Page:The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII.djvu/368

362 should have confided to him a great and important mis- sion unless he were furnished with the means of properly carrying it out, for this reason Christ promised that He would send the Spirit of Truth to His disciples to remain with them forever. But if I go I will send Him (the Paraclete) ''to you. .". . But when He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will teach you all truth. And I will ask the Father, and He shall give you another Paraclete, that He may abide with you forever, the Spirit of Truth. He shall give testimony of Me, and you shall give testimony. Hence He commands that the teaching of the apostles should be religiously accepted and piously kept as if it were His own — He who hears you hears Me, he who despises you despises Me. Wherefore the apostles are ambassadors of Christ as He is the ambassador of the Father. As the Father sent Me so also I send you.'' Hence as the apostles and disciples were bound to obey Christ, so also those whom the apostles taught were, by God's command, bound to obey them. And, therefore, it was no more allowable to repudiate one iota of the apostles' teaching than it was to reject any point of the doctrine of Christ Himself.

Truly the voice of the apostles, when the Holy Ghost had come down upon them, resounded throughout the world. Wherever they went they proclaimed themselves the ambassadors of Christ Himself. By whom (Jesus Christ) we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith in all nations for His name. And God makes known their divine mission by numerous miracles. But they going forth preached everywhere: the Lord working withal, and confirming the word with signs that followed. But what is this word? That which comprehends all things, that which they had learnt from their Master; because they openly and publicly declare that they cannot help speaking of what they had seen and heard.