S. AUGUSTINE AND HIS MOTHER S. MONICA.

AUGUST 28.

ARY Scheffer's picture of S. Augustine and S. Monica, a work full of true devotional feeling, and so striking to the devout admirer of art in the International Exhibition, has of late rendered this subject familiar to all who have ever seen a photograph of it, and a brief summary of the history of those saints may be interesting, as the day approaches on which S. Augustine is commemorated. It has been termed "A picture worthy of a saint in art," where

"The son of many prayers and many tears,

:

And she, the mother who had wept and prayed,
Sit side by side, and with expectant eyes
Look for the coming of the Day of GOD."

S. Augustine, by the consent of the pious in all ages, is
elevated to the highest rank of saintship next to the
apostles he has been called the monarch and prince of
the fathers, and all the reformers held him in the highest
veneration. He was born November 13th, 354, at
Tagaste, a small town in Numidia, in Africa, in the
diocese of Hippo. His father Patricius, was a heathen,
but, a very short time before his death, was converted to
Christianity by his wife S. Monica, when Augustine was
about seventeen years old. It appears probable that she
was driven by her domestic trials to seek after GOD, and
having found Him, devoted herself to the needful, though
much neglected work of intercession, and thus became
the instrument of the conversion of both her husband
and her son.
This was the one great object ever in her
heart, and its accomplishment, after many bitter years
full of disappointment, adds another proof to the effi-
cacy of the persevering prayer of faith; for when S. Au-
gustine was about thirty years of age, the truth gra-
dually won its way to his mind and heart through the
preaching of S. Ambrose, the good Bishop of Milan, who
afterwards baptised him there on Easter Eve, 387.

Shortly after this conversion, for which S. Monica had fervently prayed for more than twenty years, she was removed, by a happy death, from imperfect to perfect bliss, whilst on the journey with her son back to his native place; for S. Augustine, on finding "the pearl of great price," had renounced at once his lucrative profession at Milan, where he was an able master of rhetoric:" his ambitious aspiring, his high standing, his extreme popularity, became as nothing to him, and he chose rather to live under the strictest rule of self-denying discipline.

After two or three years, his conscientious scruples being overcome, he was prevailed upon to become a priest, and was appointed to the church at Hippo. His was henceforth truly "the path of the just, shining brighter and brighter unto the perfect day;" for little of earth or self was left about him, and he discharged his noble office with such assiduity and success that the whole city abandoned its long-established barbarous customs; and he was consecrated Bishop of Hippo,

A.D. 395.

in

Early in the 5th century (428) the Vandals, under Genseric, Arians in creed, and more than savages nature, sailed from Spain into Africa, and laid cities and churches in ruin, putting to death the inhabitants with horrible cruelty.

They attacked Hippo, and in the third month of the siege its venerable bishop was seized with fever, which closed his long life of labour in the service of his Master. The fervour of his soul continued to the last, and in prayer and praise he calmly resigned his spirit on the 28th of August, 430. He had made no will; for this poor man of GOD, this faithful follower of CHRIST, had nothing to leave, except his works and his example, which have proved a rich bequest, indeed, to all suc ceeding ages.

Even the ruthless Vandals respected the holy Augus tine; for when they finally laid the city in ruins, they spared his library and the church where he was buried.

S. A. M.

HOLY DAYS IN AUGUST.

"There is a lesson in each flower,

A story in each stream and bower;
On every herb o'er which we tread,
Are written words, which rightly read
Will lead us from earth's fragrant sod
To hope, and holiness, and GOD."

THIS month takes its name from the first Roman Emperor Augustus Cæsar, and appropriately so; for as his reign was the golden age of Rome, during which her glory, her power, her riches, reached their culminating point, so August is the golden month of the year, the one in which the glories of the flowers and the riches of the fruits reach perfection. It is our "Augustan period," after which come falling leaves and wintry winds.

How glorious are our corn-fields, waving to and fro in the sunshine like seas of molten gold! What thankfulness should they inspire, what lessons teach, what holy meditations suggest! Who can walk through one of them and doubt the doctrine of the resurrection? or watch the reapers at their work, and not remember the final harvest-day, the angel workers, the heavenly garners, and the eternal fires? See these few ears I have plucked, the seeds from which they grew were all alike; the same rain watered them, the same sunshine warmed, and yet how different they are! One has borne fruit a hundred fold, another fiftyfold, and a third but twenty fold. Here is one all blackened and parched, and another fair to the sight, but crumbling to dust at the touch. These tares so closely entwined with them that only the sickle can divide them, and these bright flowers so conspicuous in their beauty, surely they are good and useful? No, their flaming hues only proclaimed the poverty of the soil that produced them; one ear of corn is worth a dozen. Brilliancy is not always the sign of worth. Our "Great Teacher" took for texts the lilies of the field, the fowls of the air, the wandering sheep, the clustering vines, and the yellow corn,

so may we, and we shall find in nature innumerable things to lead us "from nature up to nature's GOD."

But we must not linger, the last rich load is carried, and the shout of the reapers falls on our ear as they hasten to the merry harvest-home; and right joyous may it be, if in His gifts the Giver has been remembered; if before the merry making begins, the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving has been offered in His holy Temple, and the first-fruits laid upon His altar, that altar from which we obtain the Bread which "is life indeed."

The flowers which properly belong to August are few, but, fortunately, those of July have not forsaken us; yellow is the predominating colour; hawkweeds, camomiles, spurges, tansies, adorn our fields; the horn poppy, thrift, and sea lavender, may be found on the coast; the white convolvulus and honeysuckle still beautify our hedges.

August has one major feast, that of S. Bartholomew, to whom the sunflower is appropriated, the blossom that "turns to her god when he sets the same look that she turned when he rose."

Of the six minor feasts Lammas Day comes first, for which we have the thorn apple; for the feast of the Transfiguration, the autumnal crocus; for that of the Holy Name of JESUS, the amaranth is most appropriately given, for is it not the one and only Name that shall never fail us, that shall bring everlasting joy? for S. Lawrence, the balsam,-would that he had had some to cure his cruel wounds; for S. Augustine, the golden rod; for the Decapitation of S. John the Baptist, the hollyhock.

August the 24th is S. Bartholomew's Day, the 23rd is its vigil. The first Lessons are Ecclus. xxiv. xxix. The Collect teaches us to love that Word which S. Bar-·| tholomew, "the Israelite indeed, in whom was no guile," so readily believed. The Gospel, S. Luke xxii. 24-31, inculcates humility; and the Epistle, Acts v. 12—17, relates the signs and wonders wrought by the Apostles. Bartholomew, the son of Tholmai,' seems to have been another name for Nathanael. This Apostle is said to have extended his travels as far as India, carrying with him the Gospel of S. Matthew. He suffered

martyrdom at Albanopolis, in Greater Armenia, by being flayed alive, and was buried there; but his remains were removed, first to Daras in Persia, then to the island of Lipari, to Benevento, and finally to Rome. In art he appears as a resolute-looking man, with dark complexion, hair, and beard. He holds a flaying-knife, or sometimes S. Matthew's Gospel. The earliest way of representing the Apostles was as twelve sheep, six coming from a gate on one side (Jerusalem,) six from one on the other side, (Bethlehem,) and advancing towards a mountain in the centre, (the mount of GOD,) on which stood the SAVIOUR under the figure of a Lamb; from the mount flowed the four rivers of Paradise, typical of the four Evangelists. This mode of treatment often occurred in the catacombs. Afterwards they were drawn as twelve venerable men all exactly alike, each with a sheep in his arm, their names inscribed over their heads, or holding a scroll with a sentence from the Creed on it, as the tradition was that each of the Apostles contributed one of the twelve clauses of the Creed which bears their name.

August 1 is Lammas Day. Some say the Saxons were in the habit of offering at church a loaf made of the new corn at this time, and that this is the origin of the name, Loafmass. Others say that it is simply an abbreviation of vincu-lamas, just as Ember is of quatuor tempora, and that no harvest festival was ever held on this day: Lammas being also the Feast of S. Peter ad Vincula, (S. Peter's Chains,) to commemorate the miraculous deliverance of that Apostle from prison by the angel. A church was built at Rome in the fifth century bearing that title, and was said to contain the very fetters the Saint was bound with. The Norman chapel in the Tower of London is dedicated, and appropriately so, to S. Peter ad Vincula. Doubtless on entering it many a captive has longed for the same deliverance. On this day the tax called Peter's Pence used to be collected for the Pope. It was first granted by the Saxon King Ina, partly as alms, partly as payment for a house that was built at Rome for the benefit of English pilgrims. It consisted of one penny from each family.