The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1880-04-14

Of knowing God'a will IN tho church only, b
NJ war with the plalneDuncIaliOns 0ftho Bible
and c0ntradiciA tho testimony OF Christian
conscience and tho inlallibl0 evidence of the
Spirit witnessing with our spirits. Accord
Ing 20 this, no one before tho church wis
built land tho church was not set up until
tho world was four thousand years old) was
saved. This barR tho doors Of heaven 10 ALI
but Roman Catholics, Tho foremost effort
of tho good father Il manifest In his attack OF
the Baptist and Protestant position relative
to tho Bible, M being the only sure rule Of
faith and practice. lilo even challenges tho
idea TINT tho Apostles read the Bible
But every writer In the new testament con-
tradiois this IN thor long and frequent quota
tons from the scriptures Wa find In Petors
first opistlc, very short letter of five chap
ters aud only one hundred and i've verses, no
less than twelve long quotations from six
different Bible authors, viz; Loyiticus Ek'
odus, Isaiah, Hosea, Psalms aud Proverbs,
and besides, no refers 10 Pnuls writings aud
Matthews statements In reference ~ Christ,
And yet tho good father says none
of tho Apostle. ever read tho Bible,
st. john, perhaps, excepted But
tho value and necessity ofths scriptures
Is urged by every writer. ...r.
Paul even declares that the scriptures are
able TO make student ofthem wise unto
salvation" Timothy know tho scriptures
from child. His Teacher WAS not the
church. But, listen, even women, u woman,
yes, u woman, not priest, not Pope, not
n church, taught Timothy tho scriptures,
even when ho was child.
But the good father brings forward tho
famous passage In Peter; "No prophecy OF
scripture comes of private Interpretation
But that this means that private individuals
are not 10 read the Bible is contrary 10 tho
very declaration Of Peter in tho verse above
in the same connection, for there no com
mends them in their taking heed TO this very
prophecy Read the context and tho scrip
lures ara plain. But the good father gets this
scripture Joined 10 another--where IL speaks
of tho unlearne1 and unstabled
wrestling the scriptures from their true
meaning 10 their own destruction. The
good father argues from this that the scrip
lures must be withheld from the lnity, Ac-
cording to this, Jesus Christ did wrong to
teach the people for many wrestcd Ills
words to their own destruction. According
TO this, tho gospel should not BIO preached,
Tor II is TO some n SAVIOR of death unto death,
to those who wrest IL TO their own destru,-
ton. The sophlstry of the good father is too
patent here TO merit further effort to point IL
out.
But the good father dogmatically assumes
historic succession of apostleship, and ar
CUES the continuous identity Of the Catholic
church. But according TO the scriptures,
there cannot be an apostle of Jesus Christ
in the sense that the twelve chosen ones were.
The qualifications for the aposteship pre-
cluds any one from claiming this office. We
read In Acts and Corinthians that to be an
apostle one must have been an ear and
eyewitness of Jesus Christ here on
earth. But now no one has seen
| Christ, no one Is qualified.
But the gifts conferred on the Apostles are
not exercised now by any one claiming to be
an apostle ..... .......
But tho good father OF course brings up
the celebrated passage, "Thou art Peter, and
on this rock, etc rejoice that | am not
tied to Baptist nor Protestant writers, expos
ing the tho fallAcy Of Romish Interpretation
of this passage; l hold in
my hand book containing a
history of the proceedings of the Vatican
council of 1870. And here is u speech of
Archbishop Konric, Of ST. Louis, prepared
to be delivered there in which | find an ire
sistible argument against the Primary of
| Peter Here the speaker read Mt length
from the speech Of the Archbishop) And
there Is another speech against the doctrine.
| He makes these fine points; ]. Jesus gave
to all his Apostles the same power ms to Peter.
. The Apostles never recognized Peter rs
the Vicar of Jesus Christ. 3. Peter never
| thought of being Pope-never acted as Pope.
4. The councils of the first four centuries,
while acknowledging the high dignity of the
Bishop of Rome, conceded to him only pre-
eminence of honor; not of power of iuris-
dlction
8. That tho holy father in the famous
passage, "thou art Peter &c" never under
stood TINT the church WAS built on ! eter
! lSuper Petrum), but on the rock (Super Pc
! traml, that is, on the apostles confession of
| faith. This, mind you, is the way even some
Catholics look ut the matter. But the claim
that tho Catholic church is the true church
because of its unbroken unity throughout
the ages, is set aside by history. There has
not been an unbroken succession nor con-
| tinuous unity. There have been long and
! frequent interregnums in the papal see,
and terrific schisms, internal distractions.
Take, for example, the schsms after the
death OF Henorius, 1870 A. ID. Two ropes
were arrayed 10 war against each other-Pope
Anacletus III. and Pope Innocent III. And
| in 1872, A. d., Gregory \. was elected after
vacancy of two years and nine months.
! Away goes the succession. But we will not
vex your patient souls reciting how
there have been nterregnums and schisms
etc. You see the fallacy of the claim.
Let us take one or two more historical iacts
exploding the fallacy. !, Take the council
! of Ephesus, A. y. 42l. That council endors-
ed the doctrines of Augustine. Al the
council of Trent, 1885, the Augustine thcol-
ogy was repudated Here for over thous-
and years the church endorsed heresy, and
vet the church Is infallible. But take the
/ Arian controversy o, the fourth century.
Everyone knows the council of Nice was
assembled by Constantine, A d. 325, to settle
this great disturbance. Even the Pope was
pronounced heretical. But we need not 90
back SO far. Take the Vatican council, 1870.
Then, for the first time in the face of protests,
the article of papal infallibility was passed
upon. But to say there is nothing but unity
! in the Catholic church ia nonsenscal In the
face Of so many different orders Jesuits, Jat-
senists old Catholics, new Catholics. etc.
ja But i have but little time left to
try to make good the Baptist claim, viz
That the Baptistchurch is New Testament
Church of Jesus Christ has, sxisted for over
1900 years. was never in the Roman Catholic