The monk turned the leaves of the book awhile, and then paused at an open page.

“On earth, as we have seen, the blessed Saviour intrusted His truth to the care of chosen men.  Now let us see how He acted when, ascended into the heavens, He looked down upon earth, and directed from thence the affairs of this world.  Did He then ordain that a written testimony was to be prepared and sent forth into all lands?  No.  What we learn then is that when He ascended into the heavens and received and gave gifts to men, He gave to them apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers—­a living ministry again, a fourfold living ministry—­that by this living ministry, surely typified in the vision of St. John by the four living creatures with the fourfold head, the saints were to be perfected, the unity of the faith preserved, and the body of Christ edified and kept in its full growth and perfection till He come Himself to claim the Bride.”

Edred’s eyes were full of vivid intelligence.  He followed in the Latin tongue the words as Brother Emmanuel spoke them, and looking up he asked wistfully: 

“But where are they now, the apostles and prophets, the evangelists and pastors?  Have we got them with us yet?”

“We have at least the semblance of them; doubtless but for our own sins and shortcomings we should have a fuller ministry—­a fuller outpouring of the water of life through those four God-given channels by which the Church is to be fed.  We have the apostolic office ever in exercise in our spiritual head at Rome.  St. Peter has left us a successor, and his throne shall never be empty so long as the world lasts.  Now and again the prophetic fire bursts forth in some holy man who has fasted and prayed until the veil betwixt the seen and the unseen has grown thin.  Would to God there was more light of prophecy in the earth!  Perchance in His grace and mercy He will outpour His Spirit once again upon the earth, and gather about his Holiness a band of men lighted by fire from above.  In our wandering friars, ever going forth to the people with the word of the gospel, we have the office of evangelist in exercise; and the priest who guides the flock and dwells in the midst of the people of the land, surely he is the pastor, the keeper of the sheep.  And thus we see that our blessed Saviour’s gifts to men have been preserved all through these long centuries, and are still amongst us in greater or less degree; and we can well understand that having given us these channels, by which His vineyard is to be watered, by which the living waters are to flow forth, it is not His will that every man should be his own evangelist or pastor, feeding himself at will, drinking, perhaps to surfeit, of the precious waters which should be conveyed to him through the appointed channel, but that he should be under dutiful obedience and submission, and that thus and thus only may unity and peace be preserved, and the body grow together into its perfect stature and fullness.”