Cylchgronau Cymru

Stand ye in the ways, and .see, and ask fop^ the OLD paths.—Jbb. vi. chap., 16 verse. , TRUTHFULNESS, FITNESS, AND PLAINNESS. Vol IIL Birmingham, August, 1869. THE DISCORDS OF CHRISTENDOM. WHE Bible is conceded by both Catholics and Protestauts to be the r foundation of all true religion. In this they agree, but upon examination of this foundation, their disagreement* appear at once, 'i he former alleging that the Bible must be interpreted by the tradition of the church, so that with the Catholics the Bible and tradition constitute the rule of faith and practice for all believers; but with the Protestants the Bible alone is the only rule of faith and practice. We propose to examine this ground of difference, to the end that it may the better be judged which, if either, are in the right. Firit, if the Bible is the foundation but cannot be understood except by tradition, then the author of the Bible intended it thus to bh inter¬ preted. By tndition is meant oral testimony, or heresay evidence handed down from mouth to mouth, from generation'to generation. That is the present living Catholic believes so and so, because his father believed f o, his grandfather and his great grandfather, and so on back to the apostles who wrote and then interpreted their own writings orally,which being handed down, constitute the "Constant traditions of the Church." This idea is not original with the Catholics, but copied from the Jew.% who always laid great stress upon tradition as the only means by which to interpret the written law, they, like the Catholics, calling tradition the •• Oral law."