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Show 1 1 f AITS! SUPPORTED BY ;l DIVINE INTEUECT ! Scientists Believing in the Necessity of Divine j Authority cs Numerous a id Learned as ; J Rationalists Opposing It. i I : ! j Faiih. to l.c inlo-.Wiual in tu. highest scno. j I i!"! l':iv- ;is its voucher ihe divine intellect. Di- ; 1 vine intelligence, which i llt. source of 111! kllowl- I o.i-e. and 1 lie fountain of iruth. cannot err. In I I .iiiiylitcniii.i? ill.- human intellect, which is fallible, I n Miiioi deceive, because Cod. who is t rut li. ean- I I .-land sponsor fur error, however trivial ir may ! I ji ;';. r in tin- eye.-. .f man. To preserve truth and j maintain a fnni inu ois harm-'ny between faith, ! I .which i- saner.iiural. anl reason, which is llie do- A l..min-ni of ihe intellect, ihcre nm-l be some in- j faiiihie cuiirl commissioned and empowered by God ' I i" mark lire end lines of tnuh anl.lhe eueivacii-l eueivacii-l j m- i:i ..f error in matlers of fuUh ami moral-. This ! i- . eniial before one can elicit an act of faith, ; "To be irue adorers in spirit and in truth," there uni-t be ihe divine guidance uf the imlwt liing Holy ;bi-r iii some authorised agent who will dehV.e and i otherwise make known what true faith and true j 1 1 1 rn I i i - are. Such, in the designs of Providence, ; a- the order inslilutod when men lived under ihe light of the naturr.l law: it was continued in the synagogue, and timdly .established by Chri-t when lie eonnii-.-ioned hi- church to perpetuate hi work. "He that lieavetlt yoii heareth me. and he that hear ih me boa ret h him that sent me." l'y hearing, ma:; beeonies "a 1rue adorer in spirit and in truth." To Jean 1 by hearing, there must be a teacher, ami faiih. which is supernatural, i. c..s. motioned by divine di-vine inJiJiitreuce. requires an infallible teacher in . order 1o "adore Clod in truth." i As we are hero combatting the objections of Ka- j lion;dits to faith as a supernatural gift, and there- j fore an act of ihe highest intolliirenoo, wc begin I with the universally admitted propositions that J d.ite back to ihe root of ihe human race: (1) Cod ' i-: (2) (bxl demands faith in order that man may amain his destiny. "lie that belicveth not shall . be oondenuiod." ()) Faith supposes eertainty. and ; for this cerlainty being: supernatural, it must have ibe sanction of divine intelligence, which eouhl in-j in-j d.r-e only truth. ( 1 ) As Clod is neither visibly pres ent nor orally communicating the true worship lie ' requires, it. would not be coni)atible wilh Infinite AVi-dom 10 niake a demand which man. when left 1o his own resources, is ineapahlo of eomlyin 1 with. Therefore, in authorizing his church, or the : apo-ili-- and their successors to loach, we have a I cuarantee ihafc these teaehorc cannot err in matters of faith and morals, and lhat in following that loaohinp; we "become true adorers in spirit and in ; trnih." Tliere is no other means of preserving rontiinK-us harmony between the rule f Cod's truth mill mnii's larkened intellect and enfebled will, i l'.ut the Rationalists, -who -laim a monopoly of ; t-eionce and philosophy because these studies are popular, will object to this reasoning because, they I ' claim, it is opposeJ to the progress of science and 'development of reason. But we have scientists and j philosophers in the list of believers of the necessity I of divine authority, equally as learnel and profound iis we find among nationalists. The only difference between them is that the former were more at-V at-V 1 ached 1o their failli than to their new discoveries, whilst the latter, ignoring religion, would worship 1 rnly a Cod fashioned by their hands, ami subject to iheir newly discovered theories, which should iind all men, and for all time. Tid ("atholie teaching warp the mind of the J famous Trench physicist and mathematician. Andre larie Ampere.? His investigations of clectrodyna-rnics clectrodyna-rnics have enlighteTicd the world. In the end his proat plory, as rxn-essed in his own words, was: "I know tlie 'Imitation of Christ1 by heart." The Kalionalists, because of their contempt for divine "i y authority, strive hard by their new discoveries and ' ihoories to bring science and true religion into a I ronm'ct. Cuvier, the celebrated French naturalist. J find founder of the science of comparative anatomy. I tells how good, pious Catholics were alarmed when I l-cience (0 h:id disclosed the fact that the heavens criid not contain enough water to produce what was ; biblically known as the Flood. Another scientist. I o little later, discovered, and proved lhat his dis- i covery was right, that the clouds, under certain Abnormal conditions, could contain sufficient water 1 to submerge the earth to the summit of its highest mountains. This settled, the apparent conflict dis- I covered by the first scientist, between science and rejigiou, failed to materialize. The same is true of Charles Darwin's selection s cf ihe best of the species to produce a new species. 31e tried many experiments, and waited patiently for the final results, but his natural selection did not produce a new species. His work on the "De- ' F-cent of Man" contains many interesting facts for i I the student of natural history, but these fads, in- j I H motive in themselves, do not prove that mans j i lineage can be traced back to the monkey, and from i the monkey back to the tadpole. Today bis theory, . o popular in the last century, is discarded by men ; pf science. Voltaire, by his eoar-e invecthes and 1 v imperative and blasphemous language, tried to do ! by his nationalism what the Koman emperors could not accomplish by the sword. Kenan did the same, I hough he used his pen in a more refined w:iy. We take these as representatives of learned men who showed contempt for divine authority and i ndoptcd reason as their standard when .measuring man's relations to his creator, ami as compared i tviih their counlrymen Ampere and Cuvier who rnlighlened the world by their inventive genius and whose Catholic faiih was never disturbed by their ' real science, and ask: Who produced the best, the meet lastine and most beneficial effects for hunum-5tv? hunum-5tv? Will it be said that the latter, becau-e they Subjected their minds to divine auihonty vwhich their reason proclaimed neces-ary m natjers faitlO. were superstitious? Their faith did not hinder them from extending their investigation to its utmost limils to reach true science, and the , reoi-er they approached the freer they were to use ' their reason, becau-e "the truth makes man free. . i Cardinal. Xowmaifs gigantic intellect, from his boyhood days, realized the necessity of divine authority au-thority in religious mailers. For years he struggled strug-gled to find it. His prejudices, caused by environments environ-ments and early training, prevented him from ex-lending ex-lending his investigations to the claims of Koine, but when he ultimately did so. it did not take him long to discover where the divine authority rested, and he made his obeisance to the supreme pontiff. Did the change curtail his liberty or restrain his intellect in-tellect Xo. if we accept his own words. On the contrary, it gave him a broader field for intellectual activity, and as new truths dawned upon him he became be-came more and more truly free. What applies to the Christian scientist and philosopher phil-osopher is equally applicable to the arts. Michael Angelo, Raphael, Dante and many others received their grand conceptions from their profound religious re-ligious belief. Their master pieces are but a reflection re-flection of their religious profession. What has Rationalism given that will compare with these? Xothing. Their claims of intellectual superiority exist only in their own conceited brains, whilst any claim for religious belief, without divine authority, is a travesty on religion.' and opposed to reason. Ford Macaulay, in his History of Kngland. writing of the claims of the pope to divine authority, says: "The spiritual supremacy assumed by. the Roman pontiff has effected more good than harm; and the Roman church, by uniting all men in a bond of brotherhood, and teaching all men their responsibility responsi-bility before God. deserves to be spoken of with respect re-spect by philosophers and philanthropists." F. D. |
