SECOND NOCTURN.

Lesson IV.

IN the second persecution of the Christians under Domitian in the year of our Lord 95, S. John was brought from Ephesus to Rome, and by the orders of the tyrant was thrown into a cauldron of boiling oil. Those faithful ones who stood by to witness the sacrifice and martyrdom of the Son of God, suffered their own martyrdom then, and were thenceforth exempt; and the Saint came out unharmed. This miraculous deliverance took place near the Latin Gate of Rome, which led towards Latium.

RRZ. of the Common.

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Lesson V.

JOHN was at once an Apostle, an Evangelist, and a Prophet. An Apostle, for he wrote to the Churches as a master: an Evangelist, because be wrote a book of the Gospels, which none other of the Apostles, save S. Matthew, did: a Prophet, because in the isle of Patmos, whither he had

been banished by the Emperor Domitian for the testimony of the Lord, he was favoured with those visions of the future which are recorded in the Apocalypse.

Lesson VI.

ferent from the others. Matthew begins to write, as concerning the Man: The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham; Luke begins with the priesthood of Zacharias; Mark, with the prophecies of Malachi and Isaiah. The first had the face of a man, on account of the genealogy; the second the face of an ox, because of the priesthood; the third, the face of a lion, because of the voice crying in the wilderness Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make His paths straight. But

envy, and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming, Then Paul and. Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles. For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth,

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ND when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed. And the word of the Lord was published throughout all the region. But the Jews stirred up the devout and honourable women, and, the chief men of the city, and raised persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them out of their coasts. But they shook off the dust of their feet against them, and came unto Iconium. And the disciples were filled with joy, and with the Holy Ghost.

BARNABAS the Levite, a Cypriote

by birth, also named Joseph, was ordained together with Paul the Apostle of the Gentiles, to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He, selling the land which he possessed, brought the Apostles the money acquired thereby. Sent to Antioch for the purpose of preaching, and exceedingly rejoiced at finding many there converted to the faith of Christ the Lord, he exhorted them to abide in the faith of Christ, in which exhortation he was very successful, because he was accounted by all to be a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost.

JOURNEYING thence to Tarsus, to seek Paul, he came with him to Antioch. Remaining a year in the church of that city, they taught the precepts of Christian faith and life to those people; and, there moreover, the worshippers of Jesus Christ were first called Christians. And the disciples of Paul and Barnabas supported at their own expense the Christians of Judæa, sending money to them by Paul and Barnabas. They discharged that charitable office, taking with them John whose surname was Mark, and returned to Antioch.

BUT when in the church at Antioch,

Paul and Barnabas, with the other prophets and doctors, were serving the Lord with fasting and prayer, the Holy Ghost said unto them: Separate Me Paul and Barnabas for the work to which I have called them. Then laying their hands upon them, and fasting and praying, they sent them away. Therefore they came to Seleucia, and thence into Cyprus, and traversed beside many cities and countries, preaching the gospel to the great profit of their hearers. At the last Barnabas, along with John, whose surname was Mark, parting from Paul, sailed into Cyprus, and there, about the seventh

year of Nero, on the third day before

the ides of June, he added the crown of martyrdom to the dignity of the apostolic office. His body was found in the island of Cyprus, in the reign of the emperor Zeno, and on his breast was the gospel of Matthew written in Barnabas' own hand.

THIRD NOCTURN.

Lessons of the Common of Martyrs in Easter-tide, I am the true Vine. p. 97. RZR. of the Common of Apostles, according to season.

June 23.

(VIGIL OF S. JOHN BAPTIST. Lesson of the Holy Gospel according to S. Luke.

Lesson I. Chap. i. THERE was in the days of Herod,

the king of Judæa, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth. And that which follows. A Homily of S. Ambrose the Bishop.

Book 1 on S. Luke.

The holy Scripture teaches us, that we should not merely praise the conduct of those who are fit topics for preaching, but their parents too: that the heritage. as it were, of spotless purity, handed down from them, may be conspicuous in those whom we desire to praise. For what other could have been the intent of the holy evangelist, in this place, save that S. John Baptist should be counted noble for his parents, his wonderful works, his conduct, his office, his passion? So too is praised Hannah, mother of holy Samuel; so Isaac received from his parents that rank in piety which he bequeathed to his descendants: therefore, too, Zacharias was a priest, and, not merely a priest, was also of the course of Abia, that is, noble amongst the higher families. RyRy. of the feria.

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Lesson II.

AND ND his wife was of the daughters of Aaron. Therefore the rank of S. John is derived not merely from his parents. but even from his ancestors: a rank no august in worldly power, but venerable in religious descent. It was right that Christ's forerunner should

have such ancestors: that he might appear to preach faith in the Lord's coming, not as a sudden thought of his own; but as one received from his

ancestors, and implanted in him by natural right. They were both, saith he, righteous before God: walking in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord blameless. What reply can they make to this, who offer any excuses for their sins, think that man cannot

live without constant sins, and cite the

verse which is written in Job: What is man that he should be clean ? and he which is born of a woman that he should be righteous?

3 Lesson III.

THE answer should be given to them they should first define what is the meaning of a man's being without sin: whether it is that he should never have sinned at all, or should have left off sinning. For if they mean that he should never have sinned at all, I too agree with them: for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. But if they say that he who has amended his old fault, and has turned himself to such a kind of life as to keep himself from sin, if they say that he cannot abstain from offences, I cannot agree with their opinion, when we read that the Lord so loved the Church, that He might present it to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing: but that it should be holy and without blemish.)