ort to see how
that could affect their standing with God, or their disposition to help
us in our needs.

Devotions are not based on historical facts, although in certain facts,
events or happenings, real or alleged, they may have been furnished
with occasions for coming into existence. The authenticity of these
facts is not guaranteed by the doctrinal authority of the Church, but
she may, and does, approve the devotions that spring therefrom.
Independently of the truth of private and individual revelations,
visions and miracles, which she investigates as to their probability,
she makes sure that there is nothing contrary to the deposit of faith
and to morals, and then she gives these devotions the stamp of her
approval as a security to the faithful who wish to practise them. A
Catholic or non-Catholic may think what he likes concerning the
apparitions of the Virgin at Lourdes; if he is dense enough, he may
refuse to believe that miracles have been performed there. But he
cannot deny that the homage offered to Our Lady at Lourdes, and known
as devotion to Our Lady of Lourdes, is in keeping with religious
worship as practised by the Church and in consonance with reason
enlightened by faith, and so with all other devotions.

A vase of flowers, a lamp, a. burning candle before the statue of a
saint is a prayer whose silence is more eloquent than all the sounds
that ever came from the lips of man. It is love that puts it there,
love that tells it to dispense its sweet perfume or shed its mellow
rays, and love that speaks by this touching symbolism to God through a
favorite saint.

CHAPTER XXXIII.
IDOLATRY AND SUPERSTITION.

THE first and greatest sinner against religion is the idolater, who
offers God-worship to others than God. There are certain attributes
that belong to God alone, certain titles that He alone has a right to
bear, certain marks of veneration that are due to Him alone. To ascribe
these to any being under God is an abomination, and is called idolatry.

The idols of paganism have long since been thrown, their temples
destroyed; the folly itself has fallen into disuse, and its
extravagances serve only in history "to point a moral or adorn a tale."
Yet, in truth, idolatry is not so dead as all that, if one would take
the pains to peruse a few pages of the current erotic literature
wherein people see heaven in a pair of blue eyes, catch inspired words
from ruby lips and adore a well trimmed chin-whiske