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Show Sacramental Absolution Cure for Diseases of the Soul Caused by Sin By REV. SELDEN P. DELANY (Episcopal), New York. THE soul is the tenant of the body, as man is the tenant of his home. Man makes use of the improvements that science nnd invention in-vention have given him, the electric light, water systems and heating heat-ing plants. lie may move out, and when he docs his house is no longer a home it is silent" and dead. It is thus with the soul.. While it may use the brain, the body, the senses, it is not in any manner to be confused con-fused with them. This is an error of materialistic philosophers. They teach that the soul is an effulgence with which the material body glows for a time. Christianity teaches that the soul may exist apart from the body. When the soul leaves, the body dies and relapses into its component com-ponent elements. As God created the soul and infused it into the body as soon as there was a body capable of receiving it, so one day will He recall re-call it, when and as it seems best to Him. The soul is a thing apart. It has its needs ; the most insistent need? of human life, as necessary to the general well being as the foods of the flesh. It needs spiritual food the food that is to be found in the bread of life whicli came down from heaven. It needs to be cured of the diseases caused by' sin through sacramental absolution. If we carry on a persistent moral struggle against sin and doubt the soul awakes and grows. How foolish it is to ignore the needs of the soul : it is our most precious possession. Of what benefit to enjoy good health, to indulge the pleasures of the flesh, to amass a fortune or build great houses, to acquire lands, if the soul is starved and dying. When the day comes that ouf bodies have lost strength and vigor, our senses have failed us and our earthly existence drtvws to a close, what will all this avail us? What will be the condition of our souls? "What shall it profit a man if he' shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul ?" |