Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1904-05-04

Some one has said hat IL he were
able to create world he would make
virtue contagious instead of vice.
A small degree of observation will
show that his efforts in this direction
would not be necessary, for the Lord
has already done so.
1t is not as bad world as the pessi-
mist would have us think; for the gem
er9i t--end of things is toward the good
ans not toward the evil; and If you
look into the matter carefully you will
find that what you call contagion in
heres In the pure and noble quite as
much as in the impure and ignoble. If
1t be true taat Haunted and successful
vice allures great many, it is also
true that an houest and knightly .fe
does the same thing.
The career of business man who
brushes aside the restraints of moral
principle, who is little more than a
highwayman at heart, and who boldly
robs, under cover of law, until he
counts his millions, is certainly very
demoralizing. No one may measure
the extent of its unhappy influence. It
is startling and dazzling and enticing.
A proportion of our youth become be-
wildered as they look upon it, and for
getting that there is moral law which
forces a man 10 pay his debts either
before death or after, they pursue the
tactics of their idol. There is I'M
doubtedly an appealing inspiration in
the life of even the widest adyenturer
who defies fate, challenges the world,
and by dint of audacity, if not of cour-
age, achieves what he calls success. /
have no inclination, therefore, to ig-
more the fact that there is ccntagion
In life which is brilliant, even though
1t be at the same time criminal.
But l insist that there is just as
much contagion in good deed as in
bad one-that the holiness of one life
conveys itself into another life and
produces the same results there.
In pk.--'-' licences the agent of
Communication is germ or microbe;
In spiritual experiences it is an idea
have heard physicians say that the
contagiousness of a disease depends
largely on circumstances. If you are
in a thoroughly healthy condition your
system closes every door and the germ
cannot enter; you enjoy absolute inn
Z munity from danger. If, on the con-
4 trary, you are susceptible or predis-
posed to the malady, then the germ
takes root and you become i'll. Wheth-
er or not you catch the disease is de-
termined by the weakness or strength
of your own body. Nurses may watch
over the dying and never feel the eff
fects of the ailment which saps the
life of the sufferer.
1t is the same in the moral world.
Contagion there depends on yourself
also, and 70 far greater extent If
you lack spiritual strength and ambi-
ton. If your sense of honor Is only
slightly developed. If your self-respect
is at a low ebb, then the example of
the man who wins a fortune by nefari-
Dus means-like the microbe of typhoid
finds a Judgment in your soul, is
cherished and multiplied by its envi-
ronment until at last immortality has
the resistless sweep of a blizzard and
tears up By the roots every heavenly
and every manly aspiration.
If you had impregnable uprightness
of character. if nefarious methods
were abhorrent to you. there would be
no attractiveness in vicious deeds, and
they would have no more alluring
power than the fire has, which may
coax you to thrust your hand into it.
but which coaxes in vain.
There is contagion in goodness. pro-
vided you are in condition to re-
ceiye it. A grand and glorious life
rouses you to imitation. The reputa-
ton achieved by honest methods so
affects us that we build a monument
4 to the man who possesses it and tell
our boys to go and do likewise. l do
not believe that the influence of a
pure life can be reckoned, so far-reach-
ing. so inspiring, is it.
When Father Damien died among
the lepers of the Sandwich Islands. his
heroism and self-sacrifice were so con
tagious that scores of applicants pray
ed for the privilege of continuing his
work; with the certainty of death as
the result. Such was the influence
of his lonely, sanity. and gedlike mis-
sion that 1t was considered a boon to
be immured within those leprous walls
and to fill at last a leper's grave
1t is a mistake to talk of the con-
tagfousness of vice and to ignore that
of virtue. This would be a queer
world If one could catch the impulse
TO evil, but not the impulse to good
1t may serve the purpose of the orator
who seeks a telling period TO tell US
this, If he is willing to sacrifice truth
to rhetoric, but the stern and glorious
facts give an emphatic denial to the
statement. Mankind are nobler and
truer and more moral than ever before.
Public opinion is more generous and
more Just We have a larger faith
than our fathers. and more true relig-
ion than has heretofore been found on
the planet Why is this? Simply and
only because truth and honesty and
purity and all the nobler qualities of
character are contagious, and because
the contagion Of vice is growing less
dangerous year by year.
1t Is safe TO conclude that. after all,
this is Gods world For that reason
the tide Of righteousness should be on
the Hood, while the tide of vice should
be on the ebb, and little observation
win show that this is true.