We will leave, however, this soft and marshy ground to those who like the prospect of fighting the enemies of Christianity in such a region of swamps and sloughs. We retort the charge of ignoring or outraging reason upon our adversaries in a far different way. We accuse them not only of rejecting revelation but of denying reason, and in their assault upon the supernatural order of subverting the natural order upon which it is based. We affirm that the Catholic Church not only protects revelation and grace, but reason and nature, by the aegis of her authority against a universal doubt or denial. She affirms the existence of the spiritual, thinking, reasoning principle in man as a truth known with infallible certainty by the very light of reason itself, and therefore affirms the intrinsic infallibility of reason within its proper sphere. It is to reason that it appertains to judge of the evidences of revelation. And although reason does not furnish a positive criterion wherewith to judge the intrinsic credibility of mysteries transcending the grasp of reason, yet it is acknowledged by all theologians that it is competent to apply a negative criterion and to reject whatever is proposed as a revealed truth which is evidently or demonstrably contrary to the principles of reason or to certain facts. Where now does the collision exist between reason and faith, science and revelation? Is the existence of God the point where reason is outraged? The advocates of the Catholic religion always profess to demonstrate that truth from reason, and it can hardly be pretended that their atheistical or pantheistical opponents have ever thoroughly refuted their arguments or demonstrated a contrary doctrine. The credibility of the divine revelation is also proved by evidence and argument, and it is certainly rather bold to say that this entire fabric of learning and thought is so palpably weak as to be an outrage on reason. The institution, authority, and infallibility of the Catholic Church are established in the same manner. And, although the mysteries of faith are not demonstrated by their nexus with necessary metaphysical truths, all the arguments brought from reason against them are repelled by similar arguments, and their harmony with rational truths is shown in so far as reason partially apprehends their relations. Wherein consists the palpable, open denial of the rights of reason? Is it denied that God can make a revelation of truths which surpass the grasp of reason, or that he has done it, or that the church has authority to proclaim it? At whatever point we are met by the accusation of professedly and openly denying the rights of reason and imposing on it a tyranny, or stupefying it by a soporific drug, that accusation must be specific and must be sustained by proofs. Vague assertions will not do. Where are the self-evident or demonstrated truths, where are the undeniable, indubitable facts, which are contradicted by any dogma of the Catholic faith, or any definition which the supreme authority in the church requires us to believe as an infallible expression of the truth? Where is the flaw in the whole structure of the Catholic argument? The advocates of the Catholic cause cannot desire anything more heartily than that the whole subject should be brought to the test of the most stringent logic, and that all the claims of the Catholic Church should be confronted with the whole array of truths that can be demonstrated by philosophy, and of facts that can be established by history or science.
From The French Of Erckmann And Chatrian.
The Invasion; Or, Yegof The Fool.
Chapter IX.
The farm-house presented a bustling scene when Jean-Claude, Doctor Lorquin, and the others arrived. The kitchen-fire had been blazing since day-break, and old Duchêne was drawing from the oven innumerable loaves of bread, the fresh, crisp odor of which filled the whole house. Annette piled them in heaps beside the hearth, Louise waited upon the guests, and Catherine saw to everything.
Hullin, from his seat, gazed at his old cousin.
"What a woman she is!" he muttered. "She forgets nothing. Comrades," he exclaimed, "to Catherine Lefevre's health!"
"To Catherine's health!" cried the others; and the glasses clinked in the midst of discussions on battles, attacks, defences, and retreats. Every one was full of cheerful confidence; every one declared that all would go well.