[Side note:  Up-to-date]

“We must be up-to-date.”  The man that takes this as the sole principle by which to guide his moral conduct, not only writes himself down “depraved,” but an intellectual imbecile.  What does he mean?  He means that he is incapable of thinking for himself; that he has no fixed chart, but is tossed about in the eddy of fashion; that he has no principle to guide his own conduct by, but has to look to the street and follow where the crowd leads.

The most un-up-to-date people that ever lived were the early Christians.  When thousands were swarming to the butcheries of the Coliseum they refused to be up-to-date and kept carefully away from the taint of blood and savagery.  When the debaucheries of the festivals disgraced the city, they again refused to be “up-to-date.”  No doubt they were sneered at and called “old-fashioned,” “priest-ridden,” &c.  But it was they, and not those who taunted them, who showed loftiness and nobility of mind in taking, not the craze of the hour, but the Gospel of Jesus Christ as the standard of their conduct.

[Side note:  How to meet the Danger]

We have now taken the full bearings of the Danger of the Hour.  The remaining question is—­How to meet it?  To expose the bad book is but half our task—­its place must be supplied by the good one.  How can this be done?  The answer naturally suggests itself.  Have we not the Catholic Truth Society?  Yes, and it is a splendid weapon if worked as it should be; and its admirable publications pushed into every home.

There is a temptation to belittle these works because they cost only a penny.  Though they are reduced to that humble price to meet the wants of the millions, we must not forget that most of them are the productions of the ablest pens, and some of them contain more thought between their modest covers than many a pretentious volume.  They have the special advantage of being at a price and in a form accessible to the young.  There are many thousands reading these booklets who would never venture, even if they could, to face the four hundred paged volume.  But the Catholic Truth Society works do not cover all our needs.  They do two things—­they serve to create a thirst for more knowledge, and act as pedagogues to lead the child to the door of the parochial library.  Here we strike the goal.

[Side note:  The Parochial Library]

The parochial library is the crying want of the hour.  The one weapon by which we must beat back an evil which threatens appalling ruin.  Our service of God must vary with the need of the different ages.  At one time He is best served by the pouring out of martyr blood, at another by the building of splendid churches; but to any man who watches the drift and danger of our generation, it is clear as noonday, that the most effective work a priest can offer God to-day is a well stocked library, open to every child of the parish.

It has been said that if St. Paul were on earth now, he would be found editing a Catholic newspaper.