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Show H Tins ftraiA'CftfLAaw 6ooibiti"on. H1 By Charlotte Sherwood Martlndell in The Fra H The story of the Immaculate Conception has como H down through the ages, tainting; more, perhaps, V than we realise, our views of. parenthood. Why Hi should we speak of the Immuoulnto Conception, as H if indeed there -wero hut one? Is not every con- H 'ceptlon immaculate where Love, or tho "Holy H Ghost," Is presont?. Indeed, mivy not this bo tho JH "real 'meaning dT tho.logonctV To thtj truthful H im'lnd itll natural laws aro of God, partake of His H 'nature, find demonstrate tho wondrous systom of B Mis Tfrtfcits. No htirttclos are .needed to Impress such H a mlrtd. But for the mediocre mind, there must K be some unusual occurrence some divergence Hj from the natural law, some sensational happen- K ingi-ln order to impress and convince. Was it H 'not, probably, for this claw of minds that the HE legwid of the Immaculate Conception whs first HH annde up, which, gaining root, has somehow clung H to humanity through' all, trie ages since? Whj H should any sano man, or woman care to believe H this unnatural And absurd departure from Nature's HH , law, rather than tho .natural and far more holy fl and beautiful idea of a child born of the love of H both 'his parents'? How aro wo ever to improve our H morals,, unless we purify our ideas of tho sex HHj relation? And whan we-analyze it closely enough, HH is not the idea,, of tho Immaculate Conception H rather demoralizing - Ih it not a plabian ldoa, orig- 1 inatod to impfose mindd Which' held more vile- H .nose than purity?. Surely it is a reproach, a re- K , flection upon .all true ipuronthood. H The Immaculate Conception is a protty enough H story, but after nil- is it not a harmful one for a H world seeking Truth, and desirous of lifting mar- B riage to the ideal plane whore it rightfully be- H longs? H Th Priosts first taught this story, and, wishing Hj ti) remain themselves pure and holy, thoy became H -and have remained supposedly, celibates. Thus K from the beginning, of the flhrlitlan Br? wo have D allewed a stain, as .it wore, to rost upon the Idon m at marriage, even while we spouk, Inconsistently H certainly, of "holy.wodloek." H Is 4t ndt time that woman, Jn particular,, awake IR, to ttte importance of this-, amnion,, and faeo tho IB truth, and realise .that it is-for them to establish MM tho tflgh't.andt pure idea uf. marriage- and of birth, B and a new ideal that evory wolcome, love-born fl child' is of immaculate conception?' Is it not time B we showld drop th& old monastic theory of the K bQyja oran .of pollution? Rather let us con- sider it the sacred temple of tho human soul, and all its expressions right an d beautiful. -Thon only can we bo puro in thought and in deod-sv |