with the leaven of charity, while the burthen is felt the more, the less is it regarded, for it then comes as a needful penance, which while endured unrepiningly, gives token that it is but for a season, and, like a break in the clouds, opens up the prospect of a brighter reversion, beyond this brief and darksome moment. Hence it is, that while we deplore the unseemliness of jars among those who ought to be but antitypes of love, we have only this to remember, that as tares and cockle grow up in the richest cornfield, so noxious weeds spring up in the garden of the Church, which are still left to try us, and to make us the more perfect; and for the sake of better charity to others, let us further call to mind that it is not only in the wide-spread garden of the Church that such spring up; but, moreover, for our own individual humiliation, the like weeds but too vigorously thrive in the rank soil of our own hearts; not, indeed, that we should give way to despair, but rather for our advantage, and that in our abasement, we should learn to watch and to dig more deeply the foundation of humility; that so by the means of those very blemishes, we may be more on our guard to keep them under, to turn over the soil, and to sow in the newly-broken ground fresh seeds of meekness, trust, and prayer. While we live we have hope. So while we live and labour to undo the stains of corruption and sin, let us also grow in charity towards those that seem to give scandal, and to pray for their conversion; for the gathering angel has not as yet plunged his sickle into the field of the world;—and they, as well as we, have yet time to bring the promise of our hearts to a goodly increase. is but Here, moreover, we may reprove and mourn, but may not condemn; -it is but too true, that many are not awake to the beauty they should imitate, perhaps, because they hold back and learn not. "The king's daughter stands in gilded clothing, surrounded with varieties." We have seen but a glimpse as yet, we have still much more to see. Some see only the external, and know nothing of that which is within; but even of that exterior how little do they know aright. The spouse clothed in golden garments. She is clothed in external beauty; this, is but a faint symbol of the super-excellent fairness of herself. Like the material temple, in THE PORCH of which we are now sitting, in every aspect she is fair and comely. Approach her from a distance; her lofty towers and crocketed spire, her vast extent, her pinnacles, and buttresses, her ample height, her solemnity, and serene rest, strike at once the eye and the heart. Behold her from the lofty hill above, it is ONE VAST CROSS which has been signed on the earth for its future and everlasting benediction ;-it is as if earth were here consecrated anew -as it were a foretaste of that cleansing fire which shall renew her in endless beauty as the new Jerusalem and the City of the Bride. Behold her nearer, and see how she opens up her broad shadows as the dawn expands ;-this is her matin song. See her with the full light of day streaming on her, and revealing in sharp relief her countless pillars, carvings, and pinnacles;-this is her noonday hymn of praisethis is a TE DEUM LAUDAMUS in goodly stone. See her as the shadows begin to fall and night draws on apace, as she fades from distinctness; yet the dark mass against the sky is as a buckler and shield;-she has entoned the Complin—and this is, as it were, her night-song. Behold her again in the pale moonlight; and who is there that does not feel that the wondrous beauty with which the poet has invested the ruins of Melrose, is an hundredfold more true of this noble pile in its beauty and freshness? Yet once more;-let the sky be darkened; let the moon not give her light; let the atmosphere be lurid and dark; let the wind blow hot and stifling; let the tempest sweep down from the mountain; then as her pillars, her buttresses, her porch, her towers and lofty spire, are momentarily lit up with the vividness of the fitful lightning, even then her beauty is surpassing; and her vast extent seems, as it were, but the expression, in measured cadence, of one full de Profundis. So also in every respect, and under every change of place and circumstance, stands the Spouse, surrounded with varieties. Whether it be in the morn of life, when infancy, already ere reason comes, looks to its mother, and loves; in the youth that finds all the warmth of a glowing heart, the breadth of a bright imagination, or the impulse of young blood, in her warmth, her breadth, her sweet impulse. Whether it be in the maiden who is all meekness, gentleness, and purity, who finds in her, like our blessed Lady, the fountain of all that is meek, gentle, and pure; or in the depth and reason of manhood, who finds in her a depth worthy of his highest powers, while he bends to her who is not beyond, but above, reason. Or whether it be in the sorrowful and dejected, the sick and forlorn, who find in her a sweet smoother of the pillow and balsam for the contrite heart; or in the old man, who totters to the grave, but who finds in her a comfort, and help, a staff, and most assured resting-place; or whether it be, lastly, in those who, as it were, in the fitful hour of storms, have fled from her sweet restraint, who have given the reins unreservedly to their passions, and have plunged into the abyss of sin and misery-even they, when they come to her, show her still more beautiful than when vested in her cloth of gold, even when she stands welcoming them back, in her stole of mercy, charity, and forgiveness. Truly then, it may be said, that she stands in gilded clothing, and surrounded with varieties-and as truly her sons and daughters, who flock in to do her homage, learn somewhat of what she teaches, and must needs be clothed somewhat in the fashion of the mantle which she wears. In every variety which, as we have said, human nature may assume from the modification of our several condition, yet each and all must have this likeness and agreement, that they must be in somewise clothed, like her, in gilded clothing. And what is this but those precious fruits that are developed from the sevenfold gifts of the HOLY SPIRIT. Charity; joy; peace; patience; benignity; goodness; longanimity; mildness; faith; modesty; continence; and chastity. Since in some who have passed before us, the several fruits may be more prominently developed in one than in another; "Cum alius niteret justitiâ; alius luceret fide; alius castitate fulgeret "*" seeing one may shine in justice; one glisten in faith; another show bright in chastity;"—still on one and all must the broad signet of charity be sealed; we are all as little acolytes, called to serve at God's altar in white garments; we all in baptism have received such white vestments. Alas! if we have defiled them we must wash away the stains at the chair of penance, renew our garments in purity, and through the fire of contrition make them shine like burnished gold. Love natuThe object of But it is not enough to admire, we must also imitate. rally seeks to grow like what it fixes its affection on. our affection is an only one,—all pure and spotless,—and if we love the Spouse of Christ, we also must lead such a holy and a spotless life, as to prove that our affection is sincere. It may be that we must labour and toil all the night long, but though for our trial, He may permit us to take nothing, yet the day shall come, when, at his command, we may let down our nets, and take a vast multitude. "Our labour," says St. Bernard, "is scarcely for one hour." Opus meum, vix unius est hora" what follows?" Et si plus, præ amore non sentio.”† " And if longer, for love's sake I feel it not:" and such must ever be the mind of all who sit in the PORCH OF THE CHURCH, and such the fruits which we would fain have our meditations therein produce. *Sti. Maximi Hom. in Dom. ante Fest. Nat. Dom. The days in which we live are perillous; days of strife, trial, disobedience, and revolt. We, who by God's blessing, have been so mercifully called to His holy Church, what can we do else, but bearing these in view, look manfully in the face of our assailants, armed in the whole armour of truth? What can we do else than stand watchful and stout-hearted against the perils of these evil days; patient, forbearing, charitable, peaceful, and silent amid the strife; submissive, meek, dutiful, and childlike, though surrounded by the disobedient; and loyal, true, faithful, and unwavering in the throng of rebellion, disloyalty, and revolt. "Domus hæc æterni regis, est oppidum ;-sed obsessum ab inimicis," says St. Bernard ;* "The house of the Eternal King (which we are now about to enter), is a walled city, but it is beset by enemies." Let us not pride ourselves in our bulwarks, towers, and defences, while there are traitors within, who make no scruple of doing treason with the besiegers, who are continually lying in wait without, watching over our every motion, direct or indirect; surveying every weak or unguarded point, every angle that is left unprotected, every loophole that our unwary conduct may leave defenceless; and walled soever as we may be, our city shall surely fall into the hand of the enemy, if we look not ever to help from above, and while we ask for aid, "keep watch, and duly ward" ourselves the while, to co-operate with that most certain and ready succour that cometh down from above. Let us seek, then, with all our hearts, to obtain that aid to help us in the day of need and hour of trial; let us erect, as it were, an altar in our hearts. "For the altar of God is our heart," says St. Gregory, "whereon fire is ordered to burn continually; since it is needful that the flame of charity should rise up continually from it to the Lord." "Altari DEI est cor nostrum, in quo jubetur ignis semper ardere; quia necesse est, ex illo ad Dominum, charitatis flammam indesinentur accendere.t" And such a flame of divine love is that which the blessed apostle requires when he says: "Omne quodcunque facitis, aut in verbo, aut in opere, omnia in nomine Domini nostri Jesu Christi." (Ad Colos. iii. 17.) "All whatsoever you do, in word or in work, all things do ye in the name of the Lord JESUS Christ." And such a flame is that which is exemplified to us in the glowing expression of St. Ignatius, when he exclaims, “Quid ego, Domine, extra te volo, aut quid velim”—“ What * Sti. Bernardi Ser. ii. in Ded. Eccles. fol. 68, 1. i. do I wish,—what can I wish out of Thee, O Lord." Or that of the blessed St. Gertrude, when, all on fire, she cries out, as it were in an ecstasy of love,-and oh! that we would all, in all we do, in the simplicity of our hearts, say the same-" O DEUS, hoc opus tibi offero per Christum Filium tuum ad laudem tuam"- "To Thee, O GOD, I offer up this work through Christ, thy Son, to thy praise." And what is this work?-what are all works?—what is every work?—and how shall this or that work, all works, every work, be, as St. Gertrude did hers, offered up as a sacrifice of praise to GOD? Let not us, but St. Augustine reply: "Qui non cessat bene vivere, semper laudat DEUM.”* "He that ceaseth not to live well, ever praiseth GOD." Wherefore it behoves us so to order our hearts, that the emotions thereof may flow from our lips, as through a conduit of living waters, and as a channel of an eternal fountain," As St. Paulinus said of St. Augustine, “Os tuum fistulum aquæ vivæ, et venam fontis æterni merito dixerim.† Thus like all those whom we have seen pass before us in solemn array through the place where we now take a passing breath of repose; let us in the humility of our lowly condition (seeing we are seated among the poor) let us lift up our hearts and implore their intercessional prayers, convinced that we may have need of them all. And let us reflect, that as they are now glorified, but once-lived here, in the straits of the flesh, in the peril of the world, and in the trials of worldly pride, whether they came from without or within ;-so it behoves us to live like them, to imitate them, to strive like them, that having overcome like them we too may be assimilated to them in glory hereafter. Wherefore let us now devoutly say, in the words of the anthem that is sung by the Spouse of Christ,-even the song of His Church, our sure and certain guide and holy mother. "Angeli, Archangeli, Throni, et Dominationes, Principatus, et Potestates, Virtutes cœlorum, Cherubim atque Seraphim, Patriarchæ et Prophetæ, sancti legis Doctores, Apostoli, omnes Christi Martyres, sancti Confessores, Virgines Domini, Anachorita, Sanctique omnes INTERCEDITE PRO NOBIS.'‡ "O ye Angels, Archangels, Thrones and Dominations, Principalities, Powers, and Virtues of heaven, Cherubim, and Seraphim, Patriarchs, and Prophets, Doctors of the holy law, O all ye Martyrs of Christ, holy *Sti. Augustini in Ps. 87. † Sti. Paulini Ep. ad S. Aug. Ant. in 1 v cap. Fest. Omnium Sanctorum. |