pro ceed' ed
sep' a ra ted
min' is ter
Au gus' tine
crit' i cise
cat' e ehism
de ter' mined
As cen' sion
Res ur rec' tion

AN EVENING WITH THE ANGELS.

"Well, James," said a kind-voiced mother, "you promised to tell Maggie
all about the Catechism you heard this afternoon at school."

"All right, mother," answered sprightly James, "anything at all to make
Maggie happy. Let's begin right away."

"Maggie, you said," continued James, "that you never could find out
_when_ the angels were created. Neither could our teacher tell me. And
I'm told St. Augustine could only make a guess when they were created.

"He thought the angels were created when God separated the light from
the darkness. But that's no matter, anyhow. We're sure there are angels;
that's the chief point."

"Are you quite certain?" asked Maggie.

"To be sure I am," said James. "If I met a man in the street I would
know he must have a father and a mother, although I had never heard when
he was born."

"That's so," chimed in the proud mother.

"Well, then, mother, many angels have been seen on earth, and they must
have been created some time. Let me tell you some of the places where it
is said in the Bible that angels have been seen, and where they spoke,
too."

"Now, James," said the father, "let Maggie see if _she_ can find out
some of those places herself. Here is the Bible."

With the help of mother and James, Maggie soon found the history of Adam
and Eve, where it is recorded that an angel with a flaming sword was
placed at the gate of Paradise.

"Poor Adam and Eve," said Maggie, "they must have felt very sad."

"Yes," answered Father Kennedy, who dropped in just then, and beheld his
young theologians with the holy Book before them. "They felt very sorry,
indeed, but they were consoled when told that a Savior would come to
redeem them."

"So you told us last Sunday," chimed in James. "Then you spoke about the
angels at Bethlehem who sang glory to God in the highest."

"And there was an angel in the desert when our Lord was tempted,"
proceeded the father.

"Oh! did you hear papa say the devil was an angel?" exclaimed James.

"Of course the devil is an angel," said Maggie, glad to trip up her big
brother, "but he is a bad one."

"I say yet that there were angels with our Lord after His forty days'
fast," insisted James.

"So I say, too," retorted Maggie; "but while only one _bad angel_
tempted our Lord, many good angels cam