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Show A NEW LIGHT. We had last week an ex-revenied lecturer who still clings to the sacred name of shepherd of souls, but who lost his title when he betrayed the ciuse tov which, in his youthful manhood, ho eon ecrated his life. Like the San Francisco sand lot orators, tho lecture of last Sunday was simply a concatenation -a mere rehash of denunciations of the silk hat. j pink tea parties and lecherous bondholder,, so often and better expressed by the sand lot orators. "I -cannot tell what the dickens his name is," but it is not "father in the Catholic sense; (1) because his uu-Catholic theories placed him outside the pale of the church, and (2) because Catholic instinct shrinks from and repudiates any tendency to anarchy, an-archy, communism or other isms that tend to dis rupt society. In all that is fair aud just in the teaching of socialism the Catholic church is its best friend, and has from tho beginning, in her institutions, in-stitutions, carried out the practice of communism iu worldly goods. This is ilustrated in her religious orders, both male and female. The property possessed pos-sessed is shared alike by each member, or, when pressed by poverty, they are all equally poor. But in matters that are plainly unjust, false, foolish, or Utopian, the Catholic church is their invincible foe. When the ex-reverened lecturer adopted this latter course, assumed the guise of Catholicity and the language of the gospel to secure earthly happiness outside of the order established by our Lord, his advanced pernicious theories led him out of the church, and now. as a substitute for 1 lie su- Ipernatural order, he is striving to erect his new edifice on. the natural order. "I'ldess the Lord shall build the house, in vain shall they labor who strive to build it." Every system religious, political and social contains certain truths which are well adapted to appeal to the public. These truths are always presented pre-sented with a pious aspect which deceives the masses. The fallacies that are interwoven with truth are so carefully concealed at first that they cannot be easily delected. They are injected in ! small drafts. There is always an appeal to man's natural selfishness, envy and dislike of their superiors. su-periors. All this, plus the love of the world, were embodied in Sunday's lecture. "Unite strength and numbers against the common enemy," when logically logic-ally carried to its last conclusion, would be a repetition repe-tition of the French revolution, which first started with the noble demand of liberty, equality and frc-tcrnity, frc-tcrnity, but which meant in reality death and destruction. de-struction. Its horrors shocked the world and gave a set back to real liberty. This same popular cry, which is impossible under existing circumstances, is tho subtle but dangerous appeal that is made today to-day to the people by socialists at home and abroad. Their entire good, end and aim lie in the natural order, and its this cannot be attained by the indiJ vidual. they arc to "unite their strength and numbers num-bers against the common enemy." The lecturer, 'ar. a socialist, would want his deluded hearers to follow fol-low nature and yield i to its instincts, while as a shepherd of the flock and following the teaching of the gospel, he told his people to resist nature. It is another instance of 'the blind leading the blind," and from recent events in Europe we may judge the nature of the "pit" that awaits "the common com-mon enemy.' Order established on-Christian principles prin-ciples they disown, and, like the lecturer before he took his exeat from the church, they attempt to press Christianity to their aid in preaching and establishing a new order, where property shall be common, where equality reigns supreme, where neither poverty nor riches shall be discussed, all possessing share and.sharc alike, and where, in fine, there shall be no rulers because there will be no one to be ruled; no laws nor legislators, because there will be no lawbreakers; no religion or religious re straint, because earthly felicity, obtainable in the natural order, is man's only good end and destiny. The lecturer "has a project on hand." All reformers reform-ers have many projects on hand. It will be set in motion in Chicago next June. It might be attempted attempt-ed this month, but the citizens of Chicago turned the lecturer down, refusing to rent him a hall, or excluding him from the hall rented for his. lecture. The prefix "Father," which served as a drawjng card in the west, was a detriment in Chicago. It is always al-ways so with those who betray their sacred calling. We make 'these remarks because the lecturer still passes as a Catholic priest after breaking away from its communion. Vale Mr. Hagerty, may God's grace enter your soul and bring you back to the fold and secred calling which you abandoned. |