shed a halo around the workshop. If the profession of a general, a jurist, and a statesman is adorned by the example of a Washington, a Taney, and a Burke, how much more is the character of a workman ennobled by the example of Christ! What De Tocqueville said of the United States sixty years ago is true to-day-that with us every honest labor is laudable, thanks to the example and teaching of Christ. To sum up: The Catholic Church has taught man the knowledge of God and of himself; she has brought comfort to his heart by instructing him to bear the ills of life with Christian philosophy; she has sanctified the marriage bond; she has proclaimed the sanctity and inviolability of human life from the moment that the body is animated by the spark of life, till it is extinguished; she has founded asylums for the training of children of both sexes and for the support of the aged poor; she has established hospitals for the sick and homes for the redemption of fallen women; she has exerted her influence toward the mitigation and abolition of human slavery; she has been the unwavering friend of the sons of toil. These are some of the blessings which the Catholic Church has conferred on society. I will not deny-on the contrary, I am happy to avow-that the various Christian bodies outside the Catholic Church have been, and are to-day, zealous promoters of most of these works of Christian benevolence which I have enumerated. Not to speak of the innumerable humanitarian houses established by our non-Catholic brethren throughout the land, I bear cheerful testimony to the philanthropic institutions founded by Wilson, by Shepherd, by Johns Hopkins, Enoch Pratt, and George Peabody, in the city of Baltimore. But will not our separated brethren have the candor to acknowledge that we had first possession of the field, that the beneficent movements have been inaugurated by us, and that the other Christian communities in their noble efforts for the moral and social regeneration of mankind, have in no small measure been stimulated by the example and emulation of the ancient Church? Let us do all we can in our day and generation in the cause of humanity. Every man has a mission from God to help his fellow-beings. Though we differ in faith, thank God there is one platform on which we stand united, and that is the platform of charity and benevolence. We cannot, indeed, like our Divine Master, give sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, speech to the dumb, and strength to the paralyzed limb, but we can work miracles of grace and mercy by relieving the miseries of our suffering brethren. And never do we approach nearer to our Heavenly Father than when we alleviate the sorrows of others. Never do we perform an act more God-like than when we bring sunshine to hearts that are dark and desolate. Never are we more like to God than when we cause the flowers of joy and of gladness to bloom in souls that were dry and barren before. Religion," says the Apostle, "pure and unspotted before God and the Father, is this: To visit the fatherless and widows in their tribulation, and to keep one's self undefiled from this world," or, to borrow the words of pagan Cicero, “ Homines ad Deos nulla re propius accedunt quam salutem hominibus dando” (There is no other way by which men can approach to the gods than by contributing to the welfare of their fellow-creatures). PHILLIPS BROOKS 1835-1893 Phillips Brooks was born in Boston, December 13, 1835. His father was a well-known and prosperous merchant of that town. He graduated at Harvard with the class of 1855 and after a four years' course in theological study took orders in the Protestant Episcopal Church. His first charge was that of rector of the Church of the Advent in Philadelphia, followed by the rectorship of Holy Trinity in the same city, his ten years' work there being about equally divided between the two parishes. In 1869 he was appointed to the rectorship of Trinity in Boston, by far the most important, influential, and wealthy church in the State of Massachusetts. The long and faithful service to his church was rewarded in 1891 by his election to the see of Massachusetts to succeed the late Bishop Paddock. He died at Boston, January 23, 1893. Such was Bishop Brooks's outward career. But the real power of the man was found quite apart from the external dignity of his high office. This power lay in his profound sincerity and a conception of the high duty of his calling. It has well been said that it was the result of his intense earnestness and profound spirituality, fired by a burning desire to lift his fellow-men to a higher plane of life. To him every man, no matter how humble his station, had a possible destiny of inconceivable grandeur and duty. Hence it is, that, while his powers as a pulpit orator were hardly above the ordinary, he drew to him crowds of men from every walk of life, from the highest to the lowest, to flee from the sordid occupations of every-day life and to be led, as it were, by him, in thought at least, to more ideal spheres which, though they may never be attained, help men to take a cheerful view of life in spite of its many discouragements and actual hardships. Bishop Brooks was of fine stature, tall and well proportioned, a specimen of moral and physical beauty of the highest type. He was without mannerisms, ever sympathetic and hopeful. He was tolerant in his religious views and revered by men of all denominations. During his stay abroad he preached at Westminster Abbey, before both of the old English universities, and at the chapel of Windsor before the Queen. His "Oration on Lincoln was delivered as a funeral oration at PhilaIdelphia while the body of the martyr President was lying in state in that city. It is one of the most eloquent and touching of Bishop Brooks's orations. His sermons have been published in three volumes. They are very popular and widely read. W ORATION ON LINCOLN Delivered in Philadelphia as a funeral oration WHILE I speak to you to-day, the body of the President who ruled this people, is lying, honored and beloved, in our city. It is impossible with that sacred presence in our midst for me to stand and speak of ordinary topics which occupy the pulpit. I must speak of him to-day; and I therefore undertake to do what I had intended to do at some future time, to invite you to study with me the character of Abraham Lincoln, the impulses of his life, and the causes of his death. I know how hard it is to do it rightly, how impossible it is to do it worthily; but I shall speak with confidence, because I speak to those who love him, and whose ready love will fill out the deficiences in a picture which my words will weakly try to draw. We take it for granted, first of all, that there is an essential connection between Mr. Lincoln's character and his violent and bloody death. It is no accident, no arbitrary decree of Providence. He lived as he did, and he died as he did, because he was what he was. The more we see of events, the less we come to believe in any fate or destiny except the destiny of character. It will be our duty, then, to see what there was in the character of our great President that created the history of his life, and at last produced the catastrophe of his cruel death. After the first trembling horror, the first outburst of indignant sorrow, has grown calm, these are the questions which we are bound to ask and answer. It is not necessary for me to even sketch the biography of Mr. Lincoln. He was born in Kentucky fifty-six years ago, when Kentucky was a pioneer State. He lived, as a boy and man, the hard and needy life of a backwoodsman, a farmer, a river boatman, and, finally, by his own efforts of self-education, of an |