are unable to do more in the case of aspirants to membership than to promise that applications will be duly forwarded if they are addressed to our own office (48, South Street, Grosvenor Square, London, W.), but there is usually no difficulty about admission, though in the case of a great multiplication of candidates it would be better to form a new club among a set of friends than to join one already established.

Some of our foreign Catholic magazines offer subjects themselves for competition, and announce at certain times of the year the successful candidates, giving a prize. This is the custom in England with the "Society Papers," as they are called, which are so popular with the votaries of anacrostics, anagrams, parodies, and the like. The amount of time which seems to be spent by certain classes of the community over these interesting competitions is enormous. The result, it may perhaps be thought, is not very well worth the labour. All that can be said is, that it is perhaps better to spend a good deal of spare time in labouring over the "doublets," or "anagrams," or "anacrostics" of some of these papers, than to consume even half as much time over the gossip and personal tittle-tattle of which the greater part of the contents of these papers is made up. But this objection as to waste of time and brainpower will not apply to the essays of which we are speaking, as a wellchosen subject, not too large, well-considered and analyzed, and written about methodically and industriously, is quite certain to leave something of improvement behind it in the mind, even though the acquirement of the art of composition is found not to be altogether the easiest thing in the world, and even though the inexorable judge should not see the great beauties in the production of which the author is conscious.

Recent Publications.

Meditations and Contemplations on the Sacred Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ and on the Blessed Sacrament; with Instructions on Prayer. Translated from the Spanish of the Venerable Luis of Granada, O.P., by a Member of the Order of Mercy. New York: Catholic Publication Society, 1879. It is a happy thought to make a selection from the works of Father Luis de Granada, for on the one hand they are not, and will not easily come to be, accessible to English Catholics in their completed form; and on the other hand, some portions, and more especially the meditations on the Passion, ought to be within the reach of all. They were not written for one time or one country, and they ought not to lie on dusty shelves, when they might help to make the love of the Sacred Heart of Jesus known and felt as only the writings of saints can do.

Gleanings from

The Workings of the Divine Will. Père Caussade, S.J. From the French. Burns and Oates. -The object of these "gleanings" is to show that piety and even higher perfection are compatible with the multitudinous occupations of busy life and by no means restricted, at least in the Divine intention, to hermitages and cloisters, or to men and women having plenty of learned leisure, or removed by some lengthened malady from taking an active part in human affairs. Wherever we are we can, if we choose, try to do the holy will of God, and that will of God is our sanctification, not in some hypothetical circumstances in which we may never find ourselves placed, but "here and now." No time is

wanted for serving God better than the present moment, no place except that in which I am. Wherever we choose, whenever we choose, we can do what is pleasing to God, and even what is most pleasing to God, by obeying our conscience; and for that no study is necessary. Ascetical books are of great assistance, but men can serve God without either the one or the other, and some men are less able to obtain these aids than other men, but all men equally are invited not only to be good but to be very good-and perfect. To no man has Jesus Christ ever yet said: "Commit venial sins, if you like, provided only you keep yourself from mortal sin." To all He has said: Be ye perfect."

The Bells of the Sanctuary: Mary Benedicta, Agnes, Aline, One of God's Heroines, Mgr. Darboy. By Kathleen O'Meara (Grace Ramsay). Burns and Oates, 1879.-These sketches from personal observation are not less attractive than they are edifying. It is clear that they are lifelikenesses and not sacred ideals, but they are the likenesses of very dear children of God.

The Bread of Life: or, St. Thomas Aquinas on the Adorable Sacrament of the Altar. Arranged as meditations, with prayers and thanksgivings for Holy Communion. By Father Rawes, D.D. Burns and Oates, 1879. -The "Library of the Holy Ghost," intended in the first instance for the use of the Archconfraternity of the Servants of the Holy Ghost, makes a promising commencement from St. Thomas of Aquin. This, the first volume, contains the words, pure and simple, of the Angelical Doctor upon the subject which most he loved.

St. Joseph's Manual of a Happy Eternity. By Father Sebastian, of the Blessed Sacrament, Priest of the Congregation of the Cross and Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ. Dublin: M. H. Gill and Son, 1879.-All the con

siderations which constitute the First Part, and the prayers which constitute the Second Part of this Manual are consecrated, under the patronage of St. Joseph, to the thought of death. Both the duty of preparing for death and the right to invoke St. Joseph as the patron of a happy death belong to all of us, and therefore the usefulness of this collection is not restricted to the members of the Confraternity of Bona Mors, for whom principally and formally it has been compiled.

Twelve Lectures on Ritualism. By Father Gallwey, S.J. Lecture XII. "The Anglican Clergy in the Confessional." -In his concluding lecture, Father Gallwey dwells upon the astonishing recklessness with which Anglican clergymen thrust themselves into the sacred tribunal of Penance, without jurisdiction, or episcopal approbation, or examination, or long and careful training. The Catholic Church imposes many safeguards for the due administration of a charge of the gravest nature. Except in the case of proximate danger of death, a Catholic priest without faculties" has no more power to give an absolution, either licit or valid, than any man or woman or child in the common crowd. Anglican clergymen cheerfully invest themselves by their own sole authority with all the power that they may desire to possess.

Intention for the Apostolate of Prayer for January.

DESTRUCTION OF THE SYNAGOGUE OF SATAN.

IT cannot be denied that there is at the present time a very strong confederation of the enemies of the Church. An unnatural alliance binds together in hatred of the truth two very different classes of men,-those who oppose the Church of Rome because it is the Church of Christ, and those who oppose the Church of Rome because it is not the Church of Christ; those to whom the Pope is obnoxious as being the highest representative of Christ, and those to whom the Pope is obnoxious as being the principal adversary of Christ. A French "Liberal" is urgent to exterminate priests, because they preach Jesus Christ; an English Protestant joins heartily in the French anti-clerical movement, because he looks upon Catholic priests as disseminators of an adulterated Gospel, which gives the first place to Mary and the second to Jesus.

The words of our Lord are verified: "He that is not with Me is against Me."* Not only those who directly and consciously assail Christianity, but those also who, in ignorance and false zeal, lend their countenance and support, are, with very different degrees of guilt it is true, but with almost equally fatal effect, helping forward the designs of the great enemy of man, "the Homicide."+

If anti-Christian socialists and positivists are the "Synagogue of Satan," of the present period, their Protestant supporters may be called not unjustly "Proselytes of the Gate" to that same synagogue. They belong to it as St. John viii. 44.

*

St. Matt. xii. 30.

Apoc. ii. 9.