the Son of God.' Thus Jesus became the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world' (1 John ii. 2).

27. It was on Good Friday, about three o'clock in the afternoon, that Jesus expired. In order to assure themselves that He was dead, one of the soldiers with a spear opened His side, and immediately there came out blood and water. His body was taken down from the cross, and laid in a new sepulchre hewn out in a rock. The Jews sealed it and set a guard before it. But early on the third day, before sunrise, there was a great earthquake, and Christ crucified arose glorious from the sepulchre. During forty days afterwards He often appeared to His Disciples, instructed them concerning the kingdom of God-that is, the Church-gave them power to forgive sins, and installed Peter Head of the Church, with these words: Feed my lambs; feed my sheep' (John xxi. 15, 17). When He appeared for the last time in the midst of the eleven, He commanded them to go into the whole world, to preach the Gospel to all nations, and to baptize them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.' For that purpose He gave them the same power which He had received from His Heavenly Father, and promised to be with them all days, even to the consummation of the world. Finally, on the fortieth day after His Resurrection, He led His Disciples to the Mount of Olives, where He lifted up His hands over them, and, whilst He blessed them, ascended in their sight up to Heaven.

27. On what day, and at what hour, did Jesus expire? How did they assure themselves of His death? And what resulted from this? What was done with His sacred body? What did His enemies then do? When, and how, did Christ rise to life? How long did He yet remain on earth? What did He do during that time? What did He command His Apostles to do when He appeared the last time among them? What power, and what promise, did He give them? When, where, and how did He ascend into Heaven?

HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF CHRIST.

From the Ascension of Christ to the Conversion of Constantine.

28. AFTER the Ascension of our Lord, His disciples. returned to Jerusalem, where they persevered in prayer, expecting the coming of the Holy Ghost, whom He had promised to send them. In the meantime, the Apostles chose Matthias one of the disciples, in the place of Judas. On the tenth day, the Feast of Pentecost, there came suddenly a sound from Heaven, as of a mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were assembled. Over the head of each one there appeared the form of a fiery tongue; and all of them, being filled with the Holy Ghost, began to speak in divers languages and to praise the Lord their God. Peter, the Head of the Apostles, stood up and declared to the innumerable multitude of the Jews who had come together that the same Jesus whom they had crucified, and whom God had raised from the dead, was their Lord and Redeemer, and he called upon them to believe in Him. His discourse was so powerful that no less than three thousand came at once and asked to be baptized. Soon after, Peter and John went to the temple to pray. A lame man was lying there at the gate, and asked an alms of them. Peter said to him: Silver and gold I have none; but what I have I give thee: in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, arise and walk'; and forthwith the lame man sprang to his feet and walked joyfully with them into. the temple, thanking and praising God. All the people

28. How did the disciples prepare for the coming of the Holy Ghost? Whom did the Apostles choose in the place of Judas? When, and how, did the Holy Ghost come? What change did He produce in them? What did Peter, the Head of the Apostles, do? What was the result of his sermon? How was the lame man at the temple-gate healed? What effect had this miracle on the Jews?

were filled with amazement at this miracle, and five thousand more of them asked to be baptized.

29. The Apostles preached the Resurrection of Jesus Christ with great power, and did many signs and wonders. By this their authority increased so much that the people brought the sick into the streets, in order that, when Peter passed by, his shadow, at least, might fall upon them, and deliver them from their infirmities. The chief priests and their adherents, seeing all this, were greatly exasperated. They caused the Apostles to be apprehended and scourged, and forbade them to preach in the name of Jesus; they stirred up the people against them, insomuch that St. Stephen was stoned to death; and they perpetrated many other acts of violence. But no earthly power was able to prevent the spreading of the doctrine of Jesus. The Apostles did not cease to preach the crucified Saviour, both in the temple and from house to house; and the number of those who presented themselves to be baptized increased exceedingly every day. Even Saul, afterwards called Paul, the most furious enemy and persecutor of the Christians, became, through the grace of God, an Apostle of Jesus Christ and the most zealous propagator of the Gospel.

30. The new converts in Jerusalem and its neighborhood formed the first Christian community, called the Church. Their conduct was unblemished and irreproachable; they served God with gladness and in sim

29. By what else did the Apostles spread the doctrine of Christ? What did the people do in consequence of this? What impression did this make upon the chief priests and their adherents? What did they do to the Apostles? Who was the first martyr? Did the Apostles, on being persecuted, cease preaching? What can you relate of St. Paul?

30. Of whom was the first Christian community composed? What was their conduct, and how did they serve God? Was there any dissension amongst them? Did any of them suffer from want? How were the poor relieved? By what authority, and how, did the Apostles govern this first community?

plicity of heart. They all lived in the greatest harmony, and had but one heart and one soul. None of them suffered want; for the rich willingly sold, for the relief of the poor, what they could spare, such as houses and lands, and laid the proceeds at the feet of the Apostles, that they might divide them among the needy. The Apostles were the rulers of the Church, as Christ had ordained; they taught, baptized, and administered the other sacraments; they managed all ecclesiastical affairs, and governed the community.

31. Although many of the Jews embraced the doctrine of Christ, yet the greater part of them remained obstinate and hardened. God, therefore, permitted the punishment they had been threatened with to be inflicted upon them; about the seventieth year after the birth of Christ, Jerusalem was destroyed, and the temple burnt, by the Romans. An immense number of Jews lost their lives, and the rest were banished from their country and dispersed all over the world, that they might be everywhere and at all times living witnesses of the Divine judgment. The stubbornness of the Jews, and still more an express command of God, had early determined the Apostles to go and preach to the pagans or heathens. Poor and persecuted though they were, they announced to the nations of the earth the good tidings of salvation, under thousands of hardships and perils, even of death.

31. Were the Jews all converted? Did those who refused to believe in Christ remain unpunished? What punishment was inflicted on them? Why were they dispersed all over the world? What determined the Apostles to go and preach to the pagans? Under what difficulties, and with what success, did they preach to them? How did the Apostles organize the new Christian communities? Were these communities separated, and independent of one another? Who was their common Head? What do we call all these communities together? What is the meaning of Catholic? Where was St. Peter bishop, and where did he die? Upon whom did his supremacy over the whole Church devolve?

Therefore God visibly blessed their efforts; and thirty years had scarcely elapsed after the Descent of the Holy Ghost, when there were already Christian communities in all parts of the world. Over these Churches the Apostles placed bishops, to whom they communicated their powers by special forms of prayer and the imposition of hands, and whom they appointed their substitutes and successors. All these communities were most closely united together, and formed, under their common Head, St. Peter, the One, Universal-that is, Catholic -Church. St. Peter was first Bishop of Antioch, and afterwards Bishop of Rome, where he suffered martyrdom under Nero A.D. 67; and then the supreme authority over the whole Church devolved on his successors, the Bishops of Rome, or the Popes.

32. The pagans were greatly alarmed at the rapid spreading of the Christian religion, which openly condemned their vicious lives and their monstrous idolatry, and they resolved to exterminate it. The Christians had either to abjure their faith or to die under the most cruel torments. They were scourged and lacerated, and were cast before wild beasts; their sides were torn with iron hooks or burnt with torches. They were thrown into caldrons of boiling oil, mutilated, sawn in pieces, and crucified. They were covered with pitch and set fire to, that they might serve to light the nocturnal games of the pagans. Everywhere the Christians suffered tortures beyond all description. Many countries were drenched with their blood, and hundreds of thousands of every age, sex, and condition died under the most dreadful torments. Rome especially, the capital of paganism, and

32. What impression did the spreading of Christianity make on the pagans? How did they expect to exterminate it? What torments did they inflict upon the Christians? Were there many thus tortured and killed? Where did the persecution of the Christians chiefly rage? Have we any evidence of this nowadays?