as the choicest and dearest of her children, except the saints themselves, who need nothing and are deprived of nothing. She has been made in a particular manner their Mother by our Lord on the Cross, for in them the fruits of His Precious Blood are secured. Holy writers tell us also that she has received a special power and commission to move the mercy of GOD in their favour, according to the arrangements of His kingdom, in which she fills a throne, only less lofty than that of her Son. This is altogether in accordance with the laws, if we may so speak, of the Kingdom of the Incarnation. Our Blessed Lady has a special compassion for the sufferings of the Holy Souls, on account of her own great sufferings on earth, in some respects very like those which are endured in Purgatory. She was conceived without original sin, and filled with all graces from the first, her virtues and merits were ever increasing, she was confirmed in grace, she never committed sin, venial or any other. And yet she suffered most intensely, on account of the sins of the world which her Son had to bear, on account of the treatment with which He met, the very intensity of her knowledge and of her charity caused the intensity of her pain, while yet she was ever in perfect peace and union with the will of GOD, and she felt more than any other soul could feel the desire to be with GOD and with her Son, and so the pain of detention from Heaven. On all these accounts there is ground for saying that she feels, more tenderly than all the saints, compassion for the Holy Souls. These and other considerations form the basis of the doctrine which attributes to our Blessed Lady a peculiar prerogative as well as a special care in regard of Purgatory and its prisoners.

5. In accordance with this doctrine, we find the lives of the saints, the chronicles of religious orders, and other such records, full of anecdotes and revelations which all tend to the same conclusion, that our Lady is constantly exercising her power in favour of these Holy Souls, and that, on

the other hand, devotions that are practised in her especial honour are among the most efficacious means which the children of the Church on earth possess of helping those blessed sufferers. It will be enough here to speak of the universal devotion of the holy Rosary, with which all Catholics are familiar. Some writers tell us that this, after the holy Sacrifice of the Mass, is the most powerful weapon that can be used to obtain their deliverance. The holy Rosary stands, to the great mass of Christians, much in the same place as the Divine Office of the Church to those who are bound to recite it, or who have the custom of so doing. The Divine Office is the great public prayer of the Catholic Church, and it remains such even in the case of those who do not recite it in choir, but privately and singly. And it has great efficacy on that account, for in the Catholic Church there is a special power and blessing on united, universal, and, as it were, official prayer and praise, which cannot be altogether impaired even by the unworthiness of some who are the ministers of the Church for this purpose. The holy Rosary is sometimes called the Psalter of the Blessed Virgin, and the universality of its use renders it, in a sense, the prayer of the whole Church, though not in the same degree as the Divine Office. Intrinsically, moreover, it has an immense impetratory power with GOD, because it is in fact the pleading before Him of the merits of our Lord and of our Blessed Lady in all the mysteries which it commemorates, and which embrace the whole range of the scheme of our Redemption as accomplished by Him. Then, again, it pleads all these merits, as it were, through the heart and through the lips of Mary herself, and so it adds to the power of the mysteries in themselves that of her perfect prayer and intercession, and the affections and intensity of charity which glow in her bosom. Again, it uses with all this marvellous power the words of our Blessed Lord in the Pater noster, and of the Archangel, St. Elisabeth, and the Church in the Ave Maria; being also, at the same time, a chain of most

excellent acts of faith, hope, charity, and other supernatural virtues, which are exercised in the consideration of the mysteries.

6. It would be almost impossible to exaggerate the importance which holy writers attach to the practice of this devotion, whether as a means of intercession for the Holy Souls, or for our own benefit, and, as a matter of history, it is of our Lady, as honoured by this devotion, that the words of the Church seem so particularly true, cunctas hæreses sola interemisti in universo mundo. The devotion of the holy Rosary was first propagated by St. Dominic with the express intention of freeing large Catholic populations from the contagion of a frightful heresy, and down to the present day it seems to have this effect. We are speaking of it, in this chapter, as a most powerful means of impetration of mercy for the souls in Purgatory. But in this, as in many other cases, the charity which we practise towards them flows back in abundant streams to the benefit of ourselves in this world and in the next.

H. J. C,

Two Dying Prayers.

A SAINT lay on his dying bed,
And angels hovering near,
Brought strong sweet graces to his soul
And love that banished fear.

Ev'n as he lay a wondrous dream
Upon his spirit fell;

He saw how little he had done

For the GOD he loved so well.

He thought not of his nights of prayer,
His fasts and penance sore ;

He thought of JESUS and His love,
And pined to love Him more.

And from his heart broke forth the cry,
"My JESUS, let me stay;

I long to live and work for Thee,
Call me not yet away.

"I long to bring more souls to know
The sweetness of Thy grace;

Let me do something great for Thee
Before I see Thy face."

His prayer was heard, his life prolonged
For many a weary day;

And great and glorious deeds he did

Before he passed away.

Then once again he came to die,

And once again he prayed.

"Take me, my JESUS, home to Thee ".

This was the prayer he made.

"Take me to live with Thee above,
I fear to sin again;

Take me lest I should do more harm
If I on earth remain.

"I long to be away from here,
Safe in Thine arms to lie ;
Away from every fear of sin,
My JESUS! let me die."

Both prayers were good, for both were framed,

In love of GOD Most High ;

That was the better which had more

Of deep humility.

The closer that he drew to GOD,

The more did Philip find,

That earth's good deeds are sadly still
With weakness intertwined.

Then let us yearn to work for GOD,

Yet still in holy fear,

Cling close to Him and His dear Cross,
Lest we do evil here.