers no mutation. The
man dies but the Bishop lives. Your
predecessor, Msgr. Whelan-clav7im
ct venerable nomen-having fought
good fight, and finished his course
and kept the faith, has, led by his
good angel, gone to that place whereof
holy Job affirms: The great and
The small are there and the servant
is free from his master" Chapter,
III, V. 19.) He was truly a 'saeer