THE POSTURE OF INFIDELS TOWARDS MIRACLES.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VII, Issue 379, 23 July 1880, Page 19

THE POSTURE OF INFIDELS TOWARDS MIRACLES.

One of our Catholic exchanges, referring to some recent accounts of miraculous occurrences, says : — " An infidel is not more severe or exact in examining records of miracles to try to discover their nature and disprove them than is the Catholic Church. She acts cautiously in all such matters, as well as in everything else pertaining to her mission as the custodian of faith and morals. Hence it is frequently many years before she pronounces upon the occurrence of miraculous manifestations, so that all possible human evidence may be examined." What our esteemed contemporary says respecting the Church is true, but it gives more credit to infidels than they deserve. As a rule, instead of examining severely and exactly accounts of miraculous occurrences, they do not examine them at all. They gratuitously assume that all such accounts are either sheer, wilful fabrications, or else are the result of involuntary delusions, having no other cause or basis than superstition. Hence, when confronted with proofs, however numerous and strong, they contemptuously sweep them all aside as unworthy not only of credence, but even of consideration, and continue in their previous disbelief. The principle they adopt with regard to miracles, if consistently maintained, would make men universal sceptics, and render kaowledge and belief utterly impossible in every matter presented to the human mind. We obtain but a small part of our knowledge through personal investigation or observation. It is reached and held, in mest part, through the testimony of others. Destroy this belief in human testimony, were it possible to destroy it, and universal scepticism would be the result, excepting only the few facts each individual might gather and accept on the basis of his own personal experience. Infidels, however, do not go so far as this. They cannot. For reason is stronger than their own wills. Hence, in self-contradic^jon to their denial of the credibility of human testimony in matters of religion, they yet readily accept that testimony on all other subjects. Let a single man, whom they regard as competent to investigate and observe, inform them of some fact in chemistry, or any other branch of material science, and they will find no difficulty in giving his statements respectful consideration and belief. But if a dozen, or twenty, or a thousand, witnesses testify what they have seen or experienced with regard to some occurrence impossible of explanation by the action of material forces, they contemptuously disreeard the accumulated testimony and set it all down as the result either of a general conspiracy to deceive, or else of credulous superstition. Even when they pretend to investigate it is not in the spirit of honest investigation, of honest impartiality and an honest desire to discover what is the exact truth. On the contrary, the words of our Saviour, "ye ovill not believe," are strictly applicable to them. They disbelieve alike the testimony of others, tht testimony of their own knowledge, and the testimony of nature heiself. They will resort to the most unreasonable explanations and invent utterly untenable hypotheses to evade, if they cannot blunt, the point of the evidence in favour of the alleged miracle. When driven from one position by the force of unanswerable arguments, and facts which it is impossible to deny, they assume another, utterly inconsistent with their previous one ; and when driven from that they take refuge in suppositions for which there is no ground whatever but their own absolute determination not to believe. Take as instances of this two miracles, both of which challenge the attention of the infidels of to-day, who assume to be too intelligent to believe such silly superstitions. We refer to the liquefaction of the blood of St. Januarius at Naples and the miracles at Lourdes. The first of these is both an ancient and a modern miracle. From time immemorial it has been repeated several times a year, in the presence of thousands of persons, Catholic and non-Catholic, nobles and peasants, intelligent and unintelligent. The fact cannot be denied, yet infidels never refer to it without a sneer. They never attempt eeriously to " examine" the miraculous occurence, never attempt to " disprove" it. They simply either ridicule or deny it, or else they make assertions of trickery and fraud, which they fail to support with any evidence whatever. So, too, with the miraculous occurrences at Lourdes, Infidels will not examine them. They sneer at them, deny them, without informing themselves, either of their number, their nature, or the evidence by which they are supported. The postuie of infidels with regard to miracles is precisely that of a man who shuts his eyes for fear of seeing what he wishes not to see. They turn away from facts and proofs, and deny them because they are unwilling to be convinced. — Philadelphia Catholic Standard.

The Nation?* London correspondent writes : Since his election to the leadership Mr. Parnell seems to keep mindful of the fact that he has been placed at the head of (to phrase it gently) a composite party. No longer is he to enjoy his individual tastes in harassing our benevolent rulers and providing his country with satisfaction, but is obliged to remember that the whole of his flock are not so advanced as himself, and that it becometh not the chief continually to go down with the footmen to the*battle.