INFALLIBILITY.

Thames Guardian and Mining Record, Volume I, Issue 12, 20 October 1871, Page 3

INFALLIBILITY.

Any creed, philosophy, sect, or religion that fears investigation, openly manifests its own e..or.—Davis. To the Editor of the THAMES GUARDIAN. Sir, —If the publication of sermons are of sufficient importance as to take a place in your columns, the subject discussed is equally open to public criticism, and in justice demands an equal right of hearing. The solemn problem of human life and destiny absorb the attention of the emancipated religious thinkers more than the puzzling questions of infallibility, grace, election, Die reprobation of tlie damned, and all other creeds, faiths, and dogma 3 of an old and worn out theology. These ecclesiastic theories are the remnants of a dailc and superstitious age, and only now live where priestcraft and ignorance have succeeded in keeping back the truth and shutting out the light of science, reason, and common sense.

In this age of human progress, when nature and the wonderful phenomena of her immutable though harmonious laws are belter understood ; when science, philosophy, and art arc making such advances in the redemption of the masses from the soul-cramping doctrines of religious teachers, is it possible to believe that five hundred or more persons could bo assembled in this community to listen, or subscribe to, the doctrine of infallibility as enunciated by Bishop Croke in Willoughby-street Church last Sunday evening ; yet such is the fact, and those who did not have the pleasure of listening to bis earnest and eloquent address might discuss it with their toast (if their digestive powers were sufficiently strong) in the pages of your next morning’s issue. I presume his Lordship succeeded in elucidating this crooked question to the entire satisfaction of the greater part of his audience, but I must confess that perhaps from the obtuseness of my intellectual perceptions, or the dullness of my comprehension, the evidences in support of his proposition did not to my weak understanding appear quite as plain as a “pike-staff. Nor can Iso readily understand or admit the “ logical truth of the proposition” as did the great American whose enlightened views on the subject so eminently fitted him for the presidential chair.

I can see but little difference in the great questions Unit so divide the Protestant and Catholic Churches of the present day. There can be no very great point of dispute or difference between the infallibility of a book or that of a person ; the reason and enlightener judgment involuntarily rejects both as monstrous and unnatural. But some parts of the socallcd divine reco-ds are fallible tn their teachings of faith and morals few divines of the -purest orthodox stamp will for a moment attempt to deny. Else, why arc the revisions of the Scriptures so earnestly advocated by so many distinguished members of the Protestant Churches. But I will not further discuss a subject of so Kttie importance vo the culture, happiness, and moral cleval ion of the people. They are questions of little or no moment to this or future generations, and should unhesitatingly be thrown on a rubbish heap with the other musty and worn out creeds and dying dogmas of an ancient and timeserving theology. The spectacle of seven hundred and fifty bishops, as we are told, at the great (Ecumenical Council at Rome, was undoubtedly a grand and imposing show. So too, was that vast assemblage at the great exhibition of ’SB, the more noble object of which was not the discussion of some unimportant ecclesiastic question or dogira, but the advancement of science, art, and literature. To show the wonderful pro gress that man has made in the useful arts, and to stimulate him to greater exertions in utilising natures, bounteous gifts, for the progress, development, and happiness of the race, and for a better and fuller history of the first great (EcumeniCouncil, to which his Lordship referred, 1 would mention “ Moshuin’s Ecc. Hist.” and that of Joriin, who says, “That to settle a quarrel between Alexander, Bishop of Alexandra, aud Arius, a presbyter in his diocese, the Nicine Council was summoned, consisting of about three hundred and eighteen bishops, a mystical number. The first thing they did was to quarrel among themselves, and express their resentments, and to present accusations to the Emperor against one another. “ The bishops accused one another, and the Emperor burnt all their libels and extorted them to peace and unity, so that if they had not been restrained by his authority, and by fear and respect, they would probably have spent their time in altercation.” —I am, &e., S.R.C.