A MISINTERPRETED MISSION.
By Editor
THE ablest edited Catholic paper in the United States, so far as we know, is the Western Watchman, of St. Louis. Its editor is the Rev. D. S. Phelan, LL.D., a Catholic of Catholics, believing in the Catholicism of Rome and Italy and Spain. Every week he publishes a copyrighted sermon of his. The issue of March 28 contains his Easter sermon for March 31. In this sermon there are some great, vital truths told, of which we quote the following:— "God made this universe for His own glory. He could have had no other end. He tells us thru the mouths of the prophets that He created the world and He created the sons and daughters of men for His own glory. The world proclaims the glory of God. The heavens declare His glory. The earth is covered with His glory. He is a God of glory. And He says thru Isaiah that He "will not give His glory to another." Why is God a God of glory?—It is because He is a God of infinite goodness; and He is a God of infinite truth; and truth and goodness are the foundations of glory. . . ." "When our Saviour came on this earth He found the place of God usurped by men, not by God's permission or authority, but in defiance of both. The earth was ruled absolutely by men. The will of men was supreme on this earth. And the highest ambition any man could have was to acquire the favor of the world's great. That abomination should be removed. That great outrage should be undone. God had to be restored to His rightful throne in the universe, and man's scepter was to be broken forever. God was to be lifted to His place of glory, and man was to be set down to the dunghill. . . ." "That is the mission of the church to-day; to put man down to the lowest and to raise up God to the highest. To put down the authority of man and to lift up the authority of God. To reduce human thrones to their level of obedience, and to lift up the altars of God to their proper place of inviolable sanctity. And the church has been faithful to that mission." O how the Catholic Church has misinterpreted that mission! How she has sought to dethrone the men of heathenism and put in their place the men of a perverted Christianity, who usurp the place of God as truly as did the most assumptive pagan. "God is a God of glory because He is a God of infinite goodness." Why then does the Papacy endeavor to surround God with such a vast cordon of intermediaries, ecclesiastical policemen,—priests, prelates, saints,—whose favor we must entreat before we find grace at the Throne of Infinite Goodness? Why do not the teachers of that system say to the poor sinner, "You need not to entreat angels and saints and human intermediaries; go directly to Infinite Goodness in the all prevailing name of Jesus the Christ. Listen to His own invitation:9'Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.' Find in Jesus a Saviour and in the 'God of infinite goodness' a Father." Why is not the Roman Catholic Church teaching this to those whom she instructs? Why hide the God of infinite goodness by the imposition of men, dead or alive, between the seeker and the Sought? "He is a God of infinite truth." Father Phelan teaches truly. He has declared His holy law to be truth, His Gospel to be truth, His word to be truth. Listen: "All His precepts are sure,
They are established forever and ever;
They are done in truth and uprightness." Ps. 111:8. "It is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than for one tittle of the law to fail." Luke 16: 17. "Sanctify them thru Thy truth; Thy word is truth." John 17: 17. "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away." Matt. 24: 35. "There is one God, and one Mediator between God and man, the Man Christ Jesus." 1 Tim. 2: 5. In the light of the above utterances of Inspiration, which might be multiplied many fold, why does the Catholic Church teach that the fourth precept of God's law is void, and substitute in its place a commandment which teaches an altogether different duty for a different reason on the sole authority of men? Why does the Catholic Church teach the mediatorship of the Virgin Mary contrary to the inspired declaration above? The divine test is, "To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." Isa. 8: 20. "Why call ye Me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?" Luke 6: 46; Matt. 7: 20, 21. Weighed, measured, by this test are we not justified in saying that the Roman Catholic Church has misconceived the mission of the church, has shut men away from God's goodness, has perverted God's truth, and is giving glory to men—men dead and men living—whom this false teaching and false conception have put in the place of God? If we are to judge by God's test, could we decide otherwise? True, that church claims to be the true spouse of Christ, but her evidence rests in her claim, in her assumption, not in her agreement with God's word. Even so have claimed to be the true all the false religions of perverted truth in the past. The mission of Christ is to lift up man, but so as to glorify God. It places man—all men—on the low level of carnality, just where man is by nature, with no hope in himself. It would have men know their condition in the light of God's law, and then come to Him and be saved wholly by His grace, by His mercy, by His sacrifice, by the power of His truth. That is the message of His "everlasting Gospel:" "Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come: and worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters." Rev. 14: 6, 7. God by His providence is calling the nations to that message. In that is no exaltation of pope, or council, or saint, or prelate, or doctor; God is all and in all. Those who heed that message will be in harmony with the word, and will and must "keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." Rev. 14: 12.