CHRIST IN THE CHURCH.*
"CATHOLICS believe that as Jesus Christ lived His natural life on earth two thousand years ago in a Body drawn from Mary, so He lives His mystical life to-day in a Body drawn from the human race in general—called the Catholic Church—that her words are His, her actions This, her life His (with certain restrictions and exceptions), as surely as were the words, actions, and life recorded in the Gospels: it is for this reason that they give to the Church the assent of their faith, believing that in doing so they are rendering it to God Himself."
This clear and concise description of the claims of the Roman Church gives the key to Father Benson's new book. It is Father Benson's hope, he tells us, "to draw attention to what may be called a 'personage' now living upon earth whose consciousness runs back for two thousand years—one who has certain characteristics, instincts, and methods That are among her best credentials." Our author now proceeds to prove an
identity by means of a parallel. It seems to us impossible that his arguments should convince any but Roman Catholics.
The Church, he tells us, does not appeal to the bourgeois intellect, but to the mentally great and the mentally simple—to kings and shepherds. In the course of his argument be quotes a curious saying of Pasteur's in illustration of the attitude of the intellectually great: "The deeper," says Pasteur, "I go into the mysteries of nature the more simple becomes my faith. Already it is as the faith of the Breton peasant, and I have every reason to
believe that if I am able to penetrate yet deeper it will become as the faith of the Breton peasant's wife." It is difficult to take
such a sentence as this quite seriously. The Roman Catholic Church approves retreat fromthe world—so, according to Father Benson, did our Lord. She also approves good works—so, we must agree, did our Lord. The Roman Catholic Church seeks pain and "welcomes Gethsemane," and so did our Lord, says Father Benson. This is a very strange view of the Passion, as related in the Gospels. Do modern priests read the Bible ? Of course they do, but it is sometimes hard to believe it.
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