The Bible as Final Authority
The Interior tells of a Protestant lady who "not long since called upon her pastor, and said she had attended worship in a Catholic cathedral, and wished to say that she was favorably impressed. The priest, in his discourse, had quoted a text of Scripture, and he did it in a way to convey the impression that he was quoting final authority—that the truth, having been found in Scripture, was indisputable. That, she thought, was the secret of the priest's power over the people. He did not doubt, and therefore they did not." Of course we are not to understand that Catholics as a rule follow the Bible any more closely than do Protestants, but upon this occasion when the priest did refer to the Scripture his manner was such as to impress this woman, who was evidently not accustomed to hearing texts of Scripture quoted as "final authority." The principal business of many of the pulpits of to-day is to "explain away" the plain words of Scripture, and to tone down the more plain and cutting truths, so that they may not be offensive to "ears polite." The Interior well says: "Making apologies for the Bible is about the weakest and poorest talk a man can indulge in."