New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1894-04-25

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strive to impress it on the majority There
evidently exists heresy IN embryo.
Heresies alway begin in that way. Now
your correspondent thinks that the doc
trine of inherited sin came from few
scattered individuals and was afterward
made binding on all by the decree ofa
Council. Such proceeding can never
happen in the Catholic church. A coun-
Gil cannot make an article of Faith. It
cannot mould dogmas out of individual
speculation. A Councils power has
reached it's limit when it clothes in clear
unequivocal language those truths which
were ALWAYS held aud believed by the
whole church. There is absolutely no
room for creed-manufacture or fanatical
outbursts or empty theories. In formu-
lating dogmas Councils invariably seek
what the Apostles and their successors
taught and practised, land what the whole
church has believed up to their time
They cannot teach one doctrine more or
less than their predecessors. So when
the Council of Carthage dealt with the
doctrine of inherited sin before it was
made dogma the Council had to find
that it was a doctrine taught by the
Apostles and their successors in the Ep-
iscopacy and Priesthood, that the whole
body Of faithful, not few isolated in
dividuals, held it as part of Catholic
doctrine. The latter point was proven
by the creed then in vogue and by the
universal practice of baptism-a sacra-
ment intended to cleanse from inherited
sin all those who received it. After the
testimony was carefully weighed and the
whole evidence of the Teaching Church
was found in its favor the Council set it's
official seal on the doctrine and it be-
came dogma; the church couched IN
clear explicit language and put the stamp
of her authority OH religious truth that
had always found acceptance and cred
ence among her children. Your CORES
pondent may finally ask what does
dogma add to doctrine, and I reply that
it adds clearness in expression and the
weight of authority but never a new
idea or new truth.
Regarding the Morse Mythology I
have neither misquoted nor misunder-
stood your correspondent. will furn-
1sh the full text of his article as it is be-
fore me in the REVIEW of Feb. %: 'sThe
Sons of God were just what the author
of Genesis said they were-God's boys
becoming amorous and marrying the
daughters of man. The idea is not new.
In the old Morse Mythology we are told
that the Asers (the Gods) married "Jor-
tune' women and that this corrupted
| their race" It will be remembered that
yonr correspondents main thesis in the
Article from which I quote the above
was to show where some church doctrines
related in the Bible, were much older
these doctrines existed in some form
long before they found their way into
the Bible.' He then took up the snake
story and the idea of atonement, finding
both in existence previous t. the Bible.
In the same manner and with the same
object he writes regarding the idea of
the Sons of God marrying the daughters
of men. Read what he has written
.sthe idea IS not newt is found in the
Old Morse mythology" What does this
mean? Either his lanIguage is meaning
less Or it means that the Morse Mythol-
ogy is older than the Bible. If the ac-
count in Genesis about the Sons of God
''was not new idea'' your correspondent
had to prove that it had existence prev
ious to the Bible. So he quoted the
Morse Mythology, just as he quoted the
Egyptian mythology in reference to the
snake story told by Moses. But unfor-
tunately for his position the Morse My
thology is not quite old enough, in fact
it lacks several thousand years. Accord
ingly | have not laid at his door what he
did not say r. I give both his words and
my own differences. On this point as on
the growth of the catholic creed there
was square issue and in neither case did
he meet the issue squareIy.
"With the arguments about the per
sonality of God and God as a moral
Governor I have nothing to do did
notsay one word for or against the idea..
Why then was the following written in
the REVIEW, Feb. 2S: ss'The truth IN this
case was that sin was the violation of
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