grace and merit is over, and whose soul is looking on the Face of God. It must also be something which will not interfere with the suddenness of our Lord's Coming. So Henoch and Elias have to prophesy, and be killed, and lie dead for three days and a half; and yet our Lord will come suddenly like a thief in the night, like the lightning, like the flood of water on the world, like the flood of brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrha. How the signs. of the Judgment are to be reconciled with the suddenness of His appearing I do not pretend to say; but I know that all His words are divine and eternal. He says, "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away." He says also, "Watch ye, therefore, because ye do not know at what hour your Lord will come." "Wherefore, be ye also ready, because at what hour ye know not the Son of Man will come." "Watch ye, therefore, because ye know not the day nor the hour."

That prophesying, if it should yet have to take place, and if this verse has not been fulfilled in some hidden way, would be like the work which Angels have already done for God in the world, for they, like John, have been

proved, and judged, and crowned, and their brightness has always been veiled lest it should dazzle and destroy those to whom they were sent. It is of faith that all Angels, except those that are lost, are in the Beatific Vision, and yet they have often appeared to men when God has sent them as His messengers; as, for instance, to Adam and Eve when the Cherubim stood before Eden with their flaming swords, to Abraham, to Jacob, to Josue, to Manue, to David, to Tobias, to Zacharias, to Philip, to Peter in prison. Angels appeared to many at the Resurrection and Ascension. I am not setting down all the appearances of Angels of which we know; but there are two so remarkable that I must not omit them; and in both these cases the Angels did a great work for God, and one that must have lasted for some time in the doing. An Angel appeared to all the children of Israel at Galgal, and actually spoke to them and reproved them. It is said, "When the Angel of the Lord spake these words to all the children of Israel, they lifted up their voice and wept." Then there was that splendid manifestation of Angels recorded in the second book of Machabees. It seems to fill the room with light

as we read it, so bright is the shining of the golden armour. When Heliodorus, at the bidding of King Seleucus, went with his soldiers to sack the temple at Jerusalem, "there appeared to them a horse with a terrible rider upon him, adorned with a very rich covering; and he ran fiercely, and struck Heliodorus with his forefeet; and he that sat upon him seemed to have armour of gold. Moreover, there appeared two other young men, beautiful and strong, bright and glorious, and in glittering apparel, who stood by him on each side, and scourged him without ceasing with many stripes." Now all these Angels were in the Beatific Vision, and could neither suffer nor merit.

Besides, since our Lady went to Heaven, she has often appeared and warned or consoled the Church. Many of the Saints, also, who are in the Vision of God have been seen by men. Why then may not St John, whose warfare is over, and whose crown is won, appear in the last days against antichrist, whom he so sternly hated in all his manifestations, in behalf of Jesus whom he so faithfully loved? He would not be able to suffer and die like Henoch and Elias; but our Lady, and Saints, and Angels,

who can neither merit nor suffer any more, have shown themselves to men, and witnessed for God. We know for certain that the Saints will take part in the judgment of the world and of Angels. St Paul says, "Know ye not that the Saints shall judge this world?” "Know ye not that we shall judge Angels?" So that the work, which, I think, will then be given to St John to do, is not different in kind, but only in degree, from the work that other Saints in the Beatific Vision have done or will do.

But, at any rate, as to his tarrying til our Lord's Coming, that seems to me to be plain and clear. Different ages have had great devotion to different Saints, according to the Will of God. The whole Church, at the beginning, had a most intense devotion to St John the Baptist. You have only to look at the Confiteor to be assured of this. "I confess to Almighty God, to blessed Mary, ever a Virgin, to blessed Michael the Archangel, to blessed St John the Baptist, to the holy Apostles, Peter and Paul, and to all Saints." There you see St John the Baptist mentioned between Michael and Peter, one being the mighty Archangel who, with his flaming sword, struck down Satan and his apos

tate followers from the battlements of Heaven, and the other being the first and greatest of the Vicars of our Lord, on whom Jesus built the Church, to whom He gave the golden keys. And well might it be so, when through fire and blood, in dungeons and beneath the sword, through all violence of persecution and extremity of pain, the heart of the Church was stayed up by him. Then came the great devotion to St Joseph, a beautiful and hidden Saint, with an overshadowing love for the Church like the love of God, and with the fragrance of Libanus upon his garments. But the days of antichrist will surely come, and the terrors of the last times will come, when the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, shall stand in the holy place. Then the heart of the whole Church will turn, as I believe, to the Beloved Disciple as it has never turned before. There has always, indeed, been about him a strange attractiveness, because he is "the Disciple whom Jesus loved." But only the last days will see the fulness of his glory. He has to tarry till our Lord's Coming. Let any one read his marvellous First Epistle, and see what he says about antichrist and the working of the anti