OCR Text |
Show "DANGER OF MONEY WORSH ,dl Such was the- theme of Dr. Arthur E. Iladl.-y, president of Yale, in an address delivered to a laru audience in the Broadway tabernacle, Xew Voric " f city. Of the several cogent truths to which the Doctor Doc-tor gave utterance, none is more significant than the following: "It is only within the last, fifty years that wo liav.. really begun to feel the consequences of the appeal to private judgment as a, standard of right and of the toleration of individual liberty in thought as well as in action." Herein he places himself on record as another conspicuous convert to the Catholic idea. It is th" conviction implied that animates intelligent Catholics Catho-lics to hold fast to their allegiance to a dogmatii-and dogmatii-and infallible Church. If it be asked why Catholics are not, therefore, entirely exempt from the evils against which the worthy Doctor so earnestly inveighs, the answer may, in part, be gleaned from his further remarks, which follow: "Amid 'the daily contact of men. habits of thoughts, standards of value, subtle influences in the estimate of right and wrong pass from man to man quietly and unconsciously. By this subtle contact con-tact a sort of public conscience is created. The difficulty dif-ficulty of keeping our standards of business and of. politics pure today is, I think, greater than it lias been in any previous generation. The task of convincing con-vincing people in a democracy that liberty bring duties as well as rights is harder than the corre- ' sponding task under an aristocracy." In the foregoing is at least suggested a rational explanation for the dereliction of many Catholics in the matter of tho inordinate pursuit of wealth. It i the insidious influence of example and of prevalent preva-lent ideals that, tends to so effectually sway well-meaning well-meaning men and lead them, all but unconsciously, away from the exalted ideals which Holy, Church would inculcate with so much devoted solicitude. And this leads to the conviction that we arc. of . ' a verity, "our brother's keeper." Either must we inspire in-spire those with whom we come in frequent contact with our lofty ideals or, without fairly realizing it. I we will become vitally impregnated with thVir stand" ards of right and wrong. And this is true, not only concerning the standards that shall prevail in commercial com-mercial pursuit-s, but of our social ideals in general. It is, therefore, a cause for felicitation that a noble class of women, in the higher ranks of society, have heroically band d themselves together for the purpose pur-pose of exercising social ostracism, directed against, the alarming growth of the divorce evil. "The Daughters of the Faith" may thus, happily, prove the leaven that shall save our American society from utter disintegration as a resiilt of this baneful social evil. Gladly shall be welcomed the influence of such able and illustrious exponents of the higher life a? is Dr. Hadly. By a vital recognition of the profound pro-found truth that dogmatism in religion is essential es-sential to the prevalence of correct standards in our social life, such men as he shall have the efficacy of their beneficent. influence strengthened a thousand- |