A Grand Temperance Address

By request, the Cóurier publislies the sermón of Archbishop Ireland, of St. Paul, before the national cüiivention of the Total Abstinence Union of America. ArehUishop Ireland sa' d: Brethren and Fellow Total Abstainers: TVelcome to the Cathedral of St. Paul. Be, I pray you, at home v.ithin its walls. Here your work is thoroughly understood and approved without the least reservation; here hearts open to you in warmest affection, and prayers most fervent ascend to God that His blessings may flow upon you most generously,. Soldiers of a noble cause I salute, I honor, I love you. Your varfare is significant in itself of heroio self denial. It combats a foe 1hat is hideous to souls, to God and to the church of God. lts victories shed upon men the grace and the joy of heaven. We pray indeed that your numbers for the sake of earth and heaven were increased a hundred fold - Aye: a thousand fold. The spirit of soul which lifts men to the high plain of your mission is rare in poor humanity - are unfrequent in the material or the moral world. but their fewness brings out in bolder relief their own grandeur, and the refreshing streams flowing from the few sufBce to give consoling and healthful waters to the many low lands that lie at their faet. Members of the Catholic Total Abstinence Union of America I again bid you welcome to the city and to the Cathedral of St. Paul. Twelve years ago your Union held a convention in this city. It was my privilege to address the convention from this pulpit and I spoke in eulogy of its labors and in hatred of intemperance, words which seemed strong and determined. Years have since gone by; experience and mature thoughts have come. Are my words today to be different in tone from those twelve years ago? Yes, be they different if more mature thought and better observation are capable of giving to them a stronger tone. I have seen and observed much since then and I am most free to confess that the enemy of family, of country and of church; the enemy of man and of God is intemperance. And the habit of the battlefield enables me to speak with, more boldness today than I did twelve years ago. The aspects of interaperance are many; the reasons for batting against it are also many. I will confine my remarks today to ' one general point. I will speak to you as Catholics, and of the duty of Catholics in the present day towards the virtue of temparance. You are children of the Catholic church. Her aspirations and her loves are yours. Her honor and her" glory are among the highest of your ambitions. I need not teil you what the teaehings of the Catholic church are regarding temperance. She teaohes most emphatically that one ac.t of drunkenness is a mortal sin, stripplng the soul of the light and grace of God and condemning it to eternal punishment. The church faithfully re-echoes the scriptural words. that drunkards shall not enter the Kingdom of Heaven; that they whose God is their belly have for their end perdition. She hates intemperance because it is a sin, because it ruins souls; those souls for whose salvation Christ died and for whose salvation she exists. Intemperancé certainly is not the only sin but I ani not confining your warefare to intemperancé, but in the present condition of society in our own country, for I wish to localize to our own times and country whatever I have to say, and avoid all possible arguing or objection, and show intemperancé as a general evil. It is a sin and it gafhers around it a myriad of sins, for it is its nature to weaken the moral forcé of the soul and ignite the passion of our base nature. The Catholic church hates intemperancé and hates the practice and methods which lead to intemperancé. She hates intemperancé because of the sensuality which it teaches. The Catholic church is the church of Calvary's cross; the church of him who nailed to the cross our concupiscence that we might sacriflce them in our own persons. She has as her Gospel sets forth - as her history shows, for eighteen centuries demonstrated that she is the church of selfdenial: the church of the sacriflce of the flesh; of the subjugation of passion; the church of the victorious spirit in man. She commands absolute abstinence from the illicit, and she cornmands most strongly abstinence - frequent cases of it- abstinence from the Heit, in order that controlling the mimi and body in abstaining from the licit will make easy and sure abstinence from the illicit. Henee her saints; her héroes have all been noted for their selfdenial. for their crucifixión of the flesh. To the holy mother church the ideal Catholic is the man 'n whom the spirit is king. In whom the body with all its habits is ruled by the spirit, which in its turn is ruled by the law and grace of Almighty God. Such is the church in her precepts and in her counsel, and such must she be if she is the church of Jesus Christ. What now are the conditions in which this church must live among us? It is an age, alas, of intemperance. Drunkards. the victims of intemperance are numerous. Let us not be deceived and let us not be afraid to speak the facts, drunkards are not few among Catholics, as they are not few outside of the church. Drunkards are not few among us. Catholics suffer with al the others from the prevailing plague I may say that large numbers of Catholics are more exposed to the black cloud than others to their fellow citlzens; they are to a large extent the peor of the population, and there is the temptation of alcohol as a forget fulness of poverty and a solace from grinding labor. Moreover the poor have not the protection of comfortable and refined homes. Again raany Catholics are immigrants from foreign countries, and they bring to America local traditions and tendencies originating from causes altogether outside of religión. These traditions and tendencies are often intensified into their worst forms in new homes because the imm'grants are isolated from the conservative influenee of older homes and disposed to be more reckless from the unusual social and political liberty which is accorded to them: but whatever the facts, whatever the cause, whatever the exception, we deal with things as they are and as known; too many children of the Catholic church are victims of intemperanee, and too wany others show, while striving to avoid excess, a fondness of alcoholic drinks. What other conclusión can there be when we look around us and see the frequency of the wine cup and beer glass in social family circles; in Catholic club rooms and amid Catholic festivities and banquetings? What other conclusión can impress itself upon the public mind when we see so many saloons owned by Catholics and patronized by Catholics? What other conclusión, when in the political üfe of the country Catholics are found as the répresentatives of liquor interests, and on election days from whatever cause, Catholics are known frequently to cast their votes in behalf of liquor interests? Surely there is a contradiction between the Catholic church as she exists in her dignity and holiness, the ideal, and the condition of many Catholics as they exist; in fact is the fault here in the Catholic church? The fault comes from poor human nature which the church flnds as it is and hopes to reform and lift up. Men are weak and disposed, despite the tea.chings of the church, to yield to base appetite. We hate intemperanee because of its ravages among us. It is not the fault of those who rob the sanctuaries and altars of their praise; it is not the fault of devoted priests and devoted laymen who think their duty is done if they save themselves, and who have suffleient courage to go out into the highways and byways and denounce the enemy; who have not the push and self sacriflee required to plan and work; to plan again and work again until drunkenness in all its forms shall be driven far away from the Holy Catholic church. The aspirations and the loves of the church I have said are ours. Very well; Catholics to arms; crusade against intemperanee; God wills it; souls are perishing; drunkards shall not enter the kingdom of heaven, and you know of drunkards within your reach who by supreme efforts if necessary can ba saved through your work. We are all responsible for our brothers. We must work by example and by word and by argument as individuals, as Christians and as citizens, using every force which God brings to our hands to save our brothers. Ah, the ravages of intemperance; its ravages among Catholics. Not only are souls lost, but they, even, who do not drink to what is called an excess are exposed through the igniting of passions to many Eins; spiritual life is represed, for the more satisfaction given to the body the lesser the wlll becomes. Here is a field for zeal, a field for your love of Christ and eouls, and for the holy church herself. The church depends much for her outward ife upon the co-operation of her child-en. At certain periods of her his;ory in certain countries we see her shine forth in outward forms; in her membership; in her pure immaculate nner life, showing to the eyes of those who would be blind if they could that she walks ever as the creation of Heaven. Why would we not have the Catholic church in America appear before all the eyes what she is before Almighty God; the church of temperance; the church of self denial; the church of self saerifice; the church cf Christ's cross. It is in our power, and I have but little respect for the child of the church who wlll kneel down to pray and say, "Holy church, I love thee," and who going abroad among men seeing her chosen mission nulled, does not with all the energy oí his being come to her rescue, and rejoice in the occasion given to save her and make her appear before all what she is before Almighty God. You and I, my brethren, who understand and know the teachings of the Cathülic church easily distinguish between the church herself and the frailties of Jipimembers: who love and respect the church no matter what some of her members do; but is this the case with all our fellow citizens? Is this the case with all the weak minded ones among us and with non-Catholics at large? It is our duty and our mission to set the Catholic ehurch before nations as the church of truth and holiness; and believe me, and believe your own experience, men of the nineteenth century, men of America seek short roads of truth. It is quite useless for you to unfold the leaves of the history of eighteen hundred years in behalf of the church; men will say we need a church of today and not a church of the past. It is useless for you to teil them of sanctity in sanctuary and convent, and in ten thousand quiet Catholic homes; they demand results which they can see in street and market place; which they can see without the aid of a telescope or magnifying glass; they limit logically and illogically all argument to the one given by scripture, "By their fruits ye shall know them." The church is ever ready to put forth the fruits of holiness and truth, but as wants ars many these fruits do not strike the eye of the casual observer. How do the casual obBervers seek to know the fruits of the Catholic church? By the morning paper telling the records of courts and prisons; by what is seen and heard in the street and public places; by the names that are over portals of saloons; by the political news telling who in national seat and municipal council cast their vote in favor of liquor interests; against Sunday elosing, in favor directly or indirectly of any measure countenancing the awful and hideous sin of intemperance. The ag-e today is material and demands material effects, but all the more in its héroes it admires the spiritual life. It knows that triumph over sensual life does not come from earth; when it sees it, it recognizes it as the gift of Almighty God. Now the Catholic church is precisely the churoh of the cross of Christ, only we have all around timidity and inertion, allowing clouds formed by the exhalation of alcohol to hide the ideal church from the public gaze, and we do not rush as a crusade at the sacrifice of life and tear away the evil, and let the world see what they have been craving for, the ideal church, Christ's own church. People see our faults, our drunkards and our habits of intemperance, and it is our duty too for the sake of truth, for the sake of God and of man, tb elimínate drunkards from the ranks of the Catholic church and bring by argument and prayer, and wise legislation, thls church :o be the church of temperance and its advocate on all occasions. Do not beieve that I limit your zeal to Catholics. speak only of Catholics today because speak in a special manner in the name of the Holy Church. We are in Amerca for zeal. The work of the church oday must gain the public esteem and he public love. I know America; the mind and the heart of America, and the mind and heart of Americans pant for ruth and goodness. Prejudice is not a product of American soil. Catholics think sometimes that they are misunderstood and caluminated. and it is true if we mean by the word Catholic the Catholic church, but America is judging the Catholic church from certain Catholics whom it sees, and it believing illogically may be, but as fact if Catholics are so degraded in many cases and so devoted to intemperance, we surely know some one is to blame. They are . not read in the signs of the times . who do not perceive that America s resolved to have a reign of temperance. America, whatever her tendencies be from the supernatiiral, demands natural effects; she will accept the supernatural only as a consequence, a superstructure built upon the natural. She demands temperance. America has set her face against the saloon, which is the den of corrupt politics, and no church, whatever it be, which will not come out publicly and plainly before America as the church of temperance, America will not esteem it and will consider it rather an udious excrescence upon its soil. Catholics of America, I appeal to you in the name of country, in the name of church; admire you must the esteem of America, love you do the inner life of üod's church, then by all your ambition be Catholics as far as you can - be true Catholics and you have served church and you have served country. In the great works of the Catholics today in America, say what we Wlll, the greatest is the work of temperance. My experience is that those who are valiant soldiers in one good cause are valiant in all good causes. Do other works, but other works without working to aid the temperance movement wlll not suffice. Have other methods and practices of zeal; give f uil scope to other precepts and other counsels of the Church, but with all these, and prominent among them all, let there be the work of temperance. Have your festivities and banquets In token of mutual friendship, but let not the tables groan beneath the weight of alcohol's curse. Praise the self-denial of the cross, discipline in any form, but believe me the chosen form of self-denial today is the pledge, and it brings you nearer to heaven than the hair shirt or fasting. Give them in abundance counsel and money, but the best church for your fellow Christians today is that church which will lead them into the ranks of the Holy Church. This is the work for priest and layman. In our church there are certain few points which we must reach out to and which I would emphasize. We must on all occasions diminish immensely the number of drunkards. I will not look for the millennium; I know the weakness of poor humiin nature, and that here and there will still be culprits, but we must, and we can if we will, reduce so much the number of drunkards, that it shall be the accepted saying that no drunkards are among the Catholics. Is it difflcult? Those who say it is diflïcult calumníate their poor, weak brethren. Those Catholics who are most the victims of intemperance, speak to them; they have the principies and instincts of faith within them; they lament their weakeness, if one temptation catch (Continued on Eighth Page.) A GRAND TEMPERANCE ADDRESS. (Cfiiitiniied J'ruiti ;tt!t Pagc) them they may live it through, and tens of thousands today sit near the saving waters looking anxiously towards their wavings, but they may not be saved if there is no man by-[o let them down into those waters. Oh, on the last day, how many of those Catholics, lost for all eternity through intemperance, will say, Oh, íf my brethren had eiven me counsel, had come to my rescue, I should have been saved." If Catholics, priests and laymen, would organize a strong, vigorous temperance crusade, and malntain it in the country for a decade of years, what a change would be effected. The drinking custom must be discontir.ued. Now I wish no one to say that ! the use of wine in moderate quantities is licit. We know all these theoretical ideas, but we know also the practices, and we know that these drinking custcms lead to excess, diminish spiritual Ufe and give scandal. Some Catholics believe this solution, a holy Ufe, and 1 live as if they were the only ones on earth and had no duty towards their fellowmen. They will indulge in certain practices, forgetting still this important law; forgetting that we have duties towards our fellowmen and knowing that we shall be judged on the last day in view of the influence whieh our actions shall have oñ our fellowmen. Therefore, cry down those evil drinking customs; agítate against them; blame them; speak to them, form public opinión and public opinión fhall rule. 'Countenance no liquors in Cathlic club rooms and banquetings; advocate to the populace of the city true i total abstinence among Catholic families. The warfare must not cease against the saloon. When I speak of saloons I mean', to avoid arguments, the iean saloon, such as it stands and such as it is, and the American saloon is a den - a vile den of intemperance. The air of the saloon is laden with I phemy and sensualism ; temptations are I there, and bring men there to drink. I ! make no reference to the personal character of the saloon keeper, but the atmosphere in whieh he works is bad itself. The deadly enemy of body and soul. of the family and country, and of God is the saloon; and America demanda and she shall demand in stronger tones yet that this American saloon shall disappeaor from the face of our fair land. Now in this warfare let Catholics lead by the formation of public opinión and by wise and prudent legislation. Let it come, and again it is an easy task to bring it around ii we are in earnest, and a man shall travel lar and wide in cities before a Catholic name shall be found above the portals of a saloon. In public you l.ave to" carry on war against the saloon. I must malte a reraark the truth of which in my observance has oítcn been4 brought home to me. Our zeal must be constructive of evil ones. As things today are the saloon is th; poor man's club room. If he avoids it and wfehes to meet a friend and have a social chat to spend a half hour the street is hls only refuge, and I beüeve you will not succeed in war against the saloon until we have built up club rooms and coffee houses and institutions of one kind or another that give the sociableness of the saloon without its vices. We must work and bend every effort so that Catholics in political matters shaü alwavs be arrayed the liquor trafflc. Yet on election day hundreds will vote with saloon interests. What is the cause I know not. I have sometimes thought it is political slavery. Now political or any slavery is hideous, and especially is it so when it brings with it slavery to hol. The Catholic church, my brethren, has set herself before the world on a high plane regarding temperante. A few years ago all the bishops of America met in plenary council in Baltimore and a vhole chapter of flheir decrees is devoted to temperance. They. command in strongest language ïemperance; they command as the means of temperance total abstlnence; they beg of priests and laymen to enlis't in the cause and form societies; they ordered Catholics to do what they might to have saloons as well as other business houses closed on Sunday. They demanded legislation against setting liquor to minors and drunkards, and they said emphatically that saloon keeping is a business unworthv of Catholics, that Catholics should leave it as quickly as possible and seek more decent means of livelihood. Some years ago the Pontiff of Rome, the head of the Catholic church, in a letter addressed to America, commended most earnestly total abstinence societies - in a special manner this society, the Catholic Total Abstinence Union of America; invoked the co-operation of Catholics in favor of country and God ; asked that the priests as leaders of the flock should shine as models of abstinence. I shall not quote the actions or letters of individual bishops. Only a. few days ago the representative of the Sovereign Pontiff the Apostolie Delégate Satolli, in confirming the decree of the Diocese of Columbus, declared that the vice of saloon keeping today in America is such that the bishop has the power and right to say that no saloon keepers shall be admltted to membership in Catholic societies. The church holds out to us a high ideal Whateyer Catholics do the church has done her duty. The question now is will Catholics rise to the high elevation of this ideal. I have confidence that they will. I look back over the history of temperance for the last quarter of a sentury, we know in the country at large the cause has advanced rapidly. There are enemies of temperance who will teil us of failures but never of success. Why, have we not in the country made temperance praiseworthy? Have we not made drinking and saloon keeping odious; among Catholics especially? Why, the growth of temperance for the last 25 years is such that I thank God Eor it from my heart this morning. Twenty-five years ago public opinión tiad neither the courage or candor to speak as it does today. Today this society has its 60,000 members. Other total abstinence societies have many more outside of your society. Total abstainers are numbered by the hundreds of thousands and he that drinks today is ashamed of drinking and admires though he has not the courage to quit. Today in the rank of total abstinence at our convention for all workers of temperance. leaders of people are numerous, and I know the Catholic priesthood of America and I know the tens of thousands of young levites go forth into the arena with the courage and determination to live and work and serve God in the cause of total abstinence. Oh, the priests especially, and the people throughout these United States I know their devotion to God, but I am' afraid that many do not understand as they should the evils of intemperance and have not the courage to do and speak as they shculd. ín their hands are the souls of all their people; in their hands is the glory of the Catholic church; in their hands is her future in America. Oh, had I the wings of an angel and with my Ups ig-nited by & burning brand from God's altar I would go to every seminary and every sanctuary in these United States and I -tfould appeal for souls, and country and church, and ask that all join as the brave knights of old in a crusade against intemperance. The priests are the leaders, and laymen are soldiers and leaders. I meet many men who teil me they are ready for the fray but they want someone to go in before them. Why, it should be their ambitlon to be first. Yes. when God calis, and souls are endangered and there is so much at stake, let every man whose heart is Christian rise. and I know hundreds of thousands are ready to follow. Oh, may this total abstinence convention now assembled in St. Paul mark a new era in Catholic temperance work in America. Oh, let it be the beginning of brighter days. As to the various methods you are to pursue in your work I have not the time to discuss. I know there are many of them. There is prohlbition, there is local option, there is moral suasion, there is total abstinence, there is partial abstinence, there is the plan of avoiding the saloons, and if one is so weak that he must take somelhing to take it when at home; so I say, in God's name, have some method, do something. When T hear of Christian citizens working earnestly against inlemperance in any form my heart is glad. Let us never quarrel as to the means and methods. Let us keep all our quarrelling for the enemy. Let each one use nis own remedy and bless him who uses another remedy or whoever shouts against intemperance. Total abstinence is a certain salvation for yourself,, and a certain salvation for those who join you. Tne Holy Father in his letter says, total abstinence is a sure and effective remedy for intemperance. You will not obtain every day the gift of total abstinence, but this much you do, you compel them to be careful in their own conduct. Measure not your success by your members; for each soldier enrolled in your books, there are hundreds of men outside who are careful in their habits and conduct because of the action of your society. Talk, agítate, never cease, for God is with you. I invoke God's blessing upon you, I thank you in the name of the Holy Church for your valiant deeds, and I beg that during all the years which God will leave you with us that you battle for the cause of temperance. Be faithful members of your society, and trust me when you appear before the judgment throne of God these words shall be said to you: "Well done thou good and faithful servant, possess the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world."