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Show ZU Branch Should Be United cUiln the Uin; i , 1 . (Written for The Intermountain Catholi,-.) To stem the tide of infidelity, and retain . ligious belief, are momentous questions. Promi-ien-churchmen give their opinions as to the eau-c ,v the decay in religion. They susrgest a variety of methods for a new revival of religious belief. ' Th opinions are very divergent, and how to get. sfrnich. in the confused ideas that arc suggested is the problem of the age. The Bible,, the great palladium of Protectant-ism, Protectant-ism, is now considered insufricienr by its stroma adherents to preserve religious unity or impose ' an authoritative religion. And. as religion with-out with-out divine authority is merely a matter of opinion, opin-ion, adherence to churches becomes a matter ef taste or preference. : ' Canon llenson's article on '"The Future of t!i? Bible" has brought down upon him the mot .-r-vere criticism. Because h? said: "We want to sup- plement the canonical Scriptures by the Christ inn compositions which have secured the approval of general acceptance, just as in the worship of tin church the Psalter has been supplemented by hymns and anthems." His critics say that the eauu J . ' "is bundling the Bible out of the church."' V M. Sabatier. another Protectant - divine, in .if book recently published on "Authority in Religion'' says: "The days of religious authority arc numbered, but the Papacy is likely to last the longest." After experimenting with the Bible for three and a half centuries on the principle of pri- I vate interpretation, and deducing from the inspired in-spired word all shades of belief, from the High Church of England and rigid Calvinism down to agnosticism, they now realize the necessity of supremacy su-premacy in governing and infallibility in teaching ' the truth. Without these two. unity and catholicity cannot exist. Both are attributes of the Catholic church, and claimed by her ever since the Church ; ? was founded and built by Our Lord on Peter. With- out these attributes, namclv. Peters successor as ! supreme governor and infallible teacher, the his- tory of the Church for the past twenty centuries is not easily explained. It dates back to the days of Peter, who was commissioned to "feed the lambs and sheep," and, without interruption, has been exercised ex-ercised down through the centuries. It was one of ' i the objections urged by the pagans against the ' Christian Church as early as the- second century, and, whilst reason and common sense still demands ' its necessity, it is the bone of contention today for ' those who seek for it in vain outside the Catholic church. "The days of religious authority are numbered" for all who separate themselves from lawful authority. au-thority. "Spiritual power," writes St. Thomas, "is twofold one sacramental, the other jurisdictional.-' Suarez adds: "The pontifical power is, as it were, the primal example of all spiritual power of jurisdiction, juris-diction, for no one will deny that that is a true power of active jurisdiction; nay, in that order is the highest that can exist in mere man." He then shows how bishops share in this spiritual power. "The proper power of jurisdiction is granted to other bishops by election or simple concession, not by consecration the episcopal beinr but. a certain participation of the Papal power." To be united with the Church and participate in its divine life, all the faithful, like the members of the body, must be united with the head. A limb severed from the tree cannot share in the sap that comes from the roots through the trunk to the other . limbs. "As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself. unless it abide in the vine, so neither cm v-.ni. UM- 1 P less you abide in me." In the sixteenth century the reformers erred in severing all connection with the vine and start iiu anew the work of the Savior. Whatever the laxity that may have prevailed at that period, the evils should have been reformed, as, they hail been in the past, through a general council, in which tli-' branches remained united with the vine. "I am tim vine; you the branches; he that abideth in nie, and I in him. the same bcareth much fruit, for without with-out me you can do nothing." But in attempting t" remedy the existing evils they did not abide with ; the vine; rny, rather they were lopped off, and today to-day their work is fruitless and run to seed. "If any one abide not in me, he shall be cast forth as a branch, and shall wither." (Johntv.) j Whether within the Church or out of it. there can be no spiritual growth, no lively active faith without an intimate vnion with tho fountain and source of divine authority. A bran?h can receive its sustaining power (the juice) from the root only through tho trunk, and any attempt to sustain itself it-self independently has always proved a failure. They may remain stationary for a time, nay, even roadshow road-show more life for a brief period than the. trunk, but eventually they wither away aud become dry rot. All this we now sec verified. Hence the doleful dole-ful cry of many honest, sincere and .enlightened ministers of the Gospel over the decadence of religion, re-ligion, and their inability to revivify the faith. I'10 branch must be united with the vine, i. e., the sue- . cesor of Peter-and the other apostles, or "it can- . V not bear, fruit, of itself." If this command, which ' : i is divine, is not adhered to, the results, which are j I unerring, will be the same. I jj |
