The Irish standard., 1909-04-24

act against his conscience or against
lawful authority. Now, how is this to
be done? Let there be, so bids the
Church, no single faculty. intellectual,
moral or spiritual which will not De
developed to the fullest. Flood the in
stellect with truth, let no fountain of
useful knowledge be denied or with
held. But that child's heart also re-
quires instruction; that child's affec-
tions must be curbed and purified;
that child must be taught his duties
to, his Creator and his fellowman. I'm
less this be done his education is
manned and instead Of being bless
ing is too often curse both to him.
self and society. And it is because
Of this manned and imperfect educa-
ton Of the youth Of the land that
there has been of recent years such
an alarming growth of juvenile crime.
Referring to the public school, Father
Church has no designs on the public
schools. 1t Is satisfied to leave thsm
as they are for those who wish them
but 1t does not want and will not ha ye
for it's children in the period Of their
innocence the formation of character,
m education which it is convinced
will ultimately make these children
a curse to their country by robbing
them Of those principles of morality
which are indispensable in forming
them into honorable, pure men and
women.
s The Catholic Church has lived too
long in the world not to know that
religion is necessary to prevent the
ruin of nation, and it has seen too
many horrible examples in the crimes
Of the apostate governments of to-
day, to allow it to sit idly by. with
out attempting to; prevent similar dis
aster here. 1t wants the child to begin
to he what he ought to be later on in
life. honest, pure. faithful in his duty
of: his religion points out and as its
sacramental helps assist him to be-
come. 1t does not want the child to
imagine that religion is an affair OF
Sunday and has nothing to do with
the. rest Of the week.
In order to bring this beneficent in
fluence to bear upon her own people
the Catholic Church in the United
States spends annually the vast sum
of $20,000,000 upon the education Of
her youth! She builds her own schools
furnishes her own teachers, buys her
own books and tolls unweariedly to ad-
vance the cause Of God and man. Thus
She is doing a great work to preserve
morality and to safeguard the institu-
lions Of the States and Nation. Think
Ing men are at last learning to rec
ognize the value Of this educational
work.
The other perils to American civ
ilization that the speaker touched up
on were the evils growing out of the
violations of the marriage tie, the
widespread marital infidelity, the
alarming increase of the cancer OF
divorce, which is rapidly spreading
over the community and poisoning
the very fountains of the nation. IN
less, said he, some remedy be found
to check this foul blight the existence
OF the family life of the people is i'm
perilled. Society springs from the
family; it is the collection of families
that make up civil society. Now the
three great evils that are poisoning
the fountain head of American society
are marital infidelity, race-suicide and
divorce. That these evils are growing
with, fearful rapidity needs no proof.
How many words Of warning have
been uttered by our most conserva-
tive and patriotic men. telling us Of
impending danger from this course?
,r Now all recognize the powerful in
fluence Of the Catholic Church in saw
Ing her people from these evils. They
are scarcely found among her fol-
lowers. Not one of these horrid evils
ls or can be found among a single, ono
Of her children who is faithful to her
teaching. The Catholic Church then
by her teaching and practice pre-
serves domestic holiness and purity.
She tells husband and wife that from
the day they pledge their troth before
her altar, they are bound together by
a bond upon which she has set her
sacramento seal, and that no author
ity on earth can sever the tie which
.knits together these two human
hearts. She tells the husband that in
the Church Of which he is member
there is no double standard of morals:
that there is but single standard, the
same for him as for his wife. She re-
minds him that no matter to what
other obligation he may prove false