A SERMON ON BAD BOOKS, BY THE REV. FATHER CASSIDY.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XII, Issue 20, 5 September 1884, Page 23

A SERMON ON BAD BOOKS, BY THE REV. FATHER CASSIDY.

(Napier Daily Telegraph.) "And their speech spreadeth like a cancer."— Epistle Timothy 11, ii. eh., 17 v. This is the age of advancement— the reign of progress— tbe century of invention. It is a time when the mind aad will of man look round for new fields of activity, new scenes of labour, pnsiing the limits of their knowledge and desires farther and farther into the realms of the unexplored and inexperienced. Steam and electricity, science and art, literature and wealth are all progressing Activity is the reigning power. The dash and go-a-head of the men of the present day is a source of admiration for ourselves, and would he a cause of astonishment for those who have not long since passed away. The human mind, surrounded with all the glory of past experience, and buoyed up by the enlightenment it daily receives from countless sources of information, is showing great signs of 'its superiority over the mind of all preceding centuries. The mind of the human race, like the mind of the individual, has its iofancy, its youth, its manhood. Long ago it started on its mission from the terminus of Eternity, slowly and slowly it has crawled along the track, increasing its speed and noise as it hurries along, belching forth the smoke and fire of passion, pride, and power gathered over the railway of experience running back into the dim hazy past of many thousand years. Thus, like the individual, the mind of the human race has had its infancy and youth, but it has already crossed the threshold of both, and stands free and disenthralled on the broad plains of glorious manhood, under tbe full blaze of liberty and light, ■with all its faculties for good or evil completely under its control, and perfectly capable of extending their influence where grace or passion may lead them along. Thus the mind of the human race has grown stronger and stronger, and its powers of doing evil have grown stronger too. But amid the many ways at present under its control of bringing scandal over the land, of spreading sin and immorality, of destroying every virtue, of corrupting the young, debilitating the Btrong, and sending down the old to unhallowed graves ; of robbing the family of peace, society of stability, heaven of citizens ; of ruining, in a word, the glorious destiny of human race, there is no stronger, surer, or more expeditious way of doingall this than the propagation of infidel, scandalous, and immoral books. The enemies of God and man know this well.i They are fully aware of the power that printing and publishing places at their disposal, and they struggle earnestly to carry out their tsrrible propaganda of ruin and misfortune with great determination and advanced skill. Their work is already manifest all over the world ; in the capital, or in the solitary village among the mountains ; in the palaces of the rich, or amid the ruins of misery and poverty that fill the sickening homes of the friendless and the poor. Let us, then, summon before the tribunal of human justice the writers of these scandalous productions ; let us lift the curtain that their brilliant sentences or glowing imagination may have thrown upon them, and look round us in life to witness the evil they may have scattered over the land. Among the authors of bad books we must draw a distinction, for should we declare them all equally guilty we should be treating them unjustly. We should distinguish authors who respect some sacred relics of truth, some principles of sanctification. from authors who despise them all. We should not place in the same rank those who shake some ornamental pillars of the sacred temple of liberty and truth with those who strive to level it stone by stone. There are writers who pretend to believe and who exert themselves" in making others believe that there is no God, who look upon life as the outcome of Nature, the last stroke of fatality, the bottled sunshine of Wiu wood Beade ; who say there is no such thing as good or evil, that it is only the result of convenience of associations and ideas ; who laugh to scorn the existence of another life once we have shuffiad off this mortal coil, and say when we are dead all is dead for us and dead for ever. There are other writers who endeavour to destioy the Divinity of Christianity, though they recognise a Divinity of some sort or other. But both are guilty of many crimes that cry aloud to heaven for vengeance, and crimes that must eventually bring upon the perpetrators the curse of God and the odium of all good men. Let us weigh them in the balance of iniquity, place them on the criminal list where they deserve, and grieve over thi malice of the sin they are guilty of. it is a sin to take away from our neighbour the fruit of his hard.earned honest toil, though forced by friends or passion to do 80 ; it is a sin to rob a man of his good name, to take from him what gold or silver cannot buy, to wring his heart with sorrow, and disturb his lonely moments with thoughts of bitter anguish ; it is a sin to drive away the noble image of God from our soul, and to drown the dignity, the liberty, and glory of human nature in the goblet of intemperance. Oh, that cursed sin of intemperance ! What horrors do not rise up vividly before us at its very thought 1 How painful for us who have eyes to see and hearts to feel to witness the terrible ravages it makes on happiness and peace ; to see it diiving away the little ones from the cruel father or mother, terrified at their very approach, or draining the heart's blood of the devoted husband, wife, or friend, seeing them wither like the lily before the blast of the fast approaching winter, forcing them into untimely graves, and leaving everything in misery and ruin along its track. There, too, the ;*reat sin of murder, that ciime that cries to Heaven for vengeance, that stifles in our hearts every sentiment of compassion for the guilty one, that fills us with horror, freezes the blood in our veins, or swells us with indignation --murder, that crime that brands the guilty one with tbe seal of Cain, filling his heart with a horror of himself, and feelings of undying remorse that time or place cannot change or annihilate, leaving the terrible image of his guilt always before him. There is ever floating before his restless eyes the lifeless body, cold and motionless, silent and dead ; there are the gaping wounds, there is the last faint struggle for life stamped upon the features, there is the cry for mercy that reached the murderer's ears in vaiu. It may have been a widow's only son. Look at the lifelesß form, that the broken-hearted mother almost

worships, by the wayside. The pride and support is gone ; the cruel hand has robbed her of her beloved one. She gazes on him, but his eyes do not reflect her image, as in other days ; she grasps the hand she so often pressed or kissed with motherly love, but it does not answer a mother's affection. No, he is gone for ever, he who was her glory and her hope, over whose cradle she sang many a sweet lullaby or prayed many a fervent prayer. We are enraged against the murderer of tbe body, and yet we should feel more incensed at the murderer of the soul. For the life of the soul exceeds ia point of excellence that of the body as much as Heaven does the earth. The soul was made for Heaven, it came from Heaven, it is fed from Heaven, while the body is from the dust, made of the dust, and destined to return to ifc. The human soul is the image of God : it is consequently the perfection of all his His works, the brightest gem of His intelligence, the fairest effort of His love. And as it resembles Him more than all created things. He consequently love 3it more than all the rest, and will punish with just but terrible punishment the murderer of that soul, who takes away its heavenly life by inducing it to commit sin, thereby breaking the link that binds the young, innocent h^art to Heaven and God, leading it by the fiendish hands of crime past the threshold of innocence, and flinging it out on an ocean of misfortune and Borrow, the sure forerunner of greater misfortunes and sorrows to come. But, greater than these, than all other crimes, is that crime that that murderer of eoul and body, that emissary of Satan, commits, who studies with might and main to overthrow the firßt principles of revealed truth, who employs all his talents, science, and aoility >to drive away every thought of God and His existence from the human mind, to render the passion of man more violent, to open up the road of .systematic immorality and scatter broad-cast the germs of ruin and spiritual death all around. The writer of an infidel book is then a murderer, since he destroys all thought of responsibility and ignores the existence of good or evil, or any snch thing as crime, and is the cause of often driving others to be guilty of taking away innocent life. The ordinary murderer's hand is short ; it cannot do its work of destruction but in the limited sweep of it 3 limited powers. But the writer of bad books stretches his guilty hand all over the world, staining it with blood, and blackening it with gloom. Ordinary malefactors finish their career of sin and impiety at death. When life is over their crimes are over too. But the author of bad books is ever living in his work, and comes thundering down the centuries to poison posterity. The writer of bad books is not only a murderer, but a malefactor, guilty of every crime, since he tries to destroy the belief in the existence of God, the existence of future punishment, and so removes every barrier against sin and every check to immorality. But these authors and their admirers may tell us that, in writing these books, they only give to the world their earnest and confirmed opinion, and that opinion excluded the belief in God's existence and ignored all religion. But let us ask them is that their theory, their opinion and nothing more, and in forcing that opinion on tbe world did they believe they would improve the world in mercy, justice, or truth, or that people would be better without any religion or'any belief in God ? Did they believe they would thereby advance the world's prosperity, that they would secure more peace among the nations, more justice among individuals, more happiness in the family, more charity towards all men ? Did they ignore completely the history of man ? or put into the balance and find wanting the immortal geniuses of religious faith, the giant minds of Christendom who have shed a halo of glory all over the human race, and who have been placed here and there to guide succeeding nations ? The most renowned in science, literature, and art were pillars of religious light and ambassadors of charity. Yet they believed 1 But you may say your infidel arguments are strong, but have you not found the arguments of these men stronger still 1 You say you have shown the world the difficulties of the systems of belief they advanced, but have you not experienced more difficulties in your own ? And, in the midst of the whirl of life, have you not sometimes felt astonished and shocked at the very lines your hand had lately traced 1 Have you not sometimes believed you were resisting the united voice oil genius and worth, that you were fighting against the faith of the human race, the cry of conscience, throwing your genius, your talent, and your life on the track of a scandalous singula'ity, risking your eternity, and offering the greatest inducement to crime ? Such is the crime the Atheistical author is guilty of. Other writers do not go so far. They admit a Divinity of some sort and a religion. But, at the same time, they can find nothing to satisfy their wishes, and wish to remodel all religions or substitute for them a fabrication of their own. But let us ask them to invent a religion more salutary, more charitable, more consolinst, better adapted to satisfy all the requirements of the mind or heart of man than the true religion of Christ, taught and practised in all its entirety just as it was given. Authors and men of this class call themselves Deists ; they do not wish to be numbered among the dark-souled Atheists of the age. They are Athiests in reality, though Deists in theory, since they have no fixed faith or code of morality ; they avoid no sin, practice no virtue, follow no external display of religious belief, and soon become Indifferentists, and from Indifferentists degenerate into men without faith, hope, or charity. Get a nation composed of men of that Btamp, and what a nation must that become, when away from it disappears morality and law, away passes justice and truth, away goes liberty and submission, away goes every social and domestic virtue, and then stretch your imagination over a heap of glorious ruins. Look at a pagan nation in a pagan world. Witness her crimes and her abominations, and weep over the wreck of everything beautiful and good. But you may say that to write or publish books of any description gives an impetus to research, develops the beauties of the human mind, draws on the writer the attention of the world, becomes a branch of commerce, and so contributes to the prosperity of the State. But it is not glory or anxiety for the general good that could drive men to write or publish bad books. It is glory to cultivate the beautiful in Nature, to trace Nature up to its Author, and to make it move us to serve Him better or to love Him more. Buch is the noble work of the painter, viator, the musician, the sculptor, and should their efforts, instead of turning us to God, turn us in the other

direction, then they do not work for glory, but work its very destruction. So there can be no glory in circulating or writing bad books, nor can any benefit come to society or the State either. Prosperity does not consist in wealth, or luxury, or money, thrown into the many shapes and forms it can assume. The greatest of all wealth is heaped up in the perfection of the moral aud intellectual life of the inhabitants of a country, and when we promote the grandeur of these lives, or save them from ruin and destruction, it is then we are the genuine frieads of the nation. Thus tho true religion is the safest guarantee of prosperity, for commerce advances by honesty, by tha practice of truth, by honour, that can only be kept alive by religion. It is religion that in a great measure keeps down unreasonable prices, prevents the violation of contracts, keeping men from acquiring wealth by crooked and unfair ways, bringing ruin, not only on the family, but finally on the State. So much for the authors and. propagators of bad books. Now a word about their readers. The readers of bad books have many excuses for so doing. Some read bad books from curiosity, others through a Jove of the fine style, others are struck with the novelty of the production, and judge it a necessity to be acquainted with books that make such a noise in the world ; others read that they may see the other side of the question, sb they say. But thefe excuses are often dangerous and vain. You read a bad book full of false arguments and calumnies against religion pnt in a very delicate but forcible and attractive way, it soon throws a cloud of difficulties or doubts before your mind, it shows you the dark spot, but it does not tall you bow the light can be thrown upon it ; it presents the difficulty, but it does not unfold its solution ; it overwhelms you with a calumny, but it never tells you' how and where it has been refuted, and thus it will darken the light of faith, though it may not eclipse it for ever. And the sun of light and truth that radiates from faith and charity may not yet be set ; still that light will henceforth be growing dim, for faith is the germ of the soul's life, and conviction is the support of faith, and as these convictions grow weaker so does faith grow weaker too, till common sense steps in to decide the difficulty. But common sense in matters of religion is only common nonsense. It was common sense made Eve eat the forbidden fruit, and it would have been wiser to have left it alone ; it was common sense that drove men long ago to build the Tower of Babel, and they made a mistake ; it was common sense drove the people of bright and polished France to put on the throne a fallen woman, and worship her as divine, and we know the horrors of the Revolution. And so that common sense, that drives some people to read bad books under the pretence of knowing all about Christianity, is common nonsense also. Christianity does not wish to be nnknown ; it loves the lisjht of day ; it can stand the severest test ; it has braved the most terrific storms ;it does not blush for its origin, its doctrine, its propagation, its conquests. Is it afraid of Fcience ? No, the greatest scientists are its very children. Is it afraid of philosophy or modern research ? No, they only heap fresh glories npon it. Is it afraid of any human test 1 No, for it has been tried in the balance over and over again, and has never yet been shown to be wanting. Do not let common sense deceive you about the utility or necessity of reading bad books. Look at the havoc 9uch reading has done all over the world ; look at the prisons, the hospitals ; look at the broken-hearted fathers and mothers that bad books have rebbed of their most affectionate little ones ; look at that dead body of that young man by the wayside, with the empty revolver lying near, and could those poor lips but tell you the secret of the sad catastrophe, they would say it was bad books. I conjure you, then, by all the misery of soul and body that reading bad books has ever done ; I conjure you by the untimely graves of so many fair women and brave men ; I conjure you by thft sleepless nights, the days of cruel anguish that have tortured so many generous souls ; I conjure you by the brdken-hearted fathers and mothers of the world ; I conjure you by the Saviour's passion and death, never to read or lend any book that may ruin your faith, hope, or charity, but to read those that remind you of heaven and help you there.