Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1881-06-13

commonwealth, civil or religious, stands until
formal revocation, and the revocation can be
made only by the power which sealed
the constitution, and it must be made in
| a most public manner Christ assembled into
heaven leaving an infallible church as the
provision for the perpetuation of his princi-
ciple ofregeneration; let Professionalism bring
| forward a new and clear revelation recalling
| this provision, otherwise the constitution
given by Christ remains. l need not say that
Professionalism in asserting the cessation of
the apostolic church or of the infallibility
argues in its usual logic-it assumes the
| case.
1t is not ALL In instituting the apostolic
church Christ, in the self-same breath, in words
as lucid as other words of the commission,
| FIXED THE TIME OF ITS EXISTENCE
"Teach all nations II n and behold
I am with you all days, even unto the consum-
nation of the world" "The spirit of truth, 1"
had he elsewhere said, twill abide with you
| forever" The words have no meaning if
they are limited to the apostles personally.
They must be understood as applying to them
corporately. The commission was to a cor
poration of teachers; only the corporation
could teach all nations and individ uals; only
with the corporation could Christ dwell until
the end Of the world; only for the corporation
was there need of the indwelliHg forever of
| IL
name of the American republic had
said to the first judges of our
supreme court, as he placed in their hands
their commissions: "You are empowered to
administer justice to all generations of this
republic would his meaning be mistaken?
| How do men mistake the meaning of Christ's
words? The consequences alright them; they
should be Catholics. How, you may wish to
know, does Prof. Bartlett, who SO well inter-
preted the words of our Lord as applied to the
apostolic church, interpret the same words
in relation to the time of its existence? He
does not allude to them.
Christ commissioned in the one sentence
the apostles
AND THEIR SUCCESSORS IN OFFICE.
The apostles understood well his words.
Their first act was to add one to their number,
st. Matthias. Soon afterwards, Paul, Silas and
Barnabas enter through the imposition of tha
hands of those already in possession OF
the apostolate, into the enjoyment of
all the powers and rights of the same
apostolate. Paul, in his turn, ap-
points in the same form, Titus and Timothy,
with power for them to appoint yet others.
Minor, Peter invested Mark with power
in Antioch, and so was it with the
other members of the apostolate, and
when the time came for the
first apostles to retire to their reward in heaven,
the apostolate remained unbroken and strong,
having but one marked moment before it when
it was destined to cease-the consummation OF
| the world.
The apostolate continued to exist in virtue
OF Christ's promises, and 10 enjoy all. the pow
ers and privileges with which it was at first
invested the words cannot be divided or their
import shortened. 1t is as true then of the
teachers of Christ's church in any century, as
| well as the first that upon them corporately,
the church is built, that they are invested with
plenipotentiary authority and SUPREMACY in
| Chrst's kingdom, that they continue his own
divine mission, that they teach infallibly, be-
cause teaching under his own direct guidance,
and that all nations, all individuals owe sub
mission to their teaching. No objection can
be raised by reason against their authority and
infallibilty, which will not apply exactly to
the first twelve themselves. The individual in
tellect stands before them precisely as
lit did before the first apostles;
precisely as it did before Christ
himself, who has substituted the teachers of
the church in his own place. GAS the father
sent me, so also 1 send YOU" The human in
flrmities of the teachers as individuals have
nothing to do with their official teaching which
proceeds from Christ through them, they be-
ing his vicegerents, he being the soul and the
life of the church. The church in virtue OF
her commission becomes
| AN ORGANISM HUMAN-DIvINE,
having its double life, as man has a spiritual
and matepal life, and to her divine life alone
do we ascribe all her supernatural powers and
privileges.
As Christ built her. so the church remains.
Men forget when there is question of the
church who it is that built her. It's but right
that what man builds, himself a frail being OF
! IL, ~ kox,n hut ae1,0 |, :,
work mirrors his frailty. Different is it with
God. What He builds no power but His own
will can destroy. In the beginning he poised
the heavens in the midst of space-has change
come over them? So with his great work in
the moral order, his church. He built her
for the salvation of men, and in mercy's name
he guards her He built her, too, as a
mark of his power, and for the honor of his
majesty he made her divinely strong. Men
should not talk of the fall-thc corruption OF
the church in the course of ages. tits against
Christ himself they talk. AS he built her, he
solemnly promised that ''the gates of hell
should not prevail against her." and to accuse
the church of having corrupted the pure word
of revelation, is to accuse Christ of having
| violated his pledge to her.
Two great facts are before you: The apos-
tolic church was constituted by Christ as a
corporate society, claiming to teach with in
fallible authority the truths committed by him
to her charge. The apostles death was not
by Gods appointment, to make any change
whatever in her organization. Christ had eX-
pressly declared that she was to remain always
on earth. Corelatively with this broad fact
on the one hand, there stands forth in history
fact no less significant on the other. From
the present time back into ages, the Catholic
church has existed. For centuries she was
the sole occupant of the field. All other
forms of Christianity are comparatively but
1 of yesterday
WHICH is To- DAY CHRIsT's CHURCH?
which society could be his church, if not that
one which is the church of history? Let other
claimants come forward. She beckons them
away as upstairs with a lineage of two OR
three hundred years, while 1,SU0 are required.
She, and she alone, fulfills in herself the con,
dtions. She has time in her favor Her
office is apostolic--she teaches, and her teach
ing extends to all nations. Her claims are
apostolic-she asserts her infallibility, and the
indwellng within her of the spirit of truth.
Ii she is not Christ's church, then in the name
of Cnrist'S promises, where is Christ's church:
"On the hypothesis of Christianity coming
| from God, says writer In the Dublin Re
uicw, eve know of no representative chain,
| external to the region of pure mathematics,
more irrefragable than this. Let us sum it up
in four propositions: /. Christ entrusted His
religion to the care of one corporate society as
| its infallible exposition. 2. He declared that
this corporate society should last until the
end of the world. 3. In every age, therefore,
one corporate society exists which is thus in
falible. f. But there is no existing corporate
society, of which any one ever alleges that it is
thus infallble, or that it has existed through
the historic past since Christ, except the
| Catholic church, consequently she is undoubt-
eddy Christ's church"
have given you the defence of The Catholic
position.
Ii we listen to Mr.. Smith, Professionalism is
the apostolic form of Christianity. The System
of enquiry" which repudiates all teaching, de-
MES all infallibility, would be the heir OF the
commission to teach! The offspring of Luthers
| brain IN the Sixteenth century, would be the
church that Christ built, promising her His
divine protection, announcing that the gates
of hell should not prevail against her! And
i for tho anlca Of his Protestantism he will as