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Show WE MUST FORGIVE. Ever since the Catholic church was institute?', it has been the object of denunciation. In the earlier ear-lier days this took the form of direct attacks on Christianity, but since the reformation these attacks at-tacks have been guided largely by men professing Christianity but at the same time holding the church founded by Jesus Christ up to scorn and ridicule. It is natural for those who have found in Catholicity the direct answer to the questions of the soul which they had sought in vain in other channels should attempt defenses of what they be-believe be-believe is the only logical church representing God and Jesus Christ on earth. In presenting their defenses, their work has very generally been to refute re-fute the errors of Protestantism and not to show the truths of Catholicity only in so far as thoso truths were necessarily brought forward in showing where Protestantism erred. Most of the discussion, discus-sion, therefore, as todhe respective merits of Protestantism Prot-estantism and Catholicism, has been dry reading for the layman on either side, and has not been active ac-tive in winning the hearts of the people to either side of the controversy. It has probably been an active cause, in keeping people away from God. The natural wants and cravings of the heart of man, the ideal to which it aspires and which is cherished above all earthly things, are not satisfied by any defense or assault upon any church purporting pur-porting to representhe'work of God. A refutation refuta-tion of the errors non-Catholics cannot answer the questions of one tottering around in the darkness dark-ness of unbelief or entangled in a mass of polemical polem-ical assaults upon Protestantism. Rather do discussions dis-cussions of religious problems, that is, the abstruse and complicated ones which arise among men competent com-petent to discuss them, add to the bewilderment and dazed condition of the honest seeker for satisfaction of the wants and needs which every human heart must crave. That Catholicity satisfies the craving for supernatural help is more to the point. The same effort expended in presenting the logic of the church as founded by Jesus Christ would as effectually ef-fectually answer the attacks upon the church, and at the same time instruct and interest those whose natural desires make them feel the need of knowledge knowl-edge of God. - No matter what the physical outlook and spiritual spirit-ual condition of individuals, there are many who seek but the truth and whose aim is to live a higher life. No matter how false are the premises upon which they found their faith, they are not deserving of the sneers of an unsympathetic world. They have most of them retained some of the truth as it has been handed down from the days of Christ to the present, by the Catholic church, and all Christians should rejoice that even so little of the true faith is known to them. While they are al1 seeking an answer to questions of the soul, the duty ff Catholics is plain that they should testify to the genuine happiness which comes to them and the complete answers which the Catholic church affords. af-fords. Attacks upon Catholicity when not prompted by vicious causes or hatred may well be answered by logic. But about every attack it is possible for the mind of man to conjure up has already been answered. It is well to remember the words of Jesus Christ when, at the climax of his life, with scoffers and mendacious rascals hurling epithets upon him, he prayed: "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." (St. Luke xxiii. 3-1.) They didn't know what they were doing. And that is about all we need as an answer to the attacks upon the church which come through ignorance or lack of information concerning it. And the prayer. pray-er. "Father, forgive them," what better can we do than to commend them to the loving kindness and forgiving graciousness of God, who sent his Son to earth to show mankind the way? |