The Irish standard., 1891-07-04

! comfort aud happiness should reign,
| only Indebtedness, degradation and
sorrow are visible. Step by step. the
drunkard strays from the grace of GOO
to his terrible doom. and in wreckine
his own life and sacrificing his own soul
he imperils the lives and souls of those
to whom be should be a guide and ex.
ample.
To speak Of the direct consequences Of
intempersnce among Catholics, to the
home and to religion, Is to touch only g
part Of the evil. The Catholic Church
| born of the divine love of God, is sent
forth to win men for the kingdom OF
Heaven by the loneliness of her chill.
dren's lives. How can she so much as
enter upon the work OF evangelizing the
American people in any locality, where
| intemperance is prevalent among Gath
olics. Is it, indeed, not q hopeless task.
to try to persuade men that ours is the
only way OF raising fallen men to union
with the Divine nature IA q neighbor-
hood where they need but look around
them to see many Catholics wallowing
IN the most beastIy of all vices? AND
how peculiarly unfortunate this is just
now, when the breaking up of Protestant
ism has cast many thousands Of earnest
souls adritt in search Of the true religion.
Remove from among Catholics the
vice Of 1ntemperance, and you elevate
them to q plane, morally and socially
superior TO that Of any other people. It
is this vice that has kept many of the
brightest minds from shedding lustre on
church and state, and has made millions
of other social outc&sts, deprived of the
happiness which responsibility affords
and living only to cast reproach on that
religion, which has peopied Heaven with
saints, and on q nationality illustrious
for the virtues of its children.
All the fathers Of the Church have
warned men of this degrading and fatal
passion, and at the present day the
prelates OF the Church are everywhere
lifting up their voices, lamenting the
devastation and misery already wrought
and supplicating their people to fight
against this terrible foe, which brings
destruction to their temporal and spin
itual happiness.
Every motive thai can prornp5 men to
attempt great ani. noble achiegem ents
for home, country and religion are pre-
sent in the crusade against intemper~
ance Religion, honor, purity. industry,
domestic happiness and all the nohlest
affections and aspirations Of the heart
and mind are destroyed when man be-
comes a slave to drink; and when tine
curse comes upon a people, it is IN it's
Immediate effect and it's consequences
far more terrible than war, famine and
pesvilence combined. Drunkenness is
The demon finger-hoard pointing the way
to sin, shame, suffering, remorse, death
and perdltior.
10 crush this evil is the duty of the
hour, the duty ct all patriotic men, and
it is particularly the Juty of young men
upon whom in short time must de-
volve the cares and responsibilities OF
homes, legislation and the administra-
ton OF the offices of religion. Total
abstinence from fiI forms of Intoxicating
drinks is the means. And, in asking
you, young men Of our state, to be total
abstainers, we but invite you to avoid
the thorny path which leads TO degra-
dation and ruin, and point out to you
the high way which leads to honor, hap
piness and influence.
A young man starting out in life,
unconscious OF the dangers surrounding
him, and free from the restraining in
t1uence of home and its wholesome as
sociations, may imagine that he can
indulge in all occasional glass without
danger, but once he enters upon the
career of drinker, he has departed
from strict absolute propriety, and has
entered upon a course which leads to
the grossest intemperance. The high
nature has begun to lose and the lower
to gain influence and strength. It needs
but a little more impetus in the same
direction; it needs but the same process
repeated sufficiently often to create the
drunkard's appetite and to procure the
drunkard's name. A start has already
been made along that line, which is SO
thickly strewn with much that was
great and noble, lying in accumulated
masses of depreciation, wretchedness and
crime.
At an early age every young man, in
order to reach eminence in any depart
ment of life, must map out plan OF
campaign. In this he will be deter
mined by considering the elements
which have contributed most to the sue
cess of others. The answer to this in
quiry will be that they have travelled
no :'royal road" but that every step
forward was the result of effort directed
by the teachings of experience He will