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Show HIS WORKS. PRAISE HM IN JKE GATES The public and splendid manifestation of'gvati-tude, of'gvati-tude, veneration and love which the people of San Francisco gave last woek to Archbishop Kiordan constitutes an epoch in the history of the diocese. - Custom has made the twenty-fifth anniversary of a priest's ordination or a bishop's consecration a time of jubilee and thanksgiving, and a time when it is permitted to the people to publicly show their love and admiration for a pastor who for a quarter of a century "wore the white lily of a spotless life." It is a time of orations and panegyrics when by the voice of their orators the people give tongue to their admiration of righteousness, justice and charity, char-ity, tabernacled in him whom they honor and pro- claim worthy to be praised. The celebration of the. Silver Jubilee of the consecration of Archbishop Riordan was a popular canonization and was perhaps per-haps the greatest demonstration of admiration and affection ever shown to any one man in the United States west of the Missouri. If any proof were demanded of the immeasurable immeasur-able work wrought by the Archbishop in California, this uprising of the city of San Francisco, armed with gratitude and affection, would be enough. Who could doubt that the great multitude of his personal friends, the great multitude of those who had been instructed, consoled and won to God by the unequaled beauty of his character and the irrisis-I irrisis-I table persuasion of his speech, who could doubt that on the completion of his twenty-five years of benign be-nign and prudent government they would fail to pour out the love and gratitude of their hearts But that the public voice of California, political and reliigous, in all its diversities should for once unite in love and admiration for la man, and that all malevolence should pass into good will, is indeed one of the social marvels of our time and country. If this be a noble testimony to a great Christian life, it is also a noble proof of the justice, equity and uprightness of the people of California. In venerating and paying homage to the great Archbishop, Arch-bishop, the state has unconsciously honored itself. It is too soon to measure, the-work wrought by the Archbishop of San Francisco. The penetrating influence in-fluence of his delightful personality has pervaded all classes. After he has, passed to his reward there will be those who will record the history f his great life and all that he has done for his people. ''His works praise him in the gates." Institu- tions of learning and charity, schools, churches, colleges col-leges and orphanages, the increasing Christianity in his diocese, all proclaim his fidelity5 to the duties of his exalted office. Bound to his priests by ties stronger than those of human kindred, knowing the sacrifices they have made of human love and human ambition, and all that the world holds dear, his paternal pa-ternal heart has always gone out to them, even as the heart of our Divine Lord went out to the young man of the gospel, "Whom when he say," writes the evangelist, "he loved." Hence his priests were so deeply devoted to him that on that day of Jubilee they rejoiced and prayed that God might leave hiro with them for many years. The history of California will hereafter record the name of Patrick William Riordan among the greatest of its people, as a confessor for the faith, a great teacher of men, a preacher of justice, of piety, of compassion. |