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Show PRIEST SHARPLY ASSAILS DIVORCE The lecture on "Marriage" by the Rev. Father Gueymard in the basement of the new Catholic cathedral on Sunday evening even-ing drew an audience that was not only remarkable for numbers but for the variety vari-ety in the character of those attending. Babes in arms, cooing and laughing up ut young parents, tottering old men and women, straining with aged, dulled ears to catch the speaker's words, fashionably fashion-ably dressed matrons crowding meek little lit-tle women with shabby shawls over their heads, laborers in corduroys sitting beside be-side faultlessly dressed youths, all were represented in the thousand people who crowded into the bare, cellarlike place of worship to listen not only to a - gifted speaker but to the commands of the Roman Ro-man Catholic church as regards one of the most important of the sacraments. The lecture and musical program were under the auspices of the Knights of Co-, lumbus and given as an additional treat, the musical program was rarely enjoyable, enjoy-able, both solo and chorus work being exceptionally fine. Ilev. Father Gueymard began his address ad-dress by mentioning the quality of the memBer'ship and the purpose of the organization or-ganization of the Knights of Columbus. He mentioned among the objects of the society the open profession of the Catholic Cath-olic faith, the popularizing of Catholic teaching and the breaking down of any barrier of prejudice and the dispelling of any misunderstanding that may exist in non-Catholic minds against Catholic institutions, in-stitutions, through the practice of charitable char-itable acts, by exhibition of good feeling and kindness and by friendly relations with their fellow citizens. He then spoke of the great esteem, veneration and affection af-fection in which Bishop Scanlan is held throughout the west by Catholic and non-Catholic non-Catholic alike. Coming to his subject. Father Gueymard Guey-mard said that views on marriage which he was giving were not, strictly speaking. Catholic views, inasmuch as they might be applied as well to any Christian family fam-ily without respect to creed. He said, in prt: "My dear friends, as simple as the ceremonv might be. as unpretentious as poverty might make it. that act by which a man and woman become united is one of the most solemn, most beautiful and in its consequences the most far-reaching compact to which two mortals could enter, en-ter, both as regards thefr individual position posi-tion in life and their duties and responsibilities responsi-bilities as citizens of a state and members of society. The Divorce Evil. "Show me a community where family life is regular, where everything breathes an atmosphere of order and virtue, and I shall show you a community where law is supreme, where political principles are righteous and where social lifp is virtuous. vir-tuous. Thei-e will be disorderly members mem-bers here and there, just as there are freaks of nature -evervwhere, but they will stand like the few distorted limbs in a well pruned grove, or will lie like the neglected pools on the banks of a living stream. But show me : a community where families are vicious, criminal or immoral, and I shall draw you a sketch of an earthly hell and picture for you the nearest semblance of damnation. And the family, my friends, is primarily constitutor consti-tutor in that act of marriage when a man and woman stand before an'altar and pledge their bodv and soul with the natural nat-ural fruirs thereof to each other's keeping. keep-ing. Here is a foundation stone in the temple of state, a piiiar in tne social edifice, edi-fice, an ornament in the house of God. If weakness, faithlessness and fickleness are the consulting architects, then the winds of nassion will wreck the temple, th" edifice! as if it were a house of cards. If thes" consecrated ties are so binding, if it is" so essential that these promises be so sincere, if it is so important that these obligations be so serious, if a disintegration dis-integration of this union be such a menace men-ace is it not right that the church should condemn this want of fidelity to sworn nromies that she should frown coldly on this absence of fealty and loyalty exhibited ex-hibited in divorce courts and in those remarriages re-marriages that turn the sublime scene into the stage settings of a farce? ' "Put you with your wealth of worldly wisdom with vour knowledge gathered nerhans from a quickly generated money-making money-making literature with a judgment framed on a basis of a selfish individual enjoyment, enjoy-ment, or perhaps with a better sentiment senti-ment your sympathy for those who. thou-h carelesslv- vet innocently have formed unhappy" all'ances-you may answer an-swer 'But if thev have not found their affinitv if those two hearts no longer beat as one. if their nature, temperament anri dinosition are discoraant.' I might answer Pm the words of St Matthew. fVhat God has bound together let no man nut asunder.' I might quote from p'uil the ' apostle. 'For the woman that hath an husband whilst husband livest is bound to the law; but if her husband be dead she is loosed from her husband. I mismt quote your own words, spoken with trembtfnR Hos at the altar. 'I take therm- mv lawful wife, to have and to hold from this dav forward, for better for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and i . health, till death do us part.' I niisht show how this very obligation has raK-ed woman to the commanding position he now holds when man. stronger by nature na-ture more rugged, more independent, driven m? stronger passions, must recog-rize recog-rize in her not the wanton whom he may east off with a shrug, a thing to be used momentarily and then shunned, but the mother of his children, the angel .of his household, the sharer in his fortunes, bv whom he must abide as long as a spark of honor haunts his manly breast, and vet I shall -simolv answer that this is a solemn contract, and the most valuable matter of the contract has already been delivered an object that, once given, cannot can-not be recalled, that, once transferred, hath lost its luster and dissipated its fragrance fra-grance a woman's innocence, a woman's purity has already been delivered. Yes, you hedge yourself around with precautions, precau-tions, you consult learned attorneys and draw up lengthy written documents to safeguard a few paltrv dollars and then with an inexorable will and the power of the law behind you. you exact from your brother the price of the bond, even though penury should stare him in the face. And yet you would idly, you would flippantly break and shatter at will and with trivial triv-ial cause this highest and holiest obligation, obli-gation, bred in love and nurtured bv sacrifice, sac-rifice, and in whose keeping is all that a life is worth living for. "But. if it be. as it sometimes has been and will be. that this incompatibility has been discovered, and admitted bv "both, that coolness and indifference have taken the place of warm affection, that bv serious disagreement this married life has been robbed of its charms, that an aversion aver-sion born of cruelty, neglect and desertion deser-tion has made of those sworn lovers strangers and enemies, then I sav, nor God nor man nor church nor state shall hold together in the intimate relations of life those that pain and sorrow bid must part. The church does not countenance injustice, the church cannot force affection, affec-tion, the church does not demand that one should either, in justice or charity, drink the nectared sweet from the poisoned poison-ed cup iffered by a faithless hand. And yet the church, as the guardian of society, the protector of the common good, the church to preserve order and to restrain re-strain unthlnkingness. rashness and follv. says, 'You shall pay the penalty inasmuch as you shall not choose another life partner part-ner until one be laid in the grave, where you promised by solemn oath that the bonds alone should be severed. "And. my friepds, from reading the daily papers, fronj your knowledge of the scandals of divorce courts, from the recklessness reck-lessness with which homes are destroyed, do you not think it were wise if individj-als individj-als should, if need be. immolate .hem-selves .hem-selves on the altar of love that they themselves have raised, that they should be called upon to practice patience, forbearance for-bearance and self-sacrifice than that this confusion and chaos should . reign as a menace to society and a danger to the families of the nation? "Which had you rather believe when you accompany that darling sister or that child of your heart to the altar to give her with tearful eyes into other arms and another . embrace, that she shall be fixed in the affections af-fections of her life and shall enjoy en-joy the peace of one who has reached the dearest goal of her maidenly dreams, or that she shall walk up a bride in whose heart already the tumultuous passions pas-sions breed a storm that will unsettle her life until she wanders from threshold to threshold, the plaything of any man's desires de-sires to whom the winds, of fancy carry her? . "As a parting word I say to you daughters daugh-ters of the nation: When listening to the siren voice of a deluding liberty you shall sink into that social maelstrom, dragging your honor with you beneath the waves of passion and drowning the voice of virtue; when applauding and approving social theories that shall unset un-set you from the high throne of man's respect and esteem; when you shall have become a merketable commodity, to be bought and sold at the price of a judgment judg-ment in a civil court, then it shall be the time for some golden tongue to adapt to you women and to your mournful state these warning words of Burke deploring in an agony of sorrow the loss of chiv alry in a land that would cruelly insult and outrage its reigning queen: , $ "'I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she just began to move in, like the morning star full of life and joy. Oh what a revolution and what a heart must we have to contemplate without emotion that elevation and that fall! Little Lit-tle did we dream when she added titles of veneration to those of enthusiastic distant dis-tant and respectful love, that she alfould ever be obliged to carry the sharp antidote anti-dote against disgrace concealed In her bosom; little did we dream that we should see such disasters fallen upon a nation of gallant men of honor and cavaliers. We thought ten thousand swords would leap from their scabbards to avenge a look that threatened her. with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone and that of sophistes, economists and Calculators has succeeded, and the glory of civilization is extinguished forever. All the decent drapery of life Is to be nudely torn off, all the superadded ideas furnished from the wardrobe of a moral imagination are to be exploded as a ridiculous, absurd and antiquated fashion. On this scheme of things a. queen is but a woman, a woman is but an animal, and an animal not of the highest order. All homage paid to the sex as such and without distinct views is to be iegarded - as romance and follv. fol-lv. "And when this time rings, daughters of the nation, you shall once more oling to the cross, and once more, through its saving power, be glorified and sacred in' the ejes of men." The following musical program, under the direction of Miss Nora Gleasom was carried out: - . ; Vespers : Gregorian "Veni Creator Spiritus" Giorza J. W. Curtis "Ave Maria" La Hache Mrs. Corlnne Hammer and Miss " Kathleen Fitzpatrick "O Salutaris"' Ganss Miss Kathleen Fitzpatrick (Violin onligato. Edward Fitz-riclO Fitz-riclO "Tantum Ergo" Rossi "Laudate . Dominum" Rosewlg . Mrs Corinne Hammer, soloist. Te Deum Hadyn -; TT : ': " |