this manner, become powerful auxiliaries to the Church of Christ. The officers of our grand organization must awake to the importance and magnitude of the purposes of this mighty work. The keynote with them must be sacrificing devotion, implying a laying aside of self for the benefit of the cause. It means, further, that every officer must be an example, a teacher and a leader, among the youth-not in appearance, not in seeming, but in reality-all of which means earnest, prayerful work, sacrifice of self, and diligent application to duty. With all our growth, and viewing it comparatively, it has been rapid and great, we have scarcely begun to glean upon the edges of the mighty field of accomplishment ripe before us.

(To be concluded in the ERA for December).

RELIGIOUS FAITHS.

I.

THE DOCTRINE AND CLAIMS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.

BY RT. REV. LAWRENCE SCANLAN, BISHOP OF SALT LAKE CITY.

[The series of articles under the general title, RELIGIOUS FAITHS, promised in the Prospectus of the ERA, very properly begins with an article on The Doctrine and Claims of the Roman Catholic Church, by Bishop Scanlan, of Salt Lake City. As stated in our Prospectus, it is the intention of the Editors of the ERA to make this series of articles "a review of existing religions and religious sects in the world," giving an opportunity for "comparison and contrast of the same," and finally "the trial of all by the standard of revealed truth." We begin, of course, with the Christian religion, as represented by the leading churches of Christendom. We have extended an invitation to prominent ministers of the churches represented in our State to contribute statements of their doctrine and claims to the ERA, in order that each of the prominent churches, at least, might present its doctrine from its own standpoint, and by its own representatives. To this invitation there have been already several favorable responses by prominent ministers, and the series, we are of opinion, will be of incalculable value and intense interest to our readers. -THE EDITOR.]

I have been kindly invited by the management of the ERA to lay before its readers a statement of the doctrine and organization, with the reasons or authority therefor, of the Catholic Church. As these subjects are of a broad and comprehensive character, only a brief outline of them can be expected within the space allowed me by this little magazine. However, I will try to trace, with some degree of fullness, a few of the principal and most important doctrinal and organic features of the church and will begin, by way of introduction, with some necessary observations on religion in general.

RELIGION IN GENERAL.

I will take as granted by the readers of the ERA-those for whom it is intended-certain primary truths or principles without which religion evidently could have no real basis, meaning or purpose:

I. That there exists a personal God who is, therefore, capable of accepting religious homage and of being honored and pleased by it; that he has freely created all things visible and invisible outside himself; that, in consequence of the fact of creation, there must exist between him and us, his rational creatures, certain necessary relations, such as his complete independence, his sovereign and absolute dominion over us and his indisputable right to our submission, honor and love; in fact, to all that we have and are; that these relations constitute and represent God's rights over man; and that religion, which is only another name for justice, consists in recognizing and maintaining these rights, which man alone can and should do, because he alone, by reason of his rational nature, is endowed with the faculties, powers and means of knowing and upholding them.

2. I trust my readers will also grant that religion, objectively considered, is simply God's will expressed and made known to man, and consequently man has religion and is truly religious only and so far as he thinks, speaks and acts in conformity with that will; that religion being God's will it must be truth, for God cannot will or express error, can have no right to wrong; and being truth itself, can be honored, worshipped and pleased only by truth; that religion being truth it must be (a) one, immutable and universal, for such are the well known and universally recognized attributes of truth; and (b) an essential condition of true liberty, for man is bound only to God or his order and is truly free only and so far as he is subject to him and governed only by him, that is, by truth, right and justice.

3. I am sure it will be further conceded that God alone, because Creator and supreme legislator, has the right to establish a religion or found a church for the purpose of teaching it, that is, to tell us his will, to make known to us

the real and full relationship that exists between him and us and the duties arising, on our part, out of such relationship; and consequently that a man-made religion or church, that is, a religion or church that, without proper divine authorization, usurps the legislative office of God, and thus substitute or may substitute the will of man for the will of God, and imposes it as such on mankind, is worse than worthless.

4. Finally, it will be granted that if man, the rational creature, can impose any obligation on his Creator, it must be that, as he binds and must bind man to do his will and must, in justice, punish him for not doing it "if thou wilt enter into life keep my commandments"-it follows that he is bound, also in justice, to make known to him his will or commandments, and in a manner so certain that he can have no reasonable doubt that what he believes and obeys is infallibly God's will and not man's. Man's insistence on God discharging this duty is both rational and proper and is his only escape from the greatest conceivable slavery, that of obeying man instead of God.

Agreed, as I trust we are, on these primary and essential principles of religion, whether natural or supernatural, we will now hasten on to examine the Catholic Church, and, first of all, its foundation, its chief and most important part, as it is, indeed, of any structure, material or spiritual. foundation that defines, supports and holds in edifice and imparts to it stability, strength and durability. If there is anything weak, deficient or rotten in any institution it is generally traceable to, if not actually found in, the foundation.

THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST.

It is the unity an

Now, the whole vast fabric of the Catholic Church rests on one sole fact or truth-the divinity of Jesus Christ-which, consequently, is her fundamental doctrine. With this she must stand or fall. It is not necessary to occupy any of my brief space by giving any lengthy proofs of this common Christian doctrine to you, my dear readers, who, I am sure, believe and accept it as firmly and sincerely as do Catholics themselves. However, as I am not so sure you believe it in the same sense, I deem it necessary to give you the Catholic

doctrine with a few proofs, which, because scriptural, I suppose you will accept as such.

The Catholic Church teaches that Jesus Christ is not a mere elect child or special creation of God, or in any sense or manner a creature, but that he is the eternal and only Son of God; God of God, Light of Light; the expression of the Eternal Father, with whom he is one in nature and substance, and to whom he is equal in all divine attributes, power and glory. St John, the Evangelist, (Cap. I) calls him "Logos," that is, the eternal word or expression of God, and expressly states that this word was in the beginning with God, was God; who became incarnate, was made flesh and dwelt amongst us. Christ himself constantly and publicly claimed for himself real divinity, and his hearers, the Jews, evidently understood him to make this claim. It was on account of this claim, which, according to the Jewish law, was blasphemy, and therefore punishable by death, that he was condemned and finally crucified. "Being man," say his accusers, "he makest himself God" (John 10). He repeatedly made use of words and expressions which could have no meaning except that he was really and truly God. "I and the Father are One" (John 10). "He who seeth me seeth the Father." "I am in the Father and the Father in me" (John 14). He claimed all the essential attributes of God, even his omnipotence. "All power is given me in heaven and on earth" (Matt. 28). Of course none nor all of these yet unsupported statements prove Christ to be God. Even their extraordinary character only renders them less reliable, less worthy of belief. A person is not God because he says so. No one understood and realized this better than did Christ himself, who, accordingly, warned his followers against believing the vain cries and groundless statements of future false Christs. The whole tenor of his words and actions clearly shows that he fully recognized the demands of our rational nature in religious matters and, consequently, in introducing his religion and in asking man to accept it, he did not wish man to believe or act blindly, or, in fact, to sacrifice or ignore a single ray of the light of reason. He made it evident to all that he came on earth to treat man as man, to speak to him as man, to teach, con