The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1915-12-25

reft entirely of the consciousness of
moral wrong nor had there been want
ing those, who would help him to
choose the right. But every moral
code whether that of Scion or Of
Moses, every philosophy whether hui
man or divine, every sanction whether
a reward of virtue or punishment Of
crime, had proved unavailing to throw
/ back the tide of sin upWelling from
the heart of fallen man. Spiritual
laws in the event had proved as ropes
of sand to the fleshly man, and such
was all man, when he lost the God Of
promise and of hope. 1t is to this pass
that the Goddess materialism Of today
would again bring us-that Goddess
materia1ism, which for the last half
century has tried to make men beasts
of some kind, with a prediction for
apesi
The Work of the Divine Child.
v. 1t was the superhuman task of
| the Divine Child to create a moral up
heayal in this world of despair and,
as model, incentive, and life, to rein
state the struggle for right in new and
better conditions. Therefore, to be
| like His brethren, He passed through
all the hardships and trials of man.
He endured heat and cold, hunger and
thirst, exile and oppression. He drank
all the bitterness of betrayal, denial,
| abandonment, torture, death. Against
exaggerated weakness He showed
what possibilities with Gods aid there
are in human nature for strength;
against fanaticism, He showed what
an ocean of mercy and sweetness God
/ is to repentant sinners. He brought
| back the sense Of the evil Of sin, since
for it He must die, and by enlighten-
ing man and sharing His Spirit with
him, He made the forces for holiness
normally stronger than those for sin;
| He made them inVincible with man S
1 goodwill He was not only a leader
but companion, friend, brother,
spouse, who put His arms at mans
disposal and by reopening Heaven
made man sharer in His spells of vic
tory.
Thanks be to God, who hath given
us the victory through our Lord Jesus
\ Christ is the exultant cry of st. Paul.
What world of relief from error and
bondage, what a world of confidence
in the light of Faith and the virtue OF
Christ's Spirit, it unfolds! That SEN
timent became at once all-peryasiTe,
and the steady conquering march OF
Christ with His vast army of saints,
martyrs, and faithful followers proves
that it was true. 1t is still spread
throughout the world, repeated in ey-
cry prayer, re-echoed in every anthem,
borne aloft with every sacrifice, and
realized by every earnest Christian,
1t is victory through our Lord Jesus
Christ" which today gives significance
to our Christmas joy.
The Joy of Christmas.
Let the Christmas bells, then, still
ring out their joyous notes even il
these calamitous times! The sword
drunk with the wrath of God, which
once destroyed all the nations rebel
lious to the call of Christ, may now
be effecting publication of the ma
tions, which were drifting from Him
Far-reaching devastation like that
which wrecked mighty Rome, swept
over the earth after the spread Of
every error; modern materialism and
modern Pharisaism, the widespread
usurpatiOn Of the prophetical Office oil
the Church, may have evoked q like
judgment. Let the Christmas call fol
peace with God be needed and peace
will return to the nations.
Let the Christmas bells ring out
their joyous notes in every breast
where the Christian warfare lags.
They renew the tidings that the bond
age Of Satan is broken, that the Re
deemer is nigh, that with goodwill
the victory is sure.
Finally, i'll the souls of the jest, lei
that angelic canticle of peace make
sweetest melody and be guerdon OF
trials sustained, pledge of heavenly
joy.