The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1877-10-21
SUNDAY MORNING. OCTOBER FL, 1877.

Gent for salvation. Good works, he said, are
the superstitious practices of Popery no
more fasts. no more penances. faith alone
justties man. He not only thought SO but
wrote book upon book, pamphlet upon
pamphlet, delivered sermon upon sermon, in
order to convince the sixteenth century that
goDd works were supertuous, that man might
heap sin upon sin, provided be only had faith
he would foally be saved. BY these faiacles,
brethren, gratifying to human nature
Luther cast abroad every where the seed OF
i'm orality.
Calvin, the second arch here tic, more logical
in his reasoning, devised more dew ilish doc
trine-that God made man for eternal CO ndem'
nation or eternal felicity, the doctrine OF pre-
dasIination,-that certain people were des'
timed to- heaven, and no matter how they
lived, provided they managed to cling on to
cir faith in Christ they would he saved and
that certain others were destined for hell, and
no matter what good works they performed,
they were destined for hell, and to he'll they
must go, because predestined by God 10
eternal condemnation.
Now, brethren, it needs but common sense
in order to understand how SUCH principles
engendered every kind of Decentralization.
Luther, true to his doctrine, lived up to 1t and
did not deny his love for sensual pleasures,
aud it WAS the same with all the other
reformers.
The inadel philosophers of the eighteenth
and nineteenth centuries, advance stlli
but for himself, for his own felicity,
for his own individual happiness Away
with all notions of God, God is not, there
is no God man alone, is bis own God. A
celebrated writer, in his book Of the Idols of
the Nineteenth Century, speaks of man as set
ting himself mp for his own idol.
What do we read in the school books,
placsd in the hands of childrenf
Read Dan Hitchcock's Moral Philosophy, q
book which, as Bishop Timon says, was Tor
years studied in the high school OF New YORK
1t says IMAM was crested for his own happl
ness, therefore nothing must stand betw6 en-
him and this happiness; therefore If his rel-
gion teaches him 10 fast, to abstain, to work
out his salvation by penauce, such religion is
superstitious, because God cannot ask such
sacrifices froM His creatures"
And beloved CbristianG, these are the COG
trines we come across every where Man is
sinking into barbarian, for If he refuses TO
sions, he settles soon to the level of the brute
Others go htrll further, and say that man IL
de.cendsd from an animal And this is the edu-
cation CT the nineteenth century.
Must wouGer then Ebst in or days 10 ere 10
50 much lndltieroutIsm, seusualiem, lnhdellshI,
free lovjsm, even I" form "a barrier 10 the
progrt S, Of the Church must We wonder at all
GGlsf
We evea fod tits among pretended
Christians. They do not waat anything else
but q pleasurable f may be allowed the ex-
pression) religion; people want to worship IN
. fashion able church, they want to be preach
ed at in words that will tickle their ears with
out touching their hearts they mCst nave
fashionable music they do not worship
az OR fo.efathers did. Provided they are
preached At, on q Sunday, that is enough reil-
giOu for week, and for some 1t is enough for
o month. Then in the summer these places OF
worship are shut up, because in summer God
does not expect man to worship Him.
The Reverend speaker here related an anec,
dote of "a man who had had seven wives, and
who, upon making arrangements TO marry the
eight was arrested and thrown into prison.
Thou Oh the bodies of the seven women were
examined and no traces of violence or poison
found, 60 great was the popular pre)od that
the man was condemned to long lmprison-
mept. After suffering number of years,
touched by remorse, he confessed, saying to
the Judge, Yes, killed my seven wives, ont
sent them all into eternity iauShin g. as tick-
I'D them till they choked"'
Thus it is, he continued, that Satan in
this Nineteenth Century offers to modern
society pleasure, conseq uently al glasses OF
rupted. If you doubt my word, listen to
Brownson, He says: "Our children know
more at eight or nine years OF age, than mar
ried people did in my days"
Pleasure corrupts it6 votaTles, 1t makes men
degenerate, ruins Renuses, destroys man hood,
and even old age follows in its train wishing
enjoyment to the grave. ana consequently
brethren, we have bad times, people do not
want to live q mortified life, they want to have
their heaven earth, and, therefore, 90
not want, nor will they follow this Son OF Goa.
In olden times there were men who really
loved their country, there were real patriots
bat now, what are our modern politicians
Men who fear not God. Tue newspapers are
Idll Of reports of their corruption, how they
swindle and cheat, in order TO enjoy Nle'-to
live "fsstlife," they themselves OK press IL.
why do our business men complain that, In
modern times commerce is at standstin ne
cause people are not satisfied with legitimate
trade but in order to enjoy life they wish 70
hecome rich faster than legitimate trade Will
allow there 10 no confidence among men,
people cheat those with whom they transact
business, they stesl, not on q small scale but
ON a Grand scale; large banks fail, become
bankrupt, and that on purpose, in order that
their managers might live life of self indol-
pence. And our Observation-Disclosures 10 the
means of Q great deal of good or evil. And
how do modern writer's use this pOWeri Do
mas says he "must write in order TO please