Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1870-04-19
Pere Hyacinth on the Bible.

Israel is no longer the tents of Shem, no
longer the tabernacles of the desert, no
longer the temple of Solomon or of Zerub-
babal-all these have disappeared. Israel
exists now, not by these-but by his God
and by his Bible. Israel is embodied in
his Bible, he has written the whole of it,
and this is above all else, as st. Paul says,
his greatest glory.
The church of Jesus Christ, the Catholic
church, does not possess the gift of inspi
ration. We have not in the midst of us a
single wise man, single inspired pontiff,
capable, if he wished it, of writing one line
which should be the word of God. We
have pontiffs, doctors, councils assisted by
God, but not inspired assisted in order to
understand, to explain, the inspired word
of the Jewish church, the word written
from the first chapter of Genesis to the last
word of the New Testament, by Jewish
penl The Jewish church, from the proph-
cts to the apostles, has been the only mouth
inspired by Jehovah.
And yet what do we do with the Bible
Is this book the object of our study, of our
sermons, of our instructions? Is it the
! light which shines upon our families, upon
our souls? Reading Of the meditation on,
the holy scriptures-this will forever be
the true mind of the church of Jesus Christ.
! Well then, do we read the Bible? Do
we not too often so to seek all our knOwl
edge exclusively, in purely profane authors,
in the discoveries of man? And when we
apply to the traditions of the church. do
we not practically give the first place to
the simple doctors? No one venerates the
doctors of the church more than | do;
Athanasius, Basil, Augustine ......... the
great scholars of the middle ages Thomas
| Aquinas, Bonaventura, Scot; the great
| king-BOsseut. Yes, Bosseut Scot, Bona
ventura, Thomas Aquinas, Augustine, Bas-
H. Athanasius, and so many others, they
are not the book Give me the book, the
inspired word, let me lean upon the foun-
dation of the apostles and prophets, let me
penetrate with my thirsty roots to the fat
the Holy Scriptures, the light of families,
of nations, of souls-that is the book of the
church And our branches will be thin,
and our leaves will be withered, and our
flowers will fall, before they bear their
fruits, so long as we do not continually re-
fresh them with knowledge, in the light,
in the practice of the divine book
Woe to him, who being able to read it,
does not read it; but woe, too, to him who
reads it only with the contemptuous regard
of proud intellect. Unjust be eaten with
the mouth of the heart; "Son of man, arise
and eat this book Then did | eat the
book, and it was in my mouth as honey
for sweetness. And he said unto me, Son
Of man, 60, get thee unto the house of Isra-
ell, and speak my words unto them ~ Let
us, then, members of the christian church
arise, let Us all arise Let US take the
Book from the Divine Hand which extend.
it to us, let Us mediate on it with our in.
tellect, let us devour it in love and in Oul
hearts, and then we shall be masters the
world; we will speak to the children OF
idolatry; the world will listen to us be-
cause our lips are no longer our own, but
Gods. The lips of the christian soul are
the word of the Jehovah, and this 1t is thai
they ought torepeat.- The ChristioE World