t.
Her glorious monuments will perish. Science and art and sacred literature
will take their flight and perch upon some more favored spot. The hundred
thousand and more strangers who annually flock to Rome from different
parts of the world will shake off the dust from their feet and seek more
congenial cities.

Let the Popes withdraw from Rome, and it may become almost as desolate as
Jerusalem and Antioch are today.

Peter preached his first sermons in Jerusalem, but he did not select it as
his See; and Jerusalem is today a Mahometan city, with its sacred places
profaned by the foot of the Mussulman.

Peter occupied for a time the city of Antioch as his first See. But, in
the mysterious providence of God, he abandoned Antioch and repaired to
Rome; and now, little remains of the ancient Antioch of Peter's day except
colossal ruins.

Had the Popes remained in Antioch, Syria would now very probably be,
instead of Europe, the centre of Christianity and civilization. The
immortal Dome of St. Peter's would, doubtless, overshadow the banks of the
Orontes instead of the Tiber; and Antioch, not Rome, would be the focus of
art, science, and sacred literature, and would be called today "The
Eternal City."

Our present(189) beloved Pontiff, Pius IX., I need not inform you, is now
treated with indignity in his own city. In his declining years, as well as
in the early days of his Pontificate, he is made to drink deep of the
chalice of affliction. His name is dear to us all. To many of us it is a
name familiar from our youth; for thirty-one years have now elapsed since
he first assumed the reins of government; and it is a noteworthy fact
that, since the days of Peter, no Pope has ever reigned so long as Pius
IX.

The Pope in every age, like his Divine Master, has his period of
persecution and his period of peace. Like Him, he has his days of sorrow
and his days of joy, his days of humiliation and death, his days of
exaltation and glory. Like Jesus Christ, he is one day greeted with
acclamations as king, and another day crucified by his enemies.

But never does the Holy Father exhibit his title as Vicar of Christ more
strikingly than in the midst of tribulations. If he did not suffer, he
would bear no resemblance to his Divine Model and Master; and never does
he more worthily deserve the filial homage of his children than when he is
heavily laden with the cross.

I envy neither the heart nor the head of those men who are now