The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1911-02-11
Continued from page ~
THE OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES AND
JESUS CHRIST.
The Teachings Of UnbeIief.


that might be called God, He is far
known, that we have no concern in
Him and should not strive to build
up relations with Him.
There is no God: there is no need
of God. Matter is eternal, whatever
it was in the long ago-misty vapor,
or cloud of dust. Such as it was, it
held within itself the potencies of
all things that ever were to be.
Through countless cons onward it was
to go, through mysterious evolutions,
the one more mysterious than the
other, until at last it had set into
array its myriads of suns and plan
cts, bedecked the earth with beauty
and life, and hidden it's fairest and
most wondrous scintillation, man,
chant, In strains of self-conscious in
telligence, the pean of its triumphant
feats. Why seek Being outside or
above misty vapor, or cloud OF dust
Of long ago? Whatever there was,
vapor or dust, self-made 1t was in it's
origin: self-made it is in present forms
of wise and beauteous orderings: all
things are its evolvings: man, reason
and self-consciousness, is but it's more
finished product. There is no need OF
God: matter responds to all demands.
And there is nothing else. God-we
have sought Him in ray of sun, in
flower of field, in brain of man, in
cell of minutest insect: we have chal-
lenged telescope and microscope to
open TO us His pathways amid the
wonders of the universe: yet nowhere
have we touched Him, nowhere have
we seen Him. There is no God.
So the atheist-materialist, or mon
list, as he chooses to be named. Less
radical in theory, but no less ruinous
in practice, is the Agnostic, to whom
God and all that appertains to God
are chilling perhaps" God there
may be-the First Cause" author of
contingent being, designer and master
of the universe-as such, eternal, self
existent, even infinite. But in reality
what is He, and what bearing can He
have upon thoughts and acts of ours
A being of the kind is unthinkable,
the grasp of human mind that all we
may do with regard to Him is to watt
towards His remote mysteriousness a
vague salute, as vague as is our
knowledge of Him, and live without
Him, enjoying as best we can our
fleeting moments, without care or
dream of what heretofore was, or
henceforth will be. With Agnosticism
as with baldest materialism, God van.
ishes from human thought, the super,
natural shrinks back into tabled
lands; the visible, the tangible alone
being left to claim from us love and
alteration.
The war-cry of unbelief? Away with
Jesus, the God Incarnate. the Prophet,
the Teacher of the Supernatural!
Jesus-the best He was, the wisest
the most exalted of the sons of hui.
mainly. In moral perfection, in in
nate wisdom, He rose to heights
that none other ever attained or ever
sought. AS none other, He set His
impress upon humanity so lifting il
towards His own plane, so transform
ing it into His own likeness, that, who
ever the teacher and the guides Of
men, they shall never approach Him
in power and holiness of work. But
Jesus, the Prophet of the Superna
tural, the Supernatural Incarnate, the
God-man-we know Him not: we
offer Him no allegiance. In His Cos
pels moral teachings there are thai
are sublime, most beauteous: but
with the gold there is the dross, anl
of this the Gospels must be purgeG
that the gold alone be gathered Mir
acles are legends; assertions of divin
fly in the person of Jesus or of divine
authority in His words are illusions
exaggerations, if not frauds and de
ceits. Jesus is the mere man, tn.
mere human teacher-not the Coz
Incarnate, not the Teacher sent b.
God to reveal the Supernatural Thu
Supernatural was not manifest il
Jesus-away with the Supernatural!
l summarize doctrines on God ant
on Jesus, daily echoing from rostrum
and professional chairs, daily servet
out as mental food from book store
and public libraries. Names of flames
philosophers, ignorance of whom put
one out of the fashion, are quoted a
sponsors of those teachings: owe
those teachings, to brighten them a
gold of purest alloy, is drawn tn
bewitchery, the prestige of twentieth
century science. Science is the mis-
tress of the modern world; none ma
deny it homage: and science preache
from the house-tops, knows nothin
of the Supernatural, forbids it all al
tempts to mingle itself in the life an
movements of natures realm.
Unbelief Is Widespread.
The teachings of unbelief are fas
bearing fruit They fall on soil we
fitted to termination and growth. TIL
minds of men are SO engrossed i
material occupations, that scant tim
SIS ID allowed +n think nf ought else fha