The Irish standard., 1906-01-06

And, so it is, all dissatisfied and all
seeking happiness but all looking and
striving for it in the wrong direction.
We can not better express the thought
in our mind than by quoting the words
of outlook:
ITO all who are worn by the toll
and strain, the dust and heat, of the
journey of life, who have found the
places to which they have come with
ache of body and of heart, shorn of
the beauty that EMBODIED them at a
distance, there are no words more rest
full and reinvigorating than those
the Psalter, "All my fresh springs are
in thee In him are the fountains of
life which men are seeking far and
wide over the face of the whole earth
1t is separation from him that brings
the only age which the spirit knows
The old age of skepticism, cynicisn
WEAKNESS and disgust. The old age
which spread a gray pail over the Ro-
man of the decadence and which lie
like Il blight on a great deal of con
temporary writing in fiction and tn
drama. The attempt, as old as time
10 satisfy the soul by giving tn
senses all they ask for is failing in our
time as disastrously as it has faile>
a thousand times before; and the weari
ness and cyniciSm which pervade tn
latest dramatic movement is another
confession of the failure to tap tn
fountains of life by sinking wells i'll
the dusty highways instead of seek
ing the spring in the cool secret places
where they flow in undiminished vol
ume. There is no life save in Him
and without Him all paths becom
dusty and arid ways to death. Home
JOY, health and peace are to be found
only in His presence and apart from
Him there is no true life.
The New Year will find a host of
men, sad, unhappy, dissatisfied o,k-
ing hither and thither for that rest
body and spirit which He alone can
give. The world is full of restless
anxious, tired men and women who
nave lived on the highways instead Of
in the quiet places, and who, becaus
they are choked and blinded by IN
dust, think all life arid and wearisome,
Having lost all knowledge of the na-
ture Of love they are following tie
phantom of happiness through the m,re
of divorce courts and going with .ras.
ical blindness straight ON to the deep
est moral degradation and despair
Has any lesson been put on the blaci:
board in more appalling distinctn.s
for the study of this generation tina,
the folly of getting great wealth with
out virtue and honor? Scores of men
who once knew what it was to be
trusted and respected are now dis
honored and passed by with averta
faces. They have brought disgrac
upon themselves and shame upon th..ir
country. OF what use is their moa.y
HAO'' SAAe~S 4lo Aticll1 4OOhS uJ 10 III All
They are tasting the bitterness of life
to the full but have they not filed
the cup with their own hands and lift
ed it to their own lips? They sun
their wells in the highway and they
are now sitting in dust and ashes.
The springs of life are love, ho.,,.
unselfishness, sympathy, kindness, ;;rd
these are Immortality young because
they are in His keeping whose flowers
bloom every winter and whose service
has been the joy of the noblest, the
freest and the happiest Of every age.
He Is the health of the world and all
who lift their eyes to Him can be made
whole. New Years Day is always and
for everyone beginning. No matter
what lies behind it Of wasted life. Of
corruption and folly, there is always
future stretching away into dim dis
lance. The whole process of life is
one of redemption and those who have
blasted their careers, stained their
names, distorted their souls and come
at last to moral and spiritual bank
ruptcy may still find in Him, against
whom they have sinned most unpar-
donably, the JOY and help and health
which the world can not give. A
thousand times men and women in all
the hells which sin kindles have at
last looked up and cried to Him, and
He has helped them out of their mis-
cry. To the miserable wretch and the
wretched poor, to the cynical learned
and the vicious ignorant, to the re-
spectacle pure and the blinded outcast
He opens the only gate to peace. Men
have tried every other resource and
found emptiness and despair. In Him
alone are the springs which purify
the body and the soul, renew the sink
ing vitality, bring back the last hope
and make men and women strong not
only for toll but for JOY. The New
Year is the recurring symbol of the
door which He holds open to cleanness
to peace and to honor"
The secular press attributes the con-
version Of the Princess Ena Of Batten-
berg to the Catholic faith, that she
might marry King Alfonso, to the in
fluence of the ex-Empress Eugenie
vvho roaidos oop<ipuo1l1y t. Eor1ora