RELIGIOUS TKUTH 153 



renoy, etc. The Occidental mind wants this same 

 kind of truth in its religion because its religion is 

 a definite means to a definite end ; it is in a way 

 a question of climate and subsistence ; it has refer- 

 ence entirely to well-being in some future state. If 

 there is no immortality we have no use for religion. 

 If a man die, shall he live again ? Is there a God 

 as literally as there is a governor or president ? 

 Is the Bible the word of God? Did Christ rise 

 from the dead ? Is the church the gate to heaven ? 

 If so, which church ? In the popular mind religion 

 hinges upon these questions, and it demands a sci- 

 entific answer to them. The good Catholic believes 

 the Pope to be as actually and literally the deputy 

 or vicegerent of God as the priest is the visible ser- 

 vant of the Pope. 



Into the formation of our minds and into the con- 

 duct of our lives there enter truths, opinions, and 

 sentiments. Pour fifths of our lives are probably 

 made up of sentiment ; that is, feeling, aspiration, at- 

 traction, repulsion, etc. A sentiment may be rela- 

 tively true or false, it may arise from a narrow view 

 or a broad view, but it is equally potent whether 

 true or false. Demonstrable truth enters into our 

 lives scarcely more than the mineral elements enter 

 into our bodies, but our lives could not go on for a 

 moment without them. 



The religious emotion is true as an emotion ; it 

 is when we try to translate it into the language of 

 the reason and the understanding that the trouble 

 begins. Its reality does not prove the reality of 



