THE CONSTRUCTIVE QUARTERLY.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2156, 23 May 1914, Page 9

THE CONSTRUCTIVE QUARTERLY.

CARDINAL JIRftCIER ON HIOCISX.T FRENCH. THOUGHT. With tho issue pf tho March number "Tho Constructive Quarterly" (Oxford

University Press) enters on its second year. The March issue is a decidedly good one. It opens with an. article bv Professor Sanday, of Cisvford, in wbicti ho discusses tho question, "How far does tho 'Constructive Quarterly' really construct, and what sort of prospect does it hold out. of really constructing in tho futureP'' How far, in other words, is it helping tiio cause of Chris■tiau unity. The issue also contains av* ticks on Faith by a Protestant, a Roman Catholic, a Mussian Orthodox, and nn Anglican, tho other papers hein.j>:— '"The Use of Symbolism in .Christianity," by Dr. Gore.. Bisliti.p of Oxford; "John VVoohnaiii" by T. Mdniijiid Harvey; "Unity in Spiritual Fact," by T. R. 'Glover, oF St. John's College, Cani*bridge; '"Toivfu'ds Unity," by 'Cardinal Jfercicr; "Education and ftnligion Among Working Men," by William Temple, . headmaster of Heptoii; "The Labour Movement in Iteliglon." bv F. Herbert, Stead; "The Attittelo of Ger--IH3U Protestant Theology to the Bible." by. Adolf von Schlatlcr; and "Tho Works of Professor Ernst Trooltseh," by Friedricli von Huge). Cardinal Merctev in his article "Towards Unity" makes 'interesting reference to the tendency of recent- French thoiigt.it. After giving an outline. of j the views of Olte-Lapruno, to whom • "fell tlio mission of awakening Berg- i eon, Le Hoy, Wilbois, Mawric© Bjondel, to philosophic reflection," Cardinal Mot- ■ eier sketches the teaching of Bergsoii, ■ and then goes on to say: Tho God of M. YViihois and 13. Blon- ■ del is no longer the pahflicistie, willynilly becoming of Bergson, on the path of perpetual reepiistrnctwn, to wliich tho mysterious docp of the sau'l would adhere, subject to the mipiii&o of an unconscious determination; it is tlio transcendent, personal God, The moral and tho religious Jifo aro linked to*Kotlior. And it h no slight consolation for a Christian and Catholic coftscience to see thinkers, wlio.se honesty and authority no one questions) - pushing tho penetrating logic' af . their deductions to tlio conclusions which wo are glad to reproduce here;'— "1 am as great as hmrtanity," says M. AVilliois, "niid greater, siisco I add to it what I am at present, and as real a-s.tbat juration of which I am-aug meiiting tho tension, and more rea.i'. Aml t me, sovereign master of this sireliirig tide, some iV'-cmld wish to makeme say t-hat I am but a phenomenon as frail as a •ImbMo that bursts. The great- .stumbling-block for motlern reason is not .immortality, but death, and thus, is born a new' virtue, which \r& call hope."

"Faith and, liopo are only stages on the read to charity. To live completely"—it is still M," Wilbois w!w 'speaks —"we mast love nil men. But our heart 'cannot expand in this aiwiiy-' moiis crowd, or value it for pctCectiouswhich. it- does not possess; the heart must take refuge in Him who has already miraculously permitted it to believe and to hope. It must giva itsrlf passionately to tho lifting up into which God carries it. and must' henceforward lovo in (Jod those who arc making tlio ascent side by side with it.

... If I have not charity, I am as aon-cststcnt as the sounding bras-s arid the tinkling cymbaL .because, in our history, it is the acts of charity that presto a little mere of humanity": if duration is tko essence' of the spirit) charity is the vvoli of duration. "These throe virtues do not bind mi* directly to God: between Him,a«d me," the author concludes* ''there are intermediaries;; by right, those intermediaries are'tho whole human race; in font, they are the Church, Christianity presents tis a teaching a»d : a practical morality, more specially the use of tho sacraments. If th© Christian verity had to bo contained to. three* words, we would sum it up hi ihrt formula; God' mado .man. Our moral life, in its turn., avid our sacramental existence eaii bo resumed-,iaj, this .foranila, the inverse of the formula of.-the. dogmas: Man lifted up to Goi ' "Now tho double- movement, descent of tho Divine, into our thought and risiug of pur practice; towards the Piviiio, does riot establish a contact !ietw«p;n Oocl and tho individual, hut between Ood and society. Oiir fundamental dogmas are social in effect;' 4 ■