The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1877-02-04
fThe Messenger of the Sacred Heart of Jssus,)
SPEAK OUT.

lis ahame to be and let bsbbers do tho talkn e.
Once, in times of old, a certain wise
philosopher was teaching in his school, and
I'D the world hocked to hear him, his words
we're 30 wise and true. But another man,
bhaliOw and tatkative and as gay as q bat
Eerdy, opened school across the street.
He was rhetorican, as they called him !;
Ind he showed how to talk in grand
fsyie. The young mems ears were tickled;
Fhey thought 1t great thing to learn how
% speak, with words that sounded so very
big; and they left the wise old philoso-
pher. Now, certain friends of his stood by
With folded arms, and smiled saying:
Pooh, pooh give up!" But q tear stood
Ia the old man's eye, and his heart was
hull. He said: '"Tis shame to hold
my tongue and let barbariaus talk Listen
talk and truth besidesw Then he opened
bis month and began to teach his old
truths in q new way, with rhetoric and
what not. And the young men looked back
hstoDished; and they left the talker
across the way, to hear the wise old man
again. For he talked very we'll now and
ypoke truth besides.
Ts it not a shame to keep silence and let
barbarians talkf The other day, one of
them was invited to come across the
ocean, and help US to inaugurate a univer
sity here. The distinguished stranger
proved himself quite equal to the occasion: !:
he knew how to please his hosts and came
with his best compliments on his lips.
And he regaled US with a few lectures the
lnAdelity Of which his hearers applauded
with vehemence; the rest they took on
aith.
He had guaged us well-he had. He had
bRken our measures and knew how much he
should feel at nome among us. There
'waB already in the country horde of his
kith and kin, who have shown themselves
often enough, within the last forty years !;
whether it was a political sgitaror, like
KosSuth, CT an apostate cleric, like Gavaz .
ii, or any other sign of the times that came
TO stir up in the mob an efervescence anti
Catholic or infidel.
The stuff of barbarism is here amonst
us-not one school only over against the
Church of Christ ; not fifty schools alone
that feed our minds and ears with errors
It is not ono doctor in each, nor hundred
or two in all, that keep the ball a-rolltng
But, you have universities and high
schools you have churches and temples,
meeting -houses and pantheOns you have
speakers and writers, orators and poets /;
you have newspapers and pamphlets,
sermons and reviews-a huge Babel
around us, not merely here and there,
but everywhere against the one truth,
and the one Church and the one Christ,
who has said, I" am the Truth"
Each man is talking to knot Of his
neighbOrs, and the loudest is convincin &
most. Now and then, a voice happens to
distinguish itself, like that of the stranger
mentioned above, and rising above the
hubbnb it commando q momentary lull,
which only breaks again into q louder con
cord of upIoar and commotion. Whose
was that voice9 1t was the voice of q
scientist, like Huxley, or a statesman, like
Gladstone, who had Just caught up the ex-
nf
had ruug it out with q louder ring on the
one subject wherein alone they all agree,
and that one is what it ever has been
crying down the Truth and always saying
the same thing.
Catholics are in the midst of this world,
are part and parcel of it. Can we flatter
ourselves that they are altogether free
from it's contagion; that using the world
they are as though they used 1t not and
having SO much to do with non-CatholiC
neighbors they are as though they had no.
thing to do with man, or his errors or his
vices? Can we flatter ourselves, that
walking In the sunshine, We are not sun
burnt, or, touching pitch, we are not defled
thereby 2 Is it not, for instance, a certain
fact that the same ews-carrier who sup
plies the prodigate and the scoffer, the
atheist and the infidel, knocks at the Ca
ShOiic's door, or walks into his store, and
Gets the very same newspaper right down
there, to feed the children of Christie
household3 And behold! when the hour
OF evening comes, the boy of fourteen years
of age returns from school, and he takes of
his coat, and in his shirt-sleeves stoopR
over the counter to devOur all the news
from police court and uptown and down
town and high life and low-all in one
NOES of pottage. Surely we are reminded
Of the prOdigal, who would faiR have
allied his belly with the husks ths swine
did eat"
No wonder thousands yearly are lost to
The Church not only by proselytism and
tsoupiBg" among the children of our poor,
among tho orphans and the destitute, bat
thousands of others are running themselves,
osing by inches the faith Of their fathers,
md becoming practically inRdel by q pro-
,ess of deliberate self f-destruction-seIf-
poisoning. This is part of the loss which
he schoOl of Truth is made to suffer from
he barbarian which goes about. The loss
Which the wise old philosopher deplored
Tas nothing TO this. Our youth, our noble
ycung, both Catholic aud Protestant, are n
Iaily prey to the barbarians of whom We
1900 Wounpv GRkhOlicn ara rerVeFked nv