The Irish standard., 1897-11-06
given thee because thou hast loved

much
His chief disciple, Peter, denied Him
thrice with an oath when He most need
ed friend. Did he condemn Peter?
No; He turned on him one look full of
reproach, but at the same time full of
forgiveness, and Peter, seeing that he
was forgiven, went out and wept bitter
ly. Last of all. follow his most cruel
passion, His unjust condemnation, His
being spit upon and scourged, His falls
along the way under the heavy burden
OF the cross, His hands and feet cruelty
pierced. Then, finally, He was left there
on the cross to die for us. This is the
God whom l ask you to love and to
follow. $
There may be someone in this audi
ence at this very moment whose mind
is reproaching him for awful transgres-
sion of the divine law. There may be
someone who fears that the blackness
of his sin places him beyond redemption.
To such say that no matter what COM
mandments they have broken; their sins
are no worse than that of Magdalene or
OF Peter, who denied his God. Yet they
are forgiven. No sin can be as mon
strous as that of Judas Iscariot, who
betrayed Jesus and whose name will be
execrated through all eternity. Yet even
lscariot would have been forgiven had
he desired. Instead Of asking divine
indulgence he went out and hung him
SELF All of you can have your sins for
given if you will but come penitently
to Gods Amounted channel, the confess
sion."
Tuesday evening he spoke impressive
ly for an hour ON Gods Justice" and
was listened to with rapt attention by a
large audience composed entirely of men.
He solemnly declared that every man
was allotted certain number of graces
and when these were exhausted he was
granted no more. He spoke of the un-
fortunate spiritual condition of the SIN
ner who fell into a reprobate sense anu
for whom there was no further grace or
chance of reconciliation with God. He
quoted instances to show that some per-
sons were given one chance to escape
Gods vengeance while others got two,
three and four. He pictured the fate of
those who die in mortal sin and urged
every one present to repentance while
there was yet time. This mission, he
said, may be the last grace offered to
many who heard him. Nothing was
more uncertain than death and then
came the judgment.9 What would be-
come of the cursers,. the blasphemers,
the impure who diedi unrepentant? They
would be eternally damned. He related
story about young man who was on
his way to commit sin when he acct
dentally stumbled into church where
the bishop was giving mission. He
had not been to church for many wears
though born and baptized Catholic.
The first words that fell upon his ears
when he entered the church were:
What doth it profit "a man to gain the
whole world and lose his own soul"
Alter the sermon the" young man fol-
lowed the bishop into ethe sacristy, and
In an agitated manner begged him pit
eously to hear his confession The bisli-
op did so. About an hour after he was
hurriedly summoned to a sick call, and
on reaching his destination he was In
formed that the young man was dead.
Looking at the pallid features of the
dead man he recognized him as the
young man he absolved from his sins
only an hour before. That was the last
chance for him, and now he is in heaven.