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E PULPIT. HOLARLY SUNDAY SERMON BY CARDINAL GIBBONS. ject: Tio Prerogatives and re onsibilitIes of Moral Freedom. altimoro, Md.-Sunday morning dinal Gibbons preached his regu monthly sermon to a large audi e, at the cathedral. His subject s "The Prerogatives and Responsi ties of Moral Freedom." The text s from St. Luke 18:31-43: "Jesus manded the blind man to be ought to Him, and He asked him, ying: What wilt thou that I do r thee? And he said: Lord, that I ay receive my sight." The cardinal Id: Is not he stone blind who is entire engrossed by the desire for earthly hes and shu.ts his eyes to the pearl great price? Is not he blind who wallowing in the mire of sin, who leading a life of sensuality which ds to melancholy and despair? Is t he blind who is bending all his ergies to the acquisition of honor d fame, and when he acquires it, it Is to satisfy the cravings of his rt? Is not he blind who looks up heaven and con.templates the rks of creation, but discerns not e existence of a Creator? Is not he Iind who sees the hands moving on e clock-work of time, but fails to cognize the invisible Hand which eps these works in motion? Is not blind who counts the days of his ars as they flow by, but does not zsider the ocean of eternity that -s before him? Now, Christ says to each of you .t He said to the blind man: What will? What wilt thou that I lhee? sublime is the faculty of free It Is a gift which distinguishes g the brute creation; for man e om*,,venture on earth that en moral freedom. It is a preroga which you possess in common h the ange!s and which makes you to God Himself. God and the els and man are the only beings t have free will. t is the exercise of the will that tinguishes the saint from the sin the martyr from the apostate, hero from the coward, the tem te man from the drunkard, the volent ruler from the capricious t. If we are destined to be of their freedom should be enlled estion: "We are the seed of i," they exclaimed, "and have been slaves to any man." But ir Lo d repliod that though children Abraman, they were in bondage as ng as ,they were in sin. "Amen, I y to y6p: Whosoever committeth is the slave of sin." Do not Aiericans sometimes talk this way? We are freeborn citi ms and yield to no despotic power. 4t what will it profit us to enjoy e blessings of civil freedom, if we Sno.t enjoy the glorious .liberty of ildren of God, by which we are res ted from ignorance -and can trample n sin? What will it avail us to be ecognized in the public walks of life a free and independent citizens, if in e circle of our family, and in the nctuary of our hearts, we are lashed s slaves by the demon of passion; if e are slaves to a p)etulant temper, ayes .to lust, to intemperance, pride nd vainglory; slaves to public opin n, the most cap)ricious of all rants? Jesus Christ is the highest ideal of bristian perfection. He is "the way nd the truth and the life." He came oteach us by word and by example. ow, if there is any one virtuc our aviour inculcates more forcibly than nother. 'It is this: That our heart nd wvill shoul be ini harmony with ed's wvill. "I came down from eaven," He says. "not to do My own Ill, bu.t the will of Hlimi that sent e. My food is to do the will of Him hat sent Me that I may finish His ork." In exhorting us to make the will of God the supreme rule of our actions, ur Lord is echoing the voice of His eernal Father. "My son., says Al mghty God, "give Me thy hen,rt." HIe des not say: Give Mo thy riches, ty lands and thy possessions, for tese belong to Him already. "The erth is the Lord's and the fullness tereof, .the world and all that dwell terein." He does not say: My son, gve the service of thy body, for that aso belongs to Him. "Thy hands," ays the p)rophet, "'have made and fshionedl me." And besides we read iybestow the service of our brain ad hands on one who has already gined our affections. But He says: ive Me thy hear.t and the affections ofthy wvill, for this is all that you cn call your own; this is the only ree, unmortgaged property you can ofer Him. You should discern the hand of God in the daily occurrences of life. * egard all the events hap p u, such as poverty andi a'ei aess and health, life and .1;, the afflictions and perse t ing. from the malice sif a ~ iooald regard all these, I tecidents and real evils, .......tions controlled and di ThW are liiiks in the chain of your immortal destiny; they are so many gems in the diadem of your glory. This is the teaching of the apostle, who says that "to them that love God all things. work together unto good." I consider the recognition of this truth thd highest Christian philos ophy and the practice of it the only substantial basis of genuine peace. You will never enjoy solid tranquillity till you accept with composure and equanimity all the visitations which come from His loving hand. Our Saviour insinuates .the same comforting doctrine. ' When He is arrested in the garden before His crucifixion, Peter draws a sword in His defense. Our Lord thus rebukes him:- "Put thy sword into its scab bard. The chalice which My Father hath 'given Me, shall I not drink it?" He does not say: The chalice which Judas and Calaphas and Herod and the Jews have givcn Me. No. He regards them all a. the unconscious instruments of God in the work of man's redemption. God used these vile instruments for the -sacriflee and glorification of His Son, just as a father uses a scourge to chastise his child and then throws it into the fire. "Do you not know," says Pilitte to Christ, "tha.t I have the power of life and death over you?" "You would have no power over Me," replies our Lord, "if it were not given thee from above." Blessed is the man who in every occurrence of life preserves in his heart an unalterable adhesion to God's will, through honor and dis honor, through evil report and good report, in sickness and in health. in prosperity and adversity. Blessed is he who hears the paternal voice of God in the thunder of tribulations that resound over his head. Happy is he who has this short but compre hensive prayer often in his heart and on his lips: "Thy will, 0 Lo: 1, be done!" Thrice happy are they who can say with the confidence of the apostle: "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ," and a loyal at tachment to His will. "Shall tribu lation or distress, or danger or perse cution or the sword? I am sure that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor might nor any other crea ture shall be able to separate us from the charity of God." HOPING AGAINST HOPE. By the REV. P. A. HALPIN, St. Angela's College. New Rochelle, N. Y. * Who against hope believed in hope. -Roinans 4:18. The most wretched of his species is the man without hope. He is more than wretched, he is inexcusably criminal, because an offender against a divine law which the apostle em phasized in his masterly appeal to the romans. To hope and to hope always is a con mand so stringent that against hope we must believe in hope. The words of St. Paul suggest a picture in which hone is portrayed sunine and gasping, while ministering faith bends over it and arouses it into'life and strength and commanding beauty. A miracle truly this, but within the power of religion and attested by reason and e:qpvriencee. That such marvel may be per formed-nay, that it is not beyond the reach of any soul-is solace un speakable. It means that any one may bar forever against himself the gates of despair. It is a triimpet call for highest courage and achevement. It implies a command which if uin uittered by the Creator would pass by unheeded. But God wills it. there fore it can be obeyed. Though it calls for a fight of hope against itself, it is not a contradiction nor a para dox, but carried .to its ultimate conse quences It means triumph, it is uni versal In its application, bars no man from its sway and eliminates no comn bination of circumstances. It en.joins upon one absolute refusal to surren der save to the inevitable doom of us all. Moreover, it finds a resnonse in man's heart. "Never say die!" is a cry as old as the race. All the myth ologies reflect it. Christianityv con secrates it. rho Old World felt its truth; to the New it was given to understand it. On .sea and land, on every battle field since .the dawn of history, has It been heard. There has never been a mandate to despair. No matter what the en vironment, how dlark the outlook, over and above all is the inspiration of hope. What man's vcice prevails against the utterance of faith? When a man says there is no hope, where is his guarantee? The physician says: "The man wvill die with the dawn" the man lives yet. A man is in the clutches of ad.versity; he has lost his all; lo! on the fragments of his for tune he builds a colossal independ ence. History has not chronicled every hopeful deedl. Ships a-many de spaired of have come to p)or.t; fr.om many "last ditches" have b)een uin furled flags of victory. The hope that Paul speaks of is not supine but active. It puts heart in a man as nothing else does. It is the mother of resurrection. Giod the aui thor and finisher of hope he praised! For from Him conmes the confidence which says: "There is a way out; if I cannot find it I will make it." This hope, heaven descended, ap proved by reason and sanctioned b)y experience, cannot be baffled. To hope against hope is the basis of char acter. The .truest test of a man is to hope against hope and to p)luck suc cess out of the very heart oi' failure. H-uman Progress. T1he motive of human progress has ever been a belief in spiritual reality. Whenever that motive has been superseded, progress has ceased, dis integration has set in. whether ini the nation or n the int iindual. WI CdVER A CONTINENT conen on Called to Met Is Wash ington Febuary 18. Washington, Special. - Announce ment was made at the White House Sunday of a proposed plan for a con ference looking toward the eonserva tion of the natural resources of North America, to be held at the White House February 18 next. Letters suggesting the plan have been addressed by President Roose velt to the Governor-General and to the Premier of Canada and to Presi dent Diaz, of Mexico. They will be delivered to the officials in person by Gifford Pinchot, chairman of the Nat ional Conservation Commission and Chief Forester of the United States. whom President Roosevelt has chosen as his personal representative to con vey the invitations and to confei with the authorities of the two Govern ments. Mr. Pinehot will first visit Canada, leaving Monday. He will then carry the invitation to President Diaz at Mexico City. The proposed North American con ference is the outgrowth of the two conservation conferences held in Washington, in which the Governors of the States and Territories were the principal conferees. At the see and conference, on December 8, rep resentatives of the Canadian Goveri !nent were present and expressed their interest in the movement. Out of this grew the idea of a North American conference "to consider mutual in terests involved in the conservation of natural resources and to deliberate apon the practicability of preparing a general plan adapted to promote the welfare of the nations concerned. The representatives designated by the Canadian and Mexican Govern inents will, under the proposed plan, 'onsult with representatives of the State .and other departments of this Government and with the National Conservation Commission. The main object of the conferere, as announe. ed will be to point out that natural resources are not limited by the boundary lines which separate na tions, to develop a better know%:ledge of the natural resources of each na tion on the part of the railroads and to invite suggestions for concurrent action for the protection of mutual interests related to conservation. College Building Burned. Front Royal, Va., Special.-Th' bandsome three-story brick building -f Eastern College, containing the recitation rooms, art studio and dor mitories, was totally destroyed by fire Christmas afternoon. The orig in of the fire is supposed to have been from the overheating of a stove on the third floor. On account of lack of water, the nearest pIlg be ing fully a quarter of a mile from the building, the firemen could only .ave the contents. The loss is par tially covered by insurance. I. P. Mather, dean of the faculty, stated that in spite of the fire the 'iistern College would open after vacation as if nothing had happened. Already plans are under wvay to rebuild at once, as the building destroyed wvas only one of the four. Practically no interruption will result. To Caal Cuban Congress Togethecr. Wasington, Special.-The War De. partment Saturday cabled Governor Magoon authority to call the newC ban Congress together for organir.a tion at any time prior to .January 28th. It is stated that the Congress probably will be assembled soon after New Year's Day. The Congress after receiving the electoral college, the credentials of Senators and Repre sentativyes, considering possible con tests, and other dletails for (organiza lion, provided for by the Cuban eon titution, will take a recess until January 28th. Did the Wrong Killing. Hopkinsville, Ky., Special.-r-ood ing over the fancied disgrace to his family because his father h&rn been whipped by night-riders, Roy Roge'rs. the 20-year-old son of P'reiarey Rog ers, a prominent.planter, 'omnmitted suicide on Monday. The m-ol lier on returning from a visit fgund ihe boy dead with a revolver by his side. "Sugar fling'' Dead. San Franeisco, Special. - Claus Spreckels, widely known as the ''Sugar King'' of the Pacifie coast, died at 4:30 a. m. Saturday at his home in this cit.y in his eightieth year. The immediate cause of (death wvas an attack of pneumonia which had developed with alarming symip toms during the past. fewv depys. D)e spite his advanced age. Mr'. Spreckels had appearedl before the wvays alnd means committee of the House of Representatives in Washington as ani authority on thle subjer-t of sugal dutiem. "EXPLA N?" -Cartoon by Davenport, in the New York Mail. EARTHQUAKE LOSSES. Mn.any Ttousands Killed in Prev ous Disasters. Losses of life in previous big earthquakes were as follows: Island of Yeddo, Japan, 1703; 190,000 lives lost. Lisbon, November 1, 1755; 50,000 lives lost; damage, $100, 000,000. Island of Krakatoa, August 26, 1883; 50,000 lives lost. Charleston, S. C., August 31, ISS; 50 lives lost; damage, + $5,000,000. .Tapan, June 15. 1896; 30,000 lives lost. St. Pierre, Martinique. May 8, 1902; 25,000 lives lost. Calabria, September 8, 1905; 3000 people killed, 30 towns wiped out. Mount Vesuvius, April 5, 1906; 500 believed to have per ? ished. San Francisco, April 18. 1906; earthquake and fire, 500 killed: damage, $500,000.000. Valparaiso. Chile, August 17, 1906; 1000 killed; 140 small towns destroyed. Kingston, Jamaica. January 14. 1907; 1500estimatedkilled. + Calabria. October, 1907: 600 estimated killed. * Karatagh. Russian Turkestan, October, 1907; 14,000 killed : there and in adjoining villages. HISTORICAL DESCRIPTION OF THE Rr-GION IN ITALY DEVASTATED DY EARTHQUAKES AND TIDAL WAVES Messincr, the Ruined City, is 2700 Years Old and IT. Uad Many Masters and Catastrophes Studied with maps and accounts of 152,000. Next to Palermo, it is the the more recent of the great earth- chief commercial town of Sicily and quake disasters of Italy, it is seen its harbor, which is formed by a that in the latest catastrophe the dis- Ieninsula. is the busiest in Italy from turbance reached the surface on the the stand0Oit of steamhoat traffic. northern border, close to Swiss terri- The principal object of interest to tory. Bomodossolo is among the tourists, apart from the scenic attrac Alps, and the mountain range seb'ms tionis of' the laZce, is the cathedral, to have been the route of the earth- wvhicth was begun in 1098. at the time quake. It passed to the southward, of Norman occupation or the islIand,. following the Apen'iines. There Is a i and parts of whiiich are still stand ig f twenty minutes diffe'rnce between ias originally constructed wih the ex-' the time of the shocks reported in|ception of thle evidlences of damage upner and lower Italy, I roughjjt by the frequent earthquakes. In Calabria, which has be~en laid j he- town is one of great anitiquity, wvaste again and again by such dis-| and derived its first known name'~~ turbances, this earthquake first I Zanoale t a sickle), from the shape of touched the surface with its full the harbi'lor. it was founded by Cu.. effect. Lofty signal posts of disaister mnaon pirates and Ciralcidianis in 732 marked its way, for it struck with I . C., and was governed by the lawa full force at the extinct volcano of of Chiarondas. San Giovanni, spread its devastation In :396 Ii. C. thle town was de. across the Strait of' Messina to Sicily stroyed b)y tire Carthiaginians, hut n as and rolled up another score of death Irebilit a few y'ears later by Dionysius andl ruin all about the slopes of jof1 Syracuse. only to fall again in to Mount Etna, reducing to ruins the the bands of the Carthaginins under ancient and famuous ('ity' of Messina Il an nihal in 269. 'The flrs't Punic and tumbling thebuoildin gs of Catania, wvar. however, left the pla1ce in the fifty-nine mile fa rthe'r sou th,i only hands of the Rloma:ns, and thle plact, to again overwhelm -the busy port was ol I:nportancee second only to that soon afterward w;ith a great 1 idal of Syracuse an'l i,ilyhaeurm ini Sicthy wave. dunrig a per:od 01f llomnr:n ocupatlion The spr'ead of the ea'rthqiouake :n last;nig for several cenature Sicily arid Southern Italy, according jIn 8 1 A. D. the town wras takcen to the cable dispiatchles, was through Iby the Sa racens, bunt in 1 06 1 it wa very much the sa1mm area as that of taken from them by thle Normnan.s the earthquake of 1 873, wvhich was The c-ity prrospered greatly during thir the most destr'uctive in the history Crusr~ades. hinrg a fa vor'lte renrdezvoius of Italy. Then, as now, the carthI- for soldilers from Itie cont ient OIn (uake cauisedl enormnous damage on rou to to the 110oly L.and. In thle Mid both sides of the Strait of Messitna, dlie A ges als1o iil becamne a tiou rishim-~ which separates the toe of the no- commercial city. cal led "hoot" of Italy from Sicily. IIts commeat rciaII r importan me ds -~jp 'Ihe hiistoric disaster comnp1letely pea red afteor a bitter0 s;truggle bet ween wr'ecked the popiulous sea port of' Men- the aristocrat ic factlion, or MerlI, anid sina in Sicily near the nor'thern end thbe dlemocratit' farti oar Ma vizzi, In of the str'ait and destr'oyed many 1 674. ThIe dem'tO(rs .a fact ionap smaller cities andI towns in Southiern penh-d to t he FrenIchl ti,d the oIlher t Italy and Sicily. thre Span iar'ds. The formner faction The loss of life in thris disaster' of were at first victor-ions, hurt Eventu'l 1783 was estimated at 60,000, Mes- hy wi-r' dlOeeted- by thre 1'ren:ch the sina, a city which is for the mo t pantrityD was takeni by t he Span iards, and but little above thle level of the sra, wh'n tihein straggle wvas over the poini suffering terribjly--then , as now, fr'om Iat ion wvas reduced fromi 1 20.000 to a tIdal wave. The region to the ab'ouit a tenth of thait n urmber. south of Messinia has also been often Th'le town never folly recovored overwhelmredr hry erunt ions fr'omi fr'omn this di kaster. W ha tever recov Mount Etna. ''hie sout heasternand1( er'y wvas made was neoutral i".ed in the eastern p,ortIion of the ihuirnd has bieen 'i ghteenth century ~3 by a ser-ies of dis namiaged time anid again by erupltionrsiaster's. In 1 7.1 )0 about 40O,0)00 persons of Etna arid very little by carth- dlied of the pila gue, anld in 1 783 the quakes, while thle nor'theasterrn por- town was almotst euntir'ely overthroiwn tion has surstained heav loss et' life by the gr'eat (-arthqutake of t hat yeagr and prioperty~ from earl tluakes awrl Gr'eat dIamna o was caursedl by born ver'y little fromi volcanrric c'rupht ioni. b)ardlmen t in Sep)temb er, 1848iS Th Messina. wvhich ars in 1 78i suff-:rd cholera caririe'd off no fewer than i16. the gre(atest loss of life and propertvy 000) vict imis in I 854 a ml (ar'thquake fr-orm this ear'thquake, is a city anrd in 1 894 and 1 906 ai, eauisedh lOof seapor't of uipwardsm (if 80,000 hahm- life and1( propor-ty- 1 n 1890S thre tow iCants, while in the commun re em- was occu p1d by G aiibald I it ne bracing tire city, suiburb s and( ad ieeent e'nne a jiart of 'untitreli taly the fol