the modern world is setting steadily away from God. The love of novelty is one of its signs, and the only adequate corrective is the donum scientia, the gift of science or knowledge, which sees God in all things, and all things in God. With this light we may traverse the whole world of abstract or applied sciences without hesitation or fear.
5. There remains still one more sign to be added, that is, a mistrust of self in all its forms, especially in our intellectual and moral judgments. To acquire this self-mistrust we have only need to remember three things—first, how often we have erred in our opinions; secondly, how little we have read; thirdly, how little we have studied. To read is one thing, to study is another. No conscientious priest will shut his books; no wise priest will answer in grave matters without consulting them; no priest who mistrusts himself will print and publish without putting his book under the revision of other eyes and other minds; the more the better. We must know how to learn before we teach. And we must learn to obey before we can guide. This mistrust of self comes from the gift of filial fear—that is, the fear of offending God either in His law or in His truth by any reckless action or by any idle word.
It is to priests emphatically that S. John's words
