The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-12-05
AT ST. PETERS CHURCH
OF SERVICES
 THIS WEEK.
Father Eaton Preached on the Advent Season Applying Ills Subject to
 the Forthcoming Holidays.

Season Applying Ills SuDyecttO the Forthcoming Holidays. 
 Both masses at St. Peters Catholic Church were largely attended yester-
 day. At the early mass Rev. Father
 Savage officiated and preached on the
 gospel of the day.
 Rev. Father Eaton was the celebrant
 of the High Mass.
 Among the announcements made from the altar was one to the enect that next Thursday, the feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary
 would be a holy day of obligation on
 which all Catholics were obliged to
 hear mass. During the course of the afternoon services of that day sol
 emn reception of many young ladies
 into the Blessed Virgins Sodality will
 take place.
 Masses on Thursday will be cele- brated at 6:30 o'clock and g o'clock.
 Late mass will be a High Mass. Father Eaton yesterday morning
 preached a strong and earnest sermon.
 His text was:
 Let us, therefore. cast off the works
 of darkness, and put on the armor of light" (Romans, xiii, 12.)
 "The Advent season Is solemn pe- riod of the year. my brethren" he said.
 "a period that leads to sweet consol- ing memories of peace. period preg- nant with those sublime reflections on eternal truths that are the Attest prep arations for the feast of Him who is their author.
 "The word itself Is derived from the Latin word 'adventus.' and means the coming It Is applied to the four
 weeks, or at least four Sundays. inn t@Ix, hn
 Nativity, which we commonly call Christmas Day, because 1t typifies the four thousand years during which the Jewish people awaited the coming Of the Great Redeemer, who was to de- strey the power of sin and satan and open Heaven for them. Before the redemption tears of tribulation. crys- | tai drops, distilled from sorrows fount, bedewed the face of nature and from their refreshing influence sprang the bright flower of hope. Men suffered and sorrowed, but they hoped, and the church, in accordance with the fact, | would teach us that the realization of our hopes will be attained by suffering and sorrow. Hence in the early stages | of her existence she ,commemorated the protracted sorrow Of the sons of Abra- | ham through the vista of the centuries by a term of penance proportioned to l its spirit and its duration. During those four weeks she exacted rigor-
 ous fast and abstenence in part, and in part a modification of lighter moment
 Ever conscious of the weakness oi human nature, however, and having re- gard of our unwillingness and obstin- aoy, the church would modify her rig ors to accommodate herself to us, but would retain at least the spirit of heI early regulations. She therefore bids us to sorrow in the secrecy of ouI hearts. our souls, to hold frequent and silent communion with God amid tears of true repentance. She reminds us oi this in her liturgy, and her practice | fin her liturgy by telling us with St. Paul to cast aside the works of dark ness and sin, and to put on the armoI | of light to repent-in her practice | by removing from her altars their dec. orations, their flowers, their splendor and by clothing them with purple, 6
 color so significant of penance. of sor- row assuaged by hope.
 with feelings such as these. feel ings of sentiment of pre-Christiar
 days, would she lead us to the feet oi of the Infant Saviour, there to drink deep of the meaning of the great truths of Redemption, of Judgment and Eternity which are so strikingly brought before us at this eventful season, and may be summarized in the one great fact, which pre-eminently enables us to cast aside the works of darkness and which is figurateively expressed by Advent'-the magnificent fact of Judgment.
 Advent of course de facto speaks to us of the coming of the Saviour two thousand years ago. a fact we recall
 in the Feast of the Nativity, which we celebrate with such pomp and splendor
 each recurring year. but 1t also tells
 us of another coming, a coming of the
 utmost consequence to us all, when
 we shall all be arraigned before the terrible tribunal, that bar of Gods eternal Justice from which there is no appeal
 ."The first or temporal coming sym
 bolizes the second or Eternal coming; the former was fraught with mercy, the latter will be fraugnt with jus tice, swift and searching as Is the bit- ing force of acid which eats into the very marrow of our bones and leaves behind the quivering remains of its corrosion. Differing in this respect. the two comings of the Redeemer, one characterized by the sweetness of the lovely cradle. the other by the terrible
 majesty of power, are strangely sim liar in their effects upon the human soul
 "The most humiiLating pages of the book of history are those which deal with the conditions prevailing through out the world as-it was known at the first advent. With those conditions we are conversant. We are not now concerned with the general aspect, but they had one particular phase which 1t Is instructive, to consider. Apart from the little Semitic tribe of Abra- ham, men were idolaters. They wor- shipped anything and everything. Cats and dogs and even snakes were dei- fled. To such extremes will men go when the knowledge of the true and only God is stifled We must have some religion. and if we know not, or have
 forgotten God, we shall make our avrr s~oAa wei unfshf PIa4o Ariato-