The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1903-10-31
MODERN SAINTS.
Changed Ideas of Devotion in worlt
To-Day.

To-Day.
In Pierre de Couleraine's Noblesse
Americana a Frenchman's American
wife, taken to visit Assist, perplexes
and scandalizes the venerable Marquise,
her mother-in-law, by her slow appre-
citation of the glories Of the saints
whose devoted labors have immortaliz-
ed that town.
"'Ah! there will never be any saints
in America
"'Who knows?' said the Marquise.
"sNo, no! 1 don't see an American
divesting himself of his goods, preach
ing poverty and talking to doves. In
stead of st. Francis we shall maybe
have men who will lessen poverty and
make the world a more comfortable
place."
We have had saints in America, al
though they have not been canonized,
and we have them now, and shall con-
tinue to have them, but there is good
deal of timely truth in this suggestion
that the typical American who aspires
nowadays to help his fellows tends to
concern himself chiefly with the multi
plication of material blessings. He
does not withdraw from the world for
the fuller development of his own spir-
itual nature, nod embrace poverty for
his own souls good, nor enjofn the pa
tient endurance of it upon others as
source of spiritual advancement. Rath-
er he looks upon it as an objectional
condition and seeks to abolish it alto
gether, for himself first of all, but Incl
dentally for just as many other people
as he can. The young American lady
shows a pretty sound conception of the
| working of the contemporary American
mind when she says, eve shall maybe
have men who will lessen poverty and
make the world a more comfortable
place" -.5- s... e. .-...
That truly seems the bent of Ameri-
can energy in the most conspicuous
of its current phases. If you ask the
American business man why he works
he will tell you that 1t is to make a
living. That is the chief compelling
motive for labor in all lands, and it
does not constitute an idiosyncrasy in
the American that he should feel and
acknowledge it's force. But when he
has made his living in ample measure
and provided abundant sources of in
come for himself and his immediate
descendants does he stop? As a rule.
he doesn't and in that he is somewhat
peculiar.
| 1t is a matter of the commonest OBJ
servation that the American business
lman's vocation takes very strong hold
Ion him. . The reason why the saints
stuck to self-abnegation, poverty and
good works was because they found that
life amply remunerative. No other
: seemed to them so good and for them
doubtless no other was so good, for the
saints. all things considered, were hap
by people. The successful business mar
sticks to business for the same reason
the saints stuck to aintliness-because
it is his job and he likes 1t.
| Very many American rich men who
I have made money iii business give free
Ily Of their wealth to all sorts Of goof
Icauses, but especially to institutions
for education, which shall qualify
young people to live more wisely, en-
10y life better and turn their natui a
liabilities to better account, The mar
Iof business hopes to prosper by supply
4 ing his fellows with something tina
they want. He meets competition b.
cheapening his process or lettering hi
goods-often by doing both. His con
lstant study Is to be able to supply hi
Eeustorners with better commodities a
Hess cost. His vocation Is to distribut
wealth not less than to produce it; t
feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, t
make two blades Of grass grow in plac
lof one, to make human life easier
Ipleasanter, more comfortable and NOR
profitable. - <. "a
A nation may be rich without beinl
righteous, and IL it puts It's mind NOR
Ion riches than on Righteousness it |
bound to have a setback. But all ma
, lions being more or less faulty, the rul
In our day seems to be that the riches
nations are the wisest and that thes
iwisest nations, which know least @
Z poverty, are the ones, on the whole, i
t which righteousness most abounds.-
Harper's Weekly.