cite here the very words of our Lord Jesus Christ, "Whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come." From this declaration the most learned interpreters draw this legitimate conclusion, that certain sins are remitted in the future world. It is also in this sense that in the Gospel of Luke he exhorts us to "make to ourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, that when we fail they may receive us into everlasting habitations." And this is just what Zaccheus the publican did, under the prompting of faith and repentance.

The following truths will be sufficient to demonstrate the efficacy of the prayers of the church, of the oblation of the Holy Sacrifice, and of alms, in behalf of the dead.

1. Every mortal sin, that is to say, every free and premeditated violation of the divine law, which has not been washed out by faith and repentance, brings upon the transgressor the penalty of eternal reprobation, and of temporal chastisements. Sin bears this two-fold fruit.

2. Every believing and penitent sinner obtains remission of the eternal penalty, by the merits of our Saviour Jesus Christ. But in finding grace for his soul, the transgressor is not absolved thereby from the direct and temporal consequences of his sin, such as, shame, affliction, sickness, the proceedings of human justice, and natural death: these he undergoes here below justly and inevitable.

3. We see every day a great number of sinners, our brethren, dying with penitence indeed, but before they have undergone the temporal penalty of their transgressions here below. In order to supply this deficiency, and to confirm repentant souls in their penitence, the church imposes on them pious exercises, voluntary privations, which are designated by the name of canonical penalties. Now when christians die before they have undergone these, or suddenly and without efficacious preparation, although in a state of grace, it is for them that the maternal solicitude of the church has instituted unceasing prayers and commemorations, whose efficacy and sweet odor

are derived from the unbloody sacrifice of the mass. She implores, on behalf of these souls in peril, the mercy of the Father, through the grace of the Son, and the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit. Nothing short of certain signs of final impenitence, according to the precept of the Apostle John already referred to, imposes silence on the distressful cry of her maternal heart.

4. The universal church, on the grounds here set forth, has always ordered liturgies and prayers for the repose of the souls of her children. We say always; for the three liturgies of James, Basil, and Chrysostom, contain, in their respective rituals, each three prayers for the dead.

5. Besides the prayers which each believer asks of the church for his deceased neighbors, our common mother has established certain days of universal commemoration for all the dead. It is on these occasions that her ingenious charity enumerates, in affecting supplications, all the forms of death, all the calamities and all the sufferings, to which man the sinner is exposed here below. She implores for these countless sufferers the compassion of God our Saviour.

6. Remembering that the fathers of the church, and especially Cyril of Alexandria and John of Damascus, have taught that the souls of the dead, immediately after their decease, have to pass through certain stations, or gradations, under the guidance of their guardian angels, and in the presence of mischievous spirits, who take advantage of our defilements to obstruct our ascending progress towards the mansions of rest, the church has ordained that the most fervent prayers should be multiplied for the assistance of her deceased children, during the space of forty days from their separation from their bodies. Such, in the economy of the figures and shadows of the ancient law, was the desert which lay between Egypt, the emblem of this world, and the land of promise, the image of heaven.

To recapitulate; the substance of the doctrine defined above rests on a series of explicit texts drawn from the Holy Scriptures, on the universal and constant tradition of the church, on the decrees of the Sixth Ecumenical Council, on the teach

ings of numerous fathers, and finally on the principle of intimate and necessary cohesion between the church militant on earth, and the church triumphant in heaven. The cement which unites them, under their sole and common Head, our Lord Jesus Christ, is composed of the two salutary elements, the Invocation of the Saints, and Prayer for the Dead.

The reformers of the xvith century, having rejected the first as idolatrous, saw themselves under the necessity of abolishing the last as useless and superstitious. They wished to substitute for the doctrine of Purgatory taught by the Latin Church, a more modern doctrine, which the ancient fathers never taught.

According to the maxims of the Orthodox Church, there is nothing here of expiation in purgatory, nothing of merits or demerits after death, but only and simply a maternal aspiration of prayer and oblations on the part of the church in behalf of the dead, and with a view to their obtaining the free remission of the temporal penalties which they have incurred, while their eternal destiny is not yet irrevocably fixed by the Sovereign Judge.

As for the moral effects of prayer for the dead, we will not dwell upon them: they recommend themselves to every mind free from prejudice, to all hearts that are full of love and strong in faith. Besides, this pious observance is marked with a double seal, of truth and of charity. The one is inseparable from the other, just as there is vital heat wherever the true light shines.

Having thus briefly passed in review the seven principal points which separate our holy communion from all the recent novelties introduced by the reformation of the xvith century, we hasten to lay aside the pen. We leave all with God: we guard our sacred deposit, without any mixture of bitterness toward those who dare to oppose the Holy Church, or the Holy Gospel. They are imposed upon by the false semblance of doctrinal purity; they confound the thing itself with its abuse; they open, alas! a wide door for the intrusion of haughty human reason into the humble domain of christian faith.

THE MIRACLES OF CHRIST AS ATTESTED BY THE EVANGELISTS.

[BY A. HOVEY, D. D., OF NEWTON THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTION.]

By a miracle we mean an event which, according to the principles of sound reasoning, may and must be referred to the extraordinary agency of God. No event, therefore, which evidently disagrees with the moral character of God; no event which can be reasonably traced to angelic, demoniac, or human action; no event which may be fairly ascribed to the working of natural laws or forces, is a miracle; but an event which, in view of its character and circumstances, can rationally be referred to extraordinary divine action, and to that alone, as its cause, is properly miraculous. By saying, "to that alone," we do not mean to exclude the co-operation of natural forces in producing such an event, but rather to affirm that such forces, if used, are directed and re-enforced by extraordinary divine action, which superior action determines the event*

As, however, the occurrence of such an event has been pronounced to be to the last degree improbable, and, indeed, morally impossible, we shall notice briefly the grounds of such a judgment, before examining the testimony for the miracles

*Hugh Farmer, in his Essay on the Demoniacs of the N. T., says, “A miracle is an effect produced in the system of nature, contrary to the general rules by which it is governed; Tillotson, Sermon on Miracles, vol. ix, p. 352, says, "It is a supernatural effect, evident and wonderful to sense;" Wardlaw, on Miracles, defines it to be "a work involving a temporary suspension of the known laws of nature;" Alexander, A visible suspension of the laws of nature;" Mansel, "An interposition of divine power;" Bayne, " An occasional display of divine power, independently of those sequences of natural law through which God commonly acts."

of Christ; for the result of our examination of this testimony will be affected more or less by our opinion as to the antecedent probability of miracles. If we are satisfied of their being "to the last degree improbable," we shall yield but a reluctant assent to the fullest proof of their reality; but if we find them to be in certain circumstances "not improbable," a less amount of evidence will be convincing. We shall, therefore, at this point review the principal arguments in favor of rejecting all testimony for miracles—stating these arguments, for the sake of brevity, in our own words, and in the simplest manner possible.

I. Many alleged miracles are known to be spurious, and therefore it is safe to infer that all are spurious. Says David Hume: "The many instances of forged miracles and prophecies and supernatural events, which in all ages have either been detected by contrary evidence, or which detect themselves by their absurdity, prove sufficiently the strong propensity of mankind to the extraordinary and marvelous, and ought reasonably to beget a suspicion against all relations of this kind." And so frequently, he declares, have miracles been forged in support of "popular religions," that "we may establish it as a maxim, that no human testimony can have such force as to prove a miracle, and make it a just foundation for any such system of religion."*

Now we are ready to admit the premises of this argument, but not the inference which is drawn from it. The fact asserted may be said, with more show of reason, to justify an opposite conclusion; for, generally, the spurious presupposes the genuine; the counterfeit imitates the true. One exception may, indeed, be imagined to this rule, and we think of but one. If a prince, for example, were to announce beforehand his purpose to issue, when needed, a particular coin, with such and such marks, counterfeits of this promised coin might, doubtless, be put in circulation before, as well as after, its own appearance. An expectation, resting on the known. purpose of their ruler, would predispose many persons to

* Essays, vol. II., p. 118, 128.

Vol. xxviii.-5.