not to do anything that you would not wish God to behold! How thoughtful and attentive should this make you at your prayers! how kind and good-natured with your companions! how modest and wellbehaved when alone or with others! how careful to put away any temptation that presents itself! These few words, God sees me, should sink deep into your hearts, and you should call them to mind whenever you are tempted to sin, according to the example of holy David. Listen to his words:

"And I said, 'Perhaps darkness shall cover me, and night shall be my light in my pleasures; '

"But darkness shall not be dark to Thee, and night shall be light as the day. The darkness thereof and the light thereof are alike to Thee.” *

ST. THAIS THE PENITENT.

St. Thais, who, like St. Mary of Egypt, from a sinner became a saint through the perfect practice of penance, had the misfortune, in her youth, to be led away into a criminal and abandoned life. The holy abbot Paphnucius, hearing of her sad condition, and of the scandal given to others by her wicked conduct, was inspired by God to undertake her conversion. He accordingly visited her in disguise, and asked to speak to her privately. She showed him into a room, where she said they would meet with no interruption. Paphnucius, however, asked if she had not a more retired apartment. She conducted him to one, but he expressed himself still dissatisfied, asking if there was not a room where they would be out of sight and hearing of everyone. "I assure you," replied Thais, “no room can be more retired; no man can possibly see or hear us. "And what of God?" said Paphnucius. "Is there no place where we can escape altogether from his All Seeing Eye?" "Alas! no," replied Thais, casting herself at the feet of Paphnucius, whom she now perceived to be a servant of God. The holy man hereupon spoke to her so forcibly on the presence of God and the terrors of the Divine judgment, that Thais, detesting her wicked life, made a bonfire of all her worldly ornaments, and,

*Ps. cxxxviii. 11, 12.

retiring into the desert, spent the rest of her life in the practice of the most austere penance.-Lives of the Fathers of the Desert.

THE BROTHER AND SISTER.

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A little boy and girl, named James and Anne, being left one day alone in the house, grew tired of play, and began to think of what they should next do to amuse themselves. "Come," said James, "let us go and look for something nice to feast upon." "I will go very willingly," said Anne, "if you will take me somewhere where no one will see us." "Very well," said James; "we will go to the pantry where the milk is kept and drink the cream." No," said his sister, "I cannot go there, for there is a man working in the street, and he will be sure to see us." Well, then," said James, come with me to the kitchen. There are some nice pots of jam there for making tarts, and we will take some.' "But don't you know," said Anne, "that our neighbour's daughter sits sewing at the window, and she can easily see into our kitchen." Come, then," said James, "to the cellar; there are apples there, and no one can see us in that dark hole." "Oh! my dear brother," said Anne, "there is an Eye that can pierce the thickest walls and see into the darkest places." James blushed, and, turning to his sister, said, "You are right, Anne; God is everywhere present, and we cannot go out of his sight. I don't want now to do what I asked you to do five minutes ago. Our Mother Mary and our guardian Angels have been watching over us, to preserve us from sin. Come, Anne, let us thank them for putting into your mind what you have said to me."

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Anne was now quite happy, and gave her brother a picture with the Eye of God surrounded by rays, and these words beneath :

Thy eye, O God, is fixed on me;
May mine be ever turned to thee.

James kept it carefully, and looked at it whenever he was tempted to do wrong. God then gave him grace to overcome the temptation, and he grew up a virtuous and happy boy.

Q. Has God any body?

A. No; God is a pure spirit.

Almighty God has no body, for he is a pure spirit; that is to say, he is a spirit only, and not partly a spirit and partly a body, as we are. You see, then,

that the word pure, in this place, does not mean clean or white, as it often does; but it means "not mixed with anything else," as we say of water when it is not mixed with wine or any other liquid, that it is pure water; but when it is mixed, we say that it is no longer pure. Now, our souls are not pure spirits, in this sense, because they are mixed up, as it were, with our bodies; but the Angels are, because they have no bodies.

As Almighty God, then, is a pure spirit, it follows that we cannot have any true picture of God, because he has no form or body to be painted; but we may have a picture of God made man, because then he had the form and body of man. And whenever God is painted in any form, or spoken of as having one, it is either because he has sometime taken that form to show himself to man, as, for example, the form of a dove, or it is to make us understand better something about God; as, when God is represented by an eye looking down on the earth, it is to remind us that God knows and sees everything that passes in the world.

FIFTH INSTRUCTION.

First Article-Continued.

The Unity and Trinity

of God.

Q. Are there more Gods than one?
A. No; there is but one God.

There is but one God. This is the first and most necessary truth for a Christian to be instructed in. It is one of those four truths, without the knowledge

and belief of which, it is probable that no one can be

saved. believe

In like manner,

it is necessary to know and

That there are three Persons in this one God; That God the Son became man and died to redeem us; and

That God will one day reward the good and punish the wicked.

As the knowledge of these truths is so strictly necessary, it is a great charity, my dear children, to teach them to any one who does not know them. You perhaps think that there is no one so ignorant as not to know this much; but, alas! there are many, even at the present day, who are ignorant of some one or other of these truths.

There is, then, one God, and only one God, who made us and all things. This truth Almighty God made known, first of all, to Adam and Eve. But soon after the fall of our first parents, when men began to increase and multiply, and, at the same time, to commit all kinds of wickedness, they forgot what God had taught them about Himself, and began to adore a number of false gods, whom they made or fancied for themselves. Thus they had Jupiter, whom they called god of heaven; Neptune, god of the sea; Pluto, god of the infernal regions, and many others. Then they had goddesses, as well as gods, such as Minerva, goddess of wisdom; Venus, of beauty, &c. Some of these gods were adored in one country, and some in another; and, even at the present day, there are false gods and goddesses like these worshipped in some parts of the world. Yet, if men were not willingly blind, they might easily see that it is absurd to suppose that there are many gods, since to be God is to be Lord and Master of all. Now, there cannot be two lords and masters of everything; for if each were master of everything,

he would be master of the other also, so that neither of them could be God.

For they could not any evil in the world,

We read in the early history of the Church of a body of heretics, called Manichees, who taught that there are two Gods, one the author of good, and the other the author of evil. understand how there could be if it were all the work of an infinitely Good and Perfect God. But they forgot that sin, which is the only real evil there is in the world, is not the work of God, but of man himself, who, when he sins, abuses his free will, which God has given him to enable him to merit heaven.

WHO MADE THE DEVILS.

"Who made the Angels?" asked a priest one day, when he was catechising a number of children. "God," they all answered in a moment. "And who made the devils ?" he continued. They were silent, and looked at each other, for no one liked to say that God made the devils. At length a little boy ventured to speak: "Father," said he, "God made the Angels, and the Angels made themselves devils."— Guillois.

Q. Are there more Persons than one in God?

A. Yes, in God there are three Persons; God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost.

Q. Are these three Persons, then, three Gods?

A. No; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, are all one and the same God.

In God there are three Persons; God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost;-and yet there are not three Gods, but One. This is the second of those four great truths, the knowledge and belief of which is necessary for salvation. The first is, that there is only One God; and the second, that in this one God there are three Persons. These three Persons are sometimes called the first, second, and