adoration. In no other time or place is the sublimity of our religion so touchingly felt. No ceremony is going forward in the sanctuary, no sound of song is issuing from the choir, no voice of exhortation proceeds from the pulpit, no prayer is uttered aloud at the altar. There are hundreds there, and yet they are engaged in no congregational act of worship. Each heart and soul is alone in the midst of a multitude-each uttering its own thoughts, each feeling its own grace. Yet are you overpowered, subdued, quelled into a reverential mood, softened into a devotional spirit, forced to meditate, to feel, to pray. The little children who come in are led by a mother's hand, kneel down by her in silence, as she simply points towards the altar, overawed by the still splendour before them; the very babe seems hushed to quiet reverence on her bosom. The hurried passer by who merely looks in, cannot resist the impulse to sink, if only in a momentary genuflexion, upon his knees; nay, the English scoffer, who will face anything else, will not venture to stalk as elsewhere up the nave heedless of other's sacred feelings, but must needs remain under the shadow of the doorway, or steal behind the shadow of the first pillar, if he wishes to look on without partaking."

"1

I do not say that such a rite is congenial to all minds, but I do say that it is distinctly an act of worship, and that this worship is addressed to Christ. It cannot halt at the symbol, for it is through the symbol that it reaches Christ, the God-man, at once spiritual and material, infinite and finite, everywhere present and local.

I do not say that worship cannot be addressed to him anywhere, in the closet, on the high road, in the mountain solitude, and in the crowded thoroughfare. He is God, and 1 Wiseman: Minor Rites and Offices.

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therefore He can hear and receive His creature anywhere and at any moment. But He is man also, and therefore He has His finite, local, material manifestation. Those who worship Him localized do not deny His ubiquity and omnipresence. Those who worship Him in vague immensity must not deny His local presence. These are two aspects of Christ, the object of worship-that which is infinite and divine, and that which is finite and human; and these are not contradictory.

It is the same with charity. How shall we exhibit love to God?-By our love to men. Suffering mankind is Christ suffering, and every act of mercy shewn to man is received. by Christ. Every sufferer is Christ localized to accept our love. If Christ specializes himself to be the recipient of our charity, it is certain that He can specialize Himself to receive our worship. Though he accepts our love in the person of the poor, He does not accept our worship in their person, that is evident. Then He must have some other, but analogous, method of receiving our devotion and homage. "Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world," said Christ, and the promise, according to the theory of the Church, is fulfilled. He is with us in the body of His Church authoritatively, with us in the person of His poor to receive our charity, with us in the sacramental species to dispense His grace and to receive our worship. Thus is He Emmanuel to the end of time.

A modern traveller, writing his impressions of Western France, makes the following remark: "I do not think I ever went into a Roman Catholic church anywhere without seeing two or three female figures. It has a conventional look. A query will come into one's mind whether it is not a part of the business of the priest to maintain and

keep up this air of life by a steady infliction of small penance upon female members of the flock. Poor women sin a little bit, so often, and so easily; and then it is so useful to send them to Church-does them good and has a pleasing effect."1

No, it is not that which sends them to the Church, it is the Sacred Presence on the altar which draws them with the cords of love. I have seen the market woman leave her basket on the portal step, the soldier, the peasant, and the little child enter and pay their "visit" to the blessed Sacrament, an act of love and homage to Him Who made Himself of no reputation that He might win men through their weakness.

I was standing in the churchyard of Ventonne on the mountain side above the Rhone, watching the sun go down in glory over Sion. Strange sounds issued from the interior of the sacred building, and I entered it softly. I found an idiot woman, with thin straggling grey hair, great blear eyes, and wan cheeks, kneeling at the chancel steps, wringing her hands, sobbing and praying. Apparently some one had injured her, some boys had pelted her with stones, and she had fled to the presence of her Emmanuel, to pour out into His sympathizing ear the story of her troubles.

I was at the Cathedral of Sion on Sunday morning. A poor woman came in, radiant with joy, a piece of good fortune had befallen her a cow had calved, and she brought a sprig of flowers, and gave it to the sacristan to insert in the vase beside the tabernacle, as she knelt to thank her Lord.

To the Christian He is Emmanuel, God present to him in his joys and in his sorrows. In the deepest

1 Louth: Wanderer in Western France, 1863, p. 307.

griefs, man puts out his hand as he sinks to catch Him; in the greatest joys he looks to his Emmanuel to rejoice with him. He is Emmanuel to the child, to the youth, to the adult, and to the aged; God with us in work, in relaxation, at meals, and in sleep, with us in all temptations to hold us back, with us in all good to urge us on, with us in life to be our guide, with us in death to open to us immortality.

CHAPTER XVII

THE DOGMA OF THE ATONEMENT

"Wherefore bends the Just One, bleeding

'Neath the Cross's weight laborious?"-HEINE.

Sacrifice the expression of Love-not necessarily involving an idea of pain -The dogma of original sin signifies the prevalence of opposition and contradiction-The Protestant doctrine, the negation of all good in man; The Catholic doctrine, the opposition of good faculties-The Incarnation the reconciliation of all oppositions-The Passion its necessary climax-Why suffering was necessary-Descent into the midst of every antagonism, sin and death-The Atonement is the restoration and reconciliation, completing the work of the Incarnation-Suffering touches a chord in man's nature-Justification the restoration of man by his co-operation-The Protestant doctrine different, the imputation of merits-The doctrine of vicarious suffering a Protestant theory-It makes God unjust-Summary.

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OVE is unselfish. He who loves another delights in giving to the object of his love that which has not cost him nothing. Perhaps no more beautiful example of the primitive and true idea of sacrifice exists, than in the mutual oblation of husband and wife. The husband can enjoy no pleasure without desiring to make the wife participate in it. If he leave her for an excursion, his letters home descriptive of what he sees, the flowers he collects for her, the memorials of scenery he purchases to present to her, are all sacrifices. And the wife finds her pleasure in