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of Jesus, the most holy One, without that reverence which should animate the heart when the name is on the lips. This sacred name is also a dreadful name for the enemy of our salvation, who was overcome by the same Jesus Christ on the cross, and who flees terror-stricken as the devils in the possessed man fled and trembled before the Lord.

When uttered with devotion the holy name of Jesus is our shield, with which we defend ourselves against the attacks of the evil spirit. Therefore call often and with devotion on the name of Jesus, that you may light up in your heart the fire of holy charity, more especially in time of temptation, in order to remain faithful to Him who has said, "Have confidence, I have overcome the world" (John xvi. 33), and who promises the crown of life to all those who persevere when He says, "To him that overcometh, I will give the hidden manna, and a new name (Apocalypse ii. 17).

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When the Psalmist, in Psalms xxxiii. 2, says, "I will bless the Lord at all times, His praise shall be always in my mouth," these words refer as well to the Father as to the Son, who to the benefit of creation and existence has added the grace of redemption. Hence it is that we pronounce the holy name of Jesus in order to break forth in joyous thanksgiving. Christians remind one another of the goodness of their Saviour when they say to one another, “Praised be Jesus Christ." This mode of salutation is an outward mark of Catholic Christians, akin to the sign of the cross. In a most marked manner it expresses outwardly what every Christian should feel inwardly, while the response, "Forever and ever. Amen," expresses the sentiments aroused by the salutation.

This mode of greeting, far from being irreverent, as those to whom the holy One is least holy pretend, is a

continual act of worship to the Lord, in which the homage of the Church on earth is united with the worship of the saints in heaven. It is the homage of the Church, for she has approved it and made it her own. She recommends it to the faithful, to whom she grants indulgences if they pronounce it, not thoughtlessly, but with pious sentiments; thus she grants an indulgence of fifty days to those who make it and respond, and a plenary indulgence at the hour of death to all those who practised this pious salutation during their lifetime.

Beside all this the Church, in order to still farther glorify the sacred name, has established a special festival known as the Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus, which occurs on the second Sunday after Epiphany. It is kept by all good Christians in order that men may know that this is a mysterious name, a name that contains within itself the whole mystery of the Incarnanation, redemption, sanctification, and justification.

V. JESUS OF NAZARETH IS THE PROMISED REDEEMER.

Prophecies Concerning the Time of His Coming.

IN the whole history of the world there has never been a public person who engaged the attention, whether of his contemporaries or of succeeding posterity, so universally and so profoundly as did Jesus of Nazareth. Comparing His life on earth with all that had been foretold of Him for thousands of years, He corresponds exactly in every particular with the character and history assigned to Him from the earliest times. We have no other alternative than to admit that Jesus of Nazareth is the promised Messias, or that the Messias

has not come at all. expect the Messias, their most distinguished teachers having long admitted that all the conditions and signs have been fulfilled that were to precede the Redeemer. There are three special prophecies whence we learn that the signs have been verified and fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

Now even the Jews no longer

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1. He came at a time of universal peace. In striking language the prophet Micheas foretold this period. 'Every man shall sit under his vine, and under his fig-tree, and there shall be none to make them afraid " (Micheas iv. 4). This period of general peace occurred only in the reign of Cæsar Augustus, under whom Christ was born. Neither before nor after that time was there any such period of tranquillity.

2. He entered into the second temple. When the second temple was built it was so far inferior to the first that those who had seen the former wept with disappointment. But then the prophet Aggeus predicted, "The Desired of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory. . . . Great shall be the glory of this last house more than of the first " (Aggeus ii. 8, 10). This second temple has been destroyed and none other has ever taken its place. All efforts to rebuild the second temple were rendered futile by the power of God.

3. Daniel's weeks of years had elapsed. "Know thou therefore and take notice: that from the going forth of the word, to build up Jerusalem again, unto Christ the prince, there shall be seven weeks, and sixty-two weeks: and the street shall be built again, and the walls in troublesome times. And after sixtytwo weeks Christ shall be slain: and the people that shall deny Him shall not be His. And a people with their leader that shall come, shall destroy the city and the sanctuary: and the end thereof shall be waste,

and after the end of the war, the appointed desolation. And He shall confirm the covenant with many in one week and in the half of the week the victim and the sacrifice shall fail: and there shall be in the Temple the abomination of desolation: and the desolation shall continue even to the consummation, and to the end" (Daniel ix. 25-27).

Now the Jews obtained permission to rebuild their Temple in the twentieth year of the reign of Artaxerxes (2 Esdras xi.), or in the year of the world 3550. After sixty-nine weeks of years, for so they were intended to be measured, came the year 4033, the thirtieth year in the life of Christ, when He began His public ministry. His death occurs exactly in the middle of the seventieth year-week.

4. The prophecy of Jacob: "The scepter shall not be taken away from Juda, nor a ruler from his thigh, till He come that is to be sent, and He shall be the expectation of nations" (Genesis xlix. 10). The scepter was taken from Juda. Herod, who ruled over the Jews, was a heathen from Idumea who had had himself circumcised. Thus it was that the prediction of Jacob came to be fulfilled, and it was time for the Desired of nations to appear.

THIRD ARTICLE OF THE CREED.

"Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary."

I. "WHO WAS CONCEIVED BY THE HOLY GHOST."-THE INCARNATION OF

JESUS CHRIST.

THE third article of the Apostles' Creed teaches us that the Son of God became man, that is to say, by the operation of the Holy Ghost He took a body and a soul

like unto ours. Hence this article teaches us the fundamental dogma and mystery of Christianity. It teaches us what was predestined from all eternity in the decrees of the adorable Trinity for the salvation of the human race, what was done by the Son of God for us poor sinners, and the great and wonderful things accomplished through the intervention of the Holy Spirit. So enormous was the guilt incurred by the human race through Adam's sin that man alone was unable and incompetent to atone for it. All men were tainted with sin, no just man could be found, for Adam's sin reached all. Were it possible to find a man who could voluntarily take upon himself for others the guilt of others, that man would first have to be created by a miracle of the divine mercy, for of all those born according to the natural order each and every one fell under the penalty.

If such infinite guilt were to be assumed by any substitute or representative he must needs be an infinite being; but, as outside of God there is no such infinite being, the human race would have perished for all eternity if the Son of God had not, out of love for us, taken upon Himself the work of redemption, the cleansing of sin, and the punishment it had duly and properly entailed upon mankind. Hence the Son of God laid aside the garments of His majesty and became man, "taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and in habit found as a man (Philippians ii. 7). He assumed a human body and a human soul, and united His divinity with His humanity, without mingling the divine with the human. He took a body that we might be able to see Him, a true body that He might be able to suffer, a real human soul to enable Him to feel all anxiety and grief. This is the unspeakable mystery of the Incarnation of the

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