The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1918-08-10

cause of the simplicity of it. His
wife was a Catholic and Emmett fire.
quently went to church with her. he
had no special attraction for Cain
Olicity however, and indeed felt that
he would probably never have any spe-
cial interest in religion. That seemed
to be a good thing for women and
perhaps for certain men of hysterlcal
tendencies, but scarcely for practical
individuals intent upon doing what
good they could in the world for 9TH
ers, and at the same time making
their way for themselves and their
families.
He lived not far from st. Stephen
Church, New York City, on East Tween
ty-eighth Street. On one occasion he
knew there was a mission there, but
paid no particular attention to it. 1t
happened one day during the mission,
| however, that when he was coming
home at noon he found himself pass
ing st. Stephen Church when the mid
day services for Workingmen were
about to begin. Having few minutes
before his own lunch and curious to
! know what the wOrkmen should md
| in the noon service that interested
| them so much as to take them inside
! in large numbers, he entered and lis
| tened to the instruction given by the
Redemptorist Father Gross, who after
wards became Archbishop Gross Of
| Portland, Ore.
That little instruction vas des-
tined to have very great effect on
| Dr. Emmet's life. 1t was very simple
and I suppose would scarcely be eX-
pected to have had the effect it really
did. The missionary was talking about
mysteries. He said that life was full
of mysteries and that science was
full of mysteries and that science was
multiplying rather than solving mys-
teries. With so many mysteries in
the world it could scarcely be eX-
pected that God would be without
mysteries.
A great many people declared that
they could not accept religion because
they could not bow their heads and
accept things that they could not
| understand. If man were able to un-
derstand God, however, he would be
really greater than God. For to com
prehend thing is to be able to en-
brace it in its entirety and to be above
and beyond it, as it were. Neces-
sarily, then, there were mysteries in
religion. So far from being an OBJ
| lection, they were actually added evil
dence for the truth of religion. So
far from it being unworthy for man
to bow his head and accept them, it
was a tribute to his intellectual I'M
Outstanding that there must be a Be-
ing above him.
Here was the simple, direct answer
Emmett out of the Church--the diff
! ficulty, namely, that there were so
many mysteries that he would have to
accept without understanding. After
the instruction he went back to con-
i suit Father Gross, told him his state
| of mind and how now all his doubts
| had been solved and his hesitancy
eliminated, and Father Gross, finding
him well instructed, said that he
would be glad to baptise him and re-
ceive him into the Church if he would
come with the proper witnesses. So
he went home to lunch, another man;
told his wife what had happened to
him and asked her if she would not
come back to st. Stephens with him
and be sponsor for him. His great
career as a scientific physician was
then just opening. Science and faith
have not only not disturbed each
other ever since, but Emmet's faith
has grown with the years, and he
has been great representative Cath
Ollie physician of New York