Omaha daily bee., 1888-06-04
SUNDAY IN COUNCIL BLUFFS.
Father Adolph Wesseling Discourses
Upon an Interesting Subject.
SUNDAY BASE BALL QUESTION.
Hot Pitching of Rev. Mr.. Rees-The
White Hats Start For st.
Louis One Horse
on Brown.
SUNDAY BASE BALL QUESTION
The Mvsteries of Christianity.

The Mysteries of Christianity.
The Rev. Father Adolph w essellipee-
livered a very able address yesterday morn.
ing at st. Peters church. His text was
Romans xi. 33 and SO. Stating his subject,
"The Mysteries of Christianity he said:
The eagles are said to carry their young on
high to test their eyes in the brightness of
the sun and those not blinded by his light are
adopted and provided for, while the rest are
hurled against the rocks beneath. In q SINH
lar way the church acts in reference TO the
truths of faith. Th high mystery of the
Trinity, a mystery which, by the fulness OF
its light ,dazZles the learned and the unlearned
alike, is placed among the firstlessons before
the eyes of her beginners to test their souls
nobility and capacity for so sublime q mys-
terry. Surely, in this, the church inverts the
order of things. In studying the arts and
sciences we ascend from the to
higher attachments, whilst she puts at once
the noblest truths upon the portals OF her en-
trance and closes them to all who have not
the will and courage to confess the triune
God. She does not deem them worthy OF any
further training and attention. The doctrine
of the Trinity is the test of true faith and
christian sentiment. The church, taught by
GOD, is certainly right in acting thus, be-
cause christianity is a doctrine OF mysteries.
Like "a holy and mysterious temple oil the
lord of hosts, stands christianity in the world.
| Mysteries are its foundations, mysteries its
component parts, mysteries the things done
in it and the service held in it. Like a mi
| raculous tree planted from foreign climes on
our shores stands our holy faith before us.
| Mysterious is the sap which thrives in it and
wondrous the blossoms which adorn it.. For
not the fundamental doctrine of the
Trinity only, but almost every tenet of our
christian faith, flowing from the holy source,
is a mystery, and forces us to eXClalm with
St. Paul: "Oh, the depth of the riches of the
wisdom and of the knowledge of God! How
incomprehensible are His judgments and how
unsearchaole His waysn
This is the first after Trinity Sunday, and
hence this mystery is still fresh in our minds.
Let me to-day again, in honor of this mys-
terry, vindicate our belief in the Triune God
whom we adore.
What is christianity-which we hold to be
| q perfect r~eligionl 1t is the revelation of
| the Trinity. 1t is the revelation of the Faith
er's love, who, from all eternity, begot the
Word and sent it to this world to enlighten
every man. 1t is the revelation of the Sons
love, who came on earth to recall by word,
example and the faith he planted, man from
the WAYS of error and of sin and put him on
the road of truth and sanctity. 1t is the
revelation of the Holy Ghost, who with wings
of grace moves over the word ana church Of
Christ TO protect and perpetuate them to the
end of time. Christianity is then
not the work of any human gen.
ius, or the result of any human
ingenuity, but is a divine communication, a
grace and power from on high. If then
christianity is the revelation of divine wis
dom must it not in proof of its origin contain
mysteries as high and lofty as God himself!
Must it not embody truths as mysterious as
the divine fountain from which they
emanate! Could God, the incomprehensible
reveal himself without revealing mysteriess
If christianity embraced no other truths but
what are within the grasp of reason. its
birth and origin could not be of the triune
God. A religion without mysteries is a clear
production of some human craftiness, and on
this account as small and narrow as the
human thought, as bitter and intollerant as
the modern intidel, anarchist OF communist,
and as changeable and defective as the
range of their mind, vision and caprice.
But in religion, which does not, like
nature, show the external garments of God,
there should be no mysteries. Here all
should be clear to reason. In this field
every Tom and Harry should be granted the
privilege, as in politics, TO dabblc, to fight
and examine according to his views, faulty
and misguided as they may be-, the eternal
truths of God; retain and reject, as the
moral standard of his fancy or his mental
capacity may advise. Is this not degrading
religion far below the sciences and the
visible creation of God, in which only men Of
noble learning dare pronounce resultst Is
this not forcing human reason on the highest
seat of the supernatural, before whose
tribunal God himself should DOW and yield!
Is this not, too, the meanest climax Of
temerity, since it is ~presuming that in the
science of sciences, in the school of Gods
lucOlOSy, any uidh VI "ouidh mo
establish and deny, when, truly here, the
man of the profession, the learned and pious
theologian bows in awe and reverence and
moves with caution and with fear, lest he,
too, should with the unstable and unlearned,
needless of st. Peters admonition, wrest the
things of God to his own destruction.
The mysteries of christianity have recalled
reason from her degradation, from its long
night of pagan ignorance and abomination.
They have removed the binding bandage
from the eyes of our mistaken pagan fore
fathers. They have restored to human rea-
son its true worth and destiny. And as long
as human reason seeks honestly for truth, so
long will these mysteries be the guiding
stars, the beacon lights of our holy faith, not
withstanding the senseless sneers of the un-
believer.
For sale cheap. Lots near the bridge
to parties who will build at once. Ad-
L - u hiaa No lAl