spirit. And, falling on his knees, he cried with a loud voice, saying, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep in the Lord" (Acts vi. vii.).

ST. FELICITAS AND HER SEVEN SONS.

During the reign of the Emperor Antoninus, a noble Roman lady, named Felicitas, was brought before Publius, the prefect or governor of Rome, along with her seven sons, on a charge of practising the Christian religion. Publius, desirous of gaining over the children by means of the mother, took her aside, and earnestly entreated her to have pity on her children, and, by prevailing on them to offer sacrifice to idols, to save their lives and secure for them the favour and rewards of the Emperor. But the holy mother nobly answered, "Do not think to frighten me by threats, or to win me by fair speeches. The compassion you exhort me to would make me the most cruel of mothers. My children will live eternally with Christ if they are faithful to him, but must expect eternal death if they sacrifice to idols." Then, turning to her children, she said to them, "My sons, look up to heaven, where Jesus Christ with his Saints expects you. Be faithful in his love, and fight courageously for your souls."

The prefect, enraged, ordered her to be cruelly beaten, and then, calling her children before him, strove to induce them, both by threats and promises, to adore the false gods. The sons answered, with a spirit worthy of their mother, that they would never forsake Jesus Christ, and that they did not fear a passing death, but everlasting torments. The Emperor, being informed of their constancy, condemned each of them to a cruel death. The eldest was scourged to death with leaden plummets. The next two were beaten with clubs till they expired. The fourth was thrown headlong from a precipice. The three youngest, with the heroic mother, were beheaded.-Butler's Saints' Lives.

In trials, afflictions, sufferings, and death itself, let us encourage ourselves by saying, in the words of St. Felicitas, "Look up to heaven, my soul; there Jesus Christ with his Saints awaits you." Or let us say, with her sons, "I do not fear passing sufferings, but eternal torments.”

NINTH INSTRUCTION.

Seventh Article - Jesus Christ - The General and Particular Judgments.

Q. What is the seventh article of the Creed?

A. The seventh article of the Creed is-" From thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead."

The two Angels who were sent by our B. Lord, on the day of his Ascension, to console his afflicted Apostles, while yet they stood gazing on the heavens where he had disappeared from their sight, comforted them with these words: "Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye looking up to heaven? This Jesus, who is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come as you have seen him going into heaven" (Acts i. 11). It is of the coming of our B. Lord to judge mankind that the Angels spoke, and it is in this that we declare our belief when we say, in the seventh article of the Apostles' Creed, From thence he shall come to judge the living and the dead.

Sometimes you will hear speak of the first and second coming of the Son of God. His first coming was when he came into the world as a little babe, and was born in the stable at Bethlehem. His coming then was in the midst of poverty, suffering, and neglect. But his second coming, which will be at the end of the world, to judge mankind, will be in power, majesty, and glory. For the Father, as Jesus said to his disciples, "hath given all judgment to the Son, that all men may honour the Son as they honour the Father" (John v. 22, 23). Here our B. Lord speaks of himself in his human nature, that is, as man. For, as God, he has a right to judge his own creatures, but as man, he receives that right from his Heavenly Father.

Our B. Lord, therefore, will come to judge us all at the end of the world, but he will also judge each of us at the moment of our death. For there are two judgments, the first or particular judgment, which will take place when we die, and in which we shall each be judged separately, and the second or general judgment, which will take place

at the end of the world in the general assembly of all mankind. You will perhaps wonder why there are two judgments. Is it that the sentence passed upon us when we die will ever be changed or recalled? No, my dear children; but it is fitting that our bodies, which were then dead, but which will have risen again at the last day, should appear along with our souls at the judgment seat of God, to receive the reward or punishment of those good or evil deeds in which they have been their partners during life. Besides, it is for the glory of God that the sentence passed on each one should then be made known to all mankind. It often happens in this life that the good are poor, persecuted, and despised, while the wicked are rich, prosperous, and held in honour and esteem by the world. Thus, if we looked no further than the present life, it might seem to some, who do not bear in mind that the peace of a good conscience and the happiness of a virtuous life are far beyond all worldly advantages, as if the wicked, rather than the good, are the favourites of Heaven. But on the day of general judgment the Justice of God will be made manifest to every one. It will then be seen that the short sufferings of this life, borne with patience for the love of God, have secured for the good an eternity of happiness; while the false pleasures and sinful enjoyments of the wicked are the cause of their eternal damnation. Hence the Holy Scripture describes the wicked as saying at the last day, when they behold the glory of the just, "These are they whom we had some time in derision and for a parable of reproach. We fools esteemed their lives madness and their end without honour. Behold how they are numbered among the children of God, and their lot is among the Saints" (Wisd. v. 3-5). Finally, and more than all, the Justice of God requires that his Divine Son himself, so despised, and suffering, and abject among men, should, on the day of general judgment, be glorified in the sight of his enemies, and exalted by his Heavenly Father in proportion to his sufferings and ignominies. Hence, he said to the High Priest Caiphas, when he sought to condemn him to death, "Hereafter you shall see the Son of Man

sitting on the right hand of the power of God, and coming in the clouds of heaven" (Matt. xxvi. 64).

As it is of the last or general judgment that the catechism first speaks, I will now ask you what we are to believe concerning it.

Q. Will Christ ever come again?

A. Christ will come again from heaven at the last day, to judge all mankind.

Our B. Lord will come again from heaven at the last day to judge all mankind. Every one who has ever been born will have, on that terrible day, to stand before God to receive his last and final sentence, both the living, that is to say, those who are alive on the earth at the day of judgment, and the dead, that is, all those who have died since the beginning of the world.* But when will the last day be? We know not; God only knows. Our B. Lord, when he was asked this question by his Apostles, would not tell them, for he said that it belongs to God alone to know the day and the hour. Almighty God has wisely left us in ignorance of it, as he has also of the moment of our death, in order that we may be always prepared for it. But he has told us by the lips of his Divine Son that there will be terrible signs before that day comes, to warn us of its approach. First of all, there will be earthquakes, and wars, and famines, and pestilences, which will fill the whole earth with desolation, and be a warning to sinners that the day of their final punishment is at hand. But for all that, men will go on in their sins, as our Lord says, just as they did before the deluge, when they were eating, and drinking, and marrying, and giving in marriage, without giving a thought to God or their souls, up to the very day when Noah entered into the ark. Then the floodgates of heaven were opened, mighty torrents of rain fell over the earth, the sea rose, and the water swept over the highest mountains, swallowing up all the

* The living and the dead may also be understood to mean those who are living the life of grace or who are dead by being in mortal sin. In instructing young children, it might cause confusion to unfold a second sense.

wicked sinners who had despised the warnings of God. So shall it be at the end of the world. While all are sleeping in false security, the fatal day will at length arrive. The sun shall be darkened, the moon refuse her light, and the stars fall down from heaven. The sign of the Son of Man, that is to say, the Cross of Jesus Christ, shall then appear shining in the heavens, and he himself, in the midst of glory and majesty, shall be seen coming in the clouds, attended by his angels, to judge mankind. The prophet Joel tells us that this last terrible scene will take place in the valley of Josaphat (Joel iii. 12), which lies between Jerusalem and Mount Olivet, within sight of the garden of Gethsemani, the court of Pilate, and the hill of Calvary. Thus will our Lord be exalted where he has been most humbled, and all sinners will be confounded when they behold before their eyes the very place where he, who is about to judge them, died to save them.

Jesus Christ, being now seated on his judgment throne, will send forth his angels with a trumpet and a great voice to summon all mankind from the four quarters of the globe to come and receive their sentence. At the sound of this terrible trumpet, the dead shall arise from their graves, and their bodies being again united with their souls, they shall be gathered together before God to give a strict account of their whole lives and receive their final doom. (See Matt. xxiv.; Luke xvii.)

Q. What are the things Christ will judge?

A. Christ will judge our thoughts, words, works, and omissions.

Yes, all our thoughts, words, works, and even our sins of omission, will then be brought to light, and of each we shall have to give a strict account. So that, you see, you will have to be judged not only for what you have done, but also for what you have said or thought about, and even for those things which you ought to have performed, but which you have left undone. How many hundred words do you not speak in the day, and how many thousand thoughts pass through your mind! When you get up in the morning, you have forgotten the greater part of what you have said or thought about the day