Thus is prompt, believing obedience followed by its reward. So shall we be rewarded if we obey the commandments of God with faith and confider.ce.

The offering of Melchisedech and the sacrifice of Isaac are not merely facts belonging to the Old Testament. They are figures or types, that is to say, occurrences calculated and intended to point out and prefigure future and more significant events. The later incident is much loftier and entirely spiritual. AH these symbols have a bearing on the mystery of the Redemption. Thus the offering of Melchisedech, king of Salem, is explained to us by St. Paul, the Apostle, where he says, "This Melchisedech was king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him

to whom also Abraham divided the tithes of all: who first indeed by interpretation is king of justice: and then also king of Salem, that is king of peace. Without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but likened unto the Son of God" (Hebrews vii. 1-3). Just as Melchisedech appears in sacred history and then disappears, without our knowing whence he came or whither he went, without our having heard of him previously or subsequently, or without any knowledge of his genealogy, so did the Saviour appear in the world and then disappear, and from all eternity He knew no genealogy. He is our King of justice and peace, for by His obedience we have been transformed from disobedient children to just men, and with our reconciliation to God we have again secured peace. As this Melchisedech, because he was a priest of the most high God, brought forth bread and wine, so does Jesus Christ, in His prerogative of eternal High Priest, offer Himself up to His heavenly Father under the forms

of bread and wine. Thus, to-day, in holy Mass, is literally fulfilled all that was prefigured in the sacrifice of Melchisedech. As Abraham for God's sake was ready to sacrifice his only son, so did God offer up His only Son for the sake of mankind.

As Isaac ascended Mount Moria, carrying on his own shoulders the wood for the fire of sacrifice, so did Our Saviour, with the wood of the cross on His shoulders, ascend Golgotha as a willing victim, who opened not His mouth, but was led as a sheep to the slaughter.

Thus Calvary became a second Moria, or mountain of view, for God looked down from heaven upon it and witnessed the painful obedience of His Son. Today He looks down reconciled on all men; and we gaze with reverence and devotion at Calvary, our altar and sanctuary, from which came salvation. Thus Isaac and Melchisedech are figures of Our Redeemer.

From Abraham to King David.

The blessing of God descended from Abraham to Isaac, who had two sons, Esau and Jacob. But Esau, although he was the first-born, was from his mother's womb rejected by God, while Jacob was chosen, because God saw that the rough disposition of Esau would render him unworthy to be the patriarch of a chosen people. And Esau was so really uncouth that he sold his birthright, and with it the blessing of God, to Jacob for a miserable mess of pottage. Thus Jacob was not only the choice of God, but also the rightful possessor of the promise.

Jacob had twelve sons. The envy of his brethren toward Joseph, the youngest, was the cause of his misfortune which, when afterward changed into his prosperity, led the simple shepherd-boy to the foot of

the throne of Egypt and placed him in a position not only to save his aged father, his brethren and their families from hunger, but also to assign a place to his family where they grew to be a nation, without coming in contact with other peoples, thus escaping the taint of idolatry. For Joseph, when presenting his father and brethren to the king, had previously instructed them that, to the question of the king regarding their avocations, they should answer that they were shepherds from their youth. They did so, and

as the Egyptians had an aversion for all shepherds, the king located them in a territory of their own in the land of Goshen, where they had for themselves a tract of most fruitful country, entirely detached from the other inhabitants of Egypt. Here they grew to be so numerous and powerful that they awakened the fears of the Egyptians. On this account they were afterward oppressed in many ways, and indeed were doomed to extinction, for the king ordered all their male children to be cast into the river and drowned. But when their distress was at its highest point God raised up a liberator for His people. Moses, who as an infant should have shared the fate of other Hebrew children, escaped through the miraculous interposition of Providence, and lived at the court of the Egyptian king.

One day, seeing an Egyptian abusing an Israelite, he slew him, and was consequently obliged to fly, and to spend forty years in the desert, where he tended sheep. There God appeared to him in the midst of a burning bush and sent him, with his brother Aaron, back to Egypt, to demand from the king the freedom of their people. When the king refused, Moses performed those miraculous deeds which we read of when studying the chapter on the omnipotence of God.

At last Moses led his people unharmed through the

Red Sea, while the pursuing Egyptians were drowned. During forty years the Israelites were kept wandering in the desert, where God fed them with the miraculous food called manna, and supplied them with water out of the rock. The whole journey was a continued succession of miracles, in which they could discern and acknowledge the powerful protection of their God.

But they also felt sometimes the power and severity of God's chastisements. Once they found fault with God and Moses, and clamored to be led back to Egypt because there they had flesh and onions to eat, while in the desert they had but manna for their food. Then God sent fiery serpents among them and many who were bitten died. Then they had recourse to Moses who, at the inspiration of God, erected a brazen serpent, and all who looked upon it were healed. In this and in many other ways God proved to them that He would protect them if they would adhere to the covenant, and punish them if they became disobedient.

The above described miracles are again so many symbols whereby the Hebrews were to be prepared for the still greater miracles that would be wrought by Christ. Thus the passage through the Red Sea prefigured the liberation of mankind from the tyranny of sin through the crimson blood of Jesus Christ. Like the Israelites of old, so we, too, shall be rescued by the blood of Christ if we believe. "By faith," says St. Paul, "they passed through the Red Sea" (Hebrews xi. 29).

The manna was a figure of the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar. As the manna was a miraculous food descending from heaven to nourish the Israelites while they were in the desert, and until they reached

the Promised Land, so is the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar a miraculous food for our souls coming down from heaven to be our nourishment in the desert of this life, until we shall be set free and be permitted to enter the land of glory where faith ceases and seeing begins. Hence it was that our blessed Lord began also to speak of the manna when He promised the Holy Eucharist to the Jews, and in the wonderful food of the manna He showed to them what was possible to the power of God.

The water brought forth from the dry rock by miracle was a figure of the living water which we receive from Jesus Christ, the living rock, namely, the word of God. For Christ said to the Samaritan woman, "He that shall drink of the water that I will give him, shall not thirst forever; but the water that I will give him shall become in him a fountain of water springing up into life everlasting" (John iv. 13, 14).

Finally, the brazen serpent is a figure of Our Saviour raised upon the cross, by whom all will be healed in the necessities of their souls if with faith and confidence they look upon Him as the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world, as He Himself declares in the words, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in Him may not perish, but may have life everlasting" (John iii. 14, 15).

But the passage through the Red Sea, as well as the feeding with manna, and the water from the rock, all teach us, in so far as they are figures, that what serves to the salvation of some serves to the condemnation of others. The sufferings of Christ, the Holy Sacraments, and the word of God, exercise a salutary influence on those who cooperate with them, while they condemn others though using these same means