The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-12-24
SoME sr.lRrL1NG FACTS

of the Church of the Messiah.
 Tn very Interesting discourse last Sunday upon "The Good Things in the Roman Catholic Church" delivered by Rev. MT Dickerman at the Church of the Messiah, many striking passages of special interest occurred,
 Mir DicIerman said in the course of the sermon: When we look at a Roman Catholic congregation and see illiteracy, costly churches and the poverty of the parish ioners, we are somewhat amazed, But this illiteracy, this poverty, does not exist everywhere. Look to Washing ton and Baltimore, France Spain and Australia, with their cultured Catholic congregations In Washington and Baltimore men eminent at the bar, in the counting room, in all the high and influential walks of Hfe-many of these men are of the Roman Catholic com munion. In that communion are men great In science, in literature; and eve ny fair mind is obliged to admit that there is high talent in the Roman Cath olc church.
 The great Roman empire went down in utter collapse and her only survivor was the Roman Catholic church Like the empire, the church spread her func- tions throughout the known world and claimed supreme authority. But of course the church's functions were of the ecclesiastical kind and her supreme authority was in spiritual and moral concerns.
 The name she claims for herself is the Roman Catholic church; Roman, because the seat of her chief see, of her pope is the city of Rome; Catholic, be- cause she claims to be universal, to spread throughout the world and be for all men. No wonder she has such a < following. In 450,0 900 Christians there are 200, 900 Catholics
 The missionary agency of the Roman Catholic church is the greatest in this world. The priests went forth into bar barism and taught the savages thrift, civilization and religion--in the South Sea Islands, on the American continent and everywhere else where there was . people to be gained, to Christianity Look to Japan Before Commodore Perry reached there the Catholic mis- sionaries had been in the dynasty years upon years. In India four-fifths of the converts to the Christian religion are Catholics This may be surprising to us. Still it's a fact Scarcely had the Puritan set foot on the American con- tinent than Father Marquette and oth- CT Catholic missionaries were exploring and Christianizing the present domin- ipn nf 6o S1ilinp down Father of Waters were in what is now California. Wherever there was a new foot of soil the Catholic missionary was sure to be there. Nor was he inspired simply by a spirit of propagandism. His was a life of peril, of sacrifice, and he was sincere in all his convic- tions.
 Many Protestants declare that the Catholic church is the enemy of the Bl- ble. But the fact is historical that the Catholic church preserved to us our Bl- ble Through the Dark Ages she also preserved the treasures of the classics, the grand literature of the Greeks and sRoanaps SsNre would have only 8 few relics if it were not for that church. The classic treasures extant were near 1y all found among the monks.
 The Roman Catholic church is not the enemy of the Bible She believes the Bible to be inspired. But she does not believa that any book is infallible. She does believe and promulgates that there must be an infallible interpreter Of the Bible She antagonizes private inter- pretations and this I believe, is one of her chief objections against the read 5>f+ i,o+ i6 Tn her course against private interpret ation I believe that she is more than half right She was quick enough in her own experience to foresee that such interpretation was a danger to unity of belief If the Bible is used simply for devotional bosk, all right. But when texts are quoted as the basis CT doctrine and are made to mean almost anything, there is danger.
 Against this indiscrimination ths church herself interprets the Bible in the light of tradition and scholarship. I'm not certain that the Catholics are not nearer the truth about the Bible than we are. They are united the world over; while we, with our private interpretations are separated into many denominations It would have been better if the Protestants too had been more cautious about the use of the Bible.
 Admission to the Roman Catholic church is by the sacrament of bap- tism, as she believes that all are born tainted with the sin of Adam The Rev. Dr. Dickerman then defined the other six sacraments of the church -confirmation, penanceC eucharist, ex- treme unction, holy orders and matri- mony. He then went on to the Latin liturgy of the Roman Catholic church. Proceeding he said:
 Some say that the Roman Catholic church encourages vice, gives a license to commit sin, by granting indulgences. This is not true. An indulgence is in tended for the remission of the tenn poral penalty. The teaching of the Catholic church on indulgences is the opposite of what some Protestants think it to be.
 Now there is another thing in which am in some sympathy with the Roman Catholics It is the communion of saints Protestants ask the prayers of