The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-03-18

l ollie Church yesterday morning by Rev. | Father James F. Coyle of Birmingham | and by banquet given at Bastiani & Casimus restaurant last night by Mont gomery Division, Ancient Order of Hi- l bernians.
 Everywhere in Montgomery yester- | day the green of Erin's Isle was in ev- | idence. Green carnations were the popular decorations but many men wore genuine shamrocks as bouton- nieres Some of the more loyal Irish ! men wore green heckwear.
 Father coyle spoke on St Patrick at the celebration of high mass at ' o'clock in the morning. The audito- rum of St. Peters was filled and the Hibernians of Montgomery attended as d body
 Father CoyIe's Remarks. The eloquent Birmingham priest chose as his text:
 Non fecit taliter omni nationi ct judicia sua non manifestayit eis," Psalms, 1l7: The Lord has not done so to every nation nor hath He mani fested to them his Judgments" He spoke as follows:
 When the Man God, nineteen cen turies ago, on the hillsides of Judea, and by the banks of it's lakes, taught rude husbandmen and ruder fishermen salvation, when He founded His church
 
 again. placed before them. and through them before hs, the lofty ideals He would have men follow. He told them that to win the heavenly inheritance and the crown of life, they should fol- low, as imitators, where He, their model. trod; in one word, they should ail be saints. for none but saints can possess Heaven, with It's intending joys and celestial bliss.
 'Sanctity then was to be- and ever has been, a distinguishing mark of the church of Christ. That church, as ev- cry catechisna child knows, must be one, not divided and elf-contradictory; must be universal, for every nation and tribe and tongue, for every age. till time has merged Into eternity; must be apostolic; that Is, founded on the apostles and governed by the lawful successors of the first chosen twelve; must be saintly, or holy, that is, dis tinguished by its holy members, by members who initiate it's founder, as far as human can initiate divine, as far as man can initiate God. members who are as Christ Himself wished them to be other Christs.'
 And saints there ever have been in the holy church of God. saints. won derfully alike, yet wonderfully differ ent, for as a star differs from star in brilfiancy and spiendor, so do the chos- en servants of God. All of them are wonderful, as the stars are wonderful, for God is wonderful in his saints, but yet. true is it that soma there be- whose glories are hidden from the common ken and whose virtues are known on- ly to the student of their lives. as stars there be whose composition and mag nitude are known only to the votary of science. but some saints, as some stars, are known to all mankind through their effulgent and dazzling brightness. Of these saints, none is so conspicuous as the saint whose feast we celebrate today, St. Patrick, the Apostle of Ireland.
 Labors of st. Patrick.
 And what is 1t that makes St. Pat rick such prominent figure in the history of the Church? Briefly his ex 'traordinary labors, the success of his preaching ard the Influence on sue- ceeding ages of his work. If we con slider the Saint under any one of these three aspects. he is wonderful If under all three. he is extraordinary indeedN His labors were heroically incessant and unremitting dufing life that equafied in length of days the life of the fgreatest of the Old Testament patriarchs. His preaching converted an entire idolatrous nation to the faith of Christ. His work had wide-reaching effect during the centuries Immediately succeeding on the evangelization of diffusion of the Gospel throughout the world, and especially on the founda- tion of the American Church.
 The story of St. Patrick's toll among the Irish, and their ready acceptance of the faith, has been told this day on each recurring year for the past thir- teen centuries, but the story will never
 R,xX, a1aH the sons of St. Patrick will live to re- call his glorious work among their forefathers in the olden long ago, and the still more glorious abiding result of that work. Let us, today, give glance, a necessarily brief glance at that work and its results.
 To appreciate in some faint way the work of our national Apostle, we must have some conception of the State of Ireland and of Europe. at the time when he converted our fathers to the true faith, that they have steadfastly chung to through centuries of sunshine and gloom.
 At that period Ireland was free and independent, ~ruled by her own chief tains and by her own kings. the gospel light of truth had never reached the land. Idolatry reigned supreme, but their idolatry was noble dolatry, idol
 
 idolatry of other lands, as did the idol atry of Greece tn her glory and Rome in her grandeur to idols of stick and stone Our fathers mind did not de- scend to things of earth, their minds scared heavenward, they. not knowing God, worshipped and gave godly attri- butes to Gods noblest creature, the sun, that creature that shows forth more especially the divine care and the universal benevolence of the Lord and giver of Life.
 But while matters were thus in Ire- land, when Ireland was free and in- dependent, for the eagle standards of the victorious Roman legions had new CT been planted in Irish soil. the old Roman Empire was in its decadence
 Those iron legions that had conquer ed and held subject the world, under Scipio a Glabro. Pompey and Caesar had become. through inert ness and sloth, and the vice that sue ceeds conquest, mere effieminate enerva- ted companies, that could no more resist the Northern invasion, than could the dead leaves of the forest the Northern storm blast, so horde after horde pour ed over the Roman frontiers, and Van dal, Goth, and Hun overran the fertile valleys of France and Southern EU- rope. and penetrated even to the very walls of Rome. The political face Of the world was changing, tho founda'
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