rior conflicts, to those perplexing
doubts and to that frightful uncertainty which distracts the souls of
those whose private judgment is their only guide, who are "ever learning
and never attaining to the knowledge of the truth."(130) You are not, like
others, drifting helplessly over the ocean of uncertainty and "carried
about by every wind of doctrine." You are not as "blind men led by blind
guides." You are not like those who are in the midst of a spiritual desert
intersected by various by-paths, not knowing which to pursue; but you are
on that high road spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, which is so "straight a
way that fools shall not err therein."(131) You are a part of that
universal Communion which has no "High Church" and "Low Church;" no "New
School" and "Old School," for you all belong to that School which is "ever
ancient and ever new." You enjoy that profound peace and tranquillity
which springs from the conscious possession of the whole truth. Well may
you exclaim: "Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell
together in unity."(132)

Give thanks, moreover, to God that you belong to a Church which has also a
keen sense to detect and expose those moral shams, those pious frauds,
those socialistic schemes which are so often undertaken in this country
ostensibly in the name of religion and morality, but which, in reality,
are subversive of morality and order, which are the offspring of
fanaticism, and serve as a mask to hide the most debasing passions.
Neither Mormons nor Millerites, nor the advocates of free love or of
women's rights, so called, find any recruits in the Catholic Church. She
will never suffer her children to be ensnared by these impostures, how
specious soever they may be.

From what has been said in the preceding pages, it follows that the
Catholic Church cannot be reformed. I do not mean, of course, that the
Pastors of the Church are personally impeccable or not subject to sin.
Every teacher in the Church, from the Pope down to the humblest Priest, is
liable at any moment, like any of the faithful, to fall from grace and to
stand in need of moral reformation. We all carry "this treasure (of
innocence) in earthen vessels."

My meaning is that the Church is not susceptible of being reformed in her
doctrines. The Church is the work of an Incarnate God. Like all God's
works, it is perfect. It is, therefore, incapable of reform. Is it not the
height of presumption for men to at