ist on earth. He is authorised and commissioned
by Christ Himself "to feed" with sound doctrine, both "the lambs and
the sheep"; and faithfully has he discharged that duty. "The Pope,"
writes Cardinal Newman, "is no recluse, no solitary student, no
dreamer about the past, no doter upon the dead and gone, no projector
of the visionary. He, for eighteen hundred years, has lived in the
world; he has seen all fortunes, he has encountered all adversaries,
he has shaped himself for all emergencies. If ever there was a power
on earth who had an eye for the times, who has confined himself to the
practicable, and has been happy in his anticipations, whose words have
been facts, and whose commands prophecies, such is he, in the history
of ages, who sits, from generation to generation, in the chair of the
Apostles, as the Vicar of Christ, and the Doctor of His Church."

"These are not the words of rhetoric," he continues, "but of history.
All who take part with the Apostle are on the winning side. He has
long since given warrants for the confidence which he claims. From the
first, he has looked through the wide world, of which he has the
burden; and, according to the need of the day, and the inspirations of
his Lord, he has set himself, now to one thing, now to another; but to
all in season, and to nothing in vain.... Ah! What grey hairs are on
the head of Judah, whose youth is renewed like the eagle's, whose feet
are like the feet of harts, and underneath the Everlasting Arms."
Would that our unfortunate countrymen, tossed about by every wind of
doctrine, and torn by endless divisions, could be persuaded to set
aside pride and prejudice, and to accept the true principle of
religious unity and peace established by God. Then England would
become again, what she was for over a thousand years, _viz._: "the
most faithful daughter of the Church of Rome, and of His Holiness, the
one Sovereign Pontiff and Vicar of Christ upon earth," as our Catholic
forefathers were wont to describe her.

CHAPTER IV.

THE CHURCH AND THE SECTS.

A natural tendency is apparent in all men to differ among themselves,
even concerning subjects which are simple and easily understood;
while, on more difficult and complicated issues, this tendency is, of
course, very much more pronounced. Hence, the well-known proverb:
"_Quot homines, tot sententiae_"--there are as many opinions as there
are men.

Now, if this is found to be the case in politics, li