You see, then, what I meant when I said that mysteries are of advantage to us. They enter into our probation. They are the occasion of our practising the noble virtue of faith. They are a test of moral character. Nay more, by calling into action the best principles of our nature they exalt our character. You know how it is in the world when some new and great social question is started--how everyone is affected by it. The indolent take their opinions about it from others. The prejudiced and interested judge of it according to prejudice and interest. {405} Men of principle decide it on grounds of morality. But everyone's position is in some way changed by it. So it is with the gospel. Its preaching throws men into new attitudes. "_The Cross of Christ is to them that perish foolishness, but to them that are saved it is the power of God._" [Footnote 143] The proud and the perverse stumble at this stumbling-stone, but men of "good will," the humble, and the loving, find it a precious corner-stone on which their faith has a solid foundation, and on which they are built up to everlasting life. So it was in the time of Christ. After our Lord had been preaching for some time, He inquired of the apostles into the effects of His preaching: "Whom do men say that the Son of Man is?" And they said: "_Some say that thou art John the Baptist, and others Elias, and others Jeremias, or one of the prophets_." "_But whom do you say that I am?_" [Footnote 144] --and Faith, undaunted by difficulties, answers by the mouth of St. Peter: "_Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God_." On another occasion, after He had performed the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves, as we read in St. John's Gospel, He taught the people the doctrine of the Real Presence in Holy Communion: "_Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His blood, you shall not have life in you._" [Footnote 145] Now, what happened? Many were offended and walked with Him no more. It was too great a mystery. "_How can this man give us his flesh to eat?_" they said. And our Lord turned to His disciples and said--it seems to me I can see His anxious countenance, and hear His tones of sorrow as He asks the question--"_Will you also go away?_" And again Peter answered on behalf of all: "_To whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of Eternal Life_." As much as to say, "Thou art the Truth; no mystery at Thy mouth can deter us." [Footnote 143: I. Cor. i. 18.] [Footnote 144: St. Matt. xvi. 13.] [Footnote 145: St. John vi. 54.] {406} So it has been, also, throughout the history of the Church. What are all the heresies that have arisen but the scandal which the world has taken at the Christian mysteries, and what are all the decisions of the Church but acts of loyalty and submission to Him who is "the Faithful and True Witness"?