THE MINISTRY

human soul harmonized enough to serve as a testimony for them, they turn instead toward nature and toward speculations drawn entirely from the external order The physical world of the senses. This is why, in our modern centuries, a number of excellent minds have employed all the resources of logic and have put all the external sciences to use in an attempt to solidly establish the existence of the Divinity; and yet, despite these numerous testimonies, never has atheism been more in fashion or extended its empire so far.

It would therefore already be a great glory for our species, just as it would be a great wisdom in Providence, for all the proofs taken from the order of this world to be so defective. For if this world could have offered us complete testimonies of the Divinity, she original: "elle." Referring to the personified Divine Providence. would have been satisfied with this witness alone; and she would have had no need to create man. Indeed, she created him only because the entire universe, despite all the magnificence it displays before our eyes, could never have manifested the true divine treasures.

Moreover, what different colors we notice in the arguments of the great writers, those defenders of the existence of God, when they take as the proof and basis of their demonstrations man himself—if not as he is, at least as he ought to be! A reference to the "Spirit-Man" or the human soul in its ideal, uncorrupted state. Their testimonies then acquire a real force, an abundance, and a fullness that satisfies all our faculties at once. These testimonies that they draw from man are gentle and seem to speak to us in the language of our own nature.

Those that they draw from the external order of this world are cold and dry, and appear like a language to

Divinity: the state or quality of being divine; used here to refer to God as the source of all things.
Atheism: the rejection of belief in the existence of deities.
Providence: divine guidance or care; often personified in the text as a guiding wisdom.
Testimony: evidence or proof provided by a witness; here, the soul is the witness to the divine.