The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1913-04-05

falls in Holy Week, even though he
could do so without committing sin.
THE CHURCH AND
SOCIAL WELFARE
AN ADDRESS DELIVERED BY REV.
ROBERT HUGHES AT THE 10y
OLA CLUB HOUSE, MANKATo,
MIMI, UNDER THE AUSPICES
OF NIcoLLET COUNCIL, X. OF C..
I'm the present general unrest, when
an almost universal dissatisfaction
with present conditions not only
threatens to retard the progress of
civilization, but to completely disrupt
society, men naturally look around in
search of protection from the impend-
ing peril. By nature man is social
being. His fullest development and
highest perfection are possible only
when every attribute essential to his
composite nature works toward the at
tainment of his lofty destiny. Man is
not the most perfect creature posi-
BILE; but, within the limitations of his
nature God made him right. Having
constituted him from matter and spirit,
so intimately united that their point
of contact defies discovery, the Crea-
tor willed that these two distinct, and
essentially different, elements should,
under His providence, tremendously
work for the perfection of one person.
I'm the absence of sin we behold
in man the masterpiece of visible Gre
alton, where mind and matter, divine
ly 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 harmon
izing with the aspirations of his soul,
he is, by the design of his Creator,
the connecting link between heaven
and earth.
The Fall and Redemption.
"The history of religion tells us this
divine balance was disturbed by sin,
but re-established by grace. The Re-
deemer came and restored to man the
inheritance he had lost The redemp-
ton vouchsafed to man by God, how
ever superabundantly it may have
atoned for mans transgression, how
ever completely it may have restored
to the children of man their lost in
heritance, removes not the stubborn
fact that we stand before God the off
spring of disobedient ancestors, to
whom the Creator has again merciful-
ly offered an opportunity of salvation.
Salvation, or eternal glory, is the full
fillment of the end for which man was
created. Reason readily suggests that
this desired end is to be attained only
by following along the lines the Crea-
tor proposes; otherwise Satan would
have frustrated Gods plan. God re
mains unchanged 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 knowl-
edge of good and evil, is difference 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 speculation.
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 in his immaculate soul
that would alternate and etherealize
his material body, until, like the wa
tiers 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 that, because of
sin, far other and less inviting is our
road to glory.
The Church and Its Primary Duty.
"All Christians agree that Christ,
leaving the world after having re
deemed it, left in the world an insti
tuition popularity known as the church
which was to promulgate His doctrine
and maintain unchanged to the end
of time the revealed truths of which
He made it the depository. The evan.
gelical record is so plain on this mat
ter that it admits of no dispute. Holy
Scripture is the official document Civ.
ing commission to the church, and con.
ferring power on her to act. To the
Church Christ said: Who hears you
hears Me- There is no dispute among
Christians about the authority of the
Church to teach and guide men. Diff
ference of opinion arises only as tC
the identity of that institution. The
title of this lecture not calling for a
solution of that difficulty, we must
needs confine ourselves to the ques
ton, What is the duty of the Church
or Of that divine institution which
Christ established on earth. in socia1