which when ye hope to be good, ye often find evil; nor if it shall be good, will ye be able to hold it that it fly not away. Ye laugh at us because we hope for things eternal; which when they come shall not pass away; because they do not even come, but abide ever; but we shall come to them, when by the way of the Lord we shall have passed over those things which pass away. But by you these temporal things never cease to be hoped for, and yet the things ye hope for frequently deceive you; nor do they cease to inflame you when they are yet to come, to corrupt when they come, to torment when they pass away. Are they not things which when coveted kindle hot desires, obtained are disesteemed, lost vanish into nothing? We too make use of them as the necessity of this pilgrim state requires, but we do not fix our joys in them, lest we be overwhelmed with them when they fall. For we use this world as not using it," that we may come to Him Who made this world, and abide in Him, enjoying His eternity.

But what is it that ye say, "Who hath come hither from thence, and who hath informed men of what is passing among the dead?" On this point too hath He shut your mouth, Who rose again a dead man on the fourth day, and on the third day rose again Himself, now to die no more, and before He died, told us, as He from Whom nothing could be hid, in the narrative of the beggar at rest, and the rich man in flames, what sort of life receives those who die. But these things they do not believe,

who say, Who hath returned hither from thence? They wish it to be thought they would believe, if one of their own ancestors were to return to life. But "cursed is every one who putteth his hope in man." (Jer. xvii. 5.) For this reason then God, made Man, was pleased to die and rise again, that both what was to happen to man might be shewed him in man's flesh, and yet that belief might be had in God, not in man. And at all events the Church of the faithful, spread over the whole world, is now before their eyes. Let them read of it promised so many ages before to one man, "who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations." What then was promised to one man, Abraham believing, we see now fulfilled; and do not despair of that coming which is promised to the whole world believing? Let them go now and say, "Let us eat and drink for to-morrow we shall die." They are still saying that they are to die to-morrow, but when they use such language, the Truth findeth them dead already. But ye, brethren, children of the Resurrection, citizens with the holy angels, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, beware ye of imitating those who die to-morrow in breathing out their last, and are buried in sin today. But as the same Apostle saith, "Let not evil communications corrupt your good manners, be ye sober in righteousness, and sin not;" walking the narrow road, but the certain way which leadeth to the expanse of the heavenly Jerusalem, which is our eternal mother; hope in firmest assurance for that

ye see not, wait patiently for that ye have not yet; for that ye hold Christ the True Promiser as a most sure guarantee.

Homil. on the New Testament, cvii.

Monday in Holy Week.

FEAR OF DEATH. S. CYPRIAN.

LET him fear to die, and only him, who, unborn of water and of the Spirit, is the property of hellfire; let him fear to die who is without title in the Cross and Passion of Christ: let him fear to die who is to pass from death here into the second death; let him fear to die, on whom at his going away from life, an eternal flame will lay pains that never cease; let him fear to die on whom the longer delay confers this boon, that his tortures and groans will begin the later.

We should remember that we ought to do, not our own will, but the Will of God; according as the Lord has commanded us daily to pray. How misplaced is it, and how perverse, while we make it our prayer that the Will of God may be done, yet when God calls and withdraws us from this world, not at once to obey the requirements of His Will! We oppose and withstand, and after the manner of contumacious servants we are carried into the presence of our

Lord with reluctance and sadness, departing hence under the constraint of necessity, not the obedience of choice; and desire to be honoured of Him with heavenly rewards, Whom we approach against our will? Why then do we pray and beseech that the kingdom of heaven may come, if bondage on earth delights us? Why in oft repeated prayers do we inquire and ask that the day of the kingdom may hasten, when we desire and have it rather in our wish to serve the devil here, than to be reigning with Christ?

Neither ought we to sorrow for those our brethren, who by the Lord's summons have been set at liberty from the life below; assured that they are not gone away, but gone forward; that in departing from us they are but leading the way, as is men's wont in a journey or upon a voyage; that we owe them our affection rather than our lamentations; and ought not to put on the garb of black here, while they have already taken on them white raiment there; since occasion must not be given to the Gentiles for the deserved and just reproach, that while we say of men, they are alive with God, we mourn for them as extinct and perished; and that a faith which we manifest by language and utterance, is disproved in the testimony of our feeling and thoughts.

So doing we play false to our hope and faith; unreal, counterfeit, fictitious do these things appear which we affirm. It nothing profits to set out virtue in our words, in our acts to undo the truth. In a word, the Apostle Paul condemns and rebukes

and blames any who sorrow at the departing of them who are dear to them. "I would not," says he, "have you ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them which are asleep in Jesus will God bring with Him." They, he says, sorrow in the departing of their friends, which have no hope. But we who live by hope, and believe in God, and are assured that Christ suffered for us, and that He rose again, abiding in Christ, and having resurrection by Him and in Him, wherefore do we either ourselves unwillingly depart forth from life, or lament and grieve for those of us who do depart, as though they perished? Christ Himself, our Lord and God, cautions us and says, "I am the Resurrection and the Life: he that believeth in Me, though he die, shall live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall not die eternally." If we believe in Christ, let us put faith in His words and promises; and since we shall not die eternally, let us pass in joyful assurance unto Christ, with Whom for ever we shall both live and reign. In dying at this present, by death gain the transit to immortality; eternal life cannot follow, unless it has been given us to depart hence; nor is this departure, but transition; when the journey of time is concluded, a transit unto things eternal. Who will not make speed unto the better things? Who does not long to be changed, and made anew unto the Likeness of Christ, and to gain an earlier entrance to the dignity of heavenly grace? It