Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1881-06-20


the Catholic church to-day, spread as her $50,
| OOO,O 900 children are, oyer the whole surface o
the globe, there is oneness of faith in all mat
ters over which the church's teaching ex
tends, and during the eighteen centuries of he
long history, her creed in one century has
never contradicted her creed in another.
To realize fully the wonder of this Catholic
faith, you should consider the religious soci
eties outside of the church, where there is
nought but division and change. Looking
back upon the old church of history you will
perforce, exclaim, if you ponder well over th'
scenes within her:
"Verily, the finger of God is here"
Pretensions of R0naa1aisna.
The unusual interest manifested in the re
ligious controversy in progrers between two
prominent divines of st. Paul was exhibited il
the large number of persons who filled thu
First M. E. church last night to hear the ser
mon of Rev. Samuel G.. Smith on '1he Pre-
tensions of Romanism." The sermon was as
follows:
Christianity was given in the first instance
to people which had been prepared by cul
ture of centuries to apprehend,spiritual truths
The result was pure monetheism, which in
dignity and moral elevation has never been
Outgrown.
The Hebrews who accepted the mission OF
Jesus were quite largely prepared for system
which in itself shows a singular contempt for
mere externals, and which is not at all-depend-
ent on organization. But the gospel was at
once projected into civilizations essentially
different. 1t found its way to the Greek col
onies and became mixed with their forms of
thought and the shreds of their PHILOSOPHERS.
Hence many of the heresies which arose in the
very verge of the apostolic days. 1t found its
way to the Roman empire, whose genius was
organization, and whose religion was for the
most part heroic ldolatry. The world made
room for the new gospel OF power; its signs
and wonders and its enthusiasm gave fresh
impulse to the decayed religious life of the
times, and was precisely what Rome wanted
Rome on the other hand impaired its gift of
organization, and subtly infused its hero wor-
ship and its sensuousness, and the result of
the two forces was, in the growth of the cen
turies, the Roman Catholic church.
What is needed is that the Hebrew spirit
shall not longer be shackled by the Greek
thought, or the Roman form. So the world
has walked to the renaissance of the Hebrew
culture, as broadened and completed by the
"prOphet of Nazareth"
With these principles in mind, it becomes
easy to understand the rationale of the Roman
Catholic development.
It's antiquity becomes it's. weakness, and it's
ancient power the manifest cause of its mod
ern downfall.
The mind of man has always sought to en-
body its divine ideals. And the distin guish-
ing feature of the gospel is its recognition of
the fact that God has embodied or revealed
himself. So nature to the broad thought of
Paul was such reyealment; for ''in him we
live and move and have our being" So Jesus
is seen to be the revelation Of the heart of
God, warm, tender, self-forgetful.
But what God gave in the earliest ages did
not satisfy the Jewish people, and so often
they thought to embody the divine In a more
perfect way than he had done it himself, and So,
by their idolatries, violated their fundamental
principles of monetheism. It was not until
after generations of severest discipline that
they became obedient to their heavenly visions
and trusted the one supreme and spiritual God.
Likewise the Catholic church in the See of
Rome has mixed the gospel with antagonistic
forms of development. Christ said to his
disciples that cit is expedient for you that 1
go away; for if go not away, the comforter
will not come unto YOU"
He here affirms that dispensation of the
spirit is better than one of the eyes. The Ro-
man church have not been willing to receive
these words of the master; and SO, in obedi-
ence to the older worship of pagan Rome,
which mixed its Caesars with its Jupiters,
they have created Christ office in the world.
They have added to its functions and dignities,
until in 1870, it eliminated in the dogma of
papal infallibility. In obedience to the sen.
suousness and paganism which surrounded
the early church, we have the strange dogma
of transubstantiation-o the changing Of the
bread and wine of the sacrament into the real
body and blood. of Jesus Christ.
As the confessional confirms the priestly
power over the timid, SO does this view of the
sacrament establish it over the devout. The
one appeals to safety; the other to the spirit
of worship.
We take for our inquiry tonight this view
of the sacrament. The council of Trent gives
us at length the doctrine of this sacrament,
and will read from its canons that you may
know whether or not 1 state the doctrine
properly, for you will bear me witness that
throughout this series of lectures I have pre-
sented every subject from Romanist authori-
ties. 1t is only when man has a weak cause
that he needs to quibble, o.; misrepresent, ol
to obscure the real issue; and our side of the
cause is in need of no such presentation.
Holy Eucharist-Canon I.-"f any shall
deny that in the sacrament of the most holy
eucharist there is contained truly, really, and
substantially, the body and blood, together
with the soul and divinity of our Lord Jesus
Christ, but shall say that he is only in 1t il
sign, or figure, or power, let him be ac
cursed
Canon II.-"If any shall say that in th'
holy sacrament of the eucharist there remains
the substance of bread and wine, together
with the body and blood of our Lord Jesu
Christ, and shall deny that wonderful ant
| remarkable conversion of the whole substance
| of the bread into the body, and the who'll
| substance of the wine into the blood, Will
| only the appearance of the bread and wine re
mains, which conversion the Catholic church
/ mi oo11 frop 1bcfo opfi of Of
be accursed."
| Canon Wifi any shall say that il
the holy sacrament of the eucharist, Chris
| is not to be adored, and that outward
with the worship of Latria, and therefore tina
| he ought neither to be venerated by any espe
cial festive celebration, or carried sOlemnl
about in professions, according to the uni
versal and laudable rite and custom of th
church, or that he ought not publicly to
exhibited to the people that he may be wol
SHIPPED, and that the worshipers of him ar
idolaters, let him be accursed."
The catechism of the council of Trent ais
affirms as follows: s'It is also in this place t
be explained by the pastors, that there is con
tanned not only the true body of Christ, an
whatever belongs to a true condition of
body, such as bones and nerves, but also
whole Christi
have given you the authoritative expos
ton of the Roman dogma of transubstanti.
ton. l shall attempt to show you that thi
view is unauthorized and untrue.
First-The doctrine rests upon an absur
and untrue philosophical basis. The clair
is that after the priest has pronounced th
words of conservation, the wafer Is no moi
there, although it appears to be there, br
that it becomes the very body and blood an
divinity of Jesus Christ. The Catholic con
munion, last Thursday, was the festival
Gbricf 10 fad f1,ofo
Juliana in the thirteenth century was lookin
at the moon, and thought she saw gap in i
and she explained her vision to mean that tt
church had something left out: i e. the Wo]