holy sacraments of the Church, have been so long sealed fountains in our unhappy country, have we any other resource but to believe that the wondrous increase (and, God knoweth, it may be but yet beginning), of the faith in these our days, springs from God, and not from man. For this increase is among men of thoughts and convictions so dissimilar and unlikely, that human reason would have given as decided an opinion, against the probability of such elements ever being converted, as the prophet did of the drybones in the valley of the plain. "Dost thou think these bones shall live?" But yet "the spirit came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army." (Ezech. xxxiii. 3, 10.) Men of every complexion seem bending towards the truth, and in silence, as it were escaping from the prevailing deluge. The minds of all seem unhinged, not like the forerunning of evil, but unfixed from the moorings of error, and anxiously longing, groping, or guessing at some better and securer haven than what they have already in heart forsaken. Some there are who have built to themselves an ark, in which they take what to them seems good from the great model that has floated securely on the waters, and stood the test of every storm for eighteen hundred years, have erected a fanciful conceit, in which, for a while, they think-such, alas! is the delusiveness of human vanity-to rest secure, little dreaming that the works of men's hands, are not the works of God, albeit the varnish and outward adornment be set and moulded after the fashion of the barque of ages. Some have rested on ideas, taken it may be from the truth, but being insular, have no foundation, and no morticing of human wit can join in fast bonds, what God hath never joined together. Like men shipwrecked they cast themselves into the sea. "Some they carried on boards, and some on those things that belong to the ship," —some cling to outward form and observance, some to inward doctrine and ascetic practice, but the spirit that should give life to all is not there, and without Catholic grace, what is ceremony but superstition, what is doctrine but a guess at truth. But let it not be supposed that we despise that longing for outward form and ascetic practice, of which we have so many instances before us, in men who as yet are not of our communion, who as yet are unabused of the deceitful imaginations of their own hearts; but which in simplicity, and alone, is practiced in the sight of God, that doubtless, if the prayers of the faithful be offered up in their behalf, it shall be that we may one day say in the words of St. Luke: "AND SO IT CAME TO PASS THAT EVERY SOUL GOT SAFE TO LAND." (Acts xxvii. 44.)

"Some clarkes doo doubt in their devicefull art
Whether this heavenly thing whereof I treat,
To weeten mercie, be of justice part,

Or drawne forth from her by divine extreate:
This well I wote, that sure she is as great,
And meriteth to have as high a place,
Sith in the Almightie's everlasting seat,

The first was bred and borne of heavenly race,

From thence pour'd down on men by influence of grace."
Faerie Queene, x. 10, i.

Thus it is that we may in our weak fancies, suppose that no blessing is deserved of this nation, after the three hundred years of unrelenting persecution that have so perseveringly oppressed the Catholic Church in this land; but when we look around and see what has been done, what is still doing, it must convince the most obstinate, that our thoughts are not as God's thoughts, and that what justice might demand, mercy, by the sweet influence of grace, averts. To show that the agency of man has little to do in this wondrous change, we have only to note, that it has been brought about with few exceptions, independent of the measures of the Catholic Church here. She has stood apart, building up the walls of her Sion in silence; breathing a better spirit into her sons, preparing them, as it were, to meet the change of circumstances: training up men of deeper thought and warmer hearts, men of zeal and prudence to direct and guide the flow of many waters, that is arising from the neighbouring hills, into the safe and goodly channels of the Church of ages. Such has been her position-such is and will be her course; and to this extent only, by her prayers and pious uses, has she lent her help to the conversion of England. But the seed that has been so widely spread in the hearts of men not Catholic, has been sown there by the hand of God. He alone can cause it to spring, can shelter the tender blade from the early frosts, and in good time make it fruitful in heavy waving corn.

What have we then who are of the household of faith to do? or how shall we give vent to our zeal so far as to hasten the happy day of return? It is a question easily answered; and readily put in practice, so only as we give ourselves up to co-operate with the many appliances which we are so unworthily privileged to possess. Our prelates have laid down our course, our priests have pointed out the one and only path. Who can rise from the perusal of the Lenten Pastorals, and not feel the inward conviction, that the sum of all these beautiful com

positions is comprised in this, that we must live up to the faith in all things, and that it is only by practising what the Church prescribes, that we can be made fitting instruments, each in his weakness, to forward first his own, and in so doing, next the welfare here and hereafter of his neighbour, whether he be Catholic, or as yet ignorant of the beauty of her holiness? Let us respond then to the call of our venerated prelates, by our right use of this holy season; let us farther prove it in the Paschal rejoicing; "in simple truth and blameless chastity," in single-hearted charity, and liberal almsdeed, let us one and all, lay the path of the cross with the precious stones of all practical virtues-that so those who see how fair it is, may be lured to walk therein, and all scandals being removed, gladly accept our hand, proffered in token of fellowship, and anxious desire, that not for ourselves alone, but for all, are the good things, which we have so long possessed in peace, "Hoc sacrificium de te poscitur. Qui tales offert hostias, fidem et castimoniam mentis, simplicitatis gratiam, caritatis et pacis affectum, ipse se beatæ illius terræ agnoscit hæredem ; sicut etiam Dominus assertius in Evangelio declaravit dicens; Beati pacifici, quoniam ipsi possidebunt terram." (Sti. Ambrosii, Lib. ii, de Abraham, 56.) "This sacrifice is required of thee. He that offers such victims, namely, faith and blameless chastity,' the grace of simplicity, the affections of love and peace, makes manifest that he is an heir of the land that is blessed; as our Lord has more plainly declared in the Gospel, saying: Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall possess the land.”

This then is all that is required of us; and is it so great a sacrifice? We all look on the material altar, decked with lights, and it may be fair flowers, but do we forget that the "sacrament of love" rests thereon, and that all that is fairest and best of material offerings, are meant to symbol those better things which the faithful are bound to make in unison with Him who reposeth there? Let us come, then, one and all, and laying aside all uncharitableness, let us follow the Lenten virtues which our prelates prescribe, but so that not for a time, but for endurance, they may accompany us through the varied year, till a new recurrence of the penitential season find us ready to go on with new and better strength in the fulfilment of all that the Church requries. Let us be at one with God and his Church, and we shall so be at union and

peace with all around us. So shall we be more forbearing to those who are without the ark; so shall they see us with a kindlier aspect; and won by our prayers and good example, ere long range themselves

beside us under the banner of the Cross, bringing new glory to its blessed reign, and ready in their turn, to seek the course that we have sought, till, purified, our united prayers win fresh conquests over error, and as it were disarm justice, by the sweet influence of all-covering mercy.

We have all the penalty of justice to look for; let us then while we may, clothe us in the stole of charity, sure that we are safe beneath its ample folds. On every side the spirit of inquiry is abroad, let us so live, as to court a scrutiny, knowing that as the diamond is seen more in brightness the more powerful the rays be that fall upon it, so, the more the Catholic faith is searched into, the more comely does it seem, the more full of all that is worthy of man or angel. If we persevere in this course, the truth must prevail; nor are we alone in our feeble efforts; holy men and spotless virgins intercede for us on earth; the souls of many martyrs, our countrymen, it may be unknown to man, and individually uncanonized by the Church, pray for us, and for our country. But there are whole armies of white-robed martyrs, and saints, and angels, and more than and above all, our blessed Mother of Mercy, whose sweet soul the sword of grief once pierced, to impetrate, in our behalf, and of those whom we love, the turning away of the sword of justice from us. Nor shall the intercession be ended till our land be "no more called forsaken and desolate; but be called, "My pleasure in her, and my land inhabited." (Esaiae lxii. 4); for "Upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, I have appointed WATCHMEN all the day, and all the night, they shall never hold their peace.

"You that are mindful of the Lord, hold not your peace," (Esaiae Ixii. 6), but bow down your heads to God, and say: “Grant us, O Lord, we beseech thee, perseverance in thy service; that in our days, thy faithful may increase both in number and goodness." (Orat. Da nobis, in 2 fer in Hebd. Pass.)

In Fest. Sept. Dol., B. V. M. 1842.

231

THE EVENING SACRIFICE.

"Si elevas actus tuos, elevasti orationem tuam. Qui novit elevare manus suas, dirigit orationem suam in conspectu Dei, sicut infrâ legisti; Dirigatur oratio mea sicut incensum in conspectu tuo; elevatio manuum mearum Sacrificium Vespertinum."

**** -Et tu si sæcularia petas, si flagitiosa postules-oratio tua non ad Deum dirigitur; sed in peccatum, ideoque intellige quæ petas."Sti. Ambrosii, in Psal. cxviii. 8.

If thou would have thy prayer ascend,

Like incense in the sight of God,

Lift up thy hands, with single end,
To labour true in virtue's road.

Let every act, and word, and thought,
Come from the heart with heavenward aim,

And prove thy soul is deeply fraught
With pure and upward-pointing flame.

Thus while ye labour, though in tears,

Thy soul shall grow for grace more meet;
Thy deeds and prayers the while shall pierce
The sky with impetration sweet.

And thus like incense in the sight

Of highest God, thy prayer shall wend;
The lifting of thy hands at night

Like evening sacrifice ascend.

Let mirror-like thy life reflect

The inward beauty of the soul,
To prove that heart and intellect
Are vowed to virtue's fair control.

Lift up thy hands in pure desire,

And look to God for aid in all;
Implore his grace to rise still higher,
And break still more from sinful thrall.

But if ye take too low an aim,

And seek for earth, or sinful joys,

Thy prayer returned shall bring thee shame,

Thy pleading be but empty voice.