The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1878-08-25

HWe tteo II, =; Amos wa, IL and Il; Jer. W
Rzsch. XXX, 81 ; etc The expression There
was evening and morning one day, (Gen. !, 81
does not. OF necessity, imply . day of twenty
four hours, for from eve TO morn we have only .
meant TO signify that the creations spoken Of
proceeded gradually to their full growth, ss
the day grows cut Of the night. The seventh
now"
'Infdels accuse the Church of changing her
lines oy assigning q meaning OF INDEFINITE
pefiods 70 she expression Day OF che hsst ehsp-
ter Of Genesis. Bat the Church has never de-
fped in what precise meaning this word, as
found In Genesis, is to BIS taken. ST. Augustine,
well.nigh ffteen centuries ago, gave TO this
word an nlleRorical meaning, and his interpre-
tation has never been censured."
invite the strictest attention to the fore
going passage. Mr.. Elder. Of Poydrss street,
has the book for sale. The pecnIiarity about
it is. that it completely upsets D. P. 8, on
nearly every point. Every error opposed there
has been endorsed by D. P. s in one or
the other of his attacks. II even exposes
the fippsrcy Of the awful joke he perps-
tratss regarding the night periods and proves
that d p. g., in charging Catholics with
changing their lines" of defence, on account
of geology. wss playing into the bands of the
infdels, including, of course, Huxley.
10 his fret attack D. P g. gave the names of
bU"UsF ok CdtHtb ara x AtBef9 VINO, 18 ne
guessed, were to bear him oct in entirely
object ug to fgurative days and in attribut
ing them to the inventive faculties Of the in-
fdels of the 18th and 10Th centuries. Among
them be named st. Thomas and St. Augustine.
We have just seen how ridiculoUsly he failed
in selecting st. Augustine, and / have al
ready shown that st. Thomas and St. Angus
tine agreed. Therefore D. P. 8. misrepresented
these two Saints. Consequently it is eminent
ly likely aat be made the same mistake in
naming all tie others. If D. P. s. bad net
called for these comment, / would refrain from
making them. He complains iu his second
attack that had not noticed" his authorities,
and therefore 1 shall proceed. He gives Us the
following G notation from Origen:
who that has sense" exclaims Origin, "can
think that the fret, second and third days
were without san, moon or stars"
have several remarks to make on this quo
tstion
1. 1t is evidert that the quotation is net
material in the present. discussion, since it
proves ut hing for or agsinet fgurative days
81. Augustine, who lived only about q
century aud half after origen: does not adopt
his views therefore Ongen's view is not bind
ing on rs, whatever it was.
8. His words cannot be taken in their literal
sense because he cannot have III .nded to con
tfaQfcs moses, " no tetfe Qo eX aCt1y HheU the
san, moon and stars were made. As the quo
tation stands, therefore, it sppears to be ironi-
eal-Peghaps derisive quotation made by
Origen from some ancient critic of bis.
.. The qnotation 10 lamentsbly brief. Why
could net D: P. 8. give Ms little more Of it, or
Cardir al Wiseman's remarks on it'll Why are
the 30 suppre ssed
. The brevity Of tae quotation causes an
apparent contradiction between Origen and
Moses. Moses was inspired. It is not claimed
that Origen was. Therefore, in case of q con-
trAdiction betTeen them, Moses must get the
best Of 1t. The brevity of the quotation, and
tell for certain whether Origen wss ironicaf in
that remark or why he was 60
6. The quotation from Origen being thus un-
intelligtbIe. csunot prove anything. Bat sd.
mitting that IL proves his belief in ak natural
days, which is by meaus certain what fol-
lows tberefrom egsipst fgursti7e dsysi
=. origen's words prove only that. even at
that esr'y tine, some question about creation
was being discussed; 1 e. the question vas
always open.
On referring to Cardinal Wis .mans book,
from which D. P. g. has obtained the quota
tion from Orfgen, 1 find that the great Cardi-
nal merely used 1t for the purpose of turning
the laugh against an idiot named DR.. Croly,
who b I'D attempted to make out the Hebrew
word psed by Moses N ust mean "a natural day
or the time between two suussts Assured
lys' adds the Cardinal, laughiBRly, "the time
between two sunsets would exias most snoma-
louSly without sum-" Lect 5, p 2e5, Science
dHd Revealed Religion In the note at psge 1874
came lecture, the Cardinal says that Croly's
translation Is illogical and erroneousl More
over fifteen propositions, from Oregon's primd
pTiRcipid. were condemned by the Church in A.
453 for Monophysitism.
8. 1t ia evident that D. P. 8 in selecting
Origen, ade as miserable choice as he did in
each Of the other cases.
Our amateur theOlogian made another un-
fortunate selection when he named st. Gregory
Nss'sDzeu, who merely says according to him :
For the voice of the Lord is the voice of
power, at the command of which, in the begin
ming, light and every created thing sprang
in TO existence"
Which means not, as D. P. g. would have
rs think, that all things sprang int, formal
existence at once and together, bat that eight
and every created thing sprang into existence"
ct the proper command, and we know from
Moses that all the commands of Almighty God
were not given at once and together. Again,
it will be easily perceived that this quotation
mas no bearing on the question of fgurative
days st. Gregory, although named in his first
attack by d. P. s., is, for one, not against him.