The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1877-03-18
TIE SPIRIT OF THE AGE.

EXTRACT fron the Messenger Of tho Sacred Heart
There 10 one thing He never made-"that
noisy triviality, ," as Father Faber describes
1t, "which struts aross the worlds history
and styles itself the Spirit Of the Age" II
10 great piece of silly folly, nonentity,
trivial In every thing except it's effects-in
these IL 10 momentous, gigantic, portentous.
Cicero describes the effects Of the Spirit oil
his age; and five compare what it did then
in pagan world with what it does now,
we should marvel at the likeness, the one
color the one shape-and We might in one
word, call it's effects nowadays, r0orIdH.
ness.
Liberty of Conscience and liberalism,
Freedom of Worship and Free Church,
Progress and Free Press, are big words
which the spirit of the age was the frat to
introduce, and will be the last to understand
The age does not even understand what
conscience means. 1t 10 quite ignorant Of
the fact, that conscience cannot have liber,
ty and in its simple innocence it puts the
two words together and makes mere non
sense. CONSCIENCE il like that registering
pencil at the centennial entrance; you
heard the pencil click as you passed, mark
ing q stroke upon the slate for every person
who entered. Coincidence in our bosom is
the register of our acts. No thought, word
or deed can pass without click Of self-ap-
probation, it good; of remorse or shame, if
bad. 1t has no more liberty than the re
gister at the centennial entrance:
Still the spirit of age, mlstaking con-
science of opinion, has put a meaning under
the phrase, CELEBRITY of conscience" and
religion you like, ,oithout a ,oord from any
one to bind or guide you. But this very
meaning is Sd unfortunate as to contain
two fallacies, and one of them is sheer
absurdity.
We cannot pursue them at present. We
will only say that error is a chain," as q
prophet of Isreal has said before this. It
drags unfortunate souls along by many
links, and, when we would follow to the res
cue, we are dragged along ourselves through
many question and winding path aud if
simplicity does not guide the eye, and q
right faith possess the heart, instead of
converting others, We are perverted our
way, we are consumed ourselves; and In
stead of being the salt of the earth, we lose
our SAVIOR, are good for nothing else but to
be cast out of the Church of God as liberal
Catholics, and to mix with the mud and
mire of the spirit of the world outside.
This We say to warn good Catholics
against the plague epidemic which besets
our commences on every side. We confess
1t with grief, that there is so enchanting q
power in some cathing words and loose
ideas, which are banded about the Spirit
of the Age, that the imagination and senses,
which are prone to evil from their youth,
are sweetly beguiled from q staid and
sober mood and sometimes the best char
acters are cozened in the use of terms
which should be unlearned at once as soon
as detected within the sacred precincts of
the mind. Let strict theological notions be
cultivated--not strigent, but strict-not
rigid, bat correct-not rigorous, but pre-
else. Let the Catechism, developed in the
pulpit, Christ on the altar, be our light,
our life and our truth. How many beauti-
full souls have been marred in their develop
heroic sanctity been suddenly left in ruins,
like broken shaft, through the weight of
wOrldliness brought down upon them by
the trash of opinions, by the reading of
books, and the ruthless savagery of the
Spirit of the Age. The Lord preserve ne
from all else, except to know Jesus Christ
and Him crucifed."