"_We cannot be narrow-minded_." Is it then a something to be
ashamed of, if in matters pertaining to our eternal interests we
are cautious and conservative? Not prone to take dangerous risks?
This is the disposition sometimes called narrow-mindedness.
Surely it is better even to be narrow-minded than pagan-minded.

But let us clear our minds of cant and squarely face the
question. Will the person who calls you narrow-minded for
exercising caution in the selection of your books, exhibit his
own breadth of mind by going into a chemist's shop, shutting his
eyes and gulping down the contents of the first bottle that comes
to his hand? Ha! You see how quickly his broad-mindedness is
replaced by most careful caution. But a library is like a
chemist's shop. The shelves may hold health-giving medicines or
the most deadly poisons. As well call the harbour authorities
narrow-minded because they close the ports against the cholera
ship, as to question the just prudence of the man who shuts his
door against the evil book.

[Side note: Up-to-date]

"_We must be up-to-date_." The man that takes this as the sole
principle by which to guide his moral conduct, not only writes
himself down "depraved," but an intellectual imbecile. What does
he mean? He means that he is incapable of thinking for himself;
that he has no fixed chart, but is tossed about in the eddy of
fashion; that he has no principle to guide his own conduct by,
but has to look to the street and follow where the crowd leads.

The most un-up-to-date people that ever lived were the early
Christians. When thousands were swarming to the butcheries of the
Coliseum they refused to be up-to-date and kept carefully away
from the taint of blood and savagery. When the debaucheries of
the festivals disgraced the city, they again refused to be
"up-to-date." No doubt they were sneered at and called
"old-fashioned," "priest-ridden," &c. But it was they, and not
those who taunted them, who showed loftiness and nobility of mind
in taking, not the craze of the hour, but the Gospel of Jesus
Christ as the standard of their conduct.

[Side note: How to meet the Danger]

We have now taken the full bearings of the Danger of the Hour.
The remaining question is--How to meet it? To expose the bad book
is but half our task--its place must be supplied by the good one.
How can this be done? The answer naturally suggests itself. Have
we not the Catholic Truth Society? Yes, and it is a splendi