'STAND FAST IN THE FAITH'

New Zealand Tablet, 27 May 1915, Page 11

'STAND FAST IN THE FAITH'

(A Weekly Instruction specially written for the N.Z. Tablet by Ghimel.)

SOME THOUGHTS FROM PASCAL. Pascal was born at Clermont-Ferrand, in Auvergne, France, on June 19, 1623. Pie was an intellectual giant, especially in mathematical studies; even at the age of fifteen his studies on conic sections were read before the most scientific men of Paris. In 1654, Pascal's life underwent a complete change; austerity, selfdenial, boundless charity, took the place of what at most had been a 'moderate use of worldly pleasure. He fell under the influence of the severe school of Jansenism, and became one of their champions. In the last few years of his life he sketched the plan of a great work in defence of Christianity and jotted down the main heads of his arguments. This work was never-finished, and the detached thoughtsremarkable for their lucidity and penetration—alone remain to show that the world has been deprived of a masterpiece. Pascal died in 1662. I quote almost at random some of the more striking passages and sayings : If it be supernatural blindness to live without seeking to know what we are, it is a terrible blindness to live ill while believing in God. Between us and hell and heaven there is nought but life, the frailest thing in the world. It is not well to be too much at liberty. It is not well to have all we want. When I consider the short, duration of my life, swallowed up in the eternity before and after, the small space which "I fill, or even can see, engulfed in the infinite immensity of spaces whereof I know nothing, and which know nothing of me, I am terrified, and wonder that I am here rather than there, for there is no reason why here rather than there, or now rather than then. Who has set me here? By whose order and design have this place and time been destined for me ? All things may prove fatal to us, even those made to serve us, as in nature walls may kill us and stairs may kill us, if we walk not aright. The slightest movement affects all nature, the whole sea changes because of a rock. Thus in grace, the most trifling action has effect on everything by its consequences ; therefor© everything is important. The strength of a man's virtue must not be measured by his occasional efforts, but by his ordinary life. Though we see all the miseries which close upon us and take us by the throat, we have an irrepressible instinct which raises us. If man is not made for God, why is -he happy only in God ? If man is made for God, why is he so contrary to God? The greatness of man is great in that he knows he is miserable. A tree does not know that it is miserable. It is therefore little to know ourselves little, and it is great to know ourselves little. Thus his very infirmities prove man's greatness. They are the infirmities of a great lord, of a discrowned king. The knowledge of God is very far from the love of Him. The conduct of God, Who disposes all things gently, is to put religion into the mind by reason, and into the heart by grace. Men often mistake their imagination for. their heart, and they believe they are converted as soon as they think of being converted. The world exists for the exercise. of mercy and judgment, not as if men were in it as they came from the hands of God, but as the enemies of .God, to whom He gives by grace light enough to return, if they will seek Him and follow Him, and to punish them, if they refuse to seek Him and follow Him. The last process of reason is to recognise that there is an infinity of things which transcends it; it is but weak if it does not go so far as to know that. And,

if natural things transcend it, what-shall we say of the supernatural ? None is so happy as a true Christian, none so reasonable, none so virtuous, none so amiable.