THE WORD " CATHOLIC "
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Mr. Alfred Noyes scoffs at those Christians who base their creeds on chosen texts of Scripture. And he does this immediately after he himself has quoted the passage from St. Matthew conferring upon St. Peter the mandate of the Keys of Heaven. And Mr. Noyes does this evidently fully persuaded that those words were actually uttered by Jesus. (I am not referring to the fact that three of the four Evangelists make no mention of this mandate.)
I wonder whether Mr. Noyes, when he ascends the staircase of his club, ever glances up at the portrait of Thomas Henry
Huxley, that mighty master of pellucid English and of an organon of clear thinking which, so far from being out of date, as the shallow allege, could assimilate effectively and unper- turbed every discovery that has been made since he. died. Somewhere in iluxley's delightful pages Mr. Noyes may find a comment on the singular fact that St. Paul, if he is to be believed, " withstood Peter to the face " at a conference which marks a turning-point in the history of Christianity and therefore of mankind. Moreover, St. Paul charged St. Peter with dissimulation, when all the time either Peter or one of the others present could have blasted the upstart, who had never even seen the Master, by quoting the solemn commission of the Lord.
To throw over the teachings of St. Piul, or to doubt the veracity or the authenticity of his writings, would have con- sequences disastrous to all forms of Christianity, except Unitarianism.
Render unto Peter the things that are Peter's ; but it would be as well not to include in the tribute coinage bearing other images and other superscriptions.—I am, Sir, &c., ITHURIEL.
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