The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-04-04
HOLINESS OF THE CHURCH
LAST OF REV. FIR. DANEHY'S
LENTEN SERMONS
Judged by Her Fruits the Catholic
Church Stands Out in All Glory
Points to the Good Work
She Has Accomplished Through
Her Sanctifying Infuence-Her
Children Ever willing to Serve.

The sermon at the cathedral last
evening by Father Danehy was the las,
in his Lenten series. He preached OH
the holiness of the church. His text
was Ephesians ", 25:
Christ loved His church and delivered
Himself up for it, that He might sanctify
1t that it should be holy.
DR.. Danehy reviewed briefly the ar
gument that he had treated in the
foregoing sermons, in the course OF
which he said:
l believe in one holy Catholic and
apostolic church, as an article of the world
wide Christian creed. Christ wished His
One of God, could not found a church that
would be other than holy. Holiness in
person connotes moral rectitude before God.
This same quality is predicated of a place,
as when we read of the Holy of Holes in
the temple of old, dedicated to sacred
worship; or Of an ordinance as one of the
sacraments, because it promotes holiness
in them that receive 1t. 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 dis
penses His truth and His grace to men,
but also because she thereby enables all
and succeeds in winning many of the sons
of men to lead eminently holy lives. This,
in the last analysis, is the test by which
the world will try her. BY her fruits you
practical age readily accepts.
The church. then, like a tree. is to be
judged by the fruit it bears. This Is Christ's
own standard. No tree is condemned be
cause 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. mighty wind storm may
destroy the blossoms hurl TO the ground
the unripe fruit, leaving little if any of 1t
to reach maturity. Yet will this bespeak
no fault in the tree. The windfali is not pro-
duced 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 its branches, comes to
maturity.
By this rule let the church be 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 a free moral agent and
that act of his that is done under duress
denotes him neither coed nor bad. The
mighty wind Of passion will sweep many
a man beyond the sanctifying influence
of the church. The canker of doubt and
unbelief may eat its secret way into the
hearts of others Well. IL those that re-
main be men of blameless 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 thou
sands in every age who not merely 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 giyeth his virgin daughter in mar
riage doeth WELL but he that giveth her
not in marriage doeth better" have de-
voted their lives in sngleness of heart to
the service of God and men.
Thav gather the abandoned wHsf In
our large cities and find 1t a 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 a burden
to the public pass their remaining days
in peace and comfort IN this home OF
Christ's charity. They minister with gen.
tie hand at the bedside of loathsome and
lingering disease and whisper to the dying
those words of comfort which bring back
many strong heart to faith in God and
Man.
They even build the Magdalene a home
and shield her from her very self. What
charity is more Christ-like than this? She
who was once the Joy of the household.
and might have become the wife and
mother in happy home, is now fallen
so low that scarcely any but God him
self will stoop to raise her up. Poor, sui
lied womanhood! Spurned by the world,
abandoned even by them that perhaps COM
passed 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 only 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 MAS
NAL breath. they, fearless of death, are
found among the first upon the scene of
suffering, and are the last to leave it. Not
only do they follow in the wake of dis
covery, the have threaded their way
through trackless forests. and on every
continent erected the cross as the first
sign Of civilization. Where the cross Is,
there is Catholic charity.
All this they do, be it remembered as
without fear Of obstacles, SO without hope
of worldly reward. The one guerdon they
expect is the crown which the Lord their
Just judge will award to them when, hav-
ing ceased to labor only when they cease
to live. their souls will wing their flight
up to their heavenly home.
These be thy fruits. holy Catholic i
church. BY them all men know thee.
Thou art made in the image and likeness
Of Christ thy Founder. Thou goest about
doing good. And If there be among thy