is to be done; charity overrides every law, for
it is itself the first law of God. Thus, if the neighbor is in danger
of suffering, or actually suffers, any injury, damage or ill, God
requires that we give our services to that neighbor rather than to
Himself. As a matter of fact, in thus serving the neighbor, we serve
God in the best possible way.

Finally, necessity, public as well as personal, dispenses from
obligation to the law. In time of war, all things required for its
carrying on are licit. It is lawful to fight the elements when they
threaten destruction, to save crops in an interval of fine weather when
delay would mean a risk; to cater to public conveniences which custom
adjudges necessary,--and by custom we mean that which has at least the
implicit sanction of authority,--such as public conveyances,
pharmacies, hotels, etc. Certain industries run by steam power require
that their fires should not be put out altogether, and the labor
necessary to keep them going is not considered illicit. In general, all
servile work that is necessary to insure against serious loss is
lawful.

As for the individual, it is easier to allow him to toil on Sunday,
that is, a less serious reason is required, if he assists at divine
worship, than in the contrary event. One can be justified in omitting
both obligations only in the event of inability otherwise to provide
for self and family. He whose occupation demands Sunday labor need not
consider himself guilty so long as he is unable to secure a position
with something like the same emoluments; but it is his duty to regret
the necessity that prevents him from fulfiling the law, and to make
efforts to better his condition from a spiritual point of view, even if
the change does not to any appreciable extent better it financially; a
pursuit equally available should be preferred. Neglect in seeking out
such an amelioration of situation would cause the necessity of it to
cease and make the delinquent responsible for habitual breach of the
law.

If it is always a sin to engage without necessity in servile works on
Sunday, it is not equally sinful to labor little or labor much. Common
sense tells us that all our failings are not in the same measure
offensive to God, for they do not all contain the same amount of malice
and contempt of authority. A person who resolves to break the law and
persists in working all day long, is of a certainty more guilty than he
who after attending divi