is Napoleon, "King of Rome"? And where to-morrow will be Victor Emmanuel," King of Italy"? All these occasional forms of rebellion, revolution, and disorder, which spring from the will of man, have a momentary success, and in a little while are not. God, with a divine scorn and with a majestic indignation, smites them as small as the dust of the summer threshing-floor, and the winds of His derision sweep them from the face of the earth.

But the Church of God is divine, and the principles of the Church of God are His revelation and His providence-His revealed will and His Divine action. The Church of God has no need to recast and recreate itself. It never changes its character; it never puts off its old form for new combinations. It was never otherwise than it is; and what it is, it ever shall be. The Pontiff, who now reigns from the Apostolic See over the Universal Church of God, stands alone firm and changeless in the mutations and instability of all around. He answers, as his predecessors have answered before him, "Non volumus, non possumus, non debemus"-"We will not, we cannot, we ought not." In those three words Pius VII. refused to make cession of one jot or tittle of the right which God had given to him. He held them not for himself alone-he held them for God and for the Church: not as owner and lord, but as trustee and steward. What was not his own, he

could not give away. That which God had intrusted to him, God would require of him. Therefore he would not, could not, ought not to yield, come what might. He appealed to the Divine providence of God, and the hand of God scattered his antagonists. In a little while the Vicar of Jesus Christ was found once more reigning upon his throne, tranquil and sovereign as before.

In like manner in our day Pius IX. has refused, with a constancy and a steadfastness which this proud world calls obstinacy and stubbornness, to make concession or compromise. In like manner he has appealed to the providence of God, and his appeal has gone up to heaven. When the prophet Elias appealed to the God of Israel, the priests of Baal cut themselves with knives, and leaped upon the altar ; so now the Priest and Prophet of the Christian law, standing upon the tomb of the Apostles, has appealed to God, and his voice has gone up on high. As yet there is silence in heaven. "There is no voice, and none to answer." The world is full of triumphant joy at its success, so near to come. But there is more power in the aged man who stands upon the tomb of the Apostles, and lifts the Holy Sacrifice to the four quarters of the world which it has redeemed, than in the pride of life, and the vigour of intellect, and the strong tide of blood and will which direct the nations against him.

Whe

The other day it seemed an unequal contest; he in his lonely weakness, right alone on his side, all might against him. Cunning, and diplomacy, and the confederate interests of kingdoms and statesall against him in array. It was but a week ago when this mighty power was wielded by a hand thought to be so unerring that the men of this world have been telling us for the last three days that a great light has gone out in the midst of us. ther the voice has come in answer, I know not. Church of God does not pursue its antagonists beyond the grave. The sacred procession bearing the last Sacraments goes to the dwelling of the rich man as well as of the poor, of the disobedient as well as of the faithful. It seeks out the dying penitent, whether it be a poor daughter fallen as Mary Magdalene, or a proud son who lifted up his heel against the Church of God.

The

Of the future we know nothing; into the unseen world we cannot enter. But of one thing I am sure. For the last three days there is no man who believes in the providence of God, no man who has read the history of the last twelve years, but has felt with a silent fear that there is a Will above all human wills directing this great conflict. The prophet Daniel tells us that in the latter days the God of Heaven shall set up a kingdom; and he adds, Regnum ejus alteri populo non tradetur,—“His kingdom shall not

be delivered over to another people.

"* No other shall

ever possess it; no other shall ever conquer it; but it will break to pieces, and it will destroy all other kingdoms,-Sed ipsum stabit in æternum," but it shall stand for ever."

*Daniel ii. 44.

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LECTURE II.

'Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and so to enter into His glory?"—ST. LUKE xxiv. 26.

EVEN the loving and faithful hearts of the disciples were so amazed and darkened by the Passion of Jesus, that they knew not that His kingdom was accomplishing itself. When they looked for the splendour and the majesty of His power, they met with His humiliations and His Cross; and therefore they did not know Him when He manifested Himself to them. They looked for Him in one form, and He showed Himself in another. They said, "We hoped that it was He that should have redeemed Israel," and now behold He is crucified, and even the place of His burial is empty. And our Divine Lord answered them, "O foolish, and slow of heart to believe in all things which the prophets have spoken. Ought not Christ to have suffered these things?" Was there not a law of necessity? Was it not predestinated? Was it not foretold? Was there not intrinsic fitness that Christ should suffer these things, " and so,"-by this way, and by no other, by the way of suffering, and not by the way of glory,-should enter into His kingdom?

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