The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1920-02-14
PASTORAL LETTER
Continued from page Sd

age! HOW COulQ therefore mOueTn
infidels confide in their own reason?
AS mysteries truly exist in the nat
ural order so do they exist in the
supernatural order. Almighty God
can undoubtedly do more than finite
beings can comprehend. The infinite
God certainly knows truths, which
finite man cannot understand. To
0eny mysteries one might as we'll
deny his very existence, which is a
mystery. Human reason is lost in the
incomprehensibility of our bodies. The
influence of our souls over our
bodies and the circulation of our blood
are mysteries. Nature abounds in mys-
terieS. The greatest scientists, for in
stance, can only speculate on the ma,
ture of electricity and the action of
STayity in the universe.
Consequences of the Rejection of Goo.
Credence in God is so innate in the
heart of humanity that doubt reigns
in the minds of wise men if ever an
atheist existed. Religion, the bond
of union between God and man, had
existence prior to all political institu-
tons at the very cradle of the human
race. Society without religion, y
affirmS the arch-infidel, Rousseau,
would be a den of ferocious beasts
Religion, indeed, secures the tranquil
ity of the state, makes the clement
rules, and the faithful subject by the
inCulcation of it's salutary principles
of Justice and fraternal love. Moral
ity, divorced from religion, dies. All
authority must obtain its binding
1OrcC from God, the pre-eXisting Law
%iver. History manifests that France,
in the hands of revolutionaries desir-
Gus in their frenzy to dethrone God
on its shores, waded in human blood.
Should mankind be convinced of the
NOn-eXistence of God, the Rewarder Of
good and the Avenger of evil, then
society would lose all it's safeguards,
crimes would be committed without
fear Of punishment and the vilest hui
man passions would rush on without
restraint. There is no God no re-
Iigion. no soul, no future, behold the
2uti-social boast of subverters of
order, instigators of evil, and corrup-
ters of morals. When God disappears,
humanity is given over to barbarous
,,Iifes, destructive luxury, and ami
k!lating wars.
The Divinity of Christ.
Numerous types of Christ, the
Messiah, appear in the Old Testament
il various forms. Glimmer do they
in the depths of all traditions Greece
raised an altar to the unknown God
and Rome heard the prediction of her
poet Virgil as to the Virgin-born child.
The holy prophets, though separated
by hundreds of years, foretold, by the
inspiration of God, every particular of
the life of Christ, perfectly charac-
terizing Him, the epoch of His advent,
His birth, sufferings, humility, mercy,
preaching, passion, death, reign, and
glory, thus admirably forming their
prophetic biography of Christ.
Four thousand years have glided by
since the eternal Father promised to
our proto-parents in paradise Re-
deemer, who was to crush the head Of
the serpent. Il will put enmities be
tween thee and the woman, and Thy
seed and her seed: she shall crush thy
head, and thou shalt lie in wait for
her heel" Gen. 3, Is. The recorded
weeks of Daniel are approaching their
term, the sceptre is slipping from the
hand of Juda, Jerusalem rejoices over
her temple rebuilt, and, 10, Jesus the
promised Messiah, the immortal King
of ages and glory, and the Desired of
nations is born in Bethlehem of the
tribe of Juda and the royal family of
David, according to the exact predic
ton of the prophets enlightened by
God. The heavens, as Aggeus fore
tells, are in agitation and their echoes
of the sublime and angelic Gloria in
EXcelsis'' awaken the shepherds of
the plain.
All the other prophecies, relative to
Christ, were undoubtedly fulfilled by
Him alone, to Whom alone their de-
Scription corresponds in every detail
as is evident in the books Of the New
Testament AS foretold by the proph-
cts Christ worked miracles, suf-
fered from His enemies and triumphed
supernaturally. All such verifies the
manifestation of the Spirit of God and
not, indeed, the work of man. Christ
is therefore the Goldman, promised
by God as Redeemer of the world.
Christ challenged His enemies to
search the Scriptures in His regard.
Search the Scriptures and the same
are they that give testimony of me-"
John 5, 80. Dangerous, indeed, would
it be for an impostor to defy His
enemies to go back and search his
ancestral root. But rationalists hold
the Bible to be a myth. The Jews
guarantee the authenticity, the integ-
rity. and the veracity, as well as the
inspiration of the Old Testament and
for over nineteen centuries do Chris
t:ans stand by the same qualities of
the New Testament.
The Mystery of the incarnation.
Christ's earthly career was that of
a God. He was conceived in the
chaste womb of the Virgin Mother by
the Holy Ghost without mans concur
renee. The Son of God took, by in
finite condescension, of Mary's sub
stance and formed to Himself body
into which simultaneously He breathed
a human soul. This soul with all it's