The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1917-06-02
COMMANDMENTS.

The most important season, III
many ways, of the entire year is
now at hand. We are approaching
the period when the schools OF the
land are beginning to take lnven-
tory Of the work accomplished
during the past ten months. The
boy and girl graduate will now
step forward upon the stage to
enlighten the poor simple audience
on all questions pertaining to our
life here ON earth. Teachers and
professors have instilled into the
minds of youthful orators and de-
chalmers the solemn nature OF
these ambitious efforts. Valedic-
torian and salutatorian will pass
in a serious and reflective mood
before the footlights, and will en-
deavor to do their share in dissi-
pating the mist Of darkness that
hangs over the poor, benighted
world. Statesman, inventors, phi
losophers, deep thinkers on all
human and divine subjects, have
struggled i'll vain to master the
details OF world problems. Cues
tons that baffled solution in the
minds of the great appear ridicu-
lousy simple when grasped by the
mighty powers, the herculean in
tellect Of the graduation orator.
He will soon condescend to inform
a trusting and confding public
how governments should be run,
how world problems can be so cas-
lily settled, how wars may be
averted or ended, how Church and
State i'll every land like two inno-
cent children may wander hand in
hand adoWn the peaceful vale of
Life, across the mighty stream of
Time, through the glowing portals
of Eternity. After this mighty in
formation has been confidentially
impaired, the graduation orator
goes forth into the world and is
soon swallowed up amidst the
myriads of his fellows.
The sight of thousands, many
thousands, Of boys and girls going
forth into the arena to battle and
to struggle amidst the vicissitudes
Of earthly existence makes one
pause. TO send forth a body of
unframed men against an army Of
seasoned, hardened veterans, were
suicide and murder; to pit a
trained team Of athletes against
a raw aggregation is to propose
a farcical game; to force a young
man towards the goal of success
along that line in which he is an
utter stranger is a cruel impOsi-
ton, and yet, schools there are
that send forth large numbers Of
Young persons every year I'M
equipped fully to battle with life s
problems. The intellect, in many
cases, has been trained to the ex-
clusion of the development Of the
will. Of what benefit can a trained
intellect be to a human being
when the rules Of the game de-
mand also the exercise Of an up
right, firm will power. If the
|young person goes forth oblivious
or ignorant of the fact that there
is a God Who will demand a most
rigorous accounting for human ac-
tons; if this young person has
been taught or has received the
impression that uprightness means
self-interest. or that virtue is but
a synonym for expediency, it were
folly to expect aught else but a
nation Of infidels. 1t is here pre-
cisely where the Catholic institu-
ton delivers it's most telling
| blow: on commencement day it
sends forth it's battalions OF Adde'S
cent human beings equipped, not
partially, but thoroughly in heart
and mind, i'll intellect and III will,
to know good and to do it: to
| know evil and avoid it.