The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1912-09-21

the supreme reason why men should
go to church. Men do not go to
church, because they are not conscious
Of their duty to God: the way to
bring them to church, to hold them to
the practice of going to church, is
to put into their souls the sense OF
their dependency upon God, the sense
of their obligation to adore, love and
serve Him as Creator and Sovereign
Master.
Result of lndifference-The Whitening
of Conscience.
Men do not go to church. Whittier
then are we drifting? The answer is
unavoidable: To a world without God
Ia world of human life gloomy and
chaotic, as were the world of matter,
were the u in the armament to be
hidden never again shed over it rays
of light and warmth,
1t is not easy to understand the
perils towards which the forgetfulness
of God is precipitating the modern
world, because, meanwhile, we are
still breathing the influences, living off
the habits, created around us by the
recognition of the Sovereign Master,
to which humanity has been so long
welded, by which it has been so
deeply fashioned into forms from
which the decline is necessarily slow.
The tree in the forest bears itself up
right and green, long after poisonous
germs have begun to gnaw the roots
and de%teriorate the sap. With time,
however, the decay gains trunk and
| hy.0 Il or 0~I %I@ &p1o Fo11~ %1~ ~~~-@
of the passing wind.
Men do not go toschurch: they leave
God out of thought and action, with
the consequence that within them con
science withers and dies.
Conscience is the sense of righteous
ness set in our souls by the moral
Master of the universe. 1t is the
hottest, the noblest thing in man.
Without it man is little better than
the brute that knows no other i'm
pulse than selfish instinct, no other
purposes than selfish pleasure. 1t is
conscience that sewers the individual
man from slavery to passion; it is
conscience that saves the social or
ganism from moral ruin and degrade
ton.
Of the absolute need of conscience
in self and in fellowmen, none there
are to doubt. Of the fatal ills to fol
low from the loss of conscience, all
make willing confession. Whence
then the upbuilding of conscience?
What preserves and fosters in the
human soul the deep abiding sense
of righteousness that we call con-
science? I answer-religion, the sub.
lection of man to God. Fear God and
keep His commandments: for this is
all man"
God set aside, matter remains. The
judgments of God forgotten, there re
main the rewards and the punish
ments derived from matter. With mat.
ter alone before men, the aim OF
human existence is to grasp as much
of it as opportunity allows, to wrest
from it as much enjoyment as is pos
sible to it to produce. Success in the
chase is virtue: failure, vice and sin.
Make matter the all in all-ineluctably
the trend of the individual and OF
society is towards that state of bar.
barism, where might is right, where
pleasure is the coveted goal, where
the loss of pleasure is the misery OF
despair.
l. hAAO0OpAO1o VI q SOu1CSO "O1 III
are at hand with their cobweb theories
of private and social righteousness,
only to reveal, through the impotency
of those theories, the abyss of woe
they open beneath u feet when they
tell us that We may in safety close
the portals of the skies and look to
sole earth for salvation. They extol
the beauty of righteousness: it is
pointing to the rose of the garden at
the approach of the hurricane to speak
of the beauty of virtue, while the mad
instincts of passion are gathering
within the human soul their violent
fires. They exhort us to take into
heed the welfare of human society
the welfare of humanity yet unborn
But what cares the individual, culver
ing under temptation, for society, fol
humanity present or future? To some
of those philosophers of unbelief, hui
manity, today or tomorrow, has slight
worth. To Mr.. Spencer it is a dub
ble," a dull leaden-hued thing; and
to Sir James Stephen, it is a stupid
ignorant, half-beast of a creature" Il
is certainly all this to the man, or tc
the crowd in wild search for posses
sion and enjoyment, incapable of at
tanning either except in breaking
through the barriers of ordinarily-ac
cepted morality. The appeal is to The
} commands and the prohibitions Of
legislatures. Then, the effort is tt
win, in skillful defiance of the law
to take up arms against the law-tt
seize in hand the law-making power
and compel it to cease it's prohibition:
and alter its mandates. The impart
, ing and wide diffusion of knowledge
} is invoked. Here is one of the mos
baseless fallacies of modern times
, 1t is assumed that mere knowledge
) of natures laws induces virtue ant
: estranges vice: no expenditure o
money and labor is spared in tn
I building of school-houses where THU
: knowledge is impaired, in the belle
that there the youth of the land viii
be trained into good and honorabl,
citizenship. But knowledge is not con
duct. 1t simply tells the roads tina
: may be travelled over. That the roat