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Lorsque le document est trop grand pour dtre reproduit en un seul cliche, 11 est film6 A partir de Tangle sup6rieur gauche, de gauche d droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images ndcessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mdthode. errata i to B pelure, ion d n 1 2 3 32X 1 2 3 4 5 6 ■ JH- >| w iv«|p«^(BriW|pi^^wwnip» ■^■^■■■'ii^^P'PiWPVIiPipilil ^ .-^S-^ PATHEE DAMEN^S LECTURES. •^tem— ^ Vj lis Ir I The Private Interpretation of the Bible. II The Catholic Church, the only true Church of God. III Confession, IV The Real Presence. VERBATIM REPORT. 11 QU&BEG, GO/rs «E Co., iSr-?ST; 5?5iSS;Sr*»^SS».'^ ""??¥^PPPP!1P«P ^^^mmmmmmmm PR! siu Dearly Saviour through< gospel t< ditions c b e c oMi^ 5 -fs^ "-1 OF THE BIBLB. 5 people, it IS not a matter of indifference what religion a man professes providing he be a good man. You hear it said now-a-days in this nine- teenth century of little faith — you hear it on all sides, that IT MATTERS NOT WHAT RELIGION a man professes providing he be a good man. That is heresy, my dear people, and I will prove it to you to be such. If it be a matter of indifference what a man believes, providing he be a good man, why then it is uselesss for G-od to make auy revelation whatever. If a man is at liberty to reject what God revealeth, what use for God to make a revelation, what use for Christ to send out His apostles and disciples to teach all nations. if those nations are at liberty to believe or reject the teaching of the apostles or disciples ? You see at once that this would be insulting God. If God reveals a thing or teaches a thing ie means to be believed. He wants to be believed whenever He teaches or reveals a thing. Man is bound to believe whatsoever God has revealedi for, my dear people, we are bound to worship God, both with our reason and intellect as well as with our heart and will. God is master of the whole of man, and He claims the whole of He claims his will, his heart, his reason "his intellect, Vhere is the man in hii reft- /■<< liiiii -* cS'iaMJ 6 THE PRIVATB INTERPRETATION 6011, no matter what denomination, church or religion ho belongs to, that will deny we are bound to believe what Grod has taught? I am sure there is not a Christian who will deny we are bound to believe whatsoever God has revealed, therefore it is not a matter of indifference what religion a man professes : he must profess the true religion if he would be saved. But WHAT IS THE TRUE RELIGION? To believe all that God has taught. I am sure even my Protestant friends will admit this is right ; for, if they do not, I would say they are no Christians at all. But what is the true faith ? " The true faith, " say my Protestant friends, " is to believe in the Lord Jesus. " Agreed, Catholics believe in that. Tell me, what do you mean by believing in the Lord Jesus ? " Why. " says my Protestant friend, " you must believe that He is the Son of the living God. " Agreed again — tbanks be to God we can agree on something ! We believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of the living God, that He is God. To this we all agree, excepting the Unitarian and Socinian, but we will leave them alone to-night. If Christ be God, then we must believe all He teaches. Is not this so my dearly beloved Protestant brethren and sisters '^ thfiV$ the right faith ain't it ? " Well, yes, W m--- **j tt.-iS').' OF THE BIBLE. my Protestant friends, '• I guess that is the right faith, io believe that Jesus is the Son of the living God, we must believe all that Christ has taught. We Catholics say the same, and here we agree again. Christ then we must belieA'o, and that is the true faith, must believe all that Christ has taught, that God has revealed, and without that faith there is no salvation, without that faith there is no hope of heaven, without that faith there is eternal damnation ! We have the words of Christ for it ; " He that believeth not shall ho condemned, " says Christ : but if Christ my drarly beloved people, commands me, under pain of eternal damnation to believe all that He has taught, He must give me the means to know what He has taught, for Christ could not con- demn me for believing a thing I do not know. Christ is a good and just God, loves us and desires our salvation, and will not condemii us for not doing a thing we do not know to be His will — for not believing a thing we do not know to be His teaching or revelation. If, therefore, Christ commands me .upon pain of eternal dam- nation He is bound to give me THE MEANS OF KNOWING what He has taught ; and the meanr Christ gires us of kaowing this must have ijfiea at I I ■3?' 8 THE PBIVATE INTEKPRETATION all times within the reach of all people ; for, as all people have a right to salviilion, so have they a right to the means of learning what God has taught, and believe it to save their souls. Secondly, the means that Grod gives us to know what He has taught must be a means adapted to the capacities of all intellects — even the dul- lest. For even those with tne dullest of under- standings, have a right to salvation, and, conse- quently, they have a right to the means where- by they shall learn the truths that God has taught, that they may believe them and be saved. The means that God gives us to know what He has taught must be an infallible means— an infallible means, for if it be a means that can lead us astray it can be no means at all. It must be an infallible means so that if a man makes use of that means he will infallibly, without tear or mistake or error, be brought to a knowledge of ail the truths that God has taught. I don't think there can be anyone pre- sent here — I care not what he is, a Christian or an unbeliever — that can object to my premises ; and these premises are the ground- work of my discourse and of all my reasoning and, there- fore, I want you to bear it in mind. I will repeat it, for on these premises rests all the strength of my discourse and reasoning. If 'Gt>d commands me under pain of eternal damua- tioii to believe all that He has taught, Ho is t-iy OF THE BIBLE. 9 bound to give me the means to know what He has taught and the means that God gives me to know what He has taught, that must have been at all time^ within the reach of all people, must be adapted to the capacities of all intellects, must be an infallible means to us, so that, if a man makes use of it, he will be brought to a knoweldge of all the truths God has taught, Has God given us such means ? " Yes, " say my Protestant friends, " He has. " And so says the Catholic, God has given us such means. WHAT IS THE MEANS GOD HAS GIVEN US whereby we shall learn the truth God has re- vealed ? " The Bible," says my Protestant friend, " the Bible, the whole of the Bible and nothing but the Bible. But, we Catholics say " No ; not the Bible and its private interpretation, but the Church of God." I will prove the fact and I defy all my separated brethren and all the preach- ers into the bargain to unprove what I will say to-night. I say, then, it is not the private interpretation of the Bible that has been appoin- ted by God to be the teacher of man, but the Church of the living God ; for my dear people, if God had intended that man should learn his feligion from a book^ — the Bible— surely God MBOI 10 THE PBIVATE INTEBPRETATION would have given that book to man -^Christ Would have given that book to man. Bid he do* it ? He did not. Christ sent his apostles through out the whole universe, and said : " Gro ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizinc^ them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost ; teaching them to ob- serve all things whatsoever 1 have commanded you." Christ did not say: "Sit down and write Bibles and scatter them over the earth, and lot every man read his Bile and judge for himself." If Christ had said that, thero never would have been a Christianity on the earth at all, but a Babylon and confusion instead, and never one Church the union of one body ; hence, Christ never said to His Apostles, go and write Bibles and distribute them and let every one judge tor themselves. That injunction was reserved for the 16th century and we have seen the re- sult of it. Ever since the 16th century there have l)een springing up religion upon religion, and churches upon churches, all fighting and quarrelling with one another, and all because of the private interpretation of the Bible. - CHRIST SENT HIS APOSTLES with auihority to teach all nations, and never gave them any command of writing the Bible ; iilliliiyHitliliilia^i^^ mmmmiW' WIPS^^P ^m^n^m OF THE BIBLE. 11 and the Apostles went forth and preached every where and planted the church of Q-od throughout the earth, but never thought of writing. The first word written was by saint Matthew, and he wrote for the benefit of a few individuals. He wrote his gospel about seven years after Christ left this earth so that the Church of God established by Christ existed seven years before a line was written of the New Testament. St. Mark wrote about ten years after Christ left this earth ; St. Luke about twenty-five years, and St. John about sixty-three years after Christ had established the Church of G-od. St. John wrote the last portion of the Bible— the Took of Revelations— about sixty-five years after Christ had left this earth, and the Church of G-od had been esta- blished. The Catholic religion had existed sixty- five years before the Bibk was completed, be- fore it was written. Now, I ask you, my dear- ly beloved separated brethen, were those Chris- tian people who lived between the finishinjD^ of the Bible and the establishment of the Church of Jesus, were they really Christians, good Christians, enlightened Christians ? Did they know the religion of Jesus ? "Where is the man that will dare to say that those that lived from the time that Christ went up to Heaven to the time the Bible was completed, were not Ohrii^tians '? It is admitted on all sides, by all X J. Urn rfi^Wiiiiiiiii ,f'J ^^n-' '"•■■''*:*»""" ■~»:,4j4'?^ 12 THE PRIVATE INTEBPREDATION denominations, that they were the very best of Christians, the most perfect of Christians, the first fruit of the blood of Jesus-Christ. But how did they know what they had to do to save their souls ? "Was it from the Bible they lear- ned it ? No, because the Bible was not written. And would our Divine Saviour have left His Church for sixty-five years without a teacher, if the Bible is the teacher of man ? Most assu- redly not. Were the Apostles Christians, I ask you my dear Protestant friends ? You say " yes sir, they were the very founders of Christianity." Now, my dear friends, NONE OF THE APOSTLES EVER READ THE BIBLE, not one of them except, perhaps, St. John, for all of them had died martys for the faith of Jesus- Christ, and never saw the cover of a Bible ; for every one of them died martyrs and heroes for the Church of Jesus before the Bible was com- pleted. How, then, did those Christians that lived in the first sixty-five years after Christ had left this earth -how did they know what they had to do to save their sOuls ? They knew it precisely in the same way that you know it, my dear Catholic friends. You know it from the teaching of the Church of €h>d and so did the primitive Christians know it- iiiiiii 1^ rJ^X 'J? ■ 1 1 II [in^mmmmmmmfmtm'mimiii^^ O^ THE BIBLE. la Not only sixty-five years did Chwst leave the Church He had established without a Bible, but over three hundred years. The Church of Gk)d was established, and went on spreading itself ^ over the whole globe without the Bible for more than three hundred years. In all that time the people did not know what constituted the Bible. In the days of the Apostles, there were written many false gospels. There was the Grospel of Simon, the Gospel of Nicodemus, of Mary, "of Barnabas, and the Gospel of the Infancy of Jesus ; and all of these gospels were spread among the ]ieople, and the people did not know which of those was inspired, and ivhich false and spurious. Even the learneu themselves were disputing whether preference should be given to the Gospel of Simon or that of Matthew, to the Gospel of Nicodemus or the Gospel of Mark, the Gospel of Mary or that of Luke, the Gospel of the Infancy of Jesus or the^ Gospel of St. John. And so it was in regard to the Epistles ; there were many spurious Epistles written, and the people were at a loss for over three hundred years to know which gospe} wa« ftilse or spurious, or which inspired and, there- fore, they could not take the Bi bit; f&rt heir- guide for they did not know what constituted the l>«oks of the Bible. It was not until the foujth century that the Pope of Rome, the Head of. the Church, the successor of St. I*eter assei^bled iiiiii m^ dk^^ wmmm 14 THE PRIVATE INTERPRETATION together the bishops of the world in a council, and there, in that council, IT WAS DECIDED THAT THE BIBLE, as we Catholics have it now, is the Word of Q-od, and that the G-ospels of Simon, Nicodemus, Mary, the Infancy of Jesus, and Barnabas, and all these other epistles were spurious, or, at least, un-authentic ; at least, that there was no evidence of their inspiration, and that the Q-ospels of St. Luke, Matthew, Mark, and John, and the Book of Revelations, were inspired by G-od and the spirit of the Holy G-host. Up to that time, the whole world, for three hundred years, did not know what was the Bible ; hence they could not take the Bible for their guide, for they did not know what constituted the Bible.Would our Divine Saviour, if He intended man to learn his religion from a book, have left the Christian world for three hundredyears without the book? Most assuredly not. Not only for three hundred years the world was left without the Bible, but for one thousand four hundred years the Christian world was left without that sacred book- Before the art of printing was invented. Bibles were rare things ; Bibles were costly things. Now, you must all be aware, if you have read history at all, that the art of printing was invented only a little Vhore Dftiddl* hundr eiffht B^rililttMiMMteiAdi Mii tfiiiiiiiliiiiliiii mmm OF THE BIBLE. u Viiore <^han four hundred years ago, about thd middle of the 15th century, and about oiie hundred years before there was a Protestant in thi^ World. As I have said, before printing was- invented, books were rare and costly things. Historians tell us that in the 11th century- eight hundred years ago — Bibles were so rare and costly that it took a fortune, a considerable Jbrtuno, to buy oneself a copy ; it took the lifetime of a man to make oneself a copy of the Eihle ! Before the art of printing everything had to Ife done with the pen upon parch- ment or sheep skin. It was, therefore, a te- dious and slow operation— a costly operation— Now, in order to ^-rriye at the probable cost of a Bible at that time, let Ujg suppose that a man should work ten years to make a copy of the Bible, and earn a dollara day-; well, then, the cost of that Bible would be $3,650 ! Now, let us suppose that a man should work at the copying of the Bible for twenty years, as histo- rians say it would have taken him at that time, not having the convenience and improvements to aid him that we have now ; then, at a dollar a. day, for twenty years, the cost of a Brble would be nearly |8,000. Suppose I came to •Ottawa and said to you : my dear people, save your souls, for if you lose your souls all is 3ost. You wo.iild say, " sure enough, that is irue ! " You Would ask, w}iat are we to dd to m m mmmm 16 THE PRIVATE INTEBPBETATIOJT save our souls ? The Protestant preacher would say to you, *' you must get a Bible ; you can get one on Sussex Street at such a shop, so many doors beyond Murray Street." You would ask the cost and be told it was $8,000. You would be likely to exclaim, " the Lord save us ! and cannot we go to heaven without that book ? " The answer would be : " no ; you must have the Bible and read it. " You murmur a^ the price, but are asked, is not your soul wor;n $8,000. Yes, of course it is, but you say you have not money, and if you cannot get a Bible, and that salvation depends upon it, evidently you would have to remain outside the Kingdom of Heaven. This would be a hopeless condition, indeed. For 1,400 years the world WAS LEFT WITHOUT A BIBLE ; not one in ten thousand, not one in twenty thou- sand, before the art of printing was invented had the Bible ; and would our Divine Lord have left the world without that book if it was necessary to man's salvation ? Most assuredly not. But, let us suppose for a moment that all had Bibles, that Bibles were written from the beginning, and that every man, woman, and child had a copy, what good will that book be to people who do not know how to read ? It is a blind thing iiiiiittlttiiii manimi g_l^g_ ■MUM mtM m mtk IP«I >* OF THE BIBLE. IT to such persons. Even now, one half the inha- bitants of the earth cannot read. Moreover, as the Bible was written in the G-reek and Hebrew, it would be necessary to know these languages to be able to read it. But, it is said we have it translated now in French, English, and other languages of the day. Yes, but are you sure you have a faithful translation ? If not, you have not the word of Grod. If you have a false translation, it is the work of man. How shall you ascertain that ? How find out that you have a faithful translation from the Grreek and Hebrew ? I do not know G-reek or Hebrew, say me separated friends ; for my translation I must depend upon the opinion of the learned — upon their decision. Well, then, my dear friends, suppose the learned should be divided in their opinions, and some of them should say it is good and some false, then your faith is gone ; you must commence doubting and he«i- tating, because you do not know the translation is good. Now with regard to the Protestant translation of the Bible, allow me to tell you, my respected brethren, that the most learned among Protestants tell you that your transla- tion — King James edition — is a very faulty translation and full of errors. Your own learned divines, preachers and bishops, have written whole volumes to i>oint out all the errors there are in King James' translation, and Protestants 18 THE PRIVATE INTERPRETATION • of various denominations acknowledge it. Some years ago, when I lived in St. Louis, there was held in that city a convention of ministers. All denominations were invited to that convention, the object being to arrange for a new translation of the Bible, and give it to the world. The proceedings of the convention were published daily in the Missouri Repuhlinan. A learned, a very learned Presbyterian, I think it was, stood up, and urging the necessity of giving a new translation of the Bible said that, in the present protestant translation of the Bible there w^ere no less than THIRTY THOUSAND ERRORS ? And you say, my dear Protestant friends, the Bible is your guide and teacher. What a teacher with 30,000 errors ! The Lord save us from such a teacher ! One error is bad enough, but 30,000 is a little too much. Another preacher stood up in that convention, I think he was a Baptist, and urging the necessity of giving a new^ translation of the Bible, said that for 300 years past the world iis without the word of Grod, for the Bible we have, is not the word of Grod at all. Hero are your own preachers for you. You all read the newspapers no doubt, my friends, and must know what is going on in England at present. Some time ago they sent in a petition to par- OF TH> BIBLE. 19 liament for an allowance of a few thousand pounds sterlings for the purpose of getting ufa. new translation of the Bible, and that movement is being headed and carried on by Protestant Bishops, and Clergymen. I guess the new Bible will be a little worse than the old one. But my dear people, how can you be sure of your faith ? You say the Bible is yovir guide, but you do not know if you have it. Let us suppose for a mpment that all should have a Bible ; should all read it and havQ a faithful translation, even then it cannot be the guide of man, becau&e the private interpretation of the Bible is not infallible, but on the contrary, most fallible ; the source and fountain of all kinds of errors and heresies, and all kinds of blasphemous doctrines ! Do not be shocked, my dear friends, , just only keep calm and listen to my arguments. There are now 350 DIFFERENT PROTESTANT DENOMINATIONS or churches — I make a mistake, I should have said 352, for about eighteen months ago, in Chicago, they made two new Protestant churches, and in New York, at present, there is a woman trying to establish another Protestant church. She preaches the doctrine of free love, and attempts to prove from the Bible thatevcTy woman is entitled to send her husband afloat _ iii 20 THE PRIVATE INTERPRETATION and take another when she likes, and that every husband could da the same thing — send his wife away and take another, and next day, if she did not suit him, take another, and so on, and from the Bible attempts to prove that every day in the year he could have a new wife. Now, then, I say there are 352 different Protestant denominations or churches, and all of them say the Bible is their guide and teacher, and I sup- pose they are all sincere. Are all of them true churches ? This is an impossibility. Truth is one as/Grod is one, and there can be no contradic- tion. Every man in his senses sees every- one of them cannot be true, for they differ and contradict one another, and cannot, therefore, be all true. The Protestant says the man that reads the Bible right and prayerfully has truth, and +hey all say they read it right. Let us suppose here is AN EPISCOPALIAN MINISTER ; mt ' he is a sincere, an honest, a well meaning I and prayerful man. He reads his Bible in ti prayerful spirit, and from the word of the Hible he says, it is clear and evident there must be bishops, for without bishops there can be no priests, without priests no sacraments, and without sacraments no Church. The Presbyterian is a sincere and well meaning mmm OP THE BIBLE. 21 man ; he reads the Bible also, and deduces from it, that there should be no bishops but only Presbyters. *' Here is the Bible," says the Epis- copalian, " and here is the Bible to f^ive you the lie " says the Presbyterian, yet both are prayer- ful and well meaning men. Then the Baptist comes in ; he is a well meaning, lionest man and prayerful also. " Well," says the Baptist, " have you ever been baptized ? " "I was," says the Episcopalian, " when I was a baby ; " '* and so was I, " says the Presbyterian " when I was a baby ; " " but " says the Baptist, " it was done by sprinkling, and that is no baptism at all. " " Unless you go down into th'^ river like Christ," says the Baptist, " it is no Baptism at all," and he gives the Bible for it. " Unless you are bapti- zed over again, " says the Baptist, " you are going to hell as sure as you live." Next comes in the Unitarian, well meaning, honest, an sin- > cere. " Well, " says the Unitarian, " allow me to tell you that you are a pack of idolaters, " says he ; " you worship a man for a God, who is no Grod at all, " and he gives several texts from the Bible to prove it, while the others are stopping their ears that they may not hear the ^ blasphemies of the Unitarian; and they all contend they have the true meaning of the Bible. Next comes the Methodist, and he says, " my friends, have you got any religion at all ? " says^- he, " of course we have " say they. *' Did you S2 THE PRIVATE INTERPRETATION ever feel religion, " says the Methodist, " the spirit of God moving within you ; " " Nonsense, say the Protestant, we are guided by our reason and judgment." " Well, " says the Methodist, " if you never felt religion, you never had it, and will go to hell for all eternity." The Uni- versalist next comes in, and hears them talking and threatening one another with eternal hell fire. " Why, " says he, " you are a strange set of people ; you do not understand the Word of Grod ; there is no hell at all," says he, " that idea is good enough to scare old women and children, " and he proves it from the Bible, Next COMES IN THE QUAKER ; he recommends them not to be quarrelling, and advises that they do not baptize at all. He is the sincerest Of men, and gives the Bible for his faith. Another comes in and says, " baptize the men and let the women alone ; for the Bible says, " unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven ; " " So, " says he, " the women are all right, but baptize the men." Next comes in the Shaker, and says he, "you are presumptuous, people," '* a presumptuous set of people ; do you not know," he says, " that the Bible tells you. OF THE BIBLE. ^3 you must work out y6ur salvation in fear and trembling, and you do not tremble at all. My brethren, if you want to go to Heaven, shake, my brethren, shake. " I have here brought together seven or eight denominations, differing from one another, or understanding the Bible in different ways, illustrative of the fruits of pri- vate interpretation ; what then, if I brought together the 352 different denominations, all taking the Bible for their guide and teaching, and ALL DIFFERING FRJM ONE ANOTHER. Are they all right ? One says, there is a hell, and another says there is no hell. Are both right ? One says Christ is G-od, another says he is not. ., One says Bishops are necessary, another says they are unessential. One says baptism is requisite, and other says it is not ; are both true ? This is an impossibility, my friends, all cannot be true. Who then is true ? He that has the true meaning of the Bible you say, but the Bible does not tell us who that is — the Bible never settles the quarrel. The Bible is not the teacher. The Bible, my dear people, is a good book ; we Catholics allow that the Bible is the Word of God, the language of inspiration, and every Catholic is exhorted to read the Bible, but good as it is, the f 11 »««««w»3«.««-w«w.*-»»*v»'f5*¥#;5S:»f«:; i>''v,fL\mrm«',f4mV9Mf'r>.mx': >k:'- ih .-,«!ULuil-.,iWP!^»««P^^^!«iiP*iiil| 24 THE PRIVATE INTEtl^ftETATiON Bible, my dear friends; doe& not explain itself ; it is a good book, the "Word of Grod, the language of inspiration ; your understanding of the Bible is not inspired— for surely you do not pretend to be inspired ! Now then, what is the teaching of the Ohureh upon the subject ? THE CATHOLIC CHURCH SAY^ the Bible is the book of God, and that G-od has appointed an authority to give us the true meaning. It is with the Bible as it is with the constitution of the United States. When G-eorge Washington and his associates wrote the Constitution and the supreme law of the United States, they did not say to the people of the States, let every man read the Constitu' tion and make a government to^ himself, let every man make is own explanation of the Con- stitution. If Washington had done that, there never would have been a United States. The peo- ple tlv^ould all have been divided among themsel- ves, and the country woufl have been cut up into a thousand different divisions or governments. What did Washington do ? He gave them the Constitution and the Supreme Law, and ap- pointed his Supreme Court and Supreme Judge of the Constitution ; and that Supreme Court and Supreme Judge is to give the true explana- tion of the Constitution to all the citizens of the .".<" V-.t.;!^' OF THE BIBLE. 26 United States — all without exception, from the President to the beggar. All are bound to go by the decisions of this Supreme Court ant it is this, and this alone, that can keep the people together and preserve the union of the United States. The moment the people take the inter- pretation of the Constitution in their own minds, that moment there is an end of union. And so it is in every government, so it is here and in England and everywhere, there is a Constitution a supreme court, or law, a supreme judge of that constitution, and that supreme court or church is to give us the meaning of the constitution and the law. In every well ruled country there must be such a thing as this — a supreme law, supreme court, supreme jude that all the people are bound to abide by. There is in every country a supreme law, supreme court, supreme judge, and all are bound by its decisions and without that, no government could stand. Eyen among the Indian tribes such a condition of affairs exists. How are they kept together ? By their Chief who is their dictator. So our divine Saviour also has established His Supreme Court, HIS SUPBEME JUDGE, that is to give us the true revelation and doctrines of the word of Jesus. The Son of the living Q^od has pledged His wovd 2 • ..iv^tmr 7>WW'?'i~P'"^'!^«i'WW^P""«"«!fW?«*«Wr'.*' yw,n ijumi^nfv". J.'".'fWWP4JP"''WJ*"^'''~'"^^W«PP"< 28 THfi CATHOLIC CHURCH, and 16th verse of St. Mark, and you will find it stronger there than 'in the Catholic Bible. Now then, what kind of faith must a man have to be saved ? Will any faith do ? Why, if any faith will do the devil himself will be saved, for the Brblo says the devils believe and tremble. It is, therefore, not a matter of indifference what reli- gion a man professes ; he must profess the right and* true religion, and without that there is no hope of salvation, for it stands to reason, my dear people, that if Grod reveals a thing or teaches a thing, He wants to be believed. Not to believe G-od is to insult Grod. Doubting His word, or to believe even with douuting and* hesitating, is an insult to Grod, because it is doubting His sacred word. We must therefore, believe without doubting, without hesitating. I have said out of the Catholic Church there is no divine faith—can be no divine faith out of that Church. Some of my Protestant friends will be shocked at this, to hear me say that out of the Catholic Church there is no divine faith, and that withoiit faith there is no salvation, but damnation, I will prove all I have said, I have said that out of the Catholic Church there can be no divine faith. What i^ divine faith ? When we belie\ e a thing upon the authority of 0cd, and believe it without doubting, without hesitating. Now, all our separated brethren outside of the Catholic Church take the private iiMiH gl_ m^^tmiim I THE ONLY TRUE CHURCH OF GOD. 29 interpretation of the Bible for their guide, but the private interpretation of the BIBLE CAN NEVER GIVE THEM divine faith. Let me, for instance", suppose for a moment here is a Presbyterian ; he reads his Bible, from the reading of his Bible he comes to the conclusion that Jesus-Christ is Q-od. Now, you know this is the most essential of all Christian doctrines, — the foundation of all Christianity. From the reading of his Bible he comes to the conclusion that Jesus-Christ is God ; and he is a sensible man, an intelligent man, and not a presumptuous man. And he says, here is my Unitarian neij^hbor, who is just as reasonable and intelligent as I am, as honest, as learned and as prayerful a man as I am, and, from the reading of the Bible, he comes to the conclusion that Christ is not G-od at all ! Now, says he, to the best of my opinion and judgment I am right, and my Unitarian neighbor is wrong ; but after all, says he, I may be mistaken ! perhaps I have not the right meaning of the text, and if I am wrong, perhaps he is right after all ; but to the best of ray opinion and judgment, I am right and he is wrong. On what does he believe ? On what authority ? On his own opinion and, judgment. And what is that ? A human opinion— human testimony, and, therefore, a human faith. He camiot say nil iisiLi nu iiii UHil Hill ?o THE CATHOLIC CHUBCH, I ■v positively : " I am sure, positively sure, as sure as there is a God in heaven — that this is the meaning of the text ; " therefore, he has no other authority but HIS OWN OPINION and judgment, and what his preacher tells him ; but the preacher is a smart man. There are many smart Unitarian preachers also, but that proves nothing — it is only human author- ity, and nothing else, and therefore only hu- man faith. What is human faith ? Believing a thing upon the testimony of man, and divine faith, believing a thing on the testimony of G-od. The Catholic has divine faith, and why ? Be- cause the Catholic says I believe in such and such a thing. Why ? Because the Church tea- ches me so. And why do I belive the Church ? Because G-od has comn :.nded*me to believe the teaching of the Church ; and God has threat- ened me with damnation if I do not believe the Church ; and, we are taught by St. Peter in his epistle, that there is no private prophecy or interpretation of the Scripture ; for the unlearned and unstable, wrest the very Scriptures — the Bible— to their own damnation. That is strong language, my dear people, but that is the lan- guage of St. Peter, the head of the apostles. The unlearned and unstable wrest the Bible to their own damnation ! And yet after all the Bible is ^ipp THE ONLY TRUE CHtjRCH OF GOD. 31 the book of Grod,' the language of inspiration — at least when we have a true Bible as we Catho- lics have, and you Protestants have not. But, my dearly beloved Protestant friends, do not be offended at me for saying that. Your own most learned preachers and bishops tell you that, and some have written whole volumes in order to prove, that the English translation, w^hich you have is a very faulty and false translation. Now, therefore, I say the true Bible is as the Catholics have it, — the latin vulgate — and the most learned among the Protestants themselves have agreed that the Latin vulgate Bible which the Catholic Church always makes use of, is the best in existence ; and, therefore, it is, as you may have perceived, that when I preach, I give the text in Latin, because the Latin text of the vulgate is the best extant. Now, they may say that Catholics acknowledge that the Bible is the word of Grod — that it is the language of ins- piration ; and that, therefore, w^e are sure that we have the words of God ; but my dear peo- ple, the very best thing may be abused — the very best thing, and therefore our Divine Sav- iour has given us a living teacher, that is to give us the true meaning of the Bible. And He HAS PROVIDED A TEACHER wath infallibility ; and this was absolutely necessary, for without this — without infalli- ^t»mmmf*miimmMimi*mm^^^9^^^'' I. n(i)- "in uii> mill."- _ mmf^m'm^mt^nFf'*mmi^ 82 THE CA.THOLIC CHURCH, bility — we could never be sure of our fuith. There must be an infallibility ; and we see that in every well ordered government, in every government — in England, in this Dominion, in the United States, and in every country and empire, and every Republic, 1 here is a constitution and there is a supreme law. But you are not at liberty to explain that cons- titution and supreme law as you think proper, for, then,there would be no more law if every man was allowed to explain the law and cons- titution as he should think proper. Therefore, in all governments there is a supreme judge, and a supreme court, and to the supreme judge is referred all different understandings of the law and of the constitution. By the decisions of the supreme judge, all have io abide, and if they did not abide by that decision why, my dear people, there would be no law any more, but anarchy, disorder, and confusion. Again, suppose for a moment that the blessed Saviour has been less wise than human govern- ments, and that he has not provided for the understanding of His constitution, and of His law of the Church of God. If He had not, my dear people, it would never have stood as it has stood for the last 1838 years. He has then esta- blished a supreme court, a supremo judge in the Church of the living God. It is admitted pn all sides, by Protestants and Catholics alike THE ONLY TEUE CHURCH OF GOD. 33 acknowledged, that Christ has established a Church ; and, strange to say, all our Protestant friends acknowledge, too, that He has establis- hed but one Church — BUT ONE CHUECH — for whenever Christ speaks of His* Church it is always, in the singular. Bible readers, reqiem- ber that ; my Protestant Iriends, pay attention. He says : " Hear the Church, " — not hear the churches — " I haA'e built my Church upon a rock " — not my churches. Whenever He speaksj whether in figures or parables of His Church, he always conveys to the mind a oneness, a union, a unity. He speaks of His Church as a sheep fold, in which there is but one shepherd — that is at the head of all, and the sheep are made to follow his voice ; other sheep I have, who are not of this fold : them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice and there shall be one fold and one shepherd. (John, X, 16.) One fold, you see. He speaks of His Church as of a king- dom, in which there is but one king to rule all; speaks of His Church as a family in which there is one father at the head ; speaks of His Church us a tree, and all the branches of that tree are con- nected with the trunk, and the trunk with the root ; and Christ is the root and the trunk is Peter and the Popes, and the large branches are the bishops, and the smaller branches the priests, and 'v. JJiJi* ^^>i- 84 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, i the frnit upon that tree are the faithful through- out the whok^ world ; and the branch, says He, that is cut off from that tree shall wither away, produce no fruit, anci is only fit to bo tiast into the fire — that is, into damnation. This is plain speaking, my dear people, but there is no use in covering' the truth ; I want to speak the truth to you, as the Apostles preached it in their ihm^ — no salvation out of the Church of our Lord and Saviour Jesus-Christ, Now which is that Church ? There are now 35*2 different Protes- tant churches in existence and almost every year one or two more are added , and })osidos this number, there is the Catholic Church. Now which of all these various churches is the one ^Church of our Lord and Saviour Jesus-Christ ? All claim to be the Church of Jesus. But, my dear beloved people, it is evident no church can be the Church of Jesus except the one that was established by Jesus ; and when did Jesus esta- blish His Church ? When? When He was here upon earth. And how long ago is it that Christ was upon earth ? Eighteen hundred and thirty- eight years ago. Christ was born 1871 years ago. That is an historical fact admitted by all ; He lived on earth 38 years. Take 33 from 1871, and you have 1838 years over. That is the timo Christ established His Church upon earth. Any church, then, that has not existed 18B 8 years is not the Church of Jesus-Christ, but is the insti- ^^■^^p^ THE ONLY TRUE CHURCH OF ^OD. 35 V tutiou or invention of some man or 9ther ; not of Crod, not of Christ, but of man. Now where is the Church and which is the Church that has existed 1838 years '? All history informs you that it is the Catholic Church. She, and she only, among all Christian denominations on the face of the earth, has existed 1838 years. All history, I say, bears testimony to this: not only Catholic history, but Pagan history and Protestant his- tory, indirectly. The history, then, of all nations, of all people, bears testimony that the CATHOLIC CHURCH IS THE OLDEST ; the first, is the one established by our Lord and Saviour Jesus-Christ, If there be any preacher in Ottawa, who can prove that the Catholic Church has come into existence since that time, let him come to see me to-morrow, and I will give him a thousand dollars. My dear preachers, here is a chance of making money, — a thousand dollars for you. Not only all history, but all the mo- numents of antiquity bear testimony of this fact, and all the nations of the earth proclaim it. Call on one of your preachers and ask him : which was the first Church, — the first Christian Church. Was it the Presbyterian ? The Epis- copalian, the Church of England, the Methodist, the Universalist or the Unitarian ? And they will answer you it was the Catholic Church. But. my dear friend, if you admit that the Oa- ...^ ^, .^. „ „ ,i„ ^rt» .i Wi w wiM i iw i, mWi i m'u M MHiam yJMyff.^ . . » 86 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, tholio Church is the first and oldest — the Church established by Christ — why are not you a Ca- tholic ? To this, they answer : that the Catholic Church has become corrupted ; has fallen into error, and that therefore it was necessary to establish a new church. A new church, a new religion ! And to this we answer : that if the Catholic Church has been once the true Church, then she is true yet, and shall be the true Church of God to the end of time, or Jesus-Christ has deceived us. Hear mo, Jesus, hear what I suy ! I say that if the Catholic Church now, in the nineteenth century, is not the true Church of G-od, as she was 1838 years ago, then I say Jesus thou hast deceived us and thou art an impostor ! And if I do not speak the truth, Jesus, strike me dead in th^s pulpit — let me fall dead in this pulpit, — for I do not want to be a preacher of a false religion ! I will prove what I hav^e asserted. If the Catholic Church has been once the true Church of Grod, as is admitted by all, then, she is the true Church yet and shall be the true Church of G-od until the end of time, for Christ has promised that the gates of hell shall not prevail against this Church, He stiys that He has built it upon a rock, and that the gates of hell shall never prevail against it. Now, my dear people, if the Catholic Church has .£allen into error, then, the gates of hell have prevailed against her ; and if the gates of hell have pre- THE ONLY TRUE OHUECH OF OOD. 8t vailed against her, then Christ has not kopt his promise, then He has deceived us, and if He has deceived us, then He is an impostor ! If He be an impostor, then He is not Grod, and if He be not G-od, then all Chris- tianity is a cheat and imposition. Again, in St. Matthev^r, chap. XXVHI and 19 and 20 verses, oar Divine Saviour says to His Apostles : " Go ye therefore and teach all nations ; baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the So*i, and of the Holy Grhost : teaching them to observe whatsoever I have commanded you." " Lo " says He, " I, Jesus, the Son of the living God, I, the infinite Wisdom, the eternal Truth, am with you all days, even until the end of the w^orld." (vhrist, ^hen, solemnly swears that He shall be with His Church all days, to the end of time, to the consumation of the world. But Christ cannot remain with the Church that teaches error, or falsehood, or corruption. If therefore, the Catholic Church has fallen into error and corruption, as our Protestant friends say she has, then Christ must have abandoned her ; if so, He has broken His oath ; if He has broken His oath, He is a perjurer, and there is no Christia- nity at all. Again our Divine Saviour, St. John, 14th chapter, has promised that He would send to His Church the Spirit of Truth, to abide with her for ever. If, then, the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of Truth, teaches the Church all truth and ^M p' ifi *% LdtUH^JMiLiiibukJ.^ 1^ ^8 THE CATHOLIC CHUIICH, '■^: teftches her all truth for ever, then there never has been, and never can be, one single error in the Church of G-od, for where there is all truth there is no error whatseover. Christ has solemnly pro'Gised that He will send to the Church B**- THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH, who shall teach all truth for ever, there- fore, there never has been a single error in the Church of God, or Christ has failed in His promises, if there has. Again, Christ com- mands us to lio /»• and believe the teaching of the Church ia .1 things, at all times and in all places. He does not say hear the Church for a thousand years or for 1,500, but hear the Church, without any limitation, without any reservation, or any restriction of time what- soever. That is, at all times ; in all things until the end of time, and he that does not hear the Church, let him be unto thee, says Christ, as a heathen and as a publican. Therefore, Christ says, that those who refuse to hear the Church must be looked upon as heathens ; and what is a heathen ? One that does not worship the true G-od ; and a publican is a public sinner. This is strong language. Could Christ command me to believe the Church if the Church could have led me astray — could lead me into error ? If this teaching of the Church be corruption, could He, the G-od of truth, command me, without mm limM iMMiiHiiiiiiiiiljW THE ONliY TRUt: CHURCH OF GOD. 39 any restriction or limitation, to hear and believe the teaching of the Church which he had established ? Again : Our Divine Saviour com- mands me to hear and believe the teaching of the Church, in the same manner as if He himself were to speak to us. " He that heareth you, " says He, in His charge to the Apostles," heareth Me, and he that despiseth you, despiseth Me." So, then, when I believe what the Church teaches, I believe what G-od teaches. If I refuse what the Church teaches,I refuse what God teaches. So that Christ has made the Church, the organ by which He speaks to man, and tells us positively that we must belicA'e the teaching of the Church, as if He himself were to speak to us. Therefore, says St. Paul in his Epistle to Timothy, " the Church is the ground — that is the stong foun- dation — and the pillar of the truth. Take the ground or foundation of this edifice away, and it crumbles down ; so with regard to these pillars upon which the roof rests, take them away and the roof will fall in ; so Paul says the Church is the ground and the pillar of the truth, and the moment you take away the au- thority of the Church of Grod, you induce all kinds of errors and blasphemous doctrines. Do we not see it ? In the sixteenth century. Pro- testantism did away with the authority of the Church and constituted every mauhis ownjudge of the Bible, and what was the consequence ? If 41 ig If m UP* ft iwppiiipMnatM umiUMTaiiiii miafi*! mii im tmi i i , ■. 40 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, I Religion upon religion and church upon church, sprung up into existence, and has never stopped springing up new religions and churches to this day. When I GAVE MY MISSION in Flint, Michigan, I invited, as I havo done here, my Protestant friends to come and see me. A good and intelligent man came to me and said : " I avail myself of this opportunity to converse with you. " " What church do yoa belong to, my friend ? " said I. " To the church of the twelve Apostles, " said he. " Ha ! Ha ! " said I, " I belong to that church too. But tell me, my friend, where was your church started ?" *' In Terre Haute, Indiana," says he. " Who started the church, and who were the twelve Apostles, my friend, " said I. " They were twelve farmers " says he, " we all belonged to the same church — the Presbyterian — but we quarreled with our preacher, separated from him, and started a church of our own." " And that " says I, " is the twelve Apostles you belong to — the twelve farmers of Indiana ! " That church came into existence about fifteen years ago. A few years ago, when I was in Terre Haute, I ask to be shown the church of the twelve Apos- tles. I was taken to a window and it was pointed out to me, " but it is not in existence any more," said my informant, " it is used as a wag- tm MM ;'*■■ THE ONLY TRT3E CHURCH OF GOD. 41 gon maker's shop now ! " Again, St. Paul in his Epistle to the Galatians says : " though we Apostles, or even an angel from heaven were to come and preach to you a different gospel from what we have preached, let them be anathema,^ says St. Paul. " If any one shall dare to preach a different doctrine from what we have preached, let them be damned. " That is the language of St. Paul, because, my dearly beloved people, reli- gion must come from G-od, not from man. No man has a right to establish a religion ; no man has a right to dictate to his fellow man what he shall believe, and what he shall do, to save his soul. 4i m RELIGION MUST COME FROM GOD and any religion that is not established by G-od, is a false religion, a human institution and not an institution of G-od; and, therefore, did St. Paul say in his P]pistle to the G-alatians : " though we Apostle, or even an angel from heaven, were to come and preach to you a new gospel, a new religion, let them be anathema." You see, then, my dearly beloved people, from the texts of the scripture I have cpoted, that if the Catholic Church has been once the true Church, then she is yet the true Church. You have also seen from what I have said that the Catholic Church is the institution of G^od, and not of man, and this is a fact — a fact of history — and no fact of his- -nt- taaaam tUMum 42 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, tory 60 well supported, so well proved as that the Catholic Church is the first ; the Church established by Jesus-Christ. So, in like iuanner, it is a historical fact that all the Protestant churches are the institution of man— -every one of them. And I will give you their date, and the name of their founders or institutors. In the year 1520 — 361 years ago — the first Protestant came into the world. Before that one, there was not a Protestant in the world, not on the face of the whole earth ; and that one, as all history tells us, was Martin Luther, who was a Catholic Priest, who fell away from the Church through pride, and married a Nun. He was excommuni- cated from the Church, cut off', banished, and he made a new religion of his own. Before Martin I-.uther, there was not a Protestant in the world i he was the first to raise the standard of rebellion and revolt against the Church of Grod. He said to his disciples that they should take the Bible for their guide, and they did so, but they soon quarrelled with him. Zuinglius, and a number of others, and every one of them start- ed a new religion of his own. After the disciples of Martin Luther, came John Calvin, who, in G-eneva, established the Presbyterian religion, and. hence almost all of those religions go by the name of their founder. I ask the Protestant, "Why are you a Lutheran, my friend ? " " Well," says he, " because I believe in the doctrine of ^tu^mmimmtMitt gy^^lllljglll^ THE ONLY TRUE CHURCH OF GOD. 43 good Martin Luther "; hence not of Christ but of man — Martin Luther. A.nd what kind of man was he ? A man, who had broken the solemn oath he had made at the altar of Grod, at his ordination, and married a Sister Catharine, who had also take the same oath of chastity and virtue. And, this is the first founder of Protest- antism in the world. The very name by which they are known tells you, they came from Martin Luther. So the Presbyterians are sometimes called Calvinists, because they came from, or profess to believe in John Calvin. After them, CAME HENRY THE EIGHT. He was a Catholic, and defended the Catholic religion ; he wrote a book against Martin Luther in defense of the Catholic Doctrine. That book, I have myself seen in the library of the Vatican at Rome, a few years ago. Henry the YIII defended the religion and for so doing was titled by the Pope, " Defender of the faith." It came down with his successors, and the good Queen Victoria inherits it to-day. He was married to Catharine of Arragon ; but there was at his court a maid of honor to the Queen, named Ann Boleyn, who was a beautiful woman, and captivating in appearance. Henry was determined to have her. But he was a mar- ried man. Ho put it in a petition to the Pope to be allowed to marry her — and a foolish peti- ^ MiMi liittMiiliii iiiM 'ii ; '"he prayer of Henry's petition, he took lUIx Boleyn anyhow, and was excommunicated from the Church. After a while, there was ano- ther maid of honor, prettier than the first, more beautiful and charming in the eyes of Henry, and he said he must have her, too. He took the thirdwife, and a fourth, fifth and sixth followed. Now, this is the founder of the Anglico,n Church, the Church of England ; and, therefore, it is that it goes by the name of the Church of England. Our Episcopalian friends are making great efforts nowadays to call themselves Catholics, but they shall never come at it. They own the name Catholic is a glorious one and would like to possess it. The Apostles said : " I believe in the Holy G-host, the holy Catholic Church, " — they never said in the Anglican church. The Angli- cans deny their religion, for they say they believe in the Holy Ghost, the holy Catholic Church. Ask thorn are they Catholics, and they say yes, but not Roman -Catholics. We are English Catholics. What is the meaning of the word Catholic ? It comes from the Greek word Catho- §Mi m I'liii iiiQ^m^q^T^i^Hpi^^^p^^p^q^iavM 'mmm THE ONLY TEUE CHURCH OF GOD. 45 licus— universal — spread all over the earth, and everywhere the same. Now lirst of all, the Anglican Church is not spread all over the earth ; it only exists in a few countries, and chiefly only where the English language is spoken. Secondly, there are not ihe^ame all over the earth, for there are now fo'ir diife- rent Anglican Churches : The Low Church, the High Church, the Kitualistic Church and the Puseyite Church. Catholicus means more than this, not only spread all over the earth and everywhere the same, but it means, more- over, at all times the same, from Christ up to the present day. Now, then, they have not been in existence from the time of Christ. There never was an Episcopalian Church or an Angli- can Church before Henry the VIII. The Catho- lic Church had already existed 1 ,500 years, before the Episcopalian Church came into the world. After Episcopalianism, different other churches sprang up. Next came the Methodist, about 160 years ago. It was started by John Wesley, who was at first a member of the Episcopalian Church, subsequently joined the Moravian brethren, but not liking them ho made a religion of his own — the Methodist Church. After John Wesley, several others sprang up ; and, finally came the Campbellites, about forty-five years ago. This church was established by Alex,ander Campbell, a Scotchman. Well, no\v, 'I?' MM MMM winiMM 46 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, my dearly beloved people, you may think that the act of the twelve apostles of Indiana was a a ridiculous one, but they had as much right to established a Church, as Henry YIII or Martin Luther or John Calvin. THEY HAD NO RIGHT AT ALL and neither had Henry the VIH or the rest of them any right whatsoever. Christ had es- tablished His Church and given His solemn oath that His Church should stand to the end of time ; promised that He had built it upon a rock, and that the gates of hell should never prevail against it — hence, my dear people, all those different denominations or religions, are the inventions of man, and I ask you, can man save the soul of his fellow man by any institu- tion he caji make? Must not religion come from Grod ? and, therefore, my dearly beloved separ- ated brethren, think over it seriously. You have a soul to save, and that soul of yours must be. saved or damned ; either one or the other, either dwell with God in heaven or with the Devil in hell ; therefore, seriously meditate upon; it. When I gave my missions in Brooklyn, New- York, several Protestants became Catholics. Among them, there was a very highly educated and intelligent Yirginian. He was a Presby- terian. After he had listc ?d to my lectures, he went to see his minister, and he asked him L.tediti^fe.;.;,^.^^^ foatiumiutimii MiiiiHl ^g_ll^^g_^gg^l_l^ '"V,«? THE ONLY TRUE CHURCH OF GOD. 47 to be kind enough to explain a text of the Bible. The minister gave him the meaning. " "Well, now, " said the gentleman, " are you positive and sure that it is the meaning of the text, for several other Protestants explain it differently ? " " Why, my dear young man, " says the preacher, " we never can be certain, of our faith. " " Well, then, " says the young man, " good bye to you ; if I cannot be sure of my faith in the Protestant Church, I will go to where I can, " and he be- came a Catholic. We are sure of our faith in the Catholic Church, and if our faith is not true, Christ has deceived us. I w^ould, therefore, beg of you, my separated brethren, to procure your- selves Catholic books. You have read a great deal against the Catholic Church, now read something in favor of it. You can never pass an impartial sentence if you do not hear both sides of the question. What would you think of a judge before whom a policeman would bring a poor offender, and who, on the charge of the policeman, without hearing the prisoner, would order him to be hung V " G-ive me a hearing, " says the poor man, " and I will prove my innocence : I am not guilty, " says he. The policeman says he is guilty. 'i' i I r wt " WELL, HANG HIM ANY HOW, '* says the judge. What would you say of that judge ? Criminal judge! unfi^ir man; iMMm iMlk ^^ .■::.i-.^ :■:.■,:...,: .^i»-.->.,-A-'...:.-<^,ii:i!;^^^ '»^T?'T*SW;TV 48 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, you are guilty of the blood of the innocent." Would not you say that ? Of course you would. Well now, my dearly beloved Protestant friends, that is what you have been doing all along ; you have been hearing one side of the question and condemning us Catholics as a superstitious lot of people, poor ignorant people, idolatrous people, nonsensical people, going and telling their sins to the priest, and what after all, is the priest more than any other man. My dear friends, have you examined the other side of the question? No, you do you not think it worth your w:hile, but this is the way the Jews dealt with our Lord and Saviour Jesus-Christ ; and this is the v/ay the Pagans and Jews dealt with the Apostles, the ministers of the Church and with the primitive Christians. Allow me to tell you my friends, that you have been treating us pre- cisely in the same way the Jews and Pagans treated Jesus-Christ and His Apostles. I have said this evening hard things, but if St. Paul were here to-night, in this pulpit, he would have said harder things, and if Christ himself had been here He would have said harder things still. I have said them, however, not through a spirit of unkindness, but through a spirit of love, and a spirit of charity, in the hope of opening your eyes that your souls may l^e saved. It is love for your salvation, my dearly beloved Protestant Brethren,— for which I would y tHE ONLY TRUE CHURCH OF GOD. 49 gladly give my heart's blood — my love for your salvation that has made me preach to you as I have done. " Well, " say my Protestant friends, u IF A MAN THINK HE IS RIGHT would not he be right ? " -Let us sup- pose now a man in Ottawa, who wants to go to Chicago, but takes a car for New York ; the conductor asks for his ticket, and at once says : " you are in the wrong car, your ticket is for Chicago, but you are going to New York." " Well, what of that," says the pas- senger, " I mean well. " ' Your meaning will not go well with you in the end," says the con- ductor, " for you will come out at New iTork, instead of Chicago. " You say you mean well, my dear friends, but let me tell you that mean- ing Well will not take you to heav^en ; you must do Well also. " He that doeth the will of myFather," says Jesus, " he alone shall be saved." There are millions in hell that meant well. You must do well, and be sure you are doing well, to be saved. Therefore, my dearly beloved se- parated brethren, I would advise you to procure at the Mission store, on Sussex street,^ a book called " Points of Controversy." Read it atten- tively, and you won't read it without being thoroughly convinced that the Catholic Church is the only true Church of Grod. Then, I would advise you to add the " Catholic Christian in- 8 i ) ' 1 ^ 1SS ami PT^ 60 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, structed, " which explains all the ceremonies of the Catholic religion ; and all of you, my dear Catholics, should have these books in your families. You should read them yourselves, and lend them to your neighbors, and thus be instrumental to their salvation. Living among so piany separated brethren, you ought to be all well posted in your religion, so that you may be able to give a reason for tl lith that is within you. I thank my sepai.. *. brethren for their kindness in coming to these contro- versial lectures. I hope I have said nothing to offend thom. Of course : I have given some hard raps, but the truth should be spoken, and it would be nonsense for me, as a Catholic Priest, not to preach the Catholic doctrines. tpft" III CONFESSION. i;' iSri^ SERMON PEKACHED AT THR IMMACULATE CONCEPTION . CHCRCU, NEW YORK, 1879. " That you may know that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins, then did Jesus say to the man sick of the palsy : '* Take up thy bed, and walk into thy house. " — Matt. iz. m '-^\ H-f i] Dearly Beloved Christians, There is hard- ly a doctrine of our holy religion on account of which we are so frequently calumniated, sland- ered and misrepresented, as on account of con- fession. How often have you heard it asserted, sometimes by ministers of the (lospel, some^ times in Sabbath schools, and sometimes in books, in which we are calumniated and sland- ^BUk I I >. ■ \nw,ii I . II wiinjti'Wl '«!5WJ:U- 52 CONFESSION.! [i,:,; [J'^'Ki] R' ered, that Catholics believe Jthat, in order to obtain the pardon of their sins, all they have to do i6 to go and tell them to a priest ; and, after having done so, ihey can commence again their course of sin ; and others have gone so far as to say, that we Catholics have to pay to the priest a certain amount of money, in order to obtain the pardon of our sins ; and a certain English minister or preacher has even ventured so far, as to give the various prices for which sins are forgiven in THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. He says that when a Catholic has been guilty of murdering his father or his mother, and wishes to obtain pardon of the sin, iie has to pay a pound sterling, that is ^5 ; when he has been guilty of adultery, half that sum, or ^2.50 ; when guilty of fornication, the same ; when he has whipped his w^ife, a crown, or $1, and when he has been gloriously drunk, a shilling will do [Laughter.] Well, now, all of you, my dear Catholics, you, who have been going to confession all the days of your life, well know that you have never paid one penny to obtain the pardon of yoar sins. What must we think of such men who preach the Gospel, and what must we think of such a religion that endeavors to put down iiiiiiiiiiii ttMiiiliill mgimmit tliUk ^ f^^^^m^ ^^P^TT^WWI"!^ CONFESSION. 53 another by calumny and slander ? Is that the religion of Grod ? Is that Christianity ? I leave it to your own good sense to judge, to the good sense of those who are not Catholics, and "who have heard it repeat-edly. Is that the spirit of God ? Is that the spirit of charity ? — to put down another body of Christians by slandering and misrepresenting their doctrines. Why do they not attack the real doctrines of the Church? Why have they beaten the way attacking doc- trines, of which, in reality, their ignorance clearly shows they know nothing. Every Ca- tholic abhors the idea of believing that sins can be forgiven for money. The Catholic Church con- siders it one of the greatest sacrileges in exis- tence. If a priest were to take money for for- giving sins, according to the laws of the Catholic Church, that priest could never exercise pHestly functions any more ; but there never has been an instance of that kind, for that priest would be degraded for life. What, then, is the Catholic doctrine on i li 1 . r- II 1 4 tHE SUBJECT OF CONFESSION ? The Catholic Church teaches that no sins can be forgiven without true and sincere repeiftance, on the part of the sinner for the sins, by 'which he has offended G-od, and a firm resolution to avoid all sins for the future. Ask any Catholic : ■■^^^ Mufaila ttbilkri^kdiuiSk^ii liiiiMiiiHiUiiHillMitfil IlillllifBl 111 M] ifjiBliiffiill'llllfeitl 54 CONFESSION. " Can the priest forgive you your sins, if you are not sorry for them ? " Even the most igno- rant Catholic will answ^er you : ** No, sir." No sins can be forgiven without true and sincere sorrow^ and repentance for them. " Do you not believe in that, my dear Protestant friends ? " "Of course I do, " you say in reply. Now that is the Catholic doctrine. Then, again, the Ca- tholic Church teaches that no sin can be forgi- ven, even if we have true aud sincere sorrow for the same, unles we are fully determined to do all in our power to avoid sin for the future ; for there would be no sincere repentance unless there was also a determination to commence a new life — to avoid sin for the future. My dear Protestant friend, have you any objection to that ? " No, sir ; that is precisely my opinion." Well, then, you are so far a Catholic without knowfng it. That is the Catholic doctrine ; you see, if you only knew the Catholic religion, many of you would abandon your errors and you would embrace the truth. . But the misfor- tune is this, that many of your preachers keep you in error, and they will not let you see the doctrine of the Catholic Church, for they know very well if you were to know the doctrines of the Catholic Church you would become Catho- lics, unless some human considerations Would hold you from embracing the truth. So, then, the Catholic doctrine is, that, when a man has ii iiiiMiiiiiiii iittn CONTESSION 55 a true and sincere repentance for his sins, and a firm resolution to do all in his power to avoid sin for the ftitnre, and when, with these dispo- sition, he confesses his sins to the priest of Gk)d, then the priest has the power of forgiving his sins in the name of Grod, and by THE AUTORITY OF GOD. ¥ " So that, " says-my Protestant friend, " you believe the priest has the power of forgiving sins. Well, now, I do not believe in that, that a man can forgive sins I shall never believe in that. Is not the priest a man ? " " Why, of course he is a man ; he is not a woman ! " " Well, then, I shall never believe that the priest can forgive sins. " Now, my Protestant friend, are you reasonable in your objection to that ? Let us examine whether Grod can give such power to man, to forgive sins in His name, and by His authority, if He chooses to do so. What do you say to that ? Can Grod give such power to man ? " Of course, " says my Protestant friend, " Grod can do anything ; God is all powerful If Grod wishes to give such power to man, He can do it— w^ho is to hinder Him from givin_g such power to man ? " Well, I am going to prove to you, now, that God has given this power to man. " No, sir, you can never do that," says my Protestant friend. But, I will prove >ii\ 66 CONFESSION. Jio you that G-od has given such power to man : for no man, with common sense or reason, can doubt for a moment that Grod can give this power to man. I shall prove it to you from the Bible, and that is the book you like, do you not, my dear Protestant friends ? It is the book of Grod, for which we Catholics have a very high veneration, and it is from this holy book of God, that I shall prove that G-od has given such power to man. In the ninth chapter of the Gospel of St. Matthew, we read that, on a certain occasion, there was brought before our Divine Lord a man sick of the palsy, and when our Blessed Lord saw the poor palsied man He was moved with compassion, and said to the palsied man : " Son, be of good heart, thy sins are forgiven thee," and THE SCRIBES AND PHARISEES i» . "^ heard the Blessed Saviour say, " Thy sins are forgiven thee, " and they niurmured within themselves, and said, precisely as our Protestant friends say : " Who can forgive »ins but G^od ? " And Christ, reading the secret thoughts of their minds, said : " Why do yoa murmur at this ? Which is easier to say, thy sins are forgiven thee, or, take up thy bed and walk into thy house ? " " But, " said He, " that you may ^tmam '-•'--iliii ygiSimdm^imM mmmi liilMtfiltiff''"r"'' -'^'T*' PF CONFESSION. 61 know that the Son of Man " — He does not say that yon may know that the Son of G-od, but — " tha,t you may know that the Son of Man " — You know Christ was both G-od and man —He is God from all eternity, equal to the Father and the Holy Ghost, and He became man eighteen hundred and seventy-nine years ago, when He was born in the stable at Bethlehem — *' Hath the power on earth to forgive sins — ^" and then did He say to the man sick of the palsy : " take up thy bed and walk -into thy house, " and the sick man was instantly cured, and he took up his bed and walked into the house. Here, our Divine Saviour performed a miracle to prove that, even as man, he had the power of forgiving sins. Now, in St. John, twentieth chapter, our Saviour says : " All power hath been given to Me in heaven and on earth, ihmeiore, as the Father hath sent Me, I also send you. As I have been vested by the Father with all power, so I also send you vested with all power, " and then breathing upon them (Apostles) He said : " re- cieve ye the Holy Ghost ; whoso sins you shall forgive, they are forgiv^en them, and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained." Now, my dear Bible friends, you, who say the Bible is your teacher, I beg of you, in the name of G-od, to divest yourselves of all prejudices, of all pre- conceived notions, and kindly, §incerely, befor^ ■. -i 1; ff yig£fegiaiai#^«!a«;:J'l.^^j*LA^/^.;>AkAi^ .;• it^.ui'j-.^.:i:a:...i^Laaa mMim i aafe: ia iii fcJ i mi i ?|^ill#flM i.n . I mnini'irr'mijmfrr^mifmmfi 68 CONFESSION. God, study the Bible, study the words of Jesus- Christ. What did Christ mean when He said, breathing upon His Apostles : '• receive ye tho Holy Ghost ? " "Who is the Holy Ghost ? Thn Holy Ghost is the Third Person of the Adorable Trinity. '^Receive yo the Holy Ghost ; " that is " Keeeive ye the power of God," for Holy Ghost, in the Holy iScriptures, frequently stands for the power of God, as in the first chapter of THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES, our Divine Saviour says : " Not many days hence you shall receive the power of G,pd. " What was that power of God ? It was the recep- tion of the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost " Receive ye, therefore, the power of God, and whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiv^en them." Is not'that clear and explicit ? What did our Divine Saviour mean when He said, '' Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them ? " Did He mean what He said ? Most assuredly so. There was no duplicity in Christ ; there was no double dealing in Him. He did not say one thing and mean another thing. When He said to His Apostles : " Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them, " He gave them the power of forgiving sins. Some yeai» ago, when I was pastor of St. Y'Francis Xavier Church, in St. Louis, Mo., I was liiliiiiiMiii "- Vw+^.P'i'i"*"^' iy|i;i|f ■'■..-'i...i'«-i'JMPPip,!i p IV.*""" .,'- !'"i^I{ ^^H"!".' 4- '^^ CONFESSION 59 called to a sick lady, and when I came to the house, I found, with the sick lady, a Protestant doctor ; I asked the doctor to leave me alone with the lady for a few moments, and he did so. In the meantime, I heard the lady's confession, and administered to her the consolations of our holy religion, the sacraments of the Church. Having got through, I said to the doctor that he might come in ; but the doctor was a Yankee, and you all know that the Yankees are a very inquisi- tive people, and always want to know the ins and outs of everything (laughter), and so, the doctor said to me : " What have you been doing, sir ? " " Well, doctor, that is a very impertin.ent question, but I know what you are driving at, I will answe'r you. I heard the confession of that lady." " You do not pretend to forgive the sins, do you ? " said the doctor. " Yes, sir, I do." '' Well," sir, continued the doctor, " that is a very extraordinary power." " Yes, sir, it is ; but you do not believe in that power, doctor?" said I. "No, sir," said he, '* no; no, I do not believe in any such nonsense as that." " Well, doctor," said I, " do you believe the Apostles had the power of forgiving sins ? " ** NO, SIR, " SAID HE, " I DO NOT." " Well, doctor, what did our Divine Saviour mean, when, breathing upon His Apostles, He smMi^MiMtiiMtMtiiliiimM mman mu^mmn ^fiiiiiriilinir"" "' 60 CONFESSION, said, receive ye the Holy Q-host ; whose sins you shall forgive they are forgiven them. "What did Christ mean, doctor, at that time ? " " Well, I declare," said he, " that is a tough question." " A little tough, doctor. "Will you be kind enough to Jinswer it ? " " Well," said the doctor, " I am not prepared for that now. I am here on profes- sional business, and am not prepared to answer you now ; but I will see you again." " Do, doctor, please see me again." The doctor was a sincere and honest man, and when he arrived at his office, he remembered his promise to see me again, and knowing that he should become familiar with the subject in order to talk with me, he procured himself some books on the Catholic doctrine, and rea4 them through very carefully, until he became convinced that con- fession is of divine origin. He became interested in the matter and procured more books, and finally became convinced that the Catholic Church is the only true Church of Grod. Three weeks after that there came a rap at my door : " Walk in," and the doctor walked in, " Father," says he, " will you be kind enough to hear my confession?" " Eh, doctor ! hear your confes- sion ? Why, you do not believe in that ? " (Laughter) " I do, father," says he, "and believe in all the other doctrines of the Catholic Church, lam thoroughly convinced that it is the only tru6 Churoh of God, and I would like to make CONFESSION. 61 my confession." " All right, doctor ; get on your knees. " He got on his knees and I heard his confession and received him into the Church. Well, perhaps, some of my Protestant friends will say to-night : " Was he not a fool of a man ?" No, my friends : he was a very wise and well educated man— a very smart man ; and so wise you will be, MY DEAR PROTESTANT FRIENDS, if^ou would only take the trouble that the doc- tor took, to examine both sides of the question. Ba^here is your misfortune ; you are a one-side^ people ; you never examine both sides of the question. Tell me candidly, now, did you ever read\a Catholic book in yonr life. " No, sir, I wouti not take up a Catholic book ! " " But you have iead a great many bopks against Catholi- city ? \ " Yes, I have, and that is the very rea- son I d> not want to read any more about it. " Well, tlat shows you are a one-sided people. How cai^you give an impartial judgment, when you iiav^examined but one side of the quejs- tion ? Wkt would you say of a jugde who sits in the criii^nal court, when a policeman brings in a poor feiow, and says to the judge : "Judge, this man is^uilty of such a crime." " Well, then, hang hWi," says the judge. " But, " says the poor man,y Judge, I aui innocent, and lam : i 'i- 1111111111 ii --*— , -.».. i * Jl »W WL 'W| P 'y WfW >W * ' f fW^ •.v-inBSVW W iji.jqiijj.jjflipip.lHij., 62 CONFESSION. i.;,/-. able to prove my innocence. I am able to bring you evidence and witnesses to prove that I am innocent." But the policeman insists that he is guilty. " Well, then, " says the judge, " hang him anyhow." [Laugtor.] What would you say a such of judge ? " Ah ! " you would say, " in- just, cruel, bloodthirsty man— you are guilty of shedding innocent blood. Why do you liot hear the man ? Why do you not hear his eviden- ce, and his witnesses, and his proofs ? You are guilty of the blood of a innocent man, and rou have condemned him without examinatio|^. " Well, now, my dear Protestant friends, allow me to tell you (and 1 hope you will not be oflfended, for no man of sense can be ofFdpded by the truth) that is the way you have been treating the Catholics all the time. " Hans' them anyhow," you say. Did you ever examjhe the doctrines of our holy religion ? Did yiu ever read a Catholic book ? Never in your \ih ; and, then, you condemn us, condemn us without knowing what we are. / IS THAT THE PART OF A SENSIBLE MAlT^ Is that just, I ask you ? It is ver hard to tell you that you have been acting s^ unjustly to us Catholics ; but, certainly, noijJ of you can be offended, for you know it is a fct. You have been condemning us ; you ha/e been turning ijyUilriiiiiiiiiyiiiiMiwMii^^ liiteMliiiliiliyitfi Hiiiiiiiii CONFESSION. es US into ridicule ; you have been -holding us up to the odium of the people, without knowing what the Catholic religion is at all. That is the way Jesus-Christ was treated, and that is the way you are treating the followers of Jesus- Christ. Oh ! my dear Protestant friends, do be- come more just, more fair, more honest and charitable towards your fellowmen. Condemn him not without knowing that he really deser- ves to be condemned. Do not examine one side of the question, but give a fair hearing to both sides. Do I ask anything unreasonable ? Is that not fair and just ? I would therefore recommend to you, to procure yourselves Catholics books. You have read a great many books against us ; now examine the other side of the question. Proqiire yourselves Catholic books, in which our doctrines are thoroughly stated and thor- oughly defended. I recommend to you the three following books, " Protestantism and Catholici- ty ; " second book, " Points of Controversy ; '* and the third book, " The Manual of Instruc- tion." You can get these three books, during the Mission, at the door of the Church. If you do not remember the titles of the books, only mention the three, books recommended and the young man will hand them to you. I must continue with my proof from the Bible on Confession. In St. Matthew our Divine, Siiv- iiii »' II i .Mij^-ai—j^i^. ■;:■- r»> ■, ■.-,.,,:^.,.-:;r;-^ ,. ■,j»;Ui„..v-.. j.,t...,^, fe, 'ffwpppfjff^'^pffjfwi^^ 64 CONFESSION. iour says, sixt«ienth chapter : " I will give to you," says He to His Apostles, " the keys of the kingdom of heaven. An 1 whatsoever you shall bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven ; and whatsoever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed likewise in heaven." Hero, you see, our Divine Saviour gave to His Apostli^ A VERY EXTRAORDINARY POWER. For what purpose were the keys ? Why, of course, to open the door. They were giving for the purpose of unlocking Heaven to the repen- tant sinner. Here, again, our Divine Saviour confers the same power on His Apostles that He conferred upon them in the G-ospel of St. John, twentieth chapter. Now, did the Apostles un- derstand these words of Christ in 'he siu ' man- ner, as we Catholics und< a them, u the nineteenth century, and as t^y have buon un- derstood for so many centuries ^ D d they really believe that they had the power of forgiving sins ? They did, and they gloried in that power. St. Paul, in his Epistle to the Corinthians, says : " Let a man so look upon us as the ministers of Christ and the dispensers of the mysteries of Q-od, for we are the ambassador of Christ." Now, what is an ambassador? An ambassador is one, who is sent by one power to another power, to iiilitti^i^iiiiiMiifaii m^m CONFESSION. 65 act for the power that sent him. If, tor instance, the English G-overnment sends an ambassador to "Washington, that ambassador acts in the name of the English Government, and whatso- ever he does in W&shington is considered, as done by the English Government it- self : his acts are the acts of the English Government. " Now, " says St. Paul, " we are the ambassadors of Christ. " When did Christ constitute them ambassadors ? "When He said : " I will give to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever you shall bind on earth, shall be bound in Heaven. " It was then, that Christ constituted His Apostles, and their lawful successors in the ministry, the priests and Bishops of the Church, His ambas- sadors. Again, says St. Paul in his second Epistle to the Corinthians : " "We have the min- istry of reconciliation. " What does he mean by that ? Why, of course, he means reconciling sinners to God. But how can they do so ? Only by forgiving them their sins in the name of G-od* The sinner only becomes reconciled to God when his sins are forgiven. " So, " says St Paul, " He has placed in us the word of reconciliation, the power of reconciling the sinner to God, by forgiving him his sins. " And, therefore, St. John th^ Apostle, in his first Epistle and first chapter, says : " G-od is faithful and just to for- 1! ^^^mt^--^^'"' ^ iiliiii4iiriitttiii£Tii^itfi^^^i-^trt--..^ ^t/' 66 CONFESSION. give US our sins, and to cleanse us from our iniquities, if we confess them." (( IF WE CONFEtSS THEM. )» There, St. John the Apostle makes confes- sion a condition, without which no sin is for- giyen. God is faithful and just to cleanse us from our iniquities, " to forgive us our sins. " " if we confess them. " Hence, we see, that in the primitive days of Chris Hanitiy the Christ- ians went to confession. In chapter xix., 18th verse, of the Acts of the Apostles, we read : " And many of thos^ '^'ho believed, came, con- fessing and declaring' their deeds." The multi- tude of the people — those who had been rfeciev- ed into the Church — they came, says the Bible, " confessing and declaring their sins, " to the Bishops and priests of Grod. They did the same as Catholics do now ; they came in crowds to confession, as Catholics do now on great festi- vals, such as Easter, Chistmas, &c, so says the Bible. Did the primitive Christians not know the Catholic doctrine ? Were they ill instructed ? TJiey knew its doctrines from the very lips of the Apostles, and hence the Catholic re- ligion is now as it was in the primitive days — in the days of the Apostles. And, St. James the Apostle says to the priest of the Church : " Confess vour sins one to the mil iiiiaiiiiii ^dMui m^MM •Vl H"" ... „ >:WJ! CONFESI^ION. 6T other, and pray one for the other, that you ifts^y be saved. " Here, you see, St. James the apos- tle makes the confession of sins a condition of salvation also on the priests of the Church. In the Catholic Church, it is not merely the laity that are bound to go to confession and tell their sins, but also the priest is bound to do so, and so, also, must the Bishops and the Cardinals ; and even the Pope himself is bound to go to confession, should he have the misfortune to fall into sin, for he is a man like the rest of us, and any man may fall into sin. Confession is a di- vine law and must be obserred by all. The priest, however, does not wait to fall into sin before he goes he confession, for as a general thing, the priests of G-od strive to lead pure, moral and holy lives aiid keep themselves from sin ; but, even if they do not commit any sin, they go to confession once a week or twice a month or so, and when they have nothing to confess, they confess the sins of their youth, of their young days, in order to humble themsel- ves before Grod and once more obtain the for- giveness of Christ. I might, my dear Christians, give you niany more texts from the Bible in order to prove that confession is an institution of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ ; that our Lord and Sayiour has given to the Apostles, and to their succes- w») -«s|. iM^ ,...,.., ,.. .■.■i»^.",i..^i!!A.i;'a;.-,^^argl':ltvta<'.:'ifew'iJiii 68 CONFESSION. sors in the ministry, the Bishops and priests of the Church, the power of forgiving sins. The words of Christ that I have quoted are so plain, so explicit and so expressive, that it is impossible for any man, who believe in the Bible, to doubt them. " Whose sins you shall forgive, " says the Son of the living God, " they are forgiven them." There is no other meaning tothem but that He gave them the power of forgiving sins. " Well, " says my Protestant friend, " I sup- pose the Apostles had the power of forgiving -4dna— that is plain from the Bible ; but how do you get that power ? " Well, now, when our Divine Saviour established His Church here upon earth, tell me, did He mean that the Church which He established was to last only during the lives of the Apostles ? Was it to die with the Apostles ? " Oh, no ! " says my Protestant friend, " of course not ; it was to last forever, for if it were not to last forever, we would then be very badly off. " Well, then, it was to last forever, you say. Was it the intention of our Divine Saviour that the Church which He estab- lished should continue as He had established it, without any change ? " Well, I suppose so ; I guess that was His intention. " Well, then, as He estasblished it with the power of for- giving sins, therefore, that power must re- main in the Church ; that necessarily follows, ^^ CONFESSION. 69 If you admit the premises, you must conse- quently admit the conclusion. Christ established His Church with the power of forgiving sins, and He wished His Church to remain as He established it; therefore He wished that power to remain in His Church to the end of all time. He wished that power, which He had given to His Apostles, to be communicated to their suc- cessors to the end of time, hence, we see that the Apostles gave the power to St. Paul. You all know, of course, that St. Paul was not one of the twelve original Apostles. 1 say you all know that ; but the fact is, my dear Protestant friends, you, who are talking so much of the Bible, know very little about it. Do you really know, now, that St. Paul was not one of the twelve original Apostles ? That is a clear fact from the Bible : St. Paul was a persecutor of the Church established by Jesus for a long time. He was a Jew, and a very zealous Jew ; but by a miracle of God, he was converted, and after he was converted, and having been baptized by Ananias and received into the Church, he was consecrated a Bishop of the Church, as you see in the nineteenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. Then St. Paul was consecrated, by the other Apostles, a Bishop of the Church. — Therefore, St. Paul was not present when our Divine Saviour said to His •* Apostles ' ** Receive ye the Holy G^host ; whose sints > i m **J, 70 CONFESSION. you shall forgive, they are forgiven them. " Hence St. Paul did not receive from Christ Himself the power of forgiving sins, he receiv- ed it from the other Apostles, v^^heii he vs^as ordained a Bishop of the Church. And St. Paul again consecrated Timothy and Titus, and so on. These, St. Paul consecrated Bishops of the Church, and gave to them the power of forgi r- ing sins in the nnme of Grod'and by the author- ity of God, just as he received it himself Now, I will not quote any more texts from the Holy Scriptures, because it would occupy too much time. I will now, however, give quotations from THE EARLY WRITERS OF THE CHURCH, those who lived in the very days of the Apos- tles themselves, and who received all their Christianity from the Apostles. I will quote from their writings to show that in their days, eighteen hundred years ago, the doctrine of confession was preached as much as it is preach- ed now. The first one, from whom I will quote, is St. Clement. St. Clement was a disciple of St. Peter, the Apostle, and he was baptized and instructed by St. Peter in all the doctrines of the Catholic Church. He also was ordained by St. Peter a Bishop of the Church of God, and ajfterward became one of the successors of St. iiM^^iaiiMute ^■^ -^■■'•'■^^■i^'-"-'-^- ri^ iitiiiyiiiitei CONFESSION. ^1 Peter as Pope. St. Peter was the first Pope and St. Clement was the fourth. Of St. Clement, St. Paul says, in one of his Epistles, " that the name of Clement is written in the book of life, " so that the Bible testifies that Clement is a saint of God. Now, Clement says in his firsts and second Epistle to the Corinthian^ : " Blessed Peter has taught that the faithful are bouad to confess their sins to the priests of the Lord. If» therefore, any one of you has conceived in his heart thoughts of infidelity, of envy, or jealousy, or any other evil thought, let him not be ashamed to confess this to the priest of the I^rd, that, by salutary counsel, and by the word of G-od, he may be healed by him. " This is the language of a disciple of St. Peter, the Apostle, written eighteen hundred years ago, when Catholicity, was in its very cradle. In the same century lived Dionysius, the Areopagite, who was a convert of St. Paul, and we read of his conversion in the Bible. There, we read, that when St. Paul went to Athens to preach the Q-ospel, many became converts to the faith, and among those converts was a very eminent judge, a great philosopher — Dionysius, t Areopagite (Acts xvii.)— and when St. Paul had instructed him, he baptized him, and after more thorough instruction St. Paul consecrated him Bishop of Athens, Afterward, Dionysius was transferred from Athens to Paris, France, by Clement, and -■^■'^^-'■^■^^''"iiiifrtiitiiaift^itift^ -^;* 12 CONFIiSSIOK. lie became the first Catholic Bishop of Paris. Well, Dionysias had in his diocese a certain priest called Demophalus, and another priest, having the misfortune to fall into sin, went to his brother priest Demophalus, and confessed *his sin in order to obtain absolution ; but, Df- mophalus, comparing 5 • THE SACRED OFFICE AND FUNCTIONS **■ of the priest with his sin, upbraided and re- proached him, and refused him absolution^ thereby, driving the priest into despondency. In his despondency and despair, the priest wrote to Dionysius, complaining ol the harsh- ness of Demophalus, who refused him absolu- tion for his sin. And then it was thai; Dionysius wrote his Eighth Epistle to Demophalus, in which he said : " We have received the keys of the kingdom of heaven to pardon the repentant sinner, but you have abused this power, and you have driven the repentant priest to despe- ration by refusing him absolution of his sins. " Hence, from this you see that, at that time — eighteen hundred years ago — not only the laity, but the clergy confessed their sins, in order to obtain absolution. In the second century — namely, over seventeen hundred years ago, lived Ireueeus, who was a disciple of Polycarp, and he (Polycarp) was a diseiple of St. John the |||__|v^^ iiMiiiliiiii T-51 -CONFESSION. IS Apostle. Now, Irenaeusr mentions that some women came to the church and publicly con- fessed their sins, but others were converted with much difficulty — they spent their lives in holiness, confessing their sins, but others re- nounced the faith. Why did they renounce the faith ? Because they had not the courage to confess their sins, and they knew that the true faith would not save them, unless they did con* fess their sins ; and, as they had not the cour rage to do so, they abandoned the faith. Such was the conviction of the Chriltians seventeen hundred years ago, that they must either confess their sins or be condemned. In the same cen- tury, lived Tertullian, who has written a whole book on confession, and that book is called " De PcBuitentia. " In that book he enters into all the particulars of the subject : how confes- sion must be made ; what preparation must be made for it, and what are the dispositions we must have in order to obtain the pardon of our sins. No one can read that book, written seventeen hundred years ago, without being thoroughly convinced that confession "^as at that time believed by THE WHOLE. CHRISTIAN WORLD. Hear Tertullian, speaking of confessioii (Exomologis), he says : But most peopK taote ■ « u CONlCESSiON. 'jtr -.r- '.,t attentive to their present comforts than to sal- vation, neglect this confession of their sins, and put it off from day to aay, like a man who has contracted some secret disease, which he is - ashamed to expose to the eye of the physician, and prefers to perish rather than make it known. Tertullian inveighs against that false shame, and says, if thou drawest back from ^ confession, consider, in thine heart, that hell-fire, which confession shall quench for thee ; and first imagine to thyself the greatness of the future punishment, that thou mayest not doubt concerning the ^option of the remedy. ^ ^ ^ When, therefore, thou kuowest, that against hell-fire, after the first protection of baptism, . ordered by the Lord, there is yet in confession a second aid, why dost thou abandon thy sal- ' vation ? Why delay to enter on that which thou knowest will hea-l thee ? Shall the sinner, I'knowing that confession (Exomologis) has been instituted by the Lord for his salvation, neglect it? St. Cyprian, after having spoken of the neces- sity of doing penance and of confessing our sins ta the priest of the Church (Faith of Catholics, IIL volume, page 51), says : I beseech you, most dear brethren, let each confess his sins, while he, that has sinned, is among. the living, while his confession can be admitted, while the satisfaction and the remission or pardon m^iM.k.Mdm^.i-ii^«fc3^\i «*. *• 1^ 1 '*^.*- •( iiitt yiw 11 ^?n7's«ww.'.", ., -IK, !"vvii9^ C0NFK8SI0N. 79 while he was on his way from New- York to St. Louis THREE PROTESTANT CLERGYMEN, who had formerly been under him, called to see him. They came to ask his advice. " Well, Bishop, we are thoroughly convinced that we stand on quicksand, that is, that we are in the wrong religion, and we know where ihe rock is. What do you advise us to do ? " " Why," said Bishop, " of course I advise you to get out of the quicksand, and get on the rock of the true Church of God," " But," said they, " what shall we do ; we are married men, and have families, and how shall we support our families if we become Catholics?" " "AVell,"8aid the Bishop, " I have nothing to say to that ; you have a soul to save, and by all means you should save that soul." Well, these men never became Catholics ; they continued preaching in the Protestant Church, although they had acknow- ledged that the Catholic Church is the only true Church of God. On one occasion, a certain minister of the Presbyterian Church came to see me, and introduced himself as such a. min- ister. I, at once commenced reasoning with him, to prove that the Catholic religion is the only true religion, but he interrupted me and said : '* Do not reason with ifle at all ; do not speak to V] ti^aW^fe..^ ':.^.d&m^iM K^ititiiii itaoi.-;>.7:^v:ass'i 80 CONFESSION, i^'. ray intellect. I am as thoroughly convinced - that the Catholic religion is the only true religion as you are yourself ; so do not reason with me, but give me the courage to become a Catholic" I gave him all the encouragement J could, but it seemed to have no effect. He wrote to me frequently, and in all his letters he told me that he was thoroughly convinced that the Catholic religion is the only true one, and the only one in which he could save his soul ; and yet he kept on preaching Presbyterianisrn all the time, and finally died a Presbyterian. Bread and batter, my dear people, are powerful things to a hungry man, and they kept him back. Now, these are facts, and I might tell you many more suchfactp in regard to Protestant minis+ors, and I can give you the names and resicltnces of those who have acknowledged to me that they were thoroughly convinced that there is no other religion than the Catholic religion. Now, what trust can be put in these men — the men who slander and misrepresent us and our religion ? None whatever. Now, my dear peoi)le, I say to you in all charity and lov«^ for I feel for you, do not be guided by such men, but follow your own convi iions. You believe in the Bible, then I say to you, follow thot Bi- ble ; read it without prejudice, without precon- ceived notions ; pray fervently of G-od that he V Hi ■ CONFESSION. 81 may enlighten you, and you will come over to the Catholic faith. Again, it has been said that confession is i. ; : f A : AN INVENTION OF MAN. That is what some of our Protestant friends say. Well, if that be so, surely then they ought to be able to tell us the man that invented it, where it was invented, when it was invented, and in what country it was invented. I defy all the preachers of the world— I defy them all to tell me the name of the man who invented confession, to give me the name of the place where it was invented, and the date when it was invented- I defy them all. For the last three hundred years, ever since Protestantism came into existence, ministers of all denomina- tions have gone through endless research and investigation in order to find out when, where and bv whom confession was first introduced ; and after three hundred years of labor and in- vestigation they have not been able to find it out. And why not ? Because there is no other institutor of confession than the Lord Jesus Christ— the Son of the Living Grod. There is no other date of the institution of confession than the year 33 — eighteen hundred and forty- six years ago — when tho Son of God, breathing upon His Apostles, said : " lleceive ye the Holy G-host ; whose sins you shall forgive, they are ■Uta ■aoiiiiiiiiHiiiiiiiiiiiii HMiiiliiiiilli Hiii Miiiiiii fm m CONFESSION. Ibrgiven them. " Then and there rIoho, in the Holy Land, sanctified with +^ a of Jesus Christ ; then and there conleboion was insti- tuted by the Son of the Living* G-od, aiv^ ni vny, many ministers haxa acknowledged t.iat con- fession is an institution of Grod, and they have tried of late years to introduce it ain^^r;!*" them- selves. You are aware that the K/«:l Church Episcopalians are preaching confession now in England, in America, and all over the world, and there are probably thirty different Protes- tant churches in New York alone, where they are preaching confession now. After 350 years they have finally come to the conclusion that they have been wrong, and are now convinced that confession must be an inststution of Crod, and they are therefore inviting all to go to con- fession : but they do not get much custom yet. [Laughter.] What is the rea:oa that they do not get much practice ? It is because they are married men, perhaps, and people do not like to go to confession to a married man, for fear he might tell their secrets to his wife, and the Lord save them, if the wife knows it. [Grand laughter.] Whether that is the reason or not, 1 cannot say, of course, but at any rate, they are not much troubled with confession. When I was giving a mission in Thirty- seventh street, ia the Church of the Holy Inno- CONFESSION. 83 cents, a Protestant lady came and said she wanted to make her confession. " Are you a Catholic, madam ? " I asked. " No, sir, " she said, " I am an Episcopalian. " " Well, then, why do you not go to confession to your own minister? " " Why, " said jjhe, "he is a married man. " This shows, my dear Christians — the very preaching of these men shows — that they themselves are convinced that confession is of Divine origin. Again, they say that confession demoralizes the people ; that it is an institution of corruption and of immorality. Those parties who go about preaching are, as a general thing, very immoral men and women, and impose upon fhe people. They know what suits the taste of the people, and they tell them that con- fession is an institution of immorality ; but here is the criierion by which you will find out whether confession promotes immorality or not. You will find that Catholic fathers and Catholic mothers, who have been going to confession all the days of their lives, are very anxious that their children should be very exact and regular in going to confession. They are always con- tented in their minds when they see that their children attend regularly to confession. Do you think if that father or that mother knew by experience that confession produced immo- rality, they would be anxious to see their sou 84 CONFESSION. Ifl- r'l I H or their daughter go to confession regularly every month? Why is it, then, that Catholic fathers and mothers are so anxious that their children should attend to their confession Y It is because they know, by their own experience, that the confessional is the most powerful of all means to preserve the morality and purity— in an especial manner of the young — to preserve them good and holy. When Catholic fathers and mothers see that their sons and daughters go regularly to confession, they are freed from all uneasiness ; they know they are all right, arid say to themselves : that is the best, boy in New-York, " or " that is the best girl in New- York, " for they know they are doing right. They would not go to confession if they were not honest and good. They know that, and henoo the Catholics who know, by experience, what con- fession is, know also that it is the most power- ful of all engines to promote morality, purity, benevolence, charity — in a word, to promote a Christian life, to promote a Christian character. li u.^ ■litiiiiiH IV THE REAL PHESENCK. StRMOS PKEAnnKD AT THK tHlurH OK 'IHK JUMACULATB CONCKPTIUV, StW YtiM, 1879. .,^1 " Anil whlUl they were at supper, Jesua took brpad nntl blesKetl and broke and gave to 11 is DUciples, and said : •' T»ko ' ye and cat ; this is My body ; iind taking the chalice. IIo gave (hanks, and gnvo to thotn, nnying : " Drink yo all of this ; for this i> My blood of the new Testament which .xhnll bo shed for uinn]^ for t lie remlRsion of sins. "— iSt. Mathew, chH[i. x:ivi., verse;) 26 aud S8. DkARIA -BELOVED BRETHREN,— I will ptOVe from fortyfive texts of the Bible the doctrine of the Catholic Church. I will also prove that the Catholic religion is the Bible religion, and that Protestantism stands condemned by its own Bible ; and, moreover, I will prove that we w ^W^^^ 86 THE REAL PRKSENCBl. Iti (i I must believe in mysteries — that is, in truths which we do not understand. Now, in order that you may understand the better the arguments which I shall bring before you this evening, I shall first state the doctrine of our separated brethren — our Protestant friends — and that is a mighty hard job ; for it is very hard to say what our Protestant friends do believe, and what they do not believe, they vary so much from each other. What one asserts A GOSPEL TRUTH, the other denies as a positive heresy ; hence it is very hard to say what our Protestant friends believe. But I will give the doctrine of some of the leading Protestant bodies The Pres- 1>yterians say that in Communion we do not take the real body and blood of Jesus, but bread and wine as an emblem of Christ. The Metho- dists and the Baptists, and some others, say that in Communion we take bread and wine, not as an emblem of Christ, but in memory of Christ. The Lutherans -wIk) are a very large body, for Protestantism started with Martin Luther and his religion — Lutheranism says it is bread and wine, but the body and blood of Christ at the same time. The High Church Episcopalian says it is the body and blood of Christ, and there is no bread and wine at all ; but it is not transubs- tautiation. *Ktasa!gfc'f:'!»'».fB^J.f.' iii KiJi ' '-* * -*"- ' * ^ ^ '* ■iiii THtt R«AL ^RESENCB. 87 Now, you see, it is very hard to say what they all believe. I shall now state the doctrine of the Catholic Church, it is the teaching of the Church which Grod established, the Church which was established by Jesus Christ, as X proved on a previous evening, and I defy any one to refute it — I do not care who he is, Bee- cher, or any one else. I defy them all to prove that the Catholic Church is not the Church established by the Son of THE LIVING GOD, .TERUS CHRIST. r-*l I say, then, that the Catholic Church teaches that by the power of Q-od, and by the words of Jesus Christ, spoken by the priest in the Mass, the bread and wine are changed into the body and blood of Jesus Christ, and are truly and really received by the faithful in Holy Commu- nion. Now, understanding the doctrine of Protes- tantism and the doctrine of Catholicity, let us see which has the Bible on its side —whether it is with Catholicity, or whether it is with Pro- testantism. For this purpose, I shall read to you from the sixth chapter of 8t. John, and I will give you nothing but the Bible, and your own Protestant Bible, if you wish. I read from the Gospel of St. John, the sixth chapter, com- mencing with the forty -fifth verse of that chap- d8 THE KEAL PRESENCE. ter, and when you go home examine, your Bible, dearly beloved Protestant friends— do not think when I say dearly beloved Protestant friends, I speak hypocritically — I love you, my dear Pro- testant friends - 1 feell a very deep interest in your salvation, and I would give my very life to save you. I pity you exceedingly, because you are led astray, and you do not know it. I shall nc^^ read from St. John, as I have said : '* It is written in the Prophets, and they shall all be taught of God, " and that the time would come when the people would be taught, not merely by the prophets who were men, but that they would be taught of G-od, Christ being God and teaching them, and THIS PROPHECY IS FULFILLED. " Every one that hath heard of the Father and hath learned cometh to Me. Not that any man hath seen the Father, but he who is of G-od, he hath seen the Father. " " Amen, amen, I say unto you ; " in the Pro- testant Bible we have " Yerily, verily." These words of Christ at the time He was on earth were equivalent to a solemn oath. " He that believeth in Me, hath everlasting life." He pro- mises them eternal life who 1>clieve in Him, arid He commenced His doctrine in this solemn taanner: " Amen, amen, he that believeth in M^i^ibudta^tiji Immk [ THE EEAL PRESENCE. 89 Me, hath everlasting life," and immediately He commenced the doctrine : " I am," says Christ, " the bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the desert, and they died. This is the bread descending down from heaven : that if any man eat of it, he may not die. I am the living bread" — not a " dead bread " — " which comes down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread," which He says He is Himself, *' he shall live forever, and the bread that I will give to you is My own flesh." My dearly beloved Protestant friends, do you believe that it is ^the flesh of Jesus Christ? " No, " says my Protestant friend, " Oh ! no, sir, I do not believe any such nonsense as that. '* What, my dear Protestimt friends, do you not believe in the Bible ? Do you not believe the word of God ? He says it is His flesh : do you believe it ? " No, sir, I do not." Well, but then, my deiir friends, you do not believe in the Bible ; you do not believe in Jesus Christ. " Why, " says my Protestant friend, " how in the world can I believe in such a thing as that ? I do not believe in it, because I do not understand it. We Protestants are an intelligent and enlight- ened people, sir. and we do not believe in a thing we do not understand. It is good enough for Catholics to believe in such things, because they are simple-minded people, who pin their faith to the sleeve of their priest ; but we Prot- ..^ L 90 THE BBAL PRESENCE. I ' estants, we are an intelligent people, and we do not believe in things we do not understand." DO YOU NOT, MY DEAR FRIENDS ? " No, sir, we do not believe in things we do not understand." My dear Protestant friends, tell me, do you believe that you see ? " We^l, what a question. Do I believe that I sec ? Why, sir, I know that I see. " And do you understand your sight ? Can you explain your sight ? Can you explain to me the operation of your eye ? Do you understand that, when I address a con- gregation of three or four thousand people, all of these people are represented upon the retina of my eye with shape, form and color ; and this material picture upon the retina of my eye brings to my mind thoughts, ideas and concej)- tions — thoughts of size, thoughts of shape, of form, of color, &c. ? ' Now, can you explain that to me — how this material picture, upon the little^ball of my eye, can bring to my mind, which is a spiritual thing, all these thoughts, &c. ? Can you explain that to me ? I defy you all. The greatest man that has ever lived — the greatest philosopher — has never been able to explain how matter can act upon spirit. Now, here is an aption of matter on the spirit, the material picture of my sight acting upon my soul, which is a spiritual thing, which cannot be seen, felt or touched, which Hj^ IMiiMiilMliilJHi THE REAL PRESENCE. 91 you cannot explain. Here is a mystery — here is a thing that no man in the world can explain. You do not believe in natural mysteries, my dear Protestant friend ? Do you not believe that you can hear ? " Why certainly I can hear— I know that I hear. ■' Well, and how do you hear ? "I suppose that I hear with my ear." Well, I know you do not hear with your eyes ; can you explain your hearing i " Oh, no! " Here is ' ANOTHER NATURAL MYSTERY which you do not understand. Can you explain how that little air which comes from my lungs, (he vibration of which air brings to your ear a sound, and that sound brings to your mind my thoughts, ideas and conceptions ? Here is ano* ther natural mystery which you cannot com- prehend. You say, you do not believe in mysteries ; but here is another one you cannot understand, but in which you believe. Do you believe that I move my hand ? " I suppose so ; I see it. " And how do X move my hands ? By my will. And what is my will ? It is a spiritual thing, which cannot be seen, or felt, and that by the simple act of my will, I set into motion my hands, my lips, my eyes and my feet. In a word, the whole body of man is set into motion by the simple act of his will. ^ ■fa %. .% o ^. ^^>^S. IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1/, A-. ^ ^ 4 % ,o ,^, &»- ^'z y. fA 1.0 I.I 1.25 1^ ■cw IM 112 1^ M 2.2 1 2.0 1.8 i-4 IIIIII.6 Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4503 nji'iii... u.. I 92 THE KEAL PRESENCE. Here is a mystery — here is a thing which you do not understand, but which you believe in. You say you do not believe in mysteries, and what are you yourself but a mystery, from the crown of your head to the sole of your foot. What is a man, but a combination of mystery upon mystery ! You say you do not believe in mysteries, and what is all nature but mystery ? The seed that you throw into the earth takes root, and from that seed there springs up a mighty tree, that towers into the very clouds of heaven, and upon that tree appears beautiful foliage and charming flowers, and from those flowers comes a delicious fruit, and from that fruit again thousands of other seeds. Can you explain it 'i Where is the n.an who can explain how that seed, which decays and rots, can have the power of drawing out of the earth all the material that forms the tree, that shapes the leaf, that forms the flowers, and tinctures it in so delicate a way, in shape and form, and trans- forms it into fruit, and from that fruit come thousands of others seeds ? flere is a natural mystery — a thing we do not understand. You, Protestants, do not believe in that? You do not believe in mysteries ; I YOU ARE TOO SMART FOR THAT. Do you believe that this earth on which we dwell is an immense ball that measures thous- THE R^AL PRESENCE. 93 \ auds of miles in circumlerence - a ball, with all its cities, towns and villages, its seas, lakes and rivers, mountains, &c. ? On what does this ball rest ? On nothing, you say. It is suspended in space — hangs on nothing. Do you think that possible Y How in the world can that be, that a ball of such tremendous weight hangs thero, resting on nothing? Why does it not fall ? Why is it suspended there? " Wh," you say, " it is 'gravitation. " And w^hat is this gravitation ? You cannot explain what it is ; so here is ano- ther natural mystery, something else you do not understand. ^ou believe in telegraph lines, do you not ? You believe in sending dispatches. When you stand and talk to the operator, in the twinkling of an eye, whatever you say to the telegraph operator here in New-York is gone to Europe. It does not take a minute to travel. What do you understand that to mean ? " Why, " you say, " it is electricity." Well, I gues it is ; but w^ill you be good enough to tell me what elec- tricity is ? "I do not know." There it is again — a mystery, something you fjannot comprehend, but still you believe in it^ And so, my dear people, light is a mystery; no man has ever been able to explain precisely what light is. You all have some idea of what light is ; but no man, from the days of Adam to the present time, could explain precisely what light is. Newton, iHlsiii 94 THE RTilAL PRESENCE. in the philosopher, who was applauded as having discovered it, has been refuted, and we do not know yet what light really is. It is a natural mystery. And darkness is a mystery, and water is a mystery, and ■J EVERY BLADE OF GRASS IS A MYSTRRY, '^ and the stars in the firmament of heaven, and every living- creature in the water and in the earth is a mystery, and you attempt to say, my Protestant friends, that you do not believe in mys- teries, ignorant men that you are. If you were men of a little more education, if you knew a little more philosophy and knew a little more of natural sciences, 3^ou w^ould nev'er attempt to say yo?i did not believe in mysteries : and every time that you say that you do not believe in mysteries you proclaim to the world that you are an ignorant man. Because you kown how to cipher and read and write, and, perhaps, by looking at a map, can tell the boundaries of the country in which you live, you imagine you are an enlihgtened people. But do not be too fast — "'do not crow until you get out of the woods," as the saying is. It is just because you know so very little that you attempt to say you do not believe in mysteries. Tha greatest of philosophers, the most scientific men of the age, have acknow- ledged that the world is full of mysteries, and almost everything is a mystery. From the very ^ssss, -%f . ~. 1'HE REAL PRESENCE. 95 fact that the mind of man, my dear people, is narrow and limited, and that the mind of God is unlimited and without bounds, it follows that in the mind of Grod there are thousands of truths which the mind of man cannot fathom, and all these truths, which are in the miud of, God, and which the mind of man cannot com- prehend, all these are mysteries to the mind af man. The more developed the mind of man is, the more truths he percieves which a man of little education must look upon as mysteries. For instance, the mathematician — the man of mathematical mind — he Sees many truths in mathematics which the man of no education in mathematics cannot see at all, and regards as a mystery. And so it is with *:he arithmetician ; the results of certain complicated problems are perfectly clear to him, but to the man who knows nothing about it, it is a mystery. You, for instance, may solve a problem by the Bule of Three, which is perfectly clear and cor- rect to you, but the man who is ignorant of it regards it as a mystery, to you it is a '^uth, but to him it is a wonder. AND so IT IS WITH THE MIND OF GOD. All those things which are evident truths to the mind of God may be mysteries to the mind of man. iHiit iiiiiiiiiiiiili F'f^ 96 THE REAL PRESENCE. If I ' p— . Now, when G-od reveals these truths — when He says : " That is a truth," is not man bound to believe it ? Is not God the 7 ^fallible truth that cannot deceive ? Is not His the wisdom that cannot be deceived ? When, therefore, a truth is presented to our minds which we do not un- derstand, what is the duty of man ? Is he not bound to believe it ? Is he not bound to believe what G-od teaches ? Do you see anything un- reasonable in that, my dear Protestant friends ? You think you are reasonable in rejecting mys- teries, but, in reality, you are very unreasonable! When an infallible Truth says a thing, is it wise and reasonable that we should not believe it ? In other words, is it not wise and reason- able for man to believe what God teaches ? " Oh ! of course, " says my Protestant friend, " man is bound to believe what God teaches, whether* he understands it or not. " Very well, then, all we ask of you is to inquire has G-od said it, and if He has said it, man is bound to believe it. Now, then, with regard to the truth here before you— the truth of Transubstantiation ; namely, that the bread and the wine, by the power of God, and by the words of Jesus Christ, spoken by the priest in the Mass, are changed into the body and blood of Jesus, has God said that it is ? We must examine, and if God has said it, man is bound to believe it. Do you not '■ K ___^ imiiiii ■IHMIHI THE REAL PRESENCE. 91 agree with me now, my dear Protestant friends ? "Where is the man that proposes to be a Chris- tian, and does not say with me, " that is right, sir. If God has said it, we are bound to believe it. " Well, then, let us see if God has said it. You want the Bible ? " Yes, father, we want the Bible — we love the Bible, sir. " Very well, then, wo shall give you the Bible : " And Jesus said, I am the bread of life, which came down from heaven. I am the living bread which came down from heaven, and the bread that I V, All give to you is My flesh. " JESUS SAID IT IS HIS FLESH. Do you believe it ? Do you believe the Word of Jesus Christ ? Do you believe the Bible ? " The bread that I will give to you is My flesh. " '* And the Jews murmured among themselves, " says St. John, the Apostle, and said " how can this man give to us His flesh to eat ? " Yon see, the Jews understood our Divine Saviour in the literal sense of the word — that they were really to eat His flesh and drink His blood — and they said ; " How can this man give to ns His flesh to eat ? " Then Jesus said to them : " Amen, amen, I say unto you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man. and drink His blood, you shall not have life in you. " You shall never be saved, you shall never see eternal life, '* He that 6 '•> --.^'iHX-JL'-*^*1E5^ -maean^miaw 98 THE REAL PRESENCE. V r ir earteth My flesh and drinketh My blood hatJi everlasting life, and I shall raise him up on tli^e last day. " Christ here threatens with eternal damnation those that refuse to eat His flesh and drink His blood. Now, my dear Catholics, pay attention to that ; you belieVe in the Church ; you glory in being a Catholic, and you do not ^o to Confession — you do not go to Communioti. You do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and Jesus Christ says you shall be damned. Mind that well, my dear Catholics. These are the words of Jesus Christ : " You shall not hare life in you. " " He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood, " says the Saviour, " hath everlasting life, and I shall raise him up on the last day, and he shall live forever ; for, " say's Jesus Christ, " My flesh is meat indeed and My blood is drink indeed. " Christ knew that after fifteen hundred years Protestantism would cpme into the world in Germany, and that Pro- testantism would deny that it is the real body ^n^d the blood of Jesus, and that they would ,^ay .that the bread and wine were only in mem- pry of Christ. Therefore says Jesus : " My flesh Sfpod indeed, " in truth and in reality, " and y blood is drink indeed," in truth mid in 'reality. When, therefore, you desire to derive ppm the Bible the real and actual doctrine, you must yead the Bible as it is — add nothing to it, iSke nothing away from it. Take the plaim THE REAL PRESENCE. 99 obvious meaning of God's holy book, and then you have the Catholic doctrine. In order to derive the Protestant doctrine from the Bible, you must say just the contrary. CHRIST SAYS, " MY FLESH IS FOOD INDEED. : " I believe it, " says the Catholic, and the Pro- testant says, " I do not. " Christ says, " My blood, is drink indeed, " in truth and reality. " I believe it, " says the Catholic and the Pro- testant says, " Lord Jesus allow me to differ with you. You say it is your flesh, now allow me to differ with you. You say it is your blood, allow me to differ with you, and I hope you will not take it as an insult. Allow me to tell you, it is only bread and wine. " So, the Pro- testant religion teaches precisely the contrary of what Jesus says. Now, who is the Bible Christian ? Is it the Catholic, who says: "Yes, my Saviour, it is Thy flesh and it is Thy blood. " Is it the Catholic who is the Christian ? The Protestant says : " The Bible is my faith, the Bible is my teacher. " And the Bible says : "If there be any man sick among you, let him call in the priest of the Church, and let him pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. " Here is the command of the Bi- ble, that the priest must come to the sick man and anoint him with oil. Do you believe that, I I ' 'ii wmm mmm *'i. 1 ^00 THE BEAL PRESENOB. mjty Protestant friend ? " Oh, no, sir ; Ido not believe any such superstition as that. " But the Bible sdys you must. "Oh ! well. We cann(H: follow the Bible all the time, " says my Protes- tant friend. ' Where is the Protestant who calls in tire priest in time of sickness thdt he may anoint the sick person with oil ? You see, you do not follow the Bible, my dear Protestant flieiid ; you do not take the Bible for your gtlide or teacher. The Bible also says you must confeiss your siiis — ^^St, James, fifth chapter. Do you do thtit ? 7 DO YOtJ CONFESS YOUR SINS ? *;' Why, do you think I am such a simpleton as thlit ? " answers my Protestant friend. But th^ 'Bible says so, my dear friend. Here you gb dgfainst the Bible again. The Bible says also fehat you must fast. Christ says : " I have given y6u an example, that as I have done, you do in itke manner. " Christ faSted. Do you fast "? "Of course not. " The Bible tells us that the tA^ostles fasted, even after Christ had gotten*- thirteenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostl©*. We read of the Saviour fasting and praying. Do you fast ? " Oh, no, we do not fast ! " Well, MQtL^ you do not folbw the Bible. *' Unld^ fj^ db penance, " says the Saviour of the world. 'Vy6u shall all perish. " It is commanded in THE REAL PRESENCE. 101 the BiWe, and you say you follow the Bible, Ohrist Himself fasted forty days and forty nights,, ajid the Apostles fasted. I cannot say too much in this lecture, as it would take too much time from the real subject on which I speak to-night, Transubtautiation. ^ , " For My flesh, " Fays Jesus, " is meat indeed and My blood is drink indeed. He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood abide th in Me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent Me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth Me, the same nlso shall live by Me. " He does not say, he that eateth the remembrance of Me, or he that eateth the figure of Me, but He says, he that eateth Me. You say, my dear Protestant friends, you do not believe in mysteries. Well, now, I think it is a very great mysterious thing to eat the figure of a thing. I do not believe there is a man in Nev;^ York who could do that, for it would be pretty hard to know how to go about it. Yes, my dear friends, I think that is A YERY MYSTERIOUS THING. "He that eateth Me," says Christ, " the same also shall live by Me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, and he that eateth thifi biread shall live forever. Many, therefore, of Hi0 Disciples hearing it, said : "This is a hari|^ Btkjingr and who can believe it ? " Some of Hlfl HM 102 THE REAL PRESENCE. Disciples, therefore, you see, understood our Saviour to say that they must literally eat His flesh and drink His blood ; for, if the Disciplies understood Him as Protestants understand Him — that they were merely to eat a piece of bread and drink a cup of wino— none of the Disciples wotild have madv. any fuss about it. Uat they understood Him in the literal sense of the word, and, therefore, they said : " This is a hard saying. " Now, the Disciples were to be the teachers of the world. Christ had chosen them for that purpose to go all over the world and to teach all nations of the earth, and it was, there- fore, all important that His Disciples should understand His doctrine, that they should have a correct idea of His doctrine ; for if He left them in error, then He Himself would be the cause of the whole world going into error. Then, if He was not to be understood in this manner, He was bound, by all the lav/s of justice, to ex- plain Himself to His Disciples. Did He do it ? No ; but He insisted, more and more, that it was His body and blood. And Jesus, knowing in His heart that His Disciples murmured at thid, said to them : " Does this scandalize you ? Do you think this is beyond My power ? You have seen Me giving sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, speech to the dumb, restoring the Jame and reviving the dead. " Well, now, says Olirist, if I can do these things, why can I not THE BEAIi PBESENOB. 108 also change bread and wine into My body and into My blood ? You believe that I have changed the dust of the earth into a living man, at the creation of time, and that I took is A BIB OUT OF ADAM'S BODY and changed it into a woman. Now, says Christ, as it were, if I changed the dcfi of the earth into a living man, and a bone into a living woman, why cannot I also change bread and wine into My body and blood ? " If then, " says Christ, " you shall see the Son of Man as- cend up where he was before, it is the spirit that quickened, the flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life." They are realities — not dead figures, not dead remembrances. " The words that I have spoken to you arc spirit and life ; but there are some among you that believe not, " for He knew who they were that did not believe and who would betray Him. You see Christ put those who do not believe on a level with Judas. And he said, therefore : " I say to you that no man can come to Me, unless it be given tp him by the Father." Some of the Disciples could not believe what Christ said, and they left Him, and Christ never called them back ; but turning to the twelve apostles, He said : ^* Will you also go away ? Will you also aban- i ' K ■ t 1 "fT": 1«4< THB BEAIi FK£SRN€iB. dba^ me, because I teach a doctrine that you d«i I]«^t^Tlnderstaud ? " And; Simon Peter, the first t B©pe, answered Him : ' " Lord, to whom shall ; wo go ? " My God, says he, if we cannot takfe Thy word, whose word, then, shall we take ? We have known -and we have believed that Thou art the Son of the living God, and there- fore, says Peter, we believe it, because Thou the. Son of the living God, hath said it. We believe Hi says Peter, in the name of all the rest of the Apostles, whether we understand it or not/ Hiou, oh ! God, Thou infallible truth and wis» dem. Thou hast said it, and we believe it. Well, isit not a reasonable thing to believe,mY Protests ant friends, what God has said ? Bid the Apos« ties believe as we do ? Did the primitive Christ- inas believe as we do ? They did ; they believed- that it was the real body and blood of Christ. WHERE IS YOUR PROOF ? Hie Bible is my proof. You will take nothing bat the Bible, and so you must have the Bible. I swill now read from St. Paul's Epistle to the Corinthians —First Epistle and tenth Chapter where St. Paul exhorts the Christians to lead hJ^lf li%'es ; and he gives them as a motive thai tk^ should lead holy lives,, because they wei?e petiaitted to reeeivo the body and blood of ' _J«5®a»iiJPJiriM-^chap X., vv 14^^^ ^Wherefore, my L^aa^^^Ei^^^j^.^^...... ...:...... liiiiiiiMMiiii" THE BSAL PBZSENOB. ^^ f .1 d<^arly Motedi fly from the service of idc^s* ^I ipeak as to wise tnen. Judge you yourselTiW :what I Bay. " I leat^e it to your Own judgment —you are 'Wise itien, you are intelligent men. Is it n^t fair ? Is it not reasonable that you should fi^ from the service of idols, and from everything that is sinful, because, said he, " The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the Conimti- nion of the blood of Christ, and the bread which •Wis break, is it not the Communion of the body of the Lord ? " I read it as it is in the Protestant Bible. You see, St. Paul takes it for granted that they all believed it, and that therefore they should lead pure and holy lives, because they were daily permitted to recieve the body and the blood of Jesus-Christ. And in chapter xi, of the same Epistle to the Corintians, St, Paul says, after instructing them to receive worthily : " I have recieved from the Lord that which I also deliver unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the Jiight in which He was betrayed, took bredd, and giving thanks, broke and said : " Take ye and eat— this is My body, which shall be deliv- ered for you. Do this for a commemoration of Me* This cup or chalice is the new testaQiiilii 4f My blood. This do ye, as often as. you shall 4rink, for a commemoratibn, or in memojcy irf Me. " " Oh, " says my Pi^t«itantfriendi *^v^«t «splfidn8 all. Do 4hts in iemttfii]»?anGe of li». 'H 1 r TUB REAL PBESENOE. Do wHat ? " Take and eat, " says Christ, " this is My body ; take and drink, this is My blood, and do this in remembrance of Me. " Do what in remembrance of Me ? " Take and eat, this is My body, " and drink, " this is My blood." Here is THE SOPHISTRY OF OUR PROTESTANT FRIENDS, in their explanation of the Bible. Christ did not say : Take the bread in remembrance of Me ; take this wine in remembrance of Me. But He said : " Take and eat ; this is My body, " and "" take and drink ; this is My blood, " and do this eating of My body, and this drinking jf My blood, in remembrance of Me. He did not say, take a sup of wine and a piece of bread, and remember Me ; but He said : " Take and eat ; this is My body, and take and drink ; this is My blood. " Remember Me as often as yon shall cat My flesh and drink My blood— re- member My suffering and My death. This is precisely the explanation which St. Paul gives of these words of Jesus Christ ; for, says St. Paul. " As often as you shall eat this bread, and drink this chalice, you shall show the death of tha Lord until He comelh "~ you shall re- mdmber the death of Christ, whenever you take your Holy communion. " Wherefore, whoso- mm ■w !_, AAlta MMi ■•7^ mmmimfi' ■^ THE HEAL PBSSEI9CE. m :^ver shall eat this bread ;aii^ drink this cdp«ln- wbrthilly shall be guilty of the body and tiW3 blood of the Lord ; " shall be guilty of the pro- fanation of the body and blood of Jesus. But, my Protestant friend, how can I profane ^Jie body and blood of Jesus, when the body and blood of Jesus are not there at all. It must be there or 1 cannot profane it. If you would give the Bible the proper construction you woula .have to acknowledge it is the body and blood, but you deceive yourself in an incorrect cotn- slruction. " But let a man prove himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the ehalice ; for he that eateth and drinketh un- worthily, eateth and drinketh judgment to him- self, not respecting the body of the Lord. " "I €at, " says St. Paul, " my own damnation, for I eat and drink unworthilly, because I do not respect the body and blood of Jesus there. " Now let me call your attention once more to words of the Institution of Jesus Christ, recorded in St. Matthew, chapter xxvi, verse 26 : "And while they Were at supper, Jesus took bread ih His blessed and venerable hands, and He blessed 4xid broke and gave to His Disciples and said, " Take and eait, this is My body." This WSfe ifke night before He died on the cross-^tka night when, for the last time. He waslo^ .^ith His ii|>o8tles in the fl^fch. Who &hAll it- il^Hki|]rt^o's%y iha^ Qhrisi erer^ ^peke^^ny^S^img :v : "^1 108 THE BSAL FBESSNCB. else but the truth ? THio shall attemjit to call into qaestion the truth of the words of the Son of God. ** TAKE AND EAT, " SAYS HE ; " THIS IS MT BODY ; TAKE AND DRINK ; THIS IS MY BLOOD. »> Did He speak the truth at that time ? Why, of course He did. Christ ever spoke the truth* for He is Truth itself. If, then, Christ spoke the truth, the Catholic doctrine is the true one. If you say it was not His body and blood, then, my dear friends, you give the lie to Jesus. And where is the man who has the daring insolence and the daring blasphemy to accuse the Son of the living G-od of a lie. "Will you, my dear Protestant friends, give the lie to Jesus ? Do you believe in Jesus-Christ ? " I do, '* you say. Do you believe what He says ? ** I do not, " you say. Then if you do not be- lieve in Jesus you are not Christians. Do not be talking any more about the Bible, for you do not believe in either. Throw overboard all Christianity, or become converts to the Catholic faith. You cannot believe in Jesus and the Bible and hold on your Protestantism, and deny ^lat Christ spoke the truth. He did speak the truth. He said it was His body and it was His maamsmammMM mmiim i iitiiiitfiifiiiiiiir iifMiJ THE REAL PRESENCE. 109 blood, and to say it is not His body and blood is giving Him the lie. Now this doctrine of the Catholic faith is as old as Christianity itself. It has been believed from the beginning of the Christian world, be- fore Protestantism came into the world. Yon have only to read the works of St. Ambrose and St. John Chrysostom, and they are referred to by Protestants also as men of great learning, of ex- traordinary sanctity and virtue. These men have written whole books, fifteen and sixteen hundred years ago, on the Real Presence of Je- sus Christ in the Adorable Sacrament of the Eu- charist, and I thank Grod that many of our Prot- estant friends believe in the Bible, and that many Protestants are giving up their heresy and their error, and are admitting now the doc- trine of the Catholic Church, and even in G^er- many, and in spite of all the persecutions against the Catholic Church, under Bismark, hundreds and hundreds of Lutherans, hundreds of learned men, of ability and wealth, are coming over to the Catholic Church — Protestant ministers among them. And in England, how many Protestant clergy, within the last thirty-five years, have been converted to our Holy Faith ? Not less than two thousand five hundred. By what ? By reading those books that were writ- ten sixteen hundred years ago in Latin and <>* 110 THE BBAL PRSSENOE. G^reek by our holy ancestors of the faith, and which contain the Catholic doctrine precisely as it is to-day. "We have been led astray, we have been separated from our mother, the original Church ; we have done wrong ; we have gone into the way of eternal perdition, and we must go back, " they say. Hundreds and thousands are coming back at the present day to the Catholic Church in Ger- many, in England and in the United States. Many men who were once Protestant ministers are no\/ Catholic Priests, and several of them are Catholic bishops, and even cardinals, because they were men of intelligence, MEN OP LEARNING AND EDUCATION ; they were not carried away by blind prejudice ; they did not follow the road of the vulgar crowd. " I hate Catholicity, anyhow, " you say. The Jews hated Jesus-Christ, and that did not save them. And so you hate the Catholics anyhow, and that is not going to take you to heaven. Let me tell you that. "When you are in eternity you will remember it, and then you will say. " Ah ! that I had taken the advice of that old man, " but then it will be too late, for when you are once in that " look-up " there is &9 j^etting out of it. Of course, there is no use (( (( a.^^_ Ufa liiMtaliHiitfMiiiiii *-SJl^1 ill THE REAL PBESENCE. Ill 'IV of joking about these things. It is a very se- rions matter, and you have a soul to save. Save that soul, and the only way to do so is by the true religion, and no religion established by man can do that. Therefore, I would recom- mend to all of you to pray fervently to G-od to draw you into the right path. Get the books which I have recommanded — the three books which we call the set. Read them and study them, that you may be able to understand the doctrine of the Catholic religion. When I gave a mission at St. Joseph's, there was a young Virginian who went to his preacher and said to him : " You must answer the questions con- tained in this pamphlet of Father Damen, and if you do not do so to my satisfaction I am going over to the Catholic religion ; " and he proposed the questions. " "Well, " said the preacher, " you must not be thinking about these things ; do not be bothering your head about them. " " "Well, " says the young man, "lam not going to damn my soul ; I must know the truth, and I want you to prove to me the truth. " " Well, " says the preacher. " I cannot do that, and there is no man in the world that can do it. " " Well, then," says he, " good-by to you ; I shall become a Catholic, " and he became a Catholic, and a very highly educated Catholic. Now was he not a sensible young man ? He wanted proof i Pfp ¥V mm ^mm PPHWP 112 THE BEAL PRBSENCB. U I and when he could not get it, he went where he could get it. I say, then, get the pamphlet con- taining my lectures, and read it attentively, and take it to your preacher and ask him to refute it, and refute it to your satisfaction ; and if he does not satisfy you, come to me, and I will make you sure of the truth. f AvP^ m^mmm^- i»Sg!^^-fc^ i^iilttllliiMi he ion- md it. loes ike 'r%- ifi; •3#^ i--i„^