Tke Court of Final Appeal The Word o f God, the Divine Mandaté in Respect to Human Life and Conduct By REV. HENRY W. FROST .
R EV. Henry W. Frost speaking at a Northfield Conference referred to the unrest in the' world, and espe cially the religious unrest. “ There is a feeling among men,” he said, “ that a court of final appeal must exist some where. Men declare that there are many other voices in the world, each differing from the other and none knows which one is most divine. The question is— where is the Court of Appeal?” Mr. Frost’s answer to this situation is helpful to faith and we quote from it: “ In this crisis, some' say that we should turn to the pope. But if so, which one? Accepting Peter,; for the moment, as the first pope, are we to test all the others by him, and if we are, what will he left of the others? But if we are not, which of the later-day popes are We to reckon as having spoken ex cathedra? This last is most perplexing, for there have been many popes, each one with a different dictum; twice over at the same time there have been two popes, each opposing the other; again and again a later-day pope has contra dicted a former-day one, so that the benediction of the one has become the malediction of the other; and even the doctrine of papal infallibility, which one must accept if one turns to the Roman curia, was condemned as heresy by the popes themselves up to the time of Pius the Ninth, and by a large number of the cardinals even then; and to this day the theologians at Rome are not agreed as to what papal infallibility means. Tested by the necessary laws of harmony and unanimity we shall not find final authority with the popes.
It is a relief now to turn away from such uncertaintiesr which are but vag aries, to a nearer, surer and more soul- satisfying consideration. There is a Book which claims to be divinely author itative, and we may affirm that there are facts about it which substantiate this claim. The Book has proved to be a regen erating, transforming and comforting influence, through thousands of years, with millions of persons and in behalf of individuals of diverse characteristics and needs; which indicates that it has had within itself a power beyond the human. And it is beyond doubting that whatever measure of infallibility there has been amongst men has come from the Book, and that all past and present confusion has developed, not from it, but only from man’s failure to understand and interpret it aright; which proves beyond controversy that the Book is a light shin ing in a dark place, a voice which has a divinely certain sound, a sacred dictum, an ultimate dogma, the ex cathedra utterance of the living God. Here, then, faith may rest, for here is final author ity. There is every reason to be assured that it is our sacred privilege to come to the Bible as God’s infallible Word; to regard it as the Divine mandate in respect to human life and conduct; to study it as the one revelation which will illuminate the soul and transform the life; and to hold it as the decisive word in all controversy. By doing these things, in spite of all personal infirmity and even in these confused and confus ing times, .we shall increasingly discover
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