Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

fathers of future generations; but more particularly would we address those who expect to depend upon their own exertions for support, and with their own strong right arms and brave hearts carve out a name and "make a mark." Just as soon as you begin to feel that life is to you no holiday, and that there is something for you to do, then you are beginning to individualize yourself, to form your habits, and to make of yourself what you will be in all your after-life. Then you shoulder the knapsack of your own responsibility and set out upon the great highway of life to seek your fortune.

At this very period boys are apt to think it looks "manly" to smoke a cigar or take a chew of tobacco. Manly! There never was a greater mistake. We do not like to say it looks dishonest to see a boy chew tobacco, but we will say that a cigar in a boy's mouth, or the smell of tobacco about him, is not a recommendation. Why, if we happened to be the noted merchant "Mr. Stewart" or "Mr." somebody else, controlling a large business, and a boy should present himself to us to obtain employment, holding up his head as though he were not ashamed of his business, and say in a tone with a ring of true coin in it, “I never use tobacco, sir," would we examine the texture of that boy's clothes, or take into account the patch on his elbow? Would we expect to find the germ of a drunkard or a thief, or a lazy, idle, good-for-nothing lout inside of that boy's jacket? No, indeed! There is the self-denial of true" manliness." There is the spirit that will rise above circumstances and privations, the germ that will unfold the strength and vigor of true manhood. We would ask no better recommendation. We would find something for that boy to do, and hold out our hand in kindness and encouragement to bid him God-speed.

It is simply disgusting to see a man chew tobacco, but it is melancholy to see a boy. We can hardly help picturing him an easy prey to other temptations, and associating his future life with other more appalling evils. It suggests nothing pure, nothing elevating. Never begin it, boys. If you have money to spend, buy books, and cultivate the higher and nobler part of your natures. If every boy can't be a lawyer or a senator, every boy can be a MAN. So when you pack up the knapsack of your future self, set tobacco in your "catalogue of negatives;" set your boy's boot upon it with a good firm stamp that will keep you free from its polluting touch, and mature age will find you a healthier, wiser, and richer man.

[ocr errors]

PRESERVING YOUTH. Cardinal de Salis, who died 1785, aged 110 years, said: "By being old when I was young, I find myself young now I am old. I led a sober and studious, but not a lazy or sedentary life. My diet was sparing, though delicate; I rode or walked every day, except in rainy weather, when I exercised within doors for a couple of hours. So far I took care of the body; and as to the mind, I endeavored to preserve it in due temper by a scrupulous obedience to divine commands."

"LIKE BEGETS LIKE."

"The sins of the fathers are visited upon the children." BASKET in hand, I entered the store, and asked for nuts (I was buying for Christmas), without noticing a boy who sat upon a barrel near me, until he exclaimed, "Nuts! nuts! what do you want of nuts?" Poor boy! he looked as if no one ever bought nuts for his Christmas. He had a difficulty of vision painful to behold-it seemed an effort to look you in the face. It was not from shame or modesty, for the boy was a vagabond, but evidently a constitutional defect. Without raising his head, his eyes were elevated with a leer so like a drunkard's, with an expression so far beyond his years, that I was struck with the expression. Upon a slight examination of his head and physique, I could discover no such defect as would account for the eccentricity. In pity I gave him an apple, when the storekeeper told him to "cluck and crow" for it. Turning his back to me I heard an old hen's clucking as if in search for a soft, downy spot for her unlaid egg; then, standing upon his feet, he faced me, pulled his hat down over his eyes, raised himself upon his toes, slapped his sides with his hands as a rooster would flap his wings, and crowed after the fashion of the genuine shanghae. It was done so naturally, that it were easy to fancy oneself in the barnyard. Afterward he told me his name, and that his "father and mother had turned him out doors"-one, or both, being drunk. I knew something of the family. Of eight children, half are in the " county-house," from whence this boy had run away.

What a sad life he has before him!-the curse of the drunkard's obscured mind stamped upon him at its birth. When I looked upon my own two-year old a few hours afterward, I thanked God that its father's beverage was pure water."

66

A. B. C.

THE SANITARY INFLUENCE OF LAUGHTER.

Laugh and grow fat" is an aphorism which needs little argumentation to sustain it. To be happy we must be cheerful; and to render that cheerfulness truly enjoyable, one must now and then yield to mirthful impulses. As a healthful agent, a full-chested, “hearty" laugh is unrivaled. When his patient smiles, the doctor takes hope.

A clerical friend, at a celebrated wateringplace, met a lady who seemed hovering on the brink of the grave. Her cheeks were hollow and wan, her manner listless, her steps languid, and her brow wore the contraction so indicative both of mental and physical suffering, so that she was to all observers an object of sincere pity.

Some years afterward he encountered this same lady, but as bright, and fresh, and youthful-so full of healthful buoyancy and so joyous in expression-that he began to question if he had not deceived himself with regard to her identity.

"Is it possible," said he, "that I see before

[ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

And what was it that we saw? The hair, magnified to resemble small ropes, each studded with clustering masses, perhaps two or three on a hair, like swarms of bees as they hang from trees, or the unsightly excrescences called " Black Knot" that deform our plum and cherry orchards. A hair plucked direct from the head of the horrified wearer of "gregarines" presented a smooth surface, perfectly free from these hideous parasites.

"Why?" we gasped, almost unwilling to believe the evidence of our own senses-" why is it that curls,' and 'switches,' and 'foundadations' are all so infested?"

"Much of the imported hair is brought from graveyards," was the reply of our scientific authority. "The dead are rifled for the sake of the living, and the hair that has long lain in coffins can hardly be a healthful appendage to living cerebellums. A great deal, moreover, is cut from the heads of Circassian women, who are-well, they are certainly not celebrated for their personal cleanliness!"

Well, what are we to do, thus confronted with bare, indisputable facts? The fact that these insect millions-for each one of these excrescences is said to contain something like ten hundred thousand gregarines—are in a state of torpidity, requiring such heat as only is evolved from chemists' furnaces to quicken them into life, is very little comfort. Boiling will not kill them-baking only starts them into vigorbrushes are powerless upon them. The hairs which we saw magnified had previously been repeatedly rubbed and wiped upon pocket handkerchiefs without being able to remove the clinging swarms!

What are we to do? Are we to heat our brains with piled-up cushions of "Circassian" hair and graveyard spoils? Are we to make ourselves hideous, simply to be in the fashion? Forbid it, good sense, cleanliness, self-respect. Sooner would we shave our heads and go about with pates like Franciscan monks! Let us have a new state of things! let us wear our hair as Nature intended it should be worn, pure, clean, and graceful! For once, let Fashion and Reason coincide.

A LADY.

[graphic][ocr errors][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors]

EMINENT ROMAN CATHOLIC CLER

GYMEN.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES, WITH PORTRAITS.

On the opposite page we publish our ninth group of representative American clergymen. The denomination which these reverend gentlemen advocate and earnestly seek to advance in number and influence is already one of the most powerful on this continent; while in the United States proper the religion of Rome, fostered by universal toleration and disseminated by the multitudes of immigrants from countries essentially Roman Catholic, seems in a fair way to attain ere long among us a position second to no other denomination. Its rapid growth is marked by the numerous church, educational, and charitable edifices everywhere erected or being erected. Especially is its strength and extension marked in the States of the West, where the finest buildings for religious and educational purposes are in nearly every instance the property of zealous, enterprising Catholics. The Cathedral of St. Paul and St. Peter in Philadelphia is probably the largest church edifice in the United States.

According to the Catholic Almanac for 1865, there were in this country seven archbishops, thirty-seven bishops, five vicars apostolic, three mitred abbots, and about 2,400 priests, with a Roman Catholic population of nearly 4,500,000. At present the number can not be far from 5,000,000.

In considering the portraits composing our group, we are struck by one expression common to all-it is a deep, settled gravity. In some, to be sure, this expression is more strongly marked, and appears the outgrowth of natural or acquired asceticism. In nearly every instance the intellectual faculties are well developed, and that species of intellectual force prevails which inclines one to close study and meditation. Probably the most practical "Father" of the group is Rev. Sylvester Malone, who seems at the same time to possess an exuberant good-nature and strong social qualities. Rev. J. P. Woods exhibits considerable breadth of forehead, indicating good reasoning ability, unusual vivacity, and a strong appreciation of the humorous and comic. Tune is also large with him. We infer from the photograph that Archbishop Spalding possesses an excellent memory of details or minor facts. Benevolence is largely shown in most of the portraits, especially in those of Archbishop Spalding, Bishop Lynch, and Revs. Thomas Farrell, I. T. Hecker, Thomas Preston, and James Keogh. Among those who are distinguished for strength of will, and for those forceful elements of character which impart boldness, opposition, or aggression, we may specify the archbishops, and "Fathers" Malone, Farrell, and Hecker.

It is to be lamented that several of our portraits do not fully meet our wishes, owing to the inferior photographs which were the best we were able to procure.

THE MOST REV. MARTIN JOHN SPALDING, D.D., Archbishop of Baltimore, was born in Kentucky, early in this century. He graduated at the Propaganda in Rome, and after being ordained priest, served in that capacity for several years. On the 10th of September, 1848, he was consecrated Bishop of Legone, and coadjutor to the Right Rev. Dr. Flaget, Bishop of Louisville; in 1864 he was, in accordance with a papal bull, appointed to succeed the late Archbishop Kenrick in the see of Baltimore, and on the 1st of August, 1864, he was consecrated for such position with the usual ceremonies. On the 25th of July, 1858, the Congregation of the Propaganda, by a decree which was confirmed by his holiness Pope Pius IX., granted the prerogative of place to the see of Baltimore, thus making the Archbishop of that see the Primate of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States, and thus giving him the seat of honor above all other archbishops, without regard to promotion or consecration. In accordance with this decree, Archbishop Spalding presided over the Council of Catholic prelates that assembled in Baltimore last year, and delivered the opening address, which was extensively copied by the press of the country at that time; the address was a brief and remarkably lucid and able review of the Catholic Church, together with a resume of its progress in America. The Roman Catholic Church in the United States has never probably possessed a prelate of greater ability, and one more untiring in his efforts to promote the cause of his religion. An accomplished scholar and a profound theologian, he long since became widely known through his writings on religious subjects. Commencing first as a writer of reviews, he soon attracted considerable notice by the vigor with which he attacked those authors who differed from his Church, or who attacked its infallibility. His "History of the Reformation," published in two large volumes, is one of the most searching and exhaustive accounts of the great schism from the Catholic Church that has ever been written, and is ranked among the standard theological works in America. He also published "Evidences of Catholicity," ""Sketches of the Early Catholic Missions in Kentucky,' Miscellanea," together with other works, all of which have commanded large circulations, and are still regarded as among the ablest defenses and expositions of the Roman Catholic religion.

99.66

THE MOST REV. JOHN MCCLOSKEY, D.D., second Archbishop of New York, was born in the city of Brooklyn, N. Y., in the year 1810. At an early age he studied for the priesthood, and in January, 1834, was ordained priest by Bishop Dubois. Soon after his ordination he was appointed pastor of St. Joseph's Church in New York. In 1844 he was consecrated Bishop, and appointed coadjutor to the Archbishop of New York, and in 1847 he was transferred to Albany when that city was erected into a new diocese, and on I the 21st of August, 1864, was installed with the usual ceremonies Archbishop of New York, to succeed the late lamented Archbishop Hughes.

Archbishop McCloskey is considered one of the most polished orators in the Catholic Church in the United States. In his private character he is known as possessing all those virtues which endear man to his fellowman; possessed of a kind and charitable heart, he is constantly engaged in the endeavor to alleviate suffering and to elevate the moral and social standing of those intrusted to his care.

MOST REV. JOHN BAPTIST PURCELL, D.D., Archbishop of Cincinnati, was born in Mallow, County of Cork, Ireland, about the year 1798, and came to the United States while yet a boy. After receiving a preliminary education here, he was sent to finish his studies at the famous seminary of St. Sulpice, in Paris, where he graduated with high honors; he was ordained priest, and returned to the United States about the year 1822.

He was soon after appointed president of the well-known Catholic College and Seminary of Mount St. Mary's, Emmettsburg, Md. In accordance with a special bull from the Pope, he was appointed Archbishop of the see of Cincinnati, and consecrated Bishop, October 13th, 1833. About the year 1840 he became well known by his controversial letters (which were published in two volumes) with the famous Dr. Campbell, founder of the Campbellites, on "Catholicity vs. Protestantism.” Dur

ing the late war he took a prominent part in sustaining the Government, both by voice and pen; he was also among the first to urge through his official organ (the Catholic Telegraph of Cincinnati) the abolition of slavery in the Southern States.

THE RIGHT REV. P. N. LYNCH, D.D., Bishop of Charleston, S. C., was born in South Carolina about the year 1812. After receiving a preliminary education in the United States, he went to finish his ecclesiastical studies at the College of the Propaganda in Rome, where he was ordained priest. He then returned to the United States, and labored in South Carolina as a zealous priest. On March 14th, 1858, he was appointed and consecrated Bishop of Charleston, to succeed the late Bishop Reynolds.

At the commencement of the late war, Bishop Lynch became well known throughout the country by his correspondence with the late Archbishop Hughes, in which he championed and advocated the "justice of the Southern cause," and tried to controvert the well-known Union views of Archbishop Hughes. In private life, Bishop Lynch is beloved for his many noble traits of character, especially for that of benevolence. He showed much kindness to Union prisoners of war in Charleston. As a preacher, he is well known for his eloquence. After the close of the war he preached in nearly all the Catholic churches in New York in aid of the destitute poor of Charleston. His goodness and piety have endeared him to the Catholics of America generally.

VERY REV. DENNIS DUNNE, D.D.,

Vicar-General and Administrator of the Diocese of Chicago, born in Queens County, Ireland, February 24th, 1824. Early in the following year his family emigrated to Miramichi, in the northern part of the Province of New Brunswick, where, under the guidance of pious parents, he early evinced a decided disposition for the priesthood. At that time there were but few Catholic collegiate institutions even of a preparatory character, either in the United States or the British Provinces. That in Prince Edward's Island, founded by the late lamented Bishop McDonald, was the most distinguished for affording to the student a thorough knowledge of the classics, mathematics, etc., necessary to form the foundation of a sound and wholesome theological education. Under the tutelage of the celebrated John Slattery, who afterward entered the Society of Jesus, and was one of the best classical teachers and critics of his time, the young Dunne quickly acquired the knowledge necessary to fit him for the study of the higher branches. As a school-boy, he manifested those qualities of sound judg ment, and that peculiar tact for conciliating his fellowstudents, without offending any but attracting all, which have since been frequently applauded by the men of stronger passions and sturdier intellects whom he has been commissioned to direct.

Having finished his preparatory studies, he entered the theological department of the University of Laval at Quebec, from which in deacon's orders he went to Chicago, his family having in the mean time emigrated thither. During the vacancy in the diocese caused by the death of Bishop Quarter, he was ordained priest by Bishop Lefevre, of Detroit, and immediately entered upon the arduous duties of a missionary in the diocese of Chicago; this was in 1848, when that unexplored diocese had but few priests, and their perilous labors were almost unknown beyond their extensive sphere. After the transfer of Bishop Vandevelde to the diocese of Natchez, his successor, Bishop O'Regan, aware of Mr. Dunne's zeal and influence among the clergy and of his administrative talents, promoted him to the position of vicar-general, which he still holds, with credit to himself and satisfaction to his subordinates. His labors in the cause of Catholic charity as well as of philanthropy are visible in the institutions which for the protection of the orphan and the reformation of the juvenile delinquent he has founded and fostered in the Garden City of the great West. He was the first in the United States to reduce to practical form the idea of those peculiar institutions which have since flourished so effectively under the zealous direction of Father Haskins at Boston, and the lamented Dr. Ives at New York.

At present, during the protracted absence of Bishop Duggan, the entire burden of a large diocese comprising

106 priests according to the Catholic Almanac, rests upon his shoulders, and by every one his administration is acknowledged to be most satisfactory.

A most determined opponent of slavery as ne is of tyranny, at the commencement of our national struggle he vigorously espoused the cause of the Union and freedom. By his own exertions he placed in the field, fully armed and equipped, the gallant 90th Illinois infantry, so famous in our war history on every field from Vicksburg to Mission Ridge, where by companies, including their brave Colonel O'Meara, they freely poured out their life-blood to uphold and advance the flag of their adopted country.

In person, the Very Rev. Dr. Dunne is tall and dignified, with a face expressive of qualities eminently social and attractive, and withal of unmistakable firmness.

REV. THOMAS FARRELL was born in Longford, Ireland, in the year 1820, and came to the United States while yet a child. He received his ecclesiastical education and graduated at Mount St. Mary's College, Emmettsburg, Md., and was ordained priest in the year 1847. He engaged at first in missionary labor; then became pastor of St. Paul's Church, Harlem, and afterward at St. Mary's Church, Grand Street. In 1857 he was appointed pastor of his present church (St. Joseph's, corner of Sixth Avenue and West Washington Place), one of the oldest and most influential congregations in New York.

During the late war Mr. Farrell was well known for his earnest and uncompromising advocacy of the "cause of the Union," and was a consistent and steadfast opponent of human slavery, believing firmly in the rights of man to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. During the dark days of the rebellion our Government had among the clergy North no more steadfast champion, and republican institutions no firmer and sincerer friend than Thomas Farrell. As a scholar and theologian, he is ranked among the foremost divines of the Catholic Church in the United States. As a preacher, he belongs more to the solid than to the brilliant order. As a great lover of truth, he is known and beloved by men of all denominations for his noble qualities of heart and mind. Among his brethren of the clergy he is looked up to with the greatest respect and affection, so much so, that it is remarkable how many go to him for counsel and advice, and what implicit faith they place in his judgment and understanding.

REV. ISAAC THOMAS HECKER was born in New York, Dec., 1819. He received his education in this city, and entered into business with his brothers in the well-known milling and baking establishment of Hecker Brothers. He passed the summer of 1843 with the Association for Agriculture and Education at Brook Farm, West Roxbury, Mass., and subsequently spent some time in a similar institution in Worcester Co., Mass. He returned to New York in 1845, and became converted to, and received into, the Roman Catholic Church. Soon after taking this step he determined on entering the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, and after making his novitiate at St. Trond, in Belgium, was admitted to the order in 1847. On the completion of his ecclesiastical studies he was sent by his superiors to England, and in 1849 was ordained priest by the late Cardinal Wiseman. He passed two years in England, engaged in missionary work. In 1851 he returned to New York, in company with several members of his order, and for the next seven years was constantly employed in missionary labors in various parts of the United States. In 1857, having visited Rome, Father Hecker with some of his colleagues were released by the Pope from their connection with the Redemptorists, and in 1858 he. founded with his companions a new missionary society under the name of the Congregation of St. Paul the Apostle, whose church and monastery are at the corner of Ninth Avenue and Fifty-ninth Street. Father Hecker is the author of "Questions of the Soul" (1855), and "Aspirations of Nature" (1857). While in Rome he published two papers on Catholicity in the United States, which were translated into several languages, and extensively read in Europe and America. About two years ago he started in this city the Catholic World, a monthly magazine of great literary ability, devoted to the interest of the Catholic Church. He is also well known as an able and eloquent lecturer on religious and secular subjects.

REV. SYLVESTER MALONE was born in Meath, Ireland, in the year 1821, and emigrated to the United States when but seventeen years of age. While yet a mere boy his heart yearned for God's holy sanctuary, and accordingly he entered St. John's College, Fordham, where he graduated. He was ordained priest in 1844, and sent to the eastern district of Brooklyn, then known as the city of Williamsburg. The population then was only 10,000, and there was no Catholic place of worship there. The energy and zeal of Mr. Malone soon showed itself; he had been there but a short time when he had built one of the handsomest and most substantial churches in the diocese, well known as Sts. Peter and Paul's Church. It may be here remarked that Mr. Malone was the first priest to introduce the Gothic style of architecture into the building of Catholic churches in this country, and his architect (P. C. Keely) has since designed over three hundred in that style. The Williamsburg that he knew with no Catholic church now has twelve, all grown out of his parish, to testify to his zeal and earnest work as a faithful minister. In the twenty-four years that he has resided in Brooklyn there is no name more honored and esteemed and spoken of with more affection by men of all creeds than the name of Rev. Sylvester Malone. As a pulpit orator, he is eloquent and fervid; his sermons are all extempore, and of a pure, elevated style. During the late civil war his patriotic record will long he remembered by every lover of free institutions. Perceiving at once that the dissolution of the Union would be the end of self-government everywhere, he threw all his influence, moral and social, on the side of our Government; his whole instincts yearned for freedom, and no man's heart beat gladder than his when it was announced that American slavery was at an end. When the great fair for the benefit of the Sanitary Commission took place, he was one of its most active supporters. When his ward committee were trying to raise their quota for the army, he, unsolicited, generously gave one fourth of his salary for a year for that object. It may truly be said of him that he is more American than the Americans themselves." As a minister, he is distinguished for an intense desire to instill and disseminate the principles of Christian charity, avoiding all sectarian controversy, and illustrating the truth of his religion by a life replete with good deeds to his fellow

man.

REV. THOMAS S. PRESTON was born in the State of Connecticut in the year 1824; was educated and graduated with distinguished honors at Trinity College, Hartford, and was ordained a minister of the Protestant Episcopal Church in 1846. He became assistant minister of the Church of the Annunciation (Dr. Seabury's), of New York city, and afterward in St. Luke's Church, the well-known Rev. Dr. Forbes being at that time pastor. The great tractarian movement of Dr. Pusey, which was then in agitation, and which brought so many inquiring Protestants within the Catholic Church, had its effect on the subject of this sketch, who, with his associate, Dr. Forbes, embraced the Roman Catholic religion, and were received into its communion in 1849. In 1850 Mr. Preston was ordained a priest, and appointed an assistant pastor at the cathedral. In 1855 he was appointed Chancellor of the diocese-a position of high honor-which he still continues to hold in connection with the rectorship of St. Ann's Church, to which he was appointed in 1861. Father Preston is known as a ripe scholar and dogmatic theologian, and an eloquent divine. As an author, he has published several religious and devotional works, among them Controversy of Reason and Revelation," "Lectures on Christian Unity," a Volume of Sermons, etc.

[ocr errors]

THE REV. JOSEPH P. WOODS was born in New York in the year 1836, educated under the Jesuit Fathers, and graduated with the highest academic honors from St. Francis Xavier College. He then entered St. Joseph's Theological Seminary, Fordham, and was elevated to the priestly office about the year 1857 by the late Archbishop Hughes, who appointed him assistant pastor of the cathedral. Here he made hosts of friends. He loved the work of the ministry, finding in it his highest and purest joys, as well as his severest trial. He showed himself the sympathizing friend of the people, studying their characters, that he might the

better know how to correct them. After four years' arduous labor in the cathedral parish he was appointed pastor of St. Augustine's parish, Morrisania, extending from Harlem bridge to Fordham, where he is the idol of his people, and ever spoken of with respect and esteem. In stern religious and moral feeling, in moral courage, in honesty, in fidelity, in charity, in patience, he holds in supreme contempt all arts to obtain popularity; independence and integrity are to him of priceless worth.

"His honor, his life both grow in one; Take honor from him, and his life is done." The mental qualifications of Father Woods are of a high order, and, moreover, they are under the rigid dis cipline of a strong understanding. He is an occasional contributor to some of our weekly and monthly mag azines, and we hear that he is engaged at present preparing a religious work for publication. Kindness constitutes a prominent element of his nature. Maxie and the fine arts have always been cherished and cultivated by him with the greatest affection. Not only does he perform himself, but he is endowed with a rich voice. In the pulpit this gentleman is at home. His preaching is more instructive of late years than rhetorical; the ardor of poetical fire is tempered into the genial glow of a healthful enthusiasm. The fluency and beauty of his language, his earnest manner, his action, conspire to make him an effective speaker. He is all nerve-each sense, each faculty is absorbed in the great subject of his thought. His memory supplies quotations learned and to the point; his imagination calls each poetic fancy quick to bis aid, and his love of music attunes itself to all the varied tones of his discourse, awakening in every breast the sentiments and impres sions of his own. In delivery he is bold and commanding, and some of his best and most happy addresses have been extemporaneous flashes. Father Woods is con sidered one of the most promising and rising divines in the Catholic Church in this diocese.

REV. EDWARD MCGLYNN, D.D., was born in New York in the year 1837, attended the public schools of that city, and graduated from the Free Acad emy. He then determined to prepare himself for the priesthood, and went to finish his ecclesiastical studies at the American College of the Propaganda in Rome, where he graduated with distinguished honors, and was ordained priest in 1860. During the war he served as chaplain in one of the army hospitals for three years. In 1865 the late Rev. Dr. Cummings requested the ap pointment of Dr. McGlynn as his assistant, which was │ granted, and after the death of Dr. Cummings, Dr. McGlynn was appointed pastor of St. Stephen's Church, of this city, one of the wealthiest and largest congrega tions in the United States. In preaching, Dr. McGlynn belongs to the solid and persuasive school; his language is pure and elevated. He is alive to the genius of Amer ican institutions, but no less active in extending the influence of the Catholic Church in America. We might instance several of his lectures, especially one which he delivered in Cooper Institute about a year ago, adrocating the progressive character of the Catholic Church, in which he displayed sound reason and good judgment. In private life Dr. McGlynn is admired and beloved for his genial and social qualities-in a word, he is the incarnation of sincerity.

REV. JAMES KEOGH, DD., was born in Ireland, and is now about thirty-five years of age. During his infancy his parents emigrated to the United States, and when ten years old he was sent to receive his preliminary education from an aged clergyman in Pittsburg, Pa. The young student displayed unusual talent; in fact, when but fourteen years old he was con sidered quite a prodigy, because of his proficiency in classical studies. He was soon after sent to the College of the Propaganda in Rome, to finish his theological studies. He graduated with high honors. At the end of his theological course, when but eighteen years old, he prepared a thesis treating of mental philosophy. Being yet too young, according to canonical usage, to be ordained, he remained in Rome continuing his studies. In November, 1856, he delivered a public defense or thesis from “Universali Theologia" in the pres ence of his holiness Pope Pius IX., the cardinals, and other dignitaries of Rome. In consideration of the

[ocr errors]

manner in which he acquitted himself, Pope Pius IX., by his own hands, presented him with a valuable copy, in mosaic, of Raphael's "Madonna of the Saggiola." He was then ordained priest, and afterward returned to the United States, since which time he has chiefly been engaged as Professor of Theology in the Catholic seminaries of Pittsburg and Philadelphia. At the great Catholic Council held in Baltimore last year he was one of the chief lights. Some months previous to the meeting of the Council, by appointment of Archbishop Spalding, he, in conjunction with Rev. Dr. Corcoran, of North Carolina, was engaged in preparing the Latin volume which was the basis of the discussion of the Council. As a preacher Dr. Keogh is judicions and happy. He has a prodigious memory, and probably will be better known

as a teacher than an orator. He is also editor of the Philadelphia Standard, the official organ of the Catholics of Philadelphia.

CARDINAL DOCTRINES.

The Catholic Church teaches that there is an all-perfect, eternal, spiritual Being, called God, who is possessed of infinite intelligence and free will, and who has of His free will created all other existences, both spiritual and material, out of nothing, with natures and substances totally distinct from His own, and not by any merc development or emanation from the Divine nature.

In this one God there are three persons-the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; each with one and the same divine nature.

That the human race was from the beginning elevated beyond its natural deserts to a condition of grace and communion with God, the consummation of which was to be a more perfect and everlasting communion with Him in the beatific vision which is called Heaven. That by violating the Divine law the race forfeited these gratuitous gifts, which were supernatural, without losing anything that its nature absolutely requires; so that man could have been created as he is now born; but that the individuals of the race incur, moreover, a penalty for their individual sins. Thus, those who die unregenerate, are excluded from heaven, and condemned to suffer the consequences and penalties of their personal sins, in that condition of being which is called hell, and which, as well as heaven, is, from the immortal nature of the soul, everlasting; and even the infant who dies unregenerate, no matter what degree of natural beatitude it may enjoy in the next life, has no right to, and will not attain to, the superior happiness of heaven.

That to restore man to the grace of God and the promise of heaven, and to atone for sin, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity became man, was born of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and suffered and died on the cross. He (Jesus Christ) is true God and true man, having two natures, the divine and human, in but one Divine Person, Christ's humanity never having had a mere human personality, as it was from the first instant of its existence made His own by the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity.

Christ is the new Adam, the Father of the order of regeneration. He came to regenerate men, in a manner adapted to their intelligence and free will, by teaching a system of truth and guiding and disciplining their affections; and hence He requires of us faith in His teachings and obedience to his ordinances. Besides the atonement, which Christ consummated on the cross, the other essential part of His mission, viz., the application of this atonement, and of His doctrine and ordinances to individual souls, He but began during His mortal life, and continues through a corporate Society which He has established for the purpose, and which He called His Church, and commissioned to teach, and gather into one fold, all nations, and with which He and His Holy Spirit are to abide to the end of the world; so that Christ is the Church, "His Body," as it is called by St. Paul, is living, and teaching all other ages and nations, with the same authority and explicitness with which He taught the nation and age in which He lived His mortal life.

He has made His Church the depositary of His doctrine and ordinances, and has given her a well-defined constitution, power, mission, and means for its fulfillment, which she has no power to change, being the creature and not the creator of this divine constitution, which Christ has declared should last till the consummation of the world."

The Apostles and their successors, the Bishops, are the teaching and governing body of the Church. One of the Apostles, Peter, was made by Christ chief and head of His Church (Matt. xvi.) and chief shepherd of His whole flock. (John xxi.) He (Peter) made Rome his See, and his successor, the Bishop of Rome, inheriting his authority, is the chief bishop, the center of Unity, and visible head of the Church, of which Christ is the invisible head and the Holy Ghost is the animating spirit. It is not the mission of the Church to invent or reveal new doctrines, but simply to transmit, expound, and define the original deposit of faith. This deposit of faith she does not gather from the Scriptures alone, the authenticity and inspiration of which she upholds, but from her own self-consciousness and her universal teachings, traditions, and practices; she being in her corporate capacity a cotemporary of Christ and His Apostles, as well as of every subsequent age, and an eye-witness and ear-witness, appointed for the purpose, of the teachings and ordinances of Christ. The living Church is really Christ's last will and "testament" to the world, of which the written book is on its face and by its own confession (John xxi.) but an imperfect fragmentary record. It is the mission of the Church to enforce Christ's law and apply His ordinances, chief among which are those solemn religious rights called sacraments, which are the outward visible signs and channels of the inward spiritual grace of Christ to those whose minds and hearts are properly prepared by faith and repentance to receive them.

There are seven sacraments established by Christ, viz., 1. Baptism, the sacrament of regeneration and initiation into the Christian Church. 2. Confirmation, in which a special gift of the Holy Ghost is received to perfect and confirm the Christian character in baptism. 3. The Eucharist, or sacrament of Christ's Body and Blood-the food of the spiritual life. 4. Penance (the spiritual medicine), for the forgiveness of sins committed after baptism. 5. Extreme Unction, to comfort and strengthen the dying. 6. Orders, for imparting the priestly and episcopal power. 7. Matrimony, for the confirming and sanctification of Christian marriage; the bond of which when once consummated the Church declares to be absolutely indissoluble.

The consecration, offering, and receiving by the priest of the Eucharist constitutes the Eucharistic sacrifice, which is commemorative of the sacrifice of the cross (1 Cor. xi.), and which, with the accompanying prayers and ceremonies, constitutes the solemn religious rite which is commonly called the Mass, from an old Latin word which occurs at the end of the service. The Church teaches that, by the power of the Almighty, at the word of consecration the bread and wine are changed into the Body and Blood of Christ, the forms and appearance only of bread and wine remaining as before. This change is called transubstantiation.

The ordinary condition precedent for the receiving of the sacrament of penance is, besides faith and repentance of sin, with purpose of amendment, the confession of one's sins to a priest, whose absolution constitutes the essential rite of this sacrament. (John xx.)

The Church teaches that works of self-denial, such as fasting, must be practiced, to discipline the lower appetites, and to do penance, or satisfaction, even for sins that have been absolved; and that there is a middle state of souls departed in the grace of God called purgatory, in which they are for a time excluded from heaven, either because of minor imperfections that will there be corrected or purged ont, or because they have not yet fulfilled the measure of penance which the Divine justice exacts even of the sinner to whom the eternal guilt has been remitted. The Church teaches that not only are its members benefited by the prayers and good works of one another in this life, but that this communion extends beyond the grave, that the souls in purgatory are benefited by the prayers and good works of the living, and that the living may ask and enjoy the prayers and efflcacious sympathy of those who have died in the grace of God.

The Church is partial to symbolism, and to an imposing and beautiful ritual in her worship, and believes that it is salutary to enlist in the service of religion and morality the natural instincts that make men treasure the portraits and every memorial of the departed objects of admiration or affection. It is in this spirit that she loves to adorn her churches and the homes of her members

with pictures and images of Christ, the Blessed Virgin, and other Saints, and places the relics of Christian martyrs under her altars. She believes that all the nobler capabilities of man should co-operate in fostering and giving expression to religion, which is the noblest of them all, and hence she calls to her aid in the expounding of her doctrines and the services of her ritual, philosophy, oratory, poetry, music, architecture, sculpture, and painting, the greatest masterpieces of which have been inspired of her genius.

While teaching that Christian marriage has the dignity of a sacrament, the Catholic Church enjoins absolute perpetual celibacy and chastity upon her clergy and upon others, both men and women, who dedicate themselves voluntarily by solemn vows in certain religious communities to works of charity and religion; which practice of celibacy and esteem for virginity she derives from the apostolic age, and commends by her experience of its utility in giving to her ministers a singlemindedness and devotion that were otherwise unattainable.

The highest authoritative utterances and enactments of the Church are those of her general councils of bishops, presided over by the Pope in person, or through his delegates. There have been eighteen general councils. The first was held at Nice, in Asia Minor, in the year 325, the last in Trent, 1545-1563.

The essential difference between the Roman Catholics and their separated brethren appears to be that the former believe in the indwelling of the Holy Ghost in the Church as a successor to Christ to infallibly teach the truths of faith and morals; whereas other Christian denominations profess to believe that the individual, aided by the illumination of the Holy Spirit for the searching mind, finds the truth of faith and morals in the Bible. The Catholic Church maintains in individual moral responsibility, whereby the individual who denies the authority of her teaching power is bound before God and man to leave her communion. The Catholic Church maintains the freedom of man, and his individual moral responsibility, which involves his capability of selfgovernment and adaptability to republican institutions. She also maintains the sacredness and inviolability of conscience, and refuses to admit to her communion those who do not sincerely believe and honestly accept her teaching.

SAINT PETER.

HIS PHRENOLOGICAL CHARACTER.

WE have lately received the following letter: "Editor Phrenological Journal-In our Sunday-school class, the phrenological character of ST. PETER, as shown in his life, was lately brought up as a topic for consideration. Will you please give us your opinion on the subject?"

We have always fancied that, if accustomed to drawing heads, we could portray St. Peter pretty nearly to the life. He must have had a stout, robust body, and have been broad in the shoulders, deep in the chest, brawny in the arms, broad in the back, with a plump abdomen, rather high cheek-bones, but a round, broad face notwithstanding, with a great, square manly chin, a firmly set and rather high nose with large nostrils, a square forehead, a head broad between the ears, strong in the occiput or social region; large in Approbativeness and Firmness; large in Combativeness, and not very large in Self-Esteem. His complexion we judge to have been bordering on the florid, with dark brown or black hair and beard, the latter slightly tinged with red, with a gray eye bordering on the blue. This would give him an impulsive temperament, great ardor, earnestness, and courage, and general enthusiasm and magnanimous manliness, which in many instances are clearly defined in his character. When his Master said to him,

« AnteriorContinuar »