PRAYERS FOR THE BEAD

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 281, 24 May 1912, Page 6

PRAYERS FOR THE BEAD

• AN INTERESTING DISCUSSION. Auckjand, May 21. The question of the propriety of offering prayers for the dead is at present dividing -with the Waihi strike a most important share of public attention. Bishop Grossley has lately preached two sermons in support of the doctrine that the departed may be benefited by the prayers of the living, but his arguments have been vigorously assailed from the pulpits of several other churches. The Rev. Howard Elliott, of the Mt. Eden Baptist Church, in preaching on the subject, said that the practice was influenced by the early belief in the state of the departed. Society in the days of the early Church held a variety of opinions on the subject, the general view of converts being that only saints and martyrs went to heaven at death, ana that others were in a conscious state of happiness or unhappiness in Had s. Hence grew the idea that prayers might benefit the dead. The custom was essentially a heathen one, grafted on to Christianity. He contended it was thoroughly un-Scriptural, and quoted the essays of Cardinal Wiseman to show that in the Roman Church it was essentially based on the belief in the doctrine of purgatory, and bound up with the idea of prayers to saints and Masses offered for the dead. Scripture indicated that the dead were in a state of unconsciousness, and that they were finally rewarded according to deeds done in the body. Hence it was repudiated by all who held that the Word of God was the supreme and final authority in matters of faith as being anti-Scriptural, anti-Christian, and useless. The Rev. Father Docherty, in expressing the view of Roman Catholics, remarked that the teaching of his Church was clear on the point, for it said: 'There are two occasions on which each and every man must appear before God and render an account of every thought, action and word, and undergoing finally the immediate sentence of the Judge. Of these occasions the first happens when a man departs this life. Straightway he is set before the judgment seat of God, and there a most' just enquiry is made into all that be has ever done, said or thought, this being called the particular judgment."