The Dickinson press., 1917-03-03

goods. The Saviour speaks of men
"who have already received their re-
ward" How terrible is the history
of Dives and poor Lazarus. "There
was a rich man who was clothed in
purple and fine linen and Toasted
s%umptuously every day. And there
was q certain beggar, named Lazarus,
who lay at his gate, full of sores, de-
string to be filled with the crumbs
that fell from the rich mans table,
and no one did give him.-And it came
to pass that the beggar died, and was
carried by the angels to Abraham's
bosom. And the rich man also died
and he was buried in hell" And
there he. had to hear these words
from Abraham: "Son, remember,
that thou didst receive good things in
thy lifetime, and likewise Lazarus
evil things; but now he is comforted
and thou are tormented. "oLuc. 16,
10, etc. i
D. Temporal goods are changed
into eternal goods when we use them
for the honor of God and the welfare
of fellow men. Our divine
Saviour himself tells us the history Of
the unjust steward and admonishes
us: make unto you friends of the
mammon of iniquity, that when you
shall fail, they may receive you into
everlasting dwellings."-Luc. 16, 9.
4. Our first and most important
duty in regard to temporal goods, as
st. Augustine declares, consists there
in, "that we possess them and they
not us, that we hold them and they
not us, that we be their masters and
not their servants" Whosoever loves
earthly riches so much as to forget
his God, and treat his neighbor un-
justly and uncharitably, and use tenn
poral riches as means for sin, is not
their master, but their slave. May
God preserve us from such slavery.
Our duties in the use Of temporal
goods are partly duties of justice and
partly duties of justice require that
we give to every n what belongs
to him, that we deprive no one of his
legitimate property, that we do no in
jury to it, and that we treat every
one justly and honestly in business
and social intercourse. These duties
bind under pain Of mortal sin.
Greedy and selfish men find differ
ent pretexts to excuse sins against
justice or even to justify them; God,
however, does not change His laws,
and Furnishes the sins Of injustice,
even when men have fallen so low
as to "call injustice justice and evil
good" I consider it my duty to warn
those who are blessed with an abund-
ance of earthly goods against two
sins of injustice which are frequently
committed in this part of the country.
Here an usurious rate OF interest
is often asked, causing poor people
compelled to secure loans to go
deeper and deeper into debt until
they finally lose all their property.
The fact that poor people are willing
to paw a high rate of interest does
not Justify the high rate, for the poor
are compelled thereto by their very
poverty. We Catholics should en-
deavor to counterfeit this evil; this is
most successfully done if Catholic
money lenders will be satisfied with
a modest profit. In this way a sound
public opinion will be created and
usury will gradually disappear.
A second grievo1s offense against
Justice is often committed by raising
artifcially the price of land. Thus
poor people are compelled by c!rcum-
stances to pay an exor6ltant prlce 9
land. In this way land SPECTATORS n
a short time become immensely rich,
the buyers, however, must suffer
labor for years to secure tneir homes:
I call attention to these great social
evils because u%nprincipled men justify.
such transactions under the pretext. OF
Business"
We Catholics of western North Da-
kota are numerous enough to influence