s for and against
are either insufficient or equally plausible, and they fail to lodge
conviction in his mind of minds. Elevated upon this pedestal of wisdom,
he pretends to dismiss all further consideration of the First Cause.
But he does no such thing, for he lives as though God did not exist.
Why not live as though He did exist! From a rational point of view, he
is a bigger fool than his atheistic brother, for if certainty is
impossible, prudence suggests that the surer course be taken. On one
hand, there is all to gain; on the other, all to lose. The choice he
makes smacks of convenience rather than of logic or common sense.

No one may be accused of genuine, or as we call it--formal--heresy,
unless he persistently refuses to believe all the truths by God
revealed. Heresy supposes error, culpable error, stubborn and
pertinacious error. A person may hold error in good faith, and be
disposed as to relinquish it on being convinced of the truth. To all
exterior appearances, he may differ in nothing from a formal heretic,
and he passes for a heretic. In fact, and before God, he belongs to the
Church, to the soul of the Church; he will be saved if in spite of his
unconscious error he lives well. He is known as a material heretic.

An infidel is an unbaptized person, whose faith, even if he does
believe in God, is not supernatural, but purely natural. He is an
infidel whether he is found in darkest Africa or in the midst of this
Christian commonwealth, and in this latter place there are more
infidels than most people imagine. A decadent Protestantism rejects the
necessity of baptism, thereby ceasing to be Christian, and in its trail
infidelity thrives and spreads, disguised, 'tis true, but nevertheless
genuine infidelity. It is baptism that makes faith possible, for faith
is a gift of God.

An apostate is one who, having once believed, ceases to believe. All
heretics and infidels are not apostates, although they may be in
themselves or in their ancestors. One may apostatize to heresy by
rejecting the Church, or to infidelity by rejecting all revelation; a
Protestant may thus become an apostate from faith as well as a
Catholic. This going back on the Almighty--for that is what apostasy
is,--is, of all misfortunes the worst that can befall man. There may be
excuses, mitigating circumstances, for our greatest sins, but here it
is useless to seek for any. God gives faith. It is lost only through
our own fault. God abandons