The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1909-10-30
A CHOICE SELECTION
OF SACRED 0RAT0RY
An Extract From a Sermon
Recently Preached on the
Occasion of the Consecra-
ton of the New Bishop of
Clogher by Rev. r.Beecher
Professor of Theology and
Sacred Eloquence at Famed
College of Maynooth.

At the recent conservation of Bish-
op McKenna of Clogher, County Mon-
aghan, the Rev. DR.. Beecher, of May
nooth, preached the sermon, from
which the following extract is taken
as specimen of sacred eloquence:
If France today is practically lost
to the faith, America has arisen to
supply its place. And the lesson
herein contained, so far from being
exceptional, is, in the main, the les
son history has been teaching by
many examples. Churches that were
in all human probability, they will
never be great again. Who would ever
have thought that Antioch, where Pc
ter himself once ruled, would ever
cease to be Catholic? Who would
ever have thought that Ephesus, sa-
cred to him who in lone Patmos
gazed with eagle eye on the secrets
of heaven, would become but a name?
Where, today, is the Church of AL
exandria, of Origen and Clement,
where Christianity met the combined
and so-thought irresistible river OF
Jewish prejudice and Greek thought,
and turned back their waters? What
of Carthage, Of the eloquent Cyprian?
Where is Hippo, Of the great Angus
tine? Who. today can trace even the
ruins of Cappadocia, from which once
rang throughout the realms of Chris
tendon the united voices of the trI-
umvirate-Basil and the two Gregor-
les? They were not necessary for
either the catholicity or indefectibility
of the: Church; they felt the decay
ing touch of time, and, like dynas-
ties, they have ceased to be. And 80
true is this, SO unmistakable does the
human element make it's influence felt
in its characteristic changeableness,
that Christ, by the finger of His DOW
er, had to draw around the one Church
at Rome special circle of indefecti-
bility. 1t, and it alone, in virtue OF
Christ's promise, shall never cease 10
be, shall never know change. 1t and
it alone, by virtue Of Christ's prom
Use, T say; but we have cherished
tradition that our national apostle.
whilst on the summit of Croagh Pat
rick, did not cease to wrestle with
God in prayer until he obtained a like
promise for Ireland. What the his
torian and the theologian, examining
this under the white light of reason,
may say, I know not; but this I do
know, that history, in it's ample page,
holds nothing like the record Of the
far-reaching influence of the Faith
that St. Patrick brought to our shores.
This is not the time to enter, with
anything like fulness, into that re-
cord, and at most I can only refer
to epochs in its wonderful history.
Brethren, ours is Church which. al
though old, is ever young; though an
cient, is not antiquated; crowned
with the laurels of the ages, time
honored, but not time shattered. Ours
is land which was the Island OF
Saints and scholars while the other
countries of Europe, after the disrup-
tion of the Roman Empire, were tear
ing each other like monsters in the
slime; ours is a Church which for six
hundred years sent forth missionaries
who planted the standard of the Cross
over the bastions of paganism, over
the citadels of error and superstition,
whose bones today are honored on
countless foreign altars, from Iceland
to Sicily, from France to the very
depths of the Black Forest. Ours is
a Church which, when a tide of her.
esy rose in Europe and levelled into
detritus the landmarks of Catholicity
in Prussia, Denmark, Holland, Nor
way, and Sweden, and buried beneath
it's waters, save for the cathedrals
that stand shell-like as a memorial
to other days, the church that Au-
gustine founded in neighbourine
island, and that Thomas a Beckett con.
secrated with his blood-ours is j
Church, I say. that stood firm as the
rocks on our western coastline y.
they dash into spray every onslaught
of the Atlantic bi1lows. Ours is &
Church against which a nower sec.