SANCTITY OF THE CHURCH.

New Zealand Tablet, 13 January 1921, Page 28

SANCTITY OF THE CHURCH.

Prof. A. M. Fairbairn is considered one of the great lights of modern Protestantism. His volume on Prophecies is found in nearly, every intelligent Protestant preacher's library, and is looked upon as a standard work on that subject. Lately he has issued a volume in which he gives utterance to many fine things concerning the Catholic .Church. . Not the least interesting are those relating to its Sanctity.

I freely admit the pre-eminence of Catholicism as an historical institution; here she is without a rival, or a peer. If to be at once the most permanent and extensive, the most plastic and inflexible ecclesiastical organisation were the same thing as the most perfect embodiment and vehicle of religion, then the "claim of Catholicism were simply indisputable. The man in search of an authoritative Church may not hesitate; once let him assume that a visible and audible authority is of the essence of religion, and he has no choice; he must become or get himself reckoned a Catholic.

The Church of Rome assails his understanding with invincible charms. Her sons proudly say to c him: "She alone is Catholic, continuous, venerable, august, the very. Church Christ founded and His Apostles instituted .and organised. She possesses all the attributes and notes of Catholicityan unbroken apostolic succession, an infallible chair, unity, sanctity, truth, an inviolable priesthood, a holy sacrifice, and efficacious sacraments \"

_ The Protestant Churches are of but yesterday, without authority, the truth of the ministries' that can reconcile man to God; they are only a multitude of warring sects whose confused voices 'but protest their own insufficiency, whose impotence almost atones for their own sin of schism by the way it sets off the might, the majesty, and the unity of Rome. In contrast the Catholic Church stands where her Master placed her on the rock, endowed with the prerogatives and powers He gave her, and "against her the gates of hell shall not prevail."

Supernatural grace is hers ; it watched over her cradle, lias followed her in all her ways through all the centuries, and has not forsaken her yet. She is not, like Protestantism, a concession to the negative spirit' an unholy compromise with naturalism. Everything about her is positive and transcendant; she is the bearer of Divine truth, the representative of Divine order, the supernatural living in the very heart, and before the very face of the natural. The saints, too, are hers, and the man she receives joins their communion, enjoys their goodly fellowship, feels their influence, participates in their merit and the blessings they distribute. _ Their earthly life made the past of the Church illustrious, their heavenly activity binds the visible and invisible into unity, and lifts time into eternity. To honor the saints is to honor sanctity the Church which teaches man to love the holy, helps him to love holiness. And the Fathers are hers; their laborings, sufferings, martyrdoms, were for her sake; she treasures their words and their works; her sons alone are able to say: “Athanasius and Chrysostom, Thomas Aquinas and Duns Scotus, Cyprian and Augustine, Anselm and Bernard are ours; their wealth is our inheritance, at their feet we learn filial reverence and Divine wisdom.' : ■ ; . '• V-. But rich as she is in persons, she is richer in truth ; her worship is a great deep, y Hidden sanctities and meanings surround man; the sacramental principle invests the simplest things, acts, and rites with an awful yet blissful significance; turns all worship into a Divine parable, which speaks the deep things of God now into a medium of His gracious and consolatory approach to man, and man’s awed and contrite hopeful and prevailing approach to Him. Symbols are deeper than words; speak when (words become silent; gain where words lose in meaning; and so: in-hours* of holiest worship .the Church teaches by symbols truths language may not Utter; " '' «•*.• w; vlf IDTy