Luxemburger gazette. [volume] (Dubuque, Iowa) 1871-1918, 1893-11-21

All piIoC IL may boNSt pO hppoiShs'y
strong and beautiful to behold, yet fall
before the first shock of the storm. 1t
consists rather in the strength of its
roots, in the depths to which they have
struck down and out into the soil that
nourishes them, in their ability to suck
in and elaborate the juices that become
the life blood of the tree and distribute
it all over under the light and heat of
not in it's knowledge of the arts and sci
ences, in the examining of the schools
which, like undigested food or excessive
flesh, is injurious and facilitating, but
in the grasp with which it seizes and
the tenacity with which it holds
THE GREAT PRINCIPLES THAT UNDERLIE 1T,
that reveal to it it's origin and destiny,
furnish it life and health and growth,
and in its power to assimilate the nutri-
ment received and make new drafts for
every emergency. The intellect is the
seat of faith, and the active recipient of
its object, the Gospel. 1t needs faith
and revelation for its appointed work.
Baptism imparts new life to the soul
it makes a new creature. This life, surg.
ing from the heart of Christ, fills the
whole soul. As the soul is everywhere
in the body, this new life is everywhere
in the soul. Ii is in the intellect where
it deposits the germ of faith and pre-
serves it.. This germ has a growth, an
office and a c%hequered history, some
what governed by time and circum-
stances. God demands of man the ac-
ceptance of His word under pain of in
curing His displeasure. Without faith
it is impossible to please God" His
word is the Gospel addressed to reason.
The intellect enlivened by faith can
receive it and meet the demand. By
reason of this demand and for other rea-
sons, the intellect has a right to the Cos
pei, a right from God, a right to it in its
integrity and purity. Else why has God
by a miracle of ~omnipotence 50 pre-
served it, and commanded an imperish-
able Church to propose it? What are
our high seminaries and universities and
our world-renowned professors and our
long and extra courses of theology for if
not to give us men who will teach it
fully, clearly, a~cceptably? By this
teaching faith grows, and with it the
intellect. As through the eye of the
body in the light OF the sun, noon and
stars, the intellect looks out on the
heavens and the earth, by day and by
night, admiring their beauty, and their
purpose, and reading the lesson they
increasingly teach, so through the eye
of faith and the light of the Gospel,
brighter than that of ten thousand suns,
it looks out on a new creation, grandest
of all, Gods own kingdom, with its suns
and moons and stars revolving in their
orbits, the triune God, the Incarnation,
the Atonement, Jacobs ladder, the cou-
riers from earth to heaven, the Church,
the body OF Christ, and abode of the
Holy Spirit, and all the forces which set
it in love, transfigure it into a pillar of
fire for the guidance of the human race,
and shower mama in abundance all
over the desert. To make the intellect,
animated by faith, a lamp on the road
to heaven, to light it up with religion,
and science, the divine and human, to
harmonic these forces and urge them
forward on their course, this is
THE WORK OF VIEWED FROM
THE STANDPOINT OF CATHOLICS.
From the intellect let us pass to the
will. The intellect is its guide. A good
will follows the light of reason. The
will Is the great faculty of the soul it
is the queen of all the rest it is, so to
speak, the power-house Of the soul,
where the electric forces hat move the
others are generated it is free, it is re-
| sponsible for its acts, it is the seat of
virtue and of vice. 1t brought death
into the world and all our woes and
gave Gods Son a body in the womb of
q Virgin. More than any other faculty
it marks the difference between man
and man. 1t makes saint and sinner,
martyr and apostate 1t sinks to the pit
and elevates above the stars. AT the
great assiZe the human family will be
divided into two sections, never more to
meet, set as far apart as hell is from
heaven. That division takes place here,
though we cannot define its limits, and
it is the will OF man that makes it.
Strength of the will does not lie in the
independence, obstinacy, tenacity Of
purpose, despotic force, self-assertion.
No; it lies rather in humility, obedi-
ence, love, respect, reverence, rectitude,
purity. A strong will loves God, obeys
Him, respects His authority and every
authority that emanates from His that
is, every well-feunded authority. It re-
spects and venerates what is pure and
holy, and r~everences the great and good
of every age and cline who served God
in their day, blessed their kind, and left
to posterity the bright example of their
virtues. Peter, before the High Priest,
when commanded not to speak at all in
the name Of Jesus, answering: "If it
be just in the sight of God to hear O
rather than God, Judge We. For we can
not but speak the things which we have
seen and heard" furnishes an instance
of strength of will. The martyr in the
arena, commanded by Caesar, or in his
name, to renounce Christianity and
sacrifice to the gods, in the midst of all
the terrors of that place of torture, an
swering MO-
IN THE VERY TEETH OF TYRANNY,
and in spite of brides and threats and
torments, ~persevering in that answer
till the victorious spirit flies home to
God to enjoy freedom forevermore, is an
example OF strength of will, of love, of
liberty and of God, which only religion
could produce. TO promote, foster and
invigorate this spirit by all the
available therefore, is within the prov
ince, and is the work of Christian edu.
cation. The will is the home OF the
affections. 1t is the seat of that Divine
gift, love, which keeps the affections
turned on God and on the neighbor for
Gods sake. 1t is the furnace of that
heavenly fire, which, famed by faith
and fed by all the forces of religion,
shoots upward to Him who enkindled it,
and gaining new strength in His embrace
sweeps down and out over land and
water, clasping in its bright red arms
friends and enemies without distinction,
every child of Adam from him who sits
in the chair of Peter sending blessings
to the nations, TO the savage in the
jungle voraciously feeding on quivering
| Christian flesh. Snch a faculty needs