this point, however our practice be in woful opposition to them. That to make it our study to keep up this communion-to aim at its preservation with all our hearts, whether of communion of mind and judgment, or of heart and affection, is held up in Scripture as one of the grand evidences of the reality of our belonging to the holy Catholic Church of Christ is equally clear."He that saith I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him." And to what commandment does the Apostle here especially refer?" A new commandment I write unto you, &c. He that saith he is in the light and hateth his brother is in darkness even until now. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light. He that loveth not his brother whom he hath how can he love God whom he hath not seen?" So that we may infallibly conclude, that where there is no special love to the saints there is no real love to God in the heart.

seen,

But the communion of saints is no less the duty of the holy Catholic Church than the privilege. It is a privilege to carry with us this evidence that we do indeed belong to that highly honoured number who "know that [they] have passed from death unto life because [they] love the brethren."

If sympathy be a privilege, what a privilege in our rejoicings to know that they are shared by a multitude no man can number! What a privilege in our sorrows and trials for Christ's sake, to know that they are no strange things, but that the whole body is called to suffer too! What a privilege to know that in all our wants and difficulties we have the fellow-feeling and the prayers of the whole Church of God for us! What

a privilege that we can actually enjoy such communion face to face with many of the saints upon earth! What a privilege that we can look forward to such communion in all its perfection, where not one shall be wanting of that whole number of the saints of all ages, times, and Churches in the kingdom of our common · Father in heaven! How then should we cultivate this communion?-By avoiding those things which hinder it.

Publicly. The schisms which rend and tear the body of Christ, which separate the flock from their shepherd and from one another-the forsaking the assembling of yourselves together in the house of prayer at the table of the Lord-the great bond of union.

Privately. Watching against pride, which is the mother of contention. "Let nothing be done through. strife or vain glory, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves." By cultivating those things which advance this communion.-By being "of one mind and of one judgment;" glad to say to each other, "Let us go up into the house of the Lord." Let our feet carry us to the same house of prayer, that we may worship the one Lord according to the one faith, into which by one Spirit we have been baptized into one body.

All of us are by nature like sheep which have gone astray; therefore Christ, as being the Chief Shepherd, gave some Apostles, some Prophets, some Evangelists, to gather us together from East and West, that there may be but one sheepfold and one Shepherd.

66

On the Death of the Duke of Orleans. On the occasion of the death of the Duke of Orleans, Monsieur Grand-Pierre delivered a discourse, with an extract from which doubtless our readers will be glad to become acquainted. We choose a passage in which there appear to us to be the most original ideas upon a subject necessarily already well known and treated of-afflictions. M. Grand-Pierre took for bis text these words of David, (2 Sam. xviii. 33,) "O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! would God I had died for thee, O Absalom my son, my son!" After having painted in lively colours the strength of paternal love, he thus proceeds, There is, in this cry of the deeply-wounded affections of David a poignancy which betrays a heart given up to the most inexpressible grief. True grief is one of the most sublime prerogatives of human nature, which we may even consider as a splendid bequest among the rich gifts of the Creator. God

has not created man for suffering, he has made him for happiness-perfect happiness in him; his destination is not endurance, but pure felicity in perfect holiness. Man is become miserable only because he is become sinful, he only suffers because he is separated from God, For "by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." But this very grief, the seed of death, and fruit of sin, is not less on that account one of the surest indications of our former greatness, one of the plainest proofs of the blessed condition in which God originally created us, -one of the facts which perhaps best attest the power of the faculties with which God has endued our soul. Man only suffers because he is capable of enjoyment; he who suffers most thus proves that he is capable of most enjoyment. Affliction is happiness overturned; it is the filled cup returned and emptied; the glittering crown of youth and beauty faded and withered; the soul severed from its best interests, its dearest joys; but at the same time it is by this that the most striking testimony is borne to the excellence of the gifts received from the bounty of our Lord. For we only weep bitterly for what we regret deeply, and we only regret deeply what we have loved much; but if we have loved much, we have understood the value of goods lent, and mourned the capacity of the human soul for joy.

We should not fall so low in affliction if we had not been raised high by the very nobility of our origin: and can we be astonished at the depth we sink in grief when we recollect that, created to love God, we are capable of enjoying heaven? Also grief is, in the

order of the decrees of Providence, the grand means which our heavenly Father uses to lead back souls to himself. "Blessed are they that weep," said Jesus a speech profound as truth, divine though enigmatical, the secret of which the world knows not, and the meaning of which he alone can divine who has learnt by painful though salutary experience, that affliction can, by the help of grace, extinguish in us the love of earthly objects, make a deep void in our hearts, and introduce into it with itself the Lord and Master of our souls. But let us not deceive ourselves; the greatest grief in itself cannot sanctify us. There is a grief that withers the soul, contracts it, narrows it; that chokes every germ of piety, and creates in it a new kind of idolatry, the worship of grief itself; and thus plunges it into a gulph a hundred times more dangerous than that from which it hurled it at firstthe love of the creature. This grief is that produced by affliction not welcomed, not referred to its right end, not made profitable to the interest of salvation, or in the view of eternity. But there is also a grief which profits the soul-it is that which opens the eyes to our birth and our misery, which awakens repentance in us, makes us cry for grace and mercy for our sins and our idols; and which, forcing us to throw ourselves upon the mercy of God, thrusts us towards the Cross of the Redeemer. Such was the grief of David; and such ought to be ours every time we are bowed under the hand of God.

But there is another lesson that the mourning of David teaches us, which is this-When God smites us it is almost always in the tenderest part of our heart, in such a manner as to cause the deepness of our loss