Part 2 (1/2)
”The work consists of 'Thirteen Systematic Conversations between a Woman and a Priest of Humanity,' and the doctrines contained in it are epito blasphemous lines:
”_'In a word, Humanity definitely occupies the place of God, but she does not forget the services which the idea of God provisionally rendered'_
”TESTIMONY OF REV PROFESSOR LIDDON
”Again, during the last two sessions of Parliament, a Select Committee of the House of Lords sat to inquire into the condition of the English Universities The Marquis of Salisbury was the chairman The evidence taken before that co fact that infidelity, or doubt as to the first principles of the Christian religion, nay, of belief in God, is wide-spread in the Universities of England, and especially a the most intellectual of the students; and that this sad result is due in a greatand examinations
In the first report for the session 1871, pp 67, 69, and 70, in the evidence of the Rev Professor Liddon, DD, Canon of St Paul's, London, and Professor of Exegesis in the University of Oxford, we find the following passages:
_”Quest_ 695 _Chairiven to us upon the influence of the Final School' (the exaht, as tending to produce at least momentary disbelief'
”_Witness_--'I have no doubt whatever it is one of the main causes of our present embarrassments'
”696--'That, I suppose, is a comparatively new phenoreat modification in the system pursued in the Honors School of _literae humaniores_ It is mainly the one-sided system, as I should venture to call it, of modern philosophical writers'
”697--'Is there any special defect in the s, or is it essential to the nature of the school?'
”'I fear it is to a great extent essential to the nature of the school, as its subjects are at present distributed'
”Again, in answer to Question 706, the saht to have stated to the noble Chairman just now that cases have come within my own experience of men who have come up from school as Christians, and have been earnest Christians up to the ti to read philosophy for the Final School, but who, during the year and a half or two years employed in this study, have surrendered first their Christianity, and next their belief in God, and have left the University not believing in a Supre is the infidel, or the ion is a criht of folly He that has no religion must necessarily lose the esteem and confidence of his friends What confidence, I ask, can be placed in a e of his duties?
What confidence can you place in a ation of conscience, who has no higher motive to direct hian Roh to say: ”I live not for _myself_, but for the Republic”; but the infidel's motto is: ”I live only for myself; I care for no one but myself” Oh, what a monster would such a man be in society were he really to think as he speaks, and to act as he thinks!
A ion, must first prove that he is honest before we can believe his and rulers, they must prove that they have a heart, and it ion, that _he must prove_ that he has a _conscience_ And I fear he would not find it so easy a task
A ion is a man without reason, a norance of what religion is He blasphemes what he does not understand He rails at the doctrines of Christianity, without really knohat these doctrines are He sneers at the doctrines and practices of religion, because he cannot refute theravity of the fine arts, the fashi+ons, and even matters the most trivial, and he turns into ridicule the most sacred subjects In the midst of his own circle of fops and silly women, he utters his shallow conceits with all the poion is a dishonest plagiarist, who copies froainst the Church by the infidels of forood care to omit all the excellent answers and complete refutations which are contained in these very sas His object is not to seek the truth, but to propagate falsehood
Thesuperstition
Instead of worshi+pping the true, free, living God, who governs all things by His Providence, he bows before the horrid phantom of blind chance or inexorable destiny He is a man who obstinately refuses to believe the ion, and yet, with blind credulity, greedily ss the ion_ He is a man whose reason has fled, and whose passions speak, object and decide in the naion often pretends to be an infidel merely in order to appear fashi+onable He is usually conceited, obstinate, puffed up with pride, a great talker, always shallow and fickle, skipping fro a single one At one moment he is a Deist, at another a Materialist, then he is a Sceptic, and again an Atheist; always changing his views, but always a slave of his passions, always an eneion is a slave of the most shameful passions He tries to prove to the world that ratification of leading the life of a brute I ask you, what virtue can that man have who believes that whatever he desires is lawful, who designates the most shameful crimes by the refined name of innocent pleasures? What virtue can that man have who knows no other law than his passions; who believes that God regards with equal eye truth and falsehood, vice and virtue? He may indeed practise soeneral only _exterior_ They are practised merely out of human respect; they do not come from the heart
Now the seat of true virtue is in the heart, and not in the exterior He that acts merely to please man and not to please God, has no real virtue
The ions; he is a true knave He says: ”If I were to choose ion, I would becoions” But in his heart he despises all religion He is a ether all the wicked and absurd caluainst the Church He falsely accuses her of teaching monstrous doctrines which she has always abhorred and conde those monstrous doctrines which he himself has invented, or copied from authors as dishonest as himself The infidel is a ion, without God
There are many who call theion, ularity in order to attract notice, in order to -minded, that they are independent Poor deluded slaves of huularity in order to attract notice, and they forget that there is another class of people in the world also noted for singularity In fact they are so singular that they have to be shut up for safe keeping in a mad-house
What is the difference between an infidel and a madman? The only difference is, that the madness of the infidel is wilful, while the madness of the poor lunatic is entirely involuntary The one arouses our compassion, while the other excites our conteion says: ”There is no God” He says so ”_in his heart_”, says Holy Writ; he says not so in his head, because he knows better Let hier of death, or of a considerable loss of fortune, and you will see how quick, on such occasions, he lays aside the mask of infidelity; he hty God; he cries out: ”Lord save ! Lord have mercy on me!” and the like
There is still another proof to show that the infidel does not believe what he says: why is it that he makes his impious doctrines the subject of conversation on every occasion? It is, of course, first to communicate his devilish principles to others, and make them as bad as he hiood Catholic seldorace of God, that his religion is the only true one, and that he will be saved if he lives up to his religion This, however, is not the case with the infidel He is constantly tormented in his soul ”There is no peace, no happiness for the impious,” says Holy Scripture--(Isa xlviii 22) He tries to quiet the fears of his soul, the remorse of his conscience So he communicates to others, on every occasion, his perverse principles, hoping that he may meet with some of his fellow-men who may approve of his impious views, and that thus he may find some relief for his interior torht-traveller A tiins to sing and to cry in order to keep away too great fear The infidel is a sort of night-traveller; he certainly travels in the horrible darkness of his impiety His interior conviction tells him that there is a God, ill certainly punish hireat fear, and makes him extreht of a Catholic church, of a Catholic procession, of an ie of our Lord, of a picture of a saint, of a prayer-book, of a good Catholic, of a priest; in a word, he cannot bear anything that reuilt, and of his iainst faith in God, in all that God has revealed and proposes to us for our belief by the Holy Church What is the object of his impious cries? It is to deafen, to keep down in some measure, the clamors of his bad conscience Our hand will involuntarily touch that part of the body where we feel pain So, in like ue of the infidel touches, on all occasions, involuntarily as it were, upon all those truths of our holy religion which inspire hihty God He feels but too keenly that he cannot do aith God and His sacred religion, by denying His existence
I have given you the true portrait--the true likeness--of the iven to see a devil and the soul of an infidel at the saht of the devil more bearable than that of the infidel For St James the Apostle tells us, that ”the devil believes and trembles”--(Chap ii 19) Now the Public School system was invented and introduced into this country to turn the rising generations into men of the above description