shall abide with
you for ever" (John xiv. 17). Non-Catholics do not seem in the least
to realise what those words mean, or that it is God Himself who
promises. But, to continue; what is the purpose of this extraordinary
and enduring presence? Why is it given? What is it for? Well, for the
express purpose of hindering divisions and sects. In order to lead,
not to mislead us. How do we know? Because God said so: "He shall
guide you into all truth" (John xvi. 13). And this truth, thus
permanently secured, was to draw all together into one body. In fact,
we have it on Divine authority, that the Church of Christ was to be as
truly a single organic whole, in which every part is subject to one
head, as is a living human body. The similitude is not of man's
choosing, but is inspired by the Holy Spirit Himself. "As the
(natural) body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of
that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ.... Now,
ye are the (mystical) Body[7] of Christ" (1 Cor. xii.).

What can be clearer, what more explicit? Now, if the Spirit of Truth,
that is to say, the Holy Ghost, _is really_ with the Church (as God
promised He always would be), and if He is always present for the
_express purpose of "guiding her into all truth"_ (as God promised
would be the case), surely this guidance must be a great reality, and
not the mere sham that it is everywhere found to be, outside the
Catholic Church.

3. Consciously or unconsciously, Anglicans and other non-Catholics
have for centuries denied the truth of Our Lord's words and have
contradicted His clearest statements. In fact, the Church of England,
in her Book of Homilies, declares that "clergy and laity, learned and
unlearned, all ages, sects, and degrees of men, women, and children,
of whole Christendom, were altogether drowned in damnable idolatry by
the space of 800 years and more"! (Hom. on Peril of Idol., part iii.).
This is a specimen of the way in which God's promises are set aside,
and the Bible misinterpreted by outsiders while professing to make it
the foundation of their creed. Nor was this the teaching of a few
irresponsible persons. It was enforced by the whole Anglican Church.
"All parsons, vicars, curates, and all others having spiritual cure,"
were "straitly enjoined" to read these Homilies Sunday after Sunday
throughout the year in every church and chapel of the kingdom. And the
25th Article declares the second book of Homilies to con