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Show FACING THE TWENTIETH CENTURY. CEN-TURY. The intellectual outlook for the next century hag its dark side, but the brightness in it predominates. The nineteenth century opened under the. influence of the sneering, atheistic philosophy of Voltaire. It closes with Voltaire buried in the contempt which his superficial sneering deserved. The twentieth century opens with agnosticism agnosti-cism as the chief enemy of Christian religion. Agnosticism does not now sneer, and it is far more respectable than Voltaire. But it doubts. It says, "I do not know." It is a philosophy of not knowing. It acknowledges itself ignorant concerning1 all those mighty problems which affect the welfare of mankind. Ignorance can never be the guide for the human race. The philoso phy which says "I do not know" can never meet the requirements of humanity. human-ity. It is folly to boast of knowledge when one has no light, but it is worse than folly to close one's eyes to the, light and say. that all is dark, when light is abundant for all who have eyes to see. Archbishop Keane, in a recent interview inter-view in New York, expressed the opinions, opin-ions, cited above. We imagine that the greatest danger to be faced during the coming century will be the utter indifference in-difference of the majority of its people to religion in any and all forms. The men of the world today, and by that we mean about all the men, in this country at least, who are not practical Catholics, care nothing for religion, believe in it only as a social force or a means of restraint for those who would otherwise be lawless. An intelligent man of this class once said to the writer: "We must have religion or more policemen, and then its a comfort com-fort to the women and children." He voiced the sentiments of a large number num-ber who know nothing and care nothing noth-ing about spiritual things and are barely tolerant of religion, particularly of the expense attached to it, because of the influence of wife, another or sister. sis-ter. We saw recently the influence of the women in the case . of : Congressman Roberts, who was deprivecVof his seat illegally by men who do not care a rap whether he has three wives or thirty, and who know full well that his personal per-sonal morality is above that of many of those who voted to unseat him to please the Christian women, or probably prob-ably it would be nearer the truth to say to avoid unpleasant explanations if they had taken the opposite course. Legislation to tax churches and movements of similar nature are defeated de-feated for the tjme by similar influences. influ-ences. As the next century proceeds' and the denominations decrease in numbers and in the comparative value of their property, while the Catholic church will undoubtedly continue to grow, the influences against such legislation legis-lation will surely weaken and the battle between God and Caesar will be on. The swiftness with which the denominations denom-inations abandoned government aid for i their Indian schools when the pro rata plan became favorable to Catholics is proof sufficient of what "will happen soon as to church taxation. The men who say "I do not know" in religious matters are giving Vvay to the ever increasing crowd who say "I do not care," and day by day they are diminishing their contributions to churches and increasing those given to clubs and lodges. When the day arrives that neither eloquence or sensationalism in the individual in-dividual preacher draws paying crowds to Protestant churches, those churches will close their doors, and the Catholic Church, long before the close of the next ceptury, in our opinion, will face not a philosophical or. agnostio world, but a world worshiping at the shrine of the visible, tangible blessings of this earth. |