she to them, your father is still upon the field of battle; we do not know as yet whether he will be so happy as to confess the Gospel; the idea alone of the torments which are prepared for him is a sufficient trial without your adding to it. If you go to see him, perhaps the sight of his children, the recollection of his home, will create in him a feeling fatal to his faith; perhaps the excess of his affection for you will make him forget the glory that awaits him. Nevertheless, if any one of you wishes to make your way into his prison I shall not oppose you, provided that you go beforehand to consult the grand father Doan if he consents, I consent also; if he judges it imprudent, you will return.' "But when they had heard that the holy confessor had triumphed over all the torments, this good mother said to her children, ‘Your father, through the grace of God, has gloriously confessed the name of the Lord; it appears that his courage has withstood all bis trials; go you therefore, see him; console him in his pain, and encourage him to suffer for the love of God.' "The two elder children, a son and a daughter, immediately set out for the prison, and the Christian hero tenderly embraced them. My children,' said he to them, 'your father is soon to die; as for you, this is my last recommendation, which you will tell in my name to all your brethren: remember that you have but one soul; pray God that he may give you the grace to remain faithful to your religion; above all, keep yourselves pure from the contagion of the world.' He then added, Go, look for a doctor to dress your father's sores; the infection that they exhale would aggravate much the state of the prisoners about me, and I do not wish that any one should suffer from my afflictions. When the Lord permits us to be tried with diseases, he does not forbid us to have recourse to the remedies intended to cure them. When I speak to you in this manner, it is not through love for this body, which will soon become the food of worms, but because I wish to strengthen myself against the new tortures that I may have to undergo.' The two children, at these words, shed abundant tears over the wounds of their father. After having poured their hearts into his, they said to him, 'Our mother has charged us to ask of you some directions for the regulation of our family affairs; your intentions shall be as so many laws for us.'-' When I was at home,' answered the confessor, 'I took care of you all; now that God calls me to himself, you have your mother; listen to her as you would listen to me; follow her advice, and do nothing to afflict her; love each other. If after my execution you can take away my body, you will bury it in the place where Father Ngan was arrested: this is my only wish; but if the grand father Doan orders otherwise, abide in everything by his will.' Since that time all the children of Martin Tho went successively to see him, with the exception of the two youngest. "This fervent neophyte was fifty-two years of age. His family was one of the most independent and respectable of Ketan, and distinguished in these days of persecution by its zeal in affording a retreat to the priests, and by its attachment to the faith. And this zeal was the more generous, as it was exercised almost at the gates of Vi-Hoang, and under the eyes of our most deadly enemy. "John Baptist Con was only forty-two years old; he left three young children: the eldest has not as yet reached his sixth year. Of a family little favoured by fortune, but not poor, he was always ready to expose his liberty and life for the purpose of rescuing from danger the ministers of religion. It was, perhaps, to discharge the debt of the missionaries that God gave him so much strength and so great a reward. "On the 13th of the tenth moon (the 6th of November, 1840,) towards two o'clock in the morning, the royal edict arrived that confirmed the sentence of the martyrs. On the morning of the 14th our five prisoners were informed of the circumstance; upon this, considering themselves at the end of their career, they refused receiving any visit that day; they confessed themselves for the last time, and prepared themselves as well as they could for death. I had forgotten to say, that, during their captivity, we procured for them twice the happiness of receiving the holy communion. At length, on the eighth of November, it was announced to them that they would be executed in the course of the day. "Father Nghi, having foreseen the event, had got the breakfast prepared at an earlier hour than usual. The humble meal was hardly finished, when the mandarin's officers appeared; they had orders to conduct the condemned to the audience hall. The confessors, knowing the object of this summons, bid farewell to the other prisoners, and presented themselves before the mandarin of justice, whom they found seated on his tribunal. 'The king,' said he, 'condemns you to be beheaded, if you do not abjure the worship of the Christians: apostacy can still merit your pardon; but if you persevere in your refusal, you will be led instantly to execution.' "The three priests quickly replied, 'Our resolutions are fixed; nothing can change them.'' And you,' said the judge to Martin Tho and to John Baptist Con, have you well reflected? Do you consent to abandon your religion? If you renounce it, your punishment will be reduced to three years' labour on the public works, after which you will return in peace to your families.'—' If we had wished to apostatize, we would not have waited until this moment; we repeat, mandarin, no one shall ever be able to induce us to insult the God we adore: if our refusal is to send us to execution, death is still better than such a crime.' 'These sentiments astonish me: but tell me, if I pardon you without your apostatizing, would you again dare, after the tortures you have endured, to give an asylum to your priests, and to bring into your house things belonging to your worship?" "Yes, mandarin, the first priest that we should meet we should take a pleasure, we should consider it a duty, to receive him and to hide him: in this respect hope for no repentance,' Since you are incorrigible, I am now about presiding at your execution, and sending you to heaven. But, once more, upon what ladder do you mean to ascend there?' Our cangues, our chains, and your sword, great mandarin, are the ladder we will make use of. For the last time, will you apostatize?' 'No, never!' 'Soldiers, conduct them to death.' The satellites and executioners forthwith dragged them towards the place of execution. As they proceeded, John Baptist Con conversed cheerfully with the persons whom he recognized on the way; Martin Tho walked with a grave and recollected air; there was something majestic and solemn in his countenance, which the Christians of his hamlet had never before remarked: in their surprise they raised their eyes to heaven, giving glory to God. Having arrived at the place of death, the executioner commenced with Father Nghi: 'Place yourself on your knees,' said he to the victim, and turn your eyes the other way.' He had scarcely uttered the words, when, with a single stroke, he cut off his head: the other martyrs were immolated with the same promptitude, except Father Thinh, whose head did not fall until the fourth or fifth stroke of the sword. Some Christians, who were prepared to carry away, if possible, their precious remains, were able, on the following night, to convey them secretly to Ketan: the body of Father Thinh was buried in the parish of Nam-Xang, where the illustrious old man had long exercised his sacred ministry; John Baptist Con reposes in a corner of his house, and Martin Tho is interred, according to his desire, in the very place where Father Ngan had been concealed and taken. "Such is the lot reserved in this province for the priests and for the faithful; every Christian denounced to Trinh-Quang-Khanh, has to choose between apostacy or torture and death. During the year 1840 there were several other martyrs in the different districts of this mission; but I have confined myself to relating what passed in the district where I am, and what took place almost under my own eyes, in regard to the five generous combatants for the faith, of whom I took care whilst they were in prison, and with whom I have had every possible communication. This short notice is, in a great part, the translation of the letters of the martyrs themselves; I have borrowed the rest from the accounts of trustworthy persons who visited them. I beseech those who shall read their lives not to forget, in their prayers, the poor missionary who has written them, and who desires with all his heart that they may soon have news of his arrest, tortures, combat, and victory. May the Lord grant me this favour, of which I am unworthy, but which, with assistance from abvve, and the prayers of the members, will one day render my happiness complete." 66 JEANTET, Missionary-Apostolic."—(pp. 183, 197.) LONDON: RICHARDS, PRINTER, ST. MARTIN'S LANE. "E diversis et diversa quærentibus hominum turbis, animo fatigatus, quàm desiderantur ad hunc cuneum hodiè spiritum refocillaturus accessi. DEO gratias, non sum fraudatus à desiderio meo, non frustratus à spe meâ. Concupivi videre, vidi, et liquifacta est anima mea. Repletus sum consolatione; superabundo gaudio; omnia interiora mea, nomine Domini benedicunt.”—Sti. Bernardi Ser. II. ad Fratres, F. 98. i. Specie tuâ et We have seen HERE the Spouse stands before us in array of beauty. pulchritudine tuâ, intende, prospere procede, et regna. her as she stands, in all her comeliness, and have heard how grace is diffused upon her lips. Alas! for human weakness, we can speak but by images, we can express ideas but by faint reflections. We have spoken of her material comeliness, but are constrained to leave untouched what is far more fair and comely-her immaterial and supersubstantial beauty. We have but glanced through the wicket of THE PORCH, and have been delighted; what shall we not be when we have entered into the veil of the sanctuary? But, alas! it is yet far off, —we have yet to keep watch and duly ward—and have yet much to learn that she has to teach. She speaks, it is ours to hear-she bids us watch, it is our's to obey. May we all, then, watch, sleeping or waking under His protection, who gave us Angels guardian to guide us, that we may say with JESU, when he slept, Ego dormio, at cor meum vigilat. "I sleep, but my heart watcheth." We have yet seen but a glimpse of what awaits us; we are watching in the PORCH OF THE CHURCH; we are trammeled with the burthen 40 VOL. VI. of the flesh; the gross humours of corporal infirmity keep us back; the soul is yet clogged within walls; she has enemies that press her on every side; that besiege her castle and encamp around her battlements. Some with bold front attack her openly in the day; some, with hidden wiles, lay snares for her in the night; at times, all seems well and stalwart; her foes have been driven back; she plumes herself on her strong places; all seems fair and smiling above; but when she pranks herself in her stability, the match is struck with the spark from the cold flint, the train is lighted, the mine is sprung; and, amid the debris of her ruined walls, she awakes too soon to perceive that treachery had been to work within,-that those of her household whom she had loved, “not wisely but too well," to whom she had given the kiss of peace, had done treason to her simplicity, and lured her in her thoughtlessness from her watch to her ruin. In her pride of state, the soul sat like a queen in her chamber of dais, and feared not those within; instead of humility, she had chosen one, who, under a humble guise, ministered to her wants and wishes, not as the handmaid of good, but of evil; deceived by the soft whisper of pride, she said peace, and behold destruction,-security, and behold disgrace. She sat on her walls, and beheld her bulwarks stretching in comely grandeur around her; now she sits weeping in the breach, and blesseth God more in her abasement, than in her pomp; for she feels the more that her tears shall disarm justice, humility shall dig for her a deeper and more sure foundation; that piety and devotion work hand in hand with virtue, in fitting precious stones into her broken ramparts; and that God will be with her in rebuilding the walls of her Sion; strengthening her yet the more for that experience hath taught her, that He is All in All; that "every good and perfect gift cometh down from above," and that in GoD alone" there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." How, then, shalt thou, animula, vagula, blandula,* poor trembling, cowering soul, how shalt thou escape, or wing thy flight free, when * The classical reader will readily call to mind the beautiful lines said to have been spoken by the Emperor Adrian, on his death-bed. "Animula, vagula, blandula, Hospes comesque corporis |