Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1901-01-07
JAMES CARDINAL GIBBONS.
A NOTABLE SERMON DELIVERED
BY THE DISTINGUISHED PRE-
LATE YESTERDAY.
EVILS OF WAR DENOUNCED.
H MISSION OF CHRIST ONE OF
PEACE ON EARTH.
Although War is Less Frequent Than
Before His Coming, We Are still
a Long Way From the Millennium
of Universal Brotherhood and In
ternational Love.

oAA1 I1iOIeL, MI, JdHudly o.-Odt-
dinal Gibbons to-day delivered a SER
mon at high mass in the Cathedral in
which he reviewed briefly the events
of the century just closed with special
reference to the wars which have been
waged during that period as a preface
to an urgent plea for universal peace.
He incidentally touched upon the sub
ject of the proposed increase of the
standing army in this country, point
ing out the evil results arising from
the maintenance of large bodies of
armed men in Europe and expressed
the hope that similar conditions may
never obtain in this country.
The sermon was as follows:
Isaiah, Chap. Tx.
THE mission of Jesus Christ on earth
was a mission of peace. He came to
establish in our hearts a triple peace,
peace with God, peace with our neigh
Dor, and peace with ourselves. Mans
peace with God was dissolved by his
rebellion against his Maker. Christ
came to restore man to the friendship
of God by sacrifice of His life on the
cross. He tells us that this peace is to
he maintained by the observance of the
commandments, There is much peace,
o Lord, to those that keep Thy law and
for them there is no stumbling block
He has taught us to have peace with
our neighbor by observing the eternal
principles of justice and charity. by
doing unto others what we would wish
others to do unto us. And he tells us
that we will have peace with ourselves
by keeping u passions subject to res
son and our reason subject to faith.
But Christ's mission of peace had a
wider scope than to the individual
man. His mission was also to bring
peace to the family and society. AS
the God of peace which He is called by
st. Paul, He brings peace to the human
heart. AS the Father of Peace He
brings peace to the family, and as the
Prince OF peace, as He is called by
Isaiah, he brings peace to society and
the commonwealth.
Before the advent of Christ,
War Was the Rule.
peace the exception, throughout the
world. So regular, incessant and hab-
itual was war before the coming of our
Savior, that the sacred writer in the
Book of Kings speaks of a certain sea-
son of the year as the usual period for
the reopening of hostilities.
In Pagan Rome the temple of Janus
was closed in time OF peace and kept
open in time of war. From the reign
of Tullus Hostilius, the third king of
Rome to Augustus Caesar, a period
covering six hundred and fifty years,
the temple was closed only for six
years. So that Rome enjoyed only six
years of tranquility against six hun
dred and forty-four of warfare.
But although wars are less frequent
and less inhuman in the Christian dis
p%ensation that in Pagan times it must
be confessed hal we are, as yet, far
removed from the millennium of uni
versal peace.
GLORY to God in the highest, and
on earth peace to men of good will
was the song of the angels ON the night
of our Savior's birth in Bethlehem.
although these words have been re-
sounding throughout the world for
nearly two thousand years, and though
Christianity is the prevailing religion
in Europe, it is a melancholy reflection
that it has not yet succeeded in arrest
ing war and establishing the perma-
nent reign of peace on that continent.
In fact the nineteenth century, from
lCs dawn to its sunset. has witnessed
an almost continuous scene of sangu-
mary struggles between the nations Of
Christian Europe.
AT the close of the eighteenth GEN.
fury we find the allied forces of the
Russian empire and the kingdom of
Prussia invading Poland, and after a
heroic resistance under the leadership
of Kosciusco (who had previously
drawn his sword in behalf of Amer
lean independence), the kingoom OF
Poland was subdued and dismembered
and partitioned out between Russia,
Austria and Prussia.
From the beginning of the nine
teentn century till 1915. the great Ma
poleon was engaged in a series of the
most colossal and sanguinary engage
ments which set all Europe ablaze.
Napoleon encountered the whole of Eu-
rope, and was generally victorious I'M
til the memorable battle of Waterloo,
when he was defeated and his sun was
set. History Justly accords to him the
title of the greatest military general OF
his age.
About the middle OF the century oc-
CURED the Crimean war. in which the