The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1902-02-01
Che Cwc Brothers. s. s. B SSss1ss
Controversial Dialogue Between Presbyterian and His
Catholic Brother, Leading Up to Formers Conversion.

1.-THE author continues his sOlilOquy
this week Last week he went over
the ground disclosing the disadvant-
ages which one who seeks to defend
authority has to encounter in discus
sions with such as rebel against the
existing order The policy of the Re-
formers was indicated by Luther when
he took the discussion of theological
questions out of the school and from
the tribunal of professional theologians
and brught it before the unprofessional
public. The author makes an apt il
lustration of the effect of such tactics
by citing a quack who advertised a
cure for everything under the sun.
When challenged by competent physi
clans to present his system before Il
jury of medical men, the attack gets
around it by impudently declaring that
professional men were prejudiced, but
he would present his system openly be-
fore his free and enlightened fellow
citizens, who were the only proper
tribunal" The author concludes: Il
might. indeed, if such should happen
to be the case, perceive that this pre-
tended discoverer silenced his oppon-
ent; but l could draw no inference from
that, for nothing is more common than
for man to triumph through impu-
dence, or because too ignorant to be
refuted. The proper judges of con-
troversy like the one here proposed
are medical men themselves, as law
yers are the proper judges of law ques-
tons. Indeed, the very fact that this
advertiser refuses to argue his case be-
fore an audience of professional men
and appeals to the unprofessionaI pub
lie, is to me full proof that he is
quack and sufficient to decide me,
without further examination, against
him. Editor 1. NJ. CT
XII.
Just so would l have reasoned, if
had been present, when Luther made
his appeal to the unprofessional public.
Why did he make such appeal? Be
cause the public at large are the prop
err tribunal for professional questions?
Because they can really judge better,
discriminate more accurately, and de-
eide with more wisdom and justice,
than they who by their profession are
at least somewhat acquainted with the
matters in controversy? Because he
really believed them the best qualified
to be judges? No one can be so SIM
pie as to believe it, so senseless as TO
pretend it. Luther knew that loose
statements. confident assertions, bold
allegations and imprisoned appeals
would avail him nothing before jury
of theological doctors. He knew that
there he could not lie with impunity,
and that his believing in bad Latin"
would win him no laurels. He may
have persuaded himself, or suffered the
devil to persuade him-and If we may
believe his own statements, his col
Ioquies with the devi, we're frequent
and intimate-that the Church was
wrong; but he must have known that
the particular objections he brought
against her were groundless, and that
it was only by disregarding the es-
tabliShed rules of reasoning, and re-
sorting to falsehOod and Sophlstry. con-
fdent assertions and bold and daring
denunciations, that he could sustain
himself or his party. And these could
avail only with the unprofesslonal pup
lie, who could never understand the
exact points in question, perceive the
bearing or feel the force OF strict logl-
cal arguments. With them eloquence
would pass for reason, and invecttye
for argument This he knew, and
hence his appeal from the school to
the public at large. Hence nave ms
followers continued to appeal to the
multitude. and to leave truth and JUS
tice to take care of themselves.
This policy, however, is not without
certain drawbacks. 1t answers admir-
ably while the party adopting 1t have
nothing of their own, and are mere
L, nrf voc
when and where they please. But when
and where they have acquired a par
tial success, and wish to abandon their
wandering life and predatory warfare,
and settle down in fixed dwellings, with
something esta blished and permanent
of their own, they find 1t unaValllng.
Men. as CARLYLE remarks, cannot live
without clothes, and surely in this
bleak, wintry world it is not convent
ent to go naked. They must and Will
have something to cover their naked
ness-some sort of institution Tor thelr
protection. They will cover themselves
with aprons of fig leaves and build them
a hut with broken branches, seek out
q cavern in the rocks or a hole in the
earth. if they can do no better. They
must and will have something they
call religion, some established mode OF
real or not real, with the
invisible Even the atheist fabricates
to himself a god of nature, and renders
1t a species of worship and the skeptic
seeks to convert his skepticism into
creed. 1t is horrible to feel ones self
alone in the world, abandoned to the
blind workings of the elements, with
no Father in heaven. no brothers on
earth. standing on a mere point sur
rounded by a universal blank. We can
not endure it. Nature recoils from her
self, and the soul shrieks out: 20, thou
Great Unknown, save me from myself.
Leave me, O, leave me not to the soil
tude of my own being! There is a
God. and q God to be worshped, is
written in golden letters on all nature,
and engraven as with the point of
diamond on every heart. In vain would
man tear himself away from his Maker.
Go where he will, be and do what he
will. sleeping or waking the God that
made him and seeks his heart Nooes
him with his love, or pursueS him with
his Justice The boldest recoil from his
Justice. and quake before the underlined
dread of his vengeance, and seek some
medium of yielding the love or of pro-
yiding a substitute for the love he So
licits.
Protestants went on gloriously while
they aimed at nothing but to attack
the existing ecclesiastical order. The
means they had chosen were just fitted
to their purpose. But when a large
number had been seduced from their
and found themselves home
less and shelterless and naked in this
Nrs