|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 11
And as surely as the need exists, so surely has God's watchful
providence supplied it, in the person of the Supreme Pontiff, the
venerable Vicar of Christ on earth. He is authorised and commissioned
by Christ Himself "to feed" with sound doctrine, both "the lambs and
the sheep"; and faithfully has he discharged that duty. "The Pope,"
writes Cardinal Newman, "is no recluse, no solitary student, no
dreamer about the past, no doter upon the dead and gone, no projector
of the visionary. He, for eighteen hundred years, has lived in the
world; he has seen all fortunes, he has encountered all adversaries,
he has shaped himself for all emergencies. If ever there was a power
on earth who had an eye for the times, who has confined himself to the
practicable, and has been happy in his anticipations, whose words have
been facts, and whose commands prophecies, such is he, in the history
of ages, who sits, from generation to generation, in the chair of the
Apostles, as the Vicar of Christ, and the Doctor of His Church."
"These are not the words of rhetoric," he continues, "but of history.
All who take part with the Apostle are on the winning side. He has
long since given warrants for the confidence which he claims. From the
first, he has looked through the wide world, of which he has the
burden; and, according to the need of the day, and the inspirations of
his Lord, he has set himself, now to one thing, now to another; but to
all in season, and to nothing in vain.... Ah! What grey hairs are on
the head of Judah, whose youth is renewed like the eagle's, whose feet
are like the feet of harts, and underneath the Everlasting Arms."
Would that our unfortunate countrymen, tossed about by every wind of
doctrine, and torn by endless divisions, could be persuaded to set
aside pride and prejudice, and to accept the true principle of
religious unity and peace established by God. Then England would
become again, what she was for over a thousand years, _viz._: "the
most faithful daughter of the Church of Rome, and of His Holiness, the
one Sovereign Pontiff and Vicar of Christ upon earth," as our Catholic
forefathers were wont to describe her.
CHAPTER IV.
THE CHURCH AND THE SECTS.
A natural tendency is apparent in all men to differ among themselves,
even concerning subjects which are simple and easily understood;
while, on more difficult and complicated issues, this tendency is, of
course, very much more pronounced. Hence, the well-known proverb:
"_Quot homines, tot sententi�_"--there are as many opinions as there
are men.
Now, if this is found to be the case in politics, literature, art,
music, and indeed in everything else, except perhaps pure mathematics,
it is found to be yet more universally the case in questions of
religion, since religion is a subject so much more sublime, abstruse,
and incomprehensible than others, and so full of supernatural and
mysterious truths, with which no merely human tribunal has any
competency to deal. Then, let me ask, what chance has a man of
arriving at a right decision on the most important of all
questions--questions concerning his own eternal salvation--who is
thrown into the midst of a world where there is no uniformity of view
on spiritual matters, where every variety of opinion is expressed and
defended, and where every conceivable form of worship has its fervent
supporters and followers.
Or, leaving all others out of account, may we not well ask how the
vast multitudes even of Catholics, scattered throughout such a world
as this, are to maintain "the unity of the Spirit in the bond of
peace" (Eph. iv. 3), to preserve the tenets of their creed intact, and
to discriminate accurately and readily between the teaching of God,
and the fallacious doctrines of men? In dealing with anxious and angry
disputants there is little use to appeal, as Protestants do, to the
authority of teachers who have nothing more to commend them than a
learning and an intelligence but little better than that of their
disciples. Where man differs from man each will prefer his own view,
and claim that his personal opinion is as deserving of respect and as
likely to be right as his adversary's--which is practically what
obtains among non-Catholics at the present day. Indeed, the only
superhuman and infallible authority on earth recognised by them is the
Bible; and that, alas! has proved a block of stumbling and not a bond
of union, since, in the hands of unscrupulous men, it may be made to
prove absolutely anything. The most sacred and fundamental truths,
even such as the sublime doctrine of the Blessed Trinity, the Divinity
of Christ, and the Atonement, have all, at one time or another, been
vehemently denied _on the authority of the Bible_! The Anglican Bishop
Colenso, in writing to the _Times_, could quote eleven texts of
Scripture to prove that prayer ought not to be offered to Our Divine
Lord! yet, it made no difference. He was allowed to go on teaching
just as before! No one seemed to care. What is "pure Gospel" to Mr.
Brown is "deadly error" to Mr. Green; while "the fundamental verities"
of Mr. Thompson are "the satanical delusions" of Mr. Johnson. In fact,
there is really less dispute among men as to the interpretation of the
Vedas, of Chinese chronology, or of Egyptian arch�ology, than of the
Bible, which, to the eternal dishonour of Protestant commentators, has
now almost ceased to have any definite meaning whatever, because every
imaginable meaning has been defended by some and denied by others. It
is beyond dispute that the Bible, without an infallible Teacher to
explain its true meaning, will be of no use whatsoever as a bond of
unity.
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|