The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1915-01-23

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scholarship alone. 1t is not a thing of
nature to be acquired. 1t must be be-
slowed. That which is not in the per-
suasive words of human wisdom, but
in the manifestation Of the Spirit and
power, cannot be CLEANED from the
cold letter alone, it must come from
persons able to speak with the same
Spirit and power. Such was the
preaching of the Apostles, and such
is the need of the Spirit to teach like
them. Let us get at the matter in
another way. All literature is either
prose or poetry, the language of
knowledge or the language of power.
In the language of prose we have a
plain statement, which any one may
grasp. In the language OF power we
have an appeal to our Imagination as
we'll as to our intellect to give value
to tho thought. Poetry makes no APP
peal to a dried-up scientist, as Oar
win confessed with regret. For
others it is dynamic. We are
thrown back on ourselves, made to
delve into our experiences, and sort
out the best for terms of comparison.
Now the language of Scripture is the
language of power, not merely often
of poetic power appealing to the best
in us that our nature has to offer but
always of supernal power appealing to
the higher gifts of the Holy Ghost.
Therefore in answering that question
of one of His Apostles, before telling
of the virtue of the Holy Ghost to re-
call all things to their minds, Our
Lord proclaimed the necessity of the
gift of divine love. IF any man love
me, he will keep my word; he that
loVeth me not, keepeth not my word"
Ono. XIV. %, 24.) Let us take some
examples. 1t is faith, made perfect by
charity, which enables the church to
see in the words 81 am the way, the
light, and the life"--far more than
these words naturally mean. How rich
is the meaning st. Paul draws from
the words evidently known to him by
tradition. "Unless you are born of
water and the Holy Ghost you cannot
enter the Kingdom of Heaven" Bap-
tism is for him divine birth; a di-
vine title, entrance into new world,
release from the ties of the old. How
far beyond the understanding of those,
who walked no more with Our Lord,
is the understanding of the Church,
when she hears those words: ''My
flesh is meat indeed, My blood is
drink indeed" The Church believes,
therefore, more than the natural man
there is more in the words to be be-
lieVed than their natural meaning, and
secondly, because the Church, in con-
trast to Israel, is spouse, who ever
loves Christ and is ever beloved by
Him. More than one of Israel's proph-
cts said:
''The virgin of Israel is fallen,
She shall no more rise,
She is forsaken upon her land,
There is none to raise her up"
But Of the Church it was. said: "Of
His Kingdom there shall be no end"
The Church being ever faithful re-
ceives into her bosom the true accents
OF Christ, her spouse, and faithfully
imparts them to her children. 1t is
this faithful union of the Church with
Christ that makes Him the last of the
prophets, not requiring any successor
to rehaDilitate the revelation fully
made. Ii in the minor sense prophets
are mentioned in the New Testament,
we must bear in mind the words of
st. Paul concerning them: Prophecy
is to be used according to the rule of
faith" They add nothing to Christ's
revelation.
The Church Not Inspired.
Now, because that revelation was
fully made by Christ and His witness
es, the Apostles, it naturally follows
that the Church cannot look for in
spiration from the Holy Ghost, but
only for assistance in preserving reve-
lation. And as the Church is made up
of men endowed with reason and with
powers of study and research, and
lnder obligation to work out their
own salvation, they must diligently
employ all their powers under the as
sistance of the Holy Spirit. Even the
holy Apostles prayed, consulted to-
gether, and pored over the Sacred
Scriptures, before announcing what
seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to
them. This work grows with the
ages. For there are truths of revela-
ton from God and there are truths Of
reason, which is from God. Truth
cannot contradict truth. 1t is the
work of the Church to establish har-
mony between them. Then errors
arise in most cases from the wording
of revelation itself. 1t will be the duty
of the Church, in her Office of guard
ian of revelation, to show what is the
true sense, and to exclude false inter
pretations of the Word of God. Again,
revealed doctrines may apparently be
in conflict, for instance, the universal
ity of original sin, and the exceptional
holiness Of the Blessed Virgin, ETC. In
all these matters it may take long
years, not to find the truth, but the
precise formula to express the truth
without doing injury to the full de-
post of revelation. But when at
length the call for the living voice to
speak out is peremptory, and the right
formula has at length been found, the
Church issues her definition and from
that she never recedes nor can recede.
We need not enter into the discussion
of the seat of authority. Whatever