The Equinox (Volume I, Number IX)

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 66