Activate Javascript or update your browser for the full Digital Library experience.
Next Page
OCR
Vol. IX.— No. 13.
THE CATHOLIC HERALD.
18 PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY BY
M. FITHIAN, cue
No. 61 North Second Street, Philadeiphia.
Terms.—Three Dollars per annum, payable half yearly
tnadvance. . Five Dollars will be received for 2 copies, or 1
copy for two years,’ All arrearages must be settled prior to
ordering a paper to be discontinued, All Communications,
except from Agents, or Subscribers enclosing remittances,
must be post paid, and addressed ‘ ‘Io the Editor of the
Catholic Herald, Philadelphia, Pa.”
Poetry.
From the London Tablet.
THE ROCK OF AGES.
God! the Author and the End,
God ! from whom all gifts descend,
Gd! the Father and the just,
In Thy Church we place our trust :
Church, foretold by prophet sages,
Founded on the rock of Ages.
States have moulder'd in decay,
Crowns and sceptres passed away,
‘Time on all hath work’d its will,
But thy Charch endureth still:
Vain the war that ruin wages
*Gainst the Glorious Rock of Ages.
‘There thy choicest gifts abound,
‘There celestial peace is found,
There sublimest wisdom sways,
There the day no night obeys;
‘There pure faith the soul engages;
Charch of God, and Rock of Ages.
Through the pilgrimage of years,
Waste of sin, and vale of tears;
‘Through temptation, war, and strife,
Through ail change of mortal life,
Lo! thy Church each pain assuages
From the sacred Fount of Ages.
At thy holy altars stand
Priests of every clime and land ;
Whilst unnumber’d millions pay
Homage to thee night and day;
Holy saints and lofty sages,
‘Those proclaim the Rock of Ages.
Vain the tyrant’s power to chain,
_ Vain Oppression’s ghastly tain,
From a million martyrs’ blood,
Prouder rears the Holy Rood.
Vainly persecution rages
‘Gainst the sacred Rock of Ages.
Then till earth reclaims its dust,
Ta thy Church we place our trust,
~ Years may change und ages flee,
But no change shall compass Thee ;
‘Thou wilt still Thy promise keep,
And Thy care will never sleep;
Vainly hell the batile wages,
Thou art with the Rock of Ages. J.G.S.
Cuarity.— Charity does not consist in mere
words, or in formal salutations, but it is manifested in
effectual aid and protection, and in works demonstrative
of good will. If you relieve the poor’ man from his
distress: if you aid those -who are labouring under
disease: if you rescue your neighbour from danger; if
you console the aillicted, if you mingle your tears with
those of your suffering brother : if you share his joy,
you exercise true charity.""—St, John ‘Chrysostom,
hom, vii. in ep. ad. Rom. Morale. , ‘
—_—_—
Barrisa.—* Do not indulge a dangerous curiosity :
for the necessity of the water is evident from the fact,
that when the Holy Ghost had come upon them (Cor-
nelius and his family), the Apostle was not content
with this, but toshew the necessity of the water, ob-
served: * Can any man forbid water that these should
not be baptized who have received the Holy Ghost as
well as us ?’,"—St, John Chrysostom, hom. xxiv. in
Joan, : .
athalic
Philadelphia, Thursday, April 1, 1841.
‘The following is not a bad specimen of a very remarka-
ble work, which has lately appeared from the pen of one of
the Oxford divines; and concerning whose merits very dif-
ferent opinions are expressed by the N. Y. Churchman, and
the Episcopal Recorder of thiscity;—the one regarding it
as a most acceptable contribution to the cause of Oxfordism,
while the other decries it as an insidious attempt to intro-
duce what the Editors call ‘the errors of Popery’: into the
Anglican Church, . Our readers will at once see that Mr.
Palmer, like so many of his brethren, can blow hot and cold
from the same mouth,—and panegyrize Xavier in the same
sentence, that he calumniates him to whom Xavier owes so
much—Ignatius !
From Palmer's Ecclesiastical History, |
St. FRANCIS’XAVIER.
Francis Xavier, the apostle of the Indies, was born
in 1506, in Navarre, of an illustrious family, and was
pursuing his studies at the University of Paris, when
he became the friend, and ultimately one of. the disci
ples of Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the order of Je-
suits, a man of an enthusiastic turn of mind, and of a
piety which was deeply tinged with superstition. In
1537 Xavier was ordained priest, and took the vows as
a member of the new order. The . following year,
while Ignatius and his disciples was at Rome, whither
they had gone to place themselves under the direction
of the Pope, as to their future destination, an applica-
tion was made by the King of Portugal for the assis-
tance of some of these zealous men to preach the Gos-
pel in the East Indies. | In compliance with this. re-
quest, Francis Xavier was sent, a. p. 1540, to Portu-
gal, whence, in the following year, he sailed for India,
with various powers and recommendations ‘from the
Pope. During the voyage, he considered the crew of
the vessel in which he sailed as intrusted to his pecu-
liareare. He instructed the sailors in their catechism,
preached every Sunday before the main-mast, visited
the sick, converted his own cabin: into an infirmary,
while he himself lay on the deck ; and, with the ascetic
spirit of his order at that time, subsisted entirely. on
charity, being possessed of nothing himself, In short,
daring the whole vayage, he evinced. a spirit of zeal
and piety which afforded a pledge of the success of
that great work which he was about to undertake.
In 1542 he landed at Goa; and having obtained the
sanction of the. bishop, he commenced. his mission.
The state of religion amongst professing Christians in
that place was most lamentable. ‘The Portuguese in-
habitants were full of revenge, ambition, avarice, and
every description of wickedness; all sentiments of reli-
gion seemed extinguished in them. The sacraments
were neglected ; there were scarcely any preachers ;
and the heathen, immersed in every sin, were neither
led by precept nor example to forsake their errors and
superstitions,’ Xavier beheld with grief the scandalous
example of the nominal Christians around him; and he
resolved to labour for théir conversion and reformation
in the first instance. .
He began by instructing them in the principles of re-
Jigion, and by forming the youth in the practice of pie-
ty. ‘Having spent the morning of each day in the hos-
pitals and prisons, assisting and comforting the distress-
ed, he walked through the streets of Goa, with a bell
in his hand, summoning all masters, for the love of God,
to send their children and slaves to be ‘eatechised.
The children gathered-in crowds around him: he led
them to church, taught them the creed and practices
of devotion, and impressed on them strong sentiments
of piety and religion, ‘The ‘effect produced on the
youth soon became manifest; the example. began to
spread; the whole town was influenced to turn from
‘{sin, After.a time, Xavier preached in. public, and
visited the people in their houses; anda must extraor-
dinary and universal reformation in their morals and
habits ensued.
After six months spent in ‘these successful labours,
Xavier, hearing that many of the Paravas,a people on
the eastern coast of India, near Cape Comorin, had
some years befure permitted themselves to be baptised,
in order to gratify the Portuguese; and having gained
some knowledge of their language, went thither with
two young clergy who understood the language suffi-
Whole Number 429°
ciently well. Here Xavier preached the Gospel with
such success, that these people were converted in thou-
sands; and so great were the multitudes whom he
baptized, that sometimes, from the fatigue of adminis-
tering that sacrament, he could hardly move his arm.
It is said, that he was enabled to work several remarka-
ble cures of sick persons; anda beliefin such wonders,
whether well or ill-founded, seems to have had much
influence in contributing to the extraordinary success
of his ministry. ~ Ilis labors, indeed, were incredible;
while he lived only on rice and: water, like the very
poorest of the people, he was able to devote his whole
day and night, except ¢iree hours of sleep, to the ex-,
ercise of his ministry and the duties of devotion.
Xavier had laboured for more thana year in the con-
version of these people, when he was obliged to return
to Goa for assistance. He came back in 1544 with
several missionaries, some of whom he stationed in
different towns, to continue the instruction of his con-
veris; the others he brought with him to the adjoining
kingdom of ‘Travancore, where he baptized ten thou-
sand Indians in one month ; and in a very few months
almost the whole kingdom of ‘T'ravancore embraced
Christianity. He afterwards visited several other parts
of India, where he founded churches. Xavier then
sailed to Malacca, a famous mart for merchandise,
where he arrived in 1545; and by the irresistible ardor
of his zeal, reformed the Christians in that place, and
converted many pagans and Mahomedans. He next
preached in the Spice Islands, Amboyna, the Moluccas,
and Ceylon, in all of which he brought great numbers
to the faith. In this mission he experienced many
sufferings and dangers; but his zeal for God caused
him rather to rejoice in those things. ‘The dangers
to which I am exposed,’ said he, ‘and the toils I undergo
for the interest of God only, arean inexhaustible spring
of spiritual joys, insomuch that these islands, bare as
they are of all worldly necessaries, are the very places
in the world fora man to lose his sight through the
excess of weeping; but they are tears of joy. I never
remember to have tasted such inward delights; and
these consolations of the soul are sopure, so exquisite,
so constant, that they take from me all sense of my
corporeal sufferings.
Ilaving returned again to Goa, Xavier soon after sail-
ed on a misson to Japan, where he arrived in 1549,
and was received favorably by the king, who allowed
him to preach the Gospel;, and he applied himself with’
such extreme diligence to the study -of the- language,
that in a few weeks he was able to translate the creed,
and erexposition of it, together with a life of our Sa-
viour compiled {rom the Gospel, and to preach in pub-
lie. He made many converts, amongst whom he dis-
tributed the translations he had made. He continued
to preach amongstthe islands with various success; at
Fuceo vast multitudes of people desired to be instructed”
and baptized; and the king himself was convinced of.
the truth of the Gospel. Having laid the foundation
of the Christian Church throughout Japan, he again
embarked for India in 1551; and after. a short stay
there, was once more on his way to preach the Gospel
in China, (a.p. 1952), when it pleased God to call away
this great missionary, afier ten years of Jabours and
successes almost unparallelled since the days of the
apostles.
From the London Tablet
THE GREAT ANNUAL NATIONAL LIE OF,
THE FIFTH OF NOVEMBER,
Itis curious to observe in how various forms the
same idea or impulse of the human mind finds expres.
sion, ‘The customs which seem most singular in one
nation have frequently a parallel in. a distant region ;:
the superstition of the Indian in the Far West have:
often a very close analogy to those of the Hindoo or:
Arab in the East; and, above all, the mythological no-.
tions of the past, and future history of another world,
seem constantly, under different names, 10 be identical
in places which never, within the range of tradition,
have held communion with each other,
One of the commonest incidents in eastern fiction is
to require the mortal who, through the agency of some
genias or fairy, has been elevated to astate of superior
prosperity, to return at slated periods to his original