The San Francisco call., 1896-01-16

seem that my meaning might be made clearer
or be fortified with new proofs.
For instance, he objects very strongly to my
saying that the passage i'll which Christ calls
Peter q rock and says he viii build his church
upon it, is q "mySterious'' one Nothing car
be palmer than this, says Father Yorke
Strange, then, If it were not more or less am
blguous, that good men and learned have dIt
fered about it SO widely for many centuries,
and that Father Yorke himself should wadt
through so many sentences to show how per
fectlv simple it is. For myself, the oftener
read it (Matt. xvi: 49, the more am persuaded
that 1t was not Peters unstable personality on
which Jesus intended to build his church, but
upon that living faith in i'm as the Christ, tht
anolnted messenger OF God, the Messiah OF
humanity TO which the ardent Peter, always
the quickest TO perceive and speak OF the
Twelve, had just given utterance. An enduI'
ing institution, true church, is not bulti
upon a man. 1t is built upon ideas and Ideals
sentiments and hopes, On trust III that Whlcn,
though unseen, is eternal. Any church which
Is built on the tradition of n man must sooner
or later fail. We do not build on Christ, even
we build on the truth, virtue and falth winch
Christ taught and was That is why the Roman
Catholic church, after centuries OF gradual
decline is now so rapidly crumbling 10 pieces.
Not in the United States, perhaps, where cir
cumstances give 1t e temporary renewal, but
In Europe, the sent of its birth and former
greatness.
Father Yorke naturally denies this To him
it is built upon rock But there seems little
of stability or permanence in its present vicis-
situdes and decays. All OF which reminds me
OF little story with which l will enliyen the
Father Finnegen was worthy priest and an
eloquent preacher, though now and then his
Hibernian blood betrayed itself in q racy
brOgue and mixed metaphor, as it does, by
the way, in the case OF Father 9orke, when he
says in this very communication that "Peter
was the rock because he spread the gospel"
One day, then, Father Finnegan delivered q
powerful sermon to his flock on this very text,
and descanted loud and long on the glory and
permanence OF church so founded. Waxing
warm, he cried: THE Catholic church, my
beloved friends, is like noble ship, gallantly
sailing over the ocean Her hold is full
freighted with the souls of ber faithful chill
dren. st. Peter is the captain, whose hand is
on her tiller. Her prov is pointed toward the
blissful shores of paradise Her sails are
swelled with the breath of heaven. On her
flying pennant is the emblem OF the cross The
storms OF hate and malice will beat wildly
down upon her; the rains VIII descend and
the floods threaten 10 engulf her. But she viii
not sink, my beloved friends; she viii never
sink. And why, my beloved? Because as our
text so beautifully assures us, she is founded
upon a rock!"
Good Father Finnegan spoke wiser than he
knew. The Catholic church is indeed founded,
or, still better, foundered on q rock That rock
is the unWarranted, lndefenSible claim of
Peters primacy. The Roman Papacy is the
rock on which the Catholic church will yet
split in two.
Never was there more unscripturai, unhfs-
toCical, unreasonable and unchriStian dogma
Says the great Catholic church historian,
l. Won Doellinger, the most learned scholar and
chief ornament of that church, whose freedom
OF thought and speech at length carried him
out OF that communion:
OF all the fathers who interpret these passages in
the gospels tMatthew Xvi:lS, John xxi:17, not a
single one applies them to the Roman Bishops as
Peters successors. How many fathers have
busted themselves with these texts vet not one OF
them whose commentaries possess-0rgen,
Chrysostom. Hilary, Augustine, Cyril Theodoret
and those whose interpretations are collected in
caenas-has dropped the faintest hint that the
primacy OF Rome is the consequence OF the COM
mission and promise TO Peter! Not one of them
has explained the rock or foundation on which
Christ would build his church of the Office given
to Peter 10 be transmitted to his successors,
but they understood by it either Christ himself,
or Peters confession of faith in Christ: often both
together. Or else they thought Peter was the
foundation equally with ali the other anostles
the twelve being together the foundation stones
OF the church (Revelation xxt:l4. The Fathers
could the less recognize In the power of the keys.
and the power of binding and loosing, any special
prerogative or lordship of the Roman Bishop, in
aSmuch aS-what is obvious any one AT first
sght-they did not regard power first given to
Peter, and afterNvaTd conferred in precisely the
same words on all the apostles. as anything pc
GUITAR 10 MN, or hered tary IN the line OF Roman
Bishops, and they held the symbol OF the keys as
meaning ius5 the same the fgurative express
sion OF binding and loosing.
And again Doellinger says:
Every one knows the one classical passage OF
Scripture which the edifce OF Papal infallibil-
ity has been reared: Il have prayed for thee that
thy faith fail not: md when thou art convert ed
festly refer only TO Peter personal Y, his denial
OF Christ, and his conversion; he Is told that he
whose failure of faith would be only short dura.
ton, is TO strengthen the other apostles, whose
faith would likewise waver. Ii is directly against
the sense Of the passage, which speaks simply oi
faith, first waverng, and then &c be confirmed in
the Messianic dignity OF Christ, find in 1t a
promise OF future infalhoity succession OF
Popes lust because they hold the office Peter first
held in the Roman church. No single writer to the
end OF the seventh century dreanit OF such an in.
terpretation: all without ,.Xception-and there are
IlpIn-PxDiaTD nra1 af
Christ that his apostle might wholly succum b
and lose his laith entirely in his approaching trial" "
(Janus p. 74-75.)
In the opinion OF most scholars of the
modern critical school this whole passa ee
John xxi:16l is palpablv ungenune. The
fourth gospel ends naturally with the last
dently an appendix later added to the fourth
gospel IN order to couuteract its glorifcation
OF the beloved disciple and to make Peter ap-
pear as the chief apostle.
Finally, Father orke would have us believe
that all this stupendous claim for the primo.
geniture of the Bishops OF Rome is to be based
on such shadowy proofs as these. Think how
much, If the Papal theory be true. is involved
in the acceptance OF the primacy OF ST. Peter
at Rome. 1t would mean the spiritual peace
and salvation of millions of people who now
deny ii. And all these tremendous couse.
quences to the human race are made to depend
on the correctness OF one way of interpreting .
sin gle text in of the gospels or at most two
or three dubious texts! 1t is as absurd to sup
pose IUiS rs II men were 10 undertake to build
pyramid by lnverting it and elevating il
upon its apex.
Ny good Father Yorkel Let the Catholic
church appeal to the Imagination, the affec
uons the spiritual needs OF men; let her point
them To the works of mercy and charity in
which she abouEds. But let her carefully
avoid all intellectual conflict, and especially
ali appeals to Scripture, history or the reason
OF man. For here the memorable logic OF truth
is against her, and she has nothing to gair
and everything TO lose. For all your learning
and cloquence, your courage and zeal, the issue
remains. Rome or reasoni the authority O.
uncertifed tradition and the assured disclo
sures OF the individual intelligence and con
science OF man fortified by the facts of science
the testimonies of history and the inward dis
closures OF God. Choose ye this day whom w
will serve" AS for me and my house | vii
serve freedom and truth and God
CHARLES W. WENDTE
Minister First Unitarian Church in Oakland.
FATHER YORkE SPEAKS,