is like to a net cast into the sea, and gathering together of all kind of fishes; which, when it was filled, they drew out, they chose out the good into vessels, but the bad they cast forth.

To speak with St. Augustine, the fishers of men have cast forth their nets; they have taken the multitude of Christians which we see in wonderment; they have filled the two ships with them, the two peoples, Jew and Gentile. But what is this we are told? The multitude weighs down the ships, even to the risk of sinking them; it is what we witness now, the pressing and mingled crowd of the Baptised is a burden to the Church. Many Christians there are who live badly; they are a trouble to, and keep back, the good. Worse than these, there are those who tear the nets by their schisms or their heresies; they are fish which are impatient of the yoke of unity, and will not come to the banquet of Christ; they are pleased with themselves. Under pretext that they cannot live with the bad, they break the net which kept them in the apostolic track, and they die far off the shore. In how many countries have they not thus broken the great net of salvation? The Donatists in Africa, the Arians in Egypt, Montanus in Phrygia, Manes in Persia; and since their times, how many others have excelled in the work of rupture! Let us not imitate their folly. If grace have made us holy, let us be patient with the bad, whilst living in this world's waters. Let the sight of them drive us neither to live as they do, nor to leave. the Church. The shore is not far off, where those on the right, or the good, will alone be permitted to land, and from which the wicked will be repulsed, and cast into the abyss.2

In the Offertory, the Christian army sues for that

1 St. Matth. xiii, 47, 48 2 S. AUG. Serm. 248-252, passim.

light of faith, which alone can make it sure of victory; and this, because it tells where the enemy is, and what are his plans. For a servant of God who is thus enlightened, night has no dangers; the brightness of heaven's beams keeps off from his eyes that fatal sleep which implies defeat and death.

OFFERTORY.

Enlighten mine eyes, that I may never sleep in death; lest the enemy should ever say: I have prevailed over him.

Illumina oculos meos,ne unquam obdormiam in morte: nequando dicat inimicus meus: Prævalui ad

versus eum,

The gifts offered on the altar for the all-mighty transformation of the Sacrifice, are a figure of the Faithful themselves. It is on this account that the Church prays, in the Secret, that our Lord would draw to himself our rebel wills, and change them, as he is about to do with these gifts. Let us remember, that of all the Fish that were in the mysterious net, those only, as the Fathers tell us, will be the elect of the eternal shores who "live in such wise as to "deserve to be introduced, by the fishermen of the "Church, to the banquet of Christ Jesus."

SECRET.

Receive our offerings, we beseech thee, O Lord, and be appeased thereby; and mercifully compel our rebel wills to yield unto thee. Through,

etc.

Oblationibus nostris, quæsumus Domine, placare susceptis et ad te nostras etiam rebelles compelle propitius voluntates. Per Dominum,

SECOND SECRET.

Graciously hear us, O God, our Saviour; that, by virtue of this sacrament, thou mayest defend us from all enemies, of both soul and body; grant us grace in this life, and glory in the next.

Exaudi nos, Deus Salutaris noster; ut per hujus Sacramenti virtutem, a cunctis nos mentis et corporis hostibus tuearis, gratiam tribuens in præsenti, et gloriam in futuro. 1 BRUNO AST. Expos. in Gen. c. I.

The third Secret is left to the Priest's own choice.

That God who enabled David's weakness to triumph over the giant Philistine, gives himself to us in the sacred Mysteries. Let us sing the Psalm, from which the Communion-Anthem is taken: let us sing these few words in praise of his merciful power, which makes itself become ours by means of this adorable Sacrament.

COMMUNION.

Dominus firmamentum meum, et refugium meum, et liberator meus; Deus meus, adjutor meus.

The Lord is my support, and my refuge, and my deliverer: my God is my helper.

St. Augustine' gives the name of Sacrament of Hope to the divine mystery wherein the Church daily proclaims and restores, here below, her social union. The real union, though at present it be veiled, of the Head and Members in the banquet of eternal Wisdom, is a pledge of the future glories of regenerate humanity, far exceeding that restless expectation of creation, of which the Apostle spoke to us in to-day's Epistle. Let us pray, in the Postcommunion, that our defilements may be removed, and may not impede this holy Sacrament from producing its full effect in us;-for such is its virtue, that it is able to lead us to the consummate perfection of salvation.

POSTCOMMUNION.

Mysteria nos, Domine, quæsumus, sumpta purificent, et suo munere tueantur. Per Dominum.

May the mysteries we have received both purify and defend us, by the gift they bestow. Through, etc.

1 Contra Faustum. L. xii. 20.

SECOND POST-COMMUNION.

May the oblation of this divine Sacrament, we beseech thee, O Lord, both cleanse and defend us; and by the intercession of Blessed Mary, the Virgin-Mother of God, of Blessed Joseph, of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, of Blessed N. and of all the Saints, free us from all sin, and deliver us from all adversity.

Mundet et muniat nos quæsumus, Domine, divini Sacramenti munus oblatum, et intercedente beata Virgine Dei Genetrice Maria, cum beato Joseph, cumque beatis Apostolis tuis Petro et Paulo, atque beato N. et omnibus Sanctis, a cunctis nos reddat et perversitatibus expiatos, et adversitatibus expeditos.

The third Post-communion is left to the Priest's own choice.

VESPERS.

The Psalms, Capitulum, Hymn and Versicle, as above, pages 74-84.

THE FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST.

This Sunday, which, with the Greeks, is called the fifth of Saint Matthew, was known by the Latins as the Sunday of the Fishing; such was its name up to the time when the Church had transferred to the previous Sunday the Gospel which suggested that title. The week which it commences is, in some ancient lectionaries, called the first after the Feast of the Apostles or of St. Peter; in others, it is the second or third after the same feast; these, and other similar varieties of names, which it is no rare thing to find in the liturgical books of the Middle Ages, originated in Easters being kept sooner or later in the years when those books were written.

The Church began last night the reading of the second book of Kings; it opens with the description of Saul's sad end and David's accession to the throne of Israel. The exaltation of Jesse's son is the climax to the prophetic life of the ancient people. In David, God had found his faithful servant,1 and he resolved to exhibit him to the world as the most perfect figure of the future Messiah. A solemn promise of Jehovah assured the new monarch as to the future of his race; his throne was to be everlasting, for, at some future day, it was to be the throne of Him who should be called the Son of the Most High, though, at the same time, he was to be Son of David.3

But, whilst the Tribe of Juda was hailing in Hebron the King elected by the Lord, there were dark clouds on the horizon. In her Vespers of yesterday, the ! Ps. lxxxviii. 21. 2 Ibid. lxxxviii. 36-38

3 St. Luke, i. 32.