The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1870-06-05
goes overheard, and none of it's friends can

save It.
From this process of reasoning is inferre
that the moral law includes the principl
OF obligation, and cannot be really dis
tinguished from it without divisting itsel
OF Its character as law, and destroying it
own essence. In presenting to us tn
j image and exhibiting the archetype of uni
versal order, the law expresses the rela
lions OF creatures with one another, ant
with their common end which can be ne
| other than God himself, since if the crea
| ture could rest in itself ~ it's last end, il
would be absolute, and therefore not be crea.
cure at all. The practical Absolute cannot
De differentiated from the speculative Abso-
lutte, any more than the Moral Law can be
distinguished from the creative Idea ;
wherefore since it is an outrageous absurd
ity to place, with the Atheist, the Panthe-
list, the Sceptic and the Nationalist, in con-
tngent things the speculative Absolute,
that is, our first beginning; it is likewise q
crime equally outrageous to place the
practical Absolute, namely our last end
and final beatitude, outside of God. as
have done and still do your egoists, your
immoralists and your Epicureans, ancient
and modern. The law is our teacher of
ethics, inasmuch as it assigns to each indi-
vlduai the rank for which he is suited in
the grand scale and hierarchy of the uni
verse, and allots him his proportion of duty
Dy giving to creatures the Office and value
OF simple means and secondary ends, and
revealing high above them, and on the apex
of the pyramid, their common Creator.
who is the first beginning from which must
start, and the last end for which must
strive, all created things. Moral goodness
consists IN the free observance and fulfill |
ment OF this order, while evil is but the
result of its disturbance, which takes place
Is often as finite beings, dissatisfied with
me lot apportioned to them in their proper
'phere, rush inward towards the centre in
heir Insane attempt to usurp the divine
hrone. Here again the nature of sin
lashes on us In more conspicuous enormity.
1ereln consists what we term egoism, or, in
lonest English selfishness, which is the
ssence of all sin, under whatever aspect
mas be viewed because since the nature
the end determines the choice and adapt-
ton OF means, man could never sin in his
hoice of means, if his will did not 90 ont
It's way in the selection of an end-ip 2
lher words, did not substitute the object g
instinct for the immutable term of rea '
IN, and put itself in the place of God. T
Cd only, if the expression is admissible. s
legltlmately selfish, because He is the 8
lpreme and infinite Good. Man ought to q
'nsider himself what he really fs, simple i;
cans directed to the supreme and ulti. "
ate aim of all things; hence he is under l.
70 obligation to subordinate his own de- 7
res to the common welfare in the various il
heres OF the family, the country and the d
&c, whenever occasion requires the sacri- q
g, both because reason demands that the ii
rts should yield to the whole, and be- ali
use man would not really love himself m
God, if he did not do his best to actual. si
> TO his full share as man, Gods plan for &C
government of the world. According til
since selfshness is the root of all m oral Bi
II, sacrifice must be, and is, the essence to
al good as Tar as man on earth can par M,
'e it. This sacrifice must be as universal be
the sclfishness it counteracts is wide DR.
cad: there must be the sacrifice of the tn,
sctlons (see article No. 81, in particular, wi
ce to them are primarily ascribable all the he
orders which afaict humanity. Affection TIL
hes bllndly headlong to its end, but it str
st be brought into subsection to the re- ste
rements OF that fundamental law, in the
dience to which the individual is subor- ten
ate to society, be that society two or bro
~, the citizen to the State, parts to the sur
lie, and the whole to God. And as sell aus
ness finds in itself its own punishment. sue
torture of the after-life consists in the An,
sing of the legitimate last end. and is son
shness concentrated and eternal; SO in sire
manner sacrifice begets the final re- gen
u and that amorous union with the Chu
eme good which, in the science of the obie
rnatural, is termed the Beatifc Vision. PEG
he specific essence of the moral law orn,
therefore be formulated in some such into
Sc as this: Mans free ,oH must use Gre T
things acith an eye to the last end for di
they haze been created, and ,chich is give
'cat '0iM their first principle. The par man
ar rules and ordinances of law are aver
ly the Discriminate application of this had
raj principle. Never could man refer list
hings of which he has control to their. as Sc
mate end, if he did not conform to new
nafura and thai ~.o,-