all lowliness and thankfulness of mind, all holiness, all power, all acceptableness in the Church. From Him is the authority of governors; from Him the obedience of the governed. A mighty work of God is doing on the earth; on men, and in men; a work which each may resist, if in the wilfulness of a rebellious spirit he resolves to reject the counsel' of God against him; but which, too, each may further by yielding himself up in all devotion of body and soul to perform, with the help of God, the work which God hath given him to do. But though man may further, as man may reject, though man by using the means of grace with all diligence may work out, as he may also lose and ruin, his own salvation, yet of the work and gift of God the Holy Ghost is all that is good or faithful or well-pleasing in him. He keeps our souls as their sole indwelling principle of truth, purity, and firmness. He is our Lord and Giver of life, our growth, our grace, our joy, our hope. "Through Him is the lifting up of hearts, the leading of the weak by the hand, the perfecting of those who make progress. He, shining upon those who have been purified from every stain, maketh them spiritual by union with Himself. And as clear and transparent bodies, when a ray of light falls upon them, become shining themselves, and reflect another ray from themselves,

7 St. Luke vii. 30.

so spirit-bearing souls, shone upon by the Spirit, are themselves made spiritual, and send forth grace to others also. Thence comes the foreknowledge of things to come, the understanding of mysteries, the comprehension of things concealed, the distributions of gifts, citizenship of heaven, union with the choir of angels, endless joy, perseverance with God, likeness to God, and what is the chief of all things desirable, the becoming divine 8."

Thus to the Holy Ghost, the Divine Paraclete, the Church owes her life, her light, and spiritual being. Without Him, even the sacred words of Christ, the charter of her marvellous powers and graces, had been words without deeds, a body without a soul, a shadow without a substance. With his Divine Presence, and unfailing help, all these sacred words are full of energetic, life-imparting force. The words were spoken in the Forty Days; the Spirit and the power descended on the fiftieth. From that day forth the Church began to bear her sacred witness to the world. From that day forth she began in the life and strength of the Holy Spirit of God to strike her roots deeply, and to spread her branches. From that day forth she began to cover the hills with her shadow, and to fill the land; to send out her boughs unto the sea, and her branches unto the

S. Basil. de Spiritu Sancto, c. 9.

river. From that day forth she began, through a long and various, a mournful and wonderful history, to prepare the world for the terrible advent of her Lord in Judgment.

APPENDIX.

PAGE 36.

S. Cyprian. adv. Judæos, lib. ii. c. xxvi.—Quod cum resurrexisset, acciperet a Patre omnem potestatem, et potestas ejus æterna sit.

Apud Danielem: Videbam in visu nocte, et ecce, in nubibus cœli quasi filius hominis veniens venit usque ad Veterem dierum, et stetit in conspectu ejus, et qui assistebant ei obtulerunt eum et data est ei potestas regia, et omnes reges terræ per genus et omnis claritas serviens ei: et potestas ejus æterna, quæ non auferetur, et regnum ejus non corrumpetur. Item apud Esaiam: Nunc exsurgam, inquit Dominus, nunc clarificabor, nunc exaltabor, nunc videbitis, nunc intelligetis, nunc confundemini: vana erit fortitudo spiritus vestri, igni vos consumet. Item in Psalmo 109: Dixit Dominus Domino meo, Sede ad dexteram meam, quoadusque ponam inimicos tuos suppedaneum pedum tuorum: Virgam virtutis tuæ mittet Deus à Sion: et dominaberis in medio inimicorum tuorum. Item in Apocalypsi (Rev. i. 12-18). Item in Evangelio, Dominus post resurrectionem: Data est mihi omnis potestas in cœlo et in terrâ: ite, ergo, et docete omnes gentes, tingentes eos in nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti, docentes eos observare omnia quæcunque præcepi vobis.