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Show WOMAN'S PKEK0GAT1VE. (Written for The Interniountaiu Catholic.) Woman in no way, perhaps, more clearly proves that she is the veritable daughter of Eve, than by the ready response with which she is ever prone to yield to the beguiling blandishments of the serpent of revolt against authority. While broadly observant observ-ant men are forced to conclude that in the realm of the higher life of the human race, woman is, broadly speaking, the divinely ordained leader, the conviction is just as irresistablc that, in the practical prac-tical affairs of, life, man's natural endowments clearly indicate that upon hira devolves the. responsibilities respon-sibilities of command. Obedience in all things lawful therefore seems to be woman's sweetest privilege, as well as her God-ordained duty. The natural inclinations of the human creature seem ever at war with duty, hence the constantly urgent and absolutely indispensable indis-pensable necessity of supernatural guidance in the affairs of life. Holy Church, in all things solicitously solicit-ously responsive by virtue of her divine attributes attrib-utes and inspiration to all the sacred needs and yearnings of the human heart, graciously vouchsafes vouch-safes thjs divine guidance by her holy ordinances. Thus she lovingly enjoins upon woman pious submission sub-mission to the authority of her husband. And in this, as in all things, her faithful children find their purest joys in unquestioning loyalty to her tenderly affectiona- decrees; all their' real unhappiness in life in blindly and obstinately opposing themselves to her divine ordinances. It is but giving utterance to a self-evident trulh clearly recognized by those who are endowed, by intellect, observation and training with the power of discernment that nearly, if not quite all of the domestic infelicity, so grievously fruitful of divorces and minor evils in our day, is directly due to the fact that So many of our women are facinated and animated by the heretical spirit of independence which moves them to say: "I will not. serve": the same fatuous spirit of impious insubordination in-subordination manifested by the first of their race, which brought upon mankind the curse of sin and all its attendant evils and misery. A Service is, in the Christian dispensation, man's most sublime privilege; it is by impiously ignoring this saving truth that men and women forfeit that priceless boon of spritual joy without which there can be naught but misery and agony of heart in this life. There is here no question of that ignoble servitude inspired by fear or the consideration of meanly selfish motives; it is only that loving service, ser-vice, inspired by an exalted sense of dutiful horn-, age to the God of infinite love that Holy Church enjoins upon her children, and whose fruit is joy and peace of heart. 2s or is the obedience she dutifully enjoins to be rendered to the morally or intellectually superior, only or chiefly. "Order is Heaven's first law" and it is this divine ordinance which must determine the legitimacy of authority, submission to which s never degradng but, quite to the contrary, dignifies digni-fies man by bringing him into harmony with the divine economy which has been ordained for the purpose of securing his everlasting exaltation. And so it is that woman's obedience to her husband hus-band is one of her divine prerogatives, which she may not despise without bringing upon herself the displeasure of Heaven and a train of evils which cannot, alas, be confined to her own devoted head. As the consequences of the primeval revolt of the Mother of the race has been visited ipon all her descendants, so, it would seem, the evils of revolt against Heaven's decrees by the women of subsequent subse-quent ages descend upon their children and must, therefore, be borne by the race as a whole. Ah, "If woman but, knew." v . To such of the readers of this fond dissertation as are indisposed to accept the unsupported decrees de-crees of Mother Church, an appeal to the dictates pf-the natural law, discerned by thosTp-hoare Table" to view them with soundly philosophical minds, might appeal with some effect. Is it not clear that in all human affairs, requiring for their proper conduct con-duct decision of inind and "personal" direction, there must be an exercise of authority a head Is' this less vitally important in domestic affairs than m commercial or industrial enterprises, or in the affairs of society as a whole in the affairs of state If not, who should fittingly exercise the supreme authority requisite for abiding order and peace The woman i Please remember, fair dames, when an order is issued by a properly constituted authority, whether in the affairs of a commercial enterprise, of the military organization or of the state, the question cannot be properly urged as to whether the properly constituted authority who issues the order is best fitted, by virtue of his moral or intellectual endowments, endow-ments, to command. Even you. it may safely bo assumed, can. see that to do so, and to base obedi-. euce upon the result of such inquiry, must necessarily neces-sarily be productive of disorder and chaos; that' only on-ly the due observance of the established order can secure a desired degree of harmony, peace and happiness. One more, therefore, a philosophical inquiry leads to -the conviction that the Holy Catholic Church is right. Few things in her life' have been the subject of more adverse criticism on the part of this twentieth century than her attitude in reference refer-ence to the proper relation, in the matter of authority, au-thority, between man and wife. And yet in all candor is the question asked does not an intelligent intelli-gent and unprejudiced analysis of the problem conclusively con-clusively demonstrate that she is right and the world, with all its arrogant assumption of superior-wisdom, superior-wisdom, is radically wrong ? And whence this divine wisdom on the part of the Church manifested ages ago, when mankind was in its intellectual infancy if Wc are to accept the conclusions of the savants of today Was it not conferred upon her by her divine founder, nineteen centuries ago? Have you any other way ot explaining the miraculous phenomenon? All, if the world but knew! How gladly would it not accept the divine guidance of Christ's Holy Church in all the affairs of life, and thus secure for the race of man that salvation, temporal and eternal, which it is her sublime mission to vouchsafe vouch-safe to the world! It is mans priceless privilege and sacred duty to 'love, cherish and protect"; woman's no less estimable es-timable privilege, and duty to "love and obey." Which is the more exalted ? A. C. LAYMAX. a |