THE FIREMAN'S DAUGHTER.

A large number of children were assembled at their lessons in a public school-room a few years since, when suddenly an alarm was given that the house was on fire. The children ran here and there in the greatest terror, seeking everywhere for the means of escape, and one of the pupil teachers was so terrified that she threw herself from the window of the room, which was on the second story, into the street below. In the midst of the general alarm, it was remarked that one of the little girls never attempted to escape, and, though excessively pale and trembling, never stirred from the form where she was seated. When the alarm was discovered to be unfounded and order was again restored, the school-mistress asked the little girl how it was that she had sat so still the whole time, while every one else had been trying to escape. "Please ma'am," said she, "it's because father is a fireman, and has often told me, if ever there was an alarm of fire, to sit quite still."-Newspaper.

This little story will show you very clearly what believing is, and contains also a useful lesson for every Christian. The little girl, though very frightened, knew it was better to sit still, and how did she know it? Because her father had told her so, and he was a fireman. Being her father, he loved her too much, and being a fireman, he was too clever to deceive her. She therefore never doubted the truth of what he told her. This was believing, but it was only human faith, because it was man whom she believed and not God.

Learn, my dear children, from the example of this little girl, to cherish in your hearts the truths which your Heavenly Father teaches you by his Church, and to follow as faithfully His instructions as the fireman's daughter did the warnings of her earthly father. In doing so you are exercising Divine Faith; since it is God whom you believe, God, who being your Father, would not deceive you, and cannot be mistaken, because he knows all things.

THE MAN BORN BLIND.

It is related in the Gospel, that when our Blessed Redeemer had cured the blind man at the pool of Siloe, the Pharisees through envy and jealousy persecuted him, who had been cured, and expelled him from their church or synagogue. At that time he did not yet know that our Blessed Lord was the Christ and the Son of God, but thought only that he was some good and holy prophet. When Jesus, however, had heard that they had cast him out, "he said to him, Dost thou believe in the Son of God? He answered and said, Who is he, Lord, that I may believe in him? And Jesus said to him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee. And he said, I believe, Lord; and falling down he adored him."-John ix.

Behold here a beautiful example of Divine Faith, and of that prompt and entire belief which is due to the word of God. The blind man, who already regarded our Blessed Lord as a prophet or messenger from God, no sooner heard from him that he was the Son of God himself, than he expressed his belief, fell down and adored him, and remained to listen to his Divine teaching.

Q. How are you to know what the things are which God has revealed?

A. By the testimony and authority of the Catholic Church, which Christ has appointed to teach all nations.

Almighty God, who has created us to know him, and has commanded us to worship him by the virtue of Faith, has not left us without the means of learning what those truths are which he requires us to believe. First of all, he spoke to Adam and Eve in the garden of paradise; then to the holy patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; afterwards to Moses on Mount Sinai; and later on he taught the Jews by the mouth of his inspired prophets and by the Jewish Church. But all this was only to prepare the way for his Divine Son, who came to teach us more fully by his life and public preaching, and to establish his

Church, which should continue to teach in his name till the end of time.

While our Blessed Lord was still upon earth, he himself taught Divine truth to mankind by word of mouth; but, as he was not to remain always visibly here below, it entered into the order of his Providence to commit to others the charge of continuing the same work, when He should have ascended into heaven. For this purpose he chose from among those who came to listen to his Divine teaching, twelve disciples, called Apostles, whom he ordained priests, and to whom he gave power to say Mass, administer the sacraments, and teach to all mankind what they had to believe, and what they had to do, in order to gain heaven. Among these Apostles he appointed one, viz., St. Peter, in his own place, to be the head of the others, and gave him authority to rule and govern His Church. Thus did our Blessed Lord found and establish his Church; and, as he established it not for the people of that time only, but for all future ages, he gave his Apostles power to ordain bishops and priests after them, as they had been ordained by Him, who should exercise the same powers, and continue the same work of teaching and administering the sacraments until the end of time.

You see then from this, my dear children, that there can be only one true religion, namely that founded by Jesus Christ. This is, as you know, the Catholic religion, to which you have the happiness to belong, since the Catholic Church alone comes down from the time of the Apostles, and acknowledges the Pope, the successor of the Apostle St. Peter, as its visible head. It is this Church, which, as your catechism says, gives testimony, that is to say, bears witness, as to what was taught by Christ and his Apostles; and it is her pastors, the bishops and. priests, the successors of the Apostles, who alone

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have authority from Christ to teach all nations in his name. "As the Father hath sent me," he said to his Apostles, "I also send you.* Going, teach ye all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things, whatsoever I have commanded you; and behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world."+

ST. JOHN AND ST. POLYCARP.

Our Blessed Lord predicted, before his Passion, that the days would quickly come, when false teachers would arise and make every effort to mislead his disciples. Even in the lifetime of the Apostles this prophecy was fulfilled, for we read in the life of St. John, the beloved disciple of our Lord, that he wrote his Gospel to refute the errors of Ebion and Cerinthus, who had attacked the doctrine of our Blessed Lord's Incarnation. It is related by St. Irenæus, who says he heard it from the mouth of St. Polycarp, one of St. John's disciples, that that holy Apostle one day entered one of the Roman baths, not knowing that the heretic or false teacher Cerinthus was at that very moment within the building. Being informed however of this circumstance, in order to inspire his disciples with a wholesome horror of false doctrine, which is so grievous a sin in the sight of God, he hastily fled away, saying, "Let us haste and begone, my brethren, lest the building, which contains Cerinthus, the enemy of the Truth, should fall upon our heads."

So Polycarp, St. John's disciple, showed the same horror of false teachers as his blessed master. Meeting one day in the streets of Rome the heretic Marcion, with whom he had in former times been very friendly, he passed him by without noticing him, Marcion, thinking that he had not observed him, came up and said to him, "Do you not know me, Polycarp ?" "Yes," replied the holy bishop, "I know you to be the first-born of Satan."

From these examples we see what the Apostles and Saints thought of those who presumed to call in question the testimony and authority of the Church of God.-Butler's Lives of the Saints.

THIRD INSTRUCTION.

CHAPTER II.-The Apostles' Creed.

First Article.

God the Father. Existence and Nature of God.

Q. What are the chief things which God has revealed? A. Those which are contained in the Apostles' Creed. You have already learnt, my dear children, that God has made you to know him, love him, and serve him; also, that it is Faith which teaches us how to know God, and that Faith is "believing on the word of God what he has revealed or made known to man." Now, it is by the Church, which his Divine Son founded and established on earth, that God makes known to us what those things are which he requires us to believe. The Apostles, who were the first pastors of the Church, received these truths from the lips of Jesus Christ himself, and have handed them down to their successors and to us. Some of the most important and necessary of these truths are contained in the Apostles' Creed, or "I believe," which was, there is little doubt, composed by the Apostles themselves. It is said that they made it before they separated to preach over the world, and that they agreed to teach it everywhere to those whom they converted, as a solemn act of faith. The room, or rather cave, where they are said to have assembled on this occasion, is still pointed out in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem, and is visited with great veneration. From that day to this, the Apostles' Creed has been used among Christians in every country and in every age. Even Protestants and Methodists make use of it, for they believe with us that it came