ver Jerusalem, over the loss of so many Catholic children, and
we hear Him say: "Weep not over me, but for _your children_"; and
neither His voice nor His tears make any impression. We say with the man
in the Gospel, "Trouble me not, the door (of our heart) is now shut, I
cannot rise and give thee."--(Luke xi.) If an ass, says our Lord, falls
into a pit, you will pull him out even on a Sabbath-day; and an innocent
soul, nay, thousands of innocent children, fall away from Me and pass
over to the army of the apostate angels, and become My and your
adversaries, and you do not care. Oh, what great cruelty, what hardness
of heart, nay, what great impiety! If we were blind, we should not have
sin; but as Jesus Christ has spoken to us on the subject of education
through His Vicar on earth, through so many zealous bishops, through
sad experience, nay, even through many of those who are outside the
Church, we have no excuse for our sin of suffering devilish wolves to
devour our youth in our country. "My watchmen," says the Lord, "are all
_dumb dogs_, not able to bark, seeing vain things, _sleeping_, and
loving dreams."--(Isa. lvi. 10.) Truly the curses and maledictions of
all those who led a bad life, and were damned for want of a good
Christian education, which we neglected to give them, will come down
upon us! What shall we answer? "And he was silent."--Matt. xxii.

Marvellous, indeed, have been God's gracious dealings with this poor
land of ours, so very far above what we could have dreamed or hoped for
some years ago, that we may say in all truth that the finger of God has
touched us. That touch has quickened Catholic life in our land to a
wonderful extent; not, indeed, as yet, with the great exuberance of
Catholic European countries, but nevertheless with almost exulting
gladness; for to-day there are few indeed of our cities and towns in
which at least the pulse of Catholic life does not beat strongly.

But why have these great things been done for us? Why has our Catholic
life been increased and strengthened so wonderfully, except to win more
souls to Christ, to bring more of the American people into closer union
with God? If this be so, then we must not leave our Lord to work alone;
we must be fellow-workers with Him, by helping forward the growth of
holiness, the progress of the spiritual life, the poverty of the Cross,
the spreading of His Spirit in opposition to the formal and
self-indulgent spirit of the age, and thi