FIRST CONFERENCE. OF THE NEED OF A TEACHING CHURCH, AND ITS DISTINCTIVE CHARACTER. MY LORD, (1) GENTLEMEN, CHRISTIANITY is as old as the world; for it consists, essentially, in the idea of a God, Creator, Legislator and Saviour, and in a life conformable to that idea. Now God manifested himself to the human race from the first under the threefold relation of Creator, Legislator, and Saviour, and from the commencement, from Adam to Noah, from Noah to Abraham, from Abraham to Moses, from Moses to Jesus Christ, there have been men who lived conformably with this idea of God. Three times before Jesus Christ, God manifested himself to men in this threefold character: by Adam, the first father of the human race, by Noah, the second father of the human race, and by Moses, the lawgiver of a people whose influence and existence have mixed them up with all the destinies of humanity. There exists, however, a fact not less remarkable, namely, that Christianity only commenced its reign in the world eighteen hundred years ago, by Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ appears to have been the first who brought light into the world: before him, as said Saint John, "it (1) Monseigneur de Quélen, Archbishop of Paris. shined in darkness." (1) But what is the cause of this? How is it that Christianity, vanquished in the world before Jesus Christ, has been victorious in it since his coming? How is it that Christianity, before Jesus Christ, "did not hinder the nations from following their ways," (2) and that Jesus Christ, on the contrary, was able to utter that saying of eternal victory, "In mundo pressuram habebitis, sed confidite, ego vici mundum?" (3) What new thing is it then that Jesus Christ has accomplished? Is it the sacrifice on Calvary? The Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of men "was slain from before the foundations of the world." (4) Saint John witnesses to this for us in the book of his visions. Is it the Gospel? The Gospel, after all, is but the word of God, and that word, after many trials, did not change the world. Is it the sacraments? The sacraments are only the channels of grace, and the grace of God, although less abundant, without doubt, before Jesus Christ, has nevertheless not ceased continually to flow to men. What new thing, then, has Jesus Christ accomplished? By what means has he secured the eternal duration of the victory obtained on Calvary? Listen to his own words, he will say them to you: "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against her." (5) This is the work which was to vanquish for ever hell and the world, which was every day to renew the sacrifice of the Saviour, to maintain and diffuse his doctrines, to distribute his grace! We come, Gentlemen, to speak to you of this work, of this Church which is "the pillar and ground of truth;" (6) and from to-day we shall fathom this vast subject of meditation, by endeavouring to show you the need of a Church destined to the universal and perpetual instruction of the human race. Called to address you, not by my own will, but by that (1) Gospel, ch. 1, v. 5. (2) Acts, ch. 14, v. 15. (3) St. John, ch. 16, v. 33. (4) Revelations, ch. 13, v. 8. (5) St. Mark, ch. 16, v. 18. (6) 1st Epistle to Timothy, ch. 3, v. 13. of the venerable pontiff who occupies for me the place of God, do not expect, Gentlemen, that I shall speak to you in high-flown or subtle language. If you are come here to seek vain figures of speech you have deceived yourselves. Ah! let the eloquence of time perish. I pray to Heaven for the eloquence only of eternity. I pray only for the truth and charity of Jesus Christ; and if the success of grace accompanies these discourses, it will prove that now, as in times past, God makes use of the weak to confound the strong. Lord! eleven years have passed since, prostrate upon the pavement of this stately temple, I divested myself of the embellishments of the world to put on the apparel of thy priests. I came to seek the blessings which thou hast promised to those who serve thee, in anticipation of the time when I should be sent to others. Thou hast given me these blessings, enable me now to communicate them to my brethren! Come to the help of thy servant! Set a watch on my lips, to the end that they may be faithful to my heart, as my heart is faithful to thy law. I will commence by stating an incontrovertible fact. Man is a Being subject to instruction. Why have I undertaken to address you in this place? If I look around me I perceive signs of all ages, hair which has become white in the watchings of learning, features which bear traces of the fatigue of combats, others which are animated by the sweet emotions of literary studies, of young men also who have but just plucked the third flower of life. Tell me, you who are assembled here, what do you ask of me? What do you desire from me? The truth! You have it not then within you? You seek it then, you wish to receive it, you are come here to be taught? Whilst you were infants, you had a mother: it was upon her bosom that you received your first education. She enlightened you first in the order of sensations, by continually directing you in your relations with external objects. Moreover, by the long and laborious transmission of language, she laid open within you the source of your |