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Show Language of the Candle. TOMORROW Sundayt the Church celebrates the Fast of the Purification Puri-fication of the J Messed Virgin Mary. This act of the Mother of God established her obedience to tl:.; old Jewish law requiring that mothers in a teasonable time after childbirth, shall present themselves to the priest, who bestows Cod's 'dessing upon mother and child. Thus did Mary appear before be-fore Holy Simeon at the temple. In our rosary meditations we dwell upon the heavenly joy which overcame the aged priest when he held the Divine Infant !n his arm.. The predictions, of Simeon forecasting: the future of Ch'-i.-t were realized in His passior. The custom of blessing and distributing distrib-uting candles oi this day led to calling1 it Candlemass Day. The cat. die. even better than the rose, has a language lan-guage expressive of purity. Its significance sig-nificance in the ceremonies of -the I Church is rendered beautiful !o the ! mind comprehending the symbols of our faith and the objects uved to arouse I devotion ;mj kindle piety. The approach of Candlemass Day recalls re-calls to the writer an o'i riiesl who passed to his reward at Holy Cross hospital in l"9o. Father Scallon was indeed a si!ver-ton,uid orator. His presence alone was surlieiep.f to inspire veneration ere he spoke one word in the pulpit. If we mistake not, a sermon ser-mon delivered iu St. Marj's cathedral on the Sunday preceding Candlemass Day was the first word1? he uttered standing at the altar rail of the little church. St. Mary's had no pulpit when Father Scallon came to Salt Lake. That sermon vas all about the candle and what its mission was from the time the pagans deified Pan up to the period wh?n Christians placed it upon their altars. Holding ;t up or bidding it down, the light of the candle always pointed to heaven. For marly an hour this strange priest dwelt upon the many Ihi.ngs contained io the lessor, of the candle, and when be concluded those who listened felt 'is if the last chapters of a romance had been closed, j Never before bad so much been saidj upon a comparatively unimportant subject. Sitting next, the writer was a friend without leiigion. one of those free thinkers who judged the pr'.ests vf the Church as he judged men of the world. When the services were over the free thinker astonished 'tis friend by declaring de-claring that Father Scallor. was entirely entire-ly out of place in a chuixh; that the world needed such men as him. When asked to explain, the free thinker answered: an-swered: "A man who can say so much and say it so weil aliout an insignificant insignifi-cant little candle, should be in the senate sen-ate of the United States." |