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

of the Age-Divine Worship Manda-
tory-The Need of Conscience
Penalties of Secularism Here and
Hereafter.
l will praise Thee, o Lord, with my
whole heart: for Thou hast heard the
words of my mouth. 1 will sing praise
to Thee in the sight of the angels:
will worship towards Thy holy tenn
pie, and l will give glory to Thy name
for Thy mercy and for Thy truth:
for Thou hast magnified Thy holy
name above all. (Ps. 1877, VS.. 1-2.)
Let the words of Israeps Psalmist
tell the purpose, assigned by today's
ceremonial to the noble and beaute-
GUS edifice, the Cathedral Church of
Wichita. A place it is, where from
hearts and lips praises will ascend to
the throne of the Lord of heaven and
of earth; where thanks will be spoken
for the gracious mercies already re-
ceived, prayers for the continued out
stretch of protecting love; where God
will be adored as the Creator and Sow
ereign Master, and man will PROSTATE
himself as the creature and the de-
pendent. The Cathedral Church of
Wichita-"How terrible is this place!
This is no other but the house of God
and the gate of Heaven"-a house
made sacred to the worship of the
eternal and almighty God.
The worship of God is mans first
and supreme duty. This duty neg
lected, man is fatally deficient in the
ethics of justice and moral goodness:
whatever else he is, whatever else he
does, he fails in the essential, and by
nought else can he make amends.
This duty neglected, the prime foun-
dation is lost to all other duties: in
the whole sphere of human conduct
it is chaos and ruin.
Men Do Not Go to Church.
He is not the enemy of his age who,
while acknowledging in gladstone
thought and word it's glories and
achievements, tells to it it's misfor-
tunes and mistakes, to the end that of
those misfortunes and mistakes cor
rection be made and the perils hidden
within them be put beyond reach.
The question is often asked-Is the
world of men growing better or worse
as it's years are prolonged? Better,
certainly, we must say, as we view it's
conquests of earth and air, it's marvel
lous gains in material wealth and
power. But the problem assumes a
very different aspect when we query:
What of it's spiritual and ethical life?
And since it is indubitably true that
those higher elements, that they only
are the enduring fount of human
greatness and felicity, the answer to
the question-Is the world of men
growing better or worse-must be in
ultimate analysis that which we give
to this other question-What today in
practice and in tendency is the spirit
ual and moral condition of ourselves,
and of the multitudes of fellow-men
who with us compose it's life and de-
termine it's onward course?
I quote from an article in a recent
number of "The Atlantic Monthly"
Should Smith Go to Church?":
Smith and l attended the same
Sunday school when we were boys,
and remained for church afterwards as
a matter of course. Smith now spends
his Sunday mornings golfng, or pot
tering about his garden, or in his club
or Office, and after the midday meal
he takes a nap and loads his family
into a motor for fight countryward
8 Smith is the best of fellows-an
average twentieth century American
-diligent in business, kind husband
and father, and in politics anxious to
vote for what he thinks to be the best
interests of the country. In the COM
munity where we were reared it was
not respectable not to go to church.
I remember distinctly that in my boy
hood people who were not affiliated
with some church were looked upon as
pariahs and outcasts yet in
the same community no reproach at
taches today to the non-church-going
citizen. A majority of the people
know best, in cities large and small,
do not go to church. Most of them
are In no wise antagonistic to relig-
ion; they are merely Indifferent"
We all know Smith: we know too
many like him: the number of those
like him is yearly on the increase
among our neighbors and acquaint-
ances The cry of alarm has been
raised through the land, and with
good reason: men no longer go to
church. 1t was not so generation
or two ago. Says the New York Even
ing Post in a comment on the article
in the Atlantic Monthly:
There are literally multitGdes OF
persons who can remembers whole
communities where it was not respect,
able to miss divine service. The