The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1884-01-31

butte; the tribute of the soul that
bears upon it the inscription of God;
the tribute of the soul that belongs to
God, because it has his impress upon
it. They have laid their tribute at
the feet of Jesus Christ. But if we
hay not intellectual difficulties, there
| are many difficulties that we have in
acting out our faith and in protecting
it from danger. And that faith which
is to YOU as heritage, and ought to
be as a legacy to be bestowed upon
your children-that faith you must
ever cling to with the tenacity and
the perseverance and the sacrifice
producing zeal that distinguished
those wise men in the East.
IRISH LOVE FOR THE FAITH.
That faith you have loved. The at
tachment of your race to it is pro-
verbal. They have suffered for it.
Sometimes they seemed to be beaten
| back; but those were successful de-
feats, like that of Thermopyle, which
did as much for Greece as Marathon
could have done. Those successful
defeats - those sufferings that they
endured-vivified their followers and
rendered that faith more precious;
and it was handed down to you to
suffer for it if necessary, and to give
that deposit of faith, pure and und.-
filed, to those who would follow you.
There is no need of telling you the
history of that suffering. You have
heard it many a time. Your devoted
| pastor is the biographer of some of
those who in earlier days suffered for
that faith and defended it and main
tanned it, and has with marvellous zeal
devoted. time taken from many alb
sorbing duties to give to you the biog
raphy of those men Of the past. And
| this subject formed a theme, many
time before yourselves perhaps, for
that great man and great patriot
| whose brain and heart rests for the
last time, and for the first - for it
never rested until it went to the grave
where he now sleeps in the ceme-
terry of Tallaght, the Dominican
preacher and patriot, whom / felt
proud to call my friend, and whom
you all knew, and whom you ought
to love - who will be remembered
when we shall all be forgotten for the
divinity Of genius, and the purity of
intention, and the intention conse
Grated by supernatural motives with
which he proclaimed the truths OF
God, and for which he shall live in
story and in the history of our peo
pie. There is one matter connected
with this subject to which l will
draw your attention. Some one has
| said that God has first showed
| His power in individuals, and
then having shown His power
in individuals, that he selected a
people; and of this people it may be
said what the scriptures say OF the
Gentle patriarch, that God looked
down upon their islands with compla-
cency and one day the sons of God
were assembled together, and with
them satan, and God said to satan ::
Look around you consider this little
island with its churches, and its mon
asteries and its saints sending up pray
ers to Me, and singing my praises for
evermOre have you considered how
faithful it is ?" And satan said "The
reason the island is faithful is because
God hath given to it prosperity, be-
cause strangers from afar come to its
schools and study within its halls, and
missionaries from itS cloisters are re-
ceived in every land. Therefore" sa-
tan said, "it is given prosperity, and
| it's people love You, but only reduce
that prosperity and let trial and perse-
cution come upon it and its people will
curse Thee to Thy very face And
God permitted that suffering should
come upon it. The sword of the desc
orator flashed in the sanctuary, and
death and desolation-but you know it
all: it is trite subject, but it is very
beautiful and very soul-inspiring. And
the children of God being again met
together, and with them satan, God
said so him: "Have you considered
this island? Dcsolation came upon it,
and behold, it has not cursed Me to
| Ny face, but still it is faithful. 1t
bears suffering, and yet it sends up to
Me the prayer of resignation and Of
love, and still it is faithful" And sa-
tan said to God: "This people love
You because they love their country,
but let me take these two strongest
feelings of the Celtic heart and put
them in an antagonism /; let
me take their patriotism and
their religion and put them in
opposition, and see if they will not
curse Thee to Thy very face And
then came, as you know, a great trial,
the greatest above all, and the two
strongest passions Of the Celtic heart
contended, but the religious passion
surmounted all. and in spite of every
opposition-real or imagined it mat
| tered not. because its effects were the
same on the body Of the people-that
people remained faithful to their God.
And if Satan should tempt them to
leave the priests in the sanctuary, to
leave the home of their. hearts. their
priests may say: "We were with you
in the days of peril and prosecution,
we said mass for you by the trees OF
the forest when it was death to be de-
tected; we were with you in desola-
tion and in trial. and we will not
leave you now, and you will not leave
us. We are of your blood and race;
our fathers bones mingle together in
your grave Yards, in the traditions of
the past we are with you, but we love
you too much to fiatter you; we love
you too much to cOnSecrate false prln-
cipleS for you, because with us God Is
first, and then our race; and L believe
that though the priests and the people
may differ on some points still their
hearts are one. because their wishes
are one. And if some political matter
in which men may be mistaken should
divide YOU. that glorious religion, the
| llIleTlGdllC6 VI UllO odlIlCo, bll1O IOllo1lIo
with you, will unite you and lift you
up, bringing you together higher and
nearer to God. This is the mission of
religion, and if you are faithful to it
God will reward you even in this
world. Christian civilization ever
went with Christian faith. With it, it
lives and it dies with it. The nations
of the East, in Asia and in Africa
that have lost their Christianity
have also lost their civil
ization, because it is Christianity that
motives civilization. AS those pillars
are supporting the temple so the great
religious truths of Christianity are
supporting the whole superstructure
of Christian civilization; and, there
|, fore 1t is that the hope of a people in
the future is in the depth of its Chris.
J tian faith. And as those ancient ma
} tions have lost their civilization by
the loss of their faith, so it would be
also with modern nations, and that
, faith being deeper III the hearts of d
, people, that people in its turn becomes
higher in Christian civilization. This
is no mere rhetoric; it is foui ded on
reason, and any man WHO examines
these reasons will find they are per-
! fectly valid.
HOPE IN THE FUTURE.
Therefore hope is in the future, be.
cause faith is in the present. And il
that be so, and if any one should come
, whispering to you as it was with To
, bias, making trial of your faith, cas-
2 them aside and say as Tobias spoke