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Show SERVICE 0T GOD. Infidel Objections Free Thinkers Pride Revolts at SubmissionLiberty Founded Found-ed on Truth and Justice Without God ; There Is No JusticeLawlessness Sub- x stituted for Liberty, Intelligence for the Spirit of the Age No Person Independent Indepen-dent of God. . 'Written for the Intermountain Catholic.) . ' (! 1nr' ligation of loving and serving God in lin life Rationalists, free, thinkers and anarchists object on the ground that it enslaves the inind, and curtails one's liberty. Subjection to God. body and :oul. they Win slavery. Like the heathens, the principle of their morality is pride, whilst humility, which causes an entire forgctfulness of one's own K-lf in the presence of the greatness and goodness f God. is despised and condemned as unworthy of an intelligent age. It was pride that caused the downfall of ihe rebellious angels. Jt was pride that led to the fall of our first parents who discarded ihe command, "not to eat of the" forbidden fruit." under the vain hope of the serpent's promise: "Ye shall not surely die, but shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." To this satanic malice, and primitive lie is due all the modern warfare waged by unbelievers unbe-lievers against serving, knowing and loving God. The principle of this opposition to God varies not. may assume different aspects in different ages, and nation, but it alwavs has for its foundation pride, i. e., falsehood.' In this age pride revolts, because as our would-be free thinkers and anarchies anar-chies 1 ell us. "serving God. whom we see not, is slavery." Absolute submission to him is opposed 1o liberty which is every man's inborn and inherent inher-ent right: and any contention raised in the name df liberty is si. -e to be a popular one. But sub-iiision sub-iiision and ry are neither contrary nor contradictory con-tradictory te- 'a- "he citizen who is compelled by threats, and , -.yc force, if needed, to observe j i lie laws is 1101 i ': ro. nor is the child, who is un- . do r tu tel agL5 j' j . u...V-lher. -ti 11 he ottairrs -his-maj'OT-" I"-" 1;", a slave by sv.i initting to parental authority. When the subject' in is just instead of slavery, jj man enjoys rc-al liberty. Hence our Lord said: j "The truth shall make you free." Submission, to j he shivery, muf-t ho unjust, but absolute subjection f, to Gcd who i"? the creator and absolute ruler of the i universe and f.ll creation is, in no wise, unjust, j Ergo. Any claims to liberty, not founded on jus- ii-e. are a menace to society, and therefore wrong. But no person has the right to do a wrong or an unjust act to another because man's rights are inseparable in-separable from justice. Only anarchists claim the j right, in the name of liberty, to be unjust which i- a contradiction. Litigants, in seeking for their rights before a Court, are simply asking for justice. jus-tice. Both the complainant and defendant base ! their action on real or supposed justice. The Court authoritatively decides in favor of the person who has juslice on his side, the right of ownership. Subjeclion to this authority, which is just and whose judgment is founded on justice, is the highest high-est conception we have or can have of liberty and civilization, because it means freedom from ihe unjust, assumed, and arbitrary authority of the anarchist, nihilist or communist, who under the banner of the red flag denounce justice and truth without which there could be no liberty. Herein lies the secret of the opposition, not only of unbelievers, un-believers, but of the indifferent and would-be advanced ad-vanced thinkers of this age, to the love and service of God. It has its foundation in pride which is the root of all evil, and falsely supposes that justice can exist independent of God. Without God, who is jutice, the human mind is incapable of coneeiv-iiir coneeiv-iiir what justice is. .They who deny God and substitute sub-stitute license for liberty, term justice injustice, and good evil, and logically too, for on the principle prin-ciple there is no God, there is no justice in the Christian sense. The word justice is a mere abstraction, and for it existence it must be concreted in some object. What is that object outside of God? Common sense say our infidel philosophers, embodies it in the law which requires that every person gets what belongs to him. But common sense does not make justice, it simply enacts a law conformable to jus-lice jus-lice which had a prior existence. This priority of 1 existence which is eternal, universal and unchange- jible must have for its object Infinite Justice, i. c. I God. whose essence is justice upon which our com- I men sense, yet illogical infidel philosopher de- , dares, but does not make the law of justice, "give every "man his own.7' In this sense the anarchist, who considers the authority of the state enforcing S justice an injustice, would call the law of justice tvranny and arbitrary and submission slavery, be-i be-i cause apart from God. whose existence they deny, i here is no justice. ... But this lawless spirit preached' in the name of liberty, equality, free thought so permeates mod-I mod-I I era society that it. too. considers absolute submis- : 1 sion to God. serving and loving him an infringe- j ment on iheir liberty, a debasement of their intel- j ligence or a curtailment of their independence. I ' p)Ut it 'n0 more infringes on real liberty than confinement con-finement in the penitentiary infringes on the lib-ertv lib-ertv of the citizen who pleads guilty of theft, or of the child vrho reluctantly obeys his father who forbids him to enjoy some favorite amusement. Wherein is the debasement of ones intelligence in giving to God his just dues? Unbelievers have not n monopoly on intelligence. It may not be in accordance ac-cordance with the spirit of the age -to enter the I home of God, bow the head and say: O, Lord, be I merciful to me a sinner," but the spirit of the age doesnot mean intelligence. Again where is the .. ! curtailment of one's independence? Absolute independence in-dependence no man has. All are dependent on God who is the Creator and absolute Master of all creation. crea-tion. Creature presupposes a Creator and implies that the former is dependent on the latter for his very life and existence, and all he has, or may possess, pos-sess, including his very intelligence of which the unbeliever vninly, if not insanely, yet proudly boasts. To complain of curtailment of independence independ-ence in respect to God is tantamount to a complaint com-plaint that God created man at all. Only the man, who strives' to know, love and serve' his Creator, is truly free, intelligent, and independent, because he acts justly in giving to God his just dues, i.e. the love and affection of the heart, the submission of the will and the knowledge of the intellect. All are by right of creation God's property. Man has nothing noth-ing by his own inherent right. Hence St. Paul said. "What have you that you did not receive, and if you received, why boast as if you received not r' F. D. ......... , . ... .... . .,,,.. , , .,.- |