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Show tbe tm Brothers .XS3&n Controversial Dialogue Between a Presbyterian and His Catholic Brother, and Its Sequel. The religious controversy of the Mil-wood Mil-wood brothers comes to a close in this issue. Last week's debate had reference refer-ence to the old sterotyped objections raised against the Catholic veneration of saints and relics. John Milwood explains ex-plains the true teaching of the church to his misguided brother, who is always al-ways on the fly- John's deadly aim never reaches the brother who is continually con-tinually shifting his position. This week's final controversy shows that Catholic service consisting of the sacrifice sac-rifice of the mass is the highest form of worship, and that it is accompanied only by such pomp and ceremonies as are becoming the great unbloody sacrifice. sac-rifice. James' assumptions of idolatory and superstition are mere begging the question, without any foundation, in fact. "If idle and vain, superstitious, of course; but how do you know that they are idle and vain? Our public worship consists of the holy sacrifice of the mass, prayers and singing the praises of God. These you have no right to pronounce idle nr vain. Our sacrifice we hold to be a real sacrifice, in an unbloody manner, of a real victim; and prayers and the singing of praises have, by the common consent of . mankind, man-kind, the authority for deternining what is the law of nature, always been held to be appropriate parts of public worship. Much of what you call idle ceremony and vain observance is integral in-tegral in the worship itself, and what is not absolutely essential is adopted for the sake of decency, solemnity, and the edification of the faithful." "I am not edified by it." "Because you are one of the faithful faith-ful and do not worship. Satin, no doubt, could himself bring the objection to our worship, which you do. Our worship wor-ship is adapted to the edification of those who worship, not of those "who do not." "But your worship is calculated to lead the weak and ignorant into idolatry idol-atry and superstition." "It will be time to consider that objection ob-jection when you have shown that a Catholic, by practicing what the church enjoins or permits, is rendered superstitious." super-stitious." "But the superstition is in supposing that honoring the relics is honoring the saint." "The law of nature teaches the reverse; re-verse; for that teaches us. that honor to what belonged to another, because it belonged to him, is a pious and affecting af-fecting mode of honoring him. Hence the universality of funeral ceremonies, the marks of respect which all men j show to the relics of their deceased ! friends, especially to the remains of ! those held to be deserving of honor for their rank, their virtues, their services, their heroic deeds; and surely none are more deserving of honor than the saints of God." ;. ',, .' ' "Your feasts, fasts,' and external observances ob-servances are all -superstitious." "How do you prove-that?" "They are all external and mechanical; mechan-ical; and to expect spiritual effects from them is to look for effects from inadequate causes." "The law of nature commands us to worship God externally as well as internally, in-ternally, and an external worship must needs be external. The fact that what you object to is external is, therefore, no ground of objection. Feasts or festivals are merely days set apart for public thanksgiving'to God for his mercies mer-cies and favors to us; in becoming man for us, in suffering- and dying for us, in rising: again for,'. lis. in, sending us the Holy Ghost, in raising up and giving giv-ing to us such or such a saint, etc. If kept according to the intent of the church, internal as. well as external thanks are rendered by each worshiper, worship-er, and. therefore, the . observance of the festival is not and cannot be mechanical. me-chanical. The ?aw of nature commands the giving of thanks to God; and perhaps per-haps even the mere external observance observ-ance of appointed seasons for public thanksgiving is better than no observance observ-ance at all. Fasts are for the morti- I fieation of the body: they are admir-I admir-I ably adapted to that end: and the light of nature teaches us that the mortification mortifica-tion of the body is wholesome for th soul. Moreover, to fast, as required, is also to fast with proper interior dispositions. dis-positions. You cannot, then, say either that in them there is only a mechanical mechan-ical action, or that we look for effects from inadequate causes." "But the idle ceremonies and vain observances of your public worship are superstitious." "Your worship is exceedingly offensive." of-fensive." "To whom? To Protestants? The-i iet them become Catholics especially since they have no warrant from Almighty Al-mighty God to be anything else." "Your church is exceedingly impolitic. impoli-tic. The practices to which we object may have been very well in dark and superstitious ages, but men in this enlightened en-lightened and scientific age demand a more pure and spiritual worship." "The policy you would recommend to the church, then, is to be superstitious with the superstitious, and irreligious with the irreligious? If her practices could have a superstitious tendency, it is precisely in a dark and superstitious age in which they would be dangerous, and when it would be least proper to insist on them. If this age be what you suppose, it is precisely now that they are most appropriate, as being in opposition to dominent tendencies. But j the church is not reduced to the necessity neces-sity of taking the advice of those who despise her, and very possibly the age is not so enlightened as it appears to those whose eyes are accustomed only to the twilight. Have you anything more to add?" "There is no use in continuing the discussion. Let, me say what I will, you will dispose of it by declaring it irrelevant, or by a sophistical distinction." distinc-tion." "Do you keep your word and give up the reformers and the reformation?" "You have not made me a Roman-J Roman-J ist." "I have not attempted to do that; I have simply demanded of you a reason why you are a Protestant." "I have given you reasons which satisfy sat-isfy me, and that is enough. Each of you must answer for himself and not for another." "You pledged yourself if you failed to convict the church of idolatry and superstition, to give up the Protestant cause. Do you regard yourself as having hav-ing made our your case?" "There is no use in multiplying words. My mind is made up." "My choice is made. I was born a Protestant, I have lived a Protestant, and I will die a Protestant." "If you choose death, you, no doubt, can have it. Almighty God forces no man to enter into life." "I take the responsibility; and nothing noth-ing can move me." Here the conversation ended, and ths two brothers separated. John entered en-tered a religious house, where he resides, re-sides, devoting himself wholly to religion. re-ligion. James remains the minister of his congregation. He has recently married again and he appears to have forgotten his domestic afflictions. He continues at the head of the "Protestant "Protest-ant League," is louder than ever in praise of the reformers and the glorious glor-ious reformation, and more violent than ever in his denunciations of Catholics Cath-olics and Catholicity. Humanly speaking, speak-ing, there is no hope of his conversion. It is to be feared that James Milwood is the type of a large class of Protestant Protest-ant ministers. I would judge no individual, in-dividual, but it seems to me that the notion many people have that Protestants Protest-ants are generally in good faith and ready to embrace the truth if presented to them, rests on no adequate authority. author-ity. So far as I have known Protestants, Protest-ants, they are ready to say, as said a Protestant minister to me the other day, "I would rather be damned than be a Catholic." (The End.) |