The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1899-12-30


: aided strength adequately minister to
the welfare of individuals and of
states
Refutation-The radical impotence OF
human reason-when depending solely
upon it's own natural powers, is IL
scribed in indelible characters upon tie
pages of universal history. Our very
nature is put to blush at the contem'
plation of the paradoxes and errors
which fill the writings of Plato, Aris-
totle. Seneca and of all the great phll-
osophers of pagan antiquity
Experience teaches up that unalded
reason is, in it's search after truth
wholly unsuccessful or that at best II
attains but very meagre results, Rea-
son cannot, therefore, be the sole ar
bitter of good and evil, of truth and
falsehood. nor a law unto itself, nor
capable of securing the welfare of ma
tions and of individuals, as will appear
more fully in the discussion of the next
proposition.
Fourth Error-"All religious truth
emanates from a force inherent in hu-
man reason hence it follows that rea-
son is the supreme standard by which
man can and should acquire a knowl-
edge of every species of truth"
efutation-Revelation may have for
| its object, something above reason, like
, the mysteries, or something depending
entirely upon the will of Almighty God,
| as the sanctification of the Sabbath;
or it may embrace truths which are alb
solutely speaking, within the province
of human reason and which can, there
fore, be discovered and understood
without supernatural assistance. We
will confine our attention to the last
mentioned and speak, not of the abso-
lutte, but of the moral necessity Of reve-
lation We will rely solely upon facts
in discussing this question. and thus
avoid the sophisms of Deists and Ra-
tionalists, at the same time that we
escape the imputation of pre-supposing
that which we intend to prove.
The constant and universal expert
ence of all mankind-a criterion. the
correctness of which none will venture
to disputes more than sufficient to
demonstrate the moral necessity Of
TGN6ldllOu. All IllSGOIy NIbAACOo
to these two facts: First, that the hu-
man race, after having abandoned rev.
citation, wandered from the truth and
fell into shameful errors regarding the
worship of the Deity, as we'll as re-
garding the principles of morality and
duty. Second, that human wisdom and
human strength were powerless to re-
Iiet, ;y,
principles which they had lost. Who is
so ignorant as not to be aware of the ]
fact that all nations, deprived of the !
light of revelation, fell into the grossest .
polytheism? that the Persians, the (
Chaldeans and the Phoenicians trans |
formed the stars into the deities? that |
the doctrine of two beings; one inf !
nitely good and the other infinitely evil, |
fiourished in ancient times, and still I
obtains among the inhabitants of India !
and Japan? Some adored animals, !
some plants; others, like the Egyptians, I
erected temples in honor of the onions, |
which grew in their gardens, and all ,
gave images the worship which is due I
to God alone. Darius, King Of Baby
lon, furnished his idols with immense
daily supplies of costly viands. The
Tyrians bound with chains their stat
ue of Hercules, in order to prevent his
departure from their midst; and. to this
day the Fetiches of Guinea are cred
tied with divine virtue and power
Horace ridicules these divinities and
represents them as depending for their
existence entirely on the caprice of the
carpenter who manufactures a god in
stead of a bench out of a worthless
piece of wood. Moluit esse Deum, Deue
indie ego (Sat, lib i, 81.
The genii. as well as living and dead
heroes, received divine honors from the
Greeks and Romans. These nations,
attributed to their divinities
all kinds Of vices and disgracefuI pas
sions. They made the very immortality
Of their gods a subject for praise, con-
stituting them the protectors of the
passions which ragged Within their own
breasts; and not content with this, they
went so far as to defy vice itself. Their
obscene images, their festivals and
their sacrifcess at which not only hu-
man flesh, but modesty itself, was i'm
molated; the's surroundings of their tenn
pies, their ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS in
fact, connected with the public wor-
ship of their deities, was a perpetual
and open incentive to wiekedness and i
crime. Even in Gun. own days we see
the effect of the rejection of revelation
N the dedication of reason symbolized
on the affairs of the living God by pub
ic prostitutes.
The theatres of the ancients were
schools of corruption. The apologetics
If Tertullian afford abundant evidence
IF this fact Gibbon himself confesses
hat the wife's attendance at theatre ,
ustifies the husband in petitioninE for
/ divorce Fornication had ceased to
De considered a vice. while infanticide !
md the exposing of children were of / .
Utmost daily occurrence. We blush
or our common humanity at the mere
Of the wickedness which !
vas consecrated by public usage and ;
anctioned by the laws. Could there ,
'e more convincing proof of the utter !
nsufficiency of human reason and of :
he consequent necessity of revelation? :
Not all the priests of Egypt, nor the
of India, nor the mage
r wise men Of Persia, nor the phil !,
sophers Of Greece and Rome with all
heir schools, academies and sects, ;
ould oppose a barrier to the progress
+ corruption and vice; Because, being
ivided among themselves. they were
Tanting in unity of doctrine, and be-
auSe the skanticisnn with uhich tho