The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1915-05-01

neafQ many concessions before |
Mass. My knowledge Of German and |
French, with my native tongue, Eng |
fish, helped me to dispense the Sacra-
ment of Penance to many souls who
had long been away from confession. |
WE'LL | said Mass there that morning, |
and only God has record of the joy II
felt, and the honor I know was mine
to be so privileged. I saw no sacri-
fee, but a great privilege to be among
those people, Gods dearest ones.
After Mass | found my friend waiting
for me, and ready to escort me to !
breakfast.
OF course, I was profuse in my ap-l
probation of his kindness, and talked
with him until my train arrived.
j resolved to make a tour out to
lakewood once in every ten days, and
this resolve I kept. AS my visits in
creased my friend and myself became
more and more familiar. We dis
cussed the prominent events of both
hemispheres, the various people in
public life, etc. But my friend, being
OF an inquiring, religious turn of mind,
would invariably return to the subject
of religion. Many subjects of Catholic
| dogma he would ask to have explained,
many practices of the Church which
seemed strange, he wished to under
] stand, and all these I set before him
as clearly as possible. But his old
spirit of self-reliance and self-guidance
chung to him. Were he once convinced
| John Pine would not hesitate mo-
ment in accepting the teachings of the
Catholic Church. After my fourth or
fifth visit I noticed his wife and daugh-
ter among my congregation. She was
| as noble woman as he was a man.
She came to me one morning after
Mass, and asked to be instructed.
She had her husbands consent, and
| gladly granted her request. Within
three months Mrs. Pine became Cath
Ole, and she told me the day of her
baptism was the happiest of her life.
Soon Mr.. Pine himself came to me,
and asked that recommend some con-
vent to which he might send his daugh-
ter. / advised him to send her to
Brentwood.
The girl became student of the
good Sisters, and their life and ex-
ample led her to follow in the foot
steps of her mother. Coming to her
father one day, she said, Papa, will
you allow me to become Catholic?"
And he in his honest way replied;
well, yes, my girl, if you think you
are doing right, have no objection"
No more questioning, nothing but
his consent. If he could only see the
light, and follow it! Their youngest
boy they sent to Nazareth. He, too,
asked permission from his father, and
was received into the Church. After
| had been going to lakewood for about
six months he introduced the subject
of inspiration, and endeavored 4 to
prove that he was guided by the Holy
4 Spirit in his idea of religion, that he
knew he was right, and the Holy
Spirit guided him.
WELL" l said, "Mr. Pine, both of us
cannot be right. ] know that / have
the true teachings of Christ, and /
know the Church | belong to is alone
the Church Of Christ. Now base my
proof on the earliest authorities, they
are my guides. And when / have a
difficulty with any passage of Scrip
ture, and may have two ideas equally
valuable in my estimation, and know
not which to hold, go back to my au-
thorities, the Apostles and the early
Fathers. / go back to the time before
the Bible was in existence, and find
what tradition gives me on the sub
ject. There can find solution of my
difficulty. You have the Bible, but you
have no authority to guide you in your
reading of it except your own self. A
thousand like you, without any author
ity but their own, can make the same
claim, yet have different interpre-
tation of the Bible text. Now, as a
lawyer, Mr.. Pine, you do not rely on
your own Interpretation of the law.
Did you not, as young man, and do
you not go back to some of the early
authorities on law to sustain your
view in any difficult matter? Suppose
two of you had a dispute on some
legal point. Your opponent had no
Authority; you had. Whose argument
4 would be the stronger? Yours, Of
course, because you had authority to
sustain you. So with the Scriptures;
the Church of Christ is the interpreter,
the guide, which Professionalism tried
to destroy that the ignorant, and those
poorly educated, and in fact, her entire
following, might take these same
lScriptures and wrestle with them to
their own destruction. You know to-
day there is no authority in Protes-
tantism, nor was there ever any.
There are as many interpretations of
Scripture as there are sects. Surely
they cannot all be right. Hence, to
interpret the teachings of the one God,
there must be but one interpreter, and
that is His Church" |,
Ny friend looked at me for fully
five minutes, and then spoke. why,
Father, you have brought to my mind
a fact | never thought of before. Au-
thority! Yes, without authority to
Continued on page ~