the sea, and her bows unto the river;" to bring all nations into her fold, and to fill the earth "with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea;" to exalt "the mountain of the Lord's House"above all hills, and bid all nations flow unto it; to claim, in her Lord's name, the heathen for an inheritance, and the utmost parts of the earth for a possession.

29. AND GOD SAID, BEHOLD I HAVE GIVEN YOU EVERY HERB BEARING SEED, WHICH IS UPON THE FACE OF ALL THE EARTH; AND EVERY TREE, IN THE WHICH IS THE FRUIT OF A TREE YIELDING SEED; TO YOU IT SHALL BE FOR MEAT.

30, AND TO EVERY BEAST OF THE EARTH, AND TO EVERY FOWL OF THE AIR, AND TO EVERY THING THAT CREEPETH UPON THE EARTH, WHEREIN THERE IS LIFE, I HAVE GIVEN EVERY GREEN HERB FOR MEAT; AND IT WAS SO.

To our Lord, to His Church, and to those earthly kingdoms, empires and dominations, which, recognising their places in the great system, acted in subservience to God's kingdom, and gave all

their glory and honour unto it: to them did God, from the first, give and make over the fruits of the mystic earth for their support. As our Lord's human body, a body like our own in all things, sin only excepted, derived nourishment from the literal herbs thus given to man for meat, so does His spiritual body, the Holy Church, absorb and convert, as it were, into its own substance, the symbolic herbage, the plants of good, the virtuous and holy affections, desires and aspirations, which spring up in virtue of God's primeval blessing, wherever He has provided a soil for their support, and refreshed it with the abundant showers of His bounty. The lofty and pure thought, the noble and generous design, the self-denying charity; in short, all gifts and talents, even of those who have not known the Church, are, in a sense, given her for meat; have all

E

their destined parts to perform in reference to the scheme of which she is the great development; subserve her, however unwittingly, each in its appropriate sphere, and for the sake of subserving her, subserve also all those bodies, powers and authorities, which act in subordination to her. And this is the green herb made to be meat for beasts as well as for men.

But again. In a more literal, and at the same time more sublime sense, is the vegetable world given to be meat to the Church. In solemn sacrifice of Himself, our Lord took into His hands the produce of the corn-plant and of the vine, and gave them to His disciples "for meat" ineffable; for meat that should preserve, not the body only in temporal existence, but both the body and the soul unto eternal life.

31. AND GOD SAW EVERY THING THAT HE HAD MADE, AND, BEHOLD, IT WAS VERY GOOD.

Robed, as it were, in "the light," vested in the glory of the Only-begotten, Who is the "first-born of every creature," the complete creation was by the everlasting Father pronounced good. The whole frame of things bore, from the first, the impress of that Wisdom in, and by, Whom He had made them all; and of Whom, when clothed in human form, His awful voice was subsequently heard to say, "This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased."

32. AND THE EVENING AND THE MORNING WERE THE SIXTH DAY.

And with this sixth day, the work of creation is described as completed. A deep mystery, we may be sure, is couched in this number, as in every number, mentioned in sacred writ, connected with the acts or attributes of the Most High.

The fact that the work of creation was accomplished in six days of God, is undoubtedly fraught with a heavenly significance, which, were we pure enough, we might in some measure attain unto. Six, it has been observed by holy men of old, is a perfect number, in a sense in which none of the other earlier numbers

are. It may be divided into aliquot parts, as we know, by three numbers, namely, 6, 3, and 2. The aliquot parts thus respectively formed, the quotients of these three divisions, are 1, 2, and 3; and these added together, give again the original number six, which thus returns, so to speak, into itself. And six thus becomes, among numbers, what the circle is among figures, the emblem of completeness, of fulness, of comprehensiveness, as well as of what, from the Greek word for circle, we call cycles; great periods of time, which are marked out