The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-03-05
RULE OF MORAL Law
THE ESSENCE OF THE CHRIS
T1AN RELIGION
SERMON AT THE CATHEDRAL


Eloquent Discourse by the Arch
bishop i'm His Own Church for
the First Sunday in Lent-The Re-
ligiOn of the Cross and SeIf-Dc-
NAL Dwell on by the Prelate Of
st. Paul.
Archbishop Ireland preached at the
Cathedral yesterday morning, in accord
ance with his custom, it being the first
Sunday in Lent. He said:
'And when Jesus had tasted forty
days and forty nights, afterwards He
was hungry"
Jesus tasted. Jesus practiced self-de-
NAL. The Gospel of Jesus is a Gospel
of self-denial. When the Catholic
church at the beginning of Lent makes
proclamation, of self-denial she gives
evidence of the divine life that is within
her; she gives evidence that she is the
church of Christ; that she is possessed
of the spirit of Christ Were the church
mention of fasting, 20 mention of self
denial, she would thereby announce that
she is not the church of Christ. II she
had not the courage to say to the ma
terial, sensual world that men must
deny themselves, she would lack in that
fortitude which belongs to a divine
church; she would be silent on great
duty which Christ has imposed upon his
followers. Today in every Catholic
temple throughout the universe 1t is an
nounced that this is the first Sunday of
Lent, that We are entering into a season
of special prayer, and of special penance,
that we must deny ourselves. That sim
pie Observation-Disclosures that within the
Catholic church lives and moves the
spirit of Christ, the incarnate God. Christ
practiced and preached self-denial From
the manager of Bethlehem to the cross of
calvary his life was one of self-denial.
Before entering upon His public career
he withdrew into the desert to fast forty
days and forty nights. He was chosen to
be born poor; throughout His life He en-
was upon the cross. He voluntarily Of
fered Himself in oblation to divine JUS
tice, dying, His head crowned with
thorns His sacred blood trickling down
for himself to practice self-denial He
pfacticed II to give us the example. He
practiced 1t to supplement by His suffer-
lngs our sufrerings for our sins, and to
offer through His sufferings what we
could not offer through ours-ful salts
faction to divine justice for our sins.
will come after Me- He said "let him
deny himself, and take up his cross and
follow Me-"
He made the plain announcement that
the condition to become His disciple Is to
deny oneself, to take up ones cross. II
came not, He said, Ito send peace, but
the sword. The sword was to be used
by each disciple against himself Christ
came from heaven TO establish upon
earth the rule of moral law, to CONQUER
SIN, TO subject passion to reason, the body
to the soul. And in order that the rule
of moral law take effect within us we
must arm the soul against the body, we
must conquer passion, Subdue the flesh
and proclaim the sovereignty of the soul
The religion of Christ is the religion of
the crucified
THE RELIGION OF THE CROSS.
1t is no mere historic memory that in
duces us to place the cross over our tenn
pies, to make upon our own breasts the
sign or the cross There is in this a
+ pf pr lesson, that we must daily live
OF the life of the cross, nail to the cross
our concuplScences and through the cross
through modification and self-denial es-
tapllsh within ourselves the reign of the
cross, the reign OF justice and of moral
law
Why is it that self-denial is so neces-
safy! The world asks why should not
men enjoy things of earth, eat, drink and
at all times be merry. What is life. ii
says, but the opportunity. of pleasure of
amusement, of enjoyment? Now the
Christian religion does not demand that
we make of this life time of constant
SUFFERING, of uninterrupted mourning
GOO has given to us the earth and the
things OF earth, that we live by them,
that through them We preserve the life
of the body. He has scattered over earth
images of His own eternal beauty, that
we may through the contemplation of His
gifts and the rational use of them enioy
a degree of happiness and find cause to
thank Him for love and His favors But
God has imposed upon US this condition
that we make use of the things of earth
In due subsection to the moral law, that
We make use of the things of earth in
accordance with the nature and dignity
OF our own being. We are not to use the
turn the gifts of God to purposes outside
Of those marked out by Himself. We
are not so to use those things as to give
to the lower being within us the oppor-
tunity TO triumph over the superior be-
ing within US. Man is not merely a be-
ing Of clay; he is
NOT MERELY FLESH
and blood. He has within him q
soul made to Gods image and likeness,
and the soul, the image of God. must
command, must reign, and whenever the
body of flesh reigns in opposition to the
/ dictates OF the soul, there is the over
throw OF our manhood and the efface-
ment Of the, divine image in us. Unfor-
tunately 1t happens often that the flesh
does triumph over the soul, that the soul
instead OF being master, is made the
slave. Often we make misuse of the gifts
of God and offend GOD. Two unfortunate
facts are before US. The one is that we
are sinners, that we have Offended God
the other is that there is within US at ali
time lamentable tendency towards the
misuse of the gifts of God, toward sim
Hence the duty for us of self-denial We
nave OIonQOQ STOuS why 90 We O1enQ
God? Because we yielded to passion,
We listened to our lower appetites. The
soul, speaking through conscience, says
stop. The lower appetites exclaim, go
forward. We harken to the lower appe-
titles, rebelling against our soul and
against the eternal God. Now in order to
obtain from Almighty God forgiveness
for sin we must reinstate the soul in her
proper place; We must bring passion into
subsection; we must punish the body for
having dared to triumph over the SOUL
This is simple justice; whereby we have
sinned, there must we infiict punishment
This doctrine of punishment for sin is
made clear to us in the incarnation and
the redemption. The law of eternal jus
tice exacts that adequate satisfaction be
given for sin. Man himself cannot give
adequate satisfaction. The offense
against God IN sin is infinite in it's NAL
ice, while the reparation offered by man
is finite in merit. A Savior. came; He
was man in order that He might suffer;
He was God in order that infinite merit