all the blessed Spirits in that particular choir, and is enabled to worship the Sacred Heart in a more perfect way; his adoration also suffers less intermission, and, indeed, may be said to become perpetual, seeing that the heavenly adorers supply his place when either his necessary avocations or sleep render attention on his own part impossible. Such persons as may desire to take part in this holy league will find full directions for forming associations and regulating the exercises of the members in a little book published by Messrs. Richardson, and entitled, 'Method of Honouring the Sacred Heart of Jesus, extracted from the Life of the Blessed Margaret Mary Alacoque" (p. vii.).

A Sketch of the Lives of the Dominican Missionaries in Japan, including those of the Martyrs Beatified by Pius IX. By Fr. BERTRAND A. WILBERFORCE, of the Order of Friar Preachers; with a Preface by His Grace the Archbishop of Westminster. London: Philp. 1869.

HE Archbishop says in his preface,-"This beautiful little book gives a Church. In these sharp conflicts are to be seen side by side; the sons of S. Augustine, S. Francis, S. Dominic, and S. Ignatius labouring together and mingling their blood in one stream for the love of the Good Shepherd Who laid down His life for the sheep. Truly Japan is the mother of martyrs ; and Father Francis Marales spoke with the spirit of his crucified Lord, when thirsting for martyrdom he cried out, 'Oh, my brethren, how beautiful is the land of Japan!' May God pour out upon us here in England the same spirit of love and sacrifice, of missionary zeal, fortitude, and self-oblation, for the sake of England and of the nations without God in the world." The little volume well merits the Archbishop's commendation. It is remarkable for the perfect simplicity with which it relates events as glorious, and acts of heroism as truly admirable, as any in the records of the Church of Christ. It is invested with a peculiar interest from the discoveries of last year. An Anglican writer, many of whose little books recording events in the history of the Church are singularly beautiful, writing only a very few years back, said that Japan was the only instance in the history of the world in which the Gospel of Jesus Christ, having once taken root in any country, had been wholly uprooted from it by persecution, and then added, that there were indeed some who hoped that there might still be in that land remnants of the Christianity of the seventeenth century; but that whether it was so or not was known only to God. And he spoke truly. But the truth which was then known only to Himself, God has now for his own greater glory made manifest to the world; and that truth is, that the history of Japan differs from that of all other nations in the world, not as that of a land from which the Church of God has been successfully eradicated, but as that of a land in which it has been preserved and kept alive under difficulties and disadvantages of the conquest of which the world affords no other example. In no other land does the history of the Church record that the converts from

The

heathenism, deprived of all their natural chiefs by persecution, have been able to maintain their faith in its purity for almost two hundred and fifty years without bishops, without priests, without sacraments (except Holy Baptism), without Christian books, or Christian schools or teachers. Archbishop most truly says,-"Though overwhelmed and cut down, the Faith lived on in secret; and in our day thousands have been found who, without pastors or sacraments, have handed on their belief inviolate with its three sure tests-the authority of Rome, the celibacy of the Priesthood, the living veneration of the Mother of God."

And this wonderful phenomena is very closely connected with the history recorded in this beautiful little volume; for it seems that devotion to the Rosary was one of the principal means by which the faith of these glorious confessors was kept up; and it was by the early Dominican missionaries that that devotion was specially introduced among their forefathers. We may add that F. Wilberforce's narrative is admirably told, and that the little book, which only runs to 234 pages, is a wonderful monument of the power of the grace of God. We extract a few words from his account of what was called "the great martyrdom," when fifty-two, chiefly natives, among whom were included women and children, and a small handful of European missionaries offered their lives in lingering tortures to Him Whom they loved because He had first loved them.

"Before the arrival of the prisoners, bodies of soldiers had been posted at different places to preserve order and prevent a rescue being attempted. Sixty thousand spectators clustered on the hill, and of these it was computed that thirty thousand were Christians. As the prisoners from Omura first came in sight, a sound of many voices ran through the mixed multitudeexclamations of pity and of contempt, recognitions of friends, prayers, and aspirations that fortitude might be given to the martyrs. Then a deep silence followed. The multitude contemplated the condemned; the missionaries preached to the dense throng. For a whole hour the martyrs stood on the hill near the twenty-two stakes there planted, waiting for their companions. The priests took this last opportunity of preaching to the people, and encouraging the Christians. Among the rest, Father Francis Morales, after declaring that he was about to die for the true faith, begged the faithful not to be scandalized if he manifested any signs of weakness amidst the torturing flames, but to attribute them to the natural shrinking of the flesh, which is weak even when the spirit is willing. Suddenly sounds were heard from the city; every eye was turned in that direction; while cries of They come ! they come were heard among the people. Then again followed a general silence, for the strains of voices singing in harmony filled the air, and a procession of Christian martyrs issued from the city gate, and began slowly to ascend the hill. This martyrdom, even in the early days of the Church, could not have presented a scene more touchingly beautiful. It was a solemn procession of the Rosary, to end at the feet of Mary-a triumphal progress through the portal of death into the kingdom of light. First came Mary of Fingo, clad in the white habit of the Tertiaries of S. Dominic, bearing a cross, the standard of these Christian warriors. Mary, the wife of Andrew Tocuan, followed, clad also as a Tertiary, and although only twenty-three years old, her infirmities making her unable to walk, she was carried to martyrdom. Agnes, the wife of the martyr, Cosmo Taquea, and Catherine of Fingo, were both Tertiaries, and the latter, says Father Maynard, Prioress of the Confraternities of the

Rosary and the Holy Name. There were also several members of the Rosary Confraternities, and some children, one of these, named Peter, only three years old, and carried in his mother's arms. Another boy of five, also named Peter, walked alone to martyrdom."

But we must break off, as we might easily copy several pages more equally interesting. One thought forces itself upon us. Naturally the faith of the Christians of Japan could never have been maintained during the last two centuries and a half. Who can doubt that the wonderful grace by which it was kept alive was gained for the Church of their country by the prayers of the glorious martyrs ?

In conclusion, it should be mentioned that the little volume before us is a beautiful specimen of printing and getting up, such as we hardly know where to look for except in the works published by Mr. Philp.

Of the Love of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Means of Acquiring it. By the Rev. Father NEPVEU, of the Society of Jesus. The translation edited by the Rev. H. J. Coleridge, S.J. London: Burns, Oates, & Co. 1869. Pp. 105.

The Holy Hour of the Intimate Union of the Soul with Jesus in His Agony in the Garden. Translated from the Italian by a Father of the Society of Jesus. With a Preface by the Very Rev. A. WELD, S.J., Provincial. London: Burns, Oates, & Co. 1870. Pp. 68.

WE

E group together these two valuable little books as being of the same class-books of sacred meditation; both proceed from the same illustrious Society, exactly uniform in outward appearance, and of a size convenient for carrying to Church. Both are translations, and yet so well done that any one, we think, might read them without discovering it. And this is a praise so exceedingly rare that it ought to be awarded whenever it is possible. Unfortunately the mass of our translated books, and especially those of works of devotion, are by persons who take it for granted that to be able to read French or Italian (as the case may be) is qualification enough for a translator from those languages, quite forgetting that it is also necessary that he should be able to write English.

Father Nepveu was a French Jesuit in the latter part of the reign of Louis XIV. In these meditations he gives us-first, "eight motives for loving our Lord Jesus Christ," and then eight "means to acquire the love of Jesus Christ." The whole is simple, impressive, and well fitted for its purpose.

The last of the means suggested for acquiring the love of our Lord is "to join in an association for the purpose of asking of the Eternal Father the Love of His Son and conformity of Heart with Him." Such a confraternity was proposed by Saint Teresa; "as, however, she was not able to carry it

out, two great servants of God, Father Gaudier and Father Saint Jure, were inspired a few years ago to put it in practice and give it shape," it was then taken up by the author, who published a book, entitled, "Association for Entreating the Love of our Lord," obtaining at the same time a Bull from Innocent XI., of happy memory, which confirmed this association, and granted it some indulgences, which may be found at the end of the book." For further particulars of this we must refer our readers to the work itself.

We must, however, turn to the other little work, "The Holy Hour," which we have read with even greater interest than that which we have already noticed. It is more strictly than the other a form or book of meditation. The Venerable Margaret Mary Alacoque was instructed (as we read in her life) to receive Holy Communion the first Tuesday of each month, and she was promised

"Every night, between Thursday and Friday, I will make you partaker of that sorrow unto death which it was My will to suffer in the Garden of Olives. This sorrow shall reduce you, without your understanding how, to a kind of agony more bitter than death. To join with me in the humble prayer which I then offered to my Divine Father in My agony, you shall rise before midnight, and remain with me upon your knees prostrate for an hour, with your face to the ground, to appease the anger of my Eternal Father, and to ask of Him pardon for sinners. You will thus also share with me, and in a manner soothe the bitter grief I suffered when My disciples abandoned Me, and I was constrained to reproach them that they could not watch with Me one hour. During that hour you shall do what I shall teach you. Now listen to Me, My daughter; beware of believing lightly every spirit, and of trusting them with too great facility. Satan is raging with a desire to deceive you, and therefore beware of doing anything without the consent of your Director."

In the year 1673 our Lord made the following revelation to her, as she declared in writing, in obedience to her superiors :

"While I was attentively meditating in prayer upon the only object of my love, in the garden of Olives, overwhelmed with sorrow, and in an agony of living but most cruel grief, and feeling within me a most vehement desire of sharing His anguish, He lovingly said to me as follows :-'Here I suffered interiorly more than in all the remainder of my Passion, beholding Myself abandoned by Heaven and earth, and loaded with the sins of all mankind. Moreover, I appeared thus in the presence of the God of sanctity, Who, without regard to my innocence, crushed Me in His fury, and made Me drink the chalice filled with the bitterness and gall of His just indignation, as though He had forgotten the name of Father, and would sacrifice Me as a victim to His anger.' No creature is capable of comprehending the unspeakable torment I then endured. It is the same pain the guilty soul feels when presented before the tribunal of the justice of God. His infinite holiness oppresses, crushes, and overwhelms it in its just fury. Now my justice, He added, is provoked, and ready to punish secret sinners with open chastisements unless they quickly betake themselves to worthy penance. I will make you know when my justice is about to deal its blows upon the heads of these miserable souls, and it shall be when you feel my sanctity weigh heavily upon you. Then you shall lift up your heart and hands to Heaven with the offering of prayers and good works, presenting Me continually to my Father as a victim of love, in sacrifice and oblation for the

sins of the whole world, and placing me as a secure bulwark between His justice and sinners, to obtain mercy, with which you shall feel encompassed when I shall be pleased to grant my favours to any one of these sinners. You must then offer Me to My Father in thanksgiving for the mercy I have shown. You shall know also when that soul will persevere and be saved, for I will make you partaker of some gleams of the joy which the Blessed have in Heaven, and that by the communication of My love."

The little work before us gives meditations and prayers suitable to this beautiful and touching devotion, and the rules of the confraternity erected in the convent of the Visitation at Paray-le-Monial, where the Blessed Margaret Mary lived, and where her relics rest, for carrying it out. We must commend our readers to the work itself for them; they will find it well repay their attention.

The Life of B. Charles Spinola, S. J. By JOSEPH BROECKAERT, S. J. New York: J. G. Shea.

WE

E can scarcely convey to readers a sense of the thrilling interest of this life; it surpasses in heroic marvels almost any other narrative of the kind we have met with. Frequently in the case of martyrdoms, one is almost led to believe that the Saints who underwent them had lost supernaturally all sense of pain; but the letters which the glorious martyr B. Charles contrived to transmit to Rome from his frightful prison, prove that his senses and capability of suffering were neither deadened nor lulled by the heroic dispositions of his soul, although the marvellous Faith he professed upheld his fortitude through all. The wonders of Divine Grace are sufficiently exhibited in those whose period of torment is brief though severe, but all must acknowledge that little short of a miracle must have been needed to sustain the courage of B. Charles and his companions during the lingering martyrdom of four years which preceded their final fiery trial. When we read of the martyrs—sometimes thirty-three in number—confined to an enclosure 24 palms by 16 palms in extent, and never quitting this prison for an instant during four years, we can form some idea of the power of the religion whence sprang the constancy which did not fail even in this living grave. The enclosure was like a bird-cage, the crossbars exposing the holy sufferers to all the inclemencies of the season; and latterly the stench became such, that as B. Charles himself expressed it, it caused him "to raise his sighs to Heaven."

By no means the least interesting part of this book is the introduction, giving a sketch of the recent progress and present condition (up to 1867) of the Japanese Mission. A list also at the end of all the Japanese martyrs beatified in 1867, with a slight outline of each, is both interesting and useful, as far too little is known in general concerning these confessors of the Faith.