the time is determined for finishing the obligation, and the obligation of the precept is distributed through single days.

"By legitimate custom, the permission has been introduced to recite the matin and the praises of the office of the following day, on the preceding evening, and thus from the time at which the sun is nearer to setting, than to midday, as is plain from the table concerning the time of beginning the matin, published A. D. 1706, at Rome, with the type of the apostolic chamber. According to this calculation, it is permitted in Belgium, in midsummer, to begin in the seventh minute after the fourth hour, in the afternoon, because the sun then sets with us at twelve minutes past eight; in the midst of winter, at five minutes before the second hour; and in each equinox, after the third hour.

"Here, beware of the 35 Prop. among those condemned by Alex. VII. Any one may by a single office satisfy a double precept for the present day and for to-morrow.'

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Obj. This liberty does not seem reasonable, because the person reciting the matin in the evening, at the second feria will be obliged to say a falsehood in the hymn, With limbs refreshed with sleep, we rise from the spurned bed;' therefore, &c.

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"Ans. I deny the antecedent and the proof: for such words are referred figuratively to the legitimate time, and thus are not false.

"Moreover, in the choir, certain times are assigned for the separate offices of the hours, which it is necessary to observe under grievous sin, according to the custom of the same church: not so out of the choir, in private recitation: but yet out of the choir, it will be considered a venial offence if the office, as far as the first, is not said before noon: because custom and the propriety of the office require this: therefore, the accurate time of reciting the matin is about night; very early it is proper to recite the praises and the first: in the subsequent time, the other little hours; vespers are said after noon, Lent excepted. To anticipate this time, or defer till after it, is nothing objectionable; as is mentioned ch. 2, concerning the celebration of the mass," &c.

CHAPTER XXIX.

CONCERNING THE SIGN OF THE CROSS.

"THE sign of the cross is called by our catechism, lesson 2, by way of distinction, the sign of a Christian man: for in every age, Christians have distinguished themselves from infidels, by making the sign of the cross.

"The same catechism denotes 2d, a two-fold manner of marking one's self with the cross.

"The first is that by which a person touches himself on the forehead with the right hand, the fingers being extended and joined, and the palm being turned towards him, saying: In the name of the Father; then he lets his hand down be. low the breast, saying: and of the Son; from there he moves his hand to the left side of his breast, and immediately transfers it to the right side, saying at the same time: and of the Holy Ghost; whilst he adds Amen, he joins his hands be fore the breast.

"The second mode is that by which one describes a cross with the thumb on the forehead, saying: In the name of the Father; and over the mouth, saying: and of the Son; and over the breast, saying: and of the Holy Ghost.

"This mode we use at the reading of the gospel, by which we profess that we bear the faith and the gospel in the mind, in the mouth, and in the heart, or affections.

"The catechism above-mentioned observes 3d, that in forming the sign of the cross, we profess the principal mysteries of our faith, viz. The mysteries of the most holy Trinity, the incarnation, and the passion of Jesus Christ, and our redemption.

"Show in what way we profess the mystery of the most holy Trinity.

"Ans. By saying: Of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, we profess three divine persons, and that they are distinct among themselves, by the interjection and: by saying in the name in the singular, and not in the names, we profess one and the same nature, or the divine essence of

those persons, and therefore that they are one God: for the name does not denote any word, but signifies the divine virtue, power, and essence, as if it were said, In the virtue, in the power, in the majesty of the Father, &c.

"Moreover, when we draw the hand from the forehead below the breast, we profess that the Father through intellect generates the Son from eternity: and when in drawing the hand from the left side to the right, we join the lines of the cross, we profess that the Holy Spirit is the bond and love of the Father and the Son, and proceeds from them.

"We profess the mystery of the incarnation of Jesus Christ: viz., by placing the hand from the forehead below the breast, we profess that the Son of God descended from the bosom of the Father into the womb of the Virgin, and assumed human nature; thus, both Christ's generations are here signified, either his eternal nativity from the Father, or the temporal from his mother.

"We profess the mystery of our redemption, and of the passion of the Lord Christ, when we draw forward the hand from the left side to the right side, and at the same time make the cross for in this is signified that the Lord Christ, by his cross and passion, has brought us from a state of damnation to a state of salvation.

"For what causes, and to what purposes do we use the sign of the cross?

"With the Mechlin Catechism we reply, we use it for the exercise of virtues; for it contains, 1. an act of faith and of profession of the faith of the principal mysteries, as has been shown above.

2. It contains an act of religion; for it is a short and most efficacious prayer to God through the merits of the passion of Christ, by which we invoke the help of God in all cases it contains also a reference to God of the works to which it is prefixed.

"We use the sign of the cross against all temptations, and molestations of evil spirits; for the devil greatly fears and flees from the cross, by which he has been overcome. Thus St. Antonius.

"We exhibit the sign of the cross about temporal things in blessing them, or averting evils from them; thus we bless food, clothes, houses, &c. St. Benedict with the sign of the

cross BROKE IN PIECES A POISONED CUP; St. Rochus, by a little sign of the cross CURED THOSE INFECTED WITH THE PLAGUE. Examples of the virtue and efficacy of the sign of the cross, you will find in Hazart, Turlot, Marchant, &c., &c.

"From these remarks, it is plain to what salutary effect we may use this sign of the holy cross, frequently through the day, and before all business.

"From what time has the sign of the cross been in vogue?

"Ans. From the time of the apostles and of Christ himself, says the Mechlinian Catechism.

"Tertullian, a most ancient writer towards the close of the second century, has these words, lib. de Corona Militis, c. 3. At every progress and moving forward, at every going in and going out, in clothing ourselves and putting on our shoes, at the bath, at table, at the lights, at the bedchambers, at the seats, wherever business engages us, we rub the forehead with the little sign of the cross.'

"St. Jerome to Eustochius: At every action, at every step, let the hand describe the cross.'

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Many similar testimonies from the Holy Fathers, Augustine, Chrysostom, Gregory, &c., you will find produced by Hazart, Catech. less. 4., Turlot, Catech. 1. 4 and 5; so that the temerity of the Calvinists, who abrogate the use of the sign of the cross, is insane.

"In the Old Testament, the figure of the little sign of the holy cross is found Ezek. ix., where they are forbidden to be slain whose foreheads were marked by the sign Thau, or T, which designates the cross.

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Obj. The cross brought shame and sorrow to Christ: therefore, the sign of the cross is rather to be held in abhorrence than to be venerated or honoured: because the son does not honour the gibbet on which his father has been hanged.

"Ans. I deny the inference: because the cross and its sign are not honoured by us in so far as the cross was employed for ignominy by the crucifiers, but inasmuch as the cross was voluntarily assumed by Christ as the instrument of our redemption, and the sign of his triumph and victory over sin and the devil.

"For proof, I say, that there is a disparity, because the gibbet affords to the father, neither triumph, nor victory, nor honour.

"Why do we venerate all figures of the cross, of whatever material prepared, but not all nails?

"Because the sign of the cross everywhere presents the passion and victory of the Lord Christ; but this all nails do not."

If Christ and his apostles authorized the use of the sign of the cross, and were in the habit of employing it, as we learn from the foregoing remarks, it is very strange that the sacred writers are utterly silent on this subject. We do not read that they ever undertook to cast out devils, or heal diseases by this potent charm; much less that they blessed their raiment or their food by making the sign of the cross. That St. Benedict broke in pieces a poisoned cup, and St. Rochus cured those who were afflicted with the plague, by making the sign of the cross, are facts which of course are not to be questioned by any but infidels. We may perhaps, however, be permitted to say, that if there is any priest or saint, in these ends of the earth, who believes that there is such potency in the use of this sign, we shall be glad to afford him a public opportunity of testing its virtue on any sound piece of poisoned crockery, just so soon as he is prepared to make the experiment. How their reverences can reconcile it to their consciences to suffer so many cases of small pox and yellow fever to terminate fatally, when they have such a remedy at hand, and have free access to the hospitals, is strange, very strange, indeed! The man who boasted that he had leaped fifty feet at Rhodes, was told, “make the same leap here, and we will believe you”— when we see a priest or a saint break a cup by the sign of the cross, we shall be ready to believe that it has been done. Till then, "credat Judæus Apella!”