PREFACE. THIS li ttlo volume was writton under the influence of a sfmng conviction that the subject of which it treats is to-day, of all others, the most worthy of the afitention of the thoughtful, religious mind. The incontrovertible logic of facts is dai1y bringing into clearer light the truth which the Catholic Church has ever insisted on, viz that Christianity, to main tain its rightful hold on the reason and conscience of men, needs a living, infallible Witness to its truths and principles a Iiving, infallible Guardian of its purity and integrity, and a living, infallible Interpreter of its meaning. The most superficiaIobserver of the course of religious thought cannot fail to see that, among t, hose who reject the living, infallible Witness, Guardian, and Interpreter of Christianiv, there is a growing tendency to reject Christianity it seIE as a body of positive truths. Nor can it be otherwise with those who examine the grounds of their belief. When they reflect on the subject, they se and the more they reflect on it the clearer they see--that to believe. in a revelation which confessedly conbins trut, hs for the most part wholly incomprehensible to reason, md at the same time to refuse to believe in a living, infallible Witness, Guardian, and Interpreter of its3 contents and meaning is to occupy a ppsition which no one can successfully defend at the bar of reason. To believe in a supernatural revelation, and in a living, infallible Witnws, Guardian, and In terpreter of the same, is most reasonable but to believe in the one and to reject the other is logically indefensible. For what reasonable grounds can such a man have for his hlief in the specific truths of said redation How can he determine, with the certaint...