THE VIATORIA , Volume 32
NOVEMBERt 1914 Number 2
ST. VIATOR ((Mind the things that ar~ above, not the things that are upon the earth.)) St. Paul Colo sian , III-2. G~ P.
MULVANEY,
C.S.V.
We live today in · an age steeped in materialisrn, gold and pleasure have acquired such an ascendency that we see society retograding towards P aganisn1, towards a period of di grace, when religion was but the deification of n1atter. Indu try and cmnmerce carried on everywhere confirn1 the judgment of an · irreligious people, extending their confines on all sides causing men to forget all else in the pursuit of them. The teamship which leave our ports with the rapidity of an arrow to traver e the itntnensity of the ocean, those steam vehicles which skitn along our prairies penetrating into mountains, realizing upder our eyes what would have been a dream to our forefathers, those other n1achines which give movements to our gigantic workshops as if by tnagic set in motion innumerable instruments and turn out the tnost delicate productions-all this is wonderful. Th ~ {anatics of mechanical civilization would have us see no other power but gold and silver, no other agent but steam, no other ob ject but production, no other end but pleasure and regard men as only n1achines. Commercialism and materialism hold sway. It i an age of money and n1oney's worth. The money power tod:ly shapes the destinies of nations and regulates the lives of indi iduals. It is the golden calf of the 2oth century and we see crouching before it in obsequious adoration a vast horde of irreligious n1en. On political platform, in deliberate senate, in judicial assembly, in forensic debate, in large emporium and in small shop it is the question of the day and claims its victories over hearts and consciences. The modern irreligious man scoffs at the idea of a living personal God. fie ridicules any belief in a code of
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