step had a capital effect on our good Africans. The road is sandy and detestable as usual. "May 30th. We are almost in sight of Bloemhof, another important town of the Transvaal. The river continues to have great attractions for me. This morning, walking along the bank, I saw in the distance what looked like a small crocodile, seemingly asleep in the grass. On approaching, however, I found it to be the carcass of an iguana two yards in length! Without delay I tied my handerchief about its tail and dragged it to camp, where it excited the wonder of all. I hope the skin of this monster will one day cross the ocean and reach Belgium. An hour later I perceived a Kafir, also seemingly asleep. He was lying on his stomach with his head towards the water. On stooping, I saw that he was dead, and that his face was mutilated, as if he had been gnawed by some animal. I called one of our drivers, and we buried the poor black, after covering his body with leaves. It is a work of mercy to bury the dead. Poor Kafir ! "At noon, the camp is startled by the report that one of the oxen, the same that rolled under the waggon, has fallen into the water, and is standing imbedded in the muddy bottom of the stream. The Fathers, with some of the Kafirs, run to help it out-a rope is tied to its horns, and by main force the animal is dragged to land. "May 31st, Eve of Pentecost. This morning we entered Bloemhof. This town has no magisterial residence, but it has four more houses than Christiana! We found two Catholic families, that were glad to see the missionaries. Mr. Daly, an Irish trader, received us hospitably, and gave me a good room in which to celebrate holy Mass." Recent Publications. The Training of the Apostles. Part I. By Henry James Coleridge, of the Society of Jesus. London: Burns and Oates, 1879.-The fifth volume of the Public Life of our Lord carries us forward from the Sermon on the Mount to the time when our Lord, after the first conspiracy of the Pharisees and Herodians against His life, began to retire before the opposition of the ecclesiastical authorities, who accused Him of contemning the Sabbath. The space of time occupied by the actions and words which are here examined is short, but the exact duration cannot be ascertained. The scene is at first in Galilee, and afterwards in Jerusalem. Father Coleridge thinks that in the importance of the issues decided this brief period is scarcely surpassed by any other, although for lack of prominent incidents it might engage very little attention in a general narrative. The title indicates what may be regarded as the work of chief solicitude. Of the fifth chapter of St. John's Gospel, to which a large and perhaps the most important part of the present volume is devoted, Father Coleridge says: "It has all the characteristic difficulties which belong to the discourses of our Lord as reported by St. John, and in no part of his work will a writer who undertakes the task before me feel less satisfied with his own performance. But it would be a sign of certain failure if such a writer thought he had succeeded in fathoming the depths of these Divine words. I shall be content if the labour which I have bestowed upon them should induce other commentators to work in the same direction, and I am confident there will be found few passages in the Gospels which throw more light upon the history, which point more clearly to the elements of a full comprehension of the dealings of the Jewish authorities with our Lord, and of His dealings with them." Intention of the Apostolate of Prayer for April. CHRISTIAN CHILDREN TO BE RESCUED BY THE PRAYERS OF CHILDREN. WE are told that the choice of an Intention for April was not made without some hesitation. Yet in the very crisis of the internecine war, which in the name of Primary Education, is being waged for possession of the souls of Christ's little ones, even an appeal for prayers from faminestricken provinces in Ireland and in India, which at any other moment would have the force of a command, must yield the first place to a still more urgent cry for help. Starvation at the worst can only kill the body, but the efforts of wicked men, upon which our associates are hereby asked to invoke confusion, threaten the eternal loss of innumerable souls. In France the disguise has been flung away at last. The avowed object of a party formidable by its violence is to drive Christian teaching from every schoolroom in the land. What is thus openly sought in France is covertly desired elsewhere. Even in England, where there still remains a traditional reverence for parental rights, the most recent returns point to an increase, both absolute and relative, in the number of undenominational schools. Many men in England who would at once severely condemn a scheme for enforcing the teaching of atheism can listen with composure, and lend the support of their approval, to a proposal for doing away with Catholic teaching in France, root and branch. They do not know, or they do not care to know, that in a Catholic country these are only two names for the same thing. Even supposing it were, as it is not, possible, that philosophy could for highly educated men supply in some sort the place of religion, still, even then, every honest observer would find himself forced to acknowledge that for the great mass of mankind there can be no such substitution; nor do those who are anxious to banish God from the hearts of our children pretend to give anything in exchange. The danger is not less imminent than it is appalling, for the feet of men who shed blood are swift. In the Intention for April a powerful preservative is proposed. Since it is against children that Satan directs the latest and the worst contrivance of his malice, let children be encouraged to defend themselves. They with their good angels can crush the counsels of the ungodly, for the prayers of innocent hearts are readily heard, and God takes a positive delight in employing the weak to confound the strong. It may be that what we ask is nothing less than a miracle, but it is a miracle which the Sacred Heart of Jesus must be yearning to concede. The fire from Heaven which we tell our children to call down upon the heads of their enemies is not the fire which destroys but the fire which transforms. The idea which is expressed in the Intention for April is by no means new. An association called the Children's Crusade already exists, founded at Chartres, and having for its object to secure the prayers of children for children. It is a work in which all who like may join at any time. Not for the sake of multiplying devotions, or with any desire to prescribe either the mode or the measure to be observed in rendering assistance, but to avoid the inconvenience of vagueness, and to point out a definite service which may be rendered with advantage, we commend the following practices to our associates, and very particularly to those who have charge of children, that they may both adopt them for themselves and make their children do the same during the month of April. I. To recite very fervently for the above intention a decade of the Rosary, adding the prayer given below. 2. To recite for the same intention the Angelus, adding the ejaculations: Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us! (100 days' indulgence.) Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us! (100 O good St. Joseph, protect us, protect the holy Those who have direction and management of the prayers of children should know, and value, and try to employ to advantage the means of grace which God has put into their hands for the confusion of the infidel. Our crusade is not to rescue from the Moslem the places consecrated by the labours and sufferings of our Blessed Lord, but to save from a more ruthless enemy living temples of the Holy Ghost, dedicated in the Most Precious Blood of the New Testament. PRAYER. Sacred Heart of Jesus! through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer to Thee the prayers, labours, and crosses of this day, in expiation of our offences, and for all Thy other intentions. I offer them to Thee in particular for the souls of children, so dear to Thee, which Hell is fiercely striving to sever from Thee. Listen, dear Lord, with compassion to their earnest prayers, and do not allow them to be withdrawn from the tender care of Thy Church, their mother. Amen. |