VII. From the morning watch even until night, let Israel hope in the Lord.

Or, according to the Hebrew version: My soul expects God more than the sentinels expect the morning. As the guards, who stand sentry, impatiently expect the day, to rest themselves after their night's labour; so my soul supports itself by the hope it has in thee. When I am surrounded with the darkness of my sins, and the dangers of temptation, I encourage myself with the expectation of thy presence, which alone can revive my languor and fortify my weakness. I hope to see by means of thy light, to be supported by thy power, and to resist my enemies with thy assistance. For if thou visitest my soul, its darkness shall be dissipated, its enemies shall take flight, its sins shall appear no more, and thou wilt give me constancy necessary for persevering in the night of tribulation, if thou permittest it to return.

VIII. Because with the Lord there is mercy; and with him plentiful redemption. And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.

The treasures of mercy are in thy hands; and those liberal hands are always open for distributing them. For when thou hadst once resolved to remedy my evils, what hast thou spared for my delivery from thence? Thou hast given me whatever thou possessest, hast promised me whatever I can desire, and hast provided for all my necessities. Thou hast compassed me on all sides with thy bounties, hast taken my miseries upon thyself, hast shed thy blood and sacrificed thy life for me. Thou hast given me a right to thy merits, hast overcome my enemies, hast opened me the gates of heaven, and hast made me heir of all the wealth of thy kingdom. Accomplish thy work, O charitable Redeemer! and let not the temptations of my enemy, and the weakness of my flesh, render such an abundant redemption unprofitable to me. Support me by thy power, protect me by thy mercy; that I may always love thee, and faithfully resist everything that displeases thee, and is capable of separating me from thee.

O Queen of angels, refuge of sinners, faithful dispensatrix of the divine goods! come to my help in the time of temptation; repel the fury of the serpent, whose head you have bruised; dissipate the powers of hell, which have plotted my ruin, and never suffer me to yield to their efforts. Ye blessed inhabitants of heaven, ye victors crowned with glory! who have experienced our dangers, and now enjoy the sweetness of eternal repose; with your prayers assist this miserable traveller, always exposed to shipwreck, and continually beaten with the waves of temptation; that he may one day enjoy with you the fruits of your victory. Amen.

SEVENTEENTH SUFFERING OF CHRIST.—The rudeness of his disciples.

After having overcome the devil, our Saviour had another war much more violent to carry on against the world, against the errors and malice which reigned therein. He began to teach in synagogues to the admiration of the people, and especially of those who had known him at Nazareth, and who, having always considered him as an ordinary man, were surprised at his doctrine. When he had resolved to go through all the towns of Judea, preaching and working miracles, and to manifest himself to the world, to show it its errors, and to bring it back into the way of salvation; he chose twelve apostles, and several other disciples, after treating about that affair with his eternal Father upon a high mountain, where he spent the whole night in prayer. To teach us; first, what care he took about those things which regarded our salvation. Secondly, from whom we ought to ask counsel in our affairs, whose success cannot be truly happy, unless they are concerted with God, and undertaken by the motion of his spirit.

But although the Evangelists do not distinctly show the vocation of each of them, it is certain, that our Lord declared to them, in his discourse at the last supper, that he had chosen them to be the princes and pillars of his Church. You have not chosen me, says he to them, but I have chosen you; and have appointed that you should go, and should bring forth fruit; and your fruit should remain.—Jo. xv. 16. He chose also, some time after, other seventy-two disciples, whom he sent through all Judea with the power of working miracles, commanding them to go to all the cities and villages whither he was to come after them, declaring the kingdom of God and healing the sick. They executed his orders with great zeal; and those among them that remained with Christ until his death, greatly assisted the apostles in the preaching of the gospel. St. Matthias was chosen from amongst them, to fill up the place of Judas the traitor; and the whole world was filled with the admiration of their sanctity, with the fruits of their labours, and with the fame of their miracles.

II. St. Paul exhorts us to consider, as a thing worthy of astonishment, the choice which our Saviour made of those men, for converting the world: See your vocation, brethren, says he, that there are not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble: but the foolish things of the world hath God chosen, that he may confound the wise, and the weak things of the world hath God chosen, that he may confound the strong; and the base things of the world, and the things that are contemptible, hath God chosen, and things that are not, that he might bring to nought things that are: that no flesh should glory in his sight. But of him are you in Christ Jesus,

who is made to us, from God, wisdom, and justice, and sanctification, and redemption: that, as it is written, he that glorieth, may glory in the Lord. For therein appears the divine power, which erects so magnificent an edifice upon such weak foundations.-1 Cor. i. 26,

&c.

One of the greatest obligations we have to Christ, is for having communicated his gifts to us through such channels; that we may carry our thoughts unto the fountain, and acknowledge the hand from whence all our blessings descend. He has thereby con

founded all the wisdom of the world; and because he foresaw that this corrupt world would not submit to faith, and would contradict his doctrine, he was pleased, that the sages of the world, who could not arrive at the knowledge of God by their own lights, should be instructed by what is more obscure, that is, by poor fishermen.

But all that could not be done without a great deal of labour; for what pain and humiliation was it for our Lord to be always with men that were rude, dull, ignorant, and despicable in every respect; who had nothing of what was necessary for so great a work; and whom he was consequently obliged to instruct, polish, and cultivate continually with an extreme care, and an indefatigable patience, in order to render them capable of receiving the fulness of the Holy Ghost.

III. It will seem, perhaps, that I injure the simplicity of the apostles, by putting it in the number of the sufferings of Christ, who always treated them as his children, and foresaw, that, having received the Holy Ghost, they would labour in the Lord's vineyard, even to give their lives for his glory. But I am certain they will not take it amiss, that I here relate what their beginnings were, and how much their instruction cost that heavenly Master: since they themselves acknowledged it afterwards, much better than I can express it. That thought was to them a continual subject of humiliation and surprise. They could not be wearied with admiring the divine mercy, which had raised them from extreme weakness to so high a degree of perfection. They preserved a most tender acknowledgment for him, who had winked at and supported with a most paternal goodness such monstrous defects, in order to draw such great advantages from thence. And they did not think they could sufficiently repay for the pains they had occasioned so amiable a Father, by their services, labours, or shedding all their blood. But though his paternal love greatly mitigated to him the pain he had in supporting their weaknesses, yet we are no less indebted to him on that account; on the contrary, that facility, proceeding only from the greatness of his love, still redoubles our obligations.

IV. The Son of God having therefore assembled some disciples,

for the most part fishermen, rude in their views, judgments, and affections; he bore with them as a father, and instructed them as a master, with all the patience they then stood in need of; for their minds being heavy and attached to the earth, did not elevate themselves to divine things.

When Christ spoke to them of the kingdom of God, they imagined nothing beyond the temporal kingdom of Judea: and each of them thought of holding the first rank therein; some, because they had been called first; others, because they were our Lord's relations according to the flesh; all of them from mean and human reasons. And as such thoughts are always accompanied with many other defects, they promised their kindred riches, dignities, and favour.

Whilst the Lord spoke to them of the highest mysteries of religion, at his last supper, where he instituted the sacrament of his body and blood, they disputed among themselves who should be the chief, even making use of the interest of others, for obtaining what they desired; and John and James employed their mother to ask for the first places. They were weak, often wavered in the faith, and abandoned their master in the time of his passion; Peter denied him, Judas betrayed him, others doubted, and with difficulty believed he was risen again. Even when he was preparing to leave them, in order to ascend into heaven, they were still possessed with the thoughts of his temporal kingdom.

Several of those disciples, by hearing him say he would give his body to eat, and his blood to drink, were scandalized, and some went away. When he spoke at supper of the necessity of spiritual arms, for overcoming temptations, they ignorantly answered, that they had two swords; and having protested that they would die with him, they fled at the first sight of danger. When they felt any motion of zeal, they were for making fire descend from heaven upon those who refused to hear them; and seeing others cast out devils in the name of Jesus Christ they were jealous of them; and warmly complained thereof. They committed also many other faults, which showed the narrowness and dulness of their minds.

V. Notwithstanding, Christ bore with them, he reproved them with goodness, and instructed them with as much familiarity and mildness, as if they had been perfect men. He treated them as his equals; gave them reasons for his conduct, as to his companions; defended them, as his children, against those that assaulted them; and discovered to them his designs, and the most profound mysteries of his kingdom, as to his confidants, although they grossly understood everything. He kept them near him whilst he spoke to the people, assembled them before prayer, visited them from time to time during his prayer, exhorted them

to love prayer and to persevere therein; and the extreme care he took of them, appeared in all his actions. If he spoke sometimes obscurely in public, and if he concealed the secrets of his doctrine under parables, he explained them afterwards in private to them, showing thereby that they were dearer to him than all others. He answered their questions, how gross soever they were, as if they had been reasonable and full of good sense.

Although their manners, minds and behaviour were quite opposite to his infinite wisdom, he never expressed either displeasure or uneasiness with them; on the contrary he concealed their defects, overlooked their ignorance, bore with their rudeness, and supported the whole weight of a conversation, which could not be agreeable to him but only through the love he had for us. In fine, he had them always with him, at table, in his journeys, in public and private, within and without, till he had raised them to an eminent degree of virtue and wisdom. He sowed in that uncultivated ground the divine seed, which was afterwards to bear fruit an hundred-fold, by the operation of the Holy Ghost and comforted himself in all his pains with the hopes of a plentiful harvest, that is with the conversion of the world.

This is a great subject of reflection for us, to see the eternal Wisdom speak in themidst of those ignorant men, of what is most sublime, and labour so long in making them esteem and relish the heavenly truths, which it could in a moment have imprinted in their souls, as it did afterwards by sending them the Holy Ghost. Certainly the Apostles could not afterwards remember the mildness of Christ, without being penetrated with love and confusion. That reflection humbled and inflamed them at the same time. It cannot be comprehended how sweet it was for them afterwards to spend themselves in the service of so amiable a master, and to give their blood and life for him.

VI. The conduct our Lord observed in regard of his Apostles, is a wonderful instruction for all those who labour in the conversion of souls. By his divine sweetness he accomodated his zeal to their capacities; not urging them too much, for fear of destroying instead of edifying; not exaggerating their faults, because they proceeded rather from ignorance and simplicity than from malice; and because the Apostles had not yet sufficient light to know wherein they failed, he inspired them by degrees with humility, in joining example to words; and applied himself to correct them, not by the rigour of his reprimands, but by the sweetness of his conversation.

He knew that the human heart is not capable of great virtue, but when it is inflamed with the divine love; even as the iron cannot be made pliable, unless it be thoroughly heated by the fire. He knew also that we more profitably discover our vices in the