and thus, by their bad example, confirming unbelievers in their persistency. Wo to them! because their inordinate desire to increase the revenues of the temple, leads them to trifle with the sacredness of solemn oaths. Wo to them! because they are concerned only for the letter of the law and not for its spirit, and affect to consider ceremonial ordinances, prescribed for times and circumstances long since passed away, as of more importance than the eternal law of morals. Wo to them! because they, by their outward bodily afflictions and ostentatious observance of the law, dispense themselves from the duty of internal purity and holiness of life. Wo to them! because, like whitened sepulchers, they present themselves to the people as hypocrites-as being what, in reality, they are not. Wo to them finally! because they erected memorials to the murdered prophets, at the same time that they were plotting the death of the greatest of all the prophets. They trifled with the time of visitation and rejected the Messias, and together with Him the calling and selection and salvation of the Hebrew nation.

However, toward the end of the world, their descendants will at last be converted and embrace the faith of Him who will then come as the Judge of the living and the dead. For it is so written in the prophecy of Osee: "For the children of Israel shall sit many days without king, and without prince, and without sacrifice, and without altar, and without ephod. and without theraphim; and after this the children of Israel shall return, and shall seek the Lord their God, and David their king: and they shall fear the Lord, and His goodness in the last days."

CHAPTER VI

THE WIDOW'S MITE. THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM. THE GENERAL JUDGMENT

(TUESDAY IN HOLY WEEK)

Matt. xxiv. 1-41; Mark xii. 41; xiii. 32; Luke xxi. 1-33

IT WAS the evening of Tuesday, in the week of His holy passion. He had returned from the temple, after spending the whole day in refuting the errors and rebuking the malice

of the Jews, and now having gone out from the city, He was sitting, surrounded by His disciples, on Mount Olivet, directly opposite to the temple. Here fell from His sacred lips that appalling prediction of Jerusalem's punishment and of the last judgment, which is read every year from the altar for the people's instruction and meditation, on the last Sunday of the ecclesiastical year and on the first Sunday of Advent.

1. THE WIDOW'S MITE

Before reviewing this awful picture of ruin and desolation, let us listen awhile to the holy evangelists, Mark and Luke, who present us with a lovely and touching subject for our admiration and study-the offering made in the temple by the poor widow.

"And Jesus sitting over against the treasury, beheld how the people cast money into the treasury, and many that were rich cast in much. And there came a certain poor widow, and she cast in two mites, which make a farthing. And calling His disciples together, He saith to them: Amen I say to you, this poor widow hath cast in more than all they who have cast into the treasury. For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she, of her want, cast in all she had, even her whole living."

The offerings deposited by the people in the contributionbox of the temple were devoted to the support of the priests, the maintenance of divine service, and to the relief of the poor. And as it is to-day a pious and praiseworthy custom to show our thankfulness to God for the blessings of public worship by making offerings in proportion to our means, in order to keep up the worship of God, His house, and His ministers, so too were the Jews in the habit of making an offering of gold each time that they went to the temple.

It is laudable for persons of means to give alms in this or some similar way. For Christ really and truly accepts whatever is offered for the maintenance of religion or the relief of the poor, just as if it were offered personally to Himself. And the words of the devout and generous Tobias, "Alms deliver from all sin, and from death, and will not suffer the soul to go into darkness" Tob. iv. 11), are ever true for all men and for all circumstances and for all times. When, therefore, the rich man, for God's sake and with modest discretion, deprives Himself of a portion of His wealth for the benefit of His Church, or in aid of the poor, He performs a laudable

and salutary act. But why do we say: For God's sake and with modest discretion? Because many persons make large donations in order to attract the admiration of the world and to acquire, by their ostentatious liberality, the plaudits of their fellow-men. It is sad to think and to know that not one cent of such donations will be entered to their credit on the book of eternal rewards. On the contrary, the selfish and interested giver will hear on the last day the dismal words: "Verily, thou hast had thy reward." Öthers there are, too, who give freely and cheerfully, but who never think to give their alms with regard to God, or for love of Christ. They give without reflection, and just because the wants of their fellow-men awake their sympathy. How sad for the gifts of such generous-hearted people! Certainly our heavenly Father will not suffer their benevolence to go unrewarded, but their actions have no value for eternity, for they are not done for God's sake. Let the rich, therefore, if they would have their acts meritorious and pleasing in the eyes of heaven, make their offerings for God and out of love for Him alone; then will temporal reward be granted in this life, as well as eternal compensation hereafter.

How much more laudable and touching are the offerings of the poor! The laborer who takes from his hard-earned and scanty wages an offering for the Church, or an alms for the poor; the servant-girl, who, forgetting her own wants, is happy to decorate the altar, or to clothe a poor person; the artless child who foregoes his toy and his sweets in order, for Jesus' sake, to place his pennies in the trembling hand of a beggar; such spectacles are truly sublime and ennobling. Spectacles worthy of the glorious days of primitive Christianity, when a holy pope, Clement, said to the poor: "And if you have no means of giving alms, fast and then share with the saints what was intended for yourselves.' O blessed are such poor, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

2.

CHRIST FORETELLS THE DESTRUCTION OF THE TEMPLE "Jesus being come out of the temple, went away. His disciples came to show Him the buildings of the temple: and some saying of the temple that it was adorned with goodly stones and gifts, one of His disciples saith to Him: Master, behold what manner of stones and what buildings are here. Jesus answering, said to them: Do you see all these things! all these great buildings? Amen I say to you, the days will

come in which there shall not be left here a stone upon a stone that shall not be thrown down."

History bears testimony to the exact fulfilment of this prophecy of our Lord, and relates the complete destruction of this doomed temple. The Roman general Titus would have gladly saved the temple-for it was a splendid masterpiece of beauty, strength, and elegance. He accordingly gave orders to his soldiers that, in plundering and sacking the city, they should spare the sacred edifice. One of them, however, disregarding, or, in his excitement forgetting his commander's orders, threw a burning torch into the sacred building, which set it on fire. The struggle in the immediate vicinity of the temple was so violent and exciting, that no one discovered the fire till it was too late to get it extinguished. Three hundred years later, the Roman emperor, Julian the Apostate, wishing to contradict the prophecy of Christ and the prediction of Daniel, that the temple would remain a ruin forever, announced to the Jews scattered throughout his empire that the time had come for the restoration of their temple; telling them that he himself would help the work by contributing money and skillful workmen. The Jews flocked from all quarters, bringing munificent supplies of money and material to further the emperor's designs. The Jewish women gave their jewelry and costly ornaments, and some of the wealthiest and most refined among them were seen every day drawing building-stone with their own hands. Meanwhile the Christians dwelling in Jerusalem were subjected to gross indignities and mockeries on the part of the elated Jews. St. Cyril, who was then the devout and exemplary bishop of that see, looked with calmness and confidence upon these vast preparations, and consoled the Christians by quietly and confidently calling their attention to the words of Christ in the holy gospel. The trenches were now open, the new foundations were ready to be laid next morning, and the Jews already began to triumph. Suddenly there burst forth from the bowels of the earth a flaming torrent of fire which dislodged the stones, melted the iron implements, and burnt the workmen to cinders. At every attempt on the part of new hands to renew the work, a similar disaster occurred, till the work was finally abandoned. The ruins of the temple remain to this day, without one stone upon another-a permanent witness to the truthfulness of Him who said not a stone would be left upon a stone which would not be destroyed.

3. THE SIX SIGNS PORTENDING THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM. THE GENERAL JUDGMENT

The apostles, joining in their minds all these prophetic words just heard from the mouth of their divine Master, with all His previous predictions about the destruction of Jerusalem, the end of the world, and the last judgment, supposed that these three great events were to take place at an early day. They eagerly inquired of Jesus when these things would come to pass and what would be the premonitory signs. Our Lord, adapting Himself to their powers of comprehension, gave them an explanation of the signs that would precede the destruction of Jerusalem, and of those that are to occur just before the end of the world. Then, for the first time, He mentions in particular the chastisements in store for the deicide city, and concludes with a description of the last judgment. The evangelist gives His words:

"And as Jesus sat on the Mount of Olivet, over against the temple, the disciples came to Him privately; and Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew, asked Him apart, saying: Master, tell us when all these things shall be, and what shall be the sign when all those things shall begin to be fulfilled, what shall be the sign of Thy coming and of the consummation of the world?

"Jesus answering, said: Take heed, lest any man seduce you for many will come in My name, saying: I am Christ; and the time is at hand. They will seduce many; go ye not, therefore, after them.

"When you shall hear of wars and seditions and rumors of wars, be not terrified. These things must first come to pass, but the end is not yet presently. Then He said to them: Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There shall be great earthquakes in divers places, and pestilences and famines, and terrors from heaven, and there shall be great signs. Now all these things are the beginnings of sorrows.

"But take heed, for before all these things they will lay their hands on you, and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and into prisons. Look to yourselves, for they shall deliver you up to councils, and in the synagogues you shall be beaten, and you shall stand before governors and kings for My sake, for a testimony unto them. Lay it up, therefore, in your hearts, when they shall lead you and deliver you up, not to meditate before how you shall answer; but