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Show An Explanation Explained. Editor Intermountain Catholic: 1 In replying to your correspondent,, M. H. Linicome, you quote from Rev. Van Der Donckt's book. Ecclesiastics xxx.:8: "Honor the physician," etc. To verify the text quoted, I have examined ex-amined your own authorized version (the Douay Bible) and find only twelve chapters in the book referred to; also, "the most High hath created medicines out of the earth," 1 etc. (xxxiii.:4 Ecclesiastics). Again those books have not been admitted as scriptural scrip-tural in some Bibles. Now explain these errors? CHRISTIAN SCIENTIST Salt Lake City, Dec. 4. OUR ESTEEMED correspondent is right in the quotations referred to. Like the physician unable to ! account for the cause of death and who invariably attributes it to heart j failure, we must lay, too, the blame to the printer and call it a typograph-1 typograph-1 ical error. Had our correspondent Father Van ; Der Donckt's book, from which the quotations were taken, in his possession, posses-sion, he would see the mistake. Both quotations are from Ecclesiasticus xxxviii., verses 1 to 13. Kindly read same in Douay Bible, and you will find that they do not harmonize with Mrs. Eddy's doctrine as given in "Science and Health," page 75. ; As to the books which constitute the canon of Scriptures, it is a serious question, and one which our corre-spondent corre-spondent will not himself undertake to ' j decide; yet. until that is decided, there ; can be no authentic record or Bible to ' quote from. Why? Because if the Bible contains books which are not : authentic or omits books that are au-j au-j thf r.tic, no appeal can be made to it, ! j for in the former case he may take j for revelation what is not a truly repealed re-pealed book, and in the latter leave ' I out what is true revelation. That is i j so self-evident that unless some court j I decides the canon of Scriptures, any j appeal to the Bible can not be admit- icu m vMuence: tor tne answer given once by a divine who was not overburdened over-burdened with Scriptural lore, "it may be in your Bible, but it is not in mine," could be always given. The supreme court which decides, the canon must be independent of the Bible, and secondly, it must be infallible. in-fallible. Our correspondent has no infallible in-fallible authority and will admit none, except that of the Bible itself, which is not sufficient. Neither our Lord, nor his Apostles tell what books of the Old Testament were inspired. St. Paul in his second epistle to Timothy does say, "All Scripture divinely inspired is profitable." etc.. but he does not say what Scriptures are divinely inspired. On what authority, then, is the canon of Scriptures to be settled? Only on that of the Church. Eut our corre spondent denies that authority and its infallible teaching regarding the canon of the, Church. For him, then, there is no certainty as to what books either in the Old or New Testament are inspired, in-spired, "and consequently is not competent com-petent to tell what books in the Old Testament or the New Testament are divinely inspired. Rev. A'an Der Donckt takes the canon of Scriptures as defined by the Council of Trent, which includes Ecclesiasticus in the list. |