The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1915-04-10

operation gradually bring to harvests
of virtue which delight earth and fill
the storehouse of heaven.
There is moral depravity in Chris
tian communities, but it is always in
defiance of the Churchs teachings and
at variance with the public conscience.
Deplorable as it is, it is forced to seek
an existence in the by-Ways of dark
ness and of disgrace. A study of
Christian society even at it's worst
cannot but convince one that we are
UNNECESSARILY beyond the pagan stand
ard. Here is an essential difference
to remember. Paganism's immorali-
ties and iniquities enjoyed the public
sanction. The flesh without fear of
public opinion prevailed against the
spirit. In Christianity it is not so, nor
has it ever been so. Evil there has
always been but it has been forced
to go about with the brand of shame
upon it. i ta
If you desire to see the purest men
lives have the ring of self-conquest
in them; whose motives are as un-
selfish as sunlight, whose righteous
ness is not of the earth, earthly
not natural, but supernatural; if you
wish to find the richest, rarest, ripest
fruits of spiritual perfection, you must
pluck them from the sturdy tree of
Christian faith that was planted cen
turtles ago by the sacred hand of the
Savior of the world.
Man is weak and wicked enough
with Christianity but what would he
be without it? History tells what he
was without it. The records of the
past show that he was a moral, social,
religious failure-that he went down
to the lowest depths of degradation.
There he lay unable to rise when
Christ the Savior came.
The worlds resurrection from that
abyss of moral corruption into the
sunlight of better things is a striking
result of the uplifting power of
Christ's Church and the worlds per-
severance in a higher plane of thought
and action is an everlasting proclama-
ton of it.
When Jesus arose from the sepul-
chre on Easter morning He seemed to-
speak the command: Humanity, say
to thee, arise, and humanity that was
dead-dead to virtue, dead to humil-
ity, dead to purity, dead to liberty
dead to every ennobling sentiment
began to emerge from the slum of
ages.
What Christianity Has Done.
Not what Christianity has not yet
accomplished, but what it has done and
what it is capable of doing should be
the criterion of judging it and the
measure of cur gratitude for it's bless
ings. Let those who demand even
more abundant results from it be
mindful of it's wonderful achievements
and be grateful. Let them consider
it's labors for the barbarous tribes of
other days which under it's guidance
have since become the leading nations
of the world. The beautiful panorama
of it's unselfish deeds for humanity
religiously, morally, socially, intel
lectually, rises before us out of a
glorious past
They who have followed it's pre-
cepts !, most faithfully have. been Jhu.
manity's greatest benefactors and best
friends. Reflect on some things Chris
tianity has done.
Is it nothing to have dignified man?
In paganism man simply as human
being was trampled in the dust while
man clothed in some petty title was
elevated to the thrones of the gods.
In Christ's religion man, however in
significant, is a sacred being, a child
of God, a brother of Jesus, an heir
of heaven, the possessor of an inn
mortal soul. Is it nothing to have
taught man the sacredness of human
life, to have softened his brutality to
his weaker brother, to have thrown
the mantle of protection around help
lessness, old age, and infancy?
Is it nothing to have established on
earth true liberty; to have abolished
slavery; to have freed mans con-
science from external control: to have
given him chainless body and fet-
terless soul; to have proclaimed the
essential equality of all men before
heaven?
Is it nothing to have raised labor
out of the contempt into which pagan
ism had plunged it? Is it nothing to
have lessened the frequency of war
and to have humanized warfare waged
under the influence of the Christian
ideal? Is it nothing to have planted,
in the human heart the sublime doc
trine of the universal brotherhood of
man, to have taught bond and free,
Jew and Gentle, high and low, to
look heavenward and say: "Our
Father Who art in heaven?"
Is it nothing to have laid down the
law of Christian charity in the most
emphatic manner? "a new command
ment | give unto you that you love
one another" And more than that,
Love your enemies; do good to them
that hate YOU" Is it nothing to have
encircled the globe with a diadem of
charitable institutions for all the ills
to which mankind is heir?
Is il nothing to have raised woman