teach all nations," etc. He does not
instruct them to scatter Bibles broadcast over the earth, but to teach by
word of mouth. "And behold!" Our Savior never arrests the attention of His
hearers by using the interjection, _behold_, unless when He has something
unusually solemn and extraordinary to communicate. An important
announcement is sure to follow this word. "Behold, I am with you." These
words, "_I am with you_," are frequently addressed in Sacred Scripture by
the Almighty to His Prophets and Patriarchs, and they always imply a
special presence and a particular supervision of the Deity.(127) They
convey the same meaning in the present instance. Christ says equivalently
I who "am the way, the truth and the life," will protect you from error
and will guide you in your speech. I will be with you, not merely during
_your_ natural lives, not for a century only, but all days, at all times,
without intermission, even to the end of the world.

These words of Jesus Christ establish two important facts: First--A promise
to guard His Church from error. Second--A promise that His presence with
the Church will be continuous, without any interval of absence, to the
consummation of the world.

And this is also the sentiment of the Apostle of the Gentiles writing to
the Ephesians: God "gave some indeed Apostles, and some Prophets, and some
Evangelists, and others Pastors and Teachers, for the perfecting of the
Saints, for the work of the ministry, for the building up of the body of
Christ, until we all meet in the unity of faith, ... that we may no more
be children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of
doctrine, by the wickedness of men, in craft, by which they lie in wait to
deceive."(128)

Notwithstanding these plain declarations of Scripture, some persons think
it an unwarrantable assumption for the Church to claim infallibility. But
mark the consequences that follow from denying it.

If your church is not infallible it is liable to err, for there is no
medium between infallibility and liability to error. If your church and
her ministers are fallible in their doctrinal teachings, as they admit,
they may be preaching falsehood to you, instead of truth. If so, you are
in doubt whether you are listening to truth or falsehood. If you are in
doubt you can have no faith, for faith excludes doubt, and in that state
you displease God, for "without faith it is impossible to please
God."(129) Faith and infallibilit