The herald., 1896-01-20
Yesterday At THE CHURCHES
Some of the Many Sermons
That We're Delivered
MARRIAGE FEAST AT CANA
The Subject Of Bishop Montgomery's
Discourse at the Cathedral
The chiid's Frequent Question Answered at
Uutty-Appiied Christianity at the
MARRIAGE FEAST AT CANA
The chiid's Frequent Question Answered at
Unity-Appiied Christianity at the
New Era-Other Addresses

Bishop Montgomery preached the SER
mon in the cathedral yesterday morning,
taking his text from st. John 2:1-2, the
marriage feast of Cana. The reverend
gentleman said in part:
In the text narrating the marriage feast
of Cana we find strong argument in favor
Of the devotion which Catholics pay TO the
blessed virgin; one which shows most
clearly the nature and the power of her
intercession. But an instructive fact for
all men, which we shall consider today, is
the principle that underlies that devotion
to the blessed virgin and to the other saints
of God.
In this, as in all things else, the first and
essential object of the church is the saliva
ton of mans immortal soul. But besides
this main purpose all her practices and all
her discipline, when understood, are seen
to tend to the humanizng, civiiizlng and
ennobling Of mans nature and aspirations.
It has been said that the world is governed
more by ideals than by ideas. But the
secret of this is the ideas that are en-
bodied i'll the ideal.
When Christ came upon earth men had
lost the true sense OF the supernatural and
spiritual. They were governed mainly by
things of sense, and their ideals conse-
quently were of a low order. They were
not capable of grasping. at least they were
certainly not yet prepared to accept the
abstra " truths of religion in its high spirit
ual Specification. Their ideals had to be
chang ID. Hero worship is somewhat COM
mon TO all men; and hitherto their ideals.
their heroes. were those representing hui
man achievements. human power, human
powers. Hence the greatest works of their
sweetest poets were to ''sing of men and
arms." These things they not only hon.
ored, but deified; and these things often
represented nothing else than rapine and
~, ~, nv,1 lnff
Christ came to teach power, too, but
the power of truth. And the meaning of
his message. borne out by his whole life,
was put i'll ,he form of a paradox: Power
is perfected in intlrmity." True to this
paradox he draws around his crib in Beth
lehem the representatives of the race he
came to save, Jew and Gentle. rich and
poor, learned and iliiterate, the powerful
and the weak.
And by his crucifixion he triun,phs over
all obstacles when seeming to be overcome
by them.
His apostles. his disciples and faithful
followers, the martyrs and confessors ana
holy virgins, that army OF witnesses to the
truth, simply took up his work and followed
in his foot steps.
The prosecutions which for three hundred
years ragged against the truth, were the
natural result of the state of mind charac
teristic of the pagan civilization. New
ideas were being created for men. Hero
worship might still continue, but the sub
iects hencefOrth after which they would
pattern their lives were to be Jesus Christ.
as the head and fountain of this new order,
after whom were to come the witnesses of
his truth in the person of those who lived
and suffered and died in the profession of
loyalty to it. ssThe Ientiles ragged and the
people devised vain things. The kings of
the earth stood up and the princes met to-
gether against the Lord and against his
Christi" but in vain. Truth triumphed,
and from the struggle-a struggle which in
some way goes on all the time-were born
a race of new heroes for mans admira-
ton; new ideals were supplied for him.
A new morality, new motive, new pur-
poses were given to purify the heart and
ennoble IMAM. and change the whole course
Of his being. Tne poet. the painter, the
sculptor, tho architect, the very philosopher
were given new materials and a new plan.
Hence in all these departments there was
given All entirely new direction to man s
genius; and so in all of them do we see in
Christian times the sublimest of natural
gifts consecrated in picturing in all but
living form Jesus Christ. the source of all
beauty and goodness, his blessed mother,
his faithful apostles and disciples-whether
by the painters brush, the sculptor's chisel.
the poets pen, or by the plan of the archi-
tect, that has given to the world those mag
nificens shrines and cathedrals dedicated
under the patronage of his devoted SER
wants.
There is here deep phil osopy of human
nature which ought to appeal to all think
ing men. Devotion to Gods saints is most
reasonable, and one of the most fruitful
sources of true civilization, for it affords
human genius pure ideals or models, and
these wrought out into being teach man
kind. We sometimes speak of poet or
painter creating certain conceptions. Prac-
tically they create nothing; they write or
paint after an ideal. They produce before
us only what is within them; clothe it in
words or shape or color. But what is with
in them comes in turn very greatly from
what is without, from their surroundings,
their environments. And hence the painter,
or.poet, or sculptor will write or paint or
chisel vice or virtue, according to the ideal
at hand. Christian faith furnishes them
soldiers of the cross as their models. Moth
ing supplies for these a treasure of pure
and elevating ideals like the history of the
Christian church, and devotion to Gods
saints is one of the powerful aids to the
inspiration of genius in this sacred calling.
II is to be feared that the age that cannot
appreciate this fact is losing the higher
sense of the supernatural and the spiritual
Unity Church
Yesterday morning the pastor of Unity
church, j. S. Thomson. preached a sermon
a. an answer to the child's frequent ques-
tiou. ssWho Made God?" from the text,
God IL Not Man.-Numbers, 23:19. In
part the speaker said:
IF we prosecute any study earnestly for
q long time it leads us into the realm of
divine mystery. What made the tree? Soil
and air. What made the soil? Disin-
te1rated rock. What made the rock? ?
Mud. Out of what was this planet made
Out of fire mist. Whence came the fire
mist? From the sun. Whence the sun?
Life on our earth can be traced backwards
till we reach the earliest and lowest forms
Of life. Whence came life to the earth at
first? From fragment OF planet, says
Lord William Thomson. Whence the
fragment? The child naturally thinks
backwards for the great first cause. 1t
demands basis for the cosrnic operations.
It wants a foundation for its thoughts
After its mother has told it about flowers,
aud clouds, and stars, and animals. as the
works of God. it gives her surprise some
day by asking her, "Who made God?''
Each of its mothers answers to its ques-
tions suggests another question, until it
asks the wonderful question we are now
studying. There is something in its mind
that seeks for links between causes and
their effects. The child has begun to think
and to speculate upon the being of God
rational and unnatural methods spoil the
child as thinker. We arrest the
natural development of his mind
by making him think according to our sys-
TENS of education. Christ studied the liv-
ing book of nature, and raised questions
which the conventional scribes could not
auawer Nature in the textbook for the