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

ADVENT SERMONS.
''state of the World Before Christ eame''-~
Il Sermon Preached 5v Father James
AeG0trick 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 MeGolrick yesterday, during the
celebration of last mass. The church was
filled to it's utmost capacity and the large
congregation paid the closest attention
during the delivery of the sermon whick
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 as follows: We are, together
with the whole church, preparing our
selves for the celebration of a grea8 fes-
tival-the coming of cur divine Lord and
Master amongst us. It is 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 rs the gospel Of salvation.
Through the wide wsrld over,
attempts are made to renew anciept heath
enism and to barish Gcd from his own
there is no true church except tha. 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 soy that in the beginning,
among all people, there vas thought of
an onimpotent being-a God, great aud
good.
The FIST teaching of man was monothe-
ism--a belief in the existence OF one Iod.
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 in
every thing, and that everything was in
God. This belief led into another form OF
worship-idoletry- fourfooted 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 il
these times error is taught and men have
fallen into indivituaiism who say all re-
ligions are good and that there is no need
Of worshipping God in temple. All gects
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
full in her military strength.
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 literg-
ture Of the past and are trying to restore
paganism. They attempt to remove God
from the church, from the marriage care-
mony and from the death scene. They
speak of crematiDg 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 than and defeated them. From the
chosen people came the Redeemer and the
woman who crushed the serpent's head.
Go back 10 one OF the cities of civilization
in pagan times-to a city grand il art
and literature, and 10 which we
are largely indebted for much Of the liter
ature of the present day-Alexandra in
Egypt. The Egyptians worshipped the
crocodile, the CT, and the hiss and the
Egyptian mother was glad to throw her
offspring to the crocodile for che thought
it was God. The recognized God in every
thing; they became ali flesh; they burned
whole holocausts in honor OF these crea-
tures. 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, Venue, 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 Cesar, if he had desired cen
aus of the Gods, would have found them
almost as numerous as the people. Civil
zation, nationality, citizenship, idolatry-
all were mixed up with their debasing
worship. There was remarkable unity
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
thousand beasts who tore each other in
pieces ''to make Roman holiday" in ira
JAMS day.
julius Caesar never entered HE chorios
without praying to the Gods for suocefs.
Preference was made to Pliny, Cato ard
Seneca, the last of whom said that ell
wIckedness 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, efeminate, fabby and rotten.
The preacher then spoke Of modern
paganism in Asia, where the mothers
throw their children into the rivers, and
where taa wife is TIE slave of mans vices.