The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1902-05-10
John Lancaster SpaIding, Bishop
Rev. William Organ of Denver Says There Is No More
Interesting Figure in the Catholic Hierarchy.

May l, 1877. in the New York cathedral,
Cardinal McCloskey officiating The
conservation sermon was preached by
Bishop Rosecrans of Columbus, bro
Their of that General "Rosey' famous
in our civil war and beloved of veter-
ans
He found his new diocese supplied
with seventy-five churches ana fifty
one priests; it had a Catholic popula-
ton of $4,000. Under his care it has
grown enormously Now it has 12O
churches with resident priests, ninety
four chapels, three colleges for boys
and nine academies for girls, siXty-one
parochial schools, several hospitals and
orphanages, an industrial and reform
school and home for the aged poor
and Catholic population of 10000.
If Bishop Spalding, however, were
asked to tell what is the darling work
of his life and did his humility permit
him to tell the whole truth, viz: that
to his striving of years more than to
the desire or labor of any man or dozen
men the success of that work is due,
he would point to the establishment
of the Catholic university of Washing
ton, D. c.
WRITINGS AND LECTURES.
Despite his arduous work in his con-
stantly growing diocese, he has found
time-it'S only lazy people who are al
ways too busy ito find time to write
many delightful books in prose and
verse. His life Of his uncle, Archbishop
SpaldinS, is a model in biographies. Be
sides, there are a volume of original
poems, a volume of TRANSACTIONS from
German and French poets, Things of
the Mind" Education and the Higher
Life, Means and Ends of Educa-
tion, etc.
He is known as a lecturer all through
the land, whose lectures are a charm
and solace to thoughtful and educated
people.
In his writings and lectures there is
always the clear philosophic note,
modulated, however, by a deeply HUI
man strain of sympathy, which, while
lifting him and his readers to serene
heights, yet gives them to know it is
not their intellects alone he would win
to the contemplation of ideal things,
but their hearts TO the loss of them.
Take his essays and read a page at
random to educated people and they
will swear it is Seneca or Epictetus or
Marcus Aurelius speaking again; but
the three grand old Pagans baptized
unto Christ.
IL 10 well 10 attempt. lie SuSStSlS
somewhere. and even to have failed
No life with which we are perfectly
familiar can be wholly beautiful. is his
modern way of saying that no one is a
hero to his valet
And this is entirely Aurelian: Know
thyself was the sum of what Socrates
taught, and each of the seven wise
men rested his fame upon an apothegm.
To expect the multitude to appreciate
the best in life or literature, is to eX-
pect them to be what they have never
been and will probably never be.
Would you have an OK admire the sun
rise or the pearly dew, when all he
feels the need of is grass? Appeal to
the many if you will, but if your ap-
peal is for the highest, only the few will
hearken." ITO do deeds and to utter
thoughts which long after We have de-
parted shall remain to cheer, to IL
lumine and console. is to be like God;
and the desire of noble minds is not of
praise, but of abiding power for good
And there is the baptized philoso-
pher: Dwell not with complacency
upon aught thou hast or hast achieved,
but address myself each day. like a
simple hearted child, to the task Cod
sets thee; and remember when the last
y
him but faith in his mercy and good
ness" And the philosopher, not sad
dened and soured by the world and its
ways but buoyant and glad. when
think of all the truth which still re-
mains for me to learn, of all the good
I may vet do, of all the friends I still
may yet do. of all the friends 1 still
may serve, of all the beauty l may see,
life seems as fresh and fair, as full of
promise, as it to loving souls the dawn |
of their bridal day" And his noble |
estimate Of the purpose of life: ITO |
be Gods workman, to strive, to endure, |
to labor, even to the end, for truth and |
this is life
/ would delight in writing down quo |
tations from Bishop Spalding's elevated |
and noble essays, but the editor might |
say enough" With one more which !
shows his calm breadth of mind, will |
close: The controversies of the |
whether of philosophy, theol- |
ogy, literature or natural science, have |
been among the saddest exhibitions of |
ineptitude. Is it conceivable that a
thinker. or believer, or scholar, or
an investigator should wrangle in the |
spirit of a pothouse politician? The !
more certain we are of ourselves and of |
tru:n which we hold, the easier it is
FOR us to be patient and tolerant"
A sarcastic friend of mine said once
in my hearing and in that of several
members of the hierarchy of the church |
that "the pressing need of the Catholic !
church in America was a judicious
among the bishops" Please
Sod, to delight, instruct and edify us,
Bishop Spalding viii be long in the
and of the living. w O'RYAN.
st. Leo's, May /. 1902.