The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1872-06-09
Give God His Place.

; Give God His Place.
Mans faith in men is going down. Trus
. in the merely human has been tried, on
: colossal scale, by our age; and that trus
has been proved . cheat and q delusion
The human must lean upon the dicine. The
weight Of this world needs something
mightier than this world to sustain it
Mere man is not sufficient for men. God il
necessary. You may ~ we'll think Of
thrusting Him from His thrones in the Hea-
vens as of ousting Him from human history.
In history as in Heaven-in the civiliza-
tions of men as in the courts of angels-in
the annals of time as in the annals Of eter-
nifty, He must and He will have His place
and that, the supremest place of all. This
world is His place as we'll as man's-and
more than man's.l He has word to say
| about its affairs as well as man. He has
! rights in it as wen as man. He, as we'll as
man, has work to do here, and He will
do it. Men and nations, aforetime, tried
to do without Him; they put Him out of
their calculations, or they put Him in them
only as valuable CIPHER; they thrust Him
aside as an obstacle, or they flung Him
away as an encumbrance; and on they
went, insensate, in the pride of their hearts
light of step and buoyant because the
grand burden Of the dtrime did not press
upon them but sudden, as the rush of the
storm by night, a footstep was heard that
was not mans thunderbolt, not hurled
by human hands, flashed across the firma-
ment of history; men, startled and stunned,
looked up-and the forgotten God was
there-right in their midst, where He had
always been, though unseen-where He
always is and shall be-not with folded
arms, passive spectator-but with lifted
hands, to bless or curse their works. Nor
goes down into the domain of history-and
He rules it gently as a mother, or terribly
as an avenger. Into every question of
earth He enters. He is part of every prob.
lem. He stands related to every event-in
the fall of a snow fake, as in the crash of
an empire; in the fading of flower leaf,
as in the ruin of nation in everything
that happens between the dust and the
stars, He must be taken into account.
have our being" Without interfering with
their free-will and agency, He will, and He
does, and He must, shape mems courses to
His own ends He will and He does control
the destinies of the nations; He will and
He does sway the fates of the world He
will and He does write His own great name,
In letters of love, OF wrath, in every chap
ter, upon every page and in every line of
the chronicles of time. Try as it may, this
| world can never be Goddess. Out of eter-
! nifty, through the gates of creation, He en-
tiers the world-moves across it; men may
or may not see His footprints-but they are
there--marked and ineffaceable men may
and may not see His shadow when He
passes--but that shadow moves beside
them men may or may not hear His voice
but tits sounding, Nevertheless, amid all
their tumults; men may not see His hand
till the blessing falls from it, or the male
diction-but the hand is always there;
men may not see Him working in their
midst till He has built a monument, craven
His own name on it, and passed men may
net know that He is walking on their way
till they meet Him treading in the dust a
proud people or an unholy nation but,
Acknowledgements or unseen-felt or
unfeit, He, with man, is making and mould
ing human history. Man, from day to day,
records the events of that history, and too
often He, who holds that history in the
palm of His hand, is utterly ignored-but
never ignored with impunity. 1t is then
not only religion-not only true wisdom
but it is mems and nations interest to give
God His place in human affairs and to re-
coguize and adore His presence and His
power in the workings of the world. The
civilization that is false to Him cannot be
beneficial to man. The developments of
individuals and peoples which ignore Him
must lead straight to destruction. The
progress which goes not towards Him, is
not progress. Human fabrics, without the
Urine cement. must totter. Sink their
foundations never so deep, let them tower !
ever 80 hiCh-they must fall There caD | =