Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1888-03-19
REV. A. L. JORDAN.
"Our Duties as PrOteStants Toward D
Roman Catholic Fellow Citizens. "

REV. A. L. JORDAN.
"Our Duties as PrOteStants Toward Our
Roman Catholic Fellow Citizens. -
Textile ye wise as serpents, but harmless as
doves Matt. y, l6.
Mr.. Jordan began by saying: "As in the
acorn there lies the closely folded latitude
of boughs ard all the embfyO vastness ot
the oak 90 in this little text there lies the
embryo vastross of the subject about
which l want to speak to night, our du-
ties as Protestants toward our Roman
Catholic fellow-citizens.
THAT we have duties in that direction
be said, 100 one will question But TO nd
out lust what and how manythey are, and
how most d~elicately and irotfensively TO
perform them, is not 80 easy. That the
point of view from which Catholics and
Protestants look at the same facts Is in the
very nature of things widely different, we
all of course can understand. And go, on
this account, if no other, there ought to be
much forbearance, and thus We have sug-
gested our first duty, VIZ: To understand
them thoroughly.
"a few years ago the editors Of Southern
secular papers made q pleasure trip North.
At a banquet given them in Cincinnati
some of them said that if Their visit had
been made before the war that war would
never have occurred, because, as they said,
the people of the South had no idea Of the
numerical strength and ample resources OF
the North, and 30, accordingly TO these ed
itors, ignorance precipitated the war upon
the country. And that is not the only
dire disaster for which Ignorance Is re-
sponsible.
'"Then ourlirst duty 10 our Romsn Cath
Ole friends is to study them With the
view of understanding them thoroughly.
| plead for this as a simple act Of justice
to ourselves, as we'll as to them. God
takes no part with
WILFUL IGNORANCE.
NV own observation during twenty. five
years among them, has led me to thia coz
clusion, that you may strike a lde broad
and distinct aud place the Roman Catholic
church or system on one side aud thou
sands OF its members on the other, Just
as you fud the noble and the degraded, the
pure and the depravGd, the tender and the
viscious in the same family. Thousands
of these people have lived and died amongst
us honored and respected, and still in all
these discussions, they are liable TO be
classed with and held accountable for all
the vices of their church, against which we
protest.
Passing now to the other side of the line,
what do we meet? First, an, old feeble
-. L., - civ lilo 4hp root If no oph-
ject to the same passions, lusts, ambitions,
as the rest of us, for God hath made OF
one blood all the nations Of men to dwell
on all the face of the earth" Acts, xvii,
26.
'Now this aged man claims that he is the
yicegerent of Christ to the extent that
when he speaks ercathedra regarding faith
or morals, his words are as binding and as
infallible as the words of Christ himself.
Moreover this aged man claims apostolic
prinacy as the successor Of Peter, prince of
the Apostles. See dcgmatic decreess Of
the Vatican Council, chapter l..
Long after Peter has gone to heaven
these POpes find out something that Peter
NEVER KNEW HIMSELF.
If you will turn to 1. Peter, V. l, 4, you
will find him warning his fellow laborers
against this very PopiSh spirit, and telling
them that instead Of being Lords Orer
Gods heritage to be examples to the flock
Prince of the Apostles! indeed, and yet
Paul who lived in his day and was intim-
ately acquainted with him, knew nothing
about it, for he Paul says II Corinthians
xi,5: L suppose l was not a whit behind
the very chiefest Apostles Note here
the plural form, Apostles Paul does say in
Galatians ii, 8, that when James, Peter
and John who seem to be pillars, etc.
$50 entirely ignorant was Paul Of Peters
primacy, that he openly rebuked him at
Antioch. (Sse Galatians 2, H. Let any
Bishop try that on the Pope Of the present
day. That Peter as chief spokesman had
q primary of honor we cheerfully admit
But will Rome produce put OF all the New
Testament one example in which Peter
shows o primdcy Of jurisdiction over che
other apostles? Just one. Even that
famous verse Of which they never tire,
Thou art Peter and upon this rock
will build my church. etc is
torn into fragments by their own diff
fersnt interpretations. DR.. Philip Schatf,
in his history Of the Vatican Council, P.
1O5, shows that sixteen of the Fathers
(Catholic) including Augustine, hold that
the word rock in the text refers no! 10 P,ter
at all, but to Christ. Forty. four, incl6dipg
CrysOstom, Ambrose, Hilary aud Jerome,
say the rock refers TO the faith or comics
sion of Peter. Others say the word Rock
refers to all the Apostles whom Peter rep
resented by his primacy. Still Others say
it refers to all the faithful, who, believing
In Christ, are constituted the living
stones, &c. o.
Now this wasted old man, without a
shadow Of authority from the Bible, with
out the unanimous consent of the Faith
ems and right in the face of the protests
of many Of the most scholarly ana con-
sentative officials Of
HIS OWN CHURCH.
such. men for example as D%ellinger,
Newman, Hyscinthe, Strossmayer, Raus-
cher, Darboy, Sinner, Hefele, McHale and
many others, prOclsims the Dogma of In
fallibility. Then reaching forth his benip-
pant hand he lays hold upon the liberty
Continued ON Third pgoe