The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1909-11-10

tnaL even the pest OF lUeiH nave Ell
fected but little permanent good, and
little that was unmixed with evil;
that their noblest words have in them
no anodyne for the familiar sorrows
OF humanity, nor has any deed of
theirs borne any fruit that can ap
pease the hunger of the human heart.
Still, let them have their honor in the
measure with which the world metes
it out to them, each in his own de-
gree; one name living for day in the
columns of newspaper another
craven with a pen of adamant on the
pages OF immortal books
But, ask you, shall the great
church of God that has had given in
to her hands the hearts of the peo-
ples that sits and keeps her everlast-
ing watch over the highest destinies
of men, that guards their individual
souls from the moment of birth 10 the
moment of death that consecrates
their toll, and sanctiiies their pleas
ure: that stands by them so lovingly
and so close, through all the varied
scenes of life, and lays them, when
they are dead, before her altar. and
lifts in their behalf the voice of the
prayer that follows them to the UNI
seen land beyond the grave; shall this
great church have no heroes of her
own, or shall she forget them-the
men whose names are associated with
her triumphs-shall she have no spec
ial time in which to do them honor
for the sacrifices which they have
made?
1t were not meet that 1t should be
so, and it is not so. And today she
sends her voice throughout this fair
city and this state to tell the children
of God to honor one of her heroes for
his twenty-five years of faithful work
in her service.
When the bloody scenes of the pas
sion had been enacted, when Jesus
stood bruised and pale before His peo-
Pile, when they saw upon his sacred
flesh the cruel Disagreement which
the scourge had left and traced upon
His pallid brow the bloody pressure
of the crown of thorns; when they
saw His hands and feet dug with
rough nails and His wounded body
stretched upon the gibbet; when they
wagged their heads in scorn. and bent
the knee in mockery before the expir-
ing Saviour well might they have i'm
agined that, His history was closed
forever But no; the end was not
yet His disciples laid Him in the
tomb, but on the tomb they wrote no
epitaph. Go into some burial place
reserved for the illustrious dead;
tread lightly and with awe above the
dust of buried greatness; read upon
the tombs the record OF the names
that shall live through many an age
upon the lips Of men, but read too at
the beginning of every record the in
eytable words: Here lies the body"
and then you will know that the
stone, on which their deeds OF great
ness are inscribed. covers the mould
ering dust Of the hearts that prompt
achieved their greatness.
Not so with Jesus Christine man
God--dvinely human and humanity di-
vine. triumphing over sin and death;
and as surely as He sits for ever at
the right hand of His Eternal Father
in heaven so surely is the Catholic
church His representative upon earth.
His name has been borne to the ends
of the universe. It was a wonderful
thing to see Twelve poor fishermen.
destitute of the worlds riches, un-
skilled in the worlds learning. go
forth to conquer the world. They
preached a crucified Saviour, but they
preached, too. a Saviour who had con-
quered His enemies and who lives for
ever. The power Of God went with
. Il ha f,f loo i'm
and of wealth, and the sound of their
voices went forth to the ends of the
earth. Men began to feel that there
was abroad mysterious influence.
which they could not understand, but
which mastered the keen intellect and
bent the stubborn will The Chris
tian doctrine, strong with the strength
of truth, and attractive by its intrinsic
beauty won the hearts of men II
stole upon the world like strains of
music, and hearts that
had been stepped in worldliness recog-
nized the teaching as divine. and so
the banner of Jesus was borne
through the world. But not in peace.
Our Blessed Lord had predicted The
world will hate you even as it hated
me-" and His words began to be full
filed The banner was borne in tri-
umph but the song of victory was a
cry of battle and the feet of those who
in that procession were red
with the blood of martyrs. And so it
has been since a story of conflict and
a story of victory. THE religion of
Jesus has gone onward through the
world conquering and to conquer. The
church took up what civilization she
found and left mark on it which
even her deadliest enemies must ac-
to be ineffaceable. She
took the rude barbarians who were
laying Europe desolate, and she
them into a Christian people
with "a strong hand and a. determined
purpose. North and South, East ana
West, her footsteps passed with a mu-
sic like the tramp of armies, and "a
success that could only come from
the God of battles.
She has seen kingdoms rise and
rule and perish and yet she grows not
Ia. hoe .nar bfetnr;ac Ha,,,,. r.,,