Page:SermonsFromTheLatins.djvu/183

 complete, should  have  included  a  denial  of  his  own existence, for,  verily,  a  perverse  genius  that  can  so hate  God  and  scoff  so  at  religion  lacks  little  of  the malice of  a  Lucifer. It would  seem  to  have  been  a stroke  of  Providence  that  on  that  very  Sunday  from every Catholic  pulpit  should  have  been  read  the gospel of  Our  Lord's  temptation  by  a  demon,  living and actually  present. You know  what  arguments that tempter  used- — appeals  to  sensuousness,  to  presumption and  to  pride,  and  truly  Satan's  disciple  is not  above  his  master,  for  he  used  the  selfsame weapons but  more  clumsily. It is  an  eloquent  commentary on  the  spirit  of  the  age  that  men,  supposedly intelligent,  can  be  swayed  by,  and  applaud, such shallow  sophistry. The irreverence  of  it,  too,( that  men,  Christians,  Catholics  perhaps,  though God  forbid, — that  men,  I  say,  should  relish  seeing Christ  mocked  and  scourged  and  spat  upon,  relish hearing  the  Scriptures  ridiculed  or  wrested  round against  our  sacredest  beliefs!  The  demon  tempter  of Our  Saviour  quoted  Scripture,  and  likewise,  too,  his follower.  Ah!  the  Bible  is  indeed  an  inexhaustible mine  of  facts,  but  if  the  miner  have  not  on  his  forehead the  lamp  of  faith,  he  finds  no  golden  ingots  of truth,  but  only  useless  dirt, — the  ruins  of  the  past and  the  bones  of  many  an  error  long  since  dead. Refutation  of  such  errors  and  flimsy  arguments  is time  misspent.  For  us  it  is  sufficient  that  the  word of  God  infallibly  says  the  devil  does  exist,  and  every miserable  temptation  and  fall  in  our  sinful  lives  proclaims his  active  presence. The doctrine  of  the