The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1916-05-27

contains some very admirable maxims.
1t is not necessary to assent to all
the dogmas of the Church. Christ
himself laid more stress upon His
moral doctrines. They would be saved
who would do the will of the heavenly
Father. And the slogan of the liberal
or Latitudinarian schools of the day
is: by their fruits We shall know
them" Not what man believes, but
what he does is of Importance. Chris
tianity is not religion Of meaningless
intellectual dogmas but of vital prin-
ciples of action. The old system was
to deduce rules of conduct from the
dried dogmatic formulas. Rather the
inverse is the true method. That only
is true dogma which is the express
sion of good action for practical
goodness and truth are synonymous.
The creed of these modern thinkers
may be formulated in these two
phrases which expires very we'll the
pith of their system: the one is the
Fatherland of God; the other is the
Brotherhood of Man.
This system is not without certain
appearance of truth. 1t is generally
true that the art precedes the science
and the practice the theory. But it is
not true to say the same of systems of
morality; to say it at least, without
certain reservations. The special for
mulization of morality of necessity fol-
lowed the morality itself but the prin-
ciples upon which that morality re
poses precede the morality itself at
least in the logical order.
Let us explain. There is no action
performed by any being equipped with
faculties of knowledge unless that &C
ton is preceded by certain knowledge
and, in fact, caused by it. The insect
will not move in quest of food unless
it knows of the existence of the food
either by means of it's sense organs or
by means of its instinct The animal
will not emit cry of pain unless the
knowledge of some hurt has been
brought tosit by means of the sense
nerves. The same law applies to man.
He performs no act unless that act is
prompted by some form of knowledge,
either sensitive or rational. 1t is of
course, self-evident that the refraining
from an act is for man subject to the
same law as the performing of an act;
for such refraining is at times the pos
tive effort to hold in check some part
of his manifold nature.
fI,o 90 -, n 41,,4I, onrI1y n t11o
moral ORDER To say, as the modern
moralists would do that men will act
the same no matter what they believe,
is tantamount to denying that man
acts or refrains from acting according
to his knowledge. knowledge in the
moral order is brought to man by
means of conscience which is merely
the voice of reason applying general
principles to particular acts. These
general principles are dogmas. De-
stroy dogmas and the operations of
| conscience cease at once. In other
words moral law would terminate.
| 1t is easy to see the truth of this
reasoning in the abstract. 1t is diff
cult, or at any rate tedious to show
how each dogma of the Christian faith
ultimately is converted into prin-
ciple of action We will instance a
| few. Before any law of the moral or
der no less than of other orders is
recognized as law by conscience,
there must be the clear and indubious
knowledge that this law proceeds from
a Law-giyer. But suppose that man
did not believe in the existence of a
Law-giver in the moral order. For
such one there is evidently neither
moral law nor moral order of any
kind. 1t may be urged that the voice
of conscience would point out the
right and forbid the wrong even though
the existence of the Law-giver God
were denied. But no one obeys a com
mand unless he knows from whom the
| command is issued. The voice of con
science is one who believed not in
God could easily be attributed to
| prejudice which education or custom
or atavism has formed in him." as
Cardinal Billot airily observes.
Or take the academic question of the
freedom of the will which is the cor
nerstone of the whole Christian the
ology on man. Deny that and you
deny at once the whole doctrine of the
Fall and the consequent Redemption
For if man is not free he can commit
no sin not even original sim Once
convince a man that he cannot resist
impulse and caprice, that he cannot
withstand temptation, and that mar
will proceed to act at once on that con
| viction. The moral chaos of the world
without freedom of the will is, Of
course, evident.
/ Or again, call into question the alb
stract dogmas of heaven and he'll
and you deprive the law of conscience
of the only adequate sanction which il
possesses. For any law of the state
or city which has not attached certain
penalties for its transgression is not q
real law, but merely a recommends
ton to do or not to do certain things
1 People may follow that recommends
ton or they may not. 1t all depends
on how they feel about it, In the same
way the laws of conscience would
cease to be laws and degenerate into
simple recommendations This is
breaking the very backbone of the
moral order.
They have a poor insight into psy
chology who say with Kant: Though
you know that there is no God no fu
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