as it is that social reform is impossible without Christian restoration, it is no less clear that Christian restoration can only be Catholic. Such are the principles which direct the conduct of those Catholics whom M. Le Play calls Ultramontane, and whose excessive zeal he seems to fear. They only differ from Liberal Catholics, inasmuch as they apply to religious innovations the very same rule, of which M. Le Play so well shows the necessity when applied to other social innovations. While Liberal Catholics are content to resign themselves to the destruction of the Christian order, and do not any longer speak of winning to religion those new societies which have for a century proclaimed their independence,— true Catholics, regarding this pretended emancipation as contrary both to the interests of society and to the traditions of the human race, see in this infatuation for it one more reason for pointing out its dangers. Nothing is more certain than this, that liberalism is as opposed to social Tradition as to Catholic. The separation of the temporal from the spiritual order, which it lays down as its first principle, is the most unheard-of and disastrous of those innovations, by which the modern world has broken with the wisdom of ages, and has condemned itself to a fearful decay. If this be true, we can only regard Catholic Liberalism as an error and a danger, which makes a compromise with this [evil] principle, and divides those forces whose union alone can save society. By reproving this illusion we take the only means of re-establishing unity. We do not oppose one party against the other; we are not more ultramontane than citramontane; we are Catholics as Catholics are everywhere, and as our fathers were; Catholics, like the Pope, who is more energetic than we in the condemnation of Liberalism; in a word, traditional Catholics. Consequently we ought to be supported by every man who understands and proclaims the indispensable necessity of returning to Tradition. H. RAMIERE. Notices of Books. The Glories of the Sacred Heart. By HENRY EDWARD, Cardinal Archbishop. London: Burns & Oates. WE 1876. E do not think that his Eminence the Cardinal has given the Church any work that will prove so valuable as this volume on the "Glories of the Sacred Heart," unless it be the "Temporal Mission of the Holy Ghost." It is dedicated to the Students of the Seminary of S. Thomas of Canterbury, and is, we believe, in great part the expansion of notes already dictated to them. The ten sermons contained in the volume seem to have been preached in two series. Perhaps the best notice we can give of them will be in the form of a general description of the subject-matter. The first sermon opens with the consideration of the doctrine of Incarnation as the true test of the disciples of Jesus Christ," and advances by clearly-stated propositions to the truth, that "the humanity of Jesus, being the humanity of God, was thereby ipso facto, eo ipso, in the very moment of the Incarnation, by necessity, deified, for it became the flesh, or the humanity, of God." Many truths depend on this fundamental dogma, and are, each one, a test of true faith in it. Error about the Divine Maternity, or the efficacy of the Precious Blood, or the worship due to the Sacred Heart, is conviction of heresy on the truth of the Incarnation. The transition to the Catholic doctrine of the Sacred Heart is plain. It is not so much an inference from the doctrine as a part of it, for as the humanity of Jesus being the humanity of God, was in the very moment of the Incarnation deified, so the Sacred Heart was in that moment deified, and became the Heart of God. That is the Divine glory of the Sacred Heart, the justification of the truth, that "as the doctrine of the Incarnation is the true test of the disciples of Jesus Christ, so the Divine glory of the Sacred Heart is the true test of the doctrine of the Incarnation." The second sermon outlines the arguments of the rest of the series, and then proves, as its special thesis, the fitness (congruitas) of the Incarnation, inasmuch as it is the means to the creature of the greatest knowledge, and therefore of the greatest love, of God. The mystery, it is ably shown, brings God within the apprehension of human intelligence" with a fulness and precision which was not possible before." They who looked upon Jesus Christ looked upon God. In Him was all the fulness of the Godhead, and even in His finite and visible nature He was the clearest expression of the Divine perfections. "The Infinite Image of God clothed in our humanity united both the original and the likeness in one Person; and thereby the conception of God became to man more intimate, more facile, more intelligible, more within the sphere of human reason." Thus came a greater knowledge of the moral attributes of God, above all of His love; and, as a consequence, a greater sympathy with them was excited in the hearts of men. Another result was the creation of a moral body on earth of which He is the Head, and this also brings man nearer to God. And, lastly, it makes possible that Sacramental Presence by which the consciousness of His nearness and watchfulness is strongly increased and sustained in the hearts of believers. Therefore we may see in the mystery a fitness and a Divine adaptation of ways and means to increase the knowledge and the love of God in man. But as "the Incarnation is God's Book of Life, the knowledge of His Sacred Heart is the interpretation and the unfolding of that Book." "Dogma, the Source of Devotion," scatters the misrepresentations that hide the true meaning of the word "dogma," and very plainly shows that supernatural "knowledge is the first and vital condition of all true worship." This sermon, even taken by itself, is of exceptional value and complete in its argument, but its place in the series has reference to that which follows-"The Science of the Sacred Heart." In five ways we learn this science, or by five degrees ascend, "going from step to step upwards into the light, the knowledge, and the love of the Sacred Heart.” The first way of learning is that of the intellect illuminated by faith. Love follows, and superadds a yet more intimate knowledge, by assimilating the heart of man with the Sacred Heart. The third way is experience—a personal trial that every soul must make for itself-a spiritual tasting that opens the eyes, and intensifies the vision of those who already see by faith. For the rest the sermon follows unusual ways, and treats very beautifully of the infused light of the Holy Ghost, that is, the knowledge which is "the theology of the Saints," whether learned or unlearned, and which sometimes, expressed from the lips of the humble and uneducated, outstrips the slow and scientific work of the school in shedding light even upon dogmas of faith." Our Lord's miraculous manifestations of Himself constitute the fifth way of knowledge. The last sermon is supplementary, and portrays "the character of our Divine Lord as it is manifested in the Sacred Heart." It is entitled "The Last Will of the Sacred Heart," and dwells upon the institution of the Blessed Sacrament as the supreme manifestation of Divine love. 66 The second course of sermons is more explicitly of a devotional kind than the first, and may be more briefly summarized. "The Temporal Glory of the Sacred Heart" is its influence in the world. It has been spreading ever since the revelation of the mystery. A vision of beautythe beauty of the Eternal Son of God as seen in Bethlehem, in Nazareth, and in Jerusalem-has entered into the world, displacing the hideous and perverted conceptions of many gods, and still lives, drawing to itself the intelligence and heart of mankind. And it is more than a vision. It is a power impressing its own character upon the whole race of mankind that lives by faith. Lastly, the Incarnate Word reigns in the world and wit nesses to His own supreme power by His Vicar, "whom He has appointed to reign in His stead, to speak in His name, and to exercise His superior jurisdiction." "The Transforming Power of the Sacred Heart" shows the ways in which It assimilates human hearts to Itself. It is able deformata reformare, reformata transformare, transformata conformare. The next sermon, "The Sure Way of Likeness to the Sacred Heart," continues the same subject-the conformity of human hearts to the Sacred Heart, which is the perfection of man--under the aspect of that co-operation which is within the power, and therefore within the duty, of man. "The Signs of Likeness to the Sacred Heart" are five-selfdenial, charity to others, severity to ourselves, self-mistrust, and the spirit of praise; "where these are there is, at least, a faint outline of our Divine Master." The last sermon of the volume is "The Eternal Glory of the Sacred Heart." "In what will this glory consist? So far as we can understand, it will be revealed in three ways-first, in Itself; secondly, in Its relations to the Ever-blessed Trinity; and lastly, in Its relations to us" (p. 280). We need hardly say that on these lines a sermon of wonderful elevation is constructed. It worthily closes the work, and especially crowns the argument of the preceding discourses on the ways and signs of likeness to the Sacred Heart, inasmuch as it contemplates the Eternal Glory of the Sacred Heart throned in the centre of all hearts that have ever been conformed to It. "Tremunt videntes Angeli For many reasons we have judged it well to give a notice of the sermons in the way we have done. There is only one point on which we desire to make any remark. The first sermon, which is a clear and able exposition of the theology of the Sacred Heart, and therefore, on the principle developed in the third sermon, of the source of sound devotion to It, was the subject of an article in January, 1874. Besides its permanent value, it had then a passing interest. It drew forth an impetuous attack from a Protestant clergyman, and thereby a striking confirmation of the fact stated in the sermon, that outside the Church the doctrine of the Incarnation was fast fading away from the minds of men. At the same time there appeared, under the signature of "Catholicus," a pamphlet of exceptional ability. A great part of it is added, by way of notes and appendix, to the sermon in this volume, and the fact at once increases its value, and points to the authorship of the pamphlet. What we would wish now to see clearly, is the precise point where the Protestant mind loses itself in its belief in the mystery of the Incarnation. As the Cardinal remarks, "The Church which is established by law in England retains the creeds, in which the true and proper doctrine of the Incarnation is fully enunciated" (p. 6), yet we have seen the hopeless feebleness of even clerical Protestantism to grasp the nearest conclusions to the doctrine. We do not remember under what form of heresy precisely the views held by the Protestant controversialist would range them selves-perhaps they were too vague and confused to take any definite shape-but his difficulty against Catholic teaching, as expressed by the Cardinal, was first that it "declared the Sacred Humanity to be deified, i.e. changed into God, or made 'God'; and then, by a strange contradiction, he asserted that the teaching of the Cardinal "separated it from the Divinity, and set it up as a deified object of separate worship." But we must close our notice of the Cardinal's able work, and the reflections it has suggested. It is full of eloquence and learning from cover to cover. The Sermon on the Mount. By H. J. COLERIDGE, S.J. T is just a year since we drew attention as best we could, to the special benefits which F. Coleridge is therein conferring, on English Catholics primarily, but ultimately on the whole Christian world. The work has now reached its third volume, which lies before us. We can hardly say more of it in the way of notice, than emphatically to repeat what we said last July on the general character and value of the commentary; and to testify that the two subsequent volumes have even surpassed our expectation, in what seems to us the completeness and general excellence of their execution. We cannot doubt that the effect produced by the work is already considerable: but its publication is peculiarly the kind of enterprise, in which the ultimate results are out of all proportion to the initial movement. Those who are at once most deeply impressed by it, are precisely those who are most likely to influence the mind of others, and who are most sure to do so in due course. F. Coleridge begins (if we may so express ourselves) by generating the atmosphere itself, in which his utterances will at a later period sound forth with a distinctness and emphasis that must arrest the attention of all. If the volume before us were simply an ascetical treatise,-every thoughtful reader would be profoundly impressed by its fulness, depth, and perspicacity; by its subtlety in setting forth the adaptation of Christian doctrine for the loftiest needs of human nature. In this respect, however, the volume essentially differs from an ascetical treatise, that the writer is not pursuing a plan and purpose of his own, but illustrating in pregnant and unforced comment the successive words of God Incarnate. The reader is not mastering some scheme of ascetic theology, but learning to "live on every word which proceedeth from the mouth of God." It is easy enough doubtless to make our Lord's words texts as it were to a series of sermons; but there is not a sentence of F. Coleridge's which can fairly be called digressive; not a sentence which does not assist in apprehending more fully and precisely what it is which our Blessed Lord is saying. The effect of such a study on the whole interior life is a theme |