The Irish standard., 1898-03-19
SERMON ON UNBELlEVERs
Sunday Evening DiscOurses at til
Church of st. Charles.

Church of st. Charles.
The subject of FIR. Cleary's Lenten dis
course at st. Charles church last Sun
day evening was How Can Man Know
What God Has Revealed" He spoke in
part as follows:
THE most sad condition of the human
mind is unbelief. The man who is ever
doubling, or constantly denying the
great truths of revealed religion, is
among the most disconnected and I'm
happy of mortals. Life to such unfor-
tunate men is a mystery which they are
never able to solve. With an increase
of knowledge this mystery deepens.
Science does not answer the great ques-
lions Of the human soul 1t does not
make plain to inquiring man why he
lives. what is his destiny, how he should
live, or why he should continue to live,
if life is not pleasant. The only relief
from the ills of life that suggests itself
to the man who has faith, is the repul-
sive crime of suicide.
THE unbeliever is the victim of preju-
dice, superstition and ignorance. He is
the illogical, the unreasonable and the
inconsistent one. He admits that he is
anxious to have faith, and he persit-
emily fails to use the necessary means
to SECURE faith.
Common sense suggests that he who
desires certain object, must also desire
the means of obtaining it. The man
who desires the comforting conviction
of divine faith must also desire the
means Of obtaining it. Faith is not
forced upon an unwilling, or unworthy
recipient God does no violence to
mans liberty of thought or liberty of
action. Mems worship of God must lie
voluntary service, to be worthy of a
heavenly reward. Man is, of course, in
duty bound by the most sacred ties to
give to his creator the willing service of
his reason. This he can do by believing
what God teaches, simply because God
is the teacher But man cannot believe
what he knows nothing about Es Is
therefore first of all under the obligation
of trying to find out what God has re-
vealed, or whether he has really made
any revelation to man.
Strange Inconsistency, however,
of honesty of thought and fairness of
judgment. They spend much valuable
time in learning all the objections Of
other unbelevers against religion. They
study with superstitious reverence the
writings Of enemies of the Christian
faith. They fill their minds with the
sophistries woven by other deluded vic
tins of unbeief; but they persitontly
neglect to investigate, with impartial
fairness. the unbiased judgment, the can
did claims of divine faith upon their
Intelligence. They insist that the hui
man mind should enjoy the widest lib
erty OF inquiry. The only freedom, how
ever, that they give to their fettered
mind is freedom of entangling itself in
the meshcs of error. They will not, in
spite Of all their pretensions, permit
their clouded reason the health-g giving
liberty Of familiar acquaintance with the
plain principles of eternal truth. One
needs but examine the books that are
read. the authors that are consulted by
such deluded men, to be fully convinced
Of their inconsistency and unfairness
They investigate but one side of what
they claim is disputed question, name
ly, revealed religion. and then do not ap-
pear to recognize the fact Of their own
unfairness in neglecting an honest and
impartial study OF the positive proofs in
favor Of religion.
"Religion's friends never fear inquiry,
do not dread investigation, arc not I'M
easy in the presnce of scence. Next
to sin. ignorance is the most deadly enc
my of religion. Christ, the light Of the
world aimed to dissipate the dark
clouds of ignorance from the human
mind. 1t was. however. ignorance of
Gcd. and of Gods dealings with the l1u
nan soul, that Christ sought to dispel.
he truth that he promised to make
ir.cvn, TO make men free, is the truth