The Irish standard., 1890-12-06
THANKSGIVING SERMON.
ReY. OIL. Egan, O. P, Delivers an In
struotive discourse at Holy Rosary
Church on Nov. 81.

Church on Nov. 81.
The ceremonies on Thanksgi wing day
in the Dominican church consisted of q
solemn high mass, with Very Rev.
Father Bloomer as celebrant, Father f.
A, Ryan deacon. aud Father H. Ennis
sub-deacon. The music was appropri-
ate]y chosen and splendidly rendered by
the regular choir. A notable sermon,
commemorating the day, was delivered
by the venerable Father Constantine
Egan, who is cultured theologian and
philosopher. possessing mind we'll
stored and ripened by the maturing ex-
periences of three score years. Toe Rev.
Father formerly served as chaplain in
the army during the late unpleasantness.
He spoke as follows:
What grand spectacle presents itself
to-day for our contemplation. In viewing
over this great country, these United
States in which, under Che kind provi-
dence of God, We live, we behold sixty
four millions of people responding to the
invitation of the executive authority of
this nation, our worthy and respected
President, and assem- bling in their re-
spec'ive places OF worship bowling their
heads and bending their knees in adora-
tion and PRAYER to Almighty God, the
common Father of all creatures, thank
ing Him, the author OF all gifts and
blessings, for the peace,plenty and hap
piness which He has conferred on us,
His creatures, during our lives, and par
t1cularly during this year now drawing
to close. It is only right and just that
such should be the case, since we must
needs reflect who is that God, the foun
tain OF all good, what are our duties to
Him, and then whata grandly free, liberal
aud eonsiderate government this is under
which He has placed us. In the first
place, Almighty God is the Father of all
men, no matter what may be their creeds,
or race, or color. Since God is the
Father of all men, it follows all men are
brethren, and as such is it not right and
proper we should all live in harmony, in
peace one with another in our one COM
mon government? Was there ever since
the world began more magnificent
sight than to see SO many millions of
free men living in union and charity to-
gether, men of al nationalities, of di-
verse religions, men of all color, than is
before our gaze to-day in this, our great
republic. Well, it is just it should be
thus, for we are fellow creatures depend
emit on the one common Creator who has
given to each of us the same being and
life, and in Him we live, move and have
our essential existence. God is al in
finite, eternal being, suhsisting of Him.
self, who is one without being alone, for
He fnds IN His own essence relations
whence, with the necessary movements
of His life, results the absolute nleni-
tude Of His Projections end happiness, a
being unique and complete; God snffices
to Himself. The superabundance Of
that infinite virtue. love, alone caused
Him to communicate of His own exist
ence, to give life, to create man. On the
day it pleased Him, or rather on that in
visible day that has no distinct moments
save for the passing being, God created
the universe and all things existing
therein, and then man, who in his double
nature drew together all the elements of
the world and all its features, was placed
In the centre of that work as its connect
ing, consolidating link, it's most COM
plete representation. Man was not
though he Is of created things the high
est life, the purest embodiment-in the
world or for the world. This great uni
verse we SEQ around us was made for
man. In order for the ascension of finite
creatures towards the infinite to be at
all possible, the author of all intelligent
beings geve to them truth and love-
truth to know Himself, love to adore
that is endowing man with an under
standing capable of unlimited know
ledge, and which also is unlimited in its
capacity to love. thus making the
rational creature the highest life in the
world. For man thinks. and to think is
to exist in the infinite. Withdraw every
image Of heaven and earth, forget num-
bers, forms, yet man thinks. With a
single movement of tAe spirit W hich ami
mates him and makes him thinking
being he traverses all creation, all pos
sible worlds, and alone in the calm
brightness Of his reason he conceives
and names the Infinite. Not the uni
verse, but the universal, appears to him;
not time but eternity; not space but i'm
mensi,y. He not only moves,in the in
finite by his thoughts, he also moves by
hie will. Thus he loves as he thinks; he
is unlimited in his affections as be is in
his thoughts. So he thinks, he loves, be
is free. Such is mans life, Now, from
this previous exposition we see that
among all created thinps none sava tho