The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-03-28
WHICH IS THE TRUE CHURCH
THE THEME OF REV. PATRICK
DANEHY'S DISCOURSE

Faith, and Has In View the Saliva
ton of It's Members-The Cath
Ollie Church, Father Danehy Says,
Alone Answers This Description.
The sermon by Rev. Patrick Danehy
at the cathedral last evening had for
its theme the question, (Which Is the
True church," He took for his text
John xvii. 2O-21: II pray that they all
may be one that the world
may believe that Thou hast sent me-"
Rev. Father Danehy said in part:
God lays upon man no impossible obli-
CATION. When He required of all men to
hearken to His church, He made it posi-
BILE for all men to find and recognize that
church. The most salient mark by which
she may be known, the one upon which 1
shall speak this evening. is unity.
His eminence, the late, Cardinal Man
came convinced that one meant one and
not two, my conversion to the Catholic
church was complete Our Lord prayed
that we might all be one, even as the
Father and He are one. He speaks of tie
my church." not my churches. He speaks
of it as His kingdom, His sheepfold. St.
Paul goes, even, further and calls the
tians believe this truth. When we make
our profession of faith we say; Il be-
lieve in one church" Thus far
all are agreed.
There is not the same unanimity as to
the nature of this oneness. Various the
cries have been enunciated, too numerous
to be told here, with the hope of explain
ing how churches. though various, may still
be one. But the whole question for the
inquiring mind is not what theory about
the one church of Christ is held at Lon
don. Berlin or Moscow, but how Christ
made His church one. 1t Is a question
of fact. Now. when we consider what
Christ did, we find that He made it one
society
law-making authority. Upon this rock
will build my church" Perfect agree
tire obedience to that chief law giver are
conditions laid down by Him for member
ship in His church.
Our Divine Lord provided the means for
ensuring this perfect unity of faith. If left
to their own reasonings alone. different men
will reach. for they have reached, different
interpretations of the written word of God.
This has been found true from the first age
of the church till now. But He could not
have demanded that the faith should be one
unless He had provided adequate means for
the preservation of this oneness. Hence,
besides Holy Writ, which has in every crisis
been found inadequate it was necessary to
leave among men some principle of unity.
This He provided for His church when He
empowered her bishops, as His duly COM
missioned representatives, to teach all His
doctrine with all His own certainty and au-
thority. He required of all men faith in His
teaching. promising eternal reward to those
who believe, ar eterral p1ni zhment to them
that do not. When He sent forth the apos-
ties He gave them the selfsame mission to
teach that He had received from the Faith
er, and enjoined upon all under the same
dread sanction the duty of faith IN their
teaching.
We see with certainty in what sense Christ
instituted His church one. 1t is one in
faith. all its members believing every doc
trine that the church teaches because 1t Is
in the end 1t has In view, the sanctiication
and salvation of all it's members
Of Such dd being the n LYING ra church
obeyed through all Christian antiquity. it
is needless to ask which church today
swers faithfully to. this description. There
one. That church is the Roman Catholic
church. She alone is; and has been from
the beginning one, because, If for no other
reason, she alone has existed from the be-
ginning.
Now the. grave question arises, does the
Catholic church hold that all Christians
fact foredoomed to everlasting dan1na-
ton? AS in what I have hitherto said,
I have followed closely the teaching of our
holy father, Leo XIII; in his encyclical on
the unity of the church, so in reply to this
question l shall give the answer of his IL
lustrious predecessor. Plus TX. In virtue of
a divine command, faith in the whole teach
ing. Of Jesus Christ is necessary to sal
walton. Should any man knowingly and
willingly reject this teaching, he Is there
by guilty of the sin of unbelief and is not
Of the holy father in his allocution Of Dec.
God forbid that we should dare to set
bounds to the mercy of God which is in
finite. God forbid that we should wish to
faith fsthom the secret cou Hs Of Cod, for
faith that outside of the Apostolic Roman
church no one can be saved, yet still we
must equally hold as, certain that they
that ignorance be invincible Involuntary,
are not on that account guilty of sin be-
fore the Lord. Now when we consider in
men the variety of race. of country and Of
mental ability, who can designate the lin
its where this ignorance ceases to be in
Wba and be dRa to be es srPS e
us most firmly hold the Catholic doctrine
one God, one faith, one baptism. To push
our inquiry further were impious. Let us
pray rather in charity that all nations be
converted to Christ For the arm Of the
Lord Is not shortened, nor will the grace
Of God fail them that sincerely wish and
Lebnitz charged the papal church with
being more lax than other Christian bodies
in admitting the possibility Of salvation for
Indeed, the Westminster Confession. Of
Faith says: 1.-The visible church is
the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ the
house and family of God, out of which there
is no ordinary possibility Of salvation
The eighteenth of the thirty-nine articles
of the Church Of England says: They also
are TO De accuTSeu CudL pTeSume W Say LudI
every man shall be saved by the law or sect
which he professeth; so that he be diligent
to frame his life according to that law and
the light of nature"
The Belgic Confession, article q, says:
eve believe that this holy assembly
and congregation is the assembly Of the
saved, and outside of it there is no saliva
ton, etc.
The later Helvetic Confession is still more
unequivocal. Article Is says I'VE hold
therefore, that all who take part in such
acts the worship of the Catholic church)
separate themselves off from the body Of
Jesus Christ
We brethren, know what the certainty of
divine faith that in communion with the
successor of Peter, the vicar Of Christ, we
are in the one true church of Christ. Con-
demning no individual, but with charity to
all, we must by our lives, and by our pray
ers to the throne of grace, aid all men, our
brothers, to come to the knowledge Of the
truth, that there may once more be one fold
and one shepherd. Then will the prayer Of
our Lord Jesus Christ be realized.