from heaven, from purgatory, or, as it may be, but God forbid! from hell, &c.

3. Each of us will rise in the same body, and the same soul, that we now have this in order that, having been instruments of good or evil during life, our bodies may share with the soul in reward or punishment. Quote Rom. vi. 19, Job, xix. 25, 26, 27, also the words of our Lord, Luke, xxiv. 38, 39 ; and say: solikewise when we shall be arisen, we may say to each other, " See my hands and feet, handle and see that it is I myself." O what a thought! that after these bodies of ours shall have been for centuries reduced to ashes, God will still keep them in view, and make them come forth the same in every limb, &c., as during our lifetime, &c.

4. We rise from the dead in all the perfection or integrity of human nature—that is, exempt from the defects and deformities we may have had during life, whether these defects or deformities come from accidental or natural causes. Neither will there be the weakness of childhood or decrepitude of old age, nor the traces of sickness, nor the loss of limbs. The Almighty Power will make good all wants and deficiencies, and all will rise in the vigour and bloom of that period of life, when youth is perfected into full maturity, and the wasting of years has not yet commenced. (Quote St. Augustine, Manual, cxvii.) "O what glorious things are said of thee, city of God! In thee there is no old age, nor the misery of old age. In thee there is none that is lame, none that is distorted, but all meet, as

St. Paul says, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the age of the fulness of Christ."

With respect to the martyrs and confessors, they will

retain their scars and the marks of their wounds, but these will be like the wounds our Saviour retains on His glorious body, all radiant with splendour, bespangling, as it were, these champions of religion with the decorations of victory.

5. So far we have considered the resurrection of the dead both good and bad in common. We must now separate them, to speak of them apart. And in the first place, with respect to the good: Their bodies undergo a glorious change in the resurrection. (Quote I Cor. xv. 52, 53, 54; Phil. iii. 21.) This glorious change. does not mean that our bodies are to be changed into other bodies, but that remaining the same they shall be clothed with glorious properties. These properties are four in number, viz., Impassibility, Brightness, Agility and Subtility. Explain from Catechism of Council of Trent, Chapter 12, Part 1, Article xi.; and add, when clothed with these glorious properties. we shall realize in ourselves the mysterious words of the Apostle," We all beholding," &c. (2 Cor. iii. 18.)

Are the bodies of the damned to share in any of these properties? Alas! no; except in so far as that they are to be immortal, that they can never die : and need I say, that this property of immortality will be to them their greatest misery? Alas! "They shall seek death and shall not find it: and they shall desire to die,and death shall flee from them. (Apoc. ix. 6.) As for the glorious property of Brightness, it can have no place in that darksome land, covered with the gloom of death. They may indeed be invested with a kind of lurid gleam, half black, half red, the sort of glimmering light that torments the vision of the damned, by

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displaying to their view the hideous forms and spectres of the infernal abyss. And as to the properties of Agility and Subtility, there can be no place for these glorious properties in dungeons of fire, where "No order, but everlasting horror abideth." (Job, x. 22.)

6. And now that the resurrection has taken place, another great wonder is to be accomplished, it is the gathering together of the human race, from Adam to the last of his descendants on earth. We see sometimes flights of birds, in countless numbers, in the air, winging their way to a certain destination. So shall be the flocking together of mankind to the Valley of Josaphat, to meet there the great Judge of the living and the dead. (Quote I Thess. iv. 12, 13, 14, 15, 16.) Words of sensation.

7. And now the supreme moment is coine; the Sign of the Son of Man appears in the firmament, and the Son of Man Himself descends in the clouds of heaven in great power and majesty, encompassed by His angels; and having taken His seat amidst the countless thousands of the children of Adam, He separates them one from another, &c. (quote Matt. xxv. 32, 33). Then follows the sentence-the sentence which is to consign the wicked to everlasting misery, and the sentence which is to establish the elect in the possession of eternal happiness. And then opens wide the earth to swallow the wicked down into the infernal abyss, whilst the elect proceed in glorious triumph to occupy the kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world; and then time has come to an end, and the great Conqueror of death and hell, having made His enemies His footstool, resumes His throne of glory, to

reign with the Father and the Holy Ghost for ever and ever.

CONCLUSION.

And what is this great event we have been treating of? The resurrection of the dead. Does it concern us? or rather is not our eternal destiny bound up with it? Must not each of us say with Job, "I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that on the last day," &c. But how shall we rise? To put on the properties of a glorified body, or those of a wretched body, that is, to be cast out into exterior darkness? And we too shall be carried through the air, and wafted by the ministry of God's angels to the Valley of Josaphat. And we too shall see the Son of Man with these very eyes which now behold the light of day; and we shall be separated and placed either on the right or on the left; and we shall hear the sentence which shall make us miserable inmates of hell, or glorious citizens of heaven for all eternity. O what a subject of terror! O sinner! why will you not be converted? O let us all keep before our minds the terrible ordeal we have to pass through. O that we were all penetrated with the sentiment of St. Jerome: "I tremble from head to foot, and whether I eat or drink, or whatever else I do, I think I hear that terrific sound- AWAKE YE DEAD AND COME TO JUDGMENT.""

Consult Catechism of Council of Trent on the Eleventh Article of Creed.

[N.B.-Do not dwell on the last judgment, as it forms a distinct subject in the series. After each point express appropriate sentiments.]

The Apostles' Creed begins from eternity, and ends in eternity, because it begins and ends with Him and in Him Who is from eternity to eternity, " That is, That was, and is to come." (Apoc. i. 4.) "The Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end." (Apoc. xxi. 6.) We are now come to the twelfth and final Article, which is announced to us in the words I have quoted, life everlasting." How often have we pronounced these sacred words! We pronounce them several times a day, every day of our lives, but alas! they fall from our lips only too often without reflection, without considering their awful significance; whilst, nevertheless, they express the eternity of weal or woe, that awaits us all, at the close of our passing sojourn here on earth. How important, therefore, is it not, that we should collect our thoughts on this great subject, meditate deeply upon it, and regulate our lives in accordance with its awful and thrilling import. I need not, therefore, bespeak your attention on a subject, which, of itself, finds its way to all hearts;