himself, and stood up manfully, and never again during the rest of Mass had another distraction.

The congregation one by one left the church, and the two boys were eager to go. Charlie, however, turned to the statue again, and whispered to his brothers how beautiful he thought it was. "Such a kind face, Willie,"

he said.

There was an alms-box attached to the pedestal, with a little illuminated card over it, "offerings for the Sacred Heart."

The church was not a rich one, and it had only been with great difficulty Father- -had been able to pay a part of the money, before bringing it into church. Charlie fumbled in his pocket for a second or two.

"I'll put my penny in the box," he said in a whisper, to his brothers who were kneeling in front by the statue beside him.

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"O don't," said the younger of the two, we can buy some sweets as we go home."

"No," replied Charlie, "I think I would rather put it here," and so saying he dropped his penny into the oaken box.

He was very brave all day, but his mother felt uneasy; he ate little but seemed thirsty, and swallowed glass after glass of water.

Next morning he was worse, but got up, and even went for a walk. By evening his cough was troublesome, and the following day the Doctor was sent for.

There is no need to dwell upon the intervening days. Diphtheria had seized the poor little boy, and he rapidly sank under it. He was very weak, but patient and gentle. A priest came to see him-one known to the writerthe kindest and most affectionate man to children. And the dying boy's eyes lit up with joy whenever he came to him.

His mother told me, with pale calm face-she was dazed with grief, but appeared quiet and resigned-of her boy's last hours. The father was hourly expected

from India, only to arrive to find his boy lying in his little coffin.

The Kyrie Eleison this Sunday morning was sung as beautifully as it was a week ago-but the tired little boy is not in his accustomed seat; he is listening to the same words perhaps, but sung by the white-robed choir of heaven, where little boys, and other little ones are garnered, and where "The little ones always behold the Face of their Father in Heaven."

The

Faith of the Ancient English Church concerning the holy Eucharist.

BY THE VERY REV.

J. S. PROVOST NORTHCOTE.

We are indebted for the following tract to the Rev. T. E. BRIDGETT, C.SS.R., who has kindly allowed us to compile it from his History of the Holy Eucharist in Great Britain. It is taken almost entirely from chapters VIII. and IX. of the first volume of that excellent work. A few additions have been made from Lingard's Anglo-Saxon Church.

It is the teaching of the Catholic Church that when the words of consecration are pronounced by the priest in Holy Mass, the substance of the bread and wine are changed into the substance of the Body and Blood: of Christ.

To those who deny Creation, such a doctrine as this has of course no meaning; but in itself, and to those who reflect on what they believe, it is surely much harder to say, "I believe that God called into being things that were not," than to say "I believe that God, after becoming man, has instituted, for most wise and loving reasons, the change of our bodies' food into His own substantial Presence Who is the Bread of Life." His Divine Power changed man from senseless clay into a living being of flesh and blood, yet imposed on him at the same time the law that he should support that flesh and blood on the fruits of the earth whence Adam was taken. Is it then not conceivable that, having redeemed that fallen creature, He should find the means in harmony with His double nature to make him feed on his true life? Thus the outward forms of bread and wine remind him of the dust from which he

was taken, while the hidden Presence reminds him of the end for which he was created, and of the redemption by which that end is again placed within his reach.

Neither will it be denied, by those who believe the Holy Scriptures, that the doctrine of Transubstantiation is in perfect harmony with the history of God's prodigies both in the Old and New Testaments. He converted a dry rod into a living serpent, and a living serpent He changed back again into a dry rod; is it then incredible that bread and wine should be transformed into the living life-giving Flesh and Blood of Christ, and that, when the outward species are corrupted, the Flesh and Blood should cease to be present, and the former substances, as some think, be again restored ?* The Son of God Himself took flesh at the word of a woman by the operation of the Holy Ghost; is it incredible to Christians that by the power of the same Holy Ghost, at the consecration of the priest using Christ's words and doing so by His own command, He should be again as it were incarnate? He changed water into wine to grace an earthly nuptial feast; is it contrary to analogy that He should change wine into His Blood in celebrating the perpetual banquet with the souls of men? During the days of His mortality he showed His Body at one time walking on the waves of the sea, at another lifted up from the earth and all glorious at His Transfiguration. Is it to be thought so strange that, now It is glorified above the heavens, He should for our sakes reduce It to conditions which exceed our experience and baffle our comprehension? He appeared and disappeared suddenly and mysteriously during the forty days He spent on earth after His resurrection, passing through the closed sepulchre and penetrating the closed doors; was it not to accustom us to modes of being remote from ordinary laws? And lastly, He multiplied visibly yet incomprehensibly the loaves of bread, distributing them by His apostles' hands till,

*It must not be supposed however that this is an article of faith various opinions on this matter have been held in Catholic schools of theology.

:

after feeding thousands, the fragments that remained far surpassed in bulk the loaves unbroken; shall we then murmur when He promises to feed the millions of His Church on His Flesh which is meat indeed, and His Blood which is drink indeed, and shall we say: This saying is hard, who can bear it?" "How can this man give us His Flesh to eat?”

It is true, indeed, that in the incidents just mentioned the bodily senses of the spectators bore testimony to the reality of the change; but the words of our Blessed Lord to St. Thomas suffice to teach us that the evidence of the senses is not the most perfect foundation on which faith can be based. Transubstantiation is a miracle in which our senses can be of no use to us, for it takes place in a region into which the senses cannot penetrate-in the region not of appearances but of substances, which are impervious to the senses as our own souls are: nevertheless our Blessed Lord, in preparing us for belief in this invisible miracle, vouchsafed to appeal to the sight and other senses. He wrought two miracles in particular-that of Cana in Galilee, and the multiplication of the loaves and fishesof the truth and reality of which the senses could judge, in order that we might be prepared and disposed to believe His word with respect to corresponding miracles in the Blessed Sacrament of which, from the very necessity of the case, the senses were precluded from judging.

That the miracle of the loaves and fishes was intended, amongst other ends, for the very purpose of confirming our faith in the corresponding Eucharistic miracle is clear from this, that our Lord made it the occasion of announcing to his disciples, the future gift of His own. Body and Blood as the food of life. When the Jews on the following day had found Him in the synagogue of Capharnaum, He reproached them for labouring too earnestly for the meat which perisheth, and bade them think more of that which endureth unto life everlasting, which," He said, "the Son of man will give you.' The word was not lost upon His hearers. It set them