Page:Jesus of Nazareth the story of His life simply told (1917).djvu/414

 THE CAUSES AND CURE OF UNBELIEF

Edited by Cardinal Gibbons, with a Chapter by Most Rev. P. J. Ryan, D.D., LL.D.

Price, cloth, 60 cents; paper, 30 cents; 50% off to clergy and religious.

From the Foreword of Cardinal Gibbons—This evil of unbelief is deeply seated; it is largely traceable to the corruption of human nature: "The earth was corrupted before God, and was filled with iniquity." (Gen. 6:11.) We are a fallen race. Mankind fell from the favor of God by the disobedience of our first parents in transgressing the commandment of their Maker. (Gen. 3:17.) Since that day the natural tendency of human nature is towards evil: "The imagination and thought of man's heart are prone to evil from his youth." (Gen. 8:21.) This is the main principle underlying much of the unbelief and infidelity of the present day: "Men loved darkness rather than the light, for their works were evil. For every one that doth evil hateth the light, and cometh not to the light, that his works may not be reproved." (John 3:19.) In the eight Beatitudes our Lord tells us: "Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God." (Matt. 5:8.) The unclean of heart do not perceive the ways of God, His Providence, His goodness, His conditions of salvation; for, as St. Paul reminds us, "The sensual man perceiveth not these things that are of the Spirit of God; for it is foolishness to him, and he cannot understand, because it is spiritually examined." (I. Cor. 2:14.) These principles will be developed in "The Causes and Cure of Unbelief."—James Cardinal Gibbons.

For the above-mentioned books

Address (Rev.) D. J. DOWNING, C. M., St. Vincent's Mission House, SPRINGFIELD, MASS.