The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1902-05-10
XVI

! XVI
WHY not pray directly to God?"
That question is out of place. Why
| do you ask fellow mortal to pray for
you? Why do you pray and intercede
| for your congregation
But you are idolators, for you wor-
ship images"
IF by worship you mean paying d.
vine honors, your assertion is false
Your houses and churches are full
OF images and pictures, and you kneel
and pray to them.
"Kneel and pray before them, l
grant; kneel and pray to them, l deny.
There is a difference between praying
before an image and praying to it,
which 1 should suppose even Pro-
testant might understand"
But you break the second command
ment; and that your deluded followers
may not detect the fact, you have eX-
plunged it from the Decalogue."
We do not expunge what you call
the second commandment; we only
reckon it as part of the first COM
plandment"
Nevertheless, you break it. for it
says: Thou shalt not make unto thee
any craven image, or any likeness of
anything that is in heaven above, or
that is in the earth beneath, or that
is in the water under the earth. "
Craven thing, not craven image, is
the correct translation, and more to
your purpose; otherwise the precept
would not forbid making statues of Jul
piter, Neptune and other purely fcti-
tious being. But do you understand
that precept to forbid absolutely the
LII, Of i,,oo or
or pictures?'
'HOf course L do; I am not wise above
what is written" o.
Nobody asks you to be wise above
What is written; the question is, what
is written? Then [ am to understand
You to maintain that Moses broke that
commandment when he made and set
up the brazen serpent in the wilder
ness, that Solomon broke it when he
placed the brazen seal in the temple on
twelve brazen oxen; that it was broken
by the images Of the -Cherubim who
spread out their wings over the mercy
seat where God promised to meet his
people that our stern Puritans of Mas
sachusetts break it by suspending the
image of a Goldfish in the state
house; that Congress break it in order
ing a statue of Washington: and that
on your. cane, and those lions claws on
the feet of your table,"
mo, [ do not say all that"
well, what do you say?"
why, that the commandment for
bids the making and keeping of images,
etc, as objects OF religious Yenera
ton
THAT is, Thou shalt not adore them,
nor serve Them or, as the catechism
says, 1T forbids making them, so as to
adore and serve them; that is, it for
bids making them our Godsi"
But the Romish church commands,
you cannot deny supreme religious
to be paid to what you call the
sacred Host
What then?'
Then she is idolatrous; for she
her children to pay divine
Donors to a bit of bread"
False, She commands no such |
thing. She commands us to worship |
Jesus Christ, who is God and man, en- !
titled in his own right to supreme Yor-
ship, and who wells his divinity and his |
humanity both under the sacramento |
species. 1t is not the bread, for she |
caches there is no bread there, but |
he Son, who is consubstantial to the !
Father, and whom we are to honor as !
We honor the Father. that she COM |
hands us to adore. There is, then, no I
dolatry in the alteration
But her teaching is false-the Host
s nothing but bread"
THAT is q matter which you, by the
light of nature. cannot decide"
But she must prove to me that it
s not bread, before / can be bound to
dore it,"
Undoubtedly; but you must prove
hat it is bread, before you can pro-
ounce the alteration idolatrou
But | have the evidences of nv
enses that it is bread
You have the evidences of YOUR
enses that the species of bread are
here. and that the church asserts:
ut that, under the species of bread
here is the substance of bread. YOU
ave not the evidence of your senses:
Or the senses never, in any case what
yer, take cognizance of substances.
on have, therefore, the evidence of
our senses against nothing the church
sserts. Consequently, by the light of
ature alone, you can neither affirm
or deny what she asserts; and unless
on can deny it, you cannot say that !,
ne alteration of the Host is idolatrous.
what she teaches be true. the ador-
ton is due and commanded by the
atural law, which commands us TO :
i've to every one his due. Have YOU :
nything more to adduce in support of I.
lie charge of idolatry?"
Perhaps it is true that Catholics
orship, in the strict sense of the word
My God; but, though they may wor- !
Zip the true object, they render him a :
Use worship" =
That is, they worship him in an :
ndue manner
Yes, that is what l mean"
ITO be able to say that. Won must :
st determine the due manner of wor- 9
liping him. But you cannot do this
ithout authority and YOU have as
e have seen, no authority, except the
ght and nature. Are you able by the :
sht of nature alone to determine what y
the due Worship of God?"
Il am able, in some cases. at least
' the light of nature, to say what is =
IT due worship" =
BE it So what is there, then in ! !
ltholic worship forbidden by the law 8
nature?" =
"All her peculiar worship-her saint :
orship, her veneration of relics. her =
ads and crucifixes, her fasts and e e
asts, her empty forms and idle cere- !
onies.' !.
Her empty forms and idle core !
onies? BY what authority do Won, =
onounce her forms empty and bsr Y
remonies idle?' {,