The Irish standard., 1905-12-23
The Prophetic Soul of Humanity.

MINNEAPOLIS,
The Prophetic Soul of Humanity.
This day, nineteen hundred years
ago, they were killing fat beeves about
the altars of the temple. and repeat
ing the solemn promises of the Lord
that He would rend the heavens an l
rain down the Just One. Something,
too, was stirring the hearts of men at
Rome in the Orient lands. A Virgil
sings his mystic lines, that even yet
seem the highest flight of human hope
in days of despair. And kings, wise
men from the East, are even now
over the Infant God, with the
homage Of their mysterious
lands. One blameless man, one stain
less maiden, are there. and the dumb
beasts. in mute testimony to their
Maker. Thus was the New Law pro-
claimed, the New School Of Life
opened, not in the smoke and thunder
Of Sinai. but in the stiffness of cave.
in the depths of winter, in the remote
ness Of q Semitic hilltown: neverthe-
less before the representatives Of
Creation, animate and inanimate, be-
fore the young and the old, the rich
and the poor. the Jew and the Gentle,
the East and the West. One day men
will say Of the new Teacher that He
speaks as one having power. 1t is
because He began to study human life
at the lowest rung of the ladder. One
day an emperor will stand aghast at
the tenacity Of His disciples not to be
shaken by fire or any contumely. It
is because their Lawgiver squared His
precepts with the deepest lines of the
human heart. and crowned their OBJ
with the satisfaction Of its
holiest impulses and emotions.
Light and Truth VS.. Shadows and Lies.
The Holy Church is we'll aware that
the evils of life are not all traceable
to the shortcomings Of men: there is
an external power, the power of Satan,
the source Of temptation and disorder.
the irrepressible root Of rebellion.
Against this manifold power she halls
the birth Of Jesus as the coming of
Israel. His right arm shall be stretch
ed out to ward of the host of impiety.
Long had Israel known the roads that
led down into exile; often had the peo-
pie Of God watered their bread with
their tears in the lands Of Paroal, or
Cyrus or the Ptolemies or Caesar,
Away from the hilltops Of Judaea the
world itself was a prison house. and
life the portico of death. The heather
society was leagued against them and
their one tenure, the belief in one
God and in His Moral Law. Peoples
had ragged and kings had thundered,
and tribes and nations had hurled
themselves on the chosen people in
the interests of idolatry. But the hope
in the Redeemer, in the Liberator was
unshakable as a rock, and seemed to
cast its roots deeper with every re-
verse.
But now Judah is passing away.
The shadow of the sword lies over the
city and the temple. A new light falls
on the pages Of the Old Law from the
crib at Bethlehem. There is indeed a
new Captain, new Liberator, but no
longer from the thraldom Of Egyptian
or Assyrian or Greek. This new Cap
tain comes to break the gates Of hell,
to free the souls of men from their real
oppressor, whom as yet they only dim
ly recognize. He is an Emperor of
Truth against an Emperor of Lies. He
lays open the system Of shams and
frauds and deceits by which the hearts
eyes made blind to the truth. Hence
forth the nature of mans true enemy
is known; SO, too his habits, his home,
his means of warfare. Pharoah and
Ptoie,ny, Babylon and Tyre, are hence
forth only symbols of a spiritual en-
emy of spiritual strongholds of temp
tation and sin.
20 Adonai, thou Leader of the House
of Israel, who didst appear to Moses
in the Burning Bush, and didst give to
him the Law on Mount Sinai, come and
redeem us in the strength of thy arm!
o Key Of David, and Sceptre of the
House of Israel, who doth open and
no man closeth, who closetn and no
man doth open come and free the cap
tive from his prison-house. where he
sitteth in darkness and in the shadow
of DEATH"
Failure Of Philosophy and Superstition.
In this double conflict with the
forces within and without himself, man
was being ground as wheat between
the upper and the neither millstones.
He did not understand the terms Of
the struggle, and his best efforts, both
in the Law and outside of the Law
went for naught. From many a heart
in those days went up the cry Of the
Apostle, Unhappy me! who shall free
me from the body Of this death?" Phil-
osophy had vainly tried to furnish
some men with an anchor it the sea
of doubt and opinion. The face of
Superstition had changed again and