MISSION AT ST MARY'S

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLVIII, Issue XLVIII, 5 March 1914, Page 5

MISSION AT ST MARY'S

SERMON ON "JUDGMENT AFTER DEATH. , The usual large crowd assembled at the Catholic Mission last evening Father Tuohey was the preacher. He took as his test the words: "What shall I do ■when God shall rise to judge, and. when He shall examine, what shall I answer Him?" (Job xxxi. 14). He brought before the people the certainty of death and the alarming uncertainty of the hour .of death, "You know not the day nor the hour." In solemn manner and in well chosen words, he asked his audience to realise the fact of their own death, the complete separation from the world, its pleasures, :ts riches. He reminded them that man was born, not to live, but to die, "thou shalt die the death." Death was terrible. It would not be so if it- spelt annihilation, but because of what, was to follow-, "it is appointed to men once to die, and at- , ter this the Judgment." The preacher j went on to say that his subject for the : evening was a Christian doctrine, to [ which all Christians must give assent. | "God shall rise to judge. 5 ' If we were j suddenly to-appear before God to-night j -what would be our answer to God's ' judgment? Now is the time to consider . the question, to-morrow may be top ; late. The world with its impudent asI aurance, laughs at death, the judgment j has for it no terrors. The careless and ! indifferent lull themselves to sleep and i to forget "that we must all be manifested before the .Judgment seat of Christ, that everyone may receive . . according ae he hath done, whether it be good or eviL" (Heb.) They forget that Jesus Christ and His infallible Holy Scriptures declare in plain, unequivocal, uncompromising words that such a Judgment must take place. They dwell frequently on the infinite mercy of God, and take no account of His infinite justice. Who will be the Judge? An all just God, One -who knoweth all things," and "all things are naked and open to His eyes." That judgment will be searching, "every idle word' that man shaE s speak, he "shall render an account of it on the day of judgment." Man will he judged on the subject of his duty as a child of God. The preacher then passed in review - the commandments of God and the Church, and asked the people to search their hearts, to ! probe deep down into their consciences, and see how they stood in the eight of ■God. In fearless, telling language he brought before them the prevailing sins of the present day, and asked them to answer in their hearts -whether thev were guilty or not guilty As the judgment must surely take place, according to the infallible word of God, surely man must consider before it.be too late, how he may best prepare for that final ordeal. As long as we are on this side of the gates of death, the infinite mercy of God is at our disposal. One . cry from the heart to that Infinite Mercy for pardon and forgiveness will not remain unheard. "He who cometh to Me, I will in no wise cast out." One, when moved by the thought of God's justice, might ask, "What shall I do then that my sentence be a favourable one?" Christ Himself gives the answer, "If thou wilt enter into life, keep the Commandments." If, however, one has fallen a hundred, a thousand times, if his sins outnumber ■ the sands on t*~e sea shore, if his sins be as red as scarlet, the trates of Gnd ? 9 mercy are still open to him. Let him prepare and make a rood confession, let <' him mourn over his sins, let him resolve, with God's grace, to'«amend his life-, > and that sins can never rise up in j'?.flg- • ment against him, but -Kill be wnrhed out ' in Christ's gracious redeeming blood-. In 1 a touching peroration Father Tuohey exLcrted his hearers to return to God, to ' think freely of death and judgment as • a pi-eventative to sin, for the Scripture ' says "Remember thy last end and thou ; shalt never sin." This eveninnr Father Creagh will treat ' the subject which .is the centre of all OatQOiis belief, "the Blessed Sacrament.'"'• ' The procession round the Church will take place at the close of the sermon.