glory to come. Yet so, if we suffer with Him, we may also be glorified with Him. In fine, He is a light to our faltering feet whilst in the way, and our reward exceeding great when death shall have been swallowed up in victory. This is eternal life," says our divine Lord Himself by the mouth of St. John, " that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, Whom Thou hast sent.
How welcome, therefore, must any book be whose special purpose is to inspire the faithful with a deeper knowledge and a more ardent love of Our Lord Jesus Christ. This was the object which the pious author of the * Devout Instructions on the Epistles and Gospels proposed to himself. His Translator represents him truly when he writes: No exercise of our lives is more salutary than meditation on the life, death, doctrines, and example of our divine Saviour. It is milk to children, nourishing food to adults, medicine to the sick, salvation to sinners, consolation to those of little faith, strength to the penitent, counsel to the just. To the perfect it opens secret mysteries, and gives to the faithful grace in time and happiness in eternity." On this sole ground the work affords sufficient evidence of its utility for the general faithful.
It has, moreover, this peculiar advantage, that its lessons are arranged after the order of the ecclesiastical year. The Word of God possesses in itself a certain sacramental power. Still the presentation of the Word cannot fail to gain in effectiveness by reason of association with the object-lessons drawn from the Church's liturgy. The regular sequence of seasons and festivals exhibits the history of our relations with the divine Trinity Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; and we must ever consider it one of the most happy inspirations of the author, as well as one of the most salutary features of the book, that the Gospel of the Word is everywhere reinforced by the living Gospel of the ecclesiastical year. The Church fulfils her divine mission
