Mgr. Louis de Ségur: Short Answers to Common Objections Against Religion [1908]

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SHORT ANSWERS TO COMMON OBJECTIONS AGAINST RELIGION
by Mgr. Louis de Ségur
Taken from here: https://archive.org/details/ShortAnswersToCommon

Authors Preface

HERE is a little book, which I have written expressly for you, my dear reader. It will displease you, perhaps, at first sight; allow me, nevertheless, to offer it to you; for that is a sure sign that you particularly need it. A good book, they say, is a friend. I hope, whatever you may think of it, that I now present to you one of those very friends. Receive it as one's friends should be received, with kindness, and an open heart. I offer it to you in the same way.

Although this friend speaks of rather serious things, I have every reason to believe that he will not tire you. I have strongly impressed this upon him, and he has promised not to preach, but simply to talk to you. After having read the last chapter, you shall see that he has kept his word.

You will remark, no doubt, that the prejudices to which I oppose an answer are of three kinds. Some spring from impiety, they are the worst; I have commenced with them; others spring from ignorance; others, again, from a kind of cowardice. I hope the greater part of these objections are unknown to you, and that you have never seriously entertained them. I have, nevertheless, mentioned them, as a preservative for the future. It is the antidote which, by way of precaution, I give you beforehand. I pray God that these simple conversations may do you good, that they may win your heart.

Having learned by a sweet experience that true happiness consists in knowing, loving, and serving God, I have no more ardent desire than to see my own happiness, which is so pure, so solid, become yours also. The intention is good. That is something, above all in these times. Is the book itself good? I trust so, but I know my slender skill.

You will find, no doubt, many questions treated too briefly; but I have been afraid of tiring you, my dear reader, and I have chosen rather to be incomplete than to put you to sleep. Wo to the book one nods over!

As to this one, I advise you not to read too much of it at a time, but, nevertheless, to read it through, from the beginning to the end. Read with reflection, carefully weighing the reasons which I present to you. / beg you, above all, conscientiously and honestly to seek the truth, not to reject it, if it present itself to your mind. When the heart is upright and sincere, light breaks upon it very quickly.



FIRST OBJECTION.

WHAT HAVE I TO DO WITH RELIGION? I HAVE NONE, AND THAT DOES NOT PREVENT MY ENJOYING EXCELLENT HEALTH.*

* The author begins with the objection of the lowest kind of mere animal man.


Answer. Accordingly, I do not offer it to you as a means of growing in height, or enjoying good health. But, honestly, are we then in this world only for that; and have we no higher destiny than our oxen, our dogs, and our cats? All nations, in all times and places, have been convinced of the contrary, and it appears strange that you should be right, against the whole world. It is about our higher destiny that religion is concerned. Nothing can touch us more closely; nothing can better deserve the attention of a reasonable man.

In fact, according as religion is found true or false, every thing changes in the practical direction of our life, in our ideas, in our most intimate and most important sentiments. Now, not only is it possible that religion is true, but there are many strong arguments in its favor, in the immense blessings of civilization* which it has spread upon the earth, and in the respect which has been paid to it by so many men of every nation, eminent for their virtues and their genius, such as Bossuet, Fenelon, Saint Louis, Bayard, the great Conde, Napoleon, St. Vincent de Paul, St. Francis Xavier, St. Francis de Sales, Columbus, Sir Thomas More, Daniel O'Connell, Charles Carroll, and a host of others, whose names are familiar to our countrymen.

Let me, then, discuss the cause of religion with you.

Believe me, you reject it only because you do not know it. As you represent it to yourself, I can easily understand that it is distasteful to you. But do you represent religion to yourself as it really is? This is the whole question. Alas! what prejudices, what strange errors exist with regard to it!

It will not be difficult for me, my dear reader, in these simple conversations, to show you that these prejudices are unjust; that religion is not what its enemies say it is; that not only is it not absurd, but that it is supremely reasonable, beautiful, and harmonious, and that it rests upon the most solid proofs. I am going to show you that it is made for you and that you are made for it.

If, like me, you saw it, every day — this holy religion, drying the tears of the poor, changing the most hardened hearts, arresting the progress of evil, repairing injuries, softening hatred and dislikes, infusing everywhere resignation, truth, peace, hope and joy into people's souls, you would soon alter your language, and I should have no need to press this subject upon you.

But, unfortunately, this practical and experimental proof of religion requires rather to be felt than heard of. It is experience, and not words, that makes us understand its invincible power. You may not have reached that period of life when you will need the helps and consolations of religion; but that time will come for you as it has come for others. Witness the poor soldiers suffering and dying on the field of battle. Witness their appreciation of the helps of religion afforded to them by the Sisters of Charity whom even Protestants have called "Angels of the battlefield." Witness the helps of religion to humanity in the various asylums for infants and orphans, the sick, the aged and the poor. Go to the bedside of the sick and dying; go to the deathbeds of those who have faith in God and in religion, and witness their peace and content of mind, and you will realize the meaning of the words  "Without me, you can do nothing." (John. xv. 5) ; and also of these other words: "I can do all things in Him who strengtheneth me." (Phil. iv. 13.)

Nor does religion unfit a man for the duties of this life. On the contrary, it tends to restrain his passions, and affords him courage and strength to discharge his various duties toward God and his fellow-men; it makes him a lawabiding citizen, a lover of right and justice, who does not shrink from any sacrifice, even that of his own life, at the call of duty.

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Mgr. Louis de Ségur: Short Answers to Common Objections Against Religion


SECOND OBJECTION. THERE IS NO GOD.

Answer. Are you quite sure of that? Who then has made the heavens and the earth, the sun, the stars, man, the world?

Did all these things create themselves? What would you say if some one were to show you a house, and tell you that it made itself? What would you say even if he pretended that it was possible? That he was laughing at you — would you not? or that he was mad; and you would be quite right.

If a house cannot make itself, how much less the wonderful creatures which fill the universe, beginning with our own bodies, which are the most perfect of all! There is no God! — Who told you so? Some thoughtless fellow, no doubt, who had not seen God, and thence concluded that he did not exist. Is there nothing real but that which we can see, hear, touch, or feel? Does not your thought, that is to say, your soul that thinks, exist? It exists so really, and you know it so evidently, that no reasoning in the world could convince you to the contrary. Yet, have you ever seen, or heard, or touched your thought? See, then, how absurd it is to say: There is no God, because I do not see Him.

God is a pure spirit, that is, a being which cannot be brought under the material senses of our body, and which is perceived only by the faculties of the soul. — Our soul is also a pure spirit: God has made it in his own image. Some years ago, when irreligion seemed fashionable, a gentleman of talent was taking supper at the same table with some pretended philosophers who sneered at religion and denied the existence of God. The stranger kept silent. The clock was just striking when his opinion was asked. The stranger pointed to the clock, and said: "Gentlemen, do you hear the sound of that beautiful clock?" "Yes," they replied. "Well," said the stranger, "the various parts that compose that clock fell together of their own accord and produced that wonderful piece of mechanism." "Why, that's absurd," said the would-be infidels. "And not only that," continued the stranger, "but the big town clock which regulates this one, also fell into a happy combination and made itself."

"Still more absurd," replied the infidels, growing somewhat impatient; "we did not expect the amusement of being entertained this evening by an inmate of some lunatic asylum." "But that's not all," said the stranger; " there is a bigger clock than any of these ; it is a town clock for all towns; one, in fact, which regulates all other timekeepers; they call it the clock of the universe. Its great dial, the Sun, appearing regularly morning after morning, awakens, quickens into activity, and regulates the whole world. And yet some lunatics in our asylum claim that this great clock of the universe made itself." The infidels then became quite friendly with the stranger, who explained to them that, just as it is unreasonable and absurd to believe that a clock could exist and keep time without a clockmaker, so it is equally absurd and unthinkable that the earth, moon and stars could exist and move with such clocklike precision around the sun without the work of a Maker's hand. The infidels, seeing at once the force of the argument, admitted that they had never before stopped to consider the matter in that common
sense light.

The belief of our Nation on this point is emblazoned in the dome of the National Library at Washington, in these words of the Holy Ghost: "The heavens show forth the glory of God, and the firmament declareth the work of his hands." (Psalm xviii. 2.)

St. Paul thus points out the existence of God: "The invisible things of Him (His existence, etc.) are clearly seen from the creation of the world, being understood by the things that are made; His eternal power also and divinity; so that they (unbelievers) are inexcusable." (Rom. i. 20.)

Another anecdote is related of the reply of a lady to a celebrated unbeliever of the Voltairian school. He had endeavored ineffectually to convert her to his atheism. Mortified by her resistance, "I could not have believed," said he, "that in a reunion of people of talent I should be the only one not to believe in God." "But you are not alone," replied the mistress of the house; "my horses, my spaniel, and my cat also have that honor; only those poor beasts have the wit not to boast of it."


FATHER KIRCHER AND A YOUNG INFIDEL.

Father Athanasius Kircher, who lived in the seventeenth century, is recognized as one of the greatest scientists of his day. He was in turn a professor of philosophy, oriental languages, mathematics, Egyptology. He was a voluminous writer on mathematics and physical sciences, and his famous work "Mundus Subterranous" was a real cyclopedia, comprising all the geological knowledge of the day. At Rome he collected an enormous museum of scientific instruments, natural objects, models and antiquities, and he himself constructed many wonderful instruments. Father Kircher was the possessor of a magnificent globe representing our planetary system. By means of a secret spring the whole could be set in motion, reproducing in miniature the movement of the earth and the other planets around the sun.

A young friend of the great scientist called one day just as the priest was about to attend a dying woman. Kindly the priest invited the young man to his study, there to await his return. Quite naturally the young man's attention was soon drawn to the splendid globe, and as he was passing his hand over the instrument he accidentally touched the secret spring, starting the whole mechanism in motion. Lost in admiration of this wonderful imitation of the universe, the priest found him on his return. The first question the young man, who by the way was an avowed infidel, asked was: "Father, who is the genius that has made this wonderful instrument?" "Why,"
answered the priest, "nobody made it, it made itself." "Father," said the young man, "you are but trifling with me; it is against reason; it is an utter impossibility that this splendid and wonderful miniature of our universe should have made itself or be the work of chance." "What," answered the priest, "you admit that a genius was necessary to make this poor, insignificant miniature of the vast universe, and yet affirm that the great universe of which a single blade of living grass contains more wonders than this paltry globe, had no maker?" For a moment the young man reflected, then dropping on his knees he uttered his first profession of faith: "My God, I believe."

In plain English, do you know what that boasting phrase: "There is no God," means? Here is a faithful translation of it: "I am a bad man, who am very much afraid that there is some one above who will punish me."

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Mgr. Louis de Ségur: Short Answers to Common Objections Against Religion


THIRD OBJECTION.  WHEN ONE DIES, THERE IS AN END OF EVERYTHING.

Answer. 

1st. Yes, if you are. speaking of cats, dogs, asses, canary-birds, etc. But you are very modest if you reckon yourself in the number. You are a man, my friend, and not a beast. It is strange that it should be necessary to tell you so. You have a soul capable of reflecting, of doing good or evil, and that soul is immortal; the beasts have none.

That which makes man is the soul; that is to say, that which thinks within us, that which causes us to recognize truth, and to love good. This is what distinguishes us from beasts. This is why it is so great an insult to say to any one: "You are a beast, you are an animal," etc. It is to refuse to him his highest glory, that of being a man.

To say then: "When I die there will be an end of me," is to say: "I am a beast, a mere brute, an animal! And what an animal! I am not of so much value as my dog, for he runs faster, sleeps better, sees farther, has a more delicate, sense of smell, etc., etc. ; or as my cat, who sees in the dark, who has no trouble about her apparel, etc. In a word, I am a very inferior beast, the least gifted of animals."

If you like that, say it; believe it, if you can; but allow us to be a little more proud than you, and to proclaim loudly, that we are men. Tis the least you can do.

2nd. What would the world come to if your assertion were true? It would become a regular den of infamy — good and evil, virtue and
vice, would be nothing hut idle words, or rather odious falsehoods?

Why, indeed, if, on one hand, I have nothing [of] a future life, and if, on the other, I manage sufficiently well to have nothing to
fear in this present one, why should I not steal, or murder, when it would serve my interest? Why should I not give myself up to all the excesses of licentiousness? Why curb my passions ? I have nothing to fear; my conscience is a lying voice, upon which I will impose silence. One thing only is worth my attention; that is, to avoid the police and the officers of justice. Good, for me, as well as for every other sensible man, will be to elude them successfully; evil, to fall into their clutches.

"What language!" you say; "a man must be mad to use it seriously."

Very true. And yet, if there is an end of every thing for us on the day of our death, I defy you to gainsay this odious, this absurd language. If there be no future state, I defy you to show me in what St. Vincent de Paul and the great army of Sisters of Charity are more worthy of our esteem than Tracy the outlaw, with his band of highway robbers. I judge of the tree by its fruits, as we are taught by our own commonsense, and by the Gospel. By horrible consequences, judge of the principle; and dare to repeat again, "When we die there is an end to us!" We shall know henceforth what that means!

3rd. While it is contrary to common sense, materialism is also contrary to the general and invincible sentiment of the whole human family. Always and everywhere men have believed in a future state. Always and everywhere the innocent who have been unjustly persecuted, the good man who has been unfortunate, have looked forward to another life for the justice and happiness which were denied to them in this world; always and everywhere men have believed in a God who will be the avenger of unpunished crime!

In fine, always and everywhere men have prayed for the dead, have hoped to find those whom they loved beyond the tomb and in a better world. "Why do you weep?" said the dying Bernardin de Saint Pierre to his wife and children. "That which you lose in me will live always. ... It is but a momentary separation; do not make it so painful. . . . I feel that I am quitting only this earth, and not life." Such is the voice of conscience; such is the voice, the sweet, the consoling voice of truth.

Such also is the solemn language of Christianity. It shows us the present life as a season of temporary trial, which God will crown with eternal happiness. It excites us to merit this happiness by self-sacrifice, and by the faithful performance of our duty. When his last hour approaches, the Christian yields up his soul to God with confidence, and to a pure, holy, and peaceable life, succeeds an eternity of joy!

Far from us, then, far from our enlightened country, be this wretched materialism, which would snatch from us such sublime hopes! Far from us those errors which degrade the heart, which destroy all that is good, all that is dear and worthy of respect in this world! Far from us be the doctrine which leaves to the suffering and weeping poor, to the innocent who are oppressed, nothing but despair for their inheritance! The human conscience rejects such a doctrine with scorn!

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Mgr. Louis de Ségur: Short Answers to Common Objections Against Religion


FOURTH OBJECTION. EVERYTHING IS GOVERNED BY CHANCE — OTHERWISE THERE WOULD NOT BE SO MUCH DISORDER ON EARTH. HOW MANY THINGS ARE USELESS, IMPERFECT, BAD! IT IS CLEAR THAT GOD DOES NOT CONCERN HIMSELF ABOUT US.

Answer.

"Chance?" — And what is, then, this chance? It is an I know not what, that nobody knows any thing about — which no one has ever been able to define — which is nothing; a word devoid of sense, invented by the impious, to replace the name, so dreaded by them, of Providence; a more convenient sort of language, and which has the appearance of explaining things, but which, in fact, is but unmeaning nonsense.

Chance governs nothing here on earth, because it is itself nothing. God alone, the Sovereign Lord and only Creator of all beings, governs, watches over, and ordains all by His Providence; that is to say, in His infinite wisdom, goodness, and justice, He conducts all in general, and each one individually, to their final end, by the means which He knows to be the most suitable. Just as He has created all things without an effort, so does He preserve and govern them without becoming weary; and it is no more unworthy of His greatness to concern Himself about all His creatures than to make them all.

Those who say that God does not concern Himself about us are very absurd, to say no worse, for it is as impossible to conceive God without Providence as it would be to conceive light without splendor. It is impossible that an all-powerful God, knowing and seeing all things, should abdicate His Sovereign empire over His creatures, and, after having created them, should not govern them. It is impossible that a holy and just God, who must necessarily desire good and detest evil, should remain indifferent to our actions, whatever they be, good or bad.

Now, that is Providence. God does for us what a father does for his children. He watches over us; He teaches us what is right and what is wrong; He shows us the right path which we must follow, the wrong one which we must avoid; He punishes us when we. disobey Him, and rewards us when we fulfill His holy will. When He does not do it in this world, He does it in that which is to come. What can be more simple?

The idea of denying this Providence, this government of God, would never occur to us, if we did not imagine that we saw so much disorder on earth. "Why," we often say, "is there so much that is useless? Why so much that is bad? Why is this one born poor, and the other rich? Why are there so many inequalities in the condition of mankind? Why so many troubles and afflictions among some, and so much prosperity among others?" To hear us talk, all is indeed in great confusion, and we would have ordered every thing far better.

But who told us that what offends us so much is really confusion and disorder? What do we judge a thing to be useless in the world because we do not know its use? We think it is bad, because we do not know what it is good for.

This is certainly a strange pretension! If an ignorant person, not able to read, were to open a volume of Shakespeare, and seeing so many unknown letters, arranged in a thousand different ways, united one to another, sometimes eight put together, sometimes six, at other times three, or seven, or two, so as to form words; seeing several lines following one after the other, this one at the beginning of a page, that at the end of one; so many leaves arranged, one at the beginning of the book, another in the middle, another at the end; perceiving some blank spaces, others covered with printing, here capital letters, there small ones, etc.; if, I say, he were to see all this, of which he understands nothing, and he were to ask, why these letters, these leaves, these lines are put in such a place sooner than in another, why that which is at the beginning is not in the middle, or at the end, why the twentieth page is not the fiftieth, etc., he would be told: "My friend, it is a great poet, a man of genius, who has disposed all this so as to convey his thoughts: and if one page were put in the place of another, if one should transpose, not the lines only, but even the words or the letters, there would be disorder in this fine work, and the author's design would be destroyed."

And if this ignorant person were to pretend to be well-informed, and undertook to criticise the order of this volume: if he were to say, for instance: "But it seems to me it would have been much better to put all the letters that have any resemblance together, the large with those of the same size, and the small similarly; it would have been a far finer order \id all the words been of the same length, and imposed of the same number of letters; why are some so short and others so long? etc. Why is there space here and none there? It is all badly arranged; there is no order in it.

The person who had done it understands nothing of such things; "all is left to chance." We should answer him: " Ignorant that you are! It is you who understands nothing of such things. If all were arranged according to your ideas, there would be neither sense nor reason in that book. All is right as it is. A far higher intelligence than yours presided over, and still presides over this arrangement of things; and if you do not know the reason of it all, blame only your own ignorance." We are like this when we criticise the works of God!

It is His Great Book that we behold when we cast our eyes over the world. All the centuries are like its pages, that follow one after the other; all the years are like the lines; and all the different creatures, from angels and men down to the least blades of grass, and the minutest grains of dust, are the letters, disposed each in its own place by the hand of that great Compositor Who alone is acquainted with His own eternal conceptions, and comprehends the whole of His work.

If you ask why one creature is more perfect than another; why this one is placed here, and that one there; why winter is cold, and summer hot; why it rains now, and not at another time; why this loss of fortune, of health; why that sickness ; why that young child's death, while the old man near to it lives on; why that good man is carried off by death, while the bad man who does nothing but evil is spared; I shall reply to you that an Infinite intelligence, an Infinite wisdom, an Infinite justice and goodness has thus regulated these things, and that it is certain that all is in due order, although it may not seem so to us. I shall reply to you, that to judge a work correctly, you must know it entirely; you must consider it as a whole, and in its details, and compare the means with the end which they ought to attain. Now, what man, what creature has ever shared the secret of the eternal counsels of the Creator?

That would be necessary in order to appreciate the wisdom and justice of Providence with regard to reasonable and free men, destined to immortal life, capable of doing good and evil, capable of merit and demerit.

Sometimes, accommodating himself to our weakness, God deigns to justify Himself in this world by results which are either consoling or terrible. There is no age which has not witnessed these signal marks of the divine goodness or justice; crimes, which have been concealed with diabolical art, are brought to light by the most unlooked for, the most extraordinary means; audacious blasphemers are struck down at the very moment when they are defying that invisible God in whom they do not believe. In 1848, during the elections of the constituent assembly in the neighborhood of Toulouse, an impious demagogue was haranguing the peasant electors, seeking to destroy in their minds all respect for religion, that ever formidable obstacle to the projects of the wicked.

The orator attacked all belief, even denying the existence of God. "Let Him speak, then," he cried, pointing with his clenched hand toward heaven, "let Him speak, if He hears me!" He had not finished speaking, when a terrible thunder-clap bursts forth, and strikes down the blasphemer in the midst of the awed crowd! He was supposed to be dead, but he recovered his senses after a lapse of two hours. I doubt if afterwards he ever demanded fresh proofs of the existence of God.

Another wretch, more culpable, no doubt, was struck more terribly still, in 1849, at a village near Caen. It was on a Sunday during mass. This man was with one of his friends at a public house, near the church. The sound of the bells aroused his fury. After a thousand fearful blasphemies against religion and against the priests, seizing his glass, and standing before his companion and the landlord, who vainly tried to calm him: "If there is a God," he exclaims, "let him prevent me from drinking my glass of wine!" and he fell at the same instant, struck dead by apoplexy! One might add innumerable instances of this kind, of Divine justice shown forth in this world. These are but specimens, pledges, as it were, of that justice which is to come.

God bestows also tokens of His providence upon the just. How much misery is assuaged against all expectation! How often do we find that we have served as instruments of the Divine goodness! The poor, and those true Christians who succor the poor, are at hand to vouch for this. Their life is like an acting providence; it is a living proof of Providence.

Why then does not God always justify in this manner, His justice, goodness, and holiness? The reason is simple enough. It is that this present life is but the germ, the beginning of all that which relates to us, and that the consummation of God's work in us is more fitly to be looked for in eternity, where, alone, we attain to the perfect development of our being. It is that this present life is the season of faith which believes without seeing, which believes, notwithstanding appearances are against it, that which will be one day revealed to its sight when the veil shall be lifted.

We must never lose sight of Eternity, when we are forming a judgment of human affairs. It is the great restorer of order out of the apparent confusion of this world. "Why," it is said, "does not God punish this great criminal ? Why is that wicked man loaded with prosperity, and that good man overwhelmed with misfortune? What care does God bestow upon these things? Where is His justice? Where is His wisdom? Where His goodness?"

Behold Eternity, which explains the mystery! It was just and wise to recompense, by the transient prosperity of this world, the little good done on earth by that impious man, that great sinner, whom eternity was to punish. And those good men, reputed by the world so unhappy, paid, by transient afflictions, the penalty due to the minor sins, which, in their human weakness, they had committed; a happy eternity was the recompense of their virtue! It is by the standard of Eternity that we must estimate all that happens to man in this world. Without it, it is impossible to understand any thing of the designs of God in regard to us.

Let us, then, reform our manner of viewing things. Let us no more judge our Mighty Judge. Neither you nor I, rely upon it, are as far-sighted as He is. What He does is well done, and if He permits evil to be done, it is always for a greater good. Don't you remember the gardener of the fable? He was busy in his garden, and happened to be near a large gourd.

"The Maker!" cries he, "of what did he dream? That gourd he has very ill placed. For me, I'd have hung it up there, upon one of those oaks in the air; That would have been more to my taste. Like fruit and like tree! as to me it doth seem. 'Tis a pity, good Garo, thou hadst not, to teach, been present with Him whom the curate doth preach; 'Twere all so much better contrived: marry, come yon acorn, which is not so big as my thumb, in the place of the gourd I'd suspend. God made a mistake; and the more I attend To these fruits so ill placed, more it seems to Garo, that here is a plain quiproquo."

It was a warm day; friend Garo was hot and tired; he seeks the shade of one of the neighboring oaks and lies down at the foot of it. He was just beginning to sleep, when an acorn drops off, and, from the top of the tree, falls straight upon his nose. Garo, waking up with a start, cried out, and seeing the cause of what had befallen him: "Oh! oh!" he cries, "I bleed! And where would I be, if a heavier mass from the top of the tree had come down, and this acorn, a gourd it had been! God thought it not fit ; without doubt he was right; And the reason is now very plain to my sight." And praising the goodness of God with his might, good Garo returned his own cottage within. Do you act like this worthy gardener, and, far from denying a Divine Providence, be careful.

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Mgr. Louis de Ségur: Short Answers to Common Objections Against Religion


FIFTH OBJECTION. RELIGION IS A VERY GOOD THING FOR WOMEN.


Answer. And why not, then, for men?

Either religion is true or it is false. If it is true, it is as true (and consequently as good) for men as for women. If it is false, it is no better for women than for men; because falsehood is not good for any one.

Yes, certainly, "religion is a very good thing for women," but also, and for the same reasons, it is good for men.

Like women, men have passions, often very violent ones, to struggle against; and like women, men cannot conquer them without the fear and the love of God, without those powerful means that religion alone can furnish. For men, as well as women, life is full of difficult and painful duties; duties toward God, toward society, toward their families, toward themselves.

For men as for women, there is a God to worship and to serve, an immortal soul to save, vices to shun, virtues to practice, a paradise to gain, a hell to avoid, a final judgment to fear, an ever-menacing death to be prepared to meet. For one sex, the same as for the other, Christ died on the cross, and His commandments regard them both alike.

Religion is, then, as good for men as for women, and if there is a difference, it is that religion is even more indispensable to men than to women. They are, in fact, exposed to more dangers, they can do wrong more easily, and they are more surrounded by bad examples, particularly as regards loose morals, intemperance, and the neglect of religious duties. Religion is good for every one. It is especially necessary for those who say it was not intended for them.

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Mgr. Louis de Ségur: Short Answers to Common Objections Against Religion


SIXTH OBJECTION. IT IS ENOUGH TO HE AN HONEST MAN; THAT IS THE BEST RELIGION OF ALL, AND IT IS ENOUGH.

Answer. Yes; to escape hanging; but not to go to Heaven. Yes: — in the sight of men: — in the sight of God, the sovereign Judge — No!

Firstly. "It is enough to be an honest man." you say. Be it so then; but let us understand each other. What do you call an honest man? That is an expression which appears to me very elastic, remarkably convenient, and which is capable of accommodating itself to many and varied tastes.

Ask some licentious young man, for instance, if it is possible to be an honest man while leading the more than dissipated life that he does? "What a question!" he will reply; "the follies of youth do not prevent one's being called an honest man. Undoubtedly, I claim to be considered such, and I should like to see the person who would dispute my title to it!"

Then, turning to the covetous tradesman, who sets off his goods of inferior quality and sells them as if they were first-rate; to the artisan who works but half as diligently-when he is paid by the day as he does when he is paid by the job; to the master who takes advantage of hard times to rob his workmen of their Sunday's repose; ask all these persons if what they thus do prevents their being really honest people? And not one of them will hesitate to reply that he is an honest man, and that these little artifices, these tricks of trade, have nothing to do with the question.

Ask, once more, that spendthrift, if his prodigality — -that miser, if his avarice — that frequenter of the public house, if his drunkenness —destroys his honesty? Each will claim indemnity for his besetting passion, while he calls himself an honest, nay, a very honest man! Thus from these admissions even of the honest persons of whom we are here treating, men who are dissipated, dishonest, given to intemperance, miserly, usurious, prodigal, dissolute, may be honest men, and no one can refuse them the title, provided they have not stolen any money or committed any murders!!

Don't you think this new morality is very convenient? Whoever is not brought before the assize court will never have any account to render to God? In fact, one must no longer examine the heart to judge persons' characters, but the shoulder, and whoever has not the convict's brand is to be reputed fit for Heaven!! What a religion, then, is the honest man's religion ! And you say that it is your religion! and the best of all religions! One which permits everything short of robbery and murder! But you do not reflect upon it. It is a perversion of ideas, and an atrocious doctrine, and no religion at all

Secondly. "But," you say, "I mean more by an honest man than is usually meant. I call him an honest man who fulfils all his duties, who does good and shuns evil!"

And I, on the other hand, reply, and I affirm it, supported by experience, that if you are such a man without the powerful aid of religion, you are an eighth wonder of the world; but I would stake my life that you are no such thing. For you cannot make me believe that you have no passions — no disorderly inclinations; all men have them, and many of them. If, thus you are naturally inclined to licentiousness, to gluttony or sensual pleasures, what will restrain you? If you are inclined to idleness, to violence, to pride, what will moderate, these passions? What will refrain your arm, what will bridle your tongue? The fear of God? But there is no question of that in the honest man's religion. The voice of reason? We know what reason can do in a combat with a violent passion. What then? I can see nothing but the fear of the police, mere brute force. A noble religion this, truly! I congratulate you upon it — but I prefer my own.

The Christian religion alone offers efficacious remedies for our passions, and opposes a sufficient check upon their extravagances. Unless you claim that a man cannot sin, that he is an angel, we must necessarily infer that without the powerful aids that Christianity furnishes we cannot be constantly faithful to all the great duties, the observing of which constitutes the truly honest man. Without Christianity we cannot, above all, fulfill them with that uprightness of intention which makes all their moral beauty.

The most virtuous Christians (such is the weakness of mankind, from which you pretend to be exempt) — the most virtuous Christians fail from time to time in their duty, in spite of the superhuman strength which they draw from faith. And you who are deprived of this all-powerful check, abandoned to your natural inclinations, exposed to the countless dangers of the world, you pretend to be always faithful to yours! I affirm with certainty that the man who, not being a Christian, calls himself an honest man (in the sense we have just indicated), either is under a most palpable delusion, or else lies to his conscience.

Thirdly. I will go further. Supposing even that I were to see you perfectly fulfilling your duties of citizen, father, husband, son, friend, in a word, all those duties which make the honest man, according to the world's definition, I should say still: "That is not enough!"

No; that is not enough. And why? Because there is a God who reigns in the Heavens, who has created you, who preserves you, who calls you to Himself, who imposes a fixed law upon you, which no one has the power to annul. Because you have duties toward this great God, of adoration, of thanksgiving, of prayer, as strict, as necessary, and even more essential, than your duties toward your fellow creatures." Not every one that saith to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; but he that doth the will of my Father who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven." (Matt. vii. 21.)

Can a man who has treated some friend with ingratitude say to himself, "I am a good man, I have nothing to reproach myself with?" No, certainly! Well, then; you — honest man, according to the world — are guilty of ingratitude toward God in forgetting Him! He is your father, you owe to him your being, your life, your intelligence, your moral dignity, the health you enjoy, the goods of this world, all, in fact; He has created the universe for you, for your use, for your enjoyment. He has Himself taught you His law, He has saved you. He prepares for you in Heaven eternal happiness. He is your Lord; He is your master; He gives you His blessing; He pardons you; He loves you; He waits for you! . . .

And what do you give Him in exchange? How much love, respect, homage? You coldly discuss the pretexts that have been invented by His enemies to withdraw you from His service! You, perhaps, have nothing but sarcasms, hatred, contempt for everything that pertains to his worship! You do not pray to Him. You do not adore Him. You do not give thanks to Him, You jest at faith in His word, at the observance of His laws!! Ungrateful that you are! And you have nothing to reproach yourself with? And you fulfil all your duties? ...

Cease, I beg you, to cherish this illusion! Of what use is it to deceive one's self? Of what use to disguise one's faults? Rather acknowledge that the yoke of religion, that is, of duty, alarms yon, and that it is to release yourself from it with decorum that you have adopted this religion of the honest man.

Not only is it not enough-, but it is, to say the truth, only a well-sounding phrase, empty of meaning and intended to palliate in our own eyes and those of the world the disorders and weaknesses for which the practice of Christianity is the sole remedy. "Every tree that doth not yield good fruit shall be cut down and cast into the fire/' (Matt. iii. 10.)

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Mgr. Louis de Ségur: Short Answers to Common Objections Against Religion


SEVENTH OBJECTION. MY RELIGION IS TO DO GOOD TO OTHERS.

Answer. Nothing can be better. It is just what the Christian religion most pressingly commands us to do; even assimilating this duty to that higher and more fundamental one of loving God: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart," we are told is the first commandment. And the second, which is like unto the first, is this, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."

These are the very words of Jesus Christ ( St. Matthew, ch. xxii), but He adds something of which you do not take heed: "Upon these two commandments hangs all the law." You, whose religion consists, you say, only in doing good to others, you suppress one of the two commandments, the chief one, from which the other generally springs, which develops and nourishes it, and alone raises it up to heroism and to the height of a religious duty — the commandment of the love of God and the obligation of serving Him. We must have the use of both legs to walk, must we not? Just so, to fulfil our destiny on earth and reach heaven, we must practice both the great commandments:

1. Thou shalt love thy God.

2. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

Therefore, the second is rarely observed where the first is neglected; the experience of nineteen centuries proves this. Those Christians who rest the love of their fellow-creatures on the love of God are the only ones who love them truly, efficaciously, purely and constantly.

Who have been the greatest benefactors of suffering humanity? The Saints, that is, men whose hearts were inflamed with the love of God. To cite but one of these, look at St. Vincent de Paul, that hero of brotherly charity, that father of the afflicted, who continues even in these times to do good all over the world by means of the benevolent institutions he founded! Who was Vincent de Paul ? A priest, a churchman! What was the source of his unexampled devotion to his fellow-creatures? The love of God, the practice of Christ's religion.

What are the institutions of benevolence which prosper most (not to say which alone prosper)? What are those which live, which develop themselves and endure through all ages? Those which the Church founds; those which rest on a religious idea, which are crowned by the cross of Jesus Christ!

Who founded hospitals? The Church. Who gave refuge in all times — who, in our days, despite the obstacles which blinded governments have raised up — still gives refuge to every kind of misery, whether of the body or the soul, of infancy, manhood or old age? The Church.

Who has founded, for the relief of each of these miseries, religious orders of men and women, some devoted to foundlings, some to the education of the poor, some to the nursing of the sick, others to the care of lunatics, to the reclaiming of criminals, to sheltering the weary traveller, etc., etc., etc.? The Church, and the Church alone.

It is she who gives birth to the most perfect devotedness to humanity; she produces the sister of charity, as she produces the missionary and the monk of St. Bernard! Always by means of the love of God, as the. most solid foundation of the love of mankind.

In the present age, more than ever, we hear much said about humanity, fraternity, the love of the poor. Systems are built up; fine words cost nothing; books are published and speeches are made. Why have they all so little result? Because religion does not vivify these efforts. No effect can subsist without its cause; the cause, the most fertile principle of brotherly charity, is Divine charity, or the love of God. Distrust these fine systems of fraternity, then, which are independent of religion. There is no love of our fellow-creatures, pure, efficacious, solid or durable, that is not founded in Jesus Christ and maintained by His religion.

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Mgr. Louis de Ségur: Short Answers to Common Objections Against Religion


EIGHTH OBJECTION. RELIGION, INSTEAD OF SPEAKING SO MUCH OF THE LIFE TO COME, OUGHT RATHER TO OCCUPY ITSELF WITH THE PRESENT ONE, -AND DESTROY ITS MISERY.

Answer. Religion speaks much of the life to come, because that life, being eternal, is of vast importance, and is much more worthy than the present life, that we should be occupied with it. It is there, in fact, that is to be decided forever the great question ,of happiness or misery; on earth we do but prepare its solution.

But if she speaks a great deal of the life eternal, Religion is far from neglecting the life of this present world. All the interests of man are present to her; his soul, his body, his transitory life, his future and unchangeable life; she forgets nothing. If she does not completely destroy the miseries of life, it is because those miseries cannot be destroyed; and they cannot be destroyed because the causes which produce them cannot be suppressed.

Of these, the first is the inequality of physical strength, of bodily health, of talents, intelligence and energies in men. If, in consequence of an accident, or simply from the effect of old age, I lose the strength necessary for pursuing my trade or occupation, shall I not fall into misery? If, in spite of all my efforts, I am so unskilful as not to be able to work as well as my fellow-workmen, will not my customers prefer to deal with those who excel me ; and shall I not fall into misery? Yet, who can guarantee us from sickness, accidents or old age? Who can give talent to those who have it not? Who can render all men equal in strength, in intellect, in willingness? See, then, here a fertile source of misery, and one which it is impossible even for religion to destroy.

The second cause of human misery, not less profound than the first, arises from the vices incidental to our feeble nature, corrupted by sin; idleness, licentiousness, drunkenness, inordinate love of pleasure, revenge, pride, etc. Among a hundred poor persons, how many are unhappy through their own faults! Nineteen out of twenty. They accuse heaven, when they ought only to accuse themselves. The good poor soon find help; God and the faithful children of God never abandon them!

Poverty, like sickness and death, is the punishment of sin. It is impossible to destroy it; for it is impossible to destroy original sin, which is an established fact, and to render man impeccable. But that which is possible, and which religion performs admirably, is to lessen misery, to relieve and soften its pangs, to render it supportable, in fine, to sanctify itself.  Religion reveres, in the body, the temple of that immortal soul, which is itself the living temple of God. She exerts herself to heal, to prevent even, all these afflictions, by the numberless charitable institutions, the asylums of every kind which abound in the Christian world.

Wherever her voice is listened to a the rich man becomes the friend, the brother and often the servant of the poor. He pours forth joyfully his superfluity into the lap of the afflicted. The poor man in his turn learns to hope. He learns, in the school of Jesus Christ, to endure with patience, and sometimes he even attains so high as to love sufferings, which he knows are destined, in the adorable designs of his heavenly Father, to prove his fidelity, to purify him of his failings, to render him more like to his poor and crucified Saviour, and to lay up for him ineffable treasures of happiness in the eternal Country! How many good poor have I not seen thanking God for their sufferings, and rejoicing in their privations!

Religion, therefore, does just what she ought by occupying herself with our happiness in this life, but occupying herself a great deal more with the life to come. None have any cause to complain of religion. Let the rich become good Christians and consequently charitable; and the poor become good Christians, and consequently patient and resigned ; this is the secret of happiness. "The kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but justice and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost." (Rom. xiv. 17 )

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Mgr. Louis de Ségur: Short Answers to Common Objections Against Religion


NINTH OBJECTION. WE OUGHT TO ENJOY LIFE; WE MUST HAVE A GOOD TIME OF IT; GOD IS TOO GOOD TO HAVE CREATED US FOR ANYTHING BUT HAPPINESS.

Answer. Oh, yes! God, in His goodness, has created us only to make us happy! But the great point is not to misunderstand what happiness is.

You seek happiness. You are right. But beware of deceiving yourself in the choice of your means for attaining it! Many roads lie open before you; one only is the right road; woe be to him who takes a wrong one!!

It is a mistake more easy to make at the present day than ever; for never, I think, has our country been more inundated with lying doctrines on this subject. Wicked or deluded men diffuse on all sides, and through the many channels which the press affords, doctrines which, flattering human passions, easily penetrate into the minds of the people.

They would fain persuade us that we are placed here on earth only for the purpose of enjoyment; that all hopes of a future life are but chimeras; that happiness consists in material prosperity, in money, and the means of enjoyment which money can procure. Such is the doctrine of mere pleasure.

It is the doctrine which is at this moment striving to gain the mastery over Christianity and to materialize happiness. In the last century it was called Philosophy; in our times it is called Communism, Socialism, etc.*

I will not insult you by attempting to prove that such happiness is of a degrading kind. It is sufficiently obvious. It annihilates all that distinguishes us from the brute creation, goodness, virtue, self-devotion, moral order.† Man no longer differs from his dog except externally; happiness for both is the same, the satisfaction of all their inclinations, mere brute enjoyment!

But the point on which the world is not yet convinced, and to which I would direct your attention, is the practical impossibility of the communist doctrine, the absurdity of this universal happiness.

I want to make you feel its absolute opposition to the natural order of things, to existing facts, which nothing can change; and to convince you that such a system is nothing but a dream, a dangerous and ridiculous Utopia, and that under the fine words with which it arrays itself there is nothing.

If there is a fact that is proved, and as clear as the light of the sun, it is without contradiction, the sad necessity we are under, here below, of suffering and dying; this is the condition of man in what is essential to it on earth; it is the condition in which I am, in which you are, in which our fathers were and our children will be, and no human efforts can extricate us from it.

Are there not, I ask, here below, and will there not always, always, always be sickness, sufferings, afflictions? Are there not, and will there not always be widows and orphans? — mothers weeping inconsolably beside the empty cradle of the child?

Are there not, and will there not always be struggles between temperaments opposed to each other? — collisions of wills? — deep deceptions?

Can any thing change this state of things? Will any new organization of society, whatever it be, preserve us from diseases, sufferings, consumption, fever, gout, cholera? — preserve us from losing those whom we love? Will it prevent the disagreeable variations of the seasons, the rigor of winter's cold, the burning heat of summer? Will it free man from his tendencies to vice? from pride, egotism, violence, hatred? Will it, above all, prevent his dying?

Is all this true, or is it not? And is it not as certain, as indubitable, that it is, as it is certain that it will always be the state of things? One must be crazy to deny it!

And what becomes — pray tell me — in presence of this fact — what becomes, in the midst of so many inevitable evils, of that constant enjoyment, that perfect terrestrial happiness which Communism promises us? The mere approach of sickness, sorrow and death, suffices to destroy it! And these terrible foes are ever at our door.

Your Communism, or Socialism, then (give it what name you please), is a dream, a vain Utopia, contrary to the nature of things.
It cheats itself, then, or it cheats me, when it promises to me the repose of perfect happiness on earth, where such cannot exist, and when it makes it consist in an impossible state of enjoyment.

I must, therefore, seek for happiness elsewhere, for that it is somewhere to be found I know; the wisdom, the goodness, the power of God are a sure guarantee of this to me. . . . Where, then, am I to seek it? There, where Christianity points it out to me: in the germ here on earth, but in its perfection in Heaven. "Come to me, all you that labor, and are burdened, and I will refresh you." (Matt. xi. 28.)

Christianity — it is in perfect accordance with the great fact of our mortal condition. It explains to us the formidable problem of suffering and happiness.

Christianity embraces man in all his relations, and takes him just as he is by nature; it takes account of the essential facts which Communism ignores (such as original degradation, the sentence of perpetual penance, the Redemption of Jesus Christ, the necessity of imitating the Saviour, so as to have a share in that redemption, the eternal life which awaits us, etc.). Christianity does not deal in airy reasonings based on chimerical suppositions, like Communism.

Communism discerns in us nothing but the outside shell; it forgets the kernel, which is the soul. Christianity does not forget the shell, that is the body; but it also perceives the kernel, and it finds that the kernel is of more value than the shell. It refers every thing to the soul, to eternity, to God. "What doth it profit a man if he gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his own soul?" (St. Matt. xvi. 26.)

By means of an influence as gentle as it is powerful, Christianity cleanses the soul little by little of its pride, its cupidity, its concupiscence, its excesses, its selfishness; in a word, of all its vices; and it thus penetrates to the deepest roots of the greater number of those evils that we have just enumerated. In fact, our troubles, in most cases, spring from our passions, and Christianity calms these passions; it restrains their vehemence, it tames them.

Christianity communicates to the heart that joy, that peace so sweet, which purity of conscience produces. Faith shows us clearly the path which leads to happiness; hope and love make us run in that path, and render light and pleasant the yoke of duty. "My yoke is sweet and my burden light." (St. Matt. xi. 30.)

If Christianity does so much for the soul, it does not forget the body. We have described above the cares which it bestows upon it.
Christianity occupies itself with the body, not as with the chief and master (that would be disorder), but as with the confederate and companion. It preserves it by sobriety and chastity; sanctifies it by external worship, by participation in the sacraments, and, above all, by a union with the sacred body of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist.

Christianity receives its dying breath; it accompanies it with honor to its final resting-place; and even there does not bid it an eternal adieu. It knows that one day that Christian body, purified by the baptism of death, will come forth radiant from its dust, will revive in glory, will be re-united to the soul and enjoy with it, in Paradise, ineffable delight! . . .

Such is Christianity.

It understands what happiness is, promises it, and confers it. It confers on earth that happiness which is possible on earth. If it does not give unalloyed happiness it is because such ought not to be given, and cannot, here below.

Christianity rests its promises on the most solid proofs. That which he does not now possess, the Christian knows, is sure he will possess hereafter. Therefore, every true Christian is happy. He has trouble, sorrow; it is impossible to be free from them here; but his heart is ever filled, ever calm and content.

Does Socialism thus treat the poor wanderers whom it amuses with its chimeras? It promises what no human power can give; it promises the impossible. . . . It has no other guarantees than the audacious affirmations of its chiefs; and are those chiefs calculated to inspire confidence?

"The world will be happy," they say, "when every thing is changed." Yes, but when shall every thing be changed? If, as we believe we have proved, this change is contrary to the nature of things, the world runs a great risk of never finding happiness.

Socialism is something like the wily barber, who put over his shop door:

"To-morrow, shaving gratis here!"

To-morrow remained always to-morrow.

Socialism desires the recompense without the labor; the Christian desires the recompense after the labor.

The one talks like workmen of bad character, the other like good workmen. Thus every good-for-nothing, every lazy fellow willingly adopts the Socialist doctrines, and instinctively rejects the voice of religion.

Let our country, therefore, beware of these hollow but seductive promises, with which her enemies fill their newspapers, novels, and pamphlets.

Let her reject such promises; let her punish by a just contempt the men who are not ashamed to propose to their brethren the ignoble happiness of brutes — mere sensual enjoyment.

Let us raise our heads; let us revive our torpid faith; let us again be Christians! Here alone is the remedy for all our evils. Let us learn to understand, like our fathers, those divine lessons which the GREAT MASTER has left to us on the subject of happiness.

"Blessed are the poor in spirit (that is to say, those whose spirit is detached from the fragile goods of the world), for theirs is the kingdom of heaven!

"Blessed are the meek and the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God!

"Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted!

"Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy!

"Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God!" (Matt. v. 3, etc.)

The impure cannot see God, nor the things of God, because their hearts are blinded by their impurities. "They will not set their thoughts to return to their God; for the spirit of fornication is in the midst of them, and they have not known the Lord." (Osee v. 4.)

A curse hangs like a gloomy pall over the hearts of the impure and the obstinate. The Almighty said to the Prophet Isaias: "Go and blind the heart of this people, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes, lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and be converted and I heal them." (Isaias vi. 10.)

"The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly from temptation, but to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be tormented; and especially them who walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government, audacious, self-willed, they fear not to bring in sects, blaspheming. But these men, as irrational beasts, naturally tending to the snare and to destruction, blaspheming those things which they know not, shall perish in their corruption, having eyes full of adultery and of sin that ceaseth not." (2 Peter ii. 9, etc.)

Let us instruct our minds, and imbue them with this Catholic religion; let us infuse its spirit into our hearts, our manners, our institutions, and our laws! We shall enjoy the happiness which is possible in this world, and the happiness which is perfect in the world to come!

He who desires more than this is a madman who will never enjoy either the one or the other.*

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Mgr. Louis de Ségur: Short Answers to Common Objections Against Religion


TENTH OBJECTION. THE APOSTLES AND EARLY CHRISTIANS WERE COMMUNISTS. THEY WERE POOR, AND HAD ALL THINGS IN COMMON; THEY WERE PURSUED AND HUNTED DOWN BY THE CIVIL AUTHORITIES, JUST AS THE COMMUNISTS ARE.


Answer. "Or, just as malefactors are," you might add. And that is enough to show you where your reasoning fails.
And tell me, since when does it suffice to be poor, to have things in common, to be pursued and imprisoned in order to be a Christian?
That which constitutes the Christian is not outward poverty, but a mind disengaged from the transitory goods of earth; it is not the bare material fact of having things in common, but the invisible ties of fraternal charity, which makes of all hearts but one heart.
Such were the early Christians; angels in the flesh, men dead to the world and to themselves, living only in Jesus Christ, aspiring only to a happy eternity.

And it is to these men of prayer, of penitence, of meekness, and celestial peace that you would venture to compare the detestable bands of our modern secret societies! You would give for brethren to these men of eternity, men who do not even believe in eternity, and who aspire only to the pleasures of this world? . . . Good God! what an aberration of mind!

The Communists are persecuted, they are tracked by justice, transported; yes, no doubt they are. But here again is it enough to be pursued, imprisoned, even killed, to be called a disciple of Jesus Christ?

According to this method, all robbers, all murderers, would be excellent Christians!

The Apostles and Christians were persecuted because of their virtues; you, promoters of anarchy, are persecuted because of your excesses. They strove to sanctify the world, you desire to excite sedition. Prayer and meekness of heart were their weapons; they went forth to martyrdom, pardoning their executioners; while you, armed with deadly weapons, harbor nothing but envy, hatred and revenge in your hearts.

No, you are not Christians, but Anti-Christians! You blaspheme that which Christians adore, and that which you love they abhor.
Besides, there still exists, and has never ceased to exist among the disciples of the Gospel, that primitive and perfect life, in which all men are brethren, where all things are in common, where poverty and sanctity reign. Visit our monasteries. There you will find what you seek; they are real Phalansteries, of which the communist Utopias are but a horrible and unreal imitation.

Let not, then, the Socialists in future usurp the sacred name of the Saviour; let them no more speak of persecutions, of martyrdom, of Calvary. They are, it is true, on Calvary; but they are there like the bad thief crucified for his crimes, and not like the Divine Son of Mary.