far from wrecking her, they only serve to settle her more solidly on her foundation — the immovable rock of Peter. Were even Satan with all his demon hosts to assault her she would easily withstand their attack, for by her side stands Satan's master, Jesus Christ. " Behold," He says to her, " behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world."
Brethren, it would seem almost superfluous to multiply arguments in behalf of so self-evident a truth. For, after all, why did Christ institute His Church? His purpose appears from His commission to His Apostles. " Go ye forth," He says, " into the whole world and preach the Gospel to every creature, and he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be condemned." As long, therefore, as there remains a soul on earth, so long must the Church continue to be the way by leading men to salvation, the truth by preaching the Gospel, and the life by administering the sacraments.
Brethren, since, as is evident, the Church Christ founded cannot be destroyed, and since it is His expressed desire that she should be as one fold under one shepherd, it is the sacred duty of every Christian to inquire, Where is that Church now? To establish the apostolicity of Protestantism its adherents are forced to the gratuitous assertion that the true Church in her progress through the ages has at times so denuded herself of her material parts as to have become practically invisible. Such a theory is preposterous. Being a society of men instituted for
