likely he had confirmed her; very likely he had given her her dear LORD's Body and Blood in her first Communion. "She opened not the gate for gladness" and she was not the first person, by a great many thousands, that has shown her love in a foolish way. Because she loved Peter so dearly, she left him standing out in the darkness; in danger, for aught she knew, of being pursued and taken liable to be known by any one who passed by. Instead of opening the door, "she ran in, and told how Peter stood at the gate."

:

And what did they say? "Thank GOD, He has heard our prayer!" or, "The LORD's hand is not shortened that it cannot save, neither His ear heavy that it cannot hear." No! they had faith enough to pray, and to pray earnestly, but not faith enough to believe their prayer was heard. They said unto her, "Thou art mad." dear children, she is an example to you.

And now,

If ever

you have to tell anything which you know to be true, and which other people will not believe, remember what she did. She was not angry; she was not impatient; "she constantly affirmed that it was even so." When we know that we are speaking the truth, we are not to be afraid or ashamed if the whole world is against us and contradicts us. As the wise man says, 66 Fight thou for the truth unto death, and the LORD shall be on But neither are we to get angry and

thy side." impatient.

We must think that if GOD is the GOD

K

of Truth, He is the God of Love also, and then we shall understand what S. Paul means by "speaking the truth in love."

"She constantly affirmed that it was even so." And how strange, that they should have gone on discussing the matter, while Peter continued knocking at the door, when by only opening it they might have been satisfied! Then said they, "It is his Angel." Not his guardian Angel: they did not mean that; there was no reason why such a one should have taken Peter's form, and spoken with Peter's voice. But they said, as we should now express it, "It is his ghost." They perhaps thought that while they had been praying, Herod had beheaded Peter in prison, as, some years before, he had beheaded John Baptist there at night; and that now Peter's spirit had come to tell them that they need not pray for his deliverance any longer.

Well, they say, seeing is believing. That is not a Christian saying at all, for you know our dear LORD says, "Blessed are they which have not seen, and yet have believed." However, these good people, like S. Thomas, did not believe till they had seen. When they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished. And so Rhoda's truth was proved; and so Rhoda's love to S. Peter was rewarded.

There, my children, you have heard what a girl like one of yourselves was doing some eighteen hundred years ago at Easter time. You have seen

that she, too, was allowed to pray with the rest; you have seen that she was trustworthy; and you have seen how dearly she loved a great Saint like S. Peter. So I think she is an example to all of you, but in that one thing, her not opening the door for gladness. Think what that might have led to. Peter might, had not GOD's protection been over him, have been taken again, through Rhoda's thoughtlessness. It was what we should now call a want of presence of mind, that is, the power of doing at once in time of danger the very exact thing that ought to be done in it. Some day I will speak to you more about that: all well.

But, now: shall I see you all more and more trying to be like Rhoda, in her prayers, in her trustworthiness, in her love of that which is good? I trust and pray so.

And, my dear Sisters, you must remember that Rhoda's character had probably been formed in the house of Mary, the mother of Mark. And will not the characters of future Rhodas here depend, in the same degree, on you?

READING XXII.1

"Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as He is, so are we in this world." I S. JOHN iv. 17.

ABOUT a week ago, I was standing in a bookseller's shop, when some ladies came in, not the least knowing who I was, and asked for a copy of the stories I have told you. The shopman gave it to them, and they began turning over the pages. At last one said to the other, "Well, I wonder whether these children are better for having these sermons preached to them ?" "No," said the other, "I don't think they are at all; I don't believe that children are any the better for being preached to." And that was all I heard.

Do you wonder, my children, that I should have thought a great deal about that little conversation? I have not preached very much to you, as you know. I generally like teaching you by catechising you better. But whatever sermons I may have preached to you, those in that book, or those not, remember this: If you are not all the better for them, you are all the worse. Every time you have come into the Oratory, or that you went into your old Oratory at that which used to be S. Katharine's,

1 Preached the First Sunday after Trinity.

you never came out as you went in, but better or worse. That was an idle wonder in those people who thus spoke about you, but is it an idle wonder in me?—whether you will be better or worse for what is said to you?-whether you will be better or worse for what is done to you?—whether, when we all stand together before the Throne of GOD at the Day of Judgment, you will be happy, happy beyond all happiness, that you were children here, or whether you will curse the very day that you first saw S. Margaret's? This is a thought, indeed, for all of us; it is a thought which ought to be, and I hope is, very often in our minds.

We

You know where the text I just read you is to be found. It is in the Epistle for to-day. And what is to-day? The First Sunday after Trinity. have now come to an end of all our great Feasts. We had Christmas, and our LORD was the poor little Baby in Bethlehem; we had the Epiphany, and He made Himself known to the Gentiles; we had Palm Sunday, and He rode on the ass into Jerusalem; Easter, and He rose from the sepulchre in the garden of Joseph of Arimathea; Ascension Day, and a cloud received Him out of the sight of His disciples; Whitsunday, and the HOLY GHOST, the Comforter, came down from heaven, according to His most true promise. Well, and by all these things what did we learn? Surely His love. And what else?" Beloved, if GOD so loved us, we ought also to love one another."