A REPLY TO FATHER GARDEN.

Southland Times, Issue 1610, 26 July 1872, Page 2

A REPLY TO FAT HER GARDEN.

" Neither is there salvation in any other :" (than Jesus Christ) " for thera is none other name under Heaven given among men, whereby wa must be saved." —Bible. Sir,—Tn his letter to you of the Ififch inst., your cmvpjponrJing priest professos to infer from the tono of my letter, to vrh'ich his is a reply, that mv intellect is weak, and that therefore I am a fool. lam sorry for Mr Carden, because if he thinks ms a fool, he stultifiaa himself by allowing my letter to elicit from him a* reply which is oviJnntly the result of much labor -md prolonged study —tho only latter he haa published here at all in keeping with the position in society which he occupies ; it is fnll of inconsistency and error, nevertheless it is a comparatively successful attempt to attain that refined stylo of writing which is expected from men in the learned professions. If " Mrs Elliot" read all the trash written by Mr Garden under the heading " rats in the garret," I fear her compliment to the " higher order" would be withdrawn. It is with much ditfidence I write to the public. I confess however that it is encouraging to find oneself indirectly productive of good in this way. Is it nothing to have been instrumental in improving Father Garden's style ? I'm sure that paternal gentleman's friends —even hi 3 enemies— must have felt pained at the exhibition of puerile would-be smartness in which he was wont to indulge. In my former letter I said: " Would Mr Carden kindly explain why every country under Papal sway and' education' was and is reduced fco a state of ignorance, superstition, and povertymoral and physical degradation." Mr O. has had the kindness to comply —to the besifc of hi 9 ability, no doubt —thereby, I presume, earning my gratitude, and perhaps thafc of the public. His explanation however is not satisfactory. Thia I will endeavor to show, and in doin? so, let ifc be understood that I entertain no ill-feeling whatever towards the Roman Catholic people, but rather pity them as the dupes of a system (the Papacy), in treating of which it were worse than useless to mince matters. Ist then as to ignorance. Thia imputation is not refuted directly, but Mr Carden essays to refute it indirectly by pointing to Rome as having proportionately " more schools, and of a superior class, than in any other part of the Universe ;" " at least up to the time Victor Emanuel went there." Well, sir, when the Italian? and liberty entered Rome, and the Italian Professors examined the youth of thafc ancient city for classification under the government educational system, they found them in a deplorable state of ignorance. So that the numerous schools in question must have existed for some other purpose than that of imparting knowledge. But ifc is a notorious fact that where Popery (" the church") is rampant, so are ignorance and superstition. 2nd. Superstition. —He omits reference to this subject. Allow me to supply the following extracts as specimens of the superstitious teaching of Rome. Tliey are from an edition of Liguori, London, 1852, edited by no less a person than the late Cardinal Wiseman. The preface Bays:— "Remember that it" (.the work in question) "has been strictly examined by the authority which ia charged by God Himself to instruct you, and that that authority has declared that it containa NOTHING- " (so printed in original) " worthy of censure." The book itself thus approved says-^---"Bernadiae de Busto relates that a bird waa taught to say ' Hail Mary 1' A hawk was on the point of seizing it, when the bird cried out ' Hail Mary!' In an instant the hawk fell dead. God intended to show thereby that even if an irrational creature was preserved by calling on Mary, how muoh more would those who are prompt in railing on her, when assaulted by devils, be delivered ' from them." Again: "In the Franciscan chronicles it is related that brother Leo once saw a red ladder, on fche summit of which waa Jesus Christ, and a white one, on the top of which was hia most Holy Mother; and he saw some who tried to aacen.l the red ladder, and they mounted a few steps and fell —they tried again, and again fell. They were then advised to go and try the white ladder, and by that one they easily ascended ; for our Blessed Lady stretched out her hand and helped them, and so they got safely to Heaven." Mr Carden charges the Reformation wifch blasphemy and the manufacturing of lies. Well, the above are small samples of lies and blasphemy —a true Roman mixture —for which fche church of the Papacy is answerable. Why, sir, read your Bible, an 1 examine the Papacy, and you are driven to conclude that that wretched system ia based upon lies and crowned with blasphemy ! 3rd. Poverty and degradation. —On this head Mr C. commits the mistake (as in charity I will call it, although it looks uncommonly like deliberate misrepresentation) of substituting " church" for " country," and accuses me of bringing a charge of poverty against the " Catholic Church," doubting my sanity in consequence. No wonder! I never thought of doing anything so stupid. If " the church" has the knack of doing one thing better than another, it is that of saying " your money or your life !" in as genteel a way as possible in free and enlightened society, bufc boldly and barefaced enough when you are fairly in her clutches. She has alwuys shown a special aptitude for relieving the laity of a redundancy of worldly property —for enriching herself at their expense, and keeping them in poverty and ignorance for the good of their souls. As to degradation, he resolves this difficulty by announcing that Ireland " though poor i% pure" Alas for poor Ireland ! A perfect jewel of a country blighted ! Take Popery away from her, teach her peasantry to read the Bible, and she would soon rise to be a credit to herself and civilisation. Ireland can boast of one of the finest constabulary forces in the world. I wonder if the superlative purity of its people has anything to do with this ? But for wholesale degradation look to Rome and Spain. Rome lately presented perhaps the most pitiable spectacle witnessed in modern times. The Pope declaring himself infallible (poor old man !) and at the same time trampling ou the civil and religious liberty of his subjects by fche aid of French bayonets! These poor people knew the yoke of Popish supremacy, and hailed with joy the deliverance from it. Spain, with a glorious climate and fertile soil, and once the pride of the West, i 3 a vast ruin. Her mountains are bare, and her plains wildernesses of brown and white earth —her cities filled with beggary and priests. Nofc lon^ since the old town of Burgos contained 30,000 inhabitants huddled, in a state of abject poverty and superstition, around a magnificent cathedral wifch 3000 portly priests attached. Until late years the worship of God, who is a spirit, in spirit and in truth, waa almost unknown in thafc country. The people, in common with those of other Popish countries, worshipped — and do worshipsweating images, expensively dressed dolls, winking Madonnas, old bones, and other spurious miracles and relics. But now the Bible is circulating among fchem (Romans and Spaniards), and the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ is being preached fco fchem in its purity and simplicity. Now they dare to read the Word of God for themselves. How many thousands of human beings —male and female — has " the church" tortured, burned, and otherwise slain for this crime ? Thank God her curses now fall harmless I Now tor logic. Mr C. says my arguments were weak. I did nofc argue. I only quoted proofs from the Bible that the sacrifice of the Mass is directly against tlie teaching of Jesus Christ and His inspired apostles —evidence that the Popish Church is not the one founded by Christ. The Papacy was unknown in the first centuries of tha Christian era. Father Carden admits the " inspiration of the Bible," but asserts thafc it is utterly devoid of internal evidence of its divinity, and that it is divine only by the sanction or evidence of " the church." Query —vVas it written by inspiration of God'a spirit, or of " the church," which did not exist for centuries after it was written ? Mr Garden's logic amounts to this : That the Bible is ih itself worthless ,• that it nevertheless proves the

f existence of the church ; and that " the church" returns the compliment by prorourcing it divine, and then quoting it as an nuthoritv. In other -word?, " the church virtually creates an authority with which to prove its authority to do so— create? an authority to nrove its own eyisteTirr — which is eqnal to the argume nt— " I ssy that I am the church, therefore I can tlie chnrch "—equal to arrogance, or something worse. By Mr C.'s shewing the Bible nnd "the church" shonld be in harmony—"conjonrtlv 'he rule of faith." Unfortunately for Mr Garden's argument they are diametrically opposed to each other. " The church " excommunicated kirg? and absolved their subjects from their oaths of allegiance, making the murder of their rulersa yppritorious" act. She professes to, daily and m different placesat the same time, create and sacrifice Je?"HS Christ in shape of a wafer -, teaches th© worship of images and invocation of saints ; (conveniently suppressing the second commandment, and making dishonest use of Scripture in her catechism) the celibacy of priests, &c., &c— all contrary to the teaching of the Bible (St. Peter was married). Instead of being in harmony, the Bible and " the church " contradict and condemn each other. Let Mr C. choose hetween them. His assertion that that divine record is devoid of internal evidence of its inspiration is a sad proof of his own spiritual darkness.^ The Spanish priesthood, s few years ago, petitioned Isabella's government to use " the utmost rigor of the law" in suppressing the circulation of " the Bible and other pernicious books." " The chnrch" in Spain regards the Bible as a " pernicious book." Tn Dunedin Moran says " the Roman Catholic church has condemned the Bible ;" " the church" in InveTcaTgill calls it " a dead letter," and " the apple of her eye." A book (inspired snys " the chnrch") in tbe Douay version of the Bible, ends ■with the announcement, "If I have done well, and as it hecometh history, it is what I desired : but if not co perfectly, it must be pardoned me?' — a screw loose somewhere evidently. No man ever read the Bible carefully and honestly -without finding the way of nalvation for his soul. ■Whoever reads it with the honest desire to know the truth, will receive the promised aid of God's spirit to find the truth. The true Catholic church of Christ is composed of all Bible Christians —all who trust in Jesus Christ, and in Him alone for solvation. Jesus says: "I am the good •hepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine" (John x. 14). " Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." — BrBlE. The population of the world is estimated at 3,288,000,000, from which deduct Jews, Mohammedans, and heathens, estimated at 9S3.CCO OOO.leaving for Christendom 335,000,000. Prom the latter deduct 165,000,000, Greek and Protestant -churches, and you have for Rome, l"70,000,0GO. Deduct from this Roman total those who are quite innocent of political knowledge, and you have a small remainder capable of comprehending, aay.the education question. " The church," however, -says in effect to this remainder, " think, as I think or be damned !" It (the remainder) must therefore be further reduced by the number of those who brave the Papal thunders, and speak tbeir own sentiments. The result is a small remnant of true Papists who do not think, hut allow "the church"" to do so for them. When, therefore, in his letteron education, which originated this correspondence, Mr Carden eaid that '* 300,000.000 Catholics are ignorant of tins axiom," he said what is not true. His huge error in figures is not the worst part of this misrepresentation ; it is that he intended by this bold though indirect assertion to impress the reader's mind with the idea that every man and woman in the world who could have " Catholic" placed to their nameß in the census, intelligently disapproved of un sectarian education. If Father Carden is the adherent of a system which permits as rigbt, tiie employment of untruth in the ftitherance of its designs, that is perhaps his misfortune more than his fault. But he ought to bave a little more respect for the intelligence of this community than to present it with alternate doses of flimsy wit and flimsier sophistry. — I am, tc, A Catholic, bitt hot a Papist.