HOW HE WAS WELCOMED.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume V, Issue 259, 19 April 1878, Page 9

HOW HE WAS WELCOMED.

Let us for a moment, my dear brethren, try to imagine something of the scene of the entrance of Pius IX. into heaven. He made once & triumphal entiance into his own capital at Rome, into St. Peter's, with all ecclesiastical and military pomp. It was a grand, a sublime sight— on M 6 throne with the Vatican Council around him, priests of the Church from all parts of the world before Mm ; saluted by the thunders of heaven when he rose in his might and majesty and made that proclamation of the infallibility of the successor of St. Peter and of the Holy Roman Church. Ah ! what are these earthly scenes in j comparison with those which heaven presents to view ! So Pius EX.. | entered, escorted by his guardian angels into heaven. There you see that crowd of those he has liberated by his bounty, and who have preceded Mm into the everlasting habitation. You see those faithful ■companions and friends of his who have gone before him to receive j their reward. He enters to meet those martyrs who died in fidelity to the doctrines he has given them — Father G-uery and Archbishop Darboy, of Paris, and Garcia Moreno, and all those who shed their blood j at Castel Fidardo, victims of the assassin's dagger, and fell by his side, to meet these heroes and martyrs ; and then all Ms predecessors in the See of Peter, glorious confessors, those wise and magnanimous rulers of the Church and of the world, those martyrs for the faith, fallen -victims to the malice of the attacks and the fury of the heathen emperoi's ; all the patriarchs that have gone before Mm to Abraham and Adam — all the glorious saints of all times. Sec him meet St. •Joseph, one whom be has especially delighted to honour, by naming Mm protector of the whole Church, to meet St. Joseph and receive his thanks for what he has done ; and above all, to meet the Blessed Virgin, that celestial queen, whose most devoted and gallant knight he has been, and for whose honour he has done more than any man, or all mankind together by defining her Immaculate Conception as anjarticle of faith ; to receive the thanks of the Queen of Heaven, that smile of honour from her which would be cheaply purchased by the sufferings, all the labours, and all 1 the troubles of all the confessors, and missionaries, and martyrs that have ever lived , but, above all, to meet Jesus Christ, whose Vicar he has been — to meet Him, modest and humble and unassuming man, yet one from whose expression perfect love has banished all fear — to meet Him, modest and humble and unassuming "man, yet one from whose expression perfect love has banished all fear — to meet Him in that way which can only be known when one's life is ended, his stewardship fulsHcd. He goes to give in Ms account, and say that he has been perfectly faithful to his conscience ; that he has made no transaction or compromise with error ; that he has done that which he knew to be right, but which others thought to be inexpedient — one who has been faithful from the beginning to the end, in all things striving to do right for the truth and the law of God. Fatheb Hewit.