The Irish standard., 1898-04-09
LAST OF HIS LENTEN SERMONS.

Rev. L. Dnnehy, of st. Paul Seminary,
at the Cathedral.
The last of his Lenten series of SER
mons was delivered by Rev. P. Danehy,
at the cathedral last Sunday evening
Taking for his text from Ephesians v, %:
Christ loved His church and delivered
Himself up for it, that He might sanctify
it that 1t should be holy" Father
Danehy briefly discoursed and said In
part:
I believe in one holy Catholic and
apostolic church. Is an article of the
worldwide Christian creed Christ
wished His church to be forever holy.
He. the Holy One of God, could not
found church that would be other than
holy. Holiness in person denotes
moral rectitude before God. This same
quality Is predicated of place. as when
We read Of the Holy of Holes In the
temple Of old, dedicated to sacred wor-
ship; or of an ordinance as one of the
sacramento, because 1t promotes holiness
In them that receive it. When we say
Of the church Of God that she is holy we
mean all this and more.
She Is holy, not alone because she is
the handiwork of Christ the Lord, and
dispenses His truth and His grace to
men, but also because she thereby ena-
bes all and succeeds in winning many Of
tho sons OF men to lead eminently holy
lives. This, in the last analysis, ia
the test by which the world will try her.
By her fruits you will know her, is one
gospel rule which our practical age read
lily accepts.
The church, then, like tree, is to be
Judged by the fruit it bears. This is
Christ's own standard. No tree is con-
demned because OF the wilted or worm
eaten fruit that falls from it's branches.
A plague of worms may destroy all fruit
for one or many seasons A mighty
wind storm may destroy the blossoms
or hurl to the ground the unripe fruit,
leaving little IL any Of it to reach ma
turity Yet will this hespeak no fault in
tho tree. The windfall is not produced
by that tree. 1t is the direct effect of
external and accidental causes. We
judge a tree by the quality OF the fruit
which, while remaining ON it's branches
comes to maturity.
By this rule let the church he judged.
BY the quality Of the fruit she bears,
She must stand or fall. She cannot lay
hold on the will of man and compel him
to be good. Man is free moral agent,
and that act of his that is done under
duress denotes him neither good nor
bad The mighty wind Of passion will
sweep many man beyond the sancti-
flying influence Of the church. The canl1-
er Of doubt and unbeief may eat its So
cret way into the hearts of others. Well,
If those that remain be men of blame
less lives, the church will have stood the
test successfully. Now this she has done
in every age.
But she has done more. Not only have
those been good who have listened to
her teaching, but she has actually kept
such men by thousands within her pale.
She has numbered among her children
from the first till now men and women
by thousands in every age who not mere
ly kept the commandments, but chose to
walk in the more perfect way. Her
children have sold their all, given it to
the poor and followed their Lord and
Master. Other thousands among them,
knowing that "He who giveth his virgin
daughter in marriage doeth WE'LL but he
that giveth her not in marriage doeth
BETTER" have devoted their lives In sin
geness Of heart to the service of God
and men.
They gather up the abandoned walf in
our large cities and find 1t home and
an education. Their door Is ever open
to the aged poor who have no children.
or are cursed with ungrateful ones, and
they who would otherwise become bur-
den to the public pass their remaining
days in peace and comfort in this home
of Christ's charity. They minister
somo and lingering disease, and whisper
to the dying those words of comfort
which bring back many a strong heart to
faith in God and man.
They even build the Magdelene a home
and shield her from her very self. What
charity is moro Christ-like than this?
She who was once the Joy Of the house,
hold, and might havo become the wife
and mother in a happy home, is now
fallen SO low that scarcely any but God
himself will stoop to raise her UP. Poor
sulied womanhood! Spurned by the
world, abandoned even by them that per-
haps comprised its ruin, the church's
charity does not disdain to succor 1t.
Or, again, they go to far-off heather
lands to bring the light Of salvation to
them that walk in the valley of the
shadow of death. We find them not on
ly with Xavier In China and Japan, with
Peter Claver in South America, but with
! Damien among the lepers Of Molokai.
When plague or pestilence infects the
air with its miasmal breath, they, fear
less of death, are found among the first
upon the scene Of suffering, and arc the
last to leave it. Not only do they follow