CATHOLIC MISSION

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLV, Issue 138, 15 May 1925, Page 7

CATHOLIC MISSION

Weather conditions last evening did not favour the earnest Catholio people who are seriously engaged in the services of the mission.—a landmark in every life.. In such eiroumstancea it was a grand tribute to their practical faith and the earnest zeal ot the rmasioners when upwards of a thousand people assembled —the largest congregation for the week. Father McCarthy spoke feelingly in commendation of the spirit that was being displayed and encouraged all to persevere. The sermon was preached by Father McGrath and it is safe to say that seldom has such a fervid denunciation of social vices been heard in Palmerston North. The miseioner epoke as one with a message, recalling Father McCarthy’s opening proclamation “For Christ wo are Ambassadors.” The message last evening was plainly and fearlessly delivered from the text, “Woe to the world because of Scandals. It must needs be that scandals come, but nevertheless woe to the man by whom the scandals come. ” Father McGrath convincingly represented the malice of the sin that involved another’s spiritual ruin. God had said “It is not good for man to be alone.” The divine dictum had reverberated through the caverns of hell, said the speaker, and acting upon it Satan had conscripted the children of God as his allies. From the time of Adam's fall, socalled friends had been doing the devil’s work. It meant that one who had been ransomed by Jesus Christ’s redeeming blood was nullifying the purchase ratified on Calvary, by the robbing, and even the murder, of God’s great masterpiece, man’s immortal soul. A crime committed bv mean 9 of a violation of the sacred trust of friendship was the more vile. The speaker relative to this cited Oscar Wilde —‘ All men- kill the thing they love.” The first ally of Satan often was responsible for a number of accessions to his unhallowed cause. God’s appreciation of the scandal giver was manifest in the Old Testament where death by stoning was the penally and brother was directed to be the first to strike his own flesh and blood, to end the course of ruin. Christ accentuated the words of tho old laws when He suggested death —and certain death —by drowning in the depths of the sea as a happy ending of the diabolical influence of one who was a stumbling block in another's pathway to an everlasting reward. Father McGrath then descended to details, specifying the criminal hospitality of encouraging drinking among .those whV> were not strongly in possession of perfect self-control.. Drinking represented as a badge of manhood to a weaker brother was scandalous misrepresentation. The Catholio Church did not condemn the drink traffic, but advocated temperance and denounced excess. Rigorous self-mastery wa9 required and careful consideration of the weaker brethren. No man should endeavour to alter a definite “No” to proffered hospitality to a reluctant and dangerous “Yes.” The speaker dwelt on dishonesty in business saying every conspiracy in such dishonour was deserving of unrelenting censure. Many to-day were living vastly beyond their income and unholy emulation was in this way fostered. In gambling, too, there, was much evil. A man in with a wrong crowd was frequently led to such excess as to bring ruin on his home and to be placed in tho proximate danger of serious theft. Speculation within one’s means was not' condemned, but the reasonable margin was to bo recognised. “Thou shalt not steal” was the Divine ordinance: Father McGrath was entirely fair to all engaged in legitimate business of a delicate and sometimes oompromisingly character. Blame rested only on those who were the immediate and guilty causes of foreseen ruin. The seducer and tho adventuress were next assailed. Each had a terrible responsibility. Marriage arranged to cover crime was provocative of much of the sorry social conditions now obtaining. In marriage, too, God’s law was being flouted. The scandal giver was the medical quack and the unscrupulous chemist. The woman who designedly placed a kennel before a cot and undervalued child life and marriage responsibility in practice and in speech was also under God’s curse, with which the scandal giver was threatened. Neglect of personal duty was a serious aspect of modern life. Children wero often untrained, many parents wero not real fathers and mothers, home was only a place to live where neither counsel nor example conduced to high ideals. Father McGrath urged all to look into their lives and see to it that the dread responsibility of another’s ruin was not laid to their charge, either by culpable, negligence or by suggesting or facilitating the violation of God’s law.