The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-01-19
BURNING BIBLES.


Blake manifested good sense and no
bitterness in his comments. He said:
Our Bibles have been burned before
in Peru. Fanaticism is the cause Of it.
The natives are opposed to the distri-
button of our Protestant Bibles, and
every nov and tnen they seize ou1
stock and destroy it. What viii be
done? Nothing. What can we do?
They have destroyed the Bibles before.
they destroy them now and will pro-
baby destroy them again. But just
the same we shall continue to send
our Bibles there. Rev. Penzotti is our
agent in Peru. Only two years ago
he was imprisoned there for no reason
other than that he was distributing
our Bibles He was kept in jail for
five or six months. and was only re-
leased then through the interposition
of the state department in Washing
ton.
It is refreshing indeed to note the
total absence of fanaticism in COM
menting on such a subject, and the
calm determination to go on with the
work of distributing Bibles notwith-
standing the destruction of the supply
at Lima
The incident, however. brings up
afresh the recollection Of that great
controversy of the sixteenth century
between Catholic and Protestant as to
what place the Bible should occupy in
the church; and it is also of interest
because it reveals the fact that the
embers of that controversy are still
alive-the stubbornness of Luther and
the imperious authority Of papaI Rome
may still be said to walk the earth.
When the young Monk of Wittem-
burg first excepted to and finally de-
nounced the sale of indulgences he had
no thought that his opposition to the
shameful work of John Tetzel would
bring him in opposition to the whole
Roman church. The Reformation. so
called. was a matter Of growth, of de
velopment. and finally turned on a
wholly different matter from that upon
which it began. The question Of indul-
gences was very shortly lost sight Of
in the importance given to other
things, and finally the question viz
tUally resolved itself into this: Is the
Bible or the pope the supreme
authority on questions of doctrine, on
questions of faith and of morals? The
line Of DEVELOPMENT up to this point
was about as follows:
Luther invaded against the sale Of
indulgences; closely associated with
such a controversy, of course, was the
forgiveness of sin. and there was
finally dragged into it the question as
to what part the grace of God takes
both in the forgiveness of sin and the
salvation of man. Luther contended
that the forgiveness of sin and the
salvation of man came through the
grace of God without works; that there
was nothing man could do to earn sal
walton, it was the free gift of God
Rome contended that her ministry pos
sessed power to remit sins: that mans
salvation came through a combination
of the grace of God and the will of
man, through acceptance of the church
sacraments and the performance of
good works.
The controversy waxed violent and
Luther was peremptorily ordered by
Cardinal Cajetan, to whom the pope
had referred the German controversy
for settlement, to submit his judgment
to the authority Of the pope. Luther.
however, was not of the temperament
to submit to arbitrary dfctation, he
contended that the pope was not in
formed of the merits of the con-
troversy, and astonished Europe by
appealing from the pope i'll informed to
the pope better informed. When that
pope "better informed still decided
against him, the Monk appealed to a
general council of the church. and not
only did he ask q council to pass upon
the points in controversy, but de-
manded that the council accept the
Bible as superior to the cannon law,
or the judgment of the pope. This
was asking more than Rome could
grant Europe was divided on the
question, the north went with Luther,
the south with the pope, and as re-
CARDS majorities, Europe is so divided
today.
The Protestants hold to the Bible
alone as an aIl-suf7cient guide in all
matters of faith and morals. The
Catholics insist upon the whole word
of God, the Unwritten word Of God.
which they see in the traditions of the
church, and also the written word, the
Bible, both, however, to be interpre-
ted by the authority of the church.
The Protestants urge the free reading
of the Bible by the layity, by all sorts
and conditions of men, and look upon
its circulation as among the chief
agencies Of missionary work. The
Catholics, on the contrary, believe that
the Bible should be read, but under
the direction Of the instructors in the
church, the priests, and hold that in
discriminate reading of it without a
guide may produce in many cases as
much harm as good, since so few bring
the necessary scholarship to the task
of reading and understanding it Alright.
The forces representing these two
ideas met in Peru and the Bibles of the
Protestants were burned. Let us hope
that the controversy viii not so extend
as to end in the burning of the men
and women representing the respective
sides of the contention as in the old
dark days in which the question had
It's origin.
REBUKED BY A PRAYER.
The blind chaplain's prayer in the
house of renreeant ati1rae ~, Eridnr 70,