The Irish standard., 1905-12-23
Christ Came TO Rekindle In Human Minds
And Hearts the Power and Courage
to Embrace the Truth.
Before Him There Had Come Int the World
Many "a Teacher But No One Taught
The Whole Cycle of Truth.
copyright 1905, by The Catholic AS

SSopyrlsht 1SOo, by Tne Catholic AS
ISOLATED Press.) j,
The season of Advent has drawn
ance more to it's close, and the mystic
eIaitation Of soul which the Chris
dfan religion annually nourishes in it's
adherents finds its fulfllment and re-
ward in the birth Of that infant for
whose coming Time and Humanity
we're so long consumed with hope and
expectation. In these weeks the Holy
Church has been putting before US day
By day the most sublime thoughts,
the longings Of the Prophets, the ac-
anowledgements Of sin, the echoes of
despair, the lessons of history, the ad-
emissions Of experience. All the paths
sf life have been converging upon that
little crib at Bethlehem; all that poet
or philosopher or critic ever imagined
Of true or beautiful or desirable, seems
now to- take being and. shape on the
Threshold Of that poor manger. With
an Infinite skill the Offices of the
Church bring out the hopelessness in
the average heart, the blindness in the
average mind, the moral stagnation in
the average society at the time of the
birth Of Christ. There is nothing in
the tragedy of so,.hocles or Shakes
Deare so grandoise. 80 sternly true and
solemn, SO heart-g. ipping as the daily
phases by which during these weeks
Old Testament from the Creation to the
the Church unrolls the meaning Of the
Nativity. Like the Greek choragus
she accompanies the prophets and the
singers with her own Interpretation
and comment. 1t is all infinitely noble.
infinitely deep and significant, yet in
dinitely simple for it is the first time
that history was so expounded that
the old man at once and the little
schild could grasp its sense.
Dramatic Note in Advent Services.
AS the splendid drama approaches
dts solution, it's many cure ITS merge
into ever fewer and deeper ard broad
er. The follies, the passions, the ex-
travagances of men, all the nmem-
,eorial wrong and injustice of the world
all the stony -heartedness and stiff
meckedness the ingratitude and the
treachery. the vanity and the ay-
swardness. fall away from the stage
and in their place moves out the cen-
tral figure of Humanity-its Teacher
and its Lawgiver. its Liberator. it's
Reconciler.
Out of the thousand conflicting ele-
1nents Of the human story, there stand
out three things-the Eternal Strife
within the soul Of man, the External
Strife within the bounds of Creation,
and the Great Reconciliation or Ap-
peasement that was worked by Jesus
Christ. Here is trilogy worthy of
Euripides. nay. worthy of some glor-
dous Seraph. who alone could put in
fitting language the mighty thoughts
that underlie the story of our Re-
-demption.
A Divine Teacher and Lawgiver.
1t is as teacher and a lawgiver that
Jesus Christ is sent to us by the
Eternal Father. He cometh not of
aIimself; He is sent, as He so often
tells us. No teacher chooses himself,
but is called by one greater than he.
The Father say, as he now sees that
the key of human misery was our own
adisordered will and darkened mind.
Humanity had lost he way Of right
eousness. The sense and the spirit Of
holiness, the high moral Transforming
purpose of religion. were greatly weak
ened, not to say destroyed. And so
the Eternal Wisdom came upon the
earth, in order to rekindle in human
Sninds the lamp Of truth and in hu-
man hearts the power and the cour-
age to embrace the truth. Before Him
there had come into the world many
a teacher, and for not few, we may
believe that their hearts were strait
ened by sorrow at the sight of bound
less evil. Men Of the West, like Pyth-
agorus and Plato. men of the East,
like Confucius and Buddha: men Of