South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1914-10-15

nation be made compulsory law. as
some OF its advocates demand. she
could easily adapt her prayers and
funeral services 10 this new method.
and lastly. there is no objection to
cremation in times Of pestilence, or in
such cases as the Galveston flood
when IL is needed for the public
good"
Believe this, for il is a divine teach
DO not these words Repent. be
lieve and be Baptized" negative infant
baptism?
The words Repent. believe and
be baptized. being in a sermon. nat
urally refer 10 adults only. The Cath
Ollie church IN our day says the self
same words to the adult seeking adj
mission into her fold. The necessity
OF infant baptism rests on the fact
Of original sin. Every man. because
Of Adams sin. is born into the world
deprived OF Gods grace. and of the
right OF entrance into heaven, He is
cleansed from this sin and given the
grace of God by baptism. the necessity
OF which is clearly set forth in the
words of the Savior. Unless man is
born again Of water and the Holy
Ghost, he cannot enter the kingdom
OF Cod"
In his lecture on THE Catholic
Church. Father Conway spoke in
part as follows:
BY the church on earth said a
great German teacher, Catholics IN
derstand the visible community of be-
levers, founded by Christ, in which,
by means of an enduring apostleship
established by Him and appointed to
conduct all nations in the course or
ages back TO God, the works wrought
by Him during His earthly life for the
redemption and sanctification Of man
kind are, under the guidance OF His
spirit, continued To the end of the
world
Christ's Law Divine.
"Once you admit that Jesus Christ
is God who came 10 witness infallibil-
ity TO divine truth, TO interpret in
fallibly the divine law, TO pardon
men their offenses and to give men
the divine life, it follows logically that
the divine teacher. legislator. pardon
er and sanctifier, foreseeing the flu
ture denials that unbelievers would in
the course of history utter against His
gospel, would, to safeguard its content
and to perpetUate it, found a visible,
permanent, infallible and authorita-
tive society. If we turn TO the scrip
lures as a historic record OF what
! Jesus said and did, we find clear evil
dence that Christ selected certain of
His disciples-apOstles be the
teachers of His revelation. and that
he conferred upon them His own di-
vine power and authority. lie sent
them to precah His gospel to the
whole world, commanding men TO be-
lieve them under penalty of condem-
nation, promising to guarantee them
from corruption within and attack
without His fold by His ever-abiding
presence and the power of the Holy
Spirit.
Disclaim InfaIIibiIity.
THE churches of outside Christian
| ity all disclaim infallibility; they
speak frequently of the right of pri-
vate Judgment and the duty of liberty
of thought. But unless the teacher
who speaks Christ's message today
| speaks with a certain, infallible voice,
| by what right does 1t claim to repre-
sent the Christ? IF the revelation it
voices be simply a matter of opinion,
now hard to distinguish and again
hard to understand: if it may mean
different things to different men and
different ages, il might as well never
have been made. For the interpreter
of the revelation must be as divine as
the revelation itself. or il cannot COM
mand the respect or the allegiance of
the thinking soul
The Catholic church alone claims
infallibility. and therefore, we say,
alone claims the right TO teach as
Jesus taught-authOritati He
says to our age as He said to His:
Believe this, for it is a divine teach
ing; do this, for it is a divine COM
mandment'
There are many passages in the
New Testament-there are many pas
sages in the fathers of early Christian
ity-which plainly declare that there
is only one church of Christ: that all
its brethren are united together in a
strong bond of faith. worship, govern
ment and discipline; that while here
sizes and schisms are certain to arise.
) the authors thereof are guilty of trea-
son to Christ one faith, one Lord,
one baptism says st. Paul. To us
the reformation is the sense of seces-
sion from a divine society and the
forming new churches is impossible.
No matter what may have been the
lives OF Catholics, clerical or lay; no
matter how lax in discipline or weak
in religious power men have in their
Unfaithfulness become. the promise
of Christ makes ii clear that His So
ciety, being divine. must needs be
permanent The gates OF hell shall
not prevail against it,
Should Not Deny Principle.
you do not destroy a city because
corrupt officials rule it for a time: you
do not cut down an apple tree because
some rotten apples are lying under it's
branches.
Private judgment is a good thing
in itself but il has no right to deny a
principle, truth, a historical fact.
The common judgment of a perpetual
teaching church is the divine guaran-
tee against the errors, the prejudices.
the vagaries Of an uncertain, shifting
private opinion. The papacy was the
, divine safeguard against schism and
heresy. the eucharist the divine pres
ence that kept the church afire with
Gods love. In denying both the six
teenth century robbed the religion OF
Christ of its dearest treasures"
The lecture tonight will be on THE
Confessional: 1t Divine Origin and
Practical Working"