“GOING TO THE DOGS.”

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2082, 17 May 1907, Page 4

“GOING TO THE DOGS.”

FATHER VAUGHAN CRIES “FIRE!” TO SOCIETY.

London, March 10.—Fashionable fqlk again packed the Farm-street Catholic Church yesterday, and listened, in silonce, leavened by an occasional mild laugh, to what Father Bernard Vaughan had to lay at tho door of society. In a prelude to his sermon Father Vaughan said: “Many people have tojd me that what I said last Sunday about cat and clog worship was not true. Not true? Ask the sorvants pvlio have to sit up half the night nursing ailing, puling pots; ask tlio cooks who have to cater for these little beasts; ask the veterinary surgeons. And then if you still want proof,- go to the i*pdertakors who furnish the cat and dog funerals. Go and ask tho printers who print the memorial cards and invitations to drawing-room services, ending with the salutation, ‘Not adieu, but au revoir’ —whatever that may mean in this connection. Does it mean that they are going to the dogs?” (Hero the’ congregation sniggered at the conceit.) “My brethren,” continued Father JVaughan, sternly, “I have no patience with these people dangling boasts on their laps instead of babies. Fie upon them! If dogs and cats have souls, why not rats and mice?”

Beginning his sermon proper, Father Vaughan took for his text the words, “No king but Caesar.” Pilate, he said, had tried to rid himself of Jesus Christ by a mean and miserable compromise. But Christ was the Unavoidable. “You tell mo that there is no sin but that of dulness?” cried the preacher. “Whose handiwork is this? Your sins have made you dull. Your eves are so dimmed with sin that you cannot see the torn, bruised Victim of your sins. Sins so gross that I will not pollute my lips by even naming them. And yet you say sin is but a bad dream II Ecce homo ! Behold the Man Who has died for that sin, and then dare call it a fault of the nervous system!” Father Vaughan showed that in making Caesar their God, Society followed in tile wake of tlio Jews. Caesarisrn was the key to Society. Ho did not wish to speak against tlio Jews as a people, blit Society made too much of wealthy Jews. “These rich Jews laugh at you, you Christian people, b.ecause you will do anything for the golden god they hold in their hands,” he declared. Concluding, Father Vaughan compared Society to a house on fire ’"here the inmates slept. It was tlioroforo not only necessary, but his bo'undon duty, to raise a violent alarm. “I will,” ho said, “ring, knock, and shout. Your house is on fire! Awake ! Escape for .your lives ljet'7.fa the liro gates close on you for ever!”