The Irish standard., 1911-11-25
MG9GGGGG93GGG 3999GGG@SGEEk
s The Doctrine of Purgatory 8
* Written for The Irish Standard Y
Written for The Irish Standard
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son underlying the action of Saint
Paul when he climbed the hill of Mars
to dispute with the Athenian philos-
f; ophers? 1t seems to us that there is.
I Now while we will endeavor to be
brief still we hope to adduce all the
! necessary arguments that go to estab-
fish the belief in Purgatory, and also
show that the practice Of praying for
the dead is not the invention of Rome,
and that it is our duty to help the
Holy Souls by prayers and other good
works. 1t is a historical fact as in
contestable as the downfall of Ma
poleon at Waterloo that Judas Macha-
beus entered Jamnia, set it's haven on
fire with the ships, and that some Of
his soldiers pillaged it's temples, and
took away with them, contrary to the
prohibition of the law, the donaries of
the idols. Shortly after Judas gave
battle to Gorgias the governor of
1dumea and a few of the Jews were
slain. The day after the battle Judas
returned to take their bodies in order
to bury them in the sepulchres of their
fathers, when behold to his great as
constituent he found concealed under
their coats the offerings made to the
| idols. Judas Immediately saw that 1t
was for this transgression they were
slain. But he believed that they did
not either understand the law or that
they did not know the gravity OF their
! offense or If they did that they re-
pented of it before dying "And maxi
ing gathering as the Scripture
says, "he sent twelve thousand
drachms of silver to Jerusalem for
sacrifice to be offered for the sins of
the dead, because he considered that
they who had fallen asleep with godli-
ness had great grace laid up for them.
1t is. therefore a holy and a wholesome
thought to pray for the dead that they
may be loosed from their sins" This
passage of Scripture was too direct
and clear a proof of the value of
prayers for the dead, and hence of the
existence of Purgatory not to perplex
the corypheuses Of the reformation,
and consequently there was nothing
left FOR them to do but deny it's divine
authority, which they did without any
qualms Of conscience. They asserted
that the books of the Machabees were
| not comprised in the Hebrew canon,
that they could never have been since
that canon was closed under Esdras
long before the time of the Macha-
the Fathers doubted the authority of
these books, but they were not honest
enough to admit that by far the great
majority Of the Fathers did not. The
reformers well knew that these books
were read with the other inspired
writings in the assemblies of Chris
thage had placed them among the di-
vine writings when in consecrating
ancient tradition 1t said: "These arc
the books which our forefathers taught
us to read in Church under the title
Of the divine and canonical writings
They also knew that Saint Augustine
crates them in the canon which he
gives In his book on Christian Doc
trlne. Nor were they ignorant of the
fact that Pope Innocent I. In a letter
! to the Bishop of Toulouse in 4O5, and
Pope Gelasius In decree of the coun-
Gil of Rome in 494 considered them
inspired writings. There is not much
use in dwelling on the canonicity of
these books--a canonicty which the
reformers themselves would never
have questioned or denied were it not
for the crushing force of the above
passage which demolished their Sa-
tanic vaporings.
But If we set aside the question of
/ inspiration altogether and consider
! the books of the Machabees as truth
full records Of history--and that they
are this the reformers admit what
J conclusion can we draw but that at
the time of the Machabees the Jews
. believed that it was a holy and a
wholesome thought to pray for the
! dead that they may be loosed from
their sins? That such was the belief
! of the Jews in the time Of Josephus
that historian assures us when he says
that they did not pray for those who
took their own lives" Now the only
end that they could possibly have in
view when they prayed and made Of
ferings for the dead was to obtain for
them the remission of their sins. The
Jews we'll knew that nothing deflled
could enter the bosom Of Abraham
and that those who had arrived there