The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1878-08-18
The Socialist Disease.

| DR.. Bismarck has got his hands fall ol
work with the great Socialist malady which
is now epidemic within his domains.
There is no man living that ought to be
better able than he to cure the disease, be-
cause he himself is its cause. The great
doctor is after all nothing but great
quack. He has been tampering with the
moral and religious health of Germany
until he has very seriously impaired its
normal action and even its vital force. 1t
is queer how folly goes in streaks. Here
is q man, o shrewd, smart man of the
world, who would not dream of admins
| tering dose of strong medicine without
calling in a physician, who would give up
any man as q hopeless fool that should at
tempt to conduct his own lawsuit not be-
ing a lawyer himself, who would not deal
with an apothecary unless satisfied with
his diploma, and yet when it comes to the
greatest and most momentous of all affairs,
that of religion, he rushes headlong into
it's control, mars it's subtle and delicate
influences with the rRde hand of inexperi-
ence, and, if he meets with knot in the
skein which bis own awkward presump-
LlOu tdpkicuJ Cuto ~ WALL liC c"oAN va
the law.
But society asks Mr.. Bismarck: Where
is your diplomat Who has commissioned
you to teach the moral law7 What God
has empowered you to represent him
among men in the administration of his
religioni Surely not the God of the
Christions, and if not, how do you dare,
oh do
tuary of his awful mysteries 7 To your
hands he has confded the sword of the
temporal kingdom: what audacity in you
to turn its edge against that higher king
dom of the soal which is not organized
to fight the battles of physical war;
But that tangled skein which Bismarck
cuts so readily is a tissue of living nerves;
it is the life system of the religious organ
ization, and such men as Bismarck ruth
lessly cut and hack and wound what it is
not given to mortal man to destroy. They
cannot destroy, but they can MAIN and
cripple they can weaken and disable;
they can 30 diminish and disturb the tide
of religious life that the whole moral sys
tenn of the nation becomes diseased and
swiftly 10 IuO NiSLAul OL uOk al
contagious. We say, such men as Bismarck,
for he is only the exponent of race. Be-
fore the Falk laws there was intolerance
and Professionalism itself is but the child
of State interference in religion. 1t bad
no life, no power of it's own. But crowned
heads saw it's capacity for use as an in
strument in their insolent desire to revolt
against God. They were rebellious against
the spiritual kingdom, just as Bismarck
is, they recognized an opportunity in the
heresy of Luther and they supported him
with their armies. The sword of the State
intruded itself into the affairs of the king
dom of the soul. the Church WAS wounded
as nigh unto death as ite Immortality
could permit, the drunken, debanched
monk became a hero aud Professionalism
was established.
But the day of retribution always comes
sooner of later, and now it is coming for
these rebellious powers. The tree of their
folly is bearing fruit. The other day a
drunken madman took charge of a loco
motive, opened the throttle valve and
dashed along the rail at an amazing speed.
Presently, however, he reached a curve,
the engine leaped from the track and
buried the usurper in it's ruins. These
equally presumptuous statesmen have rash :
ly turned loose the spirit of religious inde-
pendence they have taught men that
there is no organized kingdom of the eoul, i,
no spiritual authority to which they must
bow, no commissioned tribunal of the
moral law they have emancipated citizens
from all law but the civil law, and now
they are testing the working of their the
ory.
The telegraph informs us that Bismarck
has just prepared law of "a articles for
the repression of Socialism. Repression
Can you repress an old sore7 Heal it up
at one place and it will break oat at
another. The disease is in the blood and
the core is but it's effect, it's expression.