The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1889-02-23
1.-THE CHURCH OF ROME
Truth and Beauty Of Catholicity az
Portrayed by Eminent Protestant
Writers.
THE HONEST lN0UIRER's DUTY.

"Her Doctrines, as She One by One Unfo1ds
Them, Emerge Upon Us Like Petals
Of Half Closed Bud"
William Hurrell Mallock contributes
thus to Is Life Wort Living? The fol.
lowing tributes of Protestant writer's
to the truth, beauty and power Of Cath
olicity should not be overlooked. 1t is
consoling to know that there exists a
few who are endowed with intellect to
know these truths, and manliness
enough to express them publicly, even
in the face of we'll known mendacitY
and opposition of their brothers to
the Catholic church. ....
The object speak Of is an absolute
infallibilty. ANY spiritual religion shat
renounces its claims to this, it is clear,
can profess to be semi revelation
only. 1T is a hybrid thing, partly nat.
ural and partly supernatural, and it
thus practically has all the qualities ct g
religion that is wholly natural. In so
far that it processes to be revealed, it OF
course processes to be infalliDle; but if
the revealed part in the first place be
hard to distinguish, and in the second
place hard to understand--if it uean
many things, and many Of those con-
tradictory-it might just as we'll never
have been made at all. To Ioake it
in any sense an infallible revelation, or
in other words a revelation at all, to us,
we need q power to interpret the testa-
ment that shall have equal authority
with that testament itself.
Simple as this truth seems, mankind
have been long time learning it. In
deed, 1t is only in the present day that
its practical meaning has come gener-..
ally to be recognized. But now at this
moment, upon all sides OF us, history is
teaching it to us by example, so clearly
that we can no longer mistake If.
THAT example is Protestant Chris
tianity, and the condition to which, af.
ter three centuries, is yisib!y bringing
itself. It is at last beginning to ex-
hibit TO us the true results Of the de.
nial of infaIlibility to q religion that
processes to be supernatural. 1t is fast
eyaporating into q mere natural theism,
and it is thus showing us what, as a
governing power, natural theism is. Let
us look at England, Europe and Amer
lea, and consider the condition Of the
entire Protestant world. Religion, it
is true, we shall lind in it; bat it is re-.
ligion from which not only the SUPER
natural element IS disappearing, bus iu
which the natural element is becoming |
aebulous. tits indeed growing, as Mr..
Stephen says it is, into religion Of
dreams.
ALI it's doctrines are growing vague az
dreams, and like dreams their outlines
ars forever changing. There is hardly
any conceivable alteration of moral !
license that has not, in some quarter or
other, embodied itself into rule of life,
and claimed to be proper outcome of
Protestant Christianity.
Now, considering the way in which
have just spoken Of Professionalism, it |
may seem to think that have dismiss
cd this question already. With the
enlightened' English thinker such !
will be the first impression.
But there is one point that such think
ers all forget: Protestant Christianity
is not the only form Of it. They have
still the form to deal with, which is the
oldest, the most legitimate, and the
most coherent--the Church Of Rome.
They surely cannot forget the ex-
istence Of this Church or her magni-
tude. 70 suppose this would be to at
tribute to them too insular or rather
too provincial an ignorance. The cause,
however, certainly is ignorance, an ig-
norance which, though less surprising,
is far deeper. In this country the pop
ular conception of Rome has been so
distorted by our familiarity with Pro.
testantism, that the true conception of
her IS something quite strange to us.
Our divines exhibited her to US as
though she was lapsed Protestant
sect, and they haye attacked her for
being false to doctrines that were never
hers. They have to see that the first
and essential difference which sepa-
rates her from them lies, primarily, not
in anv special dogma, but in the au-
thority on which all her dogmas rest.
Protestants. basing their religion on
the Bible solely, have conceived that
Catholics of course profess to do like
wise; and have covered them with in.
yectiye for being traitors to their sup
posed profession. But the church's
primary doctrine is her own intaIlibil-
ity. She is inspired, she declares, by the
same Spirit that inspired the bible; and
her voice is, equally with the bible the