BISHOP LENIHAN'S SERMON.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVI, Issue 23, 13 October 1898, Page 27

BISHOP LENIHAN'S SERMON.

The Bishop took for his text the words of Exodus xxv., 8 : ' And they shall make Me a sanctuary, and I shall dwell in the midst of them.' In the course of an eloquent sermon his Lordship pointed out how God Himself had traced with His own hand the plan of the tabernacle ; that it was the glory of popes in all ages to erect churches. Before the erection of churches the- world's cry was pro aris et foci* : for our altars and our homes — a watohword that Christianity has not been ashamed to borrow from paganism, recognising that the thought has proceeded from the purest depths of the want ot man. These were words to be engraved on the memories of those present. They were gathered there to offer God that monument and to render afresh the love of altar and of home. His Lordship then dealt with the history and character of Pagan temples. The Jews looked upon the Temple as the dwelling pla"ce of the divinity, the sojourning-placeof Jehovah, a place where He received homage and distributed His favours. It was a sanctuary, an oracle, a plaoe of pardon and refuge. There man had no rights except as a subject in the house of a ruler. The very principle of the construction of ancient temples plainly intended this. The place where the statue was enthroned was so small, that the people had to remain in the open air. The idea was natural. It needed Christianity to evolve its full truth and ennoble it. Christianity praises and adopts all that is a sincere inspiration of nature. But the Pagan temples were an object of horror to God. The image of man, with all his vices, was there set up and adored as God ; shameful and degrading disorders were stamped with the seal of celestial perfection, and the image of art and genius were employed to endow them with a divine beauty. The Jewish Temple was an image of the Christian Temple. It was the dwelling-place of the Sovereign in the midst of His people. The blood of sacrifice was poured out before it. It had its consultation of the Divine Will. It was a perpetual sotirce of temporal

blessingß. But the people remained at a distance when the Hijrh Priest went cnoe a year into, the Holy of Holies. 'It was a faithful image of a royal people having God for their King, an&iti was the prophetical and imperfect figure of that which Christianity hid to realise. In the Christian dispensation the House of God* tiasV taken the place ot the Temple. The tabernacle denotes the Eucharistio Presence of God. Here God speaks sesretly to heart in prayer and loudly through the voice of preaching. It is a plaoe of refuge for crime and misery. Its altar is daily reddened with tfie blood of sacrifice—by the blood of the Redeemer Himself, who is the food and nourishment of priest and laity. Christianity has broken down all barriers of race. It has become the universal dwelling the Catholic Church ; without ceasing to be the dwelling place of the Divinity it has become the shelter of humanity ; the house of God has become the house of man ; the house of the King of kings the home of the people. There priests and people join alike in praise and prayer to God. The Church has become the Forum of the City of God. ' *

Dealing with the historical development of the Christian temple, his Lordship pointed out that at first the only sanctuaries of the faith were the halls of charity or the asylums of the proscribed in the catacojabs of Borne. Their altars were the tombs of martyrs * their palladium the cross. After 300 years of persecution the Church remembered those souvenirs. It religiously preserves them still. To this day the altar is always a tomb. Under the altar-stone repose the bones of martyrs, and the lighted candles signify the dispersal of the darkness of the catacombs. The day of triumph arrived, purchased by the blood of 3,000,000 martyrs. Pagan temples were converted into Christian churches. The huge pagan Roman basilicas were fitted with altars, and thus we have the&rst type of Christian church, which we style the Greek or Roman. His Lordship then proceeded to deal with the history of the Gothic style. After the invasion of Rome by the Goths and the Huns, Christianity won. The school of nature became the school of religion. This double inspiration lead to the creation of the second form of church known as the Gothic style— its lanced columns representing the slender trunk of a fir-tree supporting a roof Later on the roof represented a tree in foliage. German Christianity improved on this. The church, built lengthways, extends its arms right and left like Christ fixed to the oross, and at the extremity the apse inclined towards the cross-piece as the head of the Saviour was inclined when dying for the world's salvation. The Western Church had found its temple,. Europe has a right to be proud of these two types, the one the Basilica of St. Peter's, the other the Cathedral of Cologne. In these noble piles the retriotions of space were removed as far as possible. Paganism had used only a small sanctuary for its human god. Judaism reserved only the Holy of Holies for the true God. But the Christian Church has for its Guest the Creator of the universe. And so a world of stone becomes His dwelling-place, and by its extent symbolises His grandeur to our eyes.

But, continued the right rev. preacher, if He is the God of our creation, He is also the God of our redemption. He fills the church with the souvenirs of His life and death. His Lordship then pointed out the Stations of the Cross ; the altar, which is Christ's calvary ; the cross, His gibbet ; the pulpit, whence His Holy Spirit descends in tongues of fire into the people's hearts ; the statues and pictures which tell of the glory of His saints — a gallery of the Church's true nobility, from every rank and station in life ; the font where the infant is born again to a new inheritance ; the sacred table ' the holy tribunal of mercy where sin and folly are cast aside' His Lordship then gave an eloquent description of the other offices of the Church — the marriage coremony, the Dirge, etc. He concluded an able and admirable discourse by an appeal to the people to preserve the church which they had built, to hold fast to Catholic sentiments and traditions, to obey God's Commandments, and persevere in the practices of piety. His Lordship also paid a high compliment to the zeal and energy of the respected parish priest of Parnell. After the sermon the Bishop gave