HOLY READINGS.

HOPE IN GOD.

WOE to the soul wrapped up in herself, who fears everything, and who, by dint of fear, has no time to love God with openness and freedom!

Oh my God! I know that thou wouldst have the heart that loves thee love thee willingly and freely. I will act, therefore, with boldness, like a child that plays in the arms of its mother: I will rejoice in the Lord always and I will try to make others rejoice. I will pour out my soul without fear in the assembly of the children of God. Let me be frank, innocent, and glad with the gladness of the Holy Ghost. Far from me be that sad and fearful stiffness which is always teazing itself and holding the scales in hand to weigh straws and nothings! To act with so little open-heartedness, is to wrong thee, my God! These fears are unworthy of thy Fatherly love.-FENELON.

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slowly, and heavily; while really devout souls fly upwards to God often, quickly, and with untiring wings. In short, devotion is nothing more than an active liveliness of the soul, by which the love of God acts in us and we in it, speedily and affectionately: and as the love of God leads us to wish to fulfil all the commandments of God, so godliness leads us to perform them readily, diligently, and gladly. He, therefore, who does not keep all the commandments of God cannot be deemed either good or devoted; and to be godly, it is needful to have, besides the love of God, a liveliness and readiness in the performance of the works of God.

And as devotion consists in a certain degree of exalted love of God, it not only renders us ready and willing to fulfil all the commandments of God; but it moreover leads us to perform cheerfully and affectionately as many good works as possible, even though they be only counselled and not commanded. In short, there is that difference between the love of God and godliness that there is between fire and flame: the love of God being a spiritual fire, the flames of which are called devotion. Devotion adds nothing to the fire of divine love, except the flame which renders it watchful, ready, and glad to fulfil, not only the commandments of God, but all heavenly counsels and inspirations likewise.-ST. F. DE SALES.

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GOOD OF GODLINESS.

Those who dissuaded the Israelites from seeking the promised land, told them it was a country whose climate was so bad that no one could live there, and whose inhabitants were giants who devoured other men like locusts. So too, does the world cry out against true godliness-describing it as making people sad, sour, and solemn, as producing melancholy and unbearable fancies in those who follow it. But as Josue and Caleb asserted that the promised land was not only good and rich, but that the possession of it would be sweet and pleasant, so does the Holy Ghost, by his Saints, and our Saviour by his own mouth, assure us that a devout life is a sweet, a light, and a happy life.

The world sees that godly people fast and pray and bear wrongs patiently; that they help the sick; give to the poor; watch; control their anger; mortify and check their passions; and do many similar things which are, indeed, unpleasant and hard to bear in themselves: but the world does not see that heartfelt, inward zeal which makes all these things sweet, easy, and agreeable. Look at bees upon thyme, how, while they suck, they change all its bitterness into honey. So, indeed, may devout souls find much bitterness in their mortifications; bu

nastic godliness cannot be followed in these other states of life. But besides these sorts of piety, there are many others well suited to those who live in the world. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, Job, Tobias, Sarah, Rebecca, and Judith all prove it in the Old Testament: and under the new dispensation, Sts. Joseph, Lydia, and Crespin were perfectly devout in their shops; Sts. Ann, Martha, Monica, Aquileia, Priscilla in their households: Cornelius, St. Sebastian, St. Maurice in the army: Constantine, Helena, St. Lewis, blessed Amedæus, St. Edward, and St. Henry on their thrones : and the other St. Henry in the rags and wretchedness of a beggar. It has even chanced that many have lost their godliness in solitude which seems so well suited to it, and have preserved it in erowds which are thought so hostile to religious advancement. Whoever and wherever we may be, we ought to strive for, and we can strive for, religious perfection: it is suitable to all ages, to all sexes, to all professions, to all states of life.-ST. F. DE SALES.

SUNDAY MORNING.

Hark! the Sunday bells are ringing:
All the earth is still and calm:
May from ev'ry hedge is flinging

Up to heaven its fragrant balm.
All is peaceful, bright, and gay;
All the earth keeps holiday;
Come and pray, come and pray.

Come and thank our God for making
Earth so gladsome, bright and fair:

E'en the very poor are shaking

Off their load of toil and care.

This is labour's holiday;

ONE alone is Lord to day;

Come and pray, come and pray.

ORIGINAL.

GOD AND JESUS CHRIST: CHAP. I.

1. Most of those who undertake to prove to unbelievers the existence of God, begin by the works of nature, and seldom succeed. I do not say but what these proofs, brought forward by the Holy Scriptures themselves, are good; they are conformable to reason: but they are not enough conformable and proportioned to the