priest of Heure le Romain; Chabot, parish
priest of Foret; Dossogne, parish priest of Hockay; Reusonnet, curate of
Olme; Bilande, chaplain of the Institute of Deaf Mutes at Bouge; Docq, a
priest, and others.]

There is nothing to reply. The reply remains the secret of God.

Yes, dearest brethren, it is the secret of God. He is the Master of
events and the Sovereign Director of the human multitude. _Domini est
terra et plenitudo ejus; orbis terrarum et universi qui habitant in eo._
The first relation between the creature and his Creator is that of
absolute dependence. The very being of the creature is dependent;
dependent are his nature, his faculties, his acts, his works.

At every passing moment that dependence is renewed, is incessantly
reasserted, inasmuch as, without the will of the Almighty, existence of
the first single instant would vanish before the next. Adoration, which
is the recognition of the sovereignty of God, is not, therefore, a
fugitive act; it is the permanent state of a being conscious of his own
origin. On every page of the Scriptures Jehovah affirms His sovereign
dominion.

The whole economy of the old law, the whole history of the chosen
people, tend to the same end--to maintain Jehovah upon His throne and to
cast idols down. "I am the first and the last. I am the Lord, and there
is none else; there is no God beside Me. I form the light and create
darkness, I make peace and create evil. Woe to him that gainsayeth his
maker, a sherd of the earthen pots. Shall the clay say to him that
fashioneth it, What art thou making, and thy work is without hands? Tell
ye, and come, and consult together. A just God and a Saviour, there is
none beside Me."

Ah, did the proud reason of mankind dream that it could dismiss our God?
Did it smile in irony when through Christ and through His Church He
pronounced the solemn words of expiation and of repentance? Vain of
fugitive successes, O light-minded man, full of pleasure and of wealth,
hast thou imagined that thou couldst suffice even to thyself?

Then was God set aside in oblivion, then was He misunderstood, then was
He blasphemed, with acclamation, and by those whose authority, whose
influence, whose power had charged them with the duty of causing His
great laws and His great order to be revered and obeyed. Anarchy then
spread among the lower ranks of mankind, and many sincere consciences
were troubled by the evil example. How long, O Lord, they wondered, ho