p. 4 | Have We Two Saviours? by C. M. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · May 16, 1907

Have We Two Saviours?

By C. M. S.

THE Catholic Church has been accused of teachings that would rob Christ of his rightful homage and put another in his place. The following, written by St. Bernard, is evidently considered good Catholic teaching to-day, as it was quoted in the Catholic journal The New World, of May 4, 1907:—

Following Mary, thou strayest not; thinking of her, thou errest not; asking of her, thou needest never despair; clinging to her, thou wilt never fail.

Christ's injunction to his followers is, “Follow thou me.” He says nothing about following Mary. The Catholic Church says, “Follow Mary.” Christ came here as our example as well as our sacrifice, and he has never admonished us to take any human being as our example. The more we think on human beings, with their frailties, the frailer and more erring we grow. The Bible nowhere sets forth Mary as the object of our thoughts, whose character is to shape our lives, and whose teachings are to keep us from the path of error. But the Catholic Church says, “Thinking on Mary, thou errest not.” Christ said to his followers, “Whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.” John 15:16. “If ye shall ask anything of the Father, he will give it you in my name. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be made full.” John 16:23. 24. No hint here of any authority for petitioning heaven in the name of Mary or any other but Christ. Nevertheless, “asking of her, thou needest never despair,” says the Catholic Church. Christ has promised to be a “very present help in time of trouble.” We are taught that he was “in all points tempted like as we are;” that he passed through this experience to enable him to be a “merciful and faithful high priest,” and “able to succor them that are tempted.” Nowhere has Inspiration admonished us to lean upon any one but the One who redeemed us. Nevertheless, St. Bernard says of Mary (and Catholic editors republish it to-day), “Clinging to her, thou wilt never fail.”

He who never strays, never sins. He who never sins wins heaven. If “following Mary” insures us against straying, it insures our winning heaven; and if we win heaven through “following Mary,” where and what is the office of Jesus Christ? What was the necessity of the life and teaching and sacrifice of Christ—what the necessity of following him? The idea of winning heaven by “following Mary,” is one of the “other ways” which our Saviour himself condemned—an arrangement conceived in the mind of man. Says Christ, “Every plant, which my Heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.” This is certainly one of them, and the time is not far distant now when the divine hand will reach down and pluck it up. “There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”

C. M. S.