The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1878-12-01

herd" Nay, He makes that most perfect
, Climax in which He asserts that the unity
, or oneness of His Church must be like that
which exists between Himself and His
heavenly Father: "That they may be one
even as Thou, Father ia Me, and I in Thee
that they also may be ONE" {St. John,
xvii, 90 etc. Is He q despot because He
is thus invarable in the selection of His
typesf No, but He urges them and tier
ates aud reiterates them that all may uow
the unity of His Church, aud know thence
His Divinity. for such unity of faith,
amidst diversity of every other kind the
world never saw. This unity challenges
the speakers admiration, for he reads the
Scriptures and must be impressed by all
| the above hence he says:
! al ,ok next ct the Protest anita of the world;
| hose W bo to q greater or less extent reverenos
the Holy Scriptures. They protest against
the fAsehoods aud assumptions of the Roman
tiara. but yet what is tbeir own condition.
Divided and subdvided into numerous diver
| gent and discordAnt bodies aud sects with
| apparently no end to this process of division
and subdivision the great fact that the
Church Of christ should be one body in Christ
completely overlooked and discarded. and
everyone choosing Charch as it is good in
bis own eyes.
extent, the power Of evangelical truth. No
doubt the trath makes its impress upon ipdi-
! vidnal souls, yet how feeble tat impress upon
| the Church at large; while on one hand, the
lied and with serried phalanx. there 10 on the
! other discordapt and baby like ntterance of
| complicated thoughts and views. Thus the
When an Intelligent ami n mbssssdor from japan
was asked IL his country men were not nearly
ready to embrace Christianity he replied. 'Yon
m ust fret agree among yourselves as to what
Christianity is.' l could not bat think, in re-
volVing this subject in my mind, how the
great steamer in which / have lately made
passage across the Atlantic, when buffsted by
nntr dc and hoo ha1
backward so that the power of her whole
huge machinery was almost neutralzsd, and
so, 1t SCENE to me, it is with the progress of
the Church of Jssus Christ through the multi
form diYisions which exist among Christian
bodies.
Now, cast your eyes over the whole
world, and note what is simply true, that
there is
NOT aINGLE PROTESTANT DENOMINATION
IN UNITY
even with itself. The story of the Lowland
Scotchman who was asked: "W WulIie, man,
left some conventicle which was itself "a
split" from other shadow of q shade of re-
ligion, sncb as is usnsl among Presbyte-
risps in Scotland and elsewhere, answered
naively: "Wee, 1 dinna ken Jock, my
brither, and me are the kirk, but doot !
fudicrous as genuine. Even the gentle |
Qaakers. who love to be called Friends, |
and of whom it might be expected from |
their kind disposition that if unity could |
be kept by philanthropy, it woald be |
attained by them, averse to strife as they
are, small in number, smaller in creed, yet
they are divided amopgst themselves in |
every little village of the few in which
they keep up dying existence, doomed
soon entirely to disappear.
What, then, ia the source of this unity
which the Catholic Church possessea3 Our
venerable friend talks with glibness of the |
mere handtUl, comparatively speaking,
of those who represented their full force
and the weight of his sect at Lam beth,
aud he dep!ores the want of unity among
evangelicals. 1t must be q desirable thing
which he speaks If yearninely as absent,
ssa t1-t-s t4-4J - is3tts they net pos
seas 1t, Feuch admission is at all necessa-
Ty. The aourca of the unity of the Catho-
lie CEurch ia h-r right to tesch with
authority, aS G rist did, infailibly. Yet
this is TO cesp'g'em bat simply Ainders US
from be:ug t"sscd about by every wind of
doctrine. (Epheala1s ". IA
BY the way, is it not some what amusing
to observe (.s IT IN parenthesis) that 40
Ponttf ever assumed more irfallible ma
glsterih and dictat0rial powers than Bish
op Lee of the Fallible Church Saxon 2
Let US consider beforehand how roundIy
be denies this pTerogatiVe of the Roman
CGurch with all the ScTiptural promises
made by Christ that she is ''to teach all
nations; teachiag them to observe all
things whatsoever l have commanded :"
and that there are confessedly "many
things which Jesus did, not written" in the |
Scriptures; (St John, xxi. 25) and which
the perpetual teaching body had to explain
to the world "Go teach all things what
soeVer have commanded, and behold 1 |
am with you always, even to the consum-
nation of the world )" (St. Matthew,
xviii. 2O) This was the duty of the |
Church to teach always all truth. He ad- |
mits that they ttbe Anglicans) do not pos
sess Instability. Very we'll, then they
possess faiIibility, that is, they may err
they may teach fslsehood and soul |
destroying dOctrines. The correlative of
teaching is to listen, to hear, to obey. But
God cannot put an obligation of obedience
on man to hear and obey what may con-
feesediy be false. They admit that they
are fAlhb'e. SO do we admit their fs!libil-
ity. Hence God cannot, without contra
diciiug Himself, oblige anyone to hear or