The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1893-06-15
ST. THOMAS AQUINAS..
Rev. DR.. Donohoe's Dis
course at Seton Hall
Commencement.
SCIENCE AND REVELATION IN ACCORD
The Christian Scholar Urged to
Study the Works of the
Great Angelic
Doctor.
SCIENCE AND REVELATION in ACCORD

calaureate of Canon Barry to
the students Of Columbia College. Presi-
dent Patton to those of Princeton Col
lege, and DR.. Greer to the Cornell stud
ents, was that delivered yesterday to the
graduates of Seton Hall College. South
Orange, at the commencement ceremon-
les fully aud exclusively described In
yesterdays News, by the Rev. DIR.
Donohue, of Brooklyn.
"The aim OF the Christian scientist nus
be t show that science properly under
stood and revelation properly understood
are in perfect accord. The actual need
harmony in such a mastery way as to
compel the assent OF the world" These
were the words of DIR. Donohue. and this
end could be attained, he asserted, by
studying the WORKS OF st. Thomas Aqui-
mas. Continuing he satd:-"St. Thomas
mastered all the results OF human
thought up to his day and made than
minister TO his purpose. There is q new
learning since his time, the results OF
special scieuces. The Christian scholar
must follow these sciences, master their
conclusions, and make them minister to
exegssia and theology"
Father Donohue spoke in part as
follows
A PROUD POSITION.
1T is O proud thing for you young
gentlemen, to stand before the public TO-
day, as the highest intellectual product
of oue ct the foremost colleges In the
world. 1t Is a proud thing for you to be
usnered into the higher intellectnai life
ia a year the most remarkable from an
Intellectual and religious staudpolu ut of
auy in tho last two csuturies- The cast
year has not been so remarkable, perhaps
for great discoveries ia science. although
tGere nave bron some considerable CUES.
as for making science become sure or Its
ground, of workinR hypothesis becoming
proved facts. Tie advances In rcisncs
have been along special liues. Its pro.
gress has been exclusively IN the study OF
rnenotueua. Taere has bsea little or no
sdvarce i. the study of 'Noumena.'
Modern science has busted itself chiefly
with formulating a mode OF hap opening.
4 law Of co-existence aud Sc quence.
Ii has made no effort to COMPREHEND
ultimate causes. No serious. GER
taluly no satisfactory effort has
been made to comprehend the Jul
verse as an Ineligible unity. Phil
osophy studies the universe in its whole-
pess. Its oneness, special sciences study 1t
through phenomena with reference 10
the needs of exact knowledge. Science
has formulated y dogma, which makes
makes the study Of philosophy impossi-
BILE. So long as science insists on postu-
lating. as it now does, that the universal
results of special sciences including the
method common To all of them. are the
ouiy allowable data of philosophy.
the supreme problems OF human
lie must remain a mystery. IT is an
awful tragedy of the human SOUL says a
modern THU er, not q Christian when
it's holiest affections. impulses, and as
pirations. guided no longer by revela-
ton and bereft of all other guidance. are
left gasping for life in the exhausted re-
ceiver OF mere vacuity of thought
"if the results OF special sciences and
thu method common to all of them,
observation and deduction. are the only
data Of philosophy then we must never
know anything about God or mans
destiny. There is nothing left for mau TO
do except to extinguish all deep thought
and feeling In the soulless details OF life.
A LATE A FOR Q~UATRELTNG.
"Amongst the three great schools OF nom
CHRISTIAN scientists-tne Greek. the Ger
man and the American, although these
are but new names for Older systems
there are three widely divergent theories
regarding the object OF knowledge.
Surely it is a late day to be quarreling
about the object of knowledge. A disa-
on such a fundamental thing
Is a confession of the defeat and despair
Of human reason.
ssTne noblest ambition OF the graduate
OF a Catholic college should be to enable
science to remain or to become Christian.
to enable students OF the special ScienceS
to remain or to become believers, to let
In upon the bewildered minds of scien-
lists the light of truth, truth REGARDING
the most important realitles-truth such
as faith and science united alone can
give.
THE AIM oFsTHE CHRISTIAN SCIENTIST,
- 1~-l seal. aurrai, ~ xUtnd.Fn
immediately through the revelation Of the
Old aud New Testament, certain other
kinds acknowledge, mediately through the
exercise of reason alone. The two kinds uf
knowledge thus acquired, must always
be in perfect harmony because God can
not be supposed to contradlct himself.
the aim of the Christian scientist must be
to show hi science properly Jude rstood
and revelation properly understood are in
perfect accord. The actual need of today
Is a man who will bring out this harmony
in such a masterful way as TO compel the
assent OF the world. Two extremes must
he avoided. Que Is to attribute such a
prepouderance to authority as to destroy
every real Influence OF reason, TO limit
its function 10 demonstrating tnat every
ruth which 1t arrives at. is less the pro-
duct of free and creative thought, than
the acceptance by faith OF a doctrine
already known by revelation. Another
10 TO dLtfl0uto SuSu y PLCpouNSb ~ w
free and creative thought, rs TO sacrifice
10 it the Integrity aud purity OF ideas
foundeu on faith. The third way, avoid
ing these two extremes, is to regard
knowledge as the product of q mind
which both believes and thinks.
THE MAsTE MIND.
oThe master Of This method Is st.
Thomas AQuinas. The conditions which
confronted The Angelic Doctor. are the
conditions which confront the Christian
philosophic theologian today. Neo-
platonism, Gn0sticlsm, pantheism, the
raturallsm OF Arabian commentators on
Aristotle, introduced Into Europe by the
crusaders, correspond in almost every
particular with the modern errors OPP
posed to faith. The fact is that a,nong
every thinking people the principle of
faith il opposed by the arrogance of rea-
son. Pride and reverence are always at
war. St. Thomas stood out superior TO
and mastered the age in which he lived.
The world has never seen his equal since.
"Gentlemen, If my discourse were 4
failure in every other particular, Ii l sue
coed in determining you or u one OF
you to study the works of the Angelic
Doctor, it would be = signal success:
Again and again Leo XIII has repeated,
with an instance that must command at.