The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-09-03
PASTOR DISCUSSES
CHURCH CONTINUITY
Father Coyle on Essentials and
Non-ESSentiaIS
ABOUT PRIMITIVE CHURCH
Pastor Answers Some of the critl-
cisms of the Non-cathollcs.
Church, He Asserts, is In
Line Of Progress.
ABOUT PRIMITIVE CHURCH

At the 1870 o'clock mass at st. Pauls
church the pastor the Rev. Father Coyle,
delivered a discourse In the series Of
short summer discussions. He said.
Two Sundays ago we considered that the
means by Christ established to perpetuate
and continue his mission till His second
coming was an infallible teaching society,
with an infallible head: that this society,
the church, possessing truth, is of neces-
sity intolerant Of error, and cannot ad-
nit the quality of any church that does
not teach as she teaches, that is in pos
session of at best fragmentary truth
This society we also established to be
not bigoted, but liberal to an extraordi-
| nary degree, since 1t excludes no right
living. honest. sincere thinker from sal
walton.
Let us today then in these brief summer
Sunday considerations. go a step further,
and examine two more statements that
are frequently made by those not of the
household of the faith. 1t Is said The
| church today Is not the same as the
church of the Christ and the apostles. The
other statement is almost the contradic-
tory of it, 1t Is this: The church is me-
devil, antlquated out of date, unprogres-
sive, fore of modern progress.
Church Today.
First. The church today is not the same
as the church of the primitive Christians.
1t Is and 1t is not. They who make that
general statement point to elaborateness
of modern ritual and have not logical
acumen enough to distinguish between es-
sentials and non-essentials. The church
today possesses the faith once delivered to
the saints and possesses 1t without adj
dition or diminition. The church today
believes and teaches as Peter and the
eleven who left the upper chamber of
Jerusalem on the memorable first Pente-
cost taught that Chrst's doctrine was en-
trusted to a teaching church; that to that
church seven great sacraments as so many
channels of grace were given; that the
Euchrist contained really the body and
blood of the Savior; that priests had pow
er to forgive mems sins. Granted that
when Paul in whose honor this church OF
ours is dedicated, celebrated mass he used
common vessels and common table. He
took bread and wine, offered the same to
God. pronounced the words of consecra-
ton. gave to the people and consumed
His mass took Ave minutes and the mass
| today thirty.
Essence the Same.
| Yes, but the essence is the same. Ac-
cidental prayers and genufiection and
| elaborate ritual were added In later days
by the authority Of the sovereign pontiffs
to add solemnity and grandeur to the
greatest of the Christian mysteries.
True, when Paul and the early Chris
tians met for service. their meeting place
was the catacomb beneath the earth or
a wooden recess or a cave in the hills. No
lofty spires pointed heavenward. No bells
called the people to prayer. No grand
music or magnificent statuary or living
painting limned by genius raised mems
thoughts from beauty below to beauty
above. All. no! But the essence of the
service was the same. In the church as
In society, as In civilization, as In every
thing. there is evolution. But understand
not evolution of essential dogma or belief
That is every Interchangeable; but evolution