Forgotten Truths - Ambiences, Customs & Civilizations
The liberty of thinking and publishing whatsoever each one likes without hindrance is not in itself an advantage over which society can wisely rejoice. On the contrary, it is the fountainhead and origin of many evils.
Though the children of this world be wiser than the children of light, their snares and their violence would undoubtedly have less success if a great number of those who call themselves Catholics did not extend a friendly hand to them.
Just as a perfect condition of the body results from the conjunction and composition of its various members, which, though differing in form and purpose, make, by their union and the distribution of each one to its proper place, a combination beautiful to behold, firm in strength and necessary for use; so, in the commonwealth, there is an almost infinite dissimilarity of men, as parts of a whole.
Indeed, how many and how important are the benefits which flow from the indissolubility of matrimony cannot escape anyone who gives even a brief consideration either to the good of the married parties and the offspring or to the welfare of human society.
"Be careful," says St. John Climacus, "when that hellish dog, the devil, and not God, promises you divine mercy to indulge you to commit sin!"