Although happy as never before during those weeks, yet none the less is that testing-time a painful time. In my own heart I had taken the step and I was a Catholic, and I am sure that there is a special protecting grace over one at such a time, for it is certainly a period of weakness in comparison to the strength which can only come through the sacraments of the church.

No one but a convert can ever grasp adequately what it to have been without the sacraments, and then to have them; the contrast is far greater than that of a ship at the mercy of the winds and waves, anchorless and rudderless, and one with all sails set following unswervingly her desired course. The light of faith is there which shows the way; but one is not in port.

I was quite prepared not to be conscious at the time of the full significance of each of the great sacraments of the church, for I had been wisely warned not to expect to feel on these momentous occasions, though to some persons God in his infinite mercy grants at such times great consolation; but never can I forget the peace and calm which were mine on that day when for the first time I could truly say "I am a Catholic," or the superhuman joy, the consciousness that at last I was safe within God's own fold. Three years have gone by since I made my profession of faith, and it has been so ever since, and with a new strength and sense of absolute sureness which came to me on the day of my Confirmation.

This it is which enables me to say, not as in the old days, "I think this and that" but now I know, for I have found truth at last.

making an act of faith, but I always prefaced the "O my God, I firmly believe," with "I wish that I could truly say."

I asked another priest if it would help me to genuflect before the Blessed Sacrament when I could not yet say actually that I believed that our Lord was there; and he advised against it, and that was consonant with my own feeling of what was sincere, Thus I went struggling along for three months more, pouring out my heart in prayer for faith; I was often sad and discouraged, wondering if I should never be able to believe. It was a time of keen suffering, but, I now realize, of most salutary discipline. For how many years had I not been completely satisfied with my own conception of divine truth? The blessed day was coming when I was to be thoroughly humbled, when I should kneel at our Lord's feet and ask him to show me the way. I thought that I was asking him then, but I was not as yet humble enough. God alone knew just how long I must kneel there pleading, imploring to see, before he would give me the light.

Passion Week arrived, and I was asked to hear a Jesuit priest preach at a convent. I was so ignorant of Catholic ways that I did not even know that it was called a Retreat; but most gratefully I accepted this opportunity offered. What those days meant to me it is not possible to express fully. Most attentively I listened, hanging upon every word. I followed with deepest interest the services in the chapel. On the Thursday, with no especial warning, the full illumination came. My soul responded, and I knew that I believed. The next day made me only the more sure; and when on Saturday I went to early Mass, and every one in the chapel received our living Lord in the holy Sacrament of Communion, and I was left alone, the tears streamed from my eyes. I was desolate indeed. Never shall I forget the pain of it. How long must I remain outside? I wanted to be taken in at once. I knew that I was a Catholic at heart, and I did not wish to run the chance of dying outside the church.

Palm Sunday came, and with what new significance !-and then Holy Week-my first Holy Week in truth. How eagerly I drank in new life, as if I had been thirsting and unsatisfied always. Seven weeks I was under instruction and carefully tested, and every day Catholic truth unfolded before me with

Although happy as never before during those weeks, yet none the less is that testing-time a painful time. In my own heart I had taken the step and I was a Catholic, and I am sure that there is a special protecting grace over one at such a time, for it is certainly a period of weakness in comparison to the strength which can only come through the sacraments of the church.

No one but a convert can ever grasp adequately what it means to have been without the sacraments, and then to have them; the contrast is far greater than that of a ship at the mercy of the winds and waves, anchorless and rudderless, and one with all sails set following unswervingly her desired course. The light of faith is there which shows the way; but one is not in port.

I was quite prepared not to be conscious at the time of the full significance of each of the great sacraments of the church, for I had been wisely warned not to expect to feel on these momentous occasions, though to some persons God in his infinite mercy grants at such times great consolation; but never can I forget the peace and calm which were mine on that day when for the first time I could truly say "I am a Catholic," or the superhuman joy, the consciousness that at last I was safe within God's own fold. own fold. Three years have gone by since I made my profession of faith, and it has been so ever since, and with a new strength and sense of absolute sureness which came to me on the day of my Confirmation.

This it is which enables me to say, not as in the old days, "I think this and that" but now I know, for I have found truth at last.

1. Maxwell-Scott: Henry Schomberg Kerr, Sailor and Jesuit; 2. Howard: The Failure of Success; 3. Codman : Arnold's Expedition to Quebec; 4. Paine: The Ethnic Trinities, and their Relations to the Christian Trinity; 5. Dutto: The Life of Bartolomé de Las Casas; 6. Sturgis: A Dictionary of Architecture and Building; 7. Goyau-Lapeyre: Autour du Catholicisme Social; L'Action du Clergé dans la Réforme Sociale; 8. Devine: A Manual of Ascetical Theology; 9. Horn: Ste. Elisabeth de Hongrie; 10. Britton: Manual of the Flora of the Northern States and Canada; 11. Barry: In the Paths of Peace; 12. Lang: The Mystery of Mary Stuart.

1-Henry Schomberg Kerr, Sailor and Jesuit,* is a most interesting biography of a zealous servant of God. It can hardly be called a life of Henry Kerr, made up as it is of his journals and letters; nevertheless it cannot fail to impress the reader with the self-sacrificing character of this sailor-priest. During the fifteen years he served in the English navy he rose from the position of cadet to that of commander. Beneath his uniform there beat a heart burning with zeal for souls. In 1867, after weighing the matter well, he applied to the Society of Jesus, and entered the novitiate at Roehampton in September of that same year. At once he became a general favorite with his brother novices. Ordained to the holy priesthood in 1875, he was first sent to Glasgow. Four years later he was appointed military chaplain to Cyprus; the following year vice-regal chaplain to Lord Ripon, Viceroy of India. Five years after he spent a short time in England, and finally, having refused the Archbishopric of Bombay, he was called in 1891 to that work for which he had so often and willingly offered himself-the Zambesi Mission. There he labored until his death in 1895. His was not a life of great deeds such as the world applauds. He was known to but few. He sought but the opportunity to serve God, and the north-star of his life's sea was:

Henry Schomberg Kerr, Sailor and Jesuit. By Hon. Mrs. Maxwell-Scott, of Abbotsford.

"Then keep thy conscience sensitive;
No inward token miss;

And go where grace entices thee:
Perfection lies in this."

In the navy he was a faithful officer; in the novitiate an obedient student; on the mission, a zealous, devoted priest with much of that earnestness, firm resolve, and prompt action that characterized his ideal in the ministry, the soldier-priest, St. Ignatius.

It is interesting to note that throughout the whole life, in his writings and conversation, the sailor would show himself. He speaks of visiting a monastery and finding "no one on board"; and again in referring to his luggage, which had been delayed, he remarks "it is chasing us astern." But the most striking passage of this kind we find in a letter wherein he refers to the death of his father, mother, brother, and sister, Mother Henrietta Kerr, all of whom died while he was in India; and writes, "I feel I have four more anchors in heaven, and do not intend to let slip the cables."

We heartily commend to our readers this careful, loving work of Mrs. Maxwell-Scott. It is a valuable, instructive story, proving that it is not what a man says which carries the conviction of the higher, the spiritual life, but what he does and lives. The book contains two portraits of Father Kerr, and a map of the Zambesi Mission, the scene of his last labors.

No doubt it will interest many of our readers to know that while at Cyprus Father Kerr was associated with Father Tyrrell, then a layman and a recent convert to the faith. Several entertaining pages (155-161) quoted from the latter's reminiscences. conclude with the following testimony to the favorable impression made by Father Kerr: "Though I never wrote to him or heard from him," says Father Tyrrell, "I always remembered him distinctly and affectionately, as I do now; and I owe more to the impression made upon me by the first Jesuit of my acquaintance, my self-constituted novice-master, and kindest of despots, than perhaps would be fair to others for me to state explicitly."

2.-Lady Howard's object in The Failure of Success is very laudable. It is to show how unhappy and fearful a scourge the