The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1901-11-20
DIR. CoURTENAY's EULOGY.
minister Pays Tribute
to the old Church.
The Catholic Columbian.

The Catholic Columbian.
A noteworthy occurrence of a
week ago was sermon on the
Catholic Church delivered by Rev.
A. M. Courtenay, pastor of the
Methodist Episcopal Church at
Chillioothe, o., a sermon character
lied by unusual breadth of view
and sympathetic treatment. DR..
Courtenay's utterancea as reported
in the Chillicothe papers were sub
stantially as follows; In opening,
DIR Courtenay chose his text from
the Epistle of Paul to- the Philip
plans 2-4: "Look not every man
on his own things, but every man
also on the things of others"
He began by saying that indi-
viduals working for their souls
salvation, should work unitedly
and not as broken. fragments Sep
aration engendets Ignorance of
others belief and practices. Igno
rance begets envy and suspicion
and suspicion hatred.
In dealing with this question the
Roman Catholic Church, DIR. Cour-
tenay said he would not be oontro.
versial; that he was not raking up
dying embers, and without taking
one iota from their fair name and
glory of those who had fought the
great battle for larger individual
liberty, the subject of the evening
was to be treated without recount
ing the differences incident to the
past conflict,
The subject was to be treated
from comparative standpoint as
to the good in the Roman Catholic
Church. He said there WAS no
fear of ths Roman Catholic Church
getting possession of the land to
the detriment of the scots. He
held that the Church had had it's
opportunities in this country be-
fore the Protestants set foot on
American soil, that the first act
of Christopher Columbus upon
landing was to set up the GROSS.
The Catholics had settled the south
eastern and north eastern COASTS in
tho persons of the Spanish and
French, before the Protestants had
landed, and they we're loyal to their
new country. He stated that one
half of the rank and file of the
,RennsyIvania troops in tho warFof
the Revolution we're Catholics, and
they were among those faithful to
the end in that conflict, He Cited
the Roman Catholic authorities to
show that the Church was not
holding it's own with the native
Americans and that it's recruits
were gained from the flood of for
eign immigrants, but even with
this influx there WAS not the least
danger of the Church was endeav.
oring to control the State or public
schools as some Professionals might
fear.
He passed from these points to
the beauties of the Catholic
Church expressing his belief that
the word Catholic was appropriate
as it signi6ed universal, but
thought that the word Roman seq.
regated it and destroyed it's univer-
salty. Still, Catholic was better
than any other word, unless it
might be "Cbristian" Church. The
word Roman, however, carried
with it much to be respected and
to be admired, for it promulgated
the Roman code of laws through
the Church and there was no more
perfect system than the Roman
Church showed and lived up to.
The Christian world owes an ever
lasting debt to the Catholic
Church, because that Church pre-
served the forms of social order
and civilization in the dark ages,
and it had endured through all
those terrible shocks. The Pro-
testant Church owes all that is best
in it to the Catholic Church, and
that Church will continue to -four
ish.
eff I could destroy the Catholic
Church tomorrow as easily as 1
could turn over my hand" said the
pastor, 81 should not do SO, for it
has great mission to perform and
it performs it as the Protestant
church could not do. tfinds a
place for every person, be he the
religious enthusiast, the worker for