CARDINAL MERCIER.

Press, Volume LI, Issue 15369, 28 August 1915, Page 9

CARDINAL MERCIER.

[Pastoral Letter, Christmas. 1914.] The sunshine dreaming upon Salmon'® height Is not so sweet and white As the most heretofore sin-spotted eoul That darta to ita delight Rt.mifht from the absolution of a faithful fignv. btrai&nt —COVENTRY FATMOKE.

"I was asked lately by a staff officer whether a soldier falling in a righteous cause—and our cause is such, to demonstration—is not veritably a martyr. Well ho is not a martyr in the rigorous theological meaning of the word, inasmuch as he dies in arms, whereas the martyr delivers lumse J and unarmed, into the hands of the executioner. But if lam asked what I think of the eternal salvation of a brave man who has consciously given his life in defence of his country's honour, and in vindication of violated justice, I shall not hesitate to reply that without any doubt whatever Christ crowns his military valour, and that death, accepted in this Christian spirit, aasurea the safety of that man's souL 'Greater love than this no man hath,' said our Savioui, 'that a man lay down his life for his friends. And the soldier who dies to save his brothers, and to defend the hearths and altars of his country, reaches this highest of all degrees of charity. He may not have made a clqse analysis of the value of his sacrifice; but must we suppose that God requires of the plain soldier in the excitement of battle the methodical precision of the moralist or the theologian? Can we who revere his heroism doubt that his God welcomes him with love? _ . . .. "Christian mothers, be proud of your sons. Of all gnefs, of all our human sorrows, yours is perhaps the most worthy of veneration I think I behold you in your affliction, but erect, standing at the side of the Mother of Sorrows at the foot of the Oroes. Suffer ns to offer you not only our condolence but our congratulation. Not all our heroes obtain temporal honours, but for all we expect the immortal crown of the elect. For this is the virtue of a single act of perfect charity ; it cancels a whole lifetime of It transforms a sinful man into a saint. "Assuredly a great and a Christian conrfort is the thought that not only amongst our great men, but in any belligerent army whatsoever, all who in good faith submit to the discipline of their leaders m the service of a cause they believe to be righteous are sharers in the eternal reward of a soldier's sacrifice And 'how 'many may there not be among these young men of twenty who, had they survived, might possibly not have had the, resolution to live altogether well, and yet in the impulse of patriotism had the resolution to die so well? • . "Is it not true, my brethren, that God has the supreme art of mmgling His mercy with His'wisdom and His justice? And shall we not acknowledge that if this war is a scourge for this earthly life of ours, a scourge whereof we cannot easily estimate the destructive force and the extent, it is also for multitudes of souls an expiation, a purification, a force to lift them to the pure love of their country and to perfect Christian unselfishness?"