Fourth Thousand. Thoughts frOfll 1:.acordaire. ~ ~ (fAITH. ~ . , ,{EASON AND FAITH. ~ eAUSES OF UNBELIEF. ~. j'JEGATION. ;;.;'~I ~REDULITY OF UNBELIEF. . \INFALLIBILITY ~~E CHURCH. THE CATHOLIC TRUTH SOCIETY OF AMERICA. Pamphlet No. 24. ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA. , Deacfdiffed THOUGHTS FROM LACORDAIRE . • I. FAITH. FAITH is an act of confidence, and therefore a pro- duct of the heart. It requires in him who accords it the same uprightness as in him who inspires it, and never has the ungrateful man, or the deceitful, or the egotist, or any of those whom the Scripture calls em- phatically the children of unbelief,* been capable of it. To confide is to give oneself; none give themselves but the magnanimous, or at least the generous. Not that faith excludes prudence, or that we must put our trust in the first word that falls from unknown lips, but pru- _ dence being satisfied, there is still necessary a generous effort to bring forth -that difficult word: I believe. Alexander, king of Macedon, was upon the banks of the Cydnus. He was there stricken by a malady which seemed likely to save Persia, and his physician, whom he tenderly loved, prepared for him a decisive draught. But on the previous evening, a letter written by a hand which he knew, warned the sick man to be- ware of his friend as of a traitor who had bartered his life. Alexander kept his counsel. The next day, when the cup was brought to him, he took from beneath his pillow the accu::;ing paperl handed it to his physician. took the cup and drank its contents at a draught. All antiquity has praised this action of Alexander, and his *St. Paul to the Ephesians, ii: 2. 2 most famous victories, Granicus, Issus, Arbela, have not encircled his head with greater glory. Whereupon a celebrated writer, whom I do not wish to name, asks what there was so beautiful in this boasted action: for Alexander was the head of a numerous army within an enemy's territory, the master of a nascent kingdom, the man of Greece, charged with its vengeance and its designs; he ought, on all these grounds, to have respect- ed his life, on which depended the fate of so many others; and what merit was there in exposing it reck- lessly to the risk of poisoning? But the writer whom I have cited, after having made these remarks, corrects himself, and says: "What is there-so beautiful in this action of Alexander! Unhappy man, can you compre- hend it, if it must be told you? Its beauty is that Alexanqer believed in virtue, that he believed in it at the peril of his life!" Here is a magnificent exposition of the faith of a great heart, and it is also the exposition of all faith, be it addressed to man or addressed to God. Whoever makes an act of faith, whether he knows it or not, drinks the cup of Alexander; he believes at the pe1"il oj his life J • he enters that league of Abraham who was called the Fat)ter of all believm"s, * because, in his old age, exhausted in body but not in heart, he raised an obedient sword over his only son who was all his love and all his race, hoping against hope in the word which had promised him a posterity. And if there is a being, who, opposed to these magnanimous memories, has never produced from his soul an act of faith, you can fearlessly accuse him of having dishonored in himself the work of God. For faith is not ouly a virtue, that is to say, a generous and efficacious effort towards good, it is the sacred portal whereby enter all the virtues, ' the blood-stained prodrome where the sacrifices com- mence and whither come the victims meetly immolated at the sanct:uary of God. There is not an act of devot- edness, an act of love, an act honorable or holy which has not been first an act of faith, and this is the reason why the Scripture declares so often that it is by faith "St , Paul to the Romans, jv, 11, 3 that man is justified and saved. The Jews beHaved that the pr,inciple of salvation was the observance of the law in consideration of the recompenses of Go$l. St. Paul reiterates to them that works are powerless if they are not vivified by a superior element. It is one God, he cries, that justifieth circumcision by faith and uncircumcision through faith. * What are works, in fact, if they are accomplished under the impulse of a p urely scientific view? Merely a calculation of benefit or of good administration for ourselves and others. Some are just, sober, economical, diligent, faithful to their word, because by acting thus they gain more than they lose; but place these well-regulated minds in presence of the cup of Alexander, that is to say, in the presence of a sacrifice which may be avoided without loss, of a virtue which 'present,; no visible remuneration, then you will see the hollo:vness of a heart where faith is wanting. I do not even mean divine faith, but that indefinable, nameless, indescribable faith, which is the foundation of all that is great. Therefore, when St. Paul pronounces that sovereign decree, Without faith it is impossible to please God, t we m.ay add, or men. II. REASON AND FAITH. THERE are two forces in the human mind; reason, having its source in the natural order, and religion, which has been transmitted to us from age to age, by , tradition and authority. Now, the system is false which teaches that the author of human nature has implanted in it two forces which conclude' contradic- torily instead of concurring harmoniously, that is to say, that unity being the law of all beings, and an ab- solute necessity for all that live, G;od has placed in the breast ot mankind two inimical and irreconcilable forces-this is impossible. Being and unity are one and the same thing, as St. Thomas excellently says. Mankind has not come forth from God in the state of *Rom., iii: 30. i"Heb., xi: 6. 4: Manicheism; there are in us two principles which har- monize. Reason and faith have given forth the same sound from all eternity, although in a different way. They are like the two harps, Eolian and Ionian. The Eolian harp, suspended in the forest, moaned to the free action of the winds; the Ionian barp was touched by the skillful hand of the artist; but both harmonized and accorded. Reason is as the harp of Eolia, wild, free, inspired, and animated by the storms; faith is as the harp of Ionia, better regulated, more calm, more divine; but the lyre of nature and that of art, the lyre of men and that of the children of God, both play es- sentially the same canticle. They speak of God to the . universe, they announce Him, they prophesy of Him, they give Him thanks, they uplift man to immortality by their barmonious and' unanimous vibration. It is reason, voluntarily proud, which hears not the sounds of faith; it is ignorant faith which hears not the sounds of reason, and fails to re~der it justice. Yes, as Hip- pocrates said of the human body, everything concurs and concords in humanity. Reason and faith, the reason of statesmen, the reason· of men of genius, the popular reason, all are harmonious, all are brethren and fellow citizens; and if there is strife among them, the cause is not in the elements of our constitution, because this would be to suppose that the principle of our life is contradiction. But contradiction is death, and we have not been created dead but living. III. THE CAUSES OF UNBELIEF. You believe not, and you conclude from tbis that faith is impossible; for my .part, I conclude that you do not what is necessary in order to arrive at faith, and I will prove it in a few words. The first cause of incredulity is voluntary ignorance. Eaith can' no more than science be acquired without a certain application of mind. When the mind is not applied, it is inert, it ceases to be a power; it is, as re- gards the object before it, as if it were not. Wbat are 5 mathematics to an intelligence which has neyer reflected on the laws of number, of quantity, and of motion? What is philosophy to a man who has never asked h imself what is being, what is an idea, what is the absolute, the relative, cause, or effect? And for the Stl,me reason, what is faith to 'tsoul which has never seriously thoug ht upon the necessary relations of the creat ure with .God ? . I Let me ask you, at what age and after what studies did you decide that religion is an error? Was it at rorty? No, you decided it in the flower of your age, at the moment when, casting off the apparel of child- IlOod, reason and passion celebrated toðer their joyous adven~ to t.lie agitated surf.ac~ of Y0.tll' being. Up to that t~me; sImple and submlssIve, a plOUS wor- shipper of t.he thou~hts of ~our moth~r, you had 9-ues- tioned nothmg, demed nqthmg, you lIved. by a faIth as pure as your heart. But scarcely had the double pu- ber ty of man caused its sharp sting to be felt by your senses and your intellect, when, without taking time to mature your power, and impatient of the mysteries of Nature and the mysteries of God, you became ashamed to believtl, while at the same time you lost that other - :ohame which is the divine guardian of innocence. In- capable of any act worthy of a man, you passed judg- ment sovereIgnly upon God and man; you doubted, denied, apostatized, despised your fathers, accused your masters, summoned before your tribunal the virtues and sorrows of ages-in fine you transformed your soul i nto a desert of pride. Then, this ruin completed, you chose for your end one of the ambitions of man, the g lory of arms or that of letters, or still less high, as chance led you, and every effort of your faculties was directed towards the idolatry of your future. You learned no more than to be one day the effective hero of your d reams; you sacrificed your days and your nights to this egotistical image, reserving of them. but a secret and unknown part to the other egotism of ma:n, ,'oluptuousness. And never, during this . sad and checkered dream, did religion appear to you but as a r utile souvenir of your early years, (j, weakness or !Ii • 6 hypocrisy of humanity. You did n~t deign to give to it one hour of study, or one desire; and if sometimes nttracted by a celebrated nll.m.e~ you ope~ed a book 0; crossed the threshold of a basIlIca, you dId so with the haughtiness of a mind which 'had judged, and had no idea of reversing its decree. 0 confidence of youth in error! 0 security of souls who have yet seen of life but the early dawn! Oh, how good God has been in not calling you away in that" hour of ignorance and enchantment! For already you are no longer subject to its crude certitudes; time has brought back to you doubt and the obscure presentments of truth. You see that your unbelief was born of a puerile act, and that for your honor and your repose, it needs a ratification: This second labor it is, this labor of return and exa- men, which lays the foundation of faith in man, and maintains it in humanity. Faith is also, indeed, a gift of childhood; it strikes its root into the soul which has just been born; but it is the slow action of life which brings it to maturity. When man has seen man dur- ing long years, when he has known his feebleness and his misery by experiences which no longer permit him to doubt, and already the .grand figure of death places nearer to him the final prophecy, th en naturally his gaze becomes more profound. He discerns. more clear_ ly the trace of 'the divine, because he knows better what man cannot do, and, moreover, the wearisomeness of present things evokes in him a relish for things unseen. Therefore it is that a writer, whose name escapes me, has excellently said: "At twenty, we believe religion to be false; at forty, we begin to suspect that it may be true; at fifty, we desire that it may be true; at six- ty, we no longer doubt its truth." Light and life progress with equal pace, aud death, in disabusing us of all, completes the progressive revelation which com'- menced in our regard on the lips of our mother. The child. and the woman are the vanguard of God; the man of mature years is His apostle and martyr; you young men, you are but the deserters of a day. . I know well that voluntary ignorance does not by it- self explain the sad phenomenon of. incredulity, and tb t there are men versed in the things of religion who t: in not the happiness of f'1ith. The examples of this :1': rare, but I have met with them. They are the vic- tims of a passion the most obstinate of all, namely, the ide of science. The pride of science is the infatua-r n of a spirit inebriated with itself, which admires '~~elf in what it knows, as did Narcissus in his lake, 1 nd which, regarding any limit as an insult to its :apacity, proposes to treat with God as an equal with an equal. It studies not through love of truth, but in order to oppose it; it delights in creating clouds, in discovering a grain of sand which may serve as a blas- hemy, and which it may cast at heaven. If it look up k the stars, it is in order to get from them the secret of the world's eternity; if it descend into the bosom of the earth, it is to seek arms against some great biblical fact· if it interrogate the necropolis of Egypt or the ruin's of Babylon, it is only to ~ear there a voice which denies some most authentic tradition. Its science is but a bitter strife between itgelf and God. Who could remain true while possessed by such a passion? Who would accept it 'as judge? Faith is an act of confidence; it supposes the sincerity\Of an upright and loving heart. But those of whom I speak would not believe even mathematical demonstrations if their. aim and conclusions were truths of religion. Like Jean J acq ues, they would prefer declaring themselves fools to declaring themselves convinced. And in truth this is not an imaginary picture. Interrogate the rec- ollections of your conscience. Have you never been filled with joy on discovering in history or in nature something which appeared ,to you to be marked with an anti-Christian sign? Have you ever clapped yonI' hands when somebody said to you, Here is an argument against Jesus Christ? Ask, and 'it shall be given you ; seek, and you shall find,' knock, and it shull be opened fa yott.* Such is the first condition on which you are to arrive at faith. In vain does the sun appear in the firmament, if his light be for us but a reason for refusing to gaze at him. *Matt., vii: 7. 8 Finally, a third cause of incredulity is depravity of morals. I do not mean to say 'that every weakness of our poor flesh is an obstacle to faith, since faith is it- self the principle of chastity, and Jesus Christ has uttered against the Pharisees these divine words: The harlots shall go into the ,kingdom of God before you. '" There is a humble vice, a vice which knows itself, which despises itself, which strikes its breast. I will not say that it is dear to God; but God can forgive it as He 'forgave Magdalen. There i~, on the other hand, a vice poisoned with pride, a vice which exalts its head, which laughs and-mocks; this God hates, and it is an almost, invincible obstacle to faith for it · is the union of two perversities which naturally exclude one another, and of which the junction destroys in the soul the last re- sourees of good. Pride alone is so insupportable to God that He prefers humble vice to proud virtue. How great must be His hatred of vice inflated with pride? Now nothing is less rare than this lamentable disposi- tion of the heart. Slaves though we may be of the vilest propensities and most shumeful practices, we clothe ourselves in the pride of a conscience without reproach, and we appeal to our honor, our probity, our genius, and w~ cover with the name of amiable weak- . nesses the prostitution of our every sense to voluptu- ousness. We employ a half century in perverting around us the ignorance of youth and the beauty of virtue; and after having precipitated into abjection a number of souls of whom we do not even deign to re- spect the ruins in our memory, instead of saying to God with St. Peter, Depart f1'om me, for I am a sinful man, o Lord,t we complain of tllelittle light which God has imparted to His works, and we impute to Him our mis- fortune in not knowing Him and serving Him. Do you think that miracles are due to such complaints, and that God is in fault in replying only by unrelenting silence? Oh yes; the . harlots shall go into the kingdom of God befor'e us, because nearly all were victims be- fore they became mercenaries, and they are moved to raise to God, from the depths of their abasement, that *Matt., xxi: 31. tLuke, v: 8. suppliant · glance of meekness and humility which is more th~n a feeling of remorse, if it is not yet a virtue. God will hear them; He 'hears the faintest sigh of sincerity, and He speeds every tear which commences to flow for Him. But the · pride of ignorance, the pride of science, the pride of vice, He despises all three; He bears with them until that day when the angels will sing for the second time, in presence of the whole as- sembled universe, the hymn of God made man; Glory to God in the highest, and on' earth peace to men of good will! * . ·IV. NEGATION. I WOULD not now pause' to show you the criminality of negation, after having shown you its power, were it not necessary to point out to you how this intellectual process is vicious in itself, and bears of its own nature poisonous fruits. This appears to be a strange state- ment, as negation, it may be said, is a logical form as legitimate as affirmation. What harm is it to deny that which we consider not proven? Is not the burden of .proof on affirmation, and is it not sufficient simply to deny what is merely affiqned? Doubtless, and I admit it, every affirmation is not a truth; but affirma- tion is the form of truth, whilst negation is nothing but the resistance of a mind. But the world lives not on resistance, it lives on certitudes, which are at least presumed, and when it is in possession of a doctrine which imparts to it the reason of its duties and the courage of its sufferings, it is a crime to disturb it by an arbitrary negation which wrests from it the founda- tions of its existence without giving it a substitute. It does not, then, lie on affirmation to put forward its proof, but on negation. For instance, humanity be- lieves in God, in a supreme power, wisdom, and good- ness which it does not represent to itself always and everywhere with the same clearness, but the ever·· present idea of which, although more or less imperfec~, ·'Luke. ii: 14. 10 \ has nowhere abandoned it. Should a child rise up ill the midst of the people and deny the existence. of God, think you that it would be necessary to demonstrate it to him? For my part, I think not. I think that it is for him to prove that there is no God. It is for you, I would say to him, for you, the last comer of the ages" for you, whom your mother has nursed in the name of God, for you, whose existence has been protected by ,this sover- eign name, and to which it is indebted for the justice and the tenderness with which it was environed before it merited aught, it is for you to prove to the world that' its belief in the divinity has no foundation. The world has lived, it still lives in this belief, it has found in it alone the principle of its duties and the justification of its .rights; it has never been able to understand 'Yhence life could descend, if it corne not from the primitive ocean it calls God, and wherein it has cast the anchor of an invincible hope apd an immortal faith. It pleases you to go forth from this communion of minds, to deny your heavenly Father as well as your temporal fathers, to brave the horror which the, mere suspicion of atheism has always excited You may do this, I admit, but I await your proofs., You have them surely, and they are irrefragable; not mere doubts, uncertain Eghts, probabilities, but great as the idea of God and the faith of the universe. I await them, speak, and if you say nothing to me, if you confine yourself to conjectures, ' to the state of your soul which gives not back to you the echo ,of divine things, I win be silent in my turn. You complain that you do not hear the voice which the whole earth, hears, that you do not see the light which every intelligence sees. What I say of the existence of God, I say also of the Catholic Church and of her doctrine. You assert that you do not get sufficient proof of their truth; but do you consider that the Catholic Church exists? Could she present to you neither the pro- phecies which have prepared her, nor the miracles which have introduced her to the world, nor the chain <;>f events whicJ:;t links her to all that is true in histOl'Y, nor the visible divipity of her ':Founder, she exists 11 nevertheless, and a portion of humanity exists in her and by her. She has formed men and societies; nay more, she has created virtues. And you think it ,is sufficient to deny her in order to be tranquil with your conscience and wi,th the judgments of God! You ask her to prove to you her legitimavY! It is for you to prove that you are worthy to comprehend her and be reckoned amongst her children. It is for ybu to estab- lish that your intelligence commands a horizon more vast than hers, that your thoughts have realized in the world more good than hers, that your virtues are great- er, your manners more chaste, y,our authority higher, and that you alone, the being of 'one day and one idea, Gounterbalance the ages and the place which she oc-. ~mpies bere below. If you do not this, she will be silent. She will have at least the right to be silent. When the ATab, passing at the foot of the Pyramids, hurls at them his lance, the, Pyramids are silent. ' V. THE CREDULITY OF _UNBELIEF. THE mind being made for truth is affirmative by nature. If it lose the affirmations which have their foundation in God, it surrenders itself easily to the first which are presented to it and bear the stamp of genius, of boldness, or of novelty. The intelligence, enfeebled by the subtraction of its natural sustenance, which are the just and the true, resembles a sea deprived of the tribut~ of its rivers, and whose diminished waters re- ceive with avidity the impure slime which chance streams bring to it here and there. Everything is good to him who has nothing, and the more profound has been the negation in the mind, the more accessible it is to the seduction of the absurd, so that there is no credulity equal to that of an unbeliever. They will heap to themselves, says St. Paul, Teachers, having itching ears, and will indeed turn away their hearing from the truth, but will be turned unto fables . * The *2 Tim., iv : 3, 4 . I . 12 man who believes not in God believes in a dream; he who believes no longer in Jesus Christ believes in Voltaire. The first system put forward as the origin of things, . from the reveries of the gnostics to the theo- ries of Buffon, finds him ready to exclaim, "How mar- vellous!''' Tell him thatfrom all eternity there existed aft infinite void peopled with innumerable atoms-he will believe it. . Tell him that the atoms, concurring in the void by virtue of a l'eciproeal attraction, met at · length and united, forming the first sun-he will be- lieve it. Tell him that this sun, suspended in space, experienced the effect of an impulsion which deter- mined the orbit wherein his mass revolves-he will be- )ieve it. Tell .gim that some fragments, becoming detached by the rotation, this sun retained them around liim at a certain distance, at once attracting and repel- ling them, thus making them his satellites, whose movements are correlative to his-he will believe it. Tell him that one of these inferior globes, becoming somewhat cooler, attained the temperature of fecundity, and produced plants, trees, then animals of greater and greater perfection, and finally, man-he will believe it. Tell him that the temperature of the earth, becoming subsequently still lower, has lost its primitive energy of production, and has no longer any power save that of sustaining the species already emitted, wifhout the faculty of emitting even one Dew species-he will be- lieve it. Tell him anything you like, save that God created the world, and he will believe it. His faith will be always proportioned to the ardour of his incre- dulity; and if he hate God and the Gospel, there is llothing monstrous that issues from the mouth of the impious that he will not receive with a frenzy of adhe- sion. If you desire to give him proofs, he will tell you . there is no need, and that the thing is self-evident. o you, then, born in an unbelieving age, and who aspire t.o the glory of founding a doctrine, trouble yourselves no more with the thought that it will not listen to so mediocre a project! If nature has bestow- ed on you the gift of speaking or of writing, it is enough; and it is not certain that a pen or a tongue of 13 gold is necessary; lead has often succeeded. Make merry with your friends, and tell this proud age of what you please, the dream which you had yesterday, or that wbich you will have to-morrow. . It asks no more, to believe in you, to love you, to admire you, to call you immortal while you live, and to raise to you a statue when you die. VI: THE INFALLIBILITY OF THE CHURCH. Do not regard the infallibility of the Church as a strange and incomprehensible privilege. It is, on tbe contrary, tbat which is most simple and most necessary . for men, namely, the r e-establishment of their relations with trutb. There is nothing strange in th e fact that truth is communicated by God to the human race by means of a teaching free from error ; what is strange is, that this teaching should be despised, notwithstand- ing our need of it; and the disorder introduced by original sin can alone explain tbis anomaly. Remem- ber that the Church .does not create truth; truth is in God, it is in tbe word which God has spoken to men; and the sole privilege of the Church is to teach that word without the power of transforming it into error. How can she teach the human race, how can she demand its faith without tbe possession of ~bis privilege? Moreover, every religion which does not proclaim itself infallible convicts itself of error, by that fact alone; for it admits that it may deceive, which is the higbest de- . gree both of dishonor and absurdity in an authority teaching in the name of God. It admits that it is but a philosophy, and will consequently meet with the fate of a philosophy. You have recently had a proof of this; you have seen men pose before humanitj as founders of a religion: many of them were men of taJent, of en- thusiasm and of honesty. What was the end? Tbey failed because they lacked a divine mission and a prom- ise of infallibility. In a body, with their chief at their bead, they darj3d not present themselves before you, and say: Hear and believe, for we are infallible! And H therefore it was that reasoning crushed them. F or what causes all to perish nowadays, and makes 'the world strain its anchors, is reasoning; it is because man b~­ lieves man no longer, and nevertheless will not submit himself to God. Without a divine authority there is nothing stable, nothing strong; but all is like the wind which passes away while it destroys. If society is shaken from one end of Europe to the other, what think you agitates it to its foundation? It is not the sword which overthrows princes. The sword is met by the sword, force resists force: when the powers of earth have but to struggle against force, they crush with their armies those who oppose them. But the terrible enemy, that which overthrows every- , thing, and again13t which neither republic nOT king can do aught, is reasoning, reasoning. which has no longer the counterpoise of authority and infallibility. And yet, notwithstanding this necessity for infallibility, the Catholic Church alone has dared to call itseli infallible. The pagan religions, far from pretending to it, did not even dare to teach a doctrine to their followers; the Mahometan religion contents itself with causing the Koran to be read by its disciples; the Protestants I'eject infallibility absolutely, and in teaching the people, con- tradict their principles continually. To teach nothing, or to cause to be read a book reputed divine, these are the only resources of religion which do not proclaim themselves infallible. And if you ask why they 40 not proclaim themselves infallible, it is becausfl they cannot do so; it is because they know well that their perpetual variations, or the absurdity of their dogmas, would ever betray such a pretension. It is not so easy as we may think to proclaim oneself infallible. Every false religion commences in man; and what man is bold enough to proclaim as infallible his thoughts and those of his successors? How could Luther, for example, proclaim himself infallible, he who attacked the infal- libility of every Church? The man who wishes to . found a new religion, that is to say, to corrupt an ancient religion-for no one but God has founded a religion upon earth-the man who entertains this design has at once 15 I • -to face the necessity and the impossibility of pl'oclaim- ing himself infallible. 1£ he do not proclaim himself and his successors infallible, he will not obtain the faith of his own sectaries; he will perish by reasoning, which will introduce into his doctrine infinite variations. 1£ he proclaim himself infallible, he will be the laugh- ing-stock of the universe. Therefore it is that inventors of false dogma conceal themselves within temples~ bury . their doctrine in mystery and under symbolical forms; or, on the other hand, reason like the heretics, and build on that moving sand ephmeral churches and fugi- tive dogmas. The Catholic Church, in proclaiming herself infallible, has done then what is indeed abso- lutely necessary, but what is beyond the power of man. And this infallibility has really manifested itself in. her by an indestructible constancy in her dogmas and her morality, despite the difference of times, of places, and of men. Why do you not laugh when I tell you that I am infallible, not I, but the Church, of which I am a mem- ber, and who has given me -a mission? Why, I say, do you not laugh? It is because the history of the Church gives her some right, even in your eyes, to say that she is infallible; it is because, in a career of eighteen ceh- turies amid all the mutations of the human mind. she has been firm as a pYl'amid. You would indeed make this an occasion of insult; you say: It is but a tomb, and there is in it but a little ashes. Yes, but this tomb is that of Christ; these ·ashes are ashes which live long and are always the same, and despiM of you make you think. It is, say you, the very principle of infallibility which has produced this result. But in vain will one believe himself}nfallible, if he be not so in reality, as nothing can resist the variations and contradictions produced by the difference of minds. . How does it happen that Gregory XVI and the bishops of his time, although living under influences so novel, have the same thoughts as all their predecessors? It may be natural that the people should believe the same as the chiefs of doctrine, because they regard them as infallible; but the chiefs , ,I • 16 themselves, if not guided by a superior, immutable, in- finite mind, how could they preserve unity of doctrine ? Let us acknowledge, iIi this accord of facts with prin- ciples, the divine character, which alone can explain if There must needs be in the world a teaching authority ; this teaching authority must possess the highest evi- dences of certitude or moral authority, and, moreover, it must be infallible, that it may command the faith. of thbse' wliom it teaches, and who cannot be judges of doctrine. But the Ohurch Oatholic alone teaches the whole human race, or at least bears the character of catholicity; she alone possesses all the evidences or moral certitude in their highest degree; she alone has dared to say that she iB infallible, and the history of her doctrine proves, by its admirable and incomprehens- ible unity, that she has received this precious gift whereby the primitive union of men with truth has been re-established. Everywhere else we find but local, var- iable, and contradictory ideas, wav·es succeeding waves, whilst the Oatholic Ohurch resembles the ocean, which surrounds and bathes every continent. OF fo'MERICA. LIST .OF PUBLICATIONS. PAMPHLETS AT NOM I NAL COST. PO~PAID. No. 1.-Refutation of Some Calumnies-Rev. J. C . Byrne. per .. l00 . .. $1.00 2.-What Is The Use Of It ?-Wm. Jefferson Guernsey. M. D., per .. ... .. .... ...... .... .... ... .... ... .. ........ ....... .. . ... .. ............ 100 .. . 1.00 3 .-How Catholics come to be Mi.understood-Rev. Thos. O·Gorman. D.D .• per ......... .......... .... ...... . .......... . .. . ..... 100 ... 2 .00 4.-Who can Forgive Sins?-Rev. Patrick Danehy. per .... .. 100 ... 2.00 5 .-Church or Bible-Rev . Arnold Damen, S. J .• per ........ ... l00 ... 2.00 6.-The Catholic Church and the American Republic- Wm. F. Markoe, per ......... ..... .. .. ................ ... ... ..... .... . l00 ... 1 .50 7.-Sacrificial Worship Essential t o Religiou-Rev. P. R. H effron. D. D .• per ...... ............................. ....... . .. ... ...... 100 ... 1.50 8.-The Catholic Pages of American History- J. L. Macdonald. per .. .. .. .. ............. ............................ 100 .. . 2 .50 9.-0ur Rights and Duties a s Catholics and as Citizens- Wm. J. On a han, per . .. ...... .. ............... .. .......... ............. l00 ... 2.00 10.-Agnosticism-Rt. Rev. J . L. Spald ing. D. D .• Bishop of Peoria. per . ... .. ............ ... ............ .... ....... .... .......... ..... .. 100 ... 2.00 11.-0n The Condition of Labor-Encyclical Letter of Pope Leo XIII, per ..................... .... ................................ .. .. l00 ... 2.50 12.-Purgatory-Rev . Henry A. Brann; D . D .• per ............... l00 ... 1.50 lS.-Miracles-What are they. and what is their use?- Rev. John Gmeiner, per .................. .. .... ........... .. ......... l00 ... 1.50 14.-The Conservative Power of Catholicity-Conde B. Pallen. per ................ ... .. ....... ....... ...... ....... ...... ......... 100 ... L50 15.-How Christ Founded the Church-Rev. J as. L. Meagher. per . ........ .. 1' .............. . ......... . ............... ... ...... ... ........ . .... 100 ... 1.50 16.-The Claims of the Catholic Church in the Making of the Republic-His EminenceJames Cardinal Gibbons. D. D .• per ............... .. ........... .. ...... .... .. .... ... ........ ........ 100 ... 2.00 17.-The Real Presence-Rev . C. F. Smarius. S. J .• per .. ...... l00 ... 2.50 18.-Jesus Christ is God-Rev. Walter Elliott. per .. .. , .......... 100 ... 2.00 19.-Catholicity and The American Mind-George Parsons Lathrop. per ...... .. ... .. ...... ...... .. ........ ..... .... . ............... .. 100 ... 1 .50 20.-Were the MIddle Ages Dark?-Rt. Rev. T. F. Brennan. D. D .• Bishop of Dallas. Texas. p er . ........... .. ...... ........ l00 ... 2.00 21.-Indulgeuces-Rt. Rev. J ohn J. Kain. D. D .• Bishop of Wheeling. per ............................. . ........... .. .. ................ 100 ... 1.00 22.- Where is Religious Truth ?-R. G. Rives. per ......... .. .. . .. 100 .. . 1.50 23-The Invocation of Saints-Rev. E. McSween'y, D.D .• per 100 ... 1.50 24-Thoughts from Lacordaire. per ..................... ................ 100 ... 1.50 25-The Mass. The Proper Form of Christian Worship- Rev. J . M . Lucey. per .. .. .. ........... .......................... ..... 100 .. . 2.00 Assorted I40ts of 100. same ratio . Leaflet "A"-Things Catholics do not Believ e. per 100 ... 15c. 1000. ,.$1.00 Leaflet "B"-Catholic Con verts, per ..................... 100 ... 25c. 1000 ... 2.00 Leaflet "C"-A Fearful ResponSIbility. per ............ 100 ... 15c. 1000 ... 1..00 If larger quantities of the Pamphlets dre desired. the same $hould be sent by express. up to 600 copies; more than 600. to distant points. should gb by freight. Please send funds with orders for postpaid quantities. F . O. B. quantities. to be sent by express or freight, range from ZOe. to 50c. per 100 under postpaid rates. Single copies by mail 5c. ; any seven. at any time. by mail 25c. Sample copies mailed free. to the Rev. clergy. upon application. Address. CATHOLIC TRUTH SOCIETY, 218 East Third Street, ST. PA.UL, Mll'iN. ~The pamphlets published by the C. T. S. are but brief. simple aids towards the removal of prejudice regarding Catholicity. More complete instruction can be found in "The Faith of our Fathers," "Catholic Belief," "Rational Religion," "Point ! of Controversy," "Notes on Inlrer~ 8011." etc .• to be obtained of Catholic and other bo'?,k Beller •. OP AMERICA 1019056-001 1019056-002 1019056-003 1019056-004 1019056-005 1019056-006 1019056-007 1019056-008 1019056-009 1019056-010 1019056-011 1019056-012 1019056-013 1019056-014 1019056-015 1019056-016 1019056-017 1019056-018 1019056-019 1019056-020