would import if used of mortal men; but the true death being that spiritual death which to man is the second death, this latter in the case of angels may be glanced at. Thus "Michael and his angels" may, like Queen Esther, though after a loftier fashion, have taken their life in their hand; even whilst by any apparent peril they braved, they entrenched themselves impregnably within the Divine safeguard. For hazard of life or of aught else in God's quarrel, can at the very utmost and for any creature amount to no more than a surface risk: "He that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal." Meanwhile, however skill may fail me to work out such a problem in matters celestial, in matters terrestrial the lesson is obvious. All must, I must, overcome Satan and his crew "by the Blood of the Lamb"; by faith in His Atonement, and by fast hold of His Strength ever accessible to us in the Blessed Sacrament of His Body and Blood: also, according to our several vocations, by the word of our testimony; by never denying but constantly upholding His eternal Verity; and finally by not loving life beyond His blessed Will for us either to live or to die. When speculation fails resort to practice. Whatever period may be in question, "Woe " is denounced to earth and sea. Yet the declared reason of this woe includes an element of encouragement. For the devil's wrath is great "because he knoweth that he hath but a short time." Courage! For aught we know courage may shorten the short time as when David "hasted, and ran to meet the Philistine. "Launch out into the deep," Christ spake of old To Peter and he launched into the deep; Strengthened should tempest wake which lay asleep, Thus, in Christ's Prescience: patient to behold The mire of human errors manifold. Lord, Lover of Thy Peter, and of him Beloved with craving of a humbled heart Which eighteen hundred years have satisfied; Hath he his throne among Thy Seraphim Who love? or sits he on a throne apart, Unique, near Thee, to love Thee human-eyed? 13. And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child. Did I not fear to offend by bringing a railing accusation, I would say that Satan is a fool: he adds sin to sin, heaps up wrath against the day of wrath,-a cowardly fool: he uses his strength to persecute the weak,-an incorrigible fool: punishment exasperates him. "Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart from him." 14. And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent. Or as in the Revised Version ". . . the two wings of the great eagle." Whatever further sense may attach to the words, they pointedly convey to us a figure of the succour and safeguard of God; inasmuch as they recall a passage of the Song of Moses: "As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings: so the Lord alone did lead him." Thus in her wilderness "the daughter of Jerusalem" may shake her head at her persecutor and sing her song: "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits. . . . Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; Who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies; Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's" :— for "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint." Salvation is of grace: wings are given to the Woman. The soul must co-operate with grace: the Woman herself has to fly with the wings. "From the face of the serpent" :-he keeping his malicious abominable eye still upon her. As when of old "the enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; my lust shall be satisfied upon them," and perished by reason of his boast. Or as when ages earlier the serpent himself eyed Eve, and she, alas! fled not. 15. And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. 16. And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth. For unless "the faithful city become an harlot❞ her end shall not be with a flood. "Thou stretchest out Thy right hand, the earth swallowed them." The serpent cast that flood "“out of his mouth." From such a source can scarcely issue less than rank poison: for consider our Lord's words as to what may proceed out of even a man's mouth: "Those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies." So that, at least, for an immediate practical purpose, this pursuing "flood" may, I trust, be viewed as a flood of temptations; and in particular of such temptations as are best coped with by flight. Joseph found safety in flight, before the searching and strengthening iron had entered into his soul. Now because "righteousness is immortal" and the memorial of virtue immortal, this august Woman, if we may regard her as a figure of Mother Church, is immortal and blessed. Yet even thus there remains a mortal side to the members who make up her immortal personality; and since "the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood," we are reminded that the flood of besetting temptation can be finally arrested and annulled only in the grave. "There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary be at rest." "For he that is dead is freed from sin." A holy grave is the true bed of heartsease. And already the flowers appear on the earth although the winter is not yet past. Lord, grant us grace to rest upon Thy word, To rest in hope until we see Thy Face; To rest thro' toil unruffled and unstirred, Lord, grant us grace. This burden and this heat wear on apace : Night comes, when sweeter than night's singing bird Will swell the silence of our ended race. Ah, songs which flesh and blood have never heard Where rest remains! Lord, slake our hope deferred, Lord, grant us grace. 17. And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. This word has a distinct bearing upon all future time until the end. Whoever keeps the commandments and accepts and champions the faith, must expect and will one way or other experience not peace alone, but peace and a sword. At this point, ignorance of prophecy need not deprive the simplest student of a life and death lesson. "The testimony of Jesus Christ."-By this I hope I may understand two things: That testimony which each Christian bears to Christ by conformity of life and death to his dear Master's Life and Death, That testimony which Jesus Christ bears to each Christian by endowing him with gifts superhuman and Divine graces, so that no Christian can be accounted for on a merely natural theory. Great saints by spiritual lustre outshine the visible lustre of Moses. But every Christian is in his or her degree Veronica (true Image) of Christ. A flower we name veronica springs up here and there without will or culture of man, lowly and lovely ; its small blossom is celestial blue, its leaf and seed-vessel show something of a heart shape. Christ-likeness in high or low is eloquent witness to Christ. "The remnant of her seed."-Is there not a forlorn sound of weakness in the words? yet with an undertone of triumph. If these beleaguered persons are only a remnant, a great concourse of the same family may be looked for elsewhere: in Paradise. O my God, to Whom have gone home so many souls beloved on earth and in heaven, and of my own beloved, I humbly trust not a few: grant grace to us who are the present remnant to live as they lived and die as they died. And so grant grace to remnant after remnant through all generations for ever, until it please Thee to make an end in righteousness. So may we awake and sing out of our dust, or exult when in a moment our change comes, and give Thee thanks world without end, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen, Amen. CHAPTER XIII. 1. And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. In the Revised Version the opening clause of this chapter forms on the contrary the final clause of Chapter xii., and reads thus: "And he stood upon the sand of the sea"; thus apparently referring not to St. John but to the dragon. Whence it ensues that at this point I remain dubious between a saint and a reprobate; and by a sort of illustration the warning of the Parable of the Tares is brought home to me: "Lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them." My God Who art Love, so purge our hearts by love that we may hate implicitly any who hate Thee, and love explicitly all to whom Thou givest or wilt give grace to love Thee; yea, all whom Thou lovest. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. This "beast" seems in some sense a development of evil beyond the original dragon. Both have seven heads and ten horns; but the diadems of the dragon were seven, encircling his heads; those of the beast ten, surmounting his doubly salient horns. Moreover of this beast only do we read that he had " upon his heads the name of blasphemy"; or as in the Revised Version: "and upon his heads names of blasphemy." And as we shall find him (ver. 2) under the patronage of the dragon, we are thus reminded of our Lord's denunciation of the hypocritical Scribes and Pharisees: "Ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves." The beast is base: he rises out of that sea whose troubled waters cast up mire and dirt. "He maketh the deep to boil like a pot: he maketh the sea like a pot of ointment." Whilst we fear, it befits us also to loathe and despise him. Never let |