Her divine Founder has established her in virginity and martyrdom. And behold the world has seen, astonished, "this infant republic multiply herself by chastity and death, though these are sterile means and contrary to the design of increase." (Balzac, Socrate Chrétien.)

6. THE FIFTH PSALM.

The grandeur of its images, the richness of its poetry, the depth of its prophecies make this psalm the most beautiful chant of the old law. David therein celebrates the deliverance of the Hebrew people on the day after the Passover, the passage of the Red Sea, the tremblings of Sinai, the miracles of the desert. The lips that celebrated the miracles worked in favor of the ancient people prophesied at the same time, says St. Augustine, the marvels which should shine on the steps of the new nations. We will look at this sublime psalm on its prophetic side. It will appear to us as really a history of the Church, her combats, her triumphs, and the blessings showered upon her.

The Hebrew ritual prescribed that this psalm should be recited during the celebration of the Pasch, and several authors have thought that this was the psalm which Our Lord said after the last supper. (Baronius, Ann. 34.) This consideration can but increase our fervor.

"When Israel came out of Egypt: the house of Jacob from among a strange people."

Israel and the house of Jacob figure the Church and the Christian people; Egypt, the servitude of the demon from which Baptism has freed us, and also the world

fallen into the power of the infernal despot. The unfortunate people over which he reigns speak a language of which we should be ignorant. Lying, evil-speaking, olasphemy, and impurity are its principal elements. May the language of the world be to us always foreign and unknown!

“Juda was made His sanctuary: and Israel His dominion."

Under these two names, of which the first means the praise of God, and the second strength of God, the prophet designates the children of the true Juda, the family of the divine Israel. The Church has become the only sanctuary where God is worthily praised, as well as the scene where He manifests His power. The expression which the Royal Prophet uses says much more. The Church has been chosen as the instrument of sanctification upon the earth. It is the divine salt which preserves from corruption, according to the words of Jesus Christ; without her the abominations of Sodom and Ninive would have been surpassed long ago. The impetuous torrent of vice, in its lamentable overflow, has always encountered a breakwater against which its waves have dashed in vain: the sanctity preached and practised by the Church. If the body. social, all covered with leprosy and infected with contagion as it is, subsists still, thanks are due to the spouse of Christ; her divine life repels death. Those who will not see this miracle, so evident and constantly renewed, cannot help recognizing the fact that God has wrought by the Church and in favor of the Church His greatest marvels; the power He has chosen "for His dominion," says the sacred text. Without pretending

to enumerate all that the Lord has done for His spouse, let us recall briefly that she has felt all the swords of persecution crossed on her breast; that she has been the butt of the hatred of princes and of nations, that twenty times events seemed to have dug her grave. Constantly attacked, she has always been victorious. Thrones have crumbled, dynasties have disappeared, crowns have fallen, nations have been wiped out, and the Church is always standing, because she is the throne of the power of the Lord: "Israel potestas ejus.” "The sea beheld, and fled: Jordan was turned back." The world is often compared to the sea, because of its depths and its storms. It has wished to oppose the mission of the Church, raising against her the waves of evil passions. During four centuries the blood of martyrs reddened its waters. The spectacle presented to it bore so unmistakably the seal of sanctity and of might that it has opened a passage to the holy one it persecuted. Its waves were, so to speak, turned back by admiration and awe. “Mare vidit et fugit." This is not all. Mankind, relinquishing itself to the course of its passions, descended toward the abyss, like the river whose waves throw themselves into the ocean. The Church has renewed for it the miracle of the holy ark on the shore of the Jordan. They have returned to their source, that is to say, to God. This beautiful thought is St. Augustine's. (In Psal. cxiii.)

"The mountains skipped like rams: and the little hills like lambs of the flock."

The conversion of the pagan world has filled the entire Church with joy. To express it David uses a figure as bold as sublime. "The mountains skipped

like rams, and the little hills like lambs of the flock." But what are these mountains?. What are the little hills? By the former St. Augustine understands the apostles and all the preachers of the Gospel, raised by their ministry to sanctity and to heights which the eye could not measure; by the latter, the faithful whom the word of the Gospel has begotten to the Church; the name of Christian demands that they should raise themselves above the majority by a higher life. (In Ps. cxiii.)

"What aileth thee, O thou sea, that thou fleest, and thou Jordan, that thou wast turned back? Ye mountains, that ye skipped like rams: and ye little hills like the lambs of the flock?"

The prophet, as the witness of all these prodigies, deLands their cause: sea, Jordan, mountains, hills,

answer me.

"At the presence of the Lord the earth was moved . at the presence of the God of Jacob."

The Lord has shown Himself to the earth: He has perpetuated His presence in the midst of His children by the institution of the adorable Sacrament of the Eucharist. Alone and forgotten in His tabernacle, He governs from it the earth; He moves it. The explanation of the sanctity and power of the Church is found in this promise: "I am with you always, even to the consummation of the world." (St. Matt. xxviii. 20.)

"Who turned the rock into a standing water: and the stony hill into a flowing stream."

The rock was the figure of Jesus Christ, says St. Paul; the rod of Moses is the lance of the soldier, and the water bursting abundantly from the opening represents the torrents of grace flowing from the pierced side

of Jesus Christ. Our Lord calls us to these divine springs: "If any man thirst, let him come to Me, and drink." (St. John vii. 37.) Let us hasten; each one of His wounds has become a life-giving fountain. St. Bernard says that "the earthly paradise had four rivers whose waters flowed in all directions, bringing freshness and fruitfulness. And in Jesus Christ, our paradise of delights, we find four springs: the first is the source of truth; the second, the source of wisdom; the third, the source of virtue; the fourth, the source of charity. Let us add to these another, the fifth, the source of life, promised to man after the trials of exile, and toward which the prophet sighed when he said: My soul thirsts for God, fountain of living water. It was, perhaps, to open these first four sources that Our Lord was wounded in four places before breathing His last sigh; to figure the fifth, after His death His side was opened by a lance." (Serm. i. de Nativ., Serm. lxvi.) May he who thirsts for truth, wisdom, virtue, charity, and life, come to quench his longing at the divine spring, at the feet of Jesus crucified !

"Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us: but unto Thy name give the glory."

Our deliverance from slavery, the wonders of sanctity and power wrought by the Church, the conversion of infidels, all the testimonies to the divine goodness should not puff us up with pride. To God, to God only, be the honor and glory; to us humiliation, for how many would serve the Lord better than we if they had been called to the faith! Bowing our heads, let us pay homage to God for all our works, all our goods, all our honors, all our talents. The glory which they have