cient. It is hard to remember always that the unworthiness of the minister hinders not the effect of the sacrament received at his hands. If we but take the Master at His word, faith does not fail to find great glory in all the services of holy Church, great power in all her ordinances.

2. Faith should also behold Him coming on high, going on triumphantly in the heavenly course of His mediatorial kingdom, accompanied by clouds of His saints, who are ever filling up more and more the celestial thrones made vacant by the rebellion of Lucifer and his hosts. We should dwell with enthusiastic wonder upon the glory of the saints on high, as they delight in the things which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor yet the heart of man conceived. And we should not cease to praise God for the great power granted those blessed ones in their privilege of interceding for the Church on earth.

3. We may still further behold our Lord coming even now to us, in the penitential experiences of our life here below, though it be in clouds rather than in sunshine; nevertheless with great glory, for He would work amazing things in us, even likeness to Himself; and with unearthly power for the rooting out of every evil thing in our souls. We are never to belittle

in thought the vastness of the redemption which our Lord would work in us.

Second Thought.-Very mysterious is that which our Lord tells us concerning the angels. They are deeply interested in all the fortunes of His elect. To each of the children of men at his birth an angel guardian is assigned, and these all holy ones never fail in their watchful guardianship, though it may be that the souls they have to care for all through the days of this world be lost at the last. We can picture the holy angels speaking one with another concerning their human charges, for we are told that there is joy in their ranks over every sinner that repents. They always behold the face of the heavenly Father, and doubtless they see mirrored there everything concerning the destiny of their charges which can give them joy. What would not we give if we could know as the angels know how we stand with God; what would be the judgment He must pronounce upon us were we in an instant, without time for a single aspiration of repentance, to be hurried into eternity! Yet we need not be concerned upon this point: it is only needful that at every moment of our lives we should be sure that we are quite simply and frankly availing ourselves systematically of the sacrament of

Penance; that we are ceaselessly engaged in giving battle to all our sinful propensities.

Third Thought.-How wide is the reach of the Master's kingdom, as He here portrays it— from the uttermost part of earth, to the uttermost part of heaven. One thinks of great saints on high who stand very close to the Lamb upon His throne, as the Blessed Mother of God and St. John Baptist, and then of the least and most unnoted of His elect upon earth, who in lowliest walk of life is striving to follow in the Master's footsteps. The angels know them all, they are never at a loss to place each soul where it belongs, when the Lord shall demand it, at His right hand or at His left. As the angels shall gather His elect in the last day, so now are those elect, great and small, in the highest place of heaven, in the lowliest vocations of earth, bound in a great bond of fellowship in Christ.

But one thing is needful to insure our part in that blessed company of the faithful—that there should be unhesitating surrender of the whole being to Christ's service; that that should be the reason of one's being, the ideal of all one's striving. The children of this world. preach often the gospel of service, that men should not think of themselves, nor live for their own supposed interests, but for their fel

lows, and their good. Such altruism is admirable in theory, but can never be realized by sinful man, nor would it profit him could it be realized, until he has first learned to love God, with all the heart, and mind, and soul, and strength. The second commandment-Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself-is noble enough, but cannot become practicable until the love of God has first dominated the life. But in love of God and love of neighbour are highest and lowest in the Master's kingdom bound together in one indivisible body of His elect.

XCVII.

"Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When her branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is near: so ye in like manner, when ye shall see these things come to pass, know that it is nigh, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, that this generation shall not pass, till all these things be done. Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away."-St. Mark xiii. 28-31.

Exposition.-Isaac Williams says: "The coming on of the kingdom of God is here, with peculiar force and beauty, likened to the approach of summer: for we know that the spring is the lively emblem of the resurrection. In winter the trees appear dead, though containing in them vital power, and leaves, and blossoms, and fruit: and suddenly, when they feel the summer sun, do they burst forth, as if they had concealed within them a new and beautiful creation, of which no external sign appeared. So it is with all of us now, the fig tree and all