Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-10-20
serve all laudable practices of the whole
Catholic Church."
No Desire to Initiate.

No Desire to Initiate.
have no desire to initiate the growing
assertiveness of the Roman Catholic Church
in this country. l do think it is time to set
up in plain and open view the breakwater
of our position against the current of ac-
quiescence in their claims namely, the fact
that we are an apostolic church, with the
only lineage that can make such from
the whole college of Apostles. which GER
tainly is token of a truer catholicity than
that which claims-I think without the
power to prove it-descent from one apostle
and from a single see.
To the man who says. II am of Cephas,"
we DO not say, Il am of Paul. nor do we
say in any arrogant eXclusiveness. Il am
OF Christ. Seeking no quarrel and in no
spirit of controversy, it is not wise or right
to sit still in calm and quiet indifference
While the carclessness of a sensa tional
press and the partisanship of INSCRIPTIONS
poiltlcians yields, not assent to- but acqui-
escence in. the increasing assumptions of
the representatives of the Church of Rome:
because thoughtless and ignorant people
take for granted that. being uncontradict-
ed, they are accepted by people who do
some thinking and know the facts.
with the one-minded strength OF con-
seriousness in our own position we must
stand in our lot until the time comes when
what yet remains of unperverted truth and
uniost grace shall have the power to throw
OH the lncrustattons of a falSfied history,
church has unrestrained control a contain
mated morality. Surely it must be more a
prayer and a desire than a vain dream that
al that there is of splendid power and pos
S1Dlllty in this great and ancient portion of
chfistendom may day be delivered
from the bondage of corruption to exercise
n righteous authority and a pure religious
influence upon the great masses of people
VINO yield allegiance 10 it even in its pres
ent estate.
believe the truest exercise of conscious
catholicity will be found in the recognition
OF all that We hold in common of truth
with those from whom we differ because
they have either added to or given up some
part of the deposit of primitive truth and
apostolic order
Even If there We're reason to hold the
CHILDISH theory that we could win in or
wipe out the sectaranism of Protestant
separations by joining forces with Rome it
must be remembered that Rome repudiates
such oVertures with scorn. So that as
.mngs are now there seems to me far more
nope OF restored union we count and
cherish and cultivate the points of unity
which other religious bodies as we'll as
ourselves recognize alike.
Church Must Be the Medium.
Somehow, if the reunion of christendom
organic and visible, is to be accomplished
it seems to me this church must be the
medium of overture and the means of its
attainment. To win professionalism to
catholicity and to win catholicism from
Latinity we need more and more conscious
ness Of our providential position and the
cultivation among ourselves of this one
mandedneSS which was the characteristic of
the early apostolic church, and which
brought down the Holy Ghost from heaven
The other pentecoStal gift of adaptation
is our second great need. 1t seems to me,
perhaps, the greatest glory of our liturgy
and of our ancient confessions of faith that
they have avoided hide-bound, hard and
fast 1nsistence upon definitions and details.
There is a fiexiblity in them which, while
it holds fast the essential truths and the
fundamental principles, leaves freedom
both in their statement and their applica-
ton Like the seasoned wood of arch
er's bow, they bend without breaking that
they may give greater momentum to the
strong arrow.
Certain fixed facts there are of the kind
of dogma which is historic and the kind of
history which is dogmatic, which are
chanSeleSS the everlasting hills. The
personality of the triune God; the incarna-
ton of His Son, the virgin-bOrn and the
consubstantial with the Father and the
Holy Ghost God: and then the summary
Of the revealed and recorded acts and
events in our Lords human life from His
nativity to His ascension; and then the
coroliaries of these-the visible church. the
authority of Scripture, the grace of sacra-
ments, the resurrection of the body and
the life everlasting. But there is no at
tempt to define the manner and the method
of Gods working, no definition of inspra-
ton. no metaphysics of sacramento grace.
no fnsistence upon the manner of resurrec-
ton, no infusion of logic into theology, no
nan-made eXplana tons of the mystery of
faith. no limiting horizons between what
we call nature and what lies beyond what
is called nature.
If one might make a modern applica ton
of the wonderful pentecostal gift of the
varied tongues, they seem to me to mean
that we can bring to the ear of the scien-
list to the ear of the archaeologist to the
ear of the so-called higher critic to the ear
of the materialist our simple statement OF
the fundamental principles of Christianity
in the language to which they are wonted,
not in antagonism, but in adaptation to
their one-eyed view of truth, as containing
all that there is of truth in what they hold,
rounded out into the completeness and full
ness which contains not only all their hold
ings, but all that is true beyond these and
either crowds out their mistakes coun-
teracts and contradicts them. Most false
hoods are half-truths asserted with an ex-
pressed or an implied denial of the other
half. And Tennyson was not far wrong in
his saying the half of truth is the black
est of lies" Surely if st. Paul could see
religion that he recognized and to which
he could adapt his teaching in the innu-
merable affairs of Athens and in the pagan
poetry of Aratus, we can go, not in
tagonism, but in anticipation of a starting
point of agreement to any phase or form of
error or imperfect truth and pick out that
every crudest belief-and take that as the
dialect of the language which we speak and
hold in common with them and develop it
into the full utterance of the wonderful
works of Cod, into the declarat ton of Him
whom ignorantly they worship"
Difficult Problems to Solve.
There are difficult problems to be solved
in the various directions of service to which
are called. 1t is impossible to close
to the plea which comes to us
from such countries as Mexico and Brazil,
or with even a closer claim of duty from
the Philippine Islands. But such fair and
gracious lines OF policy as our own bishop
in Manila has outlined are far more along
the line of Christian work than crusade
which takes the form of making prose-
lyteS.
And while l believe we are called upon
to present the Catholicity of this Church
in what we think its fullest form wherever
the opportunity offers, 1 am quite sure
that some comfy of understanding ought
to be established among the Christian
churches which may avoid the presentation
to the unbelieving heather of divided and
contradictory systems of Christianity One
great end to be sought is to convert the