The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-04-01
OF
 FATHER BYRNE
 THRILLS MANY
Large Congregation Hears Discourse On "Death
 And Judgment ''


 powerful and eloquent sermon on ''Death and Judgment' at the fourth of the series of Lenten sermons We'd nesday evening at St. Augustines R. c. church. The sermon in part fol- lows:
 ''Sin has fearful consequences here in this life. It fills the mind with remorse and fear. It bruta1izes the human heart rendering it selfish to the extreme. It often even wrecks bod fly health and leaves man unfit for an earthly existence. The home suf- fers because of sin. From it come
 nisund derstandings and enmfty. The best and dearest friends of the sinner suffer grievous pain because of his the enemey of God and loses all grace and all rights to the eternal glory pre- pared by God for human souls. The consequences of sin are not over with the losses he suffers here. His great est misery comes after life.
 Life will end one day. We shall all die Our time of probation will soon be over and we shall bid a long farewell to all we possess and enjoy here. There's nothing so sure as death. We shall follow the road of all past generations, and after 1ife's What we are they were: what. they are we shall be.
 t'There's nothing so uncertain as the hour and manner of our death. Peo- pie die in youth, in middle age, in old age. No progress of medical science can stay the hand of death. It may come without a moments notice, it may come after a long illness. It is rarely expected, for even in illness we nurse the fond hope of recovery until the very end is upon us Our friends, will even inspire with such hopes and it is with the greatest truth. Our Lord Jesus Christ warns us that it will come like a, thief in the night. We must depart and we take with us nothing but the record of our life.
 After death comes the judgment. What judgment! God who knows everything, even our most secret thoughts will be our judge. We can not hide our actions or. our motives. He knows how much of malice and how much of weakness there is in our works. He knows all our mean. ness, all our seldshness. Our soul is an open book to Him in which in plain writing He reads and shows up to us our whole life, thoughts, words and deeds.
 God, our Judge, is, strictly just Judge. As in life He was infinitely mercifuI to us so in death is He in hnitely just. He must deal justly.
 
 to our exact merits or demerits. His mercy does not and cannot oppose His justice-one attribute is as essential to Gods Perfection as the other. It is for us to live piously, and thus win a favorable sentence.
 "God is infinitely powerful. Human judges are sometimes unable to en- force a just sentence. Not so God. He is all power-the source of every power. His just Judgment cannot be eVaded. His is not subject to fear or bribery The heavens and the earth i tremble before Him. How terrible the condition of the sinner, poor, help vocate, without an intercessor. His life's work stares him in the face and no defence forthcoming. A judge who knows all is infinitely just, and inf1n- i itely powerful is about to pass a sem tence. What a sentence!
 Depart from me ye accursed into 1 everlasting fires. The soul is driven l from the sight of God, the vision of God is, deprived of what should make its happiness for eternity. It loses it's best and most devoted friend, is e7zi1ed from it's home and country and shall never know the cheering smile l or consoling word of friendship. It 1 is hard to lose home and friends but 1 what is it to lose heaven and God. l This is the most excruciating of the i tortures of heI1-the home-sickness of | hell. The body will also suffer and | in all it's senses. Its destiny is with | the damned; no charity no love, ha- tired, plasphemy, bowling despair will ] be it's portion, and forever. Just | think of it. As long as God will be | God the damned will suffer. It is | not for a, day, or a, week or a year. After million years hell is only be- ginning. After million of millions | of years it is no nearer it's end. This thought is terrifying and with truth | and great mercy did Our Lord Jesus | Christ warn us to fear Him who could plunge both body and soul in | eternal tornents.' the beginning of | wisdom is the fear of the Lord Fear God.
 "Iany sheer at these truths They them the inventions of halIu- cinated min ds7-or at most exaggerat- ed concepts of 8 Divine institution. These are the, very teaching of Jesus Christ Mind the authority of Christ 3 sheer, a smile, a look of contempt, a doubt in the mind will not put out hel1's fire. Facts are not to be disre- garded. Be careful-the consequent ces are too great. The sinner who negIects these truths hangs as it were suspended over that abyss of torture. by a slender thread-the thread of life that may easily snap at any mo- ment How rash the careless and in different life of so many men! In the fact of these truths how striking the words of Our Lord, What doth it profit a man to gain the world and lose his soul?'
 'fThere's a remedy to sin. Do not neglect to use it. Do not put off the appreciation of it, for we never know when the last opportunity of profting oy it comes. Many delayed and were ost. The remedy is penance, confes-1 sion. Confession is a sacrament in- ,tituted by Jesus Christ for the re- mission of sins. Before leaving this earth He left to the Apostles and their the power of judging sins with full Jurisdiction to forgive or re- ain them, whose sins ye shall forgive hey are forgiven them, whose sins ye haI1 retain they are retained The