The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1871-02-19
Slams of Our TImes-First Article.

The 6ge is agltate0,-uAo I" 500
wild storm on it. There is not wave "
II asleep there is not bark on it that is
not tossing to and fro;-therc is not vino
Of it abreast there is not cloud over IL
that does not hold q thunderbolt there IL
not a depth of it unstirred there is nota
shore of it without wrecks.
From lowest depths to surface 1ro"
farthest shore to centre there is tumnit'
Above it hangs darkness. Athwart the
darkness lightnings glare. =.
| Whose breath is on the deep to Stir IL
soq Gods or man'sq Whose spirit moves
| over the waters7 His whose name Is Holy
| or his whose name is evilF
Brinceth the storm destruction or saliva
ton ? Is it one of Gods tempests sent
to clear the sky, purify the atmosphere
stir the waters unto the healing OF the ma
lions, or is it a hurricane hurting out OF the
passions of men-to darken the deep and
to destroy9
True,-every age has it's own agitations;
for history has few calm days,-and human
hearts are the homes of tempests easy TO
arouse and hard to allay. From the oe-
ginning it has been 80. Down to the emu
it shall be so. Seldom calm rests on the
waters and few are the waves that
bear not wrecks, But the agitation
of our age is stranger, stronger
wider spread than that of almost any
other. Everything is restless ;-everything
is rocking. Wild ideas, wilder than Wild
est Withstand winged with destruction,
are sweeping across restless minds-more
restless than the very waves. False theo-
ries, religious, social, political, cover the
Human Deep with their tickle foam. And
nations are rocking to and fro, ike anchor
| less, chartless barks upon the blllow. VINO
reads the signs and secrets of the world
wide storm? Who knows its source and
foreknows it's end? Who has the key to
the riddle of the wide, profound agitation
Far out Amid the wild waste OF waters,-
in the very heart of the hurricane,-when
winds are fercest,-waves, STRONGEST
darkness, pest,-dangers, greatest 8
there stands grand old Rock. The
waves know it ell,-and the Winds
{ Against it they have beaten twice one
thousand years and they have never shiv-
cred single splinter from it yet.
Upon that Rock an old man kneels;
against him beats the storm. He
kneels and prays,-and he is calm END
the Rock beneath him never shakes. He
it from his brow and tossed it into the
waves All things of earth he had are
wrecks upon the waters. But he is calm;-
he kisses the cross and prays. Around him
the storm mutters blasphemies. And wilder
beat the waves,-and darker grows the
sky,-and more dreary grows the darkness.
In his face-no fear. Around him gloom
but in his heart CLEAN of hope. Weak
but he smiles at widest wave, for well he
knows that the Rock of Promise is stronger
than the foam of passion. Out there in the
storm, above the waves, beneath the
clouds, on his gaze the flash of the
lightnings afraid to strike the Rock;-in his
ears the boom of thunder sounding to him
as an empty threat-out there on the Rock,
he kneels alone. Said l alone? He holds
q cross. A CROSS Yea-;.nd he, who hung
upon it, stands beside the kneeling figure
of the aged man.
On that storm swept sea is the breath of
man. On that man ON the Rock is the
breath of God. Over that Rock clearing
the darkness and flashing along Thousand
clouds is a text; and that text is promise
and prophecy. Lift your eyes and in the
blacklist pages of the darkness read the
glorious letters-the glorious text-"THoU
ART PETER AND UPON THIS Rock 1 WILL
BUILD MY CHURCH AND THE GATES OF HE'LL
SHALL NOT PREVAIL AGAINST IT."
That explains the mystery of the great
agitation that rocks the waves of our age;--
that tells why the storm RACES and what it's
end shall be. Explain it7-How7
ST. JOINS FAIR.-Night after night the