"Now, when John had heard in prison the works of Christ, sending two of his disciples, he said to Him: 'Art thou He that art to come, or look we for another?' And Jesus making answer said to them: 'Go and relate to John what you have seen and heard, the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deal hear, the dead rise again, the poor have the gospel preached to them, and blessed is he that shall not be scandalized in me.'"--MATTHEW ii. 2, and following verse.

It is to the concluding words of this text that I would invite your particular attention on this evening--"Blessed is he that shall not be scandalized in me." After all the miracles our Blessed Redeemer had wrought, after He had made the blind to see, the lame to walk, the deaf to hear, the dead to rise again, He yet anticipates that many shall be scandalized at His doctrine and at His life; that the stranger to His creed shall blush to embrace the gospel of the cross; that many of His own pretended followers shall be ashamed of the poverty of Bethlehem, and the ignominy of Calvary; and so strongly does He feel for the disgraceful weak-mindedness and sinfulness of such unhappy men, that He promises an eternal reward to such as shall escape the snares to which they have fallen victims: "Blessed," He says, "is he that shall not be scandalized in me." Nor were His anticipations unfounded, for St. Paul laments that the doctrine of Christ crucified should be unto the Jews indeed "a stumbling-block, and unto the Gentiles foolishness."

But why recur to St. Paul for a proof of the existence of such weakness and folly, when we see the same vices exhibiting every day under our own eyes? We see men of large intellect and cultivated minds hesitating to enter the fold of the true Church, although convinced of its Divine institution, hesitating lest, by taking this final step, they may forsooth incur the indignation of their friends, the contempt of their associates, the loss of their temporal dignity or possessions; they are scandalized in Jesus Christ. We see amongst the children of the Church many who are Catholics by the accident of faith or of early training, but who, led away by pride, by human respect, by shame of the heretic or unbeliever, blush to profess openly that faith in which they inwardly believe; they join in the scoff and the jeer with which religion and its Founder and its ministers are ridiculed; they argue on the doubts and re-echo the sophisms invented by conscience, that would fain slumber in the belief that no God exists; they fear if they make the sign of the cross, or pray with exterior devotion, that the smile or the jest may be raised at their expense; afraid on the one hand to displease their friends and incur their censure; and, on the other, afraid lest they may bring down on their unhappy souls the indignation of that God whom they insult by such wanton cowardice and such miserable shame.

Indeed there are few of us, my brethren, who are not occasionally the victims of human respect. We sometimes fear man more than God. In order, therefore, that we may correct this vicious tendency, and that we may merit the approbations of Him who has said, "Blessed is he that shall not be scandalized in me," let us consider first, the insult that is offered to the majesty of God by human respect, and then the folly and impropriety of suffering ourselves to be influenced in any part of our conduct by the fears of what the world may think or say concerning us. I. Dearly beloved brethren, we were placed by Almighty God in this world for no other purpose than that we might love and serve Him with our whole hearts, and with our whole souls. This is the duty of every human being, no matter in what age he may exist, no matter for what greatness or lowliness, for what riches or poverty he may be distinguished. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, with all thy mind, and with all thy strength, and thy neighbor as thyself." This is the great commandment addressed by God alike to all men. Any man, therefore, and much more, any Christian, who through fear or shame of his fellow-man, neglects, when occasion requires, to manifest his love for God, or for his neighbor, offers a deliberate insult to the majesty of his Creator; he prefers the esteem of his fellow-man to the esteem of God; he apprehends the sneer or the contempt of some imbecile fellow-creature, and dreads not the anger of the Almighty; he abides by the judgment of the world in preference to the judgment of the great and living God. All created things united together bear no comparison to God, and yet the victim of human respect prefers the opinion of one miserable fraction of humanity to the opinion of the mighty Lord of Heaven, by whose breath all created things sprang into existence. What greater insult than this could be offered to God?

He who is unduly influenced by human respect transfers the allegiance he owes to God to every human being who may claim it, be he heretic or infidel; he is thus reduced to a most miserable slavery; for the ordinary condition of the slave is to have but one master, whereas the victim of human respect has as many masters as he has associates whose approbation he seeks, whose anger or censure he dreads, whose sneer or derision he is careful to escape. Such a total and capricious sacrifice of one's own conscientious convictions is nothing short of blank idolatry; for what else is idolatry but transferring our homage from the Creator to the creature? Nay, the idolater has some excuse, for he professes to act according to his conscience, although that conscience is misguided; but the slave of human respect acts against his conscience--he does exactly what he knows to be wrong, he knows how damnation is incurred, and he wantonly incurs it. How forcibly does such prevarication remind us of the language in which the Royal Prophet denounces the idols of his day: "They have mouths and speak not, they have feet and walk not, they have eyes and see not, they have ears and hear not."

Those who are influenced by human respect have tongues that utter no sentiments but those which others may applaud; they have ears that watch to catch the floating opinion of the crowd, that their own may be found according to the vulgar standard; they have eyes that see not their own contemptible subserviency, and their own wretched degradation; they have feet that walk not in the ways of God, but follow in the wake of those that insult and deride Him. Shameful servitude! infinitely more degrading than any physical bondage to which poverty or even crime subjects the outcast of society or the victims of the law.

One case, in which human respect most commonly exercises its pernicious influence is, where a man has been in the pursuit of sin for years, and who is now sincerely desirous to return to God, but who is deterred from the work of conversion by the fear that his new conversion of life may excite the ridicule of those with whom he had been associated in his former career of vice. What an insult does this wretched man offer to God by his despicable fears and miserable apprehensions! He knows that he ought to return to God; that, though late his return, yet God receives the sinner at any hour: he knows that sin brings nothing to the soul but disappointment, sorrow, and anguish; that it is better now to brave all difficulties and turn his thoughts heavenward, where alone true peace and comfort are to be found; his mind is made up; farewell sin, welcome God; but he just then remembers how he must forsake his bad companions; how he must not now sit long and drink deep as of old; how the blasphemous exclamations and obscene jest must henceforward be met with a frown instead of a smile; how his penitent air will afford his boon companions an occasion for ribald mirth and sarcastic joking; how he must absent himself from the jovial gathering to pray, or to confess, or to receive the Body of His Lord, and how his absence will be remarked, and many a scurrillous comment greet his return to the festive throng. The temptation is too strong; his self-love is too deeply rooted; he gives up the idea of conversion for some other occasion, which, like the ignis fatuus, always present to his views, but is constantly receding before him; he returns to his old haunts and his old fellow-sinners; he relapses into all his former vices with a renovated zest, and pursues damnation with an energy and zeal that, if turned in the opposite direction, would earn for him a martyr's crown, and a martyr's everlasting glory. What an insult does this miserable man offer to God! he prefers the esteem of some few sinful, misguided men to the esteem and friendship of his Great Creator!

But the insult to God is scarcely less reprehensible than the folly and impropriety of those who allow themselves to be influenced in religious matters by human respect. For such persons seek to meet by their conduct the approval of all those with whom they come in contact. Now, this is perfectly impossible, for, live as you please, lead a life of virtue or of sin, and you cannot. Do your best, conciliate the esteem and approval of all men; if you are virtuous, the wicked will sneer at and deride you, no matter how they may internally approve; if you are wicked and worldly, the virtuous and good will pity and reprove you. Since, therefore, you cannot be commended by all mankind, why not prefer the approbation of the good, especially as your own conscience internally approves the verdict they pronounce? It is impossible that men should all agree in any one point; their passions and prejudices will always prevent a cordial union of their opinions. Do you seek to amalgamate elements essentially discordant? You care not for the observations of men in the ordinary transactions of life. Why will you pay them such deference when the great question of your eternal salvation is at stake?

Suppose all the world condemned your conduct, what matters it to you when God approves? Men will pass away, and God remains. "What art thou," says the Prophet Isaiah, "that thou should be afraid of a mortal man, and of the son of man, who shall wither away like grass?" Why not choose rather the spirit of the penitent Daniel? "I covered my soul with fasting; and it was made a reproach to me; and I made haircloth my garments, and I became a by-word to them. They that sat in the gate spoke against me, and they that drank wine made me there sing." But how was the royal penitent affected by the contempt of his enemies? " As for me," he says, "my prayer is to Thee, O Lord."

How different also was the feeling of the Apostle Paul. "With me it is a very small thing to be judged by you," he says to the Corinthians, and what was his glory? "I will glory in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world." Our Divine Redeemer Himself gives us a striking example of the boldness and constancy with which we should confess our faith before men. When asked by Caiphas whether the accusations of those who were suborned against Him were true or false, He answers nothing; but when adjured by the name of the living God to confess if He were indeed the Son of God, see how, in reference to that holy name, He makes a full and candid confession of the truth, teaching all His followers to imitate His example, and never to be ashamed of their holy faith. Little did the early martyrs care for human respect; they left their weeping friends behind; they heeded not the sighs of an infidel father, or a pagan mother; they turned a deaf ear to the entreaties of friends, who thought them little less than mad; they went forward boldly to their doom, and with smiles on their lips, and hope beaming in their eyes, they bedewed the scaffold or the circus with their blood, while their souls passed triumphant before the throne of the Eternal God!

In fact, the approval of the world is the best proof that a man's conduct is not conformable to religion, nor pleasing to the Almighty, and the condemnation of the world is the very recompense of virtue, and the most indubitable proof of its sincerity. The views of the world, and those of God, are diametrically opposed to each other; what the world approves, God condemns. The piety of him who is praised by the world must be always suspected. "If you had been of the world," says our Divine Redeemer, "the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you." You heeded not the opinions of the world when you walked in the ways of sin; is it rational to fear them when you walk in the paths of virtue? Ah! are you timid and ashamed when invited to give glory to the Lord of all? Of whom then are you ashamed? Do you blush to give glory to God, who created all things?--who, in the language of the Psalmist, "is clothed with light as with a garment, who stretcheth out the heavens as a pavilion, who maketh the clouds His chariot, and walketh upon the wings of the winds." Do you blush to be the disciple of Him who rescued you from eternal damnation, and restored you to the eternal inheritance you had lost?--who, though born in a stable, and crucified as a criminal, has monarchs for His slaves, and the world for His worshippers? Are you ashamed of His teaching, who abstracting altogether from His Divine character, is confessed by all to have preached the most sublime philosophy ever propounded to man? Do you blush to follow the standard of the cross, which has acquired more signal victories than the united dynasties of the universe? Do you regret being a member of that Church which has lasted two thousand years, and which is sure to last forever--which comprises in its folds all the power, and splendor, and genius, and glory of the world? and do you side with those who cry up the glory of a creed of mushroom growth, and a Church of mushroom endurance?

If such be your feelings--cold, weak, base-hearted Christian--well do you deserve to hear the sentence of Jesus: "He that shall be ashamed of me, and of my words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He shall come in His majesty, and that of His Father, and of the Holy angels." If such weakness excites our pity, what shall be our admiration for the man who, when occasion requires, stands up for his insulted religion, and who, in the presence of bigotry and ignorance, no matter how fortified by wealth and power, with courage in his heart, and fire on his tongue, proclaims the glories of his Church, and, like a good soldier, fights her battles when cowards cringe and skulk away!

Although human respect, my brethren, thus produces a thousand evils, nevertheless I would not have you to believe that we are always bound to profess our faith openly, and to display our religion before society or the world. There is a time for everything, and it would be indecorous, it would savor of hypocrisy and affectation, constantly and without a proper opening to parade our sanctity before the public. But when the occasion offers, then to hold back were unworthy of a man and of a Christian: if our conscience dictate to us that we should pursue a certain line of conduct, and we are tempted by shame to forego its dictate, we are bound to trample on that shame, and act as our conscience suggest, with confidence and courage; otherwise we do not deserve the name of soldiers, but rather the ignominious appellation of deserter of Jesus Christ.

Behold the lamentable example of St. Peter yielding to human respect. He who was so confident of his courage and fidelity, at the voice of a girl, denies, and swears as he denies, that he knows the very face of his Redeemer. Oh! bitter scandal; but would to God we could all repent as St. Peter repented! See how Pontius Pilate, although convinced of the innocence of our Saviour, yet, through human respect, imbrues his hands in that Saviour's sacred blood; proving to us that human respect was to a great extent the immediate cause of our Redeemer's death. He declared he found no cause of death in Him; and, though the people assembling tumultuously insisted on our Saviour's condemnation, Pilate still persisted in the resolution of not staining his hands with innocent blood.

But no sooner was human respect called in to support the unjust demand, and the people intimated to Pilate that he might incur the indignation of Caesar, than he immediately yielded up the cause; fear got the better of any other consideration; human respect dictated the sentence: hatred and fury carried it into execution.

Tremble, therefore, my brethren, at the fatal consequences of acting according to the standard of human respect; it is a subject we seldom think on, but we now see what mischief and what scandal it produces. I repeat, we are all influenced by human respect, more or less, at various times; let us be more watchful for the future. Let us remember the denunciations of Jesus Christ against the victims of this fatal weakness: "He who shall deny me before men, I will also deny him before my Father who is in heaven." On the other hand, let us remember the reward He has promised to those who profess their faith openly and courageously before the world:

"He who shall confess me before men, I will also confess him before my Father who is in heaven." What matter to you the scoff or the sneer of the infidel or the lukewarm Christian? "If God is for us, who is against us?" There is nothing so truly contemptible as to see a Christian sneering at the religion he himself professes. If there be anything more contemptible than that, it is to see another Christian seeking the applause of such a religious scoffer. Let us, therefore, beg of God to fill our hearts with the courage of His Martyrs and Saints, that we may never blush for the gospel of Christ; that we may never give way to pride, except to be proud of our title of Christians, as a patent of the highest nobility; that we may, like St. Paul, "glory in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." "The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord." Jesus died on the cross; let us be prepared to die in its defense. Let us remember that we are soldiers of Christ, and that the good soldier would sooner see his heart's blood flowing than have his honor tarnished. Fighting the battle of the Lord during life, we shall deserve to receive an unfading crown from Him hereafter, who has said, "Blessed is he that shall not be scandalized in me."