been, has become now one of the truisms of thought which it is detrimental to ignore.
A very good illustration of this principle is found in the record before us in the answer of the Jews, who had returned from their exile in Babylon, and were rebuilding the temple of God at Jerusalem. To the enemies who sought to impede their work they made their reply in the words I have brought before you.
Their work, they said, was no new work. They were building on the old foundations, carrying on the work which was begun centuries before. "We are the servants of the most high God, and build the house which was builded these many years ago, which the great King of Israel builded and set up, and since that time it has been building; and yet it is not finished."
It was the two-fold thought of the glory of the past and the possibility of the future that beckoned them to their task. The undertaking in itself was disheartening. It drew tears from the eyes of the elders as they remembered the glory of the former temple, but they took heart of grace as they realized the power of God, and remembered that they were building the house which had been building many years, and which was not finished.
As we look at the Christianity of today, its development, its widespread influence; as we see the verification of the Master's parable of the mustard seed, we can only explain it by remembering that each century has brought its contribution, that the house which we are now building, the Church of Christ of to-day, is the same house which the apostles and martyrs of the first centuries builded. There have been re-adaptation and accommodations, but under God it is the same Church of which Christ said to St. Peter, "The gates of hell shall not prevail against it."
The recognition of the principle of continuity, of the linking of what is, with that which has gone before, is especially characteristic of the branch of the Catholic Church to which we belong. It stands on the ancient foundations. It
