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

of matter, the manipulations Of mat,
ter, the values of material possessions.
the methods of acquiring them-no
mention made Of the rights of the
Creator, of the duties of the creature.
the whole teaching in its secular ex-
clusiveness begetting the idea that
God no longer counts in human af.
fairs, no longer eXacts from men Wor-
ship and obedience. And meanwhile
philosophers of unbelief are making
proclamation, daily louder and louder,
that matter is the all-suficient entity,
that a personal God is unnecessary,
that the human mind and will are so
many movements of chemical atom
ism, that all men, all nature are mere
pieces of blind mechanism, that, con-
sequently, moral responsibility is the
dream of wild fancy. Well may we
ask-whither are we drifting? Well
may we query: Is the modern world
growing in it's years better or worse?
We are marching forward on the
highway of religious Indifference, of
unalloyed secularism. The happenings
we are compelled to witness are by
no means reassuring. Today the
United States ranks next to Japan in
the annual number of divorces. Sui
cides are SO frequent as to call no
longer for special censure. The whole
moral tone of the population is being
lowered to a pitch that would have
affrighted u ancestery of two or
three generations ago. The founda-
tions of the Republic, built as they are
of reverence for law, of respect for
the rights of others to life and prop
erty, are, in alarming frequency, driv-
en- into jeopardy by popular turhu-
lence, bordering on widest anarchy.
America, as perhaps no other coun-
try, is in need of conscience: conse-
quently, of religion, the formative
power of conscience. America pro-
poses to itself the most arduous of So
cial problems-to maintain a govern
ment that will hold in check the pas
sions of the people, while it entrusts
to the people more or less Immediately
the right to control the government.
What, then, of the government of the
Republic, if conscience recedes from
the bosom of the people, if the day
ever comes when religion, in the gen
eral thought of the people, is merely
a memory of blessed things that once
were and now have ceased to be?
I do not despair of America-be'
cause I do not despair of the common
sense and the religious conviction OF
the American people. But the trend
is fatal: a goddess philosophy of life
is marching onward: and it will con
tinue onward unless the reaction be
quick and resolute. Meanwhile the
men who do not go to church are
lending to the fatal trend their i'm.
petus of influence and example.
Penalty of secuIarism.
Secularism carries with it it's own
penalty. MY enemy, "out of thy own
mouth I judge thee"
To men who do not go to church
the present life is the idol. To this
idol they so sacrifice time and labor
that no freedom, they say, is allowed
them to worship the Almighty God
Indeed, some go farther and say that
worship of the Almighty imposes upon
"the life that now is" a harm they
cannot pardon, inasmuch Is it begets
in the mind a spirit of otherworldli
ness, slackening interest in the pres
ent life, and impairing in no small de
gree the zeal and energy needed in
the amelioration of the human race.
st. Paul writes: Goodness is prof
table to all things, having promise
of the life that is, and of that
which is to come" In goodness it is
that even the present life should put
it's trust if it should insure to itself
upon earth health and prosperity.
1 accept the ideals of present-day
humanity-social charity, social JUS
tice, social peace-but l contend that
s%ecularism nullifies those ideals, while
in and through the worship of the AL
mighty God there awaits them fruitful
realization.
Destruction of Social Charity.
Love one another: serve one an
other: serve especially the poor, the
Wretched, the slave of sin and vice
That we do so, however, there must
be inSDiratiOn, there must he motive