El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1900-12-31

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Is Life and Christ Is the Way.-Al
Moral and Social Questions Settled
I by the Christian Faith
From Pope Leo KITS Late Encyclical
| Letter on Jesus Christ, Our Re-
deemer.''
God alone is life. All other things
partake of life, but are not life. Christ
from all eternity and by his very ma
ture. is the Life" just as he is the
truth, because ne is God of God. From
him, as from it's most sacred source
all life pervades and ever will per
| wade creation. Whatever is, is by
him; whatever lives, lives by him. For
by the word 'all things were made;
and without him was made nothing
that was made" The whole object of
Christian doctrine and morality is
that I'VE being dead to sin, should live
to justice" Il Peter Tiff 24.)-that is
to virtue and holiness. In this con-
sists the moral life, with the certain
hope of happy eternity. This JUS
lice. in order to be advantageous to
salvation, is nourished by Christian
faith. 1.-THE just man liveth by
faith" Galatians iii, III. without
Iaith it is impossible to please Cod
Hebrews XII, g.. Consequently Jesus
Christ, the creator and preserver of
faith, also preserves and nourishes our
moral life. This he does chiefly by
the ministry of his church. To her,
in his wise and merciful counsel, he
has entrusted certain agencies which
engender the supernatural life, pro-
tect and revive it if it should fail
This generative and conservative
power of the virtues that make for
saiy alton is therefore lost, whenever
morality is ASSOCIATED from divine
faith. A system of morality based ex-
clusively on human reason robs a man
of his highest dignity and lowers him
from the supernatural to the merely
natural life. Not but that man is able
by the right use of reason to know
and to obey certain principles of the
natural law. But though he should
know them all and keep them inviolate
through Iife-and even this is impossi-
BILE without the aid of the grace of our
it is vain for any one
without faith to promise himself eter-
nal salvation. IF any one abide not
branch, and shall wither, and they
shall gather him up and cast him into
me fire. and he burneth" John XIV,
81. He that liveth shall not be con-
demned' Mark xvi, go.
We have but too much evidence Of
the value and result of a morality di
vorced from divine faith. How is it
that, in spite of all the zeal for the
welfare of the masses, nations are in
such straits and even distress and that
the evil is daily on the increase? We
are told that society is quite able to
nelp itself; that it can flourish with
icfo
attain its end by it's own unaided eff
forts. Pubic administrators prefer a
purely secular system of government
All traces of rho religion of fore
fathers are daily disappearing from
political life and administration. What
BLINDNESS, Once the idea of the author
ty of God as the Judge of right and
wrong is forgotten, law must necessar- |
ly lose its primary authority and JUS |
ice must perish; and these are the two
most powerful and most necessary
ponds of society. Similarly, once the |
lope and expectation of eternal happi-
less is taken away, temporal goods |
will be greedily sought after. Every
nan will strive to secure the largest
hare for himself Hence arise envy,
ealousy, hatred. The consequences
re conspiracy, anarchy, nihilism.-
here is neither peace abroad nor Sc
urity at home. Public life is stained
Nth crime.
So great is this struggle of the pas
ions and so serious the dangers in
olved that we must either antici-
ate ultimate ruin or seek for an eff
lent remedy. 1t is of course both
light and necessary to punish male
actors. to educate the masses, and by
'gislation to prevent crime in every
ossible way; but all this is by no
leans sufficient. The salvation of the
ations must be looked for higher A
over greater than human must be
allied in to teach mems hearts, awak-
n in them the sense of duty, and make
hem better. This is the power which
nee before saved the world from des-
'uction when groaning under much
lore terrible evils. Once remove all
npediments and allow the Christian
pirit to revive and grow strong in a
alton. and that nation will be healed.
he strife between the classes and the
lasses will die away; mutual rights
Ill be respected. II Christ be listen
i to. both rich and poor will do their
uty. The former will realize that
ley must observe justice and charity,
lie latter self-restraint and modera-I
on. If both are to be saved. Domestic
fe will befirmly established by the
alutary fear of God as the lawgiver.
In the same way the precepts of the
atural law, which dictates respect for
4wful authority and obedient to the
WIS, will exercise their influence over
lie people. Solutions and conspira-
es will cease. Wherever Christianity
lies over all without let or hindrance
lere the order established by Divine
rovidence is preserved, and both Sc. }
lrity and prOSDerity are the hannv |
suit. The common welfare, then.
rgently demands a return to Him
ON whom we should never have gone
stray: to Him who is the Wax thal