St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-07-17


to the audience than to himself, whose
earnest labors in the cause of temperance
was well known outside of st. Paul.
While Bishop Ireland was speaking. Oh the
front row of seats were Rabbi Sonnen-
schein of ST. Louis. learned and eloquent.
Next to him sat Rev. NJ. MEG. Dana a
Congregational clergyman. Near them was
f. ii. Wines OF Illinois. an old time Pres
byterian, these showing simply as examples
of the makeup of the audience gathered to
hear Catholic bishop eXpound The Sys-
tenn eff Charities of the Catholic Church, :"
and when in his introduction the speaker
stated that he was not the eulogist, but the
relator of the system. he was heartily ap.
plauded, as indeed were many of his after
sentiments. Bishop Ireland spoke as fol-
lows for forty minutes:
a high honor has been conferred upon me
in the invitation to read before this dis
guished body paper on.the system Of Char
tiles in the Catholic Church. 1 will be per-
mitted to eXpl esS my since re appreciation of
the honor, and to bespeak public recognition
of the generous and high-minded spirit in
which you approach the study of charity.
lofty, all-embracing as the spirit itself of the
trueSt charity-refuSing your impartial at
tention to none of the several agencies,
whatever their peculiar connections, that are
engaged in the holy task of helping suffering
ing the Catholic church among those agen-
cies. From principle and tradition the
Catholic church is one vast StorehouSe of
charity; Catholicism is nothing if it is not
charity. The vital doctrines of the church
demand works of charity as the necessary
external evidences of inward faith; her most
loyal and most devoted children are known
by their conservation of will and energy to
works of charity; her most glorious monu-
ments strewn along the course of time and
marking her passage through nations
are the homes of charity-her monasteries,
her hospitals, her asylums, the DEGREES of her
councils, the letters of her pontiffS, the les
sons of her theological and ascetic writers,
urge, command charity. You will hear from
| me brief statements of teaching s and facts in
the Catholic church which bear upon the
question Of charity. This, and nothing ore,
we all understand is the duty of the occasion.
/ make no argument, l make no comparison,
pronounce no eulogy, am the relator not
the champion of cause One of the cate
chisms of the Catholic church says: 1.-THE
first fruit of the Holy Ghost is charity"
Then it tells what charity means. namely;
ITO feed the hungry, to give drink to the
thirsty, to clothe the naked, to ransom the
captive, to harbor the harborless, to visit the
sick, to bury the dead.'' The church's cardi-
nal principle of justification is the necessity
of good works. In her mind, faith without
works is dead, utterly incapable of producing
fruits of eternal life. ''Religion clean aud
undefled,'' she repeats with St. James, ''be-
fore God and the Father is this: To visit the
| fatherless and widows in Their tribulation and
to keep ones self unspotted from this world
Love for the neighbor the Catholic makes
profession of in the same formula of morning
and evening prayer. which contains the dec
| laration of his love for the Greater. 20, my
| God, 1 love Thee above all things --
and love my neighboI as myself for love of
Thee" His neighbor, his catechism explains
| to him, is
EVERY CHILD OF ADAM.
Differences of race, language, creed or per-
| senal merit authorizing no distinctions, and
| the meaning of this love for his neighbour he
| the scriptural words: He that has the sub
| stance of this world and shall see his brother
| in need, and shall shut up his bowels from
| him, how doth the charity Of God abide in
| him?" Doctrines of this practical nature
| must needs result most favorably, and bring
| forth in no stinted measure living charity.
| The church, in all her preaching, lays the
| strongest emphasis upon the supernatural
| motives that go to build up charity. She
| issues no dry formal command to perform
werks of charity. On her lips the practice of
charity becomes the hopeful sign of predes-
tination, the fOrerunner of divine clemency
and grace, the title to heavenly glory. In the
| supreme judgment the just shall be rewarded
| because when the Lord was hungry they gave
| him to eat, when he was thirsty they gave
him to drink, when he was imprisoned they
came to him, and the reprobate
| shall be driven from the presence of
| the judge, because their record has no men
| ton of these deeds of mercy. Charity to a
| neighbor puts on the highest value a human
| act may claim: it is the tribute of pure, dis
| interested, personal love from the redeemed
| to the Redeemer. Christ appears personified
| in the poor and the sick. Their own merits or
dement's sink out of sight; their faces shine
| with the beauty of Christ; their wants are
| the wants of Christ; their words of gratitude
are words of Christ Amen, I say unto you
as long as you do it to one of these, my
host, brethren, you did it to me- Those su-
| pernatural motives are the whole foundation
of the system of charities in the Catholic
| church. Without them the system falls at
once to the ground. The personiieation of
| Christ in suffering humanity invests it with
| the divine halo, and the hearts of Christians
| believing in this personifcation are drawn TO
| the poor with power magnetic, which they
| dare not resist under penalty of refusing ten
| der love to the Babe in Bethlehem and the
| Savior of Calvary. Those of you who have
| read something of Catholic hagiology are
aware that the conviction of this union of
| Christ with the destitute and the suffering has
| sunk most deeply into Catholic tradition and
| completely colors the Catholic feeling of
| charity. The Roman soldier, Martius, meeting
| on the roadside a beggar shivering from cold
| takes his mantle from his shoulder, cuts it in