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Show INVOCATION OF SAINTS. New York Freeman's Journal.) A Methodist paper, miscalled the Ideal American, asks: "Can you show me a passage in the Bible in which God commands us or allows us to pray to dead saints." Solomon in his chapter on fools in Proverbs, (28-5) says: "Answer a fool according to his follv. lest he imagine himself to be wise." Having a profound regard for the wisdom of Solomon we will follow his suggestion in the present case, and ask the editor of the Ideal American a question of the same trend of his own. Can you show us a passage pas-sage in the Bible in which God commands com-mands us to keep the Sunday holy, or a passage which abolishes the positive : command to keep Saturday holy? If you can find no text commanding you to keep Sunday holy, why do you keep it and insist on others keeping it? And if you can find no passage abolishing abolish-ing the command to keep Saturday-holy, Saturday-holy, why do you break once a week tne command, "Remember to Keep the Sabbath day" that is, Saturday? Imitating your generous example, we will pay you $"0 if you produce any text in the Bible commanding the observance ob-servance of Sunday, or any text abolishing abol-ishing the observance of Saturday. The lesson which we wish to inject into your head is this. .If the silence of the Bible on praying to the saints implies that we should not pray to them, then the silence of the Bible on Sunday observance implies that we should not observe that day. If you reject appeals to the best members of our race because the Bible is silent on the subject, you must reject Sunday observance for the same reason. Are you ready to accept the. logical consequence implied in your question? We think not. Then you will see how exceedingly foolish or tricky your question is. It implies that we must do nothing and believe nothing except what we find commanded in the Bible. The mere statement of your position as indicated by your question is enough to expose its fallacy. You believe that a l.allnnn filler! tvlth o-cic V11 flRcenrl if left to itself. Show us a passage in the Bible that tells you this. You eat meat on Friday; where have you a Bible command for doing so? We all believe many things that are not found in the Bible, and do not expressly com-things com-things too that are not expressly commanded com-manded in Jt. Observing Sunday and praying to the saints are instances in point. You do the former without Bible Bi-ble command, and Catholics do both without such command. . But what reason have Catholics for praying to the' saints? They have that reason which is, called i practical common sense; the same rea- j son that you have to ask the prayers of your brethren. You ask their pray- ! ers because you believe they can hear you, and that in their charity they will pray to God for you. Catholics ask 1 i the prayers of the saints for the same ' reason, namely, because they believe that their departed brethren can hear us, and that death has not killed their loving interest in our eternal welfare or their Influence with God. who has taken them into his immedinte presence, pres-ence, where they can pray to him fa'" to face in our behalf. But how to the saints hear us? We do not know "how" they hear us; nor do we know how we hear each other I here on earth. How a thousht or a desire can be made to pass from one intelligence in-telligence to another in this world by means of air vibrations Is Just as great a mystery as is the how an intelligence here on earth can impress its thought or desire on an ihtelligence in another condition of existence. If you can explain ex-plain the mystery how we hear each I other, you will supply us with a key by which to explain how the saints hear us. ! It will not do to tell us that the tongue and lips produce air waves which strike the drum of ,the ear and affect some delicate nerve in the gray matter of the brain; that is no key, , for it does not reach the. problem at til. The real problem is, how can an air wave or the vibration of a nerve transfer a thought or desire from one intelligence to another, whether near or far? How can an intelligence make known its state of volition to another ' intelligence on the other side of the globe by means of an electric spark on a piece of iron wire? When you answer these questions so that we can understand under-stand the manner of thought transference transfer-ence we n-lll. toll -fn Virir the oo Info hear our prayers and know our desires. de-sires. . But, after all, the fact that thought can be transferred from intelligence to intelligence is of more concern to us than the manner of it. And the fact that those who have passed beyond the veil called death can know the mental states and acts of those on earth is I clear enough from passages in the Bible.. In chapter xvili of the first book I of Samuel or Kings is related the inter-I inter-I view between Saul and Samuel at En-dor. En-dor. Saul wanted to consult Samuel, who was dead. He went to Endor to see the witch who lived there. He said to her: "Bring me up Samuel." She did so, and Saul bowed his face to the ground and adored. "And Samuel said to Saul: 'Why hast thou disturbed my rest, that I should be brought up?" And Saul said: 'I am ia great distress, for the Philistines fight against me and God U departed from me. Th prpfiiro I have called thee that thou mayst tell me what I shall do. " And then Samuel foretold him that he would be delivered into the hands of his enemies, and that he and his sons would be dead the next day. Now, it is evident from these Bible passages that the thought and desire of wicked Saul and of the medium of Endor were transferred to and impressed im-pressed on the mind of the dead Samuel, Sam-uel, and in compliance with them he made himself present to Saul, rebuked him for his sins and foretold his death. Therefore, the thoughts and wishes of the living can be known to the dead. We wil now take a case from the New Testament. It is found in Acts ix, 36, 37, 40. A holy woman by the name of Tabltha or Dorcas died. Her I friends sent for St. Peter. He came, and. kneeling down, he prayed, and turning to the body of the dead Tab-itha, Tab-itha, he said: "Tabltha, ari3e! And she opened her eyes, and, seeing Peter, she sat up. And, giving her his hand, h. lifted her up, and when he had called the Kalntu on.l ti-lrlnurc her, alive. And it was made known throughout Joppe, and many believed in the Lord." It is clear from this that the soul of the dead Tabitha became aware of the will of Peter when he addressed her and by the help of God's power complied com-plied with it. It is no use to speculate on how she heard Peter. The fact that she did so proves that the dead can hear, or know in some wav, the thoughts and desires of the living The fact being established, the mysterious-ness mysterious-ness of the manner of it is no valid argument ar-gument against it. Again, our Lord said (Math, xxii, 30)-"They 30)-"They (the good) shall be a3 the angels of God in heaven." And in Luke xv, ,7 e " "X fiay to you there shall be joy before the angels of God upon one sinner doing penance." Now, repentance is an interior act of the soul, and may exist without being irnnifested by any word or outward sign; and yet the angels know of that Invisible and silent mental act. And our Lord assures us that the just "shall be as the angels of God in heaten." It follows that the saints, the souls of the Just, cannot. only know nur thn-hi. when manifested by word or sign, but that they can know our unexpressed thoughts. .," Why, then, should we not ask their prayers to God in our behalf jut as we ask the prayers of our less perfect brethren who still toil along beside u3 i on the weary road to rest?" |