The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1913-03-14
Function of Church
In the Social Welfare
From Mondays Daily.

rev. fdCnor hOD6TI f1uSnoS deliver
ed a strong and able address last
night at the Loyola club on 'What
Is the Function of the Church in So
cial Welfare?" The address was the
second of series which the Knights
of Columbus are giving and was
listened to by a large audience whose
attention was held throughout. The
address is here published:
I'm the present general unrest OF
our time when an almost universal
dissatisfaction, with present condi
tions, not only threatents to retard
the progress of civilization, but to
completely disrupt society, men nat
urally look around in search of pro
lection from the impending peril. BY
nature man is a social being. His
fullest development, and highest per
lection are possible only when every
attribute essential to his composite
nature works toward the attainment
of his lofty destiny. Man is not the
most perfect creature possible; but
within the limitations of his nature
God made him right. Having con
stituted him from matter and spirit,
so intimately united, that their point
of contact defies discovery; the Gre.
ator willed that these two distinct,
and essentially different elements
should, under His providence, har-
moniously work for the perfection of
one person :.
''In the absence of sin we behold
in man the masterpiece of visible ere
alton, where mind and matter, divine
~ balanced by the Almighty hand of
God, each plays an important part in
the development and perfection of
the other
The desires of mans heart har-
monizing with the aspirations of his
soul, he is by the design of his Gre
ator the connecting link between
heaven and earth.
THE History of Religion tells us
ibis divine balance was disturbed by
sin, but re-established by grace. The
Redeemer came and restored to man
the inheritance he had lost The
redemption vouchsafed to man by
God, however, superabundantly it
may have atoned for mans trans
gression, however. completely it may
restored to the children of man
their lost inheritance; removes not
the stubborn fact that we stand be-
fore God the offspring of disobedient
ancestors, to whom the Creator has
again mericfully offered an opportun-
lty OF salvation. Salvation, or eter-
nal glory, is the fulfillment of the
end for which man was created Rea-
son readily suggests this desired end
is to be attained only by following
along the lines the Creator proposes;
otherwise Satan would have frus-
trated Gods plan. God remains I'M
changed and his DEGREES are eternal
The difference between what now is,
and what might have been, had our
first parents obediently abstained
from the fruit of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil is a diff
terence of mans own making.
Just how sinless man might have
spent his days on earth and finally
reach his destined goal of eternal
glory must forever remain a specula-
ton. Imagination free from fear of
fact to contradict, may picture him
happily dwelling in the sunshine of
Gods favor while new and greater
graces feed the fires of love i'm his
immaculate soul fires That would
attenunate and etherealize his ma
terial body, until like the waters of
the ocean, which rise in mists to
the heavens, whence they came, when
evaporated by the rays of the sun.
sinless man lifted to the skies by the
ardor of his increasing love for God,
might have passed from planet to
planet until he rested in the bosom
OF his Creator. Back to earth we
must come and here learn, because
OF sin, far other and less inviting is
our road to glory.
All Christians agree that Christ
leaving the world, after having re.
deemed it, left in the world an in
stitution popularity known as the
church, which was to promulgate to
the world His doctrine, and maintain
unchanged to the end of time the
revealed truths of which He made it
the depository. The Evangelical rec.
ord is so plain on. this matter that it
admits of no dispute. Holy Scrip
ture is the official document giving
commission to the church, and con.
ferring power on her to act. To the
church Christ said "Who hears Won
hears me-" There is no dispute
among Christians about the authority
of the church to teach and guide
men. Difference of opinion arises
only as to the identity of that insti-
tuition. The title of this lecture not
calling for solution of that diff
Guilty. We must needs confine our
selves to the question, What is the
duty of the church; or that divine in
stitution Christ established on earth;
in social welfare?
"The primary duty Of the church is
of spiritual nature, to work for
mans eternal welfare. She does this
not by an utter disregard for his
temporal wants, but by teaching him
to seek first the kingdom of God and
his righteousness. and all other
things shall be added thereunto. An
eye witness, and an ear witness of
what her Founder said and did, who
never absolved sinner without heal
ing him of the infirmities consequent
upon his Sin, She teaches him that
freedom from Sin is relief from sor-
row.
Recognizing in man the material
was before the spiritual, and the nat
ural before the supernatural, in the
order of time, the church welcomes
every honest effort made for the
alienation of human suffering. Wise
with the wisdom of ages, and re-
joicing in centuries of experience,
even in temporal things, where she
has not the promise of divine guild