The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1899-02-18
OR. 0E COSTA ON HEADLEss CHURCHES
THE OFFICE OF THE CHURCH Is 10
ENPLAIN THE BOOK.
THOUSAND CONFLICTING AUTHORITIES.
UNCERTAINTY THE PREVAILING,
TRAIT OF PROTiaSTANTISM,

AT the Protestant Episcopal Church of
ST. John the Evangelist, New York. on
last Sunday week DR.. De Costa deliver
Ell discourse on the supreme authority
OF the church, from the Church which
is His body" (Eph, j., 22) The doe
tors discourse was as follows:
There being only one God and one re-
ligion the Church must be the teacher
OF that one religion, having ample au-
thority because Christ is her head. Ihe
Body takes this right from the Head
What was headless human body?
Simply thing for the undertaken to
bury. headless church also was a
corpse, and the land is full of these
cadavers today. Christlcss, hcadless re-
ligion abounds. 1t runs the gamut from
Calvinism to Socinianism, and thence
on to spiritualism and panthesm Any
thing will do duty with most sects for
who do not even believe in God ask us
to consider them Christians. Sceptical
ingenuity is taxed to the utmost to find
substitutes, not only for the head of the
church, but for the church herself. They
tell us, with Dean Farrar, that the Bible
through the aid Of the Spirit, will give
all essential truth; yet. by this process
men, with the distinguished Dean, find
that nothing is essential, or that what is
n Wi Sc,
another.
The Bible alone. though priceless
treasure, can never serve the individual
as definer. 1t is the office of the
Church TO define and teach the meaning
Oh inc Bible. Through the general coun-
CHS we have the Church Interpretations
chleny expressed in the ancient croodu
yet zealots would force upon us In place
Vi 'he church Catholic the heallcss
church. They ask us to take orr in
structlon from any and every cornso
The land is full of these dead bodies
which, III all dccency, should be buried
from sight. Private Judgment furnishes
as many judgments as there arc mon
ana women in the world; it Is puerile
for those who defy individual opinion
to pretend to believe in any church.
God and mammon, ego and the Church.
cannot exist together. The Church must
be everything or nothing and with sec
'ar1ah bodies i'll our country it is Moth
ing except the butt of ridicuc. The
sooner these rrligionists stop pretending
to believe in any church and retire from
the whole church business, the better it
will be for the world.
The Bible, then, cannot be Il dclncr.
We read 1t rcvcrcntly for the confrma-
ton of what has already been defined,
and to establish ourselves in the faith
once delivered to the saints. What the
world needs today is the Church that
speaks with authority, the Church that
knows the truth and does not fear to
tell 1T; the Church that, under no infldcl
plea illustrated by Matthew Arnod's
untruth, attempting to fill the world
with her own emptiness. If religious
organization does not know what the
truth is, 1t of courcs cannot condemn
untruth; but in that case, if there is no
prospect of improvement-and there Ger
tainly is none-hnd it not better retire
from the church business? On this DrIu-
ciple' at Il conservative estimate nearly
one hundred and forty American denom-
nations would pass. The Church must
have her true place in the world or no
place at all. There can be no compro-
mise between the Church and the world.
The infallible Christ must speak
through the Church. The Head must.
control the Body. The great general
councils must be rccognizcd the ancient
creeds honorcd and all Christians must
rally to their support in one universal
body. Otherwise disintegration will do
it's work upon every organization that
refuses allegiance to the central thought.
Scoffers may mock, but only at last
to show the fate of scoffcrs. TO say
that uncertainty must be the prevailing
characteristic of Christianity is to say
that Christ organized His Church and
sent it forth into thewOrld like some ship
sent to sea without ballast, ruddcr or
compass. AS a matter of fact, too. there
is hardly single private Judgment re-
ligion that prctcnds to have commander
or helmsman Everybody on board
Is hGlnsman, and we all know how they
steer. People do not seem to know the
place of the Bible in religion.
After giving the Bible the Church did
not abandon her authority, but was moro
and more emphatic in her claims. as was
the government OF the United States
after writing the Constitution. Church
authority Is the thing We need to recog-
nize this day; Christ speaking through
His Church. The same Holy Ghost that
helped the Church write the New Testa-