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Show BOIME COCKRAPJ ON .. . HAPPINESS AiD SUCCESS ' 1htrWhicPhTlosophy of ton's Duty Was Laid Down in the Answer Which Our Lord Gave the Lawyer. I The students ami professor? of St. Marys col lege, Oakland, Cal., on Monday of last week had the pleasure of listening to an interesting address by Bourke Coekran before his departure for tin-cast. tin-cast. Mr. Coekran was introduced to the students and brothers by Brother Vellesian. president of. St. Clary's college, who ha id: "Friends and Students: It is with pleasure we welcome our guest, a pleasure that is shared in by ail here present. As educators we realize the importance im-portance of using every opportunity to raise your ideal of life, of a Christian life, both by word and example, and to bringing good men. who have demonstrated that moral success in life is the highest high-est goal to which men can reach. Our friend is a man among men, a statesman whose power is felt not only in the councils of the nation but in the world at large. Without any further introduction, we will have the pleasure and advantage of hearing the Honorable Bourke Coekran." Mr. Coekran spoke as follows: "Brother Director. Christian Brothers, and I don't know whether I should call you fellow students stu-dents or not; I have not ceased studying yet, and in that sense I suppose I may call you fellow students. stu-dents. "You are at one end of the line and I at the other, and it serins to me like returning to first principles to find myself in this presence today. It I , was as a teacher of a Christian Brothers' school j that I began iny career.- It was my first occupation. the first work which 1 attempted, and I may say the -i ' beginning of my active life was as teacher at the old Rutgers Strcvt academy. New York. Some of '" the boys were younger than you most of them. i They were all preparing for the stage which you ' have reached the collegiate stage. To talk to you here now at the other side of the continent you at the threshold of life is one of the most impres-. impres-. five and interesting occasions which. can be pre- I -ented to a man in this life. You are enjoying J t.iiormous advantages, and you are to become bear--! rrs of very grave responsibilities .. .; ,'j ' Church Alone Maintained Schools. .-' j "There is nothing more common" liow than edu- j cation of a certain sort. The undertaking of the' Ftate to educate youth, as your history will tell you. is nothing more than the adoption, as a matter of 3ublic policy, and for reasons touching its own ' security and its own preservation, of a system which the churchmen followed during the ages of darkness, dark-ness, at a time, when the possession of education by any man was enough to disqualify him from the respect of the whole world. The only man worth considering was the man who wielded the sword, who could fight, who could destroy; and during those years the Church, more than all the other powers of the world, maintained the lamp of learning alight t in the monasteries. She alone maintained schools. She alone kept education alive. To her is due all the education and all the learning and all the progress pro-gress which have been accomplished by all the nations na-tions of Christendom. Yet we are told now that the Church is hostile to education. If the Church were so, she had but to leave it alone, and it would have perished. 1 "Xow. when the world recognizes the necessity i of instructing the youth as a means of preserving society from the dangers inherent in every organi zation of human beings, we are told that the Church, which laid the foundations of it, is hostile to it. My friends. I mention this to you now because the removal and dispersion of that prejudice is, in my judgment., your work, your chief duty, and in performing per-forming it you will not only vindicate the wisdom of this system of instruction pursued by these Cath-s Cath-s olic school1, but you will render a service of sur passing value to the whole of society. How are you to do that ? I never tire repeating, and with groat 1 satisfaction, of speaking with much enthusiasm of what t he lale Pope. Leo XIII, considered to be, or what he hoped would be. the great feature of this dawning century when I had my last interview with him. the very last. I think which occurred some weeks before his death. He spoke of himself j . as a workman who was straining his eyes toward the ' western sky in the hope that a few more minutes of j light mitrht be spared to him not that ho might j finish his task, since he did not expect to do that; ' but that he might add something to it before he j was summoned away to that repose which Cod Al- mighty reserves as the last, the supreme reward of ihosc who have labored faithfully in his vineyard. The one thing that, he hoped this century would bring forth was the advance of evangelization, the work of civilization. -of progress, of restoring dominion do-minion and authority it) the Calholic church over all tiic nations that had accepted the faith, and of I spreading it over the rest of the world; and his IK' was ihat the apostolate of the laity would become be-come effective in that great work. "To that high apostolate you, my friends, will belong. You will not be called upon to preach. !A11 that i done by your Church. You will not even be called upon to teach by word, for that will be done by these volunteers serving almost in the forefront of the armies of the world, merely for sub- )H st once. -not desiring condensation. You must always al-ways bear in mind that in our Church the task " rf expounding the law is reserved to ministers spe- -udly ordained and consecrated for that purpose by j the divine authority of the Lord himself, and charged with that duty. We as Catholics accept our doctrine unquestioned and. having accepted it from the authorities constituted bv the same di- j Tine power that has announced the Word itself, our i business as members of this apostolate of the laity !. 38 to show by our lives the value of that doctrine. Short Road to Material Prosperity. "In this age there are not inanv people who will fpare time from their pursuit of wealth and improvement im-provement to analyze the reasons, the argument in favor of conflicting doctrines; but they are pretty ' iContiuued on Page 5.) BOURKE COCHRAN Olf j. HAPPINESS AND SUCCESS i (Continued from Page 1.) j quick to reason from effect to cause, and if they see men in the heart of our citizenship living lives that i are peculiarly religious and faithful, and at the -same time singularly successful in production, in literature, in commerce and in the professions, they will be quick to reach.the conclusion that the faith which produces such results must be one of value. If you will be faithful to the teachings of the Brothers, if you will give hced to what these good priests say, if you will live in harmony with the universal law which governs the Church then you will he effective members of that apostolate of the laity. And what will the reward he'i I am not here to tell you what your rewards will be in the life which is to ccme. There are good men specially devoted to that function. I rather call your attention atten-tion to the fact, drawn from a long experience in life, and from a pretty close observation of if, that the 'true method, the short road to material prosperity, pros-perity, is strict observance of the moral law, of which the Church is the custodian. I suppose everybody every-body here believes that the object of life is ihe pursuit pur-suit of happiness. Well, I think that is right; I think its object is the pursuit of happiness. It is well for you to realize in what happiness consists. I suppose that people generally think that happiness happi-ness consists in' possessions what wo haven't got. So far as I have been able to observe, every man believes be-lieves that if he had something else besides what he actually has in his possession, he would be happy. I have never known a man, however large his possession, pos-session, who would sit dovni and declare that he-was he-was actually happy, because he would still want some material thing which he did not possess. If I were asked which weyc the most reliable sources of happiness, wants or possessions. I would be more inclined to congratulate men on their wants and to sympathize with them upon their possessions. "Let: us analyze this and see what is the fountain foun-tain of happiness. Is jt power? Well, I never knew any man yet who had power and who was able to exercise it for his own satisfaction. lie must exercise it in order to preserve it, and that is true, whether" he: is a-political: loader in America, or ik czar in Russia. The moment he exercises Ids power for his own caprice he is certain to lose it Suppose Sup-pose the czar should undertake to appoint his chief police officer merely from personal favoritism. The first thing he knew he would probably be killed. He must appoint as his chief police officer or his chief general the person ; wiJi his judgment, is best qualified to' fill 'the' position.' lie cloes not appoint his chief of police at all. The man appoints himself him-self by showing that he is specially skilled in that capacity. So ft is with'' every other department of his government. Whatever he may want to do, he .will find himself compelled to select the instrument best fitted to carry out the desired purpose. There-' fore, power is really service. . "Men' are lifted to power to serve those who lift them. That is true whether they receive their power by birth or whether it is given to them at the ballot box. Power is really service. The moment any man in power ceases to serve and attempts, to exercise his power arbitrarily, for the gratification of his passions, for the fulfillment of his lust or desire, he is undermining the foundations of his own power and with absolute certainty "bringing about its removal. Moreover, no man ever yet exercised power who really enjoyed it. I know of nothing so illusive as power. As 1 have said to you, it really does not exist in the person who seems to possess j it. If it ever comes to be your fortune to sit behind be-hind the chair of power, you will see that, though such a man has a hold front, his back i.s very apt to be hollow. " "Does fame bring happiness"? Well, I don't know that I could say much to you about fame. I do not think ever- person is careful to distinguish between fame and notoriety. My idea is that notoriety noto-riety is ?. thing of the moment, but fame has to do with the next generation. Fame is not a thing that comes to a person while he is living. WJiat is going to be said about you a generation after your death is of questionable value to you iu bringing happiness at this time. . ., Man Who Has No .Chance of Happinssr "They may tell you that wealth is the fountain of happiness. That is what we are all striving for, because the possession of wealth is supposed to be the source of happiness. 1 know some of the richest rich-est men in the country on terms of more or less intimacy, and it is my experience that the one man i who has no chance of lnmpinesc at all is the mil- I lionaire. I do not think I have visited any place j but one where there was absolutely no. happiness I and no possibility of it. That place was not a jail, though I have spoken to men in the shadow of the gallows. It was not a hospital, where people are brought to suffer the most excruciating pain. It ! was not any of the places usually associated in the mind wilh misery. But the place 'l refer to is a safe deposit vault, one of those mysterious catacombs of the modern business world where millionaires hoard the evidences of their wealth. I have myself been in one of these subterranean rooms and 'met in the passage n'manwh'6 en the surface of the earth would greet me with a warm sial:e 0f the hand; but when we meet down there, each with a tin box under his arm, we pass each other with a nod, very much as if we were caught' in some place where we had no right to be, each of us hastening off to a little room in order to get out of eight and cut off our coupons or change the nature of our securities. That is one place in the world where a man is never known to smile. It is one place where it is impossible. im-possible. The man in gray who is stationed at the gate, watching every person going in or out with an expression of disgust iti "big eye he would know what to do immediately if he heard a pistol shot or if there was an explosion 0f dynamite. Ho wotdd turn. in an alarm to the police station. But there is one thing we would not be prepared for. If he heard somebody whistle a tunc or sing a comic song, he would not know how to deal wTth that. That would bo one of the things he ncvcr iCar& aud had never known. t "You may say; If there is no happiness in fame or m wealth; if there h no happiness in power, is happiness to be found, is it attainable bv any one on this earth? My friends, I fi0 not believe it is to be found in any possession. and all mv philosonhy and. experience go to-prove that.. That' is the thins j .-'' which the Church teaches "you. The man who is thoroughly unhappy is the person who assumes that all there is of life is the things that he -an see an that he can touch, lie goes through life with the idea that if he has a certain amount of gold it will be as a golden key by which he can unlock the door of limitless happiness. And at the end he funis that the key in his hands will not open the door, and then he trios to persuade himself that there is something wrong with this particular key, that it is not large enough, that it must be larger, and that he will tind some other door through which he can pass to the happiness he covets. He docs not realize real-ize thai the whole of happiness consists, not in the things that you get. but what you make of yourself in the process of acquirement. "But wealth is nwt a thing to be despised. Aye, wealth acquired by honest effort has its value in two aspects: Fir-t, it is a monument to the success of the owner; it is the monument which your fellow citizens have erected to mark their appreciation of tin- service which you can render them: and. secondly, it widens the theatre ot your action, so that it gives you a larger field to work in: it makes you more effective in serving your fellows, and thus increases your chances of happiness. What is happiness. hap-piness. I My conception of happiness, the one that I have often givtu. is the absorption of all your faculties in the task before you. whatever it may be. The ta4: before you is not always the same. Sometimes it is the storing of your minds with truth; sometimes, again, it is the exercise1 of your body in physical labor, and sometimes it is mental relaxation. Absorb yourself in the thing before you. Remember thai every faculty spared from your occupation, every faculty not enlisted, in the thing you are called upon to do, is a sure source of injury to yourself, a certain source of unhappi-ness. unhappi-ness. I do not care what your lot in life may be; I do not care what task may be assigned to you absorb all your faculties in it and you will never have an hour's unhappiness. .Xow, somebody may say that he would Ik; glad to absorb himself in his task if he had something to do that suited him better, something else than ihe thing he had to do. Believe me. my friends, not one of us is doing the thing he would select for himself. It may be, also, and it is our faith, that a higher iover, a wider intelligence, one that is omniscient and grasps everything, assigns to you your-proper theatre of section. Take a Lesson From the Horse. "Whatever that may be, it is filled with possibilities. possi-bilities. The only way by which you can escape from it is by absorbing in it every faculty which you possess. You may take a lesson from the horse in the street. The horse is drawing a hack, and he comes to the conclusion that he is better qualified to draw a sulky on a race track. There are two ways by which he could force a change. One would be by doing his best in drawing the hack, by mak-. mak-. ing such fast time that he would be put in front of a lighter rig at least, if not a sulky. If. on the other hand, feeling that he ought to be drawing a sulky, he refused to move as he should, and proceeded pro-ceeded to kick the dashboard and injure the driver with his hind feet, instead of trying to cover up the distance with his fore legs, he certainly would be pretty apt to get a change. In the first case ho would get a better stall and lighter work, but in this case he would get a worse stall and heavier work. So, my dear friends, remember that noue of you can select the place in which you may be put. The horse has his place selected for him. If he is not satisfied, the only way he can show the mistake is by performing the work assigned to him so well that he will be given something better. . Another power than yourself selects the place in which you are to work, whatever it may be. The. way to be advanced out of it is not by giving yourselves over to discontent, but by absorbing every .faculty you have; then you will be fit for better things, and you I will be given better things to do because you have ' shown your ability to do your work better than any-j any-j body else. That is a lesson which philosophy and experience demonstrate; that is a lesson which our j faith teaches. I "'There is no experience in life that does not ; demonstrate the value of this lesson. And as this is expounded to you by your teachers, if you acquire ac-quire wealth you will use it well. Do not hesitate to increase your income. Do it by every effort in your power, not that you may gain an opportunity for indulgence with further addition to your sub-stance,.but sub-stance,.but that you may widen your field and enlarge en-large your opportunities to enrich the lives of others, thus establishing the best possible foundation founda-tion for your happiness. If you have industry, and faithfulness, you will always reach a large measure meas-ure of success. T ask you to remember agaiu that you cannot serve yourself in accordance with the instruction of the Church, excopt as you serve the whole community. com-munity. Xo man cn work for himself and dig anything from the bosom of the earth without creating cre-ating larger opportunities for ths benefit of his fellows. The whole philosophy of man's duty was laid down in the answer which our Lord gave to the lawyer who tried to trap him with a question. He told him that, next to the duty of serving God. i the highest duty of man was to love his neighbor as himself, and when he v:a- asked who a man's neighbor neigh-bor is he told the story of the Good Samaritan. My friends, the whole progress of civilizaiien has been to bring humanity to that standard which our Lord set for u when all the world was given over to . .selfishness and ihe story of the Good Samaritan sounded almost like a fairy tnle in the e-trs of his listeners. The Good Samaritan is no longer a tic-i tic-i titious person; he is found in every ciwiied oiiu-i oiiu-i try. We. often hear a great wagon rushing down t the street, and everything is withdrawn. ::li traffic j is suspended ever v ma u stands ;i-idc, tlut. may I go on its way to save some man v,h haa bt en j stricken down accidentally. - The Good Samaritan j no longer walks beside his horse; he no longer pays t his two pennies to some way.-ido Minkeen. r. He lia j behind him ihe whole power of the state, mid the j young carpenter of Nazareth who was found wan-; wan-; dering iu the temple with no apparent authority ! has been vindicated. "The law which is binding upon you is the law i of labor. We must take from ihe soil our share of I substaiiee. becau-e We are forbidden to borrow or I steal. Obey thai iaw. and s-o yoj will pass through life successfully. Observe ihe.-o. tilings. ;iud you wil pAs from the lo-om of the earth, where you have j thus labored, to the bosom of your God, where r repose will be eternal. |