BIX. No. 893 8982/14. ARY N. Y. F FORD COLLECTION. 66 DISTRICT OF MARYLAND-Sct. BE IT REMEMBERED, that on this eighth day of November, in the thirty-fifth year of the Independence of the United States of America, Bernard Dornin, of the said District, hath deposited in this Office the title of a book, the right whereof he claims as proprietor in the words following, to wit:-" Sermon preached in the Catholic Church of "St. Peter, Baltimore, November 1st, 1810, on occasion of the conse"cration of the Rt. Rd. Dr. John Cheverus, Bishop of Boston. By the "Rev. W. V. Harold, one of the Pastors of St. Mary's Church, Philadelphia, and printed at the request of the R. Rd. Bishops, attend"ing on this solemn occasion." In conformity to the Act of the Congress of the United States, entitled "An Act for the encouragement of learning by securing the copies of Maps, Charts and Books to the Authors and Proprietors of such copies during the times therein mentioned." And to the act entitled, "An Act, supplementary to an act,”. entitled, "An Act for the encouragement of learning by securing the copies of Maps, Charts and Books to the Authors and Proprietors of such Copies during the times therein mentioned," and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of Designing, Engraving and Etching Historical and other Prints. PHILIP MOORE, Clerk Of the District of Maryland. SERMON PREACHED IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH OF ST. PETER, BALTIMORE, NOVEMBER 1, 1810. FEED the flock of God which is among you, and when the Prince of Pastors shall appear, you shall receive a never fading crown of Glory. 1 EP. OF PETER, c. 5, v. 24. THE christian Religion presents the evidence of its Divine Origin in the spirit which it breathes, in the vast field which it embraces, in the glorious end to which it points the hope of man-peace and good will was the first message it proclaimed, happiness and eternal safety the last legacy it bequeathed to the world. Whilst it bares the arm of Almighty vengeance to affright the daring impenitence of man, it imparts confidence and fortitude to the trembling, helpless, desponding sinner, and throws open to his relief the bosom of a merciful God. In the christian Religion we discover nothing of that inefficient theory which slumbers over speculations of improvement, and coldly. suggests plans of reformation. We see a living system of active, laborious legislation, carried by the necessity of its constitution, to the promotion of good, and the diffusion of happiness, drawing mercy down to the earth, lifting man up to heaven. In its divine founder we have not to contemplate the cold overweening, supercilious Philosopher, buried in the delicious dream of fancied superiority, pointing the finger of scorn at ignorance, and looking down with contempt on that wretchedness he will not labour to remove. In him we recognize the compassionate friend of man, stretching forth his hand to the relief of our misery, labouring with indefatigable perseverance in the removal of our ignorance, feeling no other interest than that of his Father in Heaven, and his brothers on earth; and devoting himself to a life of sorrow, and a death of dishonour, that he might spread through the world the glory of the one, and lay an imperishable foundation for the welfare of the other. To promote that great end,"to extend the means of everlasting salvation to those for whom Christ Jesus poured forth his life in agony, to carry the hope and consolations of the Gospel to the remotest boundaries of our country, are the objects of this day's solemn assembly. When I contrast the prospect before me with the temper of the age in which we live-when I pass in review the thousands and tens of thousands who will stand indebted for their eternal welfare to the appointment of this day, I see ample ground for hope, for joy, for exultation. This, my Brethren, is a prospect on which every well formed mind can rest with full and undivided approbation. But when I recollect that the hand which extended this blessing to our country, is now perhaps, galled by the manacle of a captive, that the heart which felt for our spiritual necessities is bursting for his people's sufferings and his own, I seek not to suppress the feelings of humanity. A gloom overspreads this day of our joy. The scourge that is desolating Europe has fallen with peculiar severity on the first of Christian Bishops-he has added his venerable name to the countless victims of an unpitying, murderous, ambition-he has seen his sanctuaries plundered; he has been torn from the arms of his people, and is doomed perhaps, like his immortal predecessor, to perish in destitution and exile-but he has not merely succeeded to the spiritual primacy and apostolical pre-eminence of Peter; he has inherited the fortitude of that great apostle-he can suffer, he can die. His temporal power, his titles of perishable eminence may pass away-the better greatness of his apostleship will endure without equal, without second: his true prerogative will shine forth to the common good of Christians—it has shone forth to our advantage. The shadow of death, by which our sovereign Pontiff is encompassed, has not concealed his children from his view-the personal miseries by which he is assailed have not broken his spirit, nor weakened in his heart, his solicitude for all the Churches.We are this day to receive, as a gracious pledge of his paternal regard, a Pastor to feed the flock of Christ; a Bishop to rule the Church of God; one who comes recommended to the important trust, by distinguished talent, by faithful, indefatigable exertion, by the hallowed test of a venerable life. I am to address you on an occasion alike important and interesting, interesting in its immediate effects; important in its remotest consequences, subsidiary to the cause of virtue, good order and religion, auspicious to our happiness as men, and to our hope as Christians. I have called the object of this day's meeting important, and I feel no cause to apprehend that any here will question the just application of that term. It is important, if the highest concerns of man deserve to be so considered. From meetings similar to this, the light of the Gospel has been carried to the nations that sat in darkness. From meetings similar to this, virtue and civilization have gone forth, to bless and improve mankind. That these advantages have derived their origin from the religion of Christ, that they have grown to maturity only in that Religion, will never be questioned by such an assembly as I have the honour to address; it cannot be doubted by any educated mind-it is a truth resting on the nature of man, and supported by the strongest evidence of his history. Whatever can restrain the lawless passions of man, whatever can counteract his inordinate propensities, that is the parent of human happiness, that the source of human improvement. Now I affirm without fear of contradiction, that no power but the power of Religion can meet the violence of human depravity; that no force but the force of the Gospel can save man from the passions of man. To what other hope can we recur? Is it to law? Law has forbidden the commission of crimes-stern, inexorable justice has pursued the criminal; but that criminal, urged on by ungovernable passions, has despised law, and laughed to scorn the terror of human justice. For how many ages has the earth been crimsoned by the victims. of unpitying law? And has it yet affrighted that earth into virtue? It has scarcely thinned the numbers of the guilty. The arm of violence is still uplifted. The robber still infests society. The voice of blasphemy still continues to solicit vengeance from above. The degraded human carcase still lies in your streets sleeping in the death of intoxication-these are evils which law, unsupported by Religion, has not removed; it cannot remove them-the terrors of the sword may occasionally restrain man from the public |