The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1908-02-29

Continued from page H.
b. the cured themselves it is Tut, tut, man. you
must be fool to credit these fables"
To the Protestant mind, which still retains
faith in the inspiration of the scriptures, that :
'When
AN ANGEL WENT DOWN
at a certain season into the pool and troubled the
water; and he that went down first into the pool
after the movement of the water made whole
of whatsoever infirmity he had" there is no vo-
lence done to the mind in accepting it. But when
the Catholic believes that God, for his own in
scrutabe reason imparts at times to the waters of
Lourdes efficacy and healing properties, then the
Catholic is superstitous and credulous. The Pro
testant credits the history of tie cures of the wa
tiers of the Probatca or Bethsaida, on the testi
of a converted jew and ridicues and re-
jects the miracles of Lourdes even though they By
verified, certified and sworn to by thousand
Christians. Does the history of the human race
record any absurditv like unto this?
THE TRUE EXPLANATION
of this extraordinary inconsistency which accepts
miracle on the word of one and rejects 9th
er miracles supported by the oaths of thousands
will be found i'll the stud of the fact that very few
Protestants have any real faith III the the
other. As yet they have no real reason for reject
ing the first, while they have an urgent, pressing
motive for denying the miracles of Lourdes. Once
admit the truth of the wonders of Lourdes and
perilousv near admitting that God and
church. something that Professionalism will never
acknowledge.
l not about to discuss the credibility of
miracles wrought in our times, but | will say
that to the Christian, who is at all familiar with
Holy Writ, and understands that the miracles of
the New Testament are not isolated and abnormal.
but typical and characteristic facts, belonging to
the whole dispensation which they support and IL
lustrate, their ceasing to be would be more mys-
FERROUS and incomprehensible than their continu-
ance.
Miracles, writes the father of geology Hugh
Miller in his Footprints of the Creator, care not
only not impossibilities, but even not improbable
ties. = Whatever is possible may occur, and what
ever ought, on the proper evidence, to be
believed" There are many people who would not
believe a miracle if they one; they have
an instructive fear and hatred of the supernatural
and would rather believe that God is eternaly 81
lent that their senses deceive them than confess
that the testimony of miracles makes for the truth
of Catholic faith and the presence of God with his
Church That great scholar and convert Cardinal
Newman in his Life of st. Richard the Saxon"
written four years before his conversion says:
'The question will naturally suggest itself to the
reader, whether the miracles recorded In this
rative and especially those contained in the life Of
St. Walburga, are to be received matters Of
fact. We only reply there is no rea
why they should not As healing virtue went
out, at Christs behest, from the hem of his
garment; from Peters shadow as that apostle walk
ed the streets, from the handkerchiefs and aprons
which had touched the living body of St. Paul.
from the water of the pool after the visit of the
ANGEL at his behest this healing virtue still
tnues issue from the relics of his saints whose
souls now behold the Beatific Vision"
And now may [ bring to end this series of