truth which he might know, is as guilty as he who does not practise the inferior truth, born within him. In his heart he abhors truth, because a closer acquaintance with it requires greater sacrifices from him. You will say perhaps that it is difficult to pass from the lower to the higher degrees of truth. But whence arises the difficulty, if it is not within ourselves, if it is not because we do not practise truth to the extent to which it is known to us? What! you wish God to impart to you more enlightenment, and you do not even perform the duties which the lesser light imposes upon you? Listen to the divine oracle: 'He that doeth truth cometh to the light' (John iii, 21); that is to say, he who yields to the light which he has, attains to the perception of light which, before, was unknown to him. Do you follow that light? If you do not, to what purpose should God give you more light? He would only add to your guilt. "3. We must die loving God above all things; for this is the end of Christianity: 'Every one that loveth God is born of God.'" (Lacordaire, Conference V, "On the Church.”) Place yourself, then, in the presence of your Maker, and realize that you are a creature; that all you are and all you have is from him.* This is humility; and, if you do not build upon this foundation, you build upon the sand. "Next, reflect that he is a spirit, and so are you; that he desires to communicate his truth to you, and that he has framed your intellect so that it tends to receive it. "Thirdly, remember that, his revelation being supernatural, you require supernatural light to apprehend it, and supernatural strength to embrace and retain it. For this you must pray. Without prayer you will do nothing. *This excellent advice is transcribed from "The Divine Teacher," by the Rev. Fr. Humphrey, S. J., formerly Anglican chaplain to the late Bishop Forbes of Brechin. "Fourthly, that the truths of Pentecost may be proposed to your mind, you need a teacher: 'Faith cometh by hearing. The priest's lips shall keep knowledge, and thou shalt inquire the law at his mouth. If this was true of the elder dispensation, how much more true is it not of the gospel of the God-man! It is not, as a general rule, by controversy or study, but by the living action of soul on soul, of a soul full of the light of faith on a soul as yet in the darkness of unbelief, by the hearing of the truth from the lips of authority, that faith comes. "Fifthly, go to some priest: it matters not to whom. Our natural abilities and acquirements may vary; but our authority is one, and our teaching is the same. It is not through our powers of persuasion, but by the might of God, that you will see and know. 66 Sixthly, act at once. You are not bound as yet to submit, but you are bound to inquire. If you have a shadow of a doubt, the faintest reasonable suspicion that you may be wrong, you are bound, on peril of your soul, not to rest till you are absolutely certain that you are right: The night cometh, when no man can work.' Today may be your last, and—your eternity is at stake. "Seventhly, prepare your soul to meet temptation. You will have suggestions from the great enemy of souls, the wisdom of the worldly, and the frailty of fallen nature, to contend against. "Among the wiles of the devil in our day are, 'Go abroad, throw yourself into hard work, and your doubts will disappear. Yes, I quite grant, your doubts will disappear. But will they be displaced by certainty, and will you have the joy and peace of believing'? 'Again, 'Take time, and be prudent, whatever you do. Promise me that you will wait for a year, or at least six months, before you take the final step; and that you will not see a Catholic priest, or read a Catholic book, or enter a Catholic Church during that time.' Let us look at this. In the first place, are you quite sure that you will be alive six months hence? Already the words may be said of you, "Thou fool! this night thy soul shall be required of thee.' And then what answer could you give to the question of your Judge, 'Why are you not a Catholic? Why did you stifle instead of solving your doubts? Why did you not, at least, go on inquiring? "I agree with the counsel, 'Take time, and be prudent.' You are safe so long as you are earnestly, honestly, and anxiously inquiring; but from the moment that, by God's grace, you see the truth, there is not a moment for delay. Your reason, illuminated by the light of faith, sees, and your judgment declares, that there is on earth a Divine Teacher; your conscience says, 'Submit yourself unreservedly to that teacher;' and every moment thereafter till you resolve, 'I will and do submit myself,' is at the peril of your soul. "You may make promises of delay, and you may confirm them by an oath, if you will. Such promises do not bind you. They are made against the interests of your Maker, and of your own soul. They are null and void, from their nature and in their beginning, rotten in the foundation, and valueless. You were weak to make them, you would be wicked to keep them. "Again, you will have temptations from the possible, nay, almost inevitable, consequences of your conversion, in the rude wrench given to the friendships of years and to family ties, and which may issue in their disruption, in the damage done to your temporal position and prospects, involving those also who depend on, and are very near and dear to, you. To have to leave all, in order to follow the Divine Teacher, has been the lot of many who, in late years, have received the grace of divine faith. . . . Remember Him who said: 'I came not to send peace on earth, but the sword; for I came to set a man at variance against his father and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against the mother-in-law; and a man's enemies shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father and mother more than me, is not worthy of me,' etc. ... "Go, therefore, at once, without any delay, and show yourself unto the priest. He will teach you carefully the whole cycle of Christian doctrine; but not until you have recognized the Divine Teacher, and submitted yourself unreservedly to her divine authority. To tell you her doctrines now, would be merely to gratify your curiosity, or, at most, to give you information. It would not be teaching; for that supposes a disciple submissive to his teacher. "You will have to be prepared for the sacraments, one by one, as you approach them. "For your reception a knowledge of two suffices, of baptism and penance; and that is required, because those two form part of the order of your reception. "You will have, it is true, to profess your faith in the various articles of the Christian doctrine, as laid down in the Creed of Pope Pius; but then, not because you have examined them, and they severally commend themselves to you, but because they are proposed to you by the Divine Teacher. This is the one intelligent ground of your belief. If you believe in her divine authority, you thereby implicitly believe in the infallibility of her doctrine. "May God grant you the twofold grace, of light to see his truth, and of strength to embrace it whatever it may cost you!" ("The Divine Teacher.") I am, dear Dr. Ewer, Most sincerely yours, ALOYSIUS J. D. BRADLEY, Missionary Priest. APPENDIX. Appendix A. THE ANGLICAN SELF-CONSTITUTED DIRECTOR. "You must obey your director, and your director must obey no man. On these two canons, Ritualism 'dependeth and its prophets.' To begin with the second clause: Your director cannot possibly obey any one. This is clear. If he obeys the Archbishop of Canterbury, at once, of necessity, he ceases to be a Ritualist and ceases (the archbishop does not recognize_directors) to be your director, and becomes an ordinary Protestant. If he obeys Pope Leo XIII, again he ceases to be a Ritualist and ceases to be your director, since he can no longer be Father Cuthbert. If he flies off to the far East and seeks union with the Oriental Church, alas! even there he loses his identity: he is no longer your director, nor the Ritualist Father Cuthbert. He is one of the miserable crowd subject perhaps to some Archimandrite. Therefore, your director must simply obey no man. You must obey "The other point is equally clear. your director, for he holds the place of God. says to your director, He that hears you hears me.' No further proof is needed. Obey your director and 'keep his commandments, for this is all man.' A blind obedience to your director is quite as essential for the very existence of Ritualism, as is the complete emancipation of your director from all obedience to living man. For, if your obedience be not quite blind, you shall begin to see. And if you once begin to see, one of the very first things that you shall see is that to your Director you owe no obedience at all, because he does not hold the place of |