The Catholic bulletin., 1920-11-27

tHOSe VINO willingly reject it. No one,
who is wilfully separated from the
Church of Christ, can be saved.
A mere moral and edifying life will
not save men, unless they accomplish
the holy will of God manifested
through his blessed Church. The per-
formance of good works and charita-
BILE deeds please not God, should there
exist neglect and refusal of obedience
to the authority of the Church, the
great work of Christ for which He
died. To satisfy God, mortals must
not only avoid evil, but certainly do
the positive will of God according to
the teaching of His beloved Spouse
An honest life demands perfect fulfill
ment of the divine Will made known
through the Church. God must be
served in the manner He requires and
in no other Persons, of course, who
remain outside the Catholic Church
involuntarily through invincible igno-
rance or without any fault or will of
their own, can obtain life everlasting
| under the influence of divine light and
grace by following the dictates of their
conscience, by the observation of the
natural law and by a disposition to
obey God. Their salvation will, there
fore, be effected in the Church, to the
soul of which they really thus belong.
No person can come to Christ except
through His Church. Persons become
culpabl however, by a neglect to seek
and enter the Church when God grants
them light to suspect or to know that
they are outside of the Church.
Learning does not furnish sufficient
ground for belief, but the light of faith
is imperative. Though Intellectually
convinced of the truth of the Church,
man needs, nevertheless, faith to place
credence in revealed truths. Untold
numbers of educated people therefore,
though fully convinced that God gave
revelation to mankind and constitut-
ed His Church as the custodian, pro-
tector and interpreter of the deposit
of faith, remain nevertheless unbeliev-
ers, because they never received or
they lost the gift of faith by their own
fault. Intellectual conviction can be
obtained by the natural faculties of the
mind, while belief springs from a
supernatural assistance coming direct
ly from God. On account of intel
lectual pride, stubbornness in their
own opinions, or immoral lives, God
withdraws from human beings the
precious gift of faith. God resisteth
the proud and giveth grace to the
humble James 4, 6. Incredulity is
the natural consequences of pride,
passions, religious ignorance or self
sufficiency "Unless you become as
little children you shall not enter into
the Kingdom of God Math. 1S, 3.
Sensuality, though certainly not
commendable, is preferable, however,
to the intellectual pride of persons,
who refuse submission to the legiti-
mate authority of the Church, which
Christ founded to guide men in the
way of salvation. Far greater sinners
are individuals who rebel against the
voice of the Church, than those who
willingly obey the dictates of the
Church, though not free from the con,
tamination of evil
Nothing, indeed, is more just, neces-
sary and consoling than subsection to
the voice of the Church of God. BY
obedience to her dictates in spiritual
matters men possess the gladstone as
surance of running no risk of going
astray in the prime affair of life, the
salvation of their immortal soul. Moth
| ing is more liable to error than the
human mind. Behold the absurd alb
CREATIONS, destructive schisms and fa'
tai heresies into which even the learn
ed, down the centuries, have fallen in
failing to heed the decisions of the
One, True, Catholic, Apostolic and In
| fallible Church of Christ.