The young man's guide/Part 1: The Shield of Faith

by Francis Xavier Lasance

PART FIRST — THE PANOPLY OF WAR

The Shield of Faith

I. Is there a God?

1.THE young man's lot is to go out into a hostile life. What is necessary for him? Behold the warrior, as he goes forth to the field of battle. Is he not amply provided with' all needful weapons? When you, my dear young friend, go forth into the world, you are going to encounter mighty enemies, the enemies of your soul. You must, therefore, put on a strong suit of armor, one which is capable of protecting you. And what is this suit of armor? The apostle St. Paul describes it in the following words: "Put you on the armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the deceits of the devil" (Eph. vi. 11).

The first and most powerful weapon in this suit of armor is the shield of faith, as the same apostle says: "In all things taking the shield of faith, wherewith you may be able to extinguish all the fiery darts of the most wicked one" (Eph. vi. 16). And, indeed, faith is an impenetrable shield against the fiery darts of the devil. When the latter strives to lead us astray, by inciting us to voluptuousness, faith lays bare to our view the abyss of hell, in order that we may behold the torments which will be the punishment of the unchaste. When he desires to dazzle us with the glitter of the riches, honors, and glories which the world has to offer us, faith throws open the portals of heaven, where the' highest rewards are prepared for those who persevere in the love of God and the pursuit of virtue. Wherefore contemplate this shield of faith on every side, in order that you may be convinced of its indispensable necessity, may gladly take it into your hand, and grasp it firmly. Let us turn our attention first to the foundation of all faith, of all religion; namely, to the existence of God. Is there a God? That is the first question.

2. "Is there a God?" What an unnecessary question, you are saying to yourself. And you are quite right. In regard to this point David says in one of the Psalms: "The fool hath said in his heart: There is no God." And truly; only a man destitute of reason, a man who is mad, could make such an assertion, could question the existence of God.

Let us suppose that you show your watch to a friend, and say to him: "Must not the individual who made this watch, and arranged the works, have understood his business very well? Must he not be a very clever fellow, and possess a first-rate head-piece?" Now, suppose he were to reply: "Oh, nonsense! The watch made itself I" Should you not gaze fixedly at him, and make some such remark as the following: "My good friend, if you are in earnest, and really mean what you say, there must be a screw loose in your upper story." And you would be quite justified in thus addressing him. Yet wait awhile, and pay attention to the practical application of all this.

3. Fix your gaze upon the splendors of the universe. Behold the countless multitude of the heavenly bodies, as they revolve in their orbits; behold the wondrous creations which are upon this earth, as comprised in the animal, vegetable, or mineral kingdoms. Does not the most marvelous beauty and order, the most consummate imaginable skill, everywhere meet the eye?

But now listen to what certain unbelieving scientists, naturalists, and astronomers say to all this. The friend to whom reference was made above asserted that the watch had made itself. Our scientists go still farther and obstinately assert that the infinitely more wonderful machine of the entire universe, earth, sun, moon, and stars, likewise came into being of itself, having gradually developed out of a mass of primeval matter, Which had always been in existence.

4. How ridiculous and absurd! But let us for a moment assent to the theory of these overwise gentlemen, let us submit our understanding to them; they owe us, however, a clear and ample explanation of the most important point of all, and are bound to tell us whence came this primeval matter, and the forces at work within it, by means of which the entire universe came into being.

The good gentlemen will thus find them selves driven into a very tight corner, and in order to get out of the dilemma they will be compelled to retreat to a certain extent from the position in which they have entrenched themselves, and say: "If you persist in having a God, you may give the name of God to this primary matter. " But this will not help to settle the question, for to have such a God as this is tantamount to having no God at all.

5. Look forth on some clear and beautiful night in autumn, and contemplate the star-bespangled sky; see how the innumerable heavenly bodies have all their appointed orbits, so that none of them interfere with the others. Examine, moreover, the animal and vegetable kingdoms, and see how everything suits its purpose! Even the smallest plant is formed in its every detail with the most perfect exactitude. And every little creature, down to the insect which crawls in the dust at our feet, is so made as best to fulfil the object for which it was created. "What a piece of work is a man! " exclaims Hamlet; " how noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god  ! " Thus, wherever we look around us in the immense, the boundless universe, we everywhere perceive object, design, and order. Can not we then comprehend, by means of our common-sense, that all this is not the work of chance, and was not brought into being by unintelligent, unreasoning forces and laws? Must we not rather exclaim in the inspired language of David: "The heavens show forth the glory of God "? Yes, let us say with grateful joyous hearts : There is a God; an omnipotent, an all-wise, an infinitely good and bountiful God!

Thank God, dear reader, for the most precious of all gifts, for the grace which enables you to say from the bottom of your heart, and with the most intense conviction: "I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth. Pray that you may always persevere in this faith.

The fool alone can not descry God's work in earth and sea and sky; The more enlightened eye can trace His all-wise hand in Nature's face; And where sight fails, there faith alone The great Creator's skill will own.

II. The Creature and the Creator.

I.IN THE studio of a sculptor a magnificent statue is standing. The famous artist has chiseled it out of pure white marble; the masterpiece is the object of universal admiration. We regard it as a matter of course that the sculptor has every right to do as he pleases with his work, and will only surrender this right to another for a very large sum of money. Yet it can Scarcely be said that he created the statue, since the form of it alone is the work of his hands, and not the marble out of which he fashioned it.

Now, dear reader, look once more at the marvelous work of the universe, and all that it contains; look especially at man and tell me whether He who not only made all this, but created it out of nothing, whether God Almighty has not an absolute, unlimited, and immutable right of possession over it all? Must not, therefore, the whole of creation , and especially man, who is endowed with reason, serve and obey this God as the supreme Lord and Master of all, and do His will in all things?

And it is this relation of dependence and subservience in which man stands to God. which is termed religion.

2. Religion (from religare, "to bind back, to bind fast") expresses the bond of piety by means of which God has drawn man to Himself, in order that we may serve Him as our master, and obey Him as our father. Man must, indeed, serve God; that is, he must both do and suffer His will. But since man is endowed with free will, can he not do whatever he likes? Most assuredly not! For his free will comes not from himself, but is the gift of God. And it is impossible that God can have endowed man with free will in order that he should do what he likes, but in order that he should do what he ought, and do it quite willingly of his own free will.

All creation fulfils the purpose of its existence; the sun, the moon, and the stars revolve in their appointed orbits, not voluntarily, hut in unswerving obedience to the laws of nature, with such mathematical regularity that astronomers can calculate their movements with perfect precision. The animal world likewise, compelled by the law of instinct, fails not to fulfil the object for which it was created. Man, on the other hand, is so constituted that he ought to serve, honor, and worship God deliberately and of his own free will.

3. This consciousness, this conviction that he is bound to honor and worship God, is deeply and ineradicably implanted in the heart of every human being. Hence we find that in ancient times no nation was without its own religion. It is impossible that the universal conviction of mankind can be a deception or a lie; it is, on the contrary, a plain proof that, to quote the words of a Christian writer of the early Church, "the soul is of its very nature religious."

And indeed the most ancient books of Holy Scripture teach us that not only did Abraham and his descendants worship the true God, but that all nations with whom they came in contact had, and adored, their own deities.

Both Greek and Roman historians tell a similar tale. Plutarch, for instance, expresses himself in the following terms: "If one were to wander over the whole world, one might find cities without walls, without literature, and without written laws, . . . but a city without temples and divinities no one has discovered as yet."

In our own day research has been carried so far that scarcely any country has remained unexplored, or any nation unknown. And all honest explorers bear unanimous witness that just as it was of old, so also in modern times there is no nation which does not possess its own religion.

4. To go yet further! Religion is the mainspring of all virtue, the solid foundation of all morality; and he who should attempt to found, extend, and perpetuate the kingdom of virtue apart from the kingdom of religion, would be like a man who should build a house upon the sand. Without religion, man is the sport of his passions. He resembles a ship which, being destitute of cable or anchor, is certain sooner or later to go to pieces on the rocks when overtaken by a storm. In a way, religion is to man what the flower is to the plant; if the flower is cut off, the fruit is destroyed at the same time.

Now, my dear young friend, you know what you ought to think of the frivolous way of talking which those adopt who assert that people can get on very well without religion. Yes, they can get on, but after what fashion! Do you, therefore, repeat with heart and voice the following lines:

Come, sacred Light, from Heaven above
With power the heart of man to raise
And teach to hymn his Maker's praise.
And with thy brightness let him shine
In presence of the King divine.

III. The Music of the Soul

1.A PEASANT betook himself to a priest in Rome, and laid before him the following extraordinary doubt. "Your Reverence," he said, "I can scarcely believe that I have a soul  !" It may readily be imagined that this unexpected statement caused the priest no slight astonishment. It cost him an effort to discover how he could, in a brief and clear manner, convince the foolish man that he really had a soul. The Spirit of God taught him what to say.

He questioned the doubter thus: "Now, my good man, why can not you believe that you have a soul?" "Because I can not see it!" "Well, then, think of whatever you like"; and after the lapse of a few' minutes he inquired : "Have you really thought of something?" " Yes, I have done as your Reverence bade me." "But," continued the priest, "I cannot believe that you have thought of anything." "And why not, may I ask?" "Because I can not see your thought." In this convincing manner was the man freed from his doubt.

For, indeed, it would be unreasonable to doubt that we are able to think, will, and re«  member. On this account it would be equally unreasonable to refuse to believe in the presence within us of a soul endowed with reason.

2. Thus the power of thought is a proof of the existence within us of an independent and rational soul. But stop! We have reckoned without our host, that is, without the modern unbelieving scientists! They think scornfully of our old-fashioned ideas, and exclaim: "O you silly people! Thought is nothing more than an act of the brain! In order to do this there is no need of a soul; that is to say, no need of a spiritual and independent being."

But pause awhile, you wiseacres, and allow us to ask you a question. From a neighboring house the sound of a masterly performance on the piano reaches our ears. Do you mean to assert that the music is nothing more than an act of the piano, that the instrument plays of itself? Every child would say of you, "these people are too clever by half." Therefore, good gentlemen, we continue to believe that thought is the music of the soul; and that where thoughts exist, there must be a soul capable of thought, just as, where there is the sound of music from a piano, there must be also a performer.

3. What now is the case of animals, especially those which are most highly trained, as for instance the dog, the horse, or the monkey? Have not they likewise a soul? Certainly the animal possesses sensible impressions, feelings, impulses, a memory, and as far as this goes, one may speak of a soul. But the soul of the animal is essentially and immeasurably removed from the soul of man, because it is not possessed of reason. Even, to use a common phrase, the most intelligent animal is destitute of self-consciousness and reason or understanding. Every child knows that "two and two make four," but no animal could comprehend the fact, though it were to try to do so for a century or more.

4. Upon us, however, there shines not merely the light of natural reason, but also the sun of faith. The rays of this sun enable us to see that our soul is like unto God, an image of God. Holy Scripture expressly teaches us this, for in the beginning of it we read that God solemnly pronounced these words of vast import: "Let us make man to our image and likeness." Thus if man is like God, who is a pure spirit, this likeness can certainly not consist in anything physical or material, but in the possession of a soul, which is a spirit also, made in God's image, simple as God is, living as God is, immortal as God is. Wherefore, lay well to heart the following verse:

O man, to God's own image made,
Destined that God to see in light arrayed,
Keep thou His law, unto thy ways take heed;
Let love of Him rule every word and deed.

IV. Death is not Annihilation

1.IN THESE modern days, when faith has grown cold or vanished altogether, there are people, and even lads of fifteen or sixteen years of age, who, when they are exhorted to reflect from time to time upon death and eternity, merely reply: "I am no child to be frightened with nursery tales; who knows whether death is not annihilation!"

Words like these, when uttered by youthful lips, fill us truly with horror and pity. But how is it possible to speak in this way? Simply because, in the case of those who thus express themselves, the belief in one of the fundamental truths of all religion, the belief in the immortality of the soul, has been destroyed.

Since you, dear reader, must go forth into life and be exposed to the dangers of unbelief, it is of the utmost importance that the conviction that "death is not annihilation" should be deeply rooted in your heart; wherefore, ponder carefully the principal grounds upon which this conviction is based.

2. Death is not annihilation, but the soul lives on after the death of the body. It is immortal. The very nature of the soul proves this; it is a simple, indivisible being; it can not be separated into parts, of destroyed.

Now, however, the unbelievers, the so-called materialists, appear upon the scene, and say "Man does not possess a soul independent of the body, a soul which has its own separate existence." And as proof (?) of this they assert that since a violent blow upon the head destroys consciousness, the power of thought is therefore dependent upon the brain; the brain being the cause of thought, no spiritual soul is needed for this purpose.

This conclusion certainly appears plausible, but it contains a grievous fallacy. In a similar manner I could "prove" that there is no sun! Just tell me whether, if you close the shutters of your room, the light does not disappear from it; but in proportion as you re-open them, the light streams in again more or less brightly. Therefore the light in the room depends upon the window, the window is the cause of it; hence no other cause is needed, no sun! Thus, my young friend, if you had not seen the sun for yourself, you might believe that there is not a sun at all. In both instances, the fallacy of the deduction or conclusion is obvious. Just as certainly as there is a sun, so certainly, does man possess an immortal soul, with an independent existence of its own.

3. The conviction of all nations bears witness to the immortality of the human soul; it is inscribed by the hand of nature in the heart of every man in characters which can never be effaced. Nature can never deceive. False representations concerning the future life of the soul by no means prove that it is not immortal.

This belief in the immortality of the soul may indeed be dislodged from the head, but never torn out of the heart. "It is difficult," a simple person once remarked to me, "to believe that those whom we love do not merely die, but are dissolved into nothingness." And, truly, all our feelings rise in revolt and the voice we hear within us protests against the assumption that death is annihilation.

4. No, no, thus it can not be: there shall be a " Wiedersehen" of our kindred; we shall meet again those whom we have loved and lost. If, indeed, there were no such future meeting, we should be justified in raising an accusing voice to Heaven, and exclaiming: "Thou hast deceived us by implanting affections within our breast which are only doomed to be disappointed!" Is, then, everything to be ended at the close of this short life, so replete often with suffering, and is only nothingness to remain! Are love and friendship to be mere empty words, are virtue and justice to exist only in imagination?

What then! The robber and the robbed, the traitor to his country and he who gives his life for his fatherland, the martyr and his torturer, the unnatural son and the model daughter, are they all to share the same fate in annihilation — in the same nothingness? No, it is impossible even to imagine anything so preposterous.

5. But all has not been said. We have within us a heart which yearns after endless, everlasting happiness! Happiness! The mere mention of this word makes our heart beat more quickly, and stirs our being to its inmost depths This craving for happiness, this intense longing, must be destined to be satisfied at some future period. But where? Where is this endless and complete happiness for which we long so ardently — where is it to be found? Everything teaches us, everything proves to us, that it can not be found upon earth. Our heart is, indeed, not very large, but the universe does not suffice to fill it. Caesar, to whom at one time half the world was subject, said with melancholy discontent: "Is that all?"

Therefore, if the longing for happiness is so firmly rooted in our heart, and yet can never find complete or permanent satisfaction upon earth, it follows that it must be possible for man to attain it after this life is ended, that means that death is not annihilation. This reasoning should suffice.

6. But we have kept the most conclusive argument to the last. We have the words of Christ Himself as a pledge that there is a future life; and He speaks as follows: "The just shall into life everlasting, and the wicked into everlasting punishment."

There is no death! What seems so is transition.
This life of mortal breath
Is but a suburb of the life elysian
Whose portal we call death.

— Longfellow, Resignation.

V. History, not Legend

I. PAGANS thought out for themselves many things concerning the being of God, and then related their imaginings as if they were facts. Such imaginings may be counted by hundreds. But since the world began, no man has ever imagined, in the remotest manner, that the charity of a God could go so far as to lead Him to appear among men in the form of a man, and for their happiness and salvation to deliver Himself up to death. However, this marvel of divine love which it never entered into the heart of man to conceive, and which is sufficient to astonish heaven and earth, found its accomplishment in the only true religion, which is the Christian. "God s$ loved the world, as to send His only begotten Son into the world." Such is the voice which for more than nineteen hundred years has echoed throughout the universe.

Jesus Christ is the name of the only begotten Son of God, who was sent into the world; He in very deed lived and labored in the world; this is an historical fact, no mere tradition, legend, myth, or fable. Listen to some proofs of this.

2. History teaches by means of the most reliable facts that from the beginning the greatest and most noble among mankind have readily accepted the Christian faith, the holy Gospel. Amongst these we find a proconsul of raphos, a captain of the Roman cohorts, Dionysius, the Athenian sage, Flavius the consul, a cousin of Emperor Domitian; the most learned, moreover, among the men who lived in those times; Justin, Athenagoras, Minutius, and many others, men prominent among the scientists of the day, jurists, and government officials.

But it can not be supposed that all these men accepted the new doctrines, the new gospel, with careless indifference. On the contrary, they thoroughly examined in the first place the holy Gospel and the writings of the apostles, and more particularly they convinced themselves of the facts relating to the life of Jesus.

3. Furthermore, the disciples and apostles of Jesus bore witness to the truth of their convictions, to the facts of the life of Jesus Christ, by confessing these truths with their blood. When have there ever been impostors in the world, especially where religion was concerned, who have not striven either covertly or openly after notoriety, pleasure, dignities, and riches? Did the apostles, perchance, look for any of these things, or at least aim at attaining them? No, indeed! On the contrary, they knew perfectly well that they had nothing to expect but mockery, contradiction, shame, persecution, and death.

With such a prospect as this could the apostles have lied and deceived, could they have invented the history of the life of Christ? No reasonable man could seriously assert such a thing. No; the apostles were themselves completely persuaded of the truth of everything which they preached to the world, and wrote down in the Sacred Scriptures concerning Jesus Christ. Nor did they hesitate for a moment to lay down their life as a testimony to the truth.

4. Moreover, even Jewish and pagan historians bear explicit witness to the fact that Christ really lived. For example, a Jewish writer, Josephus Flavius, thus expresses himself in the first century: "At that time lived Jesus, a wise man, if indeed he may be called a man. For he performed many wonderful works. . . . When Pilate, in consequence of an accusation brought against him by the most prominent men of our nation, condemned him to be crucified, his disciples still adhered to him. He rose again, and appeared to them alive on the third day, according to what the holy prophets had foretold of him in this, and a thousand other marvelous respects." Similar is the testimony borne by heathen writers such as Tacitus, Suetonius, Pliny the younger, in regard to Christ. The first-mentioned says that the founder of the Christian religion was condemned to death by Pilate, the Roman governor, during the reign of the emperor Tiberius. Heathen- philosophers, such as Celsus and Porphyrius, who lived in the first and second centuries, did indeed write against Christ and His doctrines, but they never called in question the fact of His existence.

" Rejoice in the Lord," then, my youthful reader! Christ has in very deed lived on earth, and, as the Apostle says: "Christ is our peace.,, Christ alone can unite us to God, to the God who created the heavens and the earth, and in whom, to quote the words of the same apostle, "we live and move and are." And this Christ is now present in the Holy Eucharist, our Emmanuel, of whom the Angelic Doctor sings : Lauda Sion Salvatorem

Sion, lift thy voice and sing:
Praise thy Saviour and thy King,
Praise with hymns thy Shepherd true:
Strive thy best to praise Him well;
Yet doth He all praise excel;
None can ever reach His due.

Jesus! Shepherd of the sheep!
Thy true flock, in safety keep.
Living Bread! Thy life supply;
Strengthen us, or else we die;
fill us with celestial grace.

Thou, who feedest us below!
Source of all we have or know!
Grant that with Thy saints above,
Sitting at the feast of love,
We may see Thee face to face.

Jesus is God

Jesus is God! the glorious bands
  Of golden angels sing
Songs of adoring praise to Him,
  Their maker and their king.
He was true God in Bethlehem's crib
  On Calvary's cross true God,
He who in heaven eternal reigned,
  In time on earth abode.

Jesus is God! alas! they say
  On earth the numbers grow
Who His divinity blaspheme
  To their unfailing woe.
And yet what is the single end
  Of this life's mortal span,
Except to glorify the God
  Who for our sakes was man?

Jesus is God! let sorrow come,
  And pain, and every ill;
All are worth while, for all are means
  His glory to fulfil;
Worth while a thousand years of life
  To speak one little word,
If by our Credo we might own
  The Godhead of Our Lord!

Jesus is God! O could I now
But compass land and sea,

To teach and tell this single truth,
  How happy should I be  !
O had I but an angel's voice,
  I would proclaim so loud, —
Jesus, the good, the beautiful,
  Is everlasting God!

— Oratory Hymns

VI. Produce Your Witnesses

I. WE KNOW that Jesus Christ lived upon this earth, not because we have seen Him with our eyes or heard Him with our ears, but because the holy Gospels relate the story of His life, because those who saw and heard Him tell us about Him.

In the first place, it is of the utmost importance to perceive in a clear and convincing manner that everything we are told concerning the life of Our Lord is the truth, and nothing but the truth. This life of Christ, as contained in the Gospel, forms a portion of Holy Scripture, and is inspired by the Holy Spirit of God; it rests, therefore, upon divine authority, and is worthy of absolute belief. But even apart from its divine character, this history is as worthy of belief as the most trustworthy of the earliest records. And why is this? When do you, dear reader, believe that any history which you read is true? Only when you are quite convinced as to its authorship, and the trustworthiness of the author; in particular, when you are able to persuade yourself that the writer knew the truth, and desired to tell it. Well, then, the four evangelists, who related the life of Christ, can come forward and bear witness to its truth.

2. In the first place, there is no disputing the fact that the authorship of the Gospels has not only been ascribed to these four men, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, but that they, and they alone, did write them in very deed. And to this fact the Fathers of the Church who lived and wrote in the time immediately succeeding the apostolic ages, and numerous Christian theologians who shed their blood for the Faith, bear unhesitating witness; heretics, moreover, do the same, inasmuch as they endeavor to prove their false religious opinions by quotations from the Gospel; the Talmud also, the modern legal code of the Jews, acknowledges the gospel miracles as facts; finally., the heathen sages, Celsus and Porphyrius, and even the apostate emperor, Julian, who poured scorn and contempt upon the religion he had so basely abandoned, did not attempt to deny that the life of Christ was written by the four evangelists.

3. Furthermore, these writers of the Gospel, these witnesses for the truth of it, are entirely trustworthy; their testimony is absolutely reliable. In the first place, they were in a position to tell the truth, since they were well acquainted with the facts. Who indeed could better know the truth than St. Matthew and St. John, who received their vocation as apostles from the divine Redeemer Himself, and who were privileged to be His constant companions, to hear His words and behold His wonderful works? And the two other evangelists, St. Mark and St. Luke, were fully acquainted with the life of Christ, because they wrote their gospels at the suggestion and under the direction of two apostles, St. Peter and St. Paul.

4. No reasonable man can doubt that the holy evangelists spoke the truth if he attentively considers the manner in which they wrote. Any one who wishes to deceive the reader, to misrepresent circumstances or facts, would certainly not write in so straightforward, frank, and honest a manner as we find that the sacred historians invariably do. He who desires to distort or conceal the truth would assuredly not relate his own faults and failings and those of his dearest friends as the evangelists do. For this reason Rousseau, one of the bitterest enemies of Christ, is fain to confess: "A history like that of the Gospel is not invented." The Gospel possesses such touching, such utterly inimitable marks of truthfulness, that if the author were an inventor and impostor, he would be more worthy of admiration than the one who is the subject of the gospel-narrative. It would be, indeed, a shameless proceeding to reproach an apostle with deceit, unless some further proof were forthcoming. What reasonable motive could they have had to lie? Persecution, chains, imprisonment, death — no one deceives for such gain as this; no one would get himself hung for a lie!

5. And yet more! The evangelists wrote amid circumstances and in times which rendered it well-nigh impossible for them to deceive.

In the days when Jesus lived and labored, people had sharp eyes and ears, just as in our day, and the enemies of Christianity were not less cunning and malicious than they are at present. Can you imagine that these people would have been good-natured enough to hold their tongues if the disciples of Jesus had related in the Gospel facts concerning Him which were either falsehoods, or, to say the least, gross misrepresentations? And when, about thirty years after Christ, St. Matthew wrote his gospel, there were still living a great number of those who had formerly been among the bitter enemies of Christ. How would they have attacked the apostle, had he taken upon himself to invent either facts or miracles concerning the life of Christ!

6. Thus the evangelists stand before us as absolutely reliable witnesses to the truth. And herein consists the secret of the beauty, simplicity, sanctity, and indestructible power of the holy Gospel. It is not the soul, the mind, the gifts of the writers that we find in them, but the soul, the mind, the thoughts, the maxims of Him who forms the subjects of their writings. Jesus lives in the gospels; He acts, He speaks, He touches the heart, He enlightens and sanctifies. Venerate, therefore, these wondrous pages  ! Read them in a spirit of faith and with a heart overflowing with the love of God; for

In Holy Scripture God His truth displays,
  And yet its pages, read in various ways,
Bring faith to some; cause doubt in other minds :
  That one sucks honey, this one poison finds.

VII. Christ is Truly God

I. The heir of a mighty monarch once traveling incognito and unattended, visited a lonely mountain valley which belonged to his fathers dominions. In order that he might be suitably received, he told the inhabitants his name and his exalted rank. Since, however, no persons throughout the valley had ever seen the crown prince, or even a likeness of him, they refused to believe in his identity without further proof, but required him to show that he was the true and lawful crown prince. And the good people were .certainly not to be blamed for requiring such a proof; since otherwise any one who took it into his head to do so, might claim to be the crown prince.

2. Nineteen hundred years ago, far away in Palestine, a Man made His appearance; He claimed to be, not merely the heir of this or that mighty monarch, but the Son of the King of heaven and earth. Yes, when this Man stood arraigned as a criminal before the chief council of the Jews, and Caiaphas, the high priest, said to Him: "I adjure Thee by the living God that Thou tell us if Thou be the Christ, the Son of God," this Man replied, earnestly and solemnly, "Thou hast said it, I am He!"

Thus publicly, earnestly, and solemnly, did Jesus Christ declare Himself to be the Son of God; thus did He announce Himself as true God. And He formerly required of His hearers, as He now in like manner requires of us, that His doctrines should be accepted, and His claims received. We, therefore, on our part, have a perfect right to demand that He should prove to us that we must believe in Him, that He should show His credentials, and prove Himself to be the Son of God, prove Himself to be true God And indeed, there is not any lack of such proofs, of such credentials. Let us examine this matter somewhat more closely.

3. He who asserts that He is the Son of God, that He is truly God, must in the first place lead a life absolutely free from sin. When Christ stood before His mortal foes and asked, "Which of you shall convince me of sin?" they were silent. Thus we see that Christ fulfilled the primary condition, that He should be without sin. In order to furnish a proof of His divinity it was necessary that He should do works which only God could accomplish. He must be Lord of the winds and waves, of the devil, of the powers of nature, of the living and the dead. Did Christ perform such essentially divine works, which could not possibly be the result, either of natural causes or of the agency of the devil?

4. Unbelievers have objected that in order to judge whether we have before us a work which is a miracle, and essentially divine, we need to be thoroughly acquainted with the powers of nature, and also of the devil. To this we make reply that it is only necessary to know what the forces of nature are not able to accomplish. For example, if you, dear reader, are in a room, it is plain that you can not leave that room if every opening to it is closed. Equally true it is, that ordinary mud, if rubbed upon the eye, will not cure blindness; that the devil influences no soul for good, and so on. Therefore whatever exceeds the power, either of nature or of the devil, is an essentially divine action.

If, without invoking the aid of God, without first praying for help, Christ performed such actions, He performed them in virtue of His own divine omnipotence. Christ wrought miracles by His own power; the apostles and the saints performed wonders in the name of Jesus and through prayer. If Christ really did this, by so doing He showed Himself to be truly God.

5. That Christ performed a great number of miracles, the evangelists, the Fathers of the Church, and heathen writers alike testify. I will only mention the occasions on which He raised the dead. At Nairn He recalled a dead youth to life by merely uttering this word of command: "Young man, I say to thee; Arise."

Christ knew that Lazarus was dead, without any announcement of the fact having reached Him, and He imparted the news to the apostles, and restored Lazarus to life, although he had been four days in the grave. Numerous persons witnessed this marvelous miracle, which caused the enemies of Our Lord to determine upon His death, because they grudged Him His popularity, and feared its consequences. But the Pharisees entertained no doubt as to the reality of His miracles.

6. Thus we see that the Saviour was a divine person. He Himself on several occasions asserted it openly, and this assertion was confirmed when He was baptized in the Jordan, by a voice from heaven which declared: "This is My beloved Son, in whom 1 am well pleased."

The adversaries of Christ affirm miracles to be impossible; therefore, say they, there were no miracles at all. Hence I might simply say to any one who had fallen from a ladder: "It is not possible to fall, therefore you have not fallen!" Thus it is utterly foolish to deny the possibility of any fact, the existence of which is self-evident. Therefore even Rousseau, who did not believe in Christ, declared that he who denies the possibility of miracles ought to be placed in a lunatic asylum.

7. Thus do we perceive that our faith rests upon the most solid basis; Christ is truly God, He has indisputably attested Himself to be such by means of His sinless life and His glorious miracles. Wherefore gaze upon your Saviour with the eye of faith, and say :

My Lord and God I Thee confess to be, Though foes deride, and will know naught of Thee.

Thy wondrous works reveal to human sight Thy love divine, Thy glory, and Thy might.

VIII. Christ Conquers

1.IN FRONT of St. Peter's in Rome there stands a lofty obelisk which the ancient Romans brought over from Egypt. For centuries it remained buried deep under heaps oi rubbish; Pope Sixtus V caused it to be set up once more, and this inscription to be engraved upon it : " Christus vincit, Christus regnat, Christus imperat; Christus nos ab omni malo liber at." " Christ conquers, Christ reigns, Christ governs; Christ delivers us from every evil."

Christ conquers; He does this by means of His glorious resurrection from actual death, for this is the most striking, the most incontrovertible proof of His divinity. The Resurrection of Christ stands forth as a prominent tact in the world's history, and the enemies of Christianity are not less compelled to own its truth than were His adherents and believing disciples. All the attempts of unbelief to argue it away have until now been utterly put to shame, and will be confounded forever. The facts of the Gospel stand as firm as mountains; all storms pass over them without leaving any trace.

2. Christ conquers; He had Himself foretold His resurrection, and regarded it as a miracle that should prove Him to be the Son of God in the eyes of the whole world. When with a scourge He drove the buyers and sellers out of the Temple, and the Jews asked Him in virtue of what right He acted thus, He replied : " Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." "But," adds the evangelist, "He spoke of the temple of His body." In these words Our Lord referred to His future resurrection on the third day. Did this really take place? Yes, in the pages of the Gospel we find it proved to demonstration.

3. In the first place, the Gospel proves with absolute certainty that the Saviour really expired upon the cross. In order to make certain of His death, a soldier pierced His side with a lance; blood and water flowed from the wound, this being the surest sign that the heart had been pierced and death had actually occurred. Indeed, the wound was so deep, that, at a subsequent period, the apostle Thomas was able to place his hand in it; thus it was a mortal wound. All those who witnessed the crucifixion were convinced of Our Lord's death; the four evangelists are unanimous upon this point. And even the chief priests and scribes, the bitter enemies of Jesus, bore witness to His death, since they asked permission to place a guard at His grave. Moreover, His closest adherents doubted not the fact; they wrapped His body in linen cloths, laid it in a grave, and closed it with a slab of stone.

4.' We now come to the most important point. In order that no deception might be practised, and the body not be stolen, the sepulcher was sealed and guards were placed before it, in compliance with the request of the Pharisees. But it was these very guards who bore the most incontrovertible witness to the resurrection, since they presented themselves on the third day and affirmed on oath they had seen Christ come forth from the sepulcher.

The obdurate Jews, however, went so far in their blindness that after taking counsel, "they gave," as the evangelist tells us, "a great sum of money to the soldiers, saying: Say you, His disciples came by night, and stole Him away when we were asleep." What incredible folly is this! Would any man in his senses accept the testimony of witnesses who were asleep? But God, in His wisdom, permitted things to happen in this manner, in order that our faith in the fundamental truth of Christianity, namely, the Resurrection, and therefore in the divinity of Jesus Christ, should be established in a more firm and convincing manner.

5. Yet a further proof. The risen Lord appeared to His followers. The women who early on Easter morning repaired to the grave declared that they found it empty, as did also the apostles Peter and John. Soon afterward Jesus showed Himself to St. Peter. On the same day He appeared to the two disciples, as they were proceeding to Emmaus. In the following night He appeared to all the apostles when they were gathered together, with the exception of Thomas, to whom He manifested Himself at a later period, when he was present with the others. Furthermore, the Saviour repeatedly appeared to the disciples in Galilee; He ate with them, and made arrangements concerning the Church of the future. On one occasion He appeared to five hundred disciples at once, and on the fortieth day after His resurrection He ascended into heaven in the sight of the apostles.

These appearances could not have been the result of imagination on the part of the apostles; they could not have fancied that they saw what they so earnestly desired to behold; for from the conversation of the disciples on the road to Emmaus, and the conduct of St. Thomas, it is plain that they despaired of proving the truth of Our Lord's claims.

6. Thus once again let us repeat: Christ conquers! Rejoice therefore, O Christian, to know that our faith is firm as a rock! Yes, verily, firm as a rock! For no fact in the history of the world has been proved in so undeniable a manner as the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Wherefore bow down in a spirit of humility, confidence, and lively faith before this God and Saviour, exclaiming with St. Peter: "Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God! " Conquer, reign, and rule in my heart. .

O death! where's now thy mortal sting?
  Where's now thy victory?
To-day His glorious praise we sing,
  Who triumphed over thee.
Not triumphed for Himself alone;
  But, by His mighty power,
Taught us to triumph in our turn,
  Nor dread thy terrors more.

For lo  ! the dread of death is sin
  And never-ending woe;
From thence it is our terrors spring,
  From thence our evils flow.
But now, from sin and hell set free,
  No longer death we'll fear;
But longing for eternity
  Rejoice when it draws near.

Ye angels, now, who watch around
  The Conqueror's heavenly throne,
Aid us to make the skies resound
  The victory for us won.
Aid us to sing His worthy praise
  With one united heart;
Aid us tb walk in all His ways,
  Till we from life depart.

— Oratory Hymns.

IX. Christ Reigns

I. NO doubt dear reader, the name of Voltaire, the infidel, the enemy of God, is not unknown to you. He lived in France, toward the close of the eighteenth century, and made it the chief aim of his life to carry into effect his well-known saying : Ecrasez l'infame, " extirpate the infamous thing!" Thus did he designate the holy Church of God. And surprising, indeed, it is to see what efforts this man made, and how persistently he endeavored by speech, writings, and actions, to give effect to his favorite saying, to extirpate this holy Church, to uproot it from the face of the earth.

But what did he gain by his proceedings? The outbreak of the most horrible, the most sanguinary revolution the world has ever seen, the slaughter of hundreds and thousands, the dissolution of all order and propriety, — but never the destruction of Holy Church.

And Voltaire does not stand alone in this respect; in all ages there have been enemies of the Church and of God, who, with similar fury and persistence, and with the like weapons, persecuted the Church of God, but never, never could they succeed in uprooting it. And why not? Because the Church is the work of God, because Christ founded it, because Christ reigns in the Church and through the Church.

2. Christ reigns; for (a) He founded a living, infallible authority (Church) commissioning and empowering her to propagate His religion pure and undefiled throughout the whole world; and (b) the Roman Catholic Church now represents this living authority in a legitimate manner

3. Christ founded a living, infallible authority. At the very outset He gathered together twelve disciples, designated apostles. To them He said, shortly before His death: "As the Father hath sent Me, I also send you." Thus we see that Christ entrusted to the apostles His own mission; but Christ was sent by the Father as teacher, priest, and king.

As a teacher He taught everywhere, first of all in the Temple, then in the synagogues, in towns and villages, on mountains, on the Lake of Genesareth, in the desert, and so on. And since Christ knew quite well that the apostles were but human, and as such might err and make mistakes, He expressly added to the words we quoted above: "I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world."

Now everything was provided for. And with the consciousness of a mission that was directly divine, the apostles proceeded for the future. They did not ask permission of the emperor Tiberius, for they were sent by Christ.

4. Furthermore, Christ was a priest; He officiated as such, He absolved souls and healed them, He offered up Himself on Mount Calvary. In like manner were the apostles also sent as priests. They had partaken of the Sacrifice at the last supper, and by Christ's command they were to offer it up in future: "Do this in commemoration of Me!" He gave them power to forgive sins : " Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them"; also to baptize: "Going, therefore, baptize all nations."

5. In a similar way was Christ sent as a shepherd, as a king: Ego sum rex, " I am a King." But He is not a king like other monarchs; "My kingdom is not of this world." Earthly kings care for the natural, temporal, civil welfare of their subjects, Christ for the supernatural, spiritual, and eternal.

The apostles were likewise shepherds and kings, and as such possessed a threefold power : to give laws, to pass judgment, and to inflict punishment. Of the possession of these powers the apostles were conscious from the very first, since they thus expressed themselves: "It hath seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us," to lay such and such commands upon you.

6. Thus we see that Christ founded in very deed a living, infallible authority, with the commission and command to transmit His religion in its entirety to all future generations; this authority is the college of the apostles. Equally certain is it that the Roman Catholic Church, as it exists in the present day, is the legitimate continuation of the college oi the apostles. Such a continuation must indeed exist in all centuries after Christ as an infallible teaching authority; for Christ has said : "I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world. Now among ail religious systems there is only one which lays claim to the possession of an infallible body of teachers, and this is the Roman Catholic Church alone. When we assert that the Catholic Church is infallible, we mean that she can not err in matters of faith and morals.

If this claim were unfounded, if it were a mere pretension, it would follow that the Church of Christ would to-day have vanished from the face of the earth. But this is not possible, for were it otherwise what would become of the promise of Christ: "The gates of hell shall not prevail against it"? What would become of the divinity of Jesus Christ Himself?

Thus we see that in one Church alone, in the Roman Catholic Church, does Christ still reign as teacher, priest, and king. Our joy and pride it is that we are children of this Holy Catholic Church.

Calm when fiercest storms prevail.
See the Ship of Peter sail;
Still unharmed from age to age
Though wild winds and storms may rage.
Fashioned by a hand all-wise,
Hell's worst onslaught she defies.

X. A Rock in Mid-Ocean

I. HOW small and insignificant was the Church in its origin! Twelve poor fishermen and a handful of disciples, how should they convert the world? But protected and strengthened by their divine Master, the Christian community continually increased, in spite of the bloody persecutions, in the course of which the all-powerful rulers of the mighty Roman Empire caused hundreds and thousands of the Church's children to be slain. After the lapse of a few brief centuries the Roman Empire was shattered to pieces, but the Church had conquered the world.

Fresh enemies arose; heresiarchs appeared and strove, to rob the Church of the true faith, or at least to falsify it. They were often most learned and talented men, protected by princes, kings, and emperors. At first they counted a great number of adherents, they endeavored to found churches of their own; but the protection and blessing of the Saviour was not with them but with His own Church; hence their work came to nothing.

Thus has it ever been, down to the present day, and thus will it continue to be until time shall be no more; all who repudiate or attack the faith of. the Church, cast themselves headlong into the raging billows of a stormy ocean, and cause their own destruction upon the rock of the Church. Yes, verily, the Church is a rock in mid-ocean, and this rock is indestructible, because the Catholic Church is the sole possessor of the true faith, and is infallible in proclaiming it.

2. For the infallibility of the Church as a teacher the word of Christ Himself is pledged. He has made to her a threefold promise.

In the first place, He promised that He would remain with the Church "even to the consummation of the world. Shortly before His ascension, He said to the apostles: "Going, therefore, teach all nations . . . and behold, I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world. " These words are not addressed to the apostles as private individuals, for otherwise they would be meaningless, since before the close of the first century all the apostles had died, not excepting John. If, therefore, Christ promised to remain with His apostles even to the consummation of the world, it follows that the college of the apostles, that is the Church in her office as teacher, must continue to exist through all centuries. And if Christ, who is eternal truth, remains with the Church, her teaching must necessarily be infallible. For He does not remain with her in order to teach her error. Rather does He intend to signify, by making use of the words we have quoted above, that He will protect her from all error.

3. Christ promised, in the second place, that the Spirit of truth should ever abide with the Church. He said to the apostles and their successors: "I will ask the Father, and He shall give you another Paraclete, that He may abide with you forever, the Spirit of truth. ... He will teach you all things." In these words Jesus promises that the Holy Ghost should so assist the apostles and their successors in their office as teachers that they should only proclaim the true doctrines of Christ. How can those be right who assert that the Church can err, and has already erred; for in that case the Spirit of truth would have departed from her, the promise of Christ would not be fulfilled, and His divinity would be at an end! Let him who can overthrow this argument!

4. In the third place, Jesus promised: "The gates (the power) of hell shall not prevail against it (the Church)." This power of hell, namely, the devil, would certainly overcome, i.e., prevail against the Church, if she would act in accordance with his will and desire. Before all else, however, he wills and desires that the Church should lose the true doctrines of Christ, whereby men are to be saved, and should teach what is false. As soon as he could succeed in bringing this about, he would prevail against the Church . But he can not conquer her, because of the promise of the Saviour; hence it follows that the Church can never err in matters of faith and morals; she must necessarily be infallible.

5. But as far as you, my dear young friend, are concerned, what follows from the fact of the Church's infallibility? This especially: make it your constant endeavor to become better acquainted with the true doctrine of the Catholic Church. How much mischief has resulted in the case of individuals, as well as in that of whole families, communities, and states, from the fact that they were in ignorance, either wilful or otherwise, of the true doctrine of the Church. Seek, therefore, a thorough explanation, a clear understanding of all that is taught by the infallible Church. This is more especially necessary in the days in which our lot is cast.

Come, Holy Ghost, Creator, come,
  From Thy bright, heavenly throne;
Come, take possession of our souls,
  And make them all Thy own.
O! guide our minds with Thy blest light,
  With love our hearts inflame;
And with Thy strength, which ne'er decays,
  Confirm our mortal frame.
Far from us drive our hellish foe,
  True peace unto us bring;
And through all perils lead us safe,
  Beneath Thy sacred wing.

XI. One True Church; One True Doctrine

1. CHRIST founded only one Church, for He declared clearly and decidedly: "Upon this rock I will build My Church," and not "My churches." Hence the teaching of Christ is one, the faith is one, the truth is one. This, however, contrasts in the most striking manner with religious indifferentism. What does this term mean?

My young friend, you have perhaps already heard, or will hear at some future day, the foolish talk which asserts it to be a matter of no possible consequence to what religious body one belongs, for one can save one's soul just as well in other churches as in the Roman Catholic Church, since it is only necessary to believe in God, and live a good life. This unconcern in matters of religion is termed "indifferentism."

2. It is easy to perceive how false and ruinous is such a view of life, as far as religion is concerned. It is doubtless the will of the Saviour that all nations should accept His saving religion, from the time of the apostles and their immediate successors, until the end of the world; hence it is also His will that all nations should listen to the Roman Catholic Church since she alone bears the marks of the true Church of Christ, and it is, therefore, impossible that it should be a matter of no moment to Him whether her teaching should be adopted or not. To assert the contrary would be equivalent to saying that one has an equal chance of saving one's soul whether one does the will of Christ or does it not.

3. How false and foolish is the saying: "Live right — then believe what you like!" Tell me, how would you answer any one who declared that it does not matter whether one has feet or not, if only one can walk? You would certainly say to such a person: "A truce to this foolish talk, how could one walk without feet?" But mark this, dear reader, feet are not more necessary for walking than is faith in a life which is to be counted up right in the eyes of God. Faith is the root of an upright life; it is not a matter of indifference to a tree whether it is without roots, or whether these are healthy and sound, or rotten and decayed.

4. There are other absurdities to be pointed out. If it were possible to be saved without the true doctrine, as taught by Jesus Christ, then might the apostles have stayed at home, and it would have been an act of folly on the part of the holy martyrs to lay down their lives for the Faith. They might have argued thus: faith is of no importance, it is quite enough to lead an upright life. Moreover, it would have been quite unnecessary that the Son of God should have become man, and should have taught us the one divine and saving truth.

One more remark: he who declares it does not matter what one believes, says as much as, " It does not matter whether one says : 'God speaks the truth, or God tells a lie'; it does not matter whether one says: ' Jesus is the Son of God, or [horrible is the mere thought] Jesus is a deceiver.'" Is not such a way of speaking both impious and foolish?

5. Therefore are the effects of indifferentism so ruinous. Ruinous for individuals, for how can he be saved who is conscious that he does not trouble himself about the teaching of Christ? How has a mere belief in the existence of a God been considered sufficient for salvation? Even the devils believe in God. Turks and heathens, too, believe in a God. How ruinous for families! What examples do persons who are indifferent to religion set their neighbors, their children! What do they read? All kinds of literature — but no Catholic newspapers or periodicals are to be found on their table.

How ruinous in respect to the Church and to society! There are thousands of mixed marriages, and the children born of these unions ought of course to be baptized as Catholics; instead of which an immense proportion of them are lost to the Church. The harm is no less great in regard to society at large. Religion is rightly considered to be the surest bulwark of the State. But indifferentism can not be looked upon as a power for good in respect to society, since it is not founded upon the fear of God, attention to the voice of conscience, and so on. There is but one true Church of Christ — but one true faith — but one true religion.

6. To conclude: Do not seek a quarrel with others who are not of your faith. But if they attack your Church or your faith, to remain indifferent would be an act of treason in regard to your most precious treasure. Therefore in such a case do not say: "All right, let us talk about this some other time"; but rather quote the saying in vogue among a heathen tribe, "Slay me, but spare my mother"; take your Church under your protection as the guardian of the one, eternal truth.

What is the greatest treasure mortals can possess?

What is it raises man into a higher sphere?

It is eternal truth, the faith which we profess, Which gives us hope in life, and peace when death is near.

XII. Your Most Precious Treasure

1. A SHORT time since I read in a Swiss newspaper the following account from the pen of a teacher of theology. A celebrated operatic singer during a stay which he made on the Rigi, said to the professor in the course of a conversation, that three things contributed to human happiness; love, useful occupation, especially in the realm of art, and religion — a firmly rooted faith. - He confessed that the two first factors are followed frequently by disenchantment. In like manner, he said, fame and applause never confer true happiness.

He had experienced genuine happiness — true peace and contentment — on the day of his first communion, at the time when he possessed deep religious convictions. He had been brought up in a strictly religious manner; now, he said, though in a vague manner he believed in God, he could scarcely be called a believer.

2. If even this famous singer, whose artistic skill was the admiration of half Europe, and who was loaded with praise and honors, if he regarded as his brightest and happiest days, not those of his success upon the stage, but those of his youth, when he possessed deep religious convictions, there must be something grand and beautiful in this faith; and then is the poet right when he warns you, dear reader, in the following lines:

Son, let no man take away
The faith that is thy soul's chief stay;
Count it as thy dearest treasure,
Far beyond earth's wealth or pleasure.

"The kingdom of heaven is like to a merchant seeking good pearls : who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went his way, and sold all that he had, and bought it." (Matt. xiii. 45, 46).

The one pearl without price is the true faith and the state of grace. Guard this treasure carefully. Sacrifice everything to preserve your faith and the grace and love of God.

Faith is our beacon -light in the storms of life. Faith is our strength and consolation in adversity. Faith is certainly a supernatural treasure of such value that no earthly good whatever can compensate for its loss. Purity of heart is the fairest ornament of a young man; faith is his most precious treasure. It resembles the bright light of the sun, which cheers and enlivens the face of nature, and without which the earth would be dark and dreary, cold and unfruitful. Infinitely more sad, however, would be our life without the bright rays of the true faith. 3. Hence it follows that to preserve this light, your most precious treasure, with the utmost care is the first and most important concern of your life. And this is no easy task in the present day, when unbelief is getting the upper hand to an extent which fills us with dismay. Therefore, mark well what you have to do in order to accomplish the task of your life aright, in order to preserve the Faith, which is your most precious treasure.

4. The first thing is, attend diligently to religious instruction. Faith is a grace in its first origin, and this grace is conferred at Baptism; faith is then implanted as a germ in the heart of the child. The development of this germ is effected by preaching divine truth, by the proclamation of the word of God. Wherefore St. Paul says: "Faith cometh by hearing" (Rom. x. 17). On this account you ought highly to prize the proclamation of divine truth by means of sermons and instructions of a religious nature, nor ought you ever to make use of a frivolous pretext to excuse yourself from attending them. Apply to yourself, and not to others, what you hear, and seek to regulate your life accordingly. Make also a daily spiritual reading at home.

5. The second means of preserving your most precious treasure is to live up to the Faith which you profess. The more zealously any one follows the precepts of the Gospel, the more steadfastly will he be confirmed in the Faith. The more blows a nail receives from the hammer, the more deeply will it be driven in; in the same way will faith become all the deeper, firmer, and stronger, the more cheerfully and readily its precepts are obeyed Therefore be not slothful in the performance of your religious duties. As soon as you grow careless in this respect, in the same proportion will your faith become weaker and appear less convincing.

6. The third means is inseparably connected with the foregoing; it is the avoidance of sin. If faith is to be preserved, it is . necessary to avoid sin as far as you can, and to lead a life well pleasing to God. For experience teaches that the decline of faith comes from below, proceeds from sin. This is the lower region of lite, that of sensuality and animal impulses. Be on your guard against them, do not become their slave; otherwise your faith would stand in imminent peril.

7. But before all other means, prayer is the means you must employ, if you desire to keep your faith strong and lively. Faith is, as has been already said, a fruit of divine grace. This was the experience of a young Frenchman, Isnard by name, who lived in the beginning of the last century. He had been a free-thinker, but now desired and made an earnest effort to regain the faith he had lost. On this subject he wrote as following " I soon found that in the search after truth, the disposition of the heart was the most important thing. I therefore began with prayer, and I speedily improved and regained my faith."

Do you therefore apply yourself to prayer. Pray that you may preserve your most precious treasure amid the numerous dangers to be encountered in the world of our own day. Especially in seasons of temptation, pray to God in the language of the Gospel: "I do believe, Lord help my unbelief!" On no account consider your Catholic faith to be of little value. For, as St. Augustine says: "There is no greater wealth, no more valuable possession than the Catholic faith."

Faith of our Fathers! living still,
In spite of dungeon, fire, and sword;
O, how our hearts beat high with joy
Whene'er we hear that glorious word:
Faith of our Fathers! Holy Faith  !
We will be true to thee till death!

— Oratory Hymns.

XIII. Be on Your Guard!

I. IN THE course of my long experience in the cure of souls, I have met with many instances of the manner in which young men who came from thoroughly Catholic neighborhoods and pious families have later on under the influence of irreligious and impious associations been unable to keep straight, but have lost their faith, and with the loss of faith, have shaken off all moral restraints. You, my dear young friend, will have to go out into life, you will find yourself in circumstances which are apt to imperil your faith. How important, therefore, it is, that you should be made aware of your danger betimes and so be on your guard against it.

2. Against this danger to faith St. Paul warned his disciple Timothy, when he wrote: "There shall be a time, when they will not endure sound doctrine; but according to their own desires, they will heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and will indeed turn away their hearing from the truth, but will be turned to fables. But be thou vigilant" (2 Tim. iv. 3-5). We are living in an age such as he described. There are in the present day only too many men who resemble those whom the Apostle depicts in the words quoted above; men who can not endure the sound doctrine of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, but disparage, blaspheme, and contemn it. Sometimes they express doubts as to a particular dogma, sometimes they jeer at abuses, sometimes they ridicule the external practices and ceremonies of Holy Church. But above all things they seek to implant in the mind of inexperienced youth, and above all in the soul of the young man who is just entering upon life, the germ of unbelief.

3. What a misfortune it would be, if such men should succeed in rendering you unstable in your faith, or in causing you to lose it altogether. Beware therefore of ever following the false, deceptive, luring light, which unbelief too often kindles in order to lead men astray; it is a light which dazzles, a. false show, an ignis fatuus, and if you follow it, it will surely injure you, and lead you at last to the fire of hell. Therefore be on your guard against dangers to faith. And what are they? On the present occasion I will only mention three.

4. Be on your guard against doubts of the Faith. If such doubts present themselves, do not dwell upon them, but pray in all simplicity, and with humility of heart: "O my God, I believe this . . . because Thou hast said it, for Thou art the eternal Truth." And should these doubts continue to torment you, mention them in all confidence to your confessor or director, and you will receive good advice and instruction; you will be told how to get out of your difficulty. But if fresh doubts regarding matters of faith are suggested to you by unbelievers, the solution of which you fail to see, answer simply: "I am not able to explain this matter to your satisfaction, but of one thing I am quite certain: God can not err, nor can the Church which He guides. Consult a priest; he will give you the necessary explanation of the point in question."

5. In the second place, avoid the society of those who speak against the Faith and sneer at religion, the sacraments, and ceremonies. If they are persons in your own class, acquaintances to whom you can speak plainly, break the conversation off abruptly and say: "That will do, leave off talking this rubbish, and speak of something more sensible "; otherwise contrive to turn the conversation to some other topic, after defending your faith in a quiet but resolute manner, as well as you can. He who possesses a ready tongue can, in circumstances such as these, completely baffle the scoffer and make him look utterly foolish. I knew a witty Capuchin Father whose sharp tongue frequently did him good service.

On one occasion a stout, pompous gentleman who was sitting opposite to this good Father in a railway coach tried to annoy him by mocking at religion. Among other things he said to him : " Your Reverence, how is it possible that a hell can exist? Where could the Almighty get wood enough to heat such a place?" With a tongue as ready as ever, the Father retorted: "My dear sir, you need not be anxious about this point as long as God has a store of such blockheads as yourself."

6. In the third place, beware of infidel or anti-Catholic books and writings. Be careful in the choice of your books and magazines. Do not take it into your head that you must read everything which comes to hand. I shall say more in another chapter about the terrible evils which result from the diffusion of books hostile to the Faith and to the Church.

Do you, however, take care that amid the many clangers and temptations which surround you the light of faith which is within you become not darkness; may it always shine before you and guide you on your heavenward way.

Lord of eternal purity!
  Who dost the world with light adorn,
And paint the fields of azure sky
  With lovely hues of eve and morn;

Scatter our night, eternal God,
  And kindle Thy pure beam within
Free us from guilt's oppressive load.
  And break the deadly bonds of sin

Quench Thou in us the flames of strife,
  And bid the heat of passion cease;
From perils guard our feeble life,
  And keep our souls in perfect peace.

Father of mercies! hear our cry;
  Hear us, O sole-begotten Son!
Who, with the Holy Ghost most high,
  Reignest while endless ages run.

— Lyra Catholica,

XIV. Poison in Tongue and Pen

1. A CERTAIN father, who was a complete unbeliever, caused his children to be educated in Catholic institutions. A friend spoke to him about this strange method of proceeding. The unbeliever, who was a man of education, replied: "I know only too well what a hell upon earth infidelity is, and I am not so unnatural a parent as to allow my dear children to share my fate."

Thus can unbelief be termed a hell! Listen to this, my youthful reader, and note it well; it is the confession of one who was himself an unbeliever. This unbelief, which is a hell in itself and leads to hell, is the fatal poison in modern society, and this poison is presented under all sorts of different forms, especially in two; namely, in speech and in writing.

2. Too often are people to be found the present day who rail against religion, and know nothing of Christianity except the fact that they were baptized. It is to be wished that these corrupt persons would keep to themselves the poison of unbelief which they have swallowed. However, they are not content to do this, but rush about like mad dogs, and poison others with their bites; and what is most to be lamented is that even the plain people in our country districts are not spared.

If they can not smuggle their poison, contained as it is in bad newspapers, periodicals, and pamphlets, into every household, because some pious and careful father of a family refuses to admit it beneath his roof, they scatter it on the public highway, in saloons, workshops, and manufactories, by means of their irreligious conversation. Whence proceed such expressions as "priest-ridden," "priestly inventions," "let us cast off the yoke of Rome," and so on? Whence comes mocking at prayer, confession, the Most Blessed Sacrament, the veneration of the saints? whence so many blasphemous expressions? Some individual, perhaps, who, when a child, received but scant religious instruction, goes far away from home and begins to imbibe the poison of unbelief by 'reading anti-Christian books and listening to unorthodox teaching; he has especially noticed certain catch-words and forcible phrases, and these he repeats whenever he finds himself in the company of others, in order to lure them to destruction. The well-instructed Christian blushes at the folly of it all but the ignorant take scandal and allow themselves to be led away, while Holy Church sighs daily over these deceivers and deceived. May you never be counted among their number!

3. Thus is poison also diffused by means of the pen. It is, indeed, a sad pity that so many young persons are poisoned in mind, lose their virtue and their faith, through the medium of books! It is only necessary to go about in cities, towns, and villages, in order to come on the track of the mysteries of iniquity. There are often whole shops full of books and periodicals, and standing at the windows are young persons of both sexes. What are they doing? Who are they? They are thoughtless persons whose hearts are often already corrupted, and who seek to find amusement between their working hours, and therefore patronize these places where trashy periodicals and cheap books can be obtained. Two classes of books and periodicals are to be found there to which we call your especial attention.

4. To the first class belong the various kinds of novels, romances, and salacious love stories which awaken sensuality by means of objectionable narratives, and ruin the hearts in which the light of faith still remains, by mingling with these stories contemptuous expressions and subtle attacks in regard to virtue, faith, the Church, and her servants. To the second class belong those irreligious books, newspapers, and pamphlets which openly and boldly blaspheme the Church and religion. The regrettable consequences speedily make themselves apparent. It is true that all these writings contain mere rubbishy scribble, full of lies, exaggerations, and made-up tales, which have been refuted a hundred times over. They put forward accusations and objections which are foolish and groundless. During nineteen centuries, all the enemies of Holy Church have been able to put forward nothing which has not long since been proved by learned Catholic writers to be either a foolish mistake or a malicious falsehood. But the poisoned arrows of falsehood, calumny, and contempt cease not to effect their ruinous purpose. Voltaire, the most notorious among the enemies of religion, stated this fact in the following plain terms: "Only slander right and left; if all you say is not believed, some of it will stick. It is absolutely necessary to lie, and you must not lie in a timid, half-hearted fashion, but in a bold and devilish manner."

5. And books written upon these lines fly nowadays from town to town, from village to village. But what is to be the fate of the young people who swallow down such poison as this? May God preserve you from this poison!

On the inestimable value of good literature, Father Morgan M. Sheedy writes in Benziger's Magazine:

"Apart from the influence of our holy religion there is no one thing which enters more deeply into the warp and woof of our character than the books we read. One of the greatest blessings that can come to any life is the love of books. The practice of keeping, especially before the young growing mind, beautiful and uplifting images and bright, cheerful, healthy thoughts from books, is of inestimable value. Next to the actual society of a noble, high-minded author is the benefit to be gained by reading his books. The mind is brought into harmony with the hopes, the aspirations, the ideals of the writer, so that it is impossible afterward to be satisfied with low or ignoble things. The horizon of the reader broadens, his point of view changes, his ideals are higher and nobler, his outlook on life is more elevated.

"The importance of having great models, high ideals, held constantly before the mind when it is in a plastic condition can not be overestimated. The books we read in youth make or mar our lives. Many a man has attributed his first start and all his after success in life to the books read in his youth. They opened up to him his possibilities, indicated his taste, and helped him to find his place in life.

Seekest thou for bliss?
Lo! here it is —
In quiet nook,
With well-loved book.

" Good books are not only our friends; they are also our best teachers. But bad books are a curse and do a world of harm. Evil men, evil lives, evil examples spread a moral pestilence openly and powerfully; but nothing spreads falsehood and evil more surely and deeply than a bad book.

"But what of the novel? Fulfilling its proper end and aim at elevating the reader and enlarging his knowledge of man and of nature and its mysteries, captivating the wayward fancy, arraying salutary knowledge with true wisdom in pleasing garb, arousing the soul to strive after ideals worthy of man;s mind and heart, the novel would play a most desirable part in the betterment of man. We can not deny its immense power, the greater because it reaches many unwilling to read more serious books. Indeed, many masterpieces of fiction are worthy of all the encomiums which the greatest admirer of the novel could bestow on them.

"But the tendency of to-day, reflected in the popular novel, is to remove all thought of the claims of almighty God, to substitute humanity and philanthropy for religion and Christian charity, and science for revealed truth.

"The other day I was reading the pastoral letter of one of our bishops on ' Christian Instruction.' This is what he wrote: 'Every doctrine of our holy faith, from the existence of God down to the least Catholic practice of devotion, is denied or assailed. Sometimes it is attacked by open hostility, but more often by a chilling indifference, or by a bitter ridicule of all the claims of religion.

"Now if this be the actual state of things, let me ask: Are we Catholics fully alive to the very grave dangers that beset us from the literature of all kinds that is being daily and hourly issued in such enormous quantities by the publishing houses of America?

"Too many of us seem to have a positive distaste for the best — what has been written by Catholics. In fact, many of us are utter strangers to our own authors, outside of a few great names. We know little or nothing of our greatest writers. Their writings are a sealed book to many. The very name of a Catholic publishing house on the title-page of a book seems to repel rather than attract the purchaser. That is the present situation; it is one to be deplored and must be entirely changed before we Catholics come into the full possession of the literary treasures that are our rightful inheritance."

Bishop Hedley in his pastoral letter, "On Reading," says:

"There ought undoubtedly to be a great advance on the part of Catholics in the knowledge of religion by means of print. And, happily, it cannot be pretended that there is nothing to read. If we consider, for example, the list of the publications of the Catholic Truth Society, we find anong them instructions of every kind: exposition of doctrine controversy, history, biography, devotion, moral and social papers, besides tales and verse.

"No one is too poor to be able to afford the half-penny or the penny which is the price of most of these brochures and leaflets; whilst there are books and larger pamphlets for those who look for something more extended, and the bound volumes of the series form a small library of the handiest and the most useful kind. For readers of greater education and leisure there are materials in abundance which it is unnecessary to specify at this moment. A catalogue of any of our Catholic publishers will suggest to every one how many subjects there are on which it would be useful to be well informed, and how much there is to be known in the grand and wide kingdom of the holy Catholic faith. No one can love Our Lord who does not know about Him, and no one can be truly loyal to the Church who does not take the trouble to study her.

"If instruction is so deeply important, devotion and piety are not less so. With most of us prayer is very short and very slight. There is one means which will both make us more regular in our daily prayers and deepen our earnestness in that sacred duty. This is spiritual reading.

"No one should be without a book about Our Lord, His sacred Heart, His blessed Mother, or the saints. No one should be without a book on the Mass. Besides one's prayer-book, one should have manuals of meditation and of instruction on Christian virtues. More extended devotional treatises will keep alive the piety of those for whom they are suitable. But all Catholics, whatever their condition, should make use oi spiritual reading. It is impossible to exaggerate the effect on the lives and characters of Christians of the words of holy men, of the heroic acts of the martyrs, of the example of the lovers of Jesus in every age, of the contemplation of our Lady's prerogatives and goodness, and, above all, of the story of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The 'Following of Christ,' and Other books of a like nature, are at once a guide to virtue, ac encouragement to prayer, and an influence drawing the heart daily nearer to God. The reading of Holy Scripture, of the sermons and conferences of distinguished preachers, and of the penetrating devotional books in which our language is by no means deficient, is adapted to sanctify the house, and to keep out of it, to a greater or less degree, that flood of objectionable printed matter which overflows the land at the present moment.

"Priests and laity can not do more for souls than to encourage by every means in their power good and cheap Catholic literature — instruction, devotion, tales, and periodicals — and to bring it within the reach of every class of the faithful. All read; they must read, and they will read. Let us strive to check the evils of bad reading by the dissemination of that which is good."

"Everything we read," says Father Matthew Russell, S.J., in "The Art of Being Happy," "makes us better or worse, and, by a necessary consequence, increases or lessens our happiness. Be scrupulous in the choice of your books; often ask yourself what influence your reading exercises upon your conduct. If after having read such and such a work that pleases you — philosophy, history, fiction — or else such and such a review, or magazine, or newspaper in which you take delight — if you then find yourself more slothful about discharging your duties, more dry and cross toward your equals, harder toward your inferiors, with more disrelish for your state of life, more greedy for pleasures, enjoyments, honors, riches — do not hesitate about giving up such readings: they would poison your life and endanger your eternal happiness."

   * * * * * * 

"Let us often read the 'Lives of the Saints,' especially those inner lives in which the details are given in abundance. There we shall learn how we ought to behave toward God, toward others, and toward ourselves, in order to possess true happiness. Nothing( is more instructive or more profitable as regards piety and even as regards our temporal interests, properly understood, than the attentive arid meditative reading of the ' Lives of the Saints.' "

XV. The Clouded Telescope

1. WHEN astronomers desire to contemplate the sidereal heavens, they do not take their telescopes into a room filled with smoke, dust, and vapor, but they go out into the open air, at a time when the atmosphere is perfectly clear.

The reason is apparent. They act thus in order that they may see the stars more clearly and distinctly, and keep the lens of their instrument free from smoke and moisture. The same argument applies to faith; it is a telescope by means of which one can see those heavenly and supernatural things which the unaided eye of reason is not able to perceive. But this super-, natural telescope must be pure and bright, and not allowed to become dim. How does it become dim; how does unbelief creep into the head and heart? This is the question. Now listen to the answer.

2. Who drifts into unbelief? Is it the men who spent their youth in prayer and study, and then as priests of God set an example to the world of a pure and blameless life? Is it the virgins consecrated to God who devote themselves in the solitude of the cloister to the contemplation of eternal truths? Is it the courageous youths who do their utmost to safeguard me virtue of chastity, and are careful to cleanse their consciences by a frequent reception of the sacraments? Certainly not! They can see clearly the lens of their telescope is not dim. Who drifts into unbelief? Those whose hearts are full of the smoke of sin, of the mist of evil passions; those who are averse to the holy truths of religion and detest its threats and admonitions on account of the sinful lives they are leading. It would be wonderful indeed, if such persons could see as clearly as those who, free from evil passions, follow after truth.

3. Yes, it is vice, evil, unruly, unbridled passions, which deprive men of their faith. Who is it, for instance, who mocks at confession and communion, or despises and rails at the commands of the Church? It is the man addicted to vice, who finds it difficult to confess the shameful deeds which he commits over and over again. Who begins to, doubt about eternal punishment? The man addicted to vice, who trembles at the thought of hell, and heartily wishes that such a place did not exist. It is vice, the sinful gratification of the passions, which has produced heresies, and it is vice which keeps them alive.

There is one vice in particular which gradually weakens and destroys the mental powers of man. Men endowed with the highest gifts may become weak in intellect and memory, and if this happens in regard to worldly affairs, the vice to which we refer attacks all the more frequently and inevitably the supernatural endowments of the soul. "The sensual man," as St. Paul tells us, " perceiveth not those things that are of the Spirit of God" (1 Cor. ii. 14). Hence comes the saying of St. Jerome, the Doctor of the Church: "It is difficult to find a heresiarch who was chaste."

4. If we open the pages of ecclesiastical history, we find this truth confirmed in the most striking manner. We will illustrate our meaning by an example. St. Francis of Sales, the great Bishop of Geneva, had converted 70,000 Protestants. His zeal for souls led him to address himself to a learned Calvinist, the head of this sect in the town of Geneva. He was at that time seventy years of age; his bald head and snowy beard indicated a period of life which must be nearing the portal of eternity. The holy bishop expounded to him, in the most forcible manner, the truths of the Catholic faith, by which alone can we be saved. Beza, for such was the name of the learned old man, Beza confessed himself vanquished and owned that he had nothing more to allege!

Was Beza therefore converted? No! This old man resembled Mount Etna, which, although covered with snow, vomits forth fire — he was the slave of lust. He sighed over his weakness and misery, and pointing to the object of his illicit love, he said : " See, this is why I remain a Calvinist, and can not accept the true Faith." That was his final answer, and he died a heretic.

Hence we can not wonder that there are in the present day so many Christians whose faith has grown cold, or who have lost it altogether, and among their number are to be found — the sight fills me with grief and pain — many young men who went forth into life unspoiled and full of faith. We see how so many of them pander to their passions, and have become the slaves of vice.

5. Wherefore, my dear young friend, in drawing to a conclusion these instructions concerning faith, I entreat you by all that you hold dear and sacred, to watch and pray, in order that you may not lose your faith! Be ever on your guard, in order that the heavenly telescope may not become clouded through sin and vice! Earnestly reflect that it is well to live a Catholic, it is well to die a Catholic. During the course of 1900 years, no Catholic has ever thought of forsaking his religion upon his death-bed; but many infidels and heretics return to the bosom of the Church when they perceive the approach of death. Well is it for them if they do even this! But do you remain faithful to your Catholic faith in thought, word, and deed, even to your latest breath.

"My just man liveth by faith" says St. Paul (Heb. x. 38). Never yield to human respect; be fearless in the confession of your faith; strive to edify others by living in accordance with your faith. The life of faith gives strength, consolation, and peace to the soul in the midst of the trials of life; it is the best assurance of a happy death and of a blissful eternity.