The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1917-01-13
THE IRISH STANDARD

cations. Bravely and successfully has
the Church faced every issue, and her
teaching is the best moral panacea for
life, sure compass on a stormy sea.
will even go still further and say,
without fear of contradiction, that it
is absolutely impossible to be moral
without religion. A child may be
trained in courtesy and neatness, and,
if these duties are sacred, how much
more sacred is duty towards God?
Divorcing the divine from the nat
ural virtues removes the motive
power. We have the testimony of
Washington, Jefferson and Adams that
our country with all her prowess can
not dispense with national morality.
1t has been we'll said that the Church
is not refrigerator to preserve per-
ishable piety, but is dynamo for
charging the human will.
Two of the many reasons for the
existence of bigotry are the low ebb
OF moral and social life and the prom.
inence of commercial, Industrial and
political conditions.
Judging from the multiplicity of
laws dealing with the family life, we
are thereby justified in condemning
many present evils. The family tie is
rapidly losing its sacredness. Pro-
creation is now becoming joke, con-
ception shame, and motherhood a
thing to be avoided. Where is that
once beautiful fabric upon which
states are built? 1t is no wonder that
the great majority of boys and girls
that go wrong do so before the age of
eleven years.
How many of the children of our fav-
ored land can say, "In love l was
conceived and not in SIM" The latter
will bring forth the embryo of a mon
ster which in later years will bring
down the parental gray hairs in sor-
SOW, and will be burden to society
and the state. Thus love of truth and
morality gives place to most UNI
abridged form Of bigotry' and sensual
liberties. would venture to say that
if only two generations were fruitful
in works of truth and morality we
would not longer need prisons or pest
houses. Evidences of this are found
on our daily experience and need no
clarifying proof.
Commercial, industrial and political
conditions are improving so rapidly as
to set aside the morality of these acts,
Frenzy has assumed national proper
tlons. even to the sacrifice of virtue
and common sense, and even bordering
on the idiotic.% 10 consider affairs in
actual life is not pessimism. A bal
anced mind is able to control only one
thing at time. II pride, greed and
frenzy are supreme, then the gospel of
morality is replaced by bigotry, and
when this becomes universally popular
we have every reason to fear the per-
nicious results, and the minds of the
youth Of the land will be poisoned. A
boy at the age of twelve is a hero
worshipper and belongs to the racial
development in which every man in
the tribe bows to the will of the des-
potic hero-chieftain. His heroes may
be David, who killed giant; Alex
ander, who conquered the world;
Caesar, who crossed the Rubicon;
Napoleon, who conquered Europe, or
Washington. the father of this country.
Certainly, these heroes can do him no
harm. But at this ugly duckling"
stage of development, the boy accepts
conditions surrounding him as gospel
truth and frequently is lured by ex-
ternal charms. The boys greatest
hero is his own father, and even in
later years, in fond "reminiscences he
recalls his noble acts. A large proper
ton of our national influences reminds
me of most magnificent ship, laden
with gold and precious gems, plough
ing through the deep, suddenly strikes
an iceberg and is Immediately lost to
VAS"' WhAlC dlOINCl pOIIlOU may D0
likened to raft which cannot sink,
yet its occupants always have their
feet in cold water.
Influences of this kind forbear no
good, hence. in the words of the poet
"If all of us knew what all of us do,
And all of us knew that all of us
knew;
Then all of us would avoid Just a few
OF some of the things that all of us
do"
Like the man of bramble.bush fame,
to try to cure these evils by employ.
ing or rendering homeopathy is the
contamination of madness. The Cath.
Ollie Church alone and her influence
solves this social enigma. According
to her dictionary immortality and
frenzy do not spell purity and hon.
, esty. and hence is guaranteed an.
tipathy to her doctrine and bigotry in
tic N01ioct for,,,