er will not receive
you, nor hear your words, going forth from that house or city, shake off
the dust from your feet. Amen, I say to you, it shall be more tolerable
for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment than for that
city."(494) "He that heareth you heareth Me; and he that despiseth you
despiseth Me; and he that despiseth Me despiseth Him that sent Me."(495)

God requires not only that His Gospel should be heard with reverence, but
that the persons of His Apostles should be honored. As no greater insult
can be offered to a nation than to insult its representative at a foreign
court, so no greater injury can be offered to our Lord than to do violence
to His representatives, the Priests of His Church. "Touch not My anointed,
and do no evil to My prophets."(496) God avenged the crime of two and
forty boys who mocked the prophet Eliseus by sending wild beasts to tear
them in pieces. The frightful death of Maria Monk, the caluminator of
consecrated Priests and Virgins, who ended her life a drunken maniac on
Blackwell's Island, proves that our religious institutions are not to be
mocked with impunity.

When an ambassador is accredited from this country to a foreign court, he
is honored with the confidence of the President, from whom he receives
private instructions. So does Jesus honor His ambassadors with His
friendship and communicate to them the secrets of heaven: "I will not now
call you servants; for, the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth. But I
have called you friends, because all things whatsoever I have heard of My
Father I have made known to you."(497)

What a privilege to be the herald of God's law to the nations of the
earth! "How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth
good tidings and that preacheth peace: of him that showeth forth good,
that preacheth salvation, that saith to Sion: Thy God shall reign."(498)
How cherished a favor to be the bearer of the olive branch of peace to a
world deluged by sin; to be appointed by Heaven to proclaim a Gospel which
brings glory to God, and peace to men; that Gospel which strengthens the
weak, converts the sinner, reconciles enemies, consoles the afflicted
heart and holds out to all the hope of eternal salvation!

I have often reflected on a remark made to me by Senator Bayard of
Delaware: "You of the clergy," he said, "have a great advantage as public
speakers over us political men. You enjoy the confidence of your hearers.