The Irish standard., 1905-12-23

A/PASSVSuo So0A0 OhSAdAuls ~ Sd0SS1Ie
in thy peace what woes suffer! Was
it not high time that the Prince of
Peace should at last appear and reveal
the secret of the divine dealings of
God with man? No wonder that as the
hour of the Nativity approaches, Holy
Church cries out in maternal anguish.
20 King of Nationa o Emmanuel.
Our King! o the desired. of all peo-
pies. Thou Cornerstone, which dost
make the twain to 10 one. come and
save mankind which Thou hast created
from the dust"
Truly. He made thu twain to be one
when He healed so tpotsntly the evil
bias Of our hearts and the preverse
darkness Of our mindS; when He called
the Son Of God and accepted
the name Of Friend of Sinners: when
He took the title Of NLing Of the Jews
and yet sent His ApAstles to the ends
of the earth; when ate with publi-
cans and sinners a&d rebuked the
proud and lofty PhaSsees. He made
the twain to be one hen He ignored
the narrow lines of nationality and
created a heavenly fatlerland, in which
all men could hold citizenship that
whateveE was highest in
the political world made by men.
Truly He was the Cornerstone of Unity
when He proclaimed the henceforth
principle& of the Father
hood Of God and thS Brotherhood of
Man. Through long and painful ages
some men like the Stoics had come
within sight Of thes4 holy principles.
but their insight, their suspicious were
only velleities. rude .mantal sketches
of an Utopia beyond the grasp of hui
manity. The people twere sunk in a
Malebolge Of sin and wrong and ig-
norance; their rulers were men Of
blood and iron, skilled lin the sole logic
of despotism,-the logic Of the sword.
The birth of Jesus 4hanged all this.
What wonder that a tradition soon
arose to the effect that a fountain Of
oil broke forth in the, heart of Rome
on the night Of chsist's birth and
flowed for days in unhsoken sweetness
to the Tiber! It was q symbol. say
ancient fathers. Of the source Of Joy
and benediction hencstorth opened in
the heart Of that larger city. the City
of God. .f
A New and Psrfset DrothsfAeod.
Truly our brother ;gsialis born today.
and with Him We. too. are bosh into
the sweet bond. and union Of brother
hood. Perhaps by the lapse Of ages
and the very commences Of the Chris
tian name, we have ceased to be moved
by the mighty concept that lies in the
birth of Jesus Christ among men, as
a man, with $ real human nature and
manner. 1t was our Maker. our Gov
ernor, our Final Judge.QW6o4 this day
put on flesh, eonSfessed the ares..;qf
His Godhead. and entered the cycle of
our poor life. 1t was no mere chance
or whim thatSHe did so; it was tbe
result of divine counsel, forseen FROM
the beginning and fore-ordained. He
came as man and brother to re-
lieve the awful pressure Of inequality
and injustice; to reassure men Of the
equal dignity of the human soul, in
whatever frame 1t has its being; to
rekindle in such human souls as would
listen to Him a mutual respect for
one another, and, based on that, a
tender love for one another,-a love
the world then first heard Of, the love
of Christian Charity. How the first
men who seized on the import of this
great fact were moved by 1t you may
see in the acts Of the Apostles and the
letters of st. Paul. AT once all the
pitiful barriers that men had been
building against one another fell away,
and they knew themselves for one in
Christ Jesus. Human nature, hitherto
a scoffing for the cynic, a yoke for the
pessimist, toy for the Epicurean, rose
transfgured before their eyes, and ev-
cry one could say with st. Paul, II
live, not /, but Christ liveth in me-
of humanity; here was the force that
shook the false and unjust society OF
the. ancient world, and rent it apart
and covered it with oblivion; here was
the power that built up again on the
ruins of the Roman state the medieval
Christendom, here the core of resist
ance that thousand shocks cannot
overcome in the society founded by
Jesus; God was made man, put on our
flesh. and dwelt amongst us.
Are We Vet Of the Kingdom?
Is this truth fading from our social
consciousness? Are we dealing now
with one another as men who recognize
the Christian dignity in one another
that dignity which Leo the Great could
appeal to as a warning not to fall back
upon the former vileness of our state?
In our increditable passion for wealth
in our reckless crushing Of the poor
mans equal right to life and it's COM
forts, in the expansion of our COM
merce and industry, in our legislation
in our public opinion, in the estimate
we set upon the goods Of life, in the
uses we find for our activities, in the