THE INVOCATION OF THE SAINTS.

IT is certain that angel-guardians are assigned to us by God. Now the Scripture compares the saints to angels, and calls them "equal to angels." That the saints have some concern in human affairs appears to be conveyed by the "talking of Moses and Elias with Christ"; and that even particular events come to the knowledge of the saints and angels, (whether it be in the mirror of the divine vision, or by the natural clearness and wide-ranging powers of vision, possessed by the glorified minds,) is insinuated in Christ's declaration, that there is "joy in heaven upon one sinner that doth penance." Further, that God, in consideration of the saints, even after their death, grants favors to men, (although it is only through Christ that the saints, whether of the Old or of the New Testament, possess their dignity,) is indicated by the prayers found in the Scripture: "Remember, O Lord, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, thy servants": a form not very different from that which the Church commonly employs: "Grant, O Lord, that we may

be assisted by the merits and intercession of Thy saints"; that is, "Regard their labors, which by Thy gift they have borne for Thy name; hear their prayers, to which Thine only-begotten Son hath given efficacy and value.”

Seeing, therefore, that the blessed souls, in their present state, are much more intimately present in all our affairs, and see all things more nearly than while they lived on earth, (for men are only acquainted with the few which occur in their sight, or are reported to them by others,) seeing that their charity, or desire for aiding us is more ardent; seeing, in fine, that their prayers are more efficacious than those which they offered formerly in this life, that it is certain that God has granted many favors even to the intercession of the living, and that we look for great advantages from the union of the prayers of our brethren with our own; I do not perceive how it can be made a crime to invoke a blessed soul, or a holy angel, and to beg his intercession or his assistance, according as the life and history of the martyr, or other circumstances appear to suggest; especially if this worship is considered but as a slender accessory of that supreme worship which is immediately directed to God alone; and if, whatever may be its character, it is offered for the sake of testifying our reverence and

humility toward God, and our affection for God's servants, and springs from that pious solicitude which prompts us in proportion to the lowly sense we entertain of our own unworthiness to desire to unite the prayers of other pious persons, and, above all those of the Blessed, with our own. And thus when it is analyzed, this very accessory of worship terminates with God himself; to whose gifts alone the saints are indebted for all that they are or can do, and to whom is due a sovereign honor and love incomparably transcending all other love.

GOTTFRIED WILHELM VON LEIBNITZ,

Systema Theologicum.

THE SYMBOLISM OF RITUAL.

VERY few, comparatively, are sufficiently instructed in the significance of Catholic worship thoroughly to appreciate and enjoy it. If the Ceremonial of the Church be generally considered beautiful and imposing, even by those who understand but the material part, what effect ought it not to produce on such as really understand its spirit? "If, instead of condemning from the elevation of their ignorance," says the Abbé Martinet, "the numerous ceremonies of the Catholic worship, the objectors would take the pains to penetrate the deep significance of them, and study their vast and beautiful symbolism, they would see that everything is perfectly connected in this beautiful system, that every part has its reason, and also its effect, and that the skill with which the Church has introduced so great a variety into the very limited plan of its Liturgy can not be sufficiently admired. What do we find in this series of mysterious pictures which it presents to our eye in the course of a year?

Nothing less than the history of the world, from the Word which created Heaven and earth, to the Word which is to produce a new Heaven and a new earth; the history of the Redeemer, from the day He was promised to guilty man, to the day when He will receive into His glory, the last in time, of the elect; the history of the Christian Church, from the period when it was sighing in the Catacombs, to the final period, when, pursued into the depths of the deserts by triumphant impiety, it will see the banner of the spouse unfurled in heaven, and will entone an eternal Hosannah."

The order and arrangement of the whole external system of the Church is so contrived as plainly to symbolize her office toward her people, and to exhibit her life and energies side by side with the energies and life of the world, sanctifying and exalting, by the power of the hidden life with God, the entire circle of our daily life in communion with our fellow-men. The whole year is, as it were, thus taken up, and sanctified by Religion; and we see that, during its course, there is not a truth which the Church does not preach, not a virtue or grace which she does not put forth for our imitation, not a chord of the human heart which she does not strive to touch, so that "one is