against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world nor in the world to come. Because they said, He hath an unclean spirit. Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree evil and its fruit evil. For by the fruit the tree is known."

This is one of those reverent tributes which Jesus pays to the Divine Spirit, only paralleled by His loving and obedient homage to His Father. The Father and the Son and the Spirit are everywhere in the Gospel, working and speaking by the organ of the Son made Man. Nothing is clearer than the fatherhood of the Deity, the divine sonship of Jesus, the overruling presence of the Holy Ghost, each distinct from the others, and all three one in essence, in being, in deity. The crime of rejecting the Son, bateful though it be, is outranked by that of rejecting the Spirit that is in the Son, blinding one's self wilfully to the good actually before one's eyes, first opposing a messenger of God and finally opposing everything he does, no matter how good. It is to pass from befouling the king's standard to personally insulting the king himself.*

OUTWARD RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCES.

*St. Augustine calls attention to the glimpse of future states of pardon and punishment given by our Saviour in the words just quoted. For, says the saint in substance, how can there be pardon in the next life, except in Purgatory? Jesus here assumes in His hearers the belief in a middle state of souls, those who are yet making amends ere they can be called to heaven-a belief then as now universal among the Jews.

FORM OF ASKING FAVORS.

Then follows a terrible arraignment of the evil tongues and hearts of Jesus' enemies: "O generation of vipers, how can you speak good things, whereas you are evil? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out of a good treasure bringeth forth good things, and an evil man out of an evil treasure bringeth forth evil things." And He then affirms the responsibility of ordinary mortals for trifling sins of speech: what shall be the torment of those who revel in blasphemy and calumny? "But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall render an account for in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.” Let us apply this terrible test to ourselves. It was the Pharisees' hard words from their hard hearts, their pitiless pursuit of violators of minute laws, and their habit of sitting in judgment on others that caused our gentle Saviour to single them out for condemnation-and the same faults will, perhaps, bring upon us the same fate. Even the idle words of a bitter soul spread misery around, not only among enemies but even among friends.

"Master," said some one, "we would have a sign from Thee"-meaning a sign in the heavens. It was a challenge to Him to emulate Samuel, who had made the thunder roll; or Elias, who had called down fire from heaven; or Josue, who had caused the sun to stand still. But Jesus would not reward wilful incredulity with preternatural arguments. He would cleave the heavens and ascend into them at the end of His sojourn on earth. But before opening the gates of the skies at His Ascension, He will first conquer death, the fell prince of the tomb. He

accordingly answered: "An evil and adulterous generation seeketh a sign, and a sign shall not be given it, but the sign of Jonas the prophet. For as Jonas was in the whale's belly three days and three nights, so shall the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights." And He reproached them with the example of the Ninevites: "For as Jonas was a sign to the Ninevites, so shall the Son of Man be also to this generation. The men of Nineve shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it, because they did penance at the preaching of Jonas, and behold a greater than Jonas here. The Queen of the South shall rise in judgment with this generation and shall condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold a greater than Solomon here." The heavenly Father had made Jesus the light of the world: "No man lighteth a candle and putteth it in a hidden place nor under a bushel, but upon a candlestick, that they that come in may see the light."

Wilful blindness to the light on the part of a Jew, a servant of God, was a more grievous offence than that of the heathen. Our Saviour shows this by a picture of the added ferocity of the demon again assaulting and again overcoming one who had previously expelled hims "And when an unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out. And coming he findeth it empty, swept and garnished. Then he goeth and" taketh with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and

dwell there, and the last state of that man is worse than the first. So shall it be also to this wicked generation."

answer.

A woman in the crowd, eagerly listening to this powerful eloquence, was rapt into a sort of ecstatic envy of her who was privileged to be the Mother of Jesus, and she cried out: "Blessed is the womb that bore Thee, and the breasts that gave Thee suck." Jesus answered: "Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it." The stream of His zeal was at the moment running strong for interior union with God and bore along with it His Mary the Mother of Jesus was first saluted by the angel as full of grace, and on that account the Holy Ghost chose her to be Mother of the Messias. Not the womb nor the breasts nor the royal blood, but the sanctity of soul in that greatest among women entitled her to be called blessed. And every soul must hearken to God and obey and love Him; otherwise whatever blessed office it may have will rest upon it as jewels upon a corpse. It was because Mary had first conceived the Son of God in her soul that she was chosen to conceive Him in her womb.

Returning to the mystery of evil in the Pharisees Jesus thus explained it: "If thine eye be single thy whole body shall be lightsome. But if thine eye be evil thy body shall be in darkness." The eye of the soul is the intention. What did these men mean by their hostility to Jesus? They meant ambition. Lust of power was their passion. Their soul's eye was bloodshot with the violence of their impulse to rule. Hence hate, lying, treachery, and they ended with deicide; all the while they assumed the air of devotees to the faith of Israel. "Take heed therefore that the light which is in thee be not darkness.

If then thy whole body be lightsome, having no part of darkness, the whole shall be lightsome, and as a bright lamp shall enlighten thee."

Meantime, "As He was yet speaking to the multitudes, behold His Mother and His brethren stood without seeking to speak to Him"-to call Him, perhaps, to His forgotten nourishment, or to keep some appointment. We have already seen that Mary must have been in the company of her Son since He began His public life. Her household would include her nieces and nephews, numbered among the disciples of Jesus and named His brothers and sisters by Jewish custom. This public occasion was chosen by Him to show the universality of His kinship, being no less affectionate by the grace of God than by the closest natural ties: "Who is My mother, and who are My brethren? And stretching forth His hand towards His disciples, He said: Behold My mother and My brethren. For whosoever shall do the will of My Father that is in heaven, he is My brother and sister and mother."

Compare this with the words addressed by Jesus from the Cross to Mary and John, and you have the whole mind of Jesus on the relation we bear to His blood relations, and especially to Mary. The divine sonship is ours by union with Christ, and this comes through the motherhood of Mary; again, His brotherhood with us is brought about by the same instrumentality. It is one of the curiosities of religious error that these words

WASHING BEFORE MEAT.