Episcopal 
 
 Silver 
 
 Jubilee
 
 'L'l B R.AR.Y 
 
 OF THE 
 U N IVER.SITY 
 
 or ILLINOIS
 
 LIBRARY OF 
 
 M. W. KELLY. 
 
 I DO NOT LEND. 
 
 2279 
 
 V- 
 
 Z- 7 
 
 T* 

 
 RT. REV. JOHN LANCASTER SPALDINO, D. D. 
 Bislwp of Pcoria
 
 SOUVENIR 
 
 of the 
 
 (Episcopal ^itoer Jubilee 
 
 of the 
 
 Rt. Rev. J. L. Spalding, D. D, 
 
 BISHOP o/PEORIA 
 
 1903 
 
 PRESS OF HOLLISTER BROTHERS 
 CHICAGO
 
 "B 
 
 3fntrolmctorp 
 
 In response to the unanimous desire of the priests of the 
 ; diocese, a meeting of the Diocesan Deans was held early in 
 February at St. Patrick's rectory, Peoria, to consider the man- 
 ner of celebrating fittingly the Episcopal Jubilee of the Rt. 
 Rev. J. L. Spalding on May I, 1902. Auxiliary Bishop 
 :" O'Reilly was voted into the chair, Dean Keating of Ottawa 
 ^ elected secretary and Vicar General Weldon of Bloomington 
 made treasurer. Committees on various arrangements were 
 appointed and ordered to report to the general meeting to be 
 called by the chairman. Within a few days the following 
 letter was sent to the priests of the diocese: 
 
 SILVER JUBILEE YEAR DIOCESE OF PEORIA. 
 
 Rev. and Dear Father: 
 
 On May the first, of this year, Bishop Spalding will cele- 
 brate the twenty-fifth anniversary of his elevation to the 
 Episcopate. By a rare and happy coincidence, the occasion 
 . will also commemorate the "Silver Jubilee" of the diocese, and 
 witness the consecration of the Cathedral. His Eminence 
 Cardinal Gibbons and many other eminent prelates and ec- 
 j: clesiastics will take part in the: celebration. At a meeting 
 .of the deans of the diocese held recently in Peoria, a resolu- 
 v tion to present to Bishop Spalding a substantial testimonial 
 J on his "Jubilee Day" was unanimously adopted. It was also 
 moved and carried that Very Rev. M. Weldon, V. G., be made 
 treasurer, and that the Auxiliary Bishop be requested to send 
 a circular to the priests of the diocese, asking for contribu- 
 tions to the fund. In accepting this trust, I would suggest 
 that all subscriptions towards the proposed testimonial be sent 
 to the treasurer at least one week before Jubilee Day, May the 
 first, nineteen hundred and two. Yours very truly, 
 
 P. J. O'REILLY, Auxiliary Bishop. 
 Peoria, February 28, 1902.
 
 At a subsequent and final meeting of the deans all com- 
 mittees reported and the details of the celebration were agreed 
 upon. Following the first Solemn Pontifical Mass at the 
 newly consecrated Cathedral it was decided that a noonday 
 banquet should be given in the recital hall of Spalding Insti- 
 tute, at which felicitations were to be offered the Rt. Rev. 
 Jubilarian by the distinguished guests and by representatives 
 of the diocese. Bishop O'Reilly was appointed to act as 
 toastmaster and the assignment of toasts and speakers made. 
 Before adjournment a committee was empowered to decide 
 all questions of detail that should not have been anticipated 
 and settled in the full meeting. 
 
 Meanwhile Rev. Francis J. O'Reilly, rector of St. Mary's 
 Cathedral, acting under direction of Bishop Spalding, was 
 making preparation for the consecration of the cathedral and 
 for the celebration of the Golden Jubilee of St. Mary's Parish. 
 On account of the time required it was thought best to have 
 the solemn ceremony of consecration performed a day before 
 the other functions of the jubilee. So thoroughly was the 
 work of preparation accomplished that nothing was left un- 
 done to make the triple celebration memorable.
 
 f olju iUncastrr 
 
 When on May i, 1877, John Lancaster Spalding, priest 
 assistant in St. Michael's Parish, New York city, was con- 
 secrated First Bishop of the Diocese of Peoria, this city was 
 made the abiding place of a vital force in American life. The 
 inheritance of talent and piety come to him from a sound- 
 hearted, wholesome race, had been so largely increased by his 
 personal worth that he at once took high rank in a distin- 
 guished hierarchy. 
 
 The Spaldings are an old English Catholic family from 
 Lancashire, where Spalding Abbey, founded in the middle 
 ages, still stands as a monument to their early devotedness to 
 the church. The American Spaldings date their origin in the 
 early days of Lord Baltimore. For two hundred and fifty 
 years the numerous branches of the family have been con- 
 spicuously active in the development of Maryland and Ken- 
 tucky. No name shines brighter in the annals of the Catholic 
 Church in America than that of Martin John Spalding, Arch- 
 bishop of Baltimore. 
 
 John Lancaster Spalding was born in Lebanon, Kentucky, 
 June 2, 1840. Early in the days of his boyhood he began to 
 show signs of the priestly vocation and set about fitting him- 
 self for that holy calling. His preparatory studies finished at 
 St. Mary's, Kentucky, he went to Mount St. Mary's, Emmits- 
 burg, and to Mount St. Mary's, Cincinnati, thence to the Amer- 
 ican College, Louvain, Belgium, where he was ordained priest 
 in 1863. Among his classmates at this institution, which had 
 been founded a short time before by his uncle, Archbishop 
 Spalding, was Archbishop Riordan of San Francisco. A year 
 then spent in special studies in Rome left him thoroughly 
 equipped to begin his life work. In 1865 he entered upon his 
 priestly career at the Cathedral of Louisville. Even at this 
 time he was a scholar of such marked attainments that he was 
 chosen theologian to Archbishop Blanchet of Oregon at the 
 second Plenary Council of Baltimore in 1866. With Father 
 Hecker, the Paulist, and Father Ryan, now Archbishop of
 
 JO Episcopal Silver Jubilee 
 
 Philadelphia, he was selected though but twenty-six years of 
 age for the rare honor of preaching at the Council. 
 
 His labors, on his return to Louisville, included the found- 
 ing of a parish for negroes, which, in spite of many difficulties, 
 he completed and left in a flourishing condition after three 
 years of zealous and persistent effort. In 1872 death ended 
 the strenuous career of his illustrious uncle. Father Hecker, 
 to whose keeping the archbishop's papers had been entrusted, 
 persuaded that the records of a life so worthy should be cast 
 in permanent form, set about finding some one equal to the 
 task. His choice fell upon Father Spalding, who left his par- 
 ish in Louisville and took residence in the House of the Paul- 
 ist Fathers in New York in order to devote his uninterrupted 
 thought to this labor of love. 
 
 When the life of Archbishop Spalding was published it 
 was accepted as the best biography in American Catholic lit- 
 erature. One distinguished critic, Brownson, says: "It 
 proves the author an accomplished literary man, a deep, earn- 
 est thinker, a learned and enlightened theologian, and a de- 
 voted priest. . . The author shows a breadth of view, a 
 depth of reflection, a knowledge of the moral and spiritual 
 wants of modern society, of the dangers of the country and 
 the real issue of the hour, that promise the country an au- 
 thor of the first order, and to the church a distinguished 
 servant." 
 
 Father Spalding did not return to Kentucky, but resumed 
 work as assistant to Father Donnelly at St. Michael's Church, 
 New York. A preacher of rare excellence, he soon impressed 
 himself on the thought of the city; priests and people flocked 
 to hear the orator who could make men think. 
 
 From this field of promise, while still an assistant priest, 
 he was called to another sphere of activity in the newly erected 
 Diocese of Peoria. He accepted the responsibility and was 
 consecrated Bishop of Peoria in St. Patrick's Cathedral, New 
 York, May I, 1877. Here his work has been writ large; he 
 that runs may read. Churches, schools and charitable insti- 
 tutions have sprung up everywhere; waning parishes having 
 waxed strong again; scattered communities have been united 
 into parishes; a strong, purposeful priesthood has been
 
 John Lancaster Sp aiding n 
 
 formed, and all in a spirit of such kindly and masterful leader- 
 ship that not once in twenty-five years has an appeal been 
 made against his judgment. 
 
 But a diocese afforded too narrow a scope for action. He 
 had a message for mankind. Keen observation and study had 
 convinced him that Catholics were slow to understand that 
 America meant opportunity for the church. Most of them 
 were gathered in a few cities. The vast numbers of immi- 
 grants who came from many countries of Europe, especially 
 from Ireland, were swallowed up in the large centers of pop- 
 ulation. For generations they had tilled the land at home and 
 could not suddenly enter another kind of life without danger 
 to themselves and, perhaps, ultimate deterioration for their 
 children. With wise prevision of these lamentable conse- 
 quences Bishop Spalding, in association with Archbishop Ire- 
 land, established the Catholic Colonization Society for the pur- 
 pose of placing the immigrant farmers on the fertile prairies 
 of the West. It was a magnificent conception. In time pros- 
 perous parishes, flourishing dioceses would spring up; the 
 church, unhampered, would grow into vigorous life, and in 
 free America the dream of centuries would come true. 
 
 Notwithstanding the immense labor and energy of its two 
 great promoters, the plan did not wholly succeed. The immi- 
 grants are still in the cities ; the land is held by a thriftier race ; 
 the opportunity is gone forever, while the prosperity of the 
 colonies that were established proves the wisdom of their 
 founders. 
 
 Through a lecture on "The Higher Education of the 
 Priesthoood," delivered at the Silver Jubilee of the Salesianum 
 of Milwaukee, the Catholic world was made aware of another 
 grand conception that had for some time been taking form in 
 the mind of Bishop Spalding. In due season it was given ex- 
 pression in the Catholic University of America at Washing- 
 ton. During the years of its existence it has developed more 
 and more into the ideal seat of universal knowledge that is to 
 be the intellectual center of American Catholicity. In many 
 other ways has he shown deep interest in things educational. 
 The comprehensive Catholic educational exhibit at the World's 
 Columbian Exposition in Chicago, was due to his breadth of
 
 12 Episcopal Silver Jubilee 
 
 view in the office of President of the Board. Spalding In- 
 stitute, a boy's high school established in Peoria, will be a 
 fitting memorial to his munificent faith in education. Bishop 
 Spalding is by nature a teacher. The deepest purpose of his 
 life and writings is to lead men to higher life, to, give em- 
 phasis to the divine in man. He is the embodiment of his 
 own ideas. America has no finer type of the cultured Chris- 
 tian gentleman; an uncynical sage, a thinker unafraid, a 
 churchman without cant, an unselfish patriot, a large-minded, 
 genuine, reverent man. 
 
 His writings have the ring of kindly sincerity; he writes 
 himself into books. In the life of Archbishop Spalding one 
 can feel the throbbing of a great heart. 
 
 "Essays and Reviews," a reprint of articles that appeared 
 in the Catholic World, is a volume of rugged discussion of 
 church questions, supplemented by a charming "Essay on Re- 
 ligion and Art." "The Religious Mission of the Irish Peo- 
 ple" was written to further the cause of the Catholic Coloniza- 
 tion Society, but will long outlive .the occasion that inspired it. 
 Two books of virile verse, "America and Other Poems," and 
 "The Poet's Praise" gave assurance that the versatile Bishop 
 of Peoria was a poet. The assurance has been made doubly 
 sure by the translation, "Songs, Chiefly From the German," 
 which has the rare merit of recreating both the body and the 
 soul of the originals, and by the illuminating and inspiring 
 "God and the Soul" that no thoughtful man would willingly 
 let die. 
 
 But thus far his literary fame will rest on his series of es- 
 says on education. In these four volumes, "Education and the 
 Higher Life," "Things of the Mind," "Thoughts and Theories 
 of Life and Education" and "Opportunity and Other Essays," 
 there is the crystallizing in brilliant expression of his pro- 
 foundest thought. No more stirring appeals to higher man- 
 hood have been uttered in these latter days. 
 
 His latest writings, "Religion, Agnosticism and Educa- 
 tion" and "Socialism and Labor and Other Arguments" show 
 that the sympathy of a man may be united to the genius of 
 a thinker. At the beginning of this new century Bishop Spald- 
 ing stands prophet-like apart to remind men of the nobler 
 purposes of living.
 
 Of THE
 
 ST. MARY'S CATHEDRAL
 
 John Lancaster Spalding 13 
 
 Cfte Consecration of bt Jftat#$ Cathedral 
 
 [From the New World.} 
 
 St. Mary's Cathedral was consecrated Tuesday morning 
 according to the elaborate and impressive form prescribed by 
 the Church. The service began at 6 o'clock and was concluded 
 at ii o'clock. The public was excluded until the ceremony 
 was nearly completed, Rt. Rev. P. J. O'Reilly, auxiliary bishop 
 of the Diocese of Peoria, was the consecrator, and was assisted 
 by Father Edmund, deacon; Father Cornelius, subdeacon; 
 Father Greve, archpriest; Fathers Durkin and O'Neill, assist- 
 ing priests, Fathers Sammon, Cummings, Fennan, Walters, 
 Otto, Sullivan and Mainville. 
 
 Promptly at 6 o'clock Bishop O'Reilly presented himself 
 at the chapel of the cathedral which contained the relics, be- 
 fore which candles had been burning all night, and upon en- 
 tering directed the candles, twelve in number, and in scones 
 against the walls of the cathedral, to be lighted. 
 
 Going to the entrance of the church the Bishop knelt at 
 the door reciting, with the clergy, the antiphon and the litanies 
 of the saints. After having laid aside the crozier and doffing 
 his mitre he prayed aloud, and the prayer being finished, began 
 the exorcism of the water. 
 
 Having repeated the formula prescribed by the Church, the 
 Bishop cast the salt into the water and traced the form of the 
 cross above the vessel, repeating: "Be this salt and water 
 mingled together. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, 
 and of the Holy Ghost," making the sign of the cross at each 
 name. Then with an appropriate prayer the water was blessed 
 and the Bishop sprinkled it upon the surrounding clergy and a 
 group of th,e parishioners who had gathered, as well as upon 
 himself, intoning meantime the Antiphon. 
 
 While the choir continued to chant the Bishop resumed 
 his mitre and preceded by two acolytes bearing lighted tapers 
 he turned to the right, and accompanied by the assisting 
 clergy and parishioners, made a complete circuit of the church,
 
 14 Episcopal Silver Jubilee 
 
 sprinkling the upper part of the walls and the ground below 
 with the water. 
 
 When the circuit was complete the Bishop stopped in front 
 of the church doors again and laid aside the mitre and sprink- 
 ler, while the sacred ministers joined him in responsive prayer. 
 Resuming the mitre and crozier, with the end of the latter he 
 knocked at the church door, repeating the closing stanzas of 
 the Sixty-fourth Psalm, the deacon inside chanting the re- 
 sponses. For the third time the round of the church was 
 made, the Bishop sprinkling the walls, while the choir chanted 
 Benedic Domine domum istam. 
 
 Upon returning, the mitre and sprinkler were put away, 
 and taking up the crozier the Bishop knocked at the door for 
 the third time, again chanting the Sixty-fourth Psalm, while 
 the deacon responded. At the close Bishop O'Reilly, in a 
 loud tone, said, "Lift up your gates, O Princes," and with 
 the crozier knocked on the door. The deacon from within 
 asking, "Who is this King of Glory?" The Bishop and the 
 clergy respond, "The Lord of Hosts; He is the King of 
 Glory," adding, "Open, open, open." 
 
 Accompanied by the assisting clergy the Bishop then en- 
 tered the church, followed by the workmen who were to close 
 the sepulchre of relics, and said: "Peace be to this house." 
 The responses were followed by the singing of the Pax 
 Aeterna by the choir. Having laid aside the mitre and 
 crozier, kneeling before the faldstool the Bishop intoned the 
 Veni Creator. To the concourse of people who had gathered 
 on the outside as the door closed the moment was full of im- 
 pressiveness. The soft, bright sunshine shedding its peaceful 
 light over the massive gray walls seemed to carry forward the 
 benediction in progress inside, and the chanting of the priests, 
 now and again drowned in the bursts of glorious music from 
 the organ and the choir, lifted the imagination above even the 
 glories of sun and beauties of the bursting buds and springing 
 grass. 
 
 In imagination one could see the devout acolyte as he 
 traced the form of the cross in ashes upon the church and the 
 Bishop in the center while the choir chanted the litanies of the 
 saints. Then came the wonderful canticle of Zacharias, and
 
 John Lancaster Spalding 15 
 
 the mind's eye saw the Bishop trace the letters of the Greek 
 and Latin alphabets in the ashes of the cross. 
 
 Following the elaborate sanctification of the altar, the 
 Bishop traced the sign of the cross in the center and in each 
 of the corners, making a circuit of the altar seven times, 
 sprinkling it with the water and using hyssop, while the Mis- 
 erere was being chanted by the choir. Then making the cir- 
 cuit of the interior of the Cathedral he thrice blessed the walls 
 and floor. The cement to be used in closing the sepulchre of 
 relics having been blessed the Bishop and the clergy proceeded 
 to the chapel where the relics are in keeping in the sacred 
 casket. 
 
 The return of the procession with the relics is headed by 
 two acolytes bearing lighted tapers. After them comes the 
 cross bearer and then follow the priests bearing the bier upon 
 which rests the casket, while the thurifers constantly sway 
 the incense over and around it and the Bishop, fully vested, in- 
 tones the Antiphon. 
 
 At this point Bishop O'Reilly returned to the door of the 
 church, and, seated upon the faldstool, there repeated the con- 
 secration address, after which Archpriest Greve read two of 
 the decrees of the Council of Trent concerning any attempt 
 to subvert the use of the property, and at the conclusion the 
 choir chanted the Erit mihi Dominus while the Bishop re- 
 mained seated. 
 
 The chant being concluded the clergy returned to the 
 church, where again the imagination must picture the placing 
 of the relic bier within the altar and the sealing of the stone 
 with the consecrated cement, the Bishop placing the first 
 trowel ful in place when the closing stone has been set by the 
 assisting clergy. Again the Antiphon is chanted, while the 
 assisting priests clear away the last vestige of mortar, and 
 then the Bishop blesses the altar once more. 
 
 It was now about 10 145, and a considerable number of the 
 parishioners had gathered at the church. These were now 
 admitted, while the Eighty-sixth Psalm was chanted. The 
 Bishop formed five crosses of incense in each corner and in the 
 center of the altar, and having placed wax tapers upon them, 
 lighted the latter. While they were being consumed he laid
 
 16 Episcopal Silver Jubilee 
 
 aside his mitre and intoned an alleluia. When the ashes 
 had been removed by the assistant priest, the Mass for the 
 dedication of a church was celebrated, and the Bishop gave the 
 solemn blessing to the congregation. 
 
 THE SOLEMN PONTIFICAL MASS. 
 
 [Prom the Peoria Journal^ 
 
 Right Reverend John Lancaster Spalding's Silver Jubilee 
 as Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Peoria is being 
 celebrated today, this being the twenty-fifth anniversary of his 
 consecration. The exercises began with a grand procession 
 of the local and visiting clergy from Spalding Institute to St. 
 Mary's Cathedral at 9 145 this morning, followed by the cele- 
 bration of Solemn Pontifical High Mass by Bishop Spalding 
 at the cathedral, and the jubilee sermon, preached by Cardinal 
 Gibbons. 
 
 No more ideal day for the celebration could have been 
 wished, and long before the hour set for the procession to 
 move from Spalding Institute, Madison avenue was thronged 
 with sightseers from Fayette to Green streets. Promptly at 
 9 145 the great entrance door of the institute swung back and 
 the crossbearer and the acolytes stepped forth into the light, 
 the sun glancing from the golden crucifix and reflected by the 
 lamps of the acolytes. Behind them came the priests two 
 hundred and fifty in number in cassock and surplice, walking 
 two by two. Then followed the members of the hierarchy, 
 each attended by a chaplain, and finally Cardinal Gibbons 
 with train bearers. The rich robes of the Archbishops and 
 Bishops, in purple and white and gold, were set off by the 
 somber and severe dress of a company of monks, who walked 
 two by two, their heads reverently bowed. The hum of voices, 
 and the gay laughter which had echoed up and down the street 
 died away with the appearance of the head of the procession, 
 and during the march to the cathedral no sound was heard 
 save the steady tramp of reverend feet.
 
 John Lancaster Spalding 17 
 
 PONTIFICAL HIGH MASS. 
 
 Crowds assembled at the cathedral doors long before the 
 services began. Pewholders and those having tickets entitling 
 them to seats in pews were the first admitted, and the large 
 force of ushers had all they could do to take care of the im- 
 mense throng who had admission tickets only. These were 
 obliged to stand till after the entrance of the procession. 
 
 The splendid blending of color in the banners of richest 
 yellow, significant of the papal power, and the long draperies 
 of bishop's purple, the red, white and blue of the flag, the yards 
 upon yards of festooned smilax and the flower bedecked altars 
 formed a fitting setting for the most gorgeous ceremony ever 
 witnessed in Peoria. A beautiful picture was the chancel, the 
 high altar ablaze with light, backed by masses of lilies and 
 delicate traceries of smilax. To the left the altar of the Blessed 
 Virgin was covered with roses and carnations, all in pink, and 
 at the right the deep crimson of roses was artistically mingled 
 with the white of the lilies on the altar of St. Joseph. 
 
 It was after ten when the acolytes leading the long pro- 
 cession of priests entered the great doors J;o the inspiring 
 strains of the organ and orchestra. After the long line of the 
 young attendants in their cassocks of purple and collars of 
 white came the priests of the diocese, more than one hundred 
 of them. Following them entered the Franciscan Fathers, 
 their plain habits being the one dark spot in the procession, 
 the purple of the robes of the Bishops and Archbishops, whom 
 they immediately preceded, looking all the richer by contrast. 
 
 Bishop Spalding entered the cathedral, whose splendid pro- 
 portions are an eloquent tribute to some of the work the 
 Bishop has accomplished in his twenty-five years here, at- 
 tended by three priests of the diocese. These three attendants 
 wore chasubles of cloth of gold and were striking figures in 
 the long line. At the last came Cardinal Gibbons robed in the 
 brilliant scarlet of his office, his refined and intellectual face a 
 benediction in itself. It took some minutes for the reverend 
 fathers to reach their places in the chancel, and during the 
 interval between their being seated and the beginning of the 
 mass, Bishop Spalding was robed for the celebration of the
 
 i8 Episcopal Silver Jubilee 
 
 mass. As he approached the altar the choir began the 
 Kyrie Eleison. After the singing of the gospel Cardinal Gib- 
 bons was escorted to the pulpit by two of the priests, where 
 he read the gospel for the day, before beginning his eloquent 
 address. The Cardinal's voice is not a strong one, but the 
 beauty and clearness of his tone made every word distinct to 
 the very limits of the walls. 
 
 THE SERMON 
 
 Isaias Ix. 1-5. "Arise, be enlightened, O, Jerusalem, 
 for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon 
 thee. For behold darkness shall cover the earth, and a mist 
 the people; but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory 
 shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall walk in thy 
 light, and kings in the brightness of thy rising. Lift up thy 
 eyes round about, and see : all these are gathered together, they 
 are come to thee; thy sons shall come from afar, and thy 
 daughters shall rise up at thy side. Then shalt thou see, and 
 abound, and thy heart shall wonder and be enlarged, when the 
 multitude of the sea shall be converted to thee, the strength 
 of the Gentiles shall come to thee." 
 
 In these words the great Prophet Isaiah foreshadows the 
 future expansion and glory of the Christian church. Let us 
 briefly sketch the history of this marvelous development. 
 
 Let us transport ourselves in spirit to the dawn of the 
 Christian era, and let us stand in imagination on one of Pagan 
 Rome's seven hills. We see at our feet the immense city 
 teeming with a population of about three millions of inhabi- 
 tants, according to the estimate of Gibbons. We observe that 
 metropolis dotted here and there with idolatrous temples, and 
 niches of false gods erected in the corners of the streets. 
 Those people are given up to every species of idolatry. They 
 worship the sun and moon and stars of heaven. The seas and 
 rivers, the mountains and groves have their tutelary divinities. 
 They worship every striking object in nature. They worship 
 every being except God alone, to whom alone divine homage 
 is due. In the words of the Apostle of the Gentiles, "they 
 changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the image and
 
 UBMRV 
 Of THE 
 Of
 
 His EMINENCE JAMES CARDINAL GIBBONS 
 Archbishop of Baltimore
 
 John Lancaster Spalding ip 
 
 likeness of corruptible men, and of birds and beasts and creep- 
 ing things, and they worshipped the creature instead of the 
 Creator who is blessed for evermore." 
 
 Rome was the focus of idolatry of the empire. Every di- 
 vinity that was adored throughout the vast dominions of 
 Rome had his temple or his shrine in the imperial city. 
 
 What I say of Rome, I might affirm of the Roman Empire, 
 and what I affirm of the Roman Empire, I could assert of the 
 civilized world, for Rome was mistress of the world. Her em- 
 pire extended into Europe, as far as the river Danube; it 
 extended into Asia as far as the Tigris and Euphrates, and 
 into Africa as far as Mauritania. The whole world, with the 
 exception of Palestine, was buried in the darkness of idolatry. 
 
 Such was the condition of society when our Lord appeared 
 on the theatre of public life. He calls around Him twelve in- 
 significant men men without wealth, destitute of human 
 learning, men without the prestige of fame, men without po- 
 litical, or social, or family influence, men without any of the 
 elements which are considered at all times essential for the suc- 
 cess of any great enterprise. He commands them to effect the 
 most mighty moral revolution that has ever occurred in the his- 
 tory of the world. He commands them to uproot idolatry from 
 the face of the earth, and to substitute in its stead the worship 
 of the one, true, living God. He commands them to eradicate 
 the most darling and inveterate passions from the hearts of 
 men, and to plant in their stead the peaceful reign of Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 Well might the gospel which these men went forth to plant, 
 be compared to the little grain of mustard seed, small and 
 imperceptible in the beginning, but expanding into a luxuriant 
 tree, spreading its branches far and wide, so that the nations 
 of the earth, might be sheltered beneath its ample foliage, and 
 be nourished by its perennial fruit. And well might these 
 Apostles be compared to twelve little streams, deepening and 
 broadening as they advanced, and not inundating the earth 
 as of old, with the waters of destruction, but refreshing it with 
 the rivers of eternal life. 
 
 The Apostles had implicit faith in their Divine Master 
 when He commanded them to preach the gospel to all nations.
 
 2O Episcopal Silver Jubilee 
 
 They knew He was God. They knew that His word was 
 truth, that His word was power and omnipotence. They had 
 been witnesses of His miracles. They knew that He who 
 said in the beginning: "Let there be light, and there was 
 light" let the earth bring forth fruit, and it came forth 
 they knew that He would now, through their instrumentality, 
 cause the light of faith to shine on the darkened intellects of 
 men, and the fruit of santification to grow abundantly in their 
 hearts. And therefore they go forth, nothing hesitating, and 
 resolved to communicate the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ 
 to every portion of the Roman dominions. 
 
 They parcel out the Roman Empire among themselves. 
 Their only weapon is the cross ; their only credentials, the gos- 
 pel of Christ. St. Peter commences his apostolic ministry in 
 Jerusalem, where his first sermon is followed by the conversion 
 of three thousand souls, some of whom had, no doubt, wit- 
 nessed the crucifixion of our Savior, and perhaps even had a 
 hand in His death. He afterwards established his see in An- 
 tioch, and finally suffers martyrdom in Rome. 
 
 St. Paul, the indefatigable teacher of the Gentiles, traverses 
 through various parts of Europe and Asia, everywhere bear- 
 ing the torch of faith. St. Andrew preaches in Syria and 
 Greece. St. John evangelizes Ephesus and Asia Minor. St. 
 James announces the glad tidings in Judea and Galilee. St. 
 Thomas carries the light of the gospel to the remote Indies, 
 and traces of the Christianity that he there established, were 
 discovered by St. Francis Xavier when he visited that country 
 in the sixteenth century. And so on of the other Apostles. 
 In the words of St. Paul, "their sound hath gone forth to all 
 the earth, and their words to the ends of the whole world." 
 
 But if we are amazed at what I might call the pious au- 
 dacity of the Apostles and their immediate successors in under- 
 taking the herculean task of converting the nations, we are still 
 more astonished when we contemplate the result of their la- 
 bors. St. Paul, about thirty years after our Lord's crucifixion, 
 writes these words to the Romans: "I give thanks to God 
 through Jesus Christ, that your faith is spoken of throughout 
 the whole world," and, of course, spoken of by men who were 
 in sympathy and communion with the faith of Rome.
 
 John Lancaster Spalding 21 
 
 St. Justin, whose death occurred sixty-six years after the 
 death of St. John the Evangelist, says : "There is no race of 
 people, whether Greeks or barbarians, among whom prayers 
 and the Eucharist are not offered to God the Father and Maker 
 of all things, in the name of Jesus Christ crucified." 
 
 Tertullian, who was born about the year 160 of the Chris- 
 tian era, does not hesitate to address these words to the Roman 
 Emperor : "We are but of yesterday, and we have filled your 
 empire. Your cities, your towns, your islands, your forests, 
 your army, your senate, your palace and forum swarm with 
 Christians. We have left nothing to you except your empty 
 temples." 
 
 St. Irenaeus, who lived in the same century, bears wit- 
 ness also of the marvelous growth of the Gospel in his day, 
 and he is careful to tell us that the faith of these times was 
 everywhere identical. "As the light," he says, "which illumines 
 this world is everywhere the same because it proceeds from the 
 same great luminary of day, so is the light of faith that shines 
 on the intellects of men everywhere identical, because it pro- 
 ceeds from Jesus Christ, the eternal Sun of Justice." 
 
 What a contrast presents itself to our minds between the 
 peaceful conquests of the Apostles and their successors, on the 
 one hand, and the bloody victories achieved by the great gen- 
 erals of antiquity on the other, whether we consider the wea- 
 pons with which they fought, or the battles which they won, 
 or the duration of their victories. Alexander the Great, who 
 may be considered one of the greatest generals of ancient 
 times, subdued nations by wading through the blood of his 
 fellow-beings. By the sword he conquered, and by the sword 
 he kept his subjects in bondage. But scarcely was he con- 
 signed to the grave, when his empire was dismembered, and his 
 subjects shook off the yoke which had been imposed upon 
 them. 
 
 The Apostles conquered kingdoms for their Divine Master, 
 not by force, but by persuasion; not by the material sword, 
 but "by the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God;" 
 not by shedding the blood of others, but by the voluntary shed- 
 ding of their own blood ; not by enslaving the bodies of men, 
 but by rescuing their souls from the bondage of sin. And
 
 22 Episcopal Silver Jubilee 
 
 the spiritual republic which they founded exists unto this day; 
 is constantly extending its lines, and is kept together, not by 
 frowning fortifications and standing armies, but by the divine 
 influence of religious and moral sanctions. 
 
 What does this prove? It proves that the pen and the 
 voice are mightier than the sword. It proves that "peace hath 
 her victories no less renowned than war/' aye, victories more 
 substantial and more enduring. It proves that all schemes 
 conceived in passion and fomented by lawless ambition are 
 doomed, like the mountain torrent, to carry terror before 
 them, and to leave ruin and desolation after them; while the 
 actions of men laboring in the name and under the inspiration 
 of God, are destined, like the gentle dew of heaven, to shed 
 silent blessings around them, and to bring forth abundant fruit 
 in due season. 
 
 No rational and dispassionate mind can review the history 
 of the infant Church without discerning the stamp of divinity 
 impressed upon her brow. When we consider the rapid 
 growth of the Christian religion, and the feeble instruments 
 that were employed to produce such results ; when we consider 
 the hostility which the Apostles encountered in the whole 
 course of their ministry ; when we consider the opposition they 
 met with from the learned and from the populace, from the 
 priests of the pagan superstition and from the established gov- 
 ernment itself; above all, when we reflect on the sublime and 
 austere moral code which they proclaimed to a people whose 
 religion tolerated and even sanctioned the most dissolute mor- 
 als, we are forced to admit that Christianity was divine and 
 miraculous in its origin. 
 
 Well did St. Paul sound this keynote when he exclaimed : 
 "The foolish things of the world hath God chosen that He 
 might confound the wise, and the weak things of the world 
 hath God chosen that He might confound the strong, and the 
 things that are contemptible, and the things that are not, that 
 He might bring to naught the things that are, that no flesh 
 should glory in His sight." 
 
 And, indeed, the wisdom of God is specially manifested in 
 the adoption of means utterly disproportioned to the end to be 
 attained, so that the world might be convinced that Christian-
 
 John Lancaster Spalding 23 
 
 ity was the work of God and not of man, and that all the glory 
 should redound to God. 
 
 For, if Christ had appeared in all the pomp and splendor 
 of a temporal sovereign, if He had associated with Him the 
 power of Caesar, if He had impressed into His service the 
 armies of imperial Rome, the world would justly exclaim : 
 There is no miracle here, for Christianity was propagated, not 
 by the finger of God, but by the arms of the flesh. Or, if 
 our Lord had employed in the service of His religion the 
 poets and orators, the historians and other literary men of his 
 age; if he had inspired a Virgil and an Ovid, a Cicero and a 
 Tacitus to wield their pen and raise their voices in attestation 
 of the new religion, then the world would cry out : There is 
 no miracle here, for the Christian religion was propagated not 
 by the folly of the cross, but by "the persuasive work of hu- 
 man wisdom." Or, if our Savior had appeared as the pos- 
 sessor and distributor of immense wealth, if He had lavished 
 bribes and bounties to induce men to embrace His religion, 
 then the world would say, there is no miracle here, for men 
 were drawn to the Christian religion, not by "the pearl of 
 great price," but by the gold which glitters. But when we be- 
 hold Christianity established by the weapons of weakness, hu- 
 mility and poverty, we are forced to exclaim : "The finger of 
 God is here." 
 
 The historian Gibbon, the author of "The Decline and 
 Fall of the Roman Empire," was obliged to admit the won- 
 derful growth of the Christian religion in the first three 
 centuries. But he endeavored to divest this achievement of its 
 miraculous character, and to explain the phenomenon on 
 purely rational grounds. He ascribes the spread of Chris- 
 tianity to these five great causes: ist. The indomitable zeal 
 of the primitive Christians; 2d. Their pure and blameless 
 lives; 3d. Their unshaken belief in the immortality of the 
 soul; 4th. Their alleged power of working miracles; 5th. 
 Their admirable organization. 
 
 There is no doubt indeed that these causes exerted a pow- 
 erful influence in the propagation of Christianity. But I main- 
 tain that these causes were totally inadequate to accomplish 
 the results which followed; they were secondary, not primary
 
 24 Episcopal Silver Jubilee 
 
 causes. They were the effects of a great first cause. If, in 
 your travels through Switzerland or the Adirondack moun- 
 tains, you behold a beautiful placid lake, your curiosity may 
 lead you to discover the streams that feed it. Your investiga- 
 tion is rewarded by finding five rivulets flowing into it. In 
 pursuing your investigation still farther, you find that these 
 streams have their source in the snow-capped mountain in the 
 distance. Let us apply this illustration to the present subject. 
 
 Who inspired the primitive Christians with their unquench- 
 able zeal and enthusiasm? an enthusiasm enduring for cen- 
 turies and extending over the known world an enthusiasm 
 in an unpopular and hated cause. Who raised them to that 
 high plane of moral rectitude? Who impressed them with that 
 undaunted faith in the immortality of the soul and in a future 
 destiny? Who imparted to them the power of working mir- 
 acles? Who gave them that indissoluble organization ce- 
 mented, not by force, but formed by the golden bonds of 
 love? 
 
 Who was it but the Lord of hosts ? It was He who said : 
 "Go teach all nations, and behold I am with you all days, 
 even to the consummation of the world." It was He who 
 said: "Fear not, I have conquered the world." It was He 
 who said : "The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the 
 strong." It was He who said: "Ye have not chosen Me, 
 but I have chosen you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, 
 and your fruit should remain." 
 
 My Brethren, imitate your forefathers in the faith, by 
 your undaunted belief in an immortal destiny. Imitate them 
 by the rectitude of your lives. Imitate them by your zeal 
 for the honor of God and of His church. Imitate them, above 
 all, by working miracles of grace and mercy, by your charity 
 and compassion for the sufferings of your fellow-beings. "Re- 
 ligion," says the Apostle, "pure and undefiled before God and 
 the Father is this : to visit the orphans and widows in their 
 tribulations, and to keep one's self unspotted from the world." 
 
 I beg to congratulate you, Right Reverend Bishop, on the 
 double festivity we are celebrating to-day the Consecration 
 of this Cathedral Church, and the Silver Jubilee of your own 
 Consecration as first Bishop of the See of Peoria. It was
 
 LIBRARY 
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 John Lancaster Spalding 25 
 
 my good fortune to be present at your Episcopal Consecration 
 five and twenty years ago, to this very day, and it was my 
 privilege to be one of the assistant consecrators on that oc- 
 casion. 
 
 I have watched your career as Chief Pastor of this diocese 
 with profound interest and gratification, not only on account 
 of my personal friendship for yourself, but also because of 
 my filial affection for your venerable uncle, the illustrious 
 Archbishop Spalding of Baltimore, whom I loved and revered 
 as my father in God. 
 
 The splendid talents with which God has endowed you 
 have been employed not only in instructing the faithful of 
 your own diocese, but also in enlightening your fellow citizens 
 throughout the land. Your zeal for God's Church has been 
 made manifest by the steady growth of religion here, during 
 the last twenty-five years. Churches and clergy, institutions 
 erected in the cause of education, of religion and humanity, 
 have unceasingly multiplied during your administration. 
 When I survey the field and see what has been accom- 
 plished in a quarter of a century; when I consider the 
 thousands of families coming to our shores from various 
 parts of Europe, and settling in this fruitful State of Illinois; 
 when I contemplate the thousands of their children growing up 
 at their sides, and assimilated into one homogeneous body, 
 inheriting the faith of their fathers; when I behold their rep- 
 resentatives assembled before me in such large numbers, may 
 not such a spectacle vividly recall to my mind the Prophet's 
 words, and may I not exclaim with him in joyous accents: 
 "Arise, be enlightened, O Jerusalem, for thy light is come, and 
 the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. The Gentiles shall 
 walk in thy light, and kings in the brightness of thy rising. 
 Lift up thine eyes round about and see. All these are gath- 
 ered together, they are come to thee. Thy sons shall come 
 from afar, and thy daughters shall rise up at thy side. Then 
 shalt thou see and abound, and thy heart shall wonder and be 
 enlarged, when the multitude of the sea shall be converted to 
 thee, the strength of the Gentiles shall come to thee." 
 
 You have been ably seconded by a loyal and devoted 
 clergy, upon whom you have impressed the character of your
 
 26 Episcopal Silver Jubilee 
 
 own zeal and activity. Above all, you have been cheered and 
 sustained by the generous aid and co-operation of a pious 
 and enlightened laity, without whose support a Bishop can 
 accomplish little or nothing. An edifying and instructed laity 
 is the glory and ornament of the Church of God. 
 
 When the bishop, the clergy, and you, beloved brethren of 
 the laity, are united in the cause of God and humanity, you 
 are invincible. There is no such word as fail. You are an 
 impregnable phalanx. You form a triple chord that cannot 
 be broken. You constitute a triple alliance, more formidable 
 than the triple alliance of Germany, Austria and Italy, because 
 yours is an alliance not sustained by armed hosts, military 
 prowess, and the material sword, but an alliance upheld by the 
 cohesive and enduring power of divine love. 
 
 And why, my brethren, should you not co-operate with 
 your Bishop and clergy? Have you not the same God and 
 Father in Heaven? Were you not all redeemed by the blood 
 of the same Blessed Savior ? Are you not all sanctified by the 
 same Spirit? "There are diversities of graces," says the 
 Apostle, "but the same Spirit. There are diversities of min- 
 istries, but the same Lord. There are diversities of operations, 
 but the same God who worketh all in all." You are in the 
 same bark of Peter, tossed about by the same storms of life, 
 and steering towards the same eternal shores, prospective citi- 
 zens of the same heavenly kingdom. 
 
 And surely there is no country on the face of this earth 
 where you can worship God according to the dictates of your 
 conscience with more freedom than in these United States, 
 where there is liberty without license, and authority without 
 despotism. In 1870, when returning from the Vatican Council, 
 Archbishop Spalding and myself were guests of a Bishop in 
 Savoy. The Bishop resided in a splendid palace, and a sen- 
 tinel was pacing in front of his residence, stationed there by 
 the government as a guard of honor. I congratulated the 
 Bishop on his magnificent appointments, and the distinction 
 that was paid to him. The Bishop shook his head, and replied 
 to me: "All is not gold that glitters; I cannot build even a 
 sacristy without the permission of the government." 
 
 Thank God, no military satrap can stand between you and
 
 John Lancaster Spalding 27 
 
 your Bishop. Here the government holds over you the segis 
 of its protection without interfering with you in the exercise 
 of your sacred functions. 
 
 May the happy conditions of things now existing among 
 us always continue, when the Bishops and clergy will have di- 
 rect relations with the people, when prelates and priests will 
 bestow on their spiritual children their apostolic labors, their 
 tender solicitude and fatherly affection, and pour out their 
 heart's blood, if necessary, and when they will receive in return 
 the free will offerings, the devotion and affection of a grateful 
 people. 
 
 Be loyal to your country and to your religion. No citizen 
 of the United States should be a drone in the social hive. No 
 citizen should be an indifferent spectator of the social, political, 
 and economic events occurring around him. 
 
 As we are all protected by the strong arm of the govern- 
 ment, so should we all unite in sustaining the burden of the 
 commonwealth. Above all, take an abiding and a vital per- 
 sonal interest in the welfare of your holy religion. Let the 
 language of the psalmist be your inspiring watchword on this 
 solemn occasion : "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right 
 hand be forgotten. Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my 
 mouth, if I do not remember you, if I make not Jerusalem 
 the beginning of my joy." 
 
 After the sermon the cardinal resumed the official cape of 
 ermine and the celebration of the Mass was resumed. During 
 the offertory the choir sang an "Alleluia," the Grier quartette 
 carrying the solos, and supported by the splendid choir under 
 Professor Plowe's direction. 
 
 Too much praise cannot be accorded the choir and those 
 having the music in charge. The musical part of the celebra- 
 tion was in every way worthy of the great occasion. Espe- 
 cially beautiful was the "Sanctus," the violins adding much 
 to the impressiveness and beauty of the number. 
 
 During the few moments of absolute silence that followed 
 the singing of the "Sanctus," the scene was one never to be 
 forgotten. The chancel with its gorgeous background of color, 
 thronged with kneeling priests; the vast congregation in
 
 28 Episcopal Silver Jubilee 
 
 prayer; the banners, the flags, the flowers, the candles, and 
 "God's own sunshine, that shines for all," streaming through 
 the beautiful windows, made a picture of marvelous and most 
 impressive grandeur. 
 
 To the inspiring strains of the "March of the Priests" 
 from "Athalia," the priestly procession retired from the 
 chancel. As it came and took its way back to the institute, 
 Cardinal Gibbons, his long robes supported by six train- 
 bearers, retired at once to the episcopal residence, preceded by 
 the other members of the hierarchy and clergy. 
 
 THE BANQUET. 
 
 Immediately following the services at the cathedral the 
 dignitaries of the church and the clergymen were entertained 
 at a grand banquet served in the recital hall of Spalding In- 
 stitute. The decorations were elaborate and the tables were 
 beautifully decked with smilax, American beauty and bride's 
 roses banked about the walls, with stately lilies nodding here 
 and there. When the menu had been disposed of, Bishop 
 O'Reilly, who acted as toast-master, arose and spoke as fol- 
 lows: 
 
 Eminent and Respected Prelates and Fathers: 
 
 There is one in the midst of us today, whose presence is 
 not only a personal tribute and greeting to our great Jubilarian, 
 but a supreme joy to the Priests and people of the Diocese, 
 and an honor that our fair city fully appreciates. I allude to 
 our own revered and popular Cardinal Gibbons. Whenever 
 he speaks from the chair of the Primatial See of Baltimore, 
 whether proclaiming the gospel of peace and good will to the 
 faithful, or requests the whole Nation to give thanks for abun- 
 dant blessings, or touches a minor chord when sorrow bows 
 down the national heart, and his words are carried on the 
 wings of the press, into the millions of homes; we all feel 
 that it is not only good, but a priceless privilege to belong to 
 a church that crowns such noble and worthy men with the 
 insignia of the Cardinalate. I have the honor of introducing
 
 John Lancaster Spalding 29 
 
 to you His Eminence our beloved Cardinal Gibbons, who has 
 kindly consented to respond to the toast, "Our Holy Father." 
 As His Eminence arose he was most cordially received. 
 The Cardinal expressed the reverence and affection of the 
 Roman Catholic hierarchy in the United States for the head 
 of the church, and the hope that he might be spared to the 
 service of mankind for many years to come. He has labored 
 during the long years of his reign for the betterment of human- 
 ity. There has been no good cause that has not enlisted his 
 sympathy. His encyclicals have been towers of defence 
 against the attacks of evil, notably those on "The Condition of 
 the Working Classes," "The Christian Constitution of States," 
 "Human Liberty" and "Christian Marriage." Not Catholics 
 only, but all civilized peoples pray that his years may be 
 lengthened. 
 
 THE TOAST-MASTER. 
 
 Your Eminence and, Esteemed Fathers: 
 
 Among our guests on this beautiful May-day, I notice a 
 life-long friend and classmate of our Host, the popular and 
 eloquent Prelate Archbishop Riordan of San Francisco. 
 We have known him as a zealous and enlightened Pastor in 
 our own State, loved and admired by all, for his noble qualities. 
 His Grace rules a Diocese replete with sacred traditions and 
 historic interest, and the prayers and good wishes of his old 
 friends in Illinois ever follow him to the land of sunshine, and 
 fruits and flowers. His presence here, as a testimony from 
 the far West will add much glory to this occasion, and we 
 invite him to respond to the toast "Our Country." 
 
 ADDRESS OF ARCHBISHOP RIORDAN. 
 
 "OUR COUNTRY." 
 
 The toast proposed is a theme far too vast for an after- 
 dinner speech, and so sacred that its introduction amid the 
 joyous incidents of this celebration may seem incongruous and 
 out of place. Yet, loving children never meet in sorrow or 
 in joy without some tribute to the mother who bore them, who
 
 SO Episcopal Silver Jubilee 
 
 gave them their life and who carries them in her thoughts and 
 affections, even to their graves. So, as loving and devoted 
 sons of the great country in which we live, we feel that the 
 celebration of to-day would be incomplete did we not speak in 
 words of love of this mother land of ours and pledge her a 
 loyalty and devotion that shall never fail. The great Apostle 
 of the Gentiles, though living amid the corruption of the 
 Roman Empire, that at last cast him out as unworthy to live, 
 claimed and exercised his privilege as a free born citizen oi 
 Rome and entreated his fellow-Christians to give obedience to 
 the State. There is a patriotic ring in his words when he pro- 
 claims himself the citizen of no mean city, though poor and 
 wretched beyond description, viz. : Tarsus of Cilicia, and the 
 Blessed Lord Himself was moved to tears as He beheld the 
 city of Jerusalem and knew of its impending doom, because it 
 had not known the time of its visitation. 
 
 That man is to be pitied who can view this magnificent 
 domain, extending from ocean to ocean, capable of producing 
 everything needful or useful for man's life and comfort, with 
 a system of government so gentle in its application to the 
 individual that we are hardly conscious of its existence, the 
 well being of the great majority of its citizens, the general 
 intelligence of the people, the ample means provided for the 
 highest culture, the happy homes in every State of the Union, 
 the obedience to law, the respect for religion, the munificent 
 contribution to the institutions of education and charity that 
 prove, while vast fortunes are easily accumulated, their 
 possessors have the grace to distribute them in aid of worthy 
 objects ; the large personal liberty accorded to all and protected 
 in its exercise by law ; the inestimable boon of perfect freedom 
 in the domain of conscience not a privilege granted by the 
 country, not a right held from the State, but a right of con- 
 science so that any law abridging that right so long as in its 
 exercise it does not subvert public order or public decency, is 
 unconstitutional, and hence null and void : I say the man who 
 has all these benefits before his mind and does not feel a thrill 
 of the most intense love for the country is incapable of appre- 
 ciating the highest and best things of life; his mind is in 
 darkness, his heart is in the dust.
 
 John Lancaster Spalding 31 
 
 We cannot, with any degree of intelligence, read the history 
 of God's dealings with the human family as manifested in the 
 history of nations without being convinced that this is a chosen 
 land, reserved in the design of an all-loving Providence, as the 
 home of a race of men who, under a system of government 
 hitherto untried, might develop, under the least possible re- 
 straint, whatever is good and praiseworthy in their nature; 
 might attain to the highest perfection in the temporal and 
 spiritual order. Here the ideal manhood, so tersely yet so 
 luminously traced by the great Apostle, was to be realized. 
 "Where there is neither Gentile nor Jew, circumcision nor 
 uncircumcision, Barbarian nor Scythian, bond nor free; but 
 Christ is all in all," to which all men are welcome, no mat- 
 ter where from. Here was to be a city of refuge which all 
 might enter who were tired of the galling yoke of oppression 
 and the trammels which tyranny wound about every sphere 
 of their lives, where merit would be recognized, and man 
 simply because he is man receive full recognition as a man. 
 
 The republics of the past were republics only in name. 
 Their territory was small, frequently only a single city. The 
 republics of modern times, outside of our own, are not much 
 better. Military despotisms, for the most part, in which a 
 successful soldier holds power over his fellow men and wields 
 it without any restraint upon its exercise. Here, for the first 
 time in the history of the world, was organized a system of 
 government, on a large scale and capable of indefinite expan- 
 sion, "of the people, by the people and for the people," the 
 culmination of a movement that began with the first preaching 
 of the Christian religion, that aroused the fierce opposition of 
 the Roman Empire, not because it was a religion, but because 
 Rome saw in it a principal of government destructive to 
 its own. It slowly but continuously leavened the thoughts 
 of men during the Middle Ages, and here and there put forth 
 a flower in small free communities until at last, on a fresh 
 soil under more kindly skies, almost unexpectedly, with- 
 out preparation, as Minerva sprang from the brain of Jove 
 full-armed, it took its place among the nations of the world, and 
 its message to men was a message of liberty and equality, and 
 that conscience is subject only to God. For that we thank God
 
 $2 Episcopal Silver Jubilee 
 
 and love our country, and pray for its prosperity. None are and 
 none have more reason to be grateful than Catholics. Indeed, 
 Catholics throughout the world owe it a debt of gratitude. 
 Every government, from the day it came down from the upper 
 chamber in Jerusalem an organized body instinct with divine 
 life, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit its informing principle 
 and the pledge of its indestructible life, has lifted its hand 
 against the church. "You shall be hated of all men," has re- 
 ceived its fulfillment in the history of every nation except one, 
 and that solitary exception is our own. Individuals have at- 
 tacked us ; the people at large have condemned them. Aggrega- 
 tions of individuals, sometimes out of malice, more frequently 
 through ignorance, have striven here and there to light the fires 
 of persecution ; the nation at large has cried shame. We have 
 always felt from the time when only one Bishop from his See 
 in Baltimore governed a small and scattered flock of a few 
 thousand Catholics along the Atlantic shore, down to this hour, 
 when eighty Bishops rule over as many millions as the first 
 did over thousands once within the precincts of an United 
 States Court and under the protection of the general govern- 
 ment, or even State government, our rights, our liberties and 
 our properties were secure; that the promise made to the world 
 by the founders of this republic, that while the government 
 should set up no church of its own, it should protect all men 
 in the free and untrammeled exercise of their religious liberties 
 and God-given rights of conscience. We have always felt that 
 that promise was in force and most sacredly kept. There is 
 not in all history a nobler act recorded than the conduct of those 
 who drew up the Constitution and of those who added to it its 
 first amendment, who sprung from a nation that for three 
 hundred years had been bitterly hostile to the Catholic religion 
 and whose penal laws still disgraced its legislation, at a time 
 when all Europe had risen against the Holy See, whose 
 venerable Pontiff was prisoner, came together in the city of 
 Brotherly Love, organized this government, and in its defense 
 pledged their fortunes, their lives and their sacred honor, and 
 sent across the seas the invitation to the oppressed of every 
 clime to come and build upon a new soil their tabernacles, and, 
 beneath the protection of a new flag, work out their temporal
 
 LIBRARY 
 Of THE 
 UNIVERSITY Of
 
 RT. REV. JAMES RYAN, D. D. 
 Bishop of Alton
 
 John Lancaster Spalding 33 
 
 and eternal destinies, subject only to just laws made by them- 
 selves, and responsible in all that belongs to the soul to God, 
 and God alone. 
 
 I repeat, that this action of the government at the very 
 beginning of its history, coming at the time it did and under 
 the circumstances that confronted it, stands unique in the 
 history of the world and should be remembered with gratitude 
 by Catholics throughout the entire Church. Such has been its 
 attitude in the past, and such is its attitude at present. It leaves 
 us free. If we fail to build up a strong, active and progressive 
 church, the fault will be ours, and a proof that we are unequal 
 to the mission confided to us by God, and lack the qualities 
 which the country looks to us to possess, well stored minds, 
 Apostolic zeal and the self-sacrificing spirit of the spiritual man. 
 To do our work well, we must love the land in which we live, 
 and the institutions that place no hindrance in our way. Of 
 all citizens we should be the most patriotic, and patriotism does 
 not consist in paying taxes and in external obedience to the 
 laws. It has its root in a loving and grateful heart. The 
 country is still young. It is laying a foundation of a mightier 
 empire than the most vivid imagination can conceive. Surely 
 it is not for any man worthy of the name to stand idly by and, 
 with the sneer of a cynic and the criticism of a pessimist, refuse 
 his co-operation in the mighty work. It is the duty of every 
 Christian man, while helping to lay the foundations of a 
 mighty civil commonwealth, to lay side by side with them the 
 foundations of the City of his God. The field that spreads 
 itself before our gaze is as broad and promising as the greatest 
 activity could desire; the work that we are called to do is as 
 high, as noble and inspiring as ever fired the loftiest ambition. 
 
 Permit me a few words of a more personal character. I 
 feel that, having come so far, I may lay claim to your indulg- 
 ence. Some years ago I listened to an eloquent discourse by 
 the Bishop of this See. Among other things, he uttered the 
 prediction that the typical American of the future would be 
 born in the Valley of the Mississippi. I do not know what 
 the future may bring forth. I cannot say that the man of the 
 future will be of greater stature or better equipped mentally 
 and spiritually than the man of the present. I do know, how-
 
 34 Episcopal Silver Jubilee 
 
 ever, that a typical American citizen and a typical American 
 Bishop has had his home in this city, the very center of the 
 Mississippi Valley, for the past twenty-five years. He has 
 labored strenuously and successfully "Pro Deo et pro Patria," 
 for God and country. He has done his part as a workman 
 of whom we need not be ashamed, to strengthen the institu- 
 tions of our beloved country. His words, so often and so 
 eloquently spoken, have carried inspiration and life to thou- 
 sands. We are gathered about him to-day from all parts of the 
 country, and we speak our congratulations in words of heart- 
 felt sincerity, and we ask that many years may still be his to 
 work Pro Deo et pro Patria. 
 
 THE TOAST-MASTER. 
 
 Your Eminence and Honored Friends: 
 
 It gives additional joy and splendor to this day to witness 
 the first Rector of our great and promising Catholic Uni- 
 versity extend hearty greeting to its chief promoter and de- 
 voted patron. The whole life of the devout and erudite 
 Metropolitan of Dubuque is a series of lessons on the great 
 Christian virtues, accentuating in a high degree kindness, for- 
 bearance and good will. There is a feeling of delight which 
 we cannot repress or conceal in beholding the first sponsor and 
 regent of our greatest school of learning extend personal 
 felicitation to its founder and benefactor. It is my privilege 
 to introduce to you His Grace, Archbishop Keane, who will 
 respond to the toast "The Church in Our Own Country." 
 
 ADDRESS OF ARCHBISHOP KEANE. 
 
 "THE CHURCH IN OUR OWN COUNTRY." 
 
 He does the best service to both Church and Country who 
 keeps us in mind of their ideals. 
 
 We are too prone to be mere statisticians. We think and 
 speak of both Church and Country in terms of what we can 
 count or measure. This makes us boastful, and it leads us to 
 deceive not only others but ourselves as to the great realities.
 
 John Lancaster Spalding 55 
 
 We expand our facts and our figures to the vastness of a 
 balloon filled with gas. 
 
 Every now and then, Providence gives us a man gifted 
 to pierce through mere externalities to the inner life of things. 
 His mission is to teach his generation that bigness is not 
 excellence, to place in their true light the ideals without con- 
 formity to which size and show are but sham. 
 
 Such was the gift and such the vocation of Carlyle. We 
 love him for his hatred of shams. But he lacked the knowledge 
 of the truth which alone gives us the ideal. He knew that there 
 must be "an intelligence at the heart of things;" but he 
 knew not the word which that intelligence has spoken to His 
 creatures, and so he became a pessimist and a scold. 
 
 Such, too, was the gift and such the mission of Emerson. 
 We honor him for his discontent with external things, for his 
 aspiration after the transcendental realities. But he, too, had 
 been robbed by heredity of the treasure of the truth ; and so 
 he comes sadly near to being simply a pantheistic dreamer. 
 
 Such is the gift and such the mission of Bishop Spalding. 
 To a philosophic penetration and an artistic genius fully equal, 
 in my opinion, to those of Carlyle and Emerson, he unites a 
 profound knowledge of the fullness of truth bestowed on man- 
 kind by the Savior of the world. Together with the genius 
 of critic, poet, and philosopher; he possesses the heart of a 
 Priest. No wonder, then, that he has done truer and nobler 
 and more useful work than either Carlyle or Emerson. He 
 had not, like them, the misfortune of being hampered from 
 the start with an inheritance of political, social and theological 
 fetters which it cost their best energies to escape from, and 
 which had scarred and crippled them for life. America gave 
 him unfettered limbs, and the grand old Apostolic Church 
 endowed him with the liberty of the children of God. And 
 so, without hindrance, his genius has expanded in the full, free 
 light of the true, the beautiful and the good, and therefore, 
 when from the fullness of his heart he has utterd words of 
 wisdom to his fellow-Catholics and his fellow-Americans, 
 there has been in them no sound of intellectual uncertainty, 
 no bitterness of the heart, no despair of the soul, but teachings 
 of light and love, of wisdom and joy.
 
 jd Episcopal Silver Jubilee 
 
 He views all things in the light of their ideals. To him, 
 the Church is simply what it is in the mind of God, that is, 
 the Body of Christ, the external organization of religion, the 
 embodiment in the life of mankind of faith and hope and love. 
 This alone is to him the living Church of Christ ; the practical 
 realization of this the only thing that churchmen can rightly 
 boast of, or rather give thanks for. With mere addition of 
 church members and multiplication of church means he has 
 been nobly impatient. In words of matchless force and 
 eloquence he has reminded us of the ideal, warned us of the 
 ideal, scourged us with the ideal. Few men have possessed 
 to such a degree the power of scorn. May he continue to use 
 it, and with redoubled force, until the last remnant of mere 
 statistical boastfulness, of mere externalism and phariseeism 
 shall have disappeared from among us. 
 
 In like manner he has upheld and insisted on the ideal of 
 our country. To him it has meant not a geographical area, 
 however rich in nature's treasures, nor the gathering of so 
 many millions of men under a certain flag of a certain govern- 
 ment, nor the incomparable multiplying of productions and 
 piling up of wealth. 
 
 It has meant the promotion of human welfare under the 
 fullest influences of the best civilization, under the untram- 
 meled reign of freedom, of civil quality, of even-handed 
 justice, of popular comfort and well being; of enlightenment, 
 culture, refinement, religion. Any boasting of American prog- 
 ress which did not mean all that has been to him mere empty 
 bombast, and the boasters have oft times smarted under the lash 
 of his indignant eloquence. May the lash lose none of its 
 weight or its sting, for the days of humbug are not yet 
 ended. 
 
 To his clear intuition, religion and culture are two outpour- 
 ings of the Divine Life into the life of mankind; and man's 
 chief duty is to welcome them and respond to them. Hence 
 no one in our day has spoken so persistently, so truly, so beau- 
 tifully concerning life and the duty of right living. Life has 
 been to him the summing up of all powers and opportunities, 
 right living the summing up of all duties, the higher life the 
 summing up of all aspirations. To live for the best has been
 
 John Lancaster Spalding 57 
 
 his own aim ; to make it the aim of all whose minds and hearts 
 he could reach has been his constant endeavor. As priest, as 
 poet, as philosopher, he has striven unceasingly to bring 
 religion and culture into closer relationship in the life of his 
 generation, to make religion more cultured and culture more 
 religious in the thought and action of our age. 'Twas this 
 that made him the first and strongest influence for the founding 
 of the Catholic University of America, and only the constant 
 inbreathing of that same spirit can make the institution a vital 
 and uplifting potency in our country's life. 
 
 To fit him for so lofty a mission, Providence has endowed 
 him with a marvelous gift of artistic expression. To my mind, 
 no American has equalled Bishop Spalding in the power of 
 uttering beautiful and noble thoughts in beautiful and noble 
 language. And I know of but one other American who can 
 compare with him in breadth and loftiness of view and in force 
 of noblest inspiration. That other is Father Hecker, and 
 therefore at one period Providence brought them together. 
 Side by side they stood and looked out on the wondrous pano- 
 rama of God's ways with men. Then Providence separated 
 their paths, that they might tell mankind of the glorious vision, 
 one in the thrilling tones of the model missionary, the other 
 in the loftier eloquence of the philosopher and the Bishop. 
 
 That grandest of works Bishop Spalding has done untir- 
 ingly and well these twenty-five years. And his last sweet 
 utterances, in "God and the Soul," prove that his wings show 
 no signs of weakness or weariness. May they long continue 
 to soar to sublimer heights. From my heart I pray, long life 
 to the sage of Peoria, who has done more than any living man 
 to make us appreciate and love the ideal of our Church and the 
 ideal of our Country. 
 
 THE TOAST-MASTER. 
 
 Respected Fathers: 
 
 It is well that the story of this Diocese should be told by 
 one who was on the ground when our Host took charge of the 
 field. He has witnessed the initiative, and he knows present 
 conditions. I introduce to you Dean Keating of Ottawa, a
 
 38 Episcopal Silver Jubilee 
 
 strong, earnest and brilliant advocate of the cause we preach 
 and plead, vigilant and painstaking, and ever ready to con- 
 form to the wishes of our great Jubilarian, in those things 
 that make for the interest of the Church, and the progress and 
 advancement of Catholic education. The subject of his remarks 
 will be "The Diocese of Peoria." 
 
 ADDRESS OF DEAN KEATING. 
 
 "OUR DIOCESE." 
 
 With good reason we rejoice today. Our Diocese and 
 her illustrious head have journeyed together for twenty-five 
 years, and their company-keeping has been mutually satis- 
 factory. The past has been one of triumph ever-continued 
 success ; the future, abounding in promise, will be an incentive 
 to never-ceasing exertion. 
 
 In dealing briefly with this subject it would seem that bare 
 submitting of facts is infinitely preferable to any mere elegance 
 of diction. 
 
 When separation took place from the grand old Diocese 
 of Chicago, and the present Ordinary came amongst us, I 
 would not say the outlook was uninviting, but it most certainly 
 showed the necessity of earnest, patient work with a wise, intel- 
 ligent, executive to point out the way, and the Lord smiled 
 upon Peoria and sent as her first Bishop the man of the hour, 
 the man of the day John L. Spalding. 
 
 The Priests were few, three or four schools had a sickly 
 existence, and the Churches, with scarcely an exception, were 
 mere make-shifts, built in missionary times to keep alive the 
 Faith amongst a scattered and moving people. They had 
 answered their purpose and should now give way to Temples 
 more seemly and in keeping with the worship of the Living 
 God. 
 
 The new Head was indefatigable. He seemed to be 
 everywhere, and by advice and example electrified Priests and 
 people. 
 
 His Omnipresent Ideal, upon which his whole life has been 
 molded, was presented with thrilling effect to all classes, "Seek
 
 John Lancaster Spalding jp 
 
 ye first the kingdom of God and His justice, and all things 
 shall be added to you." Like the Divine Master, he denied 
 himself the ordinary comforts of life, was ever humble and 
 considerate, and during his first years lived in a dingy house, 
 little better than a shanty, and seemed ill at ease, wholly non- 
 plussed, when his thoughtful, loving Priests presented him 
 with a home more worthy of his position. 
 
 Can you wonder that headway has been made that the most 
 optimistic could not conceive? 
 
 We have now a Catholic population of 120,000, one 
 hundred and eighty-one Priests, two hundred and fourteen 
 churches, three colleges and academies for boys, nine academies 
 for young ladies, sixty-one Parochial schools, two orphan 
 asylums, seven hospitals, one home for aged poor, and one 
 industrial and reform school. 
 
 There is manifest on every hand striking evidence of a 
 splendidly organized Diocese. Magnificent, imposing churches 
 greet us on all sides, and large, commodious school structures, 
 well equipped with the modern appliances, make provision for 
 the rising generation. The old, the orphan and the wayward 
 are cared for, and the number of ecclesiastical students is suffi- 
 cient for all the demands upon the Holy Ministry. 
 
 The very best of good feeling and brotherly spirit prevails 
 in the Priesthood, and the Bishop is the recognized Father of 
 all. Where he might readily command, it is more pleasing to 
 him to suggest, and it is the pride and ambition of his devoted 
 Clergy to anticipate his every wish, believing implicitly in the 
 soundness of his judgment and the absolute disinterestedness 
 of his motives. 
 
 We are full of supreme happiness to have so many eminent 
 Ecclesiastics, distinguished princes of the Church, join with 
 us in the Silver Anniversary of the founding of "Our 
 Diocese" and consecration of its first head, and with all respect 
 and deference we assure them we will continue in a course not 
 unworthy of the name already won by the gifted Prelate in 
 charge. 
 
 With Bishop Spalding in the van, there can be no failure; 
 at the sound of his clarion voice the best energies are aroused, 
 noblest thoughts stimulated and sacrifices welcomed with joy.
 
 40 Episcopal Silver Jubilee 
 
 We are deservedly proud of Our Diocese and its zealous 
 Priesthood. 
 
 In behalf of every Priest and the whole Laity I tender to 
 our Bishop the deepest, sincerest respect of all. He possesses 
 our unlimited confidence, our unswerving fidelity, and may a 
 beneficent Providence grant many, many years of health and 
 happiness to the thoughtful educator, practical ruler, ideal 
 ecclesiastic and peerless Christian gentleman, John Lancaster 
 Spalding of "Our Diocese." 
 
 THE TOAST-MASTER. 
 
 Honored Guests: 
 
 The German Catholics Priests and laity of this Diocese 
 have worked side by side with us for the best interests of 
 Church and School. They can, however, claim unstinted praise 
 and deserve special mention in the building up of our Hospitals 
 and other Institutions of mercy. In behalf of this zealous and 
 progressive nationality, Dean Greve has been chosen to offer 
 felicitations to our Host. He is a man known to all for his 
 great virtues and attainments and his exemplary life. He has 
 accepted the invitation to speak on the subject "A Tribute 
 From the German Element." 
 
 ADDRESS OF DEAN GREVE. 
 
 "A TRIBUTE FROM THE GERMAN ELEMENT." 
 
 The air, it seems, is still vibrating from the echo of the 
 speakers who were gleaning in the fields of eloquence and 
 carried off golden sheaves. The reapers have left, with 
 exquisite delicacy, a small gleaning for me. 
 
 It gives me very sincere pleasure to address, with a cordial 
 and heart-felt delight, this illustrious assemblage, as it repre- 
 sents in an eminent degree that friendly feeling which exists 
 among the respective members of the Clergy. A kind forbear- 
 ance I know I shall have from you in my most inadequate 
 efforts to speak of the Clergy of German parentage worthily. 
 I am thankful for the opportunity afforded to express their 
 sentiments.
 
 John Lancaster Spalding 41 
 
 We all are proud we are Americans. We are in a country 
 that we call the best on the habitable globe, because there is 
 more liberty here than there is anywhere else. We are undei 
 a system of government where the avenues to distinction are 
 open to all. Opportunities are so universal, the laborer of 
 today may become a capitalist of tomorrow, that those who 
 could not well succeed in their native land are living under 
 the most favorable circumstances here in this country. This 
 land has done more for all races than all other countries under 
 heaven. Nobody should forget that America is kinder to him 
 than his native land, no matter what place he comes from. 
 Throwing to the winds all prejudice, all partisanship, we are 
 working as men, as Americans, as lovers and friends of justice, 
 as patriots, as Christians, as Priests for the weal of the country, 
 for the welfare of the Church, for the glory of God. This 
 country is an asylum for every race, where the members of 
 families can sit with happy faces and tender eyes at peace by 
 their own firesides, under the segis of the glorious banner of 
 liberty. We all, as Americans, hate nationalities, but we cher- 
 ish patriotism; we all have the best interests of the people in 
 common at heart. 
 
 The American citizens of German blood, whether born in 
 this country or whose cradle stood upon German soil, inhaling 
 the air of sweet freedom, participate in the development of the 
 intellectual and material resources of the land. Their great 
 achievements upon all the fields of human activity, whereby 
 they enrich the civilization of the human race, are well known. 
 In all the walks of life you meet traces of their zeal and labor 
 both to establish our republic and to sustain it in time of war 
 as well as in time of peace. Germans lent their service to 
 America when it struggled for its freedom and independence. 
 German heroes of the war of the rebellion are glorying in 
 the array of the brave chiefs of our nation, and many a cour- 
 ageous soldier has shed his blood for the land of his adoption, 
 to whom the Nation owes a debt of gratitude. They always 
 put their shoulder to the wheel to promote the general welfare 
 of the community, be it in agriculture, industry, trade, com- 
 merce, statesmanship, art or literature. Our own city owes 
 a fair percentage of its healthy and steady growth to the
 
 42 'Episcopal Silver Jubilee 
 
 German element. The amalgamation of the various races with 
 their best natural gifts and under the inspiration of a great 
 future, changed a nation of weakness and poverty into one of 
 might and opulence that all the powers of the earth have to 
 respect and consult. 
 
 But this country is more than an asylum for us all. It is 
 the land of promise to us Catholics. Religion and Church 
 enjoy full freedom here. A large proportion of the Ger- 
 mans are Catholics, they have worked faithfully and zeal- 
 ously with their co-laborers for the interest of the Mother 
 Church. They are, I think, not unjustly classed among the 
 pillars of Church, school and home. They are not slow to build 
 and decorate houses of worship. They are also proud of the 
 schools which they erect and run at their own expense to im- 
 part the essential principles of good citizenship, religion and 
 morality to their children. Church and school are linked 
 closely in their view. Nor are benevolence or charity strange to 
 them. By means of orphanages they save the little ones from 
 temporal misery and eternal ruin; they prove themselves good 
 and true Samaritans by -their hospitals and other charitable in- 
 stitutions, wherein their faithful sons and noble daughters sacri- 
 fice their lives to alleviate the burden of human misery, pain and 
 malady, and to prepare the dying for a happy eternity. All these 
 nurseries of science and benevolence attest the immense achieve- 
 ments of Christianity in this country, no matter what nation we 
 belong to. From a little spark thrown here and there into this 
 world desert, it grew to a mighty flame, whose light and lustre 
 are spread all over the land to encourage the good, to instruct 
 the ignorant, to aid the needy, to nurse the sick, to those that 
 are outside the pale of Catholicity to spread its benediction 
 within and without. Let it go on then with increased zeal and 
 redoubled activity and be assured that as long as union and 
 harmony prevail between clergy and laity, the Catholic Church 
 will march on triumphantly under the guidance of heaven in 
 America. We, as priests of the Diocese of Peoria, ci* 1 ebrating 
 the Silver Jubilee both of the diocese and of our Bii )p, look 
 with solemn pride upon the Ordinary given to us by ine hand 
 of the Divine Providence as a man of refined culture and as 
 a master of the German tongue. In his study of the world of
 
 LIBRARY 
 Of THE 
 UNJVEflSW Uf
 
 RT. REV. P. J. O'REILLY, D. D. 
 Auxiliary Bishop of Peoria
 
 John Lancaster Spalding 43 
 
 literature he transcended the narrow limits of race and coun- 
 try and entered the rich mines of German science, both in 
 poetry and philosophy. He has gathered some select flowers 
 from the German garden of song and translated them into his 
 mother language without sacrificing their original melody. 
 He came across precious stores in our much admired Goethe. 
 In his life object to spread higher education both by word 
 and deed, he places before us our poet as educator. With the 
 same easy mastery wherewith he tests poetry, he also takes up 
 the current of German philosophy, the shrine of philosophy. 
 He finds great interest in the direction in which the younger 
 German school is moving. Where are those men with counte- 
 nances serene and majestic, with dignified port and noble at- 
 tire, with polished language and classical air, if not within the 
 precincts of tender religion, that harmonious instrument which 
 pitches the tone of their eloquence. No loftier ideal can be 
 held up to the emulation of ingenuous youth than our good 
 and dear Jubilarian. With such a chief I think we cannot be 
 wholly ignoble. 
 
 Ad multos annos ! 
 
 THE TOAST-MASTER. 
 
 My Friends: 
 
 Not the least among things that give delight and unbounded 
 satisfaction on this Day of Thanksgiving, is the Consecration 
 of the Cathedral. To make this possible the right man was 
 needed. He must be a man who had the courage and ability 
 to meet a lingering debt and cancel it in short order, a man 
 earnest and forceful, and who could enlighten and persuade 
 and marshal forces; and these conditions were met and ful- 
 filled by the Rev. Francis J. O'Reilly, Chancellor, who is 
 invited to respond to the Toast "Our Jubilee Day."
 
 44 Episcopal Silver Jubilee 
 
 ADDRESS OF CHANCELLOR O'REILLY. 
 
 "OUR JUBILEE DAY." 
 
 In celebrating the Silver Jubilee of its Bishop, the Diocese 
 of Peoria offers itself today for measurement While it would 
 turn away from everything that might savor of boastfulness, 
 it does feel pardonable pride in vigor and strength that find 
 expression in other than twenty-five years of existence. From 
 whatever point of view one cares to consider the years, they 
 have been characteristic of the growth of the American Church 
 and are replete with real interest. 
 
 We celebrate this day because we feel we are citizens of no 
 mean country. We do not claim all the excellences of Amer- 
 ica. We have not the hill scenery of the East, with winding 
 streams and fertile valleys, wildwood brooks, sudden vistas 
 of fretful fell and purple cliff; we have not the massive 
 plateaus and grim canons of the Colorado; neither have we 
 leagues of dead sand where no green things grow, and no 
 birds build; nor have we on the yon side a "Sea of Peace" 
 awaiting us just Iowa and Missouri. Ours the opulent life 
 of prairies rich in the exuberance of their golden harvests. 
 Had our visitors come to us a few weeks later we had shown 
 them the waving corn chased by mingled sunshine and shadow, 
 wooed by dew of night and carol of the lark, tossing itself like 
 ocean waves, restless at restraint; to many shores its yellow 
 grain is borne and many tables bend beneath its wealtk In a 
 land whose very fruitfulness makes us necessarily close to the 
 earth, that voice is akin to divine which calls us to things of 
 the mind and higher life, and we have been made to feel, in 
 Emerson's thought, at least, that "Wherever a man stands the 
 whple arch of the sky is over him," and that even here not 
 small things can be done. 
 
 The foundation of the Catholic Church in these parts was 
 laid in the heroic. The first settlement in the Middle West 
 found a halting place just across the river. The name given 
 the beginning of the white man's dwelling here tells us that La 
 Salle's journey ings brought him many disappointments and 
 disasters, remembering which, he called the place Fort Creve 
 Coeur. On the same stream, a few miles further up, Father
 
 John Lancaster Spalding 45 
 
 Marquette celebrated Mass a hundred years before this nation 
 was born. Hard by Father Gabriel de la Ribourde offered up 
 his life in martyr-fate. When finally the struggle for liberty 
 came, Father Gibault, going even beyond his sturdy confrere, 
 Father Farmer of Philadelphia, who had refused to help the 
 recruiting service of the English by declining to become chap- 
 lain of a regiment, to be known as the "Roman Catholic Vol- 
 unteers," Father Gibault rendered such active service in 
 dislodging the Royalists in the Northwest that the Legisla- 
 ture of Virginia voted him public thanks in 1780. McCarthy 
 and Charleville, captaining two regiments of Illinois volun- 
 teers in the same war, tell us how the shamrock and the lily 
 found their way to the banks of the Mississippi. 
 
 All this an augury that as heroic souls wrought then for re- 
 ligion and liberty, others not less resolute though less stim- 
 ulated by environment, would be found not inactive nor silent 
 in the later and more peaceful surroundings. By nature we 
 have been set down here in the heart of the continent for 
 peaceful pursuits. "The citizen, standing in the doorway of 
 his home, contented on his threshold, his family gathered 
 about his hearthstone, while the evening of a well spent day 
 closes in scenes and sounds that are dearest, he shall save the 
 republic, when the drum tap is futile and the barracks are ex- 
 hausted." 
 
 An American traveler tells us that the lake country of 
 England is not finer than the lake district of Wisconsin. But 
 in its time it has been the home of great minds and hearts. 
 Wordsworth, Coleridge, Southey, DeQuincey, Christopher 
 North, Charles Lamb and Harriet Martineau lived along the 
 road that winds among the hills and lakes. There is, after all, 
 nothing great in the world but man real contributions to the 
 heritage of the race center round the names of men and 
 women. If, then, we are to have any place among cherished 
 memories, is not that to come through men who, though living, 
 yet, are so rich in gifts that many become sharers, and if such 
 dwell here may we not lift out voices in joyous acclaim? Some- 
 how, I think of St. Francis Assissi entering Rome. It was 
 evening the rays of the setting sun were slanting on the 
 Campagna and flooding the lofty terrace of the Lateran Pal-
 
 46 Episcopal Silver Jubilee 
 
 ace, where a group of splendidly attired churchmen were walk- 
 ing, drinking in the balmy breath of the evening air. One 
 walked apart, simply clad, but with the mien of a monarch; 
 on his lordly brow sat gravely the care of the great world's 
 affairs. Philip Augustus of France, John of England, Otho 
 of Germany, Pedro of Arragon, had all been humbled to the 
 very dust before his footstool. Frederick, the young, the bril- 
 liant Emperor, the last of the great Hohenstauffen line, was 
 his ward, while the conquest of Constantinople by the Cru- 
 saders brought the whole East under the control of his hands. 
 Innocent, immersed in care, had few words to waste upon 
 the tattered, stained traveler. One finds it difficult to be harsh 
 with Innocent for the scant courtesy bestowed upon Francis. 
 That night Innocent's sleep was haunted by a vision. He saw 
 a palm tree slowly growing beneath his feet and rising into a 
 beautiful tree; he saw the Lateran Basilica falling into ruins 
 and a certain poor man of humble and despised aspect stoop- 
 ing beneath the burden and sustaining it "Truly," cried the 
 Pontiff, "this is he who by labor and doctrine shall sustain the 
 Church of Christ," and Innocent granted Francis' request for 
 the establishing of his order. Commenting upon this act, an 
 English writer says : "Innocent by that day's work added 200 
 years to the dominion of the Roman Church." 
 
 Whether we accept the statement as true or not, the view 
 is in the main correct. The Church stands or falls, it makes 
 progress or it recedes; it is vital or cumbers the ground ac- 
 cording as she finds captains and rulers, leaders and wise 
 Bishops to guide her destiny. 
 
 And if you to-day with me but recall Pericles standing by 
 the blue Mediterranean and pronouncing words of eulogy over 
 Greeks who had fallen in defense of their country, and if you 
 go to Athens and listen to the unarmed eloquence of Demos- 
 thenes, and know that they have lived again in an awakened 
 and cultured mind, and if you could hear the shout of liberty 
 going up even in dark continents and know that not one 
 syllable but has been heard by that liberty loving ear, and if 
 you could hear that voice raised in warning against our wan- 
 dering in untried fields and reckless breakings asunder of 
 bonds written for our guidance, and if you could hear the
 
 John Lancaster Spalding 47 
 
 calls to a noble and nobler priesthood amid it all, if you could 
 see the fraternities grow around us, you would still more won- 
 der that to literature there should have been added a single 
 line, since on all sides under his guiding hand there has arisen 
 a growth of school and church that to-day marks a trans- 
 formed city a diocese made new. This is why we celebrate, 
 and this is why the May days of 1877 an< i I 9 2 are inseparably; 
 linked with the name of John Lancaster Spalding. 
 
 THE TOAST-MASTER. 
 
 Brothers of the Episcopate and of the clergy With 
 friends to cheer and the multitude acclaiming, yet there is 
 always special joy and delight in the greetings that come 
 from home. The scenes of childhood and especially in the 
 country, the Church and school, however humble, the neigh- 
 bors and friends of our fathers, the scenery that while it may 
 not enchant, is to us of priceless value all these form a sacred 
 picture and inspire a theme, that will always find a place in 
 song and story. I have the pleasure of introducing to you 
 Dean Hogarty of Kentucky, the popular and estimable pastor 
 of Bishop Spalding's native parish. He comes here to present 
 the good wishes and undying friendship of a people that 
 never forget to honor the illustrious names that shed lustre on 
 a grand and faithful colony. His subject will be "Congratu- 
 lations From Home." 
 
 ADDRESS OF DEAN HOGARTY. 
 
 "CONGRATULATIONS FROM HOME." 
 
 Right Reverend Bishop Spalding: 
 
 On this, the Silver Jubilee of your consecration as Bishop, 
 when so many princes and prelates of the Church have assem- 
 bled to proclaim the achievements of twenty-five years of ardu- 
 ous labors, and by their appreciation of the glorious work 
 already accomplished to inspire your heart with new courage 
 for the yet greater work before you, may we hope that a hum- 
 ble tribute from your childhood's home will not be wholly 
 unwelcome?
 
 48 Episcopal Silver Jubilee 
 
 Amid the plaudits of the hierachy, of those who- have 
 shared with you the labor and the honors that are due to a 
 long and eminently successful career as worthy successors of 
 the Apostles, the congregation of St. Augustine's in Lebanon, 
 Ky., can only hope that a heartfelt greeting from the friends 
 and companions of your childhood, who have sympathized with 
 your every effort, and rejoiced at every successive triumph 
 of your zeal and of your genius, will be acceptable as an as- 
 surance that, in your case, the prophet is not without honor in 
 his own country. 
 
 When thrilled with joyous pride at each recurring evi- 
 dence of your zeal and eminent abilities, and of the recognition 
 so fully accorded them throughout the Christian world, we 
 have at all times claimed you as our own the product of our 
 own Kentucky home, toward which, we feel assured, your 
 heart ever turns, in such moments of leisure as may be per- 
 mitted, from the engrossing labors of your busy life. 
 
 There are the friends and companions of your youth; in 
 the veins of many of whom the life blood flows from the same 
 common source ; who, with you,.ar,e descendants of those hardy 
 pioneers of St Mary's County of Catholic Maryland, and who 
 recall, with affectionate detail, your youthful trials and tri- 
 umphs, the friendships of boyhood's days, and the intimate as- 
 sociations of budding manhood. They proudly dwell upon the 
 fact that there, amid the beautiful scenery and in the bracing 
 air of that favored land, within sound of the bells of St. Au- 
 gustine's, the faculties of your youthful mind expanded, and 
 the aspirations of your heart were directed and ennobled by 
 the glorious traditions of a Nerincx, a Badin, a Fournier, an 
 Abell and other zealous priests, whose devoted labors yet bear 
 abundant fruit in the lives of our people, long after they have 
 been called to their reward. 
 
 When, as a young man, you left the scenes of your boy- 
 hood to procure the thorough equipment then obtainable only 
 in Europe, you had already given such evidence of strength 
 and symmetry of development that the congregation of St. 
 Augustine's had bright anticipations of a brilliant and useful 
 career, and their prayers attended you on your journey. 
 
 When you returned to your native state, an anointed priest
 
 Of THE
 
 C/3 
 
 O 
 
 Hrl 
 HH 
 
 H 
 
 in
 
 John Lancaster Spalding 49 
 
 of God, an ambassador of Christ, filled with holy zeal, en- 
 dowed with untiring energy, with mind matured and exquis- 
 itely trained for the work that was before you, we knew that 
 the fruition of our hopes could not be long delayed, that your 
 efforts would compel, unsought, the admiration and applause 
 of the world. We knew that your capacity for useful and ef- 
 fective work would grow with the expanding opportunities 
 for its exercise, and that the field of your influence would cor- 
 respondingly increase. 
 
 Onward and upward has ever been your motto, and with 
 that boundless energy that is characteristic in your race and 
 country, with an unquenchable thirst for knowledge, and a 
 capacity for unremitting labor, that, if not genius, is its in- 
 separable companion, you have accomplished results that are 
 the wonder and admiration of America and of Europe, and 
 have added glory and renown to the cause of the Church. 
 
 We leave to others the task of recounting those deeds ; they 
 are part of history ; from your building of the first church for 
 colored Catholics in the city of Louisville, yet standing as a 
 monument to your priestly zeal, to the successful foundation 
 of the great Catholic University of America. But in that his- 
 tory, we feel special pride, and claim the privilege of present- 
 ing this testimonial of our affectionate esteem, with the as- 
 surance that, as heretofore, our prayers will ascend to the 
 throne of the Most High that you may long be spared for yet 
 greater triumphs in His service, for His greater glory, and 
 that of His Holy Church throughout the world. 
 
 V. REV. J. A. HOGARTY, 
 HON. J. P. THOMPSON, 
 HON. H. W. RIVES, 
 Committee on Behalf of Congregation. 
 
 "What I have done, to me is nothing now, 
 Or but a vantage ground, from which I see 
 My task still widening to infinity, 
 
 While o'er the past sinks the horizon's brow." 
 
 A letter from Spalding Council, Knights of Columbus, 
 was then read.
 
 50 Episcopal Silver Jubilee 
 
 LETTER FROM SPALDING COUNCIL 
 KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 Right 'Reverend John Lancaster Spalding, D. D., Bishop of 
 Peoria: 
 
 Right Reverend and Dear Bishop : 
 
 Spalding Council, No. 427, Knights of Columbus of 
 Peoria, 111., having honored itself, with your approval, by the 
 adoption of your distinguished name, and fully appreciating 
 you as a man, as a citizen, and as a gentle but firm spiritual 
 adviser, avail themselves of this opportunity of expressing to 
 you hearty congratulations upon this, the twenty-fifth anni- 
 versary of your spiritual guardianship over us. 
 
 We devoutly pray to Almighty God to keep you in His 
 tender care and extend to you many years of health and happi- 
 ness. As a slight evidence of our high esteem, we beg leave 
 to present to you, in the name of our council, our certified 
 check for one thousand dollars, to be used by you in furnishing 
 a permanent scholarship at Spalding Institute in Peoria, 111., 
 the same to be known as Spalding Council, Knights of Colum- 
 bus Scholarship. Having full confidence in your judgment, we 
 leave it to you to adopt such rules and regulations for the gov- 
 ernment of this scholarship as you may deem right and proper. 
 
 We beg leave, Right Reverend Sir, to subscribe ourselves 
 
 your obedient servants. 
 
 P. A. DONAHUE, 
 
 Grand Knight. 
 
 WM. BOURKE, 
 
 GEORGE KENNEDY, Financial Secretary. 
 
 Treasurer. ', 
 
 May i, 1902.
 
 John Lancaster Spalding 51 
 
 THE TOAST-MASTER. 
 
 Your Eminence and Revered Guests. 
 
 Any great occasion or grand festivity in this diocese 
 would seem incomplete without the presence of Dean Mackin 
 of Rock Island. Of broad and generous views, spontaneous 
 impulse, genial and hospitable; he instinctively brightens a 
 Jubilee Day, and diffuses sunshine and good cheer. The Dean 
 is an ardent admirer of our great and illustrious Bishop, and 
 predicts for him a lofty and conspicuous niche in the temple 
 of the world's best and most famous men. In behalf of the 
 priests of the diocese, he has been requested to present 
 "Greetings to Our Jubilarian." 
 
 ADDRESS OF DEAN MACKIN. 
 
 "GREETINGS TO OUR JUBILARIAN." 
 
 Assembled to honor and greet Right Reverend John Lan- 
 caster Spalding, Bishop of Peoria, on this, the twenty-fifth an- 
 niversary of his Episcopal consecration, we obey an injunc- 
 tion of human nature which prompts all people to respect and 
 reverence distinguished men. 
 
 Few men in this or any country can be accredited with 
 brighter fame than Bishop Spalding has earned. By his learn- 
 ing and tact he has reconciled people widely at variance with 
 Christian teachings. His masterly lectures, delivered in 
 thronged halls throughout this country, have riveted upon him 
 the attention of the American people and disposes them to read 
 his books. 
 
 With "Thoughts and Theories of Life and Education," 
 "Means and Ends of Education," "Education and Higher 
 Life," "Opportunity and Other Essays," "Aphorisms and 
 Reflections," "Songs from the German," "God and the Soul ;" 
 with these books and other writings the Right Reverend 
 Bishop entertains numerous classes of readers in every part 
 of this vast republic. He thus enters into the heart of the 
 peasant, into the work shop of the artisan ; he is in the hands 
 of the school children ; on the desks of teachers and professors.
 
 52 Episcopal Silver Jubilee 
 
 Priests and scholars read him; besides his eloquence sings all" 
 over the land, is heard in Paris and resounds in Rome. 
 
 The people of this country, jealous of their institutions 
 and believing that a knowledge of the principles on which they 
 are based is necessary to their perpetuity, go to great extrava- 
 gance in building schools and endowing colleges so that means 
 and opportunity may be everywhere at hand to enable them to 
 be thoroughly trained. That this laudable intent might have 
 full sanction of the American Hierarchy, Bishop Spalding 
 used his pen and tongue at home and abroad and continued this 
 agitation for higher education until success crowned his ef- 
 forts in the establishment of the Catholic University at Wash- 
 ington, the seat of government. Behold this center of learn- 
 ing, the extension of Rome who has civilized the world 
 Rome who has seen the rise and fall of nations and still lives 
 on in undiminished splendor to guide the destinies of men and 
 to hold on high the lamp of learning, burning as of old with 
 brightest effulgence. Witness this achievement and witness 
 the man who was chiefly instrumental in its accomplishment 
 
 Pass we now from this broad scope of public interest in 
 which we have seen Bishop Spalding play successfully a dis- 
 tinguished part to the narrower confines of his own diocese to 
 see the effort of his great activity. Twenty-five years ago this 
 Diocese of Peoria was founded. It contains eighteen thousand 
 five hundred and fifty- four square miles of territory, enough to 
 make several San Marino republics. In the period of twenty- 
 five years you can see the great wealth of population and ter- 
 ritorial extension acquired by the United States ; in a less pro- 
 portion, but in a degree not less astounding, in the Diocese of 
 Peoria under the rule of Bishop Spalding, increased churches, 
 schools, institutes, colleges, hospitals, asylums, and convents. 
 
 These institutions distributed among one hundred and 
 twenty thousand Catholics justify the addition of an auxiliary 
 bishop. It is very fortunate that a man eminently qualified 
 for the position and most acceptable to the priests was chosen. 
 Fellow soldiers in the trenches, be not discouraged, we have 
 a valiant and noble captain, who will in time reward us all. 
 One auxiliary does not suffice, Bishop Spalding therefore re- 
 lying on our loyalty counts on each of his one hundred and
 
 John Lancaster Spalding 55 
 
 eighty priests to prove as far as possible in every emergency 
 a faithful auxiliary. So we are all in a position of honor 
 and trust. This reciprocity of mutual interest and confidence 
 makes the life of Bishop Spalding and his priests happy and 
 the growth and development of Peoria Diocese marvelous. 
 Unity of co-operation between Bishop Spalding and his priests 
 is not the work of chance. Of the one hundred and twenty 
 thousand Catholics spread over an area of eighteen thousand 
 five hundred and fifty-four miles square there is not one child, 
 one man or woman who has not seen or heard Bishop Spald- 
 ing. 
 
 Despite long journeys through heat and cold, Bishop 
 Spalding is in every village, town and city in every part of 
 his diocese, lecturing and instructing his people. It is his con- 
 stant practice before administering the sacrament of confirma- 
 tion to examine each child in turn and explain the meaning of 
 the words which the child may use in answer. Parents and 
 children, seeing the interest thus taken in their enlightment, at 
 once love him and with tears pray for his speedy return. When 
 subsequently it is announced the Bishop will be here in May to 
 give confirmation there is joy in the hearts of all. The priests 
 likewise, with whom Bishop Spalding associates as a tender 
 father with his sons, long to see him again and again and, like 
 Peter and James on the mount, would fain live with him for- 
 ever. 
 
 With hearts aglow with delight, Right Reverend Bishop, 
 at your triumphs at home and abroad, we, your devoted priests, 
 tender you our homage, our loyalty, our obedience and our 
 love, and we pray that God may spare you length of days to 
 celebrate your golden jubilee. To mark this event and to 
 prove the sincerity of our words we herewith present you a 
 token of our appreciation of your great learning, great service 
 and unbounded merits. 
 
 In reply to this greeting of his clergy the Bishop, who 
 was visibly affected, spoke as follows:
 
 Episcopal Silver Jubilee 
 
 Whatever stirs emotions disturbs judgment. This most 
 beautiful May time, a great concourse of people, a throng of 
 bishops and priests in symbolic vesture; music, pleading for 
 power to utter the thought and love of the Eternal, or burst- 
 ing forth in swelling volumes of sound that roll and rise, 
 borne on viewless wings, to the throne of God ; rites and cere- 
 monies, hallowed by association with the divinest faith and 
 the noblest memories, with the heroic sufferings and triumphs 
 of millions of men and women the fine flower and fruit of 
 humanity who century after century for more than fifty gen- 
 erations have taken their stand on the world-wide battlefield, 
 steadfast until swallowed in the vortices of visible things, to 
 relive in the ever-enduring universe of pure spirit all this 
 exalts the imagination and lifts to spheres where feeling is 
 spontaneous and deliberation difficult. 
 
 For most of us who are gathered here the day itself brings 
 thoughts which for each one are tender and moving, as with 
 varying shade and circumstance they twine around the found- 
 ing of parishes, the building of churches and schools and 
 homes of mercy and beneficence, that in more than a hundred 
 towns and villages, and on wide prairies amid the growing 
 corn and the ripening harvest, have risen at the call of faith 
 and at the promptings of a generosity that seems to annul 
 selfish impulse, so long as there is good to be done recollec- 
 tions of youthful courage, high hope and pertinacious labor 
 undertaken for what each one believed to be most divine, and 
 endured for the love of what is holiest. It is inevitable, there- 
 fore, that emotions swell within us which dispose us to accept 
 as truth words which sober reason is reluctant to approve. 
 But best reason rests in Love from which the universe has 
 sprung, of whose deepest heart certainly our religion is born; 
 and since from this same source the sentiments which inspire 
 us to-day rise like a fountain's pure, light-seeking waters, why 
 may we not believe and affirm that what such emotion has
 
 John Lancaster Spalding 55 
 
 awakened and bodied forth in word and deed, is very truth? 
 Not indeed, logical or scientific truth a skeleton of formulas 
 and facts but the truth which is borne in upon the soul when 
 mothers sing their children to sleep, when lovers sitting side 
 by side watch the sun, sinking beneath the horizon, and the 
 stars as one by one they smile from infinitude on the homes 
 of men ; such truth as the flowers speak, when from their lowly 
 beds they look up and laugh before us ; such as children reveal 
 and impersonate when heaven is mirrored in their pure eyes 
 and innocent faces. 
 
 If truth were but the naked fact, where should there be 
 room for the ineffable charm which interfuses itself with the 
 glow of dawn and sunset, with the light that falls from starlit 
 skies and from the countenances of those we love; for the 
 passion and patience, the trust and longing, the sacrifice and 
 aspiration, which impel the soul to transcend the limitations 
 of time and space and which give to human life its power and 
 blessedness ? 
 
 When we recall the years that are no more, the paths we 
 trod in childhood, the concert of voices that in the long ago 
 made the woodland ring with music, the quick current of 
 youthful blood athrill with high hopes and noble resolves, and 
 suddenly are made aware that it has all dissolved into empti- 
 ness and become as though it had never been, it is not possible 
 to remain cold and impassive. When we turn to the begin- 
 ning of our early manhood, as issuing with sublime self-con- 
 fidence from the portals of our Alma Mater, we vowed to 
 walk and work for Christ, to illumine, to guide, to strengthen, 
 to console and to save men, and are made deeply conscious 
 how little our purposes have fulfilled themselves in deeds, we 
 are softened and sobered, grow lowly minded and meek, like 
 those who contemplate ruins which the centuries have 
 wrought. In such mood all vanity and self-complacency die 
 within us, and words of praise and commendation sound like 
 mockery. 
 
 The achievements of even the genuinely great, if they be 
 considered in the light of the Eternal, are insignificant. 
 
 Were God not, the whole race of man would be no bet- 
 ter than the parasites that batten on decay. But God is, and
 
 5<5 Episcopal Silver Jubilee 
 
 they who have best insight best know that man's worth is 
 measured by the degree of his kinship with Him, without 
 whom he would be but a semblance and unreality. 
 
 If in any one of us there be aught that may win approval 
 or awaken admiration or thankfulness, whether it be truth, 
 or honesty, or mildness, or intelligence, or strength of mind, 
 or rectitude, or courage, or perseverance, or humility, or love, 
 or piety, or unselfishness, it is of, through, and for God, from 
 whom all life springs, to whom all hope looks, toward whom 
 all yearning moves, on whom all faith rests, in whom all 
 hearts find repose. 
 
 In the twenty-five years on which we now set the seal of 
 eternity, whatever may have been well done by any of us, 
 has been done for Him and by His help. The field is His, the 
 seed is His; His, the rain and sunshine; His, the vital force 
 that has built unto itself a body and brought about the har- 
 monic play of all the members of the organism. We have but 
 been His servants, and had we not been at all, He, had He so 
 willed, would have found others and better. Our only merit 
 is that of servants and true service is our only blessedness. 
 
 The service we have chosen is that which the Eternal 
 stooped to earth and wore human flesh to perform. It is the 
 most beneficent, the holiest, the helpfulest, the most needful 
 which it can fall to the lot of man to do. The task set us is 
 to make ourselves and others Christ-like and God-like. 
 
 If those who profess to lead a religious life have the 
 morals of the crowd or worse, they are the most contemptible 
 and are, in fact, the most despised of men; but they who 
 have the soul, and not merely the name of priest, are divine 
 men are, in word and deed, God's faithfulest witnesses to the 
 Truth that liberates, to the Love that saves and beatifies. 
 
 " Whoso has felt the Spirit of the Highest 
 
 Cannot confound nor doubt Him nor deny; 
 Yea, with one voice, O world, though thou deniest, 
 Stand thou on this side, for on that am I." 
 
 No unworthy thought has impelled us to commemorate 
 this day with solemn rites and grave words. Few of us are 
 so immature as to attach importance to a mere demonstration.
 
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 John Lancaster Spalding $f 
 
 None of us are so frivolous as to imagine that what is said of 
 a man has meaning or value other than that derived from what 
 he is; and what he is, not himself even, but God alone knows. 
 There may be merit in collecting so many thousand dol- 
 lars and in paying mechanics for fitting together so many 
 stones and so many pieces of wood, but where the aim and 
 end are spiritual, praise for doing such things is not to the 
 purpose. Neither the heart nor the proper work of such a 
 one is in matter, which has meaning for him only in so far as 
 it is made to serve higher interests, by becoming the nourish- 
 ment or the symbol of the soul. He knows that what each 
 one, and the social body as well, most needs is not wealth, 
 nor privilege, nor cunning, nor favor, but larger, braver, 
 holier, sweeter life more sympathy, more courage, more wis- 
 dom, more love. They prevail who are stronger than their 
 fellows stronger through faith and desire, through knowl- 
 edge and virtue, through self-control and devotion to truth 
 and justice. God is a Spirit, and they whose character is built 
 on the principles which faith and hope make certain, which 
 best reason approves, are the powers by which His reign is 
 established and made perpetual. His servants conquer, not 
 with the sword, not with money nor with the things money 
 can buy, but by the soul, which enrooted in Him, contemplates 
 all things in the light of Eternity, and is calm and unmoved, 
 while the pomp and pageantry pass by, to sink forever beyond 
 the reach of all-penetrative thought. Men, like children, are 
 attracted by a world of shows ; they are busy with vanities, and 
 attach importance to trifles. But from the central heart of 
 religion the divine voice declares that only the things which 
 minister to the soul's welfare have worth; that there is no 
 genuine life but that which unfolds itself heavenward, and, 
 like the tendril for the solid stem, reaches after God. Had we 
 temples built of gold and adorned with every kind of precious 
 stone; though the music of the masters, uttered by masters, 
 appealed to us ; though from canvas and stone and high-raised 
 pulpit genius spoke to us, it were all but show and sound if 
 it did not lift the soul nearer to our Father in heaven. God's 
 men are spiritual men, and the only religious progress is prog- 
 ress in faith and love, in wisdom and virtue.
 
 5# Episcopal Silver Jubilee 
 
 What we commemorate today, we of the Diocese of Pe- 
 oria, bishops and priests, brothers and sisters, and the people 
 whose servants we all are, what this company of distinguished 
 men have come from many Sees to help us to celebrate worthily, 
 is our labors for the moralization of human life, is our devo- 
 tion to the things that make for righteousness and peace and 
 life everlasting. 
 
 If we have built churches, it is that the people may gather 
 there, and through worship and the reception of the sacraments 
 and the hearing of the Word, may be refreshed, nourished and 
 renewed in their innermost being. If we have established 
 schools, it is that the little ones, whom the Blessed Savior loved, 
 who are our joy and our hope, may grow up in an atmosphere 
 in which learning blends with piety, knowledge with faith, 
 true thought with chaste life, love with obedience. If we have 
 founded homes for those whom loss or sin or age or poverty 
 has made helpless or miserable, it is because we know they 
 are our brothers and sisters, and that we do best for Our 
 Heavenly Father and for ourselves in serving them. 
 
 This is what we cherish most and most love. If Peoria 
 and the Diocese of Peoria are dear to us and God and we all 
 know they are it is so not chiefly for the beautiful site, the 
 healthful climate, the fertile soil from which the corn bursts 
 like song from happy hearts ; it is so, above all, for the spirit 
 of freedom, of good will, of helpfulness which breathes here as 
 unhindered as the gentle wind that kisses the prairie into life 
 and bloom; they are dear for the opportunity which is given 
 here to all alike to upbuild character, to confirm will, to culti- 
 vate the mind, to follow after the better things of which faith 
 and hope are the heralds. 
 
 If today for a moment, even in thought, I may separate 
 myself from any one of those who, during the twenty-five 
 years that have now become a part of the unchangeable past, 
 have gathered about me in still increasing numbers, and with 
 hearts ever more willing, I will say that the affection I bear 
 them, the joy they give me, which like the ripening fruit and 
 the mellowing wine, grow more precious as time lengthens, 
 are born, not so much of the success with which they have 
 accomplished whatever they have been asked to do, as of their
 
 John Lancaster Spalding 5P 
 
 spirit of disinterestedness and self-sacrifice, of their courage 
 and ability, their magnanimity and singleheartedness, their 
 never-slumbering watchfulness over the good name of the 
 diocese and that of its priesthood. When the office of bishop 
 was offered to me, if I hesitated to accept the burden and the 
 honor, it was largely, if my memory deceive me not, from a 
 dread lest my opinion of man's high estate, as revealed in the 
 lives of priests and nuns, should be lowered by the more in- 
 timate knowledge of them which necessarily comes to those 
 who are placed in authority over them. A personal expe- 
 rience of twenty-five years is a broad basis for the judgment 
 of an individual, and it is a source of inner strength and free- 
 dom to me to be able to feel and say, in perfect sincerity, that 
 though priests and nuns be not exempt from the infirmities 
 which inhere in all that is human, I have found them to be 
 the kindliest, the most unselfish, the most loyal, the most pure- 
 minded and the most devoted of men and women. Never 
 have I appealed to them in vain, when I have appealed to the 
 god-like in man. They have confirmed my faith in human 
 nature, and in the worth and sacredness of life. 
 
 They have made me more certain that we are all the chil- 
 dren of an Almighty and all-loving Father from out whose 
 thought and care we can never die. 
 
 Let me conclude, in my own name, and in that of the 
 whole diocese, with the expression of sincere thanks to his 
 eminence the Cardinal Archbishop of Baltimore, to the most 
 reverend archbishops and bishops, and to the reverend clergy- 
 men who have done us the honor to be our guests to-day and to 
 heighten by their presence and sympathy the significance and 
 the joy of this occasion. 
 
 l&egolutiong StoopteD by tl)t 
 Cft? Conned 
 
 Whereas, The supreme authorities of his Church twenty- 
 five years ago recognized the sterling worth of Reverend John 
 Lancaster Spalding, as a citizen and churchman, and elevated 
 him to the exalted position of bishop of the Diocese of Peoria, 
 and
 
 60 Episcopal Silver Jubilee 
 
 Whereas, The entire membership of his Church throughout 
 the world joins today in congratulating him upon a more than 
 successful career as Bishop of Peoria ; 
 
 Therefore Be It Resolved, That we join in this most proper 
 expression of love and congratulation. For twenty-five years 
 Bishop Spalding has been a worthy citizen of our community, 
 leading in every movement for the material as well as the 
 spiritual advancement and uplifting of our citizens. His elo- 
 quent words and ennobling example in behalf of education and 
 temperance, in behalf of the poor and lowly and those suffering 
 from wrongs and oppressions, have planted in our religious 
 opinions a love and veneration for him that can find but feeble 
 expression in mere words. 
 
 Be It Further Resolved, That we congratulate the Right 
 Reverend John Lancaster Spalding on this, the twenty-fifth 
 anniversary of his elevation to the dignified position he holds, 
 and join the civilized world in praying for his continued good 
 health, and for those fuller and greater honors which his life 
 and genius bespeak for him. 
 
 ALDERMEN. 
 
 Thos. N. Gorman, Chas. N. Louis, 
 
 George Harms, G. F. Simmons, 
 
 J. E. Stillwell, Thos. O'Connor, 
 
 Stephen Wolschlag, E. N. Woodruff, 
 
 J. J. McDonald, Charles Proctor, 
 
 A. B. Tolson, David S. Long, 
 
 W. F. Benson, J. J. Jobst, 
 
 J. D. Carey, W. R. Allison, 
 
 WILLIAM F. BRYAN, Mayor. 
 
 ROBT. M. ORR, City Clerk. 
 
 Among the distinguished visitors were His Eminence, Car- 
 dinal Gibbons, of Baltimore ; Archbishop Ireland, of St. Paul ; 
 Archbishop Keane, of Dubuque; Archbishop Kain, of St 
 Louis; Archbishop Riordan, of San Francisco; Bishops Ga- 
 briels, of Ogdensburg, N. Y. ; McQuaid, of Rochester, N. Y. ; 
 Byrne, of Nashville, Tenn. ; Foley, of Detroit, Mich.; Mess- 
 mer, of Green Bay, Wis. ; Shanley, of Fargo, S. D. ; Cotter of
 
 John Lancaster Spalding 61 
 
 Winona, Minn. ; Scannell, of Omaha, Neb. ; Burke of St. Jo- 
 seph, Mo.; Dunne, of Dallas, Tex.; Cosgrove, of Davenport, 
 la.; Glennon, of Kansas City, Mo.; Muldoon, of Chicago; 
 Ryan, of Alton ; Janssen, of Belleville ; Moeller, of Columbus ; 
 Conaty, of Washington, D. C. ; Rt. Rev. Innocent Wolf, ab- 
 bott of St. Benedict's abbey, Atchison, Kans. ; Rt Rev. Mon- 
 signor Legris, of St. Viateur's College, Kankakee, 111.; Rt. 
 Rev. Monsignor J. B. Murray, president of St. Mary's Semi- 
 nary, Cincinnati, Ohio; Very Rev. J. Z. Zahm, provincial of 
 the Order of the Holy Cross, Notre Dame, Ind. ; Very Rev. M. 
 J. Marsile, president of St. Viateur's College, Kankakee, 111.; 
 Rev. Joseph H. McMahon and Rev. M. A. Cunnion, of New 
 York city ; Rev. Father P. Gavin, chancellor of the archdiocese 
 of Baltimore, who accompanied Cardinal Gibbons. 
 
 Besides these visiting dignitaries there were present some 
 three hundred priests from this and the surrounding states. 
 
 Cfcening 
 
 The evening service was beautiful. The great Cathedral, 
 magnificently decorated and brilliant with the glow of hun- 
 dreds of lights, presented a gorgeous appearance as the 
 bishops and priests entered for the service. At the close of 
 the service and the musical program, Archbishop Ireland, of 
 St. Paul, delivered the sermon. His subject was "The Chris- 
 tian Priesthood," and his sermon was as follows : 
 
 "He said therefore to them again : Peace be to you. As 
 the Father hath sent Me, I also send you." John xx., 21. 
 
 The mystery of mysteries in dealings of the infinite with 
 the finite, the mystery of love and power ineffable, is the in- 
 carnation of the eternal Word. "In the beginning was the 
 Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 
 * * * And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among 
 us; and we saw the glory, the glory as it were of the only- 
 begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." 
 
 The infinite the first cause, the all-pervading mind, the 
 all-vivifying will, alone gives life and light to all that is finite,
 
 62 Episcopal Silver Jubilee 
 
 and alone is its ultimate term. From God and to God 
 behold man's sublime origin and man's sublime destiny. 
 
 Man is necessarily a seeker of God, a religious being. In 
 the long history of the race there is discernible always a re- 
 ligion, a reaching out under one form or another toward the 
 supernatural. Man is restless until he lies upon the bosom of 
 the Infinite. 
 
 But the despair of man's upward journey ! God, so much 
 needed by him, is yet distant from him ! And God is all spirit- 
 ual, while in man the spiritual is so clogged, so dulled by 
 sense, that what has not bodily shape is but dimly descried, 
 and but feebly laid hold of. Hence in his reaching out toward 
 God, pure and beauteous as was ever in itself this motion of 
 mind and heart, numberless were the devious ways which poor 
 man mistook for the straight road, numberless were the de- 
 ceiving and fateful glares which shone to him as truth and 
 goodness. What then? Shall God be always inaudible to 
 humanity's ear, always invisible to humanity's eye? The ap- 
 peal was to God's eternal love; and from God's eternal love 
 the answer came: "Then, said I, behold I come." Omnipo- 
 tence was tasked that the infinite put on the form of the finite, 
 that God be made a child of humanity. "And the Word was 
 made flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw the glory as it 
 were of the only-begotten Son of the Father, full of grace 
 and truth." Humanity through its bodily senses saw and 
 heard its God, and through these senses its spirit was flooded 
 with His truth and His love. 
 
 The Incarnation, so to speak, made the supernatural; it 
 concreted in human form the invisible and inaudible ; it brought 
 God under the very eyes and near to the very ears of men. 
 The distance between the infinite and the finite vanished; re- 
 ligion, the exaltation of man to the embrace of the Most High, 
 became so easy, so sweet, that no peril lay in its pathway, no 
 effort was felt in its flight. 
 
 And, now, I speak another mystery the extension and 
 perpetuation of that of the Incarnation, lesser only than that 
 of the Incarnation itself in power and love. 
 
 The day came when Jesus, returning to the Father, with- 
 drew from visible nearness to men His divine personality and
 
 John Lancaster Spalding <5j 
 
 the sensible concretion of the supernatural wrought in the In- 
 carnation. Is the vast chasm opened again between God and 
 man ? Is man in his searching for God turned again back upon 
 himself, alone and unaided, doomed again to grope his way 
 amid the dim regions of the purely spiritual world ? Not so ; 
 the great gifts of God to humanity are without recall, and 
 the Incarnation but puts on another form. 
 
 Do I overstate the divine dispensation ? Remember, I pray 
 you, the omnipotence embodied in Jesus, and hearken to His 
 institutional words. 
 
 He was speaking not to the body of His disciples, but to 
 the chosen few, the Apostles. To these, not to others, He 
 said : "Peace be to you. As the Father hath sent Me, I also 
 send you." The self-same mission intrusted to Him, when 
 first in the eternal counseling of the Triune Majesty He ex- 
 claimed : "Behold, I come," is now intrusted by Him to His 
 Apostles. The mission is the self-same. "As the Father hath 
 sent Me, I also send you." And, again : "All power is given 
 to Me in Heaven and on earth; going, therefore, teach ye all 
 nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the 
 Son, and the Holy Ghost * * * and, behold, I am with 
 you all days, even to the consummation of the world." To 
 substitute for Christ mere men is what omnipotence alone 
 could do; therefore it is that in this instance He invokes His 
 omnipotence. "All power is given to Me in heaven and in 
 earth" and so in virtue of His omnipotence He is with them 
 while they teach and baptize, and so, when they teach and bap- 
 tize, they teach and baptize in His name and with His power, 
 even as if He Himself taught and baptized. And furthermore : 
 "He that receiveth you receiveth Me ; he that despiseth you de- 
 spiseth Me." So thorough and complete, in the mind of Christ, 
 is the identification of His mission with that of His Apostles! 
 Specific delegations of divine power appertaining to His mis- 
 sion were made by Christ on given occasions to the Apostles ; 
 that of remitting sin, when He said : "Whose sins you shall 
 forgive they are forgiven them ; and whose sins you shall re- 
 tain, they are retained ;" that of renewing the mystic wonders 
 of the Last Supper, when He said : "Do this in commemora- 
 tion of Me." That the several delegations, whether general or
 
 64 Episcopal Silver Jubilee 
 
 specific, were to be enduring in their effect, and, consequently, 
 were made to the Apostles, not merely to them as individuals, 
 but to them as a corporate body, to them, and to their succes- 
 sors in office, is evidenced from the words: "And, behold, I 
 am with you all days, even unto the consummation of the 
 world," as, also, from the Apostles' own action, in associating 
 with themselves from time to time others of the disciples and 
 communicating to those their own powers and authority. 
 Christ came for the salvation of men in all ages. When He 
 withdrew from earth His visible presence the Apostles took 
 His place; the Apostles, therefore, as the representatives of 
 Christ, were to subsist in all ages. 
 
 And thus, through Christ's love and power, the Christian 
 priesthood was created, Christ's tabernacling upon earth was 
 made to endure, the visible incarnation of the infinite was con- 
 tinued among men. Rising toward His ethereal home Elias 
 cast down his mantle upon the shoulders of Eliseus, and in 
 the person of Eliseus, Elias still lived upon earth. In like 
 manner, but with efficacy, far greater and far more lasting, 
 Christ cast His mantle upon- the shoulders of His Priests, and 
 in the persons of His Priests, He still walks among men. 
 
 The Catholic Church is vitally sacerdotal. It sees in its 
 ministers a body of men separate in character and endowment 
 from their fellows, bearing a divine commission, charged with 
 supernatural powers that are derived directly and imme- 
 diately from Christ. In this it gives evidence of its affiliation 
 with Christ. Its sacerdotalism, which enemies would fain 
 turn into a reproach, is the proud inheritance of the Catholic 
 Church, because it is the Church of Christ. To disown sacer- 
 dotalism were to disown divine origin. Christ plainly set the 
 Apostles apart from others. Christ plainly spoke to them 
 words not spoken to others, words pregnant with supernatural 
 power and authority. A church that is of Christ must of 
 necessity present to the world a divinely endowed priesthood. 
 
 Let churches that date from recent years, that never 
 touched the hand of the God-man, that never thrilled at the 
 sound of His voice, disown, as they may, sacerdotalism; they 
 are from men, and naught save what men can give them do 
 they possess. Not so the church of nineteen centuries, whose
 
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 John Lancaster Spalding 6$ 
 
 first ministers were Peter, and John, and James, which stood 
 at Christ's side on the Galilean mountain and hearkened to 
 the words: "All power is given to Me in heaven and on 
 earth. Going, therefore, teach ye all nations." The current 
 of supernal power, flowing from those sublime words, vibrates 
 henceforth over the world to sanctify and deify the souls of 
 men. 
 
 "But thou, O man of God," wrote Paul to the priest Tim- 
 othy. The priest of the Church of Christ is "the man of God," 
 the token to the world that God lives and reigns, the represen- 
 tative before it of the supernatural and the divine. What 
 Christ was by nature, the priest is by the appointment of 
 Christ ; and thus he has, as Christ had, the mission to concrete 
 in a manner before men the invisible, that the invisible be not 
 forgotten by men. A priest is seen; it is a reminder of the 
 supernatural. A priest is seen; a testimony is given to the 
 higher life, to things better and purer than earth owns. A 
 priest is seen ; God is seen in visible symbolism. In this realm 
 of matter and of sense, where earth so fiercely drags down the 
 soul, where clouds so dense hide from it the vision of things 
 supernatural, how precious is this symbol of the divine ! How 
 precious the priesthood of Christ's Church, ever living among 
 us, walking with us low upon the ground, while still pointing 
 upward, so that we cannot but see it, and seeing it, cannot but 
 remember our exalted destinies. 
 
 "For Christ we are ambassadors," said Paul of himself 
 and his fellow-priests. Another Christ, "alter Christus," by 
 this name were the rectors of the Church wont to call the 
 priest. The priest personifies Christ; he puts Christ under 
 our eyes; he compels us to see Him, to think of Him. And 
 this is to us a supreme blessing. Were Christ to remain a 
 mere historic personage, cut off by nineteen centuries, how 
 easy to forget Him ! But with a body of men reaching back, 
 in uninterrupted continuity, to Christ himself, ever present 
 among us, wearing His robes of office, holding aloft His 
 standard. Christ is never out of sight, Christ does not fall back 
 among the dead. If the priesthood were nothing else than the 
 unceasing reminder that Christ was, that Christ taught men, 
 loved them and died for them, it were to earth a boon inestim- 
 able. How senseless the clamor away with all priesthood;
 
 66 Episcopal Silver Jubilee 
 
 let each one go directly to Christ, directly to God! Christ 
 removed by nineteen centuries, God driven back into the dim 
 regions of the abstract, both Christ and God would be little 
 thought of. Why, we ask, was there a Christ? Why was 
 not humanity left to seek God without even Christ as an inter- 
 mediary ? Is it not that humanity needed the visible and the 
 sensible in order to apprehend the more readily the invisible 
 and the spiritual? And as Christ was needed to bring near 
 unto men God, so the priest is now needed to bring near unto 
 them Christ. 
 
 "Let a man so account of us," writes Paul, "as of the min- 
 isters of Christ and the dispensers of the mysteries of God." 
 "But thou, O man of God" thou are not only the chosen sym- 
 bol of the divine and the supernatural, not only the official 
 representative of Christ the teacher and the Saviour thou 
 art, even as Christ was, the minister of heaven's gifts, the 
 bearer and distributor of divine treasures. 
 
 The priest teaches the doctrines of Christ the eternal coun- 
 sels of the divine mind, revealed to men through Christ. He 
 teaches those doctrines officially, in the name of Christ, and 
 by authority from Christ. And, so far as he teaches those 
 doctrines in union with the general apostolate and its supreme 
 head, he teaches them under Christ's own direction, and de- 
 livers them pure and undefiled to his hearers. The commis- 
 sion is most formal, the promise most explicit: "All power 
 is given to Me in heaven and in earth ; going, therefore, teach 
 ye all nations * * * teaching them to observe all things 
 whatsoever I have commanded you, and behold, I am with you 
 all days even unto the consummation of the world." How 
 different the priest of Christ's Church from the spokesmen of 
 churches made by men, or the self-authorized philosopher, 
 whose voice is only human, whose words bring but their own 
 weight into the scales of judgment ! 
 
 The priest of Christ's Church pours upon souls the blood of 
 Calvary, redeeming them from the slavery of sin, cleansing 
 them from its stain, beautifying them into God's own image. 
 So plenary is the priest's agency, held immediately from 
 Christ, that through the words spoken by him in the name of 
 Christ, there goes out in unstinted force the omnipotence of
 
 John Lancaster Spalding 67 
 
 Christ. "Going, therefore, teach ye all nations, baptizing 
 them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the 
 Holy Ghost" the priest baptizes; a soul is born again "of 
 water and the Holy Ghost," made radiant of the smile of God's 
 countenance. "Whose sins you shall forgive, they are for- 
 given" the priest repeats the sentence of forgiveness over 
 the penitent sinner; the prodigal child is pressed again upon 
 the Father's bosom. 
 
 The priest of Christ's Church renews the mysteries of the 
 Last Supper and of Calvary. "Do this in commemoration of 
 Me," said Jesus to the Apostles when He had changed bread 
 into His body, and wine into His blood, anticipating in mystic 
 form the bloody drama of the morrow, when He had fed unto 
 them His own self as the nutriment of their souls. "Do this," 
 and as over the elements of bread and wine the priests speaks 
 the words of Christ, "This is My body," "This is My blood," 
 Christ is offered anew in sacrifice ; and as the priest distributes 
 to the faithful the food spread upon the altar, the body and 
 the blood of the Crucified, the faithful absorb into their souls 
 their Saviour, their God. 
 
 Lest you think, brethren, I wander into dreams, recall, I 
 again beseech you, Christ's institutional words and Christ's 
 omnipotence. 
 
 But what, you ask, does all this mean? What can have 
 been the design of the Incarnate in awarding to children of 
 men the power of God ? What reason is there for such prodi- 
 gality of supreme gifts? 
 
 Brethren, all that is done for the priesthood and by the 
 priesthood is done through God's love for souls. The priest- 
 hood is not an end to itself; its end is your deification. The 
 priest is not endowed supernally for his own honor and glory ; 
 he is but the minister of God's mercies to you, he is your server 
 unto your spiritual aggrandizement. God so loved you that 
 He destined you to supernatural life and felicity; to merit for 
 you graces that lift to such heights, the "Word" was made 
 flesh, suffered and died ; and now, in the distribution of those 
 graces, as the instrument must be proportioned to the fruits 
 it is to produce, the priesthood, Christ's instrument for the 
 regeneration and sanctification of souls by the application to
 
 68 Episcopal Silver Jubilee 
 
 them of His very blood, is invested with supernal dignity, and 
 vibrates with supernal life and energy. 
 
 In presence of the priesthood of Christ's Church we bow 
 in wonder and gratitude; we admire the mysteries of God's 
 dealings with souls; we accept the priesthood as the sequence 
 of the Incarnation, and the Incarnation as the sequence of 
 God's love for men. 
 
 Priests of Christ's Church, dreadful it is not? the re- 
 sponsibility made to weigh upon us by the divine element in 
 the priesthood. The priesthood is divine, and we are human ; 
 and to us, in co-operation with the grace given to us in our 
 ordination, it is left to put the human in harmony with the 
 divine, so that one be worthy of the other, so that one work 
 fitly with the other. 
 
 In Christ the divine and the human were clasped together 
 by the one divine personality; the harmony of the one with 
 the other, as the necessary result of the hypostatic union, was 
 perfect. Not so in us; through us, indeed, there courses the 
 current of divine life and power; but in us, in nature and in 
 person, the human retains full independent control ; and, as our 
 will decrees, either adapts itself to the divine or sets itself in 
 opposition to it. 
 
 Understand me well, brethren. It makes no vital differ- 
 ence to those who receive the ministrations of a priest, whether 
 in him the human is, or is not, attuned to the divine ; whether, 
 indeed, he is a saint or a sinner. The essential efficacy of the 
 ministrations of the priest depends upon the divine within him, 
 not upon the human; upon the powers communicated to him 
 at the moment of his aggregation to the priestly body in 
 Christ's Church, not upon his manner of life, or his co-opera- 
 tion with the favors that were then showered upon him. Christ, 
 in instituting the priesthood, held in view the souls that were 
 to be saved, and for their sake He willed that the ministerial 
 power of the priest be effective of its own virtue, whatever 
 be the personal moral status of the priest himself. 
 
 Yes, there is the human in the priesthood ; and, alas ! here 
 and there it shows itself in unmistakable colors. Is there here 
 an argument against the divine in the priesthood? None what- 
 soever. The faithful Christian will always deeply regret that
 
 John Lancaster Spalding <5p 
 
 one bearing the name of priest should, Judas-like, betray the 
 Master and dishonor his sacred vocation. He will pray fer- 
 vently that all priests be what the Holy Church exhorts them 
 to be, and, so far as he is allowed, he will do earnestly his part 
 to build up an ideal priesthood. But if faults are discernible, 
 and even scandals do occur, he is not moved in his faith; 
 he wonders the more that God is so merciful to souls as to 
 make of the sons of men His ministers and agents, that souls 
 be reached by His graces in readier and more efficient manner ; 
 and turning quickly from isolated cases, which the Almighty, 
 in order to make manifest the play of free will, allows to stand 
 in the holy of holies, he fixes steadily his regard upon God's 
 priesthood, as it lights up the moral world in all Christian ages, 
 under all skies. Brethren, look out upon God's priesthood. 
 It sparkles with the rays of heaven in its myriad virtues. Is 
 it not pure and holy? Does it not impel upward the lowly 
 human unto heights sublime ? Is not the divine within it trans- 
 lucent even through its human vesture? No; the priesthood 
 of the Church does not in its human manifestations deny a 
 divine origin, or a divine mission. 
 
 What the individual priest should be, to be worthy of his 
 priesthood, to what degree he should make the human in him 
 conform with the divine, is easily told. 
 
 The priest should be holy ; no moral stain should rest upon 
 him; the spirit of Christ should vivify his thoughts and acts; 
 every virtue should accompany his daily steps. 
 
 "But thou, O man of God, fly these things (the things 
 of earth) ; and pursue justice, godliness, faith, charity, pa- 
 tience, mildness." 
 
 The priest is the symbol of the supernatural. The purity 
 of the skies must adorn his countenance; the loftiness of the 
 skies must permeate his mind ; the love of the eternal must be 
 his source of life and action. 
 
 The priest is the representative, the ambassador of Christ : 
 "For Christ we are ambassadors, God as it were exhorting by 
 us." Therefore let Christ be so seen in the priest that to those 
 whom he would bring to Christ he can say with Paul: "Be 
 imitators of me, as I also am of Christ." The first apprehen- 
 sion that is had of Christ, as His figure projects itself across
 
 /o Episcopal Silver Jubilee 
 
 the ages of humanity, is that of the all-holy : "Holy, innocent, 
 undefiled, separate from sinners, made higher than the 
 heavens." O Christ, to be Thy ambassadors, to speak for 
 Thee, to show Thee to men what a challenge to sacerdotal 
 sanctity ! 
 
 The priest is the treasurer, the distributor of the merits of 
 Christ, the graces of regeneration and holiness. Shall he 
 hold in hand those graces, and not be himself enriched by 
 them ? Shall he deal out to others the life of the angel, and 
 refuse it to himself? This the malediction of the prophet; 
 "Thou shalt sow, but shalt not reap; thou shalt tread the 
 olives, but shalt not be anointed with the oil: and the new 
 grape, but shalt not drink the wine." 
 
 The priest is the teacher of men ; his mission is to draw men 
 to Christ, to plant in their minds the faith of Christ. But 
 will teaching be efficacious, unless it be spoken with boundless 
 sincerity, and that sincerity be translucent in the whole life 
 of the speaker? Will the power of Christ to sanctify souls be 
 admitted, if it has not plainly sanctified the soul of him who 
 is its chosen mouthpiece? Mere teaching, even though upheld 
 by strongest argument, is sterile, unless it carries with it the 
 magnetic fire that burns into the soul of the hearer; such fire 
 this is as issues from the soul of the teacher, whose blazing 
 flames are the examples given by the teacher. Mere teaching, 
 however noble and pure in itself, is vague and abstract until 
 it takes visible form in facts. The eternal law did not impress 
 the world until it lived in Christ; Christ's historic law will 
 not impress the humanity of to-day until it lives in the priest 
 of to-day. Miracles are quoted as the groundwork of priestly 
 teaching; but miracles of nineteen hundred years ago are too 
 remote, unless they revive in a miracle of the present time. 
 Let this be the moral miracle, a man built up upon the model 
 of Christ a preacher of Christ who acts out in daily life the 
 teachings of Christ. 
 
 To sanctity in the priest there must be superadded knowl- 
 edge. "The lips of the priest," says the prophet, "shall keep 
 knowledge ; and they shall seek the law at his mouth, because 
 he is the angel of the Lord of Hosts." 
 
 The mission of the priest is to plant divine faith in the souls
 
 John Lancaster Spalding fl 
 
 of men. This is done by an appeal to intellect, by a victory 
 over intellect. "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the 
 word of Christ." God's grace is, indeed, at work, aiding the 
 preacher to speak and the hearer to believe; but God's grace 
 presupposes the play of intellect both in preacher and in 
 hearer. 
 
 The priest steps into the intellectual arena of the world, 
 saying: I bear a message from Christ. Dare not attempt to 
 speak, unless you know well what the message is that Christ 
 has confided to you. Ignorance of it is an injury to Christ, an 
 insult to the listener. Know well what the message is, know 
 it in its entirety, know it in all its power and beauty. And be 
 ready, when the right of Christ to send a message, or your 
 right to be his spokesman, is disputed, to unfold the roll of 
 Christ's gospel, and with logic resistless, and language that en- 
 forces respect, to extol Christ, the prophet, the Lord, the Sa- 
 vior, and His Church, the mistress and queen of the ages 
 so that it indeed may be said: verily, what we hear is from 
 God. 
 
 Vast is the field of knowledge with which the priest ought 
 to be familiar ; for few are the departments of thought across 
 the borders of which Christian faith in its dogmas or its pre- 
 cepts does not pass. History and philosophy, science and 
 sociology, draw light for their own teachings from revealed 
 truth, and assist in explaining and illustrating the teachings of 
 faith. Art is wrought by religion into its highest forms, 
 and in turn lends its splendors to bring within reach of the eye 
 and ear the beauties of religious aspirations; and literature 
 it is that provides the fitting garb by which religion's truths 
 and hopes may be served out to men. With all such matters 
 the priest should have long tarried, learning well to rein them 
 into the service of the Most High. 
 
 Knowledge in the priest exalts the priest's soul; it en- 
 riches his mind with lofty ideals, mellows his heart to love 
 and sacrifice, and bears him onward to sacred ambitions, 
 whence spring great designs and the heroic courage to pursue 
 them. Knowledge in the priest wins for him the esteem and 
 respect of the world, silences distrust and cavil, and of its own 
 fame adds untold strength to his religious teaching.
 
 ?2 Episcopal Silver Jubilee 
 
 The world reveres intellectual power; and strong, for the 
 glory of God and the salvation of souls, is the priesthood that 
 possesses it. 
 
 To sanctity and knowledge in the priest I would lend the 
 wings of holy zeal, that upon them they fly over plain and 
 mountain, over sea and continent, in search of souls to en- 
 lighten them with the faith of Christ, and warm them with the 
 love of Christ. "I am come," said Jesus, "to cast fire on the 
 earth; and what will I but that it be kindled?" And how 
 Jesus labored and suffered that this fire be kindled in souls! 
 And so must the priest labor and suffer, if he is a lover of 
 Jesus, a lover of souls. Earnestness is the condition of victory 
 on all fields of human effort; sloth and routine everywhere 
 mean shame and defeat. But if ever there were work, noble 
 and sublime, challenging all the ambitions, all the energies of 
 the soul, that work surely is the spreading of Christ's faith, 
 the exaltation of Holy Church, the salvation of souls. If ever, 
 then, there be the workman hating sloth and routine, and 
 earnest in his vocation, be he the. priest. 
 
 The priest of God the human and the divine the human 
 responding to the harmonies of the divine, and the divine unit- 
 ing with the human what power to do and conquer ! 
 
 "And behold I am with you all days, even unto the con- 
 summation of the world." God is ever faithful to His promise. 
 Priests, shall we do our share? 
 
 Building up the priesthood endowing it with sanctity, 
 knowledge and zeal is of all works of religion and charity the 
 highest and the best, the most fruitful in results, the most meri- 
 torious before God. I must tell briefly the faithful laity of the 
 part they may have in it. 
 
 Brethren of the laity, to you is given the privilege to dedi- 
 cate your sons to the service of the sanctuary. The priesthood 
 is recruited from the youth of the land; the best, the fairest 
 of them are invited to be God's ministers, the ambassadors of 
 Christ, the savior of souls. Could there be opened to them 
 a more sublime calling? Could there be offered to them a 
 holier, a nobler opportunity to accomplish great things for 
 God and for humanity, to put to profit the talents they have 
 received from nature and grace, to win glorious and enduring

 
 
 
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 John Lancaster Spalding 75 
 
 victories ? Catholic youths, why not be ambitious for the honor 
 of buckling upon your breast the armor of Christ, grasping in 
 your hands the sword of His truth, to conquer with Christ and 
 for Christ? Catholic fathers and mothers, why not rejoice in 
 the holy thought of seeing one day the child of your love offer- 
 ing at the altar the sacrifice of Calvary, and distributing to you 
 the graces of the redemption? Shall I speak a complaint of 
 Catholic fathers and mothers in America? It is this: that 
 they do not, as much as they should, nurture in the souls of 
 their children a vocation to the priesthood, and especially is 
 this true of Catholics whose worldly careers have led them to 
 wealth and social prominence. What is the cause? Is it weak- 
 ness of faith in the supernatural, on the part of the laity, or is 
 it the mere fact that the leaders in the church have not been 
 sufficiently careful to direct attention to this most important 
 matter? Whatever the cause, the truth is that until vocations 
 are more numerous in America than they heretofore have been, 
 religion will not prosper in the country as we should wish it 
 to prosper. 
 
 Brethren of the laity, to you is given the privilege to help, 
 with your temporal wealth, the bishops of the Church to give 
 to candidates for the priesthood the thorough training which 
 their high vocation makes necessary. We have in America 
 ecclesiastical seminaries ; but they are neither in sufficient num- 
 ber, nor are they sufficiently endowed, to furnish to the Amer- 
 ican Church the priesthood which it needs. We have a Catholic 
 University, one of the prime purposes of which is to open to 
 levites of superior talents opportunities of attaining to high 
 scholarship, so that here and there be at least a few fit to be 
 special leaders in the great movements to which the Church is 
 committed, fit to be, as it were, princes of thought and action; 
 but this university controls scarcely two million dollars, where 
 thirty or more millions should be at its disposal. Why this? 
 It is not that all our American Catholics are poor. It is not 
 that they are without examples of liberal giving among their 
 fellow-citizens, as a hundred instances of rich donations to 
 other institutions and other causes bear continuous witness. 
 Nor is it, can I believe, that Catholics are insensible to high 
 ideals, or devoid of generous heart-beatings. It must be that
 
 74 Episcopal Silver Jubilee 
 
 enough is not said and done to instruct them in their duty in 
 this respect, and to quicken them to a realization of the great 
 need of religion a learned and well trained priesthood. 
 
 Brethren of the priesthood, brethren of the laity, the twen- 
 tieth century dawns upon the world. Never in history was 
 there another age to challenge such intelligent and zealous 
 work in the cause of religion as does the present. For us, the 
 twentieth century dawns in America ; nowhere else, in no other 
 country, are the aspirations and the hopes of the age so high 
 born, so promising, as in America. 
 
 Nature is wrought up to highest intensity. Earth has 
 yielded its most hidden secrets, and put its wealth with un- 
 stinted liberality at the service of men. Science has unraveled 
 deepest mysteries and enriched humanity with forces hereto- 
 fore undreamed. The human mind was never so ambitious, 
 the human heart never so quickened and so hopeful. In all 
 departments of life stupendous triumphs have been obtained, 
 and the future is pregnant with triumphs yet more astounding. 
 Is not the age worthy of the best effort of the army of the 
 supernatural ? The age, once conquered to Christ, will harness 
 to his chariot its forces, and dedicate to His service its power- 
 ful ambitions and then, as never before, will Christ reign, 
 the Supreme Master of humanity's highest evolutions. 
 
 We cannot but love the age for its conquests and its aspira- 
 tions, and should we not, for its sake, work to our utmost to 
 bring to it that which alone will satisfy all its longings, that 
 which will fitly crown all its labors the flood of supernal life 
 from God's own skies, and, in this manner, make it the truly 
 beloved, not of men only, but of God also, and His angels! 
 
 A superficial observer will say that the age is hardened to 
 appeals from the supernatural, that efforts to lift it above 
 matter must needs be vain, and indolence and cowardice on 
 our part will take pretext from such language to withdraw 
 in despair within our tents and leave the field to unbelief and 
 moral misery. They who speak or act in this manner mis- 
 judge and calumniate the age. The age is, indeed, often 
 wrong, for it is not wisely directed. But sound it to the very 
 core. Study it in the essential elements of its ebullitions of 
 life and you must confess that it loves truth and loves good-
 
 John Lancaster Spalding 75 
 
 ness, covets the glory of doing great and noble things. Let 
 the religion of Christ be made known to it, in all its power 
 and loveliness, and the age will bow before it and will rec- 
 ognize in it that which it needs, and which it has been seeking, 
 even in its wanderings and its mistakes. 
 
 What is it, then, that is needed to bring the twentieth cen- 
 tury into the arms of Christ? What is it that is needed? A 
 faithful priesthood and a faithful laity. 
 
 Do I call for a new priesthood? By no means. I call for 
 the old priesthood the priesthood of the first Apostles, who, 
 going forth from the Master's presence, won quickly into alle- 
 giance to Him legions of disciples throughout the Roman 
 Empire and carried His cross far beyond frontiers which 
 Roman eagles had never passed over the priesthood of Remi, 
 Patrick, Augustine, Boniface, who built up, so strong and en- 
 during, the foundations of modern Christendom and modern 
 civilization the priesthood of Ferrer, Xavier, de Paul and 
 De Sales, whose fiery zeal renewed the faith and the charity 
 of whole provinces and nations. If, as this priesthood, saintly, 
 learned and earnest, appears to us as new new in its ardor, 
 new in its methods of work, new in its courage, it is because 
 we have in our times fallen below the true type of the priest- 
 hood, and forgotten the best traditions of our fathers; it is 
 because our present priesthood no longer possesses the noble 
 attributes with which Christ willed the priesthood of all ages 
 to be ceaselessly endowed. O Christ, we pray Thee, enrich us 
 with the old priesthood, the priesthood of the saints. 
 
 Faithful laity, do your part, not only in building up the 
 priesthood, through which Christ's graces flow directly upon 
 souls, but also in contributing by your own manner of living 
 to the work of the priesthood. You, too, can present to the 
 world moral miracles miracles of Christian virtue. You, too, 
 can preach the gospel of Christ, by word even, but especially 
 by giving practical demonstration of the power of the gospel 
 to regenerate and sanctify men. 
 
 You can easily divine why I chose as the subject of my 
 discourse the priesthood of Christ's Church. It is that the 
 festivities amid which we are rejoicing put vividly before us 
 the priesthood, such as we wish to see it in America, in the 
 twentieth century.
 
 7<5 Episcopal Silver Jubilee 
 
 Right Reverend Bishop Spalding, I speak not to praise or 
 flatter you; praise or flattery you would not allow. I speak 
 for the honor of our common priesthood, for the edification of 
 the children of the Church. 
 
 I am entitled to speak. Over many years our friendship 
 has been extended. It has been such that I know you well 
 as few others could have known you. Often we have met in 
 converse; often soul was poured into soul, and heart revealed 
 to heart. Your manner of life, your priestly and episcopal 
 works have been constantly before my eyes. To-night I speak 
 aloud what have been always the conviction of my mind you 
 have been the true priest, the true bishop. 
 
 Twenty-five years in the episcopate, twelve or more years 
 previously spent in the priesthood without stain or blemish 
 this, my brethren, is what we praise to-day; this is what we 
 are proud to extol. Your bishop's priesthood is a saintly 
 priesthood. It is pre-eminently, too, a learned priesthood. In 
 an unusual degree has knowledge adorned his brow; in an 
 unusual degree he has been willing and able to defend God's 
 Church with eloquent tongue and polished pen. The whole 
 priestly body in America are grateful to Bishop Spalding for 
 the intellectual glory which his talents and his assiduity in 
 making them bear fruit have cast upon it. And has not his 
 priesthood been marked by exemplary zeal ? The first bishop 
 of the diocese of Peoria, he offers it to-day to the Church of 
 America a model diocese, a diocese rich in institutions of 
 learning and of charity, rich in the virtues of its clergy, rich in 
 the treasures of faith and of devotion that characterize its laity. 
 And far beyond the limits of his own diocese, throughout the 
 whole land, wherever work was to be done for God or for 
 humanity, Bishop Spalding has gone forth with powerful word 
 and act to serve the cause of truth and virtue. The whole 
 Church of America owes to Bishop Spalding a singular debt 
 of gratitude ; and to pay this debt bishops and,, priests have 
 congregated to-day in Peoria from all parts, even the most 
 remote, of the continent. 
 
 And who, as much as the bishop of Peoria, has worked to 
 endow America with a worthy priesthood ? The Catholic Uni- 
 versity is the pride, as it is the hope, of the American Church.
 
 John Lancaster Spalding 77 
 
 And the Catholic University was born of his intelligent under- 
 standing of the needs of the times and his zeal in meeting 
 those needs. He is the founder of the university, and since 
 its beginnings he has been its vigilant guardian and its sturdy 
 defender. As it grows in strength and usefulness, so will the 
 glory of the name of Bishop Spalding and the debt of gratitude 
 which America owes to him. 
 
 Bishop Spalding, ad multos annos. The silver jubilee of 
 your episcopate finds you in the prime of manhood, rich in 
 physical health, rich in the freshness of matured thought and 
 zeal. Many coming years be with us ; for many coming years 
 labor for us. The jubilee celebration is the morning of a new 
 career, more illustrious and more fruitful than that which 
 closes. We are sure you will respond diligently and ener- 
 getically to the opportunities that open before you. Hence 
 I rejoice this evening; hence the priests and the laity of the 
 diocese of Peoria rejoice with me ; hence priests and Catholic 
 people of all America rejoice with us and pray to heaven with 
 us ad multos annos.
 
 B.S732S C001 
 
 SOUVENIR OF THE EPISCOPAL SILVER JUBILEE