The Irish standard., 1901-08-24

equality of natural rights as coming
through the creative act, expressed a
profound truth of Christian philosophy.
Where did he get it? Certainly not
from the French infidels. God some
times uses men as instruments in
works they do not fully understand the
import of. In shaping the course of
events out of which this republic, with
a Providential mission, grew He used
as instruments men who were uncon-
scious of or adverted not to His de-
signs, and vet they did their parts to
the consummation of the result as
surely as Moses did his in obedience
to the voice from the burning bush.
Jefferson and the other fathers of this
republic were near that fire and re-
ceived more reflected light from it than
they wot of. They were Providential
men who, aside from their own per-
sonal motives. did their part in the un-
folding of divine plan, as Constan-
tine did in his time and Charlemagne
did in his.
The rights that we have seen
have their root in communion with
God. cannot be violated with impunity,
whether by the individual, society or
government. Retribution follows their
violation as the night the day. These
birthrights of man must not be in
vaded, while he invades not the same
rights in others. When they are so
invaded wrong is done, the natural
dignity of man is outraged, the circle
that the Creator has drawn round
about his manhood is raided; Il crime
is committed not only against the hui
man victim, but against his Maker, and
against the order of His providence.
1t is needless, or should be, to say
that the Declaration, by the word of
equal" does not refer to adventitious
differences, such as height, weight,
strength, degrees of intelligence,
wealth, poverty, etc. No particular
height, weight, wealth, poverty or de-
gree of intelligence is essential to man
in order to be man. The four-foot
man is no less man than the eight
foot man. The infant weeping on
it's mothers breast is, so far as natu-
raj rights are concerned, no less a
man than he who, mumbling and
trembling with age. stumbles towards
the grave. The starving beggar, thir.
as lath, is no less a man than the
ponderous statesman, the fat politi-
clan, or the sleek and juicy alderman.
And the man with only sense enough
to earn an honest living in the sweat
of his face is as much a man as the
great ones who, for better or for
worse, ploughed deep furrows in the
worlds history. No, children, it was
not ephemeral differences-all of which
are plus man, and as unimportant as
the difference between length of noses
that Jefferson denied. He was not
a humorist, nor an idiot.
1t is claimd that the rights of the
Declaration belong to the abstract, not
to the concrete man. Such claim is
| groundless, for those rights belong
only to men who live in communion
with God through the creative act and
through nature. Such men are Gre
ated and therefore real or concrete
men. That which is not has not and
cannot have real rights. The rights
of non-existence are non-existent. The
rights that man cannot enjoy till
he becomes an abstract are like Coun.
selor Curran's definition of nothing
a footless boot without a leg, or q
bodyless shirt without neck or sleeves
or, we might add, a soup made from
| the shadow of a bone in the abstract
Governments do not deal with men
in the abstract. They can neither sue
nor Ike sued, hanged nor sent. to con.
| gress. BE right ever so patent and
ample. the abstract man cannot enjoy
it. An essential condition to the en-
joyment of rights is concreteness, rea'
existence. When the Declaration
speaks of rights it has reference tc
real. live men of flesh and blood. The
] dead part has no practical use 70,