271 



from the great chairs of learning. But what sane 

 man can fail to see to paraphrase the Scripture 

 word that from the point of view of science and 

 of reason it is all, if not dishonesty, pure folly. 

 Verily: "The fool hath said in his heart: there 

 is no God." 



Well did the great Bishop Ketteler say : "It has 

 been reserved for our own time to repeat on earth 

 the crime of the Angel, who, with full knowledge of 

 his relation to God, dared to revolt against Him; 

 we have in our midst not one or a few atheists, 

 but a whole generation of atheists. As long as 

 the stones exist of which these walls were built, as 

 long as the sun shines upon the face of the earth 

 and proclaims the glory of Him who made it, as 

 long as the dew drops from heaven to refresh the 

 flowers of the field, as long as the heavenly 

 showers of grace sink into the soul of man to 

 waken it to Divine life and Divine love, such a 

 cold-blooded, diabolical doctrine has not come 

 forth out of the mouth of man." 4 



No, religion is not begotten by fear, as socio- 

 logists would tell us. Fear could but bring about 

 its outward manifestation. Mythology is not the 

 beginning, but the degradation of religion. An- 

 cestor worship and nature worship are not its 

 causes, but only false expressions of those spiritual 

 urgings and dispositions inherent in all men, with- 



'"Predigten," II, p. i6a; Metlake, "Ketteler's Social Re- 

 form," p. 54. 



