The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1912-03-11

man, Dane nor Devil. nor all the
forces of iniquity combined. have ever
been able to quench one spark of its
holy light. Away back in the unhol-
lest age OF our nations story we meet
with hoary headed man landing on
the shores of pagan Erin. No strang-
er he. The memory of other days
spent as a swineherd on the lonely
hills Of Ire.and made him quite IA
miliar with the place; and the I'M
cody masters under whom he served
as slave while yet tender lite
French lad recalled sadly to his mind
the spiritual needs of her idolatrous
peop e. Aside from this he remem-
bered them only as a bright, brave
ed people, wanting not one of those
highest qualities which had made other
peoples, such as the Greeks and Ro-
mans, pre- eminent in the past. It
was a terrible thing, thought he, that
such a gallant, gifted race, and for
a fault not wholly theirs, shou d Re
lost to God forever. One who rules
supreme in courts On high must have
thought the same, and with this very
thought inspired His holy servant.
And SO with a commission that was
God-born the destined apostle of our
of Ireland. The year was 434 of the
Christian era He bore with him
credentials from Gods vicegerent
CeleStine, who sat that year on the
chair Of Peter. With his present
coming was sounded the death knell
of Irish paganism, and the doom of it's
Druid priesthood was likewise forever
wondering princes did he raise aloft
two bits of wood put crossw Sc thus,
wherein he pictured for them a very
God writhing in the throes Of death
for the sins of man. Into their Won
dering ears did he pour the tale of
by man against his maker. next in
turn did he tell them of redemption
and redemptions God whose infinite
purity must have a virgin mother.
And then as if to quell their doubts
forever concerning dogma of the
greensward upon which he stood, a
three-leaved thing which preached
most eloquently in its simple Irish
way the stupendous mystery Of the
T,riune God of glory. And so, Ladies
and Gentlemen, on that memorable
ago, when he first confronted prince
and Druid on Imperial Tara, st. Pat
rick made the shamrock immortal as
the race that loves and wears 1t on
each ST. Patrick's day. Then and
there began that crusade which ter
minated only with 1.-THE adjustment of
every idol and pagan custom of the
time and place.
Temples dedicated to heather deitics
were changed ere long into sanctuar-
les Of the one true God. The mad
ceremonies Of Druidism gave away
gladly and forever to that adorable
sacrifice wherein priest and victim are
divine, the mass, which today tn ough-
out every land from pole to pole and
at every hour makes Calvary And
their Druid priesthood too was super
seeded by yet another, oh, yes, an, in
finitely better priesthood, that super
| Tor masterpiece of divine omnipotence,
which God Himself did fashion once
| and finish to HIS supremest liking, the
Christian Catholic priesthood of the
| new law. ST. Patrick found ireland
universally pagan, and oh, the glory
and the boast Of it all when we reflect
on the doings of other so-called Christ
i ian nations without the loss of a sim
gle Irish life, yea, without the she'd
ding OF one drop of Irish blood he lief,
| the land universally Catholic
| Such, Ladies and Gentlemen, 10 the
/ story, simply and briefly told, not how
| st. Patrick lived nor how he labored
among our forefathers, but rathe,
| how he met and mastered the giant
! task to win them over an entire ma
| ton Of pagan strangers and bound
| them every one, king and common err
priest and chieftian, to the unshaker
rock of Peter.
That Ireland throughout her lone
| career of centuries has persevered in
the olden faith, remaining free from
Z every prevailing whim and undergo
| ing no change of doctrine whatsoever
| is by no means difficult to answer
Throw open times dusty records and
| study we'll the history Of the Irish
Church from st. Patrick's time ever
to our own. Is not her entire story
an open book? Contrasted with those
of other nations, the doctrines of the
Irish Church stand out in bold relic,
remarkable in all their original Christ
ian purity and preservation. Her
creed today in every sense and phase
Is that which was preached by the
Christ Of old on Eastern shore an(
hillside, and which was professed ant