Butte semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1886-1890, 1886-09-22
FATHER CUSHNAHAN'S SERMON,
Delivered at the Catholic Church,
Butte, NJ. T., Sept. 10, 1886.

wa So
Butte, NJ. T., Sept. 10. 1885.
NY friends. if we admit q God. as every
Individual must if he trifles not with the
reason that is in him, we must, at the same
time admit that we are bound to believed all
he asks us to believe. This reason herself
tells, because ii his existence be admitted,
it must also be admitted that He is supe-
rior to us. as He is, and must be, the cause
of our existence. There must be some first
cause prior to man, that gave man exist
ence, because from nothingnothingis made.
| This first cause is God, hence our superior
He the Lord, we tho servants-and hence
| orr duty to relieve what He commands us
to believe. The mind, well arranged, with
its faculties in full play, cannot conceive a
lying God, q Too asking man to believe
| what is false and untrue. Now, this is the
very ground OF the Christians belief. he
| believes the revealed truth on the v%eraclty
| OF God, because it is His word, and it is
impossible for His word to be false. What
God says is, and must be, true, and there
is 20 higher ground for belief or faith, nay,
even knowledge. than to know that fact,
| that God says it. 1t is in perfect keeping
aud harmony with reason to believe on
| His word. Reason and the dictates OF a
rightly balanced mind say yes, we should
believe the word OF God; but how know
we the word of-how know we what is pro-
proposed to us as the word OF God is Gods
word. The Mormon holds one thing to be
the revelation OF God; the Catholic holds
directly the opposite to be the word OF
| God. and this party something different.
We take the fact that this is His word on
the authority OF the Catholic Church. Be
lieye it to be His word because she declared
it to be. 1t is not permitted to doubt the
word OF God; but does it follow that it is
not permitted to doubt the word OF the
church. Why believe His word before any
other?
This question is generally answered by
stating that she is a divinely institutes and
commissioned to teach and declare the
word OF God. To do she is assisted and
directed by the spirit OF truth. Now, ii it
be so, that she has the divine commission
| and the divine assistance, her authority is
sufficient for believing whatsoever she die
tates, since God has pledged his divine
word for her veracity and infaliibilitv. All
| this is very good and plain but only an as
%sertion. How am | to know she is insti.
tuted commissioner and directed by God
| There a re several answers to this question.
The church herself is the best expOnant OF
the difficult. She accredits or proves her
self to be divinely instituted. Legally she
is entitled to thus authority. She is in pos
session from the day that the Holy Ghost
descended upon the apostles down to this
day. She claimed all that time to be in
possession Of this authority, and has had
her claim recognized and acknowledged by
the whole body OF the faithful, and denied
by none except those who deny outwardly
itself. Being in possession, it is for those
who question her right to prove she is
wrong. Every one is presumed in law to be
innocent until proved guilty. The church,
then, must be presumed to be rightfnliy in
possession until the contrary is proved.
Those who question her authority must
give plain and obvious evidences for GUST
ing her before she need give up her title
deeds. This has never been done, or can
be done. Ii it were possible, some oil the
great minds that rose and hourisEea in OPP
position toward her would have done it.
I This fact alone is enough. There is in real
ity no need OF proving from extrinsic evi-
dence that she has the divine commission
to teach all men all Gods truths. She
claims and exercises, and never had, for
1900 years. her claims invalidated.
Again, | answer, the church was founded
by it on His apostles, being HimseI the
chief corner stone. History tells us that
such church has existed, without break OF
defect OF continuity, from the apostles
down to our times. 1t has been q fact that.
TIM tOo llouiCiituOuS q lACt, ~ CSSdpC oD-
servation all that time. 1t has been the
one great TACT of history around which all
other facts Of history reVolve as Il pivot,
and without which all other facts would be
nexplicab!e. This must be granted, and
hence it must also be granted tina she
unites as one continuous, in one continuous
body, the apostles, and all the believers
from this time down to ours. This is Il
continuous fact; q present fact with the
apostles; a present fact with every age: a
present TACT With us, and, therefore, is alik"
present with the apostles, and with us.
Her existence WAS never broken, never fell
into decay, never was q past fact, but al
ways q present one. She has always been.
and is, a present fact. She is, therefore, as
present with the apostles to-day AS she
was on Pentecost, and presents us not with
what they taught, but what they teach her
now and here. She bridges over the univer
sal space between our Lord and us, and
makes US, SO to speak, contemporaries
with the apostles, 50 as that in the apos-
ties we learn the doctrines OF Christ SO in
her.
This continuity, or unity, OF the
church, is an historical fact, and
as certain as any other historical
fact. BY it the church OF to-day is as apos-
tolc and authoritative to back it as in the
s4dS > - L CtSi, OIttucS III Ootlii. 1EttINl ~
uals pass away. Apostles, generation after
generation, overlap each other. One has
not passed away until another succeed it.
But she dies not with them. Just as the
| particles that make up our bodies change,
in the human race individuals die. but the
race remains always the same. We have
the same human races to-day as in the
time OF Moses. So in the Chnrch--individ-
uals pass away, but the Church remains
unchanged in its integrity, for individuals
die not all at once, and the new individuals
born in their places are born into the one
body that does not die-the Ghurcl-that
remains the same. No matter how many
generations succeed each other in the hui
man race. the race remains the one and
the same present race; SO does the Church
remain the one same present Church. The
Church OF to-day is the same as the Church
of yesterday: the Church OF yesterday is
the Church OF the day before, and thus step
by step back to the Apostles. On the other
hand the Church in the time OF the Apos-
ties is identically the Church OF their sue
cessors. and so on We hear Peter word
ing only thedoctrines OF Christ. In Peters
successor we hear Peter. But as in Peter
we hear Christ's teachings, and since we
hear the same in Peters successors down
one after the other to Leo MIL, we in
theii Huol ucdI SHIfSL . tCdCiiluS. NOISt-
qrently, the Church is as apostolic now as
it was in the beginning. or with the .Apos-
Ties themselves.
Now. ii WI suppose Our Lord commune
Gated to the Apostles in person or by the
inspiration OF the Holy Ghost the whole
revelation, then he must have commlui-
Gated it to her, as she is an eye and ear
witness to the fact of revelation in the
same way as the Apostles were, and her
historical identity with the Apostles makes
her Il contemporary witness TO the fact of
revelation and what is revealed. The body
stands one aud identical with the Apostolic
body. This is Il simple historical fact. The
Church, as an ever-present body, remains
one and the same identical body amidst
all the successive changes of individuals,
!ust as much thedepository and witness oi
the faith as were the apostles themselves.
We say then, in truth that the Church
herself is the witness and bears her creden-
tlals to the fact that she is divinely insti-
tuted to teach and declare the word OF Sod
which He has revealed. and there can be no
better or more competent authority to
t. ach. She is competent because she is the
Apostolic body, the contemporary
and eye witness through all the successive
ages to what she teaches. She is u credit
able witness because, as Il human bulv, she |