The Irish standard., 1894-10-06
INSPIRED WORD,
An Eloquent Jesuit Provincial Lee
turer Before the Catholic
Summer School
ON THE HOLY SCRIPTURES,
The Catholic Church Preserved
Them, Copied Them and
Translated Ttem.

Them, Copied Them and
Translated Them.
The noted Jesuit Provincial lecturer,
Father Pardow, recently addressed the
Catholic Summer school, taking the
Bible as his subject. He began by stat
ing that it was impossible, in four lec-
lures, to treat fully of any of the deep
questions connected with the study OF
the Bible so that IN the lectures it would
be considered principally as the Rule of
Faith. Before considering it so, how
ever, there were few preliminary ques-
tions that must be answered. For ages
the enemies of the Church have charged
her with being the enemy Of the Bible,
bus in this Nineteenth century she, and
chs only, stands up to declare that the
Bible and the whole Bible. is the in
apired word of God, and consequently
must he believed The Sovereign Pom
tiff in his Encyclical says: "Let they
Loyalty hold that God, the Creator and
Ruler Of things, also the author OF the
Scripture, and that, therefore, nothing
Can be proved either by physical science
or archaeology which can really contra
dict tho Scriptures. Truth cannot con-
4radict truth, aud if there is any appar-
ent contradictions We may be sure that
some mistake has been made, either in
the Interpolation Of the sacred words or
in the polemical discussion itself, and if
no such mistake can be detected, we
must then suspend judgment for the
time being
There are, at the present time, many
earnest people who have loved it all
their lives, who perhaps have read it on
their knees, into whose souls, moved by
this higher criticism which now rejects
ono part and now another, doubts are
creeping, who ask themselves: will it
stand the test? When will his work of
desecration end? ls the Bible to be to
xne merely book Of consolation, or is it
to be book which imposes points of
doctrine that J. must believe under pen
atty Of eternal condemnation Who will
tell ME what to believer" st. Paul says:
<'God, who, at sundry times and in divers
manners, spoke in times Of past to the
fathers by the prophets, last CT all, in
J these days, hath spoken to US by His
Son."
Our God, to use familiar compari-
son, has been to us as telescope bring
ing down truths TO US from His Eternal
Father. 1t would seem an easy thing
for God to speak to his people, but it is
a hard thing. 1t is an easy thing for
Him to speak to individual souls, but
souls collectively is the hardest thing in
the world. 1t is to convince them that
it is He who speaks, and that they must
obey, for human reason is infallible in
its own sphere. When after q clear ex-
animation, reason tells us that we must
do thing, it must be doe or we sin
against God. The question is asked,
however, If reason is infallible why co
We differ? Because we will not let rea-
son speak. Reason presents unpleasant
truths to us and we silence it. Obstacles
come in the way and prejudice steps in
prejudice or pre-judgment-a judg-
ment beforehand. This is what has
been doing all the harm in matter Of
religion throughout the ages-prejudice.
This is what Catholics have suffered at
the bands of their enemies--pre judg-
ment; chat is pre- judgment before we
know what We are talking about. Our
Lord, coming to speak to men gifted
with reason, willingly submitted to the
requirements of that same reason which
he had given them.
When ST. John the Baptist, hearing of
the work Of Christ, sent two of his discl-
pies to ask Him. cart thou He that art
to Gomez" Our Lord, knowing so we'll the
human mind, did not say, "I am the
Christ. as any lmposter could have said,
but, "Tell John what you have heard and
seen; the blind see, the lame walk, the
dead rise again" John called Our Lord
to the tribunal Of reason, asking Christ
Tor his credentials, and Our Lord an.
swered by suspending some of the laws of
nature and performing miracles. Having
shown His credentials as authorizing
Him to speak in the name of His Father,
He then had the right to teach. But
what should those do who had not seen?
They should take the testimony of truth.
ful witnesses. There are two avenues to
the mind, and only two; the authority Of
evidence and the evidence Of authority
Truth put clearly before the mind pro
duces certainty. Few things are evident