The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-10-24
DOCTRINE LECTURES
 BEGIN AT ST. PAUL'S
Programme Announced for Week at Paulist Mission
 Exercises

Last night opened the series of lee
 lures on doctrinal subjects which tae Paulist fathers will deliver at St. Paul's church this week. A large and at tentive audience was in attendance. l After the opening hymn Father Skin her announced the order of services which would be observed during the week. The services are to consist, first, in .--e answering of questions; second, the lecture of the evening; third, bene- di ,tion of the blessed sacrament Mu- sic will be furnished by St. Pauls choir under the direction O. Mrs. Colgan. Speak ing of the purpose of these eN- ercises Father Skinner said it was two fold-first to recall to the minds of Cathoncs the doctrines of their fai, and to furnish them with the reasons and proofs of these teachings. Sec ondly. 10 promote Christian unny. h recent years, said the missionary there has been widespread movement to- ward the reunion of Christendom. Men are beginning to realize.' said the speaker, that the present divided state of Christian peoples is not ideal and certainly was not intended by Christ. So they are trying to get together 10 do away with their differences and fix upon a common basis of agree ment. With this movement Catholics are heartily in sympathy believing as they do that all of Christ's followers should be one. There cannot, however, be any progress made toward Chris tian unity until the misconceptions and preiudices now existing are cleared away. The object therefore of these exercises is to present at first hand an authoritative explanation of the Catholic teaching so that all may have an intelligent understanding of the position of what is conceded 10 be the oldest Christian church in existence to- day.
 Tn furtherance of this object the Paulist fathers earnestly invite all to ask questions concerning the Catholic chureh--to present their difficulties and to have those points explained in which they are particularly interested. These questions may be placed in the question box <at the entrance to the church or sent to the fathers at the reetory"
 Father Devery delivered the lecture, which was on Belief in Christ"
 The following is a synopsis of the lecture:
 Starting with the question pro- pounded by Christ to the leaders of the Jews, What think you of Christ whose son is He?" Matthews 22:42 the reverend lecturer showed that the Jews in answering, He is David's son." bad been unwilling to ascribe to Christ anything but an earthly parentage and merely a human nature.
 This" said Father Devery, "has con- tinued to be the attitude of some men in every generation since Christ, until today the number of those who so an- swered Christ's question has increased to an alarming degree; so much so, in fact, that many who are considered or consider themselves orthodox Chris tians, do not believe that Christ is God In such a sad condition it was a con- aolation for those who did believe in Christs divinity, and acknowledged Him as their savior and redeemer to know that in this truth, as in all Bible truths, the Catholic church stood as Il bulwark of defense and certainly in the midst of the raging waves of skep- ticism and doubt. The object of this lecture is to show the exact teaching of the Catholic church in regard to Christ, bringing out especially the fact of His divinity, and then to show the relations existing between mankind and Christ as our divine teacher.
 "The teaching of the church in regard to Christ is twofold. First, she maintains that Christ was a perfect man, having all things essential to our human nature. In the second place she holds that Christ is true God.
 With the first teaching" continued the lecturer. "all are in perfect accord" As to the second point. the Catholic church teaches what Christ taught. She holds win simon Peter of old that Christ Is the Son of the living God that He is God of God, Light of Light, true God of true Gcd, consubstantial with the Father, by whom al things were made-equal to the Father in all things; infinite, all powerful all merciful, all wise, all just-the Savior of the human race, the judge of the liv- ing and the dead. This the church has held for 1900 years. and will continue to holl until the end of time The truth of Christ's divinity has been denied by some outside of the Catholic communion. Yet his denial means the overthrow of Christianity if accepted generally, and is the rejection or the stone which Gcd Himself made the dead of the corner
 To offset the influence of those who deny Christs divinity was one of the pur- poses of this lecture, and therefore the lecturer proposed to offer certain consd- eTations in substantiaton of the Catholic teaching that Christ is the true God.
 Father Devery then considered the va- rious arguments in support Of Christ's divinity, dwelling first upon the argument (Thrigffs words nn1 namely, Christ claimed to be God, and His character being what it was, His claim must be allowed. This taken in connection with the other arguments,