Christian Apologetics

IF it be true that a book well recommended by competent critics is sure of a hearty welcome from thoughtful readers, the present volume will find favor with the Catholic public. During the fifteen years of its existence the French original has passed through twelve editions. It has been praised by the Catholic press and has received a flattering recognition on the part of cardinals and prelates. Thus Cardinal Mazzella wrote to the author: "You unite with soundness of doctrine the clearness of exposition which the intelligence of the pupil requires, and you treat your subjects with the reserve necessary to permit the professor to add his own developments. I hope that your work will become a classic text-book to the great advantage of students. People of the world will also read it with profit and pleasure." Cardinal Deprez, Archbishop of Toulouse, writes: "You have given us in a very clear and concise form an excellent summary of fundamental theology. Not only the pupils for whom your work is more specially intended, but all educated men, desirous to complete their religious studies, will read it with profit. They will learn from its substantial pages to recognize the basis upon which all Christian dogma rests; they will see that if faith is frequently represented as hlindfolded, yet she is not wholly blind, and that before giving her full assent to revealed truth, she makes sure that she is not the victim of a pious illusion. I commend you for having added to your dogmatic proofs a few of the objections against religion and the Church by which, unfortunately, many unthinking minds are influenced. Your very clear and always accurate explanations will destroy fatal misunderstandings in men of good faith." Cardinal Mermillod, Bishop of Lausanne and Geneva, writes: "It is a compendium, so to speak, in which the proofs of the divinity of the Christian religion and the Catholic Church are compactly grouped and forcibly presented. But if, like the Jews rebuilding Jerusalem, you keep the trowel in one hand, the sword is in the other; you refute victoriously in the name of science the objections against the books of Moses, and in the name of history the accusations frequently launched against the Catholic Church. In defence of the books of Moses and to show the harmony which exists between the Pentateuch and geology or profane history, you have summed up long works, among others the learned folios of the Abbe Vigouroux. Your manner of stating questions enables you to refute in advance objections not yet stated, but which may arise later. You have facilitated the task of apologist for yourself in your authoritative work by ever bearing in mind St. Augustine's .principle: In necessaris unitas, in dubiis libertas, in omnibus caritas. Your book is characterized by method, lucidity, accurateness, and conciseness; and one recognizes in its pages the work of an eloquent professor." Mgr. Vigne, Archbishop of Avignon, writes: "I shall recommend it the more willingly that, in my opinion, it meets the needs of our time, and that, in addition to its being incontestably opportune, it has the essential merit of clearness, solidity of doctrine, and brevity. Ignorance of the truths of religion is the great evil of our day, and undoubtedly one of the chief causes of the weakening of the faith among us. Therefore, Rev. Father, I should like to see your book in the hands of all young people."