The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1898-03-12

can set aside the enactments of congress-;
decree. There is no appeal.
Every final decision of sovereign
state enjoys the same prerogative. For
every government is in reality absolute
To resist 1t is treason. The day when Its
citizens should be permitted to refuse
obedience on the ground that it had er-
red or done an injustice. the country
would cease to exist; it would recognize
human authority above itself. We
claim, then, no very exceptional prero-
gative for the church Of God when we
claim infallibility for her. There is but
this difference between civil society and
her. that in the one infallibility is sup
posed by man, as De Maistre said, in the
other it is assured by God. Until a law
is repealed, or a decision reversed, we
submit to it as though 1t were irreversi-
preme authority in the church because
we know that its decree is simply true;
| for it's truth we have Gods own promise.
which cannot fail. This now proceed
to show.
Our Lords own words prove 1t. go
We therefore teach all things what
soever have commanded you. and be-
hold 1 am with you all days. even to
| the consummation of the world" This
commission contains two parts. a COM
mand and promise. The one is new,
the other old. The new part, while en-
tirely plain to us, must have sounded
strange to the apostles and the men Of
their time. Never before had man been
sent to perform task without limit In
time or space. To all nations through
out all times those men were to teach
the whole revelation of Jesus Christ.
But there was reinsurance In the
| promise. The promise itself was old, Its
terms were familiar to their remote an
cestors. Away back in the days when
Abraham came from Ur of the Chaldees
into the land of Caanan it had been
spoken. Isaac and Jacob and Joseph had
been consoled by 1t when their lot had
fallen into unpleasant places. and the
future seemed most drear. When Isaac.
under stress of famine. was about to 20
down into Egypt, God said to him: do
| not go down, but stay in the land that
shall tell thee And will be with Thea
and will bless thee" When Isaac eowed
in that land he found that same year on
hundredfold.
When Jacob in the land of Haran vas
unjustly treated by Labon, his father
in-law, the Lord said to him, Return
to the land of thy father and I will he
with thee We know the result. The
same is true In the history Of Joseph.
When he had even been
cast into the Egyptian pris-
on and all hope seemed lost. we read
that God was with him and made all that
he did to prosper. Stranger, then, and
| prisoner though he was In that country,
he rose to independence. rescued his
father and brothers from famine and gov
erned all the land of Egypt. When God
commanded Moses to go to Pharo and
lead forth the children of Israel out of
Egypt in spite of the obstacles that man
and nature had put in his way he did
bring his people out of the land of bond
age, for God had said to him Il will be
with thee" When Jeremias learned that
God had chosen him prophet to the ma
tions, he demurred, and the Lord said to
him: "Say not, am child. For thus
shalt go to all that shall send thee. BE
not afraid Of their presence, for will be
with thee. I have made thee this day a
fortified city. pillar of iron and wall
of brass over all the land to the kings of
Juda, to the princes thereof, to the
priests and people Of the land. They shall
fight against thee, but shall not prevail,
for am with thee" said the Lord. This,
then, is a we'll known and frequently en-
ployed idiom In the language of the bible.
Whenever 1t occurs 1t has but one signi-
fication. If our Divine Lord did not Lean
that His duly commissioned teachers
were always and everywhere to teach his
very truth without fail, He should have
made choice Of other language. While If
he did mean to make it clear beyond yea
or nay that his own divinity stood
sponsor for their infallibility he could
not have found form of words more
entirely to His purpose. It indicates as
plainly as words can indicate q special
assistance given by God to the person
addressed, so that no matter what the
work to which that assistance is promis-
ed that work cannot fail.
We are now in a position to under
stand the full import Of our Lords words
to the apostles. They are but men like
Jeremias or Moses; like them, also, they
shrink from the superhuman task that
is assigned to them; their commission is
to teach the whole revelation of Jesus
Christ to all men of all after times. They
are fully aware Of their own limitations.
No one knew better than they their
many and grave shortcomings. They
need no assurance that they are liable to
go astray in expounding and interpreting
the message of heaven. But the fullness
of time had come; the desired Of nations
was among thom. tho pronhat,c ,,ro,,;,.