92 SCIENCE IN "BONDAGE" 



we die." Nothing very much matters in this 

 world except that we should make ourselves as 

 comfortable as we can during the few years we 

 have to spend in it. 



Again, there are others who, whilst believing 

 the first doctrine set down above, will have none 

 of the other. With them we enter into no 

 argument here, and only say that to have a guide 

 is better than to have no guide. Catholics, who 

 accept gratefully her guidance, do believe that 

 the Church can help a man to save his soul, and 

 that she is entrusted, to that end, with certain 

 powers. Her duty is to preserve and guard the 

 Christian Revelation the scheme of doctrine 

 regarding belief and conduct by which Jesus 

 Christ taught that souls were to be saved. She 

 is not an arbitrary ruler. Her office is primarily 

 that of Judge and Interpreter of the deposit of 

 doctrine entrusted to her. 



In this she claims to be safeguarded against 

 error, though her infallible utterances would 

 seem incredibly few, if summed up and presented 

 to the more ignorant of her critics. She also 

 claims to derive from her Founder legislative 

 power by which she can make decrees, unmake 

 them or modify and vary them to suit different 

 times and circumstances. She rightfully claims 

 the obedience of her children to this exercise of 

 her authority, but such disciplinary enactments, 

 by their very nature variable and modifiable, do 

 not and cannot come within the province of her 

 infallibility, and admittedly they need not be 

 always perfectly wise or m judicious. Such dis- 



