Catholic Religion (A Statement of Christian Teaching and History)

The story is told of the late Samuel Stehman Halde- man, the distinguished naturalist of the University of Pennsylvania and founder of the National Academy of Sciences, that when asked by his friends what brought him to the threshold of the church, he would reply: "Bugs!"

Then with good nature he answered their astonish- ment by explaining that even the smallest insect pre- served in his cabinets, possessed the organism neces- sary for its proper activities. Head and members he always found working together as one body. His science thus led him to expect that if a church-as the embodiment of religion, were really part of the divine plan, and so had its place in the world, that church would be equipped by the common Creator, with the organization and means of action proper to it, as carefully at least, as is the beetle of a day. What his hypothesis demanded, Professor Haldeman believed he found realized in Catholic Christianity.

Men are commonly enough impressed by the social organization of the church. A society of almost 300 millions of human beings, natives of every race and land, speaking a hundred different languages and dialects, bound together by no political ties or material power or interests, "Greek and barbarian, black and white, bond and free," a human Babel otherwise,- yet standing as a unit in their faith, working out the same philosophy of life in every possible condition of society, a brotherhood of intellectual conviction and moral determination, the bishops reaching every lowly member through the parish priests and uniting all through their union with the Bishop of Rome, the church has endured for 1900 years, an institution unique in human history.

**Contents and Sample Pages**