multiplied upon church; when Christian is divided against Christian; when each tears from the sacred teachings only that part which suits himself, and calls the rest a lie; when individual opinion is pitted against revelation, and when men calling themselves followers of the Divine Master coin doctrines and call them Christ's; invent novelties that tickle the ear and stamp them with the counterfeit seal of the Good Shepherd; when to be united in faith is deemed conventional, and to be assembled in the holy bond of one religious fold is considered illiberal and intolerant. What a pang must have passed through His Sacred Heart, even while He pronounced these gentle words, as He beheld the men of our day advocating in His name and as His disciples that it was inconsistent with His teachings to hold that there should be only one Church, but that each was to believe as suited him best, and the more sects, the better for Christianity. In the name of Christ our divine Shepherd, as a priest of God, whose duty it is to preach His word, in the name of the Catholic Church, whose unworthy minister I am, I proclaim with my feeble voice the self-same doctrine which Christ taught in this parable of the gospel, that there is but one Church, that there never was but one true fold, and that until the end of time, yea for all eternity, until truth ceases to be truth, until divine revelation shall prove false, until Christ ceases to be God, there can never be but one true and only Church, the fold and flock of Jesus Christ, the only Good Shepherd.

If it is true that Christ founded any society or body of His followers; if it is certain, as it is, that He ever preached the truth to men; if it is a fact, as it is, that He established means of obtaining grace and pardon upon the earth, then it is equally certain, equally true, that

His teachings were one with truth; that He wished them to be preserved whole and intact, and that He established as custodian of His doctrines and guardian of His graces one only religion that was to last as one and undivided, until the world should cease to be. If there is any truth that stands clearly defined in the recorded word of God; if there is any truth that appeals to the common sense of humanity as well as to the religious consciousness of man, it is the doctrine of the Unity of the Church, the doctrine suggested to us by the text I have just read to you, and concerning which I shall speak to you this morning. To-day's Gospel demonstrates that there is but one faith, and consequently one religion that can be called the Church of Christ.

If we appeal to other parts of Scripture for confirmation of our dogma, we see text after text that echoes and reëchoes the same truth. Throughout the New Testament the Church is spoken of as a kingdom, a city, a house, and as a body. The very mention of these words signifies unity of belief and creed. For is it not the prophecy that a house divided against itself shall fall. Shall we ascribe to Christ the great Architect and Builder a work of which the very elements contain germs of decadence and self-destruction? Was it not, on the contrary, the most earnest prayer of Christ to His Father that His followers might be one, as They were? What does Paul mean when he speaks to the Ephesians of "One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism"? What does he mean when writing to the Galatians he anathematizes in powerful and thundering words those who turn aside from the faith of Christ which he has taught them, to follow after the doctrines of any other, yes, even though he who teaches them be an angel from heaven? What can

he mean, too, when in writing to Titus he warns him to shun, after a few warnings, any one who cuts loose from the one true faith? If there be meaning in words, if we believe that the Scriptures are the word of God; if we believe that God is truthful and is unwilling to deceive us, and that His apostles taught His doctrines, then does it follow as clearly as truth is truth that among all the vast number of those who claim to be the Church of Christ, one of them and one only can be the true one. One and one only has maintained in all its purity those jewels of faith deposited in trust for humanity until the veil that hangs before the face of divinity shall be torn away and we shall see God as He is. For His Church cannot fail and she cannot be hid. One mark by which it may be surely known is its unity.

Laying aside, however, all proofs which the Scriptures furnish us in abundance, right reason must dictate that Christ's Church must subsist in unity of faith, and accordance and harmony of belief; that what she once has taught as truth revealed by her Founder she can never retract; that she can never promulgate to-day what yesterday she denied; that as soon as she departs one jot or tittle from the teachings of its Founder she ceases to be the spouse of Christ and must be looked upon as only a counterfeit presentment of what she pretends to be.

Who professing the name of Christian will say that Christ taught anything but truth? Who does not know that He has called Himself the truth? "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life." Read His life and teachings from cover to cover. Will you find there a denial in one sentence of what was affirmed in another? Does He say at one time that He is God, at another that He is not? Search the sacred writings through and through,

scan with the eye of the learned critic each phrase, and sift it to its finest meaning. Can you find one passage in which He gives to men the power of forgiving sins and in another that He was but playing with words when He made this promise. Tell me if on one page you read that Baptism is a Sacrament, and on another a mere ceremony. No; truth is always the same. Error alone changes. Christ taught the truth, and hence His Church must be no fickle testimony that wavers and nods with the whims of men; no bark without a helm that is blown hither and thither upon the waves of sentiment and opinion; no sickly flame that burns only when blown by the breath of human applause; but must partake of His own immutability, and stand like a towering mountain, unmoved by storms or showers, ever the same, unchanged, unchanging, till time shall be no more. Thus only can truth afford to stand. For having its origin in the essence of the Divinity, it hangs not on the smiles or tears of man; it is unaffected by human raillery or ridicule. Its strength comes from above, and no king can coax it into subservience or threaten it into submission.

Look abroad over the earth and see if you can find one religious body that professes itself Christian which has maintained till now this unity of faith. Trust not to the claims that each set forward, but examine the origin, the birth, the life, the history of each. If Unity of faith is a visible sign of the true Church of Christ where is it to be found? What is to become of those who claim that one sect is as Christian as another? That all combined are the true Church? Impossible since one sect affirms what another denies, and we know that truth is never contradictory.

The history of one tells us that it sprang up in the four

teenth century when it maintained a doctrine before unheard of. Then another sprang up from that, and another from that, until one could fill a volume with the names of the isms and ites that flood the Christian World, and particularly our own dear land, with doctrines of all kinds, so that any one from the fiercest sceptic and rationalist to the ranting sentimentalist may be accommodated with a creed that calls itself Christian. O my friends, what a pitious spectacle is this! Is Christ divided? Were His doctrines mere elastic platitudes that could be made to fit every opinion? Were His sublime teachings mere plastic utterances that were to be moulded by the fancy or mental caprice of each individual? No. He has established a living authority the principle of unity, to be the infallible judge and testimony of His unchangeable word. He who has said heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away, has also said "hear the Church, and if he hear it not let him be to thee as a heathen and a publican." There is but one Church upon the broad earth that even professes to be ever the same. There is but one Church that even lays claim to an infallible authority that must be heard and obeyed. There is but one Church, search where you will, that calls all mankind, as Christ did, rich and poor, slave and master, learned and ignorant, to sit at her feet and learn from her and not from private opinion, or critical research, or emotional fancies, but from her own authority, one and the same doctrine for each and all; that demands the same allegiance, that grants the same graces, and gives the same holy Sacraments to every one, Greek and barbarian, that enters her sacred fold, and enrolls himself among her children. That Church is the Catholic Church, and lest I be misunderstood I add the Roman Catholic Church. That Church in all