The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1910-05-28

Aos Lulu. t' A.
dioceses sparsely populated With Cath
oiics. We have precedent for our &C
ton. Bismarck. Crookston and Lead,
at this moment of their creation, are j
in far better condition than many of
the dioceses l have named were at the |
time of their creation.
Pioneers Of Christianity.
1T is we'll to remember these humble !
beginnings now that the dioceses II
have named have become great sees
with numbers, wealth and glory that !
dazzle the eye and fire the magma ,
ton. 1t is we'll to remember our orig
ms this morning when bishops are
consecrated for new and poor do
ceses. Let US keep in mind our fathers
in the episcopate. Their disipterested-
ness, their self-sacrifice, their heroism,
their apostolic spirit are our richest
inheritance. Noble pioneers of Chris
tianity to whom God gave the oppor-
tunity to be like unto the Apostles
may the remembrance of them, may
the spirit of them remain with us, lest
in the days of harvest we forget the
toll of the sower, lest in the hour of
dazzling prosperity we forget the trials
and adversities of our ancestors; lest,
reading the present into the past, we
forget whence we sprung and fall into
the unapostolic notion that numbers
and wealth are the necessary pre-
requisites for the coming of a bishop,
whereas the prerequisites, as Christ
states them, are truth and grace and
men who need both.
Work for tho Apostles.
"How else is the church to be made
Catholic? When Christ commissioned
Ills Apostles and their successors to
teach all nations, his design was that
they should make His church univer-
sal. He did not Himself, though He
could have done so, bring the human
race at once, and in His lifetime under
the sway of the truths He taught and
the rule He established. He left this
result to be worked out by the Apos-
ties and their successors, satisfied in
His all-wisdom with depositing in the
church the potentiality of universal
evolution. The Church of Christ was
seed put in the soil, that is to say,
the human race. But the growth of
the tree is conditioned by soil and
heat and rain and all the various ele-
ments on which depends plant life, and
one element is time. The church was
a divine work located in finite and
human environment; as such she was
to grow in time; suffering loss. slow
ness, or acceleration as the surround
ing conditions might demand and inn
pose; but on the whole expanding
towards universally. The
world is" young time is the Lords;
fear not to behold the slowness or
seeming retrogression,, the church will
go on spreading, gathering in the chill
dren of men until there shall be but
one flock and one Shepherd.
."Now it is through the episcopate
that the church takes possession of
the earth; it is through the episcopate
that her expansion is manifested and
secured. Often. the pioneers and ad-
vance guard were adventurous and
Jealous priests; but the land was not
deemed to be securely held, nor the
people to be completely brought with
in the pale, nor Christian life to be
made self-suff1cing, until the bishop
with supreme authority to rule, with
power TO generate a priesthood, ap-
peared on the scene and assumed full
control. With him came progress,