which is contained in its Gospel.

The RULE for obtaining all these blessings; the directions by which we must walk through this world in faith and in darkness, in order to attain the Light of life.

These, and such as these, whose examples have been held out to us in the various passages of Scripture which belong to this day's teaching are the "cloud of witnesses" with which we are compassed. Would we claim our fellowship with them, and preserve our part in their communion, would we "lay aside every weight, and the sin that does so easily beset us," would we "run with patience the race that is set before us," in the sure hope of arriving at the prize which they have attained, then, let us look to JESUS, the "Author and Finisher of our Faith, who for the joy that was set before Him, endured the Cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of GOD;" that is to say, has obtained, as man, that which we, as men, are desirous to obtain. Let us see what He holds out as the conditions of our being received into, and continued partners in this Holy Fellowship. This the Gospel of the day will tell us.

I will give you first His own conditions in His own words, and then I will give you a comment upon each of them, by one or other of His faithful followers; that you may see, first, the conditions under which men are received into and continued in the fellowship of the saints, by Him Who had a right and a power to make all conditions; and, secondly, the sense in which the saints of that fellowship understood these conditions, and proved that they understood them by living up to them, and dying for them.

"Blessed are the poor in spirit," says our LORD, "for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." "The proud may seek

an earthly kingdom," says S. Augustine, "but the kingdom of heaven belongs to the humble." "Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted." 66 Mourning is a sorrow for the loss of what is dear," says S. Augustine, "but those that are turned to GOD have lost already the things that are dear in this world."

"Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." "Let the unyielding quarrel and wrangle about earthly things," says S. Augustine, "the meek are blessed, for they shall inherit the earth"-(that is to say, the typical earth spoken of by the Prophet, the land of promise; "for," says the Psalmist to such as these,) thy lot is in the land of the living."

"Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled." "As soon as I have wept for my sins," says S. Ambrose, "I begin to hunger and thirst after righteousness; [it is a sign that I have recovered from them, for] he who is afflicted with any sore disease hath no hunger." "All the good that men do not from love of the good itself is unpleasing to GOD," says an anonymous author who wrote under the name of Chrysostom, and whose works are quoted by S. Thomas Aquinas, "He hungers after righteousness who desires to walk after the righteousness of GOD-he thirsts after righteousness who desires to get the knowledge thereof."

“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy." "The reward seems at first to be only equal," says S. Chrysostom, "but indeed it is much more, for human mercy and divine mercy are not to be put on an equality."

"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see GOD." "He who in thought and deed fulfils all righteousness," says the anonymous writer already quoted, "sees GOD in

his own heart, for righteousness is an image of GOD, because God is righteousness."

"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of GOD." "This is the reward of adoption,' says Hilary, "for GOD is our common parent, and in no other way can we pass into His common family than by living in brotherly love one with another."

And now to sum up all these conditions and directions in the words of S. Augustine.

In the first Beatitude, he says, as was right, "is placed the kingdom of heaven, which is the beginning of perfect wisdom;" as if it should be said, "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom." To the meek an inheritance as to those who with piety,1 seek the execution of a father's will. To those that mourn comfort, as to persons who know what they had lost and in what they were increased. To the hungry plenty, as a refreshment to those who labour after salvation. To the merciful mercy, as to those who have followed the best counsel that may be showed which they have showed to others. To the pure in heart the faculty of seeing GOD, as to men bearing a pure eye to understand the things of eternity. To the peacemakers the likeness of GOD; and all these things we believe may be attained in this life, as they were fulfilled in the Apostle's.

Well may men who have followed such counsels and walked in such ways as these think lightly of the revilings and persecutions of their fellow-men; well may they appropriate to themselves the eighth beatitude, the sum of all the rest, and say, Blessed are we when men say all manner of evil against us for our Master's sake; we rejoice, we are exceeding glad, for great is our reward in heaven. "Behold," says one of the most eminent of them, S. Patrick, the apostle of Ireland, "Behold now, I Properly affection, pietas.

commend my soul to the faithful GOD, Whose mission I perform, lowly as I am What shall I render unto the LORD for all His benefits towards me, and what shall I say or what shall I promise to my LORD? for I see that I should have had nothing unless He Himself had given it to me. But I will search my heart and reins, because I an ardently desirous and ready that He should give me to drink of His cup, as He has granted to others who have loved Him; wherefore may God never permit that I should lose His people whom I have acquired in the ends of the earth. I pray GoD that He may grant me perseverance, and that He may vouchsafe to permit me to bear faithful witness to Him even unto my death. And if I ever effected anything good on account of my GOD Whom I love, I entreat Him to grant me this, that with these converts and captives I may pour out my blood for His Name, even though I should be deprived of burial, or my dead body be miserably torn limb from limb by dogs or wild beasts, or though birds of the air should devour it. I believe most certainly that if this should happen unto me, I have gained my soul with my body; for, without any doubt, we shall rise one day in the brightness of the sun that is the glory of JESUS CHRIST the SON of the Living GOD, 'joint heirs of CHRIST,' and to be conformed to His Image, since of Him and through Him and to Him we shall reign. That sun which we see rises daily at God's will for our sakes; but it shall not rule for ever, neither shall its splendour continue. But we believe in and adore the true Sun CHRIST, Who never shall perish, nor shall he who does His will, but shall abide for ever, even as CHRIST shall abide for ever, Whose reign with GoD the FATHER omnipotent and with the HOLY GHOST was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be. Amen.”

He concludes with these words, "This is my confession before I shall die."

May it be ours; may we with our hearts believe it, and with our mouths confess it unto salvation, and so GOD for CHRIST's sake, by the grace of the HOLY SPIRIT, shall continue us to our life's end, and, after our life's end, in that communion of saints into which by baptism He has called us.

NOTE. The foregoing quotation s taken from a very curious work lately translated by Mr. Olden, from a MS. of the seventh century, in the Book of Armagh. This bears strong internal evidence of being a true copy of the genuine production of S. Patrick himself,' from the circumstance that the quotations from Scripture, which are very numerous, are not taken from the Vulgate, which was introduced into England shortly after S. Patrick's death, and, as it immediately became the accredited translation, would certainly have been quoted by any writer of a time subsequent to the date assigned to it.

The Confession is almost an autobiography: he describes himself as being the son of Calpurnius, a priest, who was the son of Potitus, a deacon.

One of the most curious parts of it is his Confession of Faith, which like many writers of ante-Nicene times, he put in a prominent place in his autobiography, as a sort of personal description of himself; speaking of himself as a man born in such a place, of such and such parents, under such conditions, and holding such articles of faith. Not that S. Patrick can be said to have lived exactly in anteNicene times himself, for the date commonly assigned to his birth is 372, but we may easily imagine, either that the Nicene Creed was not then generally known in those remote parts, or that the old custom of each man setting forth his own confession of faith had not fallen into disuse, though there was now no longer any absolute need for it. S. Patrick's Confession of Faith bears a very strong general resemblance to that of the Nicene Creed, with the very singular omission of all mention of the Blessed Virgin.

1 There are five MS. copies of S. Patrick's Confession, this from the Book of Armagh, one in the Cotton Library, two in the Cathedral Library of Salisbury, and one in the French Monastery of S. Vedastus.