Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-02-25
FATHER CANEVIN'S LECTURE.

The Well-Known Priest Delivers One Of
His Characteristic Addresses = He
Would Not Touch the Amendment.
Rev. Father Regis Canevin organized a
new branch of the Catholic Total Abstin-
ence Union at St. Kyrian's Church, Butler
street, near Fifty-second, last evening.
About 100 people took the pledge and be-
came members Of the society. Prior to the
organization of the society Father Canevin
delivered one of his characteristic temperance
lectures, and, among other things, said:
There is no other vice that takes possession
of a man that so reverses the right order God
Almighty ordained should reign in man as the
vice Of intemperance. He may be blinded to
the rights of his neighbors and acknowledging
no one but himself You may take the impure
man who panders to the vilest and lowest
degradation of passion, through every mire,
and you will have man who drinks.
Fhe.sin of drunkenness takes away his mind,
all control of his manhood and his intelligence
and freedom. Take away these powers and you
no longer have the man, but the brute. No sin
robs him of all these powers as the sin of in
temperance. Man has the power of intelli-
ing, power Of loving and has the power of free
dom. He was the image of God and was like
GOD in these things. Man having a Tree Will
he was supposed to be in the likeness of God.
Where is the image of God in the drunkard?
The man who has yielded to excess in drinking
until the image has deserted him. Hedoes not
deserve the name of God. There is no slavery
SO complete and ahject as the slavery Of
drunkard. Just as the food assimliaIes with
part of ourselves, the sin of the drunkard en-.
ters into the soul of a man and becomes part OF
himself. 1t gets into the blood and robs him Of
his habitual will. There is so much of his brain
eaten away that he cannot form strong, stead
fast resolution to overcome the habit.
How frequently we meet with good, strong
hearted, intelligent men with bright minds,
who say to US, "It's no use; l know Pm dis
gracing my family; yet, although know I'm on
the way to eternal ruin, the habit of drunken
ness is so strong that cannot give it up" We
know lots OF such cases ney GO 70 M mass snr9 an1
every two or three months. they get intoxicated
and find drunkards' graves.
1t is among laboring men that intemperance
reaps its harvest. There is a great conflict
now gong on between capital and labor The
laborer's capital is his health, strength, inge-
nuity. trade, Skill etc. Whatever goes to i'm
pair his capital is injurious to him. This is
the greatest evil that intemperance produces
among the wage workers of the country. In
temperance is the cause of nearly all the crime
affiicting society.
Ihere are tam1lleS IN tnlS county VINO LOT tne
past so years have not advanced nor risen in the
intelligent or social SCALE Nine cases out of
ten can be traced to the neighboring saloon.
The son follows his father from the house to
the saloon, from the saloon to the iails and
then. .perchance,a a felon's or drunkard's grave.
There is movement now sweeping over the
State with which this society has nothing
whatever to do. The church leaves politics
such questions with the means left by Jesus
Christ: the grace of GOD, through the sacra-
ment of the church. We leave the matter to |
be settled by each one individually as Catholics
and Christians, supposing you to have the well |
fare of society at heart. Do as you consider |
best in the Temperance question.