Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1900-04-01
AN ABLE SERMON
ON THE EUCHARIST
Preached Mt st. Joscph's Cathedral
BY Father j. HI. HalIigan,
OF WelIsvflle, Ohio, at the Regular
Lenten Services Wednesday Even
Ing, March PLATA Doctrine of the
Church Explained and Defended.

ing, March 21st-A Doctrine of the
Church Explained and Defended.
The following is the full text of the
excellent sermon delivered on Wednes-
day evening, March 21st, by the Rev.
Father Halligan, of Wellsville, O.,
published by request, owing to the able
and clear Interpretation of the text,
"The Euchorist.'
Except you eat the flesh of the Son
of man and drink his blood you shall
not have life in you. John 9Th, 54th.
While all the works of God are.
worthy of our consideration and ap-
probation, there are nevertheless some
which should appeal to our gratitude
more than others on account of the
consultations which they not only af-
ford us in time but the rewards they
hold out to us in eternity.
Wonderful as is the world in which
we live, in extent of its limits, nature
of it's parts, mode of construction, and
length of duration, it's sunshine by day
and its darkness by night, it's bloom
ing in springtime and its fading in
autumn, are not as many suppose evil
dences of life, but landmarks of death.
Every atom of creation has written
upon its brow the Divine decree to all
mortality, Dust thou art and unto
dust thou shalt return" The sunshine
of morning soon melts into the dark
ness of evening. The flowers of
springtime depart in the fading of au-
tumn, and man, the noblest of Gods
creatures, destined to be the king OF
creation, made only a little less than
the angels, the associate of these sur
roundings, is, ever accompanying ma
ture to the tomb, ever assisting at the
obsequies of that which was and is no
more
Mans desire for life and dread of
death is plainly evident from his daily
actions When sickness knocks at his
door, fearing it to be as it often is, the
harbinger of death, the messenger of
eternal life is willing, cost what it may
to undergo any inconvenience, dis
lance, exile from home and friends,
sacrifice of means or whatever it may
be that the life of the body may be
prolonged, and the hand of death be
stayed; and although his prayer be
heard, and science seems to conquer
for a time 1t cannot conquer always,
as health regained is only health to be
relost, for sooner or later, little time
at most, he must go into the house Of
eternity whence no traveller returns.
Thus we may behold the folly of
this mortal life to which men cling, to
which they trust their hopes and as
pirations, as if it was the consumma-
.-.tinns-.of their joys and not the exile
of their probation, which like the SUM-
shine of the morning, the flowers of
springtime, is fading away, and yet
untaught by all the landmarks of the
Lord, thoughtless man beholds the
seasons come and go, flowers bloom
and fade, loved ones born and die,
lives on as though he thought that all
was mortal save himself, as if the Gay
would never come for him as it has
come for all who have lived and died
TO this very moment, when summoned
by the message of eternal life, he must
go, as they all have into the house of
eternity from whence no traveller re-
turns.
When Christ, touched by the sorrow
of Martha and Mary, the sisters of
Lazarus, upon the death of their be-
loved brother restored him to them,
He did not comfort them with the
thought that he would die no more.
When He allowed His loving heart to
throb in sympathy with the grief of
the bereaved widow of Main, mourning
the death of her only son, whom He
restored to her, He did not console her
with the thought that her sorrow would
not return.
And when he gave sight to the blind
beggar by the wayside He did not say
you shall see forever more, but, when
from the abundance of His loving
heart He instituted the Blessed Sacra-
ment, He gave us a pledge of ever
lasting life, appealing to us not only
by way of loving invitation to receive
it, but by positive command, saying:
Il am the Living Bread which
cameth down from Heaven. Your
fathers did eat mama in the dessert
and they died, but if any man eat of
this Bread he shall live forever"
He that eateth my flesh and drink