The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1902-11-29
BISHOP sPALDlNG.

BISHOP SPALDING.
A Sermon by the Eloquent Prelat'
| atScranton, Pa.
Rt. Rev. Bishop Spalding Of Peoria
ILL.,, delivered most eloquent sermon
on a recent Sunday in st. Peters
church, Scranton, Pa, Of which thu
following is synopsis:
Bishop Spalding took for his text the
thirteenth chapter of st. Paul to the
Romans. He dwelt more especially
however, upon the verse: "Love work
eth no i'll to his neighbor; therefor
Love is the fulfilling of the law lie
said:
"Love, therefore, is the fulfilling Of
the law. In this portion of st. Paul's
epistle to the Romans he touches upo1
the deepest truths Of life and religion
He points out that love is the origin
the source, the purpose and the END
of life, that the whole law of life rests
upon this principle, and if this princi
pie itself be but kept intact there car
be no violation Of any law. He leads
us to the thought that the Infinite
Power from Whom all things pro.
coed, who is the beginning and the end
of all things, that the Infinite Power
of love, of kindness, of holiness, of
truth and of justice; that the essential
life, therefore, is loving life, kind
ly life, life of service, Of sweetness
and Of patience. Now, imagine that
there is no deeper thought than this.
"Of course, whether we look without
or within we cannot escape the idea Of
a cause. We cannot escape the idea
that what appears is not what is, but
that before and beyond and above all
things there is some cause, known or
unknown, from which all things spring,
to which all things must be referred,
to which they must in some way re-
turn.
"Why does this vast universe exist
| in this externalized form? 1t exists
because love is and has existed, be-
cause He who loves must manifest His
divine bliss and enthusiasm. He must
create. He must form in some way, in
some shape, something that will ex-
hibit that great sacred passion which
has taken possession Of Him.
"And so, since the visible universe
springs from an invisible Cause, we
must think that Cause is Love. In
deed, we must be convinced that the
universe itself is harmony and love.
The universe is beautiful, sublime, be-
yond our power Of imagining. Only
love creates beauty, and only love
awakens within us the sentiment of
all that is greater than us and beyond
us in every way. And indeed the more
we contemplate nature and the more
we see it's harmony, the more con-
WINGED we are that it is cosmos, not a
chaos, not disorder; that it is not a
mere fortuitous combination of micro
scopic atoms and molecules, but that
everywhere there is order, measure,
harmony, that all things seem to be
arranged as it were in concentric cir
cles, and that they move around one
another, unhasting, unresting, in even
and exact time and in beauty and
splendor We are so created that all
things gather about us in their COM
pleteness, so that whatever we see we
see completely, although we know it is
but part. Hence the world is beau
tiful.
Beauty said the great philoso-
pher Of Greece, rs the splendor Of
TRUTH Love is Gods smile; truthful
beauty sprang from love, which it ever
nourishes and gives joy to, and lifts
up to its highest potencies.
"The quality of mans love is the
only test Of his value. When we say
man is worth so many millions Of
dollars, we speak as we say that the
sun rises and sets. We know that this
is superficial way of talking, the re-
suit of ignorant habits in preceding
ages. We speak in superficial, in an
unreal way.
"a man is worth what he is him
1Sy,1y in ,{c
heart. that he Is. What a man loveth
with all his strength, that he is. The
quality of love is the measure OF 4
mans worth. Consequently, If we
would get at the true test of mans
love, we must try to understand what
he really does.
"The animal is drawn by instinct,
by appetite, as the material particles
Of the universe are drawn by attrac-
ton. The animal lives in this world
by instinct and appetite, and remains
an animal. The man, too, whose
thoughts are confined to the gratifica
ton of his senses is a mere animal.
1t Is not possible Tor man whose con
Germ is what he shall eat and drink
| and wear to ever live the kind Of life
God would have him lead until lie
turns his thoughts away from material
things.
Gas material things exist for the
living and are for their nouriehment,