a vineyard whose laborers are not to be paid off until the evening of time; as a net cast into the sea and not to be drawn forth until the morning of eternity. In the first and second Epistles to the Corinthians we find the Church spoken of now as the body and again as the spouse of Christ. But shall Christ's body perish? Or shall Truth itself prove faithless to His spouse? The Church is a real body. From Christ, the head, the vital force, the Holy Ghost, flows through all the members. As long, therefore, as the head is united to the body, and this quickening Spirit continues to flow, so long must the body continue to live. But Christ Himself in His last discourse, promised that the Spirit should dwell in His Church forever, saying: " When I go, I will ask the Father and He shall give you another Paraclete that He may abide with you forever." The Church is the spouse of Christ, and as such He gives her the very Spirit of love as a pledge of everlasting fidelity. Again, in the sixteenth chapter of St. Matthew Christ says to St. Peter: " I say to thee that thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build My Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against her." From within and from without, therefore, the Church is indestructible. In the gospel of St. Luke Christ uses the same simile: "He that heareth the word of God and keepeth it is like to one who builds his house upon a rock. For the winds and the rains come and beat upon that house, but they shake it not, for it is founded on a rock." So, too, the storms of error and bigotry may break upon the Church, but
