Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-12-10
ADVENT SERMONS.

ADVENT SERMONS,
estate of the World Before Christ Co;ne"-
Sermon Preached by Father James
AcGOlriek Yesterday.
The second in the Advent series of ser
mon, preached IN the church of the I'm
maculate Conception, was given by Father
james MoGolrick yesterday, during the
celebration of last mass. The church was
filled to its utmost capacity and the large
congregation paid the closest attention
during the delivery Of the sermon which
was preached without notes as is the Gus
tom with Catholic preachers. The sub
ject was: "The state of the world before
Christ came," and the preacher spoke sub
stantially rs follows: We are, together
with the whole church, preparing our
selves for the celebration Of a great fes-
tival-the coming of our divine Lord and
Master amongst us. It ia we'll that we who
are the followers of Christ, should value
the great gift of God when he would be
born into the world to preach
to Us the gospel Of salvation.
Through the wide world over,
attempts are made to renew ancient heath
enism and to Danish God from his own
works. It is our duty to teach men that
there is no true church except that which
Christ came to establish, and it becomes US
to study we'll what Christ came upon earth
for. Ay his coming he fulfilled the say
ings of his own prophets. What was the
state of the world before Christ came? At
first he would say that in the beginning,
among all people, there was thought of
an onimpotent being-a God, great and
good.
The FIRST teaching Of man was monothe-
ism--a belief in the existence of one God.
This belief and worship was taught from
father to son. The children of God thus
honored Him and were ready to worship
Him in all things. From the children OF
Cain there arose men who fell into panthe-
ism-the doctrine which maintained that
the universe is God-that God was III
everything, and that everything was in
God. This belief led into another form of
worship-idola four-footed things
were worshipped by men. 1t was nee
essary that God should come to teach his
chosen people the truth. He established
one church and taught one religion. but III
these times error is taught and men have
fallen into individualism who say all re-
ligions are good and that there is no need
OF worshipping God in temple. All scots
who have separated from the Catholic
church have fallen into individualism;
each man believes as much as he pleases
and as much as pleases him. Take Prot
estant Berlin, the capital of
the German empire, 80 power
Eighth-tenths of the people have never
been baptized, never married by receiving
the sacrament of matrimony. Modern
historians are not apt to tell you the great
errors of the past. They boast of the
civilization of the world before Christ
came. They speak of the art and litera-
ture of the past and are trying to restore
paganism. They attempt to remove God
from the church, from the marriage cera-
mony and from the death scene. They
speak Of cremating the human body in the
old pagan fashion. We will examine the
state of the world before Christ came.
God had declared woe to those who would
marry the women of heather nations.
When his chosen people ever intermarried
with pagan nations their enemies came
upon them and defeated them. From the
chosen people came the Redeemer and the
woman who crushed the serpent's head.
Go back to one of the cities of civilization
in pagan time5-to a city grand in art
and literature, and to which we
are largely indebted for much of the liter
allure of the present day-Alexandr1a in
Egypt. The Egyptians worshipped the
crocodile, the OK, and the hiss and the
Egyptian mother was glad to throw her
offspring to the crocodile for she thought
it was God. The recognized God in every
thing; they became all flesh; they burned
whole holocausts in honor of these crea-
lures. The Israelites became contami-
mated from contact with them during their
captivity, and when being led by Moses
from their bondage into the Holy land,
they mourned for the flesh pots OF Egypt.
Let us go to Athens, noted for it's pagan
civilization, and what do We behold? They
raised up gods for every vice. The Ro-
mans worshipped false gods in every
form, and human nature is not different
now from what it was then. They wor-
shipped Jupiter, Venus, Mercury and Bac-
chas as deities of pride and adultery, love,
robbery and drunkenness. Yergins were
publicly despoiled of their honor; learned
men boosted of their vices and excuses.
Augustus Caesar, if he had desired cen
sus of the Gods, would have found them
almost as numerous as the people. Civil
cation, nationality, citizenship, idolatry-
all were mixed up with their debasing
HOr6uips 1ucT6 Hdo q Iou4o1hoO4O NhASS
in their worship; they were the sons of j.
Belial, who cast aside all authority. Moth
ing in modern times can compare with
the works of art in statuary and painting
among the ancient Romans. There were
two million in their city and two thousand
persons owned all the inhabitants and pos
sessed absolute power over their souls and
bodies. The slaves were brought into the
amphiteatre when they slaughtered one
another for the amusement of the multi
tude. Ten thousand men fought eleven
beasts who tore each other in
pieces ''to make Roman holiday in Ira
JAMS day.
julius Caesar never entered his choriot
without praying to the Gods for success.
Preference was made to Pliny, Cato ard
Seneca, the last of whom said that sll
wlckednesa had taken possession of man,
and that there was no hope for the human
race; and Galen declared that through OBJ
scenity the whole Roman people had be-
come weak, effeminate, fabby and rotten.
The preacher then spoke of modern
paganism in Asia, where the mothers
throw their children into the rivers, and
where the wife is the slave OF mans vices.