The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1902-05-03
Che CWo Brothers. f. f. 8 2Tsstss
Controversial Dialogue Between Presbyterian and His
Catholic Brother, Leading Up to Formers Conversion

lawfully ask of our Understanding
more than what the Scriptures say the
! Lord commanded the three friends OF
Job to do
The worship which Catholics pay to
the saints in general is idolatry."
The highest form of worship we pay
to any saint in that which we pay Ia
the holy mother of God. If that is
| not idolatrous then, a fortiori, not
! that which we pay to the other saints.
But you honor the saints
And what do you conclude from
! that? Does not the law of nature COM
mand us to give honor to whom honor
! is due? What authority have you for
supposing that we pay undue honor to
| the saints?'
| To honor them as God, in place of
| God, is to give them an honor which
is not their due, and is idolatry.'
Granted; but who so honors them?"
| Catholics
The proof
Catholics may not honor them as
the supreme God. but they honor them
as Il species of inferior gods, as the Dill
Minores of the heathen.'
The proof?''
The fact is evident of itself"
Not by any means. The honors the
heather paid to their inferior gods were
different in kind from those which we
pay to the saints, and, moreover, We're
paid as due them in their own natural
right, and not as due only to what
they became through grace. The
heather offered sacrifices, and, there
fore, paid divine honors to their in
ferior gods. Catholics offer no sacri-
fees and pay no divine honors to the
saints: they VeneTate them for what,
through grace, they became, and they
ask their prayers and intercessiOn,
which is no more than we ask of the
living and is no more than your par
iShioners not unfrequently ask of you
no more than you sanction whenever
you pray God for your congregation.
or for an individual who has requested
to be remembered in your prayers"
But you have no warrant in scrip
ture for praying to the saints"
THAT were nothing to the purpose,
if true, You bring your action on the
law of nature, and when you find that
under the law of nature you have no
cause of action, you are not at liberty
to plead some other law. If praying
to the saints is not idolatry by the law
of nature you cannot allege it under
the head of idolatry against the
church,
But unless the church has war
rant in the word of God for praying to
the saints, she has no right to pray to
them"
And unless it is forbidden by some
precept of the law of nature, you can
not deny her right
1.-The Romish church worships
crosses, dead mems bones. locks of
their hair, their finger nails, and shreds
of their garments"
What them"
Then she is adolatrous, for we must
worship God. and him alone"
Worship is a word of more than one
meaning; it may mean paying divine
honors, and also simply paying a civil
respect, honoring or acknowledging
worth wherever we find it. In the for
mer sense it is due to God alone, and
is by Catholics paid to him alone. and
never to the objects you enumerate.
In the latter sense it may be paid, and
the law of nature requires that it
should be paid. to kings, judges, mag
istrates, to our parents, and to who
soever by rank or worth is entitled to
honor. In this sense the law of nature
not only does not forbid, but COM
mands, us to honor or to treat with
respect such objects as are related to
eminent worth. To honor crosses and
relics of the saints, for the worth to
which they are related is, then, in
accordance with the law of nature and
it is only in this sense that We honor,
respect, or, if you please, worship
them"
But you do not honor them merely
as memorials of a worth which was
real; you pay them divine honors."
''False!"
Not false. Witness the Holy Coat
of Treves."
What of that?"
'Multitudes, in the recent Pilgrim
age to it, prayed to it, saying: %
Holy Coat, have mercy on u.s. "
The evidence of what you assert?"
1T is said So
by whom and on what authority?'
do you deny iti''
DENY it? Do you suppose Catholics |
are SO besotted as to pray to what has
no fife, no sense. no power to help |
them, and that, too, when their church, |
as I showed you yesterday, positively
prohibits praying to relics? The thing |
is impossible; no Catholic ever did. or |
ever could, utter such a prayer. You |
must not judge our people by your own.
We preserve and we honor the relics |
of departed saints: they remind us of |
the worth of the saints and when
they do so we pray to the saints to /
pray to God for us, and procure for us
the graces and favors we need. What |
precept of the law of nature does this
violate?"