The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1914-07-25

anything, just for the sake. of singu-
larity and notoriety. Do atheists
really mean what they say? The
ablest men in the infidel camp have
no patience with the few, who tell the
world they are atheists; it is just
matter of getting into the front page
of the papers, with them. They are
not really serious. The fact seems
to be that they are not capable of be-
| ing serious. Some are born with a
tendency to be frivolous and super
fetal. Some have an easy time of it
all their lives and never get below
the surface of things; they never learn
by experience the value of the wise old
sayings that sum up the accumulated
wisdom of all the centuries. A lesson
in the school of suffering and of mis-
fortune is what they need to convince
them that man needs God. Others
think they are atheists, because they
cannot believe in the frightful carl
cature of Almighty God, which Cal
vinism proposes for their worship; in
fact, that same caricature is respon-
+ OlUIG III uIUOI vi CuC uI1UCl1OI vi LuC
present day. With it there always
goes a deep and fierce hatred of the
Church, and that prevents the victims
of Calvinism from looking in the only
| direction in which the truth is to be
! found. Yet deep down in the hearts
of all, is the feeling that mankind is
right, that we are not waits and or
Ephans in the world, that we have a
Father in Heaven, Who is not far
from any one of us.
4 Among the names that a child re-
4 members best and learns most easily,
with those of it's father and mother the
name of God stands foremost. And
when men get off the platform, when
they forget that they have a reputa-
ton for singularity, for originality, to
maintain, they return to the natural
spontaneous attitude of the child. Do
4 what they will, men cannot get away
from God. If they will not know Him
as Father and Friend then they fear
Him as ever present witness of their
thoughts and words and deeds, as
judge to whom they must one day, not
far off, render strict account.
i Some boys went to rob an orchard
one day. When they were just inside
the gate they saw the owner in the
distance disappearing behind some
shrubbery. They turned and disap-
peared through the gate-all except
one. This youth had caught only a
very passing view of the enemy; but
he knew he was there all right. Worse
still he could not make an attempt to
covery. 1t was not pleasant to think
of the ridicule that awaited him. So
he determined to lie low till chance
for escape appeared, meanwhile re-
solving to tell the others that they had
made a mistake, that the owner was
not around at ALL This seemed so
good an idea that it began to appeal
to himself, so that after while he al.
most believed it. At all events he
managed to escape without any un-
pleasant consequences of the es-
capade; and his first word. to his wait
ing comrades was a denial of the
story that the enemy had come on the
scene. Contradiction as usual only
made his statement all the stronger
and the temptation to believe his own
lie all the greater. Thus the wish is
father of the thought; we can fool our
selves even better than we can fool
others; we believe easily what we
| f0 Ha1 CO e. 60
so-called atheists. They are like the
boy passing by the graveyard at mid
night, who says out loud that he does
not believe in spooks, but would be
very glad to be home, and whistles tC
keep up his courage. Only they know
in their own hearts that Almighty Goo
is near them all the time; and that
: alone, in trouble, in danger or in pain
one cannot even imagine the denia
of God; whereas one grows to forget
| or to laugh at the superstitions Of
/ childhood.
How are we to account for this uni
versal verdict of our race? What
meaning are we to find in it, what
lesson does it teach?
1t cannot be delusion. When al
men vote on the same side, it is
human nature that is voting, it is hu
man reason itself that is giving its
verdict, and, straight out from ths
very soul and heart of it, pledging ant
involving it's own fundamental relia
bility and trustworthiness in the cor
rectness of the verdict.
!, For belief in God is common to al
! men. The ablest men that ever liveC
shared in it. All along the very from
ranks of intellectual eminence we flint
this belief avowed with the unshakeI
: confidence of the laborer after hi
days toll, or the child at it's mother.
knee. 1t cannot be the fruit of dec
! study and of that alone; else tn,
simple could not have it. 1t cannot bt
the result of ignorance or of s1ownes
of wit; else how did it get hold of tn,
greatest of human intellects? 1t can
, not be due to any popularity of ma
tional or racial character since it il
found in all races and in all nations
! civilized and uncivilized 1t is not al
, invention of the ministers of religion
you might as we'll say that it was tn,
! bakers caused our belief in bread, Of
: the tailors our belief in clothes
2 This belief in God is natural tt