Sermon XI. The Day of the Lord

Kosary Sunday, 1872, in the Franciscan Jubilee of our Holy Father Pius IX.

THE DAY OF THE LOED.

Thy dead men shall live; My slain shall rise again: awake and give praise, ye that dwell in the dust: for thy dew is the dew of the light, and the land of the giants thou shalt pull down into ruin. Go, My people, enter into thy chambers; shut thy doors upon thee; hide thyself a little for a moment, until the indignation pass away. For behold, the Lord will come out of His place to visit the iniquity of the inhabitant of the earth against Him: and the earth shall disclose her blood, and shall cover her slain no more. ISAIAS xxvi. 19-21.

With all my heart I would rather speak to you on things which bear upon our own interior life before God than upon the topics which Kosary Sunday brings before us year by year. Nevertheless every time has its needs; and the necessity of the days which are upon us compels us to speak of matters which must be distasteful to us all: I mean of the disorders of this world and its conflicts against the, •Church of God. But we are set as watchmen upon the walls of Jerusalem; and the prophet has warned us in the name of the Lord, that, if the watchman shall see the sword coming, and shall not give warning, the blood of the slain shall be required at his hand. We therefore are compelled by fidelity to our duty to speak openly on the great principles by which we shall be tried.

I can easily understand that those who, when they hear the name of the Church, can see in it only a mere human creation or human society, must turn away from such subjects in the sanctuary as out of place; but they who know that the Church of God is the mystical Body of Jesus Christ; that He is its Head; that the Holy Ghost inhabits it, and is its life; that it is compacted of the souls of His elect, and that every wound inflicted upon it is received by Himself; that it is the channel of our sanctification, and the divine order whereby we are saved; — they who have this light of faith and the spiritual instincts which spring from it, intuitively see that the conflict of the Church and the world is the conflict of God and of Satan, of Christ and Antichrist.

Now, for the last five or six and twenty years we have been watching the continual advance of an Antichristian revolution against the Vicar of Jesus Christ. I remember, and so perhaps do many of you likewise, how, in the year 1847, subtil and insidious men thought to use the name and the power of the sovereign Pontiff for the accomplishment of their revolutionary designs. Failing of this, they turned against him; and in twelve months, by treason, by menace, and by murder, they drove him from his throne. During the years that followed, the revolution, infidel at its heart, unjust in all its actions, has gradually risen like a flood, until it has covered the whole face of Italy, and finally has occupied the city of Kome. "We have come therefore to a time of crisis: the flood has risen above the banks, and has submerged the Christian institutions of Italy. The tide is now, as we may see it often in the sea, hanging in a balance before the ebb begins. This is a time of momentary calm — how long it will last, God only knows; but when the ebb begins to run, confusions, which the world has never seen as yet, will surely come. For never from the beginning of the Christian world were the moral powers of law, order, government, and society, so weak as now. Never since there was law, order, or government among Christian men and Christian nations was the basis and foundation of that order so undermined. As the moral powers of the world have become continually less, the material powers of the world have become continually greater. At this moment the whole of Christian Europe, from east to west, is one wide camp in arms. Between six and seven millions of men are standing in line, nation against nation; and the skill and the science of mutual destruction are raised and developed to a pitch and a perfection, which in the history of man was never known before. The prophecy of the Christian world was this: that men ' shall turn their swords into ploughshares and their spears into sickles,' and the nations shall not ' be exercised any more to war;51 but the world has falsified that prophecy for itself, though it cannot falsify it for the Kingdom of the Prince of Peace. As for the world, once Christian, never from the beginning of time were men organised and drilled to slay with such an intensity of energy and of aim, as if the end of life were mutual destruction, as at this moment. The day will come when the barriers which hold in these fiery floods must give way, and the devastation that will follow no man can conceive. It will be a convulsion that will shake, it may be destroy, the nations of modern Eu-rope. In the midst of this array of hostile arms stands the Church of God, without weapon, without defence, without protector, forsaken and alone. Today, therefore, we make a solemn intercession for the Head of the Church of God on earth; because in him and in his person are summed up all things that affect the Church at large, all its interests, all its fortunes, all its future: as he is, so it will be. 1 Isaiae ii. 4.

My purpose, then, is to take these words of the book of Isaias and make an obvious application of them to this moment. God, speaking by the prophet, told Jerusalem, that is the Church of old, that though its desolations were near to come, and though its desolations should be terrible, yet they should not be for ever; that 'its dead men should live again;' that though the people of Israel should be, as the prophet Ezekiel saw in vision, like the ' dry bones,' scattered ' and very dry,' utterly dead, there should come once more the spirit of life, ' and My slain shall live again;' that the weak, and those that had been trampled into the dust of the earth, should be as the dew of the morning, and should see the overthrow of the mighty — ' the land of the giants thou shalt pull down in ruin;' the world, with all its massive strength and all its material power, shall come to nothing before the unarmed Church of God. Again, he said, ' Go, My people, enter into your chambers,' — that is, into the chamber where you pray before your heavenly Father, who seeth in secret, — ' shut your doors about you,' — as the Apostles did when the world had crucified their Master, — ' hide yourselves a little for a moment,' — it is but a short time that this tyranny shall endure, — ' until the indignation pass away; for the Lord will come out of His place,' — there is none other to take up His cause; He will therefore answer for Himself — ' the Lord shall come out of His place to visit the iniquity of the inhabitant of the earth,' —that is, the nations taken in their whole array against him, — ' and the earth, which has covered over with its dust the blood of the just unjustly slain, shall disclose the* proof of its guilt; and its slain shall be hid out of the sight of the Judge no more. There shall come a day when God will require the innocent blood shed from the beginning at the hands of the world, pagan, Christian, and apostate. This prophecy applied first to Jerusalem of old, and was fulfilled in its final desolation. The spiritual Jerusalem, which now is, inherits both the desolation and the resurrection here promised. The fulfilment is not yet complete, nor is the prophecy yet exhausted; the warfare of the spiritual Jerusalem shall never cease until the world's end. But after the desolations which are visibly coming on the Catholic and Roman Church shall come also the resurrection of its power; ' the Lord shall come out of His place' to judge the nations which have fought against Mount Sion.

There can be no doubt that, at the moment in which we are, the Christian world has either silently withdrawn itself from, or has risen in open antagonism against, the Christian Church and the Christian faith. It is like the multitude in Jerusalem who had forgotten the coming of Messias, and had forsaken the 'Law and the Temple of God. Of this fact, visible before our eyes, there can be no doubt. What, then, are the designs of God in permitting this apparent undoing of His own work?

1. First of all, I would say that the separation of the world from the Church seems to be intended to bring out more visibly than ever the note of sanctity. He is purifying His Church throughout the world. Inasmuch as it is the fountain of the sanctification of man, the enmity of the world from the beginning has always been busy in the endeavour to choke it; or, if it cannot choke it altogether, at least to poison or to taint it. Therefore it has striven by heresies and schisms, by worldliness and infidelities and false philosophies, by every imaginable deceit of man and of Satan united, to fill the Church with its own leprosy; sometimes by falsehoods against the faith, sometimes by impurity in morals, sometimes by perversion of its laws, sometimes by the pestilence of corrupt public opinion. The world cannot indeed taint the Church; because its sanctity flows from the Holy Ghost, who dwells in it. Therefore the means of sanctification are incorruptible, — the doctrines of the faith, the laws of divine morality, and the fruits of the Spirit which have heen perpetually multiplied from the beginning, not only in the Saints and the innocent, but in the penitent, and even in those who, like ourselves, are hut humble commonplace Christians hoping to attain eternal life, striving with no high degree of sanctity indeed, but yet with sincere and upright hearts. Nevertheless, from the beginning, the world has been endeavouring to poison and taint, if it cannot altogether dry up, this supernatural fountain of sanctity. Even in the first ages of the faith, though persecutions purified the life of Christians, and the hatred of the world helped them to love one another, and to have their life hid with Christ in God, even then many walked ' as enemies of the Cross of Christ.'2 But when the world began to clothe the Church with possessions and power, then began the subtilest dangers of taint and of poison, not only to private men one by one, but to the Hierarchy and to the Priesthool of the Church. In cleansing the leprous world the hands of many were stricken with the leprosy. To be always in spiritual contact with sin needs special grace; ' for who can touch pitch and not be defiled?' Much more whe.n the Church was invested with the pow-

2 Philippians iii. 18.

ers of the world and entered upon the civil life of kingdoms. Then the breath of the world began to tarnish, not indeed the divine creation of the Church, which is immutable in its sanctity, but the men that bore office in it, and its members mingled in the world. Riches, titles, patronage, offices of state, royal supremacies, imperial favours, filled the air with worldliuess, love of wealth, of power, of honour, of influence; ' the concupiscence of the flesh, the concupiscence of the eyes, the pride of life,' and of all things 'which are not of the Father, but of the world.'8 These things hung in the air; they were breathed with the atmosphere; they entered and poisoned the life - blood of men. Read the history of the empires and kingdoms and courts of mediaeval and modern Europe. How many Saints are there in these last eight hundred years? How many followers of Ananias and Sapphira, of Judas and Caiaphas? How many national churches, royal theologies, and conspiracies against the Vicar of Jesus Christ? An4 now it seems that God has jealously separated His Church everywhere from this contact with the civil powers of the world which have already renounced Him. For their own suicide and destruction they have put the name of Christ out of their laws, and the name of 3 St. John ii. 16.

God out of their statute-book; and they treat Him as an outlaw in the commonwealth, an intruder among men. They try to he rid of His name, that they may govern the nations of the world without Him, and he rid of the ' religious difficulty' which He has made for them by His Kevelation and by His Presence. They claim to govern by the sovereignty of their own will, and by human legislation in the natural order. We may see, then, first a sheltering grace bestowed on the Church in this separation from the civil powers of the world, though it be a heavy judgment upon the world that withdraws itself from the Church of God. If the world be sinking, the Church is cut loose from it, that it may float in safety like the ark upon the waters. All this fulfils the words of the prophet: ' Go, My people, enter into your chambers, and shut thy doors upon thee,' even as the patriarch when the fountains of the great deep were broken up. The Church is returning again into its own internal unity, separate from the world in the last days as it was in the first. And though this separation is neither by any act nor by the will of the Church, nevertheless the Church derives from it many graces. Its pastors will be poor. They will receive nothing from princes, or courts, or governments. They will re-enter their apostolic liberty and detachment from all things:

they will live of the altar by the oblations of the faithful. This also will rekindle the zeal, charity, and generosity of the Catholic peoples of the world. Germany and Italy will become like Ireland, England, and our colonies, where the Catholic Church lives in the hearts, and is supported by the hands of the flock. Pastors and people are held together by an intimate bond of charity and generous reciprocal service which consolidates the Church with the closest unity, and multiplies its power sevenfold. The world and society, and the millions who are out of the Catholic unity, all alike will suffer by this separation from the influences and the guidance of Christianity: but the Church is purified by its freedom from all contacts with a sinking world.

2. Next, in so doing, God is manifesting His one only Church to mankind in a fulness of light which has never been so unfolded on the world till now. In the first centuries, while as yet the world was heathen, the Church was hid. Its divine worship wras in secret; it held no (Ecumenical Councils; its Pontiffs spoke to the faithful, not to the world. It was made up of individuals here and there; they were lost in the great multitude of men. When the world became Christian, the hierarchy of the Church was clothed with judicial powers and imperial offices for the sanctification of society; but those things often disguised it under the aspects of the world, so that men, when they looked for the Bishops of the Church, could hardly see their pastors through the rohes of electors and of princes. The world hung its trappings between the light and splendour of the Church and the multitude of the people. Feudalisms and palatinates and baronies masked the Apostles of the Lamb. Secularity and ambition, betrayal of the Church, and swerving from the faith, are the fruits of the world, as sanctity is the fruit of the Church. But God has put forth His hand to heal. He has permitted the world to cast off the mystical Body of Christ. It is calumniated, assailed, and persecuted in every place; and now in the most august of sanctuaries, in Rome itself, where until a year ago the Vicar of Jesus Christ reigned as sovereign. The world now sees the Church standing out into the nineteenth century with its four notes visible to the eye: its universality spreading throughout the earth; its unity within and without, perfect and in every place; its apostolic tradition of authority and truth in unbroken continuity from the beginning beyond denial; and its sanctity acknowledged even by its enemies. That is to say, there is in the world a body of men who are bound by a divine law to love and practise poverty of spirit, which is in direct contradiction to the spirit of the world: secondly, not to seek themselves, but with generosity which goes beyond the bounds of worldly prudence, to give, to forgive, and to return good for evil: thirdly, not only to love their friends, but to love strangers, and to love their enemies; and this threefold law was promulgated by a Legislator who said, 'You have heard that it hath been said, thou shalt love thy neighbour and hate thy enemy; but I say unto you, love your enemies, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that persecute and calumniate you, that you may be the children of your Father who is in heaven, who maketh His sun to rise upon the good and bad, and raineth upon the just and the unjust.'4 And these three notes of the Christian law are at this moment visibly manifested in the Church, as distinct from political society of the world. Take, for example, the pontificate of Pius IX. For six-and-twenty years he has endured an unintermitting enmity with every kind of contumely. His whole pontificate from the amnesty on his accession has been one of forgiveness and of mercy. The world has never ceased to fight against him. In this there is a contrast between the Church and 4 St. Matt. v. 43-45.

the world which cannot be denied. Between the two systems there is a direct spiritual antagonism. The world treats us as foolish, and we do not think the world to be wise. Take, for example, the opinions and actions of journalists and statesmen on the Vatican Council. And at this very time, when there is between the spirit of the world and the spirit of.the Church more visibly and more sensibly than ever an irreconcilable contradiction, the world is crying to the Church to conform itself to its worldly rules, and clamouring to the Sovereign Pontiff to follow the progress of modern civilisation. The answer of Pius IX. to this clamour was the Syllabus, which shows all hope of compromise to be vain.

There are three plague-spots which at this moment are marked upon the face of the world, growing darker and broader every day. They are brought out more visibly by the very contact that the world has with the Church. These are, first its unbelief. The words of our divine Lord are being manifestly fulfilled before our eyes: * When the Spirit of Truth is come, He shall convince the world of sin; of sin, because they believe not in Me; of justice, because I go to the Father, and you shall see Me no more; of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.'5 * St. John XT!. 8-11.

There are at this moment two operations continually going onward; the one throughout the nations, a departure farther and farther from all Christian faith; the other throughout the Church, a more fervent and devoted return to the faith and love of Jesus Christ; and as these diverging lines part asunder, the contrast between belief and unbelief is made more visible every year.

Next there is a contrast between justice and injustice. Where in all the Christian world does there exist such a thing as international law? The law of nations was a sacred code of public morality. But it is dead and buried. Does justice protect the frontiers of states? Does equity restrain or rule the material powers of the world? What defence have the weak against a stronger neighbour? Look at Italy and Germany, where might makes right. Does justice anywhere restrain commerce? Look at the double weights, and deceitful measures, and adulterated products, and false balances, and commercial bubbles, and gamblings, and tricks, and speculations with which merchants and traders, buyers and sellers grow rich in a day. There are indeed just men to be found; but they are individuals lost in the mass, powerless to resist the stream which carries the society of men farther, year by year, from public and u private justice. We are like Jerusalem in the days of Isaias: ' Judgment is turned away backward, and justice hath stood afar off: because truth has fallen down in the street; and equity could not come in.'6 Thirdly, there is another contrast between the Church and the world. While it was yet Christian in ijs public life, it had a grace of piety or the love of men for their Maker, and the love of disciples for their Kedeemer. Men were not ashamed of public intercessions in their disasters, and public thanksgivings in their prosperity. Where is that now to be found? The other day when England made public prayer and public thanksgiving the world wondered. Look at the capitals of the nations; every shrine and sanctuary, and wayside cross, and token of redemption, is clean gone. The city which till the other day was the capital of Christendom — blemished it may be by secret sins which are inseparable from mankind— nevertheless in its public life, in its public manifestation, had everywhere, and in every place, and at the corner of every street, the memorials of our Divine Kedeemer. Rome at this moment is filled with impiety. As when the Son of God was upon earth, Satan came visibly to tempt Him, so wherever that which is Divine is manifest, that which is dia- 6 Isaias lix. 14.

bolical is nearest. The city of Rome at this moment is the haunt and home of impiety. There was sold publicly in the streets on last Good Friday a caricature of the Crucifixion of the Son of God. Why does He permit these things? His arm is not shortened, neither do His eyes slumber. He is leaving the world to work its will, for men to see that unbelief, injustice, impiety, are the natural growth of its own soil; that faith, justice, and piety grow in another soil, which sin has never cursed; and that by its own hatred against these notes of the Divine Presence the world may condemn itself.

4. And farther, God has a purpose in these things which comes intimately home to each of us, one by one. God said of old by the prophet, ' And it shall come to pass at that time that I will search Jerusalem with lamps.'7 That is, as the master of the house, when he doubts of the safety of his dwelling, lights his lamp, and goes from chamber to chamber, and from the roof to the foundation, and casts the light of the lamp upon his servants one by one, that he may know whether his house is in safety and his servants watching — so is God doing now with us. The other day, when the great Council assembled in Rome, the light of the Divine Presence was thrown? Sophon. i. 12.

first of all upon the chief pastors of the Church, to see whether they were faithful to their trust; through them it fell upon the pastors who are labouring under them in the sheepfold throughout the world; through them again upon the whole flock. We have therefore all been searched by the light of the Divine Presence, to see whether we are faithful, and conformed to the mind of our Divine Master. The Apostle says that 'judgment should begin at the house of God.'8 Those will first be tried who are in the full light and authority of the Church; after them, all the faithful. One by one, you will be tried to know whether you are faithful to the truth of Jesus Christ in which you have been reared, whether you have the courage to stand for that truth, whether you have the spirit of self-sacrifice to lose all things rather than to forfeit that Divine gift. You remember how our Divine Lord searched the Seven Churches; how He said to one, (Thou hast left thy first charity;.. be mindful therefore from whence thou art fallen,.. or else I come and will remove thy candlestick out of his place;'9 to another He said, ' I have against thee a few things;'10 and to another, ' Thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot.'11

8 2 St. Peter iv. 17. 9 Apoc. i. 4, 5. 10 Ib. 14.

11 Ib. iii. 16.

Every flock with its pastor will have its searching trial. He will first try the Bishop above all, then the Priests will he tried, then the people; aye, and the faithful in every household, to know whether they are true to the light that He has given them. There was a time when Ireland was searched out; and because the priests of Ireland were stedfast and vindicated their faith by suffering, it has been preserved inviolate to this day. England by its side was likewise tried; and because its chief pastors gave way, and its priests were full of fear, the people were robbed of their inheritance. At this moment the judgment has begun again at the house of God. In Italy Bishops and priests are standing firm, with peril to their life about them. Of all the Bishops of Italy only one man was found, and he has gone to his account, who wavered in his fidelity. Of the priests of Italy, a hundred thousand men and more, only a handful have been found to waver. Now the same trial is beginning in Germany, and innocent untried men, without accusation, are driven by despotic violence from their homes and country. Bishops are arraigned as disloyal and threatened with penalties, because they will not prostitute the spiritual authority of the Church, and subject the supreme power of the Keys, whereby sin is bound or loosed, to the cognisance of the civil power. These are but the first drops of the storm, faint preludes of the trials which are coming. The Lord is sitting as the refiner of silver. He is casting us into the furnace, and we shall be tried. Happy will they be who shall be found pure in that day! Let us, then, rouse ourselves up, and be ready for our turn. We also may be compelled to answer for the authority we hold from Jesus Christ; and you too may be tried whether you have courage to stand fast and firm by your pastors in the day when they shall bear their witness to the Truth.

5. Lastly, God is permitting all these things to come upon His Church that He may manifest His own sovereignty. In the vision of Daniel, the stone that smote the great Antichrist was cut out of the mountain without hand of man. It was the work of God alone. A Divine power took it from the mountainside, and launched it against the whole might and mass of human power. All agency of man was excluded, that the power of God might be revealed. So will the manifestation of the sovereignty of God be now. There is not on the face of the earth a power of man that has the will to intervene to protect the Church of God from wrong. The whole heart of society has so departed from faith in Jesus Christ, the whole public opinion of Christian Europe is so poisoned by the spirit of the world, and so blinded by infidelity, that it has not the will to use either its authority or its power to protect the Christian faith against its open enemies. And still more wonderful, those who are the strongest, the mightiest potentates of Europe, if they had the will, have no longer the power to do it. Their mutual jealousies hinder them alike from banishing Mahometanism from Christendom, and from restoring the Vicar of Jesus Christ to his right. The gigantic material powers of Europe are mighty for mutual destruction, but they are impotent to protect the Church of God. God has so permitted for their humiliation. He is showing them the impotence of strength. God is teaching them that He alone can defend His Kingdom. The nations of the world, by forsaking God and His Christ, have locked themselves in a mutual struggle, out of which there is no issue but to destroy or be destroyed. They have suffered and encouraged Italy as a nation to commit sacrilege against Rome. As nations they are accomplices. They have admitted Italy into the Council of European nations; under the new code of international injustice which consecrates the supremacy of wrongs when done, and of impiety when it seems to prosper. The old code of

Christian justice has departed from the world. Usurping dynasties cannot administer it without self-condemnation. The maxims, axioms, principles, of justice would reverse the whole order, which is founded on wars of ambition and revolutionary treason. In 1848 the secret political societies of Europe were in the streets; they are now in cahinets and congresses and on thrones. Therefore no man can lift a hand for justice. They have made a compact with death; and they must move onward in the path of progress and modern civilisation which leads to Armageddon. Their mutual ambitions, hatreds, and intrigues are preparing for the day of the Lord. It was hut a small thing that not long ago a great empire in the east was crushed in seven da'ys; and last year a still mightier in the west went down in a few months in utter ruin. The suddenness of their wreck is a sample of what will be when the armies of Europe are driven together by the just judgment of God. Because the nations like Jerusalem of old have said: ' Let the Holy One of Israel cease from before us. Therefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel: Because you have rejected this word, and have trusted in oppression and tumult: and have leaned upon it: Therefore shall this iniquity be to you as a breach that falleth, and is found wanting in a high wall: for the destruction thereof shall come on a sudden when it is not looked for. And it shall be broken small as the potter's vessel is broken all to pieces with mighty breaking, and there shall not a shard be found of the pieces thereof wherein a little fire may be carried from the hearth, or a little water be drawn out of the pit.'12 ' He shall rule them with a rod of iron, and break them in pieces as a potter's vessel.' They shall fall upon each other as the mountains, and shall be shaken by revolutions under their feet, and wasted by mutual destruction, and by blind fury, and by the Angel of the Lord. ' Their land is filled with silver and gold, and there is no end of their treasures, and their land is filled with horses, and their chariots are innumerable. Their land is also full of idols: they have adored the work of their own hands, which their own fingers have made' — the civilisation they have created without God, and the civil power which they deify. ' And man hath bowed himself down, and man hath been debased, therefore forgive them not. Enter thou into the rock, and hide thee in the pit from the face of the fear of the Lord, and from the glory of His majesty. The lofty eyes of man are humbled, and the haughtiness of man shall be made to stoop; and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. 12 Isaias xxx. 11-14.

Because the day of the Lord of Hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and high-minded, and upon every one that is arrogant, and he shall be humbled. And upon all the tall and lofty cedars of Libanus, and upon all the oaks of Basan; and upon all the high mountains, and upon all the elevated hills; and upon every high tower, and every fenced wall; and upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all that is fair to behold. And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of man shall be humbled. And the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.'13 ' And I saw, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sitting like to the Son of Man, having on His head a crown of gold, and in His hand a sharp sickle. And another angel came out from the Temple, crying with a loud voice to Him that sat upon the cloud: Thrust in Thy sickle and reap; because the hour is come to reap, for the harvest of the earth is ripe.'14 The harvest is ripe indeed. The pride of man is ripe for judgment, and the ambitions, and the covetousness, and the injustice, and the wrongs, and the luxuries, and the lusts, and the falsehoods, and the betrayals of the just, and the shedding of the innocent blood, and the hypocrisies in high places, and the mockery of the Lord 13 Isaias ii. 7-17. " Apoc. xiv. 14-16.

Jesus in His servants, and in His Vicar upon earth — all these are ripe and rank: and yet the Keaper still tarries, and the sickle abides its time. There is silence in heaven, and waiting, and patience, if by any means men will repent before it be too late.

If you ask me how this reaping shall be accornlished, I answer, no man knoweth. It will be either by some chosen weapon of God's chastisement, like Cyrus of old, or by a more direct and personal intervention. There are already tokens of this harvest visible to the eye. The an ti - Christian revolution has pushed on the governments of Europe to their present deadlock. They cannot turn back, for the revolution is behind them: they dare not go on, for the pit is open before. They mutually mistrust and hate each other. The unjust can conspire: they can never combine. The false cannot unite. Injustice and falsehood dissolve all bonds, and inspire' mutual hates. They will, therefore, reap each other down with the sickle of the judgment of Almighty God. But now, for a time, Christ and Antichrist are standing face to face, that the kingdom and the sovereignty of Jesus, springing from eternity, and sustained by His own Presence, may manifest itself visibly to the world: and that no human hand may touch it for its support. ' The strong man, and the man of war, the judge, and the prophet, and the cunning man, and the ancient,... and the counsellor, and the skilful in eloquent speech,'15 are loud and lordly in all tongues rejoicing over the desolations of the Church. The temporal power, they say, is fallen, and the spiritual cannot long endure; and all nations have cast off the old superstition, and the Church is weakened in every place and is fast vanishing away. So of old men sent gifts to each other, and rejoiced when the Church in catacombs and deserts seemed to he swept off the face of the earth; but it was then, at that very hour, that the whole face of the world was silently changing, and the kingdom of Jesus Christ was nearest to be revealed. So will it be again. God will intervene to do His own work in His own time, and by His own power.

This, then, is what we meet to pray for to-day. On Eosary Sunday, with full trust in the prayers of our Immaculate Mother, we look the world in the face; calmly, firmly, and without fear; bearing a string of beads in our hands, glad to be despised by the world as our forefathers have ever been.

I would therefore say to you that there are two things which you must do.

The first is to keep as closely as you can to the

15 Isaias iii. 2, 3.

Sacred Heart of Jesus. Be faithful to His law. Cherish every particle of His truth, every commandment, every counsel of His will, every inspiration of His grace. Conform yourselves generously in all your reason, in all your conscience, to the mind of Jesus Christ. Unite your whole heart with all its love and all its affections to Him, to His kingdom, to His interests upon earth, to His poverty, to His sufferings, to His contempt, and to His cross. Say, ' God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.'16 Keep close to Him in prayer. Whensoever you have to choose between the maxims of the world and the counsel of your conscience, which comes to you from the Spirit of God, and from the holy faith, and in every doubt dictates to you what to do, choose the safe way of the Cross. This is the first lesson. The second is to ask earnestly that the prayers of the Mother of God may obtain for us once more the victory as they have obtained so often in the past. She stands at the right hand of her Son, who stands at the right hand of His Father; and the right hand of her Son is almighty, and the prayers of His Blessed Mother never fail. They never fail, because 16 Gal. vi. 14.

she never asks amiss. They never fail, because she knows the will. of her Divine Son. They never fail, because it is His joy and His glory to grant the thing she asks. The Immaculate Heart of Mary intimately knows the Sacred Heart of Jesus. She has no interests so dear, no desire so ardent, as that His elect should be gathered out, that His mystical Body should be made perfect; that even through fire it may be purified, and that the sovereignty of her Son may be at last revealed.

Never from the time the great warfare which began when Michael and his angels fought in heaven against the Dragon and his angels, and prevailed over them until those once glorious splendours were cast down as flakes of fire to wither the earth — never from that hour to this has the warfare between good and evil, God and Satan, been stayed. It burns at this moment fiercer than ever, and will burn more fiercely yet, until the day that ' the Lord shall come out of His place to judge the iniquity of the inhabitants of the earth against Him.' The Church in the midst of the world is the bush that burned with fire and was not consumed. The stem of the bush is inveloped in flame, and the fire which is winding about it spreads through every branch, and reaches to every spray; but the bush is imperishable because it is of

God. It is as if you should see upon the face of the deep the splendour of a light tossed by the motion of the waters, heaten by the storms, and hemmed in hy whirlwinds, but never for a moment failing to shed its steadfast rays, never for a moment wavering or slackening in its intensity. Such is the Church of God. At this moment in the world all things are hostile: but God is ' a wall of fire round about,... and the glory in the midst thereof.'17 All human powers are at this time in array against it; but all the invisible powers of the world to come are with it; God and His holy angels, Jesus and His Saints. The Vicar of Jesus upon earth stands, like Eliseus, upon the mountain. When the prophet's servant, seeing the armies of Syria about the city, in fear cried out, ' Lord, what shall we do?' the prophet answered, ' Fear not, there are more with us than with them.' Then he prayed and said: ' Lord, open his eyes, that he may see,' and he saw that ' the mountain was full of horses - and chariots of fire round about Eliseus.'18 So is it at this time. Pius IX., a poor Franciscan, like Francis in absolute poverty, spoiled and stripped of all things, living upon the alms of his children, stands upon the mountain with uplifted hands, praying to the Sacred Heart of His Master 17 Zach. ii. 5. ls 4 Kings vi. 15-17.

through the prayers of the Mother of God, confident that He will intervene in His own time when the hour is come. Never douht that he will see the day-spring of the Church's deliverance, though the full splendour of the noon-tide may be for those that come after. Therefore ' go into your chambers;' pray earnestly, wait in patience, he not cast down, and fear nothing. The Church cannot fail: your hope can never be disappointed. Be faithful, humble, charitable, and patient. Pray for the enemies of God and of His Christ; pray for those who wound His Church, as He prayed for those who crucified Him. Pray for them, for they know not what they do. Pray that the light of faith may be poured out upon them, that when the Lord shall come to take reckoning with them, multitudes may beat upon their breast, and fall down penitent at the feet of Him whom they have pierced, not knowing what they did. This is our prayer to-day before our Divine Master, who, under the Veil of His Sacramental Presence, is in the midst of us. Pray to Him with all your faith; for prayer is our strength, and our hope is in the Lord our God.

Abbasso Cristo, the cry, xcix., ci.

Abbasso il Governo del Preti, xiii.

Achitophel, Ixxxvii.

Acts, Book of, 198.

Adultery, 196.

JEmilius, 48.

Alms, 200.

Ambassadors, xliv.

America, 2.

Ananias, 199, 283.

Anglicanism, 31.

Animosity against the Pope, xii.

AVO/J.OS <5, of St. Paul, Ixxxiii., 154.

Anti-catholicity, Ixxii.

Antichrist, liii., 80, 191, 276, 299.

Anti-council of Naples, xxxi.

Antioch, 105, 123.

Antiquity, 232.

Apostles, 226, 279.

Appian Way, 249.

Arbues, ciii.

Aristocracies, xlvii.

Arius, 124, 261.

Armageddon, 296.

Articles, the thirty-nine, 241.

Astolphus, 9.

Athanasius, 262.

Atheism, xcii., 40, 83.

Athens, 221.

Augsburg Gazette, xxxiii., xl.

Augustine of Canterbury, St., 253.

Australia, 253.

Austria, xiii., xlvi.

Authority, xlvii., 86, 117; key of, 169.

BAPTISM, _abolition of, Ixxi. Barnabites, Ixxiv. Bartholomew, massacre of St.,

Basan, 298. Bavaria, xxiv. Belgium, xiv. Berea, 221.

Beust, Count von, xxxii. Bible, 94. Bishops, xix. Bismarck, xlvi., liv., Ixi. Bones, the dry, 279. Boniface VIII., Ixxi. Braunsberg affair, lix. Brest, scandals at, cv. Brotherhood, 200. Bull Unam sanctam, Ixxi.

C^ESAB, cviii.

Caesarism, 26.

Caiaphas, 283.

Calvinism, Ixxviii.

Camillus, 48.

Canada, 58.

Canterbury, St. Thomas of, 145.

Capital of Christendom, 57, 65,

Carcassonne, scandals at, cv. Caricature of the Crucifixion, 291.

Castelfidardo, 166.

Catechismus ad Parochos, 104.

Celibacy, xli.

Cemetery of Rome, ix.

Censures, 82.

Certainty of faith, xcii.

Chalcedon, Council of, 170.

Charges d'affaires, xliv.

Charity, 193, 243.

Charles, St., 103.

Chastity, 42.

Chemistry, 267.

Christendom, capital of, 57, 65,

92; public law of, xcvi. Church, one, xxi.; visible, 4;

mission of, 224. Churches, the Seven, 292. Cincinnatus, 48. Civilisation, modern, 85, 96. Civilta Cattolica, xxvii. Civinini, the Italian deputy, xcix. Clement XIV., Ixxxvii. Clergy in elections, lix. Cologne, Archbishop of, Ixxx.;

assembly at, 263. Commandments, the ten, 83. Commonwealths, the three, 194. Communism, 83, 177, 209. Community, 200. Compassion, 193; for the poor,

197. Conception, the Immaculate, xli.,

198. Conclave, the next, ML, Ixxvii.,

Ixxx., 255. Concupiscence, 283. Confession, xli. Confessional, 83. Confucius, 48. Conscience, 5.

Constance, Council of, 172, 261. Constantine, donation of, 9. Constantinople, emperor of, 8;

history of, 24; council of, 170. Constitution of the Church, 193.

Corinthians, Epistle to, 200.

Corruption of morals, 208.

Councils, of Chalcedon, 170; of Constantinople, 170; of Trent, 103, 235, 261; the nineteen, 229; of the Vatican, xviii., xxiii., xxxix., Ixxx., Ixxxix., 235.

Cranmer, 145.

Credulity of Englishmen, xii.

Crisis, time of, 277.

Cross, way of the, 301.

Crucifixion, caricature of, 291.

Curia, the Roman, xxxiv.

Curses, the seven, 147.

Cyrus, 299.

DANIEL, Book of, Ixxxv. Daru, Count, xxxii. Deacons, order of, 201. Deadlock of governments, 299. Definition of the Infallibility,

Ixxxix.

Deification of the State, xcii. Deism, xcii. Democracy, 193. Despotisms, 25. Diary of the Council, xxxiv. Difficulty, the religious, xcvii.,

Diplomacy, xxxv., 143. Disestablishment, Ixxxvi. Divorce, xx. Doctrine, key of, 169. Dollinger, Dr. von, xxxi., xli.,

Ixiv., Ixx.

Donation of Constantine, 9, Dore, Dr., Iviii. Dragon, the, 302. Dresden, 63. Duty of rulers, 18.

EAST, schism of the, cvii. Ecclesia malignantium, 44. Education, xx., 214.

Eliseus, 303.

Encyclical of Pius IX., xxvii., Ixxxviii., xc., cvi., 45, 81, 85.

England, animosity of, xii.: history of, xlv.; probation of, 241, 293.

Englishmen, honesty of, 4.

Equality, 86, 239.

Equity, 193, 289.

Ermland, Bishop of, xlix., lx., Ixv., Ixxix.

Errors, 45, 241; eighty, 82.

Essence of the Church, Ivii.

Eutyches, 261.

Ezekiel, 276.

FAITH, light of, 243; certainty of, xcii.

Fear, Ixxii. Fellow-feeling, 193. Fenni, the Italian deputy, xcix. Feudalism, 286. Florence, Council of, xxxvii. Fragrance of a holy life, 244. France, 69. Franciscan, 303. Frederick II., Ixxix. Freedom of the Pope, 17; of the press, xii.; human, 41. Freemasons, Ixii., Ixxiv. Friedberg, Dr., Ixviii. Friedrich, Professor, xxxiv. Fuor d" Italia gli Stranieri, xiii.

GALLICA ISM, xi., Ixxx., 173, 256. Garibaldi, xiv., cii,, 39, 49, 67,

Garibaldians, ci. Gazette, Augsburg, xxxiii., xl. Geneva, 46. Germanism, Ixiv. Germany, Ivii.; probation of, 293;

professordom of, xxxix. Gibraltar, 58. Gneist, Dr., Ivii.

Gnosticism, German, xxxix., Ixxix.

God, legislation of, 196; a level-ler, 202; word of, 233; kingdom of, 249.

Gospel of rebellion, 158.

Government, 194; deadlock of, 299.

Greeks, schism of the, xxxv.

Gregory VII., 184.

HAGUE, Congress at the, Ixxxiii. Heart, the Immaculate, 302; the

Sacred, 254, 301. Hefele, Bishop von, xxxvii. Henry II., 145. Henry VIII., xlix. Heresy, 6, 227, 261, 281. Herodians, Ixxxix., 236. Hierarchy, Ixviii., 282, 285. Hilary, St., 138. History, scientific, 233. Hohenlohe, Cardinal, xliii.;

Prince, xxv., xxx. Honesty of Englishmen, 4. Huguenots, ciii.

IMMACULATE Conception, the, xii.,

81, 168, 256, 302. Immutability, 228. Impiegati, the Roman, xv. Impiety, 195. Incarnation, the, 40, 161, 204,

Index, the Roman, xxxix. India, 58.

Infallibility, 230, 258. Infidelity, 70, 192, 295. Injustice, 22. Innspruck, Ixv. Inquisition, a liberal, liv. Insubordination, 206. Intercession, public, 290. Intercessor, 33. International, the, Ixxxii;

Intoxication, mental, xxxvi. Ireland, history of, xlv., Ixxviii.,

Ixxxvi., xciv., 241, 293; people of, 3, 7, 140. Irishmen, 57. Isaias, 276.

Israel, constitution of, 195. Italy, Bishops of, 293.

Janus, the hook called, xxix., xlviii., Ixxxix. Japan, 253. Jeremias, 184. Jerusalem, 105, 204, 221, 275,

Jesuits, xxvi., xlix., Ivii. Jews, proverbs of the, 214. Josephism, 256. Judas, followers of, 283. Judge, the Church as, 41. Julian, policy of, xxi. Junta, the Italian, ix. Justice, 41, 193, 195, 289.

KAISEES, German, 255. Key of doctrine, 169. Keystone of Christianity, 23. Kingdom, the Italian, xii.; of

Jesus, 248. Knowledge of Christianity, 239.

Lancashire, 241.

Lasker, Dr., Ix.

Law, international, xxvi., 289;

weakness of, 276; of Moses,

Lawlessness, 154. Legislation of God, 196. Leo, St., 176. Lepanto, 79, 84, 134. Leveller, God, 202. Libanus, 298.

Liberalism, modern, Ix., Ixxiii.,

84, 96, 177, 209. Liberals of Europe, x., lii. Light of faith, 243. Liguorian Brothers, xlix. Lima, Roman Journal, civ. Litany of the Blessed Virgin, 61. London, population of, 146; seven curses of, 147. Lorenzo, San, cemetery of, ix., xcv. Luther, reformation of, x., 234,

Lutheranism, Ixxviii., Ixxxvi. Lycurgus, 48. Lystra, 221.

Mahometanism, Ixxxiv., 56, 79,

191, 295. Majority of a people, xiii., xlvii.;

of the Council, xxxvii. Malta, 7, 58. Mammon, 256. Marriage, civil, Ixvi., Ixxi. Marx, Karl, Ixxv., Ixxxii. Mary, the Blessed Virgin, 33. Massacre of St. Bartholomew,

243. Matrimony, Sacrament of, xx.,

Mayence, Ixxv. Mayer, Dr., Ivii. Mazzini, xiv. Mediator, 33. Menabrea, General, xxxii. Mentana, ix. Mercy, 193.

Merlin, the President, 49. Messias, 281. Michael, St., 302. Milan, 104. Minority of a people, xiii., xlvii.;

of the Council, xxxvii., 257. Miracles, 225.

Mission of the Church, 224.

Monarchy, 193.

Money, 207.

Moniteur of 1793, 47.

Monte Kotondo, 69.

Morals, corruption of, 208; of society, 83.

Morte al Papa, c.; al preti, c. Moses, law of, 105, 195. Mother of God, 301. Munich, xxiii., xxiv. Murder, 132. Mysteries of piety and impiety, 40.

NAMZANOWSKI, Mgr., Hi. Naples, anti- council of, xxxi. Nationality, spirit of, 173, 255. Nero, 50. Nestorius, 261. Numa, 48.

Nun of Cracow, cii.; at Picpus, cv.

Obedience a duty, 7, 18, 42, 86,

201, 206. Obediences, 255. Olozaga, xxx. Onesimus, 199. Oppression of truth and justice, xii.

Orders, religious, 42. Organisation, xvii.

PAGANISM, xcviii.

Palatinates, 286.

Pail-Mall Gazette, 133.

Pantheism, 83.

Papacy, the, liv., Ixxvi.

Patrick, St., 254.

Patrimonies, the twenty-three, 11, 67.

Pentecost, day of, 120, 225.

Pepin, 9.

Peter, St., 225, 249, 258; centenary of, xviii.

Peter's pence, liii.

Petitio principii, xci.

Petrucelli della Gattina, xcix.

Pharisees, Ixxxix., 236.

Philemon, 199.

Philippi, 221.

Phosphorus, 47.

Picpus, nuns at, cv.

Piety, 195.

Pilate, 129.

Pius IV., 103.

Pius V., 81.

Pius IX., ix., xviii., xxv., xciv., cv., 25, 35, 38, 50, 64, 73, 163, 251, 269, 276, 287.

Plebiscite, 7, 134, 152.

Poland, liii.

Politics, 83.

Polytheism, 40.

Pontiff, the Sovereign, xvii.; 229, 257.

Poor, the, 197.

Poor-law, 207.

Population of London, 146.

Postulatum of the Bishops, xxxii.

Poverty, 42, 201.

Power, the temporal, 5; ordained of God, 7; rightful, 8; of most ancient tradition, 12; specially sacred, 14; never oppressive, 18; guardian of public order, 145; the liberty of the Church, 183.

Press, freedom of the, xii.

Priesthood, the, Ixviii,, 43.

Prim, General, 67.

Princedom, the civil, xi., 25.

Probation, 238.

Professordom, xxxix., xcvii.

Progress, modem, 41, 84, 96, 117, 240.

Property, 150, 196, 200.

Protestantism, cvii., 265.

Proverbs of the Jews, 214.

Providence; Divine, 4, 7, 10, 23, 36.