The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1903-10-24

according to the light vouchsafed HIM feari,,. C,1
and doing good as far as he possibly can under t,
grace of God although ignorant of the true ,,as.
pei is acceptable to God. The instant sucb o l,
discovers the true religion, he will embrace If a+
once without question, Cornelius did, no matter
what the cost.
Why does the God Of truth permit so many false
religions in the world? view of the multitude OF re-
gions in the world and the diversties Of secs aun
Christians, is not the attitude of sceptic perfectly
reasonable? All religions claim to be right. and vet
all cannot be. What. then, is to do for he has
not time to study all?
We readily admit that the existence of so
many false religions is a great evil and that its
explanation will ever remain difficult and mys-
FERROUS. But because finite man has not been adj
mtted into the secrets of the infinite God must he
thereby deny His all-ruling providence! By mo
means The true manner of arguing Is thus ser
forth by Balmes: THE evil exists, it Is true but
that Providence also exists is no less certain; ap-
parently these two things which cannot coexist
but as you know for certain they do exist this ap-
parent contradiction is not sufficient to make YOU
deny their existence. What you should do Is to-
seek a means of removing this contradiction; and
in case you cannot possibly discover one, attribute
this imposssiblity to your own inability" Oetters
to Sceptic" II. p. "a, W. B. Kelly, Dublin, 1879.
This is our way of acting In every day life when
we come across some fact, vouched for by unim-
peachable testimony, which appears to contradic-
our previous knowledge. Il do not see how 1t can
be so,' man says, with regard to some of the
facts of hypnotism, "but it undoubtedly IS so. My
ignorance of the explanation does not render the
facts any the less true"
The only solution to the mystery lies IN the
Catholic dogma of original sin, with its countless
train of evils all down the course of history.
Practically, however, this fact should not make
man a sceptic or infdel. The man of science
is spurred on to study and investigate, that the
working hypothesis now held By the scientist in
general may be stepping stones for him to true
facts and principles. If a man. therefore, is with
out faith in Christ, he surely ought not to rest
content with his ignorance of the truth of God His
reason will tell him that God exists; that God is
good and true and loving; that God has spoken A
man that studies conscientiouslv, and prays with
humility for the truth WILL through Gods help find
out what God has said and which religion is the
true one He is not bound to study them all, any
more than a scientist has to worry over the ez-
poded theories of the ancents.
Surely the first demand upon ones study IS
that Church which has taught infallibly for 1900
years the pure gospel of Jesus Christ witnessing to
Him even through countless storms of persecution
thriving on the blood of many msGtyrs fulfilling
the prophecies of the old law, proving herself by
miracles, winning the intellect of men by the
submity of her dogma, conquering the heart by
the holiness of her morality-the Church Catholic,
the great defender of the rights of God and the
rights of man.