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Show MAN OBLIGED TO LOVE AND SERVE GOD Why God Made ManFrom Beginning of Time Man Believed in God He Could 5 Mot Originate That Belief It Was Re- vealed Theism Is Prior to Atheism 1 Religion Natural to Mankind Man 1 Bound to Worship God, Because He Is God's Property The Relation of Creator Crea-tor and Creature Demands It Justice Demands It God Could Not Dispense With the Exactions of Justice The Rights of Civil Government Are Derived From God Anarchists Deny God and i All Moral Obligation Modern Tend- j ency Is to Ignore God, Which Means a Denial of the Moral Law. (Written for The Intermountain Catholic.) In tho little catechism the question is asked, : "Why did God make man.'" The an,wer is simple. ? ''That he might knnv him, love him, ;ind serve him in lhi life, ami he happy ' with him in tlio next' I Ids answer contains more sound liilosoj)hy. common com-mon sense and justice than our modern non-chur.?h 1 goers over dreamed of. Without entering into any elaborate argument as to the existence of God we assume from the history of the human race, which takes us hack to the beginning of time (1) that faith in God. or belief in his existence began at the rout of the human family. (2) that as the human mind could not originate that belief, it came from r God who revealed himself to our first parents, and '" n.) that the fact of -creation Levels jurelaiitm-.:Lc-" I' jtween the CreatoT and ereatltre i?c. an' obligation I in the part of man to kow. love, and serve God. P (1) Belief in the existence of God is coeval and co- I existent with the history of man. It must be prior k to atheism, for no one could deny what was not first asserted. All denials are subsequent to aflir- !' mat ions. (2) The human mind could not originate the belief, because it is impossible for the human I . mind to conceive a something of which it has not It some corresponding reality from which the senses ! are enabled 1o work. To conceive an infinite power an impossibility without a corresponding Infinite Reality. If a race of people civilized or barbarous, j who h:;l no knowledge of, or belief in God. wiv f found on a distant island with no intercourse wiih any ot her people, they would remain forever in that tate, unless God revealed himself to them, or th,v j were 1 aught liy others. There is no other possible I way by which belief in Gd could be generated. From th.e child, who h-arns from the father, we are led back through the ancestral tree till we reach the root ot the human family to whom do revealed himself. Alheism. no matter how far back into tho dim past the mind may go. presupposes theism, or belief in ihe existence f God. (.) The belief be-g'-ts a relation beiween man and his Maker, i. e.. an obligation in the part of man io serve God. They who deny that God is. or that 1hc soul is immortal, im-mortal, as a rule, admit that religion is natural (o man. Those who 'admit this, are not the vulgar no,r ibe unlearned, but the philosophers and advanced guard in the propagation of infidelity. Then it would follow, from the admission of their own wisest wis-est tear-hers, that the obligation to worship God. i. e.. to know him. love him and serve is co-extensive with the history of the human race. Being universally univer-sally practiced, we naturally conclude that was reasonable. rea-sonable. If not, it must be unreasonable. But how prove this? On the unbeliever rests the burden of 'proof. i But apart from the' time honored practice of s rendering religious worship to God. common sense ; and reason proclaim its practice. Jt is a principle of equity and justice that every man is entitled to I ihe products of hi labor whether mental or phy- s sical. ''The laborer is worthy of his Lire.' On the same principle God. the creator of heaven and earth I jmd all things visible and invisible, is entitled to the tribute of man's entire being. To him we owe I our very being, and all that we have or may pos- ; scss. "What have you that you did not receive," s writes St. Paul. If in justice then every proprietor ! is entitled to bis properly, every laborer to the prod- ! nets f n's hands and brain how much more is not : Gol entitled 1o the love and service of man who .owes his very existence to him as his Master. So lonsr. ilien. as man admits God to le his Creator, the j author of his being, by no possible process" of rea- 1 son can he justify himself in refusing to worship i liim and paying that homage which is bis due. ! i N'ot only this but even God could not dispense I man from worshiping him. i. e.. frm "knowing i him., loving him. and serving him in this life." bc- cause the worship rests on the principle of justice. and Eternal Justice could not sanction what would ? be unjust. Justice, like Iruth. is immortal. ITu- j f man justice, which derives its force and sanction ! i from Infinite .lust ice. demands, in its legal enact- j menls. that all men got their due?', -or what belongs j ' io them. If for want of evidence, or legal tech- j idealities, a man is deprived of what really belongs j 'i io him. we call it a miscarriage of justice, and a i ourt of equity is empowered to restore to the own er his property. The theological principle ''res damnt T)ominum" (the thing cries for its Master) .-ilways holds good in ethics until every person is in 1 possession of what belongs to him. Ou the same t i principle no person can refuse in justice to God the worship which is his due. The obligation res is on eternal justice from which no one can dispense himself. him-self. The righls of the state to impose on its citizens the n-oral obligation of rendering to every one his just dues rest on justice. What the state justly demands de-mands the citizen is in duty bound to obey, because it has dominion over him, he is the property of the state. Hence the state can claim his services in the hour of need. On the same principle Ood justly claims the service, love and obedience of mankind, because their very existence as well as all they may possess, on ihe principle of ownership, come from God who is the giver of t.ll things. The rights of the .state s ave for their foundation the prior right of God Io whom we owe all things, and through whom we are morally bound, as citizens, to obey the state which is simply ihe agent or representative of God. "There is no power unless it be from God." "Fear Cod and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man." The, spirit of anarchy. its denial of any moral obligation, or its duties to the state. h?.s its origin in the denial of God. of being self existence and therefore self independent. Their ethical ethi-cal code is simply serve and obey thyself. Their only duties are to themselves, and on their principles prin-ciples there is no foundation for morality. Deny God, or that we are in duty bound to serve, love and obey him and you remove from society the corner-stone on which our duties to one another rest. All are aware of the restless spirit of the age tho, growing indifference to religious principles, the decay de-cay of morality, the alarming growth of the spirit of anarchy and the lendency. if not to deny, at least to ignore God in civil governments, yet without with-out God there is no foundation for any ethical code, since without a law-giver no moral law is conceivable. con-ceivable. Those who profess to ignore or deny God., and still maintain that they are strict observers of the moral law. are better than their principles, and less logical than the anarchists who deny all duties and moral obligations. F. D. j |