St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-07-17

Christ and the faith of Christ had come to
save the children of men. The religious sem
timent, intensified by the breathings of the
church, produced our Catholic religious
| orders. 1 do not know the name of all; it
would require a long time to repeat them if
did know them. Suffice it to say there does
not exist an i'll for the relief of which an
order has not been created. Sometime ago,
when African corsairs led many Christians
into slavery, the order of Trnitatians arose.
whose work was the redemption of captives,
the monk being obliged by his vow, if no
other means of liberation were at hand, to
take upon himself the chains of the cap
tive aud emancipate his fellow man
through his own slavery. On the summit of
the Alps, where the air is so rarified that
few years exhaust a life, the monk of St.
Bernard has pitched his tent to save the I'M
fortunate wayfarer from the death-dealing
avalanche. The brother of St. John of God,
the brother Of st. AleXiuS tends in the hospi-
tai the sick of their own sex. The sister of
charity, the sister of st. Joseph, take under
their charge hospitals and orphanages. The
sister of the Good Shepherd consecrates her
own pure heart in love for the unfortunate
outcast of society. The little sister of the
poor gathers around her the aged poor and
feeds them tenderly with the fruits of her
begging, her rule not permitting her to eat
until the children. as the old people are low
1ngly called, have had their fill, and then if
nothing remains she fasts until Providence
comes to the rescue. The sister of Bon Sc
cours nurses the sick poor in their own cot
tages. The little sister of the working people
looks after children and women employed in
factories and encourages them TO habits of
purity and thrift. But enough of mere
names. We claim peculiar advantages from
the system of Catholic charities. In secures
in the service of charity what is most valua-
bic and most difficult to be obtained, the
sweetness and tenderness of love. 1t is not
bread and medicine that is most priced by
the INDECENT and the sick, it is the smile, the
soft caress, the kind, hopeful word. The
heart, rather than the mouth, must be
the soul rather than the body must be
warmed. All this is done without effort, and
done with exquisite delicacy when the heart
of the laborer is in the work. The Catholic
brother and sister are inspired by love; they
could not endure the religious life unless the
heart were all on fire with love; love streams
from the heart and Ignites all hearts coming
within the circle of its influence. We have
read in military aRuals how the dying soldier
fancied mother or sister to be standing
over him as the daughter of st. Vincent babe
him contide i'll the Savior of Calvary, and
poured refreshing drops upon his parched
| lips. The Little Sister of the Poor lifts her
finger and hundred Querulous and quarrel
some old men, hundred old women, will be
silent and respectful while they would be I'M
tanned before regiment of policemen. The
mere rustling the gown of Good Sheppard
| around crowd of poor creatures whose
souls the chilling blasts from Off horrid sin
| had seemed to drive all veStige of the divine
| image. And why should not these things be?
Love is the conqueror. L read few days ago
that at the late annual exhibition of pictures
in the Paois rIndustrie at Paris, one by NJ
Cabanel attracted universal attention and
crowds of spectators remained still as fixed to
the ground before it. 1t was the portrait of
the founders of
THE LITTLE SISTERS
of the poor. The costume was austere, I'M
beautiful but the face-s'it was'' said the
critic, san inspired work of art, one might
say Of faith, for seldom has the beauty of
divine love and humanity and self-sacrifice
been more wildly and delicately expressed
than in this portrait of the humble woman
who from heroic charity conceived the idea
Of helping the poorest of the poor by begging
for them day by day the crumbs from the
rich mans table, The picture but family
represents the living beauty of love and faith
which daily walks and works amidst our hos
pitfalls, asylums and refugees. There is
economy, too, in our system. The sister re-
ceives for herself food and clothing; her VOW
refuses her all other temporal advantages.
She feels for the poor, and for their sake she
has learned to misuse nothing, to waste
nothing. The rich give to her willingly; they
| recognize that she has profit of her own
in the gifts, and that the needy will be the
sole benefciaries. Special training and long
experience brings skill. Nor is the lesson of
experience confined to the lifetime Of the in
dividual; the whole order is as one
being receiving knowledge from many
countries and standing up for the benefit of
each member the treasures Of experience ac-
cumulated through generations. And finally
permanency is given to works. However ac-
tive and intelligent the zeal of an individual
may be, he dies and his influence departs.
An organization lasts: the individual drops
out from the ranks, his place is quickly filled,
there is no interruption of the task of mercy.
l should add that besides the fair boundaries
of charity in the Catholic church these are
her regular army. There are her volunteer
associations of charity, composed of men or
| women, the married or the unmarried, who
without leaving the ordinary walks of life,
bond themselves into associations of various
natures and give to them what time their oc-
cupation may allow. Chief among those is
the admirable society of ST. Vincent de Paul,
branches of which exist wherever the church
herself is found, and whose mission it is to
visit and relieve the poor in their homes.
The society of st. Vincent has received high
ecclesiastical approval l make mention of it
in order to call attention to two very import
ant features i'll it's rules, which are main
characteristics of all Catholic charities,
although, perhaps, not so explicitly ex-
pressed in some. The one is that the end of
all charity is to devote the recipient, aud ulti-
mately, If at all possible to save him from
his helplessness. The accusation has been
made that Catholic charity is reckless in its
ardor and perpetuates poverty by encourag-
ing idleness and improvidence. No accusa-
| ton could be more false, more groundeSs.
The other feature is that charity demands
from us personal service. We do not do our
duty by paying tax to the state or sending
to a committee an annual subscription, leav-
ing to the state or the committee to
stand proxy for us and emitting to
come ourselves into contact with the DOOR,
| Srif " g m nf nd
love demands personal attention. 1t is the
mission of Christian charity to benefit both
the giVer and the receiver, and indeed the
one that is the most benefited is the giver,
whose nature is softened, refined by the ex-
| erciSe of the virtue in whose heart pride and
egotism are cut short by the sight of suffer-
ing and misery among his fellow men. 1t is
| this personal charity. let it be said, that will
prevent the eStrangement of classes in So
ciety, and will save US from the total social
disruption with which we are threatened in
these times. The Catholic church has not yet
had the time nor the opportunity to build up
! as fully as she would have desired her char
tiles in America. Still she has not been idle.
There is no city without her institutions. No
| village without an official representative of
her charity. She will do more in the future.
For freedom of expansion is allowed her by
our generous laws and the noble spirit of our
people. She will watch carefully over her
own works; at the same time she will bless
all other agencies of true charity. The field
is broad There is room for many workers.
The consideration Of the labors of others will
fire our emulation to do as well as they, and
the spirit of love for the neighbor which in
spires US all will lead US to love one another
most sincerely and to rejoice in all the good
that is done, as our Heavenly Father above
rejoices in it.
A MOST LEARNED MAN.