,
now gloriously reigning. We refer to the mystical (and one might
almost say the miraculous) path trodden by the Popes, each Pontiff
carrying in turn, and then handing on to his successor, the glorious
torch of divine truth. Though clouds may gather and thunders may roll,
and tempests may rage, and though the surrounding darkness may grow
deeper and deeper, that supernatural light has never failed, nor grown
dim, nor refused to shed its beams and to illuminate the way.[3]
The continual persistency of the Papacy, to whom this steadily burning
torch of truth has been entrusted, is unquestionably one of the most
certain, as it is one of the most startling facts in the whole of
history. It stares us full in the face. It arrests the attention of
even the least observant. It puzzles the historian. It taxes the
explanatory powers of the philosopher, and will remain to the end, a
permanent difficulty to the scoffer and to the sceptic, and to all
those who have not faith. As a fact in history, it is unique: forming
an extraordinary exception to the law of universal change: a portent,
and a standing miracle.
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