The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-05-18

our religious sentiments externally,
 the love of our neighbor and the love
 of God
 If ever aspirations. thoughts, con-
 victfons, or feelings esieserve to be
 made known, surely they are those which show that we unhesitatingiy be-
 1ieve what God has taught firmly trust
 in His goodness. and love Him above
 alI things. The world sorely needs men who are hot ashamed of the Gos-
 pei of Christ. men who are willing to
 confess Him before their fellow-men,
 not merely fby words, but also and es-.
 peciaHy by leading thoroughly Chris tan lives. Such revelation Of our in;
 terior will be at once benefit to,
 mankind and hymn of praise in
 honor of God.
 Some may remind me that our Lord has told us to beware of doing our justice before men to be seen by them; to let not our left hand know what our right hand doth when we give aims; To shut our door and pray to our Father in secret (Adt. 6 Il, 8, s6. }. His warning Is against the spirit of hypocrites who did all these things in the synagogues and on the streets to be seen by men and to be praised by them. To do good works for such motives Is to rob them of merit in the sight of God. But to do good works III tAC 5l6l l1L OI men IOE the purpose or
 encouraging our neighbors to devote
 themselves to the service of God is
 Wh hoIesome and saIutary, and carry
 ing out Of the Divine Injunctfon- 80
 let your light shine before men that they may see your good works and
 give glory to your Father who is in Heaven. That religion demands the exter-
 nals of which we speak. both for it's maintenance and manifestations, can hardly be denied or serfously called into question by one who weighs care fully and irnpartia1ly such consider- ations as have set before you. Diff ference of opinion may arise con. corning the value and Importance of externals in general, concerning the number and kinds to be employed, Iconcerning the usefulness of this or that sign symbol, ceremony or point of belief. In this mornings discourse, hope to show that the Catholic church does not overestimate the. worth of these things, that she does
 not give them undue prominence, that she does not value them for them selves, that she would not retain them in her public worship, nor sanction them in the private devotions of her people, if there were any good reason to think that they had become in1ur- ious or had even ceased to be of ser vice for the worshfpping of God in
 spirit and truth.
 We know that there is a decided
 tendency in human nature to rest
 satisfied with a merely external relig
 ion. to the neglect of the interior consecration which is by far the more
 dfcuIt of attainment, but we do not
 think that the way to the correction
 of that abuse lies in the rejection of
 external creeds, symbols cerem ontes
 and devotions which many generations
 of pious souls have found most i'm
 structive and helpful, and which are still beneficial to those who use them
 according to the mind and directions
 Of the Church We have other bet
 ter, safer and most efIicacious means
 Of counteracting those tendencies The Church does not feel at liberty
 to discard externals from her worship of God She knows that that means
 the paralysis and death of devotion
 She is convinced that our instincts,
 habits, denands and needs should be
 taken into account, that man should
 he dealt with according to the laws and workings of the nature that God has given him She knows that we
 need these external objects for the deve1opment and enrichment of our spiritual life that they have been of almost inestimaBIe benefit to many
 souls, and therefore, she offers them to us in great abundance and variety. leaving it to us, as a rule, to choose for our own individual use those that we judge to be best suited to our needs and our tastes.
 She believes too that so far as is practicable and advantageous, all fair and beautiful things in the world around us should be consecrated to
 the honor and glory of God. Probably no one will disagree with that belief
 in theory. But when men criticise her
 for trying to live up to that conviction, when they take her to task for the
 ulasntfcence of her temples and the richness of her ceremonial, when they
 tell her. as they do, that what she
 spends on the worship of God might
 be spent on the poor. they are vir- tually and practically counselling hu-
 manity to be close and stingy with.
 the Giver of all good things Thank
 God, the Catholic church, and every
 truly Catholic heart, particularly the people of this parishs and with them millions of others who are not of our
 faith, think differently. May all of us be ever determined to give to God the best that we have or can afford Our churches are His earthly homes. He lives within them truly and sub
 stantiaIly Gathef together. then, en-
 during materials for their construc- ton; summon architecture to make
 them stately and impressive; call