The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1870-07-03

doubtless, be new kinds Of sins and worse
kinds. Education would provide the
novelty, and refinement would carry 1T in
to the region of hennnatural. All highly
refined and luxurious Developments OF
heathenism have fearfully illustrated the
| truth. A wicked barbarian is like beast.
His savage passions are violent but inter-
mitting, and his necessities of sin do not
appear to grow. Their circle is limited.
But highly educated sinner, without the
restraint 0f religion, is like q demon. His
sins are less confined to himself, they in
vOlve others in their misery. They require
others to be offered, as it were, in
sacrifice to them. Moreover, education,
considered merely as an intellectual culti-
universal. Men exaggerate the moralizing
power ofcivilizatiOn and refinement, which,
apart from grace, are only the worst kind
Of tyrannies. They do not believe in the
intense laligrtty of man when drifted from
God, and still less are they inclined to
intensity still further this mahgnity. Over
powered by the enormous delusiOns of ma
terial progress, or wide spread, goddess
education, and of a hypocritical refinement
>Of manners, men surrender themselves I'M
resistingly to the tyranny Of the popular
will-aggressive, inso1ent, bewildering and
terrible, according as it is spurned or lashed
to fury by the brawlers and radicals of the
day. Thus, this extreme refinement only
pushes sin to an extremity of fOulness, this
exquisite culture but leads to q social
cruelty and individual selfishness which
makes life almost undesirable. Therefore,
men of the city, be not amazed that am
here, but be rather amazed that you are
not D beGtG solitude, a sOla beatitudO!
o blessed solitude, o sole blessedness 7"
As these last words fell from the tremu-
lOus lips Of the aged anchoret, he paused
in silence, and all pensive. In the distance
were heard the harmonious whispers of the
ripplngs of the waves on the sandy beach
and spirit of religious stiffness seemed to
brood over the vast desert. He then resumed
in more subdued tone and mysticFein
81 told you, yesterday, that strength
is in fewness, and that work lies in
singleness of purpose. Natural activity,
vulgar emulation, the hustle of benevO-
lence, the love of praise, the habit of med
ding, the over estimate of our own abili-
ties, the hot-hcadedness of unripe fervor,
the obstinacy of peculiar views, the end
less foolishness of indOcile originality--all
these things prepare to 80 many delusions.
We do not love men enough to be charita.
bly, truthful for their souls. We tell men
balf the truth, the half that but suits our
own pusillanimity and their conceit. 1t is
the pOlluting of Gods truth, which is the
worst of all impurities. Where are now
to be found in the apostle the harmony of
discretion and enthusiasm, the cool audaci-
Where is the apostle who is mature in his
young prudence, and impetuous in his
gray-haired zealf We doubt, we hesitate,
we dare not, when our war-cry should be
All for God! We are disanchored and
borne away by the noise, whirl and hurry
OF the present age. We are dragged, in
stead of leading. We have got into the
maelstrom of partisanship. What, then,
must we do? We Nust nestle deeper down
in the bosom of solitude; for science and
material prosperity, and a literature which
has lost the echoes of heaven, are thrusting
us to the edge of external things, and
forcing us,siown the precipice. II may be]
2 better glory for US, if our weakness fail
Hot in the wilderness, that our faith should
have to be united from all helps Of sight
and sound, and left alone in the unworldly
barrenness where God and the angels are. |
Souls are strangely attracted to strangest
things and places, whenever they are |
within the vortex of a divine vocation. We |
must not call such souls ambitious. They |
have been lured thither by wiles of grace. |
They are humble, and therefore they are |
not deluded. They are dwellers with the |
wild beasts, and their secret Joy is in the I
silent immensity of the pathless solitudes. |
: Why do SO many fail Because they are
not silent. Endurance depends much on |
silence. Power escapes with words. It is
only by the help of silence that the saints |
carry out such heavy crosses. A cross for |
which we have received sympathy is far
HEAVIER than it was before. In some way
Dr other human sympathy desecrates the
operations of grace. Silence is the proper
of the cross, and secrecy it's
native climate. The best crosses are secret
ones. Indeed, silence creates a sort of
secrecy even in public.
Qaietness, or repose, is also absolutely
necessary for spiritual progress. Quietness
must be the prevailing atmosphere of a
ascetic. We must be quiet in order
20 pray. Modification must be quiet, or else
t will be merely vehement nature, growing
n fury as it grows in pain. Confidence in
Sod must be quiet The very word itself
8 full of the sound of rest. The receiving
If the Sacraments must be quiet. Noise
md hurry would be simple irreverence.
Dur love of others must be quiet, else it
will degenerate into earthly tenderness. In
word, there is hardly function in the
piritual life which does not require quiet
less for it's exercise and fulfilment.
Solitude, silence and quietness lead to-
But our present habits of
ife and thought lead us to an obvious want
# sympathy with contemplation. 1t has
10 public results on which we can look
or which we can parade
,oastfully. Everything seems waste which
9 not visible and all is disappointment
which is not plain success. Noise, decla-
nation and display are astounding. 1t is
supernatural principles which are at a dis
cunt in modern days. Now it is easy to
ee how this want Of sympatl,y with con-