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Editorial.

Our contemporary the Dunedin Tablet, | dn a recent number, had an article dis- j splaying a somewhat angry character! -•dealing- with the Christian Record, be- ! -cause, in speaking- of tbe Church of j Rome, it made use of the adjectives j ; ' Romish ' and «' Popish." Why the ; A Tablet should get ioto a passion at tho ; use of these terms by its Protestant j * con temporary we cannot understand, j aor can we comprehend why in its j it should call the adjectives slang- | -and relegate them to lC the fish market." j *They appear to us to be very like other i adjectives employed to designate other ; -churches as respectable, to say the least --of it, as the Church of Rome in the and learning of their ministers, and in the Christian character -and conduct of thoir members. Theae adjectives stand on the same platform and serve a like purpose with the adjectives, for instance, English and Scottish, Episcopalian and Presbyterian, •■when we speak of the English Church or the Scottish Church, and refer to the peculiar government by which those are distinguished. Romish is an adjective derived from Rome, where the seat of tho Tablet's church exists, • and froni which it claims to have sent forth iis various offshoots, and corresponds as an adjective of place with English and Scottish. Popish is an adjective derived from Pope, the English mode of expressing the title of the -chief authority in the Cuurch of Rome, and is to all intents and purposes the .- S3me as Papal, so often used in even 'the 'Pope's authoritative utterances, 'being -an adjective from the Italian ■ mode of designating the chief authority yin the Church of Rome. As an adjective Papal or Popish — the latter being the English, the former being a mongrel of "English and Italian or Latin— just expresses in reference to that church as governed by the Pope what Episcopalian expresses in reference to the Church •of England as governed by Diahops, or the Presbyterian (iv reference to the Church of Scotland) as governed by Presbyters or Elders. If Romish and Popish are slang, so also must English and Episcopalian be, or Scottish and Presbyterian. This, we think, will be • rather a novel idea to our readers. The why the Tablet floes not like these terms iv in reailty, not that they are slang, but that they do not admit the claim whioh it asserts for the church it represents in the titles by which it would have that church, its doctrines and doings, spoken of — viz , the Catholic Church — with its doctrines and doiDgs as Catholic. By the bye, we notice that even the Tablet falls away from the use of this term, and not uafrequently speaks of its church as Roman Catholic, which presents a contra- - diction of what the Church of Rome asserts itself as being when it styles itself the Catholic Church. The name is itself a mistake, as combining a universal and a particular, the latter miserrably limiting the iormer, &nd denying to it its proper and full significance. But for the Tablet using it' we should have been inclined to give it a place in the slang category, and if it pleases the Tablet we shall have no objection to its use, giving of course our own signification to it. As to the term Catholic, the Tablet, and indeed all connected with the Church of Rome, may apply >it to themselves if they please, just as J. G. S. Grant is wont to describe himself as the first Rector of the Dunedin High School, which he never at any time was- or, as the Tablet and the members of the Church of Rome style their Bishops, Lords, and address them i&s My Lord. Though they do tniA-, it does not follow that others' should give •to them such a title, that Dr. Shand or Mr M'Ara coming into contact with Dr. Moran should address him as My .Lord, or your Lordship. As it is by no means incumbent that those outside the Pope's Church should allow such a title, so neither is it incumbent that the bumptious and false designation which • in their pride the votaries of the Church of Rome assume in styling the papal Church, the Catholic Church should be allowed by those who have no connection witb it. If it pleases them to the title Catholic, under the delusion that the Church of Rome is the only Church of Christ, and its members the only Christians in the world, they - can do so. But as there happens to be many who are not of the communion of -the Church of Rome who reckon themselves to be members of the Church -Catholic, of the number ot those who believe in Christ as the only and all--sufficient Saviour of men, which, by the by, is not the doctrine of the Church ol Rome, there is ample room for disputing this claim of the Church of Home, i They would but stultify themselves I were they to allow in any decree i •this claim of the Chui*ch of Rome ! •by employing this title as designating 'her. To do so were to unchurch theravselves, to declare that they were not. -members of Christ's body which is his Church, and this the editors of the Christian Record are not such fools as to do, and therefore when spoken of by - others than they of her communion, the Tablet must just make up its mind j /to the fact that by those it shall be c-spoken of as other churches are spoken by terms descriptive of their local Apredorninance or origin, or of their dis-7-tinctive. organisation, or principles. A JSTot now or at any time has the Church A«f Some been the sole representative, the sole repository of Christianity.

From earliest times, side by side with her h:ive- associated the Wnldensian, thf Gieek, the Armenian, the Nestorian, and other churches, purer in doctrine, purer in practice, more in harmony with the Gospel o\ Christ than she has at any time been. " Facts are duels that winna ding," and fhis.ixnn outstanding fact whereby to the Church of Rome comes the denial of the title Catholic, a title that belongs to all, and includes all who are the true followers of the one Mediator between God and man, no matter where they are, or by what name they are called. On the same

principle that we disallow to rhe Church of Rome the assumption of the title Catholic, so do we disallow to the Church of England the designation of The Church, and co its members that of churchmen, so naively assumed by many belonging to that Church.

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Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CL18780830.2.17

Bibliographic details

Clutha Leader, Volume V, Issue 216, 30 August 1878, Page 6

Word Count
1,117

Editorial. Clutha Leader, Volume V, Issue 216, 30 August 1878, Page 6

Editorial. Clutha Leader, Volume V, Issue 216, 30 August 1878, Page 6