Monday in Whitsun Week

Veni, sancte Spiritus, reple tuorum corda fidelium, efc tui amoris in eis ignem accende.

Come, 0 holy Spirit, fill the hearts of thy faithful, and enkindle within them the fire of thy love.

Yesterday, the Holy Ghost took possession of the world: His commencement of the mission given Him by the Father and the Son was such as to indicate His power over the human heart, and prepare us for His future triumphs. The days of this solemn octave are a fitting occasion for our respectfully considering the progress of His workings in the Church and in the souls of men.

Jesus, our Emmanuel, is the King of the whole earth ; His Father gave Him all nations for His inheritance. 1 He Himself tells us that all power is given to Him in heaven and in earth. 2 But He ascended into heaven before establishing His kingdom here below. The very Israelites — to whom He preaohed His Gospel, and under whose eyes He wrought such stupendous miracles in attestation of His being the Messias — have refused to acknowledge Him, and have oeased to be His people. 3 A few have been faithful, and others will follow their example: but the mass of the people of Israel have impiously resolved not to have this Man to reign over them. 4

As to the Gentiles, what likelihood is there of their accepting the Son of Mary for their Master ? They know nothing whatsoever of Him, of His teaching, or

1 Ps. ii. 8. 3 Dan. ix. 26.

• St. Matth. xxviii. 18. * St. Luke, xix. 14,

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His mission. They have lost all their primitive religious traditions. Materialism reigns supreme in every country, whether oivilized or barbarian ; and every oreature is made an objeot for adoration. The very first principles of morality have been oorrupted. The insignificant minority, who proudly oall themselves philosophers, have the strangest theories: they became vain in their thoughts, as St. Paul says of them, and their foolish heart was darkened. 1 Races, onoe distinot, have been gradually fused into each other by conquest. Revolution after revolution has habituated mankind to respect no power but that of might. The colossal Roman empire, with despotic Caesars at its head, orushes the whole earth beneath its sway. And this is the time chosen by the heavenly Father for sending His Son into the world ! Jesus is to reign over men, and His reign must be accepted: but there seems to be little chance of any weloome being given to a King who claims to rule the minds and hearts of His subjects.

During these long sad ages, another master has presented himself to the nations, and they have enthusiastically hailed him as their king. It is satan. So firmly, indeed, has he established his rule, that our Lord calls him the prince of this world. He must be oast out ; 2 that is, he must be driven from the temples men have built to him, from society, from the soul, from literature, from art, from political life, all of which are under his sway. There will be resistance from the world he has oorrupted ; nay, he himself the strong armed one 8 will resist, and so powerfully that no mere oreated power shall ever make him yield.

So, then, everything is against the kingdom of Christ, and nothing is favourable. And yet, if we

1 Bom. i. 21. * St. John, xii.. 31. 3 St. Luke, xi. 21. rASOH TIMS. 111. Z

PASCHAL TIME are to believe certain modern writejs, the world was in a fit state for a total and complete reformation ! Impious and absurd assertion ! Are we to deny the evidence of facts ? Or must we admit that error and vioe are the best preparation for truth and virtue ? Man may know that he is in a state of wretchedness, and yet not know that his wretchedness comes from sin, still less be resolved to beoome, at once, and at every sacrifice, a hero in virtue.

No: in order that Jesus might reign over a world such as ours was, there was need of a miracle; nay, of a miracle, as Bossuet observes, comparable to that of creation, whereby God draws being out of nothingness. Now, it was the Holy Ghost who worked this miracle. He willed that we, who have never seen the Lord Jesus, should be as certain of His being our Messias and God, as though we had witnessed His wonderful works, and heard His divine teachings. For this end, He achieved the master- miracle of the conversion of the world, wherein God chose the weak things of the world, that He might confound the strong ; and the things that are not, that He might bring to nought the things that are. 1 By this stupendous fact, which was evident to men as the noon-day sun, the Holy Ghost made His presence known and felt by the world.

Let us consider the means He took for establishing the kingdom of Jesus upon the earth. And first, let us return to the cenacle. Look at these men now 4 endued with power from on high , : what were they a while ago ? Men without influence, poor, ignorant, and, as we all know, easily intimidated. But now, the Holy Ghost has changed them into other men: they have an eloquence whioh it is hard to resist ; they are heedless of every threat or peril ; they are

1 1 Cor. i. 27, 28. * St. Luke, *xiv. 49 •

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33& soon to stand before the world, yea, and conquer it with a victory such as no monarch ever won or fancied. The fact is too evident for the blindest incredulity to deny: the world has been transformed, and transformed by these poor Jews of the cenaole. They received the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost, and He has done through them the work He came to do.

He gave them three things on that day: the power to preach the word, which was signified by the tongues that sat upon them ; the ardour of love, expressed by the fire ; and the gift of miracles, tohich they exercised that very morning. The word is the sword wherewith they are armed; love is the source of their dauntless courage ; miracles win man's attention to their teachings. These are the means used for driving satan from the world, and for establishing the kingdom of Jesus ; and these means are all provided by the Holy Ghost.

But He does not confine His action to this. It is not enough for men to hear the word, and admire the oourage, and witness the miracles, of the apostles. Neither is it sufficient that they should see the force of truth and the beauty of virtue, or acknowledge the disgrace and sinfulness of their own manner of life. In order to a conversion of heart — to confess that the Jesus who is preached to them is God, to love Him, be baptized, promise fidelity to Him, even to martyrdom if required — for all this there is need of the grace of the Holy Ghost. He alone can take away the stony heart, as the prophet expresses it, and give a heart of flesh, 1 filled with supernatural faith and love. Hence, He will accompany His ministers wheresoever they preach the Gospel; the visible working is theirs, the invisible is His ; man's salvation is

1 Ezechiel. xxxyi. 26.

PASCHAL TIME to be the result of the two united. They must b$ applied to eaeh individual, and each individual must freely yield his assent to the exterior preaohing of the apostle, and to the interior aotion of the holy Spirit. Truly it is an undertaking of extreme difficulty, to bring mankind to receive Jesus as its Lord and King: but after three centuries of oontest, the oross of our Redeemer will be the standard round which the whole civilized world will be rallied.

It was just that the holy Spirit and the apostles should first turn to the Israelites. They were the people to whom were committed the words of God ; x and the Messias was born of their race. Jesus had said that He was not sent but to the sheep that were lost of the house of Israel. 2 Peter, His vicar, inherited the glory of being the apostle of the Jews; 8 although it was also by his ministry that the Gentiles, in the person of Cornelius the oenturion, were first admitted into the Church ; and again, it was by him, at the Council of Jerusalem, that the baptized Gentiles were declared emancipated from the Jewish Law. We repeat it : the first preaohing of the Christian Law was an honour due to the chSdren of Abraham, Isaac, and Jaoob: hence, our first Pentecost is a Jewish one, and the first to celebrate it are Jews. It is upon the people of Israel that the holy Spirit

As soon as the solemnity was over, these men, who have reoeived the faith, and are now truly children of Abraham by holy Baptism, return to the several provinces of the Gentile world whenoe they came ; they return, bearing in their hearts that Jesus whom they have acknowledged to be the Messias, their God and their Saviour. Let us honour these first-fruits of holy Church, these trophies of the Pa-