The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1914-07-11

length of days, greater or less, in their
appointed place. l mean, too, that
He is ever present with His. works,
one by one, and confronts every thing
He has made by His particular and
most loving Providence, and manifests
Himself to each according to its
needs; and has on rational beings i'm
printed the moral law, and given them
power to obey it, imposing on them
the duty of worship and service,
searching and scanning them through
and through with His omniscicnt eye,
and putting before them a present
trial and judgment to come.
Such is what Theology teaches about
God, doctrine, as the very idea of
it's subject-matter presupposes, so
mysterious as in it's fulness to lie
beyond any system, and in particular
aspects to be simply external to ma
ture, and to seem in parts even to be
irreconcileable with itself, the imagin-
alton being unable to embrace what
| the reason determines.
It teaches of a Being infinite, yet
personal; all-Blessed yet ever opera
| tive; absolutely separate from the
creature, yet in every part of the
creation at every moment; above all
things, yet under every thing. 1t
teaches of Being who, though the
| highest, yet in the work of creation,
conservation, government, retribution,
makes Himself, as it were, the minis
ter and servant of all; who, though
| inhabiting eternity, allows Himself to
take an interest, and to have a sym
| pathy, in the matters of space and
time. His are all beings, visible and
invisible, the noblest and the vilest of
them. His are the substance, and
| the operation, and the results of that
| system of physical nature into which
we are born. His too are the powers
and achievements of the intellectual
| essences, on which He has bestowed
an Independent action and the gift Of
origination. The laws of the universe,
! the principles of truth, the relation of
one thing to another, their qualities
and virtues, the order and harmony
of the whole, all that exists, is from
| Him; and if evil is not from Him, as
assuredly it is not, this is because evil
has no substance Of it's own, but is
only the defect, excess, perversion, or
corruption Of that which has sub
stance. All we see, hear, and touch,
| the remote sidereal armament, as well
as our own sea and land, and the ele-
ments which compose them, and the
ordinances they obey, are His. The
primary atoms of matter, their prop
critics, their mutual action, their dis
position and collocation, electricity,
magnetism, gravitation, light, and
whatever other subtle principles or
operations the wit of man is detecting
or shall detect, are the work of His
hands. From Him has been every
movement which has convulsed and
re-fashioned the surface of the earth.
The most insignificant or unsightly in
sect is from Him, and good in it's
kind; the ever-teeming, ineXhaustible
swarms of animalculae, the myriads
of living notes invisible to the naked
eye, the restless eyerspreading vege-
tation which creeps like a garment
over the whole earth, the lofty cedar,
the outrageous banana, are His. His
are the tribes and families of birds
and beasts, their graceful forms, their
wild gestures, and their passionate
cries.
And so in the intellectual moral, so
cial, and political world. Man, with
his motives and works, his languages,
his propagation, his diffusion, is from
Him. Agriculture, medicine, and the
arts of life, are His gifts. Society,
laws, government, He is their sane
ton. The pageant of earthly royalty
has the semblance and the benedic-
ton of the Eternal King. Peace and
civilization, commerce and adventure
wars when just, conquest when
humane and necessary. have His CO
operation, and His blessing upon them
The course of events, the revolution
of empires, the rise and fall of states
the periods and eras, the progressions
and the retrogreSsionS of the worlds
history, not indeed the incidental sin
over-abundant as it is, but the great
outlines and the results of human
affairs, are from His disposition. The
elements and types and seminal prin
ciples and constructive powers of the
moral world, in ruins though it be
are to be referred to Him. He zen
\ lighteneth every man that cometh into
this world" His are the dictates OF
the moral sense, and the retributiye
reproaches of conscience. To Him
must be ascribed the rich endowments
of the intellect, the irradiation OF
genius, the imagination of the poet
the sagacity of the politician, the
wisdom (as Scripture calls it,, which
now rears and decorates the Temple
now manifests itself in proverb or in
parable. The old laws of nations, the
majestic precepts of philosophy, the
: luminous maxims of law, the oracles oil
individual wisdom, the Evolutionary
|, rules of truth, justice, and religion
even though imbedded in the corrup
ton, or alloyed with the pride, of the
world, betoken His original agency
and His long-suffering presence Even
i where there is habitual rebellion
against Him, or profound far-spread
ing social depravity, still the undercur
rent, or the heroic outburst, of natural
/ virtue, as we'll as the warnings of the
: heart after what it has not, and its
presentment of it's true remedies, are