p. 1, para. 1 | Untitled article

Untitled article

Pacific Press Publishing Company · New York · June 7, 1894

In these days of the general acceptance of Catholicism as Christianity, and of the compromises with the Catholic Church, and apologies for her, it is well that we should study such things as this that we may know for ourselves what is their real effect upon the doctrine of Christ, and what their consequences, in those who accept the dogma. The first consequence of it is to make the Virgin Mary, if not actually divine, then the nearest to it, of any creature in the universe; and this, too, in her human nature. In proof of this we have the following statements of Catholic fathers and saints:—

The ancient writer “De Nativitate Christi” found in St. Cyprian’s works, says: Because (Mary) being “very different from the rest of mankind, human nature, but not sin, communicated itself to her.”

Theodoret, a father who lived in the fifth century, says that Mary “surpassed by far the cherubim and seraphim in purity.”

In the Greek Liturgy of St. Chrysostom, a father of the fourth century, . . . the following words are directed to be chanted by the choir during the canon of the mass: “It is truly meet that we should praise thee, O mother of God, . . . thou art the mother of our God, to be venerated in preference to the cherubim; thou art beyond comparison more glorious than the seraphim.”

Theodore, patriarch of Jerusalem, said in the second council of Nice, that Mary “is truly the mother of God, and virgin before and after childbirth; and she was created in a condition more sublime and glorious than that of all natures, whether intellectual or corporeal.”—Id., pp. 216, 217.

These statements show that in the view of the Catholic Church and of the dogma of the immaculate conception, the nature of Mary was so “very different from the rest of mankind,” so much “more sublime and glorious than that of all natures,” and “surpassed by [so] far the cherubim and seraphim” as to be “beyond comparison more glorious than” they, and therefore to be venerated “in preference” to them. This then puts the nature of Mary infinitely beyond any real likeness or relationship to mankind.

Having this clearly in mind, let us follow to the next step. And here it is in the words of Cardinal Gibbons:—

We affirm that the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, the Word of God, who, in his divine nature is, from all eternity, begotten of the Father, consubstantial with him, was in the fullness of time again begotten, by being born of the virgin, thus taking to himself from her maternal womb, a human nature of the same substance with hers.

As far as the sublime mystery of the incarnation can be reflected in the natural order, the blessed virgin, under the overshadowing of the Holy Ghost, by communicating to the Second Person of the adorable Trinity, as mothers do, a true human nature of the same substance with her own, is thereby really and truly his mother.—Faith of Our Fathers, pp. 198, 199.

Now put these two things together. First, we have the nature of Mary defined as being not only “very different from the rest of mankind,” but “more sublime and glorious than all natures;” thus putting her infinitely beyond any real likeness or relationship to mankind as we really are.

Next, we have Jesus described as taking from her a human nature of the same substance as hers.

It therefore follows as certainly as that two and two make four, that in his human nature the Lord Jesus is “very different” from mankind, is farther from us than are the cherubim and the seraphim, and is infinitely beyond any real likeness or relationship to us as we really are in this world. And in this it follows also that the dogma of the immaculate conception puts Jesus Christ infinitely beyond the reach of mankind: as far beyond our reach indeed as though he had never offered himself at all. Thus completely does the doctrine of the immaculate conception rob the world of Jesus Christ the Saviour, to just the extent that the doctrine is received.

We know the answer that “the Church” makes to this—that Mary and Joseph especially, and all the other saints, intercede with Him for those who would have his help, and that through these he is enabled to reach mankind though he himself is so far beyond us. But this is as great a fraud as is all the rest of the scheme. For the Virgin Mary and Joseph and all the rest of the saints are dead, and cannot intercede for anybody. For the Word of

God says plainly that “the dead know not anything.” Eccl. 9: 5. And “in death there is no remembrance of thee.” Ps. 6: 5. And Jesus said to his disciples all, “Whither I go ye cannot come.” John 13: 33.

Thus with Mary and Joseph and the other saints, all dead, and consequently unable to intercede for anybody, the fact is doubly demonstrated that the dogma of the immaculate conception puts Jesus Christ infinitely beyond the reach of mankind and robs the world of the Saviour to the extent that that dogma is received.