Judea and Jerusalem and the sea-coasts both of Tyre and Sidon; and all the multitude sought to touch Him, for virtue went out from Him and healed all (St. Luke vi.). We must take notice of the phrase, Virtue went out from Him. He used the same word Himself when the woman who had suffered so long from loss of blood came behind Him and touched Him, and was in an instant cured: Who is it that touched Me? And all denying, Peter and they that were with Him said, Master, the multitudes throng and press Thee, and dost Thou say, Who touched Me? And Jesus said, Somebody hath touched Me, for I know that virtue is gone out from Me (St. Luke viii.).

Virtue is gone out from Me. It is by contagion that some diseases are spread; that is, the poison passes from the body of one contaminated into other bodies. Even so grace comes out from the Body and the Soul of our Blessed Lord into our hearts if we come near enough to Him.

St. John teaches us that in Heaven we shall be like to Him because we shall see Him as He is (1 St. John iii.). That is to say, as cold iron here on earth when brought near enough to fire becomes itself fire, so when all barriers are removed between our souls and our Lord, and we are brought near to Him, and, as it were, in contact with Him, we shall at once become bright with His light; burning with the fire that lives in His Heart; wise with His wisdom, and holy with His holiness.

This heavenly work we can begin here on earth. If I shall touch only His garment (St. Matt. ix.), the sick woman said, I shall be healed. We can no longer touch the hem of His garment, but that is not needed. If it were necessary, the privilege would not be denied us, for He is the same Jesus to us as to those who then were sick or sinful. To us as well as them He says: Come to Me, all you who labour (St. Matt. xi.).

But it is not with our hands that we are to touch His garments, nor with our eyes are we to look on His sacred face, but our souls are to draw very near to Him and to look at Him earnestly and perseveringly, and to listen most attentively to His words. And while we do this, virtue comes out from Him to us; and we are unconsciously drinking the waters from the fountains of our Saviour.

All this was revealed under a figure in days long gone by, when the people of God murmured in the wilderness of

Edom. For the Lord sent among them fiery serpents which it them and killed many of them. Upon this they came to Moses, and said: We have sinned, pray that He may take away these serpents from us. But when Moses prayed, the Lord said to him: Make a brazen serpent and set it up for a sign, whosoever being struck shall look on it, shall live (Numbers xxi.). The fiery serpents, we notice, are not taken away; but whoever looks at the brazen serpent is healed; and this is a sign. But of what? Is not the serpent the emblem of Satan? If so, how can it be a saving sign? True, it is the emblem of Satan, because Satan is the sinner, the arch-sinner. But when Jesus Christ is crucified, the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all (Isaias liii.). He is the representative of the sinful family. To use St. Paul's language, He is for that day become sin. Him that knew not sin, Him His Father hath made become sin for us (2 Cor. v.). Therefore the brazen serpent was a type of Jesus crucified, and upon Him we are to look if we would be healed. Hence we read in the Book of Wisdom (xvi. 7), He that turned to it (the brazen serpent) was not healed by that which he saw, but by Thee, the Saviour of all.

We might shut ourselves up, as men addicted to philosophy have done, to study virtues, and vices, and try thus to find out a road to righteousness, and motives for conquering our passions; bnt seeing that it would not be good for a man thus to fight alone, Come to Me, our Lord says, Come to Me; look at the brazen serpent, look at your Saviour become for you a sinner and bearing all the penalties of sin on Calvary, and while you gaze on Him virtue will come out from Him and heal your wounds and substitute holiness for vice in a way that philosophers never even dreamed of.

For His own sake, then, and for ours also, the Heart of our Blessed Saviour says to us: Remember Me; forget not the kindness of thy Surety, for He hath given His life for thee.

It was the fond boast, the dream, if I may so speak, of His Sacred Heart, that if I be lifted up I shall draw all things to Myself (St. John xii.); and we remember also the prophecy and promise which long before He uttered by the mouth of Zacharias: I will pour out upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace, and of prayers, and they shall look upon Me, Whom they have pierced:

and they shall mourn for Him as one mourneth for an only son, and they shall grieve over Him, as the manner is to grieve for the death of the first-born. In that day there shall be a great lamentation in Jerusalem ;-and the land shall mourn: families and families apart. In that day there shall be a fountain open to the house of David, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem: for the washing of the sinner. And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord of hosts, that I will destroy the names of idols out of the earth, and they shall be remembered no more; and I will take away the false prophets, and the unclean spirit out of the earth (Zach. xii. & xiii.).

Mark well how many wonderful graces are to come in these days when we shall look on Him Whom we have pierced. What wonder that our Catholic forefathers never tired of multiplying images of Jesus crucified! They loved to find Christ on His Cross in the streets and in the squares, that the passers-by might pause a little while to think if there were sorrow like to His sorrow. Outside the city wall also, in country-places, they set up the holy rood on the hill-top that the weary traveller might find refreshment by looking on Christ crucified. On the sea-beaten rock too the crucifix stood, that the shipwrecked might turn their eyes to Jesus on Calvary. And by the graves of the dead the cross was erected, that bereaved mourners might find some rest for their breaking hearts by thinking on Christ Jesus and His forlorn Mother.

What wonder, on the other hand, that as long as Jesus was on earth Satan never ceased to urge upon his followers his blasphemous war-cry: Cut Him off from the land of the living! (Jerem. vi.). What wonder that now, as in all ages since the first Christian Pentecost, Lucifer's watch-word ever is: Let His name be remembered no more!

What should be our hearty counter-cry? If I forget Thee, O Calvary, let my right hand be forgotten: let my tongue cleave to my jaws if I do not remember Thee if I make not Calvary the beginning of my joy (Psalm cxxxvi.).

It will help us much to remember our Lord and His Death, if we form the habit of dividing the day and the night into the watches of the Passion, each watch of three hours. This we can do with less effort of the mind than if we attempt to note the clock of the Passion hour by hour. The four watches of the night and the four watches of the day are easily remembered; and the Divine

providence that overruled Satan's plans and the plans of the Jewish Priests, and arranged that the Sacred Passion in every one of its incidents should conduce to the salvation and sanctity of men, decreed, among other details, that it should just fill up and consecrate all the watches of one night and all the watches of the following day.

During the first night-watch, from sunset till nine, our Blessed Saviour is in the Supper-room.

During the second watch, from nine to midnight, in the Garden.

During the third, from midnight to the cock-crow, in the house of Annas and the judgment-hall of Caiphas.

During the fourth watch, from the cock-crow till daybreak, in the hands of the servants.

After daybreak, during the first watch, from six till nine, the Council of the Sanhedrim meet, and after condemning Him lead Him to Pilate, to Herod, and back to the Prætorium, to be degraded below Barabbas.

During the second watch, from the third hour (that is, from nine o'clock) to mid-day, He is scourged, crowned, and presented to the people, condemned, and led to Calvary, and crucified.

From mid-day till the ninth hour, the third watch, He hangs on the Cross.

From the ninth hour to sundown they are burying His Sacred Body. And so all His work is completed.

Before He died, He said: It is consummated. All the work My Father gave Me to do is perfectly accomplished. Among the rest, this salutary work also is done all the watches of the day and the night are now coloured by the holy light that comes from Calvary and Gethsemani.

We often see a large apartment filled with the beautiful and softened light that comes from the lamp with its coloured shade upon it. Even so from Calvary, under its veil of darkness, there is spread over the Christian world a mellow and softened and hallowed light; sad, if you will, and mournful, but so beautiful, so consoling, so full of loveliness and heavenly grace, that it has sufficed to draw away the hearts of men from all that this world can offer. Calvary is become the home of the Christian heart. Every night and every day, from sunset to sunset, is for the faithful Christian become a Good Friday, hallowed by the night-watches and the day-watches of

our Saviour's Passion, and by the everlasting Sacrifice of the Altar, the clean Oblation offered from sunrise to sundown and from sunset till dawn, to show the Death of the Lord.

May we have the grace to adopt the resolution of the Spouse in the Canticles: Till the day break, and the shadows retire, I will go to the mountain of myrrh and to the hill of frankincense (Cant. iv. 6). That is to say, till my soul escape out of the shadows and darkness of this world, till the bright day of eternity dawn upon me, my restingplace, my shelter, the home of my heart, shall be on the mountain of myrrh, on the hill of frankincense; there to embalm with the myrrh of a devout remembrance the wounds of my Lord crucified, and there with the frankincense of prayer to look on Him Whom I have pierced.

II.

ST. IGNATIUS' METHOD OF CONTEMPLATING
THE PASSION OF OUR LORD.

When you, devout reader, and many other persons meet together in a lecture-hall, or at a concert, or for an evening entertainment, there are three things, among many others, which you often do.

I. First, you watch with your eyes some person who enters, or comes near you. You study his face, his dress, his gait, his manner; and, through his outward appearance, make guesses and conjectures as to his age, his position in life, his inward dispositions, his character, his mental qualities, or his present frame of mind; and after some time you come to some conclusion: "This man, I think, is amiable, or he is stern. He is mild, or he seems haughty and harsh."

If you know the person already, then your conclusions or judgments are merely about his present state of mind: He seems to be in trouble to-day; or he is in a good humour; I think he must be unwell; or he seems in much better spirits than usual".

Or again, your thoughts may take a turn of this kind: How pleasing it is to find a man of such high position so simply dressed; or one of such eminent abilities so