A CAUSE OF UNBELIEF.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VI, Issue 286, 25 October 1878, Page 11

A CAUSE OF UNBELIEF.

(From Cardinal Manning's Treatise on the Internal Working of the „r . Holy Ghost.) ° Si 1 , 8 lfc destroys the piety of men ? You answer at once, it wK^ + i S f Unb^ llGf destr °y s fai *, and as despair destroys ItT S kw^f y ff e -STf?- y - Thisis P lai "- But what is impiety? It is a want of faith to believe and a want of love to venerate How Wns \ m T aTC P iel * to «™-ds God if he does not believe in Him ? iff? ?w a ma? lOTO G ° d if he docs not vclieilate Him ? And how hpW m6 f gl '° W UP out believing in God ? There are, I SSfw'i, a S reat ™ an 3 r men who are without faith in God; not so much through their own fault as through the sin of their parents. I believe .that m this country of ours millions and millions are growing up without the knowledge and the love of God. Why? BecaSe three hundred years ago this land was disinherited and robbed by the wickedness of men ; the light of the Catholic faith was extinguished tJ^ g l V IStianit7 J ndeed remai^ d . b^ the altos were pulled down, and the name of our Blessed Mother was taken away out of the mouths, and at last out of the hearts, of her children. Not «V^^ CC ° UU f try CI Tl 7 US - A nanw channel of * ea di ™ d es us from a people who speak the same tongue, who are of the same family with us, who are our tellow-countrymen, who are our brothers. There since Samt Patrick preached, the light of faith has never been extinguished Belief in Jesus and the Sacrament of the Altar, love of the Holy Mass, haye never failed ; love and piety towards His Blessed and Immaculate Mother has never been chilled. CJn on the mountains out in the morasses, in the cold of winter, in all manner of suffering, the faithful people of Ireland have preserved the tradition L P SSw a ? us is S rown so cold and dim. We can easily understand that millions among us have not the knowledge or the love of God, not so much through their own fault as through the fault of those who have gone before them. And yet there are multitudes who TW ,r gh their °Y n faulfc ' throu S ]i grievous fault. There are men among us who profess to be infidel, and who glory in KSrfc T ve n ° shame K SCLJ - zdo not belie ™ in God or m Jesus Christ. There are men whose intellectual pride cavils and W w tlC v! S ?f and dlstorts ' ever y fcrik of the revelation of God What shall we say of them? That they are impious, and 2? eISe 1S J h Z WaUt °- f the IOTe of tTuth which causes this aber?S ii? human mmd when it is once grown to maturity In childhood the privation of which I spoke will account for much; But when men come to maturity, do you think that God has left the evidence of His revelation so obscure that it cannot be seen 1 This is to throw the sm of their unbelief on God, and to accuse Him of injustice. The fault by which they do not see Him in the light of His truth is not on God s part, but on theirs. No, dear brethren, there is another reason. One of the chief causes of unbelief in matters of faith is sin, secret and sensual ; the sins of the heart, if not of the life. In many a soul, impurity is the cause of impiety