world. All souls are concerned by what St. Paul says of the widows, "She that liveth in pleasures, is dead while she is living " (1 Timothy v. 6).

7. The gift of the fear of the Lord is the faculty of reflecting with salutary fear on the divine chastisements, that we may be deterred from sin. To this St. Paul alludes when he says, "With fear and trembling work out your salvation" (Philippians ii. 12).

The fruits of the Holy Ghost are those virtues which a man acquires when he corresponds with the gifts of the Holy Ghost. These fruits St. Paul states to be twelve. When writing to the Galatians, v. 22, he says, "The fruit of the Spirit is charity (toward God and our neighbor); joy (in God); peace (with ourselves and our neighbor); patience (in trials); benignity (amiable deportment); goodness (of heart); longanimity (endurance); mildness (toleration of wrong); faith (in the service of God); modesty (in sentiment); continency (voluntary chastity for love of God); chastity (purity in thoughts, words and works)." The life of every saint manifests these fruits of the Holy Ghost, for as St. Francis of Sales says, "Such a life is nothing else than the gospel presented in action."

Once the Holy Spirit has come down on a soul it resembles a living tabernacle, a rare vessel of divine mercy, over which the chrism of divine grace is poured. In the eyes of God man is a precious vessel, as long as such vessel is clean. Sin defiles this vessel, and is like the rust which tarnishes the brightness, and with the brightness goes the divine complacency. The Holy Ghost continues to dwell in the soul of man as long as it keeps itself free from grievous sin. Mortal sin drives out the Holy Spirit and desecrates the temple of God. Then the soul no longer resembles the house of God,

but rather a robbers' den, for in it revel the evil passions, robbing it of divine grace and killing its spiritual life. Mortal sin is a spiritual Church robbery, a spiritual sanctuary desecration, to be visited with the chastisements of God. "If any man violate the temple of God," saith St. Paul, "him shall God destroy. For the temple of God is holy, which you are" (1 Corinthians iii. 17). As Baltassar, the desecrator of the sanctuary, was destroyed because he carried off and polluted the sacred gold and silver vessels of the Temple at Jerusalem (Daniel v.), so, too, shall the sinner fare who shall fail to restore its brightness to the vessel of divine mercy by purifying works of penance.

III. PENTECOST OR WHITSUNDAY. History of the Festival.-Its Meaning.

THE special religious observance of Pentecost by Christians is so ancient that its beginning can hardly be discovered. St. Augustine tells us that even in his time it was a festival universally observed throughout the world. The word "Pentecost" is Greek for the fiftieth day, and the festival was kept by the Israelites in commemoration of the promulgation of the law on Mount Sinai. It was also a feast on which many Jews were in Jerusalem, for Pentecost was the third chief festival among them, as it is a principal feast with us.

On the first Christian Pentecost an event occurred which may be compared with the promulgation of the ten commandments on Mount Sinai. Amid circumstances very similar, the Lawgiver of the New Dispensation descended into the hearts of the faithful, for it was also the fiftieth day after the celebration of the first Christian Passover. The destroying angel had

again passed over those redeemed by the blood of Christ, and mankind had effected their passage through the Red Sea of the precious blood of Our Saviour. In order to fully understand this extraordinary event, we must consider briefly the circumstances amid which it occurred.

1. No new law was given; the law given on Mount Sinai was thenceforth to be the expression of His will. But the understanding of the law was given, with strength to observe it. In the future the law is to be dispensed, not in a spirit of slavish fear, but in a spirit of charity and love.

2. We read in the first verse of Genesis, "In the beginning God created heaven and earth. And the earth was void and empty: and the Spirit of God moved over the waters.' From this starting-point began the ordering of the universe in the six days of creation. So, too, did the Son redeem spiritual creation, the soul receiving the first-fruits of such redemption, which consisted of imparting grace, when the Holy Spirit swept over it. Hence personal redemption began with the first Pentecost.

3. As the Israelites of old, by the orders of Moses, prepared and sanctified themselves against the coming of the Lord, so, too, did the disciples prepare and sanctify themselves by prayer. For the Holy Ghost resembles the dove, the emblem of purity, under which form He appeared at the river Jordan. He resembles the dove of Noe, that returned to the ark because it could not find any place to set its foot, while the raven, the emblem of uncleanness, lit upon the bodies of the drowned people and ate itself to death on carrion. If the Holy Ghost would descend upon you, you must first prepare and sanctify yourself.

4. The Holy Ghost came down amid the rolling of

thunder. That is the great noise, "the Spirit breatheth where He will " (John iii. 8). Heathendom, unable to withstand Him, was shattered by His power. So does the Pentecost festival dawn on each individual soul when it feels within it an active power which breaks its obstinacy. A powerful change must first take place in man. As long as he does not experience this change within him he has not yet entered into the grace-streams of the Holy Ghost.

5. The wind signifies the breath. Adam's soul was breathed into him. So, too, was the spiritual breathing to be infused into the spiritual creation. As the wind penetrates all parts, so the new doctrines were to penetrate all lands. "For the Spirit of the Lord hath filled the whole world" (Wisdom i. 7). It was no longer one land that was chosen, but all lands.

6. Fire represents the operation of the Holy Ghost. It illumines, purifies and warms. It transforms whatever it lays hold upon. Thus does the divine Spirit illumine the soul, purify the heart, inflame charity, and change the disposition. A flame can be divided and yet each part remains fire. The heavenly Spirit can be poured out and distributed into all hearts, and each one may have a plenitude.

7. A tongue is also a symbol of the heavenly Spirit, "for He it is who teacheth all truth" (John xvi. 13). By Him the teachers in the Church are enlightened. By this is signified that the teachings of Jesus Christ are to be promulgated by the living word and not merely by what is written. Therefore even if the providence of God in His goodness had not left us a printed page the teachings of Christ would never be falsified or altered. The safe preservation of His teachings depends not on the Bible but on the Church.

8. The assembled apostles are the figure of the

Church, which gathers all nations about the Gospel. The assembled people at Jerusalem are likewise a figure of the Church, which embraces all nations. Thus, even on the first Pentecost, the Church showed her catholicity, that is to say, universality. Such is the meaning of the festival of Pentecost for the Church and for individual men.

NINTH ARTICLE OF THE CREED.

"The Holy Catholic Church, the Communion of Saints." I. "THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH."-THE CHURCH OF CHRIST.

Establishment of the Church.-The Apostles and Bishops.-Primacy of St. Peter and his Successors, the Popes.

TRUE to the commission entrusted to them by their blessed Master, the apostles went forth into all the world to proclaim the glad tidings of the Gospel and to receive by baptism into the kingdom of Christ those who hearkened and believed. They found everywhere souls willing to believe, for He who had sent these messengers of peace stood near them, and the Spirit of God who had come down upon them at Pentecost dwelt in their hearts. St. Peter went to Antioch, where his converts received for the first time the title of Christians (Acts xi. 26). Leaving Antioch he preached the Gospel in Asia and parts of Greece; and then, led by the providence of God, he came to Rome, which was destined to become the chief seat of Christianity, as it had been the focus of heathenism. There, in the year 67 after Christ, during a persecution