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Show f : Cardinal Gibbons l ' ; t discusses X ' ttttttMttt t tT tttttttttttt : -v, t ' iiMfe in t x 'P fff : ' vl t CARDINAL GIBBONS HAS SMALL REGARD FOR THE MAN- 1 4- WOMAN AND THE NEW GIRL WITH THE ABBRE- 1 VIATED SKIRT. The world is governed more by ideals than by ideas; it is influenced more by living concrete models than by abstract j principles of virtue.x The exceptional, ill-assorted mar- j riages would become more rare if the j public were convinced, once for all. that i death aione can dissolve the marriage i bond. j Thev would then use more- circum- ! spection in the selection of a conjugal partner. j Marriage is the most inviolable and ' irrevocable of all contracts that were ever formed. Every human compact may be lawfully dissolved but this. Nations Na-tions may be justified in abrogating treaties with each other; merchants may dissolve partnerships; brothers will eventually leave the paternal roof j and, like Jacob and Esau, stparate from one another. Friends like Abraham and j Lot may be obliged to part company j but by the law of God the bond uniting husband and wife can be dissolved only i by- death. No earthly sword can sever the nuptial knot which the Lord has i tied. I The facility with which marriage is annulled is most injurious to the morals mor-als of individuals, of the family and of society. It leads to the ill-assorted and hasty-marriages hasty-marriages which give many the belief that the majority of married couples live unhappily, because persons are less circumspect in making a compact which may be afterward dissolved almost al-most at will. It stimulates an unprincipled unprin-cipled and discontented husband or wife to lawlessness, quarrels, and even adultery, well knowing that the very crime will afford a pretext and legal ground for separation. It engenders between husband and wife fierce litigations liti-gations about the custody of their offspring. off-spring. It deprives the children of the protecting arm of a father or the gentle care of a mother, and too frequently consigns them to the cold charity of the world, for the married couple who are wanting in conjugal love for one another are too often destitute also of parental affection. In a word, it brings into a household a blight and desolation which neither wealth nor luxury can repair. If the sacred laws of matrimony are still happily observed by so large a portion por-tion of the Protestant community, the purity of morals is in no small measure due to the presence among them of the Catholic religion. It is w-orthy of remark that three of the evangelists, as well as the Apostle of the Gentiles, proclaim the indissolubility indissolu-bility of marriage, and forbid a wedded person to engage in second wedlock during the life of his spouse. There is, indeed, scarcely a moral precept more strongly enforced in the Gospel than j the indissoluble character of marriage validly contracted. To some among the gentler sex the words "equal rights" have been, it is feared, synonymous with "similar rights." It was no doubt owing to this misapprehension of terms that the attempt at-tempt was made, not so very long ago, to introduce the glories of the bloomer costume. But though the attempt ' proved a failure, the spirit that impelled im-pelled it still survives, as may be seen by the various masculine modifications that have crept into female dress during dur-ing the past few years. Where i3 the flowing and graceful drapery of former days that jealously shielded the modest mod-est wearer from gaze on the public street? Is it because the woman of today to-day has laid aside what she looks upon as the cumbersome style of her grandmother's grand-mother's time that she aims at daunt-lessly daunt-lessly presenting herself at the ballot box to cast in her suffrage for A or for B? Only a few years ago it provoked laughter to hear that Miss Jemima Snarl was to lecture on "Woman's appeared on Broadway in male habiliments habil-iments cap-a-pie. But it is now quite ordinary to hear of ladies, gentlewomen, gentlewo-men, daughters of some of our best men. not, indeed, imitating Dr. Mary Walker's exceptional attire, but mounting mount-ing the rostrum to harangue their audiences, au-diences, on the power of the "Faith Healers," or some like institution. Is is any wonder that a feeling of sad-' ness creeps over one that such things should be. To debar Toman from such pursuits is not to degrade her. To restrict her field of action to the gentler avocations of life is not to fetter her aspirations after the higher and better. It is, on the contrary, to secure to her, not equal rights, so-called, but those super-eminent rights that cannot fail to endow her with a sacred influence in her own proper sphere, for as soon as woman trenches on the domain of man she must not be surprised to find that the I I reverence once accorded to her h is been in part, or wholly, withdrawn The holiness of the marriage bund is the palladium of woman's dignity-while dignity-while polygamy and divorce involve her in bondage and degradation. The noblest work given to woman is to take care of her children. The most important part of her aposttship should consist in instructing them in the ways of God. Let Christian mothers recognize their sublime mission. And then what -a source of consolation it will be to them in their declining years when they -reflect that the will leave after them children who "will inherit not only their nam-', but also their faith and virtues. They will share in the beautiful eulogy pronounced bv the Holy Ghost on the mother 0f the family: fam-ily: "Who shall find a valiant woman? wo-man? She hath opened her mouth to wisdom and the law of clemency is on her tongue. She hath looked well to the paths of her housp. and hath not eaten her bread idle. Her children ros up and called her blessed her husband, and he nraised her Mam- ,1-,,, have gathered together riches; thou hast surpassed them all. Favor is de- ceitful and beauty is vain; the woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised." The model held up to Christian women wo-men is not the Amazon, glorying in her martial deeds; it is not the Spartan j woman, who made female perfection I consist in the development of physical j strength at the expense of feminine de. i corum and modesty; :'t i.s not-the goddess god-dess of impure love, like Venus, who.- votaries regard beauty ni form and personal charms as the highest type of female excellence; nor is it the goddess of imperious will, like Juno. Ao, the model held up to woman from the 'very dawn of Christianity- is the peerless Mother of our Blessed Redeemer. She is the pattern of virtue alike to maiden and mother and wife. She exhibits th. virginal modesty becoming the maid the eonjugal fidelity and lovalty of th spouse, and the untiring clevotedness of the mother. (Copyright. 1900. by Cardinal Gibbons.) |