The Girdle of Self-Control
Deny Thyself
I. What remarkable words are those which St. Paul addressed to the Corinthians: "I chastise my body and bring it into subjection, lest perhaps when I have preached to others, I myself should become a castaway." Thus we see that it is possible for a man who had converted entire nations to the Christian faith to lose his soul if he did not keep his body in strict subjection. This severity in regard to the body is to no one more necessary than to the young man. How is this?
Behold, two rival hosts are opposed to one another in war. That one which by superior courage and bravery destroys the other, or puts it to flight, is the victor In a similar manner do evil inclinations and sinful desires, which are opposed to the law of God, stir within the heart of the young man. If during the period of youth these inclinations and desires are resisted and overcome, that is to say, are not indulged and yielded to, then will the body itself gradually become less unruly, and finally quite tame. But he, on the contrary, who permits himself to be carried away by sensual desires while he is young, will find it more difficult every year to resist them.
In regard to this self-control and self-denial, lay to heart the words of the Redeemer: "If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself." Do not these words teach us, with no uncertain utterance, that without self-denial it is not possible to follow Christ? Or how can you imitate Jesus Christ, live in accordance with His teaching, and at the same time do that which flatters sensuality, and is pleasing to the corrupt desires of the heart? Never can you do this, for here we may quote what Christ has said in another place: "No man can serve two masters." To be zealous and faithful in the service of Jesus Christ, and at the same time to indulge the flesh, and follow the pernicious maxims of the world, is a sheer impossibility; it is equally impossible to turn to the east, and at the same time to face the west.
3. Do not therefore take alarm, my dear young friend, if I earnestly exhort you to learn how to practise self-denial and renunciation. Every one of those lawful pleasures, so dear to the young, shall be permitted you, but I only wish to keep far from you those which might do you harm, for I am full of affectionate solicitude for your welfare. Wherein are you to deny yourself, what are you to renounce? The answer is brief and runs thus: First of all you are to renounce whatever is forbidden; you must refuse it, and hold yourself entirely aloof from it. But among all those things which are forbidden, I will here make a brief mention of only three; things which young people in the present day are most unwilling to renounce and deny themselves, but which forge, for the rising generation, iron fetters of the most degrading slavery, and indeed threaten to precipitate them into the yawning abyss of moral and material ruin. These three things are: Inordinate love of pleasure, the lust of the flesh, and covetousness or greed of money; renounce them all.
4. Renounce the love of pleasure. This is in a very special manner the plague of these times. Eating and drinking, pleasure trips, picnics, balls, concerts, and theaters - after such things does the greater number of young men in the present day yearn and strive. Everywhere we hear the piteous cry that young people no longer care to work, but only t? enjoy themselves; and the plague of this inordinate love of pleasure no longer dwells in cities only, but spreads more and more in country districts, and even extends its ravages to remote villages. Do you, my friend, take heed while yet there is time; beware of indulging this love of pleasure.
Renounce, moreover, the lust of the flesh. If love of enjoyment wields the scepter, it is no marvel if other vices become more prevalent, if sins against holy purity are more frequently committed; the former is the cause of the latter. To this end contribute also the universal hankering after luxury, instability of faith, immoral reading, indecent pictures, statues, and engravings, dread of work, idleness, and bad examples.
Renounce in the third place the insatiable greed of money. This is closely connected with the love of pleasure. For he who is determined to enjoy himself, to indulge all his desires, must have money, must find a way of getting it in any manner whatsoever. Hence comes the striving and struggling, the longing and reaching after money and goods, which rules the mind, turning it away from God and divine things, and chaining it to the wretched dust of earth.
5. Renounce it, conquer yourself! Do this at first in little things. For you know that he who desires to fit himself for military service must first participate in many minor maneuvers. The same principle applies to the spiritual warfare.
Without continual conquest of self, without constant self-denial, no other virtue, no true happiness, can be attained. "The greater violence thou offerest to thyself, the greater progress thou wilt make," says the author of the "Imitation." You must take upon yourself day by day the cross of self-denial, of renunciation, not only in order to live an upright life, but also in order to be happy.
To conquer himself the Christian is bound,
But what a difficult task this is found!
The battle is long, the struggle is sore;
The victor's guerdon is joy evermore.
Take up thy cross
The gentle author of the "Imitation" says:
"To many this seemeth a hard saying "Deny thyself, take up thy cross, and follow Jesus."
"But it will be much harder to hear that last word: 'Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire.'
"For they who now love to hear and follow the word of the cross shall not then fear the sentence of eternal condemnation.
"This sign of the cross shall be in heaven, when the Lord shall come to judge.
"Then all the servants of the cross, who in their lifetime have conformed themselves to Him that was crucified, shall come to Christ their Judge with great confidence.
"Why, then, art thou afraid to take up thy cross, which leadeth to the kingdom?
"In the cross is salvation; in the cross is strength of mind; in the cross is joy of spirit.
"There is no health of soul, nor hope of eternal life, but in the cross.
"Take up, therefore, thy cross, and follow Jesus, and thou shalt go into life everlasting.
"He is gone before thee carrying His own cross; and He died for thee upon the cross that thou mayst also bear thy cross and love to die on the cross.
"Because if thou die with Him thou shalt also live with Him, and if thou art His companion in suffering thou shalt also partake in His glory (2 Cor. i. 7).
"Behold the cross is all, and in dying to thyself all consists, and there is no other way to life and to true internal peace but the holy way of the cross and of daily mortification.
"Go where thou wilt, seek what thou wilt, and thou shalt not find a higher way above, nor a safer way below, than the way of the holy cross.
"Dispose and order all things according as thou wilt and as seems best to thee, and thou wilt still find something to suffer, either willingly or unwillingly, and so thou shalt still find the cross.
"For either thou shalt feel pain in.the body, or sustain in thy soul tribulation of spirit.
"Sometimes thou shalt be left by God, other times thou shalt be afflicted by thy neighbor, and what is more, thou shalt often be a trouble to thyself.
"Neither canst thou be delivered or eased by any remedy, or comfort, but as long as it shall please God thou must bear it.
"For God willeth that thou learn to suffer tribulation without comfort, and wholly submit thyself to Him, and become more humble by tribulation.
"Thou canst not escape the cross, whithersoever thou runnest; for wheresoever thou goest, thou earnest thyself with thee, and shalt always find thyself.
"And everywhere thou must of necessity hold fast patience, if thou desirest inward peace, and wouldst merit an eternal crown.
"If thou carry the cross willingly, it will carry thee and bring thee to thy desired end; to wit, to that place where there will be an end of suffering, though here there will be no end.
"If thou carry it unwillingly, thou makest it a burthen to thee and loadest thyself the more, and nevertheless thou must bear it.
"If thou fling away one cross, without doubt thou shalt find another and perhaps a heavier.
"Dost thou think to escape that which no mortal ever could avoid? What saint was there ever in the world without his cross and affliction?
"Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself was not for one hour of His life without the anguish of His passion. 'It behooved/ said He, 'that Christ should suffer, and rise from the dead, and so enter into His glory.'
"And how dost thou seek another way than this royal way, which is the way of the holy cross?
"The grace of Christ can and does effect such great things in frail flesh, that what it naturally abhors and flies, even this, through fervor of spirit, it now embraces and loves.
"To bear the cross, to love the cross, to chastise the body and bring it under subjection; to fly honors, to be willing to suffer reproaches, to despise oneself and wish to be despised; to bear all adversities and losses, and to desire no prosperity in this world, are not according to man's natural inclination.
"If thou look upon thyself, thou canst do nothing of this of thyself.
"But if thou confide in the Lord, strength will be given thee from heaven and the world and the flesh shall be made subject to thee.
"Neither shalt thou fear thine enemy, the devil, if thou be armed with faith and signed with the cross of Christ.
"Set thyself, then, like a good and faithful servant of Christ, to bear manfully the cross of thy Lord, crucified for the love of thee.
"Drink of the chalice of thy Lord lovingly, if thou desirest to be His friend and to have part with Him.
"Leave consolations to God, to do with them as best pleaseth Him.
"St. Paul says: 'I reckon that the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come, that shall be revealed in us' (Rom. viii. 18).
"And St. Peter exhorts us: 'Dearly beloved, think not strange the burning heat, which is to try you, as if some new thing happened to you; but if you partake of the sufferings of Christ, rejoice that when His glory shall be revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy." (i Peter iv. 12, 13).
"Our Lord Himself cries out to us: 'lake up My yoke upon you, and learn of Me, because I am meek and humble of heart and you shall find rest to your souls' (Matt, xl 29).
"Know for certain that thou must lead a dying life, and the more a man dies to himself the more he begins to live to God.
"No man is fit to comprehend heavenly things who has not resigned himself to suffer adversities for Christ.
"Nothing is more acceptable to God, nothing more wholesome for thee in this world, than to suffer willingly for Christ.
"And if thou wert to choose, thou oughtst to wish rather to suffer adversities for Christ than to be delighted with many comforts, because thou wouldst thus be more like unto Christ and more conformable to all the saints.
"For our merit and the advancement of our state consist not in having many sweetnesses and consolations, but rather in bearing great afflictions and tribulations.
"If, indeed, there had been anything better and more beneficial to man's salvation than suffering, Christ certainly would have showed it by word and example.
"For He manfully exhorts both His disciples that followed Him and all that desire to follow Him to bear the cross, saying: 'If any one will come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me." (Luke ix. 23).
"So that when we have read and searched all let this be the final conclusion, that through many tribulations we must enter to the kingdom of God." (Acts xiv. 21). Thomas X Kempis, bk. ii, c. xii.
2. Do you especially, my young friend, mark the words of Holy Writ: "It is good for a man when he hath borne the yoke (the cross) from his youth" (Lam. iii. 27).
Wherefore, take the cross which the Lord has destined for you; desire no other, and learn to bear it in your youth, for then it will gradually appear to you to be light and sweet. But it is absolutely necessary for you to learn to bear two things: humiliations and injuries.
3. Bear humiliations. It is obvious that in order to do this, you must possess and practise true humility. Without this, no salvation is possible for you.
Without humility you can not be a disciple of Him who said: "Learn of Me, because I am meek and humble of heart." If you are destitute of humility, you can possess no other virtue? for humility is the foundation of all virtues, according to the admonition of St. Augustine: "If thou dost desire to erect a spiritual edifice, resolve above all things to found it in humility."
Without humility you can neither be pleasing to God, nor obtain the pardon of your sins, or the acceptance of your prayers. For we are told in Holy Writ: "A contrite and humbled heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise," and, "The prayer of him that humbleth himself shall pierce the clouds."
4. Do not say that humility degrades a young man; that he will be despised if he is meek and humble. On the contrary, what really degrades a young man, and causes him to be laughed at, and makes him appear small, mean, ridiculous, and pitiable, is pride and arrogance. Look around you and see how true this is. When a young man is full of himself, shows himself an egotist; when he is conceited and vainglorious; when he is inordinately ambitious, striving constantly after places of honor and petty distinctions; when he looks down upon the poor and lowly and fawns upon the rich and powerful; when he ascribes his talents and good qualities, his success and prosperity, only to himself or plumes himself upon an imaginary greatness; when he acts like a snob, shows contempt of others, and is domineering in his conduct; when he holds his head very high and stalks about in his finery as peacocks do; when he indulges in boastful conversation, usurps the largest share of the talk, is self-opinionated, and raves like a fool as- soon as he is opposed or contradicted, is not all this very mean, truly ridiculous, vulgar, and pitiable? It is only true humility which makes men great in the sight of God and of their fellow-men.
Our Lord Himself has assured us that: "He that exalteth himself shall be humbled; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted" (Luke xiv. 11). And we are admonished by the Holy Spirit: "Do thy works in meekness (humility) and thou shalt be beloved above the glory of men" (Ecclus. iii. 19). Strive, therefore, to be truly humble, for then you will be able to bear humiliations.
5. Learn, moreover, to bear injuries and unpleasantnesses. You must inevitably meet with such, but you will only be able to bear them, and bear them with patience, if the daughter of humility dwells within your heart - I mean meekness or gentleness.
Never allow yourself to be drawn into quarrels and strife I And if you are quarrel some by nature, if you belong to those unfortunate characters which are very touchy, which are hasty and irascible, which bluster and scold, which chatter noisily and thoughtlessly all the livelong day, do you, for the sake of the meekness and gentleness of Christ, learn to control yourself under circumstances of irritation; hold yourself back, be not abusive, learn at least to be silent; in a word, endure
The important influence which this power of endurance or self-control will have upon your later life, you can not as yet fully estimate, though you may perhaps have some idea of it. Important, indeed, will its influence prove in the family circle, in your intercourse with your neighbors, in the community, in business, and in public life when you are called upon to take an active share in political affairs. And what will be the reward of this patient endurance when you enter upon eternity.
6. St. Philip Neri one day asked Brother Bernardin Corna, who belonged to his congregation: "Bernardin, the Pope wants to make me a cardinal; what do you think of that?" The Brother replied in all simplicity: "Father, I think this dignity ought not to be refused, for the sake of our congregation." Gravely, and full of holy enthusiasm, St. Philip rejoined: "But paradise, Bernardin, paradise!" The latter immediately answered: "Forgive me, Father, I did not think of that!"
Alas, thus it is! "I did not think of that, I did not think of heaven!" Such must be the confession of many a Christian, many a young man who will not learn to bear humiliations and injuries. But do you think often of heaven, and learn to bear and forbear learn to be meek and humble of heart.
Resist the evil, do no wrong,
Learn to suffer and be strong;
Unless the passions be restrained
Abiding peace can not be gained.
An Unpleasant Subject - intemperance - Total abstinence
I. Xenophon, the Greek historian, in one of his writings, relates the following incident: When Cyrus, who at a later period became king of Persia, was only twelve years old he was sent to reside at the court of his grandfather Astyages, king of Media. After a time the king noticed that his youthful grandson never drank wine, and he spoke to him on the subject. Cyrus answered: "I am afraid there is poison in the wine cup. For on the occasion of thy birthday, not long since, I plainly perceived that poison had been mingled with the goblets of wine." "How earnest thou to think of such a thing, my child?" queried Astyages. Cyrus replied: "I saw that all who drank out of them became mentally and physically incapacitated. At first you all talked, every one at the same time, very noisily and incoherently, so that no one could understand what his neighbor said, though we boys have been forbidden to behave in this manner. Then you all tried to sing, and the song seemed to please you, though it was extremely absurd. Every one boasted of his strength, and yet, when you stood up in order to dance, you could not even keep on your feet. Thou didst not behave as becomes a king, nor did the guests behave as becomes subjects."
2. Thus did the youthful Cyrus depict in forcible language the immediate consequences of excess in the consumption of alcoholic drinks. And in this chapter I desire to warn you against the evil effects of intemperance, to exhort you to moderation, and to point out to you the advantages of total abstinence as regards intoxicating beverages. But I am well aware that such warnings and exhortations will not be acceptable to many young men, and this is why the present chapter is entitled: "An unpleasant subject;" yet I consider you to be open to conviction and so well disposed in mind and heart that you will not contemptuously pass over this "unpleasant subject" - that you will rather read it carefully, and both lay to heart and carry out into practice the kindly admonitions it contains.
3. " Christianity says Father Sloan, "has practically overcome and vanquished one after another a great variety of evils; as, for instance, the vendetta, trial by torture, duelling, polygamy, slavery, and the like. Intemperance in the use of intoxicants has to some extent been checked, but in many places it still is prevalent and even popular. That it works great evil and causes dire misery no one will deny. It ruins the home, making the existence of the wife and the mother wretched and at times unendurable. It debauches the youth, and directly or indirectly destroys his prospects of life and his virtue. It debases our men and allures them down to the level of the brute. It causes many a Catholic to become a traitor to his religion and his God by a scandalous life. One fourth of the insanity and three fourths of the crime and pauperism found in our land have been attributed to its influence and effects. Directly or indirectly, it has increased enormously the expense of court and jail. Worst of all, it has seduced, and is seducing, thousands, even millions, into the drunkards' hell. Surely it requires no argument to show that a monstrous vice such as this should receive due attention, and that the young should be thoroughly warned against its baneful power. The chief remedy for drunkenness is not to be found in the civil law, but in Christian morality maintained by divine grace."
In an article entided, "Evidence Against Alcohol," by Professor M. A. Rosanoff, which appeared in "McClure's Magazine" for March, 1909, many experiments concerning the effects of alcohol are enumerated, as a result of which it may be considered as firmly established that alcohol has a tendency to impair every human faculty.
The conclusions drawn from the experiments by medical experts are as follows:
First, it can hardly be questioned that alcohol has an injurious effect upon the nervous system. Second, it is a false notion that drinking vinous and spirituous liquors with meals helps a laborer in his work. Third, it is a mistake to think that moderate drinking is an aid to an artisan or that it increases his efficiency. Fourth, it is positively not corroborated by facts that alcohol "stimulates" a student to his mental work. Fifth, reports from a large number of cities in the United States, England, and Austria justify the assertion that alcohol is responsible for the presence of one out of four men in every asylum of the insane.
"Intemperance is a fruitful source of disease and of death" writes Father Cologan, in his treatise on Total Abstinence. "The chief physicians of the present day, including Sir Thomas Barlow and Sir Victor Horsley, have testified to the baneful effects of drink on health and life. Sir Victor Horsley says, whether employed as a food or as a drug, ' the medical profession knows well that it (alcohol) is a potent cause of disease, crime, poverty, and death.' The late Dr. Norman Kerr stated that 60,000 drunkards die every year in the United Kingdom, and that 120,000 of our population annually lose their lives, directly or indirectly, through excessive drinking."
The late Sir William Gull, in his examination before the Select Committee of the House of Lords for Inquiry into the Prevalence of Intemperance (1877), said: "I think there is a great deal of injury being done by the use of alcohol in what is supposed by the consumer to be a most moderate quantity, to people not in the least intemperate, to people supposed to be fairly well. It leads to degeneration of tissues. It spoils the health and it spoils the intellect. Short of drunkenness, that is, in those effects of it which stop short of drunkenness, I should say, from my experience, that alcohol is the most destructive agent we are aware of in this country."
Sir Andrew Clarke says: "I do not desire to make out a strong case; I desire to make out a true case. I am speaking solemnly and carefully in the presence of truth, and I tell you that I am considerably within the mark when I say to you that, going the round of my hospital wards to-day, seven out of every ten there owed their ill-health to alcohol. Now what does that mean? That out of every hundred patients that I have charge of at the London hospital, 70 per cent, of them owe their ill-health to alcohol."
Sir Henry Thompson says: " I have no hesitation in saying that a very large proportion of some of the most painful and dangerous diseases which come under my notice arise from the common and daily use of fermented alcoholic drinks, taken in the quantity which is ordinarily considered moderate."
Dr. Maudsley says: "If men took careful thought of the best use they could make of their bodies, they would probably never take strong drink, except as they would a dose of medicine, in order to serve some special purpose. It is idle to say that there is any real need for persons who are in good health to indulge in strong drink. At the best, it is an indulgence that is unnecessary; at the worst, it is a vice that occasions infinite misery, sin, crime, madness, and disease."
Lord Brampton, then Mr. Justice Hawkins, said in 1883, at the Durham Assizes, that he "had had considerable experience in courts of law, and every day he lived the more firmly did he come to the conclusion that the root of all crime was drink. It affected people of all ages and both sexes - the middle-aged, the young, the father, the son, the husband, and the wife. It was drink which was the incentive to crimes of dishonesty; a man stole in order that he might provide himself with the means of getting drink. It was drink which caused homes to be impoverished, and they could trace to its source the cause of misery which was to be found in many a cottage home which had been denuded of all the necessaries of life. He believed that nine tenths of the crimes of this country, and certainly of the county of Durham, were engendered within public-houses. ,, At Liverpool, in 1895, he spoke of "that terrible habit of drunkenness which got every one who had it into trouble."
The Right Rev. Dr. Knight, then Bishop of Shrewsbury, has the following passage in his Lenten Pastoral for 1890:
"Is not this vice of intemperance the source of almost every evil, of crimes of violence, of all uncleanness, of blasphemy and loss of faith, the final ruin of soul and body, the shame and disgrace of a man's life and the dishonor of his Church? For all Christians the law of temperance, which is to restrain ourselves from excess, is an obligation; for many, entire abstinence is a counsel which, if followed, will profit them in health of soul and body; while for those who can not otherwise observe the law of temperance it is not a counsel, but an obligation; the strict obligation of avoiding such voluntary occasion as they know by experience will lead them into grievous sin. We are induced to dwell at length on this evil, because of the terrible facts by which it is brought home to us; among the rest by the experience gathered from the reformatories and industrial schools, where, in nearly every instance, the boys and girls who find their way to these institutions come from homes, if homes they can be called, which have been wrecked and defiled by this curse of drink.
The Third Plenary Council of Baltimore says: "The misuse of intoxicating drink is certainly one of the most deplorable evils of our age and country. Intemperance is a constant source of sin, and a copious fountain of misery. It has brought to utter ruin countless multitudes and entire families, and has precipitated into eternal perdition very many souls. All should, therefore, be exhorted by the love of God and country to bend every energy to the extirpation of this baleful evil. To the clergy to whom God has given the office of breaking unto men the Bread of Life, and training them in Christian morality, we chiefly look for helpers in this great work. Let them never cease to raise their voices against drunkenness and the causes and occasions of it, especially in giving spiritual missions to the people.
" We approve, as highly commendable in our times, the practice of those who abstain entirely from the use of intoxicating liquors. We also recognize, as worthy of great praise, the Catholic Total Abstinence Union and the Confraternity of 'the Sacred Thirst,' laboring as they are, by prayer and good works, for the promotion of temperance, and relying as they do more on the grace of God, efficacy of prayer, and the sacraments, than on the strength of the human will alone. We commend these associations, enjoying as they do the blessing of the Holy Father, to the paternal care of the clergy, so that they may flourish more and more, and always adhere to the truly Catholic methods they now follow."
Bishop Hedley in a pastoral letter on "Our Responsibility for Intemperance" says: "As regards the resolution of total abstinence, it is one which, for some people, is absolutely necessary, because there are some who can not save their souls without it. But it is also in the highest degree meritorious in those who do not require it. It is a most admirable practice of Christian self-denial.
" About nine years ago our Holy Father Pope Leo XIII, in a Brief addressed to Archbishop Ireland, of St. Paul, Minnesota, after reciting some of the evils occasioned by intemperance, said: 'Therefore we commend in the highest degree those pious Societies which so nobly propose to practise Total Abstinence from all intoxicants. It can not be doubted that such a pledge (firtna voluntas) is an opportune and most efficacious remedy for this most grievous evil; and the greater the authority of those who make it, the greater will be the influence o f good example in restraining others from intemperance. Especially powerful in this matter will be the zeal of priests.
" Like all other extraordinary mortifications, it should not be undertaken without consideration and advice. But when prudently taken up and faithfully practised, with interior acceptance of such inconveniences as it carries with it, and without pride, self-sufficiency, or the habit of reflection upon other people, it can not fail to draw the heart nearer to Christ. Moreover, it is a work of splendid brotherly love. It is an example of the most powerful kind. It is a most precious encouragement to the weak and the tempted. Therefore, may God bless all priests and people who join the League of the Cross, and take part in the battle against drink! "
Father Sloan refers to this subject in his "Sunday-School Director's Guide." He says: "Temperance work can be made a feature of some, or, if found desirable, of all, the church societies and sodalities; or a special temperance society can be organized. This society could be broad enough to include in its membership all desirable persons. Its aim and purpose should be to promote a temperance sentiment, to keep the subject alive before the people, and to influence and strengthen the endeavor of all who are laboring for the extermination of drunkenness. Its main effort should be preventive. Total abstinence should be practised by all members who are less than twenty-one years of age, as also by those who find that the use of intoxicants means for them abuse. As to the others, if for the sake of giving good example and encouragement to those less strong, they voluntarily desire to take the pledge, permission should be given to do so. All members should at least practise due temperance.
" In such a society the chief method in vogue is that of taking the pledge. Hence the society's great work is to sign these pledges and to keep them unbroken."
We read in "The Priests' League" for Lent, 1909: "Some may ask: What good would membership in the League do me? It does not promise to do its members any good; it does not suppose that those who become its members need any good done them from a temperance point of view. It looks for its members to do good to others, as it is better to give than to receive. Christ chose apostles to bring forth lasting fruit. The League wants members who shall promote sobriety by example and word, especially among those who are of the household of the Faith."
"If we turn to the New Testament," writes Father Cologan, "we find the principles of total abstinence clearly laid down.
"We tell the drunkard that, no matter how dearly he loves his glass, he should give it up to save his soul, because to him even a very little intoxicating drink is likely to lead to excess. Our Blessed Lord says: ' If thine eye scandalize thee, pluck it out. It is better for thee with one eye to enter into the kingdom of God than having two eyes to be cast into the hell of fire'; that is to say, if anything be an occasion of sin to us, as drink is to the drunkard and to those in danger of becoming drunkards, it is better for us, and it is even our duty, to give it up rather than risk that it should bring us into hell. As for those to whom intoxicating drink is not an occasion of sin, to them we appeal on the principle of charity and zeal for the good of our neighbor; and we ask that for the sake of our weaker brethren, to give them example and encouragement, they would forego what is perfectly lawful. This is quite according to the teaching of St. Paul: 'If because of thy meal thy brother be grieved, thou walkest not now according to charity. Destroy not him with thy meat for whom Christ died. ... All things indeed are clean; but it is evil for that man who eateth with offense' (so there is no sin in strong drink itself, the sin is in those who misuse it); 'it is good not to eat flesh and not to drink wine nor anything whereby thy brother is offended or scandalized or made weak ' (Rom. xiv. 15, etc.). And again, 'if meat scandalize' (be an occasion of sin to) 'my brother, I will never eat flesh lest I should scandalize my brother.' From this it is clear that if wine be a source of danger to our brethren, as indeed it is, we do a good and virtuous act in abstaining from it for their sakes."
Moderate drinking is not unlawful; yet for many persons it is not safe; for many young men it is dangerous; nearly all drunkards began their downward career as moderate drinkers.
"It pays to be a total abstainer," as the "Temperance Catechism" says: "first, because the total abstainer saves the money which so many foolishly waste on intoxicating drink; secondly, because total abstainers are generally in a better state of health and less subject to disease, and when they are ill or hurt, they usually recover and are back at work more quickly than those who are not abstainers; and thirdly, because they do not lose their place at work through drink and bad company, which is a very frequent cause of workmen and others losing their places."
"Many persons are total abstainers, not because they are reformed drunkards, but from motives of zeal and piety."
Among these motives are: " first, zeal for the salvation of souls in giving example and support to the intemperate who desire to give up their sins. Secondly, penance and satisfaction for one's own sins. Thirdly, atonement to the Sacred Heart for the sins of intemperance committed by others."
Our divine Master Himself admonishes us: "Take heed to yourselves, lest perhaps your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness" (Luke xxi. 34).
And we are exhorted in the Book of Proverbs: "Look not upon the wine when it is yellow, when the color thereof shineth in the glass; it goeth in pleasantly, but in the end it will bite like a snake, and will spread abroad poison like a basilisk" (Prov. xxiii. 31, 32)
Read with attention and devout reflection the following address to young men by Father Schuen on intemperance, found in his work, "Outlines of Sermons for Young Men and Young Women," edited by the Rev. Edmund J. Wirth, Ph.D.
The Evil of Drunkenness
"Take heed to yourselves, lest perhaps your hearts be overcharged with drunkenness." (Luke xxi. 34).
ALMIGHTY GOD has made provision of food and drink sufficient to ensure the preservation of life and health. Nevertheless, it often happens that the gifts which God puts at the disposal of man are employed in such a manner as to prove not profitable, but rather harmful, to us; they are misused by being employed to excess. Thus it is especially with spirituous drinks, the excessive use of which proves injurious for time and eternity. As a rule, it is men rather than women who are given to excess in this matter. I consider it my duty to warn you against this evil. There may be some amongst you that need that warning very much whilst it is still time, for when the evil has gone too far advice and warning come too late. I will speak to you to-day on the evil of intemperance; and will therefore consider
I. Its beginning;
II. Its progress;
III. Its end.
PART I
1. Drunkenness begins with an inborn tendency to evil, due to the sin of our first parents "The imagination and thought of man's heart are prone to evil from youth" (Gen. viii. 21). "I know that there dwelleth not in me, that is, in my flesh, that which is good" (Rom. vii. 18). This propensity to evil is developed in various ways; it is an accursed root from which many poisonous plants grow. One man develops it in the form of anger, another in that of luxury, another in that of avarice, another in that of envy, and still another in that of love for strong drinks. Often the unfortunate tendency manifests itself at an early age, even in childhood. We meet with children that have not yet left school in whom the desire for drink is already developed. The proneness to evil is not a sin in itself, yet it leads to sin if it is let go unchecked. If not resisted with determination it grows rapidly, as a fire spreads if the spark is not stamped out.
2. The desire for strong drink is developed by frequent indulgence; drink as a habit is an acquired habit. The desire is often contracted through the fault of parents. Many parents are so unwise as to give strong drink to their children, some are foolish to applaud their children if they can drink off a glass like a grown person. It may also be the fault of strangers. There are people so ignorant or malicious as to ply children with strong drinks; they take delight in getting them intoxicated and amusing themselves with their antics. As for adults, their danger very often lies in the company they keep. How often it happens that a friend, so called, teaches another the love for strong drink! Young men often boast of how much they can stand, and by means of ridicule induce their friends to drink more than is good for them.
It may also be through one's own fault that the habit of taking strong drink is acquired. A man may begin by drinking moderately, but on account of the love he has for the associations he meets with in drinking-places, he frequents them more and more and so gradually acquires a love for liquor. He may indeed resist the passion for drink, but unfortunately the number of those who once acquire the habit and resist with any determination is very small. The craving for drink once acquired will not. rest without being satisfied. Once the habit is formed it becomes an iron chain, a strong yoke; the man becomes a slave to it and can not break the fetters that bind him. He says: "Come, let us take wine and be filled with drunkenness, and it shall be as to-day, so also to-morrow and much more" (Is. lvi. 12). He can not get rid of the craving; "If the Ethiopian can change his skin, or the leopard his spots, you also may do well, when you have learned evil" (Jer. xiii. 23). An habitual drunkard is incorrigible; nothing avails - neither exhortation nor entreaties. He is not moved by calamity nor sickness nor danger of death. If he were placed before the gates of hell and made to look upon the scorching flames, he would not change his manner of life; he would seek to forget the sight by indulging all the more in his bottle.
This is the way in which drunkenness begins - there is an inclination to evil from nature and the habit is developed by indulgence. A man does not become a drunkard all at once - it is a gradual growth. The descent is made by degrees; from month to month, from year to year, it is fixed more firmly, until the lowest round of the ladder is reached.
Part II
I. The drunkard's course is a life of sin. Intemperance is one of the capital sins; that is, it is a source from which many sins spring. St. Augustine calls it the "parent of all transgressions and the epitome of guilt," the "starting-point" of crime and the source of vices." A man given to drink violates his most sacred obligations. Such a one does not sanctify the Sunday. The saloon is his temple and place of worship . it is his home, where he spends the greater part of the night, if the day is not long enough for him. As for hearing the word of God, such an idea does not enter his head. A man given to drink cuts himself off from his family; if he is unmarried, his father and mother, brothers and sisters, give him little concern. If he is married, his wife and children are less dear to him than the enjoyment of strong drink; he is their torment and disgrace.
A man addicted excessively to drink does not shrink from misdeeds and crimes. "Wine is a luxurious thing, and drunkenness riotous" (Prov. xx. i). "Wine drunken with excess raiseth quarrels and wrath and many ruins" (Ecclus. xxxi. 38). All the Doctors of the Church agree in saying that there is a close connection between drink and luxury. A man who is a drunkard can not be a pure man. How many sins of this kind are committed on account of drunkenness. Drink makes man quarrel, blaspheme, and commit deeds of violence. A man given to drink can indeed say: " My misdeeds are gone over my head, and as a heavy burden are become heavy upon me. My bones are putrified and corrupted because of my foolishness" (Ps. xxxvii. 5, 6).
2. Such a man's life is a life of misery. It is true the drunkard seems jolly and happy, ready to make friends with all the world, yet the truth is that he leads a wretched existence, for he forgoes much that constitutes happiness in this life and in the next. He loses his good name. No one feels any respect for him. He is despised by his neighbors and even by his own relatives. " He is filled with shame instead of glory" (Hab. ii. 16). He loses his property: "A workman that is a drunkard shall not be rich" (Ecclus. xix. 1). All his possessions go to the saloon and at the end of a short time he is a beggar. He loses his position and the means of earning a living. Thus it often happens that a man who started out in life with the brightest prospects, with a fine home and funds at his disposal, becomes a pauper in his old age and ends his days in the poorhouse, if not in a worse place.
A man given to drink brings on himself much that embitters life. He lays himself open to the most bitter reproaches. His own conscience gives him no rest, but torments him continually. "Tribulation shall terrify him, and distress shall surround him, as a king that is prepared for the battle. The sound of dread is always in his ears" (Job xv. 21, 24). There are the reproaches of his relatives who rebuke him daily. How much he has to hear that is calculated to wound his self-love and self-respect! He has bodily ailments to endure. " If thou hast overstepped the limits of moderation in drink,' ' says St. Basil, "the next day thy head will be heavy and dull, thou wilt yawn continually and feel giddy." " Who hath wounds without cause? Who hath redness of eyes? Surely they that pass their time in wine, and study to drink off their cups" (Prov. xxiii. 29, 30). The man who gets drunk repeatedly will have to pay a heavy penalty for his indulgence; he will undermine his health and be subject to much sickness and, not unfrequently, to unforeseen death.
1. The end of the drunkard is in many cases an unhappy death. Death often overtakes him suddenly. There is no other vice that so frequently brings on an unexpected death as the evil of drunkenness. Some are frozen to death whilst they are intoxicated, others fall into the water and drown, others are killed in a brawl or by accident. If you examine the statistics of accidental deaths, you will find that a very great number of those that were killed were drunkards. Such a death is a terrible misfortune; it makes one shudder to think of being called away from this life in the state of sin, unprepared, incapable even of making an act of contrition or of raising one's thoughts to God. Such a one dies impenitent. If they do not die whilst intoxicated, their death still has many terrors for them. It may be that when laid upon their dying bed and the devil stares them in the face they make an act of contrition and strike their breast in sorrow; yet their life will haunt them; they see that they have given their years to the service of the devil instead of the service of God, and they are not without fear.
2. The end of many drunkards is eternal damnation. "Drunkards . . . shall not possess the kingdom of God" (i Cor. vi. 10). There is nothing more to be said. The Apostle declares solemnly that the kingdom of God is not for the slaves of their depraved appetites. Our own reason would teach us the same even if the Apostle had not spoken so clearly. The life of a drunkard is a life of sin; can we, then, suppose that the gates of heaven stand open continually to invite such a one to enter? You can not suppose this for a moment; your own good sense must tell you the contrary. For such a one there can be nothing but eternal ruin.
Take the advice of the Apostle: " Be not drunk with wine" (Eph. v. 18). If you are concerned about your temporal and eternal welfare, you will be on your guard against excess in drink and will entirely avoid strong drinks, such as whiskey. There is nothing wrong morally in taking drink in moderation, but if you find in yourselves a craving for strong drink, be on your guard, for you are in great danger and total abstinence may be the only salvation for you. The less frequently you are seen in drink mg-places the better it will be for your good name, your health, and your eternal salvation.
Do not follow the example of some young men, who spend their last penny in drink, sit in the saloon half the night indulging in evil conversation, gambling, and drunkenness. Do not let your companions induce you to drink when you do not care for more; never treat or be treated. This latter rule would save the majority of those that in time become drunkards. If you want a drink, pay for it yourself. Be on your guard against associating with young men that are given to over-indulgence; evil companions corrupt good morals. " Exceed not, and if thou sittest among many reach not thy hand out first. How sufficient is a little wine for a man well taught " (Ecclus. xxxi. 20-22). " Be sober!" (i Pet. v. 8).
Temperance Resolutions
Suggested by the Cardinal -Archbishop and Bishops of England
THE widespread habit of intemperance is the prolific cause of a multitude of evils. It degrades and destroys the body and soul of innumerable Christians, and is perpetually offering before the throne of God most heinous offenses against His divine majesty. Wherefore, the Cardinal-Archbishop and Bishops of England have determined to invite the whole of their flock to unite with them in an earnest and persevering endeavor to stem the tide of these evils, and to offer becoming acts of reparation to the offended majesty of God. All are therefore invited to make one or other of the following resolutions, according to their discretion. namely:
1. To offer up Mass and Benediction this day for the suppression of drunkenness, the perseverance of those who have taken a pledge, and for the spread of the virtue of temperance.
2. To say the Rosary once a week for the above intentions.
3. To practise habitually some specific act of mortification in the matter of drink, under the direction or approval of a confessor.
4. Never to taste intoxicating drink in a public house.
5. Never to take intoxicating drink out of meal time.
6. To abstain from intoxicating drink on Friday and Saturday, in honor of the passion of Jesus and the sorrows of Mary.
7. To abstain absolutely from the use of ardent spirits.
8. To take the Total Abstinence pledge for a year.
9. To take the Total Abstinence pledge for life.
I firmly purpose - by God's help to keep the resolution which I have made - to His honor and glory - in reparation for sins of intemperance - and in promotion of the salvation of souls. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
N.B. Another good resolution is this, to take a firm and courageous stand against the custom of treating; to trample upon human respect, and to refuse to treat or be treated in a public place. It can not be denied that the foolish custom of treating in saloons is the cause of intemperance to a great extent and has made a drunkard of many a promising young man. (N. B. added by F. X. L.)
Total Abstinence from a Catholic point of view
THE Total Abstinence cause is not a war against drink. The Catholic Total Abstainer does not - may not - say that strong drink is in itself an evil or the creation of the devil. Long ago there was a religious sect called Manicheans. These men held that God made that part of the world which was good, and the devil made the rest which was bad, and wine and strong drink they said was bad, and created by the devil. All this was condemned by the Church as a heresy; for there is but one Creator of all things - the one Eternal God; "and God saw all the things that He had made and they were very good." "Nor," as Cardinal Manning said in his speech at the Crystal Palace, 1884, "is there sin in these harmless, innocent things, for this reason: that there can be sin in nothing or in nobody who has not a will and a conscience to know right from wrong. Therefore, if this room were full of barrels of beer, and barrels of wine, and puncheons of brandy, there would be no sin in these things of themselves. We could set fire to them and make an end of them. They are not the sinners - it is we ourselves who are the sinners; the men and women who abuse these things, violating their conscience by their own free-will - they are the sinners."
No, there is no moral evil, no sin, in these things, wine, beer, and spirits. In themselves they are good and given to us by God for our 9 good - although we may say with truth that inasmuch as a great part of the strong drink of the present day is "made up" and adulterated, and this inferior adulteration is passed off as a better article, in this sense such wines, etc., are bad, they are not what they are said to be; but still there is no sin in them. Listen to St. John Chrysostom on this point: "I hear men say when these excesses happen, 'Would there were no wine!' O folly! O madness! When men sin in other ways, dost thou then find fault with the gifts of God? But what madness is this? What! did the wine, O man, produce this evil? Not the wine, but the intemperance of such as take an evil delight in it. Say then, ' would there were no drunkenness, no luxury'; but if thou sayest, ' would there were no wine/ thou wilt by degrees go on to say, ' would there were no steel, because of the murderers; no night because of the thieves.' ... In a word, thou wilt destroy all things, since they may all be abused."
Nor can the Catholic Total Abstainer condemn the moderate drinker as guilty of sin. There is no sin in taking a glass of wine or a glass of spirits, or in taking a really moderate quantity of them; and we have no right to condemn as sinful a practice against which there is no law, divine or human. St. Thomas and all Catholic theologians teach that the use of wine or of any intoxicating drink is not in itself unlawful; although it may become so for certain reasons, such as danger to the drinker, scandal, a vow not to take wine, etc.
What, then, is Total Abstinence? Total Abstinence is the practice of abstaining from intoxicating drink - from "whatever may make a man drunk." A Total Abstinence Society is a society of persons who have pledged themselves - promised - to abstain entirely from all intoxicating drink, and are banded together to suppress the vice of intemperance and promote its opposite virtue.
In everyday affairs we have societies and leagues. If there be an evil in the law, we combine - for union is strength - and agitate, and influence public and private opinion, and we do not rest until we have removed that evil. Why. then, should we not combine and agitate and influence opinion - and work, too, with a will - to remove the evil of drunkenness?
I can not do better than quote from the letter of Cardinal Manning to Fr. Bridgett. His Eminence says: "To meet the invasion of so widely extended an evil [intemperance], it appears to me that a widely extended organization, specifically created for the purpose of arresting drunkenness, and of giving the mutual support of numbers and of sympathy to those who are in danger, is not only a wise mode of counteraction, but, I am inclined to believe, also a necessary provision. It affords external encouragement and support to multitudes who can not stand alone. ... I feel that Temperance and Total Abstinence ought to be familiar thoughts in the mind even of those who have never in all their life been tempted to excess. If they would consciously unite by example, by word, and by influence, to save those who are perishing in the dangers from which they are happily safe, many a soul and many a home now hopelessly wrecked would, I believe, be saved."
From this letter of His Eminence we„see the object of a Total Abstinence Society, viz.: to arrest drunkenness; to reclaim those who have fallen into this vice; to rescue those in danger; to place as far as possible out of temptation those even who are not in danger - our children, and so to influence society that people may be awakened to the havoc which intemperance is working, and that this vice may no longer be winked at and even encouraged, but may be branded with the disgrace which it deserves, and that society itself may take measures against it. Now it is evident that to carry out this object some organization is necessary - a union not merely of those to whom intoxicating drink is a source of danger, or of those who can not keep sober without the pledge, for if this were proposed, few, if any, could be induced to join such a society, the members of which would be at once known as "reformed drunkards"; but also of those whose sobriety can not be called in question, who would give an air of respectability to the society, and throw the shield of their own character over its fallen but repentant and amending members. This union of the temperate with those who have been victims of intemperance, and the pledge, are the great means by which the Total Abstinence Society aims at its object.
What is the pledge
The pledge is a promise - not a vow, nor an oath, but none the less a real binding promise - to abstain from all intoxicating drinks. In other words, he who takes the pledge promises not to drink wine, beer, spirits, or anything intoxicating during the whole time - whether for life, or for a certain number of weeks, months, or years - for which he pledges himself.
The following is the pledge taken before a priest by those who join the League of the Cross:
"I promise to you, Father, and to the League of the Holy Cross, by the help of God's grace, to abstain from all intoxicating drinks."
The pledge does not prevent the taking of intoxicating drinks by medical advice if this becomes necessary; but as soon as the necessity ceases, the Total Abstinence must be resumed by any one who wishes to remain a member of the League.
Is the pledge a remedy against intemperance?
But is the means employed by Total Abstinence Societies the right means - does the pledge really offer a barrier to the progress of intemperance? does it really reclaim drunkards? does ft keep the weak out of danger? There are two ways of deciding this question: firstly, by the light of experience - for Total Abstinence has now been tried for some years, sufficiently long for us to know whether it is a success or a failure - and secondly, by the very nature of the pledge.
I. What light, then, does experience throw upon the subject? Cardinal Manning, in a letter published in the Weekly Register June 6, 1885, said: "The League of the Cross has brought me many consolations in the happiness and Christian life of my people. . . . What homes we should have had at this day if the last generation had abstained from all intoxicating drinks!" and again: "If we had begun the League of the Cross twenty-five years ago, we should have a hundred thousand more Catholics in London; if twenty-five years ago men and women had been sober, there would have been that number of Catholics more to-day than there is."
Cardinal Vaughan stated that "experience abundantly proves that for a Catholic the pledge, without the sacraments, is worthless, but that with the grace of the sacraments, it is of much avail." The late Father Rooke, speaking at the Crystal Palace, on the occasion of the festival of the League of the Cross, 1884, said that in his short experience of the work of the League he could tell of the rescue of individuals and of families who were a short time ago sunken in the degrading vice of intemperance, whose homes had been more like pigsties than Christian dwellings - people with no decent clothes because of the pawnshop; people neglecting their most sacred religious duties. By the blessing of God these people had now cast aside their habits of intemperance, and they were now happy, well fed, and well clothed.
The Total Abstinence Union of America comprises amongst its members a great number or the clergy and several bishops - a proof in itself of their opinion as to the benefits resulting from Total Abstinence.
The Third Plenary Council of Baltimore, 1887, says: "Let the exertions of Catholic Temperance Societies meet with the hearty cooperation of pastor and people, and they will go far toward strangling the monstrous evil of intemperance." The archbishops and bishops of Australia, in their pastoral letter drawn up at the Plenary Council of 1886, "earnestly recommend the formation in every parish of Temperance Societies under the charge of the local pastor."
All this shows that the pledge has been found to be on the whole a useful remedy against intemperance.
2. From the very nature of the pledge it follows that, as long as it is kept, it must prevent drunkenness. For the pledge is a promise to abstain from intoxicating drink - but without intoxicating drink one can not get intoxicated; this is self-evident, so as long as the abstainer keeps his promise, his pledge, so long must he of necessity be a sober man.
Bishop Hedley, in his pastoral letter on Intemperance, after discussing various means to lessen drunkenness, finally refers to one of vast importance in the cause of temperance. In this regard he writes as follows:
"Here we approach the consideration of the sovereign remedy of all - the endeavor to obtain God's help and grace through prayer and the holy sacraments.
" Temperance and soberness are spiritual virtues - and virtues, more than other good gifts, depend upon spiritual help.
"It is vain, therefore, to hope to reclaim the drunkard, or' preserve the sobriety of young or old, unless you can bring them to the practice of Christian prayer and religious duty. Even if a man reforms through natural motives and native strength of character, the vices of his sobriety are sometimes more disagreeable than those of his drunkenness. But the Christian is, first, humble - knowing that he can neither rise from evil nor remain constant in good without the help of God. Next, he is hopeful and full of faith, for he knows that he has a heavenly Father who has nothing nearer to His desires than to draw him to Himself. And thirdly he is obedient - resolutely adopting the means intended by his heavenly Father to save him, and making use of those divine sacraments which convey the precious blood to his weak and sinful soul.
How Devotion to St. Joseph Saved a Young Drunkard
Volumes could not contain the wonderful favors which are obtained through St. Joseph. He is always ready to befriend his clients, and God is always ready to hear him.
A young man named Joseph had led a good
life until the age of twenty. From his childhood he had been devout to his patron saint. When he left school he fell into the company of persons who led evil lives, and little by little he began to do as they did. Among other things he learned to drink, and soon became so fond of liquor that he seldom passed a day without being intoxicated. At last, all his friends knew him for what he was - a common drunkard.
He went to the sacraments no more; to Church never. Thus several years passed, and one day, while he stood in front of the cathedral watching a man haul a flag to the top of the spire, a sudden impulse led him to enter. He fell on his knees, the tears came to his eyes, and he began to sob and weep. He rose at length and went home, throwing himself on his bed, as he had felt ill all day. The next morning he could not get up; he refused, however, to take a drop of the wine which his sister offered him to steady his nerves.
From that time he would not taste it. He never left his room again; he. had been seized with quick consumption, caused by his bad habits.
He lived three months longer. Between midnight and morning each day he would never take anything to quench his thirst. He would say: "I have sinned through thirst, and thus I shall repent and suffer."
On the morning of the feast of St. Joseph he said: "I think St. Joseph will come for me some time to-day."
He died at midnight. Later it was learned that he had told his confessor that he had never failed through the evil years to say, morning and evening, "St. Joseph, help me I" His holy patron had not deserted him.
Enjoy Yourself with Moderation and propriety
I. ST. PHILIP NERI was a peculiarly cheerful saint; he was merry In the right sense of the word. He was never gloomy or fretful; he could not bear to see melancholy faces about him. He loved to be surrounded by young people, and delighted to see them indulging in harmless mirth. If, on the contrary, he perceived that any one was in a peevish, gloomy mood, he at once asked what was the matter with him. Occasionally he gave such a one a gentle tap on the cheek, and said: "Be cheerful I"
I also say to you, my young friend, be cheerful! Who indeed ought to be merry, if not the young? Who would grudge their enjoyment of life to the lamb which gambols m the green meadow, and the young man who delights in the flowery fields of spring? Be of good cheer, be merry, enjoy yourself, but with moderation and in the right way.
2. If in preceding chapters I have so earnestly exhorted you to practise self-denial and renunciation, to bear and forbear, I am nevertheless very far from wishing to see you hang your head and look peevish and morose, as if you had something bitter in your mouth. No, nothing less than that! To appear as if you were a lamb being led to the slaughter is not only unnatural, but odious.
I am sure that our Father in heaven prefers cheerful people, if only they are pious and well conducted. Sadness is the result of our fallen nature; therefore in no case does it come from heaven, or from God.
"Rejoice in the Lord always," says the Apostle. The Royal Psalmist also encourages us to gladness. Faith and piety gladden the heart by inspiring trust in the goodness and mercy of God.
" Thou, O Lord, art my protector and the lifter up of my head " (Ps. iii. 4).
" Thou hast given gladness in my heart " (Ps. iv. 7).
"Let all them be glad that hope in Thee; they shall rejoice forever, and Thou shalt dwell in them " (Ps. v. 12).
"I will be glad and rejoice in Thee; I will sing to Thy name, O Thou Most High " (Ps. ix. 3).
" Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; Thou shalt fill me with joys with Thy countenance; at Thy right hand are delights even to the end " (Ps. xv. 11). "I will love Thee, O Lord, my strength. The Lord i3 my refuge and my deliverer. My God is my helper and in Him will I put my trust " (Ps. xvii. 3).
"Though I should walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I will fear no evils, for Thou art with me. Thy rod and Thy staff they have comforted me " (Ps. xxii. 4).
" Rejoice to God our Helper "(Ps. lxxx. 2).
" He will overshadow Thee with His shoulders, and under His wings thou shalt trust." (Ps. xc. 4).
3. But it is only the virtuous man who can be merry in the right way, cheerful in the true sense of the word Real cheerfulness is the inseparable companion of true virtue Happiness is found in goodness. No one has a right to be cheerful who knows that he is not in the grace of God. The slave of sin, the enemy of God, can indeed lead a merry life in the sense in which the world understands these words, but he must tremble, lament, and shudder, whenever he thinks seriously of hell, which yawns beneath his feet
If you are truly cheerful at heart, then is your soul at peace. Trials may indeed arise, but the clouds will never be so heavy as to prevent the bright and cheering rays of confidence in God to pierce through them and lessen their gloom.
Interior cheerfulness will show itself in your exterior. Your eye will be bright, your countenance serene, your brow unruffled, your bearing firm, your step light
4. Cheerfulness is recommended in many passages of Holy Writ. For instance, the Wise Man speaks thus: "Rejoice, therefore, O young man in thy youth, and let thy heart be in that which is good in the days of thy youth; and know that for all these God will bring thee into judgment." And if David, the royal psalmist, so frequently reminds us in his sacred poems to praise the Lord with joy, how should not the young man do this in the bloom of his youth? All the faithful should heed the admonition of St. Paul to the Philippians: " Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice." This saying applies, however, in a very particular manner, to young people.
Let them strive to keep themselves in the grace and love of God and ever to be of good cheer - "to rejoice in the Lord."
5. One day St Aloysius found himself in company with some young friends, and engaged in a game of chess. Some one suddenly asked what each member of the company would do if he knew that he was to die within an hour. One said he should repair to the church and engage in prayer; another remarked that the best thing would be to go to confession. But St. Aloysius, whose conscience was completely at peace, quietly said: "I should continue the game because I am playing in accordance with the will of God, and the wish of my superiors."
That is what it means to be cheerful and merry in the right way, if one preserves at the same time so tranquil a state of conscience that even the unexpected appearance of death would not be able to cause too great alarm and apprehension.
In this way judge the amusements, games, and merry-makings in which you like to indulge, the jokes, witticisms, conversations in which you take delight, the time and money which you sacrifice on your enjoyments. If your conscience does not reproach you, does not whisper to you that your favorite games and amusements are for you an occasion of sin, and the time and money you spend on them a piece of extravagance "then you are enjoying yourself in a proper manner. Continue to be cheerful and merry.
If aught on earth shall give you pleasure God doth that joy bestow: See that thou take it in due measure Or it may turn to woe.
The human heart craves and seeks unceasingly for happiness. Many find but a small measure of happiness in this life because they lose sight of their eternal destiny - the object of their creation - which is to know God, to love Him, to serve Him, and to be happy with Him. " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" (Matt. xxii. 37, 39). The whole law depends on these two commandments; so Our Lord Himself assures us. The fullest measure of happiness even here on earth is attained by harmonizing one's conduct with the commandments of God, by doing well one's duties to God and man; for this means the possession of a peaceful conscience, a clean heart, a sinless soul; and this is essential to happiness; hence, St. Ignatius prays: "Give me, Lord, only Thy love and thy grace; with these I shall be rich enough; there is nothing more that I desire." To be in the state of grace - to have God's love - that is essentially necessary to true happiness. "Si Deus pro nobis, quis contranes?" "If God be for us, who be against us?" (Rom. viii. 31). The end of man's creation is to glorify God. But in promoting God's glory we are at the same time promoting our own happiness. Ergo, let our watchword be: "Omnia ad major em Dei gloriam!" "All for the greater glory of God!"
" Know then this truth - enough for man to know: Virtue alone is happiness below." - Pope.
" Happiness and virtue are the same." - Francis.
" There can be no harmony in our being except our happiness coincides with our duty." - Whewell.
Recreation: CARD-PLAYING - GAMBLING - HOBBIES-IDLENESS
St. FRANCIS DE SALES says in his "Introduction to a Devout Life": "If is necessary sometimes to relax our minds as well as our bodies by some kind of recreation. St. John the Evangelist, as Cassian relates, amusing himself one day with a partridge on his hand, was asked by a huntsman how such a man as he could spend his time in so unprofitable a manner. St. John replied:
"'Why dost thou not carry thy bow always bent?' 'Because,' answered the huntsman, 'were it always bent I fear it would lose its spring and become useless.' 'Be not surprised, then,' replied the apostle, 'that I should sometimes remit a little of my close application and attention of mind to enjoy some little recreation, that I may afterward employ myself more fervently in d?vine contemplation.' It is doubtless a. defect to be so rigorous and austere as neither to be willing to take any recreation ourselves, nor allow it to others.
" To take the air, to walk, to entertain ourselves with cheerful and friendly conversations, to play on the lute or any other instrument, to sing to music, or to go bunting, are recreations so innocent, that in a proper use of them there needs but that common prudence which gives to everything its due order, time, place, and measure.
"Those games in which the gain serves as a recompense for the dexterity and industry of the body or of the mind, such as tennis, ball, pall-mall, running at the ring, chess, and backgammon, are recreations in themselves good and lawful, provided excess, either in the time employed at them, or in the sum that is played for, be avoided."
On this subject of pastimes for young men, Father Schuen writes: "No one can blame you for amusing yourselves, provided you do so in a legitimate manner. This will be the case if your pleasures are innocent. Those pleasures are innocent which involve no danger of sin or scandal, and which are free from danger to health or waste of money, and do not interfere with your duties in life. There are many pleasures of this description; as, for instance, a walk through the woods or fields, a visit to a good friend, the reading of a good and instructive book, an hour spent in music or singing, a game of ball or tennis, and many other similar pastimes.
"Another condition upon which the innocence of your amusements depends is, that you should enjoy them in moderation. All excess is bad, and displeasing to God. Even the best things become evil when carried to excess, just as a most salutary medicine if taken in too large doses becomes a poison. Hence it follows that any diversion indulged in must be enjoyed in moderation. Be on your guard against acquiring a passion for amusements. St. Francis of Sales says: There is nothing sinful in making merry at times in a harmless way, but we must beware of loving amusements too much/ Many people begin by indulging freely in diversions, gradually they become enslaved by them, and end by pursuing them with intense passion. This is not the way in which we are to seek amusements; we are told, 'Lust shall be under thee, and thou shalt have dominion over it ' (Gen. iv. 7). Be on your guard, also, against loss of time. We should not turn to amusements until all the duties of our station in life are performed; our amusements should not encroach on our time too much; neither should they be prolonged until late at night. 'See, therefore, brethren, how you walk circumspectly, redeeming the time' (Eph. v. 15, 16).
"Your amusements to be lawful must be taken with a good intention. The Christian ought not give himself up to mirth merely for the enjoyment of it he ought to have a higher purpose. The Apostle bids us, ' Mind the things that are above. (Col. iii. 2). Again he says, 'Whether you eat or drink, or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God' (1 Cor. x. 31). Therefore, let a good intention inspire even your amusements and pleasures. Enjoy yourselves because it is the will of God that you should take recreation after a hard day's work, and let not the mere love of pleasure be the moving spirit of your recreation.
"Proper recreation and rest renew the body and maintain its power of endurance. Recreation is also good for the soul. As a gentle rain at night revives and refreshes the thirsty earth parched by the heat of the midday sun, even so innocent amusements recruit and refresh the mind fatigued with the duties of one's calling. The soul may benefit by innocent recreation, which when taken in the proper manner becomes meritorious and deserving of eternal reward. St. Paul tells us that even drinking and eating can become supernatural acts. 'Whether you eat or drink, or whatsoever you do, do it all to the glory of God" (1 Cor. x. 31).
"Let your amusements, then, be always of the right kind; let them be innocent, i.e., free from sin; enjoy them in moderation and with a good intention. Religion does not forbid pleasures of this kind. Your conscience will have no cause to reproach you for them; they may even become a source of eternal reward. "Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth, and let thy heart be in that which is good."
"Among the amusements that are accompanied with danger we (here) mention card-playing. In itself an innocent amusement, it quickly degenerates into gambling and sin. It is an amusement in which moderation is difficult. This is especially true of certain games. These games lend themselves easily to playing for money, interest increases, and the small sums soon become large stakes. Usually the young man who began to play for recreation ends by playing above his means; the passion grows and he becomes a gambler. These games are too often prolonged into the late hours of the night or even the early hours of the morning; no recreation is obtained; but on the contrary, greater fatigue is the result. These games, too, keep young men from attending Mass on Sundays; they keep them from their duties."
Card-playing is usually associated with smoking and drinking, and it is indulged in to excess, so that instead of being what it should be - a recreation, it is rather a dissipation - a strain on the mind, a tension on the nerves, a depressor of vitality. An hour of simple card-playing, when no stakes are involved, amid home surroundings, may be unobjectionable; but, when the players sit for many consecutive hours over a game of cards, smoking and drinking, and inhaling the vitiated atmosphere of a crowded room, how can that be a refreshment to the mind and the body? Do not permit your love for any kind of card-playing to grow on you till it becomes a passion and masters you.
To bridle the passions is the task of a man's life. Control your passions so that they do not run to what is evil or overstep the limits of prudence or good sense, even in lawful things- Many professional men who are compelled to lead a sedentary life find sufficient recreation in a brisk walk of half an hour or three-quarters of an hour in the morning and evening.
Many a young man, on the other hand, spends hours and hours of precious time over the card-table - hours which he might employ in certain useful pursuits which would be at the same time a real recreation - a refreshment to soul and body.
Gambling assumes forms of great variety, from the throwing of dice or the tossing of a penny or the playing of cards for a glass of beer, or a drink of whisky in the corner sale on, to roulette and faro and other gaming devices in splendidly furnished apartments where thousands and tens of thousands of dollars are won and lost in a single night. This very morning the newspaper had an item concerning a retired business man, who declared on filing a voluntary petition in bankruptcy that he had lost $110,000 at faro in a gambling house in the city of New York. Despite the fact that the evil results which follow in the wake of gambling are so apparent - as regards both temporal and eternal interests - young men are constantly falling under the influence of this baneful passion. Shun the vice of gambling, if you have any regard for your family, your friends, and your own happiness. Many a debauched, friendless, and miserable vagabond owes his ruin to gambling, and the beginning of his downward course was playing cards and other games of hazard, in which the object was not simple, wholesome recreation, but the winning of a stake or a prize.
What is gaming? And is gaming in itself morally wrong? Father Slater, S.J., in his "Manual of Moral Theology" answers these questions.
"Gaming is playing at any game, sport, or pastime for money or anything of value which is staked on the result of the game, so that it is lost or won according to the success or failure of the person who staked it.
"Clerics are forbidden to play at games of pure chance with scandal to others and loss of their own time. While in the United States gaming is considered unlawful and the contract null, the statutes of the different States vary considerably in matters of detail.
"But here we consider the question not as affected by positive law, ecclesiastical or civil, but as it is in itself.
"Is gaming in itself morally wrong? Apart from abuse, to playgames of skill or even of pure chance for a stake is not immoral. I may spend my money in moderation on recreation, or I may make a present of it to others, if I choose. There is nothing immoral in agreeing to hand over a sum of money, if I am beaten in a game either of skill or of chance. This perfectly lawful action will, however, become unlawful if one of the parties is compelled to play against his will, or if cheating and fraud are practised in the game, or if there is no chance of success on the part of one of the players (unless he knows this and freely consents to play in spite of it), or if the parties have not the money which they stake or at any rate not the free disposal of it on account of its being required to pay their debts, or to support themselves and their families.
" Moreover, although gaming in itself and under the conditions which have just been laid down is not immoral, yet it is a dangerous pastime for many and easily leads to abuse, sin, and ruin "
Speaking of pastimes reminds us of hobbies. "Every man has his hobby," is a well-known saying. It is worth while to have a hobby some favorite pursuit which is pure in its motive and good in its object, even if it be only for recreation when the day's work is done - some outdoor exercise - some study or occupation which one follows with zeal and enthusiasm in leisure hours.
One of our archbishops said recently in addressing the graduates of an academy: "A good hobby is the exercise of charity" charity like that which engages the members of the St. Vincent de Paul Society or of the various Ladies' Aid Societies - charity in behalf of churches and schools, home and foreign missions, hospitals, orphanages, homes for the aged poor, the blind, the deaf and dumb. A hobby, to say the least, is apt to keep a man out of mischief and to prevent him from utterly wasting his time.
The harder some men have to work, the brighter and happier they seem to be. In an interview one of the most prominent and successful merchants of New York was asked: "What do you do in your spare time? " "Work," was his laconic reply.
Probably no man in history used his time to better advantage than did St. Alphonsus Liguori, the founder of the Redemptorists. He was born of noble parents in a suburb of Naples on September 27, 1696. He died on the 1st of August, 1787, in his ninety-first year. He made a vow never to lose time. As Bishop of St. Agatha he was a very busy man; he gave much time to prayer; and yet he composed many books of such importance that he has been declared a Doctor of the Church. Butler says: "The little time which he contrived to steal from, his pastoral cares or his devotions, he spent not in recreation, but in writing, or dictating letters, or composing works for the good of souls, or reading spiritual or theological books. Even when obliged to go out in his carriage, he contrived not to allow a single moment to pass unoccupied."
We read in Bowden's "Miniature Lives of the Saints ": " St. Alphonsus wrote his first book at the age of forty-nine, and in his eighty-third year had published about sixty volumes when his Director forbade him to write more. Very many of these books were written in the half hours snatched from his labors as missionary, religious superior, and bishop, or in the midst of continual bodily and mental sufferings. Yet he counted no time wasted which was spent in charity. He did not refuse to hold a long correspondence with a simple soldier who asked his advice, or to play the harpsichord while he taught his novices to sing spiritual canticles." St. Alphonsus said: "Consider every occasion of self-denial as a gift which God bestows on you, that you may be able to merit greater glory in another life; and remember that what can be done to-day can not be performed to-morrow, for time past never returns."
"Idleness hath taught much evil 19 (Ecclus. xxxiii. 29).
"Nothing," says Father Von Doss, SJ., "becomes youth less than idleness - laziness. Young man, can your past show anything that gives you a right or a claim to repose?
"And your present life? It demands of you activity, energy, exertion. Idleness is premature old age. To be idle is to decay, to die, to rot. The future imperatively demands of you activity. Care must be taken to educate mind and heart. If time shall soon be no more (Apoc. x. 6) for you, then something must be done now, in order that you may not appear before God like the unprofitable servant in the Gospel, with empty hands, and a buried talent (Matt. xxv. 25). Idleness is the cesspool of the soul. Foul vapors arise from stagnant waters, and idle, dangerous, bad, abominable thoughts from inactive hearts - thoughts which may become desires, and end in shameful actions.
"Idleness effeminates and enervates; it robs the mind of its penetration and the character of its firmness. Idleness is the confederate of all other vices; it opens the way for them into the sick and timid heart Idleness often gives way to excess in eating and drinking and seeks gratification and pastime in low pursuits. Idleness is inconstant. 'The sluggard willeth and willeth not." (Prov. xiii. 4). Idleness is cowardly. The slothful man saith: There is a lion without. I shall be slain in the midst of the streets' (Prov. xxii. 13). Bear in mind that sentence of the Lord, and fear: 'Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit, shall be cut down, and cast into the fire ' (Luke iii. 9). Insatiable thirst for enjoyment, greedy lust of pleasure, is one of the most devastating distempers of our time, the ever gnawing worm of our generation."
Father Joseph Rickaby, S.J., says in "Ye are Christ's": "I must deny myself, because many of the things that I desire can not go together; to have one is to give up another. No great end in life is gained without an active and watchful resistance, now to one distracting impulse, now to another. The name for that repressive vigilance is self-denial.
" Self-denial is continually practised in view of mere worldly success. A good oarsman is made by self-denial, a good marksman, a good musician, and a good -scholar. Self-denial is needful because of the variety of our desires. There is, I notice, one desire in me, not the strongest, by no means the most clamorous, a quiet, respectable sort of desire, but endowed with immense vitality, a desire which gradually subdues the rest and outlives them all: what is that? It is the desire of ease, the sheer, pure, undiluted love of doing nothing and vegetating quietly. Otium, Grosphe, and the rest, as Horace sings. There are those in whom this desire does not wait the hour of enfeebled old age to attain its majority: it is supreme lord paramount from boyhood onward. Is that my case? The indulgence of that do-nothing desire will not make my fortune in this life: and, for the world to come, when they pray over my dead body, 'Eternal rest give to him, O Lord, may not the angels reply: 'Why, this creature entered into his rest long ago, and has slept throughout life like a dormouse: what claim has he to rest for eternity, who has not labored in time?' I need self-denial to over' come my laziness."
"Absence of occupation is not rest; A mind quite vacant is a mind distressed." - Cowper.
" An idle brain is the devil's workshop." - Anon.
"For Satan finds some mischief still For idle hands to do." - Watts.
"He is idle that might be better employed." - French.
"Rest! Rest! Shall I not have all eternity to rest in?" - Arnauld.
"When youth sleeps on beds of roses,
Age on beds of thorns reposes."
- Quarles.
"Rest is for the dead." - Carlyle.
"Every great and commanding movement in the annals of the world is the triumph of enthusiasm" - Emerson.
"No matter what the object is, whether business, pleasures, or the fine arts; whoever pursues them to any purpose must do so con amore" - Melmoth.
Happiness in goodness
SHALL I be happy, if I am good? I know I shall be happy in heaven, but that seems a long way off. Shall I be happy on earth? I ask the question in some anxiety, because I hear a great deal about carrying the cross; and I can not conceive how any one can carry the cross and be happy. Carrying the cross means, I suppose, making oneself miserable. Now, though I should like to be good, I have no mind to make myself miserable. What am I to do? I am to out out of my head forever the notion that carrying the cross means making oneself miserable. There is one indeed who, if I try to be good, will do everything in his power to make me miserable. That is my enemy, the devil, whom St. Peter bids me to resist, strong in faith (i Pet. v. 9). St. Chrysostom says that as a Christian resists thoughts of impurity, so he should resist thoughts of sadness: indeed, the one often leads to the other. And St. Ignatius: " It is proper to the evil spirit to sting, to sadden, to put obstacles in the way, making the soul restless by false reasonings to prevent its getting on. And it is proper to the Good Spirit to give courage and strength, consolation and rest of soul, making things easy and removing all obstacles, that the soul may go on further in doing good." And St. John Cnrysostom again. "It is proper to the devil to create trouble and excitement and to shroud the mind in darkness: whereas it belongs to God to shed light, and with understanding to teach us what we need to know." In short, there are two crosses, Our Lord's cross and the devil's cross. Our Lord's cross consists of the labors of my state, and the pain and sorrow that go with labor, of whatever sort it be, as God said in the beginning to Adam: in the sweat of thy brow thou shalt eat thy bread: thorns and briers shall the earth bear to thee (Gen, iii. 18, 19). This cross I must submit to be nailed to, and never come down till death releases me, never abdicate, never resign. The devil's cross consists of feelings of wretchedness, black discontent, irritation, complainings, downheartedness, and misery - as it were whirls from the cloud that envelopes Satan in eternal despair. This cross I must fling far from me.
There is no virtue in long faces, even when pious people pull them. To carry Christ's cross manfully, one should be reluctant to avow that one has got any great weight of it 'on one's shoulder. Let me take an example: the case of a young man at college.
A frequent cross with youth is the cross of examinations. I was going to add "in uncongenial matter"; but somehow nearly everything that one is examined in, and has to plod through during months of preparation, comes to be felt as uncongenial matter. Here are two wrong things to do, and one right thing. The first wrong thing is to refuse the examination, get oneself let off, or let oneself off by ceasing to study. That is like resigning a burdensome office in later life, usually a mistake. It is flinging Christ's cross away. The second wrong thing is to go on studying, making oneself miserable all the while with lamentations about the disagreeableness of the task and the prospects of failure. That is adding to Christ's cross Satan's cross, and may likely enough end in casting off both, - quod erat faciendum , in Satan's plan. The one right thing is to work hard, serenely and faithfully, day by day, doing all one can, and committing results to God. The moral is this: the cross of sadness should always be got rid of by a Christian, so far as ever he is able to shake it off: but the cross of arduous and at times disagreeable employment should be held on to and cheerfully borne. - Ye are Christ's.
A New Virtue
THERE is a virtue which may be new to the hearing of many of us. It was discovered and named by Aristotle; and he called it by the pretty Greek name of eutrapelia. Eutrapelia may be defined " playfulness in good taste." Aristotle himself defines it: "a chastened love of putting out one's strength upon others." There is in every ordinary boy a disposition to romp, to play the fool, and to destroy property; a disposition which ought to be sternly repressed, subdued, and kept under by those responsible for the boy's education, beginning with himself. Otherwise the boy can have no place in civilized society: he will turn out a young savage. But though repressed, the disposition should not be killed within him and extirpated altogether. It is a defect of character to have no playfulness, no drollery, no love of witnessing or even creating a ridiculous situation. Eutrapelia knows exactly when and how to be funny, and where and when to stop. All things have their season, says Ecclesiastes (iii. i, 4); a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a lime to dance. A proud and quarrelsome man is never a funny man. Many a difficulty, many an incipient quarrel, many a dark temptation, is dissipated the moment one catches sight of some humorous side to the matter. A humble man makes merry over his own misadventures; and when he is inclined to storm and rage, listens to a good angel whispering in his ear: "John, don't make a fool of yourself." A merry boy is seldom a bad boy.
Life is not all play: indeed, it is a very serious thing; but on account of its very seriousness we require some play to set it off. That is why you find excellent men and great doers of good with an extraordinary faculty, which they use at times, of talking nonsense and playing the fool. Eutrapelia is a blend of playfulness and earnestness. Without earnestness, playfulness degenerates into frivolity. "O Lord, give me not over to an irreverent and frivolous mind" (Ecclus. xxiii. 6). We generally wear our lighter clothing underneath, and our heavier clothing above it; and perhaps that is the best way for a man, to veil his eutrapelia under a serious exterior. But for a boy the other way about is the better fashion; he should be playful and mirthful to the eye, but have seriousness and earnestness underneath, known only to those who know him well. In the earliest days of the Society of Jesus, there was a novice much given to laughing. One day he met Father Ignatius, and thought that he was in for a scolding. But St. Ignatius said to him: " Child, I want you to laugh and be joyful in the Lord. A Religious has no cause for sadness, but many reasons for rejoicing; and that you may always be glad and joyful, be humble always and always obedient." - Fr. Joseph Rickaby, S.J., in Ye are Christ's.