LENTEN PASTORAL OF THE ARCHBISHOP OF WELLINGTON.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXI, Issue 41, 9 February 1894, Page 23

LENTEN PASTORAL OF THE ARCHBISHOP OF WELLINGTON.

Fsanois, by thb Grace of God and Favoub op the Apostolic Seb, Abchbishop op Wellington and Metropolitan TO THE CLEBGY AND FAITHFOL OF THE SAID DIOCESE, HEALTH and benediction in the lobd. Deably Beloved Bbethbbn and Dear Childben in Jesus CnaisT.—The Holy Beasoo of Lent has again come round— opening on the 7th of February and finishing on tbe 25 hof March— and it affords us a fitting opportunity to instruct you on a very important branch of Catholic teaching. The subject of this Pas oral shall be Faith. First of all what is Faith ? Faith is a supernatural virtue by which we firmly beliere all that God has revealed, because He has reveahd it, and becanaa He, being truth itself, can neither deceive nor be deceived. It is a virtue, because there is merit and much merit in submitting our reason to God's revelation ; there is much meiit in believing. It is a supernatural virtue and coos qutntly a gift, a grace, because God reveals Himself to whom He pleases, and He alone can render as docile to His word and tbe voice of His Holy Chnrch. It is also a theological virtue, bfcause God is its immediate object, and because its motive— or the reason why we believe— id a divine perfection, His infinite veracity. Once you admit the existence of God and of divine revelation, faith so defined is not only necessary, but perfectly legitimate and reasonable. For, whom shall we believe, if not the iLfinite veracity of Gud 1 But St Paul baj given another definition of Faith eminently proper to enforce this paramount truth that nothing ia more reasonable, more honourable in itself and honourable for man, than the assent of his understanding by faith to divine revelation. Ho says, in his magnificent epistle to the Hebrews : " Faith is the substance of tnings to be hoped for, the evidence of things that appear not." (Heb. 11-1.) Faith is " the evidence of things that appear not "—the evidence, that is, the mattifestatioo, the disclosure, the putting within our reach, of what it for us invisible, of what our unaided reason could not discover; of what, therefore, would ever be for us unknown, inaccessible, onreachable ; of what, in a word, is not contrary to renson (for that is impossible and does not exist) but above reason, or beyond reason, and what, however, we have the greatest interest to know and believe. Thns, in other terme, St Paul may be explained as meaning that faith is the evidence or proof of a number of truths which are not evident on grounds of natural reasoD, which are mysteries altogether beyond the grasp of unassisted nature. But when St Paul says that faith is the evidence or proof of things that appear not, he also means that faith itself, in virtue of its inherent obscurity, causes those things which were evident aa objects of human reason to become obscure as the objects of divine faith. ■0 far from its following-from the fact of their supernatural inevidentness— that they cannot be evident naturally, there is no ■ingle truth of divine revelation about which we may not make an act of taitb, however cle*r and unmistakable may be its evidentness in the natural order. This inherent obscurity in the act of faith arises from the fact that the assent of faith is based on the divine testimony, and all testimony is in itself something not evident but obsonre. Everything which comes to us second-hand is necessarily less dear than that to which our mental powers attain directly. We , receive it bidden from us by a veil, and this veil consists in the testi-

mony of him who communicates it to us. As regards faith tin source of oar information is One whom no mnn hath seen or can see, Who dwells in the inaccessible light of His divine majesty, and is known to ub aa loag aa we inhabit mortal bodiea, only through a glaßa after a dark manner, Our informant being hidden from up, Hia utterances must needs have an ob-icuritj around them which will coutiuud until we shall see Him face to face, and know aa we are known. Moreover, the manner in which He imparts His utterances is in itself obscure, becauso they onie to U3 through some human agancy. He has certain established and authoritative media of communication, and befjre we cm accept some proposition aa one of faith, we have to b 3 sura of the authority of the medium. Again, however trustworthy the medium, however certain we are that God has spoken, and that His words are placed before us as He Bpoke them, yet the fact that they are reported to us through another's a-ency increases the obscurity, even while it in no way interferes with our perfect confidence in their divine truth. Hence when God reveals any truth to us to be believed on His authority, He thereby inveß'a it with a circumambient mist, as far as regards our supernatural acceptance of it. The formal motive of faith is in itself obscure, and it creates of itself its own obscurity, and doas not require it as a previous condi. tion ia the nuterial object, or proposition to be believed. Hence a vast difference between human faith and divine faith. Human faith presupposes obscurity in its material object, in the very thing which is to be believed, and without that obscurity it is incapable of energizing. But divine faith supplies the obscurity from it own nature, and is quite indifferent to the previous character of its material object as regards its evidence or obscurity, so long as it can claim for it a true moral certiinty on grounds of reason. Accordingly, we can make an aot of faith, not only respecting things over which there bangs Borne sort of obscurity in the natural order, so that apart from revelation we Bhould not koow whether they were true or false, but also respecting things perfectly clear and evident, for instance the existence of God, so that there can be no doubt whatever of their truth apart from all revelation. The reason of this is that faith and reason occupy different spheres, and that a proposition may be as evident as the day in the lower, or the order of reason, aud at the came time may be obscure and veiled in the higher region of supernatural faith. As a learned writer justly remarks: "The obscurity of faith does not mean that its object must be obecure before faith comes to shed its light upon it, but that that very light is, from its very nature, a light which carries with it an obscurity of its own in its own order." To take an illustration : We may with our natural eyes see clearly certain objicts around us. No Jimnesp, no obscurity upon them. But we ara asked to survey the scene through a glass which is given us. The glass throws a certain dimness on all things seen through it. But it also enables us to discern a number of objects unseen before by the n^ked eye alone, and further to perceive much (iv spite of the dimness) which we did not previously observe in the very objects which were within the range of our unassisted vision. Our higher method of viewing things with the glass does not depend on the lower method of the unaided sight. When we use the glass given to us from above, it matters not whether the things seen by it were clearly knuwn to us before, or were wrapt in previous obscurity, since it carries with it its own auttority, as the obscurity that accompanies it is compatible with a perfect clearness in the objects seen when perceived by the natural sight ; since it is an obscurity that arises from the very nature of the instrument, and not from any characteristic pertaining to those objects in themselves. But are there really any truths wbiob could never be discovered by reason alone, that is, by tbe unaided lights of the human mind, either individual or collective ; which neither one man, nor all men could ever discover ? Evidently there are suoh truths ; and the contrary denial would be tantamount to lunacy. We are not infinite, and truth is infiaite. Physically we are very limitei, in sight, in hearing, in habitation, in forces of all kind, — we are mere atoms ia an immen. sity. Morally we are equally limited. What is the virtue of the most virtuous, the wisdom of the wisest ? See David an adulterous mv - derer, and Solomon an effeminate idolater ; the sages of Greece tnd Borne generally monsters of immorality. Man, says the Scripture, is prone to evil from his childhood, and experience fully confirms the divine dictum. " Why— Baid Holy Job— why, O God, hast thou made me contrary to myself 1 " And 8t Paul, though he had been wiapt into the third heaven, was lamentably subject to humiliating temptation?, which grace alone enabled him to overcome. The only selfsatisfied men are the typical pbariseeß. In tbe order of the intellect our soul ia equally finite. Who would be foolish enough to doubt it for a moment? We have beard of a poor creature in a mad-house who kept on crying with inconsolable grief because a large book might be made of what he did not know. Yon could make, not one book, but myriads of what our greatest scholars and scientists, nay the m«t encyclopedic savant of the 19th century and of all centuries put together never did and never will know. Let us look at the sciences which seemingly are most within our reach? In natural sciences, physics, mathematics, what do we know? Comparatively little or nothing. And what we know,

how little we know it? Wa know the last word of nothing. What are at bottom tha progresses of all sciences? The multiplication of unknowns anl mysteries. For our forefathers some centuries ago the material world was a fourfold mystery composed of earth, water, air, and fire. The water or the air was a simple mystery. Nowadays we have discovered about 60 elements ; the world is a mystery fifteen times more inapproachable ; water, since we know it to be composed of two things, hydrogen and oxygen, is a twofo'd myßtery ; air, a mixture in well-nigh d< fioite proportions of oxygen, azote, and carbonic acid, is a threefold mystery. Mind, matter, ether, space, time, affinity, gravity, electricity, heat, light, photography, electrio telegraphy, etc, etc,— so many words the meaning of which is wrapped in infathomable mysteries, hopeless enigmas, and boundless unknowns. In the domain of mental philosophy, how little we surely know and how poorly we know it I Error and truth are bandied backward and forward in a deplorable manner ; contradictions swarm in the world. Woat nonsense has not been maintained by some philosopher? Such was the apt observation of Cicero. How few truths in the speculative order are now agreed upon, when left to the unassisted lights of reason 1 Doubt is rife in our day to an alarming degree. Reason aided by science ia unable to solve the all-important problems of God and the human soul. The celebrated naturalist Huxley, in 1869, made this s?d admission : "That philosophers are preparing to do battle on the last and greatest of speculative problems. Does human Datnre possess a free element, endowed with will, or is it only the most cleverly-constructed machine in all nature? Some, among wbom I am, think that the battle will ever be undecisive." The late Tyndall, in a discourse at Norwich in August, 1868, tells us " that the problem of the union of the body and the soul is as insoluble in its modern form as it was in the presoientific ages. If you ask what is matter ? bow is it divided into molecules ? how and who has given it the necessity of forming itself into organic groups, science has no answer to your questions. But if science is mute who will answer? He to rvliom the secret has been revealed. Let us bow our heads and confess our ignorance, once for all." And Comte, very the founder of a species of modern philosophy much in vogue (Positivism; informs us gravely, " that tha unknowible is an ocean which beats on our shore and for which we have neither boats nor sailV' If Buch are the narrow limits of our knowledge in the naura 1 order, what must they be in the superna'ural sphere of tru 1 h ? Among the things which do not appear, and which we cannot know by ourselves, and their number is indefinite ; among so many mysteries and unknowns, are there any which wa have paramount merest to know and apprehend ? Most certainly. God, ourselves, our origin, our last end, our future destinies, our duties, the road which mußt lead us to happinesß, and eternal happiness, etc., etc. The evidence or medium which will reveal and announce ihese things to us, and bring them within our reach, make them ours, will it be welcome ? It will be enlightened reason and wisdom to welcome it heartily ; and icstead of shame we should feel pride in accepting it. Now, this evidence, this glorious and beneficient medium is faith ; faith is the evidence of things unseen. It is the boat and the sails which will reach the inaccessible. In human sciences, or in the ordinary occurrences of life, when an object does not appear to us, or when an undertaking is above our natural forces, we hasten to supply with much pain and expense our deficiency. To gauge the depth of the heavens, the astronomer unhesitatingly arm 9 his eya with a talescipe, which enlarges and nearß objects. To discover the secret of the constitution of material bodies or to perceive the details of organisation lying beyond our feeble sight, the naturalist has recourse to the microscope ; a captain at sea and a general in the field ara glad to have their spyglass which enables them to see danger from afar. A gentleman at the theatre, ( r in the presence of a beautiful landscape, has his operaglass, while the shortsighted person has his usual glasses-. What would be thooghc of the energumen who would get up a crusade against telescopes, microscopes, spyglasses, fieldglasses and spectacles, on the plea that they are an insult to human dignity ? He would be deemed of all madmen the madest. Now, faith, in the accurate idea given of it by St Paul, ia nothing else but the telescope, the microscopo, the epyglaas, the spectacles of our intelligence, the range of which it extends a hundredfold. "Faith is the evidence of things

unseen." It is therefore eminently reasonable and glorious, and to assail it is an intellectual crime and suicide. Here we may fittingly introduce a story abont the great FreDch astronomer Arago, who nssd to say that he could not believe becanse faith was the humiliation of his reason. " What humiliation can there be— a friend of his answered— in acknowledging that the sight of our understanding is limited? Look here, St. Yesterday I heard you emunerating in glowing terms the wonderful properties of the eye, bow superior it is by its manifold, spontaneous, and living functions to every instrument made by human hand. You extolled its power of reception, or that marvellous ease with which it condenses into an almost invisible point the immense horfson ; its power of almost instantaneous adaptation to all distances ; its perfect achromatism, <fee., *c. And yet your life of a savant is a series of crimes against your own eye. You are constantly declaring its impotence by helping it with instrument after instrument— telescopes, micro* scopes, micrometers, polariscopes, polarimeters, refractometers, spectroscopes, kj., kc.so many insults on the inimitable masterpiece which you have so much admired. Break your machines, if you will be consistent ; for my faith is only the blessed telescope of my understanding"—" What," he replied, "breakup these wonderful instruments which put us in possession of new heavens, and a new earth, which gives us the key to unlock new worlds 1 What barbarism V — " Granted. But to scorn, repel, outrage faith, which is in reality the telescope, not of a material eye and one we have in common with dogs and catp, flies and gnats, but oE our reaeon, of our understanding which makes us the kings of creation, and like unto God, would not that be folly a thousand times more revolting ?" And what we say of the eye, we say of the other senses • mil the ear lately, by the microphone, has had its domain greatly enlarged by the ingenuity of man. What in the ultimate analysis is the scope and aim of genius and industry ? The incessant multiplication and improvement of tools by which man helps the weakness of hie organs. Nay more the distinctive characteristic of maD, and the undoubted sign of bis superiority over other creatures, is that he j alone knows bow to make his own tools. The gorilla wields as a weapon the broken branch of a tree, or a stone picked np on the ground, but it has never made itself a regular club, or a flint arrowhead, la this case a man's weapon is his glory. Hence we draw this eimple but irresistible argument : Since we can and we must, without fear of degrading our physical faculties with the certitude! on the contrary, of competing, enhancing, and extending them a hnndredfold, have recourse to the instruments which the human race daily invents : we can and we must, for the sake of consistency, complete our understanding and our reason, enhance and extend them a hundredfold by the access given to the lights of divine revolution, on this only condition that the reality and excellence of that revelation be clearly demonstrated with certainty. It 8 reality is shown by the noble airay of the evidences of Christianity ; its excellence, by the many admirable lights it brings to the mind, is as visible as the noonday sun. Jesus Christ has said thesa words of deep meaning : " When He, the Spirit of tru h is come, He will teach you all truth.'"' (John 16-13) In fact, the Spirit of truth, Revelation, Faith is come, and it has taught every oian of good will all truth. Truths about God, about our neighbour, ab ut oar brethren, about ourselves. Truth about God— His existence, nature, and worship. Existence of God. Beason experienced great difficulty in proving the existence of God, and caneing that truth to be accepted in spite of the many obj»ciions raised against it. What gave that truth universal acceptance and put it beyond doubt, was the tradition of mankind handing down the primitive Revelation. The Nature of God. On this all-important point reason bad ended in this frightful extravagance that everything was God except God Himself. Drunkenness, incest, rap-, adultery, lust, deceit, cruelty, rage, had their attributes inscribed on the frontispiece of the altars ; alone the true God had no altar save the one which bore this inscription : to the unknown God. On the contrary, what an admirable idea faith conveys to us of God, of His eternity, of His infinity, immensity, omnipotence, holiness, goodness, and providence, Ac I With what grand and startling imagery the Sacred Scriptures describe the majesty of the Creator I With what enthusiasm they exalt His benefits ( The worship of God. In the theology of reason, worship hardly c xtended beyond the body j the soul had little or no part in it, except

by the immense impetus given by it to passions and vices. What a decent man would blush to hear, the pagans of Borne, sayi Seneca, did not blush to say to their gods. They were so conscious of their turpitude, that if any one happened to listen to them, they kept silent. They displayed in bioad daylight what in ordinary life men hide in deepest darkness. la the Becret recesses of tbe temples they committed abominable crimes against nature. Faith, on the contrary, teaches us to adore God in spirit and truth, by the respect, love, and imitation of His infinite perfections. "Be ye perfect, even as your Heavenly Father is perfect." Truth about our brethren and fellonmen. At the school of reason three-fonrtbsof mankind were slaves, and nature willed — men said — not only that some should be free and others essentially slaves, but that the slave should hardly differ from the brute beast. Before the law the slaves were nil : " non tain viles guam nulli." Masters had absolute power over them. The celebrated constitution of Constantine alluded to daily occurrences, when it forbade masters to beat them to death, stab them to death, hang them, poison them, tear them to pieces with wild beasts, burn their quivering limbs with red-hot iron, etc., etc. What a spectacle to behold myriads of gladiators butchering each other to delight the blood-thirsty Roman populace ! Tet Trajan, one of the best emperors, oelebrated his triumph over the Dacians by gladiatorial shows which lasted for 123 days, and in which 10,000 gladiators, and 11,000 wild beasts tore each other to pieces. The greatest of Roman emperors accepted, without a thrill, without a blush, the sacrilegious farewell, or salutation of the noble victims who were going to slay each other in tbe amphitheatre : " Morituri te salutant." And that, too, in tbe palmy days of Rome when reason and philosophy were at their height. From the very beginning Faith beheld in a slave the child of of God : ''If thy brother constrained by poverty— says Leviticus— ■ell himself to tbee, thou ehalt not oppress him with the service of bond-servants. But be shall be as a hireling and a sojourner, he shall work with thee until the year of tbe jabilee. And afterwards he shall go out with bis children, and shall return to his kindred and to the possession of bis fathers " (Lev. 25—39). In the light of

Revelation, all — Jews and Gentiles, slaves and masters— form but one body animated with the same spirit, while all have equal claims as members. " The eye cannot say to the hand : I need not thy help ; nor again the hand to the feet : I have no need of you. Yea, much more those that seem to be tbe moat feeble members of tbe body are more necessary. But the members must be mutually careful one for another ; and if one member suffer anything, all the members suffer with it ; or, if one member glory, all the members rejoice with it (I. Cor. 21—21, 25, 26). Aad then follow the admirable prectpts of Christian charity. The truth about ourselves. That truth is fatally missed by reason ; whereas fai'h makes us certain of the existence of our soul, of its immortality, its happy, or miserable eternity, the resurrection of the body, etc. It teaches ua our duties to God, to ourselves, and to our neighbours. It offers ua the grace necessary to fulfil them faithfully. While for unaided reason all is darkness, or doubt, or uncertainty, contradiction, hopeless strife, for reason aided by faith all is flooded with light, and enjoys the brightness of the midday sun. A child well instructed in the Catechism possesses a thousand f -.Id more religious and moral truths than Plato, Socrates, Cicero, Seneca, and all the philosophers of antiquity. Who has not sometimes met a poor blind man guided by a child, or a little dog, the faithful companion of his misfortune 7 Sometimes be has no guide but his stick, with which he feels his way along. But did you ever see tbe blind leading the blind ? No : they know full well that both fall into the pit. Now, what indignation you would feel if, in the midst of a crowded street, overrun with vehicles in every direction, a malicious wretch came up to tbe poor blind man, and tearing him away from bis child or his dog, or his stick, left him to himself with certainty of his being run over and killed 1 What cruelty ! you would say. Or you can conceive another piece of malice equally revolting. Suppose a mean, spiteful fellow were to go up to a poor blind beggar, and under pretence of taking change out of his wallet, deliberately substitute a piece of iron, or tin, or other base metal of any kind, thus depriving tbe poor man of bis daily bread,

The poor blind man is human reason, groping in darkness, always in danger of straying into lamentable errors. Faith is his guiding child, his faithful dog, bis staff ; it is the angel of light shielding him from danger, and leading him to the goal of his journey, and to the possession of his everlasting inheritance. Separate him from his guide and he will fall headlong into the abyss of unbelief and corruption. To take the good com out of his wallet, and substitute the bise one, is to take away his faith and give him philosophy, which will leave him hopelessly hungering for tbe bread of life. Ah ! for heaven's sake, leave him his staff ; leave him his good coin ; leave him his faith. Hitherto we have developed only the first part of the definition given by 8t Paul : •' Faith i» the evidence of the things which appear not " ; but he also says that it is the substance of things to be hoped for." And here we shall Bee still more clearly how reasonable, legitimate, and glorious faith is. A man witbont hopes beyond this life is a kind of monstrosity, He must be fallen fearfully low, he must be fatally identified with matter, to aspire to nothing beyond tbe deceitful and fleeting scene of this short life bo chequered with miseries. The soul of man has naturally an unquenchable thirst for happiness. The wise man fitly compares it to the "sea into which all rivers flow and which is never filled " ; or to a devouring fire which never sayß "enough." Now, this complete happinest which we yearn for with such energy, we find be undeniable experience that it is not of this world, where discomfort is tbe role and ease the exception, where the beautiful is oppressed by the ugly , good by evil, justice by injustice, where, in brief, all is vanity and affliction of spirit. Such was tbe lamentation of the wisest and the most disenchanted of men, who had tasted and drunk every cap of this world's happiness and still found his thirst unquencbed. I have seen all tbings that were under the sun. ... lam become great and have gone beyond all in wisdom that were before me, and I have given my heart to know prudence aad learning I said in my heart : I will go and abonnd with delights, and enjoy good things. And I made me great works, 1 bnilt me houses and planted vineyards, I made gardens and orchards, and set them with trees of all kinds. And I

made me ponds of water to water therewith the wood of the young trees. I got me men-servants and maid-Bervants, and had a great family, and herda of oxen and great flocks of sheep above all that were before me. I heaped together for myself silver and gold, and the wealth of kings, and provinces, aad I surpassed in riches all that were before me. And whatsoever my eyes desired, I refused them not ; and I withheld not my heart from enjoying every pleasure. And when I turned myself to all the works which my hands had wrought, and to the labours wherein I had laboured in vain, I bbw in all things vanity and vexation of mind, and that nothing was lasting under the sun." (Bcclesiastes 1 and 2 chapter.) And in another place Solomon adds, what is for upright souls a trial almost beyond endurance, that, in this world unhappiness is too often the lot of tbe Roid, and happiness— at least apparent— the lot of the wicked. King David passed through the same trial and gave vent to distressful feelings in immortal strains : " But my feet were almost moved, my stops had well-nigh slipt, because I had a zeal on occasion of the wicked, seeing the prosperity of sinner*." ( Ps. 72.) Without faith bow sad, how hollow, how despairing the world appears I Let others plunge, if they will, into that sea of error doubt, and contradiction. We must have faith— it is the imperative need of our nature, it is tbe heavenly telescope of the heart as well as of the mind, it shows as in the distance tbe good, the beautiful, the happy, the term of our exile, the bliss beyond oar most ardent dreams, what " eye bath not seen nor ear heard, nor hath it entered into man's heart to conceive." What are the irreconcilable foes of man's happiness 7 Passions and vices. Feverish craving for pleasure ; pride, restlessness of mind, cupidity, jealousy, envy, hatred, vexation ; the fierce storms of the rebellious senses. Now, faith and the help it brings, and only faith, can calm those stoims, and save tbe heart from ihipwreck in those terrible billows. Who are they that utter the cries of anguish so pathetically described in the book of Wisdom ? "We fools have erred from the path of truth, and the light of justice hath not shone onto nt, and the sun of understanding bath not risen npon us. We wearied' our.

eelvea in the way of iniquity and destruction, and have walked through hard wayi, but the way of the Lord we have not known. What hath pride profited us ? Or what advantage hath the hoarding of riches brought as 7 All these things have passed away like a ■hadow, and like a post that runneth on. And as a ship that pisueth through the waves ; whereof wben it is gone by, the trace cannot be found, nor the path of the keel in the waters ; or as when an arrow is shot at a mark, the divided air presently cometh together again, bo that the passage thereof is not known. So we also being born, forthwith ceased to be ; and have been able to show no mark of virtue, bat sre consumed in our wickedness." From whose mouth do such lamentations flow? From thase who have rejected, or have never praotised faith. Their pretended happiness was but " dust which is blown away by the wind, and as a thin froth which is dispersed by the storm." Who, on the contrary, are they that break forth into shouts of gladnets even in the midst of Bufferings 1 " I exceedingly abound with joy io all my tribulations." (2 Cor. 7—4). Who are thus joyous in the very depth of woe? The just who live by faith, who enjoy that peace which surpassed understanding. Left to himself and his sole reason, man becomes homicidal or suicidal, of all creatures he is the only one that takes its own lift. It is awful to aay, bat it is the truth. And what is more melancholy still is that suicide goes on increasing with so-called civilisation. In a savage state man is sometimes a murderer, and sometimes a cannibal, but seldom does he filay himself, nay, he usually has the deepest and most imperative instinct of self-preservation. Put him in contact with a civilised man who has not the true faith to give, and history shows the lamentable consequences. How different the case in many of the admirable missions of the Catholic Church in South America,, in the Is'ands of the Pacific Ocean, and elsewhere 1 Where civilisation seems highest there men are most bent on selfdestruction. We live in a high pressure age. Men wear out life in a fearful manner by the strife of ambition, the turmoil of business, the racking anxiety of tiade and industry, the almost habitual iojourn in the vitiated atmosphere of theatres, cates, concert-rooms, public-houses, gin-palaces, etc, by the abuse of tobacco and strong drinks, by long exhaustive nights of dancing in crowded bill-rooms by the fierce excitement of the turf, by gambling, by a thousand exceflstp, often teiminating in direct and deliberate suicide. And a host of terrible diseases, almost unknown in former ages, cause terrific havoc, and swell their deadly ranks, and spread their devaitation at every onward step of civilisation devoid of faith, being at once its cad fruits and its well-earned punishment. And what shall we say of the increase of lunacy, both endemic and epidemic? The mania of aelf-d«BYuction is alone capable of explaining theße horrible preferences which areshown, not by the ignorant so much as by the learned, especially the learned. For instance, faith assigns to man for his origin and hia creator God, for first parent Adam who issued perfect from the hand of God . But perverted man would rather come at haplnsard from a series of indefinite transformations and claim for bis first parent a monkey. Faith gives him a spiritual soul able to understand and to love ; he makes immense efforts to be only organised matter. Faith commands him to hfi np his eyes to heaven, where, if he likep, endless happiness awaits him ; he would rather make this earth his ouly home and yearns to fall into nothingness. These horrible preferences, th^ae sacrilegious repulsions of all that is true, good, beautiful, this inveterate hatred of faith and all the blessings which it entails, have nothin? human in them. They are supernatural, but of an infernal supematuraliam, and blind is the Christian who does not Bee in them a striking proof of the divineness of hia faith. The miracle of evil, like the miracle of good, is an invincible argument of truth. Now the miracle of evil i 8i 8 this. " Man when he was in honour did not understand : he hath been compared to eonseleaa beasts, and made like to them." (Pi. 48—21 ) We may again introduce a text from St Paul in which he alludes to faith as the telescope of our mind and heart. "We see now through a glaßs in a dark manner, but then face to face, Naw I know in part, but then 1 shall know even as lam known. And now there remain faith hope, and charity but the greatest of these is charity." But faith is the requisite foundation of charity and of its meritorious and heroic works. Wbo does not remember the splendid description of the deeds of faith in the epiatle of St Paul to the Hebrews? Faith— in the old times— ot Abel, Enoch, Noe, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Mosea, Josue Gideon, Baruch, Samson, Jephte, Samuel, David. Faith— in the new times— of John Baptist, Peter, Paul, John, and Stephen. Faith— in the middle ages— of Saints Jerome, Angustine, Ambrose, Gregory, Leo, Ohrysoatom, Basi 1 , Thomas Aquinas, Anselm, Bernard, and the many saintly kings aod queens of England, France, and Germany. Faith— in modern times— of 8t Francis de Sales, St Vincent de Paul, Bossuet, Fenelon, Kepler, Euler, Newman, Manniog, Lavigerie. ana a host of other celebrities, literary, scientific, and philosophic. Faith by which so many heroes " conquered kingdoms, wrought justice, stopped the mouth of liona, quenched the violence of fire, esoaped the edge of the aword, recovered streogth from weakness, became valiant in war, put to flight the armies of foreigners, Women received their dead raised to life

again. But others were racked, not accepting deliverance, that they might find a better reßsurrection, and others had trials of mockeries and stripes, moreover, also of bands and prisons. They were stoned, they were cut asunder, they were tempted, they were put to death by the sword, they wandered about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being in want, distressed, afflicted ; of whom the world was not worthy ; wandering in deserts, in mountains and in dens, and in caves of the earth." Let us also add with the same Apostle : "We also having so great a cloud of witnesses over our head, laying aside every weight and sin which surrounds us, let us run by patience to the fight prepared for us. Looking on Jesus, the author and finiiher of faith, who, having j >y eet before Him, endured the cross, despising shame, and sitteth at the right hand of the throne of God " (Heb 12— 1, 2) We have reached the paramount conclusion : Faith is eminently reasonable and glorious, because it is the divine compliment of the human soul. The heavenly telescope of man's mind, it reveals to him the truths which he haß so much interest to know, and which he cannot discover by his unaided reason. The telescope also of his heart, initiating him to the things which he most hopes for, and which alone can satisfy his longing for perfect happiness. Not only does faith point out the way to felicity, but it also is the necessary and efficacious source of felicity, because it removes the obstacle* to solid happiness, and imparts true and lasting consolations. In brief, faith elevates, enlarges and ennobles man; whereas, unbelieving science lowers, dwarfs, and degrades him. We love science. Wo would wish to Bee Catholics tower up everywhere pre-eminent in every department of science, but we love and promote science auch as God approves, science in harmony with faith ; because faith and science are two daughters of one Father, God— they lend each other a helping hand until they both melt away in the intuitive vision of infinite truth, goodness, and beauty. Let us cherish our holy faith as our priceless inheritance ; let us learn its teaohingi and practice them iti the eyes of our fellowmen in order to draw them into a participation of our light. Let us, above all, hand down that faith intact to our posterity, and, as the best and onl7 practical and complete way of doing so, let us multiply and generously maintain our Catholic schools. In this greatest work of zeal in our day neither clergy nor people must flag. Much has been done in the past, more has to be done in the present and the future. If any of yon have been indifferent or lukewarm in this great cause, let them rouse themselves, and come forward, even in the eleventh heur, to do their duty in an enterprise upon which the real welfare, spiritual and temporal, of the rising generation depends. Four generosity is agaiD solicited as usual, for the Propagation of the Faith, for the Seminary Fund, for Peter's Pence, for the Aborigines of Australasia, for the Holy Places in Pa'estine consecrated by the adorable footsteps of Our Lord Jesus Christ. We rely oo you to do your duty in regard to all these excellent purposes as you have done in the past. Lastly, we ask your fervent prayers for all the people and all the enterprises of our Archdiocese, and, with particular emphasis, we exhort you to pray daily for the conversion of Bngland and the return of so many oi our separated brethren to the fold of the true Church. May your pleadings with the Sacred Heart of Jesup, through the powerful intercession of His Immaculate Mother, and her spouse 8t Joseph, obtain for all of us the graces we need to work out our salvation and receive the crown of glory in tbe realms of everlasting bliss. Tbe grace ani blessing of Our Lord Jesus Ohriat be with yon all. Amen. f Fbjlncib, Archbishop of Wellington. Wellington, Feast of St Francis of Sales, January 29, 1894.

The following are the Regulations fer Lent, which we make in virtue of special faculties received from the Holy See : Ist. We grant permission for the use of flesh meat at dinner only, od all Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, and also oa all Saturdays except one, that is the secood Saturday during Lent, and Monday in Holy Week. 2nd. Lard and dripping may be used after the manner of butter, at dinner, on days of fust and abstinence during Lent, also throughout the year, with the exception of the first and last Wednesdays of Lent, and Good Friday. 2rd. White meats-Such as butter, milk, cheese, and eggf, are allowed on all days at dinner and collation, with the exception of Aab Wednesday and Good Friday. A little milk is alwayp allowed in tea coffee, or other beverage. - ' 4th. For those who, though not bound to fast, are bound to ttbstain : the kinds of food which are allowed at their chief meal to those who are bound to fast are allowed at all times to those who are not so bound. 6th. Fish and flesh are not allowed at the same meal during Lent. There is neither fast nor abstinence on Sundays in Lent His Holiness Pope Leo XIII. has caused St Patrick's Day to be no longer a fast day in Australasia, or a day of abstinence, unless. i( happens to fall on a Friday or during the Quatuor Tenee,

All who have completed tbeir 21st year are bound to fast and abstain— unless excused by the state of their health or the nature of their employment— according to the regulations stated above ; and all who have arrived at the use of reason, though not bound to fast before the completion of their 21st year, are nevertheless bound to abstain from the nsa of flesh meats on the days appointed— unless exempted for a legitimate cause, of which the respective pastors are judges. All who have arrived at the years of discretion, are bound to go to Communion within Easter time, which, in this Diocese, commences on Ash Wednesday and ends on the octave of Saints Peter and Paul. The collection for the Holy Places in Palestine will take place on Good Friday, The collection for the Semioary Fund will be held on Whitsunday, or Sunday or Sundays following, when there are two or more churches in the district. The collection for our Holy Father will take place on tbe Sunday within the Octave of the Feasts of Saints Peter and Paul, or on the , Sunday or Sundays following, when there are two or mors churches in the district. The collection for the missions among the Aboriginals of Australasia, as required by the late Plenary Council of Sydney, will take place on the first Sunday in September, or on the Sunday or Sundays following, when there are two or more churches in the district. The clergy are requested to read these regulations from the several altaw as soon as possible, and to cauße a copy of them to be placed ia a conspicuous place in their respective churches and chapels, t Fbancis, Archbishop of Wellington. Wellington, January 29, 1894.