768 Miscellanea
Miscellanea
A Prominent Presbyterian Speaks of Colleges, Seminaries,
Ministers, and Laymen
One of the most eminent Presbyterian divines of today is Dr. Mark
A. Matthews of Seattle, Wash. Writing on the recent General Assembly
of his church-body, the 150th, he glides into general observations of
importance. His remarks will be found interesting and in some respects
challenging. His article appeared in the Presbyterian of July 7.
"We have some fifty-odd so-called Christian colleges in America,
but perhaps we have not a single real Christian college. Because
a college teaches the Bible two or three hours a week does not make
it a Christian college. It must major in the Bible, in Christianity, and
in Christian experiences in order to reach the standard of a real Chris-
tian college. We should combine many, strengthen those that are worth
while, and bring them to perfection.
"We have too many seminaries. We should have only three. Prince-
ton is one of the greatest seminaries in the world and should be endowed
and prepared to educate our boys. We need a seminary in the Middle
West, perhaps in Chicago. The Chicago seminary should be made perfect.
We also need a Western seminary, and perhaps the seminary at San
Francisco should have all the assistance necessary to make it a standard
seminary. All the seminaries should be required to force their students
to master the English Bible, to study the technique of evangelism, and
to learn how to manage and direct churches. Students that come out
of the seminaries today are not competent to handle churches, because
they have not been trained in that art. There ought to be a clinic
in every seminary teaching methods and technique of Christian work.
Had the seminaries taught the method of Christian work and had they
trained Christian workers, there would not have arisen in this country
the multiplicity of irresponsible schools purporting to do that kind
of work.
"There ought to be a chair in every seminary teaching methods and
technique and charged specifically with the duty of training Christian
workers. Not on the theory that those Christian workers are to go
out in the world and make it a profession or on the theory of vesting
them with authority commensurate with the minister's, but they ought
to be trained to do the work.
"Every student in every seminary should be sent out of the seminary
in his third year and put under the care of some competent, successful
pastor who knows how to handle a church. That young man should
be trained by that minister for a year, then sent back to the seminary
for his graduation. Literally, he should be made to be a hewer of wood
and a drawer of water. The average minister does not know anything
about time-keeping, appointments, or the science and genius of real
work. But he could get that under some qualified pastor who would
drive him and teach him to work.
Miscellanea 769
"It is a great reHection on the seminaries that they have not trained
[md produced great teachers and leaders. When they need teachers to
fill their own chairs, they have to import them. They ought to have
trained them. Their professors should be products of the seminaries.
The seminaries ought to have produced Hodges, Greens, Pattons, and
Warfields to take the place of those heroes of the past. Let us begin now
to fill our chairs with the products of our own seminaries.
"The churches are suffering today because self-starting, up-starting
laymen are trying to dictate and run the churches. That cannot be
done; it is not according to God's plan. But perhaps they are trying
to do this because the ministers are not properly trained.
"The churches are making a great mistake in being relieved of the
ministers who have passed a certain age, but who possess experience
and understanding of human nature. Express your appreciation of your
ministers and of all Christian workers who are doing their duty and
doing it well. Encouragement is worth a great deal. We have gone
too far in dismissing from service men because they have reached
a certain age. That is silly, unchristian, and very expensive. A man
ought to do his best work before he is sixty-five, that is if he has
learned how to work before sixty-five. The last General AssembJy
recorded the loss of many of its most efficient men because of an arbitrary
age rule. Let us correct that foolishness. It smacks too much of the
decadent, decaying, bankrupting business world. Encourage the men
who are doing the work, support them, sustain them, and make it pos-
sible for them to do better work. The last General Assembly either
in practise, sentiment, or action brought these facts forcibly to our
attention." A.
Concerning Purgatory
Assist the Souls in Purgatory is the title of a pamphlet put out by
the Benedictine Convent of Perpetual Adoration, Clyde, Mo., with the
episcopal in~primatur. It tells the Catholic all about purgatory, and it
tells us from what sources the Catholics get their theology and on what
they base their hope of salvation. We read: "Our Divine Savior once
said to Ven. Marie Lataste: 'You can do nothing more pleasing to God
than to aid the suffej'ing souls.' And to St. Gertrude our Lord said:
'Every prayer, howsoever poor it may be, if said for the souls in pur-
gatory, is acceptable to Me on account of the great desire I have for
their release. . ..' St. Thomas Aquinas says: 'The least pain in pur-
gatory is greater than the greatest suffering in this world.' St. Mary
Magdalen de Pazzi, who in spirit beheld these sufferings, says that all
the torments and tortures of the martyrs and the most intense fire on
earth are like a pleasuj'e-garden compared to purgatory. Many souls
must suffer there a long time. Numerous souls who had been in pur-
gatory twenty, thirty, forty, fifty years and even longer, appeared to
Bl. Frances of the Blessed Sacrament. There is no doubt that the suffer-
ing souls love God with glowing love and are perfectly satisfied to
suffer; also that the Blessed Virgin, the angels, and saints visit them
and console them. . .. Christ Himself appeared to St. Catherine of
Siena and revealed to her that she had obtained hundreds of great
49
770 Miscellanea
graces through the intercession of these holy souls. A certain poor
soul said to Bl. Frances of the Blessed Sacrament: 'We, too, recommend
your needs to God. Whenever a person remembers us, we all remember
him before God and obtain graces for him, especially the grace to serve
God faithfully, to avoid sin, and the grace of a happy death.' St. Bridget
relates that she once heard many souls praying, '0 God, reward those
who help us in our misery.' St. Alphonsus Liguori and Cardinal Bel-
larmine are of the opinion that the poor souls may be invoked. . . .
Among the suffering souls there is a class which is seldom recom-
mended to the prayers of the faithful, namely, the souls of deceased
priests. Our Divine Lord once spoke to Ven. Marie Lataste: 'My
daughter, pray much for my priests, for they are entirely too little
prayed for . Too often the faithful forget that it is their duty to pray
for priests, who are their fathers as regards their salvation.' We read
in the life of Bl. Frances of the Blessed Sacrament that two Popes,
many bishops, and especially a great number of priests appeared to her,
begging her assistance. . .. Many departed souls have appeared to
their benefactors to express their gratitude and to assure them of their
intercession in heaven. Let us resolve to be especially charitable towards
departed priests. Parents also whose sons are preparing for the priest-
hood should be most charitable towards souls of deceased priests. This
will a id their sons to become good priests, worthy ministers of the
altar. . .. Mary, the saints, and the guardian angels of the souls that
are delivered will be eternally grateful to us if we succor the holy
souls. . .. Let us often make acts of the love of God; these interior
acts are of unspeakable value. 'Every act of love merits life eternal,'
says St. Thomas. . . . The Benedictine Sisters pray day and night
without intermission before the Most Blessed Sacrament exposed.
Besides having the names of the departed inscribed, living persons may
be enrolled and likewise share in all the Holy Masses, Communions,
prayers, and good works heretofore mentioned, that they may thereby
obtain the grace of final perseverance, of worthily receiving the last
sacraments, and of dying a happy death. . .. In our Adoration Chapel
at Clyde, Mo., and also at Mundelein, Ill., we are privileged to have the
Most Blessed Sacrament exposed by day and night. It is becoming that
twenty wax candles should burn constantly before the exposition throne.
Many of our friends ask to have a candle placed on the altar for their
special intention - some, to beg for the conversion of a sinner; others,
as a petition to God to grant relief to their dear ones in purgatory;
others, for help in some necessity. The living Heart of Jesus in the
Sacred Host will be moved to mercy and compassion by this act of
faith and generosity. In return our Lord will bestow signal graces on the
living and grant consolation to the departed. - For an alms of 50 cents,
a large wax candle will be burned one whole day and one whole night
in our Adoration Chapel before the Most Blessed Sacrament exposed;
for $3.50, one whole week; for $12.00 one month. . . . The holy doctors
St. Gregory and St. Jerome say that the souls for whom a Holy Mass
is being said and those for whom the priest makes a memento, experi-
ence no pain during the time of the Sacrifice. By having Masses said
for the poor souls, we can obtain marvelous graces. Numberless persons
Miscellanea 771
have been aided in their necessities by having Masses said for the souls
in purgatory. The Mother of God once said to St. Bridget: 'I am the
Mother of the poor souls in purgatory, for all the sufferings they have
deserved are being mitigated more or less every hour by my intercession.'
According to St. Bernardine of Siena, Mary has special dominion in
this prison of souls, the spouses of Christ, and consoles and delivers
them. She even descends into purgatory on Saturdays, as she promised
Pope John XXII, and also on her feast days. St. Bernard says, 'Mary
has great power over purgatory.' Jesus Christ has appointed her dis-
pensatrix of His infinite merits. She holds in her hands, as it were, the
key of the Divine treasure. If the poor souls are worthy of the benefit,
Mary can deliver them from their torments. . .. The heroic act of charity
consists in offering for the souls in purgatory, through the hands of
Mary, all one's good works and likewise those which may be offered
in our behalf by others during our life and after death. A priest who
has made the heroic act can by every Holy Mass that he says release
a soul from purgatory by way of suffrage. Dionysius, the Carthusian,
tells of a holy virgin, Gertrude, who was accustomed to offer up every
morning all her good works for the poor souls. When she came to
die, the evil spirit filled her with alarm and endeavored to drive her
to despair, by representing to her that she had no good works left for
herself, as she had carelessly given them all away, etc. Thereupon our
Lord appeared to her in radiant splendor and said: 'Why art thou so
alarmed, My daughter? That thou mayest know how pleasing to Me
was thy charity towards the suffering souls, I remit to thee the entire
punishment that had been decreed to thee.''' Prayers to be offered:
"0 my God, in union with the merits of Jesus and Mary, I offer up
to Thee for the poor souls in purgatory, all my works of satisfaction,
as also those that may be offered up by others for me, during life, at
my death, and after my death. Amen." "0 good Jesus, in union with
Thy prayers or Thy divine works performed while on earth, I offer Thee
this prayer, this good work, for the redemption of these souls." The
concluding paragraph gives these instructions: "Pray especially, as said
above, for the souls who are nearest deliverance. Descend into pur-
gatory and ask: How much do you still owe your Lord? Perhaps one
more Holy Mass, or a Holy Communion, or an alms? Take this debt
upon yourself and it will be remitted to the soul which, as the last
farthing is paid, can enter the eternal beatitude of heaven." - The 8th
edition of this booklet appeared in 1931. E.
Francis de Sales on Preaching
A brother kindly sends us an excerpt from the works of a famous
Roman Catholic bishop which will be read with interest: "The philos-
opher Aristotle says that the form of a thing is its being and soul.
If you tell the most wondrous truths but tell them badly, they will
profit little. The art is to say but little, and that well. Now, to do this
in preaching, you must ... speak warmly and devoutly, simply, clearly,
and with confidence; you must thoroughly love what you teach and
believe what you say. The sovereign art is to be artless. Our sermons
772 Miscellanea
should be kindled not with vehement gesticulations or an excited voice
but with inward devotion; they should come from the heart rather
than the lips. Say what men will, it is the heart which speaks to hearts,
whereas the tongue reaches no farther than men's ears." (From
Spiritual Letters of Francis de Sales, translated by H. L. S. Lear.)
A.
The American Medical Association and Contraceptives
"Through its House of Delegates, which constitutes its entire voting
power, the American Medical Association at its recent annual conven-
tion held in San Francisco denied that it had endorsed contraceptive
practises at its Atlantic City convention last year. The reason for this
forthright declaration was the widely heralded misstatements of the press
reports declaring that the Association had changed its policy concerning
birth control and that it favored the use of contraceptives. The Asso-
ciation is to be congratulated. In an open letter to the New York Times,
July 27, Ignatius Cox, S. J., wonders 'how this more recent and mo-
mentous statement escaped the keen vigilance of the press.' Especially,
we add, when lately it gave such prominence to foreign dispatches on
the trial and acquittal of a prominent English doctor who as a test case
pleaded guilty to the charge of performing a criminal abortion!"
America, Aug. 6, 1938.
~ie "lluftimmigfcitcu li in ben @iJangefien
~iefe oorgeblidjen Unftimmigfeiten tverben oon ben neueren :tl)eoIogen
aIs @runb fUr ifjre ~ertuerfung ber ~erliaIinfpiration angegelien. iSriebridj
lBiidjfeI, ~rofeffor in ffioftocr, ber in feinet