Lecture on St. Francis.

Mr. George Parsons Lathrop gave a lecture last evening in Sanders Theatre under the auspices of the Catholic Club, on St. Francis of Assisi.

Mr. Lathrop began by speaking of reforms of the last three hundred years and especially those of the present time. So much, he said, is seen and heard now of so-called reforms, accompanied as they are by demonstrations and commotion, that it may be profitable to go back to the twelfth century and learn the lessons taught by the life of the great reformer, St. Francis of Assisi.

St. Francis was born in the town of Assisi, in Umbria, in the year 1182, in that dark period called the "century of mud and blood." It was the time of Frederic Barbarossa and the second Crusade, when discord was rife between church and state, democracy and oligarchy. St. Francis believed in carrying the maxims of the gospel into the public as well as the private life of the people, and his life was a constant example of what he thought.

His father was a merchant, and as trade then formed the means of communication between different parts of the world, Francis undoubtedly learned in his ten years of experience in his father's business, much of the condition of society in the outside world.

In his early life, St. Francis was very fond of dress and pleasure, but he was ever generous, kind to the poor and pure, and in these traits can be seen the ruling characteristics of his after life. He had some ambition for military fame, but on becoming ill after one campaign in which he took part, a more serious conception of life took possession of him. Soon after, when he was on the way to join in another war, a voice from heaven seemed to call upon him to renounce his present mode of life and devote himself to the service of God. He returned to his native town, eager to serve in the cause to which God had summoned him. Inspite of the taunts of old friends and the violent remonstrance of his father he devoted himself enthusiastically to the care of the poor and of the sick and to utter self-abnegation. He drew followers to himself and in the course of time, obtained permission from Rome to form an order. Since his time, the Franciscans have been among the most active in the furtherance of civilization and Christianity. The great lesson of St. Francis's life is that true reform can only begin, like leaven, from within, not by destruction, but by the steady and quiet influence of a pure, peaceful life.