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Show A SATURNALIA OF LUST AND LICENSE. Herman Gault, the Anglo-French essayist, commenting com-menting on the atrocious and destructive doctrines promulgated from the seats of learning in our universities, uni-versities, deplores in the North American Review for May the dismal consequences of these heathen revivals of the adoration of lust and free-thought, on the irreligious masses of our country. He writes: "The average man or woman in the United States utterly fails to realize that he or she owes any debt or has any duty to perform to posterity. pos-terity. This generation does not see that the human hu-man family since its inception in the distant past, in its progress to its final consummation, whatever that may be, is to be regarded as one whole, an entirety, en-tirety, a single chain for the forging of the next link for which we, the present generation, will be held responsible." Held responsible for by our Creator God? No, emphatically no, "but," adds Mr. Gault, "by generations yet to come." If a man has no fear of God, of a judgment after death or for the safety of his own soul, he will not likely be much concerned about what "generations "gen-erations yet unborn" will think of him. He will be disposed to take his stand with Sir Boyle Roach, who, when opposing a measure introduced in the British House of Commons, exclaimed: "You say, sir, that this resolution, if carried by this house, will be of untold benefit to posterity? Now, sir, I am opposed to the resolution of the honorable member mem-ber for Leeds, I am opposed to doing anything in favor of posterity, for what has posterity done for us?" Herman Gault may know a great deal about books, but, if he thinks the men of today will. restrain re-strain the expression of their thoughts out of respect re-spect for those yet unborn, he is lamentably ignorant igno-rant of human nature in the concrete. Those who have no faith in a judgment after death, who have no belief in punishment for sin in the spirit world, who have no fear of God, are living in harmony with their views when they continue to selfishly worship Mammon, to refuse to raise children, to commit suicide and murder, to rob their fellow man and to steal public money. Decline of faith among the American people is the cause of the gradual elimination 'of the home with all its sacred associations; and with the passing pass-ing of the home, woman, who should be the guardian guard-ian angel of the home, has entered into the strife for worldly goods, into the open market in competition com-petition with men. Thus we have those modern monstrosities, the female socialists, the female dem-agagues dem-agagues and the "suffragists," or, what would be more properly termed the "female unemployed." This is one reason for the numerical smallness, and, in many instances, the entire absence of children in the'Amcrican family. It is also the cause of the mad individual rush for wealth, and the society ambitions, and insane social aspirations of men and women of limited means. ( There is another peculiar result of this false view of life. It. is the gradual, perversion of the sectarian pulpit and its incorporation into the pre- vailing unrest of the people. The dominating voice in the life and teaching of our Blessed Lord was for the uplifting and betterment of our raw bv the suppression of pride, avarice, greed, selfishness selfish-ness and the other unholy ambitions, passions and desires which encompass us. There are a multitude of people in our towns, cities and rural districts who "confess Christ, as the cant has it, who continue to indulge their inclinations in-clinations for the seven deadly sins and make no effort to conquer their evil appetite. The modern sectarian church is too often a sort of "religions club," a merely social institution, a place of meeting for pleasant intercourse, a place for the well-dressed few to congregate, but from which thousands of hard-working and well-meaning men and women are barred, because they are poorly and unfashionably dressed. And the sectarian pulpit is silent, face to face with these sins and abuses. And why? Because the preacher who would raise his voice to protest against the established order of life, of the fixed habits of the church-goers, would lose his congregation congre-gation and his stipend. Herman Gault says: "Let us arouse the public conscience," as if conscience was simply dozing or something lying dormant, and but awaiting the touch of a magic voice to waken it to life. The reign of graft, so much deplored by Mr. Gault, is the" direct result of our neglect to "bring up the child in the way he should go," for "even when he is old. he will not depart from it." We would remind Mr. Gault that it is impossible to arouse a corpse, and that the hope of the future lies in returning to the Catholic Church; that the dead body must be born again before it can rise out of its corruption and decay. We would also remind him that the heathen professors of our universities uni-versities are preaching no new negations; their opinions were old in the days of Epictitus and Lucian; these opinions were held, taught and materialized ma-terialized by Robespierre, Danton and Marat, who were submerged in their own blood by their disciples dis-ciples whose shout of victory was: "Ni Dieu, ni Maitre No God, No Master." Either our republic will, in self-protection, be forced to provoke a quarrel with some foreign neighbor, or strangle the preachers of lust and license, who are a disgrace to our civilization, a menace to our institutions and foul sores on the thing miscalled education. |