OCR Text |
Show MYSTERIES Of FAITH Mysterious Articles of Faith Demands of Unbelief Offset by Impossibilities on Both Sides Why Mysteries Are In-J In-J explicable Infidelity Asked to Ex- I plain Facts Which Support Christian Belief Condition of Those' Who Lost Their Faith Worse Than Those Who Never Had Faith Many Wish for Its Consolations in the End The Richest Treasure of the Dying Soul. (Written for the Intermountain Catholic.) All mysteries are articles of faith. On the sub- i jeet of mystery there can be no controversy, or if there should be it must be ended by competent authority. au-thority. Incredulity demands an explanation of mysteries to such a degree that they may be evident evi-dent to reason. But faith may also request from infidelity to explain, or dispose of, or destroy the proofs of the existence of the mysterv. If on the one hand, faith can not explain the intimate composition com-position of a mvstery neither can unbelief explain the reason of its existence, in other words, it cannot can-not annul the proofs of its existence as a fact. And although there is an impossibiilty. on both Fides, that under winch infidelity is laboring is much more detrimental and painful to reason, than the impossibility or restriction under which faith is placed. Faith is quite excusable. Not so with unbelief. For, whatever belongs to the Christian Chris-tian dogma appertains to the celestial spheres. Every mystery is. as it were, an aspect of the eternity. eter-nity. But the proofs of the existence of a dogma or of a mystery, as a revealed fact belong to this world, they are in the domain of this earthly sphere. The Christian, therefore, has the right to expect that infidelity will invalidate those proofs, dissect " them, pulverize them, throw them to the winds of ridiculous oblivion, for the- belong- to the tangible order. Mysteries cannot be made explicable, for they partake of the nature of the infinite, but the ' proofs of the mystery are resolvable, like every phe- ' nomenon falling under the observation of the senses and of reason to rigid scrutiny. It may be ! impossible that the defenders of Christianity eive fully, in the sense of their faith, an snalysis of the mystery of the Blessed Trinity, or Redemption of the Incarnation. They can not take them apart and lay their elements before the eyes of the unbelievers, un-believers, for the simple reason that they are mysteries, mys-teries, namely, essentially partaking of the Infinite, and if they could thus be exhibited and comprehended compre-hended by reason, they would not belong to the religion re-ligion of God. But defenders of Christianity have a full right to ask, to claim and to insist that unbelievers un-believers explain in their sense, how it came to pass, for instance, that the prophecies correspond so admirably with the gospel, how do they account for the Institution of Christianity, for the person of Christ, his miracles? These facts are all alive, visible, tangible destructable, yet they have survived sur-vived the infidel declamations of the past ages. Voltaire and Rennan are dead, Christianity still survives; Paine and Ingersol have passed away, Christianity still flourishes, and it will survive the indifference and attacks of the present age, and will flourish for the confusion and condemnation of unbelievers unless some zealous infidel succeeds in proving that they do not prove. Otherwise they affect to depart from the field of religious mystery to fall in the embrace of monstrous contradictions. But no! While tl.e force of the proof cannot be destroyed it comes to the assistance of faith as a powerful array of intelligence to reveal the existence ex-istence of the mystery as a fact, everything inclines in-clines man to believe, everything holds him from disbelieving. Truth does not exist, there is no truth if Christianity is not the truth. And if it does not come from God it destroys the very idei of God. and it is perfectly logical to be an atheist if one is not a Christian. As to those who have enjoyed the blessings of faith in the past, and have since caused it to ebb away from their souls, their condition is worthy of serious consideration and worthy of serious alarm. It is extremely dangerous to leave one's faith dormant, dor-mant, even for a short time. Faith is a delicate plant from heaven which needs a tender, constant end vigilant care, a plant which will be revived only with great difficulty if once allowed to wither and decay. It is perhaps more difficult for a Christian Chris-tian to recover his faith than for an unbeliever to acquire faith. To him who allows the current of life to roll on its layers of indifference over the fresh blooming faith of former youth there is a condition, or a stage reached that is worthy of Fuch a person's most serious consideration. When one considers that the measure of faith, hope and charity are commensurate only with the capacity of the soul and heart, then indeed is there truly presented to all serious thinking minds a condition worthy of all anxiety. Considering that the measure meas-ure of one's faith, -hope and charity is to be determined de-termined only by the capacity of the soul and heart, then should all listen to the warning, "What doth ' it profit a man to gain the whole world if in the 1 end he loose his soul?" Time steadily and uner- ringly shall bring old age to the doors of all. Its I fpecter is manifested in the snow white hair, I stooped shoulders and wrinkled brow. How do un-l un-l believers welcome thoapparition ? Perhaps in their I feelings of horror some turn their eyes to heaven for comfort, but then it may dawn upon them at that hour that the proper time to call on faith, mtY ,. J ... , , . . ... ,.. -m.-niL w, HB i n .. mmmmtmi urn iimmi pi immm.mm. ill" ' ft- M' hone and charity was during life, not at that hour of necessity, when the intellect, oppressed and calloused cal-loused by long practical unbelief, rejects all supernatural super-natural intervention. It is only the cold chill of fear that tries to believe, when "annihilation, the former thesis of younger and healthy days, th'reat-ens th'reat-ens now to rise like a comet of bad omen over the horizon of life. What a deep cold solitude it must be to be abandoned aban-doned by God and man at the same time, to see the sun setting over one's eternal, mysterious fate, yet it is left to all, and within the reach of all as the richest legacy to see faith, hope and charity smili-ig over their last agony, and charity introducing intro-ducing the soul in heaven, the home of unending bliss. -p. D. i |