The Saint Paul globe., 1900-05-07
As 70 INFANT ELIMINATION
ARCHBISHOP IRELAND SAYS DOC
TRINE OF ELECTION OVER
LOOKS GODS LOVE FOR MAN
ADHERENCE TO FULL DUTY
1t Is Urged on Large Con-
gregatiOn, as the Only Way
of Salvation Here
after.
Archbishop Ireland. preaching at the

I Archbishop Ireland. preaching at the
Cathedral yesterday, sadie
IN the. epistle of this Sunday the third
after Easter, the apostle beseeches
US to refrain from sin and to do good
! And so throughout the entire Scripture
! we are requested, entreated, TO practice
! righteousness, to save our souls. Is not
this, we may ask j mystery, that God the
almighty, and His ministers in His
name, should condescend to ask US, to
| entreat us, to do what Is right? What
are we but frail creatures of a day, and
what is He but in the infinite, the omnipo-
tent? Why does He not use His power if
He wishes us to practice righteousness
why does He not compel us to be right
eous? Is it not beneath His dignity and
| grandeur to be requesting us, begging US,
| to do our duty towards Him, towards ouI
lsfellow beings, towards ourselves? There
| is here a mystery; there is here q most
practical, significant lesson. 1t is a n1ys-
terry that God has made us morally free
so free that We may if We choose set at
defiance His own law, Subyert His own
counselS in our regard, be unrighteouS
when He commands us to De righteous,
and lead our souls to perditiOn when it is
His supreme will that all men be saved.
No wonder, We might say, that Sonle not
guided by the teachings of the holy
church, have been led to 50 eXaggerate
! the power and the dignity of Cod as to
leave, so to speak, no room to man him
self in the decision for his own salvation.
| There are cTeedS made By men which
state that God in creating US does. of His
own choice, independently OF anything
that We would have to say or do, elect SO
many of US TO eternal glory and sends so
many others into perdition, asserting His
own power and His own dignity, whether
in the election Of some or the reproba-
ton of others.
THE MAKERS OF. SUCH -CREEDS
| forget the supreme love of God for men
and the supreme respect which God has
for His own work in His creatures.
Through a mysterious dispensatiou, if you
! viii, but as a fact. God has created US
free and has made Us the arbters of our
! eternal destiny. We shall be Judged one
day by Him; some will be called to
| heaven, others will be rejected but in
| either case God will be rendering, as the
apostle says, Ito every man according to
his own works. This is the dignity Of
the human soul, that it is free. And So
when by its own choice it enters heaven.
it can say, This great reward is mine"
- 1t has passed over the battle-ground; it
Is victorious; a crown belongs To it as q
reward to its triumph. No doubt the soul
! left to itself could not morally speaking.
! have overcome all the perils with which
it was confronted. 1t could not without
Gods eleyating grace have reached UP
into the supernatural regions to which we
are called through the merits of Christ.
DIVINE GRACE IS NEEDED.
Without grace we do not save souls.
but when grdee IS given we are allowed
to reject it or TO correspond with dt! by
the grace of. GedsH says ST. Park ST am
| what l am; His grace hath not been void
| in me. | have labored more abundantly
! than others: not ], but the grace of God
with me-" There are theltw5 elements in
Pau1s moral 3triumpll--6fod' s grace and
Paul; and SO, is it With each and every
one of us. On the last daY.it will be seen
that two beings We're at work God and
the individual soul. God. for His own
mysterious purposes, distributes His
graces here and there as He Wills Civ
! ing, however. to all a sufficiency. for He
wills all men to be saved, so that at the
last day. every soul will say: If am
whatever the measure of those graces, so
4 so much does God respect the Individual
will, the freedom of men, that the soul
may still say if it chooses. 81 will not
serve. God having made the soul free.
| if the soul enters a positive protest, what
| can God do, unless He destroy His own
work and enslaVe what He had declared
| to be free but to retire, as it were, and
abandon the soul to pursue its own
course? This is a mystery. This free
dom of the soul in the presence of Gods
| beseechings and of Gods own graces
! But this much is evident, the grandeur
Of the, soul. the dignity Of the human be-
| it comes, great as is the reward of the
| high heavens, the soul crossing the
6We tRTesh05d indiyiaa 9f RaEasse is my
HAVE EARNED IT;
Gods graceaaided me; Gods grace work
grace.
This truth.of the human freedom of the
of the soul established we understand
how contrary to Gods love and
to Gods justice are the statements
4 of certain creeds, to which | have already
alluded, that God elects of His own sim
pie volition certain souls to glory and
drives others back into perdition There
would be there no justice. Why should
a soul be punished and punished during
eternity unless the cause of punishment
came from ITSELF unless the fault was of
the soul sown? And what would mean a.
reward which had been decreed before
any thought of what the soul would be
or would do in the use of it's liberty? And
Where IN such conditions would be that
ofVlne, goodness, that sweetness of mercy
of which the Scripture SO frequently as
sures u.s. in virtue of which God searches
Tor the erring SOUL tenderly invites it
pack to the embraces of His eternal
BOSOM? There We're no goodness, no
goodness, If we were to imagine an in
Unite God above US distributing rewards
and pun1ShmentS as it might satisfy His
own glory, without any consideration Of
the Individual merit of each and every
soul. No wonder is it that some who take
Such creeds as the creeds of the Chris
tan church, as the TEACHINGS of Christ
would be repelled from Christ's gospei
SUCH CREEDS ARE NOT
the creeds of Gods holy church: they
are not the teachings of ChrisFs hoIy
gospel. The teaching of the gosDel and
the creed Of Christ's church are this, that
man is a free agent and that wFiIe C.oJ
gives him in profusion graces the snn1
decides for itself what shall be its destiny
one OF glory or one of punishment and
darkness. There is always the 1nYsferV
that God from eternity knows what han.
pens until the end of time, but in His
provision, the acts of the soul precede the
decree of justice. st. Paul saws. whom
He foreknew, He also predestinated to ba
made eenformable to the image of His
Son In this mystery Of Gods opani9
science, as the divine glance passes down
ages, 1t sees the action of each sou1 fts
cooperation with divine grace or IFS re- e1
, puIslon OF that grace, and then as a con-
sequence OF mans merits or demerits If
sees the decree of predestination nlarI1ine
t out the nnal destiny of each and everT
, | soul. Whatever the mystery of the divine
preSclenee may be, this truth remains thai
| God sentence follows mans persenaI ac-
} t1ons, and whatever the mysteriousness
OF divine grace, this truth remains that
| the ultimate responsibility of rorree
spondence, or of refusal of correspondenca
RESTS WITH THE, INDIVIDUAL,
soul The glory of the just, in the Ian
gqage of the Holy Ghost, is this @IJe
, who could have transgressed hath not
transgressed, he who could have done evil
Things, hath not done them, therefore. -
/ adds the Holy Ghost are his goods es.
J tablished in the Lord
Oh human soul, as thou eomest forth