The Irish standard., 1894-04-14
MONUMENTS OF FAITH.

MONUMENTS OF FAITH.
No truer statement was ever uttered
than when the celebrated Irish Domini-
can, Father T. N. Burke, declared that
the history of Ireland was written in her
| ruins. Efforts were made by lying Eng
lish hist ,rians to cast stigma on Ire
| land and hold her u p to the gaze of the
! world as barbarous nation before the
arrival of the Normans in 1859. They
falsely said that the people were savages
and that the English invaders civilized
! them. Had there been no written rec
| ords to disprove the falsehoods OF the
English historians, there were numerous
monuments, which time had not utterly
destroyed, to give incontestible evidence
OF the civilization of the PEG, lie. The
ruins of churches AMI schools which once
dotted the island show Enthusiastically
that the Inhabitants were imbued with
the love of religion and learning. The
stately ruins of christian temples indi-
cate that the ancient Irish were in an ad-
vanced state of civilization, for no saw
age people would erect such magnificent
edifices to the living God. The archi-
lecture alone is sufficient to dissipate
any doubt as to their advanced stage Of
refinement. The dilapidated buildings
bear every evidence of the culture OF
those who erected them end proclaim
louder than words that the founders of
them offered the same sacrifice and per-
formed the same religious ceremonies as
the Irish Catholics OF the present day.
AS the crumbling ruins of Catholic
temples in Ireland show the ancient
Irish to have been the professors OF
christianity in it's pristine purity, so also
do the monuments of the Eternal City
bear witness to the dogmas of the Cath
Ole faith. In sermon preached in this
city last Sunday by Rev. A. Walsh, an
Augustinian friar from Rome, he showed
how the monuments in the city on the
Tlber give abundant testimony that the
Catholic faith and form of worship have
not changed through the centuries. In
the course of his sermon Father Walsh
said: 1.-THE presence of the altar in the
early Church is demonstrated by the
sacrifcial stone to be seen in every cata-
comb, and the prayers for the dead are
above the sepulchre of these holy places.
The figure of the Blessed Virgin is still
to be seen frescoed in the style of the
LIST century in this subterranean city,
and occurs fully twenty times in associa-
ton with positions in accord with Cath
olic cult of the divine mother. The pri-
macy of Peter pe1vades both the Rome
below the surface and the Rome whose
face meets even the Jews of today. The
primacy of Peter is central condition
of the very existence of the city, which
would be as obsolete as Babylon or Jeru-
salem if it were not for the living pres
ence of Peter and his successors. The
Pope of today exercising the jurisdiction
of Peter is another evident link between
our time and belief and the apostolic
age, and his position to-day cannot be
explained except according to the spirit
of Catholic dogmas." ~
While the Catholic Church is the same
during nineteen centuries in it's teach
ings and ceremonials, what vagaries have
characterized the Protestant sects in the
comparatively short period of three hun
dred years! There are as many Protest
ant scots today as there are days in the
year, and being of human invention they
are tossed about by every wind OF doctrine.
They are at the mercy of the waves OF
heresy and are being cast adrift in the
tempestous sea of doubt and uncertainty.
How different from the Church estab.
lished by Christ and his apostles, to
whose permanency and immutability the
ruins of the Eternal City speak in mute
but eloquent testimony.
A CONVENTION. for the revival of the
Irish language was recently held in Dub
lin.
The father of w. c. p. Breckenridge
was the Preeby terian minister who en-
gagged in religious controversy with the
late Archbishop Hughes in Knownoth-
ing days.
SENATOR Hull is stigmatized as trail
tor and apoetate by some Democratic
papers for making an attack upon the
Cleveland administration IN his tariff