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Show : ? & g 4 S "$ ? $ $ S $ V . - , w Z DENVER. 8 . ! ? 8S? ' A QUESTION OF FAITH. Denver, Colo., Nov. 20, '92. To the Editor of The Intermountain and Colorado Catholic: Dear Sir. It often happens in my daily work that I run across Protestants, Protest-ants, who are ever anxious to make , .a tilt at Catholicity. I have a friend with whom I have many conversations. I believe he is a Methodist; but no matter mat-ter what he is, I think he is in earnest about his soul. The other day he met me in the street and said: "Oh! I have a little book 1 would like you to read, will you read it?" I answered "yes." 'Will you really read a Protectant Pro-tectant book?" Queried he. "Certain- , ly," -:uid I. He brought in his little book. I care- j luily road it. l oeneve me uue "Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth." I found it to be as like as two peas i to many others I had read. The real 's.enoe of the work was to have "Justification "Jus-tification by Faith." The next day I returned his little booK to him with the following: note: Denver Colo., Nov. 15, '93. Dear Charley. I have read your little lit-tle book with great pleasure. I have, during the past fortnight read a work by a Second Adventist, who predicts and irys to prove that the coming of Christ is due Sept. 20, 1900 or 1901 (I forget which,) but that matters little as the same predicted this event for I have also read a lecture delivered de-livered in Boston by one Judge Ewing u on the "Christian Science Standard." Truly Protestantism, in its many and varied forms is a complex study. I h cannot understand it. I think It most ly comes from the poor foundation it is built upon, viz: the private interpre- I Itation of the Scriptures, and this Against the direct statement of the word itself that "No scripture is of a private interpretation." "There is no doctrine, l.owever damnable, damn-able, that cannot be backed up with texts of scripture. A man may study nd study the Bible until he becomes, a raving maniac, and yet know nothing of it, without the right foundation, I Millions have gone to heaven Mio nev- I er saw a Bible. To me, the Bible is I the inspired word of God. If it is so to I you. let me ask you to prove your au- f thnrity for so believing, j "I shall only notice two chapters in I your little book, viz: Those on the Church and on Faith, because, as you know, faith is the foundation, "Without "With-out Faith it is impossible to please God, and without the 'Church we can- examine and see what the church, and what faith, really are. On page seven Mr. S. epeaks with great force on the church. 'One Church,' 'One Body, he reiterates, and if you will turn to first Corinthians 12-23, you will find that this one church is to be whole and sound; that there shall be no schism or division in it. It must be one in faith (I. E. doctrine.) Now get your dictionary and your Bible; but before you do so, let me say, complexity of doctrine will never save your soul. You must begin aright. i Faith, hope, charity, is the starting point. What is the good of you carry -ing your Bible around with you. to be continually worrying out a lot of badly selected verses, and then put them together to-gether (or divide them as you choose) to try and prove some point, and, after all, prove nothing; and even worse, they may not even mean what you have in mind? What is the New Testament? -I have a Jewish Scripture and. turn only to the 1 " new. he says. Let me ask you, what is it? I. of course, must answer, but it's the right answer. "The original account ac-count of the rise of Christianity." Am. Knc, Vol I, pag 309. It was compiled in about its present form somewhere near A. D. 280; authorized au-thorized by the Catholic Bishops of tiie Christian Church about 40S Cfifth century); cen-tury); declared to be the only authorized author-ized version and inspired Word of God in the fifth century by the Council of Carthagena. I believe; corrected of about 120.000 errors (the whole book) by the twelfth century: put into chapters chap-ters by a Cardinal in tiie thirteenth or fourteenth century; done into verses by a Monk in about the fourteenth or fifteenth fif-teenth century; given to the world at large to read in the eighteenth or nineteenth nine-teenth r-entllrv ami millinnc can't rcA it today. This is all from memory, but it's about correct. That is what the New Testament is. Now, then, what is the Church? The general or collective col-lective body of Christians throughout the world (Worcester). The Church is undoubtedly one (Wheatley). The Church is the rrfigious society that was founded by Jesus Christ in the year ".I, in the city of Jerusalem; when Christ gave his apostolic commission to the Apostles: "Thou are Peter, and 011 this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against her." He established a religious relig-ious society of which Peter was the head: a real, perfect society. "The : kingdom of heaven on earth." He gathered around Him men. twelve of them. He called them Apostles (means sent). He created them priests and .hishops. and gave them power to elect .others to succeed them. He gave theai power to loose and to bind, and made Peter their leader. (Read Matt, xvi; John xxi. 15.) But it was not such an incorporation as you have in your inind. say you? Why, Charlie, vou knight -as well tell me the H. E. Mining Company that you organized a few years ago was not a real incorporation; incorpora-tion; that the president and board of directors were not appointed; that the stock you sold was not stock, but only symbolic of stock; and I would accept' it much easier Than I would believe that when Christ said to His Apostles, "Co." and when He said "Receive Ye the Holy Ghost; whose sins ye forgive, they are forgiven," and when he said "Upon whomsoever you shall lay your hands, they shall receive the Holy Ghost," were mere empty words. This matter you must "admit, if you read your Bible, is not honestly put by Mr. S. 1 would advise you to put away your helps to reading the Bible, and turn to the book itself. Begin at Matthew. Mat-thew. Ask yourself. What is it? What am I jroinsr to read? Th iiistm-v- r- memoirs of Jesus, written by Matthew. (It might not have been written by Matthew, but that matters not.) When was it written. Several years after Christ's resurrection. Read it straight through. Don't pick out a bit here and a bit there. Get a scribbling pad and make a memorandum of things as they turn up. Any command or instruction. in-struction. Notice how Peter stands. Make head.: Doctrine. Church pos-tlcs. pos-tlcs. To Whom Said. Time. Condition, Condi-tion, cle. When you read anvthing reported re-ported to have been said by Jesus, put before it: At that time Jesus saw so-and-so. Bet your inquiries be governed by good judgment and common sense. Be honest in your dealings with God and He will g!ve you grace. Grace! Now. what is grace? The supernatural supernatur-al gift of God to the soul. It is by the grace of God that I hold the Catholic faith. Faith let us understand that aright. Faith is to believe without doubting whatever God has revealed. Now we come to the parting of the ways. But how has God revealed this truth? How made His revelation to us. In one way only: Through His Church, and in no other way. "We are saved by grace through faith." Not through reading the Bible. Oh, no! Not that way. Have 1 not shown you that the Testa-! Testa-! ment was not in existence "for hundreds of years until Christ had gone up to heaven. Some of the best Christians that pver lived I never heard of the Bible. Millions that diii for the faith nvpr henrd of such a thing. They had great faith. They got it from the right place, the Church. Matt, xviii. 15-20. Faith is not believing believ-ing anything you fancy suits you. A few weeks ago I heard a lawyer express an opinion, after reading the reported sermon, of a Denver minister on the Lord's Supper. He said: "That fellow's all right." That's my opinion. Then he read the opinion of another minister on the same subject, and he said: "I guess that fellow's all right, I too." Yet one contradicted the other. ; "Devils believe and tremble." It is having divine faith. The faith once delivered de-livered to the Apostles, and Saints; the faith committed to those who am commissioned to keep it, until the end of time. It covers a large field, but you'll find it "most comprehensively set forth in the Apostle's Creed. The oldest and most comprehensive creed of Christianity." No. sir. A man cannot read aright the New Testament if he does not understand un-derstand what, the church is. So you siee I cannot accept any interpretation of Scripture, or any bond of faith, unless un-less it comes from the. 'authoritative source, viz., the Church that Christ es tablished to teach men: the Church to which he committed the deposit of faith, and promised to keep pure and holy, and to guide into all truth until the end of time. Self-made, self-constituted teachers 1 have no use for. May God bless you. Yours, as ever. H. A. W. HAPPENINGS AT ST. MARY'S ACADEMY. On Nov. 26 the Sisters of Loretto had exposition of the Blessed Sacrament all day long in their exquisite chapel. The I- MAYOR DANIEL TALLON" AND JOHN E, HEDMOND. Irishmen in Denver, and in fact everywhere in the intermountain country, coun-try, regret the inability of the Lord Mayor of Dublin and Hon. John E. Redmond to visit us. A grand reception recep-tion was in course of preparation at Denver when the word came that the distinguished Irish leaders had found occasion for this privilege was a reparation rep-aration for the desecration of the I Blessed Sacrament which occurred at St. Elizabeth's church, West Denver on the night of Nov. 15. The Sacred Heart in the tabernacle must have been consoled by the loving adoration which was kept up so fervently fer-vently all day, not only by the Sisters, but by crowds of the devout faithful. Who visited the convent eharel fr-nm morning until evening of the favored day. On Thanksgiving eve the junior department de-partment of the Academy gave a most delightful entertainment to parents and friends in the large study hall of the Academy. The "Gypsy Queen," a cantata, was charmingly rendered by the dear little people, who also excelled themselves by many beautiful musical numbers, both vocal and instrumental, interspersed inter-spersed with recitations amusing and otherwise. Many a proud parent carried home a delighted and happy heart that evening because cf the success of the dear little ones who gave such a pleasurable surprise sur-prise by their "own entertainment" as they termed it. On Dec. 21 one of the finest entertainments entertain-ments that have ever been' given in the institution will be held in the auditorium audito-rium iof the Academy. The musical numbers will be rendered ren-dered by the St. Mary's orchestra, the elocutionary selections by the graduates gradu-ates and senior students, and the magnificent mag-nificent drama, "Pontia. the Daughter of Pilate," by a number of the alumnae of St. Mary's. ' |