My direct argument for the apostasy is completed. The facts of history have testified to the destruction of the church, to the apostasy from the Christian religion; and prophecy with a voice no less certain has testified to the same things. Footnotes 1. St. John xvi: 13. 2. Deut. xxviii. 3. Daniel ii. 4. Acts xx: 27-30. 5. II Tim. iv: 1-4. 6. II Peter ii: 1-3. 7. That is, he would not have them believe that the day of Messiah's glorious coming was at hand. 8. II Thess. 1-12. 9. Isaiah xxiv. 10. Gal. iii. 11. Heb. xiii: 20. 12. Isa. xxiv: 13, 14. 13. Isaiah xxiv: 20-23. 14. Isaiah xxiv: 20-23. CHAPTER VII. CATHOLIC ARGUMENTS--PROTESTANT ADMISSIONS. But what of the Catholic argument that there has been an unbroken line of authority from Peter to Leo XIII.; and running parallel with that line of authority a continuation of all that is essential to the Gospel, both in doctrine and ordinances? My reply is: "Of what avail is argument in the face of facts which contradict it? The facts of both history and prophecy are against the contention that there has been such a line of divine authority, accompanied by a continuation of all the essentials of the Gospel; and therefore, the argument is worthless. But that we may see how weak the argument is in itself, let us examine it. "Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost * * * And lo I am with you to the end of the world." [1] On this Catholic writers remark: "Now the event has proved * * * that the apostles themselves were only to live the ordinary term of man's life; therefore the commission of preaching and ministering together with the promise of the divine assistance, _regards the successors of the apostles, no less than the apostles themselves._ This proves that there must have been an uninterrupted series of such successors of the apostles, in every age since their time; that is to say, successors to their doctrines, to their jurisdiction, to their orders, and to their mission." [2] Cardinal Gibbons, commenting on the same passage says: "This sentence contains three important declarations: 1st, the presence of Christ with His Church, 'behold, I am with you;' 2nd, His constant presence without an interval of one day's absence, 'I am with you all days;' 3rd, His perpetual presence to the end of the world, and consequently the perpetual duration of the church, 'even to the consummation of the world.' Hence it follows that the true church must have existed from the beginning; it must have had not one day's interval of suspended animation, or separation from Christ, and must live to the end of time." [3]