annot consistently accept the silent Book of
Scripture as his sufficient guide.

A copy of the sacred volume is handed to you by your minister, who says:
"Take this book; you will find it all-sufficient for your salvation." But
here a serious difficulty awaits you at the very threshold of your
investigations. What assurance have you that the book he hands you is the
_inspired_ Word of God; for every part of the Bible is far from possessing
intrinsic evidences of inspiration? It may, for ought you know, contain
more than the Word of God, or it may not contain all the Word of God. We
must not suppose that the Bible was always, as it is now, a compact book,
bound in a neat form. It was for several centuries in scattered fragments,
spread over different parts of Christendom. Meanwhile, many spurious
books, under the name of Scripture, were circulated among the faithful.
There was, for instance, the spurious Gospel of St. Peter; there was also
the Gospel of St. James and of St. Matthias.

The Catholic Church, in the plenitude of her authority, in the third
Council of Carthage, (A. D. 397,) separated the chaff from the wheat, and
declared what Books were Canonical, and what were apocryphal. Even to this
day the Christian sects do not agree among themselves as to what books are
to be accepted as genuine. Some Christians of continental Europe do not
recognize the Gospels of St. Mark and St. Luke because these Evangelists
were not among the Apostles. Luther used to call the Epistle of St. James
a letter of straw.

But even when you are assured that the Bible contains the Word of God, and
nothing but the Word of God, how do you know that the translation is
faithful? The Books of Scripture were originally written in Hebrew and
Greek, and you have only the translation. Before you are certain that the
translation is faithful you must study the Hebrew and Greek languages, and
then compare the translation with the original. How few are capable of
this gigantic undertaking!

Indeed, when you accept the Bible as the Word of God, you are obliged to
receive it on the authority of the Catholic Church, who was the sole
Guardian of the Scriptures for fifteen hundred years.

But after having ascertained to your satisfaction that the translation is
faithful, still the Scriptures can never serve as a complete Rule of Faith
and a complete guide to heaven independently of an authorized, living
interpreter.

A competent guide, such as our Lo