of His Holy Spirit,
of all He had revealed for the salvation of human kind. Hence to hear our
Shepherd's voice, to understand what He says to us, to know what we must
do to obey His laws and save our souls, we need but listen to the voice of
His Church. Before it was established He declared that He should build His
Church upon a rock, and that no enemy, or group of enemies, not even the
gates of hell should ever prevail against it.(27) He established the
Church as His mouthpiece, and He said to the little band that constituted
it in the beginning, "he that heareth you, heareth me, and he that heareth
me, heareth Him that sent me;"(28) and, as if to emphasize this
declaration, He added that any one who would not hear and obey the Church
should be considered as a heathen and a publican--types of all that was
bad.(29) The Church, therefore, is the oracle of God, it is His
mouthpiece; it possesses and guards the only revelation which God has made
to His rational creatures; it alone has the words of eternal life.

Thus it is that our divine Shepherd goes before us, leading us in the
paths of truth and justice, preserving us from danger and error with
respect to our spiritual destiny. We cannot go astray if we listen to Him
speaking to us through His church. In all our perplexities and
uncertainties, when confronted by any doubt, or confused and distracted by
the wrangling voices and conflicting opinions of men, we can be calm and
at peace, assured in our inmost souls that the voice which guides us
cannot err, that it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for
one word of His to fail.(30)

He leadeth me in ways of justice, in the ways of holiness, in the ways
which the saints have walked. How exceeding great, indeed, is our
privilege, and how certain and individual our election! All that remains
to us is to listen to His words and to follow Him, and present peace will
attend our labors, while future glory waits upon our end.

But in the midst of abundant blessings and spiritual favors which have
surrounded and sheltered us from infancy, we are apt to be unmindful of
our state of plenty and forgetful of the duty of gratitude. We are apt to
venture out like thoughtless children, trusting in our own strength to
battle with the foe; or else, on the contrary, we sluggishly presume that
a bountiful Providence will provide for us regardless of our own
co-operation. We have never known what it is to want for spiritual foo