The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1908-12-26


"The Measure of Our selfhood" "The Touch of
Red" Keep Your Windows Open" On par
ticular Sunday, in one of our cities, sermons were
delivered not long ago on; "An Ideal Record
"Our Centennial Time" How to Become Master
of Our Fate" "The Worlds Greatest Pictures, y
"Will Bread Sustain Lifei" "Silenoing Pro-
! phet,~ applied Wisdom" "a Young Mans
Glory" "a Possibility" "The Demon Back
| Again And on other secular and sensational
subjects proving a widespread pulpit abo8tasy and
the decomposition of Christianity outside the
Catholic Church.
The fundamental doctrines of Christianity,
THE incarnation "The Resurrection" THE As
eension," "The Descent of the Holy Ghost" 'The
Judgment to Come" The Immortality of the
Soul" "The Life Beyond the Grave are no long
er taught from so-called Christian pulpits Either
the people VIII no longer listen to them. or the
preachers do not believe them. If the spectacle
were not so pathetic and deeply pitiful, we would
be tempted to say that the Christian religion, as
taught to the people today, is the greatest sham
and comedy inflicted upon patient public.
As a result of this apostasy of the pulpit, the
Christian family and organized society are decom-
posing. 1t is impossible for the thoughtful the
observant man, who is solictous for his brothers
soul, not to perceive the corrosion which is eating
into the moral and religious life of the family
can he fail to observe the awful effects of the dis
Indignation of home life. Christianity under God,
depends for its growth, vitality and perpetuty on
| the family, which ought to be the foundation of
the spiritual edfce the kingdom of God upon
earth. The father, mother and children, which we
call the family, are sacramental units Of what
St Paul terms "a great mystery"
Where the family dwell together is called by
the endearing name of "Home," and there is no
home 50 humble that it may not become the re-
fection of the purchased possession of Him for
whom the communion of saints is named. No
amount of schooling, no religious instruction from
the best teachers and in the best atmosphere, can
overcome the baneful influence of an evil home or
home where the name of God *. never reverently
mentioned or prayer never heard
With the parents God has lodged the authority
and placed the responsibility of moulding the soul
of the child in a pattern of religion and morality
With them rest the commission to 'bring up
child in the way he should GO" and if they prove
unfaithful to the charge, a woe Is pronounced
upon them.
If the parents be worldly, selfish, self-seebing
and Hreverent, if the home be place where no
prayer is ever heard, where religion and the prac
tees of religion not taught the sons and daugh
tiers, if there be any cannot rise above the parental
level, and must i'll time by memorable law of
decay, descend lower than the father and mother.
Indications are on the surface of society that the
tide of personal and public morality is on the ebb
among us in spite of the material progress of the
times and the outward decency of which we boast
so loudly
Without descending to minute details. the gen
eral symptoms of degeneracy are sufficiently OBJ
vious First, in loss of almost ali care for the
life to come and the responsibilities attaching to
it; this is manifest in a prevailing irreverence,
rude manners, loss of the fear of God and in the
young noticeable tendency to lewdness. contempt
for authority and an absence of reverence for and
Difference to the aged.
Second, that to make money is the great, in
deed the only aim of life and that education is
valuable in so far as it contributes to this end.
Third that the duty of man and his ultimate
end is not to know, love and serve God on earth
and to enjoy Him forever" but to serve ourselves
and enjoy life, or in the language of the Roman
heathen Let us eat and drink today, for tomor-
row we die"
These sentiments and principles, in their APP
plicaton to daily life are working havoc in So
cety and are paganizing families that ought to
be Christian and not Now while the family.
is, humanity speaking, the foundation and the life
of Christianity it is the very corner stone Of the
state and the disruption of the state is as certain
to follow the disruption of the family as that day
should follow night.
The most marvellous material progress Of
people, the most bound6ss wealth of a nation Will
prove little better as preventive against national
decay than a barrier of sand against the swelling
of the sea- where the home is neglected and family
life has been destroyed
And that family life is being destroyed we
know from the torrents of pollution openly pouring
in and out through the doors of the divorce courts
at once the cause and effect of its own degrade
ton According to figures given out by the census
! IL