The Irish standard., 1892-01-02

S.
strength and consolation. You per-
form divine act when you wipe from
sorrowlng eyes one scalding tear; when
you inspire one drooDing heart with
hope and confidence; when you pluck
from wearied soul one thorn Of an.
guish. But He who to day sways the
souls of countless millions with bound
ing jov, inspiring them with faith,
hope, love and confidence. He is God,
the Babe Of Bethlehem"
At 1880 o'clock Christmas morning
the solemn high mass was celebrated
at the church of the Immaculate Con-
ception, as is always the custom.
The church was decked in it's holiday
attire and looked its prettiest as the
people thronged in to hear the sacred
and sublime service. Christmas mark
ed an epoch in the history of this
church, for being the anniversary of the
birth Of the Christ child, it was the oc.
casion Of the dedication of the two
handsome affairs which have been re-
Gently added to the church. One is of
the Blessed Virgin aud the other of ST..
Joseph. They are both built Of the
same design and are similar to the
principal altar, only smaller. Rev.
Father McCarren was the celebrant,
with Father Byrne as deacon and Faith
er Mcintyre as sub-deacon. The large
choir of the church, of 100 voices, was
increased by Is pieces of DAMS band,
with Frank DAM as concert-mei ster
and J. Lewis Brown conductor. Miss
Susis Mckay was the soprano in the
rendition of the beautiful musical pro-
gramme that followed.
The text of tbs Christmas sermon Of
Father Byrne was the passage from the
Holy Writ: s'Behold, this day is born to
you Saviour, who is Christ the Lord"
Among other things Father Byrne
said:
For 10 centuries the whole Christian
world on this day has made this pill
grimage of faith, and 1T has always
found like the shepherds OF old, MARY
and Joseph, and the infant lying in a
manger" shat is reality. Shall the
Goth century, On whose threshold We
stand, find there but a myth? There is
no denying the ravages made ia the
nom Catholic world by infdelity. The
dead branches, as was inevitable, are
crumbling into the dust. Separation
from the living body or the church has
done what all the cruelty of Rerod
could not do--it has made away with
the Divine Child, 1t matters little that
that refined and inidelized Christianity
has substituted a human Christ with all
the attributes of innocence, wisdom
and heroism thaC would be ineffably at
tractive in anyone else--no, it matters
not, since out of the real. historic
CHRIST, they have crushed the life d.
vine, and with it all divine virtue, all
saving power. Christ. the mediator
between God and man, must par
take of the nature of both, and by
the infinite indignity offered God by
mans sin. Christ therefore as God and
man is the sun and centre OF al revela-
tion' and even though this mystery of
the incarnation remain unexplained, it
explains all else, and without it all is
chaos.
t'Now what is it the unlearned pos.
sess that gives them clearer insight
into the meaning of Scripture than the
wise? What is it the learned lack that
their gaze is enfeebled and fails to
reach as high or pierce as deep as that
of the unletterad? It IS the priceless
gift OF faith. Faith clears the mind
and touches the heart. Under it's infu-
ence we not only see clearer, but we
wish TO see clearer, and bursting
through the bonds of earth, our gaze
stay this divine impulse strengthened
SO as to discern beneath Christ's human
form the scintillations of His divine
nature. AS the faithful read the Cos
pels, a breath Of life, the influence of an
unseen power is behind each word, and
the no5ler the picture they present Of
the Saviour tbs surer it will strike re-
sponsive chord in the innermost depths
of their soul.
''Christ, as depicted in the Scriptures
existed in all reality, He did not grow
under the pen OF the Evangelists. That
WAS utterly impossible. He was not the
outgrowth OF the Authorizations or vag-
aries Of an imaginative people. People
are simply incapable OF such lofty con-
captions. But if He existed as de-
scribed then He was divine. For God
evidently was with him. Now Christ
claimed to be the Son of God, of one
nature with God so much that He was
in the Father and the Father in Him.
Therefore Lie was God and God is His
witness as clearly in His life, in His
doctrine and His works as in that voice