awful threat, of a repentance that seeks mercy when it is too late to find aught save an inexorable Justice. But, what consoling thoughts are suggested by the concluding words of our Gospel! Faithful souls, and you that have repented! listen to what your Jesus says, for it is to you that he speaks: If any man thirst, let him come to me and drink. Remember the prayer of the Samaritan woman: Give me, O Lord, to drink of this water! This water is divine grace: come, and drink your fill at the fountains of your Saviour, as the Prophet Isaias bids you.1 This water gives purity to the soul that is defiled, strength to them that are weak, and love to them that have no fervour. Nay, our Saviour assures us, that he who believes in Him, shall himself become as a fountain of living water, for the Holy Ghost will come upon him, and this soul shall pour out upon others of the fulness that she herself has received. With what joy must not the Catechumen have listened to these words, which promised him that his thirst should soon be quenched at the holy Font! Jesus has made himself everything to the world he has come to save: Light to guide us, Bread to nourish us, a Vine to gladden our hearts with its fruit, and, lastly, a Fountain of Living Water to quench our thirst. This being the day on which the Church offers to our meditations the history of the Prophet Jonas preaching to Ninive, we subjoin a new fragment from the Hymn of Prudentius on Fasting. It is the passage where he relates the life of this Prophet, and the repentance of the wicked City. HYMN. I fain would now, in holy Fasting's praise, tell, from the book of truth, how God our Father, with his wonted love, repressed the fire and thunder of his wrath, and spared the city doomed to be destroyed. In ancient days, a city flourished, whose mighty power drove her into haughtiness extreme. Criminal indulgence and lewd corruption had destroyed the morals of her people, so brutalising them, that they left the worship of the God of heaven. At length, the tired patience of God's long-suffering gave way to justice, which moves his hand to prepare his arrowed lightnings, and storm-voiced clouds, and jarring whirlwinds, and thunderbolts that shake the vault of heaven. Yet does he grant them time for penitence, wherein to tame and break the wickedness of their lust and wonted follies. Mercy, that waits for prayer, holds back the blow of stemma Referre prisci nunc jejunii Libet, fideli proditum volumine, Ut diruendæ civitatis incolis Fulmen benigni mansuefactum Patris, Pie repressis ignibus, pepercerit. Gens insolenti præpotens jactantia Pollebat olim quam fluentem nequiter Corrupta vulgo solverat lascivia; Et inde bruto contumax fastidio Cultum superni negligebat Numinis. excitatur Offensa tandem jugis indulgentiæ Censura, justis motibus, Dextram perarmat rhomphæali incendio, Nimbos crepantes, et fragosos turbines Vibrans tonantum Si nube flammarum quatit. Sed pœnitendi dum datur diecula, forte vellent improbam libidinem Veteresque nugas mare, ac frangere. condc Suspendit ictum terror exorabilis, Paulumque dicta substitit sententia. Jonam prophetam mitis ultor excitat, Pœnæ imminentis iret ut prænuncius; Sed nosset ille quum minacem judicem Servare malle, quam ferire ac plectere, Tectam latenter vertit in Tharsos fugam. Celsam paratis pontibus scandit ratem : Udo revincta fune puppis solvitur. Itur per altum fit procellosum mare: Tum causa tanti quæritur periculi : Sors in fugacem missa vatem decidit. Jussus perire solus e cunc tis reus, Cujus voluta crimen urna expresserat, Præceps rotatur, et profundo immergitur: Exceptus inde belluinis faucibus, Alvi capacis vivus hauritur specu. Intactus exin tertiæ noctis vice Monstri vomentis pellitur singultibus, Qua murmuranti fine fluctus frangitur, Salsosque candens spuma tundit pumices, Ructatus exit, seque servatum stupet. In Ninivitas se coactus percito anger; a brief delay puts off the day of doom. The meek Avenger sends a herald of the coming woe: it is Jonas the Prophet. But he, well knowing that the threatening Judge is prone to save, rather than to strike and punish, stealthily to Tharsis flees. A noble vessel was prepared for sail, whereon he takes his place. The anchor weighed, the vessel puts from shore. She ploughs the deep, when, lo! a storm. Endangered thus, the crew would know the cause, and casting lots, it falls upon the fugitive, the Prophet. Of all, the only one in fault is he. His guilt is clear, the lot has told the tale. Headlong is he cast, and buried in the deep; and as he falls, a whale's huge jaw receives the Prophet, burying him alive in the sepulchre of his capacious womb. There, for three nights, does Jonas lie unhurt; which passed, the sick monster heaves him from his womb, just where the murmuring billows break upon the shore, and whiten the salty rocks with foam. The Prophet comes forth,-wondering, but safe. Compelled, to Ninive he turns his hurried steps. He chides, he censures, he charges her with all her shameless crimes, saying: "The anger "of the great Avenger shall 66 fall upon you, and speedily your City shall be made a 66 prey to fire. Believe the prophecy I speak." 66 66 Then to the summit of a lofty hill he goes, from whence to see the thickened clouds of smoke rising from the ruined heap, and gaze upon the pile of unpitied dead. Suddenly there grows upon the spot an ivy-tree, whose knotted branches yield a shaded cover. But scarce had the mournful City felt the wound of her coming grief, than deathly fear possesses her. Her people and her senate, her young and old, youths pale with panic, and women wailing loud, scamper in groups along the spacious walls. It is decreed, the anger of Christ shall by fasting be appeased. Henceforth, they spurn to eat. Matrons doff their trinkets, and vest in dingy garbs, and, for their wreaths of pearls and silks, sprinkle ashes on their hair. Patricians put on robes of sombre hue; the people, weeping, take hair-shirts for their dress; disheveled maidens clad in skins of beasts, and hide their faces in veils of black. Children, too, make the dust of earth their bed. PASSIONTIDE. Gressu reflectit; quos ut increpaverat, Pudenda censor imputans opprobria. Impendet, inquit, ira summi vindicis, Urbemque flamma cremabit mox credite. Apicem deinceps ardui montis petit, Visurus inde conglobatum turbidæ Fumum ruinæ, cladis et diræ struem, Tectus flagellis multinodi germinis, Nato et repente perfruens umbraculo. Sed mosta postquam ci vitas vulnus novi Hausit doloris, heu ! supremum palpitat. Cursant per ampla congregatim monia Plebs, et senatus, omnis ætas civium, Pallens juventus, ejulantes feminæ. Placet frementem publicis jejuniis Placare Christum : mos edendi spernitur. Glaucos amictus induit monilibus Matrona demptis, proque gemma, et serico Crinem fluentem sordidus spargit cinis. Squalent recincta veste pullati patres, Setasque plangens turba sumit textiles, Impexa villis virgo bestialibus, Nigrante vultum contegit velamine, Jacens arenis et puer provolvitur. K |