acterized his looks and words during this last period of his earthly trial. Constant prayer and the Holy Viaticum, received as often as possible, gave him spiritual strength and joy. It is said that those who are scrupulous and fearful during life, generally have a peaceful and joyous death. This was certainly verified in Mr. Richards' case. On the Thursday before the First Friday of November, he had suffered a slight accession of paralysis, affecting to some extent his right arm and hand, and had expressed his apprehension lest he should be unable to write again, a deprivation which he seemed to dread more than any other. Yet he spoke placidly and with entire resignation to God's will. The next morning, he recited as usual the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin in Latin, with the aid of a reading glass, while lying in bed. Sometime after dressing, he was found by his daughter, lying on the couch, speechless but fully conscious. He stretched out his arms toward her with a look full of sweetness and tenderness that said more plainly than words, "It has come at last!" The priest was hastily summoned, and as the dying man received Holy Communion, his face shone like that of an angel. Gradually he sank into unconsciousness. When his Jesuit son again arrived, he had given no sign of intelligence for nearly twenty-four hours. Yet at the words,

uttered in a loud voice: "Father, I am Havens; I want to give you absolution!", he opened his eyes as though the spirit were recalled from the confines of another world; then closed them for the last time on earth. An hour or two later, he passed quietly away, while his children, kneeling about his bed, recited the prayers of the Church that he loved so loyally and so well. It was Sunday, November 8, 1903. On his tombstone are inscribed the words of his patron, St. Paul: "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith."

APPENDIX

The following sermon, preached at Gambier at the opening of the fall term in 1849, under circumstances detailed on page 228 of this work, created a violent sensation in that stronghold of Low Church theology. It reveals so clearly the preacher's conception of the Church shortly before his actual conversion and states so powerfully the grounds of his convictions, that it has been judged well to print it here in full. Its phraseology is not always that of Catholic theologians, and in regard to some points, as the power of forgiving sins, he falls definitely short of Catholic truth. But in general his teaching, though the result of his own independent study of the Christian system, seems to agree substantially with Catholic doctrine concerning the Church as the mystical body of Christ.

SERMON

On the Organic Nature of Christianity.

1st Corinthians xv. 22.

"For as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive."

This is not, as many seem to suppose, a declaration of Universal Salvation. It is not said, you see, that all shall be in Christ as all are in Adam. Such

a declaration were in direct conflict with the whole tenor of the New Testament. The meaning of the passage, evidently, must be, that as all who are united with Adam die, so all who are united with Christ shall be made alive. That is, as all who are united with Adam in the material way die, so all who are united with Christ in the supernatural way shall be made alive. Adam is represented as the head of the natural race of mankind, and Christ as the head of the new spiritual race; and the assertion, it seems to me, is equivalent to this; as all who are born of the race of Adam do, by virtue of their organic connection with him, die; so all who are new-born of the new spiritual race of Christ are, by virtue of their organic connection with him, made alive. Observe, if you please, that it is by virtue of what I have taken the liberty to term an "Organic Connection" in both cases, that the effects predicated of each are said to follow. We know not how it is or why it is that God has so constructed us that, by virtue of our connection with Adam, as the original of our race, we suffer the consequences that were inflicted upon him because of his sin. We only know that it is so. This is the fact. There is such a thing as an organic connection that binds us all to our head, and through him binds us together in one. We are one race, having one constitution, one origin, one destiny. Because Adam our great progenitor died, we all die. He died in consequence of his sin. And so, death hath passed upon all men, as saith the Apostle, "For that all have sinned." And I repeat: The assertion of the text is, that there is a corre