ferings, to deliver us from him, and by degrees to kill him. Everything pleasant or unpleasant which happens to us, is by him foreseen, MEASURED, WEIGHED OUT BY LOVE, IN THE PROPORTION BEST CALCULATED FOR OUR SALVATION. Wherefore we ought to give him thanks for what is unpleasant, just as much as for what is pleasant. It is certain that I often make a mistake in judging whether I have conducted myself well or ill during the past day, by rather paying attention to how I have been interiorly moved, excited, enlightened, to what wishes and desires I have had, and not to how much I have laboured and overcome myself, so as to will and to do (not only to wish) the will of God. The greater has been the excitement and enlightening of grace, so much the worse certainly has the day been spent, if my faithfulness in fulfilling the will of God, and the mortification of my own will, have not been in due proportion with them. To whom more is given, from him will more be required. This certainly is to be understood of every-day by itself, as well as of the whole life. July 10. No saint's life, as far as I can recollect, has ever in my whole life so greatly moved me and awakened in me such a desire to press forward in the footsteps of the saints, as that of St. Aloysius, which I have read to T, in her illness. It was with difficulty that I restrained my tears over it. His anxiety to make his wants less and always less, whereas in his youth he had been accustomed to superfluities, put me so much the more to shame, as I had been in my youth in a state of life altogether the opposite to his. His seeming excess in fervour, made me see more clearly, how far in many points I am below the necessary mark. His example has since that time made the conquering of myself a more easy task in many things. GERMAN HYMN. O Liebe Seele! Könnst du werden Ein Kind kann nicht an Gold noch Schätzen, Noch pracht der Reden sich ergötzen : Man mach es arm, man mach es reich, Es gilt ihm alles eben gleich. Der Menschen Ansehn gilt ihm wenig, Und denkt von Andern nichts als gut. Mit Forschen und mit vielem Denken Kam sich ein Kind das Haupt nicht kränken : Im gegenwärtigen ganz froh. Ein Kindchen kann allein nicht stehen, Ein Kind weiss nichts von fremden Sachen; Was Andre thun, was Andre machen, Was ihm vor Augen wird gethan, Schaut es in stiller Unschuld an. Sein liebstes Werk und höchst Vergnügen, Ist in der Mutter Armen liegen: O Kindheit, die Gott selber liebet, Die Jesu Geist alleine giebet, Wie sehnet sich mein Hertz nach dir ! O Jesu! bilde dich in mir! P.S. This beautiful, yet simple hymn, is taken from an interesting collection of hymns by Chevalier Bunsen. It was composed by Gerhard Tersteegen, who died in 1769, and translated by Frances Elizabeth Cox, with other sacred hymns well worthy of being perused. (London: William Pickering, 1841.) O Innocence! sweet child's existence! O childhood! well-beloved of heaven! MR. WACKERBARTH'S EGYPTIAN BONDAGE. The Egyptian Bondage, or a Second call to Union, on the Principles of the Holy Catholic Church, and the everlasting Gospel of Christ. By the Rev. Francis Diedrich Wackerbarth, A.B. of Queen's Coll. Cam., Hon. Cor. Member of the College of Civil Engineers, and late priest of the Anglican Church. London: C. Dolman, 61, New Bond-street, and John Bohn, 17, Henrietta-street, 1842. THERE is no subject that calls for greater gratitude from the good Catholic, than the tribute of honour which the Church in these days so frequently receives, in the conversion of souls to the unity and peace of her exalted faith. When we consider the long anxiety, and doubt, and darkness which have overspread the mind of the convert; the misjudgments, mistaken zeal, uncertain conclusions, and continual vacillations, that have tossed the heart, the judgment, and too frequently the conscience of the enquirer after truth: and see him after he has given assent to the grace that has been vouchsafed him, and has bowed with submission to the holy teaching of her, to whom Christ has given vicarious power on earth;-oh! where is the heart that in the silence of the sanctuary, does not lift up its grateful homage to the God of all love, who has vouchsafed to call the sheep that was wandering on the mountains of vanity, into the green pastures of His fold, there to feed him by the still waters, there to cherish, and give him greater grace, making him in very deed a lamb of the flock of Christ; where is the heart that burns not with increase of charity; where the intellect that bows not to the wondrous might of Him who speaks, and the troubled waters hear His voice;-where the conscience that mourns not, in more humble reverence; or the tongue that would not give utterance to its joy, but that it must needs be dumb before Him, and leave the eye to speak for it, in tears? As God speaketh to His faithful by His miraculous powers, at sundry times giving new proof to them, and new zest to their faith, in the marvels He vouchsafes to His heroic servants on earth; so in more plenteous dew, does He cast around us in these days the holy grace of conversion, now calling one, and now another to the rock of ages, that He may fill the hearts of His faithful with new and continual cause for thankfulness, and may give higher impulses to greater love for Him, and zeal for His service. How often have these proofs of His holy providence of late been vouchsafed to us? how well may not our hope in Him look forward in assurance, that such favours shall be often repeated; if we but open our hearts to the lesson, that they are sent to teach, and grow in greater purity of thought and intention, in warmer virtue, a more humble bearing, for each additional tribute of His love! Let us call to mind that there is a communion of saints; that angels rejoice in heaven over one sinner doing penance; that holy guardians watch over all in unseen ministry; that intercession for us is ever ascending like incense; and shall we alone keep silence when the whole chain of God's Church, whether in the glorified or suffering state, angels and saints, rejoice;-shall we alone give no sign of welcome to those who are gathered from the barren wilderness of eccentric imagination, to the peace and the serenity of the Catholic pale! Thank God, there are many who thus silently rejoice, and prove that they are links in the chain that binds earth with the highest court of heaven. In the tranquil silence that surrounds the sanctuary, in the daily offering, how many, all over these isles, lift up their hearts, when at their best, and renew their vows to God's service and love! How many pure souls commemorate those who as yet are wandering—heedless it may be, and ignorant, of the intercessional prayer offered up in their behalf!—how many enmities and evil deeds are there laid aside! how many injuries and evil words are there forgotten and forgiven ;— how many intentions offered up in union with the adorable Victim in behalf of their erring brethren !-how many entreaties to the spotless Mother of God, to aid them with her bounteous intercession ;-how many votive supplications breathed, that those who wander in darkness may see a great light! and those who sit in the shadow of death, may be called into the path that leadeth to eternal life! If we thought of these things more, it would, we are persuaded, be the better for us all; but we must not rest there; we must ask ourselves |