The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1879-04-16
has that within which causes it to live.

This is the old time doctrine, often denied
long concealed, seldom svowed, but now II
these last days of the conflict, revived ant
Haunted in the face of the people in the City
Of New York, by one of the highest dgnita
ries of the Romish Church. "No Bible fol
the people; religion without Bible; Jesus
Christ had no Bible; the Apostles had nc
Bible; the early Church had no Bible; oul
faith ia not derived from the Bible" This
is the substance of the sermon which Bishop
Spalding comes from Peoria to preach to the
oenighted peoploin the metropolis.
Il is an Ingenious, plausible aud JesultIca
imposition which this learned and able pre-
late practices on his audience, when he lays
down with authority and asserts as facts
these propositions. We know two things
we'll: 1, The statements themselves are not
true, and 2, his bearers do not know enough
to deny them. He is therefore safe in teach.
ing them to the ruin of immortal souls, aud
the advancement of his Church. Hia Church
could not live an hour in the light of the Bi.
Bile, snd his only hope for it's future is to in
sist that men must believe what the Church
says and be saved without Bible.
WITHOUT BIBLE "The religion of Je
sus Christ was spread throughout toe world
without Bible" To this We reply:
l. Jesus Christ had Bible, preached from
the B Bile, and said to the people, this day
is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears. =
Luke v: 21. Again and again ho put honor
upon the Scriptures, and never in all his
ministry did he discourage the reading Of
the Word of God. And he summed up the
doctrine Of God on this subject when he said
John v: 39). "Sesrch the Scriptures; for
in them ye think ye have eternal life and
they are they which testify of me-" That is
the precept of the Son of God And here
comes to New York city, in the year 1879,
q Bishop (msy God have mercy on him new
ertheless, who tells the people that the reli-
gion of Christ was spread through the world
without Bible The sudacity of such q
statement in the face of all history would be
sublime, if it were not for its exceeding silli-
ness.
2. The early preachers taught the Scrip
lures and bade the people use them. The
Beresns "searched the Scriptures daily
whether these things we're so, Therefore" "
(mark the word,) therefore many of them
believed" Acts xvii II "Paul reasoned
with them out of the Scriptures. Acts xvii:
2. "Philip began at the same Scripture,
and preached unto him Jesus" And Paul
charged Timothy to continue in what he had
learned, having known the Scriptures from
his childhood, which are able to make him
wise unto salvation through faith, which is
in Christ jesus Tim. 2: Is. And then
follows that immortal text, "AlI Scripture" !"
&c., which knocks Bishop Spalding back
into the middle of the Dark Ages, upSets his
doctrine, and his Church, and establishes the
great Chillingworth motto: "The Bible, the
Bible only, is the religion of the Protes-
tants."
1t would be simple matter to show that
this has been always the secret of success in
the propagation Of the gospel: with the BIZ
BILE as the rule of faith the Church subdued
the world: when the Church apostatized
from the Bible, and incorporated into its sys-
tenn the unscriptural dogma of Bishop Spald-
ing, that the Church does not need the Bible,
that the people must believe what the Church
commands them to believe, theu.t work of
moral and theological corruption went on
apace, until that unspeakable degeneracy
was reached which can now be only express
ed approximately in these terse and terrible
words: "It is a Church whose moral char
acter is worse than that of the world it pro-
fesses to reform" Weido not know that
human language can embody more truth.
full, graphic aud energetic definition of this
Church that announces, by the mouths of its
bishops, that it can do without the Bible.
"Our faith is not derived from Bible, -
said Bishop Spalding. We know that. We
knew it before he said it. 1t was the dis
covery Of the Bible that made the Reforma.
ton. 1t was the awful corruption Of the So
called Church that made the Reformation q
moral necessity. Then came the Bible, the
Reformation, Liberty, Progress, Literature,
RELIGION, and hope for the human race.
To us it appears matchless efrontery for
leader of the Romish Church to come into
Christian community and give usterance to
such asrocious statements. It is true that
he knows the audience to whom he speaks
that they are too iguorant to challenge bis
facts. Bat the press is now the audience
that every speaker has before him, and q
great untruth like this of Bishop Spalding,
uttered in an obscure chapel, and heard only
by feH unlettered men and women who
never read the Bible and who read little else,
is the next morning placed before half 9
million readers, and is by them stamped, as
We stamp.it now, with the brand of aa1
contradiction. The Bible was the book out
of which Jesus Christ preached. He charged
bis disciples to use it. The Apostles en-.
larged it, and Church which Bishop Spsld
ing says "does not derive its faith from the
Bible" can never be the Church of God.
SOME years AGO q gentleman heard two