Los Angeles herald., 1907-03-25

of the rite of sacrifice nor of it's mean
| ing, nor is there any command for it
until the time of Moses. In the Mosaic
account of the fall of Adam there is
no mention made of the evil spirit
who tempted our first parents; we see
only mention made of the form which
| he assumes. 1t is not until the word
of ST. John in the Apocalypse that we
see Satan mentioned in sacred scrip
ture. All knowledge of him and the
meaning of the first sin came to the
Jews by tradition. If we consider the
building up of the religious belief in
the days of Abraham we will find that
the scripture furnishes only for him
the promise that in his seed all the
nations shall be blessed. We must con-
clude that the religious truth and the
promises of God were preserved in
those days by divine tradition. From
the time of Moses until the coming of
Christ the world outside the Jewish
people had no knowledge of religion
except what came to them by tradi-
ton, and even the Jews themselves
possessed belief in several religious
truths which are not found at all in
their canon of scripture. The Jews be-
lieved that besides the written revela-
ton which Moses received on Mount
Sinai there was an oral revelation
which he transmitted to the priests,
and this is constantly referred to by
the Judges and David and other in
spired writers. The traditions of the
Pharisees and the heather were con-
demned, but the traditions of Moses
were appealed to as truth.
"The divine and apostolic traditions
are transmitted to us by the symbols
of faith, such as the apostles creed,
the Nicene and other accepted creeds,
the sacred liturgy and practices OF the
church, the acts of the martyrs, the
writings of the fathers, ecclesiastical
history, monumental history as found
in pictures, sculpture, lapidary writ
ings, the catacombs and sacred edinces.
II was divine tradition which was re-
ceived from the elders that led the
Jews to accept as the word of God the
canon of scripture and the Mosaic law.
1t was divine tradition which caused
Christianity to accept the Christian
Sunday instead of the Sabbath of the.
old law, to command infant baptism
and to settle the famous controversy
of the rebaptised, and to do away with
the eating of the blood of animals and
the strangled meats. as we'll as to
adopt the ceremonies used in the ad-
ministration of the sacrament and es-
pecially in the celebration of the sacri-
flee of the mass, the invocation of
saints and the prayers, sacrifices and
mass for the dead.
Source of Faith
"Our divine Saviour would lead us to
believe in tradition as being with the
old testament one of the sources OF
faith. for we remember that arguing
from one of the psalms he speaks of
the Messiah as being called the Lord
by David thus indicating David as
the author OF the psalm and also the
Messiah as being indicated In the WORDS
of David. Neither the authorship or
David nor the indication or the Messiah
will be found In the scripture referred
TO. our divine Saviour also speaks OF
Noses bearing testimony OF him and 10
the disciples at Emmaus he quotes
Moses as authority for the necessary
OF his suffering and entering INTO glory
but one would search in vain the DOCKS
of Moses to discover these statements
which can only be found In the tradl-
tions of the Jews The same Is true OF
Nicodemus on the question OF regenera-
zion which was not taught In the OLD
testament, and yet Christ rerroacheu
him with being a master In Israel ana
not knowing these things
'rhe apostles partly in their writings
and partly by their preaching made
these truths known TO the world and
hence st. Paul bids the Corinthians
Keep my ordinances l have deliv-
cred them to you and again, For l
have received OF the Lord that which
also / delivered unto YOU and he says
to the Thessalonians, stand fast ana