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Show 0burcb asidjbe Bible, Bible Religion Has for Its End and Aim the Destruction of Catholicity. (Written for Inter-Mountain Catholic.) The object of my last communication was to show that the Bible, taken as a religious guide, and as the foundation of a religious creed, when separated from a divine tribunal, leads to doubt, and ultimately to bold denials of all religion. Facts prove this to be true. The descendants of the Reformers have in all lands found their chief strength, vitality and zeal not in the written word, but in warring against the Catholic Cath-olic Church. Take away Catholic influence in-fluence from any community or country coun-try and subject It only to Bible religion, pure and simple, and what will be or has been the result? Decay of all religious re-ligious thought. In the contest which has been going on for well nigh four centuries, all Protestants seek to count themselves victorious if they succeed in making Catholics apostatize, or deny the faith of their fathers. Should the apostates become rank infidels, like A'oltaire, Renan and others, it matters not. The attle is won, even though it be for infidelity or skepticism. The Catholic church is willing to reason rea-son out her claims to be the lineal descendant de-scendant of the early Christian church, which had its foundation on the Incarnation Incar-nation of the Second Person of the Adorable Trinity. Resting her divine authority on these claims, her teachings teach-ings must be true. An appeal to the written word to convict her of teaching teach-ing error must be held in abeyance, till it is first proven that she is not the lineal descendant of the primitive Christian church, authorized and commissioned com-missioned by the Savior to "go forth and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost." But how prove this? Impossible. I History and tradition combined prove the contrary. The Church teaches and has taught from the beginning the in-i in-i dissolubility of marriage, the Real I Presence of Christ in the Blessed Eucharist, Eu-charist, the sacrament of Penance as the means instituted by Christ to reconcile rec-oncile the sinner to God. The whole world opposes the first dogma, and will be freed from matrimonial entanglements entangle-ments if all things do not go smooth in the home. The English parliament pronounced the second dogmatic teaching teach-ing idolatrous, while all Reformers have railed against the last. Are they contrary to the written word? There must be a court of inquiry to decide. Texts of Scriptures favoring Catholic teaching cannot form such court; nor can the views of those who oppose Catholic interpretation be accepted as a proper court, for they have prejudged and taken it for granted that the Catholic Cath-olic church is wrong. Again, at best, their decision is fallible falli-ble and may, for aught they know, be wrong. Are any or all of aforesaid doctrines Innovations, introduced in time by a pope? If so. name the pope, j and tell us what century they were I proposed, for the belief of the Catholic world. Come down to particulars, and cease dealing in vague generalities. You speak of corruption, greed, ambition am-bition and sale of indulgences, etc. But what are all these to your purpose? Do they destroy the divine work and mission for which Christ died on the cross and arose the third day to establish es-tablish his divinity? Your argument only touches the human element of the church established by Christ, and cannot can-not reach the divine element, any more than malfeasance in office of duly I elected officers affect the constitution I of the United States. j Are you aware that your arguments j when pressed to their logical cor.r lu-I lu-I sions militate against the divinity of the Christian religion itself, and therefore there-fore as much against Protestants as against Catholics? The object of missionary mis-sionary zeal is not the salvation of souls, or to discover truth and obey its teachings, but to destroy or elude Catholicism. Ca-tholicism. They labor in season and out of season to detach Catholics from the Church, and if they succeed their mission is accomplished. Better in their eyps is a downright scoffer of religion re-ligion than a man who would walk the street with a Rosary in his hands and counting his "Hail Marys" as he quietly- passfs by. Mark the difference between missionary mission-ary zeal in the Philippines an, I in the United States. That a. knowledge of the Bible is much more needed by inhabitants in-habitants of the southern states than native Filipinos cannot be denied. 'ut tfte latter are Catholics, and the work of destruction which began with the first protest made by Luther must be adhered to. The zealous missionaries gloss over their conduct, and are me-i me-i thodical in justifying it in their own eyes. According to the old adage, "Cows far from home wear long horns," so it is in our nrwiy acquired territories. The natives are described as semi-savage, on a level with the American Indians, and must be reclaimed re-claimed by Bible religion, or no religion.! re-ligion.! It is only from honest hearts, who discard popularity and love justice and fair play, that we look for tlie true state of the inhabitants of our f riental possessions, who are deemed illiterate and unable to govern themselves. Of such stuff is Senator Shafrotli nr J Colorado, w ho recently visited the isands. made. In a communication to the Rocky Mountain News he says: "When I am told that they alone (the native Filipinos) make the observations and intricate calculations at the Manila Ma-nila observatory, and that prior to the insurrection there were 210 schools In : the islands and 5,000 students in attendance attend-ance at the Manila university; when I find the better . class living in good, substantial and sometimes elegant houses, and many of them pursuing professional occupations, I cannot but conclude that it is a base slander to compare these people to the Apaches or other American Indians. Even the civilizing test of Christianity is in their favor, as a greater proportion are members of the Church than among-our among-our own people. Of the 8.000,000 of inhabitants in-habitants Mr. Sawyer in his work on the Philippine islands asserts that 5-869.000 5-869.000 are Christian natives." Nearly 6.non,ooo out of 8,000,000 are Christian natives that is. Catholics. Compare results between the work accomplished ac-complished by Protestant missionaries among savages, and that of the friars and monks in the Philippines, and In no country and at no time did they succeed suc-ceed within sighting distance of the work done by the Church in the Philippine Phil-ippine islands. They may now strive to overthrow that work, and even, if it were possible, to blot out her existence: exist-ence: but in the end they will be better Christians? A new- field of labor may for the time inspire zeal, but the retrograde retro-grade movement will naturally and logically tend in the end to infidelity and skepticism. (Concluded.) |