The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-10-26
GREAT INTEREST IN PAUL|ST MISSION "The True Church" Was Subject of Lecture at
 St. PauPs

1 iEdt HlalttIS or ftllSlon are slll U
 vital interest to many people of Bir
 min gham is being demonstrated by th' attendance at the doctrinal lectures whicl the Paulist Fathers are delivering at St Paul's church. Last night the subject O the lecture was The True Church, II which Father Devery gave>an answer tt the question: How can a sincere inquirel find the true church of Christ?'
 'ihe exercises opened with the answer ing of questions received in the box al the entrance of the church. Question: concerning church discipline, such as tho bulial of infants, together with those con | corning devotions and articles of belief were answered by Father Skinner .al Father Devery then delivered the lee | ture, speaking in part as follows:
 That the Bible alone privately inter Christ's teaching presence was the con. clusion of the previous lecture. As a matter of fact, the Bible itself shows that Cirist's plan for the preservation and propagation of His religion was no, through the medium of a printed book, but through the ministry of the spoken word, and to insure that His religion should thus be delivered to men Christ organized a body living church.
 "rhese apostles He carefully instructed in His doctrines, While yet with them He sent them to preach His name giving power of miracles to show their divine authority. Later on. Christ revealed to them this purpose in calling them to this service Selecting Simon, whom He had surnamed Peter that Is a rock, Christ said to him: Thou are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail asainst it. And l will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven that whatsoever thou shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatso- ever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loose in heaven Matt 6-1S-19).
 Finally Christ just before His as- tension assembled His apostles and gave them their world wide commission, to teach and preach His name. All power Is given me in Heaven and on earth. Go ye therefore, teach all nations, bap- tizing in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teach ing them to observe all things whatso- ever I have commanded you, and To, 1 am with you always even unto the end of the world. He that believeth and Is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned (Matt. 2S:1S-20; Mark 16:16).
 From these texts of Scripture it Is evident that Christs plan for the preservation of His religion and the means whereby men were to learn His teaching was an organized body of teachers; in other words, visible church teaching with His authority.
 ITO find out the true church then we must find out the church which is teaching today as Christ taught and can prove by history that it has always been teaching as visible organiza- ton the days of the apostles.
 How did Christ teach? His teaching was characterized by three decisive and distinct principles: First, He always taught authority, commanding men to believe because He taught He spoke as one having authority; not like the Paharisees, compelling men to accept His word, whether or not they could comprehend the meaning of that word.
 "In the second place, Christ guaran- teed infallible certainty, so that they who listened to Him might be abso- lutely certain of possessing the truth, so that there was not even the remotest danger of error. He was God. His words were the words of God, and con veyed the message of divine truth.
 "Finally Christ taught with absolute unity of doctrine. He never contradicted Himself He taught the same truths 10 all and demanded belief in all His 1oc- trines.
 "Christs true church today, then, must teach as Christ taught-that is: With divine authority. infallible certainty, ab- solute unity of doctrine-otherwise it can not fulfill the purpose for which Christ established it.
 Private judgment can not give infall- ible certainty when exercised in matters of divine revelation as contained in the Scriptures. For the same reason, also, it is is impossible for them to possess, or at least to gurantee, absolute unity, for private judgment is anything but a principle of unity. And yet by these three tests the claim of any church to be the church of Christ, must stand or fall
 And. finally, if the sincere inquirer looks for a church which has been sent he finds in the Catholic church the one historical church, the oldest-going back as impartial history testifies, to the days of Christ and His apostles. The church has existed from the beginning; history does not show point of fracture-not one break-in the continuity of the church from the days of the apostles to the present; not one deviation or lapse in The unity and consistency of her doctrine; from the days of Peter, the first pope of Rome, to the days of Plus, it's present Pope, she is one and unchanged. It Is the apostolic church, and it must be true if the promise of Christ was true, To, am with you always even to the end of the world If that promise failed even once. then the divinity of Christ must be denied"