We have still the devil to overcome.

And this enemy

is the most dangerous of all; dangerous even for the perfect manhood that he marred in Paradise, unspeakably dangerous for the sickly men that he is besetting now. And herein precisely does his strength against us lie, that he is skilful while we are ignorant, and he is earnest while we are careless. This is the self-same character that Scripture gives him. He is the roaring lion, because of his great hunger to destroy souls; he is the old serpent, because of his great craft in working their destruction.

Against this enemy, so strong and skilful, we shall, of ourselves, be all unable to carry on successful war. Single-handed, or linked together, we men are no match for him. Our only chance is in some friend, strong enough and kind enough to fight our battles. And, behold! the Friend "cometh quickly." This is she, God's own Mother, the Queen in that great Kingdom of the Church which Satan hates so fiercely; this is she that crushed the serpent's head and broke his power, and stands out for ever his mortal foe; this is she, the Tower of David, strong to repel the enemies of God's people; this is she, the Help of the Weak, on whom no man hath called and she did not hear! With her, and her Son, the Great Captain Jesus, to fight our battles, of whom shall we be afraid! If God and His Mother be with us, what matter though all the devils that burn in hell be leagued on the other side!

And now, my Brethren, having, as briefly as I well could, considered immodest thoughts in their origin and causes, and several degrees of sinfulness; having, furthermore, told you the special aids that may assist our weakness in the war against them, what is it that I shall say more? Can I do better than remind you, as St. Paul was wont to remind the first Christians, that, for none of us, is there here a home or a lasting city; that we are, not exiles, for we never yet saw our Fatherland; but, like the scattered Jews of old, born upon strange shores and among a people that know us not; we march, armed pilgrims, each in his appointed way, on and on to the Sion of the Lord! Remember, then, the land to which you are journeying; remember that calling with which you have been called; and remember that, among Christian men, whose hopes are in the heavens, adultery and all uncleanness should not be so much as named. For, my Brethren, are we not in expectancy, all of us, that we shall yet be lifted, in God's good time, out of the weary desert, over the weary mountain, and into the good land and large! And ought we, think you, to make ourselves unfitted for the pure company that dwells therein; ought we, think you, by soiling them with impure images, to mar the great beauty and shame the great destiny of our souls! Be ye pure of heart, then, if for no other reason, at least for this, that you hope to be numbered among the Blessed of the Father; to see the great army of saints that fought so loyally for

the Lord; better still, to see the sweet angels that loved Him from the beginning; still better, to see the Spotless Mother so kind to us who are not spotless; best of all, to see God Himself, One in Three, Three in One, with that special sight which is the special promise to the "clean of heart!"

VIII.

CHRISTMAS DAY, 1870.

"And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night: And lo! the Angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and they were sore afraid: And the angel said unto them, Fear not, for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people; for, unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Saviour who is Christ the Lord: And this shall be a sign unto you, you shall find the Babe wrapped in swaddling-clothes lying in a manger : And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory be to God on high, and on earth Peace, good will toward men."*-LUKE, ii. 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14.

THERE has now, my Brethren, a long period of eighteen hundred and seventy years gone by since an event occurred-our Church commemorates it to

* It will at once be noticed by every reader of these pages who happens also to be a critical student of the Scriptures, that the above text is taken, not from the Douay Version, but from what is called the Authorized Version of the English Bible. Why that is so, may require explanation. It may require more. That a Catholic writer, no matter how small his pretensions, should

day-by far the most important that human history records. Facts, great and fruitful, have been numerous upon the earth, but no fact has it seen so great and so fruitful as the Birth of Jesus. Famous cities have risen upon it before now-Babylon, Troy, Athens, Rome-to-day famous cities stand upon it tooLondon, Paris, Berlin, Rome (still Rome, always eternal Rome)-but name the cities of times present, name the cities of times past, and the fame of that small Bethlehem in the land of Judah transcends them all. For the great event which to-day recalls surrounds the little place with a glory of a superhuman,

in any case prefer the Protestant to the Catholic translation of the Scriptures, is sufficiently strange to require not merely an explanation, but also an apology. Such an apology I propose briefly to give.

I commence my apology by frankly stating, in the first place, that my principal reason for preferring the text as found in the Authorized Version is, because the text, as so found, is more suited than is the Douay text, to the Sermon which I wished to preach, and which, I apprehend, it is the spirit of the Church to have preached on Christmas day. The duty of promoting the glory of God, and the duty of promoting peace in the human family, are the two duties which, as I think, that great day has been always supposed specially to suggest to the minds of men. Nor has the peace with which the name of Christmas has been associated been supposed, I think, to be a restricted peace in any way. It is a peace which comes to "all the people." I do not here draw attention to the fact that on close inspection the Pro> testant and Catholic versions do not differ so much as at first view would appear; that even according to the Catholic version, the angels pray for peace to men of good will; that, as a matter