Los Angeles herald., 1908-06-15
NEGLECT OF GOD THE
CURSE OF THIS AGE
PRESIDENT OF ST. VINCENT'S
TALKS TO STUDENTS
Safety of Republic Lies in Integrity of
Individual Citizens, often Weak
ened by Organization
Influences

Influences
In opening the forty-third annual
commencement exercises of st. Vim
cents college a solemn mass of thanks
giving was celebrated yesterday at the
Church of st. Vincent de Paul. The
student body attended the service and
the beautiful affairs were adorned with
white and yellow blossoms, the college
colors.
Very Rev. DR.. ]. S. Glass, C. M, pres
ident of the college, preached the SER
mon, dealing with the trend of modern
day life in regard to religion. After
reading the gospel of the day DR.. Glass
said in part:
IF you were to be asked what is
the dominant characteristic of our age
and people in our country what would
the answer be? Actions of people are
according to their thoughts. Find the
thoughts of a people and we can con-
clude what their actions are. Look
around today, in the twentieth century
IN this great country, and what is the
dominant thought? 1t Is the thought
that leaves God alone-all things else
except the thought of God. Our people
are rich in this worlds goods-they are
busy with wealth and pleasure, and
God does not enter their thoughts. God
is not necessary to them and is forgot
ten by them.
you may say my assertion is rash.
No. There are fifty millions of people
who do not enter churches Sundays.
There is a system of education among
us that absolutely ignores God. There
are men whom we call honorable
whose thought never centers upon God
except as an abstract Being. Our peo-
pie in this country go about their daily
employment and do not realize that God
made them for nobler things. They
think OF the ends Of this life.
Creator Not Studied
Men study science, it may be- litera-
ture, natures secrets, the actions of
men, but they do not study the great
God. They do not study the great
science that tells the relation that
binds them to the God who made them.
something sensible-something they can
touch or that will bring the rewards Of
a student.
God is not to be ignored and Goo
is not to be forgotten; and so long as
man ignore and forget their God so long
will their struggles be successes no
further than the grave.
mo man can feel within himself that
there is no God. Only the fool hath
said in his heart there is no God, but
even the fool says not this in his mind,
but in his heart. In our minds we can
not help but acknowledge a sovereign
God.
God is the final object in life. Life is
not worth while without God as its
moving principle.
To-day the world needs men who
realize that man is composed of body
and soul-a soul supernatural, made by
God Does the world believe in God?
The world needs men who will teach 1t
that the end is not the grave, that the
soul is immortal and that in this world
it is only in preparation for the world
to come.
1.-THE soul is created for God and we
cannot satisfy it with material things.
After we have lived and satisfied our
natural inclinations we feel something
lost because our soul is not satisfied,
and never will be until God fills it.
To-day the world needs to know its
God, which lasts beyond this world.
Yes, in our constitution we say we be-
lieve in God, but in the lives of our
people what are we above the pagans
If we do not go farther than the simple
assertion that we believe In God? Can
a man gifted with 81 mind say there is
such a being and then stop? He little
understands the nature of man who
says man can be satisfied with that.
We are created by God and we must
realize our relationship. God, the
Creator, has willed that we know him.
If science, literature and art are i'm
portant in life they are important in
mans relationship to man. What about
the great truth of him who said I am
the TRUTHS
One Thing Lacking
mo. man cannot deny his God. We
xxylalf n M
and we cannot serve if we don't love.
That is the great lack in the lives Of
our people today-God is forgotten.
1.-THE world has a right to expect
from our students that they have
realization of God in their living prin-
ciples, that they tell the world there is
a God and it is responsible to that God.
IF there is hope today it is the doc
trine taught our people that God must
mean something in the daily life. The
hope of the republic is in the individual
worth of her citizens. Man is taught
everywhere sciences literature and
art, but how much attention is there
to the moral integrity of the individual?
There stands the safety of the republic.
"Outside the individual there is q
danger in organizations. Men seem to
lose individuality in organizations,
which often do deed that the indi-
vidual would not stoop to perform. The
Individual man must be that spark that
shall cause the world to be inf1amed;
a man must be moral, honest and pre-
fer duty to pleasure.
"The world has a right to expect
moral integrity, honesty and virtue.
Men are as the soul is: as the indi-
vidual is so will society be.
$50 go forth as to be examples In
the world, to keep your moral integrity
intact. Teach that it is mans duty
and privileges to serve his God, and, If
faithful to him, he cannot be faithless
to his fellow men,"