truth as revealed by Christ, their glaring divisions, irreconcilable
differences, and internal dissensions emphatically prove that the
truth is not in them: and that they have been built, not on the rock,
but on the shifting sand, and are the erections, not of God, but of
feeble, fickle men.

On the other hand, the Catholic Church, amid a thousand sects,
resembles the genuine acorn among the thousand imitations. Not only
does she alone possess the whole truth; but she alone can stand up and
actually prove this claim to the entire world, by pointing defiantly
at her marvellous and miraculous unity--a unity so conspicuous, and so
striking, and so absolutely unique, that even the hostile and bigoted
Protestant press can sometimes scarcely refrain from bearing an
unwilling testimony to it.

We might give many instances of this, and quote from many sources, but
let the following extract from London's leading journal serve as an
example. It is no other paper than the _Times_, which makes the
following admission on occasion of the Vatican Council which opened in
1869: "Seven hundred Bishops, more or less, representing all
Christendom, were seen gathered round one altar and one throne,
partaking of the same Divine Mystery, and rendering homage, by turns,
to the same spiritual authority and power. As they put on their
mitres, or took them off, and as they came to the steps of the altar,
or the foot of the common spiritual Father, it was IMPOSSIBLE
not to feel the UNITY and the power of the Church which they
represented" (16th Dec., 1869). Here, then, is the most influential
journal certainly of Great Britain, perhaps of the world, proclaiming
to its readers far and wide, not simply that the Roman Catholic Church
is one, but that her oneness is of such a sterling quality, and of so