The Irish standard., 1913-11-08

tAon oIe we Qr1t1lng? Tho answer ID
unavoidable: To world without
God; a world Of human life that Is
gloomy and chaotic, as the world of
matter should be were the sun in the
armament hidden never again to shed
over it rays Of light and warmth.
It 10 not easy as yet to understand
the perils toward which the forgetfui-
ness Of God is precipitating the mod
ern world. because we are still breath
Ing the influences, living off the hab-
Its. created around US by the recogni-
ton Of the Sovereign Master, to which
humanity has been SO long welded, ny
which it has been so deeply FASH
Toned into forms from which the de-
cline is slow. The tree Of the forest
bears itself upright and green, long
after poisonous germs have begun to
gnaw the roots and deteriorate the sap.
With time. however, the decay gains
trunk and branches, and the tree falls,
the sport Of the passing wind.
Men do not go to church; they leave
God out of thought and action, with
the consequence that within them con-
science withers and dies.
Conscience is that sense of right
eousnees which has been set in our
souls by the ADJUST Master of the uni
verse. Conscience Is the hottest. the
noblest thing in man. Without it man
were little better than the brute which
knows no other impulse than selfish
instinct, no other purpose than selfish
pleasure. Conscience it is that wrests
the individual man from the slavery
of passion; conscience it is that
guards the social organism from degra-
dalton and ruin.
OF the absolute need of conscience
In self and in fellow-men, none there
are who doubt. OF the fatal ills to
follow from the loss of conscience, all
make willing confession. Whence,
then, the upbuilding of science? What
Is it that fosters and serves in the hui
man soul the deep abiding sense of
Righteousness that we call conscience?
I answer: Religion. the subsection of
man to God; Fear God and keep His
commandments; for this is all man."
God set aside, matter remains. The
Judgments Of God cast into oblivion
there remain only such rewards and
punishments as are derived from mat
ter. With matter alone before men,
the aim Of human existence is to grasp
az much Of 1t as opportunity allows,
to wrest from it as much enjoyment
as 1t is able to produce. Success in
the chase is virtue; failure in the chase
Is vice and sin. Make matter the all
In alphabetically the trend Of the
individual and of society is towards
that state of barbarism where might
Is right. where pleasure is the coveted
goal. where the loss of pleasure is ,he
misery Of despair.
Philosophers Of Goddess world are
At hand with their cobweb theories OF
private and social righteousness, only
to reveal in the impotence Of those
theories the abyss of woe they open
beneath our feet when they tell us
that We may in safety close the por-
tails OF the skies and look to sole
earth fer salvation. They extol the
beauty of righteousness; it is point
ing 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 lighting with.
in the feart their acrid fires. They
exhort ue to take into heed the vel.
fare of human society, the welfare Of
yet unborn. But what cares
the individual, quivering in the VIC.
lence Of temptation, for society, for
present or future? To some
of unbelief, humanity,
that of today or that of tomorrow,
has slight worth. To Mr.. Spencer
1t is bubble" a "dull," leaden.
hued thing" to Sir James Stephen,
1t is stupid, ignorant, half-beast of
q creature" 1t is certainly all this.
or still less, to the individual or to
the crowd in wild search for posses.
sion end enjoyment, incapable Of at.
tanning either except by breaking
through the barriers Of ordinarily &C.
cepted morality. Will the appeal be
to the commands and the prohibitions
Of human legislation? Then the ef-
fort is to win in skillful defiance of
the law, to take up arms against the
law, to seize in hand the law-making
power and compel it to erase Its pro-
hibitions and alter It's mandates. The
and the wide diffusion of
will be invoked. Here Is
one of the most deceptive fallacies of