of Governor Herbert R. O'Conor 159

the primary purposes of the exercise at Manresa are toward the supernatural,
in addition the natural order is benefitted and our State and government are
the better as the result of the expansion of such a laudable movement. No
man can undergo satisfactorily the experience of a retreat without coming
out a better citizen.

In referring to the fact that a mere lawyer should not undertake to explain
the beneficial results from such a movement which can be better explained by
the clergy, we are reminded that there was a young man some four hundred
years ago who intended to become a lawyer. He was one of the first layman
retreatants to come under the influence of Ignatius of Loyola. He was Francis
Xavier and, in turning him from the law, Ignatius gave to the church and to
history one of the greatest saints and missionaries of all times. And the argu-
ment which Ignatius used to change Francis Xavier's life was the oft-repeated
one: —"What doth it profit a man to gain the whole world and suffer the loss
of his own soul?" Four centuries of time have not lessened the import of that
question or allowed a different answer to be given. Foundationally and as a
doctrine it must have been and must be sound and enduring because the same
question asked by the founder of the Society of Jesus four centuries ago is
being asked week after week at Manresa on the Severn. And the important—
the inescapable fact—is that the answer is just the same.

But to look again at the situation from the standpoint of how far-
reaching, how influential for good this movement is, is it not true that our
government rests on religion ? If it be conceded that the righteous authority
of law depends for its sanction upon its harmony with the righteous authority
from above, then there will only be such respect for authority, decency and
virtue as religion creates in the hearts of the people.

Laws can be passed but long since it has been learned that morality can-
not be legislated into the people. While many have been reluctant to admit
it, gradually and gradually the majority of fair-minded people are being
brought to the realization that the control of human behavior must come from
other than legal authority. When they are fair with themselves and face the
situation squarely, they are brought inevitably to the conclusion that a deep-
rooted religious spirit is the greatest bulwark of any government.

If this is an accurate statement, does it not follow as a matter of course
that the more wide spread is such movement, which has as its object the
betterment of mankind, the further improved will be the quality of citizenship ?

Certainly no period in the world's history ever needed more of the fortify-
ing influence of such a movement than this present day. A nation may seem
strong and prosperous and the sentinels of the outposts may report that no
peril is nigh. Yet if sensuality, dishonesty, ignorance and irreligious views
dwell in the hearts of the people, the strength of that nation has departed.
Republics live by decency and virtue. Monarchies and empires may rely on
physical force or on the wisdom or goodness of one ruler or of a few, but
democracies are ruled by the many, and the characteristics, the principles and
the virtues of the people all over the country constitute the very life of the
nation.

It is for this reason that you may pride yourself that the movement with
which you are so actively identified is bettering the family life of the Nation.
And yet to indicate the ever present dangers which beset our day, and how
prevalent is the tendency to give formal and official approval to practices con-