Page:True and False Infallibility of Popes.pdf/46

Rh can I, nor any one else who wishes to know what is right, intrust my salvation to the responsibility which a third person might be willing to assume for me. Of my own self God will, in the next world, require a reckoning of my life. To the doctrine of the Apostle (Rom. xiv. 12, 2 Cor. v. 10 ) I hold fast, and will never shield myself under the responsibility of any one but myself.'

When then Dr. Schulte says, 'Neither Pope, nor bishop, nor parish priest, can bring me to heaven by his prayers, if I live not as a Christian and believe in Christ,' no doubt he states perfectly correctly that no one goes to heaven by another's prayers, if he does not believe in Christ and live according to his faith. When, however, he adds, 'Just as little can I, or any one who wishes to know what is right, trust my salvation to the responsibility which a third person may be willing to assume,' this is a proposition with a double sense, one of which senses is true, and the other false. It is perfectly true, if it is a question of the transgression of a law which I may have had the misfortune to commit, which transgression a third person may, perhaps, say he will take upon his own shoulders; as if a person were to say, 'If you commit such and such a murder, such and such an adultery, such and such a theft, such and such an act of fraud, I will take upon