The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1915-12-25
Continued from page ID
CHRISTMAS GREETING


literary works will ever remain the
admiration of mankind Yet mechan
1cal force, the god Of modern science
is just as stupid as the dumb idols Of
yore. Beware of a scheme of religion
that makes no demand for spiritual
strength: "The kingdom of heaven
suffcreth violence But God ever
overmatches Satan. The cunning Of
Sin oyerr6ached itself. BY idolatry
mems minds were educated to see
God in the habit of man" When
Paul and Barnabas performed mira
cles before the people O. Lystra, this
simple folk cried: "The gods have
come down to us, in the likeness OF
men. The way was somewhat pre-
parcl even by error to persuade them
to believe that Divine Child had
been born and had dwelt amongst US
The Religion of Israel.
iii. A second system Of deception
was that Of exaggerating human
strength. Sin made use of this wher
ever there was a reaction against the
corruption of the flesh. The self
righteous Stole OF paganism, who
looked with disdain on the vulgar
herd, as well as the rigorist of all
ages, who, borne along by fanaticism
is unfair to the just claims of human
nature, ends in being victim Of sen
suality more hopeless because more
secret than that of the open volup
tuary. When God had restated His
law and His promise, it was this sec
ond system which eventually deceived
men and made the Divine Law itsel
an ally of sin.
While the whole. world was weakly
verging to idolatry God chose Israe
to be His inheritance and the guard
an of His promise. Here was Hi.
law, His worship, His rule. No on,
could govern Israel but the judge
whom God would provide: no ont
could teach Israel, but the prophe
whom God would inspire. The mission
of Israel was to carry undefled, al
which eventually would form Thu
body of Christ, as the mission of tn
new inheritance, the Church, is t,
bring that body and blood, made say
ing by the Personality of the Son 0
God, to strengthen the soldiers o
Christ Hence all Israel,s worship
looked to the Incarnation and Redeml
ton. Christ was to be "the first-borl
of Mary, ''the first-fruits of the resul
rection;" therefore the first-born o
every family of Israel, the first fruit
of every harvest were sacred to God
Of Israel "the Word was to be mad
flesh" clean therefore should be th
flesh of Israel A legal purity no
merely as a token of physical clear
ness but of spiritual obedience in fait
was required. Clean, from all defile
ment should be the people, clean til
oblation, spotless the victim. TIL
paschal lamb was in time and spac
q material representation of tn
Lamb slain from the beginning o
the world in the counsel of Goo
From Israel idolatry must be debarred
and if it crept in, it must be sternl
driven out. At times the purificatiol
was not effected without danger of dc
stroying the whole nation. All VIII
went out of Egypt, save two, died i
the wilderness; of the twelve tribe
ten were taken into captivity and lost
the two remaining were dragge
away into exile. Most of the evils j
the course of time came becaus
Israel chose a king for ruler rattle
than God But a faithful remnant a.
ways remained and after a thousan
years the national worship was still
steadfastly true. The religion of Ef
dras was the same as that of Moses
Then Satan adopted the other weapon
in his CULVER. One day the Maste
will say TO the Pharisees: "you are 0
your father, the devil, and the desire
of your father you will do 1t was
devils work, as king had been pu
in the place of judge, to put i'll til
place Of merciful prophet a merciles
scribe. If the law could not be dc
stroyed, Satan's plan was, let it de
feat itself. Let it swathc the Israelit
as if with garment of lead and bea
him down with its crushing weight
| Let it's observances be multiplied, it
cxactions be enhanced, it's penaltie
be increased, until man Wearied an
| broken in spirit will make outward oil
/ servance alone his religion and Civ
! free rein to the passions within. LIE
there be a God of only justice and fea
and let man justify himself by his ow
energy alone. Thus under Pharisaisn
as under idolatry, proud, coyetoui
self-righteous, sensuality ruled in til
name of religion and the cry of falle
man for mercy was once more hushet
Faith in the God of hope had dice
It. was the last faithful shepherd c
Juda, as far as we know, Simeon, tina
took the Divine Child iii his arms ali
said: Now thou dost dismiss tn
servant, 0 Lord, according to tn
word in peace, because mine eye
have seen thy salvation" But Satan
cunning was again oyermatched b
Divine Wisdom. Only in such cond
tons would men be fanatic enough t
find fault with work of God becaus
wrought on the Sabbath and bin
enough to s1ay Christ for bearing wi
ness to the truth.
The Tide of Sin.
". Thus to the spiritual eye tn
world was a desolate waste of tn
foulest waters. Beginning at til