Guide to true religion

Contents

Page.

Introduction, 1

The Mosaic Law, 4

Chapter I. — Religious State of the Peoples of the Earth

at the Time of Christ’s Birth, . . 8

II. — The Birth of Christ, His Teaching and

Establishment of His Church, . . 14

III. — Dissemination of Christian Doctrine, . 30

IV. — Reception of Christianity by the Nations

of the Earth, 40

V. — Triumph of Christianity over Paganism, 53

VI. — Heresy, 65

VII. — Government Consolidation of the Church, 79

VIII. — The Church fulfilling her Mission, . . 94

IX. — Greek Schism, 107

X. — Mohammedanism, 120

XI. — The Church a Pacificator, . . .138

XII. — The Church an Educator, . . . .148

XIII. — Religious Agitation. — Things leading to

the Great Secession of the Sixteenth Century, 160

XIV. — Martin Luther, 171

XV. — Luther. — Continued, 187

XVI. — Calvinism, or Presbyterianism, . . . 206

XVII. — The Anglican Church. — Episcopalianism, 222

XVIII. — The True Christian Church, . . . 240

XIX. — Observations, 256

XX. — Enlargement of Christ’s Fold, . . .273

XXI. — Return to the Fold, 287

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Preface

The lamentable acceptance of different beliefs by the many denominations professing Christianity has prompted the writing of this little book. The author has endeavored to show that as Christ is truth He cannot be the author of two or more faiths differing from each other. Whilst it is hoped it will be of interest to all, it is intended especially for those who, sincere in the desire to serve God and solicitous about their eternal salvation, may reasonably be in doubt, viewing the many creeds existing, as to which they should profess that they may find peace for their souls and the assurance of eternal happiness.

The author did not deem it essential to his purpose in the chapter on the Greek Church to treat separately of the distinct bodies of non-Catholic Christians observing the Greek rite, but for brevity’s sake includes them all under the denomination of the Greek Church.

Rich woods, Mo.,

February, 1898 .

Introduction

THE most momentous of all subjects to man is -*■ that concerning his eternal salvation. No other, however great, has an equal claim to the occupation of his mind. Man being a dependent being, the practice of religion under an acceptable form, or the true worship of God, is the means by which he can acquire eternal happiness. The form, however, of this worship has not been the same in all ages of the world. In the primitive ages and even to the event of the reception of the Old Law by the Israelites in the desert, no prescribed form of worship seems to have existed. Yet that men acquitted themselves of this duty we have abundant evidence in the Sacred Scriptures; for Cain and Abel, children of the father of the human race, offered sacrifice to the Almighty. The presumption is, that they performed this species of worship in obedience to a verbal communication from the Supreme Being or intuitively. But where the worship of sacrifice prevailed, it is reasonable to believe that prayer was not wanting, but that it ascended as an internal with the external offering.

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The main part, therefore, of the worship of God, if not the whole, may be regarded as comprised in these two acts, prayer and sacrifice, with the hope of a Redeemer.

This acceptable worship was practised in the circle of the series of patriarchal families up to the time of Moses. But these were a small portion of the human race. The greater portion, descendants also of the patriarchal stock, sought new homes in distant lands from that of their birth. They also possessed some knowledge of the manner in which to worship the true God and the traditionary faith. But having removed from the guidance and salutary restraint of God-fearing superiors, they soon fell into error, and instead of one true God they admitted a plurality of gods as fitting objects of their worship. Some there were who in the general corruption preserved obscure ideas of the Supreme Being and, following the dictates of reason, led good moral lives. In the absence of a written law regarding faith and divine worship, it may be presumed that such will not be excluded from the kingdom of heaven.

Where there is no prescribed law the liberty of the subject is less restricted than where law defines his obligations and exacts their fulfilment. Hence those living in the ages preceding the promulgation of the Old Law, enjoyed a much greater latitude for their religious ideas and opinions and, if we except the Jewish people, this freedom continued

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in the other nations till the promulgation of the New Law. Therefore, in judging them they should not be subjected to the same rigorous code as those living under the Mosaic Law or that given by Christ.

In the Divine plan for man’s regeneration a people was selected by the Supreme Being from whom the Saviour should arise. The fidelity of Abraham and his correspondence with divine grace gained for him, besides many blessings, the great honor and distinction of being the father of this people from whom the Redeemer should come.

THE MOSAIC LAW.

rpHE Israelites experienced many proofs of the providence and protection over them of the Supreme Being. Their miraculous deliverance from the Egyptian bondage; the pillar of fire and the cloud sent to direct their course in the wilderness ; the supernatural way in which food for their subsistence in the tedious journey to the promised land was supplied to them, manifest the divine care and protection for the descendants of Abraham. Their repinings and yearnings for the fleshpots of their bondage, ill repaid such beneficence and heavenly favors. They were a gross, earthly-minded people, so that one might naturally ask what excellence of character rendered them objects of special care to the Divinity in preference to other nations. From their long sojourn in Egypt and their associating with the natives, they became so contaminated in their religious principles, and their conception of the true God became so obscure and erroneous, that in the glorious event of the reception of the Old Law by Moses on Mount Sinai in the awful splendor of flashing lightning and peals of thunder, at the 4

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very time in which they received a manifestation of Divine favor, they fell into idolatry.

The promulgation of the Old or Mosaic Law marks the first great epoch in the religious history of mankind. From the creation to the reception of the Law on Mount Sinai, a latitude necessarily existed in the sphere of man’s conception of the Divinity, in the nature and extent of his belief.

One great principle distinguished the belief of the patriarchs and their descendants forming a people or race in the patriarchal line from the creeds of the other nations of the earth, the belief in one Supreme Being to whom all creatures are subject and from whom all blessings flow. Hence the perpetuated practice of sacrifice among this people as an acknowledgment of His universal supremacy; of their entire dependance on Him ; to propitiate Him also and to implore His blessing. If we add to this actual part of worship the belief in a future Redeemer, we have the essentials of the religion of the pre-Mosaic true believer.

The Jews, with all their faults and refractory propensities, manifested the greatest reverence, mingled with holy awe, towards all pertaining to their religion. The terrible, miraculous punishment of Abiron, Dathan and Core, must have impressed them with a salutary fear of assuming to themselves the exercise of religious duties to which they had not been divinely called. It also exalted the state of priesthood in their estimation, and distinguished

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the priests from the multitude as the only ministers acceptable to God for performing the ceremonial duties of religion.

The Jews, as a nation, do not appear to have excelled other peoples in morality, intellectual possessions or general accomplishments, but the patriarchs or their most distinguished ancestors proved themselves faithful observers of the traditions of their fathers living from the time of Adam to the issuing of the Mosaic Law. On account of the fidelity of their God-fearing men and because of God’s promises to some of them, the Jews became the most divinely favored nation of the earth. How they appreciated this honor the books of the Old Testament testify.

In the Divine ordination it appeared just that the Saviour of men should have an honorable pedigree, and that prophecy should indicate events as signs given in connection with the universally expected birth of man’s Redeemer. Hence the genealogy of our Saviour begins with Abraham, a most honorable personage, not only by his excelling moral qualities and faithful worship of the true God, but also by his singular position as a man of great wealth and no despicable foe when determined to act in a just cause. The sacred lineage runs through the series of patriarchs, till it includes in its course the illustrious King David and continues to the last of his descendants on the Jewish throne. Prophecy of the signs and events preceding and relating to

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the birth of the Saviour of men being fulfilled, He was born at the time indicated by the prophecy of Daniel in the city of Bethlehem near Jerusalem.

The Jews, especially the teachers and expounders of the Old Law, must have known accurately the time predicted for the birth of the Redeemer. They made the understanding of the Law their study ; so that the signs of the times received careful attention, and no event in fulfilment or confirmatory of prophecy passed unnoticed. In verification of which, many of the Jews about the time of Christ’s birth were looking for His coming and cherished the hope that they would be favored with seeing their Saviour before their eyes closed in death : notably the prophetess Anna and holy Simeon, who besought the Lord to dismiss His servant when lie had beheld and received in his arms the infant Jesus in the Temple.

The expiration of the time to elapse according to the prophecy of Daniel before the Redeemer’s coming and the transference of the sceptre from the royal line of David to a foreigner, as predicted, must have raised expectancy of the long-foretold, long-desired event not only among the doctors of the Law, but also throughout the entire Jewish nation. These were the immediate signs and indications according to prophecy announcing the birth of Christ, which took place in the stable at Bethlehem.

CHRISTIANITY.

CHAPTER I.

Religious State of the Peoples of the Earth at the Time of Christ’s Birth.

/1REAT changes had taken place in the lives ^ of individuals and communities since the time that Adam, sorrowfully relinquishing his happy abode of innocence, settled outside of Eden and there, first of the human race, discharged the duties of the head of the family. These changes appeared in their religious observances as in other things. As Adam was endowed with intuitive knowledge of a high degree, there can be no doubt that he knew it to be his duty to worship in an appropriate manner his bountiful Creator, even in his altered, less favorable relation, as a sinner, to the author of his being. Though the forms and sum of his religions performances cannot be incontrovertibly stated, yet from his great intuitive knowledge it may be reasonably assumed that he practised prayer and the 8

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offering of sacrifice. That he practised the latter act of worship may be inferred from the fact that his sons, Cain and Abel, offered sacrifice to the Almighty.

As the descendants of Adam increased in numbers, it became necessary to extend by degrees from the ancestral or paternal grounds to distant lands where rich and abundant pasture offered them inviting fields for new abodes. As distance increased between them and the paternal roof, so also the ideal purity of worship receded from their minds. This deterioration may be easily accounted for. For their guidance in the matter of religious worship they depended entirely on tradition. But tradition, unless aided by something less mutable, such as a written law, is liable to such changes as to lead to mystification from the innate tendency some people have to alter by amplification or diminution whatever they have heard. Thus the Adamite tradition in the lapse of time may have been lost to his more distant and morally lax descendants through the process of metamorphosing original tradition. In the ante-diluvian period, therefore, the knowledge of the true God became almost universally obscure and His worship ceased, except with a few members of the human race. As a result man became depraved and debased ; for all flesh had corrupted its way, as sacred scripture informs us, to such an extent that God, to put an end to multiplying iniquity, caused the waters of the Deluge to destroy

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the human race, with the exception of the eight persons preserved in Noah’s Ark.

In the post-diluvian period the true worship was practised by Noah and his immediate descendants, at least for some time, but soon the evil tendency of human nature manifested itself, and the seeds of sin progressively yielded their abundant harvest of crimes and abominations. Even under the patriarchal eye all his descendants were not free from its stain, he having uttered a curse in reproof and punishment of it upon the offspring of one of his sons.

Salutary fear of God did not long restrain the wicked propensities of man, even with the remembrance of the awful punishment of sin by the universal deluge fresh in their minds.

In spreading from Noah’s home the members of the human race also departed in the course of time from the true worship of God, as a sequence to at first the impairing of the knowledge of God by the admission of gross ideas relative to the Deity. By the commission of some sins the mind becomes darkened, so that the mental view being obscured it is unable to retain the perception of what pertains to man’s higher or spiritual sphere. He descended to a form of belief embodying the materially sensible as he fell into depravity, and attaching himself inordinately to the material world in which he lived, devoted himself to unreasonable, unrestrained gratification of the senses. When communities were formed and towns and cities built, the degree of

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moral corruption and the nature of false belief differed considerably. Some fell so low in human debasement, apparently knowing no limit to their wickedness, such as Sodom and Gomorrha, that they were intolerable to the sight of God, drawing upon themselves extermination by fire.

In all communities and nations there existed some form of religious worship, ascending from the adoration of inferior animals of the earth to the worship of the planets that move in the universe ; for it is natural to man, knowing his own dependence, to acknowledge a supreme being, true or false, to whom he attributes a connection with his happiness or misery. The most horrible and revolting of religious worship was that in which human victims were immolated to the false deity. Among the more enlightened nations flourishing near the Christian era, viz., the Greek and the Roman, a more intellectual religion found acceptance. These, with Jupiter and Zeus at the head of the array of their respective gods, approached nearer than others to the belief in the true and only God.

The Jews alone of all the nations of the earth possessed a knowledge and practised the worship of the true God ; yet, it may be said that even they had but a very imperfect conception of His nature and attributes. The Jews, however, had preserved more carefully, adhered more reverently to the traditions of their patriarchal ancestors in pre-Mosaic times. This traditional observance, however, can

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only be asserted of them in a free state and when few in number. In their Egyptian captivity they scarcely escaped contamination in their religious principles from their constant intercourse with their masters, practising a different belief of a lower, sensible and antagonistic nature. Of this abundant evidence is afforded in the narrative of their deliverance from their bondage and of their long journey to the Promised Land. They had palpable proof of the omnipotence of their God, convincing evidence as well as assurance of the Divine care and protection ; yet, they manifested their unworthiness of the heavenly favors bestowed upon them by their murmurs in the desert against their leaders appointed by God to liberate them from the oppressive yoke in the land of Egypt. Most of all, they showed their unspiritual tendency in sighing for the flesh pots of Egypt even in bondage, rather than be free and fed by the bountiful hand of God.

Up to the promulgation of the Old Law given to them on Mount Sinai, the Jews, like other nations, were bound only by the natural law and tradition. For them the Mosaic Law introduced a new condition, a strict performance of duties moral and religious. The sphere of responsibility was enlarged, but they had also the assurance of the Divine aid ; temporal blessings with the promise of happiness in eternity.

The other nations still continued to be governed by the natural law innate to man and by tradition.

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How far the latter influenced their lives it would be difficult to state with certainty. That they possessed some traditional heritages may be generally admitted, and amongst these that of the advent of a great benefactor to the human race, a savior, at a specified time. Reference to this great event may be found in the works of distinguished writers of different nations. Socrates among the Greeks, Tacitus among the Romans, Zoroaster among the Persians, speak of it in no obscure terms. The tradition cannot be asserted peculiar to any nation; it may be said to be almost common to all, some having a fuller, more definite knowledge than others of the advent of the Redeemer.

Such was the religious state of the nations of the earth at the time of the birth of Christ.

Chapter II

The Birth of Christ, His Teaching and Establishment of His Church.

rnHE most important event to man after his expulsion from Paradise is the birth of Christ. When Adam heard the words of expulsion from Eden, together with the sentence consigning him to a cheerless and laborious life, he was comforted no doubt by the promise that the woman’s seed should triumph over the serpent, the devil, who had caused them to lose their happy abode in the garden of pleasure and under whose power they had to some extent fallen. This is the first, yet indefinite, allusion made to the great spiritual conqueror Jesus Christ, issuing not from the dual cause of generation but from the woman. He was frequently spoken of in subsequent prophecies, and the time of his advent accurately stated by the prophet Daniel. The universal event, so long promised and so often the theme of prophesy, took place in a stable at Bethlehem in the reign of Csesar Augustus, heir and successor to the great Julius, assassinated in the Roman Senate, when the Saviour of men was born of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

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No welcome, no national rejoicing greeted the noblest of infants, the mightiest of babes. No general announcement to the Jewish nation at the time signalized the arrival amongst them of the King of Kings who should reign in the house of Jacob forever. But a celestial host, with angelic melody, supplied the want of human natal celebrations, illuminating the wonderful scene and joyfully announcing to the shepherds of the vicinity the birth of the Saviour. Indeed, it may be reasonably doubted that the Jews, judging from their subsequent treatment of Christ, would acclaim Him as the long-promised Messias of prophecy, especially when the humble circumstances of His birth are considered. There was nothing in the prophecies regarding Him to cause them to exclude from their notions of the Son of David, that He would lead them to that state of power and prosperity by glorious triumphs enjoyed by their ancestors under the Royal Prophet. The designs of Heaven were otherwise. Not only to the Jews did He come, but to all nations. The Jews did not comprehend the extent of the mission of Christ, and hence their attitude toward Him.

The first manifestation of Our Saviour’s superhuman intelligence occurred on the occasion of His visit to the Temple at the age of twelve years, when He astonished the doctors of the law by the extraordinary knowledge He displayed in disputing with them and asking them questions. This was but an

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incident in His private life, yet one sufficient to cause well-disposed persons to see in Him something more than human.

At the age of thirty years Christ began the work of His mission. The principal works of His public career comprised teaching or preaching, prayer, and the performance of miracles. These wonderful works, His miracles, should have brought conviction to any unprejudiced mind of His divine nature. They failed, however, to make any favorable impression on the majority of the Jews, especially those of their priesthood whose hearts seem to have been perverted. His rebukes administered against their sinful character were a cause of humiliation and cut them to the core. They were the expounders of the law, the teachers of others, being a privileged class, also, they were held in high estimation by the people. For another, not recognized as of their own order, to assume the position of their teacher and reformer, was a thing intolerable to them. They retaliated by endeavoring to compass His ruin. They could not assail Him in His character, for the Son of God was beyond reproach. Their enmity and hatred toward Him impelled them to have recourse to wicked means. Under the appearance of seeking instruction, they asked questions with the object of finding something in His answers or teaching contrary to their law, and thus have cause for His arraignment. But all their wiles proved ineffectual. In their blind perversity they could

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see only man in the object of their hatred. The evidence of His Divinity brought belief in His mission to others ; but to the ruling class of the Jews, from the High Priest to the scribe, it brought but envy and defamation of His character, for in their wicked hostility to Him they attributed His miracles done for the benefit of humanity to an evil source, even to the Satan the enemy of mankind. Failing to ensnare Our Lord in His speech, the Jews resolved upon a more violent course of action towards Him and waited the opportunity of conveniently apprehending Him, yet so as not to arouse the hostility of the people, for these held Him in the highest estimation for His faultless character, His pure elevating doctrine and the wonders He performed amongst them. Many of them also believed in Him as the true Messiah.

Shortly after entering on His public career Christ began the formation of His Church.. He designed it to be composed of two portions : the one, the teaching and ruling, on whom He conferred the powers which He exercised Himself for the salvation of souls ; the other, the more numerous, to be subject to the former in what pertained to spiritual matters necessary unto salvation. He chose twelve men, called Apostles, as the nucleus of the teaching and ruling power. To these were added the priests of the same order, but of less authority, whose Divine appointment is acknowledged in the fact that Christ commissioned seventy-two of His disciples to pre- 2 cede Him as a means of preparation in the places which he was going to visit to preach to the people His Gospel, and to inculcate the necessary means for entering the Kingdom of Heaven. The divinely appointed element of the priesthood is also implied in the words of St. James the Apostle, as follows : “ Is any man sick among you ? Let him bring in the priests of the Church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord, and the prayer of faith shall save the sick man and the Lord shall raise him up : and if he be in sins they shall be forgiven him.” Cath. Ep. y ch. 5, v. 14.

These were the two immediately divinely appointed elements of the ruling power in the Church of Christ.

As Christ’s Church has been aptly denominated a flock, even by Himself, these two elements, the Apostles with the bishops their successors, and the priests, are appropriately termed pastors thereof. The Saviour of men constituted His Church a visible society ; as reasons demands, experience teaches and history proves, it requires a visible head or supreme ruler. As Christ was the most perfect of all organizers, it cannot be reasonably supposed that He would omit so essential a requisite for the government of the greatest, most durable, society the world has ever seen. To this post of honor and responsibility He appointed St. Peter as His first vicegerent on earth. But as this ever-increasing society, the Church of

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Christ, should continue to exist in all subsequent ages after the death of St. Peter, it requires no argument to show that a succession of supreme rulers must govern it till the end of the world. Hence the series of supreme pontiffs, the consecutive successors to St. Peter in the Episcopal Apostolic See of Rome. The words of Christ addressed to St. Peter : “ I will give to thee the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth it shall be bound also in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose upon earth it shall be loosed also in heaven ” {Matt., ch. xvi, v. 18-19) and “Feed my lambs, feed my sheep ” {Jn., ch. xxi v. 15, etc.) are to be applied to each of St. Peter’s successors, who have been raised to the same dignity of chief ruler of Christ’s Church and invested with the same authority, for the same conditions existed after the death of St. Peter that did in the Apostolic Age for the government of the Christian Church.

The training of the Apostles for the propagation of His doctrine was the work of the Divine Master. They were mostly illiterate men, as the narrative of their lives reveals, yet they were intended to discourse on the most profound subjects that the mind can think on, and before all classes of society, the noble and the cultured, as well as the humble aud untaught. For this purpose He gave them no written treatise, appointed no task for study, but He taught them orally, impressed upon their minds the principles of the religion they were

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soon to introduce into the nations of the earth. As Christ differed in this mode of establishing His religion from other founders, so this feature in the formation of the Church deserves more than passing notice from the student of Christianity, for the neglect of it may lead to grave errors, especially in those who hold tenaciously to their own opinion on scriptural matters.

The Apostles attended Our Lord in His labors of preaching to the people and in healing the sick. They had, therefore, the best model that could be desired for learning how they should conduct themselves in their subsequent career of preachers of the Gospel, and of performing the other important duties of their vocation. In this preparation they were reminded by the impressive example of their Master not to neglect their own salvation. He retired frequently after His labors and spent a considerable portion of time in communing with His heavenly Father by holy prayer. It cannot be doubted that this was principally for example to others, especially for those whom He had called, and those whom in future time He would call, to the discharge of the sacerdotal functions which He Himself performed. The inspired writers of the New Testament also inform us that He retired at times with His disciples. On these occasions, as may be understood, He withdrew them from the multitude to accustom them to attend to their own sanctification whilst laboring for the salvation of others ; to infuse into them His own spirit ; for each of them should subsequently reproduce in their respective fields of labor His missionary career, confirming their divine mission by miracles not less wonderful and convincing than those they beheld performed by their Master. Of the love and practice of prayer He gave them His own impressive example, retiring apart and alone, devoting a considerable portion of time both during the day and night to spiritual communing with His heavenly Father. The mortification of the flesh He inculcated more forcibly by practice than by exhortation, by rigorous fasting. In brief, He gave an example for the love and practice of the Christian virtues which they beheld in His own life a living model. Against pride and self-esteem, on account of any great work they might perform among the people to whom they were sent as preachers of the Gospel, He warned them when He told them not to rejoice because they had power over evil spirits and that the latter were subject to them, but rather that their names were written in the Book of Life.

That the Apostles had a salutary solicitude for their own salvation is evident from the words St. Paul, who, notwithstanding the proofs of his acceptability to His divine Master, yet declares that he chastised his body and brought it into subjection lest having preached to others to urge them to the securing of their salvation, he himself should become a castaway.