solution prevails; he succeeds in reaching Jerusalem. But a stronger proof of his firmness of purpose remained to be given he was, as his Flemish eulogist D'Oultreman informs us, 'homme idiôte, et sans lettres, et qui n'avoit connaissance d'autre mestier que des armes.' He saw that learning was now needful to enable him to fight the battles of Christ : he resolves to obtain it. Nothing is humbling to a mind fixed on a great object; he takes his place on the lowest form of the grammarschool at Barcelona. 'He,' says Quinet, the chevalier of the court of Ferdinand, the anchorite of the rocks of Manreza, the free pilgrim of Mount Tabor, bows his apocalyptic mind to grammar. What does this man do he to whom the heavens are open? He learns the conjugations, and sets to spelling Latin. This prodigious power over himself amid divine illuminations, already marks an entirely new epoch.'

6

For more than ten successive years, he begged his way through the universities of France and Spain. Meanwhile he had not been idle as to his great object; he had made several disciples among the young men of the university of Paris. 'One day these young men meet together on the heights of Montmartre; there, under the master's eye, and in presence of the great city, they make a vow to unite and go together to the Holy Land, or to put themselves at the disposal of the Pope. Two years elapse, and those same men arrive at Venice by different roads, a staff in their hands, a sack on their back, and the mysterious book* in their wallet. Whither are they going? they know not. They have made a covenant with a spirit, which drags them on in its magic power. Loyola arrives at the rendezvous by

a different route. They thought they were to embark for the wildernesses of Judea ; but Loyola shows them, instead of those solitudes, the field of battle :-Luther, Calvin, the Church of England, and Henry VIII. who are besieging the papacy. With one word he sends Francis Xavier to the extremity of the eastern world; he keeps the eight other disciples to oppose Germany, England, the half of France, and agitated Europe. At their master's nod, these eight men march forth, blindfold, without either counting or measuring their adversaries. The company of Jesus is formed, and the captain of the citadel of Pampeluna leads it on to battle.'*

Such allies were not likely to meet with a repulse at Rome: that church, the masterpiece of mere human wisdom, has ever known how to turn enthusiasm to account. She has considered it, to borrow Mr. Macauley's simile, as a noble horse whose power must be controlled, not broken. For the wild visionary whom other bodies would have rejected, she finds a place and a task: she clothes him with the friar's rope and gown, and sends him forth to pray, preach, and beg in her name. Ignatius and his companions were then welcome at Rome, public honours were conferred upon them, the Order was constituted, and Ignatius appointed its first master,—an additional vow being added to those of poverty, chastity, and obedience, by which they bound themselves implicitly to obey Christ speaking by the Pope, even as He obeyed the Father.' [

Such was the founder of the Society of Jesuits. It is impossible to read his history without interest, it bears such undeniable marks of reality, intense energy, and unflinching self-controul. Ignatius was no Tetzel. It

* Quinet's Lectures on the Jesuits.

bears marks of genius too. D'Oultreman, speaking of his want of learning, may call him 'homme idiôte et sans lettres,' but no idiot could have accomplished the work of Ignatius, or bequeathed to the world the Society of Jesuits. Yet while we own all this, we must add, though it may seem paradoxical, that unreality is also the characteristic of Ignatius Loyola's course; contrast it with Luther's, and you feel at once the difference between the true man, whose life was one long battle against falsehood, and the visionary who dwelt in an unreal world, spending his energy on self-imposed duties, and debasing himself by an abject self-degradation, which does but mock that gospel humility which exalts even where it abases. If this unreality is apparent in the personal life of Loyola, it becomes far more so when we regard him as the founder of an order, he is obliged to discard for his followers even that false fire which had been the life of his own soul, and demand in its stead a passive obedience. Never perhaps was fanatic more sincere than the mendicant of Manresa. Yet jesuitry is now the synonym of falsehood. Surely we may learn here one most needful lesson, that sincerity will not suffice where the truth of God is absent. It is not, as some would fain have us believe, a matter of indifference to what religion a man is sincerely attached. Sincerity may lead to the self-degradation of Manresa. Truth alone could produce the manly confession of Luther at Worms.

F. S.

ON THE SERVICES OF THE CHURCH.

No. XIII.

THE Litany was a service intended for days of special humiliation it well expresses the feelings of a penitent Church seeking divine mercy: its broken and repeated ejaculations are not vain repetitions, but the earnest cry of those who will take no denial, whose desires (like those of their Redeemer at Gethsemane,) are too fervent to study any change of expression. Have we anything of this deep earnestness of heart, as our voice swells that repeated cry for mercy that fills the courts of our God? The following Collect is especially the prayer of the sorrowful:

'O God, merciful Father, that despisest not the sighing of a contrite heart, nor the desire of such as be sorrowful, mercifully assist our prayers that we make be fore thee in all our troubles and adversities, whensoever they oppress us; and graciously hear us, that those evils which the craft and subtilty of the devil or man worketh against us may be brought to nought, and by the providence of thy goodness they may be dispersed ; that we, thy servants, being hurt by no persecutions, may evermore give thanks unto thee in thy holy church, through Jesus Christ our Lord.'

How soothing to the weary heart the name here given to our God, Merciful Father, that despisest not the sighing of the contrite heart,' &c. The soul, in times

:

of sorrow, is brought very low, sometimes fancies itself despised of all around: how sweet, then, to rest on that fatherly heart, which never yet repulsed a mourning child, nor despised the desire of the sorrowful. It is oppressed, and has hardly power to cry; therefore, its first petition is, 'Assist our prayers that we make before thee.' What thus oppresses it? the evils which the craft and subtilty of the devil or man work against it. Our foe is very mighty; he has an archangel's strength, and he is very malignant, hating us with a demon's hatred he is crafty and subtle too, for the old serpent ́is his name. He has watched us from our birth, and knows all our weakness: his temptations come just when we are least able to resist them, and they assume such various forms, that we are weary and perplexed, and know not how to distinguish them. The world too is crafty and subtle, and lays hidden snares for the feet of the Christian. No wonder his spirit is oppressed: how shall he bear the heavy burden, or loose himself from the entangling chain? Faith rises, looks upon the difficulties, shrinks not; but, bold in prayer, can believe they shall be brought to nought. To nought— dwell upon the words, sorrowing Christian; those temptations, perplexities, snares, which overwhelm thee, all vanished, and as nothing. "What art thou, O great

mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain." Other words of believing prayer follow: 'And by the providence of thy goodness they may be dispersed.' Goodness is a precious word, but the providence of goodness, a goodness that looks around on every side, that provides beforehand for every emergency; this, indeed, meets all our wants, if the sunshine of such goodness breaks through the dark clouds that surround us, they shall be dispersed. We might see no opening-we might