Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

28 THE GODS OF THE NATIONSunseen objects of worship in visible characters ofwood or stone, if, finally, the ignorance of thetrue God, together with the beauty of the creaturesubstituted for Him,26 were the disposing causeswithin man to idolatry, there was a cause outsideof him which must not be forgotten. When welook upon this idolatry, occupying not one countryor race, but all; not merely bewildering savage oruncivilised man, " but throned in the chief seats ofthe world's choicest civilisation : when we loolupon its endlessly divergent forms, its palpablecontradictions, its cherished or commanded immoralities,its crowd of debasing, irrational, heterogeneoussuperstitions, its cruelty, sensuality, andfearfulness, all these being no less an insult toman's reason than a derogation from God's majesty,who is there that does not feel this to be thestrangest and most astonishing sight which historypresents to man ? And yet there is a unity whichruns through it all, and stamps it with a doublemark. ^Not only is it a service due from manto God, which is paid by him to the creaturerather than to the Creator,27 but more especiallyit is that service paid by man to God's enemies,the fallen angels. These it is who have assumed26 See S. Thomas, Summa, 2, 2, q. 94, a. 4.27 Of this whole polytheism in the mass S. Paul pronounces the judgment: Olrives /j.er'fjXXaav rrjv aA7]0etcw rov &eov eV T£ t//eu5et, /cat 6eXdrpsva-av ry Kruret irapa rbv Krliravra. Rom. i. 25. And the Psalmistadds :"Or* irdvres ol 0eot ruv tQv&v 8ai/j.6via' 6 Se Kvpios rovs ovpavovs e'TroSept. xcv. 5. See also Ps. cv. 37.