velation has nothing to do with
the matter.

A glaring statement among all others, one that is reiterated and
insisted upon, is that all men should share in the fruit of His life;
ana for this purpose He founded a college of apostles which He called
His Church, to teach all that He said and did, to all men, for all
time. The success of His life and mission depends upon the continuance
of His work.

Why did He act thus? I do not know. Are there reasons for this economy
of salvation? There certainly are, else it would not have been
established. But we are not seeking after reasons; we are gathering
facts upon which to build an argument, and these facts we take from the
authentic life of Christ.

Now we give the Almighty credit for wisdom in all His plans, the wisdom
of providing His agencies with the means to reach the end they are
destined to attain. To commission a church to teach all men without
authority, is to condemn it to utter nothingness from the very
beginning. To expect men to accept the truths He revealed, and such
truths! without a guarantee against error in the infallibility of the
teacher, is to be ignorant of human nature. And since at no time must
it cease to teach, it must be indefectible. Being true, it must be one;
the work of God, it must be holy; being provided for all creatures, it
must be Catholic or universal; and being the same as Christ founded
upon His Apostles, it must be apostolic. If it is not all these things
together, it is not the teacher sent by God to Instruct and direct men.

No one who seeks with intelligence, single-mindedness and a pure heart,
will fail to find these attributes and marks of the true Church of
Christ. Whether, after finding them, one will make an act of faith, is
another question. But that he can give his assent with the full
approval of his reason is absolutely certain. Once he does so, he has
no further use for his reason. He enters the Church, an edifice
illumined by the superior light of revelation and faith. He can leave
reason, like a lantern, at the door.

Therein he will learn many other truths that he never could have found
out with reason alone, truths superior, but not contrary, to reason.
These truths he can never repudiate without sinning against reason,
first, because reason brought him to this pass where he must believe
without the immediate help of reason.

One of the first things we shall hear from the Church speaking on her
own authority is