of Sales. The Confessor-kingdom is represented by Paul the Hermit, Anthony the conqueror of Satan, Maurus the Apostle of the Cloister, Peter Nolasco the deliverer of Captives, and Raymond of Pennafort, the oracle of Canon Law and Guide of the consciences of men. The army of Defenders of the Church deputes the pious King Canute, who died in defence of our Holy Mother, and Charlemagne, who loved to sign himself "the humble champion of "the Church." The choir of Holy Virgins gives us the sweet Agnes, the generous Emerentiana, the invincible Martina. And lastly, from the saintly ranks which stand below the Virgins-the Holy Widows-we have Paula, the enthusiastic lover of Jesus' Crib. Truly, our Christmastide is a glorious festive season! What magnificence in its Calendar! What a banquet for us in its Liturgy!

A word upon the Symbolism of the colours, used by the Church during this Season. White is her Christmas-Vestment; and she employs this colour at every Service, from Christmas Day to the Octave of the Epiphany. To honour her two Martyrs, Stephen and Thomas of Canterbury, she vests in Red; and to condole with Rachel wailing her murdered Innocents, she puts on Purple; but these are the only exceptions. On every other day of the twenty, she expresses, by her White Robes, the gladness to which the Angels invited the world, the beauty of our Divine Sun that has risen in Bethlehem, the spotless purity of the Virgin-Mother, and the clean-heartedness which they should have, who come to worship at the mystic Crib.

During the remaining twenty days, the Church vests in accordance with the Feast she keeps; she varies the colour so as to harmonise, either with the red Roses which wreathe a Martyr, or with the white Everlastings which grace her Bishops and her Confessors, or again, with the spotless Lilies which crown

her Virgins. On the Sundays which come during this time-unless there occur a Feast of a Double class, requiring Red or White; or, unless Septuagesima has begun its three mournful weeks of preparation for Lent-the colour of the Vestments is Green. It is, say the interpreters of the Liturgy, to teach us, that, in the Birth of Jesus, who is the flower of the fields, we first received the hope of salvation, and that, after the bleak winter of heathendom and the Synagogue, there opened the verdant springtime of grace.

1

With this we must close our mystical interpretation of those rites which belong to Christmas in general. Our readers will have observed that there are many other sacred and symbolical usages, which we have not even alluded to; but, as the mysteries, to which they belong are peculiar to certain Days, and are not, so to speak, common to this portion of the Liturgical Year; we intend to treat fully of them all, as we meet with them on their proper Feasts.

1 Cant. i. 1.

CHAPTER III

PRACTICE DURING CHRISTMAS.

THE time has now come for the faithful soul to reap the fruit of the efforts she made, (during the penitential weeks of Advent,) to prepare a dwelling-place for the Son of God, who desires to be born within her. The Nuptials of the Lamb are come, and his Spouse hath prepared herself. Now, the Spouse is the Church; the Spouse is, also, every faithful soul. Our Lord gives his whole self to the whole flock, and to each sheep of the flock, with as much love as though he loved but that one. What garments shall we put on, to go and meet the Bridegroom? Where shall we find the pearls and jewels, wherewith to deck our soul for this happy meeting? Our holy Mother the Church will tell us all this in her Liturgy. Our best plan for spending Christmas, is, undoubtedly, to keep close to her, and do what she does; for she is most dear to God, and, being our Mother, we ought to obey all her injunctions.

But, before we speak of the mystic Coming of the Incarnate Word into our souls; before we tell the secrets of that sublime familiarity between the Creator and the Creature; let us, first, learn from the Church the duties, which human nature, and each of our souls, owe to the Divine Infant, whom the Heavens have at length given to us as the refreshing Dew we asked them to rain down upon our earth. During Advent, we united with the Saints of the Old Law, in praying for the coming of the 1 Apoc. xix. 7

Messias, our Redeemer; now that he is come, let us consider what is the homage we must pay him.

The Church offers to the Infant-God, during this holy season, the tribute of her profound adoration, the enthusiasm of her exceeding joy, the return of her unbounded gratitude, and the fondness of her intense love. These four offerings, adoration, joy, gratitude, and love, must be also those of every Christian to his Jesus, his Emmanuel, the Babe of Bethlehem. The prayers of the Liturgy will express all four sentiments, in a way that no other Devotions could do. But, the better to appropriate to ourselves these admirable formula of the Church, let us understand thoroughly the nature of each of these four sentiments.

The first of our duties at our Saviour's Crib, is Adoration. Adoration is Religion's first act; but, there is something in the Mystery of our Lord's Birth, which seems to make this duty doubly necessary. In heaven, the Angels veil their faces, and prostrate themselves before the throne of Jehovah ; the Four-and-Twenty Elders are for ever casting their crowns before the throne' of the Lamb; what, then, shall we do we who are sinners, and unworthy members of the Tribe of the Redeemer-now, that this same great God shows himself to us, humbled, for our sakes, and stript of all his glory? now, that the duties of the creature to his Creator are fulfilled by the Creator himself? now, that the eternal God bows down, not only before the Sovereign Majesty of the Godhead, but even before sinful man, his creature?

Let us endeavour to make, by our profound adorations, some return to the God who thus humbles himself for us; let us thus give him back some little of that, of which he has deprived himself out of love

1 Apoc. iv. 10.

for us, and in obedience to the will of his Father. It is incumbent on us, to emulate, as far as possible, the sentiments of the Angels in heaven, and never to approach the Divine Infant, without bringing with us the incense of our soul's adoration, the protestation of our own extreme unworthiness, and, lastly, the homage of our whole being. All this is due to the infinite Majesty of the Babe of Bethlehem, who is the more worthy of every tribute we can pay him, because he has made himself thus little for our sakes. Unhappy we, if the apparent weakness of the Divine Child, or the familiarity wherewith he is ready to caress us, should make us negligent in this our first duty, or forget what He is, and what we are!

The example of his Blessed Mother will teach us to be thus humble. Mary was humble in the presence of her God, even before she became his Mother; but, once his Mother, she comported herself before Him who was her God and her Child, with greater humility than ever. We, too, poor sinners, sinners so long and so often, we must adore, with all the power of our soul, Him, who has come down so low: we must study to find out how to make him amends by our self-humiliation, for this Crib, these swathing-bands, this eclipse of his glory. And yet, all our humiliations will never bring us so low, as that we shall be on a level with His lowliness. No; only God could reach the humiliations of God.

But our Mother, the Church, does not only offer to the Infant-God the tribute of her profound adoration. The mystery of the Emmanuel, that is, of God with us, is to her a source of singular joy. Look at her sublime Canticles for this holy Season, and you will find the two sentiments admirably blended-her deep reverence for her God, and her glad joy at his Birth. Joy! did not the very Angels come down and urge her to it? She therefore studies to imitate