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Show Newspaper Miracles. U A YOtTNG man's act of devotion Q to the Mother of God quickly and generously rewarded," is the heading over a pretty little story told in the Philadelphia Standard and Times, all of which is authenticated in every detail. In the first place it relates the visit, one afternoon last week, of a young man to the church of St. John the Evangelist in that city. "Having several business engagements to keep within a short space of time, he remained but a few minutes and was hurriedly leaving the church when the thought came to .him to not depart without some act ot, devotion to the Mother of God. The young man obeyed the impulse, and after a short prayer to-Our Lady, he again turned to leave the church, when he noticed a sign over one of the contribution boxes stat-j stat-j ing that offerings would be received for the shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes in the basement of the church! Immediately Imme-diately recalling the fact that his life had been miraculously saved by the use of the water of Lourdes some years before,' when he was bleeding to death after the complete failure of the remedies reme-dies prescribed by the physician in charge, he made a contribution to the shrine as a renewal of his gratitude to Our Lady of Lourdes and departed." Now comes the second chapter of the story. After leaving the church, the young man boarded a car Which was wrecked in collision with another twenty minutes later. The story goes i on to relate that "although seated on the side of the car that was crushed, and at the point where the two cars first hit each other a position more dangerous than any other on the car the young, man escaped Avith a slight blow on the arm and a small scratch, while several other passengers on the sace side of the car were seriously injured,-two being in a critical condition. Broken glass from the vestibule of the Frankford car was showered all around him, the sharp edge of one piece falling fall-ing directly over one of the large veins of his hand without cutting it." Far be it from the Intermountain Catholic writer tofclisturb the faith of this young man in Our Lady, so long as this pious person believes it was through her intercession that he was preserved from accident while those beside him were grievously hurt. Bare recollection of the collision with its result re-sult may help him to future pious endeavor en-deavor and aid in his sanctification. In the absence of physical causes explaining explain-ing his singular escape, we may lay it to the will of God, In whose hands are life and death. Yet we think the writer in the Standard Stan-dard and Times exhibits more credulity than philosophy by. starting an im-pressiQn im-pressiQn that the life of this young man was miraculously saved by reason of his devotions in the church before boarding the car. Logically this would start another impression, i. e., that the young man would have been maimed or even killed did he not make those devotions. devo-tions. He sat in the most dangerous place in the car, according to the story. We should go slow in putting out these miraculous stories. Although the young man's position on the car may have been such as described, there are instances in every railroad accident of just such marvelous escapes. If pains were taken to investigate the matter, many of them could be based on natural, physical causes. The sun shines on the wicKed as well as upon the good, and many times the former are spared in accident while the just man surrenders his life. The other day in Wilkesbarre, Pa., an old and infirm in-firm woman was run down and killed by a street car in that city. She had just left a Polish Catholic church after attending mass. Open prayer book in hand, this pious old soul continued her devotions while crossing the street. So absorbed was she in giving thanks after Holy Communion that she did not notice a tram car bearing down on her. In a moment she was crushed and her spirit ascended to the God she had partaken of within the hour. Any other person, under like circumstances, circum-stances, would have met the same fate. Here are two stories of two devout persons, one told by the Standard and Times, the other coming by wire from a Pennsylvania city. If the one was saved through a miracle, why not the other? Our reason leads us to doubt the miracle in the first as much as it demonstrates natural causes in the second. Our faith' inclines us to hope that one was holy enough for the Kingdom at the time of her tragic death; hence her death was life everlasting. ever-lasting. The other God designs for some good purpose in life, even if it amounts to pious example only. |