The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1903-10-24

cry the death of millions of martyrs, stupendous
bit of folly the sacrifices of converts from the hrst
day of Christianity if it true that 1t made no
difference what a man believed.
Why does ST. Paul insist so much on the unity
of faith, zone Lord one faith, one baptism" tEph.
iv 81 and SO bitterly denounce the Judaizers OF his
time for attempting to force the obsolete customs
of the old law upon the early Christians, If 1t mat
ters nothing? "There are some that trouble you
and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though
we, or an angel from heaven, preach gospel to you
besides that which have preached TO you, let h1m
be anathema" (Gal i. L 8; cf. Tim VI. 20; Ii
Tim. 1. IA; II Thess ii. 14).
So from the beginning the Popes, as the great
confirmers of the faith of the waverlng brethren
Ouke xii. 32), have always denounced error and
heresy and council after council of Christian blsh-
ops from the council of Jerusalem in the first CEN
tury to the council of the Vatican III the nine
teenth have uttered their protest against any cor
rupton of the faith of Christ, giving the lie direct
to the false and destructive creed of modern ndf-
ferentism.
1t is, therefore, the first duty of rational man
to love truth and to embrace it at the cost of any
sacrifice. 1t is the mark of a coward and fool to
shirz ones responsibility to the light that God
vouchsafes to every intellect that He has fashioned
after His own We despise man who has no con-
vctions principles; he Is not to be trusted. God
despises a man without religious convictions or
firm principles of faith. He says Himself to the
indierentist: Il would thou were cold or not but
because thou art lukewarm and neither cold or hot
/ will begin to vomit thee out of My mouth (Apoc.
iii. Is, 16). We despise trimmer can God love
the indifferentist?
Practically also we find that the man who says
first "It does not make any difference what man
believes is tempted to adopt its logical conclusion
and say at does not make any difference what
man does" His morality is built on the shifting
sands of opinion, fancy. human respect and there
fore will hardly stand the strain of sorrow dis
grace difficulty or temptation If religion Is mere
opinion a man realizes that all certainty OF doc
trine or morals is impossible, and therefore some
form of unbelief is the inevitable result. (Mac-
Laughlin, 'Is one Religion As Good As AnotherFD
''Does not the Bible declare that God is not re-
specter of persons" and that 'IIe who feareth Him.
and worketh justice is acceptable to Hm?' (Acts X
S4 35) it not sufficient therefore, for man to be
good and charitable, this pagan centurion was
without bothering about creeds?
This text is frequently the lips of men who
from force of tradition still quote Bible texts, al
Thoughts they unwilling to follow the Scripture
of teaching in every point. To quote the words of
ST. Peter without the context, and thus making
Gods word witness to the doctrine of Indifferent
ism, is anything but reasonable.
The texts evidently mean that the Gospel of
Jesus Christ is not limited to the Jews, but is for
all people, and that His grace also is given to all
men without exception. Again. that man living