Page:Essays on Catholicism, Liberalism, and Socialism.djvu/104

laid upon us in anger, why were we created? Why inflict upon us a burden so heavy, if this hand is merciful? Shall we call it just, or only strong? If it is just, what have we done previously to our creation to be thus punished? If it is simply strong, why are we not crushed and destroyed? If in using the gift we have received we have committed sin, who is the author of our sin? If we are lost on account of the transgressions which this faculty inclines us to commit, who is the cause of our condemnation and our punishment? O great and incomprehensible being, whom we know not if we must bless or detest; shall we, with bitter sighs and ardent prayers, fall prostrate at thy feet like thy servant Job, or shall we attempt against thee the war of the Titans, and pile mount upon mount, Pelion upon Ossa? O mysterious sphinx, we know not how to appease nor how to vanquish thee; nor do we know how to address thee. If as thou sayest thou art omniscient, tell us, we beseech thee, in which of thy sacred books thou hast inscribed thy name, that we may know how we must call upon thee; for the titles that are given thee are contradictory like thyself. Those who are saved call thee God; those who are condemned call thee tyrant.

This is the angry voice of the genius of pride and blasphemy. What an inconceivable madness and inexplicable aberration for man, who is the work of God, to summon before his tribunal that same God who grants him the very tribunal on which he sits as arbiter, the reason with which he judges, and even the voice with which he calls upon God! Thus man falls from blasphemy to blasphemy, from abyss to abyss. The blasphemer who summons, constitutes himself the judge to condemn or absolve. But the man who absolves or con-