shall live," won the gift of life for the much-loved daughter: but the Life-giver, in giving life, calls it a mere awakening from sleep; in His meekness and humility He almost slights, and makes of no account His own great gift, and this wondrous miracle. How much we talk about any little good we are able, not by our efforts or by our own power, but by GOD's blessing to do our neighbours, and yet see the contrast in Him Who is, or should be our Example!

SIXTEENTH WEDNESDAY AFTER
TRINITY.

CXVI.-On Faith as the Fruit of the Spirit.
GAL. v. 22.-" The fruit of the SPIRIT is

Faith."

"FAITH," says the great spiritual writer Avrillon, "is not only a fruit of the HOLY SPIRIT, but it is also the foundation and the principle of all the other fruits, even of all the gifts of the Spirit. For besides, and in addition to that kind of Faith by which we believe in JESUS

CHRIST, and by which we acknowledge this Adorable SPIRIT as the Author and Inspirer of our Spiritual life, the Faith of which we now speak, as a fruit of the Spirit, is a living Faith which works by Love, a Faith which is constant, and generous, and heroic, and immoveable, like that of the Apostles and Martyrs. It sustains itself in prosperity, and in the midst of the most trying and dangerous temptations, without being corrupted, as well as in the most distressing afflictions, in most cruel persecutions, without being abated, or beaten down, without losing strength, or fervour. It is a Faith which makes us always ready to fight manfully under CHRIST's Banner, which makes u ready to suffer, and to give up our lives, and our liberty, and all our worldly goods, and our good name, when God's honour is concerned; which preserves us in the spirit of martyrdom though we may not be called to be martyrs in the fullest sense of the word. Happy indeed are we, if we ask for this fruit of the SPIRIT with such earnestness, and burning love, in

order that we may obtain it from the HOLY SPIRIT, and keep, and preserve it within us even to the death. Richest of the rich fruits of the SPIRIT is this fruit of Faith! In itself it is not only fruit, but blossom and bud, seed, and growth, and increase, and perfection. It touches on the one hand the beginning of our Spiritual life, and on the other its completion.

It

reaches from our every-day, ordinary actions, to those which affect the foundation of our spiritual being. Oh, woule. that we could bring one and all under the influence of this "fruit of the Spirit"!

SIXTEENTH THURSDAY AFTER
TRINITY.

CXVII.—On Fire as a Type of the Blessed Sacra

ment.

S. LUKE xii. 49.—" I am come to send Fire on the earth."

So great is the fruitfulness of our Divine Master's Words that each one of them would suffice, if need were, for the meditation of angels and men, and that

for all Eternity!

In them there are

treasures of light and warmth, which we cannot and dare not neglect without exposing ourselves to the guilt of real spiritual idleness, for which the Supreme Judge will demand a very strict ac

count.

Let us now meditate for some moments upon the doctrine contained in this very short, but very profitable, verse of the Evangelist S. Luke. "I am come,” said the Good Master to S. Peter, "to send fire upon earth, and what will I, if it be already kindled ?" Fire seems to be an admirable symbol of the Eucharist, and the words of the SAVIOUR apply in their full force to the Real Presence. On a winter's day, when the air is cold, and the severity of the season has chilled our limbs, fire warms us, re-animates our numbness, and gives fresh life and heat to our blood.

When gold has to be detached from impure alloy, in order that it may come forth in all the beauty and richness of its nature, it must be subjected in a crucible

to the action of the fire, from which no part of it can escape.

The food with which our body is nourished has also to be submitted to the action of fire, in order that it may lose that property, the distaste for which we could never overcome.

In fact, the fire must consume or operate upon everything which either the hands of man or the will of Providence throws into it.

O JESU! O Victim of Love! we recognise Thee under this emblem, and we rejoice to see in it the principal results of Thy Adorable Presence in the midst of us. For Thou art not come only to kindle this fire upon the earth, Thou dost also keep it burning, by continually perpetuating Thy Sacrifice.

Now the sin of Adam had so chilled, as it were, the powers of our will, that however warm our love towards created things might be, that love could not, without extreme difficulty, be kept alive towards GOD. But the Eucharist is the fire which GOD has provided to warm us afresh, in