The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1902-04-19
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The tragic death of Samuel Collin
a the hands of a mere boy and tn
, circumstances surrounding it, require
, viSilant watch on the part of parent
towards their children. Like the cockl
which was sown by the enemy to de
stroy the good seed, unless parents ar
faithful to their duties and keep
close watch over their children, tn,
enemy is sure to come, and by thei
example and influence, turn the heart:
and minds of their beloved little one.
away from God. Fathers and mothers
like the man who sowed the wheat, &c
TO sleep whilst their children often pa
rade the streets. Instead of watching
protecting and safeguarding their in
nocence, they become sleepy, indiffer-
ent and careless about them and the
company they choose for themselves
What is the consequence of this lack OF
vigilance and interest? 1t might well
be compared to that of the farmer who,
after his long sleep, found wheat and
cookie growing UP together in his field;
and as the all important question for
him was how to distinguish and re-
move the cookie from the wheat, so
the great practical question for par
ents is, how to discern for their chill
dren proper associations and not allow
their young and plastic minds to be
poisoned by dime novels or any other
vile literature, which unfortunately is
| broadcast.
Parents, unmindful of their duty and
Indifferent as to consequences, are only
aroused when they read in the public
press of a society of boys, scarcely out
Of their teens. organized and bound by
an oath of secrecy not to divulge their
evil deeds. Their Indifference may as
sumo spasmodic change as to the
necessity of being more careful in i'm
planting religious ideas into the minds
of their children.
@ @ @
But why is religion necessary? No
subject has been more universally dis
cussed at all times and in all places
with the unvarying result that there is
no subject which has produced so many
widely divergent and even contradict
tory views. Religion essentially sup
poses the existence of personal God,
who is to be obeyed and loved by man.
It suppOses the Creator and creature.
Having its foundation on God, it must
imply the existence of moral law,
law of right and wrong. of which it is
the recognition, expression and accom-
plishment. To talk of morality without
religion as some thoughtless persons
do, is simply to talk of morality with
out morality, for religion is nothing
but the moral law formulated. and at
the same time the carrying out of this
law, or in other words, morality itself.
o o %
Supernatural faith must have its
foundation upon supernatural author
ity, since the very idea of the super
natural conveys the idea of divine
gcvernance. True religion, primarily
implanted in the hearts of our first
parents, was supernatural which
meant God walking with us. Even
Noltaire, who scoffed at all religious
sentiments, admitted that religion and |
the supernatural were inseparable.
When the French humanitarians di- |
Vorced their creed from personal /
God and appealed to the people for !
Talleyrand cynically said |
that if they wished to get followers, |
they or their apostles should be cruel
fed and raised to life again.
Mrs. Eddy starts a new religion. We |
are assured it is the correct one, that
she has at last hit upon the very thing
has been craving for. SO
admirable discovery at the end of the
nineteenth century deserves the graft
tude of the human race: but reason
able people will first ask her for the
credentials of her apostleship. Her
invention may seem excellent, but so
have a thousand others, and as only
the smallest percentage of the human
'amily can spare time to wade through
several hundred pages of her Science
and Health" honest persons will i
oluntly ask, who are you?" or who
sent you?" This will furnish an off
hand solution to the question.
Her followers tell that she is a high
V gifted person. Be it so; we are not
"a tisfied with her credentials. So was
Herbert Spencer a highly gifted man.
2epudiating the vulgar term skeptic,
re wrote: Il have repeatedly and en-
asserted that our conceptions
# Matter and Motion are but symbols
# an Unknown Reality" His creed,
'rief if not simple, was in the dis
overy that God was Unknowable, so ,
much so as to require capital U to f.
his creed on suffering human I
ty, enveloped in darkness from the
eginning of time. His knowledge of
nan is more definite, but to ordinary ,
PORTALS Unknowable. He wrote, 1.-The f
eing called man is a concurrence of g
toms, acted upon by voltaic pile. I
nd emitting sparks of thought" The
etinition excludes the supernatural. :
he ideas of Creator and creature. h
@ g g t
But if Spencer's electric humanity h
e only the necessary outcome of GER !.
lin combinations of matter and force
the result of necessary laws-then :
ian in himself is also necessary and v
He owes neither his ex- a
tence nor anything he may have to
ny person or thing whatsoever, and 9
can be under no obliga- +
on to thank or honor anyone, for is t
e not the product of necessity? And. f