THE EQUINOX
The Gospel says that at the death of the Saviour the veil
of the Temple was rent, because that death manifested the
triumph of devotion, the miracle of charity, the power of God
in man, divine humanity, and human divinity, the highest
and most sublime of Arcana, the last word of all initiations.
But the Saviour knew that at first men would not under-
stand him, and he said: “You will not be able to bear at
present the full light of my doctrine; but, when the Spirit of
Truth shall manifest himself, he will teach you all truth, and
he will cause you to understand the sense of what I have said
unto you.” :
Now the Spirit of Truth is the spirit of science and intelli-
gence, the spirit of force and of counsel.
It is that spirit which solemnly manifested itself in the
Roman Church, when it declared in the four articles of its
decree of the 12th December, 1845 :
1°.—That if faith is superior to reason, reason ought to
endorse the inspirations of faith ;
2°.—That faith and science have each their separate domain,
and that the one should not usurp the functions of the other;
3°.—That it is proper for faith and grace, not to weaken,
but on the contrary to strengthen and develop reason ;
4°.—That the concourse of reason, which examines, not
the decisions of faith, but the natural and rational bases of the
authority which decides them, far from injuring faith, can
only be useful to it; in other words, that a faith, perfectly
reasonable in its principles, should not fear, but should, on
the contrary, desire the sincere examination of reason.
Such a decree is the accomplishment of a complete religious
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