| OCR Text |
Show A PROFOUNDLY IMPRESSIVE i DISCOURSE. The congregation asemblcd at St. M;, -- ,.a k ! thedral on last Sunday evening, for t!,.- , -,(,r. service, were the happily surprised audit. -r , surpassingly beautiful discourse by It is the usual practice of Hi- Lord-hi;. t .),.. " f liver an informal addres n such ..era,;..!,. ;.,j it was not his purpose, apparently, to ,, . this practice on the occasion mentioned. His opening remarks were an nun. , , 1 that he would give his audience a - , structions on, and explanations -f. tin- . f ices of the Church. In an ordinary com:--.;.- : tone, though most, interestingly, he p !..-. . .( ; elucidate successively, the psalm-. ... , f reached the 'Magnificat.' j. As the speaker dwelt upon the V- ,,r .. j f profound significance of this ."queen .f c.;: ;, j his voice became vibrant with an h.-j. - . : depth of feeling, and his hearers Mere .!:. - ) thrilled with holy but intense einofi..n, ;i. ...... but stirring tones of the speaker's voire : . , j J ' their souls. Vividly were the grandeur and simpli.-iry ' ;,,, I "Magnificat" depicted, until all seemed ;- that it was probably the most sublime ..:.;;,,,,;-: ,., j iu the human language. The audience s-.-n:- :., I be in the living presence of the lowly MaM ' .,., dea. as she thrilliugly proclaimed the pre::' that the God of Hosts had done unto her mnr-v, ; Vividly were contrasted the profundity ef ; , y;.. gin's humility and the incomparable' In ik';r ;:, ? exaltation. It is safe to say that His Lordship's ai; i.i , , will carry with them through, life a keen- - ,n.,j juter sense of the profound and solemn beauty ;i 1 f grandeur of the Psalms and. especially, n" sublime "Canticle of the Blessed Virgin," r'n:ni would otherwise have been theirs. I Language is beggared in an attempt m r,,.,,., f an adequate idea of the impre-siveness of mi-, , I markable and beautiful discourse. T'ni- -..n-i--. -1 not so much in the words of the speaker a- in t'-, 1 indescribable manner of delivery. One fer r La h i f was. in the presence of a great soul. coii-ri"ii, ,,f I the feebleness of human language to give exp.-p-- I sion to the sentiments and emotions that movp.' f I it, in its innermost depths, by a contemplafinti I of the divine mysteries suggested by the grar.d'r ! simple and simply grand utterances of the M'-.tfv-r of God after the Angel of the Lord had revea'e.i r- her the ineffable love of the Heavenly Fathpr. m making her the humble though unutterably exiiied instrument in the great scheme of the salvari.'ti of the human race. It was, taken all-in-all, a discourse .long to 1 remembered; and. being remembered, to exn-i- a beni en influence in the life of the soul. The writer has, more than once, on hparin-one hparin-one of Bishop Scanlan's sermons or lecture, regretted re-gretted that he never commits them to writing, and that it is. therefore, not practicable to plncc tiifpi I before the public by means of the press. Their chief charm rests in their impressive siinpirir , earnestness and directness, on account of which they never fail to appeal to the heart a quality often lacking in. more ambitious discourses. Bi-lv.p Scanlan is never guilty of apparent effort at mem oratorical effect. |
