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Question Box (Continued from Page 4) read, as we have them. There were no printing presses in those days; all manuscripts had to be copied by hand, a process which was extremely time-con suming. Communications, more over, were slow and fautly; sometimes generations would have passed, for example, be fore an epistle, addressed to a particular church, would have been known by the church uni versal. So that even as late as the end of the first century, when St. John concluded his gospel and thereby closed the books of the New Testament, not a few Christians were still unfamiliar with the entire New Testament as we know it today. HOW THEN DID the early faithful know about the princi ples of Christianity? They knew principally through oral or transcribed instructions based upon Apostolic Tradition—the sayings and writings of St. Peter and the Apostles. IT WAS THIS same Tradition, moreover, that became the chief standard for judging just what books were divinely inspired when, just before the turn of the fourth century, some doubts were raised about a few of them. In fixing the official catalogue of the New Testament around that time, the Church Fathers con sidered only those books which 1) originated in Apostolic schools and 2) evidenced orthodoxy of doctrine as it nad been handed down outside of the Bible. THE FOREGOING probably will appear startling to one who has labored erroneously under the impression that the entire Bible was miraculously deliver ed from heaven. (A definite shock awaits those who think that Scripture came to us in the King’s English, bound neatly in a leather volume.) THE FACT IS that Apostolic Tradition predated the New Testament writing. The fact is too that the New Testament catalogue of books has been re ceived by us precisely because such a catalogue was Jong ago confirmed by Apostolic Tradi tion. Hence it is most unrealistic to maintain, even if only in theory, that the Bible is the sole rule of Christian doctrine and morals. RATHER, the Bible ranks alongside Tradition as one of the two principal fonts of public revelation; all of which is con tained in both, though exclu sively in neither. incj joun/j-inriiN, June £(, isos—HACfE o Best Wishes UM BAKING COMPANY GASTONIA, NORTH CAROLINA Miss Minna Sutler Savannah Services SAVANNAH, Ga.—F u n e r a 1 services for Miss Minna Sutler were held June 8th at the Sa cred Heart Church. Survivors are four . sisters, Miss Maude Sutler, Mrs. E. J. Brown, Sr., Mrs. Charles A. Richardson, and Mrs. F. A. O. Bahre, all of Savannah, and a number of nieces and nephews. The model husband is one who turns over a new leaf for his wife—in his check book. "MEDICAL AND MORAL ASPECTS"—“Boxing — Medical and Moral Aspects,” was the subject of a prize-winning article in Linacre Quarterly magazine of the Federation of Catholic Physicians’ Guilds. For his outstanding contribution, Dr. Eugene G. Laforet, of Boston, won the Thomas Linacre Award of the organization at its annual meeting in Atlantic City, N. J. Pic tured are, left to right, Dr. William J. Egan, president; Dr. Laforet and Father John J. Flanagan, S.J., editor of the magazine, shown presenting the award.—(NC Photos) A STROLL IN THE VATICAN GARDENS His Holiness Pope John XXIII and six Italian cardinals stroll through the Vatican Gar dens. The Cardinals were in Rome to take part in the Italian Episcopal Commission held with Italy’s bishops to study Catholic Action. From left to right are: Giovanni Cardinal Urbani, Patri arch of Venice; Giovanni Cardinal Montini, Arc bishop of Milan (in rear); Giuseppe Cardinal Siri of Genoa; Pope John, Giacomo Cardinal Lercaro, Archbishop of Bologna; (in rear) Alfonso Cardinal Castaldo, Archbishop of Naples, and Maurilio Cardinal Fossati, Archbishop of Turin. —(NC Photos) BEST WISHES THE GASTONIA GAZETTE Established 1880 GASTON COUNTY’S GREAT HOME NEWSPAPER Delivered Anywhere in Gaston and Adjoining Counties at 35c per week. GASTONIA, NORTH CAROLINA BEST WISHES FROM J a met YORK ROAD NO. 2. - LINWOOD ROAD NO. 3. - FLINT GROVES DERAL LOAN — Main Office — 251 WEST MAIN AVENUE — Akers Center Branch — 1327 E, FRANKLIN AVE. Gastonia, North Carolina FROM GASTONIA. GREENSBORO, KANNAPOLIS, SALISBURY, SANFORD ^lfs A Fact.,. You Can Save Money at Rustiifs” 278-282 W. MAIN GASTONIA, N. C. Theology For The Layman (Continued from Page 4) he had come under the natural law of death; worst of all he had lost integrity, the subordination of lower powers to higher, in the rejection of his own sub ordination to God. From now on every element in him would be making for its own immediate and separate gratification: the civil war within man had begun. For Adam, the man, the fu ture was stateable as simply. He could repent, turning to God again; God would remake the contact and sanctifying grace would be in him once more. But the man it was in was a very different man. The preter natural gifts were not restored, so that integrity was not there: it was to a man with his powers warring among themselves and tugging away from God as often as not, that grace was given back. To figure his condition, we have but to look at ourselves. But Adam was not only a man. He was the man. He was the representative man. For the angels the testing had been individual, each eagel who fell did so by his own decision. But the human race was tested and fell in one man, the representa tive man. In his catastrophe every man till the end of time was involved. There has been much mockery about this, of the “Eve-ate-the-apple-we-get- the-stomach-ache” variety—But, with no disposition to mock, we can still find something baffling in it. The difference between the testing of men and angels is not the problem. The angelic race could be tested in an individual angel, for there is no angelic race. Men are related to one another, because we are all brought into being, procreated, by others. Not so angels. Each is created whole and entire by God, he can call no other angel father. Our souls are the direct creation of God, but by bodily descent we are all children of Adam. And in our father we fell. But why? How could his sin involve us? That is the real problem, and we must be grate ful for any lights we can get upon it. Obviously there is something in the solidarity of the whole human race clear to God but not to us, that He could so treat the race as one thing. Some in volvement in the fate of others we take tor granted—a father makes decisions for his family, a ruler for his people: the soli darity of the family and the nation sufficiently explains the fact of one man’s will being de cisive for all. We do not see a similar solidarity for all men wnatsoevei—the foreigner is re mote from our mind, the dear more remote, the unborn re motest of all. But no one of them is remote to the eye of God, who not only makes all men, but makes them in His own image. BEST WISHES SUMMEY HARDWARE & IMPLEMENT CO. JOHN DEERE QUALITY FARM EQUIPMENT Dallas, Norih Carolina Phone WA. 2-3146 Phone WA. 2-3147 BEST SHES TAYLOR MOTORS, INCORPORATED SALES UBI SERVICE Telephone Va. 7-4341 MT. HOLLY, N. C. ffige &yraent” Li Yotir Friendly Stationer 176 West Franklin Avenue Fhonc UN. 5-1236 Gastonia, N. C.