stone from the door" of the sepulchre where our Lord had been laid. After His ascension, two others stood by the apostles in white apparel, who declared that the second coming of their ascended Lord should be in like manner. So too an angel opened the prison doors where the apostles were confined; and it is formally revealed that the angels shall separate the righteous from the wicked at the last great day. In truth, "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?" Their services, likewise, ordained and constituted in a wonderful order, are such as that they take a deep and lively interest in our condition, progress, or lapse. They joy over the repentant sinner.§ They lift up their holy hands in intercession for us in our time of weakness and hour of trial. and guard us in danger and temptation. They guide The angels of our little ones, in fine, do always behold the Father's face in heaven.¶ * St. Matt. xxviii. 2. † Acts i. 11. Heb. i. 14. § St. Luke xv. 10. Gen. xxxii. 26; xlviii. 16; Zech. i. 12; Tobias xii. 12. The fol- Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, Four corners to my bed, I pray to God my soul to take St. Matt. xviii. 10. Amen." The saints on earth, undergoing their probation, also enjoy a true and real communion with all the saints. living in the same church, no matter how widely separated they may be either from the other. Those who walk in the light and love of God have fellowship one with another. For the unity of the Spirit causes all that is conferred upon the general community to be common to every member. Thus the divine fruit of the sacraments belongs to the faithful in general. Such are links by which the saints of every country are bound together in a spiritual and supernatural bond. Baptism, the only door by which men are admitted into the church, creates new links in the golden chain. The other sacraments strengthen those links, more especially that which is commonly 1 St. John i. 7. Every pious and holy action undertaken by one appertains to all, and becomes profitable to all. This is confirmed by St. Ambrose, who commenting on Psalm cxix. 63, "I am a companion of all them that fear thee," observes, "As we say that a member is a partaker of the entire body, so do we say that it is united to all who fear God." Therefore our Lord taught us to say, "our," not "my bread." This communion of all good things is illustrated in Scripture by a comparison borrowed from the members of the human body, in which there are many members; each performing its own, not all the same, functions. And these members are so well adapted and connected together, that if one suffers, the rest sympathize; or if one is in a healthy state, the feeling of pleasure is common to all. So is it in the church. Although the members are various, of different nations, rich and poor, freemen and slaves, yet having been once initiated by baptism, all become members of the one body, of which Jesus Christ is the Head. called "The Sacrament," viz., the Holy Communion of our Lord's Body and Blood. Through Christ, there present, every member coming with due and proper disposition partakes beneficially of that spiritual food. "A sumente non concisus, Non confractus, non divisus, Sumit unus, sumunt mille; Nec sumptus consumitur." The saints on earth, undergoing their probation, likewise enjoy a true and real communion † with all the saints who have departed this life, whether the latter be waiting for the consummation of the number of the elect, or have been graciously admitted into the actual presence of God. This is clear from St. Paul's statement regarding actual intercommunion in his Epistle to the Hebrews: "Ye are come unto Mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company * Lauda Sion Salvatorem. †The clause "Communionem Sanctorem" is not found in the most ancient versions of the Apostles' Creed, whether Oriental or Western. They are wanting in the Creed of Aquileia, as well as in that commented on by St. Augustine in his treatise, "De Fide et Symbolo." Nor are they in the Creed of the Church of Jerusalem, as set forth by St. Cyril. The doctrine expressed in this clause is a reasonable and legitimate development, however, from that which immediately precedes it. of angels, to the general assembly and church of the first-born, which are written in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant."* Moreover, death cannot and does not remove the foundation of the communion of saints, which stands in true but mystical union betwixt Christ and His church. Death has no power over the conjunction between the Head and the members, or over the reality of that blessed intercommunion, its influence, or its results. Death, which is merely the separation of soul and body, mars not the real and abiding communion between the faithful in Christ; but in some respects renders it more real, more divine, more lasting. He who has departed this life in the faith and fear of God, fortified by the sacraments of the church, and duly prepared for his passage across the valley of the shadow of death, gains by the change; for in the land beyond Jordan he finds that there is neither fear nor temptation nor sorrow nor loss. There the communion of saints remaineth intact and perfect. Here on earth the faithful hold visible and external communion with the sinner, the hypocrite, and the *Heb. xii. 22, 23. nominal Christian-each receiving the sacraments, each joining in common prayer, and each professing the same faith. Hereafter the communion of saints will be completed and perfected; so that all members of Christ will be more intimately joined together, both in will and work, than was ever their lot in the time of their temporary separation. Nevertheless, the communion or partnership exists as well while some of the faithful are undergoing their probation as when that probation is at an end; for there can be no real and efficient partnership where some members take no interest in the welfare of their fellows, and do nothing to promote each other's spiritual advantage. A communion of saints in which there is no charitable interchange of offices is no communion at all. It becomes a mere empty phrase or formal term, without reality, without object, without life. While, therefore, the faithful on earth pray daily that the kingdom of God may come that the consummation of all that is holy and pure and just and true may speedily be accomplished-the saints under the altar cry, "How long, O Lord! how long?" sending up their intercessory orisons for the whole church of the redeemed. It will be consequently concluded that this our true |