The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1915-08-07

X
gime has not proved inefficacious ant
4 worthy of abolition. The Churcl
which Christ built on a rock does no
! need to be reconstructed on any
mans theory. It is expedient for US
to think of remodeling our minds and
Hearts in, conformation with the ole
i religion, rather than Of remodeling
1.-The old religion in conformation with
Tour advanced minds and hearts
ILet no man think that he has more
brains in the matter of Christianity
than Christ, the divine Founder
thereof. History shows that, where
ever human ingenuity pricked the
Nazarene's manifest plan, sorrow was
the issue.
Professor Wright and those who
think, with him might draw salient
lesson from Professionalism, born Of
the fallacy that Catholicism has
failed. Led by the recalcitrant spirit
of Luther, the faith of the sixteenth
century fell over ugly precipices and
was shattered into a heap of sects.
In this heap was lodged the elements
of religious ruin; out of it rose such
rockets of free thought as scepticism,
positivism and agnoticism. For, by
| its bewildering multiplication of petty
sects, Professionalism had fairly we'll
demonstrated that God, the simple
and irrefragable, was not in it. Thus
I it cast religion into more or less dis
credit, and incidentally cleared the
stage for the reign of philosophy and
David Hume. In time, ennuied with
cynicism, and having wandered too
far from Wittenburg and Rome to re-
turn to either, the world of "enlighten-
ment' fawned upon Comte. Ultimate
ly disguised with his frigid, natural
istic creed, it placed Herbert Spencer
on pedestal. His agnostic sway, so
detrimental to real religion, has ex-
tended down to our own day.
Is it not time for men to see their
mistake; to appreciate that every
modern religion, or substitute for re-
ligion, has been fiasco; to revert
with reverence to the Rock of Peter
from which they broke anchor in the
long ago, breasting the high 1seas of
doubt, error, discomfort, and heart
ache? Yet Professor Wright and
kindred souls, would egg the wearied
world on to the pursuit of still another
empty novelty-the religion of democ-
racy; as though there could be any
religion of the masses without re-
ligion of the individuals!
But, with their superestimates of
the significance of modern progress,
they are impatient of things savory of
the past. The Christianity of Thomas
Aquinas and Christopher Columbus is
too slow for an age of steam engines.
If we must be religious, at least let
the smart brand of the twentieth
century glitter on our beliefs. Such
is seemingly the tenor of Mr. Wright's
message
And yet the past, at which our
scholars pityingly smirk, possesses
treasures which, are the despair of
the present Modern art could not
add single curvature that would en-
nance the perfection of the peerless
Venus di Milo, or touch that would
embellish the Sistine Madonna. Old
Cheops and Mycerinus, spraw1ing on
Egyptian sands III, Serene defiance Of
the tooth of time, make modern sci
ence appear almost puny. The i'm
mortal voice of Homer and Shakes
peare ring together in hearty laugh
at the gush which we are pleased to
ldenominate our up-to-date poetry and
prose. Certainly in the realm of re-
| ligion, nothing has ever been fit to
compare with Christianity, that is,
with Christianity as expounded by
Christ, not by Luther, Mrs. Eddy, or
Henry w. Wright The Galilean's
doctrine CAN be improved mo more
than a star" Men have tried to re-
wise it and have only succeeded in
showing themselves ridiculous Sure
ly the fact of its age is no argument
against it's value, but rather an indi-
cation of it. A religion that could
survive unaltered the shocks of two
thousand years of strenuous history,
hardly needs to be altered at present
by anybody. Human hearts are the
same now as they were at the time
of the rising of Bethlehems Star:
The faith that fully satisfied our sires
of DID, fits Just as perfectly into the
great now. Why our scholars should
shrek ION, on" when Back, back!"
would be so plainly the more sensible
L or ho 0f do
moderate pride of progress answers.
Yet our Wanted progress has led
us into the most fearful of wars,
scattering the pages of twentieth
century history, thus early, with
blood The very inventions, which
only yesterday we pointed to as the
triumphs of modern civilization, are
today rendering slaughter on land,
| in air, and under the water, the most
barbarous that has ever aWed our
planet With such i'll success in
mere temperatures, dare we consti-
tute our ludicrously inefficient selves
as master of the religious world and
set about knocking down what Christ
and the piety of centuries put ub?
Professor Wright does.
Says he, confidently: Modern
man secures his own natural exist
ence and well-being not by bargain.
ing for. divine protection against
natural ills but by gaining mastery
over natural forces through his own
experimental science, inventive skill
and technical proficiency. He does