and divine law to obey his mother, though she may
sometimes err in her judgments, how much more strictly are not we obliged
to be docile to the teachings of the Catholic Church, our Mother, whose
admonitions are always just, whose precepts are immutable!

"For twenty years," observed a recently converted Minister of the
Protestant Church, "I fought and struggled against the Church with all the
energy of my will. But when I became a Catholic all my doubts ended, my
inquiries ceased. I became as a little child, and rushed like a lisping
babe into the arms of my mother." By Baptism Christians become children of
the Church, no matter who pours upon them the regenerating waters. If she
is our Mother, where is our love and obedience? When the infant seeks
nourishment at its mother's breast it does not analyze its food. When it
receives instructions from its mother's lips it never doubts, but
instinctively believes. When the mother stretches forth her hand the child
follows unhesitatingly. The Christian should have for his spiritual Mother
all the simplicity, all the credulity, I might say, of a child, guided by
the instincts of faith. "Unless ye become," says our Lord, "as little
children, ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven."(133) "As
new-born babes, desire the rational milk without guile; that thereby you
may grow unto salvation."(134) In her nourishment there is no poison; in
her doctrines there is no guile.

Chapter VIII.

THE CHURCH AND THE BIBLE.

The Church, as we have just seen, is the only Divinely constituted teacher
of Revelation.

Now, the Scripture is the great depository of the Word of God. Therefore,
the Church is the divinely appointed Custodian and Interpreter of the
Bible. For, her office of infallible Guide were superfluous if each
individual could interpret the Bible for himself.

That God never intended the Bible to be the Christian's rule of faith,
independently of the living authority of the Church, will be the subject
of this chapter.

No nation ever had a greater veneration for the Bible than the Jewish
people. The Holy Scripture was their pride and their glory. It was their
national song in time of peace; it was their meditation and solace in time
of tribulation and exile. And yet the Jews never dreamed of settling their
religious controversies by a private appeal to the Word of God.

Whenever any religious dispute arose among the people it